There was not a soul in sight.
“Direct me to Dr. Joyce LaCombe.”
The corridor in front of her remained lit, the other two vanishing into darkness.
“Thank you.” She walked forward, her third stride disappearing into a gelid barrier—
— her body emerging on a grass-covered knoll overlooking a winding stream. The sun, still high in a cobalt-blue sky, warmed her face — even as a chilled mountain breeze blew in from the distant snow-covered Rockies to compensate.
Jessica inhaled the fresh air, feeling invigorated. It was the scene she had awoken to this morning. Whatever it was — a hologram or a drug-induced dream — she couldn’t fathom. Regardless, it was impressive.
Follow the brook downstream…
Joyce LaCombe’s voice cooed in her brain, and yet the words had not been spoken, they had appeared in her mind’s eye as a whisper of wind.
She made her way down the knoll to a footpath bordering the three-foot drop-off that was the brook. As instructed, she followed it downstream, its trickling waters providing a soothing chorus of sound. Gradually the diminuendo over shallow beds of pebbles and stone deepened to a crescendo of moss-covered chasms of rock as the brook widened into a swiftly-moving river, its shorelines hedged in by a forest of pine.
She stayed with the footpath as it abandoned the waterway and cut through the trees, the sound of the river steadily deadening, the air cooling noticeably as the canopy of branches grew thick overhead.
Jessica stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes catching movement up ahead. “Hello? You can come out; I know you’re there.”
The being stepped out from behind the trunk of a tree ahead and to her right. Gray-skinned and three-and-a-half feet tall, it possessed a large, hairless bulb-shaped skull which accommodated two oval eyes, the immense sight organs completely black. The being’s upper body seemed emaciated yet powerful, the cord-like tendons of its limbs making up for a lack of muscle mass. The long four-fingered hands were delicate but dexterous, ending in concave tips. From the neck down it was clothed in a sheer microfiber body suit, the fabric of which appeared to be blending in with everything it touched — the bark of the tree, the dirt path…
As she watched, the being leaned closer to the Pine tree and disappeared—
— only to step out from behind another tree trunk a second later, this one ten paces to her left.
“Well, that was a neat trick.”
It disappeared again, this time reappearing six paces ahead of her and to her right. And then it was seemingly everywhere, randomly appearing and disappearing, popping in and out of existence so fast that Jessica was convinced there had to be at least a dozen of them.
Dr. Marulli has been secured. Cease mind-control and reveal yourself.
Jessica heard a click and then the sky and forest collapsed into a trillion droplets of water, evaporating as they struck the unseen floor.
In its place was the inside of an extraterrestrial space ship. Jessica found herself lying on her back on a metallic table, unable to move.
There were three Grey ETs visible. Two appeared to be operating the vessel from a central hub; the third was hovering over her lower abdomen and groin which had gone completely numb.
Her blood pressure dropped as a wave of anxiety rushed over her.
It’s probing me!
Why did you launch the scalar weapon? Our treaty does not permit the placement of advanced weaponry in space.
Treaty? What treaty?
If another satellite is launched you will be removed from this planet.
Please… I didn’t know—
Zero-point-energy field generators are not permitted on your planet. If the quarantine is broken then both you and your mate will be abducted and removed from this planet… and your pregnancy terminated.
“Ahhh! Ahhh! Ahhh!”
Jessica sat up and expelled a blood-curdling scream as the lights came on, revealing her bedroom suite and a hologram of the nurse who had treated her back in the clinic.
“Dr. Marulli, are you alright?”
Still shaking from the night terror, her tee-shirt soaked in a cold sweat, Jessica fled the bedroom—
— the hologram re-engaging in the bathroom mirror. “Dr. Marulli, should we send help? Please respond.”
Dropping to her knees, Jessica bent over the toilet and puked.
34
In the end, it had come down to Newton’s Third Law of Motion — for every action there had been an equal and opposite reaction, only in his case it wasn’t equal, he had fared far worse.
When Adam had attempted to use the power of his office, they had threatened his boss, the Secretary of Defense.
When he had publicly announced his investigation, they had bribed him.
When he had brought forth witnesses, they had shut down all media coverage.
When he had attempted to enlist the public’s support as a war hero, they had tarnished his reputation; when he refused to back down they had taken his job.
And now, this afternoon, when he had called a press conference to present his side of the equation…
Using the TV remote control, Adam switched from station to station, his excitement waning, changing from frustration to outright anger.
MSNBC: “… the ousted Under Secretary of Defense claiming that eighty to one hundred billion dollars a year of taxpayer money is being spent on — are you ready for this — advanced technologies reversed-engineered from UFOs that crash-landed as far back as the late 1940s.”
FOX NEWS: “… extraterrestrials. According to the former Under Secretary, man-made flying saucers known as Alien Reproduction Vehicles, or ARVs, have been secretly reverse-engineered. Where are these man-made flying saucers, you ask?”
CNN: “… stored in secret subterranean military bases all over the country. When asked where these bases are, the former Under Secretary had this to say, “I don’t know.”
“Huh? That’s not what I said! I gave out the locations… Edwards Air Force Base, Haystack Butte, China Lakes, Nellis, Los Alamos… You bastards edited them out!”
He clicked back to MSNBC: “Chris, how will Shariak’s appointment and sudden ouster affect the Trump Administration?”
“I’d say the blowback is more on Shariak’s brother. Senator Randy Hall is up for reelection next year and—”
“Ugh!” Adam threw the remote as hard as he could at the flat screen TV, the impact cracking the surface.
Six months ago he’d had it all… a good job, the love of an incredible woman who was the girl of his dreams. Now he was jobless and blacklisted… rendered unemployable. Steven Greer had been right when he had said, “there are things worse than death.” His enemies had succeeded in making him persona non-grata while setting him firmly on a path of self-destruction.
How long will Jessica stay with a man who can no longer support himself?
Could her family accept a son-in-law who the public believed had committed a war crime?
More important — where was Jessica? Was she safe?
The knock on his apartment door startled him. “Jess?”
He hobbled to the door, the smart-prosthetic sent off-kilter by his thoughts.
The DHL delivery man looked up from his scanner as the door opened. “Adam Shariak?”
“Yes?”
“I have a package for you… just need you to sign here please.”