Desert Assassin (16 page)

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HAPTER
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INETEEN

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APPAPORT AND
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RIDE TOOK CHARGE
of getting the two eagles to the Texas lab. Most of the troops departed at the same time. Left behind were the General, Williams, Fowler, Mitchell, Cyclo, two MPs and a pilot. The MPs were ordered to watch for unusual movement, while the pilot remained seated in the lone remaining helicopter.

“Morgan is on the way here in a chopper,” announced the General. “We need to figure out just what the hell we do next. Meanwhile, Arthur, where’s your scotch?”

“The eagle drank it all before you got here, General.”

“Again, Arthur, what am I going to do with you?”

Without replying, Fowler walked over to his backpack, pulled out a bottle and two glasses – the only two he had. He gave one to the General, the other to Williams and filled both of them.

“Thank you, Arthur.”

“You are welcome, General.”

The General held up his glass to Williams. I don’t know how the hell you communicated with the eagle, but that was one of the most unbelievable things I have ever seen.”

Williams touched his glass to the General’s and then passed it to Fowler. “Art, you deserve it.”

The General instructed one of the MPs to get his black case which was in the helicopter. The MP quickly retrieved the case. The General pulled out four shot glasses and passed three of them to Williams, Mitchell and Cyclo. Holding up the fourth glass, he said, “This one is for Morgan. Until he gets here, let’s try to relax.”

Morgan arrived by helicopter forty-five minutes later, looked at the five who were sitting in a grassy area, each with a glass in their hand, and said, “What the hell is this?”

Mitchell handed him a near full glass and a cell phone. “The General would like you to look at this.” It was a video of everything which happened from the moment Williams began to approach the eagle until it entered the box. One of Mitchell’s men had recorded it.

When Morgan finished the viewing, Fowler filled in the details starting with the spotting of the eagles.

“So, there are at least two Eagle Assassin’s out there and a Bear Assassin,” said Morgan.

“At least,” said the General.

“Not to mention the possibility of humanoids,” added Morgan.

“To put it in the simplest of terms,” said Fowler, “we are in deep shit.”

“That we are, Arthur.” Looking at the entire group, the General asked, “Any suggestions?”

Williams stood up. “Let’s go back to the original plan. One, use as much force as possible to obliterate any and all animal life in the area that is even remotely suspected to be alien. Two, Morgan, Art and I go back to searching for humanoids.” Looking directly at Morgan, he said, “I’d like Cyclo to join us.”

Morgan beamed. “You know?”

“It wasn’t too difficult to figure out.”

The General looked puzzled for a moment before asking Morgan, “Your son?”

“Yes.” Morgan walked over to Cyclo and gave him a hug.

“You brought him up right,” said the General.

“Not me, his mother, God rest her soul.”

“How long ago?” asked the General.

“Seven years. Cyclo has been with me ever since.”

“The four of you better get going. You’ve got work to do.”

The General began to walk away. As he did so, he motioned to Williams to follow him. Once the two were alone, he asked, “What the hell were you thinking when you went over to that bird?” Do realize how easily it could have attacked you?”

“Bear with me as this is going to be difficult to put into words. While we were waiting for the box to arrive, I sensed he recognized me just the way the original Assassin recognized me. We know that after it got away from us, not counting the decoy, the original Assassin replicated at least once. At that moment, there were two identical Assassins, each with exactly the same memory. If those two replicated before experiencing anything different from one another, then there would have been four Assassins, all with the same memory. However, that most likely was not the case. The first two most likely went their separate ways before replicating. I figured that one of the four Eagle Assassins was the result of a golden being taken over by one of the iterations of the first Assassin. It then replicated and those two subsequently replicated. All four of the eagle Assassins would have remembered me in the same way the original Assassin did.”

“You still took one helluva chance.”

“I don’t think so. When the original Assassin found me, he held all the cards. This one didn’t. Without question, he knew that if he attacked me, he would immediately be ended.”

“Did you communicate with it?”

“Not verbally, but I think that by sitting down next to him and exposing myself to attack, he came to understand that I did not want to see him ended. These are intelligent beings in a hostile environment. When I brought out the box and put the blankets in it, he knew that the only alternative to entering it voluntarily was to resist and be forced into it or ended. He took the best option.”

“Whether you were right or not in your assessment, there aren’t many others who would have done the same thing.”

“As smart as he is, I couldn’t let Morgan’s kid try to do it. Enough about me, I don’t want to see the Eagle Assassin mistreated.”

“I’m leaving for Texas within the hour. Mitchell will run the show. I’ve ordered Ling and Henderson to return to Texas and Saunders to go with them. I will make certain they and the other scientists who are there know exactly what they can and cannot do. I should return here tomorrow with Jim and McBride. We will do what we have to do. Now, what do you need?”

“Money added to my account and an SUV for Morgan. I’ll work with Fowler. Morgan will team with his son.”

The General called a 7:00AM meeting the following morning in a conference room in the underground Texas complex. Present, in addition to the General, were Rappaport, McBride, Stanton, McDonald, Patel, Ling, Henderson and Saunders. Rappaport was asked to give a status update.

“The dead alien eagle is ready to be examined as soon as you give the okay. The other is in a secure room.”

“Any problems?” asked the General.

“No, the room is one that can be used for interrogation, so we have a clear view of the alien. We also have a camcorder in place. McBride and I personally carried the box into the room, cut the ropes and then left as quickly as we could. It took about an hour before it came out of the box. It has plenty of food, but hasn’t eaten as of yet.”

“Before we go any further,” said the General, “I want you all to view what led up to our getting the Eagle Assassin into the box. Perhaps, I should say what led up to Major Williams getting it into the box.”

“Oh no!” thought Ling. Rappaport had described to the group how Williams and Fowler had managed to bring down the two birds, but he had made no mention of anything else done by Williams.

Before leaving the scene of the capture of the Eagle Assassin, the General had the video in question transferred to his laptop. The laptop was now hooked up to a large screen monitor. Flashing up on the monitor was a view of Williams a few seconds after he began his stop-and-go walk.

“So that is Major Williams,” said Stanton.

“Yes,” replied the General.

Those were the last words spoken until the video ended with the Eagle Assassin being carried away in the box.

During the viewing, Ling repeatedly glanced at Henderson. She was obviously transfixed. “Why shouldn’t she be,” he thought, “especially after seeing me drop to ground?”

“As unbelievable as was Major Williams’ killing of the Assassin, it can be understood by his training. However, this was something quite different.”

“Not as different as you might think, Dr. Stanton,” said the General.

“How so?” asked Stanton.

Rappaport laughed.

The General proceeded to describe how Williams had previously used a bottle of scotch as part of his weaponry.

“One revelation after another! Did he in any way communicate with the Eagle Assassin?”

“Not as such.” The General went on to put into words as best as he could what Williams had told him about the encounter.

“We could use him here.”

“Right now he is working with three others trying locate any aliens which may have assumed human form.”

Once the questioning of the General ended, he asked the assembled scientists if the damage to Eagle Assassin was repairable.

“We don’t know,” said Stanton. “I have two vets who specialize in birds at the ready. First, however, we will have to see about sedating it. Unfortunately, we have no way of communicating our intentions to it.”

“Maybe there is a way,” said Henderson. “Can we get an artist to sketch the eagle as it is now and sketch what it would look like with a repaired wing, assuming, of course, that the wing can be repaired?”

“That might work,” said the General with a smile that was barely on the safe side of flirting.

Henderson returned the smile.

“Dammit,” thought Ling. He immediately felt guilty. “My god, what is wrong with me?”

The General concluded by looking at Stanton. “Do what is necessary to try to repair the damage, but do not further harm it in any way. Do not conduct any experiments on it without first clearing them with me. If something were to happen to Eagle Assassin, I would not want to be the one responsible and have to explain to Major Williams what went wrong.”

Ling wanted to yell out, “Who is running the show, you or Williams?” Instead, he said nothing as the others, including Henderson, laughed. They understood the General was tweaking his audience.

The General, Rappaport and McBride were back at the van by mid-afternoon. They brought with them two corporals to assist Pezeshki with what was now to be a twenty-four hour watch. From there, they continued on to the base camp. Once there, the General called for a meeting with Rappaport and Mitchell. Following a phone conversation between Mitchell and Morgan, it was agreed that both the General and Morgan would add five helicopters to the search, each with six men. This brought the total number of helicopters available for surveillance and troop deployment to twenty. A second drone was added to the mix.

Five four-man squads were assigned to patrol the woods and hills during daylight hours. Any animal, including eagles, which appeared to be even remotely out of the norm were to be fired upon. During the first two full days of the retooled operation, three bears, a golden eagle, a mountain lion, and a coyote were killed. All ultimately proved to be virus free.

Just before noon on day three, Pezeshki radioed McBride that one of the drones had spotted what looked to be a black bear with what appeared to be excessively long hair. McBride immediately ordered his command headquarters to have a drone commence a rocket attack.

When the first helicopter arrived at the scene of the attack, the crew found remains of the Bear Assassin scattered over a wide area. The remains were torched.

Morgan, who had been picked up in Reserve with his personal helicopter, offered to use it to fly the “HC” (short for Humanoid Cabal, a name drummed up by Fowler) back to Reserve.

“Where will you leave it?” asked Williams about the helicopter.

“I’ve talked to Westerlind about renting his barn to store it. It would be out of site and available whenever we might need it. Your call.”

“Good idea.”

Morgan landed the helicopter in a field near the motel outside of Reserve which had become HC headquarters. Cyclo drove the Pathfinder to Westerlind’s and picked up Morgan once the helicopter had been flown there and tucked away. Morgan shared his room with his son, while Williams and Fowler retained their separate rooms.

The HC met at the motel restaurant for an early dinner and to discuss search plans.

“I just spoke with the General,” said Williams. He said the new SUV will be delivered here by early morning. I’d like to restart the search in the morning. Morgan, would you and Cyclo cover Reserve, while Art and I tackle Glenwood?”

“No problem.”

“We can move on to Mule Creek and Gila in the afternoon. On the way back in the evening, we can hit the hot spots in Glenwood and Reserve.”

That evoked a sarcastic laugh from Fowler.

“Plan on breakfast at seven. Meanwhile, Morgan, let’s hope you get some news of a crime or two that fit what we are looking for.”

Shortly after they returned to their rooms, Williams heard a knock on his door.

“It’s Art.”

Once in the room, Fowler asked Williams if he could borrow the Pathfinder.

“Sally?”

Fowler smiled. “Yah, but I won’t be long.”

Williams tossed him the keys. “Curfew is eleven.”

“Thanks.”

Williams was sound asleep when he heard a knock at the door. “It’s Art. Let me in.”

“Damn,” muttered Williams as he looked a digital clock on the nightstand. It was 11:16.

As Williams opened the door, Fowler said, “Put on some clothes, I’ve got something to show you.”

Three minutes later, Fowler lifted open the rear door of the Pathfinder.

“What the hell is this?” asked Williams as he stared at a struggling body which was handcuffed behind its back, legs tied together, gagged and blindfolded.