Edge of Revelation

by David John West

  “Good to see you again, David!” Dan exclaimed. “And you too, Don! This lady must be Ms Miller, pleased to meet you!” Dan’s enthusiasm was infectious and entirely counter to the other two men with their granite expressions. “Help yourselves to coffee,” Dan waved towards a glass globe of fresh coffee next to a tray of white mugs and a small round pot filled with paper tubes of creamer and sweetener together with plastic stirrers. “I hope you had good journeys over and slept well.” The group busied themselves with coffees and then Dan and the two serious men sat one side of the rectangular wooden table, the USAF captain and Don Griffiths sat at the ends and David and Charlotte sat opposite.

  The blond-haired serious man opened up the conversation in a deep monotone, “The meeting will be in two parts. In the first part we will ask you questions and you will answer. You will not be allowed to ask us questions. We will not answer if you do.” He was clearly addressing David and Charlotte. He looked at them directly and did not look to either side to include the Americans to either side. Charlotte in particular found this strange; they had invited her to the meeting after all and she had travelled far (though incredibly quickly in her own transport). This must be some peculiar set of US martial meeting rules. She nodded, not knowing if a vocal response was required or not. David Harrier followed her lead.

  “You are Brigadier David Harrier and Miss Charlotte Miller, both UK citizens?”

  Charlotte and David said “Yes,” at about the same moment.

  “You have no business affiliations of any kind with YurMen?”

  Charlotte was confused, “Do you mean Yemen?”

  The two solid men looked back and then both switched on a very thin smile simultaneously. They did not reply. Apparently the thin smile was there to prove that they would not answer any questions as they had stated at the start of the meeting.

  “You have no affiliations financial or otherwise of any kind with YurMen, AffGanIStaan, EyeRan or EyeRack?” blond crew cut continued. It seemed dark crew cut was not there to actually speak. Perhaps he just observed the blond man’s inquisition.

  “No we have no affiliations with any of those countries,” David affirmed. Charlotte agreed, looking very serious.

  “You have no links with organised crime now or in the past?”

  “None,” Charlotte and David intoned.

  “You have no prior links to any terrorist organisation past or present.”

  “None.” Charlotte and David were getting the hang of this game now.

  “You have no plans to engage in terrorist activity now or in the future against the United States of America?”

  “None whatsoever,” Charlotte and David answered emphatically.

  “Please read and sign these non-disclosure agreements in that case.” Blond crew cut produced legal agreements with their names already typed below the signature line. The answers to their questions were also already typed in. Presumably they would not have got to the signing stage if their answers had varied from the pre-typed text. They only had to sign the papers to confirm. David and Charlotte took a minute to cast their eyes across the legalese. They would basically not be able to discuss the conversation that took place with anybody or anything. They raised their eyebrows in agreement, signed and dated the papers and returned them.

  The two crew cut men seemed finished at that. They boxed the NDAs with a few other papers they had not used on the tabletop, placed them in plastic A4 folders, stood together and left the room without another word.

  When the door closed behind them Dan said, “You must excuse my Agency colleagues. The good news seems to be that you passed the first part of the interview so we can carry on and talk properly now.”

  Charlotte smiled and thought, At least these guys know what they are doing; they have things worked out.

  “So Part Two of this meeting is to find out what the hell is happening with these alien appearances round your Cambridge in the UK. Captain Stearns here will take some notes for our side if that is OK with you?”

  “That’s fine, Dan,” David Harrier agreed thinking it would make very little difference if he did not agree, probably.

  “So we have all seen the reports,” Dan continued. “But as always our local Air Traffic Control and radar showed no sign of this big slow-moving aircraft just a few miles from our runways. This is consistent; they can show no electronic signature even when they choose to show themselves visually.”

  “You said you have insights on this particular craft, Dan?” David asked.

  “We have seen really large UFOs a couple of times previously. The last one was in ’97 when one sounding just the same tracked across Arizona accompanied by a whole bunch of other smaller UFOs. It moved north to south eventually being seen by many people as it flew over downtown Phoenix. They reported it as being a boomerang shape up to a mile wide with a few lights along the edges. Most witnesses said it was just a black shape that blotted out the stars, just like your Thetford incident. Some said the underside shimmered like water, but also agree that it blocked out the starlight.”

  “We know what it is, Dan, we just wanted to tell you in person. We didn’t want any other agencies overhearing our conversations.” David said.

  “You know what it is? How would you know that? You been holding out on your old allies, David?” Dan asked with some incredulity.

  “Perish the thought that we allies would hold out on each other, Dan. Though I don’t believe my invitation to visit Area 51 has come through as yet?”

  “You know you are our favourite foreigners, David. Nobody gets better access to our secrets than you. What more can I say?” Dan replied.

  “That’s as may be, Dan. As far as this meeting goes we are here to inform you what is going on. We then need your help and resources back home. And your personal assurance that you can manage your politicians so they don’t get carried away with any excess reactions.”

  “I promise our royalty won’t get carried away if your Queen doesn’t. Now what the hell is going on?”

  “OK, that’s a deal.” David was hopeful that this would stay within Dan’s orbit, at least in the short term. “I wanted you to meet Charlotte as she is a big part of it. She is one of Professor Kitteridge’s group at Cambridge University Cosmology Department, which has made actual alien contact in secret up to now. As you may know, Professor Kitteridge is a brilliant scientist but too ill for this kind of travelling. That is OK as Charlotte can stand in for him completely.” David failed to say that the truth was, Professor Kitteridge would actually be a much less knowledgeable stand-in for Charlotte.

  Dan was well aware of the famous Cambridge cosmology professor from his public face presenting science programmes for the Science Channel. This softened the shock that these Cambridge people may have made alien contact rather than it happening in the United States. Many people had claimed to have made contact previously, right across the USA. Dan privately believed a lot of them as did the majority of his AATIP department, unofficially.

  “Well, young lady – we are all ears,” Dan offered, not knowing exactly what to expect.

  “First of all I am not here to defend whether what we will discuss is possible or not. I am assuming the people in this room know that alien activity on Earth is real and escalating seriously at the present time. If I have to persuade you of this obvious fact then I am talking to the wrong audience.” Charlotte looked round the table.

  Don Griffiths had just the one very personal episode to convince him of this truth. Dan Tucci had sufficient piles of evidence of many encounters to confirm it, despite his lack of personal experience. Dan merely nodded in agreement and encouragement.

  “Good. Professor Kitteridge was approached some time ago by individuals from an alien race, we shall call them Gayans, to help him promote advances in science and get used to the idea of joining with alien races ahead of actual contact. You can assume thes
e Gayans remain close to Professor Kitteridge and that I have personal knowledge of all that is going on.” Dan Tucci nodded; Captain Stearns took notes on a tablet.

  “None of this would require any outside assistance if it weren’t for a second group of aliens, we will call them Spargar, that are not at all helpful for the people here on Earth and have designs on annexing this planet for their own purposes. Let’s say that these Spargar are responsible for just about all UFO sightings as well as abductions, lost time episodes, medical and other torture procedures that you are all familiar with. Don, you have personal experience of this, correct?”

  “Yes indeed,” Don Griffiths confirmed.

  “What you experienced was a standard Zarnha abduction team in a small craft. Zarnha are what you call alien greys and are the agents of Spargar responsible for their operations on new worlds such as Earth,” Charlotte continued. “The Very Large UFO that flew over Thetford is a different thing altogether and is very worrying. This is essentially a troop ship for Spargar’s elite troops. They would not be visiting unless there is a very serious likelihood that they will take some kind of overt action here in the short term. This is exactly the same kind of huge craft that was seen over Arizona in 1997. Another proof point is the recent incident at Area 51 where you scrambled fighters to check out two alien craft approaching the airfield. What actually happened was, a Gayan craft approached the base and flushed out Spargar craft stationed nearby. They are based there watching your most interesting military base in the USA. Spargar have many groups across the globe watching military, nuclear and some governments of interest to them. I think if you check your reports about the Area 51 incident recently, you will see that my account checks out?”

  “What I know checks out, Charlotte, we will check the rest later,” Dan nodded to Captain Stearns who made another note on his tablet.

  “It seems that the more dangerous aliens are concentrating on Cambridge in the UK and its local area, which includes London as well as a number of nuclear airbases and power plants,” David said. “Because of your airbases locally the United States is directly involved, but we don’t want any other nation state getting involved at the present time. We are not planning any state or public involvement until we get a much clearer view of the outcome.”

  “That is fine with us,” Dan replied. “We have always planned on the first overt alien encounter being in the US as we have had a lot of activity previously, but we certainly don’t actually want it. You must be concerned if it happens in the UK, so close to all those population areas. Truth is though, any alien arrival starting in the UK will soon go global – one way or the other. I must say a piece of me always hoped that it would not happen in my lifetime, but if that comfort is going to be denied to me then it’s my job to handle it personally.”

  “We are ramping up readiness without going so far that it would be out in the open,” David said.

  “We would want to do the same thing,” replied Dan. We will up the complement to full at our local bases and increase deployment of tactical ground and air defences. I suggest we invent a joint tactical exercise to cover increased activity. The Russians have been increasing air and sea activity in Northern Europe these last few months. A joint exercise that looks to be checking our joint readiness against that kind of a threat would be appropriate – and about the same as what we could do against an alien threat in any case. Meanwhile I will get my opposite numbers in NASA involved so we have what space capabilities we have in readiness… ”

  Bonging bamboo tones issued from Charlotte’s bag containing her iPhone, interrupting Dan Tucci.

  “Sorry,” Charlotte said but still retrieved her phone and pressed the on button. She raised the phone to her ear; no sound came out and she did not speak.

  Dan looked at David who looked away, mildly embarrassed. Don Griffiths looked surprised as mobile phones were not supposed to operate in the secure room; Captain Stearns was strangely remote.

  A stream of alpha waves issued from the highly modified phone as Joe communicated the events of his meeting with Rakul in Cambridge. The message came in close to dream language that required no verbalisation from Charlotte. It explained the reasoning behind the kidnappings in the Thetford Forest area and the Gayans and their colleagues in Cambridge city centre. It was only for appearance that Charlotte raised the phone to her ear, the alpha waves went straight from the transmitter to her soul resident approximately in the lower core of her brain. Joe continued to describe his meeting with Rakul in detail. Charlotte decided it would be better to keep this information from the security forces of both the UK and the USA as it may scare them into overreacting.

  Captain Stearns was receiving the same message from Joe in the same way. It was entirely consistent that one alien race or another would want to infiltrate Dan Tucci’s elite force in US military intelligence dealing with UFO incidents. It was good news that Captain Stearns was on the Gayan side as one of the small band including Charlotte working at this moment on planet Earth.

  Charlotte covered the concern raised by the message using the Gayan capacity to communicate verbally at the same time she was receiving Joe’s message soul to soul. She switched off the phone and looked back at Dan Tucci who had leaned forward to watch her.

  “What was that about?” Dan asked somewhat directly.

  “A message,” Charlotte replied. “An urgent message.”

  “Well this is a secure facility and you are in a protected room within it. Phone access is impossible.”

  “Plainly not, Dan. I thought we were in a group here that could see beyond normally accepted rules. This is not a standard phone though it does receive calls and run apps. Hopefully it is no great surprise that this world technology is not all we are up against here?”

  “I see,” mused Dan Tucci noting that their security protections were no longer valid. This was first-hand evidence that advanced technology was at work but not really evidence of direct alien intervention. “So what is the urgent news?”

  “A wave of Spargar kidnappings have taken place local to Cambridge. This is dangerous for us as well as being life-threatening for those abducted. I must return there immediately.”

  “Well, me too,” added Dan. “I have my bag still packed and it’s important I get over there to manage our people on the ground.”

  “You could return with me,” Charlotte said after a moment’s pause.

  “Great, we can get a jet transport fuelled and ready within the hour.”

  “That would be rather slow, I fear. I have my own transport to hand and need to be back there this evening.”

  “This evening! Even a USAF converted fighter exec jet is going to take five hours plus the six-hour time difference.”

  “Well we won’t be using a converted jet fighter, much too slow.”

  “And what about Don and David here?”

  “I believe they have return tickets booked in business – they will be very comfortable. I am afraid our Gayan friends won’t allow more than one Earth person to be transported. One person’s witness account is uncorroborated, two Earth people travelling together can substantiate each other’s account. They would not allow either Don or David to travel with you in current circumstances.”

  Dan could not stop himself raising a finger and pointing slowly at Charlotte. “If that’s the case then what about you…?”

  Charlotte smiled sweetly at him, “I am sure we will be fine. Can you arrange a car for us to take us to our transport?”

  *

  The meeting broke up late morning into two groups. David Harrier, Don Griffiths and Captain Stearns continued to organise the proposed joint exercises as cover for a big build-up of USAF assets in the Cambridge area of the United Kingdom. If something big was brewing there then they would make sure that all preparations were in hand. Dan booked a room at the Garden House Hotel in Cambridge for that night at Charlotte’s recomm
endation. They both left and met a staff car outside the foyer by the brooding Blackbird.

  Dan loaded his holdall in the trunk of the staff car; Charlotte only carried her black leather tote handbag. Dan was impressed a young lady could travel so light internationally. He was swift forming an impression there was much, much more to Charlotte than he had first thought. Charlotte advised the driver the coordinates of their destination. The driver nodded and set off for the small lakeside community of Mico west of the San Antonio conurbation. The driver was used to the unusual and drove as he was instructed.

  “We are heading for the marina by the dam at Medina lake,” Charlotte told Dan once they were settled in the air-conditioned, tinted-glass comfort of the rear seats of the staff car. The heat and humidity of San Antonio at midday was oppressive after the easier climate of the United Kingdom and Charlotte was grateful for the cold microclimate of the car’s interior. Dan was intensely intrigued about why they would drive to the local water sports resort and how that could possibly connect to transportation intercontinental to Europe. Charlotte was not explaining anything with the driver up front and stared out of the window. The driver appeared as discreet as would be expected, fixing his gaze on the road ahead through mirror glasses but Charlotte had no doubt he was capable of soaking up any conversation of interest from the rear seat passengers. This time of day it was a forty-five minute ride to the lake. Soon the city suburbs petered out into low hills of scrub burned umber in the sun. Occasional flat fertile fields, emerald with fresh crops, were irrigated by small streams along the roadside. Soon the road began to rise gradually and the short trees fell away to their left to reveal the long drop below the ochre wall of the Medina Dam. They continued on past a couple of dirt-roadside turnings then turned left down to the lake at a sign for Joe’s Diner and Marina. There was a big parking lot where the driver opened the passenger doors and Dan and Charlotte stepped out into the ruthless heat once more. The driver popped the trunk and passed Dan his holdall. He looked enquiringly at the Head of AATIP who told him they were done for the day and he should return to the base. The driver said no more, got back into the car and set off crumping the tyres gently through the rough ground of the unmade parking lot. Maybe the odd couple would call him later to pick them up after their social lunch at the lakeside.