The Tower: Part Three

Quit wasting tax dollars shooting junk up into space. The army needs equipment bad. Spend money on that you assholes or I will personally shoot the man pushing the launch button. I am deadly serious.

A Patriot

‘’Course that’s just the physical stuff,’ Ellery said. ‘We get ten times as much mail over the internet. I can show you that in my office if you want.’

Franklin sorted through the plastic folders until he found one marked May, the month Dr Kinderman had received his first card.

‘Is it true what I heard, Hubble got knocked offline?’ Ellery asked.

‘That’s classified information. And whatever you heard we would ’preciate you keeping it under your hat, sir. You know how rumours can get in the way of an investigation.’ Franklin’s accent was travelling down through Georgia and getting further south all the time.

He handed January through April to Shepherd and popped the fastener on May, carefully sliding out the contents to keep them in order. May had clearly been a bumper month for the crazies. Top of the pile was an almost illiterate letter written in crayon with some photos of astronauts stuck to it with their faces burned out by a cigarette. Below that was a photo of the Challenger shuttle exploding, with a future date and I WILL MAKE THIS HAPPEN AGEN written on it. The next item was a postcard with a Renaissance painting of the Tower of Babel on the front. Franklin showed it to Shepherd then flipped it over. On the back, in a familiar neat hand was written:

“And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name.”

‘You get any more like this?’ Franklin held up the card and Ellery’s head swivelled round to see it.

‘One a month since May, reg’lar as clockwork.’

‘Was the Professor bothered by them?’

‘Not especially.’

‘But he did see them?’

‘Sure, they were addressed to him.’

‘Did you mention them to Chief Pierce over at Goddard?’

Ellery snorted. ‘Why would I do that? Chief Pierce has his own fair share of nut-jobs to deal with I’m damn sure he don’t need any of mine.’

Franklin handed the remaining files to Shepherd leaving himself with December. ‘Did you get another one this month?’

‘No. Matter of fact we did not.’

Franklin popped the fastener. ‘Don’t tell me, you got a letter instead, one that was typed but similar in tone.’

Ellery paused. ‘How did you know that?’

Franklin didn’t answer. He had already found the twin of the A5 manila envelope that had been sent to Kinderman. It was in its own plastic folder next to the letter it had contained. Franklin held it out so Shepherd could read it. It was identical to the first one except for one small detail.

‘Least he didn’t call this one a Sodomite,’ Franklin said so only Shepherd could hear. ‘You follow this up?’ he asked Ellery.

‘Of course. We take threats seriously here, no matter how strange, vague or misguided they may appear. I sent the original up to Langley, that one there is just a copy. I sent one of the postcards too.’

‘They find anything?’

‘Who knows? These things don’t rank too high on the “hurry up” scale. Anything more important comes along – which is just about everything – stuff like this gets bumped to the bottom of the pile. Here we are, gentlemen.’

Shepherd looked up as the Explorer eased off the main road and approached the front of a mirrored building that reflected the sky making it seem like it was hardly there. Beyond it in the distance the launch towers rose above various research facility buildings that sprawled across the campus. One of them had a small crowd of people outside it wearing white, clean-room suits and was surrounded by parked emergency vehicles, their lights turning slowly.

‘Is that where the helium leak happened?’ Franklin asked.

‘Yup, that’s the cryo lab – biggest vacuum testing facility in the world. They got a test room there where they can suck every molecule of air right out of it and freeze it down to space temperatures. We use it to test all the expensive hardware before it gets launched, make sure it won’t break up in space.’

Something tightened in the pit of Shepherd’s empty stomach. ‘What are you testing in there now?’

‘Mirrors.’

‘What for?’

‘Same thing we’ve been testing all year – James Webb.’

Franklin jerked forward in his seat. ‘Driver, you need to take us over there right now.’

‘Now wait a second.’ Ellery swivelled round. ‘This is my facility. You can’t just come here and start ordering people …’

‘Yes I can,’ Franklin cut him off. ‘That’s exactly what I can do. Start driving, son.’

The driver obeyed, throwing the wheel hard over and sending the Explorer into a sharp U-turn. Ellery opened and closed his mouth like a landed fish but said nothing. Ahead of them the cryo lab swung back into view, leaking thick clouds of helium vapour like the whole place was ready to blow.

‘When did the leak happen?’

‘The alarm went off ’bout a half hour ago.’

‘And had you spoken to Professor Douglas by then?’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Had you told him we were coming?’

‘No. I’d spoken to him but I didn’t say what it was about.’

‘What did you say exactly?’

‘I said some people had been asking for him, but I didn’t say who.’

‘And when was this?’

‘Just as soon as I got off the phone to you.’

Franklin shook his head. ‘Driver, you need to get us over there as fast as you can.’ The Explorer lurched, pushing everyone back in their seats as the driver floored the accelerator.

‘What the hell is this about anyway?’ Ellery growled, trying to claw back a bit of authority.

‘Those mirrors you’ve been testing, are they expensive by any chance, difficult to replace if they got broken?’

‘They cost about fifteen million dollars apiece. They’re precision-engineered and coated in gold. We got six of them in the chamber at the moment.’