by Nate Castle
19
Child’s Play
“I’ve got myself in quite the pickle here Shelby,” Logan said
It took her a while to locate him, he was about a quarter mile west of the White House. She got worried and asked some of the others to drive her around until they found him.
“Why are you soaking wet?” Shelby said.
“I jumped in this pond in an attempt to deactivate this darn ball that has been following me,” he said, “As you can see though, my attempt failed.”
The ball was hovering next to Logan.
“We have to get you to a hot shower, you could get hypothermia from that cold water,” Shelby said.
“No I’ll manage, I have another idea,” he said.
He proceeded to whisper his idea into her ear. There were certain things that he could care less abut saying aloud, but when it pertained to defeating the ‘ball’ he didn’t want to speak loud enough so that it could eavesdrop. Who knows if the ball had enough artificial intelligence to know it was walking into a trap, but no point taking a chance.
Shelby recited Logan’s instructions to the guy next to her, also whispering into his ear. The message went down the line, like that childhood game called ‘Telephone’.
The group drove over to where the tractors that had been used the day before were parked. They made a quick stop along the way to pick up Aaron and some other capable tractor operators.
What happened in the next twelve minutes was a thing of sheer beauty. Logan waited patiently next to Shelby until the tractor operators had dug a deep hole in the ground. He then walked over to Aaron’s tractor which had a large bucket attachment. He climbed inside and sure enough the ball hopped inside with him.
Aaron drove as close as he could to the hole without driving over the edge and then began to lower the bucket. The technology was like nothing Logan had every seen on a piece of construction equipment. The hydraulic arms were able to extend in any desired direction and in this case were able to lower the bucket twenty feet, almost to the bottom of the hole. Logan jumped out, landing on the ground three feet below. The ball hopped out too. They were banking on the fact that the ball wasn’t capable of flying or jumping to a height of greater than twenty three feet.
Aaron pulled the bucket up a few feet, and flicked a switch which deployed a cover on the bucket. Instead of the bucket being three feet above ground, it was now eight.
Logan reached for a handle on the side of the bucket. The ball reacted to Logan’s movement and jumped on top of the bucket. It was a flat surface since the cover was on it. Aaron knew he had to get the ball off of the bucket or else the plan would fail. He wiggled two levers back and forth to shake the bucket, like an operator would do when trying to get the remaining dirt out.
Logan was startled when the bucket he was holding onto started to shake, but his grip held strong. The ball couldn’t maintain it’s position and slid off the bucket.
Aaron quickly pulled the bucket up out of the hole with Logan still hanging from the side. Quickly took about 30 seconds because this piece of construction equipment was built for precision rather than speed.
Logan half expected the ball to be next to him when he let go of the bucket handle, but it was still in the hole. He let out a sigh of relief and walked over to Shelby, where together they watched Aaron backfill the dirt into the hole, burying the ball.
The white board in the Emerald Room was now a mess. Every participant had been given a different color marker and was instructed by President Taylor to write down their thoughts pertaining to each bullet point on the board. A lot had happened in the past two hours since their last meeting.
Noel joined the meeting this time to brief everyone on the information she had gathered in her interview with IHL Tom. President Taylor was also pleased to see Logan in attendance.
“I don’t want to know how you got rid of that ball,” he said.
“It was a team effort, quite entertaining actually, you should have been there,” Logan said.
Once everyone had finished writing down their thoughts, President Taylor had a seat and motioned for General Kaplan to stand by the board and lead a discussion about each thought.
General Kaplan cut right to the chase, “We have effectively taken control of the IHL message board. We will post a message that every member will receive instructing them to head to their nearest base. In addition we will block all communication from IHL members to one another, so if they try to warn members that they didn’t send the original message, their message will be bounced but appear like it’s been sent. Any thoughts on what we do from there?”
Clyde said,“We give ‘em some of their own medicine. We surround each base and cut off their water supply and electricity, flush ‘em out. Then we put everyone in a craft and set the craft to fly itself towards our sun, leading to destruction of the craft and everyone inside.”
“Woah Clyde calm down, I’m not talking about mass murdering these people,” President Taylor said, “It’s funny that you brought up putting them on a craft though. Clearokyt claims that we have to provide a human sacrifice to the Fadothials.”
“Have any of y’all ever been to your local county fair?” Logan said.
“Oh boy,” General Kaplan muttered.
“They usually have a hypnotist that does shows at the fair. If you’ve never seen it action or actually been hypnotized, it’s quite incredible. I say we find a few people around here who either know hypnosis or are willing to learn real quick. Then we go into each IHL base, hypnotize the fuckers and when they are ‘under’, tell ‘em that they were never a part of this evil organization. When they wake up they will have no recollection of being in the IHL and the threat they currently pose to us will be nullified.”
“Not sure how you come up with these farfetched ideas Logan, but this one could work!” President Taylor said.
General Kaplan picked up a pen, circled the word ‘IHL’ on the board, drew a line from the circle and wrote ‘Hypnotize’.
He said, “Next on the list is the garbage problem. Sierra is worried about the prospect of it contaminating our drinking water.
“Well, for starters lets bring as many of those large holding tanks onto the property and fill them up with drinking water,” said Clyde, “At least we’ll able to prevent those tanks from being contaminated and that should buy us a few weeks of a clean water.”
“I agree, we need to do that,” President Taylor added, “Is there anything that we can shoot at the flow of garbage coming in, that will send it back the way it came?”
Hank who seemed to be the weapons expert these days, had just entered the room.
“Did I hear that right, you want to shoot something at the garbage to reduce the amount entering Earth?” Hank asked, “I’m certain we can at least give it a go. Besides, this will give us an excuse to use our own alien crafts. What we do is tell the Zyrgians that we have built our own crafts and will be flying them around for the purpose of garbage prevention…”
“And when we get up there we can also shoot the missiles at the Fadothial crafts,” Shelby interrupted, “By the time the Zyrgians find out that garbage wasn’t the only reason we were up there, it will be too late for them to stop us!”
“You took the words out of my mouth,” Hank said.
“How are you going to shoot something at the trash, isn’t it falling from the skies in every part of the country?” Cade asked.
“Yes, but from looking at satellite imagery, all of it is entering from a central location and then dispersing once it enters Earth’s atmosphere,” said Hank.
‘Excellent, keep the ideas flowing guys,” General Kaplan said and wrote ‘Shoot Garbage/Fadothials’ on the whiteboard.
“While we’re on that topic, how is the missile development coming?” President Taylor said.
“As expected,” Hank said, “The first one is ready, and now the system is on autopilot; all I can do is wait for them to be produced. I need a few hands to help insta
ll the finished products onto the alien crafts, but that’s all.”
“Done. One more thing before I release you all, should any action be taken against the kratyriac?”
Clyde said, “It’s simple, we create a diversion to keep it occupied. Set up a radio in front of it and blast the music as loud as it goes. The kratyriac will get an overload of information and not be able to focus as well on surveillance of the humans.”
“You know this for a fact?” President Taylor said.
“No, don’t take my word for it, it’s simply a guess,” Clyde said
“Okay, well it’s worth a shot,” President Taylor said, “Who would like to volunteer for recruiting and coordinating the hypnotists?”
“I’ll do it,” Noel said.
“If anyone has questions about your roles or what project you should be working on, please ask the President or myself,” General Kaplan said. “Hands in.”
Everyone moved in closer to the General and put their hands into the circle.
A chant led by Kaplan began where he asked a question and the group yelled out the answer, like a coach firing up his players before a game:
‘Whose House?’
‘Our House’
‘Whose house?’
‘Our house’
Logan was pleased that even though he suggested the hypnotist idea, he didn’t have to be the one to coordinate it. Going with Hank to install a missile on a craft sounded like a lot more fun. Aaron and Clyde had the same thought process as Logan, when Logan reached the entrance to Hank’s lab, they were already there.
“You did good in there, keep that up and I might stick around,” Sierra said.
Sierra seemed to be coming around, no longer as mad at the President as she was the day before.
“You want to know what I’ve been thinking about the past few weeks?” President Taylor said.
“Not really, but go ahead?”
“I’ve been thinking about whether I should send you overseas because it’s safer there. There’s been no indication that these alien attacks have been anywhere else besides in the US. So if I sent you to Europe temporarily, you and the baby would be safer,” President Taylor said.
“Not in a million years would I go. I want you to witness the baby being born. And plus if something were to happen to you while I was gone, I would never be able to get over it.”
20
Living Proof
On the lead Zyrgian craft a conversation ensued. There was no reason to speak in English this time, so they spoke in their native tongue. The translation of the conversation between Clearokyt and the 2nd in command named Larozyt showed another reason why they didn’t speak in English this time:
Larozyt said, “How are we going to fix the hole in the barrier over Michigan?”
Clearokyt said, “We aren’t going to fix it. That hole wasn’t an accident, it was intentional.”
“I don’t follow?” said Larozyt.
“I want two things to happen. First, I want to lure the Fadothials in and have them land on the ground. By having the hole in the barrier, the Fadothials think that we want to keep them out, but we gave it our best shot and failed.”
“So they are likely to all land on Earth now, knowing that we exhausted all options to keep them out?”
“Exactly. And second, I don’t want the humans to know yet about their end game. I will eventually tell them how to eliminate the Fadothials for good, but not until all the pieces are in place.”
“So the barrier was a part of your plan to get the Fadothials on Earth and then use this so-called weapon for a finale?”
“You got it. In the meantime let’s go help the humans out with some small tasks. We need to keep demonstrating that we are here to help them, not hurt them.”
“Gol-ly these guys always have to show up at the wrong times,” Hank said.
He had a video monitor broadcasting live from an exterior camera on the main building.
“Depending on how long they stick around, it could delay us taking off in the crafts,” Logan said.
“Are we going to reveal to them that we have the crafts before or after we are airborne?” Clyde said.
“That’s a real tough call,“ Hank said, “I say we let them know that information up front. The downside of that is they might try to prevent us from taking off if they don’t agree with our idea. But I’m willing to bet that they can’t prevent five crafts from taking off all at the same time. They might be able to prevent one or two.”
“What’s the downside of taking off first and telling them about it later?” Clyde asked, “I really doubt they would shoot down our craft or something that drastic.”
“I agree,” said Hank, “but it’s hard to know because I did overhear their leader telling President Taylor how they had to leave eleven of our men behind——just left them in bumfuck Egypt with no resources. They probably won’t survive.”
“Wow, I had no idea, that’s maddening,” Logan said.
“The point I’m trying to make though is this, “Hank said, “What they did was horrible, but at least they told our President about it rather than playing the ‘I don’t know’ card. I really believe it’s paramount to tell the Zyrgians our plans ahead of time to maintain the level of trust. We may not trust them 100%, but we need them to trust us. When it comes to our survival I have a feeling that we are going to need them again in one way or another.”
“General Kaplan, I wanted to let you know that I’ve got everything organized for the IHL mission.” Noel said. “Can you go over the logistics with me now?”
“That was quick, you sure you got ‘em all trained?”
“Yes they’re as ready as they’ll ever be. I found five people here who have experience with hypnosis. We simulated sessions by having the hypnosis experts hypnotize a group of volunteers. The new recruits observed the process and the verbal cues and then in the next trial, we tested the recruits by having them hypnotize the same group of volunteers, without any help from their instructors. The success rate was incredible.”
“Are you one of the recruits as well?”
“Yes, I figured why not have some fun with this, I’ve always been fascinated by it. Is that okay?”
“Absolutely, you’re going to do great!”
“So in total, we have twenty-three hypnotists. How many locations do we need to cover?”
“Twenty-five. So that means two of you will need to go twice. You will travel in teams of twelve because that’s all we can fit on one plane. One hypnotist, plus eleven armed escorts per team. The plane will drop you off one mile from the IHL base. You will wait until all teams have been dropped off at their respective locations before entering the IHL base and getting to work. Any questions so far?”
“Nope,” Noel said.
“I’ve got the plane gassed up and ready to go. The armed escorts will meet your group there in fifteen minutes. Good luck out there Noel, you’re gonna do great,” General Kaplan said.
He pulled her in for a hug and gave her a quick kiss on the lips before releasing her. He figured, screw it— the way they’ve been living this past year, anytime you say goodbye to someone, it might be the last time you ever see them alive, so forget the kiss on the cheek and go straight for the lips.
Noel turned away to avoid showing Kaplan that she was blushing. She knew the age difference between them was at least fifteen years, maybe more. Thoughts rushed into her head:
I’ve always liked the prospect of an older guy. I’m gonna have to get over grieving about Garrett at some point. Kaplan isn’t the most attractive guy in the world, but I do like a man with authority, who will let me know who’s boss. Let’s see how this plays out when I get back.
As promised, within fifteen minutes, General Kaplan had the armed escorts lined up in formation by a 747 plane. The plane was in the middle of a service road, about a 1/3 mile from the White House complex. This road had been acting as a temporary runway. When Noel got there with her crew, she noticed
that the General wasn’t alone, Clearokyt was standing next to him.
“Change of plans Noel, Clearokyt is going to transport everyone in a craft. It will be a lot quicker that way.”
I’m more comfortable taking the plane and not being at the mercy of an alien, but I have to pick my battles I guess.
She nodded and led her group onto the Zyrgian craft. Noel’s team was dropped off in Fort Worth, Texas about six minutes after the craft took off. Clearokyt handed Noel a device that looked like an iPad and told her to wait for the device to light up green before her team headed into the IHL base.
“Where are they at?” Aaron said, “They were just here ten minutes ago. I don’t know if we should wait any longer.”
“He’s right, who knows how long before they’ll be back,” Logan said. “It looked like they decided to run transportation for the whole IHL deal. If we wait too long, we might miss our opportunity. Hank?”
“Okay, let’s go for it. We’ll just have to explain to the Zyrgians later, why we did this mission without alerting them prior,” Hank said.
“Or not. I change my mind,” Clyde said, “The Zyrgians are like that stereotypical nightmare boss that I’m sure everyone has had. The boss that only keeps you in the loop when it will directly benefit them, but leaves you in the dark the rest of the time. You waste so much time wondering what you should be doing and if you are doing the tasks correctly….”
He paused to gather his thoughts.
“It’s not like the Zyrgians have given us much instruction or a timeline of how their master plan will play out. So they can’t fault us for taking the bull by the horns and getting shit done.”
“Does anyone oppose leaving now?” Hank said.
“One question,” Aaron said, ‘How do we fly the crafts?”
“It’s easy. These crafts have been rigged up so that they all communicate with one another and each craft can be maneuvered through spoken commands. If that presents too challenging, it is also equipped with a virtual flight assistant. You’re gonna have a blast!”