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  Slowly, she shook her head. An enormous smile spreading across her face. “No radiation. Nothing unusual. It’s completely safe, so long as the excess energy is channeled into a capacitor of some kind, or grounded out. As I said, it was a completely unexpected result. Luckily, Walter was excessive when it came to grounding the test platforms. Following the first successful test, the excess energy was simply bled off into the earth.”

  She laughed and rolled her eyes theatrically. “I make it sound like the first transport was a resounding success. That wasn’t exactly the case. The teleport completed without issue but the resulting power dump blew every fuse and relay in both platforms. It blacked out the grid for twenty square miles around the receiving device, too. But the results were worth the headache—the monitoring equipment failed, but the readings we got before that point were off the charts!”

  “What’d you do to prevent the issue on subsequent tests?” Cyrus had a good idea when he asked the question, but he wanted to be sure.

  “We worked on lots of ways to buffer the power. But they all fell short. There was just too much power coming out of the platform after transport. In the end, Walter came up with a better idea. He suggested we pipe the excess power back into the power grid. The amount of energy generated by a single transport was significant.

  “We did some models and an exhaustive analysis. Once we have an array of platforms in regular use throughout the country, we’ll be able to do away with our reliance on nuclear power entirely. Actually, we’ll have a surplus of energy like we never imagined.”

  Cyrus didn’t waste cycles contemplating further benefits from the new technology. The threats to the team were substantial. Everyone and their brother would kill for the cutting edge science whether it was ready for production or not. Secrecy was their only defense, and that secrecy was already compromised. There was one saving grace. Whoever knew about the project would want exclusive access to the technology. That meant the threat was contained. If he could eliminate the threat, the secret and the team would be safe again. But for how long?

  “So every time we use a platform, a massive amount of power is fed back into the local power grid?” Cyrus wanted to make sure he understood the technology correctly.

  “No,” she said simply. “It will be when the system goes online publicly. Walter decided not to feed the excess juice into the grid while we’re still in the testing stage. He was worried that someone might be able to locate the platforms by doing an assay of the nation’s power grid. He thought it would be only a matter of time before it caught someone’s attention. We’re talking about a lot of power…even with our limited number of platforms.”

  This was Cyrus’s concern when Reese first mentioned pushing power back into the grid. It threatened their anonymity. He wasn’t entirely surprised that Meade had considered the issue before him.

  “What about the need for a nuclear reactor? Did the laser field reduce the power requirements enough to power the device from a conventional source?”

  She shook her head. “No, unfortunately. But Walter came up with a workaround. There is a component in each platform that functions as a buffer and a battery, essentially a capacitor. When the power is released immediately following a transport, it flows into the capacitor. It essentially acts as a battery, retaining a charge long enough to initiate subsequent transports without a need for a nuclear power source. And since it’s the receiving platform that has the power spike, each platform simply needs one initiating transport from a platform that is attached to a nuclear reactor, or has a stored charge of its own. After that, the network becomes self sustaining.

  “But no power will be pushed back into the grid until we’re ready to take the system public.”

  Cyrus considered all of this. It was remarkable. It was truly the stuff of science fiction made real. They were on the cusp of a very interesting time in human history. He couldn’t help but wonder how history might remember Professor Meade and his team. He wondered what part of history had yet to be written. Meade was already dead. Could he keep the rest of the team safe and protect Meridian until it could be released to the world?

  Chapter 22

  Berton Springs, Colorado

  Thursday, 7:35 am

  Cyrus was sitting at the kitchen counter when Reese wandered in for her first coffee of the morning. She had on a gray tank top and a pair of gray sweat shorts. Both accentuated her trim figure. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail. He wondered how she could look so attractive having rolled straight out of bed.

  When she noticed him looking, Reese smiled warmly. Was thinking about the kiss they shared just before heading to their rooms the night before. He hoped she was. The thought had crossed his mind more than once in the hour he’d been up and at work on his laptop.

  “Good morning,” Reese said quietly and gave him a peck on the cheek. “I thought you might be in bed. Yesterday was a long day. Been up long?”

  “Not long,” he said with a shake of his head. He nodded to his MacBook Pro. “I wanted to ask you about this. I took a look at the server cabinet downstairs. There’s a router and a modem but the modem isn’t uplinked to anything. I logged on to the Wi-Fi to see what would happen, and I’m actually getting access to the Web. Not only that, but it’s fast. Really fast!”

  She had rounded the counter and was pouring herself a cup of coffee. Her smile brightened. “That’s something, isn’t it! It’s the same technology we use to connect the computers embedded in the platforms. We call it QDL—short for Quantum Data Link.”

  “You’re saying it’s a wireless connection to the Internet?”

  “Not in the conventional sense.” She took a sip of coffee, followed by a slow deep breath. She looked refreshed. “The modem you saw would normally be attached to a cable or DSL line that connected the house to the outside world. We removed the hardwired uplink and replaced it with a QDL interface. It’s a microcircuit with an optical data link attached to a photonic-node. That node is paired with a twin at a data center in California.

  “It was another one of Walter’s ideas.” Her eyes tightened with a concerted focus. She looked almost like she was accusing him. “I think it was another idea you discussed with Walter.”

  Cyrus nodded. He couldn’t hide a knowing grin. “It was. But I had no idea he’d built a prototype.”

  She smile proudly. “We did more than prototype it. It’s a key technology linking the platforms. Almost all of the safety protocols utilize QDL. The instantaneous two-way communication allows a pair of platforms to do all kinds of preflight checks before engaging the quantum bridge.”

  Cyrus could offer only a questioning look in response.

  “Say you’re about to teleport to a platform located at the Santa Barbara office. It’s not really a concern now, but one day these platforms will be in constant use by people all over the world. So, when you step on the platform here and select your destination, your platform utilizes the Quantum Data Link, confirming the status of the destination platform. If the destination platform is clear, you can teleport immediately. But if the destination platform is occupied or out of order, the data connection will prevent your platform from engaging at an inopportune or possibly dangerous time.

  “And since the QDL is an instantaneous data communication that isn’t hindered by distance or any form of interference, that communication is one hundred percent reliable. That’s a far cry better than any communication technology used today.”

  Cyrus nodded as he considered the potential. This certainly answered a number of his questions pertaining to the safety of the platforms. “So Meade used QDL to link the house to the Internet. Does that mean that our Web access can’t be traced back to us?”

  Reese set down the cup. Her head tipped slightly as she considered the question. “I don’t see how. Assuming someone was tracing the data, they’d only be able to follow it back as far as the datacenter in Santa Barbara. The data would be routed through the collocation facility’s infrastructure
until it reached our router. Once it hits our router at the colo, every packet instantly hits the router here via the permanently entangled photons of the QDL interface. Assuming someone back-traced the Internet traffic as far as our router at the colo, they’d have no way of knowing where the data went from there. Once it hits the QDL, it could go anywhere in the world.

  “Heck,” she continued. “In theory, it could go anywhere in the entire galaxy!”

  The thought made Cyrus smile. The QDL technology was a breakthrough all on its own. The ability to link distant sites with no limit on bandwidth? No latency? It would revolutionize networking. Which raised another question.

  “Could the same thing be done with a cellular phone?” he asked with more than a little hopeful enthusiasm.

  “Absolutely! We’ve tested it. The world’s first mobile phone that will literally work anywhere on the planet with no possibility of a dropped call or loss of signal.”

  Cyrus was shocked. This was groundbreaking. “You’ve actually done it? You married a cell phone with the QDL and it worked?”

  “Sure,” she said with a modest shrug. “Give me your mobile and a half hour, and I’ll have you up and running. Your phone will still work with your existing carrier. What I’ll do is crack open your phone and disconnect the internal antenna and attach a QDL interface. Your QDL will be linked to a node here, or somewhere else, that will connect to the cellular network just like normal. It’s sort of a retrofit.”

  Cyrus could barely contain his enthusiasm. “That’s brilliant! Does it work for data too?”

  “Your phone’s data connection will send the traffic over the QDL just like it does the voice information. Voice and data, anywhere in the world with no dead spots! Can you hear me now?”

  He smirked at her poking fun at Verizon Wireless’s abused marketing slogan. It brought another question to mind. “What stops this from being a free standing product? This seems like a technology that any mobile service provider would pay a mint for.”

  Some of the enthusiasm drained from Reese at the suggestion. “To be honest, I’m not sure.”

  The question made her more than a little uncomfortable. “What’s wrong?”

  “Well,” she said quietly. “It was a topic of great debate within the group. Several of us wanted to pursue licensing the technology to some of the existing mobile phone carriers. It seemed like the natural evolution of mobile technology. But Walter was dead set against it.”

  “The technology could potentially be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Maybe even billions. Is there any technical requirement that would limit deployment? You know, like there is with the platforms?”

  “No, none. But Walter wouldn’t hear of it. It caused a lot of tension for the team. I don’t think it helped that Walter wasn’t willing to explain his reasons for keeping quiet about this aspect of the technology.”

  “I’m willing to bet it was a question of exposure. He was worried about drawing attention from the wrong people. I don’t think your team realizes that anonymity is their number one defense right now. People would do anything for Meridian. Walter knew the best security money could buy wasn’t worth nearly as much as anonymity.

  “If QDL goes public, the team behind it will get attention. Walter knew that attention was a danger to everyone as well as the future of Meridian. He wouldn’t risk the exposure.”

  “Some of the team saw the QDL as a chance to get the recognition that was denied when Meridian couldn’t go public. In truth, I’m sure some of them also wanted to cash in. Walter always intended for Meridian to be a not-for-profit endeavor. It was going to change the world, but it wasn’t going to make anyone rich. You may have noticed—some of us have overly inflated egos. Recognition and wealth were constant concerns for Walter. He was worried that either one might cause one of us to do something stupid.”

  This was the thought that pulled Cyrus from his bed at sunrise. He wanted to take a closer look at the members of the Meridian team. The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced a team member had leaked project details to an outsider. Taking a careful look at the team was the logical place to begin his investigation.

  He had already e-mailed Special Agent Shaw, asking her to pull the records of everyone on the team. Doing so meant she would be going out on a limb for him. Since this was not an FBI investigation, accessing those files would constitute a violation of protocol. To that end, he had contacted her via a private e-mail address, making every effort to keep their interactions off the radar. And, of course, she could always refuse his request. All he could do was ask. After that, the ball was in her court. Such was the nature of their relationship, professional but with rather blurry boundaries. Plan B was a freelance information broker out of Miami, with whom he had worked in the past. That plan had its own disadvantages. Plan C would mean going to one of his contacts at the Coalition, and he wasn’t nearly as confident of their discretion. The Coalition traded in lies, misinformation, and subterfuge. It was their currency. He really didn’t want to take Meridian anywhere near his old outfit. Shaw was his best bet, if she was willing to bend the rules.

  “So, my plan for the morning is to pick up the team and move them to the secure location. I heard back from my friend. He’s got everything ready. We can have them buttoned up by lunch.”

  That was the second topic of his early morning e-mail exchange. Preparations were complete. The team would be on lockdown until the threat was eliminated. After he and Reese met with the group the prior morning, Cyrus had put them up in an out of the way motel that was far off the beaten path. It didn’t have Internet access or cable television. Even the maid service was questionable. The place barely had running water. It was a stopgap while a trusted friend prepared the safe house. The safe house was a location better suited for the team to hide out for the long term, should it come to that. At this point, Cyrus had little idea who was after Meridian, and he had no idea how long it might take to sort things out. But such preparations took time, so despite protests, the team was sequestered in a fleabag motel beyond the outskirts of Bakersfield.

  “Great,” Reese said and set her coffee cup aside. “Let me take a quick shower, and I’ll be ready to go.”

  “Actually, I was hoping you would sit this one out.”

  She offered a puzzled look in response.

  “It might be a little paranoid, but I’d like to keep you and the team separate. Whoever is behind this tried to kill Alfie and kidnap you. Alfie was a lot further down the totem pole. I have no idea what plans they might have for the rest of the team. Kill them? Grab them? All the same, I want to keep you in a separate location. That way, if everything falls apart, they can’t get the entire team.” Cyrus had to admit that it was a shitty last resort, but it was, after all, a last resort.

  She nodded absently as she considered the logic. “It’s your call,” she concluded. “Is there anything constructive I can do while you take care of the kids?”

  He smiled and closed the laptop. He slid his stool away from the breakfast counter. “There are more files to slog through in the vault. Could you take a look at them? See if you can put some more pieces of our puzzle together? We still don’t know who is after us or why.”

  “You got it.”

  Her smile. It never failed to send a rush of warmth through him. If he were honest with himself, he would question his motivations for keeping Reese separate from the rest of the team. Certainly it made tactical sense for all of the reasons he had stated. But there was a more selfish reason that he hadn’t voiced. Having her near stirred feelings in him that he hadn’t experienced in a long time. Even more surprising was his desire to tell her these things. That wasn’t at all like him. Internalizing his emotions had always come naturally. Sometimes to a fault. Maybe she was good for him. Where would things go from here? Part of him was excited to find out. Part of him was troubled. Tomorrow was promised to no one. He knew that from bitter experience.

  “I need to shower and change,”
he said, pulling his thoughts back to the moment, before they reached a much darker place. “Could you set my phone up to run the platforms?”

  Cyrus thought the day was off to a good start. He had a plan of action, and it felt good. Hondo was already on a private international charter, lugging one of Meade’s platforms to some hidden, far off corner of the world that was to be their safehouse. Once the team was on lockdown, it would ease his mind a great deal. And, with Reese searching Meade’s files, there was a chance she might find something that would point him in the right direction and offer a hint at resolving the greater threat to the team. That left him with just one stop to make before he met the team in Bakersfield. It was a side trip that was virtually guaranteed to yield valuable intelligence.

  Chapter 23

  Miami, Florida

  Thursday, 1:15 pm (11:15 am Colorado Time)

  The humidity was stifling. It was the first thing that came to mind every time Cyrus considered visiting Florida. Such a beautiful state, but one to be avoided during the summer months, if at all possible. In this case, the stop was unavoidable. He needed information, and for that, there was just one man he could trust.

  With a cautious eye, he drove the rental car slowly down the crowded upscale urban street. It was lined with high-end boutique shops of every persuasion. Finally locating a parking spot, he swung the vehicle up parallel to the curb and climbed out. Traveling around the country using Professor Meade’s platforms was proving to be extremely efficient. The man had devices stashed in key locations across the country, even internationally, according to the database. Why the platforms could only be produced in a limited quantity remained a mystery. What was it about the ore that was being used as a super-capacitor that made it so unique and so hard to come by?

  He’d rented the car using a fake ID and credit card. Now he stuffed extra change into the parking meter. His thinking was simple; it was the little things that could draw attention and give you away. Something foolish like a parking ticket or getting pulled over for speeding were prime examples. They were simple mistakes that resulted in information being entered into databases. Those databases were routinely mined by automated systems that were getting increasingly efficient when it came to discovering anomalies. Even small anomalies were cause for concern when it was necessary to stay off the proverbial radar.