Out of Time (The Adventures of Eric and Ursula Book 4)

by A. D. Winch

  "We're already on it but we can't keep up."

  "Shut down the internet," ordered Agent Angel.

  "That's not possible."

  "Then damage it. Slow it down. Get Bernard on it and buy us some time! Operation Shutdown comes into effect as of now. Pass this order on. We'll be back on base in one minute."

  The headphones went quiet, and Agent Hoover appreciated the peace they provided. He put his head in his hands and wished he had never spied on his neighbours years ago and had never met Agent Angel. When Agent Angel next came to the surveillance room, he was sure that it would be the last time he saw him or anyone else for that matter.

  Another alert appeared on his computer. This time it was a video that had been posted under the title UFOs and OSS Secret US Base. The footage was taken from near the airport and featured the events of earlier that morning from a grandstand viewpoint. For a split second, he wondered if someone had been waiting with a camera but then other footage under different names appeared. Instead, he blamed the immediacy of mobile phones.

  Agent Hoover ignored the video and sounded an alert. 'Operation Shutdown' was underway.

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  ***

  Chapter 19 - On Enemy Soil

  The hangar was exactly as Johan had described it and identical to the plans he had saved on the flash drive. Five Raptors, an Aurora jet, two Black Hawk helicopters and a drone, were positioned in the cavernous space. Two teams of mechanics worked on the Raptors while another team attended to one of the choppers.

  A huge inflated dome was situated in one corner, and Andrea made the logical assumption that this was where the pods and dart were being kept. She looked beyond the temporary lab until she located the door that Johan had said she would have to go through. It was a blast door, and a metallic wheel protruded from the thick concrete.

  Andrea walked across the hangar. Nobody looked her way, and no security team intercepted her. She reached the door without incident, turned the wheel and went through. The passageway was thin and brightly lit by strip lights in the ceiling. According to the plans, she had to go to the end and then down two flights of steps. There was no one around, and as Andrea walked past closed doors, she heard snoring from within. Her footsteps echoed on the metal staircase, and she descended to the level she had been instructed to go to. An identical passageway to the one above stretched out in front of her. She walked along until she found the correct door. There was no indication of what lay behind it, but if the plans were correct, she was in the right place.

  The door handle did not move as Andrea pressed on it. She tried again but did not push too hard in case she broke it. Johan had told her that the OSS thought they were 'invincible' and would not expect anyone to be on the base who shouldn't be there. He told her that as long as she acted 'normally,' and was invisible to the security teams' warm body temperature sensors, nobody would suspect her.

  Andrea processed 'normally' and decided that 'normally' would not involve breaking the door down, so she knocked and waited. There was no answer, so she knocked again. From behind the door, she heard footsteps fast approaching and then the door opened. She walked in as if she owned the place.

  The room was dark, but she immediately made out that there were three flying stations and only two drone pilots. One was standing in front of Andrea; the other was at her station concentrating on the screens showing images from a flying drone.

  "The cameras on the remaining drone are being realigned to optimize their vision capabilities. Your assistance has been requested by the mechanical team ordered to carry out this task by Agent Angel," she told the man who had let her in.

  "They don't need me. They can fix them."

  "They do need you. You are a pilot. You are, therefore, able to instruct them on how to reposition them optimally."

  "But I need to stay here and support," he pointed towards the active drone pilot.

  "I will support until you return."

  "Okay, I’ll go," he said without any enthusiasm. "And what happened to your face? What's the mask for?"

  "My injury is of no relevance to you carrying out this order," Andrea replied. For a brief moment she wondered if her reply was 'normal.'

  The support pilot left, and Andrea locked the door. The drone pilot had not looked up from her screens. Andrea approached and stood behind her.

  Three of the screens were positioned just above the pilot's eye height and were joined together in an arc. They provided a cockpit-style view of the surroundings. The images came from night vision cameras and had turned the desert dark green. A bright white fire burned in one corner, and vehicles were fast approaching from the airport. Below these screens were two more. One provided the instrument panel of the aircraft in graphical form, and the other showed a satellite view of the area and details of the environment.

  The drone pilot sat in a large office chair. In her right hand, she held a joystick and in her left the thrust control. She wore headphones with a microphone positioned by her mouth. Her eyes were fixed on the screen, and she was concentrating fully on flying the drone.

  Andrea moved from the station to one corner of the room where she had located a coil of cable. She took it and went back to the flying station. The pilot continued to stare at the screens until Andrea pulled off her headset and threw it onto the desk. Before the pilot had a chance to turn, Andrea pulled her hands roughly behind the chair and then wrapped the cable tightly around her chest and arms.

  The pilot shook desperately and shouted, but Andrea was too strong for her. Once she was secure, Andrea tore off some of the pilot's shirt and tied it tightly around her mouth. She pushed the pilot away from the screens and made sure that the drone was stable in flight before bringing another chair to sit on.

  The drone pilot sat behind her, trying and failing to get loose. The chair shook so much that it tipped over, and the pilot landed on the floor with a groan. Andrea checked that she was still securely bound then returned to the drone. She found that it was the same as flying a normal plane, except that it was done remotely. She banked the drone to the right and headed back to the base. Muffled cries from the floor broke the silence and then these were drowned out by a wailing alarm and a voice announcing 'Operation Shutdown - this is not a drill.' Andrea ignored it.

  The drone flew over the small mountains and above the hangar entrance. Andrea could see three trucks arriving and speeding into the hangar. She would have to wait. Andrea needed them to be unloaded fast. She raised the nose slightly and began to circle patiently over the base. Behind her, the pilot continued to struggle.

  The three trucks skidded to a halt beside the temporary lab as the alarm continued to wail. Planes, helicopters and equipment were being moved to the back of the hangar, as far away from the entrance as possible. The main lights had been switched off and had been replaced with dull red lighting. Sand coloured, camouflage netting was being lowered from the cave's roof about ten metres inside the hangar entrance and hiding the interior from prying eyes. In many ways, this was not necessary. Due to the lip that hung over the entrance, it was impossible to see inside unless someone was standing right in front.

  Agent Angel jumped down from the first truck and marched towards the lab. Before he entered, he ordered that all debris that they had collected be brought inside as quickly as possible. Jean Kurtz, Professor Li, Professor Warne and Doctor Khan were waiting for him amongst the protective clothing in the changing room. They all stood to attention nervously the moment Agent Angel entered.

  "I'm bringing you some presents, Kurtz."

  As he spoke, the first soldiers marched through the changing room and into the lab carrying pieces of alien debris.

  "They're not wearing protective clothing," Kurtz whined.

  "Screw your protective clothing and just make sure they put the pieces where you want."

  Kurtz ran into the lab, followed by her team, and together they supervised as objects that they had never seen before were placed on the floor a
round the pods and dart. Within five minutes, all the pieces had been placed inside the lab and covered the concrete like pieces of a giant puzzle.

  Agent Angel looked at the collection contentedly while Kurtz stared in astonishment.

  "Where did they all come from?" she asked.

  "A crash in the desert. We went out there and brought back every piece we could find," Agent Angel replied proudly.

  "And what do you want us to do with them?"

  "I want you to answer the same three questions that Washington ordered us to answer back in forty-seven. Number one, what are they? Number two, where have they come from? Number three, how can we make use of them?"

  "But what about the alarm?" Kurtz complained.

  "If you had been paying attention, you would know that Operation Shutdown just means that until the threat has passed we stay within this piece of rock we call home. You can still work and go about your usual day to day business. I just don't want explosions or anything else that could draw attention to us. You can manage that, can't you? The alarm will be off soon."

  Jean Kurtz moved around the pieces in a daze.

  "I said, you can manage that, can't you Kurtz?"

  "Er, yes, Sir."

  "Good, because I can't babysit you. I've got more important matters to attend to."

  Agent Angel marched out of the room, leaving the team of scientists gawping at the collection in front of them. Professor Warne approached a piece shaped like a comb crossed with a cuttlefish and picked it up. The object weighed virtually nothing. Professor Li followed his lead and picked up what looked like a small hairdryer, but it weighed far more than seemed possible.

  The three sarcophagi had been scattered around the lab and so far had been ignored. This changed when one next to the dart coughed. All the scientists froze and looked at each other in shock.

  "Who was that?" Kurtz asked, her voice rising with alarm.

  Each scientist denied it was them.

  The same sarcophagus made a quiet choking sound as Johan tried to swallow another cough. It rocked as he did so. Doctor Khan crept towards it, and the other three scientists followed at a safe distance. The alien object moved again, and a muffled groan could be heard from within. Khan leant down and poked it, but nothing happened. Kurtz stormed past her and kicked the strange object. There was another groan.

  A metallic scraping noise suddenly came from the object and the scientists stepped away. The noise came again and this time the corrugated iron pulled back, and three bony, withered fingers clasped at the metal. Long blue veins pulsed under the translucent skin, and Professor Warne looked as if he was about to faint. There was a loud groan, and the metal slid back completely to reveal Professor Schwarzkopf.

  "Hallo," he said, sitting up.

  "You!" Kurtz screeched and strode towards him with her arm raised. She had got within a metre of Professor Schwarzkopf, by the time he had found his gun.

  "Stop where you are," Johan ordered.

  She did as she was told and glared at the old man.

  "How dare you come back here after what you did?" She turned to Professor Warne. "Go and get someone," she instructed. "He can't shoot all of us!"

  Warily, Professor Warne backed away. He kept his eyes firmly fixed on Professor Schwarzkopf and refused to look anywhere else. If the crazy old man pointed the gun at him, he would stop instantly. As it was, Professor Schwarzkopf was only watching Jean Kurtz.

  Professor Warne continued to edge back slowly and slid objects out of the way as his heels knocked into them. He had gone about three metres when he tripped over something that wouldn't move. He began to fall backwards and just as he was about to right himself two strong hands pushed him back. He saw a black girl's face and a white boy's face, as they caught him and then lowered him immediately into a coffin. His security badge was torn from his protective clothing, and then a metal door was pulled in front of his face. Before he had a chance to fight back, the coffin had been flipped over, and his nose was pressed hard against the corrugated metal. He knew he had been trapped before he even tried to move. Eric threw the ID to Johan.

  Professor Li had been startled and was sprinting towards the changing room door. She wouldn't make it. They approached from each side of her like predators on the hunt. Eric snarled as he skipped over his father's collection of alien artefacts, and enjoyed seeing the fear on Professor Li's face. She was nearing the door, but Ursula was closing in on the other side of her. Eric snarled again.

  "I'm going to get you," he said menacingly.

  Professor Li side-stepped away from him but did not realize that Ursula was right behind her. She felt the girl's arms tighten around her chest and tried to shake herself loose, but it was no use. Ursula was too strong and wrestled Professor Li to the ground. A split second later, Eric was upon her, and he took hold of her legs. The two children carried Professor Li to another empty sarcophagus but struggled to get her inside. As she squirmed and wriggled, Eric placed his hand on her neck.

  "If you fight us then I will squeeze until you are unconscious," and he began to tighten his grip. "If you help us then nothing bad will happen to you."

  Professor Li went limp and allowed herself to be placed in the sarcophagus. Ursula removed her security badge and then the corrugated metal was pulled across to seal her in. Eric flipped the alien object over and joined Ursula, who was already heading for Doctor Khan.

  "Not her," Johan told them. "She can help us."

  Doctor Khan nodded enthusiastically as the two children stood beside her, and she tried to smile.

  "Professor Schwarzkopf is right. I can help you," she said nervously.

  "How do you know we can trust her?" Eric asked, slowly circling the Indian scientist.

  "Eric, Ursula. This is Karima, and you can trust her. She doesn't want to be here anymore than we do, isn't that right Karima?

  "Yes."

  She was a mixture of both excitement and worry, happiness and fear, and was finding it hard to control her emotions. However, Eric and Ursula could sense that she did not want to be here. Johan was right, and they backed away from her towards Jean Kurtz.

  The lead scientist stood amongst the alien objects like a statue. She continued to glare at Johan, who had yet to stand up, and would have cheerfully throttled the old man for what he had done to her. Ever since she had met him, he had been a thorn in her side and caused her nothing but problems. She contemplated screaming but was doubtful that anyone would hear over the wail of the alarm. Suddenly, it stopped. She opened her mouth, but a hand gagged her before she let out a sound.

  "I don't think so," Eric whispered in her ear.

  Ursula appeared beside him, and Jean Kurtz did not resist as the children held her arms behind her back and pushed her towards the remaining sarcophagus. Johan stood up and moved out of the way.

  Jean Kurtz got in herself and sat down compliantly, but she would not lay down.

  Eric could feel warm, salty tears running over his fingers and could sense a feeling of defeat below the rage.

  "I won't scream," Kurtz mumbled through his fingers.

  Eric believed her and removed his hand. He took hold of Kurtz's shoulders and tried to pull her back, but she would not move.

  "Please don't put me in this coffin and turn me over," she pleaded.

  "You would have let me starve, when I was here," Eric spat. "You didn't care about me. You were happy to run experiments on me. You were happy to hurt me. After all you did to me, I could happily…"

  He pulled back his arm and brought it forward in a flash to punch her in the stomach. Just before he made contact, both Ursula and Kurtz yelled, "No!"

  "Don't Eric," Ursula told him and gently pulled his tensed arm away.

  "Why not?" he asked impatiently, ripping off Kurtz's ID.

  "Because I'm pregnant!" she cried out and lay down with her hands over her protruding belly.

  No one spoke, and Kurtz's tears continued to flow. Eric ignored them and pulled Alexander's door over
her. He pushed the sarcophagus under one of the pod's supports so Kurtz would be trapped even when she managed to slide open the corrugated iron.

  "We have work to do," Eric announced as he stepped away from the pod. "We…"

  He stopped. At the same time, Eric and Ursula dived onto the ground.

  "Get down!" they shouted in chorus.

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  ***

  Chapter 20 – In the Confusion

  The drone descended rapidly towards the runway, but Andrea had no intention of landing it safely. She looked up at the three screens and saw the hangar entrance fast approaching. Camouflage netting hung along three-quarters of its width, but the last piece had yet to be draped. Andrea dropped the speed and brought the drone down until the tyres skidded on the runway. The plane landed safely, but she did not apply the brakes or cut the engines.

  Fear was not an emotion that Andrea understood. However, she did understand the consequences of crashing a plane into a hangar containing other aircraft, fuel and missiles. Her role was to guard Eric, and she had stuck to this since he was a baby. Somewhere in the hangar, Eric was hiding, and it went against her programming to harm him now.

  She reduced the throttle until the drone was travelling no more that forty kilometres per hour, but she did not apply the brakes. The plane taxied to the end of the runway but continued on at the same speed towards the hangar.

  A mechanic looked up from a Raptor and guessed what was going to happen immediately. He shouted to his colleagues, and all turned to stare. The drone roared into the hangar, scattering everyone. Andrea applied the brakes, cut the engines and steered it towards electrical cables on the cave wall. Tyres screeched, rubber burned and then the drone smashed into the rock face. There was a loud crash; the nose crumpled, rock fell from the cave, and the drone stopped.

  Instantly, the lights went out. The hangar and the rest of the base were plunged into darkness. Emergency green strips flickered and then glowed from the floor, providing just enough light to see by.