The Alex Cave Series. Books 1, 2, & 3.: Box set Read online

Once inside the air terminal, the crowd thinned out dramatically. The supervisor led Alex to a ticket counter where he purchased a ticket, then led him through the sprawling building to a boarding gate where a line of passengers waited. The supervisor spoke to the boarding attendant, who led Alex onto the aircraft, while those in line shouted their protests. A moment later, a steady stream of people passed his seat, and Alex heard an angry man yelling at the boarding attendant just before the airplane door closed.

  When they were in the air, he called the university. The secretary informed him Ms. Avery and Ms. Story were still there, and Alex asked if she would tell them he was on his way to Montana, and would meet them at the university later in the day.

  * * *

  Chapter 17

  BOZEMAN MONTANA:

  Christa was escorted down the hall and into a small office, made smaller by all the potted plants sitting on shelves under the window, and was introduced to the Director of the Science Department. Marcia Story stood and stepped around the desk to shake Christa’s hand. “I’ve been expecting you, Christa,” she said warmly.

  Christa was momentarily mesmerized by the woman’s size. Marcia Story had to be the tallest woman she had ever met, but when she shook Marcia’s hand, for some reason, she sensed gentleness in this woman and felt at ease with her. Marcia moved with a bouncy energy you would expect from a twenty-five year old, with only a few traces of gray in her light brown hair. Marcia’s hazel eyes seemed to sparkle with energy and her smile was warm. A pair of glasses hung from a florescent green string around her neck.

  Marcia waved a hand toward a well-padded chair at one end of the desk. “Have a seat and tell me about this crystal. Alex didn’t go into details over the phone.”

  Christa sat, retrieved the plastic box from her purse, and handed it to Marcia. “It appears to be a crystal, Mrs. Story, but under a microscope, it has movement, like living, organic material.”

  Marcia studied the crystal, turning it over in her hands. “Please, just call me Marcia.”

  “Okay, Marcia,” Christa said with a smile and continued. “The laboratory in Alaska didn’t have the proper equipment for determining its composition.”

  “I see. Well, we have an electron microscope and an excellent computer system. We should be able to get a better idea of what we’re dealing with. I’m going to be working with you on this.” Marcia stood. “Let’s go to the laboratory and meet my assistant. He’s a physics’ major, and one of the most intelligent scientists I know.”

  When Christa and Marcia entered the laboratory, two young female students and a young man looked up from their projects. Marcia approached the two young women and asked if they could continue at another time, and then turned to the young man. “David, this is Christa Avery. This is my assistant, David Conway.”

  Christa was stunned. David couldn’t be more than nineteen years old. He was tall and good looking, with sandy colored hair, light brown eyes, and a multitude of freckles, which helped hide a few small pimples. “Nice to meet you, David,” Christa said and smiled.

  A shy grin spread across David’s face, and his heart rate increased as he stared at Christa. He was usually quite talkative, but now he couldn’t think of anything to say and kept staring at her.

  “We have an urgent project, David,” said Marcia and held the crystal out toward him. David wasn’t listening, just staring at Christa. “David?” she said, and put her hand on his shoulder.

  David’s head snapped around toward Marcia. “What?”

  “We need to discover what this crystal is composed of,” Marcia told him. “And we need to hurry. Are you working on anything that can’t wait?”

  “Ah, yes. I mean, yes it can wait.” David hesitantly switched his attention as he accepted the crystal and held it up to the light. “Where did you get it?”

  Christa gave him what scant information she had, while he turned the crystal at different angles to the light.

  “Is it a polymer or mineral?” David asked.

  “I’m not sure,” said Christa.

  “Interesting,” said David. “After we run it through the electron microscope, we should do a spectrum analysis for composition.”

  “I agree,” said Marcia.

  David handed the crystal to Christa. “I’ll set up the spectrum analyzer.”

  “Okay,” Marcia told him. David left, and as she and Christa walked into a small room, Marcia grinned at Christa. “You made quite an impression on David. I’ve never seen him act like that before.”

  Christa gave her a quizzical expression. “What do you mean?”

  “I think he has a crush on you.”

  Christa smiled. “He’s just a boy.”

  “That boy has an IQ of one-hundred and sixty-five, and spends most of his time with academics closer to my age group.”

  Christa didn’t say anything as they approached a tall structure nestled in one corner of the room. A table supported a computer terminal next to the electron microscope. Christa had used one before and set up the crystal, while Marcia programmed the computer. The video display screen came on, informing them the unit was ready. Marcia typed a command into the computer, and, a few moments later, the video monitor showed a magnified picture of the crystal.

  The crystal contained thousands of blue, spider web veins in different layers, none of which appeared to have an end. Marcia entered another command and the magnification increased. A small section of veins filled the screen, and movement could be seen inside them.

  “That’s what makes me think it might be organic,” Christa told Marcia. “It almost looks like a cardiovascular system.”

  Marcia nodded. “Yes, but I don’t see any internal organs. I’ll increase the magnification.”

  The display changed, isolating a crisscrossed group of five veins, and in each one, a luminescent blue substance was slowly moving through the veins.

  Christa and Marcia stared at the display for a moment until they heard footsteps and turned as David approached. David stared at the display. “What magnification are you on?” he asked.

  “Ten thousand,” Marcia told him.

  “Are you ready to increase it?”

  “Yes. Going to one-hundred-thousand.” Marcia typed in another command, and the display isolated a small section of a single vein, which filled the screen. Minuscule particles of blue light moved across the monitor.

  “Can you give me a computer analysis of the composition, Marcia?” David asked.

  Marcia nodded and typed in a command. The display screen went blank for a second, and then a short sentence appeared.

  INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR POSITIVE IDENTIFICATION

  “Interesting,” David commented. “Increase the magnification. Maybe we can isolate a single particle.”

  Marcia entered another command, and the screen returned to a view of the blue substance. The picture changed again, and large, glowing blue dots shot across the screen.

  “Still picture, please,” David asked, and when Marcia entered the command, all movement ceased, leaving two blue dots on the screen. “My first impression is it’s some type of chemical,” David told them.

  “I’ll see if the computer can identify it,” said Marcia. The insufficient data message appeared once again on the screen.

  “Okay,” said David. “Let’s put it in the spectrum analyzer. I’ve tied it into the mainframe computer. Transfer this computer’s information into it, and maybe the spectrum analyzer will compile enough information for an intelligent answer. Bring the crystal when you’re ready.”

  David left the room, and Christa looked at Marcia. “He’s a little on the bossy side, isn’t he?”

  Marcia smiled. “He doesn’t mean to be. I guess it’s because people have been asking his advice for most of his life. He’s much different when he’s away from the laboratory. He spends most of his time hiking and camping in the mountains. Says it’s his way of escaping. In the summer, he spends weeks at a time up there.”

  Christa remo
ved the crystal from the holder, while Marcia shut down the microscope, and both women left the laboratory. Marcia led Christa through a door, into the hallway, and down the corridor to a steel door at the end of the building. When they entered, they saw David standing next to an open section of a ten-foot long, cylinder shaped device, mounted on a three-foot high stand, which was bolted to the floor.

  The spectrum analyzer gathered data by shooting a laser beam at an object placed in the chamber and reading the different colors of light given off when the object burned. Each frequency of light represents a specific element, and the computer can determine how much of each element the object contains.

  David held out his hand and Christa gave him the crystal. “This won’t destroy it, will it?” Christa asked with a note of concern.

  David shook his head. “It’s set on minimum power and we’ll only shoot a small section of the outside edge.”

  David slid back the lid on a metal enclosure, inserted the crystal, and adjusted the bracket until a thin red laser beam was shown on the top edge of the crystal. He closed the lid, walked to the end of the device, and then pressed a series of keys on a computer terminal

  David turned and walked toward the door. “I’m all set. We need to leave the room for safety. The laser will fire in two minutes.”

  David waited until the two women were in the hallway, then stepped through and closed the heavy steel door behind him. He stared at his watch and counted down. “Three, two, one, now!”

  When they heard a muffled explosion and felt the floor shake, everyone jumped. David’s eyes went wide with fear. “My God!” he mumbled. “That’s not supposed to happen!” He grabbed the doorknob to get back in, but when he pushed, the door refused to move. David pounded his shoulder against the door and, on the third try, it burst open, causing him to stagger inside. He caught his balance and froze in place, numbly staring at the empty area where the spectrum analyzer had been. Sunlight was streaming in through a gaping hole in the brick wall, and he could see the campus lawn on the other side.

  Christa and Marcia stood behind him, neither able to speak as they tried to comprehend what had happened. David managed to regain his composure and walked farther into the room and up to the gaping hole in the wall. Two furrows in the lawn led to the analyzer, still upright, about fifty-feet away. Christa and Marcia followed him through the hole and stood on either side of him. The enclosure had been blown open, and they stared at the crystal, still in one piece.

  Bells began ringing across the campus as someone pulled a fire alarm, and students and faculty began streaming from the buildings. The University President ran across the lawn to where the trio and the analyzer stood. “What happened?” he demanded.

  David shook his head. “I don’t have any idea, sir. I was running a test and this happened.” He leaned forward for a closer look at the crystal. It appeared unmarred by the event. He hesitantly touched the crystal, and it was cold, and then he held it up against the sunlight. It looked the same as when he first looked through it.

  David looked first to Christa, then at Marcia. “Let’s find out if the computer managed to gather any information.”

  The University President watched them walk back through the hole in the building, and then he stared at the analyzer for a moment, wondering how he was going to explain this to the directors. He shook his head, and walked back across the lawn, barely noticing the passing throng of curious students.

  * * *

  Chapter 18

  Six hours later, Alex landed in Bozeman, Montana. Outside the air terminal, the number of available taxies was limited, and he had to wait twenty minutes for his turn. The driver told him the rate was going to be double the normal rate, and Alex asked why.

  “Shit, mister. I gotta make a living. They’re gouging us at the gas stations, so I have to pass it along.”

  Alex agreed to pay and they left the airport. There was not much traffic on the highway and, as they passed the outskirts of the city, Alex saw the lines of cars waiting at the major gas stations.

  “See all those people?” the driver asked. “They’ll stay there all night, until the gas tanker shows up in the morning. If it shows up. Rumor has it the tankers are being hijacked before they get here. Soon I’ll have to get my gas from the black market. Now ain’t that a trip?”

  When they arrived at the university, Alex paid the driver the extravagant fee, walked across the parking lot to his Chevy Blazer, and removed the small glass vial from his suitcase before tossing it onto the back seat. As he walked toward the main building, he saw plywood fastened to the outside wall of the Science Department and wondered what had happened. He entered the laboratory and found Christa and David Conway standing behind Marcia, who was sitting at a computer terminal. “Any luck?” he asked.

  The trio turned simultaneously. “Hi, Alex,” David said enthusiastically.

  “Welcome back,” Marcia told him.

  Christa smiled warmly. “You’re just in time. The computer is correlating all the information we have on the crystal.”

  “Good. I didn’t think I’d make it at all. I almost didn’t get out of D.C.”

  “Because of the rationing?” Christa asked.

  Alex nodded. “What happened to the science building?”

  David held up the plastic box containing the crystal. “This!” he said excitedly. “It reacts violently to laser light. It released enough energy to hurl a two thousand pound spectrum analyzer nearly sixty-feet, after it sheered four, half-inch bolts, and forced it through six-inches of brick wall. And that was on the lowest setting. I can’t imagine how it would have reacted to the full power of the laser.”

  “My god,” Alex mumbled.

  David’s face became flush with excitement when the computer came on and the analysis of the laser test appeared on the monitor.

  DIMENSIONS HAVE BEEN REDUCED .0001203 PERCENT IN COMPARISON WITH THE FIRST ELECTRON MICROSCOPE SCAN. COMPOSITION BIO-CHEMICAL-ORGANIC, IN CRYSTALLIN ACIDIC BASE.

  COMPRESSED LIGHT ENERGY RELEASED DURING LASER BURST EQUAL TO THIRTY TWO BILLION ANGSTROMS PER .000000021 CUBIC MILLIMETERS.

  SIX THOUSAND POUNDS OF THRUST RELEASED DURING LASER BURST.

  .0046 PARTS PER THOUSAND OF HYDROGEN GAS RELEASED DURING LASER BURST.

  .0038 PARTS PER THOUSAND OF SODIUM PARTICLES RELEASED DURING LASER BURST.

  INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR FURTHER ANALYSIS.

  END OF REPORT.

  “It’s compressed energy!” David said excitedly.

  “But it’s also alive,” said Christa.

  “It’s clean energy, too,” David told them. “If the hydrogen gas mixes with oxygen, it creates water. Add the sodium, and the byproduct released when the energy is used is salt water.”

  Christa and Alex looked at each other in understanding, and Christa turned to Marcia and David. “That explains how the oil in the reservoirs was replaced with salt water.”

  Marcia smiled at the others. “Just think of the possibilities of using this type of energy!”

  Alex set the ampoule on the counter. “This is related.” Alex explained what he had learned from Pickowski. “All the missing men were part of Menno Simons’ followers. This might be what Mike Broden saw when he peeked into Gary Darven’s bedroom at the pumping station.”

  Marcia picked up the ampoule and held it to the light. “I’ll find out what it is.”

  Alex looked at Christa curiously. “Do you have any ideas about why this one crystal was left in the tanker?”

  “Not really. It was stuck to the side of a metal baffle and fell off when I touched it.”

  “Interesting,” David mumbled and appeared to be in deep thought for a moment. “I’ll bet the light coming from the hatch was some of the energy released from these crystals, and that’s what killed the two men.”

  Alex nodded. “Possibly. If you’re right, we may not be able to stop what’s happening to the crude oil. And that, my friend, is a scary thought.”

  * * *
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br />   Chapter 19

  ALASKA:

  It had been a miserable flight from Seattle, and Bull could have sworn the pilot intentionally found every pocket of turbulence along the way to make his injured ribs ache. After Alex had called to inform him of the military support for one of the tankers leaving for Washington State, Bull insisted on leaving the hospital to supervise the operation himself. The doctor had refused to let him leave, but Bull ignored him.

  When Bull arrived at the All Alaska office in Cook Inlet, there was a message for him to call Alex at the university. Alex explained what they discovered about the crystal, and he needed to check the background of everyone onboard. He asked him to try to stall the military from leaving with the tanker.

  “We have no idea who has these granules,” Alex told him. “There could be somebody in the military with one. Be discrete about how you do it, Bull. The military doesn’t like to be told what to do.”

  Bull agreed, and left the office to meet the military representative waiting at the docks. He walked down the pier and approached a tall man in a military uniform standing near the boarding ramp of the 200,000-ton ARCO oil tanker, Sentry. The tanker was one of three left stranded in the harbor when the company decided not to risk the loss of any more ships until the oil hijacking problem was solved.

  The officer, Navy Captain John Parks, had arrived an hour ago from the USS HARRISON to inspect the Sentry. Eleven enlisted men arrived with him and began to familiarize themselves with the ship’s operation procedure. Parks considered commanding an oil tanker one step above commanding a garbage scow. He stared with disgust at the rusty tanker, considering this assignment to be far below what he thought he rightfully deserved. He turned as someone approached, and from the description he had, Parks recognized the All Alaska representative. “Mr. Peterson, I presume,” he said curtly with an air of authority.