by Don Viecelli
“It certainly looks impressive. I think the General will like what he sees. You all did an outstanding job with this story,” Dave said to the group. He meant every word.
“Thanks, Dave. We appreciate that. How do you want us to send the film?” Kaye asked. “We can’t send it from here?”
“I’m not sure. The satellite link is still down. Maybe Major Cole could fly it to Duluth Air Force Base and they could send it over the landline system.”
Kaye thought for a moment. “We could send it through our radio station in Houghton. Their link is probably still working. I need to get a copy to our TV station in Chicago to let them get prepared if the President decides go on the air immediately with the story.”
Dave was pondering what to do when two things happened at once. His satellite phone started to ring, which took him by surprise, and then he heard yelling outside the conference room. It was coming from downstairs. They all stood up trying to figure out what was going on. While Dave picked up his phone and said hello, Kurt was staring out the picture window towards the lake. What he saw made him grab his camera and start running for the exit. He just said, “Look out the window, quick!” Then he was gone.
Kaye, Debbie and Dave looked out the window and were shocked at what they saw. A big oblong UFO was hovering over the middle of the lake. It looked like it was about 100 meters long and 60 meters wide. It was metallic silver in color and the sun was reflecting off its shiny surface. Everyone just stood there, dumbfounded. Then Kaye and Debbie ran out of the room to go outside and see this thing. Dave tried to concentrate on the voice speaking out of his phone, “Hello, anyone there? Colonel Hampton, this is General Anderson.”
“Ah—hello, General. Sorry for the confusion. We’re in the middle of something here. It appears we have another UFO outside our building. It’s hovering over the lake.”
“What? You sure?”
“Yes, General. No doubt about it. I think our cover story just got blown.” He described the UFO to the General and tried to stay calm.
General Anderson had news of his own. “The satellite system is working. They got the GPS service working too. You should be able to find those boys now. But that’s not the only reason I’m calling. The President just got word from NASA that some UFO paid a visit to the space station this afternoon. Only this UFO was over a mile wide. They made contact, Colonel! The aliens want to know what happened to their ship and crew. They want everything back, Colonel. Did you hear what I said?”
Dave was thinking. Now this was unexpected, or was it? What would we do if we lost some astronauts on an alien planet? Find them. That’s what I would do, he thought. It was only natural. He answered the general, “Sir, I think they just sent their search party.” He looked out the window. The UFO was moving slowly to the east side of the lake. It paused for a few moments and then it darted over the lake to the west side and disappeared over the mountains. It seemed to know exactly where to go. He explained its movements to the general. “I think we better find those boys, General, before the aliens do.”
“I agree, Colonel. We’ll get things ready on this end. The President called an emergency meeting with his Cabinet. He’ll probably have to hold a press conference in the morning to tell the public what’s going on. You have the film ready?”
“Yeah, we’re finishing it up now. We’ll be sending you a copy soon to review before you send it to the Pentagon and the President. I’ll let you know when we send it. General—I think you better keep your eyes open. If the aliens know where the spacecraft crashed, they’ve got to know where the bodies and disks are now because of the beacon. They might even be able to track the disks. What are you going to tell the President?”
“I’ll let him know what you saw. Send that video as soon as you can—and, Colonel, find that disk and get it back fast.” He hung up before Dave could say goodbye. He was always hanging up the phone that way. “Damn,” Dave said out loud. He left the room to find Colonel Feldman. He needed the GPS location coordinates for Ryan’s phone. It was going to be a long day.
Chapter 27
Colonel Nash woke up at the crack of dawn. It was just after 6:00 a.m. and the sun was coming up over the lake. He could see the lake out the back window of the cabin. Lake Gogebic was almost a mile wide where his cabin sat on the edge of the lake. He had a small boat dock with a fishing boat and two jet skis tied alongside. He tried to visit as often as he could in the summer to fish. It was his favorite hobby when he wasn’t running his military outfit. He wondered what he would buy with all the money he was going to get. A new boat would be good. Then a bigger cabin—a real log house—would be nice. He could picture it all in his head. He had waited all his life for a chance like this. He wasn’t about to lose it.
He turned on the TV to listen to the news. So far there was nothing about UFO’s. Wait until he got through with them, he thought. By ‘them’, he meant the government. He hated the government. All they wanted was his tax dollars. He was sick and tired of it. He wouldn’t pay them a dime. He was hungry and decided to start breakfast. He looked outside and said hello to the two guards. Lieutenants Hall and Grady had replaced the other two men on guard duty at two o-clock in the morning. They were ready to wake up the others and get relieved. Colonel Nash offered to cook them breakfast first. He was in a good mood, they noticed. “Hear anything last night?” Colonel Nash asked them.
“Nope, quiet as a mouse,” Lieutenant Hall said.
“Good, come on in you two. I have breakfast started. How many eggs you want?”
They both answered and the colonel cracked the eggshells expertly over the frying pan. The smell of frying bacon, eggs and coffee soon filled the cabin. Ryan was the first to wake up in the bedroom. He spoke to Jason and Tom. “You guys up?” They reluctantly answered, “Yeah, we are now. What’s that smell?”
“Someone’s cooking breakfast. Maybe we can get some. I’m starving,” Ryan said. Then he remembered his phone. He looked out the bedroom door. No one was standing guard, but he could see three men sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast. He moved back out of sight of the door and grabbed his phone from his boot. He looked at the message indicator, saw that the message he sent his sister had been received and opened. He was relieved. He put the phone back in his boot and whispered to Jason and Tom what he had done earlier in the morning. They seemed relieved at the news. Now they were just plain hungry and needed to go to the bathroom.
They all got dressed and Ryan called out of the bedroom, “Hey, can we come out? We need to go to the bathroom.”
Colonel Nash heard them stirring in the room and answered, “Yeah, go ahead. You want breakfast? I’m cooking.”
The boys answered, “Yes” in unison. They were starving. Colonel Nash cracked more eggs on the frying pan and told them to come into the kitchen. Ryan was the first to arrive. Lieutenants Hall and Grady left the room and woke up the other two men for guard duty. Then they both found a bedroom and laid down for some sleep. Colonel Nash finished making breakfast and gave everyone a plate. It looked good. “How’d you guys sleep last night?” he asked.
“We slept fine,” Ryan answered between mouthfuls of food. “You going to let us go today? My sister is probably worried and looking for us now.”
“We’ll see, son. I have to make a call and settle some business first. Then you can go.” In truth, Colonel Nash wasn’t sure when he would let them go. It was up to the person he was going to call at FLM headquarters this morning. They were all watching TV when the electricity shut off. Colonel Nash swore. He didn’t need any power failures today. It happens occasionally up here, but not in the spring or summer unless a big storm hit. He turned on a portable radio and found a news channel. It wasn’t long before they heard what had happened to the power transformers.
“Wow, I never heard of that happening before,” Tom said.
“I have. I read about it on the Internet once,” Jason said. “It wasn’t this bad though.”
Ryan was worried ab
out his phone. He was dying to see if it was still working. If it wasn’t, then they were in serious trouble, he thought to himself.
Colonel Nash excused himself. He had a call to make outside. He turned on his cell phone and walked out the door. Ryan was relieved to see the phone seemed to be working, but he didn’t know about the GPS service. He just assumed it was all right.
Colonel Nash told the other two guards to watch the boys, get some breakfast and clean up. He made enough food for everyone, but he wasn’t about to clean up the mess too. He walked down to the lake and looked around. It was very peaceful by the water and he noticed a few early-bird fishermen out on the lake in their boats. He wished he could join them. Instead, he dialed the number for FLM headquarters in Montana. He wanted to leave a message for General Willard Dunn, his commanding officer. The phone rang and he heard General Dunn’s answering service. It was an hour earlier in Montana. He left a message for General Dunn to call him. “It was urgent,” he said into the phone. Then he went over to the dock to check on his boat.
Colonel Nash let Ryan and his two friends walk around the dock and get some fresh air. He wasn’t expecting any trouble from them. Ryan got up his courage and asked Nash where they were. “You’re on Lake Gogebic, son. I fish here. It’s a pretty big lake, the biggest in the U.P.”
“Can we take the boat out for a ride?”
“No, I’m afraid we ain’t doing any fishing today.”
Ryan let it drop. He didn’t expect a boat ride. He just wanted to get the lay of the lake and see where he was in case they had to make a run for it. He liked the look of the lake, though. It was big. It made him want to fish. It was so peaceful in the morning. The surface was smooth, like glass, and he could hear the birds chirping in the distance. Occasionally, he would hear a boat motor start somewhere out on the lake letting him know someone was out there fishing. He wondered what they caught. He was about to ask when Colonel Nash spoke first. “It’s time to go back inside, boys. I don’t want anybody spotting us out here for a while. You can stay on the back porch if you want some fresh air.”
Ryan, Jason and Tom walked up the slope to the cabin. They sat in the rocking chairs and spoke low so Colonel Nash, still working on his boat, couldn’t hear what they were saying. Ryan could hear the two men in the cabin snoring in the bedroom. The other two guys were out front watching the long driveway. Tom looked worried. “When do you think they’ll let us go, Ryan?”
“I’m not sure, but if that Colonel doesn’t make up his mind soon, we better make it up for him.”
“You mean run?”
“Yeah, as soon as we can. I don’t like it. He should have let us go yesterday. He can keep the stuff for all I care.”
“He doesn’t want us to tell anyone he took the evidence before he sells it, that’s all,” Jason said. “I don’t think he wants to hurt us.”
“You want to take that chance?” Ryan asked curtly. “I don’t trust any of them.”
“So what do you want to do?” Tom asked.
“If my sister doesn’t send someone to find us today, then we could try to take the boat. I saw the keys in the kitchen. Or we could run into the woods tonight. They would never find us.”
“We’d probably get lost. This lake is in the middle of nowhere,” Jason said.
“We could just walk around the lake until we found another cabin, or someone who could help us. I’m not afraid of getting lost. Besides, I still have my phone.”
“I hope it’s still working with this power failure and all,” Jason said.
“All right, drop it, you guys,” Tom said impatiently. I’m with Ryan. I say, if we get a chance to run, we go for it. I don’t want to spend another night with these creeps.”
They both agreed Tom was right. They would make a run for it tonight when everyone was asleep. They would play it cool and not cause any trouble and wait for their chance. They decided to listen to the radio for any news on the situation. So far, the only news was about the power failures occurring all across the northeast and Midwest in the U.S. and Canada. There was nothing about UFOs, but the news did say that some of the astronauts on the ISS had to leave because of the storm and returned safely early this morning. The rest were still up there, but NASA had lost contact with them. The President was planning a news conference at one o’clock, EDST, to speak to the nation. It was something the boys looked forward to while they waited for Colonel Nash to make up his mind what he was going to do.
Colonel Nash looked up from his boat at the boys on the back porch. He couldn’t hear them, but he could see they were plotting something. He didn’t blame them, but he knew how much trouble they could cause if they got away and reported him to the police. Kidnapping was a federal crime and he couldn’t hold them much longer. He just wanted to get his money and leave the country. He could do it on a couple of million dollars. He would disappear in the Middle East or Asia. Nobody would find him. He was getting impatient. “Come on, General,” he said to himself. “Call me.”
Finally, the phone rang. It was General Dunn from Montana. “Hello, Colonel Nash. What can I do for you this morning?” He sounded in a hurry.
“Thanks for returning my call, General. I’ve got something that may be of interest to the FLM. I was hoping you could help me with it.”
“Certainly, Colonel. You know I’m always willing to help friends of the FLM. What can I help you with?”
Colonel Nash spent the next ten minutes explaining what was happening in his area and describing what he had in his possession. At first, the general didn’t see the significance of it. He thought the colonel was mad and trying to play a hoax on him. It sounded too farfetched. As the colonel continued, it all started to sound possible, if they could prove it. Then the real purpose of the call became apparent— the money. If the story were really true, then any major TV or cable news channel would pay a small fortune to break the story to the world. It would be the top news story of the century. The dollar signs started to pop in the general’s head. Colonel Nash knew he had him when the General quite arguing back and just listened. “Look, General. I just need your help to run this past the news media or magazine people and let me know what they would be willing to pay us for the story. I’ll give you twenty percent of whatever we can get for the story. ”
“Why don’t you call them yourself, Colonel?”
“I thought about it, General, but you have all the contacts. They would just hang up on me. And we have to do this quick. Otherwise the kid’s sister or the government will do it first. It has to be done soon or we lose the chance.” He was pleading now.
“All right. I need to see the pictures. Can you send them to me?”
“I think so. The power is out here, but maybe I can use my phone to transmit the stuff to you. I’ll use your email address. I’ll see what we can do and call you back. Thanks, General. You won’t be sorry.”
“I’ll do what I can after I see the pictures. I know some people that may be interested. I don’t know what they will pay for this kind of stuff, but it should be pretty high. I’ll call you later.” They both hung up.
Colonel Nash looked pleased with himself. Now, all he had to do was find a way to send the stuff to the general. Lieutenant Grady would know how. He was the computer expert in his group. He started up the path to the cabin to wake him up. He needed to send the pictures to the General now.
Ryan watched the colonel stop talking on his phone and come towards them. He walked right past them without saying a word. He entered the cabin and went to the bedroom where the two men were sleeping. He woke one of them up and said something the boys could not hear.
“I wonder what he’s up to now?” Ryan said to the others.
“Looks like he got through to the person he called this morning. Must be his boss,” Jason said.
“That can’t be good. I bet he’s trying to sell the story,” Ryan said.
“Do you think they’ll believe him?” Tom asked.
“I don’t know, bu
t they’ll start checking things out. Maybe the bastards will let us go,” Ryan added.
They watched through the window as Colonel Nash and Lieutenant Grady came out of the bedroom and sat down at the living room table. Lieutenant Grady had his notebook computer with him. He pulled out his phone and made a call. He seemed satisfied everything was working on the cellular telephone and started to send a file somewhere. Ryan knew it was a copy of his video file. Colonel Nash looked at the boys and just smiled. He looked pleased with himself. Everything was going according to plan.
The sound of helicopter rotors broke the silence on the porch. The cabin was covered by trees on all sides. You could barely see the cabin from the air. The only open space was the boat dock down by the lake, about 100 yards away. The three boys jumped up and thought about running for the lake and yelling for all they were worth. Before they could make another move, Colonel Nash was on the porch yelling at them to get inside—now! He had a pistol in his right hand pointed at the floor. He briefly saw through the leaves an Army helicopter flying over the lake near the shoreline as if looking for something.
Ryan and his two friends did what they were told. Colonel Nash told them to sit down on the couch and be quiet. Then he asked the two men who were on guard out front to take a walk up the path to the dirt road that circled the lake and see if they saw anything unusual. He told them to stay out of sight. He wasn’t expecting anyone because no one knew where they were hiding. The Army helicopter was probably just flying over the lake to somewhere else. But it worried him nonetheless. He went back inside and looked at Grady. Grady gave him the thumbs up. The file had been sent.
All afternoon Colonel Nash waited for his cell phone to ring. Finally, it did. He stepped outside for privacy and answered the phone, “Hello, Colonel Nash here.”
“Hello, Colonel. General Dunn. I found somebody who’s interested in your story. It seems there are some rumors about a UFO sighting near the International Space Station—some kind of pictures on the Internet. It’s making all sorts of headlines in the tabloid press. Nobody gave it much credence. Then somebody reported a UFO up in your area this afternoon. I don’t know what’s going on, but you’ve got a hot story.”