Wings of Steele - Destination Unknown (Book 1) (13 page)

Brian
was the first to notice, "
Dude
,
what the hell man, you look
like
you've seen a ghost!"

Maria
grabbed his arm, "What, Jack, what is it?"

Jack
spoke slowly, "Think real hard... does anyone remember what
was
in
that cloud?"

They
stared blankly into the darkness, struggling to remember, laboring
to make sense of the bits and pieces. Time passed slowly,
one
by one, the expression of enlightenment crept over each one of them.
They sat speechless, pie eyed, fighting to comprehend what would
normally be passed over as a dream, as a reality.

"We're
inside it," said Jack softly.

"Get
outta town..." said Mike, standing.

"Holy
shit..." groaned Brian, “I don't want to believe that...
I don't want to,” his stomach knotted. “It can't be, we
can't be there...” he had to work hard to control his
breathing.

"Now
wait just a minute..." said Pappy, "I've never
disbelieved
in
UFOs but this is a little hard to take... there's
got
to be a reasonable explanation... something logical..."

“
Who's
to say it
isn't
a reasonable explanation, Commander? Just because it's beyond our
realm of knowledge or experience doesn't make it illogical.”
Jack waved his hand, “Do you think the idea of a man on the
moon to an early explorer who thought the Earth was square, would've
thought
that
possible..?”

“
I
get your point Steele, I'm just not ready to accept that reality
yet.” Paul Smiley rose casually to his feet.

"Ok,
Commander, you go with that... lemme know when you're ready."

Jack
glanced at Maria, who was wide-eyed but quiet, in fact, she
looked
like she was in shock. He felt the need to inject some levity,"I
think we ought to face the fact, boys and girls, that we're not in
Kansas anymore..." Even though it seemed everyone else was
struggling with it, he seemed to be getting more
at
ease
with it, if you could call it that.

Maria
stood up and shot him an icy stare, "that's right, laugh it
up... we end up
who
knows where, with who knows what... or who and you think it's funny
or something..."

"Who...?
Aliens
,"
said Jack, "you can say it. Go ahead,
try
...
A-l-i-e-n-s.
C'mon,
boys and girls, can you say
aliens
?"

"Stop
it!" she said poking the pilot in the chest for punctuation.
"I
didn't spend four years at Harvard and a year in the academy to end
my career as somebody's guinea pig!"

"Harvard...
Harvard
?
As in, Harvard
University?"
You spent four years at Harvard to be an aircraft
mechanic..?"

"Um
well..."

"Wait
a minute, wait just a fuckin' minute," said Jack waving his
arm,
"something's
not right here. Just what were you studying at
Harvard
?
And wait, academy? What's this about an academy? What academy?"

"I
didn't say academy..." she said weakly.

“
Yes
you did,” said the men together.

His
suspicions peaked Steele pressed
further.
"Tell me about this academy. Tell me about four years at
Harvard...” His hands on his hips, he towered over her. “So
what's the story here? All of a sudden I don't trust you. Why is
that?" He backed her up against the B25's landing gear. In a
flash, a landslide of things came into question.

Maria
could see Jack would not likely relent and decided that in their
present position,
telling
him the truth had no bearing on the bigger picture. And it was
probably the only way she could get the pilot back under control,
but she'd have to do it carefully. “I was born in Puerto Rico
and my parents...”

Jack
was in no mood for a lifetime special, “We haven't all night
here, skip to the Harvard part...”

“
I'll
get to it in a second,” she said, pushing him back. “My
family moved to California and that's where I grew up. I was a
straight-A student and got a scholarship to Harvard. I studied
business and communications...”

“
Something
every good mechanic needs,” commented Jack wryly.

“
You
want to hear this or not...?” Maria didn't wait for an answer,
“In my third year, I was approached by corporate recruiters
for a company that needed international experts in communication. I
began training with them involving intelligence communication as
well as working on my studies at Harvard. At the end of my last
year, I ended up in Langley to finish my studies there...”

“
Langley,
as in the CIA?” asked Paul.

"I
didn't know what I had started in my third year at Harvard, but yes,
CIA," she said, rather matter-of-factly. “Had I known
what I was getting into, I wouldn't have...”

"CIA.."
repeated Brian, automatically.

"Special
Agent Maria Arroyo", she added.

"Well
whaddya' know..." said Jack, "a spook." His voice was
filled
with
sarcasm. "That's just great! I knew there was something
strange, but I was hoping... aahhh, forget it," he said with a
wave of his hand. "I'm not saying another word." Something
clicked into place and his brain switched gears, "Wait,
Stephen...?"

Maria
nodded, "CIA..."

"Son
of a bitch," growled Jack. "What did you people drag me
into?
This
was some kind of operation wasn't it?" She nodded and shrugged
at the same time. "What kind?! And just how long did he have
this planned?" Suddenly everything he'd done for Stephen in the
past, he suspected as clandestine.

"That
I don't know. I was just supposed to check the plane,"
confessed
Maria, "and send you on your way."

"Well
you did a wonderful job!" Snapped Jack. "So... did you
arrange
for
that wonderful little sendoff? Or was that what you people lovingly
call a
little
snafu?
And last night..! I suppose that was just part of the assignment eh?
Anything for your country, right? Anything for the cause... keep the
dupe happy, keep him in the dark..." It might've been a cheap
shot but Jack couldn't help himself.

"No
it's not like that, you've got it all wrong..." This is not
what
Maria
expected at all, he was furious, and the fiasco in San Juan was a
simple fluke of fate. What really hurt was now he thought her
feelings for him had simply been part of the job, when the real
truth was, she felt something very deep for him. "Jack you've
got to believe me, last night was very special..."

Steele
cut her off with a wave of his hand. "Oh, save it." If
there
was
anything he couldn't stand more than being taken advantage of, it
was being lied to, especially when it involved his personal
feelings. "Spare me all the bullshit rhetoric you were taught
at the academy... `cause I don't want to hear it." He turned to
walk away and hesitated. "If it wasn't for you, we'd be on our
way to Rio... instead of here, wherever here is. So, do yourself a
favor lady, unless you want your ticket punched, stay outta' my
way!"

She
was crying now, she hated to cry. "If it wasn't for me, you'd
be
dead,
remember that!"

Jack
bared his teeth in an evil snarl, "Well if it wasn't for you
people
and your stupid operation, I'd be home on my beach... or driving my
Cobra..." It took a moment for that to register, “Holy
fuck, my
Cobra,
that
asshole
has
my car in his hangar... son of a
bitch
!”

Pappy
stepped in between them, before it could come to blows, "Look
y'all,
I hate to break up this lovers spat, but there are more important
things to deal with here!"

"He's
right Jack," said Brian.

“
You
have a
Cobra
?”
Mike Warren nodded, “those are
sweet
!
What year?”

"It's
a '66 427 Shelby,” he replied to Mike. “Hey, whose
side'r you on?" He asked Paul.

"Give
it a rest Jack, let's move on." Brain sympathized because he
was
stuck too, but he knew this was getting them nowhere fast.

"You
got any more of these?", said Paul, taping on Jack's carbine,
"because
all Mike and I have, are these Beretta 9mm's," he said,
pointing at the gun in his shoulder holster.

Steele
sighed, "Uh yeah, sure, c'mon up." He motioned to the open
belly
hatch
and paused to shoot a glance full of daggers at Maria. "Bri,
stay here, Ok? Keep an eye open." The copilot nodded as Jack,
Pappy and Mike climbed into the Sweet Susie.

When
the men reappeared, Paul and Mike both had their own M1's and
loaded
mags.

"Ok..."
said Pappy grinning, "let's go waste some green, bug-eyed,
scum-sucking,
space freaks."

"Ahh,
a man after my own heart..." said Jack with a smile, "I
think
we're
gonna get along just fine."

"We're
missing something important, aren't we?" said Maria.

"What's
that?" said Brian.

"What
if they're friendly? I mean, after all, if they didn't like
us
we'd probably be dead by now, right?"

"If
they're this advanced, this thing might be completely automated,"
said
Paul. "We could be the only ones on it..."

"And
maybe," continued Jack, sardonically teasing Maria, "we're
their
Sunday
dinner..." He grinned an evil grin then turned to the others in
a more serious fashion. "In either case, we're not gettin' any
closer to an answer, standing around. I don't know about you guys,
but I'd like to find a way off this tub," he shot one last
hateful glance in Maria's direction, "`cause I got a personal
score to settle back home."
The
group decided on a direction and set out. "Hey, where's Fritz?
FRITZ
!
COME
FRITZ
!"
Steele suddenly felt a pang of fear. Fear for the life of his
closest friend, suddenly realizing, he hadn't seen the dog for
almost twenty minutes. "Shit!
FRITZ
!"
The worried pilot picked up his pace.

Brian
raced forward, grabbed his friend by the arm. "
Easy
Jack,
let's
not lose our heads here, we can't afford to rush, he could be
anywhere, this looks like a pretty big place."

Jack
clicked the M1's safety off, "If any harm comes to him I'll..."

"Hey
relax, he probably just can't hear you, besides, he can take
pretty
good care of himself, we'll find him."

Steele
clenched his teeth and relocked the carbine's safety, "Yeah
well..."

"C'mon
let's keep going," urged Brian.