Overlord (15 page)

Mendenhall looked behind him into the long and curving corridor to make sure there were no ears flapping about.

“Yes, sir, I’ve only got about half my ass at the moment,” he said as he jokingly reached behind himself and hissed.

“Well, that won’t be the last ass chewing you get.” He smiled even wider. “Especially when you have people like you, Ryan, and Mr. Ever…” Jack’s words trailed away at the mention of Captain Everett’s name. Collins just nodded and Will saw the face of a man who had lost a good friend.

“Nah, when I’m in charge, I’ll just recruit better people.” Will’s smile didn’t quite make it as he tried to keep the conversation light.

“The smart move would be not to be in charge at all and refuse all promotions.” Collins gestured for his lieutenant to lead the way.

*   *   *

The Event Group supervisory staff had gathered. The sixteen department heads were represented with the only absentee being the current head of the geology department: Army 1st Lieutenant Sarah McIntire, who was off in the Middle Eastern desert looking for something they all thought wasn’t there. Jack looked at the chair occupied by her second-in-command, Sam Parker, a geologist from the University of Texas. Mendenhall, who was still the acting security chief while Jack was being protected, sat beside Collins. Will knew Jack was used to seeing Everett in this particular chair.

Director Compton cleared his throat as the semiretired Alice Hamilton, whom Niles had called in for the briefing, came through the double doors. She jumped when Matchstick—who had been standing next to Gus Tilly—ran over and wrapped his long, thin arms around her thighs. He hugged her just as he had done with the security team when they had arrived at Chato’s Crawl earlier that morning. It was now seven at night and the little guy was still buzzing about the things he suspected were happening.

“Well, hello to you too, Matchstick.” Alice tossed her writing tablet and files on the conference table, then picked the alien up to smile at his large eyes.

“Alissssss,” Matchstick hissed. His right hand went to the eighty-seven-year-old’s cheek and his index finger caressed it.

Alice smiled and then kissed Matchstick on the cheek. Thus far Gus Tilly and Sarah McIntire were the only two people Matchstick allowed to kiss him. The rest, well, he figured a hug was good enough. Alice Hamilton saw that Mahjtic was wearing the smallest military blue jumpsuit she had ever seen. She looked at Will Mendenhall, who was watching them. She nodded her head, suspecting it was the young lieutenant who was responsible for outfitting the alien. She could see that Matchstick loved dressing like the soldiers. She gently placed him in his seat next to Gus, whom she patted on the shoulder lightly; then she leaned in and kissed his grizzled cheek. He swiped at the spot and shook his head. She smiled anyway and then took her accustomed chair next to the director, who sat opposite Virginia Pollock, Niles’s number two at the Group.

Matchstick pumped up his chair’s riser until his eyes were seen over the tabletop, and then he waited. It had been over six months since he had visited the complex and the small being knew he caused a stir with Event Group personnel every time he showed up. Mahjtic had been adopted by every human he had ever been introduced to.

“Okay, first off, welcome, Gus and Matchstick. It’s been too long,” Niles said as he stood and nodded at the old man. “I’m glad we could dig you out of that mine shaft for a while.”

“Well, I’m a little more comfortable since the first time I visited this place. Never liked the thought of all that unstable sand above your heads.” He looked around the large conference room. “But I guess if it hasn’t all caved in by now it’s not goin’ to.”

All the department heads nodded their approval of Gus’s claustrophobia, especially knowing he had spent most of his life in one cave or mine shaft after the other. He was just mad at being uprooted from his home and flown to Nevada.

Niles nodded in understanding as he moved right into the briefing.

“Before we get to the suspicions of Matchstick and the conclusions he’s drawn, let’s focus on current events that will lead into our friend’s speculation. Virginia, what is the disposition of the field teams assigned to finding Matchstick’s power plant?”

Virginia Pollock cleared her throat and then glanced at her notes. Niles could see she wasn’t really happy with what it was she had to report.

“Not good. All fourteen teams have come up with nothing.” She nodded her head at Matchstick, who was holding the hand of his best friend, Gus, and listening intently to every word. “I’m afraid none of the crash sites mentioned in Matchstick’s briefing of four years ago have been uncovered or even documented. The one crash site we had the highest hopes for was the area in which Sarah McIntire’s team in Azerbaijan covered fully, but even that led to a big fat zero.” She saw Matchstick lower his lightbulb-shaped head.

Niles sat into his chair and quickly made a decision. “Okay, double the teams and then cover the fourteen sites again. Use a fine-tooth comb, Virginia.”

“Niles, we’ll have to take some of our science department personnel to cover that order.”

“Then do it—we have to find a power plant from a downed saucer. Every attempt at getting the engines of the Roswell saucers operational has met with failure. Matchstick said that the fuel rods inside the engines have been drained fully. That, ladies and gentlemen, is that. The search for the original saucer from 1947 has turned up nothing. We suspect that the Centauris Corporation dismantled it and spread its parts to the winds. Our house guest in Leavenworth, Kansas, is not cooperating with us any longer, for what reason we do not know.”

“Maybe he should be reminded of his obligations to the country,” Will Mendenhall ventured. “I’ll go to Kansas and explain it to him personally if you want,” he said with a smirk.

“As much as I would like to see that, we haven’t the time.”

Mendenhall looked slightly disappointed at not being able to explain things directly to prisoner Charles Hendrix II, the former CEO of Centauris.

Niles nodded his head at the navy communication man sitting at the Europa terminal. On the sixty-five-inch-monitor in the middle of even more, smaller monitors, the satellite image of the event in Lebanon came into full view. “Okay, Charlie Ellenshaw has Matchstick’s report and his conclusions. Doctor?”

Charlie Ellenshaw cleared his throat and stood. He nodded his head at Gus and Mahjtic and then walked toward the large screen.

“What it all boils down to, Mr. Director, is the fact that Matchstick is a firm believer that this is not an extraterrestrial event, or a Gray assault. He thinks the disappearance of the resort is due to someone on this planet having an operational alien power plant.”

This started everyone talking at once. Niles held up his right hand for silence. He nodded at Ellenshaw to continue, but his eyes studied the small alien who was watching the startled faces around him.

Every monitor around the circular conference room illuminated with photos of events throughout history. On the main viewing screen was the shot of a barren plain in the north of Scotland.

“Mass disappearances throughout human history,” Charlie began. “Many here, after the Roswell event, will say that most vanishings, like this one in Scotland of Rome’s Ninth Legion, could be blamed on everything from E.T.”—he smiled at Matchstick, who looked confused as to the reference—“to earth eruptions that swallowed everything whole, to gravity fluctuation, meaning that gravity just gave way in a lot of these instances.”

Matchstick watched the faces of the group and was pleased to see that Charlie had gained their attention.

“Matchstick said many times in his two thousand hours of debriefing that one of the effects of forming a wormhole was a time displacement occurrence that will happen if a vehicle using the time warp exits before it reaches its targeted area. In other words, at a precise moment in the traveler’s itinerary the vehicle can jump from the wormhole and hit its target area of the planet but come out in a different time period from the target he was originally seeking. This is what Matchstick claims is happening. Someone on this world has an operational power plant and is experimenting with the wormhole effect, thus the mass disappearances throughout time are occurring. They don’t know what they have on their hands.”

“I suspect whoever has it may be attempting to use it as a weapon,” Jack said, offering a military solution.

“I agree on that point,” Charlie said as he moved to the next photo in line. “The United Nations science team investigating the resort area has found some unusual soil samples. The sand had turned to glass. Tremendous heat, and then nothing of the resort was left. I am beginning to think like Matchstick, that this was no accident. Someone targeted the wormhole for that area of the planet.”

“But how can Matchstick automatically eliminate the Grays? Can’t they be responsible as an opening prelude to an attack?” Virginia asked.

Everyone was taken back as Matchstick jumped upon the tabletop. He vigorously shook his head, then placed his hands over his small ear openings.

“As you can see, Virginia, he adamantly does not think it is the Grays,” Ellenshaw said as he tried to explain Matchstick’s severe reaction to the question.

“I don’t see how he can just reject the Gray theory out of hand; I mean, who would use that as a weapon against our own planet other than an attacking alien force?” Pete Golding asked Charlie.

“Because … the Grays … know … not the theory … of … time displacement.” Matchstick looked around to make sure everyone heard his raspy voice. They had.

“You mean to say that the Grays have had this wormhole technology for a million years and don’t know how it works?” Alice ventured.

Matchstick nodded his head yes vigorously as he started to pace the tabletop.

“Remember, everyone,” Charlie said, “the Grays are a master race of beings who depend solely on their slaves for technical work and teaching. They don’t know how their own technology works because the Greens have kept that little secret from them. And thank God they had the foresight to hide that little trick or we would have Grays bypassing our time frame and going after our far weaker ancestors in the past. Easy conquering of a world, wouldn’t you say?”

Matchstick finally relaxed when he saw the looks of the scientists around him. They were starting to understand.

“Charlie, have either you or Matchstick come up with a theory as to how this earthbound entity got their hands on an alien power plant without the rest of the world knowing it?” Niles asked.

“I’m afraid we haven’t—at least not yet. Pete and I will be working closely with Gus and Matchstick in the next few days to see if we can come up with something.”

Niles opened a folder and slid a paper across the table, where it landed at Mahjtic’s bare feet. Charlie picked up the printout and examined it. His eyes scanned the lines of numbers.

“Start there,” Niles said.

“What is this, Niles?” Ellenshaw enquired.

“That was forwarded through the president’s office. The Mossad repaid some of the favors they owe our government and sent this along as an interesting event in and of itself.”

“All I can see is that it’s an official energy output for a region inside. Of…” He looked at Niles and gave the paper to Matchstick, who also examined it. Charlie was unable to say anything in response to the report.

“That’s right, inside the Iranian border—the eastern region. Evidently the Mossad believes they are using massive power outlays for something, and frankly it’s making them nervous.”

“Nuclear weapons manufacture?” Jack Collins guessed.

“We honestly do not know, Colonel. This may be a coincidence or it may be just what you suggested, Jack, but one thing is clear from Matchstick’s briefing reports: it takes more power to start up an alien power plant than we could ever believe. And if they do have one and are using their energy production to get it going they will soon be manufacturing the very by-product that Matchstick needs for Overlord. Both the engine and the expended fuel that is produced by that power plant are essential to the Overlord plan.” Niles looked around at his staff. “And as Matchstick has said to the few men and women in the know about it, Overlord is the only hope for the planet, because everything we have weapons-wise will only delay the inevitable.”

Pete Golding stood and walked over to a monitor that had the area in question. The map of Iran was multishaded as it depicted the power consumption of each region under Iranian control. The highest output of energy came from the eastern region. The computer genius worked his index finger from the east to the north. He stabbed at the plastic screen, then went to the conference table and pulled out his field team briefing report. He shook his head.

“What is it?” Niles asked.

“The suspected saucer crash in 1972 in Russia—or the old Soviet Union. Look at its suspected track that the Russians have the UFO on before they fired on it.” Pete returned to the map and traced a red line with his fingertip all the way from Azerbaijan to the Iranian border. The trace line illuminated with Pete’s track. “I think we have found one of the crash sites.”

“Whose field team investigated that possibility?” Compton asked as his hopes were raised.

Will Mendenhall opened his security brief, then looked at Collins first before answering. It seemed the colonel was already aware of whose responsibility that investigation had been assigned to.

“Uh, that would be Sarah McIntire’s team, sir,” Will finally answered.

“What team is that in Israel?” the director asked.

“That is Commander Ryan’s team. They also came up with nothing,” Will said as he studied his field team rosters.

“Okay, transfer him and his people to McIntire’s team, get them added security, and then get them into Iran. If I have to supplement security with Special Forces from the president I’ll do it.” Niles exhaled loudly and then looked at his people. “Matchstick has informed Charlie that if this is the true case of Iran testing alien equipment they may have forced the Grays to an earlier attack scenario because they know what that power plant can do for us technology-wise.”