Chapter 19: First contact 2
home
Robert now had full maps of the facility and semi formed plans but he hadn’t been able to act on any of them. They didn’t test the fire alarms and he had spent the last two months stuck without sight or sound of anything happening. The company had been employing even more staff and the command centre was teeming with people carrying out desk jobs. It was difficult to ascertain exactly what they were doing as so many people were around. Security in the office had been stepped up lately with hand scanners fitted to the insides of all doors and he wasn’t allowed inside the small offices any more, but he could see the scanners inside through the glazing and wondered if the simpathes used them to communicate. People had been flowing in and out of the offices all day and every day as if they were telephone booths. One morning Mr. Philips, who was the only person Robert spoke to on a daily basis other than to give casual greetings to, took him down to the forbidden floors. He wasn’t given an access pass but was allowed to work there under guard and shown areas that were to be cleaned. He was given instructions on where he was allowed to go on that floor. There were three large areas to clean and he would be under guard in each one. Robert estimated that it would take several days to finish the cleaning. Each area was the size of an assembly hall and looked like they hadn’t been used for years. Power points were plentiful around each room. This was the opportunity he had been waiting for; the ventilation shafts gave access to the larger room but he had no means of moving from floor to floor. Now he was on the ground floor and could go for a look around under the guise of preparing to clean. He was delighted to find that he could climb into the ventilation shaft from a toilet block in the corner of the large room but knew he would have to wait for the next day and come back with a few tools; a torch and camera. That night he studied the floor plans carefully. The plans were 30 years old but should still be accurate. He was to clean three of the four main rooms they showed which he suspected meant there must be something in the fourth he didn’t have clearance to see. Any of the rooms would work for the purpose of accessing the ventilation shaft. He knew the guard checked on him every hour or so and planned to give himself forty minutes to complete his surreptitious task to be on the safe side.
Robert could never sleep before embarking on a dangerous assignment. He felt as though all his adrenaline rushed through his system early. He lay awake for hours, his mind eventually turning to what he did before he joined the SIS (secret intelligent service) or as we know it, MI6. This had been its war time name and had stuck after the war. When Robert had checked out the MI6 website he had thought he might get a nice desk job in logistics where you knew all of the secrets but had none of the dangers He felt this would have been perfect for him and had never wanted to be a spy. That is until he met a woman, Jenny, a beautiful girl who just loved spies! Before he knew it their fling had turned to love but a James Bond type field agent swept her away and married her. So Robert trained to become a field agent and took more and more dangerous missions to up his reputation, convinced he would meet another lush public school girl and then, when she was committed to him, that he would take a desk job where it was safe and he still got to know all the secrets. Dreaming of his dream Jenny soon put him to sleep and he woke fresh and ready to go spying.
Robert was escorted by the same guard as the day before which made him feel at ease as he felt confident the guard would have pretty much the same routine as yesterday. He had the grill off the vent in the store cupboard within minutes. The room was full of old office furniture and he used a handy desk to climb up. The shaft was quite big, allowing him to crawl along it easily. It took ten minutes to reach the other shaft where his luck held. The room at the other end was a toilet stall, clean, well lit and, most importantly, empty. The trickiest part was getting the grill off from the inside. It had been designed for easy maintenance access from the outside. Robert used a coat hanger to press the release button that unlocked the vent shaft before climbing down onto the toilet seat and creeping over to the door. He used a small mirror as a makeshift periscope before venturing out of the cubicle and into the empty room. Thankfully cleaners started before everyone else in the building so they got the key areas clean before work started. An MRI scanner, the biggest he had ever seen, stood in a prominent position. It appeared more complex than any he had seen before and seemed to have an extra attachment. Looking swiftly round Robert saw a bench full of computers and the digital hand scanners he had seen in the office. A work in progress board on the other side of the room showed that simpathes had been coming in here but that humans had been picking hosts for them. Robert didn’t understand. Puzzled, he took photos quickly, noting where the vents were in the room. He thought he might learn more if he came from the other room the next day. A super thick folder marked ‘first contact’ sat on the desk. He quickly and continually took photographs of this document for the next ten minutes until he heard the sound of a passage door nearby opening and headed back to the toilet. Robert knew he needed to come back, the next day if possible, and then get the information out quietly. The corporation was clearly bringing simpaths out but to what end? It could be for spying, to make money or invent new technology. The project file, he hoped, would shed light on the mystery. Back in his room that evening Robert concealed a small memory chip in the seam of his overalls, ready to take with him the next day to see if he could download anything from the PC. He wasn’t worried by any password locks; he could easy slip the hard drive out and manually boot to copy files over. He studied the plans, memorizing every detail until he was confident he could find his way from room to room through the shafts in the dark if he had to. As dawn broke Robert lay down to snatch a couple of hours sleep before the full day ahead.
The next day he gave the workers time to get to their posts before going to clean the last room. He waited for the guard to do his hourly check then set about making his way along the ventilation shaft to the vent he had seen the day before. He crawled for twenty minutes before reaching the observation point. With his face pressed up against the grille Robert saw several simpaths sat at desks, all with their hands on scanners. He had no idea what they could be up to. An official looking man, one of the bosses Robert thought, came into the room with a small entourage of guards. Robert heard him ask the Simpathes if they were ready and the clear reply, “yes.”
The official nodded to the guards and two of them left the room, returning seconds later with a struggling figure gripped between the. The figure, a tall man in a green T Shirt, fought and writhed frantically trying to get free. Robert thought he recognized him but he wasn’t sure where from. As he took pictures the tall man was given an injection by one of the Simpathes whilst the guards held him steady. It must have been a sedative because his struggles weakened almost immediately, allowing the guards force him into the MRI scanner. About thirty minutes later the machine slid open and the man struggled to a sitting position. He was handed a large pureed drink. There was a round of applause as he stood up and shook the official’s hand.
“May I say what a pleasure it is to meet you at last?” the official said.
“Yes, I can’t wait to find donor for the rest of the council though. Human bodies are so fragile,” the Simpathe answered.
The boss nodded in agreement, “It’s hard to find human bodies with the specifications you require.”
“We can maintain the bodies for a very long time,” came the reply, “Our life expectancy will be into the several hundreds we predict, once the machine is built.”
“That much?” the official looked surprised, “we will of course have access to this technology too?”
“Yes of course, we wish to share everything with you. Without your help none of this would have been possible,” replied the Simpathe.
Robert had heard enough. He needed to report back in and get this information to headquarters. He crawled around to a staircase he had found on the map several weeks before and picked the vent open
. The guard would be looking for him soon and he needed to make a quick exit. He ran up the stairs quickly, crashing open the door at the top that led to the desert. Surprised, he made it outside although alarms triggered as soon as he left the building. Robert activated his emergency homing beacon and ran frantically down the nearest road. He was in the open and it would be easy for them to pick him up if his team didn’t get there quickly enough. “Emergency, emergency, code violet, repeat, code violet,” Robert retrieved his radio from its hiding place taped under his arm and shouted into the microphone as he ran. There was no reply. A truck was coming and it looked like the one that brought him there. Robert dived into some nearby brush. There wasn’t a lot of cover and he hoped he hadn’t been seen. The truck drove by and he felt he could breathe again. He’d thought his heart was going to pop out of his chest. He watched from the screening undergrowth as the truck drove up to the awaiting guards. It should take them at least ten minutes to figure out who had gone he thought, deciding his best option would be to head north and hope his team would pick him up or a team would be dropped in to guide him out. Happy with his reasoning, Robert headed north towards higher ground where he could assess his position more accurately. He estimated that he should be within twenty miles of the town he had been picked up from. The lorry that brought him to the complex couldn’t have driven further than that by his calculations. His emergency tracker would mean rescue within a day. He didn’t think the corporation would have the resources to find him; all he had to do was hide out and let technology do the work. Robert still couldn’t quite believe how easily he had got away. He was well trained but had been expecting them to follow him. Robert spent the best part of the day hiding out in rocky crags, foraging for food and sheltering from the blazing sun. He knew he would die if his team didn’t come for him soon. His training taught him to stay put once he had activated his tracker as help could be sent anywhere in the world in a matter of hours but it was getting dark and the temperature was beginning to plummet. He had collected the makings for a fire but hadn’t lit it yet. Wearily Robert found his matches before the whirling sound of chopper blades made him stop. They were getting closer. Lifting himself up onto some rocks Robert saw the silhouette of a black unmarked chopper approaching. He couldn’t see if it was British so hid in the rocks and waited for a sign from the chopper. It came by means of his code name delivered through a tannoy, the code name dogtanian which he had chosen to use as his contact or safe word. He would have to think of another one now but he was pleased to hear it. The harness came down and picked him up to his immense relief. He assuaged his raging thirst with water thoughtfully handed to him as soon as he sat in the helicopter but he really wanted a good cup of tea. The chopper rose up in the air and sped away. The crew didn’t talk much but they weren’t there to get to know him; they were there to carry out orders.
They knew he was someone special but weren’t sure who he was and he intended it to stay that way.
As they approached the nearest allied country with a British embassy alarms started blaring. The pilot warned the crew to strap themselves in as they were being fired upon by unknowns who were shooting surface to air missiles. The pilot wrenched the choppers controls to climb quickly out of range but more missiles roared towards them. They were going to be hit.
Robert heard the order to jump for it as the winch man strapped him to himself. The chopper swayed crazily from side to side as they pulled the door open and jumped together. It wasn’t something you can ever be prepared for and Robert honestly thought he was going to die. He had never parachuted anywhere. Spies take planes, taxis, nice transport generally. They felt the shockwave as the helicopter was hit from several hundred feet away. Their parachute opened but late, they were coming in to land far too quickly. Robert crouched into a fetal position, not knowing what else to do. There was a thud and the sound of breaking bones as they hit the ground. He was dazed by the sound of the helicopter smashing into the mountain side. Moving slowly Robert saw the winch man was beneath him and not moving. The man was dead. He had landed awkwardly and broken his neck on a rock Stunned, Robert released his harness before searching the dead man and taking some gold sovereigns, a pistol, a water canteen and a knife. The man also had a ration pack which meant he had been part of a mobile unit station, ready to move at a moment notice in the field. They were akin to ambulance men who sat at motorway junctions ready for the emergency call. The crash site was only yards away and Robert knew he should search it before anyone arrived. He was still stuck with the puzzle that they been shot down over an allied nation and he knew he must keep a low profile from now on. Robert wasn’t cold anymore, the adrenaline had soon warmed him up but he was still thirsty and knew he was probably in shock as well. He took a swig of water as he cautiously approached the crash site. The chopper was still relatively intact but the sound of an approaching car made him dive for cover behind the wreckage. From his hiding place Robert watched as two armed men got out. They spotted the pilot who was moving feebly immediately and dragged him from the crumpled chopper, disarming him as they did so. Robert was amazed the pilot had survived at all. From his hiding place he saw the armed men were roughly interrogating the pilot, waving a photograph in his face and demanding an answer. Checking his gun was loaded Robert edged around the wreckage, pointing his gun as he went. He saw the first armed man cock his pistol, obviously dissatisfied with the pilot’s answers and ready to shoot. Robert used a single shot on each man. They didn’t stand a chance. The pilot was barely standing and Robert helped him to the car, assessing that the helpless man had suffered a broken arm and a cut to his head but he that he would live. After placing the pilot carefully in the car where he lay gratefully across the back seat Robert returned to the fallen men and meticulously searched them. They were undoubtedly secret police of some description, trying to get hold of the information he had just acquired. Grabbing the extra guns and money for fuel from their pockets, Robert drove away quickly before anyone else turned up.