Tucker's Discovery

PRELUDE - GRANT COUNTY, WV - OCT 5TH Though Tucker was unsure who was trying to capture or kill him, he did know why. He was looking south through the inside of a picture window on the second floor of someone’s winterized log home. Tucker broke into the home because he needed to find a temporary, remote and safe hiding place. At least, he had hoped the unoccupied log home would be a ‘safe’ hiding place. As he peered out and enjoyed the view of the western sun shining on the eastern mountains, he thought he saw movement in the nearby forest of hard wood trees and high grass that was accompanied with light reflecting off something metal. “Damn,” he wondered, “How could they, whoever they are, have followed me here?” Nothing prepared Tucker for the evil that transpired after the Discovery. The exhilaration he experienced when the Discovery was finally validated was long gone. The incredible Discovery was world changing. It changed everything - if, and that’s now a big ‘if’ it sees the light of day. There are those that don’t want ‘everything’ to change. The unintended consequences of the September 8th Discovery were life threatening. That day, Day ZERO, changed his life permanently. On October 5th, 27 days after the announcement of the Discovery, he was a wanted man, dead by some or maybe temporarily alive until they picked his brain by others. It was nice to be wanted but not by assassins or kidnappers. He preferred to be wanted by his new and exciting love; the love of his life. The Discovery could have made the United States and the European Union energy independent and energy secure; electricity without consuming oil or natural gas; and electricity without burning coal or generating global warming greenhouse gasses. On top of that, the Discovery could produce electrical energy at a small fraction of today’s cost; something he originally thought was good for everyone. The enemies outside the log home proved that not to be true. What a great Discovery unless you were an oil or natural gas rich nation like Saudi Arabia or Russia that depend for their country’s survival on the sale of fuel to energy consuming nations. What a great Discovery unless you’re an electric utility, a coal mining company, or a natural gas pipeline operator. Twenty seven days ago Tucker had no enemies that he knew of. Today, he has an unimaginable number of enemies; ruthless and very capable enemies. He thought he saw more movement in the forest, only the movement was closer to the log home this time. Tucker wished he had more close combat and weapons training than what his father gave him. Tucker was more the cerebral type; yet, there he sat with a Louisville Slugger alloy baseball bat and a loaded semi-automatic Mossberg shotgun that belonged to the owners of this newly christened “safe house”. “What’s my next move? How can I stay alive and guarantee the safety of people I care about?” Tucker knew it was time for him to utilize his God-given talent for strategic thinking. His ability to ignore stress, maintain calm, and self-confidently select the right path forward needed to kick in. Tucker was damn glad he called in Tank Alvarez to watch his back. Tank and Ram, Tank’s loyal and well trained 90 pound German Shepherd, were somewhere outside the log home surveying and scouting for would-be enemies and protecting Tucker from whomever was apparently after him. Tank Alvarez has been Tucker’s best friend since high school. Even back when Tank was a 17 year old boy, Tank was 6’4-1/2” and 310 pounds; a defensive tackle on the high school football team. He continued to grow physically, personally and intellectually and evolved to own and run a private personal security firm. Tucker continued to peer intently out of the log home’s picture window and surveyed his surroundings. He was certain, this time, that he saw movement in the colorful forest. It could have been deer or a fox, or wind gusts causing trees to wave their branches, but that was probably just wishful thinking. The fall colors of yellow, gold, red, and brown leaves over rich dark green grass provided the perfect background for camouflaging movement. Tank and Ram were not the source of the movement because they were both holed up on a hill on the north side of the log home where they could perform better surveillance. Tucker was in constant communication with Tank using a Brick House Invisible Headset ear bud. “They know I’m here,” thought Tucker. “How do they know? Tank swept our vehicles and removed a GPS tracker before they arrived here. Do they have access to high technology methods for tracking me, like satellite imagery? Are they using pre-positioned surveillance cameras with facial recognition software?” Tucker’s imagination was beginning to run away from him. He removed stress from his thought process, took a couple of deep breaths and calmly thought logically. The people after him were most likely mercenaries hired by an entity threatened by the Discovery. The mercenaries if caught by law enforcement authorities probably could not be traced to the hiring entity. He wondered if Copernicus felt this way, disappointed and disillusioned, when his contemporaries hated him for discovering that the earth was not the center of the universe or if the scientists at Los Alamos felt this way when they saw the manifestation of their discovery in Trinity, New Mexico where the first atomic bomb was tested. Tucker sees only one path forward. Tucker’s way out, his idea as to how to reverse his situation, was convoluted and devious, and it had a low probability of success. Tank was at home in the forest, especially with Ram by his side. Tank also spotted the movement in the woods around the violated log home in which Tucker was hiding. He pulled out his high powered compact Vortex Viper tactical field glasses and viewed an area of about three acres around the spot of the movement to see if whatever caused the movement had companions. After observing for a couple of minutes, Tank concluded there were at least three people clandestinely moving in the direction of the log home. “Three what,” Tank thought, “Soldiers, state sponsored hit men, mercenaries? How the hell did they find us? I can’t just take out each one of the threats without knowing who each one was. Or could I? If the wrong people captured Tucker and extracted through unthinkable means the knowledge he possessed, then, well,” Tank thought to himself, “What exactly would happen?” She was looking again in the rear view mirror. Was she being followed? After Tucker’s call to her explaining the situation, Dr. Maya Li, one of three people identified in the YouTube video that announced the Discovery, suddenly became paranoid. She asked for a leave of absence from her job and was attempting to make it to her mother’s penthouse in Chicago. With only five miles left, she thought about whether or not it was smart to lead them to her mother’s home. She downshifted, revved the engine, let the clutch out and empowered the sports car to accelerate if only for a short distance before made a sharp right turn onto a side street. She wasn’t being paranoid, she was being followed.