by Bob Blink
"Do you think that's the case?" Jessie asked, joining the threesome. "The list is kind of odd. Both Jerry and Bud Johnson are also on the list. Agent Burrows would know that Jerry was killed by Monica and he talked with Johnson and knows he isn't one of us."
"Do you think Jerry is really gone?" Steph asked. "We saw Johnson killed, and Monica vanished from her FBI holding cell. Somehow both showed up again."
"I don't know what's going on," Mark admitted, "but I wonder if all this is out of Burrows' control. We'll have to see if he messages us. I agree that Johnson's inclusion is pretty odd though."
"Hasn't sent us anything yet," Jessie said through a mouthful of food. "I just checked the site. There's nothing there."
"I think whatever happened to Burrows' partner has caused him to turn on us," Glen said unhappily. "I thought we had a path out of all this, but now it seems we are in a worse situation than ever."
"Do you think they believe Burrows was helping us?" Steph asked. "It sounded like whoever was investigating his partner's killing suspected Burrows of something. Maybe none of this is his doing?"
"Whoever is behind it, our activities are really going to be restricted," Jessie pointed out. "Every cop in the country will have our faces in their watch books, and they don't like cop killers. Killing an FBI agent is the same thing, if not worse, and that's what the FBI has us signed up for according to the news reports."
"So what can we do?" Glen asked.
"Perhaps we should take some time to think about that," Mark suggested. "We are safe enough here, and maybe we'll hear something by morning."
The abrupt change in plans had left them all uncertain, but they'd each harbored the belief that Agent Burrows would do something to pave the way for them to come in safely, and that instructions would be waiting for them when they checked. None had expected to find themselves on the FBI's most wanted list, although something must have fueled doubts as they'd driven a considerable distance from the city.
"After this betrayal, I'm not certain I'd be willing to go in if he contacts us and suggests we do that," Glen said a bit heatedly. "He's had time to let us know what this is all about. I think he's covering his own ass."
"I have a couple of fellow agents I think I can trust," Jessie said. "I'll have to think on how we might contact them covertly under our current circumstance. Maybe we can get help that way, or at least some insight as to what is going on. But I agree, if we don't hear by morning, I think we have to assume we are on our own once again."
"Burrows posted a message for us on my site," Jessie said when they gathered early the next morning.
"And?" Glen asked suspiciously. "I'll bet he has suggested we turn ourselves in."
"Actually not," Jessie said. "He actually suggested we find a place to lie low for a bit. Warns we could be shot on sight by over-eager types. Here, let me read what he wrote. I printed it out."
By now I assume you have seen the news. I'm sorry about what has happened, but the situation here in Washington has become complicated with my partner's death. I have been assigned a new temporary partner, a senior agent named Max Geller. He is well connected within the Bureau, and friends with both my immediate boss and the FBI Director. That means his opinion and directions carry a lot of weight. He has taken charge of the case, and the actions you are seeing are the direct result of his beliefs.
Geller is convinced that all of you were involved in some conspiracy, and that for reasons yet to be determined there was a falling out among you. This is based entirely on circumstance, a bad precedent for the Bureau and such a senior agent. Perhaps he is being directed by higher ups who have a political agenda to satisfy. In Max's view, Bud Johnson and Mark Wilson were most likely the leaders of the group, and Johnson's faked death was the start of the breakup. Pam Chou was killed to keep her silent. I know this isn't at all in line with what we discussed, but at the moment I have reasons not to push hard on the truth. Max isn't ready to hear that anyway. Perhaps after he has spent more time looking into events.
Bud Johnson has disappeared. It appears to have happened just after I spoke with him, so my visit must have worried him in some way. Geller has taken that as a clear sign the man is heavily involved in events, and more than likely the one who killed my partner. Him and Jerry Marshal. He has no evidence or belief that Monica somehow killed Marshal. You can see how this is all going. People are trying to fit events into a pattern they are comfortable with. The oddities of the case are being pushed aside.
It's going to take some time to resolve some of this and set things on a course that is properly focused. For you to come in at the moment is not only dangerous, but likely to cut short any meaningful investigation I might hope to initiate. I urge you to find some place safe and stay hidden for the immediate future. Don't tell me where. That puts both of us at risk.
There is another matter I hesitate revealing to you. I haven't spoken as yet to anyone in the Bureau about this. My partner had hidden away a document in a location known only to him and me. It is the autopsies performed on both of your former companions. These were carried out by two separate Medical Examiners, but both show the same oddity. Pam Chou and Monica Parker both had a small, but very obvious node attached to the lower area of their brain, close to where the brain connects to the spinal chord. The function or cause of this is unknown, and I can find no reference to anything similar in the literature. Strange as this is, even more disturbing is the fact the official autopsy reports in the FBI evidence system have no mention of this oddity. It has somehow been purged from the report, my belief by someone after the M.E. filed the document. I cannot imagine this happening, or how it could be done without a notation the document has been altered. This suggests further that someone here, within the Bureau, is somehow aware and involved in the events that have turned your lives upside-down.
You can see how this event further suggests you find safety elsewhere until the matter is resolved. I promise to continue to work the matter, and will keep you informed as best I am able. This could take some time, so wherever you go, take care to find some place where you feel safe for at least a week or two.
"Wow," Stephanie said when Jessie had finished reading the posting.
"Agent Burrows is likely in as much danger as we are," Mark said. "If anyone finds out he knows about us, then he could meet the same fate as his partner."
"He already indicated he might have been targeted along with him," Stephanie reminded them. "I hope he is careful. Without him, we have nowhere to go."
"I'm not certain we are any better off either way," Glen said. "Someone pretty powerful, and clearly connected in Washington wants us silenced. They aren't going to give up, and we have no means of even finding out who they are."
"Aliens," Mark said, surprised to hear the words come out of his mouth.
"Oh come on," Glen said, immediately disgusted.
Mark shook his head, as if agreeing with the other.
"That's how I reacted when Fred brought the idea up the other day. But ever since then I've been thinking about it. It would answer a lot of the things we haven't been able to make sense of."
"Such as?" Steph asked.
"The weapon and the vanishing of people to start," Mark said. "That could be a technology that we don't have, but some alien group uses regularly.
"And the bodies," Jessie said. "They might have some rapid cloning ability."
"And the ability to control what thought or memories are input into the brain," Steph said, picking up the idea. "They'd need that and it might explain how Johnson had the mixed set of memories he displayed when Jessie talked with him."
"How so?" Mark asked.
Steph shrugged. "I always came out of those meetings feeling like my brain had been scrubbed. Maybe it had. Suppose they somehow downloaded our memories while we were there, replaced them with directions or a modified set and then sent us out. It might explain why I never had any memory of what happened while at that place. As for Johnson, according to Jessi
e, he recalled everything that happened the morning of the meeting, but nothing about afterwards. What if, after he was killed and vaporized, these aliens quick-cloned a replacement, and installed the memories they copied at the meeting, putting him back in his home. At that time they might not have realized we all knew about what happened to him, or hoped our mental programming would keep us from thinking about it. Maybe they planned to control our memories of events via the audio command files in the phones that Mark's friend found."
"That's nuts," Glen said.
"No, wait," Jessie argued. "That would explain why he had no recall of the events that night. They programmed his memory to recall what normally happened when Johnson left those meetings, but that wasn't the case this time. It would fit."
"And they could have altered his recall again after you met with him, so when Burrows interviewed the Johnson clone, he denied ever having been in D.C."
"You guys are taking this too far," Glen complained. "What would aliens want, even taking the impossible leap to accept they exist, with us?"
No one had an answer for that.
"I don't know," Steph said in a subdued voice, but suddenly I'm really scared."
"Scared of what?"
"The autopsy," she said.
Glen was the first to see her meaning.
"Damn it," he swore. "Both Monica and Pam had that abnormal lump on their brains. That kind of suggests that we must also. Why would it only be those two out of all of us that were regulars at those sessions?"
"They altered our brains?" Jessie asked, unusually slow this time.
"We're clones," Mark said glumly, seeing the likely truth. "Whatever they are using us for, we are almost certainly copies of the real people they took us from, and those sessions are a means to deprogram us and install new tasks in our subconscious for the next couple of months."
All of them had been suspicious and concerned about the oddness of their lives and memories, but none were prepared for Mark's insight. If true, it held a horrible gem of truth that they didn't wish to accept.
"We aren't planning on fighting the FBI, are we?" Steph asked as they sat around the overly large table having breakfast.
Glen had mixed up some of the powdered egg mix to make surprisingly palatable scrambled eggs, offset by the slabs of Spam that he'd fried up. Mark had always hated the canned pseudo-meat and was surprised he found the breakfast so satisfying, and wondered if his sense of taste had gone out the window upon learning he might just be an alien clone taking the place of someone who'd most likely been eliminated some time ago. Maybe it was the all important mug of coffee that made it work together.
"That's not our plan," Jessie informed the engineer. "What makes you ask?"
"Yesterday you stocked up on ammunition, and now the news shows us as being the top fugitives in the country. I was wondering what we do if somehow they find us."
"There's others after us," Mark reminded her. "Someone killed Pam, and it's likely we are on some kind of kill list. It is impossible to say just how many might be after us."
"Yeah, aliens," Glen mumbled sourly. He hadn't taken lightly the possibility that they were creations of some alien race tasked with some yet to be discovered role that almost certainly wasn't in the best interests of mankind. He'd been concerned enough when he thought he might be some mind-controlled automaton for a foreign power, but the current discussions had driven him into a bit of a funk.
"Maybe more like us, or even guns for hire," Jessie said. "We don't know how this all might work, and don't forget, this alien stuff is still just theory at this point."
"But it kinda fits, you know," Steph said softly, earning her a scowl from Glen. She glared back, then added, "Are we going to tell Burrows we think aliens are behind these events and we are some kind of cloned agent they have created?" she asked. "I don't see that helping our case much?"
"Our relationship with Agent Burrows is complicated enough just now. I think any such thoughts should not be shared with him for now," Mark replied. "We aren't even certain he remains a partial ally. What reason would he have to help us if he thought we were tools of some invading force?"
"Not much of an invasion," Jessie noted.
"Why would they need human-like clones in the first place?" Glen asked.
"Assuming this is real, who knows what they look like and how they function, Mark replied. "The group here might be advance scouts who are tasked with learning about humans and our capabilities. Think about the organizations we represent. Our knowledge and contacts would provide an information rich environment for such a group."
"Worse traitors than we thought," Steph groaned.
"If any of this is true, not something we could control," Jessie said. "But we seem to have most, if not all, of our free will. Without the phones and whatever was programmed into them, we seem to be able to operate normally. Perhaps we have a chance to turn this around on them."
"And what are our long term futures?" Glen asked. "When we don't report back at some point, are we programmed to go up in smoke like the Bud Johnson we knew?"
That was a sobering thought none of them wanted to consider.
"Until we have some kind of medical scans to show we have that strange node on our brains, I'm going to assume we might still be normal humans somehow impressed into someone's service," Mark said. "Given that, what do we do about Burrows' message, and what are our near-term plans?"
"We need to leave a reply," Steph answered. "Tell him we are safe but not where we have gone. We can wait and see what develops with him and this new partner of his. I am also curious what he learns about the new Johnson who has now disappeared."
"Let's just sit tight today," Jessie suggested. "Burrows needs time, and I'm hoping Mark can use some of his NSA skills to help me contact a couple of fellow Homeland agents who I believe I can trust to help."
"How are they going to help?" Glen asked. "What would you have them do?"
"I don't know for certain, but we haven't come up with any good ideas. We need more minds working this, and people who are not on the run and forced to operate without proper tools."
"Are you going to tell them we believe aliens might be at work here?"
"I don't know," Jessie admitted. "Perhaps given the information and events, they might come to that conclusion themselves. They might be able to locate others like us and, by monitoring them, find out who or what is controlling them."
"It might be easier to find others, if we know what is being sought," Mark suggested. "More help might be useful, so long as they really can be trusted."
A still visibly uncomfortable Glen spoke up. "It seems to me that if we are being used as we suspect, there might be reason those behind this can't show up just anywhere. We know they were at the meeting place. That's where they appear to work their will on us, probably using some weird equipment that made those marks you and Jessie found. We think they had to be at the Bureau headquarters, because they busted Monica out of the place. So what's common to those two places?"
Glen may have been unhappy about what he was learning about himself, but he was clearly starting to think again.
"Of course, the Bureau thing might have been an insider job. If there are more like us, maybe there is someone inside the FBI," he added.
"Duke's murder," Steph said seeing where Glen was going.
"Quite possible," Jessie concluded. "Mark and I are from other government agencies, why not the FBI?"
"Burrows might be in more danger than he realizes," Mark said. "We have to consider whether we raise the idea to him."
"That can wait. We need to make preparations. Mark, I need you to help me make contact with my friends. It has to be through the Internet, but covertly. We need their thoughts and manpower. I know this won't make any of you happy, the best way to find whoever is behind all this is to use ourselves as bait, and arrange a trap. We'll need help for that."
"We could use more weaponry if we are thinking that way," Mark said.
"If we get to my friends, they can supply whatever we need."
"I need someone to show me how to shoot," Steph said, surprising herself. Mark had offered her his small 9mm, but she'd declined, fearful of guns and not knowing how to use it.
"I can give her some basic training," Glen said. "All but actual shooting. Not sure if we should risk bringing attention that someone is here in this camp."
"Let's get started," Jessie suggested. "I'll send off a message to Burrows, and then Mark and I can get to work. Glen, you work with Steph for now."
Chapter 26
Three Days Later
They were headed back toward Washington, still using the Jeep which they were reasonably certain Burrows hadn't put on any watch lists. They had altered their wardrobe using the clothes that the women had purchased, and made some cosmetic changes to their appearances. Even so, they kept careful watch as they traveled for anything that might suggest they were detected. After several days without any real progress on the part of Burrows and his partner, Jessie had decided it was time to take action on her own. She had successfully contacted her trusted fellow agents, and they wanted to meet. Despite suggesting that Steph might want to wait out this trip safe in the summer camp, they were all making the journey.
"I'd go nuts staying there alone, and be scared every minute," Steph said, when the suggestion had been made. "And what would I do if you get caught?"
"We don't know who or what we are going to run into," Jessie warned. "There is likely to be shooting at some point. You haven't exactly been trained for combat."
Steph was carrying the 9mm that Mark had passed to her and which Glen had spent some time showing her how to use along with specific instructions on how to approach any situation that might require her to do so. He'd made it abundantly clear that she was unskilled and unpracticed, and should keep that in mind at all times. The other three had all experienced fighting situations and would be a little better prepared for what they might encounter.