It's a Secret

Prompt: Start your story with one character making a vow that they never would have a year before.

It’s a Secret   

Cheryl Marita

   Rudy laughed at his reflection in the tiny mirror in the men’s bathroom. He didn’t even recognize himself after six months on Kwajalein Atoll Air Base.

   “Hey man, even with the sixty-hour weeks, you still show some island sun.”

   He enjoyed the warm, clear water. An escape from data, an escape from his broken heart that pushed him to jump at the chance his Apple boss dropped in his email one Friday afternoon. Pictures of the beautiful coral reef surrounding the Marshall Islands. Pictures that gave him hope after Raven moved out, slamming the door on his hand and his ego. Six years, then she left him for another woman. Rudy didn’t know what to think.

    He also didn’t know he’d be a one-man show on the project. It was a clandestine program, short term, tracking GPS users to help with the pandemic. A private investor – unnamed, of course – set the government up financially to track Covid carriers. Kwajalein was chosen because it was remote and had the required infrastructure. Rudy went for the remote aspect: fish and flowers were more his speed than Cupertino and people. He needed beauty to heal his heart.

    That was six months ago; now, the data was boring but the beaches still bloomed with wonderful flowers. There was one data outlier that he couldn’t figure out, and he needed to conquer it. Somehow, once he figured it out, he’d have himself figured out too.

    The outlier wasn’t consistent, didn’t follow any of the rules he’d created for tracking urban vs. rural, or individual country dynamics. It was a maverick, and it pissed him off. He prided himself on always finding a pattern, even the weirdest, but this one had him stymied. Knowing that the vaccine was in its last trials, Rudy surmised the project would be coming to an end, but he had to find the maverick. His reputation depended on it. He’d told the clandestine contact who hired him about the outlier. He’d give up a weekend dive just to immerse himself deeper into the data on his own time. Then he wouldn’t have to share the results. His own Top-Secret secret.

    Rudy did some covert research and found a contact at UAPTF. Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. Only the pentagon could come up with acronyms of five or more letters. Why not keep the old name – UFO hunters? A quick background search on his private computer (so nothing could be traced), found a woman at UAPTF.  Pepper’s Twitter account sounded like she might fit. A self-described nerd who didn’t trust anyone but her dog and her African Grey Parrot, Skittles. When she responded to Rudy’s Tweet, he got the second laugh of the day. How could she resist the words “Genius parrot lover wants to share data.” They moved from Twitter to OneOne, a text deleting app. Neither of them wanted publicity; within a few hours, they were talking.

    “Pepper, thanks for picking up the phone. I’m on a private line, untraceable. How about you?”

    “Rudy, you got me. An Android phone and OneOne! Feels like 007. What the hell do you want with me?”

    “Well, it’s pretty convoluted. I work for a secret program that’s tracing every iPhone user in the world on GPS. Supposed to help control the coronavirus, but you know how that’s going. At least Japan chipped in some cash and used the data, along with New Zealand. Anyway, that’s the boring stuff. There’s this one data point, a maverick, that’s driving me crazy. I wonder if your IT can figure out what the hell it is.”

    “Why can’t you? Aren’t you the 2018 record holder for Kaggle? Makes you one of the best coders in the world.”

     “Damn, you did your research. Fun competition, but I’m in a time crunch. The vaccine will end my post in a few months. I figured you could cut through a lot of the busy work I’d have to do. Besides, don’t you need some fun?”

    Silence on the line was a good sign. Rudy could wait. Finally, her voice broke the icy barrier. “Okay, shoot. You’re right, I’m bored. With everyone staying home, the UFO’s have stayed home too.”

    The android jarred Rudy awake. “Hell, it’s 4 am on Saturday! Who’d be calling?” Then he knew. Stupid question, Pepper was the only person with the number.

    “Rudy, mornin.’ It’s Friday and I’m off at noon, so thought I’d call you. Forgot about the time difference, exciting news.”

    “What’s up?”

    “I found the maverick. Not sure what you’re going to do with it. Not sure I know what I’m going to do with it.”

    “Shoot.”

    “Turns out it was already in our system. Been tracking it for a few years, didn’t realize it’s an iPhone.”

   “Well, who is ‘it’?”

    “Goes by the name Baba. No idea who or what it is, never caused us any problems, so we just collect the data and download it. Want the number?”

    “Sure. Can’t believe you did it!”

    “It’ll cost you. Whatever happens, we never talked but you better give me the scoop first. I need something good on my resume.”

    Rudy couldn’t go back to sleep. 1-866-726-8248. Did he dare call it? This was too easy, it must be a hoax, or the Russians. Coffee would help; then he would make the call.

    The phone only rang a couple of times before a strange sounding voice answered. Computer generated, probably. “Hi, What’s up?”

    “Um, my name is Rudy. And I…”

    He hadn’t thought through that part. Why did he call? But the voice carried on without a problem.

    “You’ve reached the North Pole. Do you have a request for Santa?”

    “Uh, no, but I have a request for you. I’ve been tracking your iPhone for a while. Seems like you travel quite a bit, year-round.”

    Now it was the voice’s turn to be silent. Rudy could hear some papers shuffling and a strange breathing sound. Finally, the voice came back on the phone.

    “The phone was supposed to have a tracker block on it, looks like that didn’t work out. But it’s time anyway.”

    “Time for what?”

     “You say your name’s Rudy? You can call me Baba. Got any breakfast?”

     “Um, coffee and cinnamon rolls from yesterday. Why?”

     “I’ll be right over.”

       Baba didn’t stay long, as when he arrived, Rudy fainted, as Baba hoped. Seeing a tall, green alien standing at the door was a bit much. When Rudy came to, the cinnamon rolls were gone and in their place was a plate of Christmas cookies and a letter.

Rudy, hope you can keep a secret.

      I arrived about 1000 years ago, left behind when my starship crashed. Humans were desperate. I heard about Santa Claus, so decided to help him out. Never did get to meet the guy, lots of impersonators though. Anyway, I’ve been helping humans ever since, used to read the letters kids wrote and left at the post office, but now, no one writes letters anymore, so I got the iPhone instead.

Did you figure out my number? 1-866-SANTA4U.

Love it! Worked pretty well for a few years, never got caught until now.

Think it’s because I’m winding down. My species lives about 1000 earth years, and I want to go home to evaporate. There’s a starship waiting for me, but I worried about who would answer the phone. Then you called, and I knew my worries were over. The phone is yours! Hope you have fun playing Santa. Maybe Pepper can help!” 

Good Luck,

Baba