by Nick Braker
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Bea, I am sending a new recruit down to you in Research. Show him all we have on the aliens, everything,” she ordered.
“Does he have clearance, ma’am?” she asked.
I will by the time I reach you. I need a place to sleep eventually. I’m getting hungry too.
“He will by the time he reaches you. That is all,” she said, and pressed the button again.
“I’ll need a place to sleep at some point as I don’t want to leave the building until I finish this. For breakfast, I like scrambled eggs--”
She’s not going to like those requests at all.
“Greg,” she said, her anger returning. “I am your boss, not your cook.”
“I’m getting worse, aren’t I? Oh well, you’ll have to adjust, I guess,” he said.
She’ll have to learn to work my way though she certainly won’t like it.
“I will need assistants to take care of the menial work. How many people can you assign to attend me?” he asked.
She’s not taking me seriously. She’ll want me to show her.
“Show me results and I’ll consider it,” she said.
Shame, I guess I’ll have to get those resources on my own. I can’t waste time doing menial work.
“Fine,” he said. “Have it your way.”
She’s going to kick me out.
“Get out,” she ordered, glaring at him.
“I’ll wait outside,” he said, moving to leave. “Of course, you understand I’m wasting valuable time. Mine.”
Greg had just stepped outside Alexandria’s office when a portly woman in her fifties stepped out of the elevator. It had to be Bea. She seemed like a nice, older woman. Her demeanor was pleasant and judging by her body language she was eager to help him. She motioned him to join her. They rode the elevator down, stopping at level three.
“What clearance did she give me?” Greg asked.
“Enough to see the information she told me to show you,” Bea said.
“You avoided answering my question.”
“Take it up with Alexandria,” she said sternly.
She’s not nice. How did I misjudge her? Is that even possible? I need to reflect on that.
It was much later but they finally set him up with an office to work in and boxes of files and computer data to pour through. Greg didn’t stop working until the next morning, although he did sneak in a secured call to Seph at 3am EST.
“Hello?” Seph said.
“Yes, I’d like to order a deep dish, extra-large sausage pizza with extra virgin olives. I’d like the sweet and spicy sauce with mine instead of your regular pizza sauce. Can I get that delivered?”
“Well, I can get you the olives and the sweet and spicy but you will have to cover the extra-large sausage portion,” she said.
Incredible. The cheesy sexual innuendo was not lost on her and she returned it in spades. I love talking with her. The others are so dull.
“I can’t believe you just said that,” Greg joked.
“I cannot believe you did not call sooner,” she complained sweetly.
“How are you? I’m missing you already.”
She’s going to ask me how my day is going.
“Fine, me too. Do you think this long distance relationship will last?” Seph asked.
Ouch, she didn’t wait at all to ask that question. Amazing. I didn’t see that one coming so soon.
“What? Are you kidding? You’re only a few minutes away in that super-fast sports car you fly,” he said.
She and Jules could fly over, though Magnus AKA Asher will not go out of his way to invite Jules.
“Well, I could sneak over with Jules at the helm. I am sure she would like to see Magnus every now and then,” she said hopefully. “WSO does have a landing site near DC we can fly to nearly undetectable. They move quickly when they need too. What have you found out so far?” Seph asked.
Incredible. She already knows our new WSO identities.
“You already know our new identities? I’m amazed even though I shouldn’t be,” he said.
“Of course we know your new identities. We keep abreast of all information regarding the four of you. Do you like yours?” she asked.
She knows I don’t like mine.
“You already know I don’t. I’m going to change the first name to Grep. Alexandria’s choice was awful.”
“I liked it the first time you used it. Easy to remember, though I am hoping you are done searching.”
He laughed. She was referring to his name being spelled the same as the UNIX command grep.
“Yes, I’m done. Are you sitting down?” he asked.
Seph snickered at him. She wasn’t telling him something and, whatever it was, she found it funny.
“Yes,” she said, though he wasn’t convinced she was just sitting.
Ah! She must be in bed.
He was tempted to change the discussion but he didn’t have time. Instead, he told her everything he had discovered in his research. He had the answers they all needed and it was huge.
“Oh... my... god...” she told him.
Damn, I’m good.
Chapter 17
GREP’S REVEAL
Asher was showering in his apartment when the phone rang. He liked his place. It was a new building and everything smelled of fresh paint and new construction. He grabbed a towel, walked into the dining room and answered the phone.
“Hello?”
“Magnus, this is Tom. I’m sending a car over to get you three. Taylor found something. We can’t speak of it over the phone, so you’ll have to come in. Warren and Brock are getting ready,” Tom said, sounding weary.
It was tough hearing their new names over the phone but he was determined to get used to it. In fact, he liked his new name. Alexandria had picked similar names for Brandon and Weston, probably to make it easier on them. His name was Magnus Thorne now and Greg’s was Taylor Paulson.
“Sounds good,” he said.
Tom sounded tired. Tom’s tone indicated he was very concerned and the news was bad. Taylor, AKA Greg, must have found something and, if someone with Tom’s military background could be shaken, it was bad indeed. He finished getting ready and headed downstairs. All three of them had already learned last night that the elevator was agonizingly slow so they avoided it. Warren and Brock were waiting next to the vehicle Tom had sent. Both greeted him as he climbed inside.
“Warren. Brock,” Magnus said.
He nodded to each of them hoping they had read up on their new names and backgrounds.
“Shit, dude, I like my new name. Brock Stone, AKA Agent Stone. You’re under arrest,” Brandon said, joking.
“Yeah, I like my new name, Warren Clayton,” Weston said. “Agent Clayton.”
“Dudes, did you both get a call from Tom?” Magnus asked.
Warren nodded.
“Hell yeah,” Brock said, his voice showing growing excitement. “He asked us to come in but that’s all I know. The shit has hit the fan. Time to toast some more alien ass.”
Magnus wanted to tell them more but thought it better to not get them worked up. He could be wrong about his conversation with Tom. Besides, the drive was short and they soon found themselves in Alexandria’s office where the rest of them waited. Brock grabbed a seat near the large window overlooking the metro D.C. area and Warren grabbed a seat next to Tom who was sitting with Taylor near the desk. Magnus took a seat, pulling at the collar on his WSO issued white shirt. He found several of them in his closet this morning. All black pants, white shirts and several black jackets. He’d have to fix that soon. They had accumulated ten weeks of pay without being able to spend a dime. New clothes were a priority.
Alexandria nodded to Taylor who was already moving to stand. He came around, positioning himself in front of the main group with Alexandria to his left.
“First, my new name is Grep Paulson, not Taylor Paulson. Sorry, I didn’t like it. I’ve already updated all necess
ary databases and issued myself the new ID.”
Magnus watched the silent exchange between Greg and Alexandria. She wasn’t fazed in the slightest, as if she expected it and Grep didn’t even bother to watch her reaction at all. Grep didn’t care.
Why didn’t she react to his name change? Was her poker face on or did she know he would change it?
“I spent all of last night pouring over the material that WSO has accumulated in the last year, within fifty years in a few cases. Nine months ago, several bodies were found. They were scientists and researchers. The lead scientist’s name was Piotr Gorski. He headed up a research lab in Warsaw, Poland and--”
“Is all this detail necessary?” Magnus asked.
“I’m only going to give information pertinent to the conclusion I drew. For example, there were deaths prior to Dr. Gorski. Would that be okay with you, oh mighty ph--” Grep paused but continued. “Sorry, I didn’t get my usual two hours sleep. Allow me to continue, I’ll make it brief enough.”
Grep started again right where he left off.
“--was responsible for a team of scientists working on a new power source which I will call a generator. This new generator can produce massive amounts of electrical energy on a magnitude capable of powering the entire state of California. Two of the ten researchers working on the project died as well, glands cut from them by the Omega aliens. I denoted them as such since the Greek sign Omega has connotations of death and finality.”
Several people sighed but Grep continued on without missing a beat.
“The next set of bodies were from France. A team of researchers were looking into ways of moving matter from one location to another instantly. They tried to publish their findings nearly a year ago but government agencies, several of them, stepped in. The scientists on the project were sequestered in a top secret lab and given everything they needed to make it work. They created a prototype six months ago and are working on a larger scale version that could move large amounts of cargo. The prototype could only move small objects the size of a thimble. The lead scientist, Jean-Pierre Robert, was nearly killed on six occasions by these Omega aliens but several of his colleagues were not so lucky. Government agencies, including WSO, were called in to beef up security and protect the scientists involved in the project. Again, the bodies were found without glands, killed by the Omega aliens. Dr. Robert still works on the project though his status is classified and all information on him has been zeroed out of public records.”
Magnus was impressed that Grep was streaming the information without pause. Everyone seemed extremely interested in what he was saying as they began to put the pieces together. If only he weren’t so condescending.
“The next group killed were here in America. Another team of researchers were trying to find a way to create a working forcefield generator, not to be confused with the generator mentioned earlier. The technology of creating it was already established nearly a year ago but wasn’t feasible to use. These researchers found a way to create spherical forcefields and were able to do so feasibly in regards to energy requirements and stability. These spheres were air tight, radiation proof and controllable. Best of all, they required very little power and were portable. Several researchers died in the process under accidental circumstances but the research material was saved. It seems that the lead scientist on the project, Dr. Julian Vance, was absolutely paranoid and kept backup copies of his research that WSO found after the entire facility was incinerated. Yes, they were all killed and their glands were missing, at least the bodies that could be found intact enough to examine. They were killed by the Omega aliens.”
Dr. Vance! Holy shit. The MIT scientist that he and his friends were heading to meet.
“The reason government agencies were unable to piece together any patterns is that out of the thousands killed by these aliens, these people represented less than one percent of the deaths. They were looking at the puzzle from too far away. I dove into hundreds of dead ends before I found these. The mega generator technology solves the power requirements of the wormhole technology. However, everything they sent through the wormhole arrived on the other side completely useless. Either it was glowing with radiation or it simply blew up due to the vacuum the material travels through the instant it is inside the wormhole. As you may surmise, the spherical forcefield technology solved that problem as well.
“These three pieces can be used together to create a whole new way of traveling. Pun intended. Imagine if you needed to reach Hong Kong from New York and all you had to do was step through the wormhole to get there in less than a second. These Omega aliens are trying to stop us from creating a working version of this technology. All the other deaths were decoys, red herrings designed to keep us from figuring it out. They went after high profile targets because they knew our reaction would be to put everything we had into finding out why our top officials were being killed. All the while, they were after something totally different.
“That conclusion brought with it questions. So I asked myself, why don’t they just outright destroy everything within miles of the epicenter of these research facilities? Maybe they can, maybe they can’t or maybe they are being subverted - subverted by the very Alpha aliens who helped Josephina, Zara, Jules and Mira over fifteen years ago. The same Alpha aliens that helped us just over nine months ago. By the way, I chose Alpha since it is the Greek letter synonymous with a new beginning and the promise of life.”
Several people sighed again. Magnus half-rolled his eyes.
“Egghead,” Brock muttered.
“Wait, it gets better. We know what the Omega aliens look like from our time on their ship. Since they are close enough to humans in appearance, they are not hard to spot but, given their advanced technology, they could disguise themselves. You see, the Omega aliens that are trying to kill us are humanoid and are walking among us undetected. Unfortunately, we have no idea what the Alpha aliens that are trying to help us look like. We have at least two aliens species involved and possibly a third, which I will call Beta aliens. I believe there are three because of one final and very unusual piece of information I picked up. You see, several key members on these scientific research teams were suffering from blackouts. I chose the Greek letter Beta because it simply begins with the same letter as the word blackout. I did this to make it easier for the rest of you.”
He laughed. He probably hoped to get a response from his audience but no one made a sound. Grep continued.
“They reported later that long periods of time would pass as if they were asleep or drugged, waking up as if nothing had happened to them, only to find out days had passed. The really interesting piece is that one of these claimed blackout sessions was recorded on surveillance cameras. It showed the researcher still walking about and doing his job normally. No one noticed anything unusual. The next day the researcher shows up asking questions about what happened and he had no memory of the previous day. Total amnesia, yet the video clearly shows the researcher was at work doing his job. I believe these people were being controlled by the Beta aliens because it doesn’t fit the MO of the Omega aliens at all.”
Grep walked to the other side of the desk enjoying the attention.
“There is more. Once I discovered the blackouts among the researchers, I went back and started looking for more of these and found some interesting tidbits that could be related. The CDC, that’s the Center for Disease Control, collects all medical information from practically every part of the world. I hacked their database first, then Bea granted me authorized access which was totally unnecessary, but I digress. They noticed eighteen reports from hospitals and doctor’s offices of people reporting blackouts. These reports started over nine months ago, after the dead bodies started showing up around the globe. They were from average people mostly, but included the researchers I mentioned earlier. In fact, there are absolutely zero demographics between the people who reported having blackouts and the high value targets the Alpha aliens certainly focus on. For instan
ce, the Beta aliens appear involved in the case of the housewife who lost nearly four days of memories before she came to and went to the doctor to find out what might have caused it. The crazy part was that the husband and kids said she was acting funny during the blackout but it wasn’t terribly unusual. The housewife remembers nothing.”
Grep locked eyes with Magnus. Both of them knowing exactly what the other was thinking.
Beth.
Grep intentionally didn’t mention her. Magnus flashed back to Beth’s blackout. She was likely the first person the aliens had chosen to take control of but why her? She was just a normal person. Was Beth a random test subject or was it that these aliens knew something about him? Did Beth die because the aliens were trying to get to him? His anger and grief started to bubble up within him and would start to show if he didn’t control it. These aliens were going to pay and no one would be able to stop him but right now was not the time to let anyone else know his plans. He wasn’t just going to stop them, he was going to kill every last one of them.
“Thank you all for coming,” Greg said, bowing. “I’m here all week. Please don’t forget to tip your servers.”
Alexandria glared at Grep and pointed to a chair.
“I’m tempted not to ignore that but it will only go badly for WSO.” Grep said.
Alexandria didn’t say anything and kept her face neutral. Magnus would have decked him for such arrogance. His hand trembled from the memories of Beth and Grep’s arrogance only added fuel to his anger. He would have to talk with Grep later. Lack of sleep was not the reason he was acting like an ass. Grep’s transformation had side effects, bad ones.
Alexandria took Grep’s place in front of them.
“I believe Grep is right. We have to consider someone is helping us and that there is at least one set of aliens working against us. This new technology that Grep mentioned is top secret and should not be discussed with anyone outside this room. While it is not yet obvious to WSO if the top brass knew about all three facilities and were intentionally trying to create wormhole technology, it does seem like more than just a coincidence that all three pieces fit together. This tech would push Earth forward tremendously and these aliens may simply not want us to have it. Perhaps out of fear that it could eventually transport us across vast distances.”