“And how many was that?” Bronk asked tiredly.
“One hundred seventy-three.”
That got Bronk’s attention. “You went through all these and found a hundred and seventy-three pairings like this?”
“Of course. That is only over the past three days.”
Call and… response. “My God. It’s communication.”
“Exactly!” Schreiber said, actually jumping in the air slightly in celebration. “Directionally, the vortex is sending these pulses to specific places, because the vectors are highly similar. Until recently, they were largely going east and north. Now, they’re more concentrated toward the east. Where are our Variants now?”
Bronk frowned. “They’re ours, not yours, doctor. And that’s none of your business.”
“Yes, yes, of course, fine. But it is easy for me to surmise that there is a large concentration of Variants at the other end of these pulses, and that these responses are coming from the Variants themselves.”
He really, really wanted to dismiss the motion out of hand, but the sick feeling in his stomach told Bronk that Schreiber might be onto something. “None of our Variants have reported any kind of communication attempts with any intelligences that may or may not be inside that thing,” Bronk countered.
“Do you control how you dream?” Schreiber asked. “Does your mind wander from time to time? Of course it does. The human mind generates electrical impulses that can be detected, does it not? If the beings from beyond the phenomena have gifted our Variants with Enhancements, they may also have implanted something in their minds as well.”
“Like what?” Bronk demanded.
“I don’t know, but if I were to speculate, I would say that these Enhancements may have come with a piece of the consciousness inside the vortex. Something that might respond appropriately to these communications.”
Bronk looked at the wave patterns again and tried to ignore Schreiber’s words. He couldn’t. “Then it’s possible this thing has an agenda,” Bronk said quietly.
“I have no doubt it does,” Schreiber replied.
After another minute or two of checking Schreiber’s data, Bronk dismissed the German and picked up his secure line. He hoped Vandenberg was an early riser.
President Eisenhower looked over the two-page, hastily typewritten report in his private study in the White House residence, his first cup of morning coffee untouched and growing cold by his side. His face looked lean, tired — and it wasn’t just because of the early hour.
“Gentlemen, I have to ask. How solid is this?”
Allen Dulles and Vandenberg traded a look. Dulles looked as disheveled as the President in a wrinkled suit and coffee-stained shirt, though Vandenberg, as always, looked ready for inspection in his dress uniform, the dark circles under his eyes the only evidence of the rude awakening he’d gotten hours earlier.
“Sir, it’s a theory,” Vandenberg said. “But it does confirm our suspicions that there’s an intelligence behind this phenomena, given the wave patterns we’ve seen. None of our own Variants have reported any sort of communication, but there have been some slight alterations in the experience of their Enhancements. We can’t say for certain they’re related, but…” The Air Force general didn’t need to say anything more.
“And Dr. Bronk and this Schreiber man think they have a way to stop the damn thing from transmitting?” the President asked.
“Yes, sir. It would work much the same way as the electronic jamming systems used in our secure conference rooms, but extended into the extremes of the electromagnetic spectrum so that these additional wavelengths would be affected,” Vandenberg said. “I’ve worked with him on this project for years, sir. I think he can do it.”
Eisenhower leaned back in his chair and nodded. “Do it. Now, Allen, we have to talk about our men in the field.”
“Mr. President, this is a critical time. We have every reason to believe Lavrentiy Beria is in North Korea right now, and far too close to the armistice negotiations in Panmunjom for comfort. We have two teams going soon as it’s daybreak over there — one to hunt down Beria and his people behind the lines, and the other to protect the talks.”
“Unless they’re already suborned and they’re going to sabotage the talks,” Eisenhower said. “That’s a possibility, isn’t it?”
Dulles could only shrug. “It’s anybody’s guess. Yes, possibly. But these agents have proven their loyalty time and again.”
Eisenhower looked down at the rest of his briefing papers, including the black-and-white images of the MAJESTIC-12 Variants in the field. He remembered Danny Wallace from his initial briefing on the project. Smart, calm, collected, repeatedly honored for his work. By all accounts, a loyal officer.
“Okay, I need to make a call. Hoyt, get on the horn to Mountain Home and tell Bronk to shut that thing down. I don’t care if they have to blackout the West Coast to do it,” Eisenhower said. “Allen, head down to the mess and grab some breakfast. I’ll see you downstairs in an hour.”
The two men departed, leaving Eisenhower alone in his study, feeling the weight of his office acutely for the first time since he was sworn in. There were only a handful of people who knew what it was like — and only one who had faced such a decision before.
Eisenhower picked up his phone and dialed a number. It picked up on the third ring.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Bess. It’s Ike. He up yet?”
“Oh, goodness. Hang on. I’ll get him for you.”
It took four minutes by Eisenhower’s count before the phone came to life. “Well, hell, that didn’t take long, Mr. President. Five months?”
Eisenhower smiled despite himself. “How are you, Harry?”
“I’m fine, Ike. Just fine,” Harry Truman responded. “I didn’t think we were on speaking terms after that election.”
“Some things go beyond politics. This is one of them.”
There were a few moments of silence on the other end of the phone. “This isn’t a secure line, Ike. Not sure how much help I can be if this is what I think it is. This is about that special project, isn’t it?”
Eisenhower drew a deep breath. “It is. I just need to know… well, I need to know about the people involved. The ones on the ground. There’s a possibility that their, oh, hell, how do I say this? That their blessings may not be blessings after all. That they might turn.”
“Have they wandered off the reservation?”
“No, not yet. But there’s a chance they may have been influenced.”
“And I assume they’re hip deep in something somewhere you can’t talk about?”
“Neck deep. I need to know if I can trust them.”
Truman took a deep breath. “Ike, at the end of the day, they’re people. They’ve been blessed and cursed in ways you and I can’t begin to imagine. Some of them manage real well. Others don’t.”
“And?” Eisenhower said, his patience wearing thin.
“Look, Ike. We use them, and they agree to it. If they wanted to, they could easily slip the leash. With their abilities, some of them, they could literally do anything, and nobody could stop ’em. It’s been five years since I approved that project. And in five years, they’ve been as patriotic as can be, most of them. Done everything we asked of ’em. The ones that didn’t play ball, well, we took care of those. So you got the best of the best, Ike. Now, I can’t say this influence or whatever is gonna affect them or not. We just don’t know. But if they have any say about it, I think they’ll pull through. Besides, can you even reach them right now?”