by Nate Castle
“We get the Zyrgians to pick up all of our people in Cali and transport them back to here,” Hank said, “I know it sounds crazy, but if we truly are partnering with the Zyrgians they ought to help us out a bit too.”
Before anyone could answer General Kaplan raised both hands in the stop position. He found a notepad on a nearby desk and a presidential looking pen and began to write a note. When he was finished he showed it to the others:
‘Have we forgotten about the kratyriac outside? It’s supposedly recording every conversation we have’
Hank punched the couch cushion to show that he was disappointed in himself for forgetting that crucial fact. He took the notepad from General Kaplan’s hand and wrote a response note on the next sheet of paper:
‘My workspace located in the tunnel should be sufficient for us to go talk, it is soundproofed down there’
It sounded like a better idea than staying in this room writing notes back and forth all day, so they followed Hank out of the building and down a metal ladder into the original White House tunnel.
“You’re sure this room is secure?” General Kaplan said.
“Yeah I mean this is about as soundproofed as you can make a room, so if the kratyriac can still hear us in here, we’ve got bigger problems on our hands. At that point, we won’t be concerned that the Fadothial aliens learn some of our secrets,” Hank said.
“Alright screw it, let’s take our chances,” President Taylor said, “Back to Hank’s idea about extracting Logan via Zyrgians, this seems like a last resort kind of option, but if you feel it’s the right thing to do, I’ll support you.”
“Yeah, the way he described the plane crashing, it didn’t sound coincidental. I don’t think we should risk sending another plane out there,” Hank said.
“He’s right,” said General Kaplan, “And it’s not like we can send one of our own alien crafts either because the Zyrgians don’t know that we have those and if they did, they would surely shut down our side operation,”
“Ok, I’ll give this plan the green light. Tell Logan to hang tight. There’s no knowing how long it could be, because I have no way of contacting the Zyrgians. We have to wait until they contact us,” President Taylor said.
“This could go one of two ways. If it takes a turn for the worst, I apologize in advance, and it was nice knowin’ ya,” Clyde said.
“Show me what ya got, Clyde. I live for this type of shit, no regrets. Hoo rah!” Aaron said.
Clyde downshifted the truck to slow it down a bit before making a hard right turn onto the exit ramp. Surely using the laws of physics, one could calculate what speed he should be traveling at and at what point on the ramp would be best to detach the trailer, but Clyde just went with his gut. If he drove too fast, he would lose control of the truck, but if he drove too slow, then the trailer might not detach in the optimum way.
“Now or never!” Clyde said as he punched the accelerator and cranked the wheel hard to the right. There wasn’t too much leeway being that it was an offramp with no shoulder, but that hard crank was enough to do the trick When the truck veered right, the trailer went left, striking the side wall and flipping end over end onto the road below. Clyde overcorrected and had to swerve back and forth a couple times before finally straightening out and bringing the truck to a stop.
It looked like the mission had been a success, but there was no way of knowing until they went and inspected the trailer.
“Knock on wood, but I think you did it!” Aaron said.
Clyde smiled, but didn’t respond. It was like he didn’t want to celebrate until he knew for sure that the game was over. They hopped out of the truck and quickly ran over to the side of the exit ramp where the trailer had fallen from.
“Damn that’s a long way down, at least twenty feet,” Clyde said, “C’mon.”
The trailer was in an upright position on the street down below, with the back end up of the trailer pointing up.They hustled back to the truck after their unspoken decision that there was no way to get down to the crash site besides driving down there.
It took three minutes to reach the trailer because the offramp didn’t lead directly there. Clyde knocked on one trailer wall and then yelled, “Are you guys okay in there?”
He heard a grumble and then recognized Tom’s voice, “No, but I reckon we’ll live.”
“We’re gonna call for help to and also see if we can find a way to get you out of the trailer before help arrives,” Clyde said.
Tom yelled back an unenthusiastic, ‘Thanks’ before Clyde and Aaron stepped away from the trailer.
“They’re alive which is what we wanted,” said Aaron. “So that’s good news. I’ll make a call to the White House and figure out how they’re gonna pick these guys up.”
“That is definitely not what I expected to hear when I picked up the phone, “ General Kaplan said.
Hank and the President were standing next to him. He had switched to speakerphone so they could all hear the conversation that he was having with Aaron.
“Row-sham-bow to see who drives the bus?” President Taylor said.
“No, it can’t be you, because the IHL guys might recognize you as the President and realize that they are not being transported to ‘medical care’ as promised,” said Hank, “It’s between me and Kap. I’ll do it.”
They escorted him out to the bus that Clyde and Aaron had fixed up on the same day they fixed the semi truck.
“I’m going to call Dr. Sumesh when you leave and tell him the situation. You swing by his hospital on your way to the Patterson offramp and pick up some nurses. They will likely bring some basic medical supplies onto the bus and treat the IHL members with basic medical care,” President Taylor said.
“We’re going to do some high caliber acting here,” Hank said.
“That’s right,” said the President, “When I do something, I like to go all out. Get everything right, even the smallest of details.”
“You must not follow that same philosophy when it comes to me,” Sierra said as she suddenly appeared from behind, catching them off guard.
“Ooh, you’re in the doghouse Taylor, you better go do some damage control with your misses. We got this covered. We’ll get every little detail, just like you wanted,” General Kaplan said, sort of poking fun at the President with his last sentence.
President Taylor chased after Sierra.
“So the bottom line is when you get back,” said General Kaplan, “I will be standing here with a few others, and our guns will be drawn just in case those IHL boys don’t follow our agenda. You will lead them to this room here where they will remain locked up.”
He pointed to a spot on a map of the grounds to show Hank which room he meant.
Hank started the bus, gave Kaplan a salute and drove off. General Kaplan located some of Aaron’s construction crew guys and did what he did best, manage a crisis.
“Alright you over there, with the curly hair, you know how to operate a tractor?”
The guy nodded.
“Good, take a tractor from the building department storage and drive it to the Patterson offramp. I need five more of you to do the exact same thing as curly, but make sure you each take a different type of tractor. I don’t know what style of attachments we’ll need and if we end up with five backhoes over there and they can’t get the job done it’s going to be real embarrassing.”
“What are we dealing with here sir?” a guy who was tattooed from head to toe asked.
“A semi trailer that is currently in a vertical position. We may or may not have to get trapped people out of it. But whether or not we do, in the end, we have to get that trailer back here because it contains about a dozen cattle. Dead or alive, it don’t matter, but we’re running low on our meat supply,” General Kaplan said, “ Can you handle that?”
“Yes sir.”
“Ahh son of a bitch! General Kaplan and I never discussed how we’re going to get these IHL jerkoffs out of the trailer,” Hank said.
“A more important question is, what are you doing with all of those ladies on your bus?” Aaron said.
“Calm down Aaron, don’t get a hard on, they are nurses that will pretend to take care of the injured until we get them back to the White House,” Hank said.
“You know what, let’s go for it. A wise old man once told me, ‘Son, if you win the day, you’ll win at life’. I don’t think his definition of ‘win the day’ was to sit around and wait for backup to come,” Clyde said.
They had no clue what Clyde was talking about until he reversed the semi truck until it was parallel to and nearly touching the trailer. From there he climbed on top of the trucks’ cab and used that as his starting point. Next he threw a rope up to a built-in hook on the trailer. Hank and Aaron had not seen him grab the rope in the first place.
“Did you know that he used to be a stunt man in the movies?” Aaron said.
“Yup, I’m not going to interfere with this one, it looks like he’s about to put together a highlight reel,” Hank said.
The truck trailer was likely 48 feet long, Clyde estimated, so he had about 35 feet to climb from the roof of the truck. Once the rope was tied on the hook, he used it to climb up the side paneling of the trailer. He didn’t have a plan for how he was going to tackle opening the trailer door. When he reached the highest point on the rope he reached out to open the door. Only one hinge prevented him from opening the door. It was the type that you had to slide the metal rod up and then flip the handle to the right to free the door.
“This looks tough, get your popcorn ready,” Hank said, as they watched Clyde from down below.
Clyde determined after one failed try that he would need two hands to get the hinge undone, so he wrapped his legs fireman-style around the rope and with both hands now was able to unlock the trailer door. He needed momentum to open the door because not only was it heavy, but he also had to fight gravity by opening the door in an upward direction, given the position of the trailer. He jerked the door up and unfortunately lost his leg hold on the rope in the process.
“Now that’s a real stunt man!” Aaron said.
They didn’t seem the least bit worried about him even though he was holding onto the trailer door for dear life with nothing to support his legs.
“Dumbass,” Hank said, “ I guess now he’s gonna have to wait for help to arrive.”
There was really nowhere for Clyde to go unless he wanted to fall into the trailer itself, so instead he chose to wait it out.
15
Take It Or Leave It
Logan woke up when he got a tap on the shoulder from one of the Europeans. It took him a minute to figure out where he was. The money delivery group were all sprawled out in a Riverside Airport terminal, attempting to get some sleep before Logan could determine their next move.
“Mate, something just landed on the tarmac, it looks like an alien craft,” said the European.
“Show me where.”
“Should we wake the others?”
“Not yet.”
The man led Logan down a hallway to the right before stopping to point at a bank of windows on his left. Logan assumed the man didn’t want to stand in the line of vision of the craft, which is why he stopped early. Logan walked a few more steps until he was able to peek around a decorative post and spot the craft.
“It’s Zyrgian.”
“What?”
“Zyrgian aliens, the kind that we have been fighting all along. They are supposedly our allies now, but I don't trust ‘em,” said Logan.
“The obvious thing to do is run away, but is that the intelligent solution?”
“Yeah, we don't have any weapons to fight them and we’re like fish out of water if we stay in the terminal.”
They had been talking while walking back to the sleepers. Logan and the man quickly woke everyone in the group, trying to keep the noise to a minimum. From a distance, it looked like they were playing the popular childhood game, Duck-Duck-Goose. Logan had his pointer finger covering his mouth to imply that the others needed to be quiet. When everyone was standing he led the way. Not wanting to be spotted by the alien craft, they went to the opposite end of the terminal, hoping to exit a few hundred yards down from the craft, with the terminal building blocking the view for the Zyrgians.
He opened the door to a jet bridge using an employee key card that had been left on a kiosk. Since there was no plane connected to the jet bridge, each person would have to jump the estimated twelve feet to reach the ground. Logan scooted to right to let others pass, He elected to assist those who needed help with their jumps. Everything went smooth, and he was the last one to make the jump. One from the group suddenly let out a shriek and Logan knew what was happening even before he saw it.
Four Zyrgians had them surrounded from the front. Logan noticed ten people standing at the very back of the crowd started to run away. The Zyrgians put a kabash on that idea real fast, when two of them repositioned at the back of the crowd. The ten runners escaped for the time being. Now surrounded from the front and rear, they were caught between a rock and a hard place. Out of desperation one guy decided his best option was to judo kick the Zyrgian that was closest to him.
Logan had to admit that the kick itself was quite impressive and landed on the alien’s chin, stunning it for a moment. He was also accustomed to seeing what happened next, whereas the others in the group were shell-shocked.
The Zyrgian calming used one arm to reach out to the judo-kicking man and grabbed him by the torso. The grip was strong and the man couldn’t wiggle free. The man’s body started to dissolve until there was nothing remaining but ashes.
Judo kick the alien, were you nuts? Logan thought to himself, but he did admire the guy’s fear tolerance. He remembered hearing something about the Zyrgians not being violent unless they were provoked. He also remembered that he could communicate with the Zyrgians in plain English.
“Alright let’s cut to the chase! What do you want from us?”
Clearokyt, whom Logan had not met thus far said, “We are going to transport you back to the White House.”
“On whose orders?”
“Mine.”
“Do we have a choice in the matter?”
“Yes but choices come with consequences. If you choose not to satisfy my request, I will be left with no choice but to wipe out half of this group. Then after half are dead, I will give you the option to reevaluate your choice.”
“And why do you want us back in DC?”
“We need all of your people in one place so that we can start the next mission. Besides, you aren’t safe here. The plane that crashed a few hours ago, that wasn’t an accident. The Fadothials caused it to crash.”
“Ok, I’m with you. Let’s go.”
“The ten that escaped, you need to find them and bring them too, or else the deal is off.Everyone here now needs to board the craft, while you search for the others.”
Logan didn’t like situations that he couldn’t use his brain or pizzazz to get out of. This was one of those situations. He began to run in the opposite direction that the ten escapees went. He found a small vehicle that probably had similar specifications to a golf cart. This one was used to load baggage onto planes. Why did he head in the opposite direction? He didn’t know, it just felt right. The smartest move for the ten runners would have been to get inside either the terminal or a hangar, but they did neither and when Logan rounded a corner, he saw them trying to climb over a perimeter fence. One benefit of this low powered cart was that it made very little noise, so they didn’t hear him coming.
“Can I give you guys a hand?”
They were trying to boost each other over the fence, which was challenging due to the barbed wire at the top.
“How did you get away from the aliens?
Logan told them to get down from the fence and have a seat on the conveyor belt of his cart, so that he could tell the story. He embellished it a bit and threw in a few false statements, a crucial one
being that he had just spoken to Washington and they were the ones that sent the Zyrgian craft to pick everyone up. Logan did not know that President Taylor actually planned on asking the Zyrgians for help to pick Logan up, so his ‘lie’ to these people wouldn’t turn out to be a lie after all.
Clyde remained trapped atop the trailer door for approximately thirty minutes before tractors arrived from the White House.
Hank and Aaron knew that help was on the way because the minute Clyde got trapped, they got ahold of General Kaplan using the radio on the bus. They wanted to have some fun with it though, so they didn’t tell Clyde that help was coming at all; they wanted to make him sweat it out up there.
“Hallelujah!” Clyde yelled when he saw the first of the five tractors approaching.
Down below, Aaron directed the first tractor about where to park using hand signals.
The guy driving tractor #1 said, “I can make this attachment act like a forklift. We tie a rope or cable to my forks and hoist people up one at a time. How does that sound?”
Aaron thought about it for a minute, before responding, “I’m not sure what the correct solution is, but that sounds way too complicated, so I’m gonna stop you right there.”
“Ok well what about the guy on top? Either he’s gonna have to be extracted in the way that I just suggested or else he’ll have to jump into the trailer which I imagine he might not be too fond of.”
“If we get Clyde down from there using your first idea, what’s your second simpler idea for getting the others out of the trailer?” Aaron said.
The man looked puzzled, like he was so pumped about his ‘crane extraction’ idea that he didn’t have any brain capacity left to process any rational thoughts.
Instead, tractor driver #4 answered the question, “We tip the trailer down from its vertical position. Then, instead of the trailer door pointing straight up to the sky, it will be as it was when the truck was towing it. From there, the occupants can walk out on their own, rather than have to be helped out.”