by Ira Tabankin
The pilot told Everett they’d be at Andrews in four hours. “I bet you’ve never flown this fast. Twice the speed of sound is something else, isn’t it? It’s quiet up here, but even this high we’re rattling windows down there.”
Everett smiled to himself. He’d wet his flight suit if he knew I’ve flown to Mars in 33 hours, “Wow, it sure is, and it’s very smooth. This is a hell of a plane. Can it fight?”
“Hell, yes. It’s designed as both a fighter armed with both long- and short-range missiles, and it can even be a light bomber. If we had to intercept a group of red bombers on their way to nuke our cities, we’d be armed with a Genie nuclear air to air missiles. I love nukes, we don’t have to hit anyone, just get close enough to show them we love them,” laughed the pilot.
“Exploding nukes over our own country?”
“If that’s our orders and if that’s what it takes to stop an invasion, then that’s what I’ll do. My job is to stop the reds from coming over the pole. This baby was born to fight, she’s big, loud, and nasty.”
“That’s not your assignment right now. You’re assigned to the test center.”
“Yes, sir. I get to fly the fastest planes we make. I have the best job in the Air Force.”
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Everett was met at Andrews Air Force Base by the Secret Service who allowed him a few minutes to change into his dress uniform and then he was then taken to the White House to meet the President.
“General, what have you and your alien friend been up to?”
“Sir, I’m not sure I understand your question. Could you please let me know in what aspect you are speaking about? I have not been in contact with Kalteck since we returned from Mars.”
“I see you lost your hair on Mars, where is he? Has he been in contact with the Soviets? Have you?”
“Sir, I only contact the Soviets under instructions from this office. I do not know where Kalteck is. This is not unusual. He does have other missions. I’m not cleared to know about all of his missions in our system. If you’re asking if he or I had anything to do with the Soviet’s large nuclear explosion, I can tell you I had nothing to do with it. I honestly can’t speak for him.”
“I want to see him. Can you communicate with him?”
“Sir, I can send him a message. Sir, your office can too.”
“What do you mean I can too? I don’t have an alien radio or any means to contact him like you do which is going to change very soon.”
“Sir, President Truman had the radio frequency, I know he passed them along to President Eisenhower who we were informed passed them to you when he met with you and told you about the existence of Kalteck. Have you checked the special folder he gave you?”
Kennedy exhaled his breath; he shook his head. “I didn’t check. I filed it away in a safe and haven’t thought about it. Is the frequency you have the same as mine?”
“Yes, sir, I can give it to you. Would you like me to contact him and ask him to see you as soon as possible?”
“Please. How will you send it?”
I can use your communications room where I will send a two-letter code, the first letter tells him which one of us wants to see him. The other says how urgent the requested meeting is.”
“Thank you. Please mark the request urgent. Are you sure he will respond?”
“Yes, sir. He will respond on the same frequency. Since I don’t know where he is, I can’t say how long it will take for him to receive and respond. The message will travel at the speed of light, but if he is past Pluto, it could take a long time to reach him and his response to reach us.”
“I understand, please send the message. I want to know why he helped the Soviets with their super bomb. I’ve been told they couldn’t have manufactured it without outside help and we both know the only outside help they could have received would be from Kalteck.”
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While the President was ordering a message to be sent to Kalteck, a different meeting was being held in Langley, Virginia. The Director of the CIA, John McCone, came to the CIA as an outsider. He was an industrialist and an engineer by training. He replaced veteran spymaster Allen Dulles whom President Kennedy fired after the failed Bay of Pigs Cuban fiasco.
McCone was loyal to Kennedy. However, he’d noticed the President had begun acting unusual after he held some sort of special secret meetings which were usually held in Camp David. The fact the President was having secret meetings isn’t what concerned McCone. It was that every time he was going to have one of those meetings he ordered a special department within the Secret Service to attend and every other member of the Secret Service was ordered to leave Camp David or the White House or wherever the meeting was being held.
What else McCone discovered was there weren’t any visitor logs of anyone visiting the President during those meetings. He also wondered why a relatively unknown Air Force Major General, who was the base commander at the test site nicknamed Area 51, was making trips to see the President and why this same General had a tendency to show up in Moscow. He had been reported by a double agent who saw him in the Kremlin. McCord began to wonder if the general was also a double agent or if, could it be possible Kennedy himself was one, which was a reason he withheld military support for the Cuban invasion?
McCone opened a secret file on the President which he kept it locked in his personal file. He then decided he had no option but to go see the one person he knew most likely had the answers and was the one person in D.C. nobody wanted to owe a favor to. McCone placed a call to Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI.
After the pleasantries, which neither man cared for, were out of the way, McCone told Hoover what he suspected. Much to McCone’s surprise, Hoover told him Kennedy wasn’t a Russian double agent and neither was General Yahnig. The secret was much larger and deadlier than them being double agents.
Hoover explained how his agents had followed one of the special Secret Service agents to a smoky bar where they saw him and another man leave together. The next morning the agents arrested the Secret Service agent for homosexuality. They told him the FBI was going to arrest him for being a threat to the President and the country. He quickly agreed to spill his guts. The story he told had shocked Hoover until Hoover reviewed the secret photos from a hidden camera in Camp David.
Hoover unlocked a file cabinet behind a painting hanging over his credenza. He removed a box that he unlocked, which allowed him access to a key he used to open a locked steel box. McCone smiled, “So that’s where all of the secrets are hidden.”
“No, just this one, which is a whopper of a secret. Your eyes won’t believe what I’m going to show you and you can’t ever tell a soul about it. If you do, it would be a shame that you had a fatal accident.”
“Are you threatening me? What could be that secret?”
“Look for yourself, and no, these haven’t been altered or as your people like to do invent pictures.”
“Holy SHIT! That can’t be! It’s impossible! This means…”
“We’re not alone, and that crash back in ’47 was a real UFO. I believe the being in the picture you’re looking at is the pilot or someone from that craft. Do you see who’s walking next to him and talking with him?”
“Oh my God! It’s the general!”
“Now you’ll understand why a two-star was placed in charge of a base in the middle of nowhere, that no one ever hears about, and who’s budget isn’t public. I checked, there isn’t a budget line for his base. In fact, his base doesn’t exist on the Air Force or any other of the DoD’s lists of bases. Such a base wouldn’t have a two-star commanding it. I believe the alien uses Area 51 as his Earth base.”
“Do you think there are other aliens? Even saying that word is strange. I still can’t believe what I’m seeing, on that base? Is he coming and going from that base? Does he live there? Holy mackerel, I can’t believe what I’m seeing.”
“I don’t know what is there. It’s so well guarded none of my agents could penetrate it. They a
ttempted to enter the base saying they were searching for a bank robber and kidnapper. The Air Police forbid them entrance.”
“Can they do that?”
“They did. My guess is the alien’s ship is kept on that base, and the General is the alien’s interface to us.”
“That explains why he was seen in Moscow…”
“Who was seen in Moscow?”
“Ah, I thought you knew everything. The General was seen in Moscow. There wasn’t any word about an alien, just the American General who was seen exiting the Kremlin. Someone who didn’t report contact with the Soviets or traveling to the USSR or at least not in any report I or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is aware of.”
Hoover nodded, “It’s all making sense now. The alien must be behind our sudden and rapid rise of certain manufacturing capabilities and the rapid roll-out of new rockets. He must be working through the General to help us. I don’t know what he hopes to get from helping us.”
McCone held the pictures of Kalteck, “Then why is he also helping the Soviets? It’s the only answer which makes any sense. They beat us into space, they beat us with a man into orbit, with their moon shots, and their probe to Venus. Then there is that recent massive nuclear bomb they just exploded. I bet the alien is helping them too.”
Hoover nodded, “I don’t understand why the general would be helping them. He’s sworn to protect America. I wonder if he’s really a human or a different alien that looks like us. I did pull his files and he was an ace in the Second World War…”
“Maybe the alien replaced him with an alien who looks human, or maybe they can change their shape, and the General is really one of them.”
“I don’t have any other answers. What do you suggest we do to get to the bottom of who this alien is and what hold he has over the President?”
“We need to recruit more of the agents in this special department within the Secret Service so we can get more information. We need more hidden cameras and see if we can fly a spy plane near Camp David when the alien is there.”
“I tried sending one of our helicopters, it was ordered away from the area. It seems whenever the alien is at Camp David, the air space near the Camp is sealed shut. I’ve also tried sending a small private plane which was piloted by one of my agents to overfly this Area 51, it was chased away by armed helicopters and a jet fighter,” replied Hoover while holding out his hand to take Kalteck’s picture back. “You can’t leave here with that or any other picture of the alien.”
“I have an idea, if we get caught, it will be messy, but it should work. I’m going to order the course of one of our latest reconnaissance satellites changed so it flies over Camp David, then we should be able to see if his ship is there. We may get lucky and capture pictures of it flying in or out of the area.”
“An excellent idea. Let’s agree to exchange information until we get to the bottom of this alien.”
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Six days later, Kalteck met with President Kennedy and Everett at Camp David, where Kalteck explained he did give the Soviets the design for the Tsar Bomba. However, they wouldn’t be able to reproduce it as all of the design documents couldn’t be copied or photographed, and, as the Soviet engineers learned, the design documents had self-erased. Kalteck explained that there was a hidden, buried enemy base that had to be destroyed. He continued, “Mr. President, I couldn’t suggest that America attack the site since it was in the Soviet Union. The two of you would have entered into a third world war which would have destroyed the planet. I couldn’t use my weapons to destroy the base. It had to be an Earth weapon or the enemy would have learned I or someone like me was here.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me what you were doing?”
“Mr. President, why would I need to inform you of something happening in the Soviet Union? Should I inform them of something going on here in America?”
“Okay, you have a point there…”
“Mr. President let me remind you that I don’t report to you. I am here assisting you. I’m not a member of your staff.”
“I understand, I have one additional comment and then I won’t take up any more of your time tonight. I want to visit your shrine on Mars. You took General Yahnig, I want to see it.”
“I will consider your request and get back to you. Mr. President, look at the General, look at his head. The level of radiation is much higher inside of the shrine, how will you explain the loss of your famous hair? Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“No, you may leave.”
“May I take General Yahnig home with me?”
“Yes, I have no further need for him right now.”
Once Everett and Kalteck were in the spaceship, Kalteck asked, “Are you alright with respect to your President? I am not sure I trust this President. Do you have any thoughts about him you would like to share?”
“My friend, he is my commanding officer. I really can’t speak about him other than to say, every President is different.”
“Good advice, I will keep that in mind. Thank you.”
“What’s next on your timeline?”
“Your country is going to enter a small meaningless war in Asia so it can unlearn the lessons of your last war and begin to learn how to fight an untraditional war. Your generals are too focused on the last war. They need to learn how to change. The quickest way I can figure out how to push you forward is to involve you in a dirty little war.”
“In Asia? Why there?”
“Because of the French. They don’t have a very good military, do they? The French are getting beaten and they will ask for help. Don’t concern yourself with why or how your President will respond by sending troops who I’m sorry to say are going to get hurt by not learning how to quickly adapt to new ways to fight. After you begin sending troops to Asia, you and the Soviets will face off against each other over a small island off the coast of your state of Florida.”
“Why would we do that? It makes no sense…”
“Unless there were missiles located on the island…”
Everett paused a moment, “You wouldn’t! This President will go to war over that.”
“He will learn how to negotiate with his enemy and the two events will give your future Presidents all the cover they need to increase your defense spending. The war in Asia will allow you to quickly develop new weapons and test them without risking a major war.”
“Just great. Is there anything else I should know?”
“We have to increase the transfer of technology to your NASA. Your President wants to land a man on the moon this decade. You need more technology, so we will have a lot of work to do.”
“Can we reach the President’s goal in the timeline he set?”
“Oh yes, it won’t be easy or inexpensive, but the technology spin-offs will jump-start one of the largest decades of technology changes in your world. If we’re successful, then your 1970s are going to amaze you. The foundation of technology transfer to the average population will begin in the late 1970s.”
“Okay, another interesting time. I’m glad I’ll be around to see it…”
“You’re going to be part of it, a major part. And you are going to wear another hat.”
“Huh, what do you mean, another hat?”
“I am going to set you up as a financial backer for investing in some of these new technology companies. They will need the resources to launch. You currently lack the financial infrastructure to get them started. Your banks won’t lend to a totally new company started by what they’ll think of as teens, many who dropped out of college.”
“I don’t know anything about investing. I’m an officer in the U.S. Air Force. They won’t allow me to become an investor unless I resign and then I won’t be able to work with you.”
“Have no worries, you are going to assume a second identity. You won’t have to know anything about investing. I will be telling you which projects to support, and I’ll make the funds available to you. Most of the companies will be i
n Northern California, a few will be in Seattle.”
“Where are you getting our money?”
“I thought one could convert gold into your dollars. I know a large conversion might open eyes, so I have a plan. Your second ID is going to win money at the casinos. I will make sure you have gold to transfer to dollars in different states so it won’t be tracked back to you. You have nothing to worry about, my AI can mathematically calculate the odds of certain cards being turned in blackjack or what number the ball in roulette will land in or what number on the dice will be shown. The odds are one hundred percent perfect. You should win enough to cover the investments you’ll make. I will give you a micro hearing aid that will connect you with my AI. Trust me to protect you.”