“In case you are wondering about phase five, phases one to four were all planned before our invasion force left Magenta, and they had been agreed to by the government of Magenta. Phase five though is all mine, and our new invasion plan is also mine, and it will deviate greatly from the original, shortening the time that our people will have to wait for a new home world.” Consul Phairlis declared, and there were no derisory thoughts about this, only wide smiles and applause, for they had all wondered when Phairlis would shrug off the constraints of the Magentan government, now they knew.
Phairlis now turned to Commander Greer. “Commander, you have an idea on how we should retaliate, please tell the council.” Phairlis asked.
Commander Greer smiled at Phairlis and came to his feet so that everyone sitting around the table could see him. “Yes Consul, I do. I have already made plans to cover many situations, and the one that I have chosen for this one calls for the blame to fall upon one of the many crackpot groups who live in the United States.” After outlining his simple plan, the council voted unanimously to accept it.
**********
The next day the sun was shining in Houston, and with the slight breeze blowing through the city, its citizens felt quite happy with their lives. One of them, a motorcycle courier, pulled up outside of the large Mormon Temple; here a tall, pale looking man handed him a parcel.
“It is important that you take this to headquarters of the Texas Rangers immediately, here is fifty dollars, keep the change, if you can delivery it within ten minutes the sergeant at the desk has promised me that he will give you another fifty, so hurry.” The man said.
The courier did wonder why the man had waited for a courier to arrive, if it was so urgent, but figured that it just might be fatal for the man to be seen entering the headquarters of the Texas Rangers, anyway he could do with another fifty, so he accelerated away and chose the quickest route available to him.
The courier was walking up to the desk within the headquarters of the Texas Rangers when the bomb exploded, the powerful explosion was heard all over the city, the Ranger headquarters in Houston was no more, just broken concrete and steel. Of the men and women who worked there, they all died; there was not even one survivor.
In the city of Austin, a courier was pulling away from a church, rather than a Mormon Temple, but he too had a parcel, he too was in a hurry to get to the Ranger`s office and collect a further fifty dollars, unfortunately for him the traffic was slow due to road works. The courier decided to cut down a narrow alley, it would take him out of his way but he would still be able to get to his destination in time to collect the fifty-dollar bill. That was until he pulled out sharply into the busy traffic on the road at the other end of the alley.
John Wilson had been a lorry driver for thirty years, tomorrow he was due to start his vacation, he had booked into one of the plush hotels in Las Vegas. Having had to book an early flight, one that was due to take off at dawn the next morning, he wanted to finish off today`s drops and get home early, so he was in a hurry. The many road works around town were not helping him so he was overtaking the vehicles ahead of him at every opportunity, he did not see the motor cycle courier suddenly pull out of the alley, he was too busy looking in his rear mirror and screaming obscenities at the driver behind him, the one he had just cut up.
As for the motor cyclist, he did not have a chance, he was knocked flying off his bike, and although shaken he was more angry about seeing his bike crushed beneath the wheels of the heavy lorry. His anger did not last all that long, his parcel had come loose and slid beneath an oncoming bus, when the wheels began to crush it the bomb exploded, killing or injuring anyone with fifty feet of it.
Major Hernandez was sitting at his desk going through the reports regarding the raid on the laboratory when Special Agent Fellows of the FBI called on the telephone; it was just five minutes after the first bomb explosion, the one in Houston. Fellows and Hernandez were old friends, having met on another case last year.
“Major Hernandez, I have some bad news for you, there has been a terrorist attack against the Ranger`s headquarters in Houston, Major, it was one hell of a powerful explosion, I do not think that there will be many survivors.” Fellows said grimly.
Hernandez was stunned for only a moment, he was about to inform the agent that he would come immediately, when he heard the second bomb detonate, it went off seventy feet further along the street and broke every window with the Ranger`s headquarters. Glass showered the office, but somehow he escaped with just a few minor scratches, but he was stunned for a moment, he certainly could not answer Fellows` anxious barrage of questions. Fellows had heard the explosion over the phone, and now feared the worst. Finally, Hernandez regained control of his emotions to answer Fellows` questions.
“My god Special Agent Fellows, they made an attempt here too, we seem to be OK, it exploded prematurely further down the street, only god knows how many people were killed in the attack, look, I have to go now, I will call you back. I will inform Chief Randall immediately about the Houston attack, please keep me updated about it.”
Hernandez immediately put the building on terrorist alert, and he then informed every one of the bomb attack in Houston, he did not need to tell them of the one in Austin, for they had all heard it. However, he did warn them to be alert for another attempt, both within the building and outside. He then send a warning out to the other Ranger offices and finally he found the time to call Chief Randall, who had already heard about the attack, he asked Hernandez to come straight to his office.
“The group behind the two explosions Chief, it must be something to do with the raid on the terrorist laboratory in Austin, we hurt them bad and they are taking their revenge on us.” Hernandez said to Chief Randall, the man who was in overall command of the Rangers.
“I agree Matias, but who the hell are they, and why have we only just found out about such a dangerous group?” Randall demanded to know.
“I do not know Chief; I asked myself the same question. I should be hearing something back from my team shortly; I will update you when I can.” Hernandez promised.
“Matias, I have asked the FBI to handle the initial investigation into the bombing in Houston, from the reports that I am receiving not many of our people could have survived the explosion, and we simply do not have the manpower to investigate both attacks. In any case, if you are correct about the perpetrator, then you and Captain Rogers are already looking for the bastard behind both bombings. Find them Matias, and when you do let me know so that I can be in on the kill.” Randall ordered grimly.
Hernandez and Randall left it there for the moment, and Hernandez went directly to the site of the bomb crater and took over the investigation, all round him, he saw the dead and the wounded, and he said a silent prayer, for both them and their families.
Thankfully the paramedics were soon there in force, as were the fire brigade, for they were needed to cut the victims of the atrocity from out of the many vehicles that had taken the brunt of the blast. Hernandez stood there staring at it, wondering how an intelligent person could inflict such a terrible act upon the innocent of his city, finally he tore his eyes away from the sight and left it to the forensic team to provide him with a lead. He was going to talk to the men who he had arrested the night before, and demand some answers, because his sixth sense was telling him that they knew who was responsible for this attack. He also called Will, and told him to collect Sally, and for both of them to come to his office, immediately.
**********
In Houston, the FBI were investigating the attack on the Ranger office, as requested by Chief Randall, although, the Rangers who were relatively OK, were assisting in the task of finding those responsible, and each of them working 24 hours per day to track down the terrorists.
The other district headquarters of the Rangers sent as many people as they could to assist, but they too were stretched. There were the cutbacks in the workforce due to financial restraints, and of course their normal
workload, and a few were working on the ET case, checking up on Sally`s list of people. Will had re-organised the list so that the names were under the subjects’ location, and he then sent only those names applicable to each of the Ranger headquarters, asking them to run a security check on the people. Not that any of the Rangers would not have put their normal work to one side to search for the bombers, however, Will had stressed the importance of checking into the people on the lists that he had sent out, although, he had kept the reason behind the request a top secret.. Major Hernandez knew nothing about the lists, but then many initial investigations went on without his knowledge. Therefore, the FBI handled the initial investigation into the Houston attack, with help from Homeland Security.
The FBI were happy to help out the smaller law enforcement force, with Special Agent Fellows of the Houston office finding himself leading a major investigation. When he saw what remained of the Rangers` headquarters, and looked on as the bodies of the dead Rangers were dug out of the rubble, he had to take a long moment off to get over the terrible sight; it looked more like a war zone than the peaceful city of Houston, Texas.
His attention was immediately drawn to a motorcycle belonging to Express Couriers. A police officer had found it; the motorcycle was within the window display of the shop opposite to the Rangers office, blown there by the force of the explosion. Special Agent Fellows wondered if Express Couriers could help throw any light on the pressing need to discover just who had delivered the explosive device to the Rangers Headquarters, so he went to call on them, glad to leave the blood, and the torn and twisted bodies, behind him.
“FBI.” Fellows announced, showing his card to an elderly man behind an old wooden desk in the small dirty office that was Express Couriers. “Special Agent Fellows, are you Mr Bright, the owner of this firm?” Fellows asked.
“Yes, I am, Special Agent Fellows, how can I be of help to you?” Bright asked rather apprehensively, immediately feeling guilty of at least some small misdemeanour he may have committed.
“Did you send one of your people to the Texas Ranger headquarters this morning?” Fellows asked grimly, his eyes boring into those of Bright.
Bright had heard about the bombing and sweat broke out upon his face, he had done nothing wrong but even so, this large looking officer seemed particularly grim, if a little pale. “Yes, Special Agent, we did have one of our boys deliver a parcel to the headquarters of the Texas Rangers, it was a new customer, a Mr Brown. Johnny, my driver, is he all right, I mean I heard about the explosion on the radio, and Johnny has not called in since he picked up the parcel. It was from a guy at the Executive Rooms, it`s the building right next to the Mormon Temple.” Bright said fearing the worst, both for his driver and himself.
That was all Fellows got from him, the request for a courier had come in over the phone and Bright could only say that it was a man on the phone. Fellows drove over to the Executive Rooms but the woman on the desk said that no Mr Brown was staying there, just as Fellows had expected. Fellows had spoken to Major Hernandez earlier that day, he now called him to bring him up to date, Hernandez was about to interrogate the two alien clones when the call came through. Fellows told Hernandez the little that he had found out, how he thought that the bomb may have been sent by a courier directly into the Ranger`s District Headquarters, and that it had been picked up from outside the Mormon Temple.
“Have you any leads about the group behind the attack.” Hernandez asked.
“No, Major, it could have been any of the many militant groups that have sprung up.” Fellows replied.
“You may be correct, Special Agent Fellows. However, I believe this case is associated with another case that we are working on. Look, I cannot speak about it over the phone, drive up to Austin when you get time and I will fill you in. I can say that your Deputy Director Task knows a little about it. Hmm, maybe the two of you should come here to Austin; I will call him, because I think the situation could get worse.” Hernandez said thoughtfully.
“I will check on the CCTV cameras near to the Mormon Temple first Major, and also whether we have found any of the bomb fragments, although that will probably mean sorting through and disposing of all the rubble that once was a building. I will call you later today to let you know when I can come over to see you.” Fellows replied.
“Twenty minutes later and Fellows received a call from Deputy Director Task, he was to hand over the command of the investigation to a senior officer, however, he was to continue looking into the CCTV angle and push ahead with the search for any bomb fragments. However, Special Agent Tom Rails would now be in overall command, he would be in Houston tomorrow, sometime, after visiting Austin and meeting up with Major Hernandez.
*********
The two alien clones who had been taken prisoner by the Rangers, together with the two who had been shot, all died suddenly from a heart attack, and before Hernandez could talk to them again, although they had stayed silent up until now, refusing to utter a single syllable. It was much later that day when the medical examiner, Doctor Rollins, brought the autopsy reports up to Major Hernandez, and personally, for he had many interesting facts to reveal, Will and Sally were in the major`s office when Rollins entered it.
“Major, Will, Sally, the autopsies of the six men that you sent along revealed a piece of metal in their chests, and implanted very near to their hearts. I heard about the implant that killed Colin Braun and so I spoke with Doctor Carlson, we both checked and it was the same implant that killed four of the men, your bullets killing the other two, although they too had the implant within their chest, and their implants also self-destructed. However, there is another interesting point, one that is far more important, it concerns the internal organs of these six men, they were not in the usual position for a human, some were on the opposite side of the body, and some were in a higher or lower position. If that is not enough I have even more to tell you, the men were all in remarkable poor health, except that is for their teeth, and I did not find even one filling in any of their teeth. If I had to make a guess, I would say that there is a real chance that these people were not humans, but clones, although I have no idea who has the know-how to produce such a thing. There is one other mystery, the clones appear to have been created to live only a very short time, they had all been in danger of dying over the next two years, the destruction of the implant merely hastened their deaths. ” Rollins informed the Rangers, who were unsure how to take his report, only Sally did not appear surprised by the report.
Will looked across at Sally and saw her smiling to herself, for she knew that they now had more proof that indicated that aliens really did exist, the alien invasion threat was for real; it was a Hollywood nightmare come true. However, the information regarding the clones` short life span was hard to understand, for would an invasion force build a clone to fail after so short a time?
Doctor Rollins did not give the two Rangers time to digest this information, instead he continued with another report connected to the clones.
“This is a preliminary report regarding an unknown chemical that was found in the blood of the rescued people, the people were in good health but following a suggestion by Sally.” Rollins said, and he looked across at Sally and smiled. “We checked all of the test subjects for fertility problems, on checking we found them all to be infertile. The patients have never experienced any trouble before as regards fertility; four of them even have children. This proves a huge chunk of Sally`s tale, it is my belief that the chemical has never been manufactured in this form on Earth, and I can envisage no reason to do so, except in total warfare.” Rollins stated and then pulled out another file.
“Now this final report was compiled by Sally, but she wants me to read it to you.” Rollins said looking at the two Rangers who merely nodded. “In it Sally states that she will need to go through the many written documents that we found in the laboratory to see how this chemical was manufactured, unfortunately there are a great many such documents. All of the documen
ts are in English, although poorly written, as if it were not the first language of the writer, and this has made it rather difficult to read. Sally did find some small traces in the laboratory of the chemical found in the test subjects’ blood, although not very much. However, we did find many of the sacks of the chemical Trichlorian Plus, and it is similar in composition to the one found in the test subjects blood, but the form that it was found in, it could not cause infertility, nor is it a poison. As the terrorists spoke of Trichlorian Plus, I believe they alter it before it is able to cause infertility, or to act as a toxin. That is the end of her report, although Sally will continue reading the notes and let you know as soon as she has found the answer to the puzzle.” Doctor Rollins said, finishing off the reports on the laboratory.
Having listened in full to Doctor Rollins, both Major Hernandez and Will said they needed to re-read the reports, because they were left a little baffled by parts of what they had heard, and Major Hernandez was momentarily unsure just where to go with it. It was now, after Rollins had departed, that Will spoke to Hernandez regarding his own thoughts on the case.
“Major, this case originated because of Sally`s interest in the people returning from Mars, after the first trip, and then the Moon, Sally thinks that we could be talking about real aliens, ones from another world, and after listening to the autopsy reports I now believe that she is right. If I remember correctly Major, we lost contact with Mars Colony One spacecraft on their outward journey, and did not re-establish contact with them until they arrived at the planet Mars, I now think that it could have all started during this part of the journey. All the eight people on Mars Colony One craft were Americans though, if this was when they were brainwashed then surely it must have been real life aliens, little green men from Alpha Centauri?” Will argued, now knowing how his niece felt when she uttered such preposterous things, he could not believe that he had even suggested it. “For it to, have been one or more of our own men behind the brainwashing, well it is an even crazier notion.” Will declared.
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