“Wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I am disappointed that you didn’t introduce me to any aliens. I wanted to check out my competition in case any of them had an eye on you.”.”
“I did. You met Fritz, right?” Dan replied.
“Boy, you got that right. Well, have a safe trip home.”
He hesitated just a second before pulling her to him. He looked into her eyes for a moment before he kissed her. Softly at first but she responded and pulled him tighter against her. They probed each other, not wanting to let go. Finally Dan pulled away.
“I had better go before something comes up,” he said.
“I’m pretty sure it already did, unless you brought a rabbit back with you,” she replied.
“I’ll call you. I promise.”
“You won’t will you?” she said.
“Won’t what? Call?”
“Let grass grow under your feet,” she replied as she got in the car.
Once again he stood there watching as she drove off. He needed to get with the program he decided.
“Holy smokes,” Brian said.
He had Metzler’s papers scattered all over the floor and had been working on trying to make some sense out of them for the past three hours. Abby sat next to him offering suggestions.
“The guy is definitely way out there but man, who can follow his logic or chicken scratches?” Brian said scratching his head.
“Hey, you’re my go-to math man. I just bring the problems to you and you are supposed to figure them out,” Abby said, taking a slice of pizza from the one’s that she had brought for the team to share.
“Gee thanks. It would help if I could tell what half of it even said,” Brian replied
“Do you think you can make heads or tails out of it?”
“Probably. I get the general idea of what he is getting at. I can probably work some of it backwards. It’s highly advanced, but I think I can do it.”
“Of course you can. That’s why you get the big pizza.”
“You are too kind,” he replied.
“I know.”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
When Abby came back from a faculty meeting, she brought a another large pepperoni pizza with her for Brian. When she got there, she was surprised to see the whole team. They had helped him get the papers in order and were reading off the equations and he was putting in the latest values from Chili.
“How did you get the latest numbers?” Abby asked.
“I called them from your phone,” Brian said still writing down numbers.
“Well, I guess you guys don’t need me. I’ll just sit here and eat this pizza by myself,” she said sitting down on the floor.
That’s all it took. Like vultures descending upon dead prey they were swooping down to grab a slice of the pizza.
“So I take it you were able to decipher Metzler’s equation,” Abby said in between bites.
“Actually Jessica could read his handwriting pretty well and that helped a lot.”
“Really? Good job Jessica.”
“Well I had an advantage. I write just as badly so it wasn’t that hard for me to read.”
“You know, now that your mention it. I used to always save your papers for last so I could try to read what you had put down,” Abby teased her,
“I’ll admit it. My brain works faster than my fingers when I really get on a roll,” she said.
“So what do you have so far?” Abby asked Brian.
“Even without the rest of the data, we’re talking about numbers that I have never seen before. He uses a couple of values that I need to understand to extrapolate the data.”
“If I understand you correctly, you are saying that you get the theory but need clarification on some of his values?”
“Something like that. He just has a couple of things that we don’t see in astrophysics so I am unfamiliar with them,” Brian told her.
“And if you had that part, you could finish the work?”
“Absolutely.
“Then let me see what I can do,” Abby told him.
“Abby, I’m telling you, he won’t do it. He will not use the phone under any circumstances. He believes that everything he says on the phone is being recorded. It's a phobia.”
“Dan, I can’t help if I don’t have what we need. Brian can’t proceed by just guessing. He won’t and I won’t let him. This is too critical to just throw numbers at. Besides, that’s not the way I work and you should know that by now,” she said raising her voice a notch.
“And I can’t do what I can’t do either. I can’t force him to change his mind. We quit using cattle prods on subjects six or seven months ago,” he said trying to lighten things up a bit.
“Look Dan. All I’m saying is time is critical. If we don’t get the information then it is all out of our hands. I hate giving up but I can’t do anything more. We need those values. Only he can supply them,” she said.
“Alright Abby. Let me see what I can do but I wouldn’t hold out much hope for some sort of a miracle. We seem to be a little short on those these days.”
“Do the best you can and let me know what you come up with,” Abby replied.
“I’ll go to work on it as soon as we hang up. I’ll do the best I can,” Dan told her.
“Sorry I got a little short with you.”
“It’s passion. I didn’t take it personally,” Dan replied.
“Good. Please don’t. Talk to you soon,” Abby said.
Abby sat there after he had hung up and went back over the conversation. Why had she gotten so upset? It wasn’t Dan’s fault. Maybe she was feeling responsible for this whole mess. She shook her head. I didn’t create it, I just found it, she decided.
James and Brian were talking a mile a minute in the back of the Gulfstream. Abby and Dan were talking quietly in the front two seats.
“I can’t believe they are going to let these two go to meet with Metzler.”
“The President said that’s what he wanted so off we go,” Dan told her.
“But the security clearance?”
“They are clean. We did a deep background check long before they came to the White House. You don’t get near the President unless we know everything about you,” Dan said.
“So…”
“Yep. You were checked out as well. Sorry but that’s part of playing in this league.”
“What did you find in my background?” Abby asked, sitting back and folding her arms.
“That you should be up for Sainthood if it wasn’t for that small indiscretion in the back seat of that Chevy in high school,” he replied.
“You rat. You…you, whatever. You really had me checked out?” Abby demanded.
“Abby, everyone gets checked out. They run a check on me twice a year. It is a mandate to the FBI that they are required to carry out,” Dan said.
“Well I still don’t like it much. They showed you the report?”
“I glanced at it.”
“And it was a Ford, not a Chevy,” Abby said.
“Actually that part wasn’t in there but its good information,” Dan replied grinning from ear to ear.
She was just getting ready for a comeback when they were told they were on final and needed to have their seatbelts on.
While Abby and Dan knew where they were going, James and Brian hadn’t been informed. All they knew was that they were going to meet this strange Doctor Metzler who wouldn’t talk on the phone. It had been decided that they didn’t need to know exactly where they were for security reasons.
When they got off the plane two SUV’s were waiting for them.
“This is really cool. Area 51, and I’m actually here,” James said.
“Maybe they will let us see Hanger 18,” Brian added.
Abby looked over at Dan.
“So much for security,” was all she said.