Nano Surveillance (Dave Henson Series Book 1) (13 page)

Chapter 38 (March 18, Monday 8:30pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time)

As the President signed off, and the network technicians attempted to switch back to their headquarter studios, where their respective anchor reporters and commentators were anxiously awaiting to discuss and celebrate the Presidents new plan, every network lost control of its broadcast transmission ability. Television and computer screens across the country went temporarily black for a moment before a video image appeared on the screens. The video display came from a remote transmission feed emanating from a location in the central Midwestern part of the country.

The video image displayed was of the Vice President talking in a hotel room to a beautiful young woman in a red dress whose face was being purposely blurred. An articulate and methodical voice narrated over the video explaining where the Vice President was during the filming of the video and warning that the subsequent footage was very graphic in nature, even though much of it had been edited out due to its sheer vulgarity and violence.

The voice narrating was a synthesized version of Dana Cogswell’s voice. As the video continued to stream into living rooms and businesses all around the country, Dana explained what was transpiring between the Vice President and the young woman. As the video played out and Dana continued to speak, the viewers watched and listened to a horrible story unfold. In every living room across the country people stared intently and listened silently to what streamed out in front of them.

At the end of the fifteen minute video the narrator ended by summarizing that this is what our Vice President was doing at the International Summit on Global Climate Change. She then went on to rhetorically ask that if this is what our Vice President would do to a defenseless young woman, what other imaginable acts is he capable of. Finally, the video concluded with a still picture of the woman’s lifeless body lying on the beach. Five seconds later the transmission ended and the broadcast networks were able to restore their own transmissions.

Chapter 39 (March 18, Monday 6:45pm Mountain Daylight Savings Time)

As the video ended and the networks returned to their headquarter studios, anchor reporters and commentators looked at each other in stunned shocked. They looked like deer in the headlights as they faced the live cameras and tried to quickly process and digest what they had just witnessed. Dave, Dana and Ron just sat silently at the NSurv offices and waited for them to respond. The anchors were lost for words only momentarily, however. Within seconds, they had regained their composure and had recovered enough to respond to what they had just witnessed. Immediately, each began to talk rapidly of a prank that must have just been played out across the nation and that obviously the image of the Vice President shown was really not him. They also began to rush to the defense of the Vice President by hyperbolizing on his impeccable career, both as a former senator and as the Vice President.

At that point, Dave shut off the television screens and looked at Dana and Ron and said with a grin, “I have to give the President credit, he did a hell of a job selling his plan tonight, but I think we upstaged him a bit. I think tonight, and for the next several days, the President and his administration are going to be dealing with another more pressing issue than his “Transportation Movement Act”. What to do with the Vice President?”

“Absolutely, the faces on the anchors and commentators was of pure shock,” responded Ron. “They were lost for words and now they’re in a panic defense mode for the administration. The public saw what it saw tonight, and there is enough corroborating evidence out there to support the video. I’m betting the Vice President will be sacked within the next two weeks.”

              Dana listened to the two men talk but her mind had already shifted back to the President’s speech.

“In regards to the President’s speech, the public is not going to buy into any of it, particularly the folks living in the rural areas and even many who live in the suburbs,” said Dana. “The American public has been in love with their vehicles and associated independence since Ford introduced the first car. They will revolt against the President’s “mileage assessment fee”. It’s an outright joke and the American people won’t accept it.”

“You’re right,” said Ron, “The American public as a whole won’t accept the President’s vision and plans. But make no mistake; it isn’t about the American public. It’s about the congressional members and businessmen around the world that will profit from the “Transportation Movement Act”, and we can be assured they will profit considerably.”

“The President couched his new plans very carefully and articulately tonight,” Dave responded. “If anything at all, he gave sufficient cover for enough of those fence sitting congressional members to jump off to his side. I guarantee you many of them are already chomping at the bit to negotiate with the President and his minions on what they can get for their district, and more importantly for themselves, in return for their vote.”

“We’re going to need to act fast to catch the administration in the act of effectively bribing congressional members for their vote. This video tonight should slow them down for a few days, however, Ron you and your team are going to need to ship out to Washington the day after tomorrow. If we’re going to infect the congressmen with the nano-dust particles, and have any chance of catching them in the act of accepting administration vote bribes, we need to be at the annual congressional dinner on Thursday.”

“You know that even if we expose them for accepting bribes from the administration that both the administration and the congressional members will simply brush it off as typical negotiation tactics used on Capitol Hill,” said Dana.

“Yes, I’m sure they will use that line of reasoning as an initial defense,” responded Dave. “However, the preponderance of evidence that we will follow up with, showing the ties between them, the international billionaires and their companies positioned to profit from the “Transportation Movement Act”, and a corrupt national press, will make their excuses eventually ring hollow with the American public. They won’t get away with it this time. The networks tonight saw that they don’t have as much control over the airways as they thought they did.”

“I hope you’re right Dave,” replied Dana. “However, keep in mind every one of the players you just mentioned plays hardball and will stop at nothing to protect their interests.”

“Well, we will just need to make sure we are one step ahead of them at all times,” chimed in Ron.

Chapter 40 (March 18, Monday 8:45pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time)

As the video began to play out over the television screens in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, President Coleman and his staff, as well as all of the White House communication technicians, looked on in riveted horror. They could not believe what they were seeing. The First Lady had to take a seat as she nearly fainted at the horrible act unfolding on the screen in front of her. Meanwhile the Vice President slipped out of the room quietly.

Only the Chief of Staff spoke, yelling out invectives at the television screens to both the perpetrators who were transmitting the image and the Vice President. He knew, as well as the President and several others in the top administration, that what they were watching was a true and unfortunate event. He kicked himself for deciding not to attend the conference. He might have been able to have prevented this disaster from happening if he had gone. The Vice President had burned them several times in the past, but this incident was too much. It was indefensible. He had to go. Though the national press would run cover for the Vice President and the administration the best they could, there were still too many rogue reporters out there that would do some fact checking and corroborate this film in short order.

The President gazed briefly over at the Chief of Staff as he quieted down. The President showed a combination of anger, disappointment and fear on his face. Ken Hardy gave him one quick hard look that was easy to understand. He was going to need to ask for the Vice President’s resignation tomorrow morning. However, the bigger issue the President thought was how he was going to quickly and quietly put this whole affair behind him. Getting rid of the Vice President was a step in the right direction, however, Congress and the public would demand more answers and actions. For him though, chief on his list of questions was who filmed the Vice President’s actions and how did they override the nation’s media broadcast transmissions. If he didn’t find out quickly who was responsible for this video release tonight, and shut them down fast, his new “Transportation Movement Act” and his career would be over soon. He knew Hardy already had a lead on who was behind the video, but he had to ratchet up the effort in resolving this problem. He changed his plans for retiring for the evening, and walked back to the Oval office. He needed to make some phone calls tonight to some very powerful and tech savvy men that could potentially help him find the producers of this video.

Chapter 41 (March 19, Tuesday 9:00am Mountain Daylight Savings Time)

              Dave walked into the Material Science Research Lab where he was greeted by Dr. Gillian and Ron. Dr. Gillian had called him yesterday afternoon to tell him he had some new things to show him that would add a new level of capability to NSurv’s surveillance arsenal. Dave also wanted to see how Dr. Gillian was coming along with another item he was going to need in a few days.

“Good morning Dr. Gillian and Ron,” Dave said as he walked into the lab.

“And good morning to you to Dave,” responded Dr. Gillian in a proud parental sounding voice. “I am glad you and Ron had time this morning to come by. My team and I have made some significant enhancements in the nanoscopic dust particle technology area that I wanted to go over with you and demonstrate.”

“Excellent,” Dave responded. “So what do you have for us?”

“Well, as you’re already aware, the current nano-dust material that you’ve been deploying in the field has a limited transmitter and receiver range of only 200 meters. The reason for this is that the nano-dust material is capable of converting, and effectively siphoning off, only a minimal amount of power from the target host. Moreover, the battery storage capability of the nano-dust material is severely restricted. In most urban areas, or as long as there is an active mobile phone within this range, these limitations are acceptable. We can configure and control the nano-dust and it can transmit information back to us. Beyond that range, however, we can begin to lose the ability to control or receive data from it. Again, in most deployments this limitation is acceptable. But as we are all aware, there are surveillance situations that go beyond the typical urban situation. Case in point, Mr. Barbas and his yacht are anchored off of St. John Virgin Island as we speak. When Mr. Barbas turns his cell phone off, there are no other Wi-Fi links within a 2km radius of where he is currently anchored. The next closest Wi-Fi hot spot where Mr. Barbas’s ingested nano-dust could link up to is in Cruz Bay on St. John.”

“Agreed, it has been a concern for us,” commented Ron.

“Well, I’m pleased to report that my team has addressed this application limitation,” responded Dr. Gillian proudly. “We have improved the biologically based energy conversion and battery storage functions of the nano-dust material such that the nano-dust configured cameras and audio sensors in the host body can now transmit and receive signals up to a range of four kilometers. We achieved this by making two major enhancements to the nano-dust material. First, we improved the nano-dust’s ability to more efficiently convert the sugars that course through the targets blood stream into electrical energy. Second, we improved the battery storage capability of the nano-dust particles. As a result, we can provide more power to the configured nano-cameras and audio recorders in the targets’ bodies.”

“That’s fantastic,” responded Ron.

“And we’ve done even more,” added Dr. Gillian proudly. “We’ve also improved the performance of the nano-cameras and audio sensors. As you are aware, the current video quality is limited to black and white and is relatively low resolution. We’ve now improved our nano-camera configuration programs to allow us to produce high definition color image quality from the nano-dust configured cameras. Similarly, we’ve done the same for the nano-audio sensors. Let me show you.”

Dr. Gillian called his dog Rufus over to him. Rufus jumped up from his bed lying over in a corner of the lab and came lumbering over to Dr. Gillian. As Rufus walked over to them, Dr. Gillian took a small test tube containing a minute amount of the new and improved nano-dust particles and mixed it into a bowl with Rufus’s dog food. He then placed the bowl onto the floor next to him, where Rufus proceeded to devour the meal again.

“It’s nice to have a ready and willing subject,” commented Dr. Gillian with a bright smile, as he looked down at Rufus licking up the final morsels of food and nano-dust material in his bowl again.

Dr. Gillian then walked over to a computer on the lab bench and started to bring up a graphical user interface program that enabled him to configure the nano-dust and receive transmissions from it.

“I will now configure some of the nano-dust that Rufus has just consumed into video and audio sensors. Look up at the television monitor on the top of the bench.”

Instantly a high definition color video image began to be displayed on the monitor. Again, it was a dog’s eye view, namely Rufus’s, being displayed on the screen. As Rufus looked up at them begging for more food, they looked at the lab bench and their own legs and backsides being displayed on the television monitor.

“This is simply outstanding,” said Dave to Dr. Gillian. “The previous video and audio recording quality of the nano-dust material had been a private concern for me. By providing clearer and sharper video and audio like this, our friends in the administration and press will now have even a tougher time disputing the authenticity and factuality of them.”

“We’ve manufactured a dozen deployment canisters containing the new nano-dust material and it is available for use immediately,” said Dr. Gillian. “In addition, we’ve also produced two dozen small spray paint sized cans of the material for individual target applications.”

Dr. Gillian pointed to several small spray paint can sized canisters sitting on the lab bench next to him.

“With these smaller spray cans, simply push the spray nozzle button and any living thing, or material, within a 4 foot range will ingest enough of the material, or be coated sufficiently enough in it, to allow us to configure the nano-dust into various sensor types to monitor it.”

“The spray can applicators may come in use if we are unable to infect all the fence sitting congressional members at the same time Thursday evening,” said Ron. “There may be a few who don’t end up making it to the annual congressional dinner. If so, we can go out and individually target them with these,” as he picked up one of the spray cans that was sitting on the lab bench next to him.

“Dr. Gillian, again you and your team have done some fantastic work,” complemented Dave.

“Thanks Dave, we aim to please.”

Changing gears Dave asked, “What about the other item that we talked about a couple of weeks ago?”

“Ah yes, the nano-dragonfly drone. My team has completed it as well and it is ready for deployment.”

Dr. Gillian led them over to another lab bench. Sitting on the bench was a small electro-mechanical dragonfly. It was the latest in his nano-drone collection.

“Although this is a larger drone than the one Dan used in Buenos Aires, it has a number of advantages over the nano-fly. First and foremost it can stay aloft for up to four hours on a single battery charge. Much of the reason for this is due to its large corrugated structured wings. Besides providing lift and propulsion, they also function as miniature solar panels that actually convert sunlight into electrical energy. The electrical energy is then directed into the nano-dragonfly’s onboard micro battery. Although the amount of electrical energy produced by the solar panels is insufficient to keep the dragonfly aloft on its own, the solar panels enable us to extend its mission profile to the four hours by effectively slowing down the overall battery drain.”

“Fantastic. The limited flight time was a major concern for me with the nano-fly,” commented Ron.

“In addition to the extended profile the dragonfly also has the ability to accept a specific set of GPS coordinates and autonomously fly its own direct course to it. Once over the coordinates it will hover at a specified altitude.”

Dave picked up the nano-dragonfly and took a close look at its intricate structure. It weighed only a couple of ounces and was the actual size of a common dragonfly.

“Lastly, the nano-dragonfly has more payload capacity thus enabling it to carry a larger wide angle high definition camera and a highly sensitive microphone. These two features, coupled with its larger size and enhanced mission profile capabilities, enable it to be used very effectively in overhead aerial recognizance applications. I believe this is the exact surveillance feature set you’re going to need Dave on your mission next week,” said Dr. Gillian with a large smile on his face.

“You are correct Dr. Gillian. This is precisely the type of bird-in-the-sky I’m going to need. I have our new employee arriving Wednesday. I’d like you to show him around your lab when he arrives and extensively train him on the use of this new little toy. Please make sure that he is fully skilled in operating it by Thursday afternoon. He doesn’t know it yet, but his spring break vacation is going to be a bit more traditional than he could have ever imagined. Friday he will be taking a trip with Dana and me to the Caribbean.”

“I look forward to seeing him,” Dr. Gillian said. “With the new and improved graphical user interface control system for our nano-drones, I guarantee you that he’ll be highly proficient in operating the nano-dragonfly by Thursday afternoon.”

“Great. Ron and I have some other planning to do now. Again, excellent work Dr. Gillian.”

Dave and Ron departed the Material Science Research Lab and made their way down to Dave’s office. When they arrived Dana was waiting for them outside of his office.

“Good morning,” said Dave as they walked up to Dana and proceeded into his office. “We’ve got some planning to do on a number of fronts.”

“Ron, are you and Dan all prepared to depart tomorrow for Washington?” asked Dave as he sat down behind his desk.

“Yes, we’re in good shape. The flight arrangements are all set and we’ve fully analyzed the building’s heating and cooling air conditioning system schematics where the congressional dinner will take place. We should be able to deliver the nano-dust material as we did at the business leader’s conference. The only issue is that the dinner is a much larger event. Consequently we’re going to have to deploy significantly more nano-dust and it will take us a little more time to screen out the target congressional members.

“Have you been able to confirm who will be attending the dinner?” asked Dave.

“Yes, we were able to confirm which congressional members will and won’t be attending,” responded Ron. “Only one of the fence sitters won’t be attending the dinner. Congressman Hector Perez from Florida had a previous family engagement that he still plans to attend. We will, however, follow up with him and pay him a visit in Florida on Friday.”

“Good, we don’t want to leave one stone unturned,” responded Dave.

“We just need to pack up the canisters with the improved nano-dust material that Dr. Gillian was just showing us and we should be set to go.”

“Also don’t forget to take a few of those smaller spray canisters,” replied Dave. “Just in case you need to follow up and hunt down a straggler or lost congressman that may not have been in the dining area when you released the nano-dust.”

“No, we won’t forget. We’ll probably use one of them on Congressman Perez. I’ll make sure Dan packs up a few canisters of them as well. As a matter of fact, I should go check in with him now to make sure all the smaller details are in order.”

Ron left Dave and Dana in his office to iron out the particulars of two other projects.

“Dana, I am planning to pay Mr. Barbas a visit down in the Caribbean on Friday. I will be taking along with me NSurv’s latest new hire, Joe Stevens. He arrives tomorrow. I haven’t told him about the trip yet. I surmise he will be pleasantly surprised, considering I’m forcing him to have to work during his spring break.”

“What a great way to start your career,” commented Dana with a laugh. “A spy trip to the Caribbean.”

“Also, I think we could use your assistance down there as well if you’d be interested in coming along. But be forewarned before accepting my offer,” he said with a laugh. “Though St. John Virgin Island is pretty nice this time of year, we don’t plan to be sun tanning on the beach very much. As a matter of fact, I’m concerned we’ve got more surveillance work than we can handle down there for just two people, particularly with one being a lab-rat greenhorn. From information we’ve received directly from Dimitris Barbas, and unbeknownst to him I might add, the southern billionaire Jason Evans and the President’s Chief of Staff are planning to spend the weekend on his yacht off the coast of St. John. From what we understand between the phone calls, the three are mapping out a strategy to help ensure congressional passage of the President’s “Transportation Movement Act”. I guarantee you they’ll be discussing quid pro quos between the three interests and I want to make sure we record it all.”

“I think I could be amenable to some warm weather and beautiful beaches for a few days,” responded Dana with a smile. “Plus, I’d like to see these guys in action and hear firsthand their plans on how they intend to line their own pockets with some of the revenues collected from the President’s new “mileage assessment fee”.”

“Great, we will be leaving early Friday morning. Due to the nature of the trip, and to minimize the administration’s surveillance efforts on the both of us, we will be going to St. John via the Citation M2 jet.”

“Sounds like a plan,” responded Dana. “I look forward to flying in a fancy corporate jet. I’ve never before had the opportunity.”

“You’ll love it. It’s the only way to fly,” said Dave with a laugh. “Before we break I do have one other topic I wanted to go over with you and ask for your assistance. Next week I plan to release the video on the conversation between Mr. Barbas and the Secretary of Commerce to the world. However, with this video clip we will broadcast it not only over all the main television news networks, but also on several of the most popular aggregation websites.”