“Seriously?” The second armed guard asked, “I thought the deliveries of this shit had finished.”
“I guess not.” The first guard said and then handed the paperwork back to Edward, “It all checks out, open the gates.” He ordered.
Edward had done this journey from the local factory some five times now, he smiled to himself at how slack the security had got since his first trip. The first time he was escorted through the base by two military jeeps; this time he had to make his own way to Hanger 27.
As Edward pulled into view alongside the various sized hangers dotted around the base, he noticed a soldier signaling for him to stop outside of Hanger 27. Edward again managed a weary smile. He came to a stop and wound down his window.
“Nice to see a familiar face, Edgar.” He said.
Airman First class Edgar Hudson returned the smile, “Nice to see you too Edward, you look knackered mate, we working you too hard?”
“Hardly son didn’t think you fellas were ever going to order more tiles, we were getting worried that our jobs might be at risk.”
Hudson laughed, “Papers if you would be so kind.”
Edward handed them over and watched in his mirror as Airman First class Glen Owens completed his walk around check of the vehicle.
“Ok.” Hudson said, “You know the drill Edward.”
The truck driver sighed as he hopped out of the cab, “All yours buddy.”
Owens approached the keypad on the hanger door and punched in a code. The display beeped once then after a short delay the hanger door slowly slid open.
Owens returned to talk to Edward while Hudson waited to enter the dimly lit building.
Edward glanced over Owens’ shoulder and something caught his eye, he strained hard to try and make the object out. He had to take a double take but he was now sure, it was a body led out on a metal worktop.
The delivery driver tried hard not to make it to obvious but he was taking a mental picture of what he saw. It was definitely a figure on the worktop but it was strange, it looked to be smaller than a normal person, it was hard to tell at this distance but it could not have been much bigger than four foot.
Edward noticed something was strange with the arms as well, they seemed to be longer than the body and were out of proportion. The body was a light green color with patches of black, the head was also strange with two large black eye slots.
The truck moved slowly into the hanger and obscured Edward’s view, Owen had noticed that Edward was on edge and he calmly moved him away from the outside of the Hanger.
“We’ll get you a coffee mate and bring the truck around for you.”
Edward was unable to argue as Owens let Hudson know what was going on over the radio.
The ceramic tiles were unloaded onto the internal lift without incident and ten minutes later Edward was in his truck, being escorted from the base. That night the truck driver could not get to sleep, the image of those dark black eyes haunted him and he knew then that he could not keep this to himself.
Edward appeared on the local news describing what he had seen at the base and told anyone who would listen that the government was hiding creatures from another planet at the base.
A spokesman from Wright Patterson appeared on the news a day later.
The man, who was bold and wore a smart black suit and dark tinted sunglasses, spoke in a monotone voice. He then presented the green object to the local news reporter.
“This as you can clearly see is a manmade suit, it is specially designed to protect the wearer from the stresses of radiation during space travel. What we are working on here is the next generation of spacesuits.”
The local reporter nodded with interest “What about Mr. Wheeler’s description of it being about four foot in length?”
The man smiled, a smile that looked more like a display of pain than an expression of enjoyment. “Well, when the suit is bunched up on a worktop and viewed from a distance I expect it does look a bit like a miniature green man.”
The local reporter laughed then turned back to face the camera, “And there we have it folks, you can all sleep easy tonight knowing that there are, in fact, no little green men from another world at the base next door.”
Edward was watching at home and squeezed his beer can so hard that the brown liquid foamed out all over his lap and spilled onto the floor. He could not believe how foolish they had made him look.
Edward’s phone rang and he gingerly picked it up.
“Hello Mr….”
“What do you mean you’re going to have to let me go?”
“Sir…. But Sir….”
The phone was dead, Edward slumped down next to the phone, not only had he been made to look like a fool but now he was also jobless. His temper flared and he picked up and throw the phone across the room, it extended to the length of its cord then crashed down on the bare floor.
A knock on the door snapped Edward out of his self-pity, he got up and slowly went to open it but it creaked open before he could get there.
“Who said you could come in here… Who are you… What a minute you are the man from the news report.”
Edward stumbled backwards and picked up the closest weapon he could get his hands on, a poker from the fireplace, he pointed it at the advancing man in black.
“Be calm please Mr. Wheeler, this will go a lot smoother if you cooperate.”
“What will go a lot smoother? You freak.” Edward said threateningly.
Edward felt a sharp prick in his arm, he looked down to see a needle pushing a clear liquid into his vein.
“What the hell?” He shouted.
A cold feeling swept through his body, his vision blurred and he fell to the floor unconscious, it only took a few more seconds for his lungs to give up and he died then and there.
The police found Edward’s lifeless body on the sofa with a needle sticking out of his arm. The coroner gave the cause of death as a heroin overdose. Wheeler was to be forever remembered as a drug addict and a local laughing stock.
Inauguration
The 20th January 1969 was a chill morning, yet that did not stop a huge crowd massing on this historic day; joining the chill that day was an air of optimism that America would finally start the process of leaving Vietnam.
Chief Justice Earl Warren had just finished administering the presidential oath of office to Nixon. The Dark, beady-eyed Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, he stood and delivered his speech with his trademark slick-backed black hair; he had the air of a hungry shark and was just as dangerous.
As the new President spoke about poetry and the future of the nation, two men stood and watched from a distance, their presence there that day was purely to keep Nixon to the predetermined speech that they themselves had written for him.
These men were the same men who had personally checked all of the ballot results and delivered the final count to the nations various news stations. The unsuspecting American public thought the results were delivered live but this was not the case.
The men had actually switched various ballet boxes to make Nixon’s victory inevitable, they had their reasons for this but as always these men, the men in black suits kept their reasons to themselves. They protected the organization they belonged to by any means possible, they knew they were currently being investigated by the head of the FBI, Edgar J Hoover but they also knew they would not be discovered.
The two men smiled and planned their next move, they were growing tired of Hans Kammler and his constant failures. They needed to know why the Nazi’s high command was so keen to unleash Die Glocke on the world, yes the device produced the potent Xerum 525 but that alone would not have been enough to win the war; it was time to put pressure on the old man.