“I guess what I’m wondering,” Turn says, “is how’d it all go so wrong? How’d we go from peaceful relations to twenty years later shooting it out in these tunnels?”
“Treaty was broken by the Grays,” Walter says beside him, “and in many ways. First, they were supposed to stay out of our affairs and we theirs. That’s easy enough for us — we can’t travel to their planet — but they’ve been embroiled in our politics for more than a decade now, ever since Kennedy was killed.” He shrugs. “Their promise to give us some technology was kept, though I personally feel that they’ve held out on the good stuff.”
“Ha, you’ve got that right!” Paul says from up ahead.
“As far as we know they haven’t made a treaty with any other nations on Earth, which was part of the deal. The public hasn’t been informed of them, which was another. The real clincher however, are the abductions. The original treaty that Eisenhower signed said that the Grays could abduct humans for various experiments, but that they’d also have to provide the names of every person they took. At first the Grays abided by this, telling MJ12 of all the humans they abducted and did God knows what on. But that all stopped in the early-60s, again, around the time Kennedy was killed.”
“What was so special about that time?” Turn asks.
“It’s when our government was stolen from us,” Bennewitz says, “and a shadow government put in its place. No longer is the president in charge — those days are long behind us.”
It was a lot to digest, all that Turn was hearing, and despite the numerous questions in his mind, he couldn’t seem to put any into words. It was probably for the better — he wasn’t sure he wanted to know it all, though he knew that wasn’t true, either. Turn wanted to know it all, every last bit… and he had a feeling the two men he was with were just the people to tell him.
That telling would have to wait for another time, however. Another fork in the tunnel appears, they go left this time, and about a hundred yards down it they finally find something — a door.
“This is it,” Bennewitz says as they reach it, “the time shed.” He looks down at his watch as he says it. “Just in time, too — three minutes.”
“Damn, I hope she’s warmed up,” Walter says as he goes to the door and makes to open it.
Bennewitz chuckles. “Oh, she’s always warm.”
Walter gets his hand on the metal doorknob, turns it, and pulls the door open. There before them is nothing more than a shimmering curtain of light, though that’s not quite right either. If Turn had to describe it as anything he’d say it looked like one of those rain puddles you’d see at a gas station, an oil sheen floating at the top and giving the water a purplish, greenish sort of look.
“What… what… what the hell is that thing?”
“That, my friend,” Walter says as he claps Turn on the shoulder, “is the time machine.”
“And it’s time we get in ‘er,” Bennewitz says, then glances to Walter. “I’ll see you on the other side.”
Without another word he turns away from them, goes to the door, and walks right into that shimmering light. There’s no spark or crackle and certainly no explosion. One moment Bennewitz is there, the next he’s not.
“You next,” Walter says.
“Is it safe?” Turn asks, though knowing the question is a dumb one right after it leaves his mouth.
“Compared to being atomized to nothing — which is what we’ll be in another ninety seconds if we stand here — then yes, I’d say she’s safe.”
Turn bites his lip. That was not the answer he wanted to hear.
“Listen,” Walter continues, putting his hand on Turn’s back and pushing him forward a bit, “I’ve done this nearly a dozen times now, and each time it’s the same — a slight tingling, the feeling that my hair’s full of static electricity, and then just like that, I’m there.”
Turn looks back to see Walter’s face. “Where’s there?”
“Why don’t you see for yourself,” Walter says, and his pushing turns to a shove. Before Turn has time to react, he’s entering the shimmering doorway… and then he’s gone.
Part II
3 — Winding Down
A total of 15 men sat in folding chairs in a non-descript hangar on a base in the middle of the Colorado Plateau. They were in the Four Corners region of New Mexico, and their eyes dart this way and that, hands shaking with adrenaline and trigger fingers twitching. They were in the same hangar on the edge of the base’s airstrip that they had been just 4 hours before. Was it just that long ago, Ellis thinks as he looks out at them, just 4 hours since I was lecturing them on what’s to come? The Dutchman chuckles to himself. My God I was naïve!
“Sir?” Chargin’ Charlie says, catching the Dutchman’s strange expression.
“Yes,” Ellis says, clapping his hands together and coming out of his reverie, “let’s get started.”
“Started?” Bobbie scoffs from his spot in one of the back rows of men. “Hell, why don’t we finish — I dunno about you, sir, but I’ve been up for damn-near 24 hours!”
There were grumblings of agreement to Bobbie’s words, and Ellis puts his hands up to settle things.
“Alright, alright…” he says, waiting for the men to quiet back down, “…I’ll keep this as short as I can.”
As he says the words his eyes dart to the door in the back. General Anderholt is there, just coming into the room. He sees Ellis, nods, and leans up against the back wall, crossing his arms to listen. A few of the Blue Lake base guards are with him, and Ellis figures the general must have rushed here just as fast as he could. He ignores him for now, and puts his focus back on the men.
“CAT-1 and CAT-2 breached the lower levels, and CAT-1 even got into the Hall of Horrors and Nightmare Hall.” Ellis looks to the men that were on those teams. “You men did a helluva lot of damage down there, and you saved a helluva lot of prisoners as well.”
“Lost a helluva lot o’ my friends too,” John says, and the grumblings of agreement are louder than they were for Bobbie.
“CAT-3 up top was no different,” Ellis continues, looking at John as he says the words. “Up there they turned off the sonic, breached the main HUB doors and made it to Level 2 before being forced back when the call to pullout was given.”
“Helluva call,” Aaron says with disgust, but Ellis ignores this as he scans his clipboard and starts reading off the dead.
“CAT-1 lost Sammy and Tommy while CAT-2 lost Walter, its leader.”
“Said he was goin’ back up to save as many more as he could,” Emil says with a shrug, “but then we never saw him again.”
“Had no choice but to hop on the last train when the call to leave came through,” Jake adds.
Ellis nods and continues on with the death toll. “CAT-3 — which was the largest, broken down into two groups — lost Jerry, Paul, Johnny, Lewie, and Turn. And finally, CAT-4 lost Robbie.”
“Now I’m the only super soldier left,” Bobbie says with a shrug.
“We’ll need your ability to withstand the Grays’ mind attacks,” Carl says from the side of the room. “You know they’re not just going to let this attack go unpunished.”