Legend of Oria 1: Initial Contact (17 page)

Karen watched in horror as one of the combatants pulled out a gun and shot one of the guards.  She froze in her seat when she saw Oria move with lighting speed across several fully occupied rows and neutralize the man with the gun before he could get off a second shot.  The other Security Guard quickly joined Oria, pulled out handcuffs, and quickly cuffed the man. 

Meanwhile, the wounded guard had fallen backwards and was grabbing his left shoulder while applying pressure to the gaping hole in the meaty head of his shoulder.  A pool of blood was growing on the floor and the guard quickly grew pale.

Having stopped the gunman, Oria turned his attention to Carlos, the wounded guard.  Karen watched him as he pulled out a small device about the size of a smart phone and held it over the guard's injury.  She saw the guard's shoulder glow as the wound faded away.

As Oria moved the ETU (emergency trauma unit) across the guard's shoulder he said, “You should be ok, all you have is a flesh wound.  This should stop the bleeding and close your wound.  You'll probably be a bit weak from the blood loss.  You need to see a doctor.”

“Thank you sir, I don't know what you did, but the pain is gone.”  Carlos was the only one outside of Oria who truly knew how bad his injury was.  The device used to heal him had to be way beyond anything that he knew was medically possible.

Oria replied, “You’re welcome” as he quickly slid the device back into his pocket.  More guards came and escorted the combatants out in handcuffs.  One of them stayed back and started to ask Oria some
questions.  It was Sergeant Berry.

“You again, I thought I told you to leave this work to professionals.”

“Yes sir, you did.”

“Then what on Earth were you doing?  You could have gotten yourself killed as well as others in this audience.”

Carlos slowly rose to his feet and stood next to Oria.  “Sergeant, if this man had not taken action when he did, more people would have been killed.  I never . . .”

“Carlos, if I wanted you to speak I would have asked you.  Get one of those medics to check you out.  You have blood all over your shirt and the rest of your uniform.”

“Ok Sergeant, but . . .”

“I thought I told you to get yourself checked out.”

Carlos turned and headed towards one of the medics working with some of the other victims.  This incident reminded him of how the security business attracted more than its fair share of jerks.  Most security people were decent, but there were always a few bad ones in the bunch.  Sergeant Berry was obviously one of the bad ones.

Sergeant Berry was quite angry after his exchange with Carlos.  His face reddened as he again directed his wrath at Oria.  “Now Mister, what is your story.  Do I need to arrest you to make you understand?”

At that moment, several D.C. police officers arrived.  One of them dressed in plain clothes flashed his detective badge at Sergeant Berry. “All right Sergeant, we'll take it from here.”

Oria was quite relieved that he no longer had to deal with the belligerent Sergeant.  The D.C. police officers were much more professional in their handling of questions.  They asked several questions, gave him their business card, and allowed him to return to his seat.

Oria reached his seat almost at the exact time the second period ended.  Karen was still in shock when Oria sat back down next to her.  She had this image of him being a geek.  She had no idea he also possessed the athletic prowess he had just displayed.

“Oria, where in the world did you learn to move like that?  I've seen some of the best martial arts experts and you make them look slow!”

“I guess it was part of my military training.  I was in a special program and I’d love to tell you more, but I can't.  You're in the military, so you know how it is.”

“Unfortunately I do.” Karen felt frustrated by Oria’s remark.  The more she discovered about Oria, the more she wanted to find out; but at the same time, the more barriers appeared between them.  Karen had no choice but to go along with Oria's story.  General Bronson could sort out the classified stuff later.

“Well Karen that quarter went quicker than I expected.  What do you say to a couple more beers?  I think I could definitely use one.”

“I agree, only this time let me go with you.  I need to use the ladies’ room.”

Oria and Karen walked up the stairs together and into the long corridor that circled the arena.  Karen split from Oria and headed towards the ladies’ room.  Oria went to purchase a couple more Coors.

When Karen finally got out of the ladies’ room, she ducked behind a pillar. She reached into her purse and pulled out the secure cell phone.  Karen was antsy and excited as she dialed General Bronson's exec. 

“Hello Lt. Johanson, this is Major Brown.”

“Greetings Major, do you need the General again?”

“Not necessarily, did you get any background information on Oria yet?”

“Sort of, however it doesn't make any sense.”

“Really, is there . . .”

“We have results from a finger print check.  They match some prints taken from a recent archeology project on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.”

“Good, we're making progress.  Tell me more.”  Karen recalled Oria telling her he was originally from the Eastern Shore.  However, she wasn’t ready to share her tidbit with the exec.

“Not exactly, Oria's prints match prints from clay bowls that are over 500 years old.  The prints were hardened in the clay meaning that the prints are over 500 years old.”

“What? Rob, did I hear you correctly?”

“Yes, that's what’s so confusing.  The two agents that tailed Oria lifted his prints off the table at the Burger King where you ate.  We ran the prints through the computer.  You can imagine the General's surprise when we discovered Oria's prints matched prints recently loaded into a University of Maryland computer.”

“I'll bet.”

“We're running a check to make sure someone didn't forge the computer records.  We dispatched an agent to College Park about 15 minutes ago.”

“Rob, text me when you get verification back on those.”

“Sure, how's the game going?”

“It’s pretty close.  Oria is the one who is full of surprises.  I'll talk to you more about that later.  I need to get back before Oria starts missing me.”

“Sure, good luck Major.”

“Thanks see you tomorrow Rob.”

Karen headed back towards her seat with her mind racing a mile a minute.  “There are so many things that do not add up about Oria.  He's from the eastern shore with evidence suggesting that he was there 500 years ago, he has incredible athletic and fighting skills, and he has possession of some of the most incredible scientific knowledge on Earth yet claims not to
be a scientist.  What is his game?  If he were an enemy, why would he be freely giving away technology and at that, the technology he possesses could easily be used to create weapons far more powerful than did anything in the U.S. Military arsenal.  Also, what was that device he used to heal the security guard?”  Karen watched a fan shoot the guard in the left shoulder.  There was blood all over, yet after Oria worked on him, he easily got up and appeared uninjured.  Karen was determined to find out more.

Karen walked back into the arena and down the stairs to her seat with Oria.  He was sitting there with several sodas and a large pizza in hand.

“Pizza? Oria, I don't have room for all that, what are you doing, trying to make me fat or something?”

Oria laughed.  “Karen, you’ll never get fat.  When I got to the counter and smelled the pizza, it made me hungry.  Therefore, I ordered one and thought I might as well order enough for two.  This pizza tastes great.  It's the first time I ever had pizza.  It's great!”

Oria’s comment floored Karen.  “This is your first pizza?  Well thanks for thinking of me but I'm not that hungry.  Maybe I'll have just one slice.”

“No problem, I don't think I will have any problem eating the rest of the pizza.”

The third period started and ended without any further incidents.  When the final buzzer sounded Karen let out a yell, the Caps smashed the Red Wings 6 to 4.

Karen and Oria walked out of the arena back to the subway station.  It was jammed with mobs of people who also had left the arena.  Karen had no idea where Oria needed to end up, so she decided that she better make sure they get back together.

“Oria, what’s home for you?”

“Oh, I'm only visiting this city.  I need to check into a hotel or something.”

“How long are you here for?”

“That's up in the air.  I'm here on business and need to negotiate a few deals.”

“Do you need any recommendations for hotels?”

“That won't be necessary Karen.  Several places downtown could work.  Look, I'm not trying to be evasive.  I would like to see you again.”

“I'd like to see you again as well.  Are you here over the weekend?”

“Oh yes.  I think I will be in town for a while.”

“Do you have to work this weekend?”

“What do you have in mind?”

Karen was feeling a bit nervous.  She did not usually ask men out.  She was still somewhat old fashion in that regard.  “Well, two of my friends have rented a place in Ocean City for several days and are leaving tomorrow night.  I'm sure they would not mind if you joined us.”

Oria thought for a moment.  It was looking more as if Karen had the access to the U.S. Military that he needed.  He also knew that he was starting to fall for her.  The growing emotional attachment bothered Oria.  In all his life, he had known many women, mostly alien women, but he had never fallen in love.  Well, he was a married young man once, but that was over 500 years ago.

“Karen, that sounds like fun.  Are you sure that I wouldn't be imposing?”

“Imposing?  No, definitely not, my friends are from my unit in Florida.  I’m sure they won’t mind.”

“When and where do we meet?”

“Why don't you meet me at my house?  We can leave from there and drive straight to the beach.  My friends will already be there.”

“Ok, I'll see you then.”  Oria extended his arms and gave Karen a hug.  She squeezed back and couldn’t resist the urge to kiss him.  They embraced and gave each other a kiss.  They knew that they were falling in love with each other, more than was prudent for either of their jobs.

Oria watched Karen as she disappeared down the Gallery Place escalator.  He started looking forward to their weekend together at the beach.  Oria thought that it would be good for him to get away.  He could further his relationship with Karen, find out more about the workings of the U.S. Military, and take some time for some R&R.  It would be good to wait before making his next move anyway.  It would provide time for the information that he had obtained to get absorbed into his thought processes.

Once Karen was out of sight, Oria decided to head back to his ship, call Linda and thank her for Hoss and Peter's help.  First, he had to find a quiet place to transport from and to lose his tail.  Oria saw a Sports Bar and decided to head towards it.  He noticed Peter and Hoss were still following him.  He also noticed an additional two men following him.  They must be General Bronson's operatives. 

Oria entered the crowded sports bar where fans were already celebrating the Capital's win over the Red Wings.  There was standing room only near the bar.  Oria headed towards a corner where he could keep an eye on the door and on whoever came in after him.  Peter and Hoss beat Bronson's operatives through the door.  Oria saw them and signaled them to come on over.

“Peter, Hoss, I want to thank you for all of your help.”

Peter muscled his way up to the bar near Oria.  As he signaled the bar tender, he grunted back to Oria “No problem.  It was sort of fun.”

Hoss was forced to stand only a foot from Oria said, “You’re welcome, it’s kind of boring back home anyway.  Hey, Peter, get me a cold one too.”

“Hoss, there is one more thing that you can do tonight.”

“Yes?”

“See those two guys that just walked in?  The one with an Orioles cap on?”

“Yeah, the two morons tailing you and doing a crummy job of it”.

“Those are the ones.”

“Sure, we saw them following you when you had dinner with Karen at the Burger King.”

Peter returned with two beers in hand.  “I think those guys are Feds.”

Oria smiled “I think you're right.  Karen called her boss and got those guys to tail us.”

“Do you want us to get rid of them?” Hoss excitedly asked Oria.  Hoss was in a kick butt mood.

“Just temporarily, actually I'm glad that I've attracted sufficient interest to pick up a tail.  However, I need to get back to my ship without attracting any more attention.”

Peter swallowed another swig of beer and said, “So you want us to create a diversion so you can make a clean getaway, huh?

“Something like that.  If you guys could keep everyone out of the men’s room and signal me when it's empty, I'll enter and depart from there.  Just keep everyone out for about 2 minutes and I will be gone.”

Peter smiled and said “That will be fun.  Hoss, I'll empty the room.  You just stop anyone from entering.”