“How close are they to achieving that?” Naldo asked.
“We think they are very close to their first test of the system,” Souris said.
“We plan to beat them to it,” Cesar said. “Once the test using our satellite is successful, we’ll know we can transmit Aura on their MILSTAR. The Americans are launching the last piece of their MILSTAR network in two days, which means the satellite system will be in place for us to use and we’ll be ahead of them, already having tested our transmitter. Then we have them in a difficult position. If they shut down the satellites, they lose their worldwide secure military net and billions of dollars of equipment becomes useless. If they don’t shut them down, anything we do will be tracked back to the Americans and not us.”
“You plan on blackmailing the American government?” Naldo asked.
“Yes,” Cesar said. “What we have to do next is acquire a more powerful transmitter to make the uplink, and we will be ready.”
“And I assume you have a plan for that?” Naldo asked.
“We are in negotiations for a solution to that problem,” Cesar said. He opened a file folder and pulled out a photo, which he passed to Naldo. It showed a large ship, the most striking feature of which were the four massive dishes on the deck.
“The Yuri Gagarin,” Cesar said. “A Russian research vessel. In fact the largest research vessel ever built. Forty-five thousand tons displacement. Seven hundred and seventy-three feet long. Two large dishes amidships and two smaller ones forward. Souris assures me we can readily convert them to transmit Aura. The ship is available for purchase, as the Russians need hard currency more than they need research. The ship’s primary purpose had been to maintain contact with their space station, Mir, but since that was shut down, they have little use for it. The cost, however, is not insignificant.”
Naldo passed the picture on to the next man. “How much?”
“Eight hundred million in U.S. dollars.”
There was an exchange of glances around the table.
“We are rich,” Naldo began, “but-”
Cesar interrupted him. “Do not concern yourselves about the cost. We have another way to get the money, which we will discuss later. Aura has many uses.”
“You just said the Americans are working on HAARP,” Naldo said. “What about the Russians?”
Valika knew the answer to that. “The GRU and the KGB both have experimented extensively with psychic weapons and reconnaissance. I don’t know what the KGB has done, but the GRU developed a generator similar to Aura which they used against the American embassy in Moscow for many years.”
“The GRU’s generator is very inferior to Aura,” Souris said. “It is more a directional microwave antenna, and its effects are mainly headaches and nausea among those it is targeted against.”
Valika spoke up. “Recently the Russians used a different type of psychic weapon but were defeated by the Americans. The details of what happened have been kept very secret, but all the world knows about the nuclear detonation in Moscow that destroyed GRU headquarters.”
“That involved this type of weapon?” Naldo asked.
“In some manner,” Valika answered. “I have tried to gain more information but have discovered little. The Americans and Russians are keeping whatever happened very secret.”
Naldo raised a finger, pointing toward Souris.
“Yes?”
“How did you kill Alarico?”
“I directed an Aura field at him and then changed the frequency slightly so that it was disruptive to his normal brain patterns,” Souris said. “His brain stopped functioning-both the autonomic and parasympathetic nervous systems. So he actually could have died of several things at once. It would be difficult to tell which was fatal first. His heart stopped beating, he also stopped breathing, he lost all motor control; he probably also suffered several aneurysms in the brain.”
“It is what we did to the crew of the Coast Guard cutter trying to intercept our shipment,” Cesar said. “Think of the power we will have if we have such a weapon orbiting overhead. It is what the Americans are trying to do.”
“Aura is more than a weapon,” Souris said, her eyes burning in her gaunt face. “It is another world completely. A better world. There are things out there beyond what you can conceive.”
Hovering in the virtual plane, Raisor couldn’t agree more with the professor. His existence was beyond what this Ring was playing with, he could see that, but they were headed in the right direction. And with some help, they could perhaps rival what had been accomplished at Bright Gate. And if they could do that, then the real world could be his once more and he could wreak his vengeance.
He found the information on HAARP interesting. That there was another program besides Bright Gate working with the virtual world meant he had been kept in the dark by his own agency. And the fact that Souris had yet to say anything about Bright Gate meant either she didn’t know about it, which he doubted, or she had a reason for keeping it from the Ring.
The meeting broke up, the leaders following Professor Souris to view the underground lab where the work on the Aura computers and generators was being conducted.
Naldo hung behind to have a private word with Cesar, Valika hovering in the background.
“Very impressive, my old friend,” Naldo said.
Cesar had been in business-and in bloody competition until the forming of the Ring-with Naldo for four decades. He knew the old man had something on his mind.
“There are some things that concern me,” Naldo continued as they slowly walked across the tile floor.
“And they are?”
“What about the Americans? Will they not attack us first?”
“They already have for years,” Cesar said. “With Aura we finally have a weapon that they will fear. The key is that we must get operational before they are.”
“There’s something else.”
Cesar paused and waited.
“The American woman-why did she come to work for you? She does not seem interested in money. I am always suspicious of a turncoat.”
It was a question that Cesar had also pondered at length three years ago when he was first contacted by Souris, and he could only relay what he had learned from her. “I give her more freedom to do what she wants here. When she worked for the Americans, she had to do what they told her to. Her research was very restricted. Here, she can do as she wants.”
Naldo nodded, but Cesar could tell his old friend was not satisfied.
The President’s National Security Adviser was known to both friends and foes alike behind her back as the Pit Bull. To her face she was called Mrs. Callahan. She’d known the President since college, where they had been classmates. She’d served with him since he was a junior senator after her own career in the Marines, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel and commanding a battalion before answering his call for assistance in the political field and leaving the service that she loved. She’d found Washington to be a much more dangerous place than even the Middle East during the Gulf War.
Her Marine bearing came through in her posture and her gruff manner of dealing with those around her. She was the point person for the President in all national security matters, and in a tradition that had started in the mid-sixties, she had been the first one in his administration to be briefed on Nexus. She in turn had briefed him after he was in office. He had then appointed her to take care of all matters dealing with the group, which in effect made her the head of it, among her many other duties.