Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers (35 page)

“Well, hell,” Leewood slapped his hands on his knees, “How
can we postpone tomorrow’s meeting at this late hour. Damn it!” He stifled a
yawn, “We need to keep this whole thing under wraps…so what damn reason could
we possibly give for postponing?”

They thought about this for a while, then a smile slowly
spread across Adamarus’ face, “Damn, I just might know how to do it.” He pulled
out his com unit as Leewood and Radin leaned forward with curiosity. Adamarus
winked at them, “Just need to have a word with a couple of new friends… Hello?
Please connect me to Master Sergeants Flannery and/or MacAfee.” He got up and
walked over to the window again as he waited for the connection to be made. Mac
picked up and Adamarus spoke quietly to him for several minutes. When he was
done, he disconnected, then turned and said, “Alright, tomorrow’s meeting is
taken care of…in the morning and all day if we need it.”

---

Later that evening, Evelyn walked briskly down the corridor
hoping she would not run into anyone. It was late, after 11:00 PM, and the
corridors were as deserted as Evelyn had hoped they would be.

Brandon had been in the thick of it, refining their
construction estimates, and she had casually told him she was going over to
records to look something up. He had waved his hand at her without lifting his
eyes.

She reached Central Records and was relieved to see through
the windows that the lights were out and the place was empty. After punching in
her code, she entered and considered turning on the lights, but decided against
it – the light from the access monitors lit the room up well enough. She walked
to the back of the room where there were several additional rooms that
contained special access stations which allowed access to secure and sensitive
data. She turned and scanned the room – this was ridiculous, she thought, she
was not doing anything wrong. But actually…she knew that she was.

Somewhat angry with herself, she looked into the lens on the
door, her retina was scanned and a click sounded as the door unlatched and
opened a crack. She pushed the door open and walked in.

She glanced at the security camera behind the access
station’s monitor and knew that there was another one above the door behind
her. But…she also knew that the people monitoring the cameras would think
absolutely nothing of her viewing any records she wanted to view.

She sighed and continued in and sat down at the access
station. She selected “Personnel Records” and a new screen came up. She
selected ”Full Access” then entered her password and yet another screen
appeared.

She took a deep breath as she stared at the screen. She was
about to do something that she had security clearance for…but she knew that it
was completely unethical. Reviewing someone’s personnel file was justified if
that person were being considered for a promotion or even if it was just a new
person transferring to the shipyard’s workforce. However, what she was about to
do was not something she could justify in any way. It was a violation of privacy
and she would be abusing her security clearance. She sat there a minute longer
then thought,
to hell with it
, and keyed the name into the search field.

At the bottom of the screen, a progress bar appeared and she
watched it, feeling both excited and guilty, and a little scared. The screen
cleared then filled with text and various selections. Across the top of the
screen in very large lettering was a warning and his name, and she quickly
turned and scanned the records room behind her again–it was still empty. She
turned back to the screen and read.

“WARNING: Full personnel records for Admiral Adamarus
Maximus. Contains classified data requiring an Alpha/Red Raven Security
Clearance.”

---

Harrington had been giving Jan a tour of the shipyard’s
security and they were now in the monitor room where a security staff member
named Rick monitored three panels of eight-inch screens – thirty monitors in
all. Switching from one camera view to another, the monitors covered a good
percentage of all five space docks, at least half. The other half was covered
in another room.

They had started talking to Rick almost an hour ago and had
forgotten the time. Now Harrington looked at her watch, “Wow, look at the time.
Rick, we’ll let you get back to your job,” although Rick’s eyes had never left
the monitors.

Harrington and Jan started to leave when Rick said, “Hey,
before you go, can you cover for me while I run down and get some coffee? No
more than ten minutes.”

Harrington looked at Jan who shrugged. “No problem,” Harrington
replied.

“Either of you want a cup?” Both shook their heads and Rick
thanked them then jumped up and left.

Jan asked, “What would he do if we weren’t here?”

“There are at least two people doing this at all times –
there’s another room like this next door. The security cameras are equally
divided between them. He would have called next door and the other person would
have switched all the cameras to his monitors and covered for Rick.”

Jan yawned, “Excuse me, been a long day.” Jan started looking
at all the small screens again.

Harrington stretched, “Be another long day tomorrow.”

Jan pointed to one of the screens, “Hey, there’s Evelyn,” she
said through another yawn. The small monitor showed Evelyn sitting before an
access station. Across the top of the monitor it said, “Central Records—Secure
Access Station Three.”

Harrington shook her head and smiled, “She’s always working.”

---

Evelyn had known of Adamarus’ command of the asteroid
harvesting project, but knew nothing of him before that and her curiosity had
gotten the better of her.

She worked backward from the harvesting project and
discovered that before that job, he had been a combat flight instructor at Track-One,
a military training base near the North Sea. But not just any training base – Track-One
was “the” premiere combat fighter training facility – best of the best—the
place that all fighter pilots strived to qualify for and attend. She grinned –
So
Adamarus was a flyboy
. She was impressed.

She continued back through time. He had taught there for five
years and been promoted from commander to captain just before leaving for the
asteroid project. She reached the beginning of his tour of duty at Track-One
and saw an attachment. Pulling it up, a color picture of Adamarus filled half
the screen. It was a slightly older Adamarus in a flight suit – well, older
than his apparent age now anyway. She found a date, did the math, he was forty-three
in this picture…they estimated his age at around thirty now. She looked at the
picture for a minute longer then began reading the text on the right side of
the picture. It was some kind of an announcement that Adamarus would be joining
Track-One.

It said, “We are more than pleased to announce that Lt. Commander
Adamarus Maximus, one of the six fighter aces currently in service and
considered to be one of the best fighter pilots in active service will be
joining Track-One as a combat instructor this fall! LTCD Maximus is the most
decorated airman in service. He is one of only two people alive to hold the
Presidential Medal of Valor for his now infamous actions in the Southern Canal
where he saved the lives of four other pilots. He is also the holder of two
Silver Stars, the Badge of Courage, and a Purple Heart.”

Evelyn was stunned. She had heard somewhere that only two
living people held Amular’s highest award, the Presidential Medal of Valor! He
was one of them? This was incredible! You generally had to be dead to earn the
Medal of Valor. He was also a fighter ace! Everyone knew that there were only
six “Aces” – there had been a movie, The Six Aces – and of course there was the
song The Six Aces and also the candy bar by the same name. An ”Ace” was a
person who had shot down five or more enemy fighters. But there was even more –
the document had said that ”LTCD Maximus was the most decorated airman in
service.” Goodness, why didn’t anyone know these things about Adamarus? Or
maybe others did know and she was the only one who didn’t.

She suddenly wondered exactly what “enemy” Adamarus had shot
down to qualify as an Ace. Amular had had no enemies since the war over fifty
years ago. Moreover, what had Adamarus done to win the Medal of Valor? She
continued digging.

Before he was a Track-One instructor, he had worked for the
intelligence branch as an analyst for five years. Her brows furrowed. How had
he gotten to be a Track-One instructor if he wasn’t an active pilot? She read
on.

Nothing much had happened during this period. He’d done well
and been promoted from lieutenant to commander. She reached the beginning of
this posting and found more attachments. She opened one. It was a release form
from a Dr. Hatcher, a psychiatrist. The first page contained only warnings
about security, limited access and need to know. This was
very personal
and her guilt spiked again. She could definitely get in trouble reading this! She
looked around again to make sure she was still alone then opened it. Again, a
picture of Adamarus filled half the screen. He looked about the same as he did
now, a little older perhaps, and he seemed to be under some kind of stress.

---

“She’s probably reviewing personnel records of her new people,”
Harrington said, looking away from the monitor and over at Jan. “She puts in
long hours. You know her and her husband, Brandon, ran Hideaway during the
latter part of the war.”

On the small screen Jan saw Evelyn turn and look behind her. She
looked a little guilty to Jan, but Jan shrugged it off. “Yes, I heard about
that. You know they must be close to a hundred years old now.” The view on the
small screen shifted showing Evelyn’s backside and the screen she was looking
at but the two women paid no attention.

“I’ll have to find out some time,” Harrington said. “The
thing I notice sometimes is how mature they both seem. But yes, they both must
be close to a hundred years old.”

“I wonder what it’s like being as old as they must have been,
then taking a pill, and suddenly being in your prime again. I read somewhere
that old couples like that, who suddenly became young again, almost always
break up…that new kind of ‘age crisis’ and all. But they seem happy enough.”

Both women again looked at the small screen which was still
showing Evelyn’s back. On the monitor Evelyn turned and looked around again. “Hm…”
Jan said, “if I didn’t know better, I’d say she looks kind of…guilty,” she
laughed. “That’s the second time she’s done that. I wonder what she’s looking
at.”

Harrington’s brows furrowed. Evelyn had looked guilty –
something she had never seen before. The view on the screen automatically
shifted showing Evelyn’s face again. Harrington reached up and pressed a small
lever next to the screen causing the view to switch back, and again they were
looking at Evelyn’s back and also most of the screen, though it was too far away
to make out. Still holding the lever, Harrington slid it downward and the
camera zoomed in. On the screen was a picture of Adamarus. Harrington felt her
insides fall and she closed her eyes.

“Ah ha” Jan said! “That’s certainly not one of her new recruits!
I thought I noticed something passing between those two.” Harrington’s eyes
snapped open and she gave Jan a warning look. “Hey,” Jan said holding up her
hands, “none of my business and certainly not my place to say anything to
anyone.”

---

Evelyn blinked in disbelief and reread the memo more
carefully.

“LCDR. Maximus has shown significant improvement and, in
fact, I doubt we could expect to see much more at this stage. Only time will
heal this further. I expect some guilt will remain with him for the rest of his
life. He no longer wishes to resign. In my opinion, his remaining guilt over
the Dark Mountain incident will not impair his performance or judgment unless
an identical situation were to arise, which would be highly unlikely. Even if
it should, he would only be more motivated to do the correct thing. I also
agree with the post POW evaluation done eleven years ago. The scars left over
from this ordeal will not hinder him in his duties.”

Evelyn felt dizzy – she did not understand any of this. “Only
time will heal this further”! Resign!
What was the “Dark Mountain
incident”?  He had been awarded the Medal of Valor for whatever had happened at
Dark Mountain… how and why did guilt, healing and resigning come into play? And
how had he been a prisoner of war?

She opened the other attachments and read them, then kept on
digging. Slowly the pieces fell into place.

The “enemy” had been El Asfar, a powerful criminal
organization that had been involved in trafficking drugs and committing acts of
piracy on both the high seas and in space. Their stronghold had been at Dark
Mountain, which lay beside the Southern Canal near the South Pole. Adamarus had
been a fighter pilot and involved in actions against El Asfar that spanned a
decade.

At the age of twenty, Adamarus had graduated from college
with a degree in engineering and joined the Navy. The following year, he’d
graduated from OTS getting his wings. And on his twenty-fourth birthday, he’d
finished Advanced Arial Combat Training at the top of his class, just in time
to get pulled into what was then called the Southern Pole Conflict – an all out
effort to stop El Asfar’s pirating operations.

However, the Navy had underestimated El Asfar’s strength and
had taken a beating in the initial encounters. Among the Navy’s losses had been
Adamarus, who had been shot down and captured.

He had been a POW for ten months before organizing a breakout
leading thirty three-prisoners to safety. For this remarkable feat, he had
received his first Silver Star, the Badge of Courage and a Purple Heart. At
twenty-seven he had come home a hero and married his college sweetheart, Grace
Bonnet. They had gotten two months together before he returned to duty and was
put back into action.