The God Complex: A Thriller Read online

  He took another swig of Scotch and offered his guests another as he refilled his glass for a third time. Neither of his companions had touched theirs.

  “So none of them are talking?”

  “Other than to plead their innocence, no,” said Lynne.

  “You know what I don’t get?” he asked rhetorically while taking another swig. “The people you have in custody…I mean… they’re amongst the most powerful men in the world, with access to resources and men to complete any mission. Men and women I entrust to carry out missions to protect our nation. Missions they successfully complete day in and day out to keep us safe. Missions in which we seldom leave a trace of our involvement…”

  Both Lynne and Paula hung on the President’s pause; a pause that drifted on and on, past the point of comfort and reason.

  “And…?” prompted Lynne, breaking first.

  “How could they have so royally fucked it up?” he said, draining his glass again.

  Paula looked surprise. “You sound almost disappointed.”

  “Not at all. It’s the one thing that gives me hope that this is all bullshit,” he said, pointing drunkenly. “You see, if the men and women you have under lock and key really wanted me dead, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

  “The evidence suggests otherwise, sir.”

  “Your evidence perhaps, but my evidence is a life in the making. I know those people and I know what they’re capable of. Killing someone, God yes. Getting caught killing someone? Not a fucking chance!” He waved his index finger for emphasis, swaying gently under the influence of the alcohol.

  “The evidence is irrefutable, sir. Bank transfers, emails, photos, surveillance videos…”

  “Yes, but where did it come from? Who pulled the evidence together?” he asked. “And… and they attacked on the wrong day! You expect me to believe they would have attacked on the wrong day?!”

  “Actually,” said Lynne, “that anomaly has been resolved.”

  President Mitchell turned to her, his enthusiasm fading.

  “There was a flight plan filed for Air Force One in error for yesterday and not today. It was quickly fixed but we believe it set the wheels in motion.”

  The President fell back onto the sofa opposite Lynne and Paula. He stared at them, waiting for them to tell him it was a mistake, some sort of joke.

  “But why destroy the telescope?”

  “We don’t know yet. Best guess is a special interest group with something to hide,” said Paula.

  “In deepest, darkest space?” President Mitchell scoffed.

  “Well, no. But let’s not forget it could look down as well as up, if not better,” said Lynne.

  “I think I’m going to call it a night,” said the President, standing up unsteadily. “Is the First Lady back yet?”

  Paula shifted uncomfortably in her seat and looked at Lynne Bertram. She cleared her throat nervously. “Sir, there’s no easy way to tell you this, but Mrs. Mitchell…”

  “God, is she alright?” He collapsed onto the sofa, this time unintentionally.

  “She’s fine, sir. She’s not come to any harm.”

  President Mitchell inclined his head as he studied their faces. “NO!” he screamed, reading what neither had the balls to tell him, resulting in a number of Secret Service agents rushing into the room, their guns drawn.

  “I’m afraid, she has been implicated, sir,” confirmed Lynne Bertram sadly, ordering the agents back out of the room.

  Chapter 17

  “We need to leave now!” said Cash.

  “Are you kidding!” protested Sophie. “You need to hand yourselves in and sort this out!”

  “Have you seen who they’ve arrested? Do you think we’ll be able to talk our way out of this?” asked Cash, pointing to the faces scrolling across the television set.

  “They’ve started using my middle name,” said Rigs, watching the screen, tuning out everything around him. His name had changed to Jake Joshua Miller. “See? We’re screwed! I’d forgotten I even had a middle name!”

  “What?” asked Sophie in confusion.

  “You know, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Wilkes Booth— they start using your middle name when you kill a president!” said Cash, wincing when his photo appeared with his full name.

  Rigs had to do a double take when he saw the screen. “And I thought Joshua was bad!” he gasped. “Copernicus, that’s what your dad was saying!”

  “We don’t have time for this,” said Cash walking towards the door. “Sophie, get your mom and Kyle, we’re leaving now!”

  When Sophie exited the room, Rigs turned to his best friend. “For fifteen years I thought your name was Cash. We do have time for this!” he demanded, keeping his attention focused on Cash.

  “Nicolaus Copernicus founded modern astronomy,” replied Cash.

  “Never heard of him,” said Rigs. “Armstrong?”

  “Neil Armstrong.”

  “I know him, the guy that went to the moon. Sagan?”

  “Carl Sagan, my godfather and another astronomer.”

  “See, no biggie, Copernicus.” Rigs smiled, patting a cringing Cash on the shoulder as he ushered him out of the room.

  “What’s wrong with him?” asked Sophie, pulling Cash towards her when they met in the hallway, and pointing at Rigs who was rushing towards the service elevator.

  “What do you mean?”

  “When you’re around he talks but when you’re not, barely a word!”

  “It’s complicated,” said Cash. “He may be a little autistic.” He always found that seemed to satiate the curious.

  “Ahh, that makes sense. Although, a Marine officer?”

  “Complicated. We made a good team.”

  “What kind of team?”

  Cash shook his head. That wasn’t something he wanted to talk about. “Come on, we need to get moving!” He moved back, urging Mrs. Kramer and Kyle to speed up.

  Sophie stopped walking and pulled Cash aside. “Wait a minute, why are we coming with you?”

  “So we can protect you,” he said simply.

  “But you’re wanted for treason!”

  “It’s not true,” he said.

  “And I’m just to believe you?”

  “Do you?” asked Cash.

  “Of course, but that’s not the point,” said Sophie. “You’ll be making us fugitives.”

  “And if you stay here, you’re targets.”

  “Targets for who?”

  “If I knew that, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because we wouldn’t be running, we’d be hunting,” said Cash.

  Sophie noted the sincerity in his eyes and didn’t doubt him for a second. He had lost as much as her that day, if not even more. She had fifteen more years of memories to treasure with her father.

  “Where are we going?” she asked, picking up the few items she had saved.

  “A safe house to begin with.”

  “And then?”

  “Rigs and I will sort this out,” he said with a confidence she daren’t challenge.

  “How?”

  “With this,” he said, showing her the flash drive that his father had given to him.

  She reached out for it. “Your father’s research!” she said in awe.

  “He mentioned your name when he gave it to me,” said Cash, looking for a reaction.

  “Have you looked at it?” Sophie asked excitedly.

  “So you know what it’s about?”

  “Vaguely. He mentioned a couple of things to me over the years.”

  “We ready?” interrupted Rigs, with Kyle and Mrs. Kramer at his side. He didn’t wait for an answer and led the way into the waiting service elevator.

  “Cells,” Cash said when they reached the ground floor. Rigs handed over his without question, and the others did the same. Cash unceremoniously tossed all five cells into the trash cans while Rigs guided the group into the back of a stretch limo that awaited
their arrival at the service entrance.

  “Where are we going?” asked Sophie as they pulled away.

  “Airport,” replied Rigs.

  “You’re joking,” said Sophie. “You guys are plastered all over the news!”

  Mrs. Kramer’s ears perked up; it appeared she hadn’t been watching the news channel.

  “All over the news?”

  “It’s a mistake,” said Cash casually.

  “A mistake about what?” asked Kyle. Obviously he hadn’t seen the news either.

  “Nothing,” said Cash. A look from Sophie made it clear the matter wasn’t closed as far as she was concerned.

  “Does anyone wonder why Rigs is called Rigs?” asked Cash, trying to change the subject.

  Nobody bit. “I mean, his name is Jake Miller, so it’s not like it comes from his name,” he continued to his uninterested audience. No response. “He’s from Texas, so cowboy or Tex might be more appropriate, wouldn’t you think?”

  “Cash, nobody cares,” said Sophie, suddenly protective of Rigs now that she was aware of his condition.

  “You will when we reach the airport.”

  “Why, because he’s on the no-fly list?” asked Sophie sarcastically.

  “Forget it,” said Cash and he too, like the rest of the occupants, stared out of the window in silence; a silence that allowed the crushing loss to flood over him.

  “So why is he called Rigs?” asked Kyle, suddenly interested. A sign they had driven past directed them towards the executive terminal reserved for private aircraft.

  Cash snapped out of his despair. “Well, as I said he’s from Texas, so it’s not because of that. Or is it?” he teased.

  “His family found oil on their ranch?” Kyle guessed.

  Rigs laughed and Cash nodded. The car slowed to a stop by the steps of a mid-sized private jet.

  “Welcome to Mineta, San Jose Airport’s executive terminal,” announced the driver. He got out and opened the rear door for the passengers.

  “So you’re loaded?” asked Kyle, now impressed.

  Rigs nodded awkwardly, stepping aside to let the very eager Kyle aboard.

  Cash and Sophie brought up the rear while Rigs helped Mrs. Kramer aboard.

  “So Rigs’ family are oil barons?”

  “Their ranch has oil,” said Cash. “I don’t know how much and I’ve no idea how big it is. Rigs doesn’t really talk about it and has no real interest in it. As far as he’s concerned, it destroyed his family and is the main reason he joined the Marines.”

  “But it doesn’t stop him enjoying the benefits.”

  “First time we’ve ever flown anything other than coach. Yep, he’s got money but he doesn’t flaunt it or push it in your face. He’s one of the guys.”

  “With a nickname Rigs, after oil rigs?”

  “Only a handful of people know why he’s really called that.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Honestly, he doesn’t even use it to pick up women.”

  “And you would?” asked Sophie.

  Cash stopped, the twinkle in her eye was a twinkle he remembered all too well.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  She looked into his eyes, tearing herself away as the first teardrop began to fall from her own. She dashed onto the plane leaving Cash alone on the runway.

  “Come on,” said Rigs, popping his head out of the airplane’s door. “We need to get out of here!”

  Cash looked away from his friend, a tear dropping from his own cheek. He rubbed it away, plastered a smile onto his face, and bounded aboard the flight. There was an empty seat next to Kyle and Cash didn’t hesitate to sit next to his son.

  “So where to?” asked Kyle.

  Cash looked at Rigs, who looked back at Cash. “Nowhere,” replied Rigs taking a seat at the back of the plane.

  “Next stop, nowhere!” announced Cash, much to the confusion of all aboard.

  Chapter 18

  Sophie slotted the flash drive from Cash into the laptop she had borrowed from the cabin steward. Professor Harris had mentioned an interest in ancient sites. She had even read the article about him, ‘The Astronomer Turned Archaeologist’. However, Sophie knew the Professor too well; his interest lay in the sky not on the Earth.

  The file opened a picture of two interconnecting black circles filled with white dots of varying sizes and intensities that seemed to explode out from the centers of each circle. The further from the center, the more the dots reduced, but not necessarily their intensity, as some even at the extremity of the circles were almost as intense as the dot in the center.

  The left hand circle had far less of its area covered with dots, with vast areas of blackness, in contrast to the circle on the right, where only the far extremities of the circle were in blackness. There was something familiar about the image. Its setup was not dissimilar to a star chart, the image of a view of the northern and southern skies, however, Sophie didn’t recognize any patterns amongst the dots.

  She opened up the file menu for the flash drive. Only the image file showed, no other folders or documents were visible, just one file that was 3.2GB in size. 3.2GB for two black circles with some dots on seemed ridiculously large. She opened the file again, stared at the patterns and drilled into individual clusters. Were they galaxies? Constellations? She didn’t recognize any of them. Sophie was one of the world’s leading astronomers, and there weren’t many galaxies, constellations or stars that she couldn’t identify in the sky, even with a fleeting glance. Why had Professor Harris mentioned her name to Cash if the images wouldn’t mean anything to her?

  The longer she stared, the less sense it made. She had studied vast areas of the galaxy and beyond, with the world’s most powerful telescopes. Nothing she was looking at was vaguely recognizable, yet something was familiar.

  “Hey, Mom,” said Kyle walking past. “How cool is this plane? There’s even a shower in the loo!”

  “Very cool,” she said, looking back to see the restroom was empty. Kyle’s mention of it had suddenly brought her need to use it into focus. She stood up and pointed down at the screen. “Look at this and see if it makes any sense to you,” she said before making her way to the restroom.

  Kyle was already back in his seat next to Cash when she returned. Fat help he was, but it was good to see how comfortable he was with his father. Despite everything that had happened, they were both managing to laugh and joke with each other, ably assisted by Rigs.

  Sophie sat back down and stared at the screen. She closed her eyes and the dots remained in her view.

  “Hey, Mom?” said Kyle, startling her.

  “Hey, you. That loo is very cool,” she smiled. “No luck?” she asked, pointing at her screen.

  Kyle handed her a magazine that he had gone back to his seat to retrieve.

  “A range chart for the Bombardier Global 6000?” she asked looking at the pages he was holding open.

  “Look at the map of the world and imagine your circles with dots centered there and there,” Kyle said, pointing to Western South America and Northeast Africa.

  Sophie laid the map down and did exactly as her soon to be fifteen-year-old son had instructed. The left hand circle was predominantly South America, the dots disappearing where the oceans surrounded the land mass, while the right hand circle was Africa, Europe and a portion of Asia. Once again, the blackness correlated to where the oceans were.

  “That’s amazing, thanks, son,” she said.

  “Astronomers,” he scoffed with a smile, heading back to his father. “Spend so much time looking out there, they don’t see what’s right in front of them.”

  Sophie was instantly reminded of a similar remark from Professor Harris in relation to archaeologists. The answer wasn’t always to dig deeper and deeper, sometimes to look back, you had to look up.

  Both fields looked to the past for their answers, Sophie considered, although in a very different manner and with very different skills. Ultimately, everyone looked into th
e past. The time an image takes to travel to your eye is already technically in the past, although due to the small distances, infinitesimally so. However, on the scale of the universe, the distances are so great that the images we see are the images as they appeared in the past. The sun’s image is eight minutes old by the time we see it. The image of the closest star beyond the sun is four years old. Others, from the deepest depths of the universe, are billions of years old.

  The more you consider the time and scale of the universe, the more mind blowing it becomes. Sophie’s lectures always began with a number of mind blowing facts, none more so than the scale of the universe. If one grain of sand represented our sun, the star at the center of our solar system, there are not enough grains of sand on earth to represent every star in the universe. Our sun is a million times the size of Earth, but that is nothing compared to the largest sun discovered, VY Canis Majoris, which is a billion times the size of our sun. To put that into perspective, a passenger plane can circle the Earth in just under two days. It would take over 400,000 days, equivalent to 1,100 years to circle VY Canis Majoris.

  Sophie snapped out of her teaching mode and back to the image. She now had a reference point. The map in the magazine wasn’t particularly detailed but she knew enough from her basic geography to see that the right hand map centered in Egypt. She could see that in North Egypt, one large dot, larger than any other on the circle was surrounded by smaller dots. The concentration at the center of the dot was far greater than on any other. Had the large central dot signified a star, she’d have been able to identify the name, age of discovery and distance from Earth. Since it was a map of the world, she could only hazard a guess, but given Professor Harris’ interest in ancient buildings, she guessed one of the only few sites she knew: the Pyramids at Giza.