“Yes sir,” Clay responded.
“He has already talked to you,” Miller continued, “so to make this short and sweet, we’d like you to try talking to him.”
“Me sir?” Clay replied with surprise. “I’m not really qualified-”
“These are unusual circumstances which require unusual tactics. Besides some of us are concerned that whatever it is we are dealing with, it may have the means of being weaponized.” It was clear that Miller was referring to Stevas. Miller looked intently at Clay. “I know you’re not an interrogation expert, but we’re not talking about waterboarding here. You’re a smart guy and, like I said, you have already established at least a limited level of communication with him. We need some answers and we need them quickly.”
Clay nodded again. “I’ll do my best sir.”
“Good,” Miller said. “Now what is it about these dolphins that you wanted to share?”
Clay looked uneasily around the table. “Sir, it appears that the dolphins have made contact with whoever these people are.” He paused at their initial reaction of surprise. “And there may be a large number of them involved here; enough for the dolphins to refer to a city.”
Their surprise moved instantly to shock. Stevas almost coughed his reply. “What do you mean a city?!”
“I mean an establishment underwater, near the ring. Maybe large enough to house hundreds.”
Miller held up his hand cutting Stevas off. “Are you positive about this?”
“Not positive sir. I repeatedly asked the dolphins, and in multiple ways. I always got the same answer.”
“Wait just a damn minute!” shot Stevas. “You’re telling us this revelation came from a computer that may or may not be talking to some dolphins? Are you kidding?!” He looked at Langford. “Please tell me this is not your top guy!”
Langford’s eyes narrowed, but Clay replied quickly. “Sir, I believe this communication to be real. And that system they built is damn impressive.”
“I’m not going to base security decisions off of a fish. We need some real intelligence here,” Stevas folded his arms and leaned back, “not messages from a computerized magic eight ball. Jesus Clay.”
Miller looked at Stevas and then back to Clay. “I’m inclined to agree. I will say that I think I believe you on this system, but we need something much more concrete.”
Langford turned to Clay. “Did you find out where the Triton is?”
“I believe so.”
“Okay, we’ll arrange for whatever you need to go get it. We need to know what that camera has on it.”
“Yes sir,” Clay replied. He looked around the table. “There is something else I need to tell you.” Everyone at the table looked at him expectantly. “I asked the dolphins if they knew why these people were here.” He took a deep breath. “They said ‘water’.”
“Water?” Miller’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”
“I’m not sure. I wasn’t able to get much more context,” replied Clay. “It may be that water is somehow critical to them or what they are doing. Perhaps the ring is using the hydrogen from our water to power itself, or some other need that we don’t know about.”
Stevas frowned. “You’re saying this is what is powering that thing?”
“Perhaps,” Clay answered. “I spoke to Borger about it. It’s certainly feasible. Hydrogen atoms hold a lot of potential energy.”
Miller opened his mouth but was cut off by Stevas. “That sounds like a stretch to me,” he said, shaking his head. “This is all from these fish again, I’m assuming.” The tone Stevas used every time he said ‘fish’ was very derogatory.
Clay nodded somewhat reluctantly. “They evidently didn’t get that exact.”
“So you’re telling us,” Stevas continued, “that there is a city on the bottom of the ocean and the people living in it need our water for some reason.”
“I believe-” Clay started but was cut off by Stevas.
“Let me tell you what I believe,” Stevas said clearly frustrated. “In case you have forgotten, in the last twenty-four hours, we have established that this is a portal which is probably designed as a delivery mechanism for some kind of weapon that’s probably more advanced than anything we could build for a long time.” Stevas’ voice grew louder as his words became more impassioned. “And we don’t know whether that something has come through it yet! We could be on the brink of warfare and only finding out about it now! And,” he said rolling his eyes, “you come to us with they might need the water for something? You know what I say to that? Who gives a goddamn?!” He turned and looked at Miller. “We need to be planning defensive steps now before it’s too late, rather than talking to these damn fish!”
Miller sat quietly considering what Stevas had said. Finally he said “I’m beginning to agree that we need to take a defensive position here. We just don’t know anything about this thing.” He looked at Clay. “Even if your dolphins are right, unless it presents itself as some sort of priority we need to focus on defense here.” Miller glanced at Stevas. “However that doesn’t mean we should ignore it completely. Clay, please continue your investigation. If you and Borger find something more on this that warrants further discussion let us know. But first have a talk with our Palin friend.”
“Yes sir,” Clay said. “Is there anything else sir?”
Miller looked to the others before shaking his head. “No, that will be all. Mr. Keister is waiting for you outside. He will brief you, and together you can take another crack.”
Clay nodded and stood up. He promptly turned and walked to the door.
Stevas watched the door close slowly behind him before looking at Miller. “We better do something and we better do it fast.”
“I agree,” Foster finally spoke up from across the table.
“And what exactly would we do?” Miller asked. “We don’t even know definitively what this thing is. Do you?! Hell, for all I know it could be a giant illusion.” He looked hard at Stevas. “Do you know something that I don’t? Because if not I’d like to know just what kind of action you have in mind based on the same lack of factual intelligence that I’m facing.”
Stevas hit the table with his hand. “I’m not approaching this from an intelligence perspective. I’m thinking that whatever this thing is built to do, it may already have done it. We don’t know how long this ring has been down there. All the data gathering in the world is not going to make a damn bit of difference if we wake up tomorrow under attack! If this means you want to label me as shooting first and asking questions later, I don’t give a damn. What scares the hell out of me right now is that we might not be here later to ask questions!”
Clay followed Keister into the large white room and felt a pang of sympathy when he spotted Palin. He was not sure what arrangement he would find him in, but was somewhat regretful that he was dressed and bound like an inmate from a maximum security prison. He noticed the video cameras as they walked across the white polished floor. Looking at the walls, he guessed them to be soundproof. He suspected this room was used often.
Palin watched them approach from his forced posture. A look of acceptance could be seen in his eyes for he did not struggle. In fact, Clay thought, his body did not seem to move in the slightest.
Both men took a seat in front of Palin, with Clay sitting slightly off to his right. He was surprised to see Palin looking at him rather than Keister.