“Thank you Uncle Will, for spending time on my story, for installing that camera, which must be breaking the law, I really do appreciate it.” Sally said, and then she stood on tiptoes and kissed her uncle on the cheek.
“That`s OK Sally, and the camera is quite legal, assuming your friend is a member of a terrorist squad.” Will said with a smile playing across his face.
Sally was happy to go along with whatever her uncle wanted to do, and so after they had both settled into their rooms, Sally went next door to her uncle`s room where they sat on Will`s bed to watch Colin`s apartment through their hidden camera. It was early that evening when Colin returned, and he immediately turned on his computer and connected up to the internet. He then entered an obscure chat room that neither of his watchers were familiar with, although truth be told, neither of them had much use for such things.
“John, I have nothing to report this evening, Sally has still not returned to the laboratory.” Colin told the unknown man named John.
“Colin, we now know that Ms Jameson has returned to Houston, she was accompanied by an unknown man. Tonight, after midnight, Agent Mallory will come to your apartment, you are to accompany him to Ms Jameson`s apartment and gain entry using the spare key that you have, if she has returned to her apartment then the two of you are to bring her to our headquarters for conditioning. She will be of use to us spreading disinformation about alien conspiracies.” The man named John ordered.
Sally gasped in surprise, with a little fear thrown in for good measure. “Kidnap me, and how on Earth did they know that we are in Houston, Uncle Will?” Sally asked fearfully.
“Do not worry about them kidnapping you Sally, I will keep you safe, and look on the bright side, we now have some proof of criminal intent, for now it’s only against you, but it points to something much larger, it certainly warrants further investigation. As for how they know about our return to Houston, well we might have been seen by one of their agents as we drove through town.” Will said reassuringly.
“Ok Uncle Will.” Sally said with a little less fear showing in her eyes. “So what is our next move?” Sally asked with a little excitement now making an appearance in her voice, for now the authorities had proof of a large conspiracy.
“I will get an arrest warrant and then we will arrest Colin and Mallory when they enter your apartment, do not worry Sally, it will soon be over.” Will assured his niece.
Will called Major Hernandez and told him everything, Hernandez congratulated Will on his speedy result and put a call through to the Ranger office in Houston, he asked them to get an arrest warrant for one Colin Braun and Special Agent Mallory, on a charge of conspiracy to kidnap. He would also arrange for Colin`s internet use to be checked, so that they could trace the man named John.
Will went to the Houston district headquarters of the Texas Rangers and met three other Rangers, then they went together to the street where Sally`s apartment was located. Will had one of them wait inside of Sally`s apartment with him, while the other two men were hidden outside the apartment block, they would follow Colin and Mallory in at a discreet distance, when they came to call.
**********
It was a little after midnight when Special Agent Mallory and Colin Braun drove from Colin`s apartment block towards the street where Sally`s apartment was located, they did not speak, Mallory choosing to keep his attention on the job at hand. As they neared the turning that would take them into the street, Mallory decided to park his car two blocks away and walk the remaining distance, a six sense was warning him of danger.
The street was not a well-lit one, and the two Rangers sitting in their parked car did not see the two men walking towards them on the other side of the road, but Mallory saw them when the headlights of a passing car lit them up like beacons in the night. He knew lawmen when he saw them and he saw them now, ones who were waiting near to Sally`s apartment, he stopped Colin and told him of the change in plan.
“Braun, something is wrong, we will scrub tonight`s operation and reschedule it for another time.” Mallory told his accomplice in crime.
“Why, what is the problem Mallory, we have been ordered to complete a task and we should do just that?” Colin declared confidently.
“Go right ahead Braun, and give my best regards to the two lawmen sitting almost outside your girlfriend`s apartment.” Mallory retorted.
Colin went quite pale, he slowly edged backwards, and as Mallory turned to walk back to his parked car; Colin joined him.
“I will take you back to your apartment, Braun, tomorrow morning go to work, I will report in tonight regarding the watch being kept on Sally.” Mallory said.
**********
When the two kidnappers did not show that night, Will realized that something must have happened to change the plans of the two men. He therefore returned to the motel and knocked on the door of Sally`s room, to see if she were still awake, she was, for she could not sleep due to the excitement bubbling up inside of her.
“Sally, Colin and Mallory did not show up, something obviously occurred to change their plans. Mallory is an experienced FBI agent and may have smelt a rat.” Will said to a worried looking Sally. “Do not worry though, I will take my team with me in the morning and arrest Colin as he leaves his apartment. We will charge him with conspiracy to kidnap you, for now it will be a holding charge, to allow us time to interrogate him, and maybe have our psychiatrist speak with him. As for Special Agent Mallory, he will have to wait, but when Colin talks then hopefully we will have enough to arrest him too.”
Will then retired to his room to get some rest before the morning`s work, but first he left a message for Major Hernandez, to let him know what was happening in Houston.
Colin was arrested as he left his apartment the next morning, he was taken back to the Ranger`s office in Houston and put into an interview room where Will interrogated him.
“Now Colin, you understand that you have the right to have a lawyer present?” Will asked.
“I do not need a lawyer, I have done nothing wrong, tell me why am I here?” Colin complained, indignation being the first thing that Will noticed, not fear or guilt.
The brainwashing by the aliens left Colin unaware of his new allegiance, he was totally unaware of the things he did when under the influence of the aliens, normally Colin was the same person that he had always been, quiet, honest and a patriot, if a little lethargic now.
“Colin, we have a recording of you talking to a man named John, he ordered you to kidnap your friend Sally Jameson, you are being charged with conspiracy to kidnap her. If you do not want to spend the rest of your life behind bars then I suggest that you cooperate with us.” Will said in his quiet friendly voice.
“I do not understand what you are talking about, I do not know of anyone named John, and why would I want to kidnap Sally, I love her.” Colin replied, anger now making its first appearance in his voice, and upon his face.
Will now turned on the computer that sat between the two men, and he played back the relevant parts that he and Sally had recorded.
“John, I have nothing to report this evening, Sally has still not returned to the laboratory.” The Colin on the computer screen told the unknown man named John.
“Colin, we now know that Ms Jameson has returned to Houston, she was accompanied by an unknown man. Tonight, after midnight, Agent Mallory will come to your apartment, you are to accompany him to Ms Jameson`s apartment and gain entry using the spare key that you have, if she has returned to her apartment then the two of you are to bring her to our headquarters for conditioning. She will be of use to us spreading disinformation about alien conspiracies.”
Colin`s mouth dropped open as he looked and listened to the recording. He saw himself sitting before a computer, his computer inside his apartment. Fear filled his voice now, fear and utter bewilderment. “But that is not me, it cannot be, someone is trying to frame me.” Colin finally managed to say.
“No one is trying to frame you Colin, S
ally Jameson and myself made this recording; we sat and watched you agree to kidnap Sally, your friend, the person that you say you love. Is that what is behind this, you could not tell her of your love so you decided to kidnap her, is that it Colin, you are some sort of sexual predator.” Will`s voice was now loud, he slammed him fist upon the table and almost screamed at Colin. “Tell me Colin is that the truth of the matter, that you are a sexual predator?”
Colin did not reply, he could not reply, he just sat there, as the recording played in a loop, very bewildered, unable to find an answer that would even satisfy himself.
Miles away from the Ranger headquarters, an alien sat looking at a computer screen, what was displayed on the screen told the alien of the raised pulse rate of one of their human agents, using the GPS facility in the transmitter buried beneath Colin`s skin they found out that he was within the Ranger`s Office. They immediately assumed that one of their slaves had been taken by the enemy, so they sent a message to the implant in Colin`s chest and made it self-destruct.
Colin screamed as a pain shot through his chest, then he collapsed against the table and slid down to the floor, dead. Will immediately called for a doctor, but it was too late to do anything for Colin. Later that day the autopsy found that Colin had died from a heart attack, one that may have been caused by an unknown foreign object fitted in Colin`s chest, one near to his heart.
**********
Will returned to the motel where he told Sally of her friend`s death, and how he had died, she turned away from her uncle and buried her face in her hands, she stood and sobbed, sobbed for her friend while feeling her own guilt at being the cause of Colin`s death. Had she got to know him, as she knew Colin had wanted, maybe married him and had his children, then she would never have seen the aliens in their midst, and Colin would still be alive, her screwball ideas had killed him, just as they had destroyed many of her past relationships.
Will went to her and put his arms around her to comfort her, Sally turned and buried her face in his chest and cried. Finally, she recovered enough to listen to her uncle, to hear what was to happen next. She was to be taken back to her uncle`s house in Austin, there she would stay until the case became a little clearer, and it would be strictly off limits for her to contact any one lest her new address get back to the enemy. She was forbidden to turn her cell phone on, lest the enemy agents trace her through the GPS fitted into every such phone.
Will drove Sally over to her apartment where she packed a couple of suitcases with essentials, and then they left Houston, they also took what was left of the implant back to Austin, to allow the Ranger`s forensic department to have a look at it. First though he dropped Sally off at his house, and then he went to see Major Hernandez, together they watched the video taken in Braun`s apartment and then the recording of the interrogation, and finally Major Hernandez looked at the implant.
“Will, if I had not seen the recording that you made of Braun speaking to his controller, John, I would have said that Colin Braun was innocent of all charges. Let`s go and see our forensic department, see what they think this piece of metal is.” Major Hernandez decided after looking at the implant through a magnifying glass, but seeing nothing other than a sliver of metal with some faint markings on it.
Doctor Carlson was soon looking at the small foreign object through the lens of his microscope; he saw an oblong shaped piece of metal with burnt out microchips embedded within it.
“I have no idea who made this piece of equipment Major, but I can tell you that it was a highly sophisticated piece of equipment with extremely small microchips built into it, now it is simply rubbish, it is totally burned out.” Carlson said.
“Will, your niece has certainly brought us a case, just what sort I still do not know, or care to speculate on, but obviously there is a clear case for action. I should order the immediate arrest of Special Agent Richard Mallory, but first I will call the deputy director of the FBI in Washington DC, tell him what we have and what action we propose to take.” Hernandez decided.
“Major Hernandez, Special Agent Mallory is a spy, by contacting the FBI we may be warning other spies hidden amongst their ranks, and they may warn Mallory of our interest in him?” Will said anxiously.
“Will, we do not know if there are any more spies within the FBI, only that your niece has stumbled onto an interesting case, but by speaking with their Washington office I am sure that we can keep what we have found a secret.” Major Hernandez said confidently.
After speaking with Deputy Director Task of the FBI, the deputy director demanded that Major and Will travel to Washington DC on the evening flight, so as to present their evidence directly to him, and before they took any action against one of his agents.
Will first drove over to his house to collect another overnight bag, filled with a new set of clean clothes, and he told Sally where he was going. While sitting with her uncle within his small kitchen diner, Sally now took a moment before he left to wonder how her uncle was getting along outside of his life in the Texas Rangers, so she spoke to him about it, although in truth it was to try to get her mind off her dead friend.
“Uncle, how is your romance getting along with Maria?” Maria Martell was his on-off girlfriend.
“Not too good at the moment Sally.” Will replied sadly. “She is dating a baker, he can give much more of his time to her then I ever did.” Will said sadly and hoping that Sally would change the subject, which she did not.
“Uncle, you can hardly be surprised, your chosen profession means that you can hardly give any woman much of your time, your job is your life.” Sally said, her mind had now dropped out of the normal thought mode and she was repeating thoughts as they entered her mind, and without vetting them.
“Which is exactly what Maria said, but she understood, it is just that she has decided that she needs a better life than the crumbs that I threw her way.” Will replied sadly before deciding that attack was a much better defence.
“Enough about the ruins of my love life, yours is no better.” Will declared good-naturedly.
“You are quite right Uncle, my ex-boyfriends have either been bastards or losers, the only good man I have ever known was Colin, and I treated him as if he never existed, my god, if only we could go back in time to rectify mistakes.” Sally said wistfully, tears once again threatening to slip down her cheeks.
**********
On their arrival at the FBI offices in Washington later that evening, they went up to the office of the deputy director of the FBI. After showing the evidence to him, Sally`s statement and the video taken in Braun`s apartment, Task sat for a moment before coming to a decision.
“OK, I agree that Special Agent Mallory should be brought in for questioning by the Rangers, but it is all hearsay, you have no direct evidence incriminating my agent. Because of this I insist that two of my agents from the Washington office accompany you, Major Hernandez, on tomorrow`s early morning flight to Houston.
The Rangers` presence in the Washington office of the FBI soon had all the tongues wagging, and one of the agents was intrigued when the deputy director asks him personally if he knew Mallory, as he had worked for a time in the Houston office. The agent was soon speaking to his old friend Tom Ballinger in Houston, who had been working late, asking him what he knew about Richard Mallory; and what were the Texas Rangers doing in Washington asking about Special Agent Mallory.
The Ranger`s interest in his friend activated the part of his brain controlled by the aliens, and so Ballinger returned home and immediately logged on to the same chat room that Colin Braun used. He now informed his alien controller of the Rangers` interest in Mallory, his controller ordered Ballinger to collect Mallory, and for both of them to report to the health spa where they would be taken to a safe location.
**********
On the alien space cruiser, which was in a geo-stationary orbit around the moon, Consul Phairlis was once more talking to the leaders of the Chosen Ones.
“My friends, you are all
concerned about the young women Sally Jameson, concerned that she knows too much, and that she has even managed to persuade the authorities, the Texas Rangers to listen to her. Listen when I tell you that she knows nothing, our agent amongst the FBI has informed me that the authorities are just off on one of their yearly spy hunts, they will never admit that intelligent alien beings walk amongst them. For those of you who worry about the least little thing, let me set your minds at rest, our commander for the continent of North America has moved our centre of operations to our second base in Texas, as we planned to do when we purchased it. Let me assure you that this is nothing to do with Sally Jameson, as I said before she is a mere insect. Should the Rangers take it into their heads to search the health spa they will find nothing suspect, only what is to be found in any other health spa. There is certainly nothing that could lead them to the new base, so the health spa will carry on as usual, although I have arranged for more security measures to be put in place.” Phairlis said, and smiling at those seated before him, he too sat down.
“She may be an insect, but one that requires swatting, I want our agents on Earth to finally rid us of the problem that is Sally Jameson, send the order out now; kill her.” Councillor Jorman, the second in command of the Chosen Ones demanded.
“We tried and failed, losing an agent in the attempt, now I fear that a further attempt on the life of Ms Jameson would surely lend credence to her words, and we cannot allow that to happen, in any case, as I previously stated she is a mere insect, one that buzzes a lot but is of no consequence. She is thought of as an intelligent woman by her friends and colleagues, but one with very weird and wonderful fantasies, none of them to be taken seriously.” Phairlis replied.
“Consul Phairlis, surely we can make her death look like an accident, I fear that you under estimate the danger that she represents to our plans, if we do not rid ourselves of the danger, now, then we will regret it, and the blame will fall entirely upon your shoulders, mark my words.” Jorman`s threat hung there for only an instant before it was swept it aside from an unexpected source.