by Lesley Davis
“So, you’re being called farther afield?” Chilcott said, eying her closely. “What do you think you’ll find there, Captain?”
Sofia straightened her shoulders. “Answers, hopefully, sir.”
“Be safe on your journey. Those ships are out over the North Atlantic, bombing the bejeezus out of Switzerland on our last watch. Get to where you’re going fast. There’s no saying those crafts won’t swing back around to finish us off here. All our military might and it’s come down to this.” He leaned against his console. “This CIA agent you’re traveling with. Does she have any better idea what’s going on here than we do?”
Sofia held her tongue then had to answer honestly. “Yes, sir, I think she does. I believe her branch of the CIA has some information from places we have no control over.”
“The government is dispatching agencies to gather up the population left stranded by these attacks. You don’t want to find yourself caught up in that net. Stick with your CIA contact. Maybe you’ll both be safer.”
Chapter Sixteen
The drive to the undisclosed base was going to take them well into the night, but Sofia knew the minute she tired Emory would take over the task of driving. She looked over to where Emory was fast asleep in the passenger seat. Sofia had no idea how she could be comfortable or even able to get any sort of rest in the boneless sprawl that she was currently in. In Emory’s lap lay the wrappers from numerous candy bars. Sofia was surprised Emory wasn’t bouncing around the van on a sugar high. She marveled at how much food Emory seemed to be able to consume. She had to admit Emory probably had the right idea to eat as much as she could when she could because they weren’t always going to be able to find food so easily.
It was going dark as she drove along the interstate. She was grateful that the Euphoria base had filled up the van with gas along with extra fuel to aid them on the journey. She didn’t like the idea of stopping on the highway. Major Chilcott had told her of the panic that was ensuing. Looting was becoming commonplace, and there had been reports of killings over items that wouldn’t be much use to anyone anymore. She’d gotten provisions and gas that would get them to the base. And Sofia was armed and ready to shoot at every bathroom break. No one was preventing her from reaching her destination, human or alien.
Sofia knew exactly where they were heading and how different it was from the last base. Euphoria had been a covert base, and even she hadn’t been aware of all that had been hidden there. She eyed Emory again. She wasn’t in the least bit surprised that Emory had taken the chance to start snooping around. Finding the frozen remains of dead aliens wasn’t exactly going to be breaking news now that there was an invasion of live aliens taking place.
Still, she needed to keep a tighter rein on Emory’s wanderlust once they arrived. Euphoria flew under the radar for many reasons. It had alien bodies, something Sofia hadn’t been aware of but hadn’t been as surprised as Emory had to see them. Except for the large blue alien. That one had been a surprise.
Area 51 had seen a wealth of secrets hidden beneath its surface. The original Roswell alien bodies had been housed there; the ship had been hidden there and raided for its technology.
Sofia didn’t pretend to not be intrigued by what else went on there, but she’d learned very early on in her career that to rise up the ladder you didn’t question your superiors and you kept your eyes and mouth shut. She’d worked her way up the chain of command by being good at both. She’d also been instrumental in refining the design of the aircraft that utilized the technology they had found and made their own. Through the endless incarnations of the alien/human saucer, modified and redesigned over the many years since the crash, Sofia had worked to develop an almost perfect model of the alien ship for use by human pilots. She’d become quite adept at reverse engineering the alien tech, so adept she’d been given the lead on all the subsequent projects and earned her rank with distinction.
She’d watched her saucers take off from Groom Lake and fly under the cover of darkness. The saucers, cloaked in secrecy, raced across the night sky in their clandestine flights. When they had been seen, the witnesses had been either discredited or given some cover story to steer them away from the truth. Saucers had long been flying in the skies, both of alien and human manufacture.
Sofia hadn’t been aware that hers weren’t the only ones. There was a part of her questioning why she hadn’t been informed that aliens were still at large. To her knowledge and training, all the alien crafts that crashed on the planet, and there had been numerous such incidents, left nothing living to tell the tale. She was already working under a tight veil of secrecy. What else was being hidden from her?
She’d taken on the extra responsibility of securing the base once she’d gone as far as she could, for now, in building the crafts. She didn’t want what she’d worked so hard on to be vulnerable to outside sources so she was trying to use some of the defenses that the ships employed to defend Area 51. It was that added responsibility that had unwittingly left her vulnerable in helping to evacuate the base. It had also resulted in her being left behind.
There really was more going on than people would believe. Those that suspected anything beyond the “normal” were discouraged from investigating. Fortunately, Sofia knew the majority of the human race didn’t want to believe in anything that could tamper with their day-to-day lives. Ignorance is bliss, after all. And the human race had been kept ignorant of a great many secrets. Secrets that some people dedicated their lives to unearthing and exposing. Uncovering the lies and being derided for seeing the world differently while everyone else shied away from what was really happening. All that was in plain sight if they’d only open their eyes to see. Thankfully, the world preferred to be kept in the dark. Just not all, she thought as she looked over at Emory again.
Emory shifted, letting out a soft grumble in her sleep. Then her breathing deepened again as she slipped deeper into slumber.
Then there were people like Emory. People who saw beyond the surface and dug until they uncovered whatever was hidden, no matter how hard The Powers That Be tried to keep those things buried. Secret governments, powerful men pulling the strings behind the scenes, hidden agendas. The reality of every conspiracy theorist. Sofia heard enough to know that such things had long been in play. She didn’t question it. Nothing good came of delving too deep.
She had given herself to serve and protect. Even now, with the world invaded by an outside force, Sofia felt the need to do her duty. She just didn’t know who she was supposed to serve now in order to fulfil that. She’d been kept in the dark by her superiors. At what point did they feel she was only worthy of seeing a sliver of light in the darkness they dealt in?
Emory shifted again, and Sofia’s gaze was drawn inexplicably back to her. Sofia wasn’t even sure she could trust her. The fact that Emory had seen fit to sneak a handgun out of the armory when she thought Sofia wasn’t looking galled her. Really, just how stupid did she think Sofia was? Emory was a born risk taker. She was foolhardy, always running toward trouble without fear of the consequences. Sofia shivered as she remembered Emory’s panicked race toward the saucer’s light to do anything she could to rescue her family.
She also wondered who was the source leaking the information of the secret agency that Emory had even been willing to go to jail for to protect? Maybe Sofia could ask and Emory would tell her. After all, Emory believed that Sofia wasn’t going to have her thrown in the brig for all the crimes she’d committed at Area 51 alone. Maybe she’d trust her to reveal her sources. Sofia was intrigued by what Emory seemed to think she could expose. It must have been something divisive enough for her to stake her career and her freedom on it. Still, Sofia watched as Emory slept the sleep of the innocent.
Foolhardy and naïve, beautiful yet crazy. Didn’t this theorist realize such agencies, by their very definition, were invincible? Powerful, untouchable, whatever they were. Emory never stood a chance going up against them. Closed ranks wasn’t just confined to the
military.
*
“So, tell me, what was it the aliens got out of the deal you guys obviously made with them?” Emory leaned back in her seat, hands comfortable on the steering wheel, letting the GPS guide her to the all-important base Sofia needed them to reach.
“Who said anyone made a deal?” Sofia was moving around in the back of the van. She was just getting up after sleeping a few hours while Emory took her turn driving through the night.
Emory watched her in the rearview mirror, fixing her hair and stretching out the kinks that had settled after sleeping on the less than comfortable long seat the van afforded. Sofia had taken off her fatigue jacket to sleep and was clad in a tight T-shirt that Emory found very distracting. Who knew the captain was hiding such delightful curves beneath that shapeless uniform?
Inexplicably flustered, Emory swiftly returned her eyes to the road and to keeping a watchful eye on the sky. Dink had been keeping her company all through the night, but he’d gone to take a quick nap before he’d be back in her ear. Emory was aware he was delving deeper into the military’s data bases. He’d told her of some of the information he’d already found out.
Who needed a back door into the Pentagon’s systems when emails all too easily gave away top secret plans? Some even came with photographic evidence or schematics attached. These had proved all too easy for Dink to download. When not telling her what he was finding out, he’d been teasing her for hiding top secret documents in her underwear. Thankfully, that had been something she’d told him about and not what he had witnessed through the all-seeing glasses. In a feat of stealth and long practiced sneakiness, Emory had managed to transfer all the folded sheets she’d stolen from the files to a hidden compartment in the van for her and Dink to go over another time. For now, they were hidden in the same place currently housing a Stinger rocket launcher from Sofia’s all too watchful gaze. Emory figured she had to have some secrets of her own.
“Come on, Major, there had to be some quid pro quo going on. You couldn’t have gotten FTFTA for nothing.”
Sofia eased herself into the front of the van and sat in the passenger seat. “FT…what?”
“Future Tech for Today’s Aviation.” Emory deliberately took on the droll tones of an announcer.
Sofia rubbed at her eyes. “Christ, it is way too early for you to be making up shit. Ask me again when I’m more awake and have had coffee.”
“That’s when you’ll just keep repeating your ‘classified’ routine. I’d rather ask when you’re still drowsy and hopefully more loose lipped.”
“Dream on, Hawkes. These lips are sealed.”
“You’ve told me stuff though,” Emory said. “What’s there left to hide now? It’s too late. The aliens are here.”
“Yes, they are so now you know it all.” Sofia shifted to look at the sky. “Have you seen anything while I was asleep?”
“Like the fact you twitch like a puppy dreaming about chasing rabbits or that you drooled on the upholstery of this fine vehicle?” Emory laughed when Sofia slapped her on the arm in retaliation. “No. The sky was surprisingly clear. According to Dink, that’s because the majority of the saucers are currently over Europe attacking France and Switzerland.” She caught Sofia’s attention at that disclosure. “Ooh, I see by that look you already knew that. How intriguing and how disappointing you didn’t deem it fit to share with the class. He also says there’s at least seven black triangle crafts in orbit.”
Sofia frowned. “How’d he work that out?”
“Ways and means, lady, ways and means.”
“Which are?”
“I’m sure the same as what your military have but don’t use for the same reasons.”
“Just how deep is he buried in our tech?” Sofia’s eyes hardened as her renowned temper began to spark. Emory found it fascinating and rather attractive to watch Sofia’s eyes darken and her lips purse in annoyance.
“Deep enough. But believe me, his aren’t the only hands furtively playing in the military’s technical undergarments.”
Sofia rested her chin in her hand and eyed Emory. “You know you’re just handing me more rope to hang you both with.”
Emory’s smile grew. She loved riling Sofia up. It was like foreplay. The flame that burned in Sofia’s dark eyes seared Emory through to her soul and turned her on. “You seem more awake now. Care to tell me what the live aliens got out of letting you keep their ships?”
“I wasn’t aware there were live ones. You’ve seen the ones in cold storage the same as I have. That’s the story I was told.”
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you.”
“You can believe what you like. Your sort usually do.” Sofia turned her face back to the road, effectively dismissing Emory.
“My sort?”
“Conspiracy theorists. What you can’t research you just make up. You and all of your little basement dwelling buddies.”
Emory’s hands tightened on the wheel for a fraction of a second before she calmed. It wasn’t like that wasn’t something she’d heard a thousand times before. From the mouths of officials, from the government when challenged, from her own mother who despaired of a daughter who wouldn’t toe the family line and get a proper job that didn’t question authority. Emory spoke softly.
“Believing in conspiracy theories is like having a different view on religion or politics. People get really angry when you don’t agree with their beliefs and purposely won’t listen to you no matter how strong an argument you have. They accuse you of badmouthing the country or trying to smear the integrity of those in positions of power. Worse still, if you question a tragedy, they say you’re besmirching the memories of those that were lost. That couldn’t be further from the truth. But people won’t look any further from what they are told, because if they’re shown something that doesn’t fit into their neat little way of living then they can’t cope with what it might actually mean to them.” Emory saw she had Sofia’s attention so she continued.
“It was once believed that the Earth was flat. That what man lived on was a flat disc that lay in a vast ocean, just floating like a lily pad, surrounded by a spherical sky. The astrologers, way back when, studied the stars and said that it was much more feasible that what we stood on was a sphere. Adventurers like Magellan and Columbus took to the seas and proved the Earth was indeed round. So you had what was believed, what was theorized, and what was proven.”
Sofia eyed her dubiously. “You’re going to give me a history lesson at this hour?”
“The term ‘conspiracy theory’ pretty much came into existence after the assassination of John F. Kennedy back in 1963. The report that was published about what happened that day was released to the public…but not everyone believed it. To them, the idea of a lone gunman just didn’t seem feasible.”
“That’s because of the ludicrous ‘magic bullet’ theory.”
“Which has since been debunked, thanks to simply moving the chairs in the limousine to where they were positioned that day. Not everyone believed what the Warren Commission said happened was what really had happened. So they theorized on other scenarios that would bring about the same outcome.”
“Either way we lost a president.”
“True, but isn’t it better to know the hows and whys than just sit back and not question the who as well? Why was he shot? What was the motive? Who stood to gain from his death? It’s a story filed away in the history books now. He’s a tragic footnote in time. But his death was believed to have been down to one man. Since then, it’s been theorized that there could have been multiple shooters.”
“And the Warren Report had what was proven to show otherwise,” Sofia said.
“No, that report had what it needed the country to see to keep them in the dark. There are endless reports of evidence going missing, witnesses mysteriously dying. But enough real evidence was left for us to follow the trails that lead to other conclusions.”
“You would believe in a cover-up,” Sofia h
uffed.
“And that’s why I’m a conspiracy theorist, because nothing has been definitively proven where his death is concerned. I’ve been told what I should believe, but it’s not been proven enough to my satisfaction.”
“Believe, theorize, and prove. That seems to be your mantra.”
“Better that than to be blind to what is really happening. We’re force-fed what to believe about the world through the media. Spoon-fed opinions, brainwashed into believing only what we see and read and are told. We’re never expected to look into it for ourselves. And if anyone questions the ‘norm’ we get the word ‘crazy’ attached to our title. Crazy conspiracy theorist. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve been called that, I’d be driving something other than this VW Bus.” She reached for the phone in her pocket and dialed it. “Good morning, Dink. I can hear you up and about. Care to join the panel discussion?” She laid the phone down between her and Sofia. Dink’s voice soon came through loud and clear.
“Here’s my ten cents worth, ladies. If we question going to war, we’re branded un-American. Yes, we question the military’s motives but not the soldiers who are sent to keep us safe from those who mean us harm. Those we are proud to acknowledge as the heroes they are and we pray for their safe return. I’ve lost too many friends to wars that weren’t our fight. It’s the secret military I despise, the covert ones who use those brave souls to chase after shadows instead of our real enemies. The leaders with other agendas to fulfill are who I’m after, and you know well enough, Sofia, those agencies exist. There have been enough disclosures and documents declassified that point to things happening that weren’t all for the greater good of the country. Or our brave soldiers’ welfare.”