Chapter 6

Chapter 5  (13+) JD11 goes into the tank. Nursing assistant Annie begins to...evolve... #2035758 by Hyperiongate

Chapter Six
 
As Lise was preparing to initiate the electrical charge that would pass through JD11 as he floated in his TIG tank, Jack and Sheriff Tucker were facing off with a man they would eventually come to know extremely well; if, in fact, anyone could claim to know the mysterious colonel well.

“Good afternoon Sheriff Tucker, Mr. Barton. I’m Colonel Lanier. Please sit down.”

“He knows my name,” thought Jack for the second time in as many days.

The man’s casual dropping of names was probably meant to put the men at ease, however Jack instead went into a Danger Will Robinson state of mind. He and the Sheriff had essentially been abducted, presumably by their own government. Now, this uniform wanted to play “I know all about you”. This didn’t sit well with Jack. For the moment, he elected to remain outwardly unperturbed. Sam, on the other hand, was a little less distrustful. After all, he was the one that had contacted the military to begin with. The colonel was just doing his job.

Colonel Lanier watched both men with keen interest. Nothing escaped his observation, ever.

“I understand that you may have a few questions with regard to your current situation. I will get to those soon enough. For right now, I need to know what you know. Let’s start with the body.”

With a shrug, Sheriff Tucker took a why-fight-it attitude. “Not much to tell you, Colonel. Jack here just stumbled upon the site yesterday afternoon. He called for help and the body was taken to a hospital in Reno by Life-Flight. This morning, he and I went back out to see what we could find. When we uncovered whatever it is that’s buried out there, we called you. Then came the kidnapping, the illegal detention and subsequent interrogation. That’s about it.” He then looked around and said, “Say, Colonel, where do you keep the waterboard?”

Lanier ignored the Sherriff’s “playful” side and turned to Jack.

“What can you add to what the Sheriff has said?”

“Fuck you, Colonel. Figure it out yourself.”

The colonel’s expression didn’t change as he pulled as sheet of paper out of a file and held it up for both men to see. Written on it were the words, “Fuck you” – Jack Barton.”

The surprise on Jack’s face was obvious.

“Just what’s going on here?” Jack asked, visibly surprised.

“Mr. Barton. I know everything there is to know about you; right up to how much you paid for your last tank of gas. Our psychological profile said there was an 88% chance of you responding as you did. Of course, there were smaller probabilities for other outcomes, but this seemed to be pretty accurate. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Jack quickly assessed his chances of overpowering the colonel and making and run for it. He didn’t think he would make it very far but the attempt itself might bring some degree of satisfaction.

“And, Jack, in spite of your significant training, you would not fare well should you elect to become … aggressive.”

Jack didn’t move. Was there anything this guy didn’t know? He had the feeling his mind was being read.

“Right now you’re wondering how I know these things. The F-bomb I know because I ordered an assessment of you as soon as I had your name. As for the latter, the thoughts of “no more mister nice guy”…I could see in your eyes. Now, can we please move forward and put all of this petty sparing behind us?”

Jack could see he was clearly in over his head. Surprisingly, a part of him liked the idea of the military being so efficient. With a shrug, he tossed in a mental towel and spent the next few minutes detailing the events that led up to his discovery of the body and the burn site. When he mentioned that a Life-Flight had taken the man to Renown Medical Center, Colonel Lanier held up his hand indicating Jack should stop for a moment.

The Colonel took out a cell phone and issued a long string of orders. While Jack and Sam couldn’t hear the entire conversation, they understood the gist. The hospital, the doctors and the strange new patient were all now under “protective surveillance.”

The colonel put his cell away with the casualness of one who had just ordered a pizza.

“Continue,” he said to Jack as if nothing had just happened.

Jack and Sam sat there with their mouths open. Who is this guy?

Jack was the first to regain his composure. “Before we say anything more, we want to know just what the hell is going on here!”

The colonel looked at them both for a moment before saying, “Gentlemen, this is how it is going to work. I will ask questions that you will then answer; Simple as that. Until I know more about what happened and what you were doing out there, I am going to proceed on the assumption that you are bad news. I understand that I may need to apologize later and I hope for your sakes that that is what I end up doing. You have complicated this situation immeasurably by tampering with the site. We know what you did and how much you have seen. Even if you are one of the good guys, you now pose a serious security liability that we will have to find a way to deal with. If you have any questions, keep them to yourselves until I ask for them.”

“Fuck you,” said Jack for the second time in ten minutes. He stood up and, without a well thought out plan, turned to leave. His gesture failed abruptly when he noticed the scrum of uniforms with guns blocking his path. Turning back towards the colonel he said, “Is this how it’s going to be? Do we want to do this the hard way?”

Jack changed. The kindness in the eyes was gone. A hard, chiseled look replaced the open and gentle face from just a moment before. The arms hung relaxed at his side. The fingers clinched and released twice, ready for action. His legs bent slightly at the knees and his weight immeasurable shifted to his back foot. He was loose, dangerous and ready to strike.

Nothing escaped the eyes of Colonel Lanier. He was impressed with Jack’s lack of concern with the odds presented to him. If this event out in the desert turned out to be what he thought it was, Jack’s life was likely to depend on his ability to take care of himself and those around him.

Sam also found himself re-evaluating Jack. Sure, he liked him right off the bat, but this was something new. Jack had something hard, deep down inside; something not to be trifled with. The sheriff could see that there was a dangerous Jack behind the kind eyes and quick smile. Maybe the guards should be a little concerned. After all, there were only two of them.

Wes had not moved from his desk. He had not reacted at all. From Sam’s observational perspective, he could see that the colonel was evaluating, not the situation, but the man. He was looking to see what Jack would do next.

The standoff lasted only a few moments before the door behind the guards opened up. Another large soldier walked over to Wes and delivered a folder before saluting, turning on his heels and leaving.

“Jesus,” Sam thought, “What do they feed these guys down here?”

“Jack, have a seat please.” Lanier said as if nothing untold had just taken place. He picked up the first folder and started scanning its contents.

When Jack didn’t move, Wes again said, “Jack, please. Sit down. I may have what I need right here. If that turns out to be the case, I will be glad to answer any questions you have before I return you to where we found you.”

Jack allowed himself a deep breath before mentally releasing the energy he was about to unleash on the guards. He didn’t know why, but he grudgingly trusted the Colonel. No, he didn’t appreciate the way he and Sam were treated but he had to admit he could see the rationale behind it. From the Colonel’s perspective, it was better to make a little mistake early and apologize later than to make a big mistake and not be able to recover. He took a seat…for now.

The room was quiet as Lanier reviewed the information just handed to him. Sam and Jack sat and waited. Eventually he set aside the folders and said, “Gentlemen, what questions do you have for me?”

Jack and Sam looked at each other. With a nod, Sam relinquished the floor to Jack.

“Let’s start off with, who you are and why we are here?” said Jack wondering what could have been in the file that caused the Colonel to change his position so abruptly.

The colonel told them everything he thought they needed to know, starting with Deep Blue Operations and finishing with the Artifact that was buried in the desert. Both of these topics encompassed deep complexities that went well beyond what he would cover with them. Everything was on a need to know basis. In the case of these two men in particular, the colonel stretched the boundaries. A sheriff and an ex-Navy Seal were two good men to have on his side should trouble start. If they were to be of any help, they needed to know what was going on.

Colonel Lanier talked for over an hour.

Deep Blue Operations (DBO) had been established in 1925. It was created by the president as a non-existent branch of United States Intelligence. Only three government officials knew about it: the President, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This did not imply that no one knew about Colonel Lanier; whenever he was around, everyone assumed he was working with someone else. The base commander at Nellis knew there were underground facilities out in the remote part of his base. He also knew better than to ask too many questions about what went on out there. He was only allowed to know that if Colonel Lanier asked for anything, it was to be given top priority. He was also told that Colonel Lanier was not in his chain of command which translated into “don’t be fooled by the fact that he is only a Colonel.”

The mission of DBO had changed with the times. Its initial charge was to investigate strange lights that were being reported from time to time from every corner of the planet. By today, it had expanded its scope to include all unexplained phenomena such as the artifact buried in the desert. Sam and Jack were surprised to learn that mankind was not only not the only intelligent race in existence but that the universe was a much more mysterious place than even the most speculative physicists could have guessed.

As far as the artifact found in the desert, there were still a lot of unknowns. An area stretching out for ten miles in every direction was in the process of being secured by the military. The airspace had been restricted to military flights. By this time tomorrow, a small base will have been established to maintain security. Depending on what was found, a much larger facility was likely to be built. Ideally, they would eventually dig up whatever was there and bring it back to Nellis for analysis. No one knew for sure what was buried out there in the desert so for now, it was just The Artifact. In the meantime, it needed to be kept safe, secure and secret.

Eventually, Jack asked about the surveillance of the hospital staff. He wanted to know if there was any danger. He hadn’t forgotten about Lise Marshall. He realized that he’d failed to show up this afternoon as promised. He wondered if she had noticed. In all likelihood, she didn’t even remember him.

Colonel Lanier said that the hospital staff knew nothing other than a John Doe burn victim had been brought in the night before. They would be left in charge of the man’s recovery. It seems that their revolutionary recovery system was the best chance for the victim. The hospital’s team was extremely capable. The fact that they had kept John Doe #11 alive as long as they had was impressive.

The colonel had already placed a couple of men inside the hospital to protect both the patient and his medical team. Conditions may eventually make it necessary to let some of the staff in on what was going on. At the very least, Dr. Marshall, the senior doctor in charge, would need to be told something.

Wes took note of Jack’s attentiveness when Lise Marshall’s name was brought up. Not much escaped the colonel’s attention.

“Jack, I recall you having said that you met Dr. Marshall. What is your impression of her?”

Jack tried to be nonchalant about the question however he suspected that the colonel was able to see through him.

“She seemed to be very competent and professional,” Jack said.

“Quite a looker too. Wouldn’t you say, Jack,” interjected Sheriff Tucker playfully.

Wes ignored the last comment and said, “We will have to keep an eye on her. Because of her position, she can be a great deal of help to us. Unfortunately, her position also makes her extremely vulnerable should any outsider take an interest in the patient.” Wes watched Jack. If he had read Jack correctly, the ex-soldier was about to take a very protective interest in Doctor Marshall.

“What do you mean by vulnerable? Why would she be in any danger?” Jack could feel his inner warrior paying attention.

Wes sat back in his chair and said, “Throughout history, there has been only one thing that man has needed protection from; that one foe that is too clever for us to ever overcome. That ever-present enemy is mankind itself. There is absolute proof that we are not alone, not only in the universe but right here on Earth. All of these beings are intellectually superior to us, but they have never posed a threat. It seems that they think we are on the cusp. We are at the top of our own food chain, but not quite far enough along the evolutionary scale to the point where we no longer need to fear each other. In fact, there are no shortages of highly respected organizations that prey on that very quirk of our nature – the need to be afraid. These organizations are quick to seek out anything that will quell our fears; fears they would much more rather see fanned. They do so because fear is their source of power. It’s how they control the world around them. Those that use fear for control are the puppet masters of our society. If someone or something has the potential to disrupt that fear, these predatory factions would lose their power. So they quickly move to snuff out any threat. Anything that is of interest to DBO is also of interest to these purveyors of fear. It represents an unknown and is by default, a threat.”

“The burned man and everyone associated with him are in danger; not from little green men, but from those among us that like the status quo. There are bad people out there that either know about him or will soon enough. When that happens, they will come. They will come for him because they fear what they believe he represents. When they find him, they will give their lives in an attempt take him out of the picture – with extreme prejudice.”

Jack internalized this information for a few moments. Wes watched Jack carefully. Jack looked up. His eyes were a little harder, his jaw a little tighter. Wes smiled. Jack had just become a little more dangerous.

Jack didn’t know why he was the one that found JD11. Nor did he know why he felt such a strong attraction to Dr. Lise Marshall. He realized in that moment that knowing “why” was unimportant. It was enough to know that it was his job; his purpose. He was meant to find JD11 and now he was certain that he was meant to protect Lise from whatever chose to come after her.

He looked at the Colonel and said, “What can I do to keep her safe?”

Chapter 7  (13+) Jack and Sam are debriefed...the artifact begins to act up. #2036281 by Hyperiongate