Red Hope: An Adventure Thriller - Book 1 Read online

  The president nodded in agreement.

  “Yes, but what about my voters that say this will diminish the importance of humans in the world? You know, on a spiritual level?”

  The president leaned toward Chris and asked, “How about you, Chris? Are you a religious man?”

  The elated look on the NASA director’s face slowly changed to a more solemn expression. He gathered up the photographs on the table and glared at them, pondering the president’s question.

  “Yes, I am,” he said. “Well, I always have been for the most part, you know? However, in my profession, it’s useful to be quiet about such things.”

  Chris looked straight into the president’s eyes and admitted, “But I am afraid that what we find on Mars could change everything.”

  CHAPTER 2

  Mojave Desert

  Southern California

  The Sun’s heat cooked the flimsy rooftop on the test station trailer. It made occasional popping sounds as it flexed. The vehicle sat parked in the middle of the Mojave Desert with wires stretching up to an ancient telephone pole. The towering lumber had been there so long the protective tar coating had completely melted off.

  Two people stood in front of the trailer with their feet firmly planted on the rock-hard dirt. Hats protected their heads from the broiling sunshine. Each held binoculars. One was a red-headed Russian woman named Tatyana. She kept switching from examining her watch to scanning the sky with her binoculars. The other was a clean-cut engineer named Tommy. He kept switching from examining his binoculars to examining Tatyana. Flight Test Engineer was embroidered in golden letters on his black baseball cap.

  Although they’d only known each other for a few hours, Tatyana had already formed the impression that this Flight Test Engineer was smart, but had subpar social skills. After all, Tatyana thought to herself, he’s an engineer.

  Tommy wore a white button-down shirt with a tie. The Sun and heat had caused his nice white shirt to show massive sweat stains. The blowing desert dust was sticking to that now; he looked like a cross between a man in a dirt tuxedo and a giant skunk. You could barely see the label on his shirt: Murch Motors Corporation: Lift Happens.

  The two looked eastward toward the uniquely shaped Saddleback Mountain. They were waiting expectantly for a magical flying machine to pop up over the ridge. It was nowhere to be seen.

  “To be honest ma’am, I don’t understand why we haven’t seen it yet. He’s been flying around out there for almost an hour,” said Tommy as his eyes pressed to the binoculars.

  She looked at him and said with a Russian accent, “Please. Just call me Tatyana.”

  Tommy nodded in agreement, nodding his binoculars too.

  “Okay ma’am. Ah, crap! I mean Tatyana. I can do that.”

  On occasion, he caught a long glimpse of Tatyana. However, he also saw the ring on her finger and knew better. He told himself he was a good man, so he gawked politely.

  Tommy followed up with the unbreakable honesty of an engineer, “Of course, I assume he hasn’t crashed yet. Remember, the new Murch rocket motors are very reliable and can run nonstop for at least half a day.”

  His tie blew up and over his shoulder. The wind was getting worse. Tatyana’s long hair was now sticking to the sweat on her forehead.

  She lowered her binoculars to wipe the hair out of her eyes. Tatyana tried hard to mask her Russian accent when she spoke, often using American lingo to help hide her native tongue. She’d been around Americans for many years and had developed an extensive vocabulary of American English, including wonderful slang. However, much to her chagrin, Tatyana couldn’t completely cover up her Russian accent which used to be thick as molasses.

  “Tommy, if he crashes today, then I am afraid there will be no deal. Unless the motors survive the crash. That would be acceptable.”

  To calm her concerns, Tommy said, “No need to worry about that ma’am, uh, Tatyana. The CEO of our company, um, Mr. Murch, is a top notch airplane pilot. He won’t crash it today.”

  Tommy felt more comfortable on the technical side of Murch Motors Incorporated. He detested the sales side of their business where embellishment was almost expected. It always felt to him like he was being dishonest. His boss normally handled all sales and customer interaction. Not today, though.

  The engineer in Tommy kicked into full gear, and he started to contradict his own calming attempts, “To be honest, I wish Mr. Murch would’ve let our test pilot demonstrate it today, but he insisted that he fly it himself to show you how safe and reliable the engines are.”

  Tatyana lowered her binoculars and asked sincerely, “Can you tell me more about how the engines can run for so long on so little fuel?”

  Tommy panicked. His boss told him to avoid any specifics about how the engines work.

  “Well, I’m not supposed to discuss that much detail. Rest assured that these are the most efficient rocket engines ever designed. They are ideal for providing hover capability for lightweight vehicles.”

  Quietly, Tommy was terrified that the ship, his boss, and his career were all sitting in a smoking crater somewhere on the other side of Saddleback Mountain. He had told his boss that flying the ship himself was a terrible idea; he was simply not replaceable. Mr. Murch dismissed his worries by telling him, “Cemeteries are full of irreplaceable men.”

  Tommy was not amused.

  Tatyana lifted the binoculars to her eyes again and said, “Yes, I assume he is a good pilot, but he is riding the only working prototypes of the MM10 engines from Murch Motors. You can replace an arrogant CEO, but you cannot replace those engines.”

  She looked down at her watch, “And now, I feel that he is wasting my time.”

  Tommy had to calm her frustration. According to his morning meeting with Mr. Murch, keeping her happy was his number one task today.

  “Like I said, he’s not going to crash the only working prototypes of our flagship product. Don’t worry, the Russian Defense Bureau will have its hands on these rockets in no time.”

  Three miles away, in a valley carved out by years of ancient erosion, a rocket-powered hover ship was spinning out of control toward the ground. Keller Murch was about to die. He was holding on for dear life, making a full conversion to religion. Any religion.

  In prior flight testing, the prototype hover ship was sensitive to every small movement of the joystick. To fix that problem, Keller’s engineers installed a special stabilization circuit in the flight control computer. During high-speed flight over the ground, this device would take his erratic joystick movements and turn them into smooth command signals. This technology would lead to a super-smooth flight: almost pleasant. He could turn it on and off by flipping a big yellow switch.

  “Shazbot! They must’ve hooked it up backwards!” he screamed out loud.

  Now, even tiny joystick movements caused the external control fins to twitch wildly, sending the hover ship spiraling out of control.

  With all his strength, he tried to reach the yellow switch to turn it back off. The centrifugal forces kept him slammed down in his seat; he couldn’t get to the switch. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his Blackberry, swinging it hopelessly at the switch. The ship started spinning the other way and the phone fell from his hand; it was now stuck to the floor by the spinning forces.

  Keller reached into his other pocket and pulled out an iPhone. The ship was starting to buck, and he couldn’t focus his eyes. He swung the iPhone and accidentally hit the bulkhead, sending a spray of glass from the cellphone.

  “That’ll be another two hour wait at the Apple Store.”

  The phone flopped out of his hands and onto the floor near the Blackberry. Looking around, he reached into his jacket and pulled out his backup Android phone.

  He proudly said, “I am so Type A!”

  Keller held the final cellphone tight and swung it at the switch. He missed. He swung again and hit the bulkhead, knocking the battery cover from the phone. A look of horror came across his face. Wi
th a quick squeeze, he pushed the power button on the phone. It still worked.

  He reached back as far as he could and swung the phone one last time. It hit the badly wired stabilization switch, toggling it back into the off position.

  The ship stopped spinning. He pulled back hard on the joystick. The vehicle pitched up and started climbing away from the valley floor.

  Keller found himself skimming along the tops of the cacti with loud boom-boom-bang-thump sounds. They got noticeably quieter as the ship started flying upward. He started breathing again. After a few seconds he was high enough to see a little trailer on the other side of Saddleback Mountain.

  Tatyana and Tommy heard what sounded like high-pressure air leaking from a bicycle inner tube. It was getting louder as they swiveled their heads around to locate the source. A sudden, high-pitched roaring made them drop their binoculars and cover their ears.

  The prototype hover ship came racing over the trailer at nearly 100mph, tilted only slightly away from vertical. It was a white capsule with thin vertical blue stripes and large black X’s all over it used for camera tracking. The MM10 engines were spraying out what looked like high-speed steam. Tatyana thought the entire hover ship looked like the nose cone from any of the classic NASA moon rockets. The MM10 motors looked like long golden bells with two placed at each of the four corners.

  As the ship slowed down, the control fins moved less, but the golden bell engines began moving more.

  The ship circled back around, as deafening as ever, and came to a hover about 20 yards away from the trailer. It levitated there, motionless, several feet off the ground. It was an awesome sight that didn’t make sense to the brain. Things like that shouldn’t float.

  Tommy yelled out, “It gets me every time seeing it hover like that. And to think that it’s using so little fuel. It’s amazing!”

  He squinted and looked at the hover ship closely. Hanging from the landing gear was a needle-filled mash of what used to be the top of a large cactus.

  The vehicle started to lower and come toward them at the same time - much closer than Tommy had anticipated. The cloud of dust below was swirling wildly now with rocks and debris hitting Tatyana and Tommy in the face. Still covering their ears, they had to turn away and lean down to avoid being knocked over by the wind blast. The ship settled down onto four spring-loaded feet. The whooshing roar stopped almost immediately.

  Tommy and Tatyana stood up reluctantly uncovering their ears and wiping off the dust and debris that coated their clothing. They began walking through the short scrub grass toward the hover ship. It was silent now except for the occasional ping and snap sounds, similar to what a car makes when turned off after a long drive. They arrived at the hover ship and waited for the main hatch door to open. They heard the noise of switches being flipped inside and the sound of a small fan turning on.

  The handle on the door spun and the hatch opened. A tall, skinny man with a huge smile on his face looked out; sweat was pouring from his head. Keller was wearing, of all things, a business suit. He hopped out and landed super-hero style with one hand down in the dirt holding him up. He stood up and clapped his hands together to wipe off the dust. Keller stuck out his hand toward Tatyana in the gesture of a handshake. He said with a smile, “Preevyet, Tatyana!” They shook hands.

  Keller turned to Tommy and shook his hand too saying, “Preevyet to you too! That means 'hello' in Russian. Wow, that was quite a ride!”

  At that moment, Keller saw the top of the ancient saguaro cactus jammed into one of the landing gear struts.

  He turned toward Tommy and whispered, “Do me a favor, Tommy. Get rid of that cactus on the landing gear. I think that’s a ten thousand dollar fine from the Feds. We don’t need any attention from them right now, okay?”

  Keller turned his attention back to Tatyana.

  “Hi, Tatyana. I’m glad you could make it out here today. We finally get to meet in person, right? The telephone can only do so much justice to a business transaction. It’s good to meet.”

  “I agree, Mr. Murch. That was an impressive arrival.”

  He winked at her and replied, “I know.”

  After Tommy pried off the cactus, he climbed in the ship and opened a panel that had tools in it. He began to check the vehicle and do some routine testing. He scratched at his chin when he noticed two cellphones jammed in a floor panel. As Tommy worked, Tatyana and Keller walked back toward the trailer. She was the first to break the silence.

  “It is good to be here. I am quite amazed at the MM10 engine. Murch Motors has pulled off an engineering triumph,” she said while trying to avoid stepping on the quills of a prickly pear cactus.

  She continued, “Is this rocket engine really as fuel efficient as you and Tommy say? Will that machine hover for hours?”

  Keller thought for a moment and stopped walking to focus on his words.

  “Yes, it really is that fuel efficient, and our newest versions run all day long. Did I ever tell you how they came to be?” he asked.

  “No, you have not. And Tommy wouldn't tell me either.”

  Keller started using a lot of body language.

  “The clever idea behind them was the product of three poor graduate students working on the concept of hypersonic plasma at Stanford. But they were spinning their wheels trying to get industry interested in their invention. I saw it. I liked it. So I bought the patent, and then I bought them. They work for me now. All I had to do was ask them if they wanted to change the world.”

  Keller waved his hands in the air as an exclamation point.

  Tatyana looked him in the eye and said, “Right. Well, I can tell you that my clients are very interested in your engines. However, we want exclusivity on this. Nobody else can market them. So, when can we have this prototype?”

  Her face lost its smile and was serious now.

  “Tatyana, you and your group can buy all that we build,” said Keller with almost genuine sincerity.

  Tatyana looked at the hover ship and then back at Keller.

  “I am glad to hear the good news because we plan to buy your entire production. However, as we discussed on the phone, do not share this with any other institutions.”

  “Fair enough,” Keller said nodding his head in agreement. His fingers were crossed behind his back.

  With all of the small talk done, he got to the point.

  “I guess it all comes down to price.”

  “Yes, I suppose it does. My clients are willing to pay you ten million dollars for this prototype, and that includes all of the MM10 motors.”

  Keller did a small jump to avoid stepping on a cactus.

  “Well, you see, it’s going to cost twenty million because once I send these motors over there, your technicians will reverse engineer them just like you’ve always done with our military hardware.”

  Tatyana was taken aback with his hardball negotiation, mixed together with insult and some truth. She thought for a moment.

  “Fair enough,” she replied without confirming his accusation.

  They walked over to her car. She looked up at him with squinted eyes and said, “You’ll be hearing from us soon. We will wire the payment to your corporate account first thing tomorrow. That is for the shipment of this hover vehicle, including the MM10 engines.”

  “You’ve got a deal,” said Keller. They shook hands.

  Tatyana pulled on the door handle to her silver BMW. It was locked. She laughed, realizing the futility of locking it out here in the middle of nowhere. With an insincere smile, Keller watched as she got in, started the engine, and drove along the dusty dirt road up and over the ridge. The brown dust cloud from her wheels drifted slowly among the cacti. She was gone.

  Tommy finished his maintenance and walked through the brush over to Keller.

  “Mr. Murch, everything looks good. There is still plenty of fuel on board.”

  “Of course! That’s exactly how we designed it.”

  Keller stared at the dusty trail Tatyana had l
eft behind. His marketing smile was gone.

  “Thanks, Tommy. Thanks for looking after Tatyana. I wanted this demonstration to be dramatic. No. I needed it to be dramatic. I think we hit one out of the ballpark, don’t you?”

  Tommy nodded his head as he wiped some dirt from his face.

  “Yes, I think it went well, Mr. Murch. I only wish we had some American companies that wanted to use our motors. Now it’s just going to be used to levitate Russian military vehicles. I mean, we couldn’t even meet Tatyana at the hangar. We had to hide out here in the desert like rats. It makes us look paranoid or underhanded.”

  Keller replied, “Oh, it’s not paranoia. I really am trying to hide this deal. I don’t think the Feds would look too kindly on this international sale just yet; I’ve got people working on it, though. My financial needs are on a much shorter time scale than government paperwork can provide.”

  Keller laughed at his own words. He slapped his hand on Tommy’s shoulder.

  “Don’t you worry about NASA, Tommy. They’ll come around when they see these motors everywhere. We just need to make them jealous enough to realize their mistake.”

  Keller glanced down at his watch to see how much time he’d lost dealing with the badly wired switch. The watch was old and the dial had a faded blue logo for Insane Galactic Game Technologies. That bit of nostalgia always made him smile. He looked up and said, “It’s time to head home. I’ll meet you back at the hangar. Then we’ll head back North.”

  Tommy grabbed his lunchbox from the trailer and scrambled through his warden’s keychain to lock the door.

  Keller walked through the desert brush back to the hover ship. He climbed up into the cockpit and closed the door. The startup process was simple because the engines didn’t use combustion. Just some switches and an old fashioned key; something insisted on by Keller himself. The rockets flared their deafening high-pitch whooshing sound.

  Tommy sat in his pickup truck, hunched over the steering wheel and watching the rocket powered ship ascend into the sky. He accelerated the old truck out of the small parking area and drove up the winding dirt road over Saddleback Mountain.