Coalescence (Camden Investigations Book 1) (18 page)

D
AN
CAMDEN
was aware how his
Organization
colleagues would
operate. They wouldn’t just confiscate the object. They would follow it to
wherever it might be put to use. It would make reverse engineering a whole lot
easier. It was what kept the investigators alive, for the moment. They were
fish in a barrel either way. The further they would creep into Chaco, the
easier it would be to dispense with them. The rough terrain made for a great
weapon in itself, not to mention it was still springtime and too cool in the
evenings for an abundance of witnesses to be about.

Dan’s
anxiety prevented him from procrastinating. As he navigated his rented camper
into Chaco’s campgrounds, he thought if only he’d acted as urgently when he
realized his family was splitting apart, abandoning him like he had abandoned
them, maybe he wouldn’t be in this predicament if he just listened to his heart
and quit years ago. Because he hadn’t, he felt pains shoot throughout his
chest. Because he hadn’t, he lay in wait for his daughters to descend into a
shooting gallery where they would be a prime target for the
Organization’s
acquisition team. He had a pretty good idea who the acquisition team would be.
Dan would wait for them. Then he would follow to hopefully save his daughters.
Hope was all he had for a plan.

T
HE
ORGANIZATION
’S
“acquisition team” already knew what
the paranormal investigators were up to.

Jack
believed he was the procurer of Earth’s future. He had a pretty good idea what
the object was all about. He wanted to keep it that way. Especially from Dan.
He whistled as he navigated his car into the ancient red canyon. Alongside was
Will in the passenger seat. Jack continued whistling. Will was always in the
passenger seat it seemed. He really didn’t care to share his special knowledge
of Earth’s history and impending future with Will, but the damage was already
done. Both had been privy to what they first thought to be only fiction. Years
earlier, the
Organization
’s leaders regaled Jack and Will with
predictions that a dramatic change was coming. They’d been enjoying a sumptuous
feast where wine encouraged tight-lipped department heads to act with
braggadocio. Jack recalled the evening in exact detail. He listened and nodded,
frugally imbibing from his goblet. The heads said when Project Alteration was
unleashed it would change not only history but the people fortunate enough to
continue recording it. Jack observed Will, drinking with gusto, commenting and
laughing as if he were suddenly on the same level as his superiors.

Jack forced
his anger down. He envisioned the day when Project Alteration would finally
separate the leaders from the followers. Jack was certain Will would remain in
the followers’ category. Jack had no intentions of running in place so to
speak. He would grab onto the tail of whatever this alteration was and become
empowered.

The first
step in the process was already cake to Jack. He had avoided adult
inoculations. Adult inoculations were much different than those given to
children. Once the body passed puberty, it was a warehouse for genetic change
and those administering the inoculations weren’t concerned about protecting the
individual so much as they were about changing the individual. Those who
steered clear of inoculations had the best chance of not only surviving, but
thriving, because the light—the Alteration—would be more dramatic then
when man’s brain grew larger overnight. Humanity had chalked up that escalation
of intelligence as a missing link. Some argued for evolution, but most hadn’t a
clue what really transpired to bring humankind from cave dweller to mansion
seeker. It did seem clear that a larger brain increased ambition.

Enter the
Organization
and all those who sought control of others and the best for the fewest. With
the brightest scientists on board, the
Organization
was sure rapid
evolution was not a one-time event. In actuality, it was dangling just out of
grasp, floating aimlessly about space until a greater, greedier hand could
grasp it. It would come again. And thanks to the
Organization’s
partners, the Greys, it would arrive sooner than later. The Greys had a means
to harness the great source of advancement, power and godhood. But their eon
old nemesis, The Reptilians, was standing in everybody’s way.

The Greys
needed resources and they needed them now. They had all but wiped out their
home world and their race many times before in battles with the Reptilians and
other resistance fighters in this endeavor. The light bringer could not harness
and emit the glorious energy required for transformation with a defense system
in the way. And the Greys, as Jack and Will knew, were becoming weaker by the
moment. The Greys’ home world was pitiful from what it once was, it was nearly
barren, necessitating the last wave of Greys to navigate themselves to Earth
where it was hoped the few could repopulate. Because the
Organization
leaders believed they had an agreement with the Partners, the acquisition teams
no longer killed the Greys found at crash sites. The Greys promised the
Organization
that the technology they had found in past decades would pale in comparison to
the next wave of genetic advancement. And like the first phase of rapid
evolution, the attempt by the Greys to manipulate genetic material would not be
the first.

Eons ago,
the Greys had visited Earth where they discovered, to their abject horror, that
a reptilian race ruled the planet. The Reptilians were vile and harsh beings.
They wouldn’t coalesce to the Greys plans easily. They were hard to dominate
and impossible to conquer, in a fashion, which would leave them alive to serve
the Greys needs. The Greys demanded servitude. And it was this behavior, which
many evolved reptilians—or modern day humans—mimicked as a
template. Needless to say, the
Organization
had made it their mission
plan.

Over the
centuries, the Greys spent resources readily attempting to conquer other Earth
like planets around the universe. In these endeavors, their technology
sometimes fell from the skies. It fell into human hands on occasion. The Greys
believed these errors would eventually benefit their cause. False agreements
could be made with greedy humans. These humans would help facilitate their
agenda to bring a mass of the population into servitude. The technology aided
this effort because it distracted many of the humans to believe they were
living an advanced life. But it was only the technology that was advanced. The
humans were still limited in their brainpower, still unaware their leaders were
intentionally distracting them with new technologies to keep them powerless.
The awareness the mass populace needed to become empowered hung out in space
like a wet sheet waiting to dry. By keeping the populace ill from unnecessary
vaccinations and exposure to continued techno toys like phones, many in the
Organization
believed their service to the Partners would pay off. After all, they allowed
many Greys to not only survive but to live among them, hidden in disguise, of
course.

The Greys
dwindling population remained heartened by the notion that most human minds
could be exploited without the victim even being aware. If they couldn’t
repopulate Earth with Greys, the next best thing lay within reach—Project
Alteration—because the project would ensure human servitude.

The present
day Greys cursed their ancestors for not annihilating the first Reptilians on
Earth. These Reptilians never really died or became extinct by strict
definition. They changed, starting with an upright posture and larger brains.
But the first were still not quite desirable, so more genetic tweaking was
necessitated. This was an exhaustive process that tapped the Greys resources
over millennia. Then their scientists discovered a breakthrough: a means to
harness the equivalent of a giant laser scalpel from space. But centuries
before that, failed prior efforts to save their home world diminished the Greys
numbers and resources. All the while, the numbers of humans continued to
escalate despite their bad choices and unfortunate ecological disasters.

The Greys
never thought they would meet opposition by a number of Reptilian races. As if
they were psychically connected with Earth’s past, these Reptilians were aware
what the Greys had done to Earth’s first occupants. They fought to stop
colonization. More resources were lost as a result. And over time, both sides
paid heavily for their wars. Survivors of both species sought refuge on Earth.
The last vestige of resources it would seem. The Greys utilized their genetic
capabilities to shape shift so they could look like humans until the time came
when they could unleash another rapid evolution shift and convert both the
planet’s inhabitants and resources to sustain them. If the Greys ancestors had
been more skilled in the past, Earth may have always been the Greys’ property.
But while they were only few in number, they still had a chance to accomplish
their dream thanks to humans who would willingly sell out their species. Still,
the last remaining Reptilians would fight tooth and claw against them, not to
emerge victorious, but simply to harbor vengeance for what the Greys had always
done to Reptilians: annihilate them or manipulate them to their advantage. It
was a war of spite.

But Jack
didn’t care about past struggles or what race or might not end up annihilated.
Jack planned to side with the victors. His intel indicated whatever was holding
back the Greys was weakening. Details were sketchy. But it seemed the object
the investigators had stumbled upon was the key to a Reptilian defense
mechanism that prevented the Greys light bringer from commencing Project
Alteration. It would seem, Jack thought, these Reptilians were worthy
adversaries in the spy craft game. He felt fortunate he wouldn’t be dealing
with any of them. Just some small group of humans stupid enough to think they
could unmask a conspiracy centuries in the making.

Jack and
Will believed a natural power source was necessary to link the object with
whatever defense system had kept the Alteration at bay. If they could determine
where this power source might be, they could assure no such defense system
would ever come between them and glory ever again. Their initiative would be
invaluable to upper management. They would be rewarded with admittance to this
next evolutionary stage. They would become the technologies they had previously
confiscated. Too bad for Dan, Jack thought, the man wasn’t aware his job would
soon become obsolete and more tragically, his family would die along with him
because of his shortsightedness.

Material
objects would no longer be the source of wonders. People would be the source
because they would finally learn how to tap into the great field of being on
their own. Consequently, the acquisition of gadgets and objects would be
unnecessary. Jack believed he had the benefit of a fortuitous circumstance to
plan ahead. Those like him who survived the evolution would simply live life to
the fullest, exploiting the universe’s richest gifts on command. People like
Dan would be outsourced, or better yet, eviscerated.

But the
Organization
heads hadn’t revealed to Jack and Will that there would be a price to pay. Not
the price of guilt, though. The
Organization
wouldn’t feel bad about all
they had sacrificed to reach their next plateau. Perhaps they weren’t to blame.
Maybe this insensitivity was instilled into them at a genetic level thanks to
all the tweaking the Greys scientists had done over the years. Nevertheless,
the price would come at the expense of those foolish enough to believe the
universe’s gifts were free of charge. Although commodities wouldn’t exist in
tangible form, use of services would still garner a hefty income. But not for
all, the
Organization
superiors believed. They believed they had this
market cornered thanks to their prior cooperation with the Greys. Their promise
never to reveal the Greys occupation and existence to civilians would seat them
alongside the kings and queens of the universe. The remainder who survived the
alteration—people like Jack and Will—would service their new rulers
free of charge prone to suggestion from an unrelenting field Earth scientists
had dubbed a morphic field. People once called these scientists quacks because
these visionaries posited morphic fields allowed birds to synch in flight
patterns and cats to know when their owners would return. So, although all
survivors would be gifted, most would be utilizing their abilities for the
greater cause, namely the Greys return to universal dominance. In essence, when
the Greys whistled, dogs like Jack and Will would come running.

Jack and
Will ambled into the canyon unaware. They believed they just needed to locate
the power source, make sure it was destroyed, confiscate the object, eliminate all
witnesses, and voila, the world would be their oyster. But unbeknownst to Jack
and Will, oysters didn’t rank very high on the food chain.

J
ACK
AND
Will passed Dan’s camper. Dan scoffed at their arrogance. The
bastards didn’t even conceal their presence. They drove in via town car. Dan
exhaled and gripped the wheel of his parked vehicle. They hadn’t seen him. That
was very fortunate. He shouldn’t be angry. He attempted to harness it with deep
breaths. He envisioned himself as being invisible. He envisioned Jack and Will
would never see him coming. He couldn’t be sure things would out work so
smoothly. All he knew for certain was that Jack and Will wouldn’t be coming
back out.