Reboot

Dutch and Ms. Nicks started poring over my files. Georges Marcos had been chosen by Chenoweh to witness our investigation. He volunteered to stay in the brig with us. 2nd Lieutenant Joanna Nicks was the CISS and Cryptologic technician aboard the Independence.

For obvious reasons, they didn’t want me anywhere near it. There were quite a few files so it was a long job. Ms. Nicks was attractive and serious. Red hair always tied into a bun, green eyes, long legs well camouflaged in loose fitting grey pants. All job, no smiles. Smart as hell.

As an Engineering Technician Communications and Information Systems (CIS) Specialist, Nicks was a central member of the ship’s Engineering branch. Actually, she was the only other member of the EB besides Nathan Prior and Junior Engineer Sark because of the slimmed down staff. Using highly sensitive radio and satellite systems, she not only sent and received vital messages to and from other ships and home base, she also ensured that the equipment remained fully functional twenty-four hours a day. The messages often contained orders and other information for those in command, so she could be handling a lot of material classified secret or higher. As a CIS specialist she was also part of the team responsible for the ship’s complex data-processing network systems including the ship’s internet and satellite communications. She analyzed encrypted electronic communications, was responsible for jamming enemy radar signals and deciphering information in foreign languages. She did highly specialized work. And luckily, she loved puzzles. I caught myself staring at her while they were working and she turned and stared me down. I suddenly found something extremely interesting on the ceiling and went to sit by William.

“Nice uniform,” he said, as he looked me over.

I’d been offered new clothes, which was nice. In fact, we were treated very well considering we’d tried to take over the ship. I hadn’t changed since I’d first landed on the island a year ago. So there wasn’t much left covering me. The military clothing was tough, comfortable and full of pockets.

“Yes. Feels good.” I smiled at him. He was sitting with a bunch of papers around him.

“What‘re you doing?” I asked him

“I’m writing about the people who served on my boat. I’m writing everything I can remember about them.” I picked up a few. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because someone will pay. And I hope that whoever caused this will have a long lonely time to think about these people. I’ll make sure of it. Death is too good for this guy.”

“Maybe I should leave you alone with this.”

“No, no… please, stay Robert. Believe me, I appreciate the company. This isn’t easy.”

I watched him work for a while. “We’ll get them, William. We’ll get them. I mean look at this fantastic team we have here. You, me and Dutch; Johanna, um, Ms. Nicks… How can we fail.”

He smiled and put down his pen and looked at me. “We’ll make sure you’re in top shape, that’s how we can make sure we don’t fail. You’re going to hurt. And you’re going to love it. Or else.”

“Or else, what?”

“Or else, not.” And he went back to work with that same little irksome smile on his face that he showed whenever he was making fun of me.

Dutch would join us once in a while, a little pale. “I’m not helping at all,” he said, “but I think it helps Nicks to have company. That’s one interesting lady. You should see her work. She’s amazingly quick. Sees things before I can smell em..”

“That makes no sense,” said William.

“Smells things before I can see ’em? Anyway, she’s impressive.”

“Yes.” I answered before I could stop myself. They smirked and I stared at the floor.

William and I never stopped practicing. There was nothing to do while we waited for Dutch and Nicks to decrypt my texts so we used the time to continue my training. The brig was quite large and there was enough space for exercising and close quarters combat training.

“Listen Robert, these people who are after you are not going to stop, so you have to be ready for anything. Dutch and I will do our best to get you ready. Luckily you’re a pretty good student. You see things quicker than most people. We plan on using that to train you as much as we can, while we can.

“You think I can do it?” I asked

“Absolutely, but we have to keep at it. Most people flinch and have a split second of indecision when they are attacked. You don’t seem to do that. You see it coming and move towards the attack. It’s very rare, especially for someone who hasn’t had any training. You don’t have that flinch reflex that most of us are handicapped with.”

“Wow.” I paused.

“Well, don’t be too pleased with yourself. As you get better, we’ll make it harder for you.”

“No doubt. Just don’t get too used to it. I noticed how you don’t handle pain too well.” I smiled. So did he. I sat back and stared at the wall. “Why did it happen William? This war..”

William frowned and was quiet for a while.

“People wanted to forget. Life in the real world had been getting sadder, heavier, meaner, right? Competition at the workplace was insane, families crumpled under too many pressures, racism was worse than ever, empathy was a dirty word, political tension was high, losing a job was a catastrophe for too many people. Small businesses didn’t last long and big business was soulless, powerful and driven by an impossible goal: to continue to grow at all costs or face destruction. Destroy or be destroyed, using all available means, while the average person was one paycheck away from bankruptcy. They used to say a corporation is like a person. But a corporation has no empathy; only a terrible need to grow without conscience, like a disease. Suddenly, “average” or “middle class” meant “not motivated by greed”. It simply could not continue because as a means to an end, it was flawed. You cannot keep on using other people to support a small, rich, insatiable group. It slows us all down. The Arab world was stagnating and angry at us here in the west, and rightly so, Russia was strutting around like a rich bullying teenager, drunk with natural gas, wistfully hankering for past glory and testing every crack in the wall to get it back. The Chinese were happy just waiting around on the sidelines ready to buy everything at the right moment. Often flexing its economic muscle to bully its neighbors. Europe was too busy trying to figure out macroeconomics to care for its people and the North Koreans couldn’t wait to blow shit up. And everybody seemed to hate his neighbor. Good deeds became newsworthy events, remember? -Today a young man was seen helping an old lady cross the street. He was hailed as a hero and given the key to the city by the mayor. Film at 11-. How insane is that? So. There ya go. That’s why we blew ourselves up.” He sighed and looked at nothing.

“Can you tell me why your ship was attacked by our own people? You must have an idea,” I asked him. He looked at me sideways. Seemed to deliberate for a few more seconds about my “need to know”. And then he told me.

“Have you heard of the night of the long knives?”

“Sure. Hitler killed off his political enemies all in one swift operation, right? All in one night wasn’t it?” I asked.

“Yes. Operation Hummingbird in 1934. Many people were killed and many more were arrested. The purge strengthened and consolidated the support of the Reichswehr for Hitler. The Night of the Long Knives was a turning point for the German government. It established Hitler as “the supreme judge of the German people”.

“You think someone on your ship was an enemy? Of our government? Maybe same as me?” I asked, stupefied. He nodded. “And that can only mean one thing

I guessed, “That something is rotten in Washington, or wherever Washington would be now.

He continued nodding. “My guess is our captain, or I suppose it could have been anyone on the ship, became an “enemy of the state”. Maybe they had some information, maybe like you.. And it got the entire crew killed. That’s how important it is to get to the bottom of those documents in your computer. It might explain why all my friends were murdered.

“New Mexico,” Dutch said. He’d just joined us and heard the last of our discussion.

“What?”

“Washington. The US government’s new seat is in the Lechuguilla caves of New Mexico. Deepest caves in the US. Temporarily anyway. Until they can head to their new seat in Maine.”

“Maine?” I asked surprised.

“Yep. Only place on the eastern coast still standin’ besides Savannah and a couple of smaller towns.”