Inside the unit, connected to a series of red and green couplings, was the hockey-puck-size zero-point-energy device.
“As Dr. May likes to say; the walls have eyes and ears. Be careful what you say.”
“Fuck Ladybug, and fuck MAJI. See this watch? It blocks any sound or video within ten meters with white noise. If I have something to say, I’m going to say it.” Disconnecting the rotary generator, he held it up for inspection. “See this miniature power plant? It wasn’t designed by an advanced race of extraterrestrials; it was conceived and invented by human scientists, many of whom who were murdered. Do you know what their crime was? They were attempting to make the world a better place to live. What right does an oil executive or the CEO of a bank have to keep this technology from the rest of us? Who died and appointed them masters of the universe?”
“I’m not going to debate the issue with you, Mr. Mull.”
“Then debate it with your fiancé. He’s investigating these unauthorized programs. From what I’m told, he intends to bring zero-point-energy to the rest of the world. And we’re going to help him.”
“Who told you that? And who is we?”
“I can’t tell you the who until you help me with the how.”
He opened the aluminum case, revealing a platter-shaped, nano-crystal generator packed in form-fitting foam, its circumference twice the diameter of the unit it was replacing. A smaller doughnut-shaped cut-out lay vacant beside it, intended to hold the manmade ZPE unit it was replacing.
Glancing around to make sure none of the other members of their team were watching, Chris Mull quickly reached inside a compartment of his jumpsuit and removed a rotary-style zero-point energy device, pushing it firmly inside the accommodating vacant foam hole.
“Where did you get that?”
“It’s not real, it’s only the outer casing, but it’ll fool security.” Popping the real rotary generator from the satellite’s power pack, he slipped it inside the hidden compartment of his jumpsuit.
“Mull, put it back — now.”
“There’s a firm in India that can mass-produce these units if we can get a working model to them — Scott made all the arrangements weeks before he was terminated. We can’t have the unit on us when we leave the lab — security performs an external and internal body scan as we exit the Hive — but I can get it out through the kitchen.”
“You’re wasting your breath; I’m not doing this.”
“Tonight will be a late night. Tomorrow you’ll order dinner in. I suggest the lobster thermidor topped with lump crabmeat and a velvety sauce, served on garlic whipped potatoes. Oh yeah… and for dessert — a decadent chocolate crème brûlée with a hint of Grand Marnier.”
Jessica’s lower jaw dropped. “Oh my God… you hacked into my suite’s private server.”
“All room service meals are covered by fancy aluminum covers. The one that will be keeping your lobster thermidor warm will be composed of a lead alloy that will appear solid to the security sensors; in reality, it has a false bottom that pops open to hold the rotary ZPE — just like the one you used to smuggle this empty ZPE shell to me your first night in this facility. Who gave it to you is anyone’s guess… Lydia Gagnon? Kirsty Brunt—”
“Bastard… you set me up!”
“Shh. Wish I could take the credit, but that belongs to someone far higher up on the totem pole. Now pay attention, because your life and your fiancé’s life depends on it. Tomorrow night you’ll order the same lobster meal. The waiter will bring you the hot plate top which will contain the real ZPE unit. At precisely 2:33 a.m you’ll summon Elevator-7 and take it down to Level-23. Only Cosmic Clearance personnel know the lower floors below Level-9 even exist. Exiting the elevator, you’ll proceed to the first checkpoint. The Delta Force commando on duty is named Josh LaCombe… I believe you know his son.”
“Logan?” Jessica felt queasy.
“Give Captain LaCombe the package; he’ll get it to our people on the outside. You’ll have exactly seven minutes to complete the transaction before the security cameras aboard Elevator-7 and on Level-23 cease their video loop.”
“I’m not doing this, Mr. Mull! Now put the real unit back.”
“Too late for that, Dr. Marulli, you’re already involved and implicated. Turn me in, and I’ll squeal like a pig to my MAJI interrogators, confessing that I’m working for you and your accomplice — Under Secretary of Defense, Adam Shariak.”
“The Pentagon has a long history of mismanaging funds. The last reported gaff happened in Fiscal Year 1999 when the Department of Defense somehow ‘misplaced’ $2.3 trillion. When Former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, went public with this information on September 10, 2001, he blamed the problem on an inability of DoD computers to communicate. Others have called the situation systemic in that the CIA and other intelligence agencies have been operating for decades in a vacuum of secrecy without any Congressional oversight.”
Gripping the edge of the podium, Adam shifted his weight in an attempt to relieve the sciatic nerve pain in his left buttocks.
“The need to maintain secrecy does not give these agencies the right to conduct operations without the knowledge and consent of the President of the United States, nor does it allow them to write blank checks to their partners and associates in the military industrial complex. And yet that is exactly what has been happening. These secret programs, known as Unacknowledged Special Access Projects, or USAPs, have been siphoning approximately $80 billion to $100 billion from the U.S. Treasury every year, generating billions of dollars in unreported revenue for defense contractors. These criminal activities must be stopped and the participants prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
“The challenge is in piercing the gauntlet of lies, greed, and corruption that permeates an industry where retiring military officials routinely enter the private sector as high-salaried lobbyists, and well-connected defense contractors leave the private sector to accept top government military posts. I am an example of that very process. While serving as the managing director at Kemp Aerospace, I accepted billions of dollars worth of subcontracts for defense projects — the specifics of which remained hidden from me for, what I was told were, security reasons.
“What could not be kept from me were the names of these projects, their budgets, and the supervising defense contractors involved. Armed with this information, I was able to cross-check these projects against the allocations of dollars funded by the Pentagon. To my surprise and disgust, I discovered the existence of nine USAPs — projects that were clearly funded by the Department of Defense, despite the fact that no records pertaining to any of these transactions officially exists, either in the public record or inside the Pentagon. While I may not know the nature of these projects, I do know the individuals to subpoena in order to obtain that information.
“These nine projects represent the tip of a massive iceberg of corruption. What is even more troubling is the existence of a shadow quasi-government that has operated under a variety of names over the last six decades, hidden under a transnational umbrella organization composed of rogue elements of the military industrial complex, Wall Street, private banks, and monopolies within the energy sector. This transnational entity not only controls these projects, but clearly possesses their own agenda — an agenda intended to keep them in power by preventing advanced energy technologies from being shared with the rest of the world.