“I’m sorry, Ellis,” Carl says as he points the weapon at the Dutchman, “you were always a good friend to me.”
Ellis puts his hands up in a ‘wait’ kind of gesture. “Carl, you don’t have to—”
ZAP!
Carl pulls the trigger and the flash gun fires. The electric-like bolt that shoots out strikes Ellis and his eyes roll up into his head before he crumples to the floor.
“What the…” Carl says, looking down at the flash gun in his hand. He sees then that it’s set on a lower setting than ‘vaporize,’ and understands why Ellis is still laying there and not a small pile of ash.
Probably better this way, he thinks, and moves forward. He steps over Ellis, grabs the white ‘Lab Results’ folder from the table, and then heads to the door. He pauses, gives a final look over his shoulder at the Dutchman lying there dead, then opens the door and goes back out into the hallway.
9 — Betrayal
Mark and Heather are still cuddling in bed when the door to their room bursts open. Blue Lake guards rush in, handguns drawn, and one even holding a machine gun.
“What… what are you doing!” Mark shouts out as the men begin to file into the room. Beside him Heather pulls the sheet up to cover herself. “What is this, Goddamn it, what—”
Before Mark can say another word, however, and before any answer to his query comes, one of the base soldiers comes forward, grabs him by the shoulder, and throws him back down to the bed. Before Mark can resist, he feels a knee dig into his back, one arm is grabbed and pulled behind him, and then the other.
“No!” Heather shouts beside him, and Mark turns his head to see a solder giving her the same treatment, the sheet now off of her and her breasts exposed.
“Damn you!” Mark shouts, but the knee digs into his back even more. A moment later he feels cold metal on his wrists and then hears the unmistakable sound of handcuffs clicking together. After that the knee comes off his back, the hand once again grabs his shoulder, and he’s pulled over onto his back. He looks over at Heather and sees the soldier pull her up and begin marching her toward the door.
“Where are you taking her!” Mark shouts. “Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on here!”
He watches as the solder gets Heather out the door, she kicking and screaming all the while. There’s still the soldier pinning him down, plus another three in the room with guns drawn and pointed his way. Mark is just about to start shouting out his questions again when Jake appears in the doorway. Mark wasn’t on the same CAT team as the young major, but he recognizes him well enough from their pre-mission briefing.
“Jake!” he shouts. “Tell me what’s going on. Tell them I didn’t do this!”
Jake tries to speak, but seeing Mark there, and remembering what he just saw in the Dutchman’s room minutes before… and he can’t. He opens his mouth, closes it, makes to try again, and then shakes his head that he cannot. Then Mark’s eyes go wide as he sees his father’s best friend standing there all of a sudden.
“What is going on, Mark,” Carl says, stepping forward before Jake has a chance to speak, “is that you’ve killed your father. He’s been found dead in his quarters, a gunshot to the head, and your pistol sitting right on the bedside table next to him.”
“Right on the…” Mark repeats, then looks back to Carl. “Can’t you see this is all a hoax, all made up? My God — I’ve been framed!”
“When we run ballistics I’ve no doubt that we’ll find the bullet matches the gun, and your hand will show the powder residue indicating you fired it.”
Mark rolls his eyes. “Of course my hand will have the powder residue on it — I was just firing the damn thing in Dulce not 12 hours ago!”
“Tell it to the JAG,” Carl says, then looks to the base guards. “Get him up and get him out of here.”
“No, this is a set-up!” Mark shouts as the guards get him to his feet, get his hands cuffed, and start taking him from the room.
Jake stands there, watching it all happen. He’d heard the guards rushing down the hallway from his room, had stuck his head out to check. They’d only been a few doors down from him so he’d popped his head in, and that’s when he’d seen the Dutchman. Carl came soon after, saw the gun, and put two and two together. Now Mark was being hauled-off down the hallway, protesting to anyone who’d listen.
“Shame what he did,” Carl says as he starts to the door, pauses to talk to Jake. “All that time off-world musta warped his brain.”
“Right,” Jake says distantly, his thoughts elsewhere.
“You get some rest, Jake… you like mighty tired.”
“Will do, sir,” Jake says in that same tone, and this time Carl gives him a clap on the shoulder and walks back into the hallway.
Jake is left standing there, wondering… worrying. Something’s not right, he thinks, something is very not right.
“Donlon will know what to do,” he says to himself. He goes back out into the hallway, intent on finding the man.
Part III
10 — New Realities
Turn comes out of the gate and into a room with concrete walls, a concrete floor, and a large meeting table in its center. It looks like a conference room, he thinks, but then turns his head and sees several rows of desks. It looks like a classroom too, complete with a blackboard on one wall, even some of those pull-down maps he remembers from high school. Ahead of him is Bennewitz. Then from behind him comes Walter.
“Sorry about that,” the captain says, referring to the push he gave Turn to get him through the gate, “but like I said, you had to see for yourself.”
Turn shrugs it off, then asks, “Where are we?”
“A safe place,” Bennewitz replies.
“Yeah, but where?”
“Might be better to ask, ‘when’,’” Walter says.
Turn’s eyes narrow at that, but before he can say anything else, Bennewitz speaks up.
“We’re at Area 51, which in the current time we’re in, is a safe place.” He looks Turn in the eye. “That time is the year 1982.”
“1982?” Turn says. “What the hell?”
“We have to hop around,” Bennewitz says, hitting a few buttons on the control panel near the shimmering gateway they’d just come through, then looking back to him, “no one place is safe for long.”
“We’re being hunted through both space and time,” Walter says with a chuckle, though when Turn meets his eyes he sees no humor there.
“So we hop around” Bennewitz says again. “Before I came to Dulce tonight, I did so from 1988 via 1981 and then to your 1979 before coming back through 1982 here.”
“And then where?” Turn asks, thinking right away that he probably should have said ‘then when.’
“A lot of that depends on what happens at Blue Lake following the attack on Dulce,” Walter says, glancing down at his watch. “By now Ellis should be giving his debriefing, and soon after that the pieces of the chessboard will begin to move about.” When Turn looks confused, he says, “The traitors, Turn… the high-ranking military officers that are working with the Grays and in turn the Reptilians.”
“Lot to digest, I know,” Bennewitz says as he begins to hit a few more buttons. Walter too sees that Turn has taken a lot in, and he moves over to watch Bennewitz. Turn just goes into his thoughts.