“Even the Union.”
“If you knew about the UFO and the conspiracy to cover it up, why hire me? Why press me to investigate?”
“To prove that DOE’s security precautions weren’t good enough to stop a determined intruder. Which you’ve done, in spades.”
“And you’ve been involved with this since the Roswell crash in 1947?”
“Me?” the alien asked. “Hell no-do I look that old? I hope not. I was assigned about ten years ago. You see, after your government moved the surveillance vessel from Roswell, we lost track of it. I have to hand it to the humans, they can be sneaky. That’s one reason they are so dangerous.”
“You knew nothing of moving the UFO from Roswell to Hangar 18 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base?” I asked. “Then from Wright-Patterson to Rocky Flats?”
“No. I swear.”
“How does Rocky Flats fit into this?”
“Your government needed better facilities for its studies. All the security surrounding plutonium at Rocky Flats was a sham to cover the real secret.”
“The study of this UFO?”
The helicopter passed overhead. Its rotor blades drummed the air.
The imposter followed the noise. “Yes,” he answered simply.
“And the use of rare, radioactive materials for weapons manufacture was a cover to hide this isotope of red mercury?”
“Another yes.”
“And the nymphomania?” I asked.
“An unexpected consequence,” he answered. “It only happened to human females. Earth women are surprisingly complicated.”
“Tell me about it.”
The imposter’s gaze shifted to the containers behind me. His aura grew barbed points, indicating deceit and anxiety.
“There’s more to this, isn’t there?” I moved toward him, my fangs and talons growing to maximum length.
The alien cringed against the wall of the vault. His eyes grew so wide with fear they looked ready to pop from their sockets.
“Was getting me to break into this trailer part of your alien plan? What did you really want?”
His aura burned hotter and went from distress to outright terror.
I pressed a talon into the soft flesh under his chin. “Talk or I’ll do more cosmetic surgery.”
The imposter turned his gaze back to the containers. He remained silent.
I pushed my talon in a little harder. “Did the Union send you here to die?”
The imposter shook his head. “No.”
“Then what are you here for?”
“The Psychotronic Device.”
I withdrew my hand and pointed over my shoulder. “In those?”
He nodded.
“What does this Psychotronic Device look like?”
Gilbert’s imposter pantomimed with his hands. “Maybe this big.”
The dimensions were about the same as the object I had found.
“What color is it?”
“I’m not sure. It should look like a box with handles.”
I grasped the alien by his arm and led him to the container where I’d seen the object. I opened the lid-the yellow glow spilled out-and pulled out the box with handles.
The imposter’s aura lit up with swirls of delight. He reached for the device.
I pulled it away. “This is the reason you wanted me to get into the trailer?”
He didn’t have to say anything. The way his aura blazed was enough to signal a yes.
“Why didn’t you get it yourself?”
“Felix, this is the blackest of the top-secret programs. The Roswell crash happened when the humans’ atomic bomb program was in full swing. It didn’t occur to us until years later that the United States would hide the surveillance vessel under the security umbrella of its nuclear weapons program.” The imposter panned his hands over the containers in the vault. “How could I ask to inspect something that supposedly didn’t exist?”
“And once the UFO was buried deep in Carlsbad Caverns…”
The alien finished my sentence. “I’d never get to it.”
“And you hired me to do your dirty work.”
“Isn’t that what private detectives are for?”
He had me there, the intergalactic weasel.
I held the device by both handles and raised it toward Gilbert’s imposter. He shirked back.
“What does this Psychotronic Device do? Why was the Roswell UFO carrying it?”
“To test”-the alien cleared his throat sheepishly, as if embarrassed-“the existence of psychic energy. According to the theory, every living creature emits an aura of psychic energy.”
The imposter stood within his sheath of a yellow glowing aura. Psychic energy was no theory, it was as real as electricity.
“You have living creatures where you’re from. Why come to Earth to test this?”
“Actually, the test involved a little more than proving the existence of psychic energy,” he replied.
We vampires used our knowledge of psychic auras to manipulate humans. His use of the words “a little more” implied a sinister motive. The device was no toy.
“How much more?”
“I don’t know. My job was to safeguard the surveillance vessel and recover the Psychotronic Device.”
“Now that you’ve found this, what are you going to do?”
“Report to my superiors in the Union.”
My grip tightened angrily on the handles. Earth’s vampires didn’t need competition from extraterrestrials. No one else would pluck our pigeons.
“Then here.” I pressed the handles together and crushed the box. The glass panes inside shattered and sprayed out the opposite end toward him.
The alien covered his face and crouched. His aura flared in despair. “What are you doing?”
I smashed the device against the container until I held a piece of battered junk. I offered it to him. “Here. Proof that you found it. Happy?”
The imposter took the device. A glass shard tinkled to the floor. He stared at the misshapen, broken mass and slumped his shoulders as if his luck had the weight of concrete. “Not really.”
“It’s been more than fifty years since the crash,” I said. “Why haven’t you made another one?”
“The inventor was on the vessel. His secrets died with him.”
The alien’s aura dimmed to the color of a rotten yolk. He bore the expression of a man who had let diamonds flush down the toilet. The alien tossed the device back into the container and closed the lid.
I could kill him out of spite but the alien imposter was only doing his job, like any other schmuck. Right now I felt sorry for him.
His aura lightened and swirled with renewed curiosity. “You are an amazing creature, Felix Gomez.” His gaze moved to my talons and then right into my eyes.
Vampire hypnosis should’ve flattened him by now but there was still nothing.
“You have such powers. Such strength.” He squinted. “Those fangs. Those claws. You…are a vampire? Humans are so superstitious. Interesting, I didn’t think you actually existed.”
“Same goes for you.”
A searchlight illuminated the trailer’s doors.
“The security force is almost here, Felix. You better leave.”
“Not yet. Before we kiss and say goodbye, there’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“You owe me thirty thousand dollars. I didn’t do this as a hobby. You wanted confirmation of what was in the trailer and here it is.” I stepped on the broken glass and made it crunch.
The alien tightened his lips in frustration. Carefully, he unzipped his parka and from an inside pocket produced a large manila envelope folded over into a thick packet. “I’d hoped you’d take this money and scram before asking too many questions. When I hired you, I got more than I bargained for.”
“That’s a common complaint from my clients.”
The alien handed me the packet. “In cash, to keep bookkeeping simple. I’ll keep your secrets if you keep mine.”
I opened the envelope and ran my thumb across a stack of hundred-dollar bills. “That’s a promise. What about Merriweather, the plant manager?”