EOTU, D. R. SMITH [sneezy the snowman read aloud .txt] 📗

right? What IS going on?” Dalton replied as though stating the obvious. Juan robotically stood up from the couch as though a cable pulled him out of its engulfing chasm. He smoothly slipped his cell phone into his right back pocket before he spoke.

“Oh yeah. OH YEAH! I do remember! Soo… what should we do now Dee?” he asked using Dalton's nickname.

“We pay them an unseen visit my man” Dalton answered giving Juan a reassuring smack on the back. “Get your shoes on... like NOW! And then grab any 'equipment'...” that word being given with ‘air quotes’ “...you want to bring, take it down to the van and let's head over there.”

“You gonna call the boss on this one man?” Juan questioned. He was mostly wanting to cover their asses on this. But he also thought their 'boss' would find this all kind of interesting. He stepped into the bedroom to slip on his shoes.

“Already did dude! Already did.” Dalton confidently replied. “Grab that 9mm from under my pillow while you're in there”

Juan did as he was asked and the two men eventually made it outside, slammed the doors on the van, and took off.

 

 

Fortunately, the neighbors were all sound asleep and every other house on the block was dark. As Nick's silver BMW Z4 purred quietly up behind Angie's Range Rover along the curb, he noticed Sanjay's blue/green Porsche 718 Cayman that occupied the single lane driveway in front of the garage. The whole scene looked like a used car lot in Beverly Hills.

Most team members who were going to be passengers on the EHM had blown their life savings on anything and everything they had always wanted. Fearing they just might not return and considering those who were going on the Black Hole journey had little or no family to leave it to, it became the logical 'why the hell not' move. The logical and fun move in fact. Some had even taken out loans on these extravagances knowing full well they would not be around to make even all the payments... much less to pay off the balance. Now many of those exotic cars and the people who owned them were gathered at one tiny building in a not so extravagant part of town.

The small house located at 8118 was the obvious destination as it was the only house whose interior lights were lit throughout. Nick also took note of the MARCH Security vehicle parked in the opposite direction on the other side of the street and the plain white van that was about a half a block away on that same side.

He jogged briskly up the front porch steps to the door and knocked lightly on the six-panel gray painted surface. His mind was filled with questions and speculative answers as to what this was all about. Light splashed onto the lawn and into Nick's eyes as the now open doorway revealed a serious looking Sanjay Patel. Sanjay pivoted sideways allowing enough room for Nicholas Walker to squeeze past him and the tiny but well-kept living room was suddenly overcrowded with standing people.

“So... what is this all about and why are we...” his voice trailed off as his eyes froze on a face he recognized as the janitor. The MARCH facility janitor. “Hold on? We invited the janitor to this late-night major discovery meeting?” Nick queried. “I don't get it?!”

“No Dr Walker...” Pete McNally, head of MARCH security interjected. “This is HIS house” Nick's facial expression morphed into an 'Okay...wait a second. Now I'm starting to see what's going on here' sort of look. He searched through the faces for Angie's but didn't see it anywhere.

“Where's Dr Hemmer?” he asked. McNally tipped his head in the direction of a hallway while waving his hand for Dr Walker to follow him. Nick slipped between Sanjay and the janitor while staring down the sanitation engineer with a suspicious glare as he passed close by. Upon entering the bedroom his eyes not only beheld Angie seated at an elaborate computer screen array, but his head started swiveling around as he became overwhelmed by the charts, maps, photos, and diagrams that covered nearly every square inch of the walls and ceiling. All of it related to astrophysics and some of it appeared to be connected to the Horizon Project.

Angie spun around in the chair and, with a big smile on her face, threw her arms out fully extended with her hands palms up and simply said “Ta DA!!”

“What in the hell is this and what's going on here?” Nick asked in a now frustrated sounding tone.

“Don't you get it Dr Walker? We've found our mysterious weight problem solver!” She replied. Nick's initial deduction upon entering the living room, confronting McNally, and finding out they were in the janitors home was that the janitor had been working for some government entity or a competing private firm and had been stealing MARCH trade and research secrets. But now it all seemed less sinister and more of a personal endeavor on the part of the cleaning tech. Just then, the culprit stepped into the room behind Nick causing him to turn around in a startled glance. Angie spoke from her still seated position.

“Dr Nicholas Walker meet Eric Mikos. MARCH Facility janitor and aspiring astrophysicist.” she introduced and nearly chuckled. Nick wasn't sure if he should shake this character’s hand or grab him by the throat. After a millisecond of composure, he held his hand out and gave him a firm grip while even mustering a slight smile.

“Oh and by the way...” she continued, “...you might want to take a look at this” Dr Hemmer spun back towards the computer monitors, picked up a framed photo from off the desk, and then spun back towards Nick and Eric with the pic facing them in her outstretched hand. Nick Walker raised his chin slightly to bring the photo into bifocal range while slowly reaching up to grab its edge.

A sudden shift in facial expression found his mouth opening slightly and his brows furrowing a bit as he took in the crystal-clear photograph of Eric Mikos sitting on a park bench with Mia Tilona perched happily on his knee. Nick turned his head in Eric’s direction. A sheepish grin covered Eric’s face as he shrugged his shoulders.

 

 

The large awkward telephoto lens of the digital 35mm camera was barely sticking out of the partially rolled down window of the plain white van. Its silent shutter sponged up the images of the license plate numbers of the Beemer, the SUV and the 718. A touch of cigarette smoke wafted from the opening. The lens then moved ever so slightly and was now capturing the human forms that lined the bedroom and living room, all visible through the partially opened blinds. The van had slowly backed up to gain a more direct view of the interior of the home.

The top of the utility vehicle was equipped with a low profile multi-directional antenna/high sensitivity mic array that could pick up conversation through a wall with amazing clarity. Dalton and Juan sat quietly, each wearing sound cancelling headphones to assure that what they were listening to was coming from the target. Suddenly the two men looked at each other as they both detected closure to the meeting inside the frame house based on comments they had just heard.

“Let's get the hell out of here”, Dalton said quietly. Juan nodded in agreement with his hands locked onto the steering wheel. It took him only a couple of seconds to fire up the engine and make a slow inconspicuous departure. Dalton looked back towards Eric's house to confirm that they had not been observed by the now exiting occupants. He barely smiled and flipped his cigarette butt out the window crack as the van accelerated away.

Chapter Eight

 

          

                “He who cannot stand the heat should stay out of the kitchen”

 

Harry S. Truman

 

 

 

Morning of September 24…present time

 

 

The huge meeting room table stretched out like an airport runway before Eric. The parabolic lighting performed its intended duty by casting a warm and indirect glow to the entire room. His surroundings had a futuristic and space-like feel which Eric was certain the architect and designer had envisioned. A clock/intercom/video security panel was smoothly embedded in the wall near the door and screamed out the current time from its blue lighted characters. 0858. Two minutes from his appointed ‘trial’ time.

The empty chairs lining the massive wooden slab before him each represented an interrogator he’d shortly be facing. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this meeting. Would he face espionage charges? Would they throw at him evidence he had forgotten about? Or would they smile and say, You should’ve said something to us about your extensive astrophysics knowledge earlier!

Deep inside, a feeling of confidence was emerging giving him the impression that he had nothing to fear. But that ‘confidence’ was suddenly shattered as his mind began sifting through piles of papers and books he had left lying about his home. Had he sloppily left something that was truly incriminating sitting out in plain view? Eric’s head fell forward propped by his hand pressing against his forehead. He lapsed into a deep concentration attempting to retrace his actions over the past seven to ten days. By remembering these things, he could at least have some kind of explanation or excuse prepared. It all seemed a blur to him at this point. So much had transpired and it felt nearly impossible to recollect actual activities and separate them from things he had merely procured through scientific deduction.

“Think Eric think!” he whispered in a barely audible voice. His hand tightened on his forehead as his teeth gritted and his entire body tensed. He caught his reflection in the shiny surface of the table. The stubble that had developed on his chin made him realize just how much he looked like his father.

His father. He had forgotten about that aspect of this event.

There was the possibility that this whole incident could somehow trickle back to Eric’s father, which would only cement Stefan’s negative image of Eric. Why he had allowed himself to become tangled in such a mess was beyond him. And what about Mia? She would more than likely be suspected of direct involvement. It would be tragic if she were, Eric thought. She was, in fact, completely innocent to any of his actions. In recent days, just prior to this expose’, Eric had been deeply reviewing the way he felt about Mia. She was cute, funny, extremely smart, and very self-confident. It would be nearly impossible for her to still find interest in him after this debacle. This was simply meant to be nothing more than his own personal plan to re-launch his previously self-destroyed astrophysics career. Get a lesser job at the right place and BAM… spring it on them that you have the brain of Einstein and Hawking combined…blah blah blah. Okay… it’s not bad plan. He just had not done it that way. Springing on them how smart you are is one thing. Infiltrating their systems and making unauthorized changes to….

Eric’s head jerked up as his eyes locked onto the doorknob. It was beginning to