Traveller Manifesto
34. Chicago - Today

Chicago - Today

When Peter Conti, Director of Helguard Security, learned of Senator Ruth Benton’s visit to the Jefferson Barracks in St Louis, he made sure he secured an appointment. After all, the Senator was in charge of the US Traveller Project to Mississippi. That they had not spoken for some months made a meeting appropriate.

However, soon after they greeted each other in the small office seconded for the task, Conti wasted no time. “I fear you might not have been completely up front with me,” he suggested.

Senator Benton laughed. In Conti’s experience, she never laughed. “Oh my dear Peter, whatever do you mean?” she replied in good humour. “You’ll have to do better than that. I’ve been in politics for over twenty years and I don’t think there has been a day when that accusation has not been levelled at me in one form or another.”

But Conti was not in the mood. “I have it in good authority that your department, or shall we say the Government of the United States of America or one of the subsidiaries thereof, has stolen my intellectual property and successfully duplicated a Transporter.”

Senator Benton stopped smiling and her eyes narrowed dangerously. “Be careful what you say, Peter, for I won’t stand for unfounded accusations, no matter how good a friend you might be.”

Realising the error of being too forthright, Conti sat back and reluctantly smiled. “Okay, let me put it this way. We both know, everyone knows, that Traveller projects are the biggest game in town. Turkey is in the process of finalising its defining project to Byzantine Constantinople, we have the added debacle of the attempted, and somewhat clumsy, military takeover of Saxon Traveller, and your Mississippi Traveller is, what, almost complete? All through the use of proprietary technology owned by Helguard Security and Woomera Technologies.”

“What’s your point!” interrupted Senator Benton sharply.

“My point is that we’ve continued the development of Traveller influenced technology,” persisted Conti. “Though we have completed the extensive research to duplicate the manufacture of a Transporter, the technology belongs to us. If industrial espionage had taken place to steal those secrets we would, of course, be most concerned. It would be theft and we’d be compelled to take legal action, action which would no doubt be costly and, as it would be highly public, embarrassing for the perpetrator of any theft.”

“Oh dear,” groaned Senator Benton, “is that why you wanted to meet? Perhaps you’re being a little paranoid? To make such irksome accusations without merit would be most unbecoming.” She now looked irritated and bored rather than angry.

“Indeed,” agreed Conti. “But perhaps I can explain my reasoning and you can then evaluate how you would react in my position. First and perhaps the easiest to confirm is how your office has continually badgered my team to access the Transporter for additional Traveller Projects that you suggest are in the interests of the United States government. Yet, for the past three months, we’ve not heard so much as a peep from your team. Add to that the fact that we’ve been subjected to infiltration by the NSA. We consider that theft of our intellectual property might not only be a motive, but someone might have succeeded.”

Senator Benton looked livid, her grey eyes icy. “Oh dear. I don’t appreciate accusations, especially those with so flimsy a rationale. If you are to survive in this world of global politics, you’ll have to do better than that!”

“Okay, let’s look at my second point,” continued Conti, unperturbed. “It might be appropriate for you to know that we’ve developed detection systems that are able to monitor the fields created by Transporters. This came about by accident, as do many inventions it seems.”

“What does that mean,” asked Senator Benton. “Obviously this conversation is important for the continued success of our Mississippi Traveller mission?

“We’re not sure,” conceded Conti. “All the system does is indicate when a field is activated. Professor Phil Walker has called it a ‘Time Flux’, though none of us are any of the wiser at the moment.”

“Walker!” hissed Senator Benton. “Okay, I’ll play your game. Why would such a detector be developed?”

Conti gave a small smile. “Yes, I know Dr Phil Walker was working for you for a while there, but there’s something else you need to know.” Even from where he sat, he could feel her rage radiate from her like the chill from a freezer. Any other time he might have thought the situation amusing rather than annoying. She had been caught, but he needed to play his hand a little at a time. “To confirm, our field detector indicates when any Transporter is activated. We monitored the activations at the project in Turkey and, now that the Mississippi Traveller Transporter has been returned to the UK, there have been some unusual activations in the UK which must be in relation to Hunter. These we’re investigating.”

“And?” she asked softly. It was the soft voice that had him tread warily.

“We know of the interest of the US Government in joining forces with Israel to conduct a Traveller mission. You’ve been open about it, of course. We’re at a loss as to what use that might be as nothing much was happening in Israel in the 11th Century. You see, we’ve detected Transporter activations in Israel, in fact in the desert near Beersheba, of all places.”

“This is ridiculous,” Senator Benton declared angrily. “You come to me, without proof, and make accusations. Has your success perhaps gone to your head?”

“Well no madam Senator. You and I both have friends in many places and, alas, some behave in a manner that might not be considered ethical. One reason for my visit is to advise that your official email security appears to have been compromised. Not by my team, but I’ve received illegal copies of communication between your office, your personal email, various members of the US military, and Israel. We don’t yet have the full story, but we know enough to urge caution.”

“You’ve hacked our systems? This is a National Security matter. You’ll go to prison for this, no matter how influential you believe yourself to be,” Senator Benton hissed, her grey eyes wide with fury.

“Hey it wasn’t me,” replied Conti. “I’m warning you as a friend and confidant. We were provided with documents because they involved the Transporter. You’d best have your people check the latest release of files on WikiLeaks.”

“Damn it Peter!” she growled through gritted teeth. “You can’t threaten the Government of the United States.”

Conti sighed. “The Government isn’t my problem. I’m only interested in the Transporters, which are my property. My real issue is with the various hidden departments who engage in clandestine actions without Government knowledge or consent. Naturally, you would never be so involved. But something is going on. I’m trying to warn you!”

“Threaten, you mean!” she replied icily.

Conti knew better than to provoke the Senator, but he pressed on. “No! Warn! I’ll be blunt. If we replace out that this theft is a reality, there are actions we will be compelled to take. Can you imagine the mess? There’ll be time in courts, negative publicity and, I must admit, the last thing you need is to have your good name dragged before the courts and the public. Petty theft is, well, petty,” he added. “But what is most important is any results that might eventuate because of our replaceings. We just don’t know enough about the Space-Time of the Time Flux to determine how many Transporters can be activated at once. We have only used two at a time and some of our researchers advise that to activate even two at once might cause issues. Some even suggest it might cause the devices to malfunction or even explode. Despite the years of study, we know far too little about what the Transporters actually do. Something seems to be happening, but we aren’t sure. We’ve also developed new software for the control of the system and, I repeat, part of that research resulted in sensors that detect when a Transporter is used.”

“How is that possible?” she asked.

“It’s something about Space-Time and the radiation the Transporter emits when it creates what some of our team call a bubble in Space-Time,” explained Conti carefully. “It’s some pretty new stuff that have physicists all gaga at the moment. But we have detected unusual energy peaks that we can’t explain. If you have rogue systems in operation, we need to know, or you could risk us all.”

“This is bullshit and you know it!” the senator growled angrily.

Conti just stared at her a moment and shrugged. “Is it?” He took a breath and then stood. “If it isn’t a project in Israel, then we have to evaluate what is really happening. Are the energy replaceings somehow linked to the existing Transporters? We aren’t sure. Well, thank you for your time Senator.” He simply turned and walked out. There was no need to pretend there was any pleasure at this visit.

He was sure a secret Israeli project was under way.

Now he just had to prove it.