Cold Spot

Part 2

      The woman sat up in her seat with a gasp.

"Are you okay?" The man looked across the aisle at her with concern.

She took a couple of deep breaths. "Yeah, just had a bad dream. Where are we?"

"Somewhere over the Mediterranean. We should be landing in less than two hours."

"Good, I'm getting tired of sitting in this plane."

"Would you like me to get you a coffee?"

"No thanks, just let me know when we're about to land." 

"Sure." The man, who had dark hair and a muscular build, glanced again at the girl across the aisle as she settled back in her seat and closed her eyes. She was tall, slim and young. No one in the organisation seemed to know her exact age, but she appeared to be in her mid-twenties. With long straight dark hair, high cheekbones and smooth skin, she could easily have been a model, or a movie star. Since she had broken up with her boyfriend about eighteen months earlier, half the single men in the organisation, and a few married ones too, had been asking her out. She was apparently very discerning because few had been successful. He had even asked her out himself, but she had politely declined.

Brad Sullivan and Tracy Hammond were the only passengers in the private jet which was on the last leg of its long journey to Britain.

***

Tracy lay back in her seat with her eyes closed and thought back to the events of a week earlier leading up to this important trip halfway around the world.
She sat in her father's comfortable office lounge at the Silver Star Research Complex in rural New South Wales, Australia.
"You look very serious, Dad," she had said, "What's happened?"

Dr Phillip Hammond, CEO of the complex looked at his daughter, "After all these years it appears that someone has developed and used Cold Spot."

Tracy sat bolt upright. "Cold Spot? Where? And how do you know?"

"It seems a small town near Manchester, England was affected two nights ago at two am for about two hours. It made the media. Luckily everyone in the town seems to have survived, and no reports of injuries. But it could have been much worse if it had happened during the daytime. A police helicopter on its way back to Manchester from York was diverted to investigate."

"Did it crash?"

"Surprisingly no. I'm guessing it may have arrived just after the event finished."

"That was lucky for them."

"As you know we have a computer watch on all news feeds, local and international. That's how I found out. I got onto our London based investigative firm to see what they could find out. I just received their initial report. The town of Helmsley includes a small military base. It didn't make the media, but apparently a storage building protected by electronic security was broken into and something which was under lock and key was stolen."

"Let me guess. The military is keeping tight lipped and won't say what it was."

"Correct. Our investigators are working on it. However, it appears someone else has a stake in this as well. Three hours ago I received an anonymous phone call. The call was put through to me because he mentioned the name Hans Ulrich."

Tracy sat forward in her seat riveted on every word. Hans Ulrich had once worked for her father, but had disappeared decades ago in England according to his son who had also disappeared just a few months ago.

Phillip Hammond continued. "This man didn't say much, just that he knew that Ulrich and I had worked together decades ago, and that Ulrich had disappeared. He claims to know who has built the device that was used on Helmsley and where it is. He also claims that Ulrich's son Steven Meyers, who we had the 'pleasure' of meeting a few months ago, is being held by these people. And he knew the name 'Cold Spot', the name Ulrich had come up with for the device."

"What else did he say?"

"He wants to meet me next week in Manchester, and he'll lead me to the device."

"I don't like the sound of that. It could a some kind of step up.. But you can't go anyway, you've got the moon flight in three days. Can you miss it?"

"Unfortunately not this time. I told the caller I'd send an associate."

"Who?"

"Brad Sullivan."

"Brad?" Tracy sounded unsure. 

Brad Sullivan was her father's investigative man. He worked directly for Phillip Hammond and was his trouble shooting expert. Whenever there was a problem of any sort, Brad was on the job. He was a 'go anywhere' person. Whether the problem was in the main complex, on the moon, or at the shuttle launch facility, Brad was equally at home. His former position at Silver Star was an engineer on the moon. He had also worked at an investigation firm in Sydney before then. Hammond had offered him the special position about a year ago when classified data had been leaking from the complex. Sullivan had investigated and caught the staff member involved. Although Tracy didn't dislike Brad, there was something about him that made her feel slightly uncomfortable when he was around. He seemed a little arrogant, a bit too sure of himself, and she didn't always like the way he looked at her. But he had her father's full trust, and he did have a habit of getting things done.

"Is there some reason why I shouldn't send him?" her father asked.

"Dad, you'll have to tell him about Cold Spot."

"I know, but I don't have any other choice. I think I can trust him."

"I have a better idea. I'll go instead. I can meet with this informant and find out if he's on the level."

"There's no way I can let you go on your own, Tracy," her father sounded concerned, "This could be dangerous, but if you're sure you want to go, Brad will still go along to be your bodyguard so to speak. He doesn't need to know exactly what Cold Spot is, just that it's a dangerous device that we need to track down and disable. Do you still want to go?"

Tracy looked at her father for a few seconds, then nodded.

"All right, if you're sure. When you get to Manchester I'll have you met by a man from the local office of the investigation firm. He'll also go with you to meet the informant. I want at least two people as your back up."

"When do we leave?"

"On Sunday in one of the company jets, flight time about nine hours."

"Only nine hours?" Tracy said puzzled, then she realised what her father meant, "Oh, we're going in the supersonic."

The organisation had four twenty five seater jets. One of them had been specially fitted out to travel at up to three times the speed of sound, the 'supersonic".