Schism

somehow managing to balance the glassware while pushing through the gulf of humanity.

Nina found herself drifting in the tide of people. Her eyes darted back and forth. The music drummed in her ears like a hypnotist’s watch, the aroma of cigarettes and perfume and cologne and fading coconut-scented sun lotion swirled together and tickled her nose. The tapestry of people rolled and twisted around her.

She saw a dark black man with three gold loops in each ear swaying alone at the end of the bar; a Hispanic woman with a necklace made from seashells mixed with rubies smiling and talking to a red headed girl sporting a tattoo of a screaming eagle above well-displayed cleavage; a boisterous, sun-burned fat man dancing fluidly with a pair of oriental women hanging on his wide arms who slipped sips from margarita glasses in his mouth one after another; a cluster of young women posed like mannequins eying the dance floor while holding techno-colored drinks to their lips.

Armageddon brought monsters to Earth, yet this room of people felt far more alien to her than anything she had faced on the battlefield.

Suddenly, Gordon’s hand pulled her between dancers and servers and voyeurs. He led her to a table in a shadow below a palm tree. There waited a man with bushy eyebrows and a tight-fitting white shirt over a hairy chest. In one hand he held a short glass with something green inside. The man eyed Gordon until Nina entered his range of vision. Then his eyes switched.

Gordon spoke first, 'Ernie, mi amigo, demasiado largo puesto que hablamos.'

The man with the bushy eyebrows put aside his drink, rose to his feet, and shook Knox’s outstretched hand while flashing a genuine grin. 'Soy donde he vivido siempre. Usted, Gordon, movido a cosas mas grandes.' Gordon’s response came in a grin. Ernie, motioned for the two to join him. His eyes held on Nina for a long second. 'Usted trae un presente hermoso para mi.' Gordon warned Ernie, 'Cuidadoso. La senora rompe mas que corazones.' Nina sat and grunted at Gordon. 'It would be best, my friend, if we spoke in English, for the sake of my companion.' The man nodded. 'Si. Oh. That means ‘yes.’' Nina frowned in Ernie’s direction. The men found that funny. Ernie’s good humor lasted only a moment. 'Tell me Gordo, are you serious?' 'Very serious.' 'Then what do we know? Hmm? What do we know about the assassination?'

Nina felt uncomfortable discussing the matter in such a public place. However, as she glanced around she realized that the sound of the band and the crowd meant that the only persons in earshot sat at the table.

Gordon stated what he knew: 'One ship. A Redcoat shuttle landed at the meeting site, killed Trevor and his bodyguards, wounded Evan and others, then took off. It got blasted out of the air an hour later.' 'Yes.' Gordon nodded, 'And then our Witiko ‘friends’ gave us the location of the Redcoat base. So we could wipe them out.' 'Damn straight,' Nina murmured. Ernie said, 'That leaves a lot of questions no one has been asking.'

Nina agreed. 'Listen, the big question is how they got all the way from Mexico to D.C., without being spotted at one of the radar stations. Especially since the D.C. station is supposed to have all that area covered.'

Gordon shook his head.

Nina reacted, 'What? I’m just saying, how the Hell did they get all the way up there?'

Ernie offered, 'Their ship was painted white, like our Eagles. To most people, it just looked like another one of our shuttles. But the radar stations, your friend is right Gordon, they control air traffic at the Mexican border and in key spots along the way. They should have spotted the flight and known it was unscheduled.'

'It’s almost like they had stealth capability, don’t you think?' Gordon considered his words and added, 'Wonder who else we know has that kind of ability?' Nina connected the dots but her conclusion did not come as a shock to the two men. 'The Witiko. I mean, what if they gave the Redcoats a stealth field generator. Something like their Stingrays have?' 'Or what if the Redcoats stole one? You know, the way we stole their shuttles?'

Nina did not get Gordon’s point. Ernie extrapolated: 'That could be a believable cover story if they were ever caught. But, their ship was blown from the sky into pieces.'

'Leaving no evidence,' she finished.

Gordon, however, made a more important point. 'You’re both missing the big question. The big question is not how did the Redcoats get all the way from Mexico to D.C., without being spotted. The question is why did they get spotted when they made their getaway? How did the Excalibur catch a sniff of them during their escape?' Nina tried to follow, 'Maybe their stealth field failed?' 'Or maybe,' Gordon nearly growled, 'they wanted to be found.' The conversation paused for a moment. Music filled the gap.

Gordon continued with a question for Ernie, 'And what have you found?'

The man smiled as he answered not to Gordon but to Nina, 'Tell me, miss, are you aware of the ‘tambourine’ fence along the eastern seaboard? Hmm?'

Nina took pleasure in showing the scope of her knowledge.

'An early warning system of radar and sonar designed to spot and track anything in the air or sea that gets close to the Atlantic coast. It’s managed by Internal Security.'

Ernie leaned forward, took a sip of his drink, and shared much more.

'I am one of the tambourine…drummers, I suppose. Our station in Miami oversees the coastline here, so as to keep us safe from all the bad things in that great big world out there. I have a friend. The way Gordon has me as a friend. You’ll find that we all have many friends in this business, yes, Gordo? This friend of mine works in tambourine central control outside of D.C., where all the data from all the stations is collected and analyzed.'

Gordon added, 'To coordinate response.'

'Si. Oh, um, yes. Anyway, I did what you asked, Gordon. This friend of mine, he is certain-he swears — that a station on Long Island identified an inbound air ship of unknown origin penetrate the tambourine line off the coast of New Jersey, heading southwest.'

Nina perked. Gordon kept a poker face and asked, 'How long?'

'Less than an hour before the assassination. But there is more, Gordo. Another ship-this time outbound- tripped the electronic fence in the same area not long after.' 'The same ship?' Ernie answered, 'This is unknown. But the size of the vessels was similar.' Nina pounced, 'Did they raise the alert? I mean, what did they do?'

'This is just the thing, miss. They did nothing. On that day, they had a very important visitor who was overseeing operations.'

Gordon knew the answer before Ernie could speak: 'Dante Jones.'

Knox’s tone suggested satisfaction, not surprise. Nina’s head swiveled fast between the two men. She noted how their eyes seemed to speak without words.

'You knew? You knew, didn’t you?'

Ernie explained, 'Gordo had me check the D.C., center first. He knew Mr. Jones to be there that day.'

'A hunch,' Gordon admitted. 'As soon as I heard what happened, I wanted to know where all of Trevor’s people were. Jones was in an important place. I had my friend here ask questions.'

'And that’s when my friend told me about the air space…hmmm…violations.' Gordon spoke fast, 'And the data tapes aren’t around anymore, are they?' Ernie nodded his head and sipped the last drops of his drink. Nina said, 'So there’s no record? Only your friend’s word that he saw something. I mean, no evidence.'

'Si. He went back to check the center’s logs for that time and found no warnings, no sightings. As far as Internal Security is concerned, all was quiet on the…hmmm… eastern front.' Again Nina spotted a silent conversation between the two old comrades. Ernie smiled. 'What? What is it?' Nina’s voice carried the slightest hint of a pout. Gordon said, 'The buoys. The network. You have someone on it already, don’t you?' 'Another one of our friends, Gordo.'

Ernie pulled a folded paper from his pocket and stretched to hand it to Knox who examined the contents and nodded. He spoke when he noticed Nina glaring at him, 'The tambourine line is a series not only of monitoring stations but computers. Networked computers. Some on land, some on buoys in the Atlantic Ocean. With the right encryption codes, someone could access the backup information on the hard drives on those computers. Assuming they haven’t been erased.'

Ernie laughed, 'These amateurs? Half of the I.S. officers I work with don’t even know how the tambourine line works. Our friend is going to the buoy off Abaco Island tonight. He will meet you in the morning.'

'Wait a sec,' Nina’s voice wavered. 'You said the fence was tripped near New Jersey. Why would that info be down here?'

'It’s a network,' Gordon answered. 'Someone with the right skills can hack into the whole system from one terminal.' 'Yes,' Ernie laughed. 'Someone I know made sure this to be the case, did you not?' Nina glared at Gordon yet again. 'You? You built this into the tambourine line?' He answered, 'Always have a backup plan, Captain.' Ernie quipped, 'And oh yes, hmmm, never trust anyone.' 'What matters,' Gordon insisted, 'is that we’ll have some