CHAPTER 9

Once again, Dee jumped at the sound of a distant rumble. She eased just a tad closer to Jack who seemed to be paying no attention to those distant sounds. Dee had noticed that Jack seemed to be more concerned with the two groups of heavily armed men that were facing each other just down the road.

Despite Jack’s lack of concern, Dee still had to ask about those distant sounds, “thunder maybe?”

“Huh?” Jack took a second to realize what she was talking about, “oh that, one-ninety-fives from the sound of it.”

Dee blinked, “one-ninety what? What the hell is that?”

The State Department guy, who had escorted them out here, leaned over and quietly stated, “it looks like they reached some kind of agreement.”

Dee had been told that they were going to the front lines. Now that she was actually here she saw no lines at all. There was nothing around them but a sea of grass that was crisscrossed by the occasional road and sporadically dotted with the occasional bush. This whole ’front lines’ thing made about as much sense to her as why it was that they were meeting a Nobel Prize winning physicist in a war zone! It struck her as completely insane.

The two groups of heavily armed men started to break apart. Dee could not help but note that they cautiously eyed each other at all times. Neither party turned their back towards the other. With all of those gun things they had on, Dee could scarcely imagine anyone surviving if shooting were to break out. She edged even closer to Jack and this time she put a death grip on his arm.

Dee tried to rationalize her situation. It was of no comfort that she understood exactly how lost she was here. Dee hated guns, war, and anyone who had anything to do with it. Now she found her very life in the hands of just such a man. What choice did she have? She could make no sense of all this!

Dee had not actually read Jack’s biography but one of the many researchers at OK had. When it was learned that she would be working with him she got a full brief on his life. Jack had struck her as just another warmonger since, apparently, as Dee had been told, a lot of his book had been about his war years. Now Dee was starting to think that it was not such a bad thing. When her life was on the line any expert opinion was more than welcome. She figured Jack qualified in this situation.

“What just happened?” Dee asked Jack as she watched their escort go off to talk with one of the armed groups of men.

Jack did not sound particularly pleased at the moment. In fact he had a certain edge of caution in his voice. Yet, at the same time, his words were very optimistic, “looks like we just got the green light.”

How it was that Jack could tell what was going on left Dee even more confused. She let her frustration flow, “I still don’t see why we had to come. You know it’s not like I had anything important to do. Just some minor details like inventing interstellar travel. Nothing big.”

Jack’s eyes never stopped scanning, “he’d only deal with me and you.”

After another heavy breath and an adjustment of the grip she had, on Jack’s arm, Dee replied to that with, “this friend of yours is just a wee bit paranoid it would seem?”

Jack shot her a side glance and with a half smile he said, “he’s a Russian isn’t he?”

The State Department escort came back and pointed to the second group of men, “they’re going to take you the rest of the way. Good luck you two.”

“Wait a minute,” Dee protested, “what do you mean take us? Take us where? Nobody said anything about taking us!” Another rumble in the distance only seemed to illustrate exactly how dangerous this was. They had told Dee it was safe! They had told her there would be a cease fire! They had told her a lot of things that apparently were not true! She put that to the escort and then asked, “if it’s so safe why aren’t you going?!”

The diplomat’s face broke into a large smile, “be waiting for you when you get back, Doctor Brewer.”

Jack practically had to drag her down the road to their new set of escorts although, now it seemed, she wanted to go back and beat the tar out of the State Department guy as opposed to being just plain scared of what was in front of them. Jack was starting to think that he should have let her go get some swings in since Dee had transferred all of that energy into his right arm. She was about to tear it off.

How long the walk took was totally beyond Dee. It probably had not lasted as long as it seemed. What made it feel like an eternity was the fact that she was surrounded by a group of scruffy looking madmen with big guns! Somehow the word terrified did not even begin to cover how she was feeling. Then the world went black and Dee started kicking and screaming.

She was sure she managed to land her foot on someone’s shin. She heard the guy yelp in pain but could not see by that point. The last thing that Dee had witnessed before the blindfold covered her eyes was another group of men coming out of nowhere. Some of them had these wand things while others carried an assortment of nasty looking weapons. They bound her hands with something that felt like plastic. They spun her around endlessly and Dee could feel their grubby hands running up and down her clothing.

When the torture ended, all that Dee was certain of was that she was sitting on a bench of some kind. There were people all around her and that included the two smelly bastards who were squeezing in on her from both sides. Dee detected the fowl stench of diesel fumes. She did not have to ponder the meaning of that for very long. She heard an engine rev up and felt movement. It was a very bumpy ride.

As Dee managed to get control of her panic she meekly called out, “Jack?”

Never in her life had she been so thankful to hear someone’s voice. He even sounded comforting, “it’s all right Doctor Brewer. They’re just being security minded.”

“Why?” Dee was still having a hard time controlling her breathing, “we’re not spies! Tell them we’re not spies Jack!”

Another voice answered. The man spoke almost perfect English with a quasi British accent. Right from the start Dee could tell the man was very articulate. He sounded robust and self assured. Last but not least, and something that Dee was more than a little thankful for, he did not sound hostile. If anything the man was very polite when he explained, “and believe me Doctor Brewer. If I believed you were spies then you would have never even gotten this far.”

Jack spoke up after that, “I figured you might be in here Yurgani.”

“Yur…” Dee suddenly realized they had found the man they were looking for. What she didn’t understand was why all of this was happening to her.

At least Jack sounded calm, “Doctor Dee Brewer, meet Doctor Yurgani Vitosk.”

“After all these years Jack,” Vitosk replied, “and you still can’t pronounce my name correctly. Of course I’ll forgive you. You are naturally handicapped by the fact that you are an American.”

Dee felt another bump from the ride and it almost, once again, set her off in a blind panic. She held it in and whimpered “um, do we have to do this? I mean… where are we going? Doctor Vitosk, we’re not here to hurt you.”

He sounded very fatherly in the way he replied, “as to where you are going Doctor, you are here. You have sought me out and so you have succeeded. As for the rest, well we are meeting in this truck just in case we missed any electronic devices that might have been planted on you. Their artillery will be unable to zero in on a moving target. The blindfolds are for your protection. It will shorten any questioning the secret police might have for you before you leave.”

Dee grumbled something under her breath and then asked, “well can you at least untie my hands?”

“No,” Vitosk responded quickly but politely, “what I suggest is we discuss that which brought you here. You can’t get your drive to work because of thermal problems, am I correct?”

Dee was stunned into silence. After recovering she blurted out in a very accusing tone, “how did you know that?”

This man never seemed to mince words, “isn’t it obvious Doctor Brewer? I need to remind you that you are trying to engineer a device in a conventional way, all the while, you are attempting to harness forces which are anything but. The problem of shielding your vessel from the effects of the propulsion system seemed a forgone conclusion. Besides your competitors are having similar problems.”

Jack asked even if he could already figure it out, “the Japanese?”

“Yes,” Vitosk answered quickly. He was as direct as ever, “they approached me with a similar offer over two years ago. I turned them down of course.”

Suddenly Dee was no longer afraid. She realized she should be but, having access to this man’s opinions was more than enough to make her not care about being afraid. Suddenly she was thinking in technical terms, “Doctor, we built several probes. We already sent them to Alpha Centauri. They worked just fine. The propulsion systems were identical to the one we’re trying to build now.”

She heard him mumble something that sounded like, “thank the stars that the world is not run by engineers.” He then spoke up over the roar of the engine, “Doctor, it is a matter of mass. You cannot just scale up your earlier unit and expect it to work the same. I repeat, we are dealing with unconventional forces here, some of which defy our very sense of what should be.”
“I realize all of that Doctor Vitosk,” Dee groaned in frustration. “That doesn’t really get us anywhere though.”

Jack asked a more relevant question, “do you think it can be done Yurgani?”

He seemed sure, “most certainly.” Vitosk then added, “the question I’m laboring over is, should it be done. Of that I am not so certain.”

Dee huffed out even more frustration. She was tired of being confused. She was ready to go home, back to safety, in an environment that she controlled. “So what does that mean? You won’t help us?”

Jack added, “how about it Yurgani?”

Given the Russian’s hesitation, Dee judged that it was a rare occasion when he was this indecisive. When Vitosk finally did speak he, once again, sounded as assured as ever, “if your government does as it has promised then I really see no choice. I will help you. At the least it will buy the people here a little peace. They deserve that much I should think.”

Jack almost wanted to laugh, “welcome aboard Yurgani. I guess you just put your name in the history books twice.”

Vitosk joined him in the laughter, “sometimes Jack, I wonder if that is not a curse.”