The Broadcast, Part 4
Walter’s lab - 10:00 AM
“It's fascinating,” Walter said, handing Danny’s book to Olga, "Remarkable. Read more.”
“You don't actually believe this?” Olga said. "An ancient people who reached the stars in the time of the mammoths just vanished without a trace? It's absurd.”
“Why should we be so arrogant as to assume that we're the first civilization to rule the Earth,” Walter said, “History is full of extinction events... climate change, meteorites, Atlantis.”
“Atlantis?” Olga said. “Di, come on. Help me out here.”
“This was part of your orientation, Olga,” Diana said, “This supports our findings. Though they did say nothing about Atlantis. But they didn’t say anything against Atlantis too.”
Olga turned to Anna. “Uh, Anna, some help?”
“I don't know what I believe yet,” Anna said, "All I know is what Anders told me. The numbers in their calendar correspond with the numbers of the first broadcast. That can't be a coincidence.”
Olga walked over to Anders and handed him the book.
“Can you make sense of this?” she said.
“They were a people of great technological prowess,” Anders said, “They discovered something called the Vacuum, containing at once both the power to create and destroy.”
“The Vacuum,” Walter chuckled, “What a wonderful name, and it verifies some of my theories.”
“What theories, Walter?” Diana said. “Create and destroy what?”
“Reality,” Walter said.
“Okay, let's run with that,” Anna said, "Let's say that these First People did create this mechanism and then somehow translated into a code.”
“And now someone is wiping people's memories to keep the code a secret?” Olga said.
"It's not so surprising,” Walter said, “It could destroy all of reality. It's a secret worth protecting.”
Angelalt walked into the lab with a pastry box.
“Hey,” she said, “Sorry I'm late, but I thought these might cheer you up.”
“Malasadas!” Walter said, eagerly opening the box and happily devouring the treats inside. “Oh, it’s wonderful!”
"Anything new in the book?” Angelalt said.
“Mostly the same stuff we’ve found in Africa,” Diana said, “But we did find a few things.”
“I'm sure the numbers hold the answers, but beyond that, nothing tangible,” Anders said, “Yeah, I wish it was something related to Sentinel, but we can’t have good things all the time.”
Olga inspected the device taken from the radio tower, which had been partially disassembled.
“Wait a minute,” she said, "Hey, Walter? Come here. Take a look at this.”
They crowded around the device.
“This transistor is newer than the rest of them,” Olga said, pointing inside, “Somebody must have replaced it. It's Turkish military grade.”
She pulled out the transistor with tweezers and dropped it in an envelope.
“There's only a couple of places that are licensed to sell parts like that, and they're all regulated, which means that you have to give a verified address to buy one,” Olga said, standing up and walking to the office, “I'm going to make some calls.”
“I have some errands to run,” Angelalt said, walking away, “I’ll see you later.”
Walter turned to Anders. “May I borrow that?”
Anders handed him the book.
“I feel a bowel movement coming on,” Walter said.
Anders rolled his eyes.
“Can you tell Anna I'll be back?” Anders said. “Di and I'll let Kurtz know where we're at.”
“Okay,” Walter said.
Anders got up and left with Diana. Walter went to the kitchen and made a sandwich while Olga walked back in and sat at her desk. He walked back to the main room and began eating.
“Avocado, cucumber, and cheese,” he said, “In 1967, the Foreign Division asked me to develop the best sandwich for clarity of thought.”
Olga focused on the paperwork on her desk.
“There's too much information here,” she said.
"But of course the chips are just because I like foods that crunch,” Walter said.
“There has to be a pattern here,” Olga said, “Every code relies on a pattern. I just need to see it.”
“But you can’t,” Walter said, “That's your problem.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Olga said.
“Oh, oh, no, no, no, no, no,” Walter said, “No, I... I simply meant to break the code you would have to think like they did, and they lived thousands of years ago. I... I mean, for one thing, look at their religious calendar. Nine days in a month? Followed by 15? What purpose does that serve in any religion? If you're not going to eat those chips, may I?”
Olga stared at him.
“What?” Walter said. “What? What happened?”
Olga handed him the book and flipped it open. “Here, read me the religious calendar. How many days are in each month?”
“Why?” Walter said.
“Humor me,” Olga said.
“The first two are 12 and 34,” Walter said, “Then 17, 9, 15. What are you thinking?”
“Maybe what we're missing is a cipher matrix, our decoder ring,” Olga said, “Okay, what are the next months?
“8, 42, 40, 27…” Walter read.
Joseph Feller’s apartment - 10:30 AM
Angelalt knocked on the door, and Joseph opened it.
“We've got a problem,” she said.
“The Minister said we weren't supposed to meet,” Joseph said, “After what you made the Thomas unit do.”
“Well, the Minister is on the other side,” Angelalt said, “He can't foresee every turn of events. Now, you replaced a transistor in one of the boxes. Turkish, they found it. They're tracking the sale as we speak.”
“Who are these people?” Joseph said.
“Look, you were sloppy,” Angelalt said, "You've jeopardized the mission.”
"I'm supposed to upload another pulse tomorrow,” Joseph said.
“I think you've done enough,” Angelalt said, “We've got their attention. There's no need to hurt any more innocent people. You shapeshifters are always more trouble than you’re worth.”
“What do they say on this side?” Joseph said. “All’s fair in love and war? If they were in our shoes, they would do exactly what we're doing.”
Angelalt’s phone rang, and she answered it.
“We've got an address on the suspect,” Kurtz said, “Joseph Feller. 989 Nikephorosstrasse. We're en route with backup.”
“Okay, I’m on my way,” Angelalt said.
She hung up. “They’re coming.”
"Where should I go?” Joseph said. “Do you have any information on my next mission?”
“Yeah, I do,” Angela said, taking out her gun.
10:35 AM
Anders and Kurtz pulled up to the apartment building, Diana close behind on her motorcycle. Anders got out and noticed the Impala parked nearby.
“Angie’s already here,” Anders said.
They heard gunshots and breaking glass upstairs and rushed inside. They ran up to Joseph’s floor and burst into his apartment, finding Joseph dead on the floor in a pool of mercury. Angelalt stood over him, her gun out.
“He attacked me as I walked in,” Angelalt said, “I had no choice.”
“Are you alright?” Diana said.
“Yeah, I'm alright,” Angelalt said.
Walter’s lab - 10:40 AM
Olga wrote another cipher matrix on the whiteboard. She stepped back and studied it, while Walter studied the others on other whiteboards throughout the lab.
“Any breakthroughs?” he said.
“I don't know,” Olga said, “I thought that maybe if I added up all the numbers…"
“Well, keep at it,” Walter said, walking out, “And I wouldn't go in the bathroom, Dear.”
Olga started erasing the board and then stopped as she noticed the sunlight coming through the window and hitting a globe nearby. A thought crossed her mind.
Joseph Feller’s apartment - 10:45 AM
Anders ran over to Joseph’s body as he was being pulled into a body bag.
“Hold on,” he said, putting on gloves, “I need to look at that body.”
“What is it?” Kurtz said.
“Well, it makes sense why Walter couldn't figure out the tech that emitted the amnesia pulse,” Anders said, “It must have come from the other side.”
“Which suggests Walternate knows what the numbers mean,” Diana said, “He must be the one protecting the code.”
Anders flipped the shapeshifter over and cut into its lower back.
“This is a shapeshifter,” he said, “So there should be a data storage unit here.”
He pulled out the badly mangled memory component and held it up.
“I'm guessing we're not gonna get anything off that,” he said, “It's toast.”
Angelalt answered her phone. “Yeah?”
“I think I cracked the code,” Olga said, “I know what the number stations are.”
Walter’s lab - 11:00 AM
“It's a coordinate system,” Olga said, pointing at her notes on her whiteboard, “They use a similar system to ours. These numbers indicate latitude and longitude. 35 degrees and 40 minutes South by 58 degrees and 40 minutes West, that's just outside Good Air, Tawantinsuyu. All of these numbers indicate specific locations on a globe... Abyssinia, Hispania, China.”
“So what's there at the end of the points?” Anna said.
“So far as I can tell, nothing special,” Olga said, “A farmhouse, public swimming pool, and random stuff like that."
“We're not looking for a manmade structure there,” Anders said, “If this message is thousands of years old, then we're likely talking about something buried underground.”
“How many locations?” Angelalt said.
"I haven't finished plugging in all the numbers, but so far, 22,” Olga said.
“And what's the closest one?” Diana said.
Konstanz, Helvetia - 9:00 PM
The excavation site was very active, even into the late night. Excavators tore up large tracts of land on the shore of Lake Constance, while police cars parked under large floodlights. Anna got out of her car and walked over to Angelalt and Anders.
“What'd I miss?” she said, handing them cups of coffee.
“Nothing yet,” Angelalt said, “They just pulled up an old buried baseball, so we might not…"
“I had to go back,” Anna said, “Forgot to say skim.”
Angelalt chuckled. “You walked to the coffee place twice? You didn't have to do that. Must've been expensive.”
“What can I say?” Anna said. “I like coffee.”
Anders looked over at Walter, who watched the excavation from a safe distance.
“What if he's right?” he said. “Walter?”
“Right about what?” Anna said.
“I've been thinking, Anna,” Anders said, “Our father's concerned about building Walternate's device. What if it does mean the destruction of one universe or... or the other?”
“We don't know that yet, Anders,” Anna said.
“That's not really my point,” Anders said, “If you knew only one of our worlds could survive and if it was up to you, and you alone, to defend your side, you'd have no choice, right? I mean, you would have to do what you had to do, no matter the cost to protect our world.”
"There are billions of innocent people over there, just like here,” Anna said, “People with jobs, families, lives. And that’s not even considering the rest of their universe. I want to believe there's another way. And whatever my part in all of this is... I want to believe there's another way. There's always hope, right?”
Diana poked her head out of the dig site.
“We found something!” she said.
They ran to the edge of the hole as a large, heavy cylindrical object was hoisted from the pit. Anna wiped away dirt from the surface and found large carved glyphs on them.
"Those look familiar, right Angie?” Diana said.
Angelalt looked at the glyphs. “Uh…no? Oh, those!”
She was relieved when her phone rang. She quickly answered it.
“Hansen,” she said.
“I just identified the last coordinates,” Olga said, “Cologne, at the house where they found the first piece of Walternate's machine. These coordinates…they’re places where the machine’s components are buried. Is this machine the vacuum described in the book?”
“Uh, yeah,” Angelalt said, “Looks like it. Thanks, Olga.”
She hung up.
“Olga finished the code,” she said to Walter and the others, “There are 37 more locations.”
“In that case, it seems we have work to do,” Walter said, “We have to recover the pieces, assemble it, and figure out how it works."
He looked Anna in the face. “Creation and destruction...We'll have to hope for the former.”
Antiques shop, Constantinople - June 21, 2010, 4:00 AM
Angelalt sat down in front of the typewriter and rolled paper into it. She made sure a connection was established and then started typing.
THEY'VE LOCATED THE PIECES OF THE DEVICE
A few seconds later, she received a reply.
WELL DONE. INITIATE PHASE TWO
Angela’s apartment, Konstanstadt - June 28, 2010, 8:00 AM
Angela sat on her couch, staring at the empty wall. Thoughts raced through her mind. It had been 17 days since she remembered, but she still couldn’t stop thinking. Alexandra took the news well, conveniently. Of course, she would have to pretend she didn’t know any better, especially when her real mother came home. Oh, yeah. Angela had begun planning her escape from this world, with some help from Alexandra. She couldn’t go back to the opera house, because it was destroyed, and the doorstop device was blown to pieces. The only other way was through the sensory deprivation tank at Unification Island, but that would mean getting through the Ministry of Defense headquarters without being caught.
Fortunately, Bruno hadn’t suspected anything. She did three more tests in the tank. Each time, she noted improvements in her ability to cross over. The gift shop grew more tangible, and she stayed there longer. She told Bruno none of this, but the ruse couldn’t last long. When she would do her fourth session, she would cross over permanently. In the meantime, she waited and prepared to put her plan into action.
Her earpiece rang. Angela snapped out of her thinking and got up, searching the room for it. She forgot where she had put it, again. Her counterpart obviously didn’t have the same issue, because when she still thought she was her, she never lost her earpiece. But in the last two weeks she had lost it five times. A small price to pay for getting back her identity.
She finally found it in one of the bottom drawers, next to a paper notepad. As she placed the earpiece in her ear to take the call, she wondered what a notepad was doing here. This was the first time she’d seen one outside of the Brabant Hospital. Everybody used a tablet to write notes. So what was this old-fashioned notepad for, and why was it hidden here?
“Hansen,” she said as her call connected.
“Agent Hansen, this is Bruno,” Bruno said.
“Oh, Bruno, hey,” Angela said, “Uh, I'm on my way. I should be there in about an hour.”
"Actually, that's why I'm calling,” Bruno said, “Herr Minister has postponed today's procedure.”
“So when do you want me to come in?” Angela said.
“It may not be necessary,” Bruno said, “We'll let you know.”
“Okay,” Angela said, “Bye.”
She hung up and cursed. She was betting on Bruno doing the procedure. Her plan revolved around it. But this was unexpected. It had thrown everything into doubt. And why had they postponed the procedure? Did Bruno suspect something? Was the Minister suspicious?
“You have to get out of here,” Elisabeth Alexandra said.
She turned around and saw the Crown Princess sitting on the couch.
“You know why they canceled the last test, don't you?” Elisabeth Alexandra said. “Whatever they needed from you, they have it now. It's not safe for you here anymore, Angie. You have to go home.”
“Yeah, you think I don’t know that?” Angela said. “It’s Sentinel all over again.”
“Well, do what you have to do,” Elisabeth Alexandra said, “You’re running out of time. Oh, and by the way, do check out that notepad.”
Angela looked back at the notepad and picked it up. She opened it, but it was blank, except for one page with a string of letters and numbers on it. She looked at the couch, but Elisabeth Alexandra was gone. Looking back at the notepad, she recognized what the sequence was for. It was a password. Where had she seen a password required before?
She walked to Alexandra’s room, which was empty. It was a Monday, and she had arranged things with friends today. It was probably for the best. Angela found it hard to leave Alexandra, even if she technically wasn’t her real daughter and she already knew of the plans. Too bad she couldn’t share her remaining time here with Demetrios.
Angela took out Alexandra’s tablet and logged in. She opened the mail app and accessed Demetrios’ email. She tapped on the “work” directory, and a prompt for a password came up. She typed in the password, and the directory inbox appeared. At first, all of the messages seemed typical of Demetrios: schedules, conferences, plane tickets, patient conversations, and other stuff one would associate with a doctor. Then she noticed a lot of messages from and sent to the same person: Leza Atsumi. Where she came from, she was head of the Sci-Crime labs. She seemed to be in an equivalent position over here.
“Oh, God,” she said, her stomach turning over, “Please don’t let it be true.”
She clicked on the messages.
To:
latsumi@verteidigung.reg
From:
demmy2468@rmail.hre
You’re getting careless. You can’t keep doing it like this. We’ll be caught.
To:
latsumi@verteidigung.reg
From:
demmy2468@rmail.hre
And what about your daughter? Last time we did ‘bring your child to work’ day, she hacked my workstation and almost exposed us!
To:
demmy2468@rmail.hre
From:
latsumi@verteidigung.reg
Don’t worry. Just change your passwords and you should be fine. I already did.
To:
latsumi@verteidigung.reg
From:
demmy2468@rmail.hre
You’re bad at remembering passwords.
To:
demmy2468@rmail.hre
From:
latsumi@verteidigung.reg
I hid them somewhere she would have no reason to look in. She’d have to know what she was looking for to find it. Same with Alexandra.
To:
latsumi@verteidigung.reg
From:
demmy2468@rmail.hre
When can we just drop this charade? The longer we wait, the more likely we’ll be exposed.
To:
demmy2468@rmail.hre
From:
latsumi@verteidigung.reg
When I get back from Bavaria, I’ll file the paperwork.
To:
latsumi@verteidigung.reg
From:
demmy2468@rmail.hre
You better. I love you. I don’t want you to be hurt.
Maybe it wasn’t so bad she wouldn't see Demetrios again.
