A proud ageing man relaxed in the comfort of his living room inside an almost palace-like mansion on the outskirts of Chicago. African in appearance his features were commanding an obviously powerful man to the fullest degree. His attention was fixed on yesterdays crumpled newspaper, he smiled to himself at an article headlined ‘aliens ARE among us’!
General Benjamin Thorn was head of the specialist Intelligence Agency, arguably the most powerful position in the world and one which demanded absolute secrecy and constraint. Back in 1947 General Ramey had created the organisation to protect and back engineer the Roswell UFO knowing its unique technology would be devastating if abused. He never strayed from the original directives Ramey laid out and after seventy years the advanced craft was still a well guarded secret. Thorn and five others were handpicked in 1965 by Ramey to develop the technology that would one day aid the eight agents that Thorn now used to protect the globe. Thorn had wished his predecessor could have seen the genetically engineered agents in action, he knew Ramey would have been incredibly proud of the team he had designed so perfectly. His bubble was about to burst dramatically.
He jumped slightly at the shrill voice of his wife from the bottom of the stairs.
‘Benjamin come back to bed! Its half past two in the morning and you’re up early tomorrow! Why on Earth are you reading that paper again?’
‘I can’t sleep, I don’t know why but I’ve got this funny feeling about something’
‘Probably something to do with the amount of coffee you drink each day and reading yesterdays newspaper won’t make tomorrow any easier’ his wife was showing obvious concern.
‘You know, your right lets go to bed I’ve read that thing three times already’ He replied lifting himself up slowly while simultaneously knocking the remote to the floor, switching on the television abruptly.
‘…well Krista, the death toll has been put somewhere around five hundred thousand, but that figure is sure to rise, according to last year’s figures nearly two million people live in and around the Hungarian capital. It’s not yet known the amount of American dead but we can confirm that the embassy was badly hit’ the television delivered its chilling account of the catastrophe that had just unfolded thousands of miles away in Budapest. Thorn jumped to his feet with an energy that belied his age and stood closer, his jaw started to drop and he felt his fists clenching tightly. He listened with serious intent to the news broadcast.
‘If you’ve just joined us I’m Krista Murphy and in the past half hour an atomic weapon of some kind has been detonated in the Eastern European city of Budapest, what’s unfolding there has been described as the most shocking event of the century so far. We’ve sourced some footage from an eyewitness showing the mushroom cloud that enveloped the city and a strange blue figure, which was described as some kind of alien being; believe it or not. These strange blue figures have been sighted occasionally in the US and all over the globe. Up until now they were thought to be fictitious, but... well watch the footage and make up your own minds’
The picture was shaky but the detail could just be made out. The footage changed to an apocalyptic scene and a stationary bus in flames, fireballs of debris firing in all directions. Then out of the carnage a blue figure walked calmly and eerily towards the shaky camera, silhouetted by a backdrop of devastation.
‘What the fuck! Tell me I’m dreaming’ Thorn said to himself as he fell back to the chair like a lead weight hitting a riverbed. His wife stood frozen at the bottom of the stairs, moved her shaking hands from her face and ran to her husband’s side. A large blue head and torso now filled the screen, Thorn recognised it immediately. The intimidating figure that filled the world’s television screens then spoke.
‘This is just the beginning; you are now all witness to the dawn of a new era. I am your future, I am your destiny’ the enigmatic agent announced a chilling message to the planet he had decided to rebel against, his voice lacking in emotion the way a robot might speak. The message he delivered was designed to strike fear into all that listened and it did the job perfectly.
‘Aliens among us? I know what I think’ the newsreader said following the footage and carried on reporting the unparalleled destruction.
‘We move now to President Krychek of The United Collaboration of Eastern States’ the picture changed to a large conference room glittered by flashing camera’s.
‘People of the UCES and of the world, a grave act of terrorism has left one of our constituent nations irreparably damaged and millions of our finest civilians have lost their lives innocently. At this early stage all I can do is urge everyone everywhere to stay calm, every nation on the planet is now on high alert and we could not be in safer hands’ the leader found it impossible to mask the worry in his voice; he had never imagined an attack of such scale could be conducted on his own soil so unexpectedly.
‘I thank you for your attention and I will re-address you all as and when further information comes to light’ the screen returned to the frightened news reader.
‘Reassuring words there from President Krychek and in a few moments we will be joined by President Schroeder of the United States of Europe’
Thorn switched off the television. Filled with anger he jumped up and pulled back the sleeve of his dressing gown to reveal his communicator.
‘Computer get me central command’
Almost instantly the communicator flashed and a fresh-faced young lady filled the small screen.
‘General we were just about to contact you, we detected a nucleonic pulse detonation around half an hour ago. I’ve dispatched the Mark One to pick you up; it will be with you in T-minus five minutes’
‘Have we any idea which one it is?’ Thorn asked the young lady on his wrist.
‘We believe it was special agent Arrin Frost, the other seven have responded’
‘Oh fuck’ Thorn disconnected and ran to get dressed.
The sound of cracking thunder accompanied a slim black helicopter and shattered the tranquillity of the Generals grounds as it shot past at close to the speed of sound. It was slim and sleek with no landing gear; it had two small bumps at each side that gave it a stealthy almost arrow headed look. The propeller seemed to rotate faster than light, its tail looked like that of a normal helicopter but had no small propeller, just a smooth triangular tail fin. It turned sharply and came to a halt, almost defying the laws of physics and slowly hovered to the ground. The craft was entirely black a highly advanced vehicle sporting alien technology. As it landed hovering just above the ground a small section lit up, it looked molten as it opened up to form a door. The inside looked as impressive as the outside if not more so, with computer screens and head up displays showing uncountable amounts of data. The Mark One was the finest of all the Mark Class Helicopters that the agency had in its arsenal.
Thorn entered and sat himself aside the pilot who sat patiently in the command chair of the dark interior, lit only by the blue light of view screens. The craft could seat six one central seat for the pilot, two just behind it in a pyramid formation and three seats at the rear. The seats were black leather with small command consoles on the armrests for easy computer access. Many display screens surrounded the frontal pilot seat above and below eye level showing various kinds of important information or images. The pilot flew the helicopter with a double handed steering column quite like that of an airliner yet far more advanced and lined with coloured buttons and mini displays.
‘I’m beyond words Miller, we took all necessary steps to prevent it!’ he said to the pilot whose hands were jumping from one control pad to the other with incredible reflexes. The pilot turned his head slowly and faced Thorn he knew his former teammate was now the most wanted man on Earth. Suddenly they were alerted to an incoming transmission from the Planetary Commission, Thorn accepted the call and an extremely pretty, young lady now faced him.
‘General I assume you are aware of what has happened in Europe, please do
enlighten me as to why one of your beloved super soldiers gone on a rampage; I thought they were under your control?’ The calm but noticeably angry woman was the Commission’s Liaison officer to the SIA. The Planetary Commission was a new global authority and was said to be a less westernised organisation than the United Nations had been before its breakdown ten years previous. Thorn disclosed the existence of the SIA to the Planetary Commission following mounting media evidence, they had agreed to keep the organisation classified in return for use of their agents during politically delicate operations. The alliance was beginning to haunt General Thorn; he wished he had never approached them.
‘Yes I’m fully aware of what has occurred in Budapest and an urgent meeting has been called. This attack will not go any further and we’ll have the offending agent under control in a matter of hours. I’ll keep you posted’ he responding coldly, he felt this was SIA business and outside the jurisdiction of the Planetary Commission.
‘Well make sure you do General you of all people should know the danger those agents can unleash. We picked up a request from the Integral Grid with a clearance code that relates to your organisation, whoever made that request it was minutes before the blast and General Hamza was the target’
‘I sincerely hope this was not your idea or the SIA will cease to exist. Jefferson out’ she finished, looked at Miller with suspicious eyes and ended the transmission abruptly.
‘This is going to be our downfall, Frost’s made sure of that’
‘I know sir but we’ll apprehend him quickly, surely we have systems in place to shut down his equipment remotely?’ Miller responded breaking his silence.
‘I’m afraid we were perhaps too confident with our genetic designs, we didn’t think we’d need them. What I want to know is how and why he has even thought of doing this!’
‘Maybe the geneticists made Frost a little too intelligent for his own good’