Broken Soldier (Book One) (28 page)

“However, more than anyone, I know you can
appreciate that when the President needs to be briefed on an urgent
matter and that info is coming from the DIA, then it must be vital
to American interests. When these matters are most serious, it is
held closely at the highest levels. Colonel Lumpkin, that’s why we
were sent, rather than use a communication that could be
intercepted. We’re here to brief him on something that is extremely
important and needs his immediate attention. With all due respect,
Colonel, That’s all I can say.”

The man looked up at him and Mike could see that he
was pondering his options. At this point they were few. Mike
wondered how a man like him could worm his way into a cushy post
like this one. It disgusted him that the Military had more than its
share of benchwarmers and martinets.

As the Colonel considered how to handle this, he
looked Mike and Max up and down. “Damn, they sure sent a couple of
big guys to deliver the goods. You boys are huge.” He hung his
head, and the told them, “Well, OK then. As long as this doesn’t
happen again.”

“No sir, it won’t I promise you. And I’ll have the
failure to properly notify you investigated, as soon as I report to
the director, or perhaps I should have Captain Thompson look into
this incident.”

The use of the Colonel’s friend’s name spurred the
man to react quickly.

“No, no, that won’t be necessary. I don’t want some
stupid damn clerk getting busted, for lack of a phone call. Get
going. Don’t keep the big guy waiting.”

Mike thought, the DIA doesn’t have stupid clerks.
But, apparently, they do have at least one damn stupid
Commander.

As they drove the remaining few blocks to the
President’s lodge, Max told him, “Mike, you would have made a great
political hack. You know just how to do the Washington shuffle. You
played that guy like a fiddle.”

“Max, let’s give credit were credit is due. I
couldn’t have done anything, without the info Bambi gave me.”

“True enough. But she didn’t tell you how to handle
him. That was all Sergeant Michael Hurst.”

They were stopped short, by a polite Marine and
escorted on foot to the lodge, where John Oldfield met them at the
door.

Mike called out to the man, “Mr. Oldfield, thank you
for greeting us. I’m Mike Hurst and this is Max Kolbe.” The chief
of staff showed no surprise that Mike knew him by sight. Most power
hungry people working around Washington made it a point to be able
to recognize the man who could provide access to the President.

Oldfield’s eyebrows went up, at the mention of Max’s
name, and then said, “There was an old Army General by that name,
as I recall. But, of course that couldn’t be you. He’s probably
dead by now.”

Max replied, “Yes, he was my great uncle and a
wonderful man.”

Oldfield looked as though he disagreed, but kept his
opinion to himself.

“Gentlemen, welcome to Camp David. The President and
I are waiting to hear what you’ve been sent here to say. Please
come with me.”

Oldfield led them around the circular driveway and
up to the front of the rather plain looking one story house. The
wood construction was unimpressive and painted a dull gray. Over
the front door was a simple sign that read, “ASPEN.”

Bambi, there has got to be better security here than
I’m seeing.

There is. You really need to practice with your
body, like your eyes for instance. You’ve been on several cameras,
since you entered the property. There are two snipers who have both
of you in there sights. You would have seen them, if you had used
your infrared option for your eyes. Oh, and you probably would have
seen the guy down in a hole to the left of the front door and
another one to the right, also with rifles on you.

There is a small shed, fifty meters to the left of
the lodge. It has a riding lawn mower parked in front, but it’s all
fake. That shed has two agents inside monitoring the camera
feeds.

Mike could almost feel the presence of the cameras
on him and armed agents hidden nearby. It’s as it should be for the
President, he thought.

The chief of staff led them through the front door,
and they found themselves in the living room. Geez, he thought,
there isn’t even a foyer. I was expecting something a bit grander
than this. After all, this guy is the President.

They walked straight through the living room, across
a lovely sun room and out onto the upper terrace. The President,
Robert Stassen, was on the phone and chatting quietly. He held up a
finger of one hand, without looking at them, indicating that he
would be with them shortly.

Max Commed,
That’s a typical move to signal that
we’re not as important as some phone call. I’m surprised that a man
who had risen to the highest position in the land would feel the
need for such mid-level bullshit.

Bambi added,
He is on an important call. He’s
talking to the chef about dinner.

After putting down the phone, he looked up and
coldly said, “Well, what’s so important.”

Mike spoke first. “Mr. President, we are tasked with
explaining a serious threat to our country and I’m afraid it’s for
your ears only.” He looked over at John Oldfield.

The President waved his hand, as he told them, “This
is my chief of staff, gentlemen. He hears everything. If you insist
on his leaving, I’ll just tell him about it later, after you have
been dismissed.”

Mike commed,
Bambi, gas ‘em all except the
President.

Dozens of drones, so small they seemed like gnats,
went to work hovering near the heads of John Oldfield and all of
the Marines and agents who were on overwatch. In three seconds they
were all down.

We are good to go, Captain. I’ll keep a close watch
on anyone else I see.

The President looked shocked, when he saw his chief
of staff crumble in a heap. Before he could react, Mike pulled a
single shot weapon from his left sleeve. It was one of Al Benson’s
ideas, a miniature version of the gel gun, which Bambi had crafted.
He aimed it at Bob Stassen and fired a burst of the goo into the
man’s neck.

The shock on the President’s face was
understandable. He thought he had been assassinated. The man was
paralyzed, but otherwise, he was awake and fully aware of his
surroundings.

Max ran over to him and caught him, before he could
be injured, as he fell. Mike was right behind him, and took up a
position on the other side. They carefully placed him in a chair,
as Mike assured the frightened man, “Mr. President, I am truly
sorry we had to do it this way. But, we couldn’t come up with any
other way to make you understand that what we’re about to tell to
you is true.”

Stassen’s eyes glared at him, but otherwise the man
was unable to move.

Max said, “Sir, your chief of staff and all of your
Marines and Secret Service agents have been knocked out. Unlike
you, they are completely anesthetized. When they awake, they will
have no memory of this. You will.”

Kolbe looked at Mike, and nodded. Mike began, “Sir,
we could not have done any of this without the aid of items we have
received from an alien. And yes, I’m talking about an
extra-terrestrial…ET if you will.

“I’m going to bring him here in a moment, but first,
let me bring you up to date.”

He proceeded to explain some of the details about
his being kidnapped by a Thorian, who had been a slave to Saurans.
Then he spoke of the situation, with regard to the Saurans and how
they had been retrieving humans for determining their worth as
slaves.

He explained how it seemed that once these Saurans
realized that a ship of theirs was missing in our solar system,
they would probably see humans as being at fault and destroy the
Earth. If the human race was to survive, they needed to act now, in
order to have any chance at all.

“That we don’t have years to get all of the world
governments to work out their differences is obvious, sir. Also,
you can’t just make an announcement about this, because it would
trigger a worldwide panic and probably start a series of small
regional wars, which could easily envelope all of us, in a planet
wide conflict.

“What I’m proposing is to build an Army of super
soldiers to man spacecraft, that we must build somehow. I want you
to take a good look at me. I am Sergeant First Class Michael Hurst
and I’m seventy one years old. This gentleman is Major General
Maximilian Kolbe and he is eighty years old. Both of us have
received the benefit of being refurbished, so to speak. Also, we’ve
received significant upgrades to our bodies, thanks to the amazing
ability of alien technology.

“If you look up my record, you will learn that I
lost both legs in Iraq. As you can see, I have them back. This is
but a small example of what we can offer the people of Earth. As
you well know, nothing is truly free and this medical improvement
comes at a price.”

He went on to explain the basics of the painful
process he and Max had gone through. As he did, he began to detect
a glimmer of understanding in the man’s eyes. Now that the
President seemed to believe what he was told thus far, Mike felt it
was time to introduce Jo and the shuttle.

With Max’s help, he carefully sat Bob Stassen up in
his chair and turned it to the large lawn and putting green behind
the lodge.

“Mr. President, watch the lawn and you will see an
alien space shuttle. On board, is the Alien to whom we owe so
much.”

Bambi.

On it.

As though someone had thrown a light switch, the
shuttle appeared before the leader of the free world. A hatch
opened and down walked Jo, hopping the last two feet to the ground.
The President’s eyes followed him, with awe and fear.

Once Jo had reached the upper terrace, he bowed
Japanese style, and said, “I would ask you to take me to your
leader, but you are he.”

Even in his paralyzed state, the humor registered in
the President’s eyes. Mike was glad that the irony of the alien’s
comment hadn’t gone unnoticed.

Mike gave Max a nod and he pulled out a tiny plastic
squeeze syringe. He shoved it into Stassen’s arm and told him,
“This will release you from the paralysis, sir. The others of your
staff have been treated with a different chemical. In a few hours,
they’ll begin to recover; but remember, they will be very confused
and concerned because they will have no memory of this.”

Mike sat down directly across from the President,
Max to his left and Jo to his right. Bambi choreographed this
seating arrangement. She said that by placing Mike in the center
facing Stassen, he would establish himself as the key member of
their little delegation, and that a man with Stassen’s experience
would appreciate the subtle message.

They waited as feeling and mobility began to return
for the man. As he rubbed his shoulders, he said, “Was this really
the only way to go about this?”

Mike spoke for them. “Yes sir, I believe it was. We
could think of no other way to get on top of this quickly. Going
through all of the normal channels could have taken weeks, if not
months. And God only knows how many people would have leaked the
reality of our presence to the press, by then.”

Max, always pushing through the bullshit, said, “Mr.
President we don’t have time to be cute about this. The entire
human race may cease to exist in less than two years, if we don’t
muscle up and prepare for a war that has only been conceived of in
science fiction novels.”

Bob Stassen was no fool. “You’ve shown me an ugly
stealth fighter and a guy who could pass for an alien. So, how do I
know that this isn’t just some well planned scheme to get me to do
something crazy?”

Jo took that one. “You don’t, sir. This initial
meeting has been to introduce ourselves and to open up your mind to
the possibility of what we have said and that it is real. We talked
about a way to garner your interest beyond the importance of saving
the human race. So, we have a gift for the American people, which
they don’t need to know about right now.

“We want you to notify the commander of Fort Knox
that he will find a half-ton palette load of gold, waiting for him,
in a field near Baker Rd., just north of Godwin Army Airfield.
He’ll need to get it into the vault; after he inspects it to be
sure it’s legitimate. We are able to provide quite a bit more of
that to America and a few other nations.”

“What other nations?”

Mike told him, “We think it would be good to have
the heads of a few trustworthy nations, as the first to join us. We
have selected English speaking nations, at first, the UK,
Australia, Canada and New Zealand. After we have built a sufficient
staff and have established a training organization, we will begin
to include others, such as South Korea, Japan, the Philippines,
South Africa, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain and
Italy.”

The president held up his hands angrily, “Hold on,
just wait a minute. Those countries are our allies, but we don’t
really get along as well as you might think. They’ll all want their
own Generals to have a spot in the command structure. These things
take time to work out.

“And another thing. Assuming I do believe you, and
I’m not saying that I do, I’m not about to call up the Prime
Minister of Great Britain and tell him we need to fight ET. He’ll
think I’m nuts.”

Mike smiled. “That’s certainly true sir, but if we
tell those gentleman and lady, they’ll believe it, especially when
each of their countries receive a large load of gold and any other
precious metal they want.”

Max jumped in. “Mr. President, There is so much more
we can offer, in areas such as security, the likes of which you
can’t imagine. How do you think we got in here? It was easy for us,
because of our ability to bend and twist every piece of software
you’ve got. There is no database that we can’t hack into. How would
the Pentagon like to see the entire Chinese Military plans for
controlling the China Sea, or Iran’s plans for their nuclear
weapons, once they acquire them? Better still, what if we could
eliminate the nuclear weapons in the North Korean arsenal and the
Iranian’s and the Pakistani’s and even the Russian’s for that
matter. Does that sound attractive to you?”