The Good Reaper (22 page)

Giauzar and Sargas interrupted LeAnne occasionally, asking
for document specifics like times and dates while she told her true story.
Carl, Madeline and Roy sat by listening silently as LeAnne’s story unfolded.
She began with her arrival at the St. Elizabeth Medical Center in New York. It
took several hours for the story setting to move from New York to Arizona and
on to Idaho. Carl seemed to grow uncomfortable when there was a hint of LeAnne
and Naos sleeping together. LeAnne didn’t go into detail but it was easy to
read between the lines. When LeAnne spoke of Naos, anyone could see that she
was very much in love with him.

“I’m still confused,” Carl said. “You speak of this friend
named Naos. So he is an alien? Where does the orderly Luke fit into the
picture?”

“Luke is Naos’ human name,” LeAnne said. “Naos and Luke are
one and the same.”

After what seemed like the longest
two minutes of silence the look in Agent Goetz’s eyes which had been in a blank
trance-like state, returned to
a calm
and focused
state. It was clear to me that he did not believe anything we said. “Wait here
a minute,” Agent Goetz said as he headed for the door. “I want to bring in one
of my colleagues.”

“What do you think?” Chara asked.

“I don’t have a good feeling about
it,” Atik answered.

“Me either,” I agreed.

A few minutes later Agent Goetz
returned with three uniformed guards. The guard who we assumed was in charge
stepped forward and asked us for identification. Atik was the only one with a
valid driver’s license so
Gomeisa, Chara and I pulled out our fake ID
cards. We were ordered to follow the guard to the elevators and then down to a
sub-level floor, three floors below the lobby. The guards escorted us to what
looked something like a conference room except that the walls were lined with
leather sofas. In the middle of the room was a round conference table. We were
below the ground so instead of windows there were paintings of outdoor scenes
on all the walls. The guards didn’t say anything. They just left and locked the
door from the outside.

“I don’t know what to make of this,” Atik said. “It’s not
like a prison cell and yet we can’t leave. I don’t know if they are taking us
seriously.”

“They probably think we’re some kind of terrorists,” Gomeisa
said. “They still have a lot of problems here with terrorists so I guess you
can’t be too careful.”

“We need to get to a point where they are taking us
seriously enough that they ask us to prove it,” I said. “That would be easy. We
can take them to a ship landing if we have to.”

After waiting for over an hour, the door opened and a man
and a woman entered the room. They were dressed casually and seemed friendly.
The woman introduced herself as Nora
Kennard without
adding a job title. “This is Dave Neil,” she said gesturing toward the man who
had entered the room with her. Dave Neil just nodded politely and continued
leaning against the open door. A few seconds later a woman pushed a cart into
the room with bottles of water and juice.

“Sorry to keep you waiting here
all this time. You must be thirsty. Please help
yourself
,”
Dave Neil said while pointing to the cart with the beverages.

My immediate impression of the two
agents was that they were skilled interrogators disguised as “good cop, good
cop” but I figured it would be more pleasant than being interrogated by
traditional hard boiled typed agents.

The four of us sat opposite the
agents and introduced ourselves using our real names. “So, can you tell me a
little about your planet?” Agent Kennard asked, making the question sound
perfectly normal.

Atik reached down next to his
chair and proceeded to place his briefcase on the table in front of him.
Although the case had been scanned and inspected upon their arrival, Agent
Kennard quickly reached out and grabbed the case. “Please help yourself. We
brought it for you to look at,” Atik said.

Agent Kennard began removing and
inspecting the items from the case, beginning with a bound folder containing
print pictures. The pictures were organized in groups beginning with aerial
photos of Ranjisan. The first
set were
all landscapes
with horizon shots showing the Ranjisan moons. They were impressive but they
didn’t show any manmade structures. The second set consisted of aerial photos
of Ranjisan cities and towns. We watched as the two agents began to look more
wide-eyed and interested.

The third set of pictures showed
Ranjisi people in their daily work routines. Aside from their clothing which
looked something like brightly colored jumpsuits, they looked human and the
agents seemed unimpressed. The last few photos were show stoppers. They showed
Ranjisi people traveling locally. Aside from the above-ground monorail
stations, all the travel vehicles were public air transports including various
sizes and shapes of
skycabs
and
skybuses
.
I sensed a change in the agents. They looked more serious and concerned. But
even though the truth was right there in front of them, their training was
preventing them from accepting it.

“Where were these photos taken? Is
this somewhere in the Middle East?” Agent Neil asked.

I thought that was the first dumb
thing the agents asked. You could clearly see in the photo that the passengers
looked something like our delegation, fair haired and fair skinned. “That photo
right there looks like
Dheneb
,” I said.

“Yes, you can see off in the distance, the roof of the
Alpheratz
Stadium,” Gomeisa said.

The agents looked like they were in a trance again. “Let’s
take these to be analyzed,” Agent
Neil said. He
looked up at us as if he was going to ask us if we had anything else. Atik had
cleverly saved the clincher for last. He reached into his jacket pocket and
pulled out a packet and handed it over to Agent Neil. Neil slowly opened the
packet and began laying the smaller photos out on the desk. The two agents
looked absolutely bewildered. The photos showed the most common space travel
crafts, beginning with exterior shots and then on to interior shots. The last
few photos were celestial maps which showed the location of Ranjisan in
relation to Earth.

“Can we borrow these?” Agent
Kennard asked. “We need to have our lab analyze them.” Agent Kennard put all
the photos back in the briefcase. She appeared almost in a panic as she
clumsily banged the exit door around trying to leave quickly.

Agent Neil sat there for a few
minutes and appeared to be daydreaming. “So, assuming everything you’ve told us
is true, let’s get to the heart of the matter. What exactly is your intention?
Why are you here? What is it you want?”

“I’m sure glad we have
come
this far Agent Neil. Those photos of the saucer ships
look familiar, don’t they?” Atik asked.

“Yes of course. They look like the
UFOs people have been reporting for the last fifty years. Is that how long you
have been here?”

“That’s about right. But we are
not the only alien race to visit Earth,” Atik said. “There are other
intelligent races scattered across the universe.”

Agent Kennard still looked stunned
when she quietly stepped back in the room and sat down. “We can tell you all
about the other races we’re familiar with, but first I want to explain our
mission,” Atik said. “We’ve formed the beginning of what we hope will
eventually be a league of races that share knowledge. It’s mostly about
learning from each other but also if the need arises, we will protect each
other.”

“Are there hostile races out
there?” Agent Neil asked sounding more like an FBI agent.

“Probably, but so far we’ve been
lucky. Included in our league are three other races. Actually two of them are
from neighboring twin planets within the same solar system. So there are four
races including us. To get right to the main point of our visit, we are a
delegation from the planet Ranjisan and we are here to ask the human race to
join us.”

“Why didn’t you land your ship on
the White House lawn or at Lincoln Center?” Agent Kennard asked, smiling for
the first time. I still wasn’t sure at that point if she believed us.

“That would have caused a panic,”
Atik said. “That is why we have come to you first. Announcement of our
existence and our arrival needs to be well thought out. It may be difficult for
some of your race to accept.”

“Our program consists of three
phases,” Atik said. Atik was still doing all the talking. “The official name of
the project is
Gamma Anadeia Alliance
which
when translated means an alliance of races of the Milky Way galaxy. The first
phase was strictly aerial observation with no contact. The second phase which
is about to be phased out consists of living and working among you. We
currently have hundreds of people who have been assimilated into human society.
The purpose of Phase II was to study the human race up close. We needed to
really get to know you and understand you. Phase II was supposed to continue
for several more years. But through closer study of the human race, we have
determined that you are ready for Phase III.”

“I’m assuming this visit here
today is the beginning of Phase III,” Agent Neil said.

“Precisely,” Atik said. “Since we
have studied the human race closely, we understand that we could not just land
somewhere and announce that we are here. We know it would cause a world-wide
panic. So we have come here to quietly coordinate the announcement of our
existence and our arrival with your government.”

“I see,” Agent Neil said. “We do
appreciate your diplomacy.”

“We have a lot to offer your
people, in the short term and over time. For example, we have brought with us a
cure for one of Earth’s most deadly infectious diseases.”

“This will need to be kept top
secret until we can figure out how to introduce a new vaccine through our
pharmaceutical industry,” Agent Kennard said. “What disease are you talking
about?”

Chara looked confused and just a
bit frustrated. “The human medical field is profit driven,” Atik said softly to
Chara. “I guess we need to be careful we don’t disturb the pharmaceutical
industry’s control over medicine.”

“We are talking about Ebola and
the cure is not a pharmaceutical,” Chara said sounding annoyed. It was the first
time she said anything and the agents stared at her for a few moments.

“What do you mean?” both agents
asked at the same time.

“The cure utilizes
nano
-robotics. You’ve probably wondered at some point if
diseases could be controlled and cured with computers. It is true. I will
explain in due time. The best thing about it is that you will be able to easily
reproduce the vaccine. The computer intelligence can be easily duplicated using
our code. The only variable will be duplicating the soft organic/polymer hybrid
casing. We should be able to reproduce an equivalent shell for the vaccine
using materials found here on Earth.”

“This is getting to be quite
amazing,” Agent Neil said. “But what is it that we need to give you in return
for all your benevolence?”

“Nothing bad,” Atik said. “We
aren’t going to enslave the human race.” We all laughed but the agents didn’t
seem to see the humor in it.

“The only criteria we have for
continuing is that we will need a guarantee that this will not be kept from
your citizens. Everything will need to be public knowledge,” Atik said. “Also,
you should know that we have sent a similar delegation to Moscow. We will need
to figure out how to share everything with your citizenry without causing a
panic.”

“This is all too overwhelming,”
Agent Neil said. “We will have to move this up the chain, and I’m afraid you
will have to be interviewed at length. Since you approached us, I don’t think
we need to worry about you disappearing. We will need to get in touch with
you.”

“We’re staying at Family Suites
right off the interstate, rooms 316, 345, 502, 512 and I’ll give you my cell
number and email address,” Atik said.

“Aliens with email,” Agent Neil
mumbled. “Who would have ever guessed that?” Agent Neil wasn’t actually
expecting a response. He was just thinking out loud.

The two agents walked us to the
exit, signed us out and told us they would be in touch with us. We spent the
next couple of days sightseeing in two pairs, mixing it up each day. It had
been three days since our visit to the FBI when we got the call from the
assistant director. The sign-in process was more extensive with body scans and
short interrogations but we finally made it to the upper levels of the agency.
This time we waited in a lush sitting room consisting of leather sofas and
wall-to-wall bookcases. After a short wait, the door opened and five people
walked in. A woman began setting up a laptop while we were introduced.

Assistant Director Abbott opened
up the folder with all the photos and went through them, asking the same
questions as Agent Neil and Kennard. The other three people just listened and
took handwritten notes while the woman with the laptop typed away. I assumed we
were also being recorded. When it seemed we were reaching the end of the interview,
Atik delivered the clincher, “There is one more thing we can do to move this
process forward. We can take you to one of our ships.”

The FBI people stopped typing and
writing and looked shocked. Assistant Director Abbott’s eyes widened.
“How, where can we do this?
This is possible?”

“Our drop-off point near
Jollett
is good. We can land a small ship that won’t be too noticeable and we can do it
at night.”

“Please proceed with arranging it,”
Assistant
Director Abbott said.

“We must request that you bring unarmed
agents or possibly even scientists but no military,” Atik said.

Assistant Director Abbott walked
around the table, shook each of our hands and handed Atik a business card. “It
should take a day or two to arrange,” Atik said. “We’ll call with the details
when we are ready.”