by Nate Castle
“I guess we’ll just have to worry about this when we get back,” Noel said.
“Agreed, let’s enjoy this while we can!” Garrett said. “Do you want to take a turn flying this thing Noel?”
That made her feel a bit better, because until that point she felt like he was ignoring her.
“Only if you are right next to me, making sure I don’t screw anything up,” Noel said.
Christina got up from her seat to allow Noel near the cockpit controls and walked over towards the video projector screen. Now she felt like the ‘third wheel’, but she knew there were more pressing matters to worry about. Now at the video screen with her back facing Noel and Garrett, she began to explore all the capabilities of the interactive screen. There were two side panels with icons in each that represented a certain task the screen could perform. A few of the icons she clicked appeared to do nothing, but some of the other ones were fascinating.
“Guys you gotta take a look at this,” Christina said.
Noel spun her chair around and Garrett pressed a few buttons to ensure the craft was on an autopilot mode.
“This feature shows all humans within an X mile radius. You see the red circles? Every red circle on the screen is a person, and when I zoom in even more, it shows the exact location of that person,” Christina said.
“For the love of God! This is taking spying to the next level,” Garrett said.
“What do you think the range is, like 5 miles?” Noel said.
“I think it’s at least that far. The alien technology is decades ahead of ours, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it covered 50 miles,” Christina said.
“I just came up with a practical use for this technology. We can use it to spot any threats that enter the X mile radius,” Garrett said, “For example if another alien craft flies past DC, we will know about it. Or if they are approaching the White House on the ground, we will spot them beforehand on the camera and be better prepared when they arrive.”
“But how would we use it from the ground? The craft has to be airborne in order for the cameras to work see a whole geographic area.” Noel chimed in.
“Yes of course. What we would have to do is park the craft on top of something really tall such as a building,” Garrett said.
“The buildings aren’t too tall in DC besides the Washington Monument, which would present challenges due to its pointed top,” Noel said.
“We would need a building with an actual flat roof that we could land the craft on,” Christina said.
“Forget the Pentagon, let’s go to NYC instead and scope out some buildings,” Garrett said.
He was excited that they were taking his idea seriously.
“Ok, I’m going to put the new coordinates into the system, we should be in New York in a few minutes,” Christina said.
The power of the exterior alien craft cameras was pretty incredible, but they had only gotten a brief preview until now. Flying over New York City sure did keep the camera busy. Noel and Garrett couldn’t take their eyes off of the views, while Christina navigated the craft.
“I think one of these buildings should do the trick?” Christina said, as they were idling directly overhead some of the world’s tallest buildings.
“Alright Chrissy I got this,” Garrett said and sat down in a cockpit chair.
Garrett took over the control console and slowly lowered the craft down before landing it on the roof of the one of the buildings, approximately 1500 feet tall.
“Well that was easier than expected!” Garrett said.
He turned to look back at the projector screen that Noel and Christina were watching. They took turns zooming in on different areas of the map.
“Turn the craft off and see if the video feed still works,” Christina said.
Garrett followed her instructions and shut off the engine. The video screen now showed a message, with symbols changing every second. They couldn’t read what it said, but their best guess was that it was counting down the seconds until it shut off, unless some sort of override feature was enabled.
Garrett began fiddling with the controls to see if he could keep the video feed on. After a bit of trial and error, he found a combination of buttons that seemed to do the trick.
“Yee yee!” Noel said with excitement in her tone.
Their celebration was cut short by a noise coming from outside. They stood there in silence, but could only conclude that the noise was coming from the craft itself.
“I’ll go check it out, “Garrett said.
Garrett climbed up what humans would call a ladder, and the hatch to the craft opened so that he could exit. He knew he’d screwed up big time immediately. He jumped from the hatch down the ground, it was maybe a 15 foot jump. He walked around the perimeter of the craft to check out the damage. Well, it wasn’t damage, but the craft didn’t look like the same craft. It now had four ‘legs’ that protruded out from the base, raising the craft a good seven to ten feet higher than normal. It also had what looked like four shields that had popped up from the the top of the craft’s frame. Each shield was 10 feet wide by 20 feet tall and together they acted as a ‘protection wall’ for most of the craft’s deck. Garrett’s only explanation was that the craft had been converted to some sort of ‘Armor Mode’.
Garrett tried to climb back up, but realized, there was nowhere to grab ahold of; the craft was taller than normal and so he wouldn’t be able to enter without the assistance of the girls. They exited the hatch, right on cue, they must have been curious as to what was taking Garrett so long outside.
“I need a boost, I can’t get back up,” Garrett said.
Noel tried not to laugh and went back inside the craft. She came out a few moments later with a rope mechanism and threw it down to Garrett, who used it to climb to the deck of the craft.
Once back inside he raced to the craft’s control panel, started the engine and attempted to lift off the ground.
“This is totally fucked!” he said.
The other two were silent, giving Garrett room to finish his thought.
“It’s in Armor Mode and it apparently can’t fly in this mode. I need to get it back to the standard mode again, but I’m not sure how. To be honest, I was aimlessly pressing buttons like in a video game to put it into armor mode, so I haven’t a clue as to what combinations of buttons need to be pressed.”
6
Wrong Side Of The Tracks
“It’s just inside this building,” Logan said to the former inmate, Jack.
They had made the trip to Langley and exited the van, now walking toward the CIA building. Logan only had one plan with no backup option, so if it didn’t work, this might be the end for him and Shelby.
After his heroic efforts six months ago to save mankind from the Zyrgian aliens, former President Taylor had given Logan a very special token of his appreciation. It was a key card, much like the ones you would use at a hotel. This particular keycard acted as an all-access pass to every government building in the country. Now, that sounds cool and all, but Logan didn't work for the government so why would he care about being able to go into the FBI and look at someone’s personnel file? There was more to it than that. Any resource that Logan needed for the rest of the his life, he could likely obtain for free using this card. Anything from a military tank to a private plane to a 15,000 square foot underground ‘earthquake’ shelter, he now had access to. He had not tested out his access card at Langley yet, but assumed it would open every door that it needed to. The advantage he had was that the inmates who were essentially holding him hostage were not aware that Logan had this card.
He led the way through the main lobby of the building, passing a reception desk and finally reaching a door at the end. He ‘attempted’ to open it, but couldn’t. He walked back to the reception desk and started fiddling around with the computer system to see if he could manually override the locking mechanism on the door. He was a good actor for sure.
“That door wasn’t locked last tim
e I was here, they must have upped the security or something,” Logan said to the group.
“Fellas, we’re gonna have to do this the old fashioned way. Let’s go grab the tools from the van. Tito you stay here and watch these two,” Jack said as he led the rest of the crew outside, with Tito staying behind keep an eye on Logan and Shelby.
Jack must have figured that the military-style rifles they were holding would not be able to get the door opened. Now would be the opportune time for Logan to work his magic. Shelby was right on cue with what she did next. She made a shrieking sound as if she were in a ton of pain and collapsed to the floor like she had just fainted. Tito’s natural reaction was to run over to where she was standing and check her pulse to see if she was alive. While Tito was occupied, Logan crept up behind him and sprawled like he was reliving his high school wrestling days. He successfully got his arm around Tito’s neck and began to choke him, but Tito’s brute strength was like nothing Logan had seen before and he managed to tug on Logan’s arm to prevent the rear naked choke. Logan decided his only option was to get the guy to the ground. Still in the upright position, Logan dealt blow with his leg to Tito’s leg, just below the knee. Tito’s leg gave out just enough for Logan to use that momentum to throw him to the ground. Logan’s advantage was that he was much quicker than Tito when they were on the ground. The struggle ensued for a moment before Logan was able to execute the ‘Saturday Night Ride’. This wrestling move consisted of Tito laying flat on his back with both arms pinned down, and Logan mounted on Tito’s waist with full control of what happened next. He had to put an end to this quickly before Jack and the other inmates returned from the van, so he began clocking Tito in the face, the chin in particular, in an attempt to knock him out. By the fourth blow, Tito saw stars and was out cold. Logan jumped on to his feet, motioned for Shelby to follow him and they raced toward the door. Logan pulled the keycard out of his pocket and put it close to the scanner on the wall next to the door. A green light came on and the door unlocked. Logan entered after Shelby and made sure to pull the door shut behind him. They were safe for the time being.
“Let’s hope Carter and his team are able to subdue these guys, otherwise we might be stuck here for awhile,”Logan said.
“That was impressive babe,” Shelby said as she gave him a kiss.
They heard the sound of footsteps running down the hall which meant that Jack had returned with his crew. They reached the door with their tools in hand, one of which looked like a jackhammer. Before they began drilling, Jack yelled to Logan, “Now Yerrrrrrrrr Donnnneeeeee! It’s Over For You Logie!”
Logan knew that even if the door was breach-able it would take these guys at least 20 minutes to do so. There were countless other doors in this building that he and Shelby could enter, and with each door they entered, the amount of time it would take Jack to get to them would increase exponentially.
Carter had rounded up ten others to help him rescue Logan. He didn’t like not knowing what kind of situation they were getting themselves into and also the fact that he could only bring ten guys before the chopper was at absolute maximum capacity. Hank was one of the ten who volunteered to go. Hank got President Kaplan to unlock the armory, and he grabbed an array of explosives as well as military grade rifles.
No one spoke in the chopper on the way to Langley until Hank, “Any of you rookies ever been on a hostage rescue mission before?”
A few mumbled ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but Hank didn’t bother to take note of those who did because he was going to say what he needed to say regardless.
“Now I’m just taking a wild guess, but Logan probably called us to pick him up, because a group of people have taken him hostage. I say group because I doubt Logan wouldn’t be able to handle one guy on his own. This means that it could be hostile when we arrive. So, our best option is to drop off four or five guys on the ground a few blocks away from the building, and then the rest of you will land with the chopper,” Hank said.
“But what about——“
“Shh-quiet! Don’t you dare interrupt me again son,” Hank said, “The guys who go in on the ground will hopefully go in without being spotted. The chopper will be spotted, that’s a given. So it will be to our advantage to have a few ground troops to surprise these guys if necessary.”
“Oh and Carter, did Logan specifically request that you bring a chopper, or was that your decision?”
Carter answered from the cockpit, “Logan requested it.”
“Okay good. This means that whoever is holding them hostage wants the chopper for themselves. When this chopper lands, we are going to stay inside it, and make them come to us. While inside we are likely safe because I don’t think they will be comfortable shooting rounds at us when we’re in here and risk possibly damaging the chopper,” Hank said.
“But this thing is bulletproof reinforced steel or something,” the smarty who interrupted Hank the first time said.
Hank tried to keep his cool and replied to the guy, “The frame is bulletproof, but if I expose the mechanical wiring by taking apart this box, the chopper will be fragile.”
“Ok fellas, gametime. I’m going to drop off five of you right here, and you can walk the rest of the way,” Carter said.
While they had been having the discussion they barely noticed that Carter had descended in altitude and they were now idling about 20 feet above the ground. He lowered the chopper a bit more. Someone seated near the side door unstrapped two ropes and the five men proceeded to repel to the ground, two at a time. Carter began climbing in altitude again. They could see the CIA complex up ahead. A minute later they had landed the chopper in the main parking lot of the biggest building. Carter left the motor running. The five remaining men sat there in silence and waited. Jack and his cronies exited the building and cautiously headed towards the chopper, guns drawn.
“Alright don’t panic. Keep our guns concealed for the time being,” Hank said.
When Jack was within earshot, Hank said to him, “What a gorgeous day to go on a helicopter tour huh boys? But let me guess, that’s not what you’re here for.”
“Damn you're smart!” Jack said with sarcasm. “That’s right, we need this chopper, and we’re also gonna need one of you to let us into the secure areas of the building where Logan is hiding out.”
“Why is he hiding out?” Hank said.
“He agreed to take us to the alien research lab so we can obtain an alien and whatever other items seem fitting, but then he slipped away, locking us out of the secure area,” Jack said.
“So if we take you to him, what will you do next?” Hank said.
“We will get the items that we need and be on our way. Nobody gets hurt, including Logan,” Jack said.
“Alright I’ll take your word for it, “Hank said.
He knew that once he got inside the building and demonstrated that he was of no use to them because he couldn’t breach the door that Logan was behind, that they would likely kill him. Ideas were pouring through his head as to how to get out of this pickle.
“C’mon there’s another access point to the alien lab, we don’t need to go through the main entrance,” Hank said.
He climbed down the from chopper and led Jack and his three other men around the side of the building. Jack motioned for Carter, to follow them. His thought was that if you take the chopper pilot, nobody will be able to leave without Jack’s consent.
Hank had taken a risk by not giving the five guys, who arrived at the building on foot, automatic weapons. He gave them each a pistol, but decided against machine guns because they were rookies and had no experience with high powered weapons. He also gave them each smoke grenades and some other tactical devices that could come in handy.
“What the fuck!” one of Jack’s men yelled.
He was referring to the projectile that had been launched towards them. Before the others could react, the area was filled with smoke and they all began coughing. They were blinded by the smoke. Hank decided to stay low and tr
y to tackle Jack, who had been standing to his right before the smoke grenade hit. He latched onto to someone’s legs, hopefully it wasn’t Carter, and delivered a linebacker-like blow. Jack toppled over and Hank reached around the immediate area to locate Jack’s gun. He couldn’t see anything, but still found the gun. It took a few minutes for the smoke to clear, and when it did, Hank could see that Carter had used a similar tactic and disarmed one of Jack’s men. He had the rifle pointed at the guy, who was still in the fetal position. The third man tried to reach for his rifle, but decided against it, seeing as how Carter and Hank both had rifles in hand. Before they could celebrate this small victory, more bad news arrived. Apparently, Jack was smarter than he looked, because he sent one of his men, Paulie, to search the perimeter of the area before Carter’s chopper landed. Paulie located the five of Hank’s men on the ground, just after they had shot the smoke grenade. They were positioned behind a rows of bushes about a hundred yards away from the building. He was able to creep up behind them and ordered them to follow him. He was now the authority figure because he was the one holding the rifle.
“Drop ‘em!” Paulie yelled as he approached Hank and Carter.
Hank and Carter did not listen to the orders right away. Paulie was not happy about that, so he shot one of the five hostages in the leg.
“Jesus Christ. You just made the biggest mistake of your pathetic life, you scumbag,” Hank said, as both him and Carter put their rifles on the ground.
Logan and Shelby watched the events unfold from the safety of the building. Just as it looked like Hank and Carter were going to be on the losing side of things, Hank reached into his pocket and pulled out a little vial. This vial he had found in one of the alien crafts. He didn’t know what it was, but it fascinated him, it was constantly changing from gaseous to liquid. He was going to offer it to Jack as a bargaining chip to spare their lives and buy more time to come up with a better escape plan. Then he remembered when he first opened the vial back at the White House, he sat there in his tent and started feeling light headed. He closed the vial and didn’t think much of it at the time.