The Inner Circle (30 page)

"What kind of problems?"

"There have been some questions concerning Ackerman's sanity, I think that's all you need to know about that. It's currently being taken care of, but his involvement in our plans has been temporarily placed on hold.

"Wilson is a different story, one that I don't really agree with. The president seems to think that Wilson could have some loyalty issues."

"What kind of loyalty issues?" Neil asked.

"I couldn't tell you because I don’t know. I've known Henry Wilson for a long time and I know he's a lot of things, many of which aren't very good. But if there's one thing I know he isn't, it's disloyal. Mansfield is in the president's ear all the time, which means this whole trust issue has to be coming from him. He and Wilson haven't gotten along too well the past few years and this must be Mansfield's way of getting him back.

"That makes the number of trusted 'Inner Circle' members – meaning those of us who will know the details of Phase Two – only four."

"What is Phase Two?" Neil asked again after its second mention.

"I've got a few things I need to give you," Armour said.

Armour retrieved a black briefcase and after putting in the combination, clicked it open to reveal two items, both of which he handed to Neil. The first item was a folder that had been sealed, labeled: HIGHLY CLASSIFIED.

"This is the last of only four copies of this report in the world," Armour said, before handing over the second item: a box of matches. "It is also the last one that has not yet been destroyed."

Armour explained that he'd had to fight Mansfield in order to get Neil a copy of the report, even though the plans for Phase Two would all be taking place on Earth.

"I figured you at least deserve to know what will be happening in your absence," Armour said. "But as soon as you are done with it, you must burn it to ashes. Make sure nothing at all is left."

"I understand."

Once the tour was finished and Neil was given his copy of the Phase Two report, there was nothing left for him but to wait out the rest of the day and get ready to be loaded onto the ship later that night.

"How are you going to spend your last day on Earth?" Armour asked, as they walked by the guard on their way out of the hangar.

"I'm going to sleep all day," Neil answered.

"Sleep? Don't you feel like you should be doing something special or more meaningful?"

"My meaningful life on Earth ended the moment I left my daughter," Neil said. "Now I just want to be well rested and focused on my mission."

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I hope nobody sees the smoke and gets worried,
Neil thought, as he stood over the burning report. Luckily, as he looked all around him, he didn’t see a single person in sight. He was glad there was no chance of him being found at this building, especially since Armour only dropped him off less than an hour earlier.

The entire NASA compound was enormous, totaling more than a thousand acres in total area. Between all of the research buildings, storage hangars, launch pads and warehouses, it was not very hard for a single person to seemingly disappear.

Nor was it hard for a whole building to do the same. On the west end of the compound, an old warehouse had been all but forgotten for the past two decades. The warehouse was only a fraction of the size of many of the newer buildings NASA had constructed in recent years and it hadn't been in full use since the Reagan Administration. The bottom of two floors used to hold spare shuttle parts, but over the years, most of them had been shipped off to different scientific museums to be used in space history presentations. The top floor had been converted years ago to what looked like an Army barracks. Armour explained to Neil that most of the surrounding area near the compound – before the construction of many local suburban communities and apartment complexes – had been largely rural land. During the Space Race of the 1960s and early 1970s, many of NASA's workers had to put in extremely long days and often complained that they had to drive hours just to get home. These workers would have time for only a few hours of sleep before having to wake up and go back to work early the next day. The solution was the top floor of this warehouse building.

Neil had worked at this NASA compound for years before being fired and he never even knew this building existed. The top floor was one large, open room with four rows of Army cots lined up next to each other. Neil could not possibly imagine that NASA workers would have preferred to stay here instead of driving home, but Armour assured him that he himself had spent many a night in this room, along with dozens of other people.

While the cots appeared ancient and uncomfortable, Neil was surprised to find them more relaxing than he expected. And considering the bed he would be sleeping in for the rest of his life on board the probe, Neil could not complain now. Before he could sleep though, he had some light reading – and then burning – to do.

Neil made sure the report finished burning and stomped out the smoldering ashes before returning back into the building. It was almost a pity to burn a piece of writing so brilliant and Neil was disappointed that he wouldn’t be on Earth to see the results of Phase Two.

Ever since he was told about the comet and the plans on how to stop it, he thought about the many problems the 'Inner Circle' would have with keeping everything secret. It was one thing to sneak a man and a nuclear weapon on board a space probe, but sending it on a completely different path than had been planned by the rest of NASA seemed nearly impossible. Also, Neil knew that he would not be able to travel four and a half years without the 'Inner Circle' trying to communicate with him at least once. But how would they be able to communicate with him without somebody else at NASA discovering that a man had been sent into space? There was just no way they would be able to pull this whole thing off without being discovered.

Or so Neil thought. After reading the report, every question he'd ever had about keeping the mission secret was answered.

It sure is good to have the President and the Chief of NASA if you're going to try and pull off something like this.

When Neil returned to the top floor of the warehouse and lay down on the cot, he couldn't help being impressed and nervous at the same time. He was fairly certain that the matter of secrecy would be dealt with in the best way possible. Yet as his mind relaxed and he slowly drifted off to sleep, there was one new question that replaced all of the old ones.

Do they expect me to even succeed in this mission
?

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CLICK.

Could they have heard that? I know they aren't watching me or else they would've been in here by now. But surely they must have my room bugged.

Earl Ackerman had been kneeling in front of his door, working the lock with a paper clip. He'd already picked the lock once since his stay at Mimosa Grove, the first night actually. That was how he knew they were not watching him. But he was sure they had to have the room bugged. When it was very quiet, he thought he could hear a light buzzing sound, the sound that electronic surveillance equipment must make.

Could the bugs have picked up on the click of the unlocking door?
Earl was not going to take that chance. As quickly and quietly as he could, he moved back over to his bed and lay down in it, pulling the sheets over his head, counting the seconds that passed, waiting for someone to burst into his room and discover his door was now unlocked.

Maybe they didn't hear it?
Earl thought. After ten minutes, he pulled the sheets back and got out of bed again. He began to walk toward the door when he realized something else.
Maybe they're waiting outside for me, waiting to catch me red-handed
.

He looked out the window at the dark night sky, watching the hundreds of stars visible now that he was far away from a major city. The fact that it was a new moon also helped to make the stars brighter and he wondered what the night sky would look like when the comet was only days away from Earth. It would be so bright and would probably look almost as big as the moon the night before it hit.

Earl wondered if he would still be in this place when that time came. He did not think the government could keep him in here for nine more years, but the thought of this happening worried Earl about as much as the bugs that he knew were all around him. Although he'd arrived at the rehab facility only a couple days earlier, it seemed like time had suddenly slowed down and he'd been here much longer, with the end nowhere in sight.

They're not going to let me watch the probe. I helped work on it for the past two years and they're going to launch it tomorrow without me even being able to watch.

Earl felt betrayed, not only by the government and the members of the 'Inner Circle,' but by himself as well. While he thought being locked away was a drastic action for Mansfield to take, he understood that his own actions had been the catalyst. Earl realized that pulling a gun on Mansfield was a really stupid idea and then pointing it at himself was even worse. He wasn't going to pull the trigger on either of his targets and wished he’d had he chance to convince Mansfield of that.

But no, Mansfield had not given him the time for explanations. His threats were the reason that Earl had been so paranoid and when he'd actually tried to get Mansfield to tell him where the bugs were, the Chief of Staff had him institutionalized. It wasn't fair, especially since Earl had not told a living soul – including his own wife, who'd left him in the process – about the comet. And now, the day they were going to begin the conquest to deflect the comet  - an idea that had been his in the first place – he was going to remain locked up in a crazy house.

Well, I'm not going to take this any longer. Somebody is finding out about this comet, whether they want to or not. And it's not going to be some doctor or orderly who thinks I'm crazy.

Earl figured that if he could just tell someone, the government would realize how bold of a person he was and they would have to let him go free. At the very least, whomever he told would surely tell the outside world. Earl would become a hero for breaking his silence and the public would not allow their hero to rot away in this ‘recovery clinic.’

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Neil did not know how long he had been asleep, but he woke up and felt the urge to search around this room. He didn’t know exactly what for, yet his subconscious told him there was something to be discovered. After ten minutes of looking around, though, all he’d come up with was a dusty old notepad – which had the NASA logo on top – and a pencil that looked like a dog had used it for a bone. Neil imagined that the teeth marks were those of a nervous mission control worker or a tense astronaut, ready to go on his first mission.

Neil felt dejected that his search had returned so little and he walked back to his cot, his small treasure in hand. Then it hit him and he realized there was nothing else in the world he could’ve wanted but this paper and pencil.

He began to write a letter, knowing that the chances of it ever finding its owner one day were remote at best. But writing felt like the right thing to do, and after filling up several pages with words – and watermarks from the tears that streamed from his eyes – Neil placed the notepad inside the pillowcase on the cot next to him. Writing the letter had been simple enough to do, but expressing the emotions had taken all of his energy. Within minutes, he fell back to sleep.

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The first time Earl escaped his room, he made the mistake of trying to find a way out of Mimosa Grove. It hadn't been a very coordinated or well-thought plan of escape, more of a spur-of-the-moment, 'I need to get out of here now' plan. He had rushed down the long hallway, through the pair of swinging doors that were right in front of a nurse's station, where five people were waiting. Earl had thought he was doing so well up to that point and had even tried to casually stroll right by when the two large orderlies stopped him.

Unless they were paying extra attention to him, Earl was optimistic that this breakout would be more successful than the first one. He slowly opened his unlocked door, wincing as the door-jam creaked, hopeful that the bugs in his room would not be alerted to his movement. The hallway was mostly dark, dimly illuminated by a few fluorescent bulbs that were spaced far away from one another. Earl figured they probably had cameras watching the halls as well, but as long as he stayed in the dark areas, he hoped to avoid detection.

Besides, he did not plan on taking a long trip. He quietly crept down the hallway, traveling a mere twenty feet until he came upon the room next to his. He tried the handle – but as was the case with his door – but found it was locked as well. This would be another job for his trusty paper clip, which he had taken from the doctor's office on his first day when the man was not looking. After escaping the first time, Earl was sure they would search him and his room to find out how he unlocked the door, but they hadn't and his paper clip lived to see another day.