Alternative 3, p.16
Alternative 3, page 16
By the time the song had finished, a group-bonding session was well underway. Curtis sat listening to the talk with his headphones on, pretending he was still tuned out. They were a pretty sorry bunch if this was the best ConspiracyWatch could throw at the establishment. Young nerds, nervy alcoholics and the truly weird. And the blonde woman over in the other corner, keeping the conversation going. These people clearly weren’t used to saying more in public than ‘Yes, I’ll have fries with that’, but she was stringing them along with clever lines of questioning. They were basically spilling their guts out to her. Curtis could see the handicam she kept waving around like an accessory. It only stopped waving around when someone was getting personal. Painfully personal. Curtis removed his phones and she was on him in an instant, looking for a new angle on paranoia. Maybe she figured he was weirder than the rest.
‘Hi there! Glad you could join us!’ she shouted across the jumble of feet and backpacks. Curtis could tell it was more for everyone else’s benefit than his.
‘Just listening to the last episode of the “X-Files” — you know, getting into the zone! Woohoo!’ OK, maybe the firewater had something to do with it, but it shut her up nicely. Shut the whole bunch of them up, as a matter of fact.
Blondie was the first to react, and her reaction said more about her than him. ‘So you’re not a believer, then?’ Curtis looked at the faces around him. They were serious, earnest faces, questioning Curtis’s integrity. Either he was a believer — whatever that was — or he was an outcast. He looked at the camera, which had stopped waving and even though the woman never once looked at it, it was trained straight from her hip to where Curtis was sitting. He was sure the record light had been taped over.
‘I believe what I can see. That’s why I’m here.’ He pulled his cap down low, and shrunk into the corner of the pick-up.
‘Ain’t that the truth.’ It was beardy man. Al from ‘Home Improvement’.
‘Yeah, man.’ That was from one of the dweebiest guys Curtis had ever seen. This place was a dweeb-magnet. Abductees Anonymous. Time to exit this conversation. Curtis pulled his headphones back on, and pretended to hit the play button. He sat back and listened to the strangest bunch of people he’d ever shared a ride with, while Blondie tickled their paranoia bones.
‘So what brings you all here? I mean, it’s a pretty odd thing to do on your day off, isn’t it?’ she asked innocently.
‘Not if you know some of the stuff we know,’ said Al.
‘I’m not going anywhere. Fill me in, I love a good conspiracy theory,’ said Blondie. Yep. She was fishing.
‘It’s not theory. It’s fact. Just gotta have an open mind, and put all the pieces together.’ The Greek woman was deadpan as she spoke. Sad, emotionless eyes.
‘I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to help me out here. I’m really not up with the latest on this,’ said Blondie, surreptitiously turning her camera in the direction of whoever was speaking. ‘What do you think is really going on at this place? Is the government hiding something you think we should know about?’
‘Oh it’s bigger than that!’ said the Dweeb on Curtis’s right. ‘It’s much, much bigger than one single government.’ This sounded like his special topic. ‘You can’t possibly begin to understand the scope of this thing. Not in five minutes, anyway.’ Blondie’s eyes lit up. This looked like just what she’d come to hear. Wacko conspiracy theories. Alive and well in Nevada.
‘Give me the short version. Is it really that bad?’ she asked.
‘It’s probably worse, actually,’ said Al, matter-of-factly. There was a moment’s pause in the weirdness. They looked like they were contemplating the end of the world. ‘How much do you know about Area 51?’ he asked.
‘Not much . . . top-secret air-force base for developing secret weapons. Like the stealth bomber and all that.’
Al shook his head knowingly. ‘Then you’re not ready for the truth, I’m afraid. But don’t worry, it’ll be ready for you soon enough.’ They passed around knowing looks at Blondie’s expense.
Finally the Greek woman took pity on her. ‘We have reason to believe that much more goes on there than that. That’s what the government wants us to believe. It’s a cover story.’
‘A cover story? For what?’ asked Blondie.
‘For the biggest conspiracy ever known. The big one. The conspiracy to end all conspiracies.’
Blondie shook her head in confusion. ‘You mean like who killed J.F.K.? That sort of thing?’
The Dweeb shook his head. ‘That’s small-time compared to this.’
‘So what’s it all about? Come on, I really want to know this stuff.’ Blondie was getting desperate. They were clamming up on her. ‘I really admire you guys. I really do. You’re like freedom fighters for the truth. Why don’t you share the burden? Tell me what you’ve learned and open my eyes to this stuff. That’s why you do it, right? To warn everyone?’ A few coy looks were exchanged. Curtis was impressed. She was working them like a pro.
Al was the first to take the bait. ‘We have to be careful about who we talk to about this stuff. Not everyone’s ready for the truth. Can’t blame them though. Kinda upsets your view of things.’
‘Outta the comfort zone, huh?’ said Blondie.
‘Well, when you find out that just about everything you take for granted, you know, freedom of speech, democracy, the Constitution . . . when you find out they’re all just part of the façade, well that can rock your boat some.’
‘Yeah,’ said the Dweeb, ‘we’re just pawns, man. Just pawns.’
‘What do you mean?’ said Blondie. ‘Just how big is this thing? Give me an idea, at least.’
‘Well there’s the bases, like the one we’re having a look at now. They’re all over. But they’re pretty well hidden.’
‘Bases for what?’ Blondie was losing her patience. So was Curtis. This was getting ridiculous.
‘All sorts of things. But mainly they’re where they develop and launch the spacecraft.’
‘Spacecraft?’
‘For colonising the human race.’ Colonising. The human race. Curtis fought back a smile.
‘They’re all over the world. Quite a few here in the States. Places like Mountauk Point in Long Island, Dulce, New Mexico . . .’
‘And there’s that new one beneath Denver International Airport. It’s supposed to be massive!’ It was the Greek woman. She’d suddenly come alive again.
‘She’s right,’ said Al. ‘The biggest and oldest one is Base 211. It’s under UN control now, but it was originally built by the Nazis during the war. Down at Antarctica somewhere.’ Blondie looked lost for words. Finally.
But she’d started the ball rolling. Now she just had to sit back and keep up with it.
‘You see, they developed the original flying saucers. They were so advanced they kept them secret after the war. But we ended up making a deal with them to leave them alone in return for their hyper-advanced technology. That’s when the whole thing started.’
‘What about the space race? And the space shuttle? How’s that connected?’ asked Blondie. Fair question.
‘Oh that’s just a front,’ said Al, waving her off. ‘That’s just the excuse to siphon trillions of dollars into the colonisation project. The Apollo missions were all for show. They weren’t the first people to set foot on the moon, that’s for sure!’
‘Damn right!’ said the Dweeb emphatically. ‘Oh they all knew about it. But it must have given them a hell of a fright to see flying discs and a moonbase back then. Of course, they censored all that stuff out of the transmissions they made available to the public.’
‘OK . . . so where’s the colony, then?’ asked Blondie. ‘On the moon?’
The Dweeb shook his head. ‘Mars. The moon’s just a half-way station, to store supplies, refuel and do the serious business away from prying eyes.’
‘Mars,’ said Blondie slowly. Like Curtis, she was having trouble with all this.
Luckily the Dweeb explained it for her. ‘See, they exploded an atom bomb in the atmosphere around ‘63, which released all the oxygen in the planet’s soil. It was frozen into the subterranean ice. It’s breathable now.’
‘And who’s “they”?’ Blondie asked.
The Dweeb pulled a face. ‘A bunch of high-powered military from about a dozen countries. Started off with just us, the Nazis, the Russians and the Brits. Now I think there’s more than that involved. Like a top-secret United Nations.’
‘OK . . .’ said Blondie sceptically, ‘but you haven’t told me why. If this is all true, why are they doing it?’
‘To save the human race. That’s what they believe anyway. Only their version of what’s worth saving is probably a little different from ours.’
‘Save us from what? Ourselves?’
‘Global warming. The next Ice Age. Scientists have known for decades we’re entering a period of acute global warming. Greenhouse gases are just speeding up what nature’s doing anyway. Around every 25 000 years, the planet heats up, and the poles melt. That screws up the weather and eventually you get apocalyptic floods, and then another Ice Age. Exactly what happened to the dinosaurs. Noah lived through the last one. But I’m not so sure we’re going to be as lucky this time.’ Now that was a real conversation stopper. Curtis sat as spellbound as the rest of them. Just for different reasons. A psychiatrist would have a field day with this lot.
‘Anyway,’ continued Al, ‘during the fifties they held a scientific summit to come up with ways of surviving the catastrophe. Came down to three options.’
‘And they were?’ asked Blondie, less convincingly now.
‘The first one was to explode a nuclear device in the atmosphere, to punch a giant hole in it and release all the greenhouse gases. But that raised the problem of atmospheric radiation. Next they came up with the idea of trying to survive the Ice Age underground. You know, to develop vast subterranean cities. They’d already proven that crops can grow faster underground than they do on the surface, but they wouldn’t fit the earth’s whole population down there — they’d only have room for the world’s elite. But that one hit a snag too, when they realised the heat from the earth’s crust would eventually make life impossible. Even underground. And of course, they would have had surface flooding of biblical proportions to contend with. So they came up with Alternative 3.’
‘Alternative 3?’
Al nodded. ‘Evacuation of planet earth.’ Curtis couldn’t believe what he was hearing. They made it all sound so matter of fact, like they discussed this stuff every other day. Probably did for that matter.
‘It was the only option left. Colonise Mars. Of course, they’d still only have room for the elite, so it had to be done in absolute secrecy. Otherwise civilisation would just fall apart. And they don’t want that to happen until they’re good and ready.’
Blondie whistled thinly. ‘That’s some conspiracy. I’m assuming you guys have some good reasons for believing this stuff?’
‘Evidence is everywhere,’ said the Greek woman. ‘Everywhere you look. But it really only started to come together after a British documentary cottoned on to it in the 70s. They started doing a story on the scientific brain-drain in the UK during the 60s. Seemed that several top scientists they were investigating vanished into thin air. Then they realised it was just the tip of the iceberg. It was happening over here as well. They had accidentally discovered evidence of an ultra-secret interplanetary project.’
‘Yep,’ said Al, ‘and when it went to air, it frightened the bejesus out of everyone. The TV station was swamped with tens of thousands of calls. Then the TV network came out with a statement saying the whole thing was an April Fool’s joke. Seems someone else got spooked by the documentary too . . . Except it wasn’t shown on April first.’ They all shared Al’s little in-the-know laugh. ‘But they must have been on to something. The documentary got pulled from schedules all around the world. It never got shown here. A few of the reporters who’d put it together got fired, I think. They wrote a book about it a while later. No one ever heard from them after that. They just disappeared like the scientists they’d been investigating in the programme.’
‘Alternative 3, huh?’ said Blondie after a while. She’d run out of questions. Curtis breathed a quiet sigh of relief. He’d run out of patience. They looked odd enough, but what he’d just heard was downright scary. Now he knew how the Chief must have felt in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Eventually the torture subsided when Jim pulled the pick-up into a large crevasse at the base of some serious rock. Curtis couldn’t see the top in the dark. Jim obviously knew where he was going, though, judging by the way he swung in to park. Without lights on. Must eat a lot of carrots, as well as beans. The motley group piled out of the back. It wasn’t a pretty sight, and Curtis was glad it was dark. The tension had risen substantially since Jim turned off the engine. This was radical stuff for most of them. Peering into the mouth of the volcano. Something to tell the grandchildren.
But for Jim this was just another guided tour. ‘All right, stick close, follow the person in front, with your left hand on their shoulder. It’s gonna be dark and we’re not using flashlights. Keep the noise to a minimum. Let’s go, folks.’
With that he vanished into the black as the group gradually got their wits about them and hurriedly formed a line to catch up with their guide.
Curtis found he had Blondie with the camera behind him. Her hand on his shoulder felt surprisingly strong. Or suprisingly scared. They were climbing, and the stillness of the desert air was refreshing after the pick-up ride. It was also very intimidating. Following the person in front in pitch-black over ground he’d never seen, knowing that the chances were good they were already being watched.
‘Come on, why are you really here? You don’t fit in with this lot. You look far too sane.’ It was Blondie. Curtis decided to ignore her. They kept walking. But a while later she had another go.
‘You know, this is so exciting! Kinda like playing searchlight in third grade!’
Curtis couldn’t resist shutting her down before she got started on him. ‘We’ll be playing searchlight with a helicopter if you don’t keep your bloody voice down.’ She obviously decided Curtis wasn’t going to give her a sound bite for the vidcam, because she didn’t try again. Much to his relief.
They gathered around Jim, who’d finally stopped. ‘The point’s up ahead. Hands and knees from here till you feel the tip of the cliff. That’s a good time to stop. No lights or cigarettes. And no flashbulbs either. When you get tapped on the shoulder it’s time to go. Remember that could be any time. Show time, folks.’ He disappeared up the hill on his belly.
Curtis joined the rest of them at the tip of the hill, and waited for dawn to arrive. As he lay on his stomach on the cold dirt in the darkness, he started to forget the dull ache in his head and the bruising on his butt, and revelled in the freshness of the morning air. He heard Jim slide in next to him, but he wasn’t in a conversational mood. A couple of thermos flasks got handed down the line. Curtis declined the offer. He didn’t want to get too familiar with this lot. But as he lay there, the ground got harder. And colder. He just hoped Gina was doing the business back at the trailer.
Gradually the blackness washed into the steely grey of dawn, and Curtis could see for the first time some of the features ahead of him. A long valley. Huge. More hills. Some incredibly high. As the light increased he could make out a long white strip down one of the bigger valleys. It turned into a runway. Then the first buildings appeared through the haze in the distance. A loose collection of featureless military-style buildings. But the size of some of them was remarkable. As the sun started to assert itself over the night, the valley was laid bare before them. Curtis could tell that some of the group were in a state bordering on arousal as the runway and buildings came fully into view. These guys had to get out more. Curtis wasn’t sure what they were expecting the buildings to reveal. They were probably disappointed the buildings didn’t morph into UFOs and try to abduct them.
Curtis indulged in a quiet smile to himself. Jim didn’t show any expression at all. He’d probably seen it a dozen times. And probably been a hell of a lot closer than this.
It wasn’t much longer after daybreak that the tapping on shoulders began, and the group pulled back to the meeting point.
‘That’s it, folks. Let’s hightail it back.’ Jim wasn’t keen to hang around.
Some of them looked a little disappointed it was over. Eighty bucks worth. But mostly they kept to themselves on the way down. Lost in their own paranoid little worlds.
Except Blondie. ‘That turn you into a believer?’ She wouldn’t let it rest.
‘Well, I believe there’s a bunch of buildings down there. What about you?’ Let’s focus on her for a change.
‘I find the social phenomenon of the whole thing more interesting. You know, what makes people travel all this way out here and pay 80 bucks to walk through the desert at night to spy on some government base?’ Sounded like a reporter to Curtis.
‘So why did you come?’ she asked, finally. Curtis had been waiting for that one. He needed to think fast.
‘Why not?’ Well, that was thinking on your feet for you at this ungodly hour. It would have to do.
‘What’s your name, if you don’t mind me asking?’ She was walking right beside him now. Curtis kept an eye on the camera. It didn’t seem to be switched on. That was the last thing he needed right now.
‘Neo,’ he said, offhandedly. Let’s see if she guesses where that one came from.
‘So you see yourself as a bit of a Keanu Reeves, do you?’ Shit. So she’d seen The Matrix too.
‘I see myself getting tired of your questions. You didn’t tell me your name either.’ Time to exit this conversation.
‘Sam. Pleased to meet you, Neo.’
She put out her hand, which Curtis reluctantly took without missing a step.
‘Ditto.’ It was at that moment, when they were descending down the last hill to the pick-up, that Jim raised the alarm.
