The Echo signal Part 1 – Revised

The still early fall late summer night stifled any noise, that nature gave that night as the moonlight bathed the house that Chris was in, working. The neighbors was sleeping both day and night and that was the way he liked it, though the lawns were mowed, and short conversation was the preferred method to spreading the news and chatting about the day. the house reminiscing of a mid-eighties build, something you would find in a pulpy low budget eighties flick but the entire fourth floor was nothing, but a wide expanse save for the chimney that rose up through the space, it was perfect for his radio station and workshop.

His elaborate set up was meticulously clean. The home brewed data decoding unit was the prime jewel in his equipment, he was proud of it. This was his time to relax and unwind from the day, there was a mixture of philosophy and radio theory spun through his unconsciousness and the results seemed to percolate into his thoughts, their he tested and stored the results he liked in his head. His mother had called him the other day talking about looking for the son they had after him and was recently with her lawyer on the matter, it was slow and steady progress, but fruitful progress was getting there.

The whole mess was the result of a years long program, the state implemented. The hospital had free reign to take away a newborn with no recourse if the doctor certified that the parents were unfit to raise the kid. the program was kept secret but an even darker under belly was found when the state was purposefully certifying parents unfit then to house children in households them deemed “Fit”. the idea was to raise a generation of kids belonging to the state and the state alone in one leaked memo:

“Future civil servants and soldiers for the national guard”.

The federal government and watchdog groups found out about the whole affair, almost 300 children were confiscated and “Rehoused” furthermore the doctors doing the certifications were getting kickbacks, it was due to a pay-pal dispute with one of the doctors that ripped the whole affair wide open to show what was going down, the military “Peeked” at the idea but internal morality on the matter kept them from being stupid.

The doctor who was in charge of the family was involved and fled to a non-extrication country with spreadsheets and notebooks and his money in cold hard cash. People who were involved were publicly shamed and jailed after the initial support for the thing wore off and memo after memo shone light into the whole deal, the judge would drag his feet on the matter. It was a matter of time when the clock would run out, his mother is convinced the judge was paid off.

The affairs of life wondered through his head as he was working on his alignment of his amp for his radio station. It was nearing ten thirty when something occurred.

His RTTY sprung to life and began typing by itself. His data unit was working overtime for some reason, it was trying to decipher the symbols that was coursing through though the two meter radio that he homebrewed for his own purposes. The paper finished and Chris got up from his bench and torn off the paper.

Strange, who was just trying call me now?

He sat down and looked down at the paper before him. A stream of cryptic symbols and letters came down the left hand side of the paper. Looking up at the clock a little while later he found himself getting tired and sauntered down to bed after shutting down the level and heading down the stairs to the third floor.

*****

Gabe tossed and turned in his bed. The run-down apartment was overlooking the ballfield a little way over. The windows was boarded up and offered little or non-view of the offerings it provided. He was too cheep to get cable and out of the box tv afforded him entertainment, but the sports radio gave him some variety in this dull uneventful life.

He was getting worn at the run down manufacturing plant at which he was employed. The constant looming event in his life that he witnessed seemed to give him PTSD when he was on March Street. the bed decided it was going to be lumpy, it was getting worn and thread bare. Springs were already trying to make its way out and scraps of fabric he could get from his job he would patch the thing a little stuffing he could find the dumpsters out back was cause of celebration.

He rounded the corner, a car spun out and tires squealed, two shots rang out and the occupant fell out of the car and was bleeding, the man looked up at him and reached out to him but then pointed at him and laughed before coughing up more blood and expiring with the car crashing into a powerline. Gabe was too stunned and scared to do anything, the man face turned white and blood, just more blood.

Gabe awoke sweating. He looked out and saw the cold blues of the morning and the lights of the ballpark near-by, through the slats of the boards.

*****

Tank sat up in the room. The room was white and tiled, he was caught between the agony of pain and a euphoric feeling of pleasure. He was tormented by this thing that haunting his nightmares, whatever it was, it was getting close to him breaking.

This thing a shadow was teasing him and taunting him, it had started seven days ago when he was pumping gas, at first, he was hallucinating but the pain started five days ago when the shadow appeared and now it tormented him daily.

The pain was worse, worse than a kidney stones.

A man robed in red walked into the hospital, the gentle patter of the rain was soothing, aways soothing to him. he quickly approached the front desk.

The woman looked up and saw a man before her. at first, she thought some man got lost from a comic con but then she looked at him proper. He was built properly and on his head was a crown of woven gold and about his waist was a silver band with Byrle beading. The robe fell to the floor covering his feet. Attached to his hip was a storm lantern and in it was a ranging fire.

“Yes?” asked the woman.

“I am a sojourner from distant lands, I am seeking a man, a man that is burdened with a great torment” the man said softly.

The woman thought that this was a cosplaying deal and needed to deal with this person.

“I am sorry visitation hours ended an hour ago, you can check out tomorrow morning at 7 in the morning” she said. her hand was inching towards the panic button. He sense her motions. The flame was now licking to get out of the lantern. She was not thrilled about a fire in her building. She was about to press the button when the fire leaped from the lantern and consumed the man, the room grew and so did he, he was calm, but the fire was menacing like a building fire. A voice came from the flame in a dialect and tongue she did not understand.

“The flame is its own” the man said shrinking back down to size.

The woman got off from her butt and scrambled to the desk. She opened her computer and pulled up the list.

“Who are you looking for?” She asked.

The man left the elevator and walked down the hallway looking for Tank. Tank was somewhere, where did he go? Finding the room, he went in and found a tank laying their mumming about something. the man changed the sent of the room and pulled Tank into a deep healing slumber, he drew sounds of nature into his room that reminiscing of a creek and a waterfall.

The man walked over to his bed and found the man sleeping. Resting his hand on his head, he closed his eyes

Their he was standing there. a great lake of fire and lava, there was above it a shadowy figure, it searched for him, but it could not find him, he was secure in his own from the piercing eyes that were before him.

The man let go from the vision and returned to earth. He was alarmed by the affair; he needed to go and notify the others and plan on what to do next.

Leaving the room, he turned down the hallway and down the stairs and disappeared.

*****

“Hey Chris, could you come and look at the repeater, I was just chatting with someone about the ball game that was going down and some garbled signal overwhelmed the repeater last night” Peter called him over the radio during Chris lunch break.

“Speaking of which I did manage to get that signal last night on my signal recorder and I have a printout of its text, but I will certainly look into that repeater business,” he said calling back to Peter.

The road to the repeater site was a harrowing one if one was not familiar with the place. Chris weaved through Candy Row and then entered into the utility road. The bumps and bangs of the road provided somewhat of a soundtrack to his trip as he turned down the music to focus better.

the road narrowed as it was twisting and turning. Chris slowed down to a craw as the edge of the road was just three feet from his tires and the drop off provided no security with trees or railings.

At last, he was able to get up into the repeater site and found nothing out of place. The place was getting windy and chilly, he wrapped his jacket around him tightly as he got out of his truck and headed towards the small building that housed some radio equipment.

It was obvious that the repeater had been overwhelmed by the signal, the room was silent. The crude brick walls of the room did not make for warm comforts. The small five room complex house other clients and a central isolated corridor in the middle served as the conveyance for the heavy cabling, the small apartment was just them for long jobs and cases of emergencies, necessitating the sheltering of places.

Turing on the light he walked into the repeater room and examined the racks of equipment. They shared a duplex with the county, and he was the only one with the credentials to work on both. the repeater was off and had spit out some information on the small printer, the repeater thought the signal was something remote control and tried to decipher it causing it to overwhelm itself. He rebooted the repeater and the controlling computer and reuploaded the config file. He then examined the county equipment and found nothing out of place and was purring along.

He was about to leave the room when something blue caught him in the eye. Sitting on one of the racks was a blue knight chess piece, walking over he picked it up and examined it, it was plastic made out of excellent quality stuff and it was shiny. He ran though his head the possibilities of what could brought the piece, but he was out of options.

Why would someone leave this here? The thought bounced through his head.

He tucked the piece in his pocket and closed up the shop, he sat in his truck at the gate and filled out some paperwork before making his way down the path, one of these days he was going to get the state to pave the road and put some railing up.

******

Cynthia closed her Bible and stood up. the adult bible class were doing her good, but the lingering pain was still there, she was having difficulty coming to grips with the fact that her husband went missing at work three years ago. She had no closure, and she wanted to find it is hard to come by, her husband was secretive about his work. Although she herself had been in the Airforce since high school her husband was still with the DOD when she was honorably discharged for an injury, the compensation barely covered the rehab but Dan (her boyfriend at the time) helped her through it. She drove home and pulled into the driveway. The house was gloomy save for the radio nook that gave her contact to the outside world, she was an Extra licensee, and she dabbled with the CW and found it was not her thing, she sat down and flicked the radio on and spun the dial, putting on her headset she switched over to the twenty meter band and came across Chris who was talking to some guy in England. Calum was the chap.

She waited for Chris to finish when she got a hold of him.

“How was your bible class their Cynthia” He asked her.

“Fine, therapeutic that’s for sure but I cant seem to shake things off” she said.

“that’s unfortunate” came the reply.

“I cant sleep well these days, I try to close my eyes, but I see him sleeping next to me I reach for him but theirs nothing but empty space” she said, her voice cracked a bit. She tells him lately she has been hearing Dan call out her at night and from the guest room she calls out to him in her sleep never to find a reply.

A bit of silence between the two. Chris on his end decided on something.

“Why don’t I send you some paperwork I want you to look over something came over the two meter band, some digital signal and it seems like it has purpose” he said.

“Let me come over and I will hand you the whole thing and I will show you what is going on” he Continued. Cynthia lowered her microphone and thought for a few seconds and then she called him back.

“I’ll take the paperwork and I’ll see what’s going on” she said.

They both signed off and she got up. She looked at her house, it seemed dusty and untouched since the day she found out that her husband went missing in action and his job. She looked up at the portraits of the two of them on their wedding day, a man, so bold, strong and, courageous and her small but carefree in his arms, both looking at each other. she reached and touched the photo.

What was a marriage if the other is not here? She thought to herself. the master bedroom has not been touched, the deodorant that Dan left on his bedside table, getting ready for bed she sunk into the sheets, even though she was in the guest room she looked over at the empty space. she leaned back and looked up at the ceiling; a ritual that started when she started coming into the room.

******

The man in the red robe walked into the park, he walked into the forest and into a medium sized clearance of trees. It was comfortably for a small gathering, he stopped and looked around to see if he was being followed, be walked to the middle where a rock appeared, and he sat his lantern down and threw back his hood and unsheathed his sword The rock was only known to him and the others like him and only appeared when they were around, his order spoke about getting guns but there was some hesitancy, the head of his order had purchased a gun for protection but he was more comfortably with a sword but he had placed his paperwork in for one.

“Greetings Kip” a bass voice came from behind, it was Marcus, the head of his order, Kip bent his knee. Marcus stopped and bowed his head in response, Kip sheathed his sword and walked to his master.

Marcus was in a white robe, his bronze cape, flowed down from his shoulder, upon his bald head was a silver crown with sapphires

“What brings you here” Marcus asked.

Kip perked up and reported his news and what he as seen. Marcus looked over at Kip in disbelief, he knew that a great evil had came about but not to this level nor nature. Marcus and Kip spoke at great length even when the moon rose and fell until the dawn blossomed into the sky.

“I will leave you with this Kip, your apprenticeship is drawing to a close and I expect you take my place soon, I leave you with this one”

“But master I am not yet ready’” Kip replied.

“I have faith, in you, Kip, my time has come, you have demonstrated your abilities well, when this task is completed, I will return from this earth, and you will be in my stead” Marcus said. walking away into the woods.

Kip sat down on the rock, their was some mowing going on, the lantern uttered some words of encouragement, he bowed his head and prayed for wisdom and guidance.

******

Chris pulled into the driveway into the home of a familiar driveway, it was his best friends Luke place. pulling up the driveway he stopped in the front of the house. Luke was a broadcast engineer at the local radio station, well until Luke fell grossly sick recently.

The door opened and Sasha Lukes German Sheperd bounded out of the door and made his way over to the door. The doggo was excited to see a friend, Chris stopped and gave the good boy some attention.

Luke came out and stood out on the small patio

“What’s up Luke” Chris said walking up to his friend.

“What brings you here” Luke asked.

“I got something for you, you might want to look over” Chris said.

Luke and Chris were friends from high school. Luke was the typical athletic type who was only interested in sports, girls, and networking while Chris was hauling boxes of hard drives up flights of stairs to get to the server room.

Back in collage the both of them set up a secret server and private website that they was only was available on secret invite, including a private email portion, their sophomore year of collage they managed to get the thing to impressive heights, a small private party was thrown when they graduated but the both of them found work in the small town they were living in, it was only later that year when Luke was injured on the diamond, he was forced off the pro ball career and into this electrical engineering studies.

“Well, what is it?” Luke asked him to seat down into his easy chair, Chris notices a small party of pill bottles and a bible on his chair stand.

“Bit to young to be in that recliner” Chris joked.

“Well, the body isn’t what it used to be” Luke said. Something in the way that he spoke about the matter caused Chris to ping a bit about something.

“So, what brings you here?” Luke asked to get his glasses out. Chris handed him his paper and Luke looked at it. Luke was usually hardnosed about things, but something came over Luke that caught Chris off guard

“Chris, I can’t answer your inquiry please leave” Luke said getting up and walking away from Chris. Chris was stunned by the situation and the sudden turn of events.

Ok.

Chris taking the cue began walking to the front when he noticed a blue knight chess piece on the board, he just took it as being out place and left the house. Going back to his truck he jumped in, something, fell and bounced on his lap, he was startled and looked down. He picked it up, it was the piece that he had in the car, blue knight chess piece, he remembered what Lukes board was and went back to the front door as if to ask Luke again but then remembered the dismissal and left the property.

Luke walked into the bathroom and reached for his pills, he lost balance for a bit and some bottles spilled allover, he was uneasy about telling his buddy about his terminal illness, so far, the meds were working great to mask the pain, the tiredness, and the weakness, he should have man up and went into hospice, but he decided he was going to live it out.

He remembered that lump on his lungs, and finding out it was cancer., ever that gospel meeting with Paul M. he had begun his journey with his God after collage and now this, his spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak.

He took his course and walked back to the living room, and he looked down at the chess piece that was on his board. The world was slowing down, he was growing weaker and weaker by the day, he knew God was going to call him soon, that was comfort, but he feared the dying part, which was the problem.

Luke sat down at his desk, he was alone, truly alone with his creator and his bible, he was blessed with a great church family, but he felt distant from the world as it came crashing down around him, the coffee and drugs that kept him going was wearing their welcome and his body struggled to keep going. He needed to get something off his chest a confession, he spurred against the catholic definition of it, pulling out his pad of paper he decided he was to come clean about his involvement of a sordid affair three years ago.

******

Chris was finding himself at an impasse with this whole thing, something was not right about things, he could not figure out what the signal was telling him, there was a definite pattern to the whole thing.

The large town of Ritten was nestled in some mountains, just forty miles east of Willams and only had seven amateur radio repeaters. Chris first inclination in finding the source of the signal was to check out the repeaters and the owners, only three of them were viable candidates for the problem but he quickly ruled them out.

He was yet back again at the start of the issues, where was this signal and what did Luke have to do with anything, it was nearly getting around nine in the night when his phone chimed, he had a date coming up with his girlfriend, ending his search he closed down the workshop turned off the power and went downstairs ready to begin.

*****

The not too shabby place provided the Dutch experience, yes, he had money, but he was reserved with it, the joint was a runed down joint just on the border of Ritten coming from the major highway that ran east to west and parallel north to Ritten. Lydia was an exceptional woman, she did not fuss much, self-sustaining, and took second place last year in the skeet shooting competition and offered private gun lessons. She did not care about the experience, she just wanted to be with Chris, even if it meant eating El-cheapo Italian.

“So how is your search for your brother going?” Lydia asked Chris. He stopped and thought for a second.

“Well mother is doing the best she can about the situation” he said.

“Me and my mother have been trying to get the magistrate to get the ball rolling on getting the spreadsheet, but we are being told over and over again a certain memo from the state is keeping things under lock and key for now” he continued.

They both chatted about future plans and other things, she was serious about taking the relationship to the next level but was reserved on getting intimate for the martial bed.

She understood the implication of her choices, Lydia was often declared “Shallow or didn’t know her compatibility, whatever that meant to her” On Chris’s end he was concerned about something, he was worried about being a father and what It meant to be one, he often pushed the aside the idea of being a father in relation to these thoughts about the situation, he was unsure about the prospects about himself. These things he mulled over his head, when he was tapped on the shoulder by a waiter, Chris spun around and took the letter from the waiter. The letter was a strange affair, it was rolled, with ribbons and wax seals on it, the paper was primitive

“Sir, someone asked me to give this to you” The waiter said. Chris was puzzled about the situation and asked about the person.

“I don’t know, he did not reveal his name, though his clothing was other worldly” the waiter said looking around for the character he just met, written on scroll was

Do not open in public

Thanking the waiter, he slipped the envelope and pulled another out to get ready to pay the bills, later after dropping Lydia off at her apartment he sat in his truck and looked it over. The parchment was not fake you can buy at the local craft store, but this seemed real, real parchment, their was three seals on the ribbons holding the scroll. He put it on the passenger seat and made his way back home.

Going up to his workshop he carefully opened the scroll and began reading the contents. Down bellow he looked down, he found a drawing of a blue knight’s chess piece.

Another cryptic letter? He thought again as he examined the scroll and the seals, the seals were plain and unadorned, no symbols or identifying marks. He thought about the connections and the people he knew that could help him decipher the contents. He opened his little blue notebook of contacts and found who he was looking for.

“Ring, ring, ring this is Gabe” Gabe said answering the phone trying to find a distraction from the lumpy bed, getting out he sat down at his desk, he managed to cobble together from the trash at his job.

“Gabe can you decipher a letter for me?” Chris asked over the phone. Gabe was excited, now he was able to exercise his skills, he had done some decryption work, but it was some small projects and had some military contacts, but this one was taking cake he dreamt.

“Depends on are we talking about me potentially getting Hoffad out by having this thing are we talking about Juicy, Juicy information concerning two housewives fighting over past relationships and a current love affair between one of them and her boss”

Chris paused.

“that’s oddly specific, look can you decipher the letter or not” Chris said.

“I don’t know, unless it comes to papa bear” Gabe replied.

“You want an apple strudel with that?” Chris came back.

“No, Common Chris, give me this one, something to take my mind off of the lumpy bed at night.

“Where do you want to meet” Chris said looking outside the window”

“Infront of Papa Johns on the corner of West Street and Norris Street and bring two fat stacks of cash” Gabe said writing down something in a small black notebook.

“I cant afford 2 grand, three hundred dollars I can spend on this” Chris said. Gabe stopped and thought about it, that two grand was going to help him out with his connections, but he could try and wiggle it this time.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“How about 3 hundred dollars and a large two toppings pizza” Gabe finally said getting his coat on, he scribbled something down and closed his black notebook.

“You got a deal” Chris replied.

The late night air seemed shroud them in the blanket of security even though the hand off was out and open, holding onto the pizza, cash and the payload seemed he was some sitting duck for anyone to come out and seize him. He was sitting down in front of the store and his gun holstered. He scanned the scene around him and looked for Gabe.

He noticed a figure was heading towards him, Chris did not know what this person was and was getting his hackles raised, he reached for his gun and the man stopped in front of him, was it Gabe? the question ran through his head. he man looked up and Chris relaxed.

“Howdy, Chris you got my stuff for me?” Gabe asked, holding out his hands.

“Well, its 2023 why did you not PayPal me?” He continued as Chris dispensed with the goods.

“You know my stances on PayPal, it’s a seedy business” Chris said looking for his car. Gabe peaked at his new project and made a rough calculation on his work, he than ran through his tree of contacts and made his way to his own apartment, just munching on pizza.

********

Tank stepped out of the mental hospital and found himself alone, his car was safely there he was better and not seeing things. His flip flops created a rhythmic beat that he danced along. Three straight days of being probed and “Talked to” he slid into his truck and turned on the engine.

Something washed over him, he sniffed the air it seemed like that smell he was smelling his first night, he saw something red flash in his rear view mirror

What is going on? He thought to himself.

Tank looked around he was getting frightened of the situation, he didn’t want to have to go back into the hospital, he got back out his truck and started to walk back and he was one quarter of a way their when he felt a hand on his shoulder he spun around and came face to face with Kip.

“Who are you?” Tank asked.

“You know who I am” Kip replied.

Tank stopped. he remembered the scent of that room, his first night with it and the one now and how at ease he was with it, and he learned of his name yesterday morning.

“What do you want from me?” Tank asked.

“Let me ride with you and lets talk in your truck” Kip said, they both walked together and got into his truck.

“What are some catholic cardinals?” Tank asked Kip, the flame from his lantern flashed in response in anger.

“Please, do not speak of us as Catholic” Kip said.

Tank feared Kip.

“What is going on and what did I see the other day?” Tank asked.

“That is a good question, I saw it through you. I spoke to the head of the order, it’s a great evil that need to be delt with” Kip said.

“So, this great evil that is here, what is it”

“I have yet to figure it out, but I need your assistance in all of this” Kip asked Tank.

“Why do you want me to drag me in this. I have already been through enough already” Tank said.

“That’s all the reason to bring you into this, you have a reason to deal with this situation” Kip replied.

Tank sighed, all his life was trying to live a normal life and ever since getting these visions now he’s been dragged further into a mess, he really doesn’t want to be with, all he wasn’t to do in life is get to the major leagues and right now, and this whole deal with the hospital was dragged his prospects into the mud and shot gunned in the dugout.

Kip sensed that there was mistrust and angst coming from the driver side of the truck and he was too.

This is not going to be easy.

He looked over at the lantern hanging next to him, the fire was doing its own thing, it spoke to him about the things that were at stake and what would happen if things should fail.

I have faith in you, Marcus words echoed in his head. in the first time in time span in his earthly body, he had spent five years that of a small span of time in his body was apprenticing with his Master, He had to come to grips with his position and did

Stop fighting it and embrace it fully. The thought shot through his mind, he looked over and the flame danced in celebration. He let go of any angst and reservations

We can do it!

“Where do you want to be dropped off?” Tank asked Kip.

“Hold on just for a sec, Tank, let me show you something” Kip said Tank looked at him. Tank sensed a change in things, coming from Kip.

“Maybe, just Maybe you’ll find a reason to believe” he continued.

“What do you mean” Tank said.

*******

Chris was at lunch, he was perched on top of some building eating and talking with Gabe. Gabe was struggling with the decryption of the letter and was going no-where, no research was getting him somewhere and was looking at his contacts. Chris finished his lunch and convo with Gabe and returned to work.

Hours later he wrapped up the current project and made his way home, stopping at the workshop and offloading his tools. On his way home he was toying with the prospects of proposing to Lydia. She was perfect for him, but something struck him, he was a bit crippled at the prospects of fatherhood. Those things kept him awake at night; Lydia admitted that she was having some fertility problems but that did not matter right now.

Something came over him as he was pulling up to his driveway, he stopped the truck and looked up at his house. getting out his truck he made his way up to the house unholstering his gun, he walked up to the house with caution.

The door was ajar, moving to the back of the house, he found that the back doors and other were open, from preliminary looks the house was not that too disturbed.

He called the police, instead the military showed up, he called his personal lawyer.

“Good even sir, my name is agent Kelly Brue” the man in blue raised his hand to shake, Chris hand.

“What are you here for, I thought my house has just be burglarized, why the military here” Chris asked his lawyer.

“Due to the circumstances and your connections to certain things we have taken charge” Agent Brue said to Chris.

“In what regards?” Chris asked the agent.

“That matter is classified at the moment” Agent Brue said. Chris turned to his lawyer.

“I don’t want anyone searching my house right now until things are clarified” Chris said to his lawyer. His lawyer pulled aside the agent and they spoke, Chris returned to his truck, he was refused entry into his own home, over something that he was not sure about. A while later his lawyer found him.

“Spoke to the agent and he says due to your connections to Luke your friend and your history with him, the agent wants to do a sweep around your house, for bugs” the lawyer said.

“Bugs, who wants to bug me?”

“You will be surprised.

Chris was weirded out, what did Luke’s line of work have to do with him. he turned the question over in his head, at last he was defeated, he made his decision and made his way over to the agent, he told him that he could sweep the house for bugs under the supervision of his lawyer.

“Alright boys lets get this party started” Agent Brue yelled to his team a bit late his lawyer and the Agent walked into his house, it seemed like it was drawing into night when his lawyer came out and motioned for him.

Chris walked over and meetup with the agent.

“We found a bug in your, office” the lawyer said. The agent produced a bug, it was a small pcb board with two thick wires on it.

“Where did you find that?” Chris said looking it, from the examination bag it was in.

“In your wall outlet” the agent said, Chris was taken aback, he was doubtful about the bug being in his office. The lawyer had to work a bit to convince him that was a real bug, convinced it was the real thing he was advised not to radio anyone about the situation, in case there was people listing for his situation. The agent left the house and so did his lawyer to further discuss things he was greeted by Gabe who pulled up in his driveway and handed him the letter.

“Congrats you have managed to stump the government, the military and the two guys in a mustang from the middle east.” Gabe said.

“The middle east?” Chris asked.

“How about two Bahrain’s” Gabe replied.

*******

The phone rang.

But them was something in the air that Chris felt as the phone continue to ring. He picked up the phone and rang, the phone number was local. He reached over and picked up the phone, it was the hospital.

“Hello, is this, Chris?” the woman asked over the phone.

“Well, yes, what is going on?” Chris asked.

“Did you know Luke Titus?” the woman asked him over the phone.

“Yes, he was a good friend of mine” Chris said, sitting up at his station.

“Hello this is Martha from Austin Memorial hospital, just giving you a death notification of Luke Titus, he passed away this morning at 7 am in the morning from terminal lung cancer”

“What do you mean?” Chris sat up and others in the office looked at him.

“I know this must be upsetting to you, I can direct you to some counselling services if you need”

Martha said.

“I’m fine, Ill call back if I need anything” Chris said.

“Ok, have a nice evening” she said before hanging up. Chris’s day slowly fell into malaise and despair that swallowed him slowly, second day into the whole thing, he was numb.

Chris stepped into the pavement from the buss, Bush gardens had been better to him before, and he loved it. Band trips were the best rewards that was the best. His mother was there, strangely his father was the one to pick him up from these things.

“Where is dad?” Chris asked.

“Your dog got seriously ill and needed to go to the vet” His mother said to him, a week later he got a puppy.

Chris did not understand death, his mother tried to help him to understand death, but she fell short, she was not trying to, the prospects of loosing such a good friend this way he did not expect, it punched him in the gut. he was asked to attend the services, but he declined but said he would attend the grave side services.

That time drew slow as it seemed, taking the time off, he made his way over to the cemetery that early morning.

“We are gathered here this morning to lay, Luke Titus to eternal rest” the words seemed to sink to the ground.

“Death is the great humbler and reminds mankind of our mortality” the preacher proclaimed over the casket.

“Let us take head, that our appointed times are made, and we must meet them, Luke gave his best and all to the cause of Christ. Luke was a mess when I first met him, he picked himself up and came to us, he loved his brethren and had zeal, let us remember that zeal and emulate him and Christ” the preacher said. the preacher stepped out next to the casket. Luke’s family, for he did not marry nor did get the chance to marry, his life got cut short was there all dressed in black.

A man in a suit came over and gave Chris a worn torn bible, it was the notes and markers left by Luke.

“May I ask those who are present rise for the lowering of the casket, if you wish to watch please step forward and those who do not, it is your time” the preacher said. the preacher turned and turned on the record player, “We shall meet again” played over the record as the casket lowered.

*******

It was two days later when the phone rang.

Strange? Who is calling me now. He asked.

He picked it up and them was some silence before a see and say played over the phone, it repeated twice and hung up. It was obvious of some message of some sort but what did it mean. It was the weekend and he had to spend some time deciphering the “Message.” He was going nowhere with this whole thing; he haven’t found out.

The first thing that he did was looking about town’s toy shops and supermarkets. None of them delt with See and Says, he was walking to his last stop when he passed “Gold Treasures” Antique store when he spotted a see and say in the shop window.

“Yes?” a man in an apron popped out of the store.

“What brings you here?” The shop owner asked him.

“Well, I was looking around town for see and says” Chris Answered.

“You happen to be named Chris Shoffer?”

“Yes” Chris replied.

The man told him to wait and walked back into the store. The man came out and handed him an envelope and went back into the shop. Chris stopped and opened the letter, he read it.

******

The old, decrepit building loomed over him, beckoning to him as if to dare him to enter. He walked up the steps on the left hand side of the building. he cautiously walked up to the building; he was hesitant to enter but he did. The lobby was decaying with the lime green carpet and faux wood paneling that seemed to be all the rage in the 70s, the place seemed like it was having an identity crisis, the floor was ripped and torn, and the floor underneath was reminiscing of a factory floor.

Chris was told to find a room on the second floor, the interior was starting to come off as a hap hazard factory to club conversion, then office building.

The second floor was a maze of rooms and offices, the place was dirty and having been abandoned it was infested with graffiti and trash at least the first floor was cleaner and more tightly, but this was ridiculous.

The hallway twisted and turned as he was searching for the right room, following a map that was fading or partially there, it seemed like an hour later when he found the room, it was near in the middle of the building.

The room seemed to span a couple of levels to itself constrained by the others around it. It seemed mechanical and electrical, but most of all in the middle of this grand room was this interesting device, it was in the shape of a metal trash can, on the top of this trashcan looked like a rotatable turret of sensors and stuff. Attached to it was attached to a box, that box was attached to a computer and a tv monitor a small sticky note told him to power on the unit then the computer.

The thing booted itself, the tv turned on and the image came into focus, the turret spun, a loud beep came from it. The image was that off a face, it was primitive in its texture and shape, but it took a while, but it found him and saw him.

“Hello?” Chris asked it, it took a bit before responding.

“Well, hello, Chris, if that’s your name” the thing said in two different voices.

“Well, yes, who are you and what do you have to deal with me” Chris asked the computer.

“I have lots of things to tell you, but please Chris pardon my voice card, it is malfunctioning, and it needs work” the thing said.

“Ok”

“To start off, I am Lukes’s graduation project, and I was born and taught by him in the deep laboratories of Ritten University.” The computer told him.

Chris was amazed about these things.

“I was unceremoniously pulled out of storage and sat up here. My scanning array is still in storage, but more primitive array will do” the computer said. a small robotic arm with a small frame with cameras and sensors scanned him.

“Hmm, yes indeed” the thing muttered, the small device retracted to the side and turned off.

“Why are you here and why am I here” Chris asked.

“I didn’t summon you; I was summoned, and you were summoned though I might know the circumstances” it said.

“Alright”

“I have been given the tasks of scoping out something that has come back online and it has Lukes’s hardware fingerprints within the mainframe computer but further into my probe I was cut off access” The computer told him.

“And where do I come into play?” Chris asked.

“Well, Luke was a good friend of yours and since I was tasked with probing the mainframe that just came on a few days ago I was wondering if you would take the task of looking for this thing and seeing what it is” the computer asked him.

“Me, look, you got the wrong person for this, I am way to busy” Chris said.

“You got four weeks of vacation to spend, the person who sat me up already has that information submitted to your employer”

“What did you just do?” Chris asked.

“I wasn’t the one that did it, and besides its not approved yet it needs your signature” the computer defended itself. Chris was taken aback about this thing.

“I can sense you’re upset about this proposition, but it maybe your chance to find out about things you have been looking for yourself” the computer said.

“Where is this mainframe?” Chris asked.

“That is unknown, even the people sat me up would not divulge” the computer said.

Chris sighed. the week vacation was not going to do him any good, he thought for a moment, then responded.

“Let me do some more research a week is not going to do me anything good” Chris responded.

“How about a week to think things through” The computer asked. Chris had to, he looked over at the folder containing the request, he sighed and took the paperwork off the data matrix controller

“We got to get you into something better, this is not working” Chris said Chris left and came back with his truck and loaded the setup and returned home.

“How big did Luke build your primary scanning array” Chris asked.

“Uh, its industrial capacity sized, capable of dwarfing the room you are currently putting me in” the computer said.

******

Camp Marcu was nestled deep in the mountains, just three hundred miles up on the mountain range was fort Brigs, the marine walked out of the pool hall, he had just got out deployment and a hair raising court martial, he drank because the alcohol numbed his mind to the situation he was involved in and the fallout that came afterwards. He was a done man, guilty or not the blood on his hands were not going to wash off a man racked with guilt.

Sleep was something for everyone else but him, he was rumpled and seemed like he was dragged through a nightmare for the past months only to be let go, tumbling out of it with no one to take him in.

He knew what he was signing up for but the salt on the wound when he came home the other day to find his girlfriend on the couch with another dude and being told he wasn’t around enough for her liking.

Serves him right to bring a woman in his life, cherish her the best he could but then have the relationship blown to bits.

Getting home while hammered for the first time in his life was a trip and not an easy one, halfway through he found himself sitting on a park bench and ralphing behind the bench. Slid down in the bench, he was disgraceful, but did it really matter to him.

Kip saw the marine in the park bench and walked over to him, he examined the man fund what the humans called “Drunk” he needed to get him home and into a bed where the man could recuperate and sleep it off, Kip helped him up on his feet and made his way.

“that’s it steady” Kip said lowering the marine into the bed after helping him clean himself up and get ready for bed covering him up, Kip decided to stay the night and watch for a bit and talk with him about a few things.

********

Burke Mountain Park was Chris’s go to if he wanted to be alone. he got out of his truck and pitched his tent; he was a simple man. often alone, his needs were simple; fishing if he needed to and was able to live on his own.

The table at his site afforded him space to work, it was that Monday morning after breakfast when he sat down with a notebook and began to hash out what he knew, what he needed to know, his knowledge was enhanced with a file folder given to him from someone. He was nearing midafternoon Thursday when he heard a car approach.

Chris unlatched his gun and turned to look at the proceeding truck. It was a red chevy, early 2000s model, a man got out and stopped at his hood, he was dressed athletic type, his black curly hair pulled out of his ball cap. He recognized the guy from one of the local minor leagues.

It was Tank.

“Tank, what brings you here?” Chris asked him.

“I got something to say to you, I saw something the other day and I was told to tell you about it now and I was told by someone whom I trust that you will be here?” Tank said.

“What are you going about Tank why aren’t you at ball practice?” Chris asked.

“That dream almost died, I missed the post season and the team lost” Tank said coming over and sitting down on the park bench.

“What do you have to tell me?” Chris.

Tank told him about what he had seen and gone through.

“Your cracked Tank, you absolutely Cracked” Chris said.

“There is nowhere in earth, that this is happening” Chris said to him.

“I wouldn’t doubt it”

“Tank, your talking fantastical stuff things that people write in fantasy books” Chris tried to slap some logic into Tank.

“I don’t think you’ll be saying the same stuff when you see the same stuff I have seen and witnessed”

“You have witnessed nothing of the sort, you got into some serious roids, I read the article” Chris said. Tank was offended but then cooled down.

“Ok then that’s on you, believe what you want to believe” Tank said. getting up and leaving the place. Chris was stunned at the situation, he was always careful about not leaking to anyone where he was going if he needed to go camping or a retreat, not even his phone was locked down and privacy was set to max.

“How did you know where I was?” Chris asked getting up.

“I was told by someone” Tank replied.

Chris was in unbelief about the fantastical stuff and how others knew his retreat was for the week. Careful planning now ripped to shreds.

*******

Cynthia looked over at the garage and saw the stuff Danny left behind to get rid of. Three years had they been married and now for the same time they were torn apart. She done up her hair in a bandana and went into the garage to finish of Danny work. Danny had technical style writing, his grandfather was a draftsman for a now closed pinball company, his father learned from his and then passed it down to Dan.

“Nothing does matter anymore” she said to herself as she began shifting through stuff, Chris was off somewhere, she didn’t know. she opened a box, it was a box of cheap China they bought halfway through their first year, back when she was finished up recovering from her deployment injury, she sighed and pushed the box away, if Dan said no, there was going to the thrift store.

She pulled the next box and opened it, it was baby clothes, stuff that was donated by acquaintances and family, it stung. She and Dan were going to wait for a family but now that was throw away, she got angry bitterness, resentment and jealousy boiled and ranged within her she tore the onesie that she was holding. Her wrath subsided and she suck back to herself and hugged the onesie.

She was about to move on when she heard a window smash open. Her nearest handgun was underneath the workbench, Danny kept it there. She called 911 and armed herself, their was some banging and smashing, it drew near, she was stuck, their was some tossing and smashing.

The door opened.

“The Airforce is taking over, this matter pertaining to you and Chris is now of national concern” Agent Brue said walking up to Chris and Cynthia, the MP took her statement Cynthia was sequestered in a hotel room for the time being until she could get her house worked through.

Chris needed to understand the meaning of the blue knight chess piece and what did it have to do with the signal that he had intercepted?

She was laying on the bed on her laptop doing something when he knocked, and she let him in.

“So, you found out about what?” She asked.

“Your husband may have been involved with something years ago and we might be able to figure what happed to him” Chris said.

Cynthia, are you ready for this? She asked herself.

She stopped and was a bit uneasy, there was a prospect of knowing that her husband was dead.

“I want to have closure on one hand but on the other hand I don’t want to face the prospects of having to find out that he is dead” she said looking at him.

“Cynthia, you are living your life on that assumption and that assumption alone for the past three years” Chris told her.

He did have a point, she sighed and sat down.

“They have not told you that he is dead, and he is missing in action, Cynthia, the prospects of him turning up is way better than you make it out to be” he said to her.

“How would you know?”

“Because sometimes the answer is found because of what is not being said”

She stepped away and walked to the other end of the room and sighed. the room was dead silent, and Chris wasn’t sure what Cynthia was thinking, she had that poker face sometimes. It was twenty minutes later when she finally spoke up.

“Where do we need to go?” She asked.

“We got to find the entry point to this whole thing” Chris said, the only information that he would of for maps and stuff was at city hall.

****

The marine was flummoxed at the news, first waking up with a hangover with a man in a red robe sitting next to the bed, that scared the daylights out of him, he was about to go nuclear on the guy until Kip proved to him that he was the one that brought him home.

The news that he was adopted, he could not believe.

“If I was adopted my mother would have told me when I shipped off to Paris Island”

“Your mother died before you came here” Kip said.

“Ok, if you know so much about my family tell me where mom is?” He replied.

“That information I can’t divulge or make that call” Kip said sternly.

“Besides that, you spent over 1k in anime two paychecks ago and working through the last quarter of your stash” Kip contented, the marine blushed and was embarrassed.

“Do you want me to go further, because I can, I know” Kip said.

“No, no, its fine, I just can’t believe it” the marine said.

“The belief is yours at the end, I can’t twist your arm into anything, you have to come to that belief on your own.” Kip said standing up at the bay door of the work area. Kip said goodbye and told him that he will be back if he was ready.

****

The partially completed file that Luke left made mention that entry place was done by rail, he just did not remember where the entry port was. Them was a main entry point and a maintenance entry, the main entrance path was deliberately blocked by collapsing the tunnel that crested a mountain. Railroad maps were detailed, and a major part of Ritten was railway infrastructure about 1 quarter of it.

The both of them compiled a list of places and crossed them off. After three evenings of working together they finally settled on Farnsworth chemical plant, the employees made up about 2 quarters of the population of Ritten and aside from the railroad and steel. The four towers reached skyward as the two large chemical reactors lumbered over the center courtyard, unfortunately Chris had to get owners permission for this one.

They both walked into the lobby, it was still hungover from the 70s, the faux wood paneling and the dirty yellow carpeting, oh what a mess.

“Mr. Fernsworth will be right with you when he gets done with a meeting” the secretary said looking over at her clock The lobby was sizeable for its function but down one wall was a parade of current and former products, their was a note of interest a red licorice colored hocky puck.

“Hey Cynthia, check this out” Chris said motioning for her to come over.

“You see this, this was the explosive plastic this plant produced back in the day” he said

“Is it going to explode?” she asked.

“Nope, it had a horrendous shelf life, the datasheets didn’t bother with complete information due to the fact that the product was so unstable, it was either good or bad and it denigrated so badly in the field. One of the men he worked with molded it into a set of dinning wares. It did not explode, even two years later. Chris should know, he eats with the set every time a president gets elected. They got batch after batch and the government was dismayed with Fernsworth engineers and they basically discounted the stuff at the end and discontinued the formula after so many revisions they gave out hocky pucks made out of the stuff after the leftovers sat out and “Decayed”

“Hello, Chris Mr. Fernsworth, can see you now” The secretary said over the desk. The two walked and was lead by the plant supervisor, Mr. Farnsworth was a very stout man. he was dressed old fashion way. The plant was a giant U shaped with the towers and the chemical reactors in the middle out in the open.

“You have to explain this again and you must ask you want to do what?” Mr. Fernsworth Chris explained the best his way given the time.

“And so, you need to be in my switching yard to find this entrance?” He asked.

“Yes”

He thought for a bit then reaching over for his planner he ran his thumb down the columns and stopped his thumb on a time slot, picking up a pen, his pen and wrote something down.

“You have 6:45 pm tomorrow to do your business and leave” he said, he asked for Chris’s contact information if them was a change of plans.

******

Tomorrow, they met up at the yard. Fernsworth had three lines due east straight, four of them terminated at depot and merged into two before joining the east bound lines and 8 spurs and peel offs. Chris had done his due diligence and studied the maps during lunch.

At their time, he handed a list to Cynthia, and they went exploring. His first two candidates were spurs and a third one was interesting, this small spur lead to run down station, a few feet from it was a medium sized hotel, reminiscent of an early 30s stay, the vines grew over the windows and the two sets of entry doors, but the place seemed intact.

Saving this spur, he decided to go and look for his last candidate. But this one was strange, the piece of railroad still had functioning signal. Calling Cytnhia over they walked down the track to find a gate.

Chris pulled up Lukes’s file on the matter on his phone and found that a 24v interlocking signal was needed to open the gate, Chris took out his multimeter and opened the service panel, he was stunned, the interlocking signal was still there.

The guard tower was in neat condition, though sings of nature was showing trying to reclaim the area. The two found the door unlocked and found that the override keys were missing to open the gate. Seeing that it was getting late, they made their way down the tower and home, they were going to have to try and get somewhere down the line.

*****

Tank pulled his ball gear of his truck and made his way over to the locker rooms. He was well rested and eager to get back into the groove, Brock one of the pitchers for the team came over to him.

“Hey Tank, where were you yesterday, we were at the lounge partying and we didn’t find you, what is up” Brock asked.

“Well, it was home taking care of myself Brock, you know, trying to get off the booze” he said.

Brock was surprised.

“Something changed Tank, you’re not the same before your spill, what is gotten into you” Brock asked.

“Well, I have found a nice congregation to go with” he said opening the door, Brock was confused, this wasn’t the Tank he had know when Tank came into the team.

****

The following Tuesday he was asked by his manager to come over to Perth Manufacturing a wholesale plant near Fernsworth chemical plant, to diagnose and correct a malfunction repeater. The team that was tasked with the initial response could not get the repeater to reset properly, the system was mounted on top of a tower, the repeater error codes were telling him that something tried to program the repeater and the invalid commands threw a wrench in the system, he noticed the error throw dates.

at first, he tossed them aside but then it came to him.

Chris, this is the same date that you got the signal.

In his short break he looked around the area from his perch he finally spotted another clue to his riddle, it was a round house nestled in the woods, he took a picture of it with his phone and found a small dirt road that lead over to it. He turned back to his work and continued. He spent the rest of the week getting ready for the Saturday he was going over.

He called over Cynthia and see if she was interested in going, at first and she was hesitant to go.

“I have something planned on Saturday?”

“What do you have planned?” Chris asked.

“I got some work to do at Church in the afternoon” she said to him.

“Why don’t you come with me in the morning”

She opened her planner and looked at the situation, she allowed it and told Chris that she could come with him on Saturday morning but had to return home by one in the evening to make sure that she had time to get down to the church building on time. The following morning Chris picked her up and made their way through the roundhouse.

Them were two buildings, the round house was that not of any significance and the other buildings on the site, one was a small complex and the other was just a small tool shack.

They were about the leave the premises when Cynthia found a field jacket, she picked it up, it was torn and it had red stains on it, she stopped and looked closely at the tag.

“Chris look at this” she said stunned. It was the way that Cynthia said it is what grabbed his attention.

“Chris, this Dan’s jacket” she said. She descended into anxiety. This was too much for her and she needed to stop right here.

Cynthia, he’s dead. the voice in her head told her. she zone out and apparently, she freaked out, Chris was doing his best to calm down Cynthia. It took him about a good deal to get her to come back, he took the jacket from her and verified that indeed it was Dan’s Jacket, but the red stains were not hemoglobin, but had the texture like paint.

“Cynthia, its paint.” He said giving it back to her. she calmed herself down even further. They both left so Cynthia can go on and go and get ready to go to her church for something.

Chris was at a crossroad, he could either continue going further and find out more or could leave it alone and carry on with life. he decided to move forward and to figure out what was going on and keep on with the investigation.

“It seems like you have many unanswered questions still left, don’t you?” the computer asked Chris nodded.

“Why don’t you go and find the truth of the whole matter and I would you might find something interesting, the computer said.

“What do you mean?” Chris asked the computer.

“Well, lets just say your life will be turned upside down if you find out certain things going forward” The computer replied.

Chris later that night turned and called Cynthia, she was home and had just gotten off of the radio.

“Are you OK?” He asked her.

She told him that she was one step better then she was before, at least she had some clue as to what went on with Dan, she was ready to find out more. Ever since a long reading from her bible and some meditation she finally was able to go back into the master suit again, this time be able to sleep in the bed that she used to with her man.

"Why don’t you, it seems you have something more than what you had before" he said looking at his watch, he quickly emailed his work and asked for the week after next off. He told her to be back at the roundhouse the week after next before hanging up.

*****

Kip returned to Marcus to give a status update on the situation. Again, they spoke at length as if time was not a limitation to them. One in the morning they ceased speaking, Marcus gave him few pointers and left him with this.

“Kip, the best thing you can do for now is to watch over things and when this evil is defeated and struck down, I will leave you and this earth, take time to tend to things as well” Kip bowed, and Marcus departed.

******

Whatever lay before Chris, Cynthia, Gabe, and the marine was the big unknown, whatever emitted that signal seemed like a black box to them and soon to be a known, he was heading towards something that was going to shake their fundamental understanding of the physics they had known since high school what they were about to uncover what humans wished that they had not discovered. The sum of their fears, their guilt and their lives were going to be tabulated by accountant called reality.