Alternative 3, p.26
Alternative 3, page 26
‘We also have the booster in sight,’ came the reply, as the camera swung over to a large cylindrical object spinning slowly miles below the Gemini vehicle. And below the booster was the unmistakable cloud-covered image of earth. Then the video finished.
‘They were the same type of UFOs that were in the other videos,’ said Sam.
‘Yep,’ said Curtis, opening another file. They sure as hell were. ‘Thing is, what are they doing flying through space in 1967?’
The next video was dated 690721. 21 July 1969. Curtis knew that date. Everyone did. It was Apollo 11. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. The day they set foot on the moon. The footage was filmed in colour this time. It was the surface of the moon, the American flag clearly visible on a pole a short distance from the camera, which seemed to be set at a higher angle. Maybe it was being filmed from inside the lunar module. The speakers burst into life with a hiss of static.
‘What’s there? Mission Control calling Apollo 11.’ An astronaut appeared at the bottom right of the camera. His back was to the camera. He was looking out at something.
‘These babies are huge, sir, enormous! Oh God! You wouldn’t believe it . . .’ The camera panned across to the left, and it appeared that the module was in the middle of some sort of giant flat crater. As the camera continued its arc, two large, mysterious objects came into view on the lip of the crater at its furthest edge.
‘I’m telling you, there are other spacecraft out there . . . lined up on the far side of the crater edge . . . they look like they’re just watching us!’
The astronaut was unable to hide the shock in his voice. Suddenly the player window went blank as the video footage ended.
‘Wow’ said Curtis, ‘you know who they were, don’t you?’ Sam shook her head. ‘That was Apollo 11. The great step for mankind.’ They sat in wonder for a moment.
‘So these flying discs were on the moon before NASA?’ She was as incredulous as he was. ‘Is that what this means?’
Curtis shrugged. ‘Well if they could get to Mars in 1962, I guess they could get to the moon.’ This was outrageous. If it were true. If.
‘Do you believe this stuff?’ said Sam, looking at Curtis.
‘I’m beginning to,’ said Curtis. ‘What do you know about Alternative 3?’
Sam shook her head. ‘First time I ever heard of it was from the Odd Squad in the back of Jim’s pick-up.’
Curtis sat thinking for a bit. ‘So if NASA didn’t even know about these things, who did? They had to come from somewhere?’ Sam looked wired. It was scary stuff all right. Curtis scrolled down to one of the files towards the end of the list. 970218. The nineties. He started it up.
‘What was that flash?’ said a voice suddenly, as the screen filled with lots of white. As the screen returned to normal, Curtis realised he was looking at the interior of a space shuttle.
‘I don’t know,’ said another voice. A head turned towards the camera, up close, at a crazy angle that could only happen in zero gravity.
‘That light flashed possibly just here . . . and again!’ The astronaut was commentating for the camera.
‘I see it . . .’ said the first voice, as the camera panned out the window and began zooming towards a fading flash of light. ‘Thought it was just my imagination . . .’
‘I saw it too,’ said the other astronaut. ‘So it’s not. There were two of them.’
Suddenly the screen flashed with white again. It was a similar light to the one Curtis had experienced himself. The light from the flying disc. Except here there were two of them.
‘There’s another one . . . what are they?’ said the astronaut. There was a long silence as the camera filmed the bright lights. They dazzled directly at the camera.
‘I wonder if they’re taking pictures?’ said one of the astronauts.
‘What is that?’ said the other one.
‘This thing’s passing in front of us!’ There was no mistaking the fear in his voice. There was another pause and suddenly the light went dim as they passed away from the window and over the rest of the shuttle.
‘I dipped surveillance for a second, but I had that one the whole time.’ It was the cameraman, his voice loud and blurry.
‘Yeah, I got that one too!’ said another voice from further away. Then the player window went blank. End of movie. Curtis didn’t move. Neither did Sam.
‘This is big, Sam,’ he said. ‘And I’m going to blow it open. Whatever it takes. You just make sure you’re ready to air what I find. Straightaway. If you hold onto it without the public seeing it, you’ll make yourself a target. Just like I am now.’
‘Curtis, you don’t have to do this. You won’t be able to change anything. If it’s that big, what chance do you think you’re gonna have? You’ll just end up getting shot at again. You might not be so lucky next time. It’s not worth it.’ Curtis couldn’t believe she was actually trying to talk him out of it. Sam of all people, he thought, would want to blow it open. Even if it was just for a scoop. Maybe he’d misjudged her.
‘I’m doing it,’ said Curtis. ‘With or without your help.’
Sam put her hand on his arm. ‘Don’t do it, Curtis. I’m not going to stand by and let you get yourself killed. I’ll have to tell someone. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t.’ Curtis took her hand off his arm and placed it back on her leg. His turn to call the bluff.
‘Then we’re finished here,’ he said, getting up and switching the computer off. Sam grabbed his arm again, harder this time.
‘OK,’ she said reluctantly. He stopped his pack-up routine. ‘I’ll help you. Might even end up saving your scrawny ass.’ She smiled as she talked. Curtis softened like a pound of butter in the desert sun. He sat down again.
‘Thanks Sam. I mean that,’ he said. He did mean it too.
‘But I’m not helping in any way unless you tell me first what you’re planning to do.’
Curtis shook his head. ‘No way. If I’m doing this then it’s by my rules. Or the deal’s off.’ Curtis could sense Sam’s frustration. She desperately wanted to know what he had planned. But he’d trusted too many people with too much lately. It was time to play it safe.
Finally she nodded. ‘All right. Your rules.’
‘I need your digital camera, your lappie and a cellphone. Set up a satellite account from your other computer at work, and I’ll download the goodies to you over the net.’ Sam obviously wasn’t used to taking orders. Giving them was way more her style. But she nodded anyway. ‘And I’ll need your cords for the lappie and phone. I may need a bit more than battery juice.’
‘Can you at least tell me where you’re going?’ she asked.
‘Sorry,’ said Curtis. Nice try.
‘All right,’ she said, standing up, ‘if you’re not going to tell me anything, we might as well get on with it. My stuff is still back at the hotel. If you come back there with me you can grab what you need to do your thing.’
‘Thanks, Sam,’ said Curtis. She smiled back, in a caring sort of way.
‘Doesn’t mean I don’t think you’re completely nuts, you know.’
Curtis smiled too. ‘You’re not the only one,’ he said. He’d been wondering that himself a lot lately.
14
After leaving Sam at her hotel, Curtis went back to the Oasis and packed his things and checked out. Then he took a cab to a car-hire company. A different one. He wasn’t sure how long he’d have before the Hummer-hire man called the cops, maybe a couple of days. This time he picked up a different car completely. He found a tired ex-company fleet car. Beige, unremarkable and inconspicuous. On his way out of town he stopped and bought some fuel and a few essentials, including a chocolate toffee bar and a lighter. He drove the car across the apron to the air pump and made as if he was checking his tyre pressure. But while he was crouched down behind the car, he used the lighter to drip melted toffee and chocolate over the plates. Permanent dirt. The rest of the car was filthy enough to make it look realistic, from a distance. He bought a new pair of sunglasses too — Bono glasses, like Turk used to wear — and a new pair of headphones. Priorities.
Soon he was back in the car, heading towards Rachel, working on the rest of his plan. There were big gaps in it, that was for sure. He’d have to improvise. As the dirtmobile hit the ET Highway, Curtis pulled the plastic off his new phones and plugged them in. ‘The Fly’ — his song. Bono captured his mood exactly. He was feeling reckless. He was a burning star all right. And this one was going to light up the sky.
It was only when Curtis saw Rachel in the distance that he stopped thinking about Turk. He’d driven slowly past the truck stop, and saw that the burnt-out Hummer carcass had been moved away, the black marks on the asphalt the only reminder of Turk’s fate. They had even started using the park again. But he couldn’t see any marks on the road where the two flying discs had buzzed them. It was hard to visualise them in the daylight. They had been like apparitions. But it was almost a relief to finally see Rachel up ahead. He hadn’t been followed or tailed, he was sure of it. He pulled in to Maggie’s back door, and made sure no one was watching him before he went inside. The place seemed a lot quieter. Unnaturally so. Maggie was in the kitchen, baking. She jumped when she saw Curtis.
‘Hi Maggie,’ he said. ‘I need a room and telephone line. Make sure no one sees you, and come into my room in 10 minutes. We can talk there.’ Maggie just nodded. She went out front while Curtis stayed in the kitchen. She came back with the key to room three. Sam’s old room.
‘Have the cops been here?’ asked Curtis, taking the key.
Maggie shook her head. ‘No, but the Cammos were all over here a few hours back. They’ve gone now.’
Curtis left her in the kitchen and went back to the room. It was exactly as he remembered it. Minus Sam. He connected up the laptop and phones to the wall sockets. He didn’t want to find a dead battery in the middle of anything. Maggie came in with her own key about three minutes later.
‘Where’s your girlfriend? Is she OK?’ she asked.
Curtis nodded, deciding not to correct her on the girlfriend thing. ‘She’s fine. And so is the reporter. Has anyone heard from Jim?’ Maggie shook her head.
‘Curtis, there was no body and no pick-up. And he hasn’t gone back to his trailer. I was out there just an hour ago.’ So they’d cleaned up after themselves. No loose ends. Except him.
‘Maggie, I have to find out who did this to Jim. I think they killed someone else as well. He was a good friend of mine. The best.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Maggie.
‘Which means I have to get inside the base. I need to get inside their systems so I can expose this shit. As soon as people realise I’m showing them what’s really going on behind the shadows, they won’t be able to touch me.’ Maggie was a believer. He could see it in her eyes.
‘You know, Jim and I didn’t know each other for that long — maybe a couple of months — but I miss the grumpy S.O.B.’ Curtis could see her fighting down the emotion. She was a tough old girl. When she looked back to Curtis, her gaze was steely cold.
‘Anything you need, you just ask. You understand?’
Curtis placed his hand on hers. ‘Thanks Maggie.’ She left the room, and as she closed the door behind her, Curtis started up the lappie and connected to the web. Sam’s homepage was News2U2day.com. Her name was under a teaser title called, ‘A walk on the wild side’. Curtis clicked the hyperlink and the full story appeared, complete with still frames of video footage. They were pictures from the back of Jim’s pick-up. Curtis scanned the story quickly. She had pitched it as a tongue-in-cheek story about the hikers and quoted some of the more far-out stuff they’d given her. It had them talking about Alternative 3, but the name itself was never mentioned. Just about everything else was though. It may have been good journalism, but Curtis couldn’t help feeling for the people she’d conned into spilling their guts. He was watching the second video attachment when there was a knock at the door. He clicked out of the story and opened it slightly. It was Al, the Dweeb and the Greek woman. They looked hyped. But they just stood there.
‘You guys looking for me?’ asked Curtis. They nodded.
‘Can we come in?’ said Al, looking back down the corridor. Curtis opened the door up and they came into the room.
‘What are you guys still doing here?’
‘Maggie told us,’ said Al. ‘We decided to hang around for a bit. We want to help.’
‘Got that right!’ said the Dweeb.
‘I’m not sure I need any help . . .’ said Curtis, stopping as Al held up his hand.
‘Look, Jim was our friend too. He would have wanted us to help you expose them.’
‘Yes, but I’m not sure how . . .’
‘Just because we’re believers doesn’t make us idiots, you know,’ said the Dweeb. ‘John here’s an engineer, I’m a cycle mechanic, and Rita is an astro-physicist.’ Wow. He never would have guessed that one. Curtis looked them over. Maybe they could help.
‘Hi,’ he said. ‘I’m Curtis.’ He shook their hands. They were very serious, but Curtis could sense their excitement. They were looking forward to this. Big time. But he wasn’t sure how they’d be able to help him. Not with what he was planning. He needed to find something for them to do that would keep them out of his hair for a while. A good while.
‘OK,’ said Curtis, ‘I’ll give you a problem I need solved. At some point later tonight I have to get inside the base. I have to avoid waist-high optical lasers, motion detectors triggered by anything bigger than a cougar, and ammonia sensors that can smell my sweat. And I need to be able to move fast.’
The Dweeb was nodding wildly. ‘We can do that, man!’
‘We’ll have something for you,’ said the Greek woman, Rita. She looked like the intelligent one of the bunch.
‘Thank you,’ said Curtis. ‘Jim’d be proud of you.’ OK, maybe he was overdoing it, but it struck the right chord with them. As they all looked away, he realised they were genuinely cut up by Jim’s death. Curtis was heartened by that. He had been too.
‘I’ll be here most of the afternoon,’ he said. ‘I have a few things I need to do, and I really need some sleep. Warn me if the Cammos come back. And keep out of the satellite photos.’ The Dweeb and Al tensed at that. The Cammos must have really freaked them. They left the room and Curtis closed the door firmly behind them. At least it was one thing he didn’t have to worry about. He sure wasn’t looking forward to walking and crawling on his belly for hours in the dark. He just hoped they could come up with something effective. Otherwise he was on his own.
He turned back to the laptop, and typed in the UNA3 access code. In seconds the website was onscreen. He had a vague idea of what he needed to do, but he was really going to have to make it up as he went along. First things first. He needed access to their low-priority area, and in particular, the base network. He knew he wouldn’t be able to run a worm, that was for sure. He was after much more than video this time, anyway. And it had to be done a hell of a lot more discreetly. Curtis had done some high-security programming in his time at Trident, so he had a general idea of what he was up against. He knew that if this was a general portal, as long as he behaved like a normal user he probably wouldn’t arouse any suspicions. His movements would be logged — he knew that — but if he didn’t trigger any alarm bells, his movements would go unnoticed until the system administrator checked the log later. It gave him a small window. Big enough. He clicked on the US flag. The base had to have been connected somehow to the website. They had arrived too quickly when the worm jammed Jim’s system. He did a quick search for any links. There were none. He didn’t dare spend any longer online than he had to, so he clicked out and sat thinking for a moment. Maybe he was approaching this from the wrong angle.
He got up off the bed and went out to see if Maggie was still around. She was in the kitchen. Al, the Dweeb and Rita were sitting around a table drinking coffee. On the table between them was a pad with rough sketches and diagrams on it. They were deep in hushed conversation. Curtis decided not to disturb them. And he made sure he didn’t scare the living daylights out of Maggie this time.
‘Maggie, I need your help,’ he said.
Maggie wiped her hands on a towel. ‘Anything.’
‘I need you to think hard. I need the name of any suppliers you’ve seen going out to the base. Have any of them ever come in for a coffee? Can you remember the name of the company they were with? Maybe something on the side of a car door or something?’
Maggie thought for a moment. ‘Yes, I remember we had a guy out here just a few days back. I saw the name of his company when he opened his wallet to pay. Wasn’t very talkative. That’s why I peeked. I don’t normally do that, you know.’
Curtis smiled. ‘Of course not.’
‘Anyway, I think it was GE&S. Something like that anyway,’ she said.
‘Thanks Maggie. That’s great,’ said Curtis. ‘Might be just what I need.’
‘Anything I can do, Curtis, you just holler, you hear?’ said Maggie.
Curtis threw Maggie a thin smile as he returned to his room. GE&S. Time to do some searching. He found it in two minutes flat. An electrical systems supplier in Vegas. He did a check on their system, and found a number of backdoors. Within minutes he was inside their network on a NULL profile. He couldn’t touch anything, but he was invisible to the system administrator, which suited Curtis just fine. He looked for any name resembling Area 51, but there was nothing. It must have been coded.
Then he noticed a series of drives that had been passworded. He looked at the system-log files to see which employees had accessed the drives recently. There were several. He wrote down the names that appeared, and their titles, and then entered the password directory and copied the complete list of passwords to Sam’s laptop. Then he logged back on using one of the names, and entered each password. It only gave him three attempts before it closed out, so Curtis wrapped the list of passwords into a small driver programme, which forced the passwords to match without shutting him out. Within seconds, he was in. He went back into the passworded drives and accessed them. A list of sub-files appeared, and he clicked on one titled Emergency Procedure Documentation, and crossed his fingers. Inside the file was another list. They looked like client names. Among them was the name Groom Lake.
