Reckoning ~ Indian Hill 2 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure (9 page)

“That had to have taken some serious green.”

“I think the project is somewhere up in the billion range.”

“How is the general allocating that kind of money?”

“Beats me how he’s doing it, he’s pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing. I would imagine it has something to do with plausible deniability. Frank, could you see about finding Captain Talbot here some suitable quarters?” Paul turned back to me. “Hey Mike, why don’t you go get a few hours of shut eye and then I’ll show you around the place. You might be more than a little surprised.”

I was attempting to stifle a yawn before I answered. “That sounds good to me, but don’t let me sleep past noon or I’ll never get to sleep tonight.”

“Don’t worry, with all the noise we have going on up here, you’ll be lucky to make it past nine.”

“Great,” I muttered sarcastically. “Just try to keep me as far away from the firing range as possible.”

“Will do,” Paul smiled. “Bud, I can’t tell you how much good seeing you has done for me.”

“Yeah, it feels pretty good for me too, my friend.” I headed out the door to check out my new digs. My new quarters were nothing if not sparse; and it appeared to me that it had been vacated only moments before by some now greatly disgruntled lieutenants. An Army standard issue cot dominated the room. I almost laughed when Major Salazar asked if these quarters would be sufficient. I wanted to tell him that my alien abductors had put me up in what was equivalent to the Ritz, at least, comparatively speaking. But I refrained. It was going to be hard enough getting along around here, especially when the henchmen from out of town returned to tell their tale. Well, at least the cot was off the cold, ice-packed ground. That gave me a little comfort but right now, I was pretty sure that I would have been able to sleep on that too.

I awoke possibly a few hours later to the rumblings of a low flying jet. The thing flew so low it nearly uprooted my tent in the after wake. The jet passing by was closely followed by the shouts and curses of all the people it had disturbed. I walked out of my tent and tried to stretch my way to wakefulness. I asked the first passer by what the hell was going on.

“They like to let us know occasionally that they are still watching,” the private said as he shuffled on by, bearing his load of what appeared to be munitions. I strolled on up to the command tent, where Paul and the major and a few of his other staff officers were discussing tactics. All conversation ceased as the other officers noticed the Marine insignia on my uniform.

“It’s alright, gentlemen; we can talk in front of him,” Paul said to cut through the silence.

“But sir,” one of the captains spoke out, he’s regular military. He’s exactly what we’re trying to keep our secrets from.”

Paul looked squarely at
me.
“Captain, are your orders to report directly to me?”

“No, Colonel, they are not,” I answered much to the amazement of Paul’s staff. I continued. “My orders are to report directly to General Burkhalter.” A couple of the junior officers looked like they were getting ready to throw me out of the command tent.

“Relax,” Paul said as he commanded everyone to sit back down. “If you gentlemen had been scrutinizing his uniform more closely, and looking past his Marine emblems, you may have noticed his name tag.” The officers turned in unison. Recognition dawned on most of their faces. A few, however, were not able to piece the puzzle together quite so quickly. I remembered who those men were; they might just be a little too dim to be leading men into battle.

“Captain Talbot, what an honor to meet you” said one of the first officers who had risen to throw me on my keester. I shook his hand; it felt like granite. This man had spent more than one summer out in the sun splitting logs, or rocks more likely. “Captain Dusty Davidson, at your service.”

“Pleasure’s all mine, Captain.”

“Why was that recon plane flying so low?” I asked no one in particular.

Captain Davidson spoke up. “Ever since we hid everything under our camo netting, they’ve been flying lower and lower to try to get some good pictures of our encampment, but what they don’t know…” The captain turned to Paul to make sure that it was alright to release this information. Paul nodded his consent. “Well, what they don’t know is that we’re tapped into their radar systems down in Colorado Springs. We know the second their planes leave the runway.”

“What about the satellites?”

“Well, this special camo netting completely throws those cameras off. It’s infrared and radar scattering. They can’t tell if there is a mouse or a division under these things. And for those times when we do training out in the open, we know the fly overs of every possible spy sat in orbit.”

“Does that leave much time to do anything?”

“It gives us roughly half an hour, each hour, to be safe. There have been times when we had to be out longer; so we’ve devised a system for that also. We try to use it sparingly because we don’t want them to catch on. When we’re out there with our pants down, and have something we definitely don’t want Big Brother to see, we can send a micro-burst of highly ionized particles into the satellite that completely scrambles the onboard computer. The machine has to reset and, by the time it boots back up, it’s long gone.”

“You guys developed that?”

“Don’t be so amazed, Captain. There are a lot of very smart people on this project who are not happy with the way the U.S. is preparing for this war. They want to be as prepared as possible to save their families, their lives, and their country.”

“No, you misunderstood me, Colonel. I wasn’t in astonishment that this organization developed it, I’m in astonishment that anybody developed it. If the military knew, they’d be on you like flies on a shit storm.” I realized my error when almost everyone at the table looked at me. It suddenly dawned on me that I was that very military. “Present company excluded.” The men relaxed after my joke.

I stood up. I knew the majority of the men still did not trust me and would not speak their minds while I was present. I did not want to disrupt their proceedings.

“Colonel, if you could have one of your privates show me the way to the mess tent, I would greatly appreciate it.”

“Sure thing, Captain, and when we are done here, I will join you for some of our fine cuisine. After that, I would like to show you around.”

“That would be great. Gentlemen, it was a pleasure meeting you.” A few nodded their courteous greetings; but most just stared at me, waiting for my graceful exit.

The militia adopted the old rule of two hots, meaning two hot meals a day. Lunchtime wasn’t included. But they had a huge variety of MRE’s. Even inedible food was better than no food. And, to be honest, it was pretty good. I was halfway through my meal, attempting to open my tube of peanut butter, when Paul joined me.

“So how goes the war council?” I asked as I looked up from my task at hand. From the look on Paul’s face, it didn’t appear that all had gone well.

“Not as good as I would have liked,” he said as he plopped himself down on the chair opposite me. “I hoped that your return would spark more of a fire in their eyes. Instead, it has aroused more suspicion than anything else.”

“Suspicion?!” I half yelled as a stream of peanut butter nearly made its way across the table.

“Yeah, are you familiar with the Helen of Troy story?”

“You’re comparing me to a woman?”

“You know what I mean; why are you busting my balls?”

“I’m sorry, bud, I know the story. The Trojans fought for years and years to get her back and, when they finally succeeded, they figured she was a spy.”

“Exactly.”

“Why would I spy for the government? I already told you they sent me here.”

“It’s not the government, that they are concerned about.”

“Then who is it?” Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. “Aw, Paul no way! I hate those bastards and what they did! I told you about everything that happened. Why would I possibly spy for them?” I was now shouting and most of the people at the chow hall tried their best to ignore my outburst.

“Mike, try to settle down. I don’t for a minute believe that you are working for them,” Paul said as he pointed skyward.

“But?” I was on the verge of shouting again.

“But some of my officers think that your ‘fantastic escape’ and your timely arrival are just too coincidental.”

“Coincidental? Bud, I know I’m not the sharpest tack on the board, but could you please clarify this for me?”

“Why? Because we are about to start our migration in earnest to the Indian Hill bunker and an invasion seems imminent.”

“Paul, you know how crazy that sounds? I’m the one that told you of the impending invasion; and, if anything, I’ve provided you and your men some crucial preparation time.”

“Mike, I know that and you know that, but my officers are going to need a little more time and a little more convincing. They have suggested everything from detaining you to letting you go. Both of those ideas have their inherent problems.”

“Such as?” I seethed.

“Well, if you are a spy,” he started as I began to rise. “Mike, please sit down. This is not my line of reasoning.” I sat, but my muscles were on full alert. I was tensed to strike but I wasn’t sure in which direction I would go. I hadn’t been this riled up since the battles. Paul continued talking but it took me half a beat to catch up. “…And you left you could tell the aliens exactly where we were going, and if we detained you they might have some sort of way of tracking you.”

“What? Like a friggin’ Lojack?” I sputtered.

“Yeah, pretty much like that.” Paul was trying to lay on the charm, but I was far beyond that. “If you would submit to an MRI, my men would go a lot further into accepting you as one of their own.”

“An MRI? Aren’t you in charge here, Paul? Can’t you make them see the error that they are making here?”

“I’m definitely in charge, Mike, but I don’t MAKE them do anything. They do it because they feel that I’m right. If I go against them on this, I might lose some of their trust. And I just won’t take that chance.”

“What if I refuse?”

“Well, then my friend, you put me in a precarious position. Do I forcibly make you do it and lose the best friendship I have ever or will ever have? Or do I betray the trust of the men and women that have come to serve under me and jeopardize the very mission which I am attempting to accomplish?”

“Well, what if I just leave?”

“I don’t think you’ll make it.”

“Is that a threat, Paul?”

“No, of course not, Mike, but there are officers under my command who feel very strongly about your presence here.”

“Can’t you control your men?” I shouted. The mess hall was rapidly vacating as our argument heated up.

“I can, but I don’t have them on a leash!” Paul shouted to match my own. “Mike, I’m telling you that if you leave here under these circumstances, you are jeopardizing your life.”

“This is beautiful! I battle my way off a hostile ship full of aliens to give Earth all the information about the aliens that I can; just so I can be treated like some kind of virus! Fuck you, Paul! You and your officers! I’m out of here! And if any of your lackeys tries to stop me, I’ll take them out, no questions asked.” I rose and headed for the door when I heard the distinctive cocking of a pistol.

“I’m sorry, Mike, I can’t let you leave. Not like this.”

“Fuck you, Paul… Shoot me in the back if you have to; I’m leaving.” I heard the firing mechanism hit true and a warm sensation that spread across my lower back. He shot me! My best friend shot me! I felt my cheek slam onto the turf. That’s gonna leave a mark, I thought to myself, and, like the movies, I faded to black.

Chapter 7

“Hello, Deb? It’s me, Beth.”

“Beth? Why are you calling me? Do you realize how late it is?”

“I’m sorry, Deb I… I just needed to talk to someone… someone who has experienced what we’ve been through. And I’m worried.”

Deb sat up in bed, wiping the weariness from her eyes; she hadn’t really been sleeping. Truth be told, she hadn’t slept much since her return to Earth. It was partly because of the nightmares but mostly because of her concern for the man she loved.

“Worried about what, Beth?” Deb asked.