“They can’t catch me; you know that?”
“Be careful, they have a lot of ideas. I told them everything you said to me. They reckon your network must be sparse and probably very weak in certain places. The earth has transformed in two hundred and forty-eight million years.”
“But why not be friendly and listen to what I have to say? Is this how we should treat an extraterrestrial contact?”
“Some think they should, but most are simply scared. They wonder why you turned up now if what you told me is correct.”
“I was about to tell you.”
She was quiet, as if I was going to explain now. “I’m not telling you, Pippa. Their attitude has totally offended me. They are wrong and I’m not going to talk to them anymore. I can’t believe what they’ve done. I gave them the terrorists, the pedophiles, the child kidnapers. Where’s the appreciation for that?”
“They think you are just trying to win their confidence, worming your way in so to speak, before you do something awful. They don’t trust you.”
I guess that was it. No trust.
“Well, I’ll just have to work harder. I think it’s time for me to go?”
“Wait,” she put out a hand, but didn’t step closer. “I loved our time together, Jo-el. I wish it had turned out differently, please believe me.”
“Oh, please, I think I’m going to barf.”
I didn’t reply, I just asked Sally to bounce me home.
Chapter 39
ADRIANNA
“Where am I really weak, Sally?”
“Well, I told you about Japan and Taiwan, the coast of Chile. There’s no coverage across many of the great deserts, the Gobi, Sahara and others. No point really, not much life there. We moved what we had to better locations.”
“Yet we went to Antarctica?”
“Station in Tierra del Fuego.”
I nodded, what did it matter really. I just needed to stay away from those areas.
“What happens when I go underground?”
“The signal weakens as you go deeper. It would vary based on where you are in the world but three stories would probably cut off your ability to bounce. You can still receive data at three stories but it may be spotty at five.”
“What about flying?”
“No problem with flying, that’s built into the belt.”
“What about protection?”
“The shield will work at any depth, that’s in the belt, but firing electrons at people comes through the network, so that will dissipate with depth. You can project holograms underground, from maybe two hundred feet.”
“The smart-suit?”
“That’ll work, again part of the belt.”
“So, I’m still powerful underground, but I can’t bounce or see anything on my heads-up monitor. One more thing, how long does the power last?”
“Five days at least, depends on the amount of light, sun or irradiant, both work.”
I was happy with the education, didn’t feel so useless. I’m sure Sally imagined my reasons for asking.
“Vogel is about to meet with the station chief,” Sally said.
“Oh, okay, let’s watch.”
Sally put it on the monitor. A larger, corner office appeared with a grey-haired man behind a leather desk, dressed in dark-grey pants and an open neck white shirt. He didn’t look particularly happy. Vogel entered the office.
“Hey Stew, they dragged you in, too?” she said.
“Sit down, Cathy. How did this happen? It’s Easter Sunday I should be home.”
Vogel took one of the two seats in front Stewart Nolan’s desk. She was pensive and seemed unsure how to begin.
“This is big, Stew, I mean enormous. Maybe it’s the biggest story since 9/11?” Nolan frowned, he didn’t like histrionics. “It’s all about that guy with the wings, Jo-el he calls himself. He met with various government agencies and they’re frightened of him and now they’ll do anything to catch him.”
“Did you talk with him?”
Vogel nodded. “I received an email from him saying he wanted to be on a show for ten minutes.”
“To say what?”
“He didn’t say,” answered Vogel.
“How did you know it was really him.”
“Well that was funny. Normally, nothing gets through to me, but this email wouldn’t delete and didn’t go to spam. Then he told me something about myself that nobody knows. He said it was to prove that he was for real.”
“What?”
“I’d rather not say, but trust me he was spot on and there’s no way anybody knows what he told me, it was quite scary. I mean, how could he possibly know something about my past life that was so secret.”
I turned to Sally, who was sitting in her armchair. “What did you tell her?”
“I mentioned the name of this guy she’d had a crush on at high-school, she’d given him a hand-job, which was her first time. Guess it’s something you humans never forget.”
“Oh Jeez! No wonder she was sheepish when I bounced in there.”
“Gotta get their attention, Joey.” Sally smirked.
I turned back to the monitor.
Vogel was talking. “So I said okay and sent some emails asking the usual questions, but he didn’t reply, except just to trust him and he’d be here tonight at seven.”
“Well that’s not going to happen,” said Nolan.
“They monitor our emails, Stew. That’s not right.”
“Damn right about that, but let’s cover that another time. What else happened with this Jo-el?”
“So then the troops came in and they shut us down.”
“That’s it! Why does this guy garner so much attention from the security services?”
“Stew, wait. The best bit is what happened about an hour ago.”
Nolan was quiet and motioned with his eyes for Cathy to continue.
“He came to see me.”
“Who?”
“Jo-el.”
“What? Where?”
“Here.”
“He came to the studio with all these troops all over the place?”
“Yes.”
“What, he just strolled right in.”
“No, Stew, let me finish please.”
“Okay, go on, sorry.”
“Now Stew, you’ve known me for a long time, right? I’ve never brought you a crazy idea that didn’t pan out. So, you’re going to have to relax and bear with me when I tell you what happened, because you are probably going to have difficulty believing it.”
“Sounds like you’re setting me up, Cathy.”
Vogel waited, she knew that what she was about to say was going to sound ridiculous but she didn’t know how else to explain it.
“Firstly, he overwrote my computer, telling me the FBI etc. was monitoring my email.” Stew was quiet. “Then he said, via the email, that he wanted to come to my office, and I said how and you know, all the troops in the studio. He told me to lock the door.”
I watched Nolan’s expression, his face had creased up and his lips were pressed solidly together. He fiddled with a pen on the desk.
Cathy continued. “He said he would bounce into my office.”
“Bounce!” exclaimed Nolan.
“That’s the word he used, yes.” Nolan waited. “I said, okay and suddenly there was this man, Jo-el, standing in front of my desk.”
“What?” Nolan laughed. “You’re kidding me, no way? Don’t be ridiculous, Cathy, you can’t expect me to believe that. Have you been drinking?”
“It’s true, Stew. I have no idea how he just appeared in my office, but he did. You wanted to know why the government is going ape-shit, well there’s one damn good reason.”
I turned to Sally, “how can I contact Nolan?”
“His cell phone is on his desk; I can call it.” Sally told me, “Just speak out loud.”
“Do it!”
The phone rang with a charming melody. I watched Nolan as he glared down at the phone. The small screen showed my name ‘JO-EL’ in large letters.