by Ken Warner
Moving back across the cavern, she kept looking out for someone to step out from the shadows, but no one appeared. She made it back to the path and headed down into the valley.
As she reached the bottom, she ran into Miguel.
“Thank God,” he said. “I didn’t see you come out, so I was heading in to find you. Who was there?”
“Nobody,” she said with a sigh.
“Nobody?”
“The path led to an underground cavern, and the coordinates were right in the middle of that. But there was nobody there. I wanted to try finding a way to the same spot above the ground, but I think I’ll have Brian check his live satellite feed instead. I want to get out of here.”
Sydney still had no cell service, but once they returned to the parking lot, she made the call. She told Brian what had happened.
“Got it,” he said. “Hang on a moment. Okay, I’ve got the coordinates on my screen now. I don’t see anyone. Not on infrared, either.”
Sydney’s phone chimed. She had a notification that there was a message waiting for her on the encrypted e-mail service. Opening the app, she found one message from C.B. again.
“I said alone. You have one more chance. I’ll be in touch.”
She read the message to Miguel and Brian.
“C.B. must be nearby somewhere,” said Miguel. “He knew I was here!”
“Or he has satellite access like Brian,” Sydney pointed out. “Either way, we’re done here. Let’s go.”
She hung up with Brian, and they drove back to Kansas. In the morning, she found she had another message from C.B. It was another set of coordinates in Colorado, and the time indicated was two in the morning again, in two days.
“Alone this time. Last chance.”
Sydney entered the new coordinates into the maps app on her phone. It was a three-story brick building in downtown Colorado Springs. Dropping into street-view, it looked like an office building. There was a bank on the ground level—or, at least, there had been when the street-view photos had been taken.
She called Brian to relay the new information.
“I feel much less comfortable with this knowing that there won’t be anyone nearby to back you up,” said Brian.
Sydney replied the same way she had to Miguel. “If this C.B. person wanted to hurt me, they could do it at any time. This motel isn’t exactly like the ranch when it comes to security.”
“Point taken, but I still don’t like it.”
Two days later, Sydney made the drive over to Colorado alone. She arrived at the coordinates and drove past the building she’d seen from her phone. It was still about twenty minutes before two o’clock, and the streets were empty. She turned at the next intersection and parked on the road.
Once she’d locked the car, she texted Miguel and Brian to let them know she had arrived and walked around the corner to the office building. She had no idea where in the building she was supposed to go or how she’d be able to get inside. It looked like the bank had taken up the entire ground floor but had closed since the street-view photos were taken. She found the entrance for the upper levels and tried the door. It was locked. She circled the building and found a couple of other entries in the back—these were locked, too.
Returning to the front, she tried the main entry for the bank area—it was open. Looking up and down the street to make sure there was nobody around, she slipped inside.
It was dark here; the street lights shining through the windows provide the only light. She walked around the lobby and behind the counter but found nobody here. Moving into the back room, she saw a light coming from somewhere farther inside. She made her way over to it and found the basement steps—that was where the light was coming from.
Sydney proceeded slowly down the steps.
“Here we go again,” she muttered to herself.
At the bottom, she saw the light was coming from the front corner of the building. She made her way across the basement. Near the light, she found the vault, which was also lit. But there was nobody here.
“Hello,” she called out, turning about to scan the area.
“Good evening, Ms. Hastings,” said a voice behind her.
She turned quickly. Someone stepped out from the shadows.
“Babcock!” she said, immediately recognizing the CIA agent. “What the hell do you want with me? What’s with all this cloak and dagger bullshit?”
“That mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble one day,” he said with a smirk.
“Go to hell. What do you want?”
“Into the vault,” he said.
“Yeah, right. What, are you going to lock me in there?”
He rolled his eyes and moved inside the vault himself. Sydney followed him.
“Pull the door shut,” he said.
“That won’t lock us in here…?” she asked.
He said nothing.
Sydney pulled the door closed.
“What is the point of coming in here?”
“We can’t be tracked in here, and there’s no chance of electronic surveillance.”
“What?”
“These walls provide a very effective shield against electromagnetic radiation.”
Sydney pulled out her phone. She had no signal.
“Okay. Now, what is this all about?”
“I want to warn you to stop sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
“You know very well what it means,” he said. “The UFOs. The abductions. Your investigation has not gone unnoticed. There are players on the board here, forces at work, about which you have no idea. You’re getting in way over your head.”
“So, what? They’re going to kill me? That’s what they do, right? The man in black? Tell me, does he work for the CIA, too?”
Babcock stared at her for a moment, saying nothing. Sydney turned to leave.
“Thanks for wasting my time,” she said.
“They won’t kill you,” he said. “Not anymore. It will be far worse than that.”
She rounded on him, about to scream in his face, but stopped when he saw his expression—one of genuine concern. And his voice was different now—gone was his usual sardonic tone.
“What?”
“The man in black does not work for the CIA.”
“Then who does he work for?”
He shook his head.
“I was like you, once upon a time. The man in black showed up, trying to dig up information about our, ah, project. He got away, but I couldn’t just let him go. I should have dropped it, but I stayed on him. I went deeper and deeper down that rabbit hole. And one day, I found I could no longer get out.”
“Wait a minute,” she said. “Hold on. You’re telling the man in black knew about Jaden and Malia? What did he want with them?”
Babcock said nothing.
“He wanted them for the same reason you did, right? For their powers? To make them into weapons?”
“They are weapons.”
“Who is the man in black working for? If it’s not the CIA, is it another government agency?”
“He’s working for the same people that I am.”
“What…”
“Don’t you see it yet?” Sydney said nothing, not understanding what he was driving at. “I’m a double agent, Ms. Hastings. I have been for more years than I’d care to admit. I still work for the CIA, but I’ve been compromised.”
“By whom?”
“They threatened my son,” he said, ignoring her question. “He works in the Defense Department. When I refused to give up tracking down the man in black, despite the warnings, they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I could provide them with the information they wanted and continue providing it to them, or they would kill my son and his family.”
Sydney felt her heart sink as a wave of dread overcame her.
“Now you understand?” he said, correctly interpreting the look on her face.
“But I don’t know anything,” she said. “I don’t work for the CIA or anything—there’s nothing I do that they could possibly care about, whoever these people are. The only thing I’m doing is investigating the abductions.”
“I’ve told you everything I can,” he said.
“But there’s more?”
“I’ve risked my life to tell you this much. If they found out I was talking to you…”
“So that’s the reason for the cloak and dagger,” she said.
“Please, let it go. Don’t pursue your investigation any further before it’s too late. Walk away. Go back to nursing. Do whatever you want, but let this be.”
“Why are you telling me this? We’re sworn enemies, aren’t we?”
“You became my adversary when you took the project away from me,” he said. “But I never considered you an enemy. I was doing my job. I’d do it again. But I wouldn’t wish my predicament on anyone.
“Please, heed my warning.”
“But who…”
“I can say nothing else. And I need to get back to where I’m supposed to be before my absence is noted. Be on your way now.”
Sydney decided there was no point trying to get anything else out of him—he’d told her everything he’d come to tell her.
She opened the vault door, made her way back up the stairs, and out of the building. Back at her car, she called Brian and told him about her meeting.
“This is… remarkable,” he said. “I’m having a little trouble processing this. What do you think?”
“I believe him,” she said. “You should have heard him—he dropped his guard with me, at least to a point. His usual acerbic manner was gone. When he told me about his son… Brian, I thought he was going to cry for a second there. Whoever these people are that he’s working for, they’ve got him by the balls.”
“And so, what do we do now?”
“We keep going,” she said. “I don’t think this changes a thing. They wanted Babcock because of his connection to Jaden and Malia. Who knows how they found out about them, but Babcock was clearly the one who could give them whatever information they wanted.
“But the twins are gone, and the government—Babcock in particular, knows everything that I do about what went down with them.”
“It could be something else, though,” said Brian. “They could have some other use for you that we’re not realizing. That certainly seems to be what Babcock believes.”
“I don’t see what it could be,” she said. “I think we should keep doing what we were doing. Speaking of which, how’s it looking for your new radar stations?”
“I’m ready to go,” he said. “We can pick up our UFO watch whenever you and Miguel are ready.”
Chapter Nineteen: Plan B
Sydney drove back to Kansas. The next night, she and Miguel went out to the Driscoll homestead to start waiting for a UFO again. Owen came out to join them, drone in hand.
“Not to be rude, or nothin’,” he said, “but what makes y’all think this is gonna end any differently than last time? As far as tracking the UFO, I mean to say?”
“We’re pretty sure we know the general area they’re bringing the abductees,” said Sydney. “My boss will have access to radar stations in that area this time, on top of the ones around here.”
“Oh, I gotcha,” Owen replied. “That’s smart.”
They stayed out till dawn, but there was no activity. Three more nights went by uneventfully. But finally, on the fifth night, a shooting star stopped and suddenly grew significantly brighter.
“I think we’ve got our first customer,” said Miguel.
“There aren’t any cars or anything nearby,” Owen observed. “I hope they ain’t coming for us!”
But at that moment, Sydney noticed headlights coming up the road.
“Look, there,” she said, pointing it out to the other two.
“He’s seen them,” said Miguel. “He’s accelerating.”
The pickup truck came into view, moving at very high speeds. Looking to the sky, they could see dark clouds gathering around the UFO as it gave chase.
Sydney called Brian.
“Hello?”
“We’ve got one,” she told him.
“I’m on it…” he replied. “I’ve got it on radar.”
As expected, the pickup truck suddenly died. The driver managed to pull over to the side of the road. He got out of the vehicle and pointed something at the UFO. Sydney heard what sounded like gunfire.
“I don’t believe it,” Miguel said with a chuckle. “He’s firing at them with a shotgun!”
“Don’t reckon that’s gonna do him any good,” said Owen.
The driver seemed to realize this himself because he dropped the gun and ran up the road. Seconds later, he turned, taking off into the cornfield.
The flying saucer continued its pursuit. Moments later, the bright spotlight appeared from the bottom of the craft. They saw the figure of the driver rising into the sky and disappearing into the UFO.
“Get ready,” Sydney said to Brian over the phone. “They’ve got their victim.”
The UFO streaked off into the sky, blindingly fast.
“They’re gone!” Sydney reported.
“Damn! I lost them again,” said Brian. “But hang on—I’m monitoring the stations in Arizona.”
They waited a few minutes, but nothing turned up in Arizona, either.
“Why don’t you guys call it a night,” Brian suggested. “There’s no way to know how long it would take them to get back to base, so I’ll keep monitoring from here.”
“Okay, boss,” said Sydney. “Keep us posted.”
They said goodnight to Owen, and Miguel dropped her off at the motel.
The moment she woke up that afternoon, she called Brian.
“Did you get anything?”
Brian let out a long sigh.
“No. I don’t understand it. There was no unusual activity anywhere near Monument Valley.”
“So, this is a dead end.”
“Yes, it would appear that way. Listen, why don’t you come home. We’ve got to put our heads together on this and come up with a Plan B. Bring Miguel if he wants to come along. Three brains are better than two.”
Sydney and Miguel met the pilot at the airport the next day and flew back to North Carolina. Back at the ranch, they sat down with Brian in the living room to decide their next move.
“If we’re right about the bunker being near Monument Valley, then how is it possible you didn’t see anything on that radar?” asked Miguel.
“There are several possibilities,” said Brian. “Kansas is so flat that it’s much easier to pick up low-flying aircraft on radar. You don’t have any canyons or mesas to get in the way. Out around Monument Valley, there is what you could call ground clutter. That clutter can block radar signals, making it impossible to see an object flying at low altitude.
“But we’re also in the dark regarding the way their propulsion and navigation systems function,” he continued. “They seem able to stop on a dime, from incredibly high speeds, for example. Or accelerate to extremely high velocities, almost instantaneously. If they were to maintain speed until the moment they arrive over the bunker, then there’s a good chance they wouldn’t show up on radar even at higher altitudes.”
“So, we could still be right about them operating near Monument Valley,” said Sydney.
“Absolutely,” said Brian. “Our inability to detect their arrival on radar does not prove or disprove anything.”
“Alright, then what do we do next?” asked Miguel.
“That is an excellent question,” said Brian. “I feel fairly confident that the alien bunker must be somewhere near Monument Valley. But it would be nearly impossible to find it in a ground search; satellite imagery of the area has not turned up anything, even in infrared; and tracking the UFO there has proved unworkable. I’m struggling to come up with another option.”
Suddenly, the answer became clear
to Sydney.
“I have to let myself be abducted again,” she said to the other two.
“I’m sorry, what?” said Miguel. “How would that help?”
“Brian, could you implant a tracking device in me, like what the aliens used?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said. “And then we could use your tracking signal to locate their bunker. Good thinking, but I think this is too dangerous.”
“Why?” she asked. “We have no evidence that they’re doing any permanent harm to the abductees. I survived my first encounter, psychological trauma aside.”
“But now we know from your meeting with Babcock that they have something special in mind for you specifically,” Brain said. “We don’t know what that might be, but it’s quite possible it would involve permanent harm!”
“It’s worth the risk,” she insisted. “And you’d know where I am, so you’d be able to rescue me if they don’t just let me go the way they did last time.”
Miguel shook his head. “This is crazy. Do you have a death wish? Babcock told you flat out that you could be in danger.”
“Okay, then what’s our other option?” she demanded. “How do we find their bunker if we don’t do this?”
Neither one of them could answer her.
“Right, exactly,” she said. “This is the only way. If you implant a tracking device in me, then you can use that to locate the bunker. What else would we need to do?”
Brian let out a long sigh.
“If we decide to pursue this,” he said, “and I’m not suggesting that we should, then I think we’d want to minimize the deleterious effects of the experience as much as possible. We should explore possible antidotes to whatever neural inhibiter they’re using, to help you retain your memories and muscle control.”
“Yes, good,” she said. “Maybe a stimulant of some kind. That way, in addition to locating the bunker, I could do a little recon while I’m there. Have a look around, and see what I can see.”
“That poses another danger, however,” Miguel said. “If they see you moving, then they’ll know you did something to counteract their drug. They might choose to punish you in some way.”
“Well, I’ll have to make sure they don’t see me move,” she said with a shrug.