Aliens Are Real: Part 2 (20 page)

Target located.
Commencing retrieval.
Expect a hasty exit,
Joseph reported to Honorio.

Excellent,
the
ir
leader
replied.

Joseph started to crawl away from Jasmine’s dad and Tyrone until he felt a hand grab his arm.

Wait.
What am I supposed to do?
Tyrone
’s
fear seeped
into his thoughts.

I wi
ll draw Jasmine’s dad off
,
then you grab the item
,
and get out of here.
Get to the blind spot in the fence as fast as possible without being seen.
I wi
ll meet you at the safe point.

How
will I know when it i
s safe to grab the target?

You wi
ll know because
the c
olonel will
be headed away from the target and towards me.

Tyrone loosened his grip.
Be safe
.

Joseph laughed inwardly and silently.
Never!

Joseph crawled toward
the far corner of the enormous building.
Once he reached the far wall, he crept around the area, feeling out the location of items so he would know to avoid them.
Once he felt comfortable with
the area, he found a metal file
cabinet and kicked it.
The sound reverberated through the expansive building.

Joseph heard Colonel Smith dra
w his
side-arm.

“Who’s there?”
Jasmine’s dad said.

Jospeh dared to peak and saw the colonel
t
a
k
e
his flashlight
in his opposite hand
then
cross it over the hand holding his pistol to illuminate his line of fire. He
swept his flashlight
along the
far end of the building
near where Joseph hid
.
He
eased back behind the fil
e
cabinet.
He needed the c
olonel to come to that side of the building, not just stare.

Joseph hit the cabinet again.

“Come ou
t now!
”
the Colonel yelled.

Joseph peeked around his hiding place again, and gritted his teeth in frustration. Jasmine’s dad had
t
a
k
en
several steps forward
,
but stopped at the table Tyrone needed to access.
Come on old man, I need you to chase me
. He thought to himself.

Joseph considered hitting the cabinet again
,
but realized he had the answer available to him
all along
.
He cringed at the thought of leaving behind
such
a valuable asset
,
but knew without the item on the tab
le, his team would be stuck on E
arth forever.
He sighed
as reason overcame passion,
then released his source DNA
. He
felt himse
lf reverting to his normal form.
As he felt the last of the human form wearing off, he sensed the
small
piece of hair falling to the ground.

Joseph heard the sound of buttons being pushed on a cellphone.
Joseph soared into
the air,
over the
file
cabinet.
He flew straight to the c
olonel to distract him from pressing the send button on his phone.
His maneuver worked.
The c
olonel dropped his phone at the sight of a blue ball of energy flying through the air at his face.

Joseph stopped
about
ten
feet away from the c
olonel
,
and bobbed a bit to keep
hi
s attention.
He then backed away slowly.
Come on, follow me,
old man.

What are you doing?
Tyrone asked.

Joseph could imagine Tyrone’s look of
panic.
This guy is
obviously investigating alien technology or something
, right?
He has to be
,
to work with this stuff.
I’m drawing him away with what he wants to see
.

You are giving him evidence that we are here
.
Tyrone whined.

Joseph watched
Colonel Smith
walk forward with his hand outstretched.
Joseph jerked back ten feet to lure
the colonel
faster.

Nothing he can prove.
Joseph replied.
The power’s out so there won’t be video. Think of it as doing the poor guy a favor.
He’ll know he’s not nuts for believing in aliens
,
but won’t be able to tell anyone without having proof
. S
o
,
we’re safe.

Joseph’s jerk back
ward
worked.
Colonel Smith tripped over a desk as he tried to keep up with the floating orb.

The colonel cried out in despair. “Wait!
Tell me where she is!
”

To whom is he refering
?

I don’t know but he’s far enough away now.
Get it
.
Tyrone instructed.

“Why did you take her?”
the colonel asked.

Tyrone grabbed the target while the colonel was distracted
and quickly returned to his hiding place behind a row of desks
.
I have it secured.
He broadcast to the whole team.

Good, g
et back here now
.
Honorio ordered.

Jasmine’s dad is in the way
!
Tyrone said.

Go around
,
I wi
ll lure him the other way.

Joseph
shot
over Colonel Smith’s head
,
and bobbed about twenty feet from the entry way.
Jasmine’s dad turned
around and slowly walked toward
him.

“Don’t go.
Just
...
bring her back.
Please,
”
the colonel said.

I’m at the door
.
Tyrone reported.

Get ready to open the door
to
let me out.
Then w
e
will
make a run for the entry point
.

Joseph flared his energy in a random sequence
,
just to give
the colonel
a
show.

He then flew across the room, through a gap in the plastic, down the hall, and around the corner.
Open
the door!

Tyrone opened the door.

Joseph blew through.
Follow me
.

He flew to the building next to the one he
had
exited
,
and paused on the far side to look for any soldiers.
The majority of the soldiers seemed to be congregated around the still smoldering building.
There were a few patrols
,
but there weren’t a lot of people on base
responding to the explosion, yet
.
Tyrone and Joseph slowly moved from building to building until they reached the breach in the fence.
Joseph sent Tyrone first
.

T
hen
he
zipped across the top of the fence
,
and flew across the city.
I canno
t meet you at the safe point
.
Joseph reported.

W
hy?
Are you okay?
Honorio asked.

I a
m fine.
There was just a complication
,
and I need to do some fancy
maneuvering to make sure I canno
t be tracked
.

What does that mean?
Honorio asked.

He dropped human form to distract Jasmine’s dad
.
Tyrone blurted.

What?
Honorio demanded.

Relax, I wi
ll tell you
all about it when we get home
.
In the meantime, I need to get to
Lincoln
so I can throw off any satellites they might access to track my movements.
I wi
ll let you know where to pick me up.

***

Jasmine’s dad watched the blue orb shoot across the sky.
He felt vindicated
even though
he had no proof to hand
the general. He knew aliens existed on E
arth even though many had labeled him a crack pot chasing shadows. The discovery of the crash site with ship parts made out of
synthetic
substances
never before seen
on
E
arth was his first break.
Then, that very
night,
he
had seen
one of them with his own two eyes.

His new mission was to discover a way to communicate with the aliens.
Obviously
the one he’d seen
hadn’t understood his words.
Or possibly it
had,
but he couldn’t understand its communication.
Were the flashes of light a message?
If so, what had the alien tried to tell him?

He clenched his jaw
,
and steeled his face.
He had searched for seven years since the incident in
Kearney
,
Nebraska
. He wouldn’t give up
until he knew the truth
.
Even though the logical side of him whispered that she was gone
,
and he needed to let her go, to move on w
ith his life, he couldn’t
.

Colonel Smith ran outside
,
and jumped i
n his golf cart. He sped toward
the Space and Missiles center with one thought on his mind. He swiped his card through the reader and marched in the building. His purposeful strides carried him to the door he needed
to enter. T
here
,
he paused.

Taped to the key
pad
,
on y
ellow lined paper, was a small note.

Combo changed again.
513680

Colonel Smith ripped the paper off, punched in the new code which he committed to memory quickly, then crumpled the paper as he stepped i
n the door. As he walked toward
a bank of computers, he threw the new code into a waste bin.
He wouldn’t be at this base long enough to make hunting down the perpetrator worth his effort. Also, human nature sometimes worked to his benefit.

“
Lieutenant
,” he said to the lone person watching the bank of monitors ahead of him.

The man jumped, obviously not expecting anyone to walk up behind him at this hour.

The
lieutenant
saw
the c
olonel’s
insignia
, so he snapped to his feet at attention, and saluted with vigor. “Colonel, Sir!”

“I need you to access which
ever bird is near
est
to the base.”
The colonel said as he saluted back.

“We have one pointed just off base now
,
but we’re
calibrating.
It won’t be d
one for another fifteen minutes,
”
the lieutenant replied respectfully.

“You can start calibration again a
fter we’re complete, lieutenant.
”

The lieutenant hesitated.

“I don’t have all night, Lieutenant!
I need that bird looking toward
the south and
west
now.”