Chapter 2 – The Phantom

Second Chapter

I used a large umbrella that was in the back of the SUV to tie Fred’s and Barney’s hand together so that they couldn’t wiggle out of the napkin and towel handcuffs we devised, and we forced them to sit in the back seat. Julia had her license, so she drove; I navigated from the front seat. Actually, Fred and Barney navigated.
“We have to ditch this vehicle because it’s wired,” Fred stated as we started off along a single lane paved road that was surrounded by trees.
“What do you mean ‘wired’?” I asked.
“It’s bugged,” replied Barney.
“So why don’t we get rid of the bug?” I asked.
“Because it’s not a physical bug, it’s a GPS bug,” replied Fred, “and they can track us wherever we go and it won’t be long before they start. We weren’t supposed to leave until after they arrived – they received a message from both of your parents and wanted you two to talk to them – and now they’ll see that this vehicle is moving when it should have remained stationary so they’ll start searching.” He took in a breath. “They’re probably on their way.”
“I thought you guys were GPS gurus and could disable a GPS,” I reminded him.
Barney let out a long breath.
“We are but given the circumstances we don’t have enough time to work our magic. Believe me, our operatives are already on their way and if we don’t get rid of this vehicle in the next few minutes they’ll catch up to us.”
I noticed that Julia started to shake and lightly touched her arm. “It’s okay,” I said quietly.
“Is it Tarch?” she replied anxiously. “We’re in a car that’s being tracked, we have the kidnappers with us and we’re in the middle of nowhere. How is that okay?” she demanded.
I rubbed her arm lightly. “I don’t know,” I replied, attempting to comfort her. I’m sure my feeble attempt to mitigate the situation was futile.
“We have a plan,” interrupted Barney.
“What’s that?” asked Julia skeptically.
“We weren’t too sure of our accomplice’s motives when we first started this project, so we devised a contingency plan.”
“And what is it?” I quizzed him.
“We have a second vehicle, without a GPS or any other device that could track us, just in case.”
“And where’s that vehicle?” I asked.
“About a mile up the road,” replied Barney. He and Fred smiled. “Remember, we’re scientists and don’t accept anything unless it’s a proven fact. We needed assurance that in the event our operatives became untrustworthy we could extricate ourselves from the situation.”
About a mile down the road we came across a parked car and scrambled into it; Barney and Fred remained tied to the umbrella and we put them into the back seat. They instructed Julia where to turn and in about ten minutes we were on a four-lane state highway, traveling with the normal flow of traffic.
“They won’t find us for a while, we’re inconspicuous,” remarked Fred. “They’ll find the SUV and will be able to track our initial destination from the remnants of the heat that this car left, but now that we’re intermingled with traffic they won’t be able to discern our heat patterns from those of the other vehicles.”
“And there’s no GPS on this car,” added Barney. The car was a nondescript, tan Toyota sedan, and looking around at the other cars that were on the highway, it blended in perfectly with them.
“So where are we going?” I asked.
“Back to LIGO.”
“What?!”
They both chuckled.
“That’s the last place they would expect us to go so it’s the perfect place. Plus we’ll be safe there,” answered Fred.
“You look cynical,” added Barney, most likely responding to the look on my face.
“And just where are we?” interjected Julia.
“Right now we’re on Route 395 and heading toward interstate eighty-four. We’ll take that to eighty-two, to one-eighty-two to two-forty. That leads directly to LIGO,” replied Barney. “We’ll be on the road for about two and a half hours.”
“Whatever,” replied Julia. She glanced at me and shrugged her shoulders. Neither one of us knew the area and we had to trust these two.
“And what about releasing us?” she asked. “And when can we talk to our folks so they know we’re okay?”
“We’ve already had the first set of contacts with them,” answered Fred. “And they’ve agreed to provide us with some more of the paint. We were planning on the exchange, you know, you two for the paint, later today but now that we have this new situation…” He inhaled, turned to Barney and they both shook their heads, “we just don’t know.”
“Yeah, if you weren’t so obnoxious…” started Barney.
“And vicious,” added Fred. “My head still hurts.”
“T.S.,” chimed in Julia. That’s means tough shit. “You were holding us hostage, so we had to do what we did.” She turned briefly to me and licked her lips. Her eyes were sparkling and if we weren’t in this particular situation I’m sure we would have pulled to the side of the road and made passionate love.
“You weren’t hostages,” reiterated Fred.
“Oh no? Then what were we? Your honored guests?” she retorted. “You two are despicable, incompetent morons. You’re probably failures as scientists as well.”
Fred and Barney shifted uncomfortably in the back seat. Julia probably just delivered the greatest insult that could be hurled at them; they seemed to be proud of their scientific acumen and in a single instant she destroyed their egos and confidence. And most likely their masculinity. I kind of felt sorry for them.
“Anyway,” continued Fred, deliberately oblivious to Julia’s attack, or at least attempting to be oblivious, “once we get to LIGO we’ll sort out all of this.”
“You better believe we will, and you two will be locked up for many years,” she snapped. They stirred once more in the back seat. “Or didn’t you think about that?” she added.
“Of course we did you dum…” He was probably going to say, ‘dumb shit’ or ‘bitch’ but fortunately he didn’t. If he did I think Julia would have screeched to a halt and slapped him in the face. Or worse. Both of them. “But we didn’t have a choice,” he said instead.
“What does that mean?” she demanded. “You had a choice. You didn’t have to be part of this scheme. You could have said no or not have gotten involved. But you didn’t, and you did.”
Barney shook his head.
“I hate to differ with you, but we didn’t have a choice. Our bosses, if you will, are very powerful and very influential. They had, and have, the power and resources to create an unprecedented accident at LIGO and place the blame directly on us. In essence, they blackmailed us and forced us to do their bidding. Fred and I aren’t in their league as it relates to power and brutality. We’re just pawns.”
“And in grave danger,” added Fred. “Once they find us I can’t image what they’ll do.”
“Kill you?” I asked. They both shuddered.
“Probably,” answered Barney. “Or something worse.”
“What could be worse than that?”
“Spending the rest of our lives in a federal penitentiary with no chance of parole. It would be like rotting in hell until the day we die,” replied Fred. He was visibly and audibly distraught. Barney nodded in agreement.
“Well that’s exactly what you two deserve,” responded Julia with ice in her voice. “You broke the law and have to pay for your crime.” She started to shake, her eyes welled up with tears and the car started to swerve.
“It’s okay,” I said, attempting to sooth her. “Do you want to stop for a moment or would you like me to drive?” I had my driving permit and was adept enough to drive on a highway.
She shook her head no, wiped the tears away from her eyes and sniffed. Unfortunately I didn’t have a tissue but used my sleeve to clean her nose. She smiled and said, “Thanks Tarch. I’ll be alright.”
I turned to Barney and Fred and shook my head. “Why don’t you just be quiet for the rest of the ride? We’ll deal with you when we get back to LIGO.”
I gathered in the bucolic scenery in which we were traveling; Washington State was a beautiful part of the country. After a few minutes I became a bit bored and faced Barney again. “By the way, what are your real names?” They looked at me as though I had two heads.
Barney chuckled. “That is my name. Actually it’s Barnard Lamberto. I grew up in Culver City California, earned my engineering degree from UCLA and got my masters in astrophysics from UC Berkeley. I’ve been with LIGO for five years and it was my dream job.”
Fred nodded. “I’m Frederick van Holt from Austin Texas.”
“So you two really are Fred and Barney?” asked Julia through her laughs.
Fred sighed. “Yes, Fred and Barney,” he answered reluctantly. We all chortled a bit. “They called us all sorts of names: The Flintstones, the Rubles, cavemen. If I was a kid it would have bothered me but we didn’t meet until we were adults so it wasn’t a problem. I earned my bachelors from Texas A&M in physics and am working on my Ph.D. thesis in USTUR at Washington State.”
“What’s USTUR?” questioned Julia.
“The United States Transuranium & Uranium Registries,” he answered. “It’s the study of the effects of uranium, plutonium, americium, and thorium in humans. We obtain samples of body organs from post-mortem volunteer donors who worked with these elements during their lifetimes and analyze them to discover where they’re distributed in the body.”
“How’s that related to LIGO?” I asked.
“Well, the main purpose of LIGO is to discover gravitational waves, you know, black holes. Dr. Ligorious has data, which are still unpublished, that these elements enhance the ability of LIGO to detect the waves. In fact that’s the heart of my thesis, the effect these elements exert on gravitational waves. There’s a possibility that individuals who worked with these elements may have an affinity to, ah, attract gravitational waves. This affinity may be a reason why these people have a higher rate of cancer than the rest of population.”
“But aren’t those elements radioactive and isn’t that why they have a higher cancer rate?” I questioned.
Fred nodded. “That may be so, if they were exposed to the radioactive isotopes of these elements. But we’re looking for individuals who were exposed to the non-radioactive isotopes. It’s these individuals who appear to attract the gravitational waves.”
I exhaled audibly through my pursed lips. “Can these individuals become black holes?” I asked.
Fred and Barney laughed out loud.
“No,” replied Fred. “The amount of the elements in people is so low that it can barely be detected.” He paused. “But, early on Dr. Ligorious found that minute amounts of these elements can contaminate LIGO so we go to great measures to eliminate them.”
I had no idea what he was talking about; he smiled.
“There’s no direct correlation between USTUR and LIGO – there may be no relationship at all between them – but Dr. Ligorious was intrigued by the topic and since he runs LIGO he managed to work out a deal with the University to have me work with him.” He paused and glanced at the ceiling of the car. “Everything changed with the arrival of the black paint.”
“Why’s that?” asked Julia.
Fred breathed in deeply. “Because these elements exert a synergistic effect on it.”
I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders.
“In other words, these elements enhance the ability of the black paint to gather more mass,” added Fred.
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“Dr. Ligorious had a hunch. I don’t know how he thought about it but he managed to link the two together. When LIGO was reconfigured to smash atoms rather than find gravitational waves, he introduced a few atoms of nonradioactive uranium into it along with the black paint. Actually we ran two experiments with the black paint when you were at LIGO: one with the uranium and one without it.”
“You did? I didn’t see it.”
Fred and Barney laughed.
“We didn’t tell this to you,” remarked Barney. “If you remember, at first there was no reaction. Then we witnessed the Phantom. That was only after we added the uranium.”
“So the Phantom was created due to the uranium?” asked Julia.
“That appears to be the case,” answered Fred. “The uranium and Phantom act synergistically.”
It was the second time they used that term. “What’s synergistically?” I asked.
“Exponentially,” replied Julia smugly.
“Oh yeah?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“And how do you know that?” Mom also used that word from time to time.
“Because I’m smarter than you.” Some things never change.
“And what exactly does that mean?” I questioned her.
“That four plus four is eight, but four times four is sixteen. Four times four is an exponent and when you use exponents the result is much greater than if you simply add the numbers. That’s exponentially and it’s a type of synergy.” There. She beat me. And smiled broadly. I slouched in my seat for a moment.
“Synergies exist everywhere,” interjected Barney. “In math, physics, physiology, even human behavior. As it relates to our discussion,” he said, implying, at least to my mind that Julia got the best of me, “when used alone the uranium and black paint just circled within LIGO and didn’t do too much, but when they were used together they amplified the effects of each another, that is they acted synergistically, and in this case created the Phantom.”
“So the addition of you, Fred, had a synergistic effect on the project?” I stated.
“Exactly,” replied Fred. I turned toward Julia, who pretended to be oblivious to what I just said, and stuck my tongue out at her.
“Oh that’s real mature,” she said impertinently. I stroked her thigh and she blushed.
“I’m no dummy you know.”
She turned to me for a moment and said under her breath with her deep, sultry, husky, sexy voice, “I know.”
I had an immediate erection and couldn’t do anything with it. Julia smiled, knowing what she had done to me.

Julia continued to drive, Fred and Barney sat silently in the rear of the car and I kept watch over them. After an hour or so Julia asked them, “So when can we contact our parents and when will the exchange take place?”
I answered the question before they had a chance. “Do we even need an exchange? Once we’re at LIGO we’ll contact the police and call our parents. We don’t have to take orders from these two. And, the paint doesn’t need to be exchanged for our release.” I turned around and peered into their eyes. “We’re not hostages anymore so we control what happens.”
“I wish you wouldn’t use that term,” said Fred.
“And I wish you hadn’t captured us,” replied Julia with vengeance in her voice.
“It may not be that easy,” added Barney. He wore a troubled expression.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because the people who forced us to do this, you know this situation that we’re in right now, are very resourceful and have alternative plans,” answered Fred.
“What alternative plans?” asked Julia.
Fred shook his head. “I’m not sure but they’ve infiltrated many agencies and organizations and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re already at LIGO.”
Julia pulled screeched the car to a halt. She turned around and screamed, “What do you mean by that? I thought LIGO was safe because they wouldn’t expect us to go there!”
Fred nodded; his torso followed. “Yes, that’s what we said, and I still believe that it’s the last place they would expect us go.” He inhaled. “But, they may have their operatives there already and when we show up they may be waiting for us.”
Julia shuddered. So did I.
“Operatives?” she demanded. “Who are these operatives and why didn’t you tell us they would be at LIGO?”
Barney shrugged his shoulders. “I just wanted to get out of that place and ditch the car before they realized we were gone. If we told you about the operatives at LIGO, we may have argued about where we were heading and would have lost precious time. They would have caught us by now. We thought it was the best action to take at the time. I still think it was the right decision.”
Julia quickly inhaled and exhaled and slowly shook her head. I emulated the head shaking and caught her eyes.
“What do you want to do?” I asked. “We can’t stay here in the middle of the highway.”
She nodded. “Right, but we need to think about our options first.” She stared at the two bumblers. “Who are these operatives?”
They both shook their heads. “We don’t know for sure, Julia,” responded Fred. “There’s at least one who has intimate knowledge about the project from the start.”
“Who?” demanded Julia.
Fred shook his head. “I don’t know for sure.”
“Who do you think it is?” I asked. They were lying; they knew who it was. My eyes must have been furious because Fred and Barney shifted uncomfortably in the seat.
Fred glanced at Barney who nodded slightly.
“Robert Stevens,” replied Fred softly.
“Robert Stevens?” questioned Julia. “Who’s that?”
Fred glanced at Barney and stared into my eyes. “Doctor Robert Stevens,” he replied. “Your Mom’s boss.”
The air rushed out of my lungs and I felt lightheaded for a moment. Mom’s boss? I couldn’t believe it. Mom held him in such high regard; he was a saint in her eyes and was beyond reproach. He funded the research, encouraged Mom to continue with her work, authored scientific articles about the progress they made…
That’s it! I realized. The articles informed the world of the paint and Fred and Barney’s ‘operatives’ must have seen, or at least been told about the paint and its ability to accrue mass.
“So your operatives put two-and-two together, you know the existence of the paint and LIGO’s use of it, and wanted a piece of the action,” I declared.
Fred nodded.
“Who else’s involved?” asked Julia.
Barney involuntarily shrugged his shoulders. He knew.
“Tell me!” she shrieked. “Who else is involved?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know everyone who’s involved because there are many.”
“How many?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe five, ten. Or more.”
“How many do you know?” I demanded.
He thought for a moment. “Three.” He paused. “Our contact at LIGO, Patricia Flanigan.” His eyes shifted to Fred. “She’s in charge of procurement.”
“Who’s the third?” asked Julia.
“Dr. Russel Matthis,” replied Fred.
Julia grabbed onto my arm and peered into my eyes; the expression on her face was a mixture of anger, fear and confusion. “He’s from NASA,” she uttered, losing her breath as she made the announcement; her voice was unsteady. “He was my Dad’s boss before he left the agency.”
I felt a pit growing in my stomach. Mom and Mr. Bigelow were indirectly responsible for this situation? Were they more directly involved than what these two clowns were telling us? Did they plan for our capture? My bucolic life seemed to be spinning out of control and from the expression on Julia’s face I could tell she was thinking the same. I needed a few moments to collect my thoughts and now with this latest revelation maybe the idea of returning to LIGO wasn’t such a great one.
“Are our, ah, parents, ah…”
“How is my Dad and Tarch’s Mom involved?” interrupted Julia. “What do they know? Are they part of this charade?”
“I’m sorry Julia, I don’t know,” replied Fred. He appeared to be sincere but who knew? Everything he and Barney told us could be a lie. “We’re only aware of Dr. Stevens, Ms. Flanigan and Dr. Matthis. We don’t know who their contacts are, so it would be imprudent to speculate.” He glanced at Barney who nodded in agreement.
“Well, we have a change of plans,” announced Julia assertively. Barney and Fred exchanged nonplussed glances with each other; I also wondered what she was thinking. “We’re not going to LIGO. Instead we’re stopping at a CVS or Walgreens, it really doesn’t matter which one, to buy two cellphones. The ones for ten dollars that can’t be traced. And we’re going to make two phone calls,” she continued, “one to my Mom and the other to Tarch’s Dad.” I must have looked puzzled because she added, “If my Dad and your Mom are involved it’s possible that your Dad and my Mom don’t know the details,” she said smugly.
I bit my lip and nodded. This was not going to be a nice day. All I wanted was to play hockey, score the winning goal and make passionate love to her.
“Tarch, you there?” she asked sharply, jolting me from my reverie.
“What? Of course,” I replied emphatically. I started to sweat a bit and turned toward Fred and Barney. “Where’s the nearest drug store?” We were on highway eighty-two, about an hour from LIGO.
“There’s a Walgreens in Kennewick on Route three ninety-five,” replied Barney. “Actually, the next exit is three ninety-five and the store is about a half hour from where we are now.”
“That’s the closest one?” I asked.
“It’s the only one I know.” He turned to Fred. “You know of any other?” Fred shook his head.
“Okay, that’s where we’re heading,” stated Julia. She started the car and we were on our way.

Surprisingly the cellphones were fully charged and we made our calls inside the car in the parking lot of Walgreens.
“Mom?” asked Julia. There was a pause and Julia’s eyes started to well with tears. “Yes, it’s me. I’m okay, really. Tarch is here with me and he’s fine too; he’s making a call to his Dad in a minute or so.”
“Hi Mrs. B.,” I stated loudly enough so she could hear me. “We’re fine.” Julia smiled at me and licked her lips seductively. Damn.
“I can’t tell you that right now,” stated Julia to her Mom. “We’re trying to figure out where we can go to be sure we’re not followed. Did you receive the message from the people who captured us?” She paused as her Mom spoke. “And where’s it being delivered?” She must have been referring to the black paint. “Where do they want us to meet?” She cupped the phone and told me that a drone would be retrieving the paint and the timing was contingent on us simultaneously meeting with the operatives.
She turned to Fred and Barney. “Do you know where the Red Lion Hotel is in Pasco?”
“Yeah, it’s about ten minutes from here,” replied Fred.
“We’ll be there,” she told her Mom. “In an hour or so.” Her eyes started to fill with tears again. “I love you Mom. I will. And soon we’ll be home.” She kissed the phone and ended the call, wiping her eyes afterwards.
“I had to say an hour,” she admitted, “because I didn’t want them to find our location. Ten minutes away is too easy for them to find us.”
I nodded. “Good thinking.” I reached for her hands and held them in mine. “You okay?”
She smiled wryly and pursed her lips. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She inhaled and exhaled. “It was good to hear her voice.” She leaned toward me, kissed my lips and whispered in my ear, “I love you Tarch.” Fred and Barney seemed to blush.
“What about us?” asked Barney.
I turned around and faced them. “What do you mean, ‘what about us’?”
“Are you going to take us with you or are you going to let us go?”
“Why would we let you go? First, you two were dumb enough to get involved with this mess and you have to figure a way out of it. You’re smart and should be able to do that,” I stated sarcastically. “And second, since the ‘operatives’ know that we’re in the general area of LIGO, how do we know that this whole flight and driving in a car without a GPS wasn’t planned?”
“How do we know that you can be trusted?” added Julia.
They both shook their heads.
“I don’t know how we can convince you of our sincerity,” replied Fred. “And, we may be smart but we’re not invulnerable.” There was fear in his eyes. “Or heroic. If you deliver us to them we don’t have a chance of making it out of here with our freedom.”
Barney shook his head and his eyes looked above for what seemed to be an answer. “They’ll twist the whole thing around and lay the blame directly at our feet. We’ll wind up in Leavenworth.”
“Or shoot ourselves in the back of our heads,” added Fred. He searched for my eyes and pleaded with me; Barney found Julia’s eyes. “We told you, we’re pawns in this game. Expendable pawns. And the people at the top don’t take any prisoners.”
“And other than the three you mentioned, you don’t know of any others, right?” I asked.
“No, we don’t,” answered Fred. “Those are our contacts.”
“So how do you know there are other operatives?” charged Julia. Her tears were gone, replaced with fire.
“Because they’ve talked to us over the phone. We never saw them, so we don’t know how many there are; we’ve spoken to only a few,” explained Barney.”
“And I suppose you don’t know their names?” I asked. This cat and mouse game was starting to get stale.
“No, I don’t,” replied Barney.
“Me neither,” added Fred. “But, they made it crystal clear that we were to take directions only from Robert, Patricia and Russel. We were told to follow their orders and not question anything they said.”
“What’s in it for you?” I questioned.
Fred and Barney turned toward each other and then faced us.
“A million dollars each,” said Fred sadly.
“That’s it?” asked Julia; she sounded astonished. Or annoyed. Or mad.
Barney nodded.
“You gave up your careers for a million bucks? Not to mention the penalty you’ll be paying for kidnapping,” she added.
“There was no kidnap…”
“Stop it!” she yelled. “You can call it whatever you want but in a court of law it’s kidnapping.” The veins in her neck protruded through her flushed skin. “You two are pathetic, you know? Tell me one good reason why we shouldn’t just leave you here in the middle of the parking lot,” she challenged them, staring into their eyes.
“We treated you and Tarch with respect and dignity,” replied Fred. “We weren’t the masterminds of the plan.”
“That’s for sure,” she scoffed, sarcastically.
“Look Julia, we screwed up, plain and simple,” explained Barney. “And we’re sorry, at least I am.”
Fred nodded. “Same here,” he remarked and lowered his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Because you feel remorse or because we tied you up?” I retorted.
He shrugged his shoulders and his face drooped. “A little of each,” he admitted. Then he looked directly into my eyes. “But I did feel bad, Tarch. I really did. Truthfully, I don’t know if I would have had the same remorse if I was in the front seat and you were here, in fact I wouldn’t have, but, I still had some.” He tilted his head. “I’m not sure if I can be more honest than that.”
Now he was either telling the truth or he was a great actor, and I was surprised because discerning the difference between the truth and a lie was my forte. It was a bit unsettling that I didn’t have that insight with him, and perhaps that should have been a clue. But I missed it and I don’t know why. I glanced at Julia and she raised her eyebrows; obviously she felt the same.
“Why don’t you call you Dad?” she asked. We were at an impasse and it was a great time for a break.
“Right, good idea. If they haven’t taken it from him.” Julia nodded almost imperceptivity.
I picked up the other phone and called Dad. He already knew that Mrs. B. and Julia talked and said that he and Mr. B. were at LIGO, which was about a half hour from the hotel.
“We’re fine Dad. Really. They’ve treated us well.” I turned to Julia and she smiled. Seductively. “How about you, everything okay on your end?” There was a bit of uncertainty in his voice, but it could easily have been due to his concern for us. Or maybe he and Mr. B. were being monitored, or even held captives.
“How’s Julia?”
“She’s right here,” I turned to Julia. “Your Dad wants to know that you’re okay,” I said.
“Hi Dad, I’m fine. We’re fine. See you soon.”
“Your Dad says he loves you,” I told her.
“I love you too Dad and we’ll see you soon,” she called out.
“We have to get going if we’re going to meet you in an hour,” I told Dad. Actually, I was concerned that the phone could be traced, even though it was advertised as untraceable, and I didn’t want to have our destination revealed. “You take care of yourself. I love you,” I told him and ended the call.
I turned toward Julia and told her that we should ditch these phones and buy two more. “Who knows if they’re traceable or not?”
She nodded, returned to the store, purchased two more phones and returned to the car.
“What about Barney and Fred?” she asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m not sure.”
“Let’s keep them with us for a while, okay?’
“Yes, I agree.” They both smiled and I threw the used phones into the large green trash container in the back of the strip mall as we left the parking lot. I felt badly that the batteries in the phones wouldn’t make it to the recycling center.