“Why can’t we just go straight to the IIA office?” Grace asked. “Wouldn’t it save a step?”
“You wouldn’t be allowed in, especially without identification. Security is tight, and military personnel never come through the front gate. The military doesn’t want anyone to know that they have ties or connections with the IIA. If you arrive in uniform through the tunnel, no one should question your presence. Of course, there’s always the possibility that a tracker could be there and might recognize you, so try your best to stay unseen.”
The plan was simple—in theory. Inside Colonel Davis’s office, inside of a locked cabinet, was a special IIA pass that would allow them access into the guarded tunnel entrance. Ian had explained that Colonel Davis never worked on Sundays, and his secretary usually didn’t either. As a cover, Grace carried a plastic garment bag with uniforms. If questioned to explain her presence, she would say that she had been asked to deliver his dry cleaning. Eddie followed at a distance, just in case someone happened to be there. Grace would be able to explain her presence, but it didn’t take two people to deliver dry cleaning. If the Colonel’s secretary was there, Grace would draw her away, so that Eddie could gain access.
When they rounded the corner, they were pleased to discover that the Colonel’s office waited in darkness. They glanced up and down the hall, but it remained vacant. Grace tried the door and discovered that it was locked as expected. She stepped aside, and Eddie placed his hand on the doorknob. A few moments later, the doorknob easily turned, and they were allowed access inside.
After Eddie quietly closed the door, behind them, Grace smiled in admiration and whispered, “That was amazing!”
They made their way through the first room, past the secretary’s desk, and entered a second room. On the door was a gold engraved nameplate that proclaimed it to be Colonel Davis’s office. They left the lights out; the sunlight that shone through the window provided enough light. A large desk in the middle of the room showcased several framed pictures of a woman and teenage children, whom she assumed to be the Colonel’s family. They skirted the desk and continued toward a tall, metal wall cabinet with two doors.
When Eddie jiggled the handle, he found it to be locked as well. Grace watched with fascination as he effortlessly opened it. There were four IIA badges hanging on lanyards from a hook on the inside of the door. Eddie removed two and handed one to Grace. She placed it around her neck and then tucked it under her shirt so that it would remain undetected. They wouldn’t have an opportunity to return to the Colonel’s office, and Grace hoped that he wouldn’t notice the absence of the badges anytime soon.
After Eddie closed the cabinet door, he held his hand over the handle once more and then checked to make sure that it was locked. He made sure to relock the office door as well, and then they retraced their footsteps down the hall.
Grace stopped at the first restroom they came to and left the garment bag hanging on a hook, in a bathroom stall. She looked in the bathroom mirror, to see if anything about her appearance looked out of the ordinary, but she had to admit that she did look the part. She patted her bun to make sure that she didn’t have any hairs dangling out of place and then turned for the door to meet Eddie and begin the next round of their adventure.
*****
After a few wrong turns and a couple of stops to look at the map, they arrived to the north side of a dry lake bed located in the southwest corner within the base boundaries. From a distance they could see small airplanes land and take off. The lake bed appeared to house a small airport. Ian had explained that certain government officials and various other dignitaries, who wanted to keep their arrivals anonymous, were given special permission to fly in. The lake bed provided more anonymity than the more public and visual area of the runways on the main part of the base.
They located the small, lone garage. Just as Ian had described, a few military vehicles were randomly parked around its perimeter. A man in camouflage sat in a metal folding chair next to the front door. With a coffee cup in hand, he casually flipped through a magazine and appeared to be on break, but Grace knew better. Ian had explained that this building was guarded twenty-four hours a day. Inside, she knew they would find at least one more guard, who would hopefully grant access to the elevator that would lead to the masked tunnel below.
Grace was thankful that, in their pretense of uniforms, Eddie outranked her. As Technical Sergeant, he would naturally explain the purpose of their visit, and she, as an Airman First Class, would hopefully nod and smile and follow quietly behind.
The guard closed his magazine and eyed them closely, as they neared the building. Grace held her head high and strode forward with what she hoped was a confident look that said she had every reason to be there.
“Good morning,” Eddie said. He pulled out his IIA badge and held it up for the guard to examine. Grace noticed the guard’s rank and quickly joggled her memory of Ian’s rank identification lesson. The guard was a Staff Sergeant, which was one rank below Eddie. This could be a good sign; it would hopefully mean that he wouldn’t question Eddie’s presence.
“Morning,” the guard replied. He set his magazine on the folding chair and examined the badge closely. “You’re new?”
Eddie glanced casually at Grace and nodded with a smile. “That’s right. Just transferred from Nellis, about a month ago. I’m working under Colonel Davis.”
At hearing the Colonel’s name, the guard seemed to relax slightly and turned to Grace. “You new around here, too?”
Thankful that they had role-played various scenarios on the drive from Roswell, she was prepared for the questioning. “Oh no, I’ve been here since basic.”
She noticed the guard eye the rank on her uniform. “You plan on going in, too?” he asked warily. “We don’t usually get many visitors through here.”
Grace showed the guard her badge and was thankful when Eddie spoke for her.
“She’s been assigned to me. Colonel Davis has some business he needs me to attend to, and I’ve brought her along to type up some documents once we get to our destination.”
The guard’s aura had begun to show signs of suspicion. It was time to turn on the charm. She focused on his energy while Eddie continued to talk. When his aura brightened, she smiled sweetly and said, “You must get awfully bored sitting out here by yourself all day, Sergeant.”
The guard looked at her and she was relieved when he smiled. “You’re right. It does get pretty boring. It’s always nice to have someone to talk to when we get visitors through here.”
“Well, good. Then you’ll have something to look forward to when we return.”
“I will definitely look forward to that. When you go inside, you’ll want to head to the back of the building. Sergeant McDaniel will ask you to sign in. Make sure you have your badges ready to show.”
The guard picked up his walkie-talkie and said, “McDaniel, I’ve got a couple of visitors for you.” He was answered by a buzz and a click at the door. “Go ahead. He’ll be waiting.”
She followed Eddie into a large garage. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust from the sunlight to the dim lighting. Once she could see again, she noticed that the room was fairly bare. There was a tall, red toolbox, some stacked tires, and three Humvees parked within. Ian had said that the garage had to be presentable as a working repair shop, in case of any surprise inspections by uninvited guests. She suspected that the Humvees were present, just for show.
The clicking of her dress shoes on the cement floor seemed to echo throughout the metal building and up to the tall, tin roof above. It was a good thing that they weren’t sneaking in, because Sergeant McDaniel could surely hear their approach.
He stood beside a small table and folding chair and examined an expansive terrain map of the base that covered approximately ten feet of wall space and reached about seven feet tall. Grace guessed that his examination of the local topography was merely feigned interest so that he could gauge their approach, without appe
aring anxious.
When the sounds of their footsteps neared, he turned to greet them with a frown and a stern voice. “How can I help you?” He appeared to be in his early fifties. A few inches shorter than Grace, he had a stout but muscular build and a short mustache. His beady eyes seemed to judge their every move. His suspicion of their presence was obvious, and she worried that it might prove more difficult to charm their way past him.
“We have a pass from Colonel Davis,” Eddie explained. He held out the badge, and Grace did the same. Sergeant McDaniel took his time and examined each badge with care. Then he picked up a small gadget that looked like a retail scanner and scanned the back of each one.
Grace held her breath in anticipation, but they seemed to have passed the guard’s test. “Go ahead and sign in,” he said. “Make sure you notate the correct date and exact time.”
She signed her name—or rather Airman First Class Smith’s name—below Eddie’s signature, noting the time from a small digital clock that hung on the wall, above the table.
“Where are you headed today?” McDaniel asked.
Ian had made sure to run them through this part of the charade several times until they knew it by heart. Any alteration in the order of their words and not only would they not be admitted, but several armed men would burst through the doors to question them and take them into custody.
“We’re on our way to Disneyland for the day,” Eddie told him.
“Very good, Sergeant. Have a good trip.” McDaniel pressed a small, obscure button located beside the map. The wall and map slid sideways and exposed a large door. The sergeant then pushed another button, and the door silently slid open to reveal an elevator big enough for a vehicle, an elevator that offered admittance to the unknown world below.
Eddie and Grace stepped in simultaneously. There was only one button. The door slid silently closed after Eddie pushed it, and she felt the elevator slowly descend. She glanced discreetly at one of two cameras mounted on the ceiling and waited impatiently to reach the bottom. Claustrophobia started to set in, and she grew anxious for the door to reopen. It occurred to her that the telepathic abilities shared by Tyler and Liliana would be a useful gift at the moment. She wanted to talk to Eddie but knew that their every word would be monitored, so they stood side by side, in silence. If the IIA ever reviewed the video footage from the elevator, they would be instantly recognized, but hopefully, their mission would be accomplished before then, and the discovery of their intrusion into the tunnel would be of no consequence.
“We’re going to Disneyland?” she had asked Ian with a chuckle when he had explained the password.
“Yep,” he’d replied. “Every destination within the tunnel requires a different password. If you’re going to Area 51, you say that you’re going to visit some friends from Mexico.”
“Mexico?”
“Sure. The big talk these days is about illegal aliens venturing into the U.S. from Mexico. If you’re going to Area 51, you’re going to see aliens. It’s their idea at a sense of humor.”
“Nice.” Grace had chuckled and shook her head. “So what’s the meaning behind Disneyland?”
“IIA is for Indigo Children. Children go to Disneyland.”
“Hmmm, creative.”
“Yeah, well, at least it makes it easy to remember. Every destination has a password that sort of makes sense. If you travel to multiple destinations, frequently, you don’t want to get the passwords confused.”
“Well, now at least I’ll be prepared if I want to visit Area 51, anytime soon,” Grace had joked.
When the elevator touched bottom, a door opposite the side they had entered slid open. They stepped out onto well packed dirt and looked around. They found themselves standing in a tunnel that was about twelve feet wide and ten feet tall. The fluorescent lights that lined the ceiling, about every ten feet buzzed slightly. Thankfully, there was no one in sight.
As expected, they found three electric golf carts parked and waiting. They picked the first one and climbed in. Safe out of the eyes and ears of the elevator, Eddie turned to her and said, “That was nice back there. What you did with the guard outside, I mean. I could sense that he suspected something unusual about us, and you…you did something, didn’t you? I recognized it, because I’ve done that trick myself. You tapped into his energy to convince him to let us through?”
Grace grinned. “You're not the only one around here with a few talents.”
“I can see that.” Eddie smiled in return, and inwardly Grace jumped for joy. She had been sitting idly by the last few days as she had hopelessly watched Eddie pine after Sarah. Now that they were alone, she hoped that he might finally notice her.
He turned the key and pulled the map and directions out of his pocket. The tunnel ran in two directions. After double-checking the map, he handed it to Grace and headed the golf cart in the direction they hoped would lead them to the IIA facility.
Underground, it was virtually impossible to detect which direction they were traveling, so they had to rely strictly upon the map and directions Ian had provided. Twice, they came upon a fork in the tunnel, and each time they stopped to recheck the map. The last thing they needed was to come up top only to discover that they had entered Area 51 or some other top-secret location. They were prepared to answer questions once they arrived to IIA headquarters. Any other destination, and they would literally be at a loss for words to explain their presence.
When they came to the second fork in the tunnel, Eddie turned the map upside down, turned it around again, and then drummed his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel.
“What’s wrong?”
“Well, look.” He tapped the map. “In the drawing, Ian shows that we should turn right here, but in the written directions, it clearly says that we should turn left. I don’t know if we should believe the drawing or what he has in writing. I’m kind of leaning toward what he has written, but I’m not sure. If we take a wrong turn now, we could be screwed.”
“I think the picture is probably more accurate,” Grace said. “I mean, if he’s driven through here several times, I’m sure he knows what it looks like. I think we should go with the map instead.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m leaning more towards what he has written, and we can’t waste time sitting here all day trying to figure it out. I’m going left, and hopefully when we get to the next intersection, it will be clear if we went the right way.”
“Yeah, but the next intersection is twenty miles ahead,” Grace pointed out. “If we turn the wrong way, we’ll have to backtrack twenty miles.”
“Well, unless you have a better idea of how to figure it out, I’m going left.” He proceeded along the tunnel before Grace could argue further.
They had driven all of thirty seconds when a voice in Grace’s head told her that they should turn around and take the tunnel that had led to the right. She had learned long ago that the voice was always correct, and any time she had ever ignored the voice, she had always come to regret it.
“Eddie, I think we’re going the wrong way. I think we should turn around and take the other tunnel.”
“Look, we don’t know for sure, and we’ve already started this way. I say we just keep going.”
They continued on for another minute, and then a clear vision took over her mind. She vividly saw them drive down the other tunnel, and the voice in her head became louder as it shouted, Turn around now!
With as much authority as she could muster, she shouted, “Eddie, stop!”
He glanced at her, slowed the vehicle slightly, but continued on.
Grace placed a hand on his arm, willing him to feel the vision that she saw.
The golf cart came to a slow halt, and he turned to look at her. Her hand remained on his arm.
“The tunnel on the right was the correct way.” She spoke slowly, clearly, and with confidence. “I saw it, Eddie. I saw us drive down the other tunnel. Trust me.” She looked into his crystal brown eyes a
nd willed him to believe her. She willed him to feel the same knowledge she held in her mind. She willed him to turn around.
He was silent for a moment as he held her gaze. After a few moments, he said, “I believe you. I believe you, Grace.” The tunnel was wide enough that he was easily able to maneuver a U-turn, and in less than two minutes they were headed up the opposite tunnel.
They continued the drive for a minute without speaking, and then Eddie broke the silence. “I’m sorry, Grace. I should have listened. We’re in this together. I’m just anxious to get there and get out of there, but if I take us the wrong way, we aren’t going to get there any faster. If I do anything dumb like that again, just smack me or something, okay?”
She laughed. “Um…okay.” His concession of stubbornness touched her, and if anything, it made her attraction for him stronger.
The remainder of the trip passed quickly and without incident, and soon they arrived at what would hopefully prove to be IIA headquarters. They parked beside the only other vehicle—an electric golf cart identical to the one they were driving. Unlike Edwards Base, there wasn’t an elevator. Instead, they found a long series of winding rock steps. The air below ground was cool and had a musty, damp odor. As they climbed their way to the surface, they were guided by dimly lit wall lamps that lined the stairway. The air around them became noticeably warmer and smelled fresher. By the time they neared the top, it seemed they must have climbed the equivalent of three flights of stairs. A line of bright light greeted them from beneath the space under the door.
“All right. You ready to do this again, Airman Smith?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be, Sergeant Martinez. Game face on.” She took a deep breath and touched her hat to ensure that it was still in place.
Their infiltration into Edwards Air Force Base had been nerve-racking to the extreme. Fear that men with machine guns would discover their masquerade had caused her heart to pound and hands to tremble; however, that venture suddenly seemed like a walk in the park in comparison to marching straight into the headquarters of the enemy.
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