Two black-clad soldiers pushed their weapons through the bars and ordered all the other captives to stay where they were. Another soldier opened the door and punched Steven in the ribs; he released his grip on the bars.
“Leave him alone!” One of the prisoners shouted.
“Yeah assholes get away from him!”
A group rushed the soldier but they only got a few steps before the other two soldiers opened fire, the rounds flew forwards and struck the onrushing prisoners. The smell of burning flesh spread in the hanger. The men and women who were struck fell to the floor and died almost instantly, the soldiers kept firing and hit a few prisoners that were innocent bystanders.
Steven was dragged out in front of Sporrenberg.
“Turn that woman around.” He ordered, “Make her watch.” He smiled.
Pamela was turned around then restrained; one of the soldiers gripped her head and forced her to look in Sporrenberg’s direction.
The ex-SS General struck Steven in the stomach with a forceful blow, Steven doubled over in pain; the wind was knocked out of him. The soldiers hoisted him to his feet and Sporrenberg struck him again in the same spot, Steven crumpled and tears streamed down his cheeks, he gasped for air as he was hauled to his feet.
“Enough, he’s had enough.” Pamela said sternly.
Sporrenberg smiled, “Had enough has he? Ok I’ll let him be… my pet.”
Steven drew in deep breaths, he weakly looked up just in time to see Sporrenberg pull out his pistol from his hip, place it on his forehead and pull the trigger. The purple round flew through the man’s skull, the exit wound cauterized around the edges, while blood spattered the tarmac.
Pamela dropped her head and clamped her eyes closed tightly; she tried to hold back the tears but failed. Sporrenberg walked up to her and slapped her hard around the face.
“I want her ready in my room in twenty minutes.” He ordered.
“Sporrenberg, aren’t you forgetting something?” His Advisor asked him. “You need to be ready for your performance… You can play with your toy afterward.” The disgust in his voice was hard to ignore.
Anger once again flashed across the General’s face for the briefest of moments.
“Yes you’re right my aid, work before pleasure.” He smiled and he strode off towards his quarters.
“Aid, get my clean uniform ready for me.”
“Yes General.” Advisor A said and then shook his head.
Blackbird
An air force technician waited in a sparse meeting room for his superior officer. The room was a small rectangular box with two wooden chairs and a small wooden coffee stained table, a single small glass of water was placed in front of the technician.
Finally, a man in a pristine uniform strode in and placed a large cardboard folder on the table. The man, who had thinning grey hair flicked open the folder and had a quick skim read through the last three pages.
He sighed, “Ok Airman you requested this meeting, please enlighten me to the reason why my trainees were transferred to Wright Patterson in the first place?”
The technician picked up the glass of water and took a nervous swing, his hands were shaking.
“Sir, a request for the trainees to be transferred to Wright Patterson was approved two months ago to work on a black ops project…”
“What project?” The older man snapped.
“With all due respect Sir, I am unable to release the details to you.”
The older man snarled, “Listen here you piece of shit, my trainees should be working with NASA for the next moon landing missions, nothing is more important than that.” The man leaned over and poked the technician firmly in the chest, “So you will tell me everything, unless you want to spend the rest of your life cleaning toilets!”
The technician shrugged, “Sir I called you’re here because we have lost contact with the base, the trainees’ handler should have filed his report four hours ago. We tried to contact him and then when we received no answer we tried to contact the base but we can’t raise anybody.”
The senior officer sat back in his chair, “Nobody in the whole of Wright Patterson is answering?”
The technician shook his head.
“What was going on there that has made you so adamant that you refuse to answer my questions?”
The technician let a nervous smile slip, “I’m not worried about telling you sir, I’m worried about those guys stood at the door.” He nodded to the cloudy glass door behind him.
The officer looked behind him, stood behind the door were two blurry figures in dark clothing. The two figures opened the door and stood in the doorway.
The officer reacted angrily; he rose and strode toward the two men.
“I don’t know who you are or how you got here but I am getting security to lock you up, this is a serious security breach.”
The two men smiled in unison and then spoke, “Lieutenant colonel Crichton please calm down, the security teams are well aware of our presence, now please take a seat. This is a matter of great importance and we share your concern about your trainees.” The two men gestured for him to take a seat.
The Lieutenant colonel suddenly felt his desire to argue flow away, he felt dazed, like he was in a kind of strange dream. He mumbled something as he sat down and stared at the table.
“Thank you for understanding Crichton.” The two men locked their eyes onto the technician, even though they were wearing sunglasses, the technician could still feel their burning eyes.
“Technician Black, thank you for your help, you are dismissed.”
The technician rose and quickly left the room, he turned left out of the door and passed the two expressionless security guards who were stood motionless.
“As you must know by now Lieutenant colonel what we are about to discuss is above top secret, you will need to sign this disclosure document, you must never discuss this with anybody, ever.”
Crichton did not look up but he nodded slowly. The document and a pen were placed in front of him and he blindly signed it.
“Ok, we have lost contact with our scientist at Wright Patterson Air Force base; their last communication with us was thirty-four hours ago and despite our repeated attempts… we have received no response.”
The two men in black paced up and down the tiny room, “We are very concerned as we have a very important asset there and we need to know what the situation is, and as we cannot raise any members of staff at Wright Patterson we need your help.”
Lieutenant colonel Crichton looked up; a foggy look swirled in his eyes. “How can I help you?”
A haunting smile formed on the two men in black faces, Crichton felt a shiver pulse down his spine, there was something badly wrong with these men but he could not place his finger on it.
“We understand you have an SR-71 based here, we need you to fly a reconnaissance flight over the base. Take a variety of pictures and then return those pictures to us straight away. The pilots are to be told it is a training mission.”
Crichton did not respond, he just focused on the table.
“Do you understand?”
Crichton solemnly nodded.
One of the men in black suits placed his hand on Crichton’s shoulder, “Good give the order. Put your best pilots on this task. We will accompany you for the full duration of this mission.”
Crichton nodded.
The sky was darker at the edge of space, the light blue merged into ever darker shades of blue until the area above was black and the stars were clearly visible. The two pilots were too busy checking various readouts in the cramped conditions; the pilots wore full orange colored spacesuits, at this extreme altitude every precaution was taken to keep the two men alive. The second pilot had just finished the reconnaissance equipment check.