Alec's Dream

by Dave Birchbauer

  “I can’t see a thing. Why haven’t you changed the windshield wipers?” Alec complained. Along with it being dark and gloomy, it was raining as Clay flew the Plymouth just above the treetops.

  “You can’t buy windshield wipers for a 59 Plymouth off the shelf you know.” Clay retorted. “Anyway, I've flown this route hundreds of times; I can fly it blindfolded... and take it easy on that arm rest, its original. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.”

  “I don't consider this a joy ride.” Alec said not liking their nighttime flight.

  “You didn't need to come; I could have gotten everything we needed.” Clay said bringing up their earlier argument.

  Alec didn’t respond. He was deep in thought of their mission. It started when Joshua told them about the secret facilities where they’d be able to retrofit a rescue ship. Alec and Clay knew that to do that, they’d need to reclaim some equipment, drawings and technical information that were, at least for now, safely locked away in GraviTych. It was possible to rebuild whatever they needed without it, but time was their enemy.

  “Just keep driving, I'll be OK.” Thoughts of Jessie and Sofie drove him on.

  Clay slowed and descended to a hover just below the treetops in the woods behind GraviTych. From their vantage point they could see black SUV's parked in the employee lot along the side of the building. Clay slowly drifted through the trees to a spot where they could watch the front entrance. Two black suited armed guards stood at each side of the front door holding automatic weapons. One leaned against the side of the building; the other reclined in an office chair that looked like it was salvaged from their meeting room.

  “Just a couple of night watchmen” Clay said. Alec thought they looked more threatening than ‘night watchmen’. Clay circled the building where they counted 4 more guards.

  “The roof is clear, let's hope that your secret parking spot hasn't been discovered yet.” Alec said.

  Clay had taken ownership the car after the Gravity Expo and there wasn't a day gone by that you didn't see him flying to or from work, or just taking a joy ride. He even had a covered garage built on the roof.

  “Rain makes good camouflage.” Clay said as he sped out from the treetops. He timed his move around the guards walking the perimeter. Alec held tight as they covered the distance in seconds. It took Clay only a moment to slip under the cover of his rooftop garage. The ‘garage’ was a hidden side door in the buildings textile mill section. The disguised entrance was positioned slightly above the second story roof of the old school section entering into the middle of the textile mills 3rd story. Once in, they drove a long narrow corridor leading to a wider landing pad. He turned the car around before setting down.

  “We’ll get the blanket press first.” Clay recited their plan as they walked to the back of the room. He lifted a metal panel from the floor exposing an access shaft and ladder. The ladder extended to the first floor.

  At the bottom, Alec opened a service panel on the wall and connected Jessie’s device they had confiscated a half a year ago. “I hope I reprogrammed it right.” Alec said. The device was meant to erase them from the security cameras output streams. His memory of Jessie’s explanation had faded a bit.

  “We’ll find out soon enough.” Clay replied cracking open the door to the hall. He motioned for Alec to follow. Luckily, the blanket press room was just a couple doors down the hall. “So far so good” Clay whispered as he pulled the key from his pocket to unlock it. To their relief, the press still stood in the middle of the room. This was the riskiest part of their mission, it had taken many months to custom make the press and it would be impossible to make more gravity blanket material without it. Looking at the half a dozen security cameras spread about the room Clay gave a worried look. “Do you think Jessie's security camera override device is working on the cameras in here?”

  “If I connected it up right, we should be invisible. I’m worried about the blanket press. I hope security won’t think a floating press doesn’t seem too unusual.” Grabbing hold of each end they began their journey down the hallway and up the access shaft. It took nearly an hour to horse the press up the access ladder where they finally stowed it away in the back of the station wagon.

  “I didn’t think it would take this much time.” Clay looked at his watch. “We should split up, you get the backup tapes and I’ll head to my office for the vendor lists.” In addition to the blanket press, they also needed Clay’s list of manufacturers who were making the real, not the counterfeit blanket material. Since Clay had to keep the recipe a secret, he had schemed up a series of outsourced and sub-contracted ‘shadow’ companies that not only kept the real manufactures from being discovered, but also from keeping these companies from realizing what it was they were manufacturing. He knew the list by heart, but they had agreed that it needed to be kept out of the hands of the new owners. Alec, on the other hand, needed to get hold of their backup tapes containing copies of their servers, desk tops and laptops. These were kept in the IT room.

  “Good luck.” Alec said as he finished reconnecting Jessie’s video bypass device to the third floor security panel. Clay slipped out the door and headed left towards his office. Alec followed him out turning right, to the IT room. The tapes were untouched just where he expected them. He stuffed them in a black cloth bag supplied by Joshua. Locking the door behind him, he hesitated… then decided to turn in the opposite direction of the car, towards his office.

  It looked untouched, just as he left it, and to his relief his precious laptop was still open on his desk. Carefully packing it away in its case he turned to his closet. Out of habit, he looked behind making sure no one was around before stepping into it where he placed his feet over two warn marks on the floor. He pressed a hand on the wall to his right. A second later, the back wall shimmered red. He waited patiently for the shimmering to fade… a door appeared that wasn’t there before. With a practiced hand, he grabbed its pull… and waited again… this time for the shimmering to turn green before he safely pulled the door open.

  The newly exposed room was small and windowless. There was just enough space for a couple of server racks and a table containing some monitors and keyboards. To his right, next to the door, was a work bench covered with computer parts, tools and a half assembled desktop computer.

  Taking a step into the room he was startled by a voice from behind. “So you must be the famous Alec McCoughe. Please turn around… slowly.”

  Alec froze, then turned as directed to see a short man standing at the door holding a gun in one hand while running his other hand through his greasy, thinning black hair. He reminded Alec of one of those people that no matter how well they dressed, always looked sloppy. His black suit jacket was unbuttoned. His loosened tie revealed his undone top shirt button and his gun pointed directly at Alec’s midsection.

  “What the...”

  “We've been waiting for you.” The mousy voice cut him off.

  “We?” Alec tried looking through the door at his empty office.

  “We, as in my associate, who is currently waiting for your partner in his office.” he replied. “We thought you would come back here today, Mr. McCoughe.”

  “Why? What do you know?” Alec oddly felt unafraid. In fact, he felt himself getting angry.

  “I know that your kids need rescuing, and only you and your odd little inventions can do that.” The creep smiled knowingly. To Alec it looked more like a sneer.

  “What do you know about my kids?” his anger bubbled.

  “They’re missing, just like you and your partner will be.” The creep pulled the trigger three times shooting Alec point blank in the chest.

  Looking down, Alec saw three holes in his new shirt. Instead of blood, shimmering silver glittered exposing his vest made of the same material protecting the ALEC’S DREAM. In shock, he looked up to see the gun being raised for another shot… this time at his head. Before he could react, a sickening crack came from behind the creep causing hi
m to unexpectedly fall forward. Clay stood in the doorway holding a bowling trophy.

  “Hey buddy…” Clay began. Two quick gunshots interrupted him as he fell back, dropping the trophy.

  Alec acted fast jumping on the creep. By the time he knocked the gun out of his hands the creep lost consciousness again. “Clay!” He ran to him, leaving the creep alone. “Buddy, can you hear me?”

  “Yea, I’m OK.” Clay said as he tried to sit up. Alec noticed silver shining through his ripped up shirt.

  “Hey, you’re bleeding.” Alec said seeing blood on his arm. Helping him to his feet he led him to a chair next to the workbench. He grabbed a pocket knife from the workbench and cut up the creep’s jacket for bandages. After a moment of thought he tie-wrapped the creeps arms and legs.

  “Your idea about making vests out of the gravity blankets really saved us, buddy.” Clay said weakly.

  “How did you know I was here?” Alec asked.

  “I ran into this guy’s partner in my office, he didn't even have the courtesy to introduce himself before shooting me.” That answered Alec’s unasked question about the mess of bullet holes in Clay’s shirt. “He emptied his gun before I got to him. Lucky for me I keep my codes hidden in my bowling trophy. He never had a chance to reload.” Clay grinned. “When you weren’t at the car, I figured you'd try to recover your precious laptop. I know how much you love that thing.”

  “You brought your bowling trophy with you?” Alec looked at it lying on the floor.

  “Yea, the guy’s gun was empty and... well... the trophy worked pretty well on him.” Clay’s attempt at shrugging his shoulders made him wince in pain.

  “Geez, you got shot in both arms.” Alec pulled off what was left of Clay’s shirt, exposing his silver vest.

  Clay began to shake. “I think you're going into shock, we really need to get you to a hospital or something.” Alec paled as he wrapped Clay's left shoulder first and then his right upper arm.

  “You won't get out of here.” Alec hadn’t noticed that the creepy guy on the floor had rolled over and was now looking up at them, struggling at his bonds.

  “Just what do you know about our kids?” Alec could barely control his anger.

  “How should I know? I guess they're lost.” He grinned. “But I'm sure someone will find them.”

  “Just what the heck is going on?” Alec growled. The creep widened his grin.

  Alec walked up to him and turned him back on his stomach with a not so gentle kick. “I can't stand looking at his face anymore.” He said mostly to himself.

  Giving Clay a moment to rest, Alec reached over and shut off the power from the partially assembled computer on the workbench. Reaching inside, he unplugged its hard drive.

  “I’ll be right back... hang in there.” He said to Clay. With hard drive in hand, he left for his office picking up Clay’s trophy on the way. He returned with his black cloth bag and his laptop case over his shoulder. “Come on buddy, it’s time we get out of here. Do you think you can make it back to the car?”

  Clay’s face looked paler, but he nodded and stood with Alec’s help.

  “One second.” Alec had another thought and reached past Clay to restore the power to the half assembled computer. Alec put his arm around Clay’s waist to help him out… they stepped over the creep as they left.

  “Alec, you know you’re going to have to drive.” Clay said as he worked his way to the passenger side.

  “You know I can't drive this thing.” Alec half heartedly protested closing the door before taking his spot in the driver’s seat. He had worked closely with Stan developing the car’s controls and knew how they operated, but knowing is different from doing.

  He cautiously guided the car to just inside the open garage and stopped to gather his wits… and say a short prayer. He turned on the wipers seeing it was still raining… and as he gathered up his nerve to exit, the thumping of helicopter blades made him pause.

  “What do we do? Do you think we can outrun it?” He looked to Clay… he didn’t look good with his head leaning back and eyes closed.

  “It depends on the type of helicopter. A good military copter could have a speed of almost 250 miles per hour and a ceiling of 5 miles. If it’s a light weight, it could probably do about 125 and about 5000 feet.” Clay voice was barely audible.

  “So what should I do?” Clay’s eyes closed. He didn’t answer. He just weakly shook his head; sweat beading on his forehead. With Clay at the wheel, Alec would have given them pretty good odds, but now he felt their chances were pretty slim. His thoughts moved to their kids… and determination, then anger, grew at the knowledge that these guys had something to do with what was happening. Nothing… nothing was going to stop him from rescuing them! Gripping the steering wheel he shot out the garage. “If you guys want to play, let's play.” He said mostly to himself since Clay wasn’t listening anymore.

  The helicopter above banked and followed. He flew low over the pond then above the treetops of the woods beyond. The rain smeared his windshield, the wipers didn’t help. Looking in his rear view mirror, he could see the helicopter following close. He attempted to adjust his wipers then checked the mirror again. It was gone but he could still hear it. A bump on the roof told him where it went as he felt the car being pushed downward into the trees. He stopped. The helicopter slipped past him where it also stopped… then slowly turned.

  Alec realized they were in more trouble than he first thought now that he could see the missiles and machine gun mounted on the helicopters stubby wings. His determination and anger bubbled as he reflexively accelerated straight up… and just in time as its machine gun barrels lit up, shooting the space he just left.

  The sounds of the guns faded… then stopped. He slowly spun the car around while still ascending, all the while looking for signs of the helicopter. After turning nearly 180 degrees he saw its lights coming up from below through the clouds. He stopped his ascent and slowly flew backwards wondering if the helicopter had radar, and whether it could see through clouds.

  His questions were answered as its lights drew level with him through the mists. He reflexively descended, turned and accelerated away as fast as he thought safe. As he drove through the clouds, the thought occurred to him that as long as he was in them, the helicopter had the advantage.

  He dropped out of the bottom of the clouds thinking that at least now he had a chance of seeing his enemy. And he did as it dropped out of the clouds behind him while releasing one of its missiles.

  Panic is a word that doesn't even come close to what Alec felt when he saw that missile shooting towards him. His mind and reflexes switched to high gear. Everything around him seemed to move in slow motion as the missile drew near. He reacted by flying straight up while banking to the right. The missile tried following, changing its course upward. Not able to copy his maneuver, it made a loop before returning to its pursuit. Accelerating, he realized he wasn’t going to outrun it and wondered how long he could keep avoiding it, or how long that missile could fly before running out of fuel. He didn’t wonder for long as the missile was on him again. This time he descended while banking to the left. Alec noticed that the missile made a downward loop in order to change its course back to its pursuit. That gave him an idea.

  “Clay, CLAY!” Alec tried waking him.

  “I'm awake, what's up?” He responded groggily. “Where are we?”

  “I'll tell you later, put on your seatbelt… hurry!” Clay fumbled with his belt in obvious pain.

  Alec performed one more maneuver and was now ready. It almost seemed that every time he did, the missile got smarter and recovered more quickly. Now heading in the direction of GraviTych he flew downwards at an angle towards its parking lot. The missile followed. He reached the edge of the lot and as the missile closed in, he stopped and descended nearly to the ground, causing the missile to barely miss him, scraping the roof as it passed overhead. Turning he accelerated along the access road leading out.
>
  As the missile did previously, and as Alec hoped, it recovered it course by making a loop in the direction it travelled; downward. Unfortunately for the guys who owned the black SUV's, there wasn’t enough room for it to complete its maneuver and hit in the middle of them.

  As the light from the flames dimmed, Alec was already cruising above the main road winding through the wooded area surrounding GraviTych. The helicopter was nowhere to be seen as he slowed and descended to the ground, taking his normal route home.