Advanced Covert EngagementsSection (A.C.E.S.) is the U.S. based chapter of an uber secret multinational task-force of the United Nations. Originally conceptualized to be the C.I.A. and Department of Homeland Security’s answer to the legendary SEAL Team 6; it has evolved into something else.
Purportedly staffed by selected individuals of the Armed Forces and the N.S.A. it is the alleged new operational arm of Project: White-Rabbit, a Department of Homeland Security terrorist eradication initiative. However it is believed that Project: White-Rabbit is in fact, an adapted successor program to the USAF’s infamous Project Blue Book.
Although secretly sanctioned by N.A.T.O. according to de-classified official reports, neither the A.C.E.S. nor Project White Rabbit exist.
It is believed that the uncertainty surrounding the existence of such a task-force enhances its effectiveness and operational potential.
The good- They have access to the most advanced technology that money can buy.
The bad – that technology is usually highly dangerous, experimental weaponry, equipment and vehicles made by the lowest bidder.
The ugly- No Intel. Bad-Intel. They always go in first. Always.
They are the tip of the spear.
They are expendable…
Chapter 1
April 14th 2021
1045 hours
Stanford University
California
Have you ever seen a James Bond movie? You know the part where Bond gets to the bad-guy’s hide-out and there are tons of bad guys there waiting. So he calls in the cavalry and about fifty or so nameless and face-less good-guys show up. And while they battle the bad-guy’s army of goons James Bond makes off, kills the bad-guy and runs off with the girl. Well, I’ve been one of those nameless and face-less guys… a mere cog in a giant wheel of misfortune. ……
….At the time, it all seemed a simple enough assignment; at least on paper. Ox, Cougar and my-self were assigned to ‘invite’ and escort a professor Edward J. Schuller from his offices at Stanford University. Schuller was a multi- discipline child-prodigy whose radical theories on laminar flow technology revolutionised deep-sea submersibles design and made him famous in the process. According to his bio he was once touted as this century’s Albert Einstein until he fell out of favor with the scientific community preferring now to focus on Global Climate Change and other personal pursuits.
The most recent addition to the team, I felt like the odd-man out among the more experienced operatives. That, and the fact that Cougar seemed to be assessing my every move made me more uncomfortable about my “provisional” status on the team; but nevertheless I was still pleased that my first mission with the A.C.E.S. Unit would be a proverbial “cake-walk.”
Having arrived forty-five minutes ahead of our scheduled meeting with the Professor we left the black Audi A-12 in the University’s parking lot and went in search of the Professor.We found the professor in the middle of a lecture. Ox took up position at the main door to the lecture hall while Cougar and I took up two empty seats, among the students, on opposite ends of the lecture hall.
Graying at the temples, Edward Schuller had just turned forty, a scrawny shell of a man, glasses and all. Even-though his hair was slightly tousled and clothes un-ironed the professor stood at the lectern with all the practiced confidence and arrogance that came with academic over-achievement. And then-some.
“On earth all energy is derived from the sun’s light. As you know, it gets hot outside if the sun is shining brightly on a summer day. The reason it warms up is because the earth is absorbing some of that solar energy.
However, not all of the energy is absorbed. Some energy is reflected back into space in the form of light. This reflection allows the earth to be seen as a star from other parts of our solar system, just like we can see the moon and other planets. Energy also leaves the earth in other forms like heat, for example, which is called infrared light.
In order for our earth to stay the same temperature from year to year, the energy arriving at the earth - solar radiation - must be the same as the energy leaving the earth - infrared radiation. If we have more energy leaving than arriving, the earth will cool down and we could have another ice age. If we have more energy arriving than leaving, we will have global warming.
The reason the earth retains more energy than it gives off has to do with the air around us and what it is made of. When we burn wood, coal, or gasoline in our cars, carbon dioxide (CO2), is released. Carbon dioxide is a gas that can’t be seen or smelled, but it does trap some of the infrared energy emitted from the Earth and prevents that energy from going back out into space. If the amount of CO2 in the air goes up, the earth will heat up; we refer to this as of global warming.
Because CO2 absorbs energy emitted from the Earth and prevents it from going back out into space, it is called a greenhouse gas. There are several other greenhouse gases. Altogether, these other gases absorb about as much infrared energy as CO2 does.
The result- shorter winter periods, longer summers, more intense drought, melting polar ice caps, higher sea levels, and modified weather patterns. Why is all this important you may ask?
Everything is inter-connected and right now we have contributed more to the problem, of climate change, in the last hundred years than at any other point in our entire history. In short, boys and girls, as far as the planet’s eco-system is concerned - we are the weakest link. In fact some scientists believe that we are witnessing, albeit in slow motion in geological terms, the first part of a human triggered ‘extinction-level’ event; an event that will wipe out all life and change the planet as we know it…”
As the professor droned on I couldn’t help but notice how attractive Cougar looked in her black and white ensemble. Even-though we all wore black-suits with white shirts and black ties, Catherine ‘Cougar’ Dowling looked more like a runway-model in her black ladies pant-suit and dark sun-glasses. Her raven-black hair neatly pulled back into a shoulder-length pony-tail. Her facial features were soft and exquisitely feminine. This was one of the few times I’d seen her face not smeared with black and green camo-paint.
She looked at me and smiled. On the inside I melted like a ten year old school-boy with a crush on his teen-age baby-sitter.
I smiled back, shyly.
She frowned and discreetly tapped her ear with a slender finger. Embarrassed, I switched on my short-range radio ear-piece.
“Sorry, Cougar I….,” I stuttered lamely as she cut me off.
“What’re you doing? We’re on the clock here. Remember?” her prim and proper New-England accent ripe with irritation.
“Quit the chatter you two,” Ox chimed in. “Status?”
‘Ox,’ was short for Oxford University; his almamater. Ox was a West-point graduate with a 180 I.Q. and was built like a tank. He was second in command of our squad and was a surgeon with a M249 S.A.W.
“It looks like the Professor is winding up now,” Cougar replied.
