“Yes Sir.” Popov quickly left the room to start preparing the operation.
“I want my antigravity fighter prepared for take-off, I’m going to lead this operation from Magadan. I feel that I need to be close to this one. Something important is happening, and I need to know what it is.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Hill Air Force Base, UTAH
It had been over six months since Mike Evans had last seen Calidus Delusor in Virginia. Mike had returned to his monotonous life at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. He had not seen Nikita since she survived him shooting her in the face on Calidus’ orders. After Calidus flew off in his space craft, Nikita and Mike had suffered through the awkward two-hour drive back to the Virginia Beach ocean front.
The drive back was awkward, but not silent. Nikita was furious at both Mike and Calidus. She was mad at Calidus for not giving her a heads up on the fact he was going to have Mike shoot her as a loyalty test. She was furious and disappointed that Mike had shot her. The shot would have been fatal had Calidus not exchanged the lead bullet for a cotton ball. She explained to Mike that the compact cotton ball, while not as hard a bullet, was still very painful.
Mike listened to her all the way back to Virginia Beach, holding his aching balls most of the way. It was clear that she really liked him, maybe even loved him, prior to the shooting. He tried to explain that he did not believe the gun was loaded with real bullets and that he believed it was just to test his loyalty. He further explained that he felt he had no choice, that Calidus would have killed them both, had he failed to comply. Mike explained that they had a chance of survival if he shot her, but no chance of survival in a fight against an armed, Large Gray alien. Mike could not convince her.
The night ended with a civil exchange of pleasantries in the hotel parking lot, more like colleagues leaving work than lovers parting ways. That was the last time he saw her. He had her phone number memorized, but he never attempted to call her for fear of being caught by his American ‘hosts.’
Now, months later, he still dreamed about her at night. On the base, he had no female companionship. Several weeks after getting back to Hill AFB, he tried to contact Calidus using the hairy, biological implant in his arm. Calidus had explained that the Large Gray’s telepathic abilities were limited to a 50-mile radius, but that the implant would allow communication over great distances. It worked, but it took several attempts over a three-hour period before Calidus responded. Mike was not sure if that was a problem with the transmitter, receiver, or just bad reception.
On the two-hour drive from Williamsburg to the Virginia Beach oceanfront, between Nikita’s emotional outbreaks, Mike learned a few valuable things. The most important thing he learned was that there was a huge underground base in Antarctica. This base was the size of a small country, with thousands of humans and Large Grays working side-by-side to build a new civilization. Nikita said it was technologically advanced beyond anything he could imagine, which was saying something, because he could imagine a lot.
Mike Evans, as the humans called him, lay in his bed staring at the ceiling, dreading the next few minutes, when he would have to get up, shower and pretend to love his job. The last time he used the hairy transmitter, Calidus had informed him that there was a decent sized group of Nordics that, like him, were tired of waiting on the Americans. Calidus made it sound like they were planning something big. Mike had been contacted by the leader of the Vitahician underground movement, via coded messages, but he had never met any of them.
Mike was painfully self-aware of his situation. He knew he should not feel this way about Nikita, she should not be plaguing his mind. He wondered if he really loved her, something most Vitahicians back home did not often experience; or, was the dissatisfaction with his life in general, causing him to cling to her. Back on his home world, he believed he would have had a much more fulfilling life, with familiar social structures in place. Here, on Earth, he rarely saw the sun, or engaged I personally fulfilling activities, leaving him open to reckless, and destructive fantasy.
As Mike lay in his bed, only minutes before he would have to face the day, fantasizing that Nikita was snuggled up next him, he was jolted by a loud knocking on the door to his underground apartment. Mike leapt from his bed; a cold dread sunk to his stomach. No one ever came to his door, especially at this hour.
Shit. Have they found out about me? How could they? I’ve been careful.
“Just a minute. I’m coming,” Mike yelled so that it could be heard through the metal door.
Mike grabbed the first pair of shorts he could find in the darkness and stumbled to the door. Opening the door revealed two young airmen, not the armed escort he had feared. “What can I do for you?” Mike asked, more than a little relieved by the fact they were not carrying machine guns.
“We have been sent to bring you to air command headquarters,” the young Sergeant said.
“Can I get dressed?”
“We have orders to bring you in ASAP. Make it quick, no shower.”
A few minutes later, they were in a Humvee, racing across the base towards air command headquarters.
“Do you know why they want me so early? I’m a scientist; they never need me at headquarters?” Mike asked.
“Couldn’t tell you, Sir. Way above my pay-grade,” the young Sergeant said, as he navigated a turn onto another street. “What I can say, is the whole base is on high alert, everyone is running around like World War Three just started.”
Mike was rushed into a non-descript building and down a couple of hallways, until he was standing in a crowded room full of officers and scientists. The lead scientist in Mike’s team came up to him.
“Mike, I’m glad you could make it,” the human scientist said to him. Sabine Weber, had been working at Hill with Mike for over fifteen years.
“I didn’t know I had a choice.” Mike responded flatly. Mike did not dislike Weber; he was just bored with Weber’s non-stop, pro-military political slogans. Mike was surprised at how many seemingly intelligent people could be brainwashed so easily. He assumed they just accepted the party line because their paychecks depended on it.
“Ha, you’re funny. This is serious. They want us to make seven C-17 Globe masters invisible.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem. We make planes invisible all the time. Normally, they are much smaller fighter craft. Why send a ground pounder to my apartment at 6 AM?” Mike asked, still not getting what all the fuss was about.
“You just got up? You want some coffee? How about a donut? They have coffee and donuts over there.” The helpful scientist pointed to the other side of the crowded room.
“Thanks. I will get some coffee in a minute. What’s going on?”
“Oh, they need the full Houdini on seven C-17s within two hours,” the scientist said, stuffing a glazed donut into his mouth.
“What? That’s impossible. Why such a rush?”
“Classified. Need to know. All we need to know, is that they want a full Houdini package on all seven, pronto. Best I can tell, they are to be used as support for a mission that has already started. I think this is the backup plan.”
“How do you figure?” Mike asked.
“I overheard some of the top brass talking about the NATT taking off this morning. Sounded like they were heading off to Russia to pick up a package.” The scientist used his sticky fingers to make quotation signs when he said ‘package.’