She turned slightly as one of a row of phones inlaid to her right buzzed. She knew from the distinctive sound that it was her personal secure line. Only a handful of people had that number, but she knew even before she answered who would be on the other end.
She hit the intercom. “Yes?”
“This is Boreas. HAARP picked up an anomaly on the virtual plane. It lasted about fifteen minutes and then it disappeared.”
She glanced down at the two documents and leaned forward slightly. “Bright Gate?”
“No. Bright Gate wasn’t active.”
“The Russians?”
“Since SD-8 was shut down, things have been quiet on that front.”
“Then who?”
“I believe it was the same source as last time. Our friends from south of the border. The Ring, using Aura.”
McFairn knew about the Ring: a group of drug lords from Colombia who had banded together to form a coalition. “Were you able to pinpoint the source?”
“Pinpoint? No. You know we don’t have that capability without a second receiver.”
“I think I know the location where the transmission was received, but not the source,” McFairn said. This time it was Boreas who waited on her. “Off the southeast coast of Florida. We intercepted a satellite transmission from a Coast Guard cutter-the Warde. It was chasing a vessel when its transmission was abruptly terminated and the ship couldn’t be raised again. Just thirty minutes ago, the same cutter was discovered run aground on the coast of Florida, on Key Largo. The crew was dead. Cause of death currently unknown but the initial report indicates bleeding from the nose, eyes, ears, and mouth. The scene has been sealed.”
“That means Aura works,” Boreas said.
“We knew it would work,” McFairn snapped. “Yours works, why wouldn’t theirs? They got it from your group in the first place. From Professor Souris.”
“But if your information is correct, that means Aura is directional. And we don’t know how far the transmission was sent if we can’t lock down the source.”
“It’s got to be line of sight,” McFairn said.
“HAARP is line of sight,” Boreas corrected. “What if Aura isn’t? What if Souris has improved it? She’s had the time and the support to do a lot of work. It might even be mobile, which means she’s cut down the transmitter antenna size and the transmitter itself. She was working on all of that before she left.”
McFairn leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes as she thought. “What do you want me to do?”
“You have to target and terminate the Aura transmitter field, wherever it is. And eliminate Souris.”
“We already agreed on that course of action. The problem is, how do we find it and her? I’ve had my people searching but no luck so far.”
“Psychic Warriors out of Bright Gate ought to be able to help us pinpoint Aura if it activates again.”
“You tried that once. You screwed it up and I had to clean up the mess.”
“I didn’t screw up,” Boreas argued. “That was Ms. Raisor. From your end.”
“Ms. Raisor wasn’t one of my people. She was from Nexus.”
“Nexus-” McFairn could hear the disgust in Boreas’s voice. “Children running in the dark, looking under rocks for the truth. There’s an old saying: Look under enough rocks and you’ll eventually find a snake. They’ve looked under too many rocks and now it is time for them to get bit.”
McFairn remembered the thump on the top of her limousine the previous week; the marks left behind by an avatar. She knew whose avatar that was now-Jonathan Raisor-the brother of the woman who had made the initial discovery of the existence of Boreas and HAARP. Boreas had had Dr. Jenkins at Bright Gate terminate that team, abandoning them on the psychic plane. And then Raisor had terminated Jenkins. She wondered if Jonathan Raisor had worked for Nexus like his sister.
Knowing Boreas was waiting for an answer, McFairn made her decision, not that she felt she had much latitude. “All right. We’ll try to track down Aura and terminate Souris.”
“Bright Gate is not currently at an operational level,” Boreas noted. “The recent events in Russia took their toll.”
“They still have some people left who can go over.” She glanced at the other piece of paper on her desk. “We have to be careful. Someone is already starting to ask questions.”
“Who?”
“Someone inside the Department of Defense. They’re sending a representative on a fact-finding trip to your location. A General Eichen from the oversight committee on intelligence.”
“I can’t allow that. We’re too close to the final resolution.”
McFairn was tempted to ask what exactly that resolution was. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Could Eichen be working for your enemy?”
“It’s possible. Or he could be working for Nexus.”
The fact that Boreas didn’t consider Nexus his primary enemy was something McFairn found interesting. “What are you going to do about him then?”
“I think this is a good opportunity to test HAARP.”
“Killing Eichen will draw attention.”
“Eventually,” Boreas said. “At first it will look like an accident, which will gain us the time we need. And if he is from Nexus, it will send the proper message to them.”
“I don’t think I can allow-” McFairn began, but she was cut off.
“You have no choice in the matter.”
“Perhaps if you told me why you are doing all this,” McFairn said, “we could work together better.”
“You’ve gotten what you wanted from us,” Boreas said. “Now we’re asking for repayment. I assure you that HAARP poses no danger to your interests or your country’s security. In fact, it will add a very powerful weapon to your country’s arsenal.”
“You just said you were going to use it against Eichen,” McFairn noted.
“To protect it for a little while longer.”
“How about telling me who your real enemy is if you find Nexus only a nuisance?”
“For now, all you need to know is that the Ring is the face of my enemy but not the controlling entity.” Boreas changed the subject. “We need to regain control of Psychic Warrior. I want a team. Destroying Aura might not be the best solution if Souris has made improvements over what I have here at HAARP. I want to at least get an idea what she’s done, and Psychic Warrior would be the most efficient way to do that. Could you get your friends south of the Potomac to reconstitute another Psychic Warrior team?”
“Do you mean the Pentagon or the CIA?” McFairn didn’t wait for an answer. “I think both are a bit leery of Bright Gate, given each one’s respective team was decimated.” She leaned forward, palms flat on the desktop. “I was prepared for this possibility. I have a better option closer to home, constituting a team from within the ranks of my own Agency. But it will take time to train another Psychic Warrior team,” she noted.
“Pick someone opportunistic to lead the team,” Boreas said. “Someone like you, who understands the nuances of loyalty when weighed with self-advancement.”
McFairn didn’t respond to the barb.
“What forces does the Department of Defense have in Colombia?” Boreas asked.
“Task Force Six,” McFairn said. “The covert counter-drug teams.”
“All right. Use them to draw out Aura. The more we make the Ring use it, the closer we can get to the transmitter and Souris.”
McFairn pressed her hands against her temples, trying to keep the pain she felt from building further. “I’ll contact the Pentagon and get things moving. I’ll let you know the schedule.”
She hit the Off button. She called the Pentagon and passed on the speculation about the attack on the Coast Guard cutter originating from the Ring.