Chapter 29 - Victory or defeat?
From deep underground, Agent Angel had watched the boy he was hunting, and the street kid slide rapidly down the volcano and his OSS agents follow them. His cigar had been squashed underfoot on the floor, and he was holding a cigarette again. Using a satellite he had been able to follow the children until they walked under the trees in the forest, and then he lost them. It was out of his hands, and he had to wait.
He felt helpless, and that made him furious. The Enquiry Team had been sent back to the States; Yukon One was out of contact and Yukon Two was engaged in retrieving the pod. Angrily he rammed the cigarette into his mouth and took a long drag. No one at the Operations Centre dared speak in case he took out his aggression on them.
The silence was broken by Agent Beta, on the loud speaker, “This is Yukon Two. We have achieved our objective. We have located and extracted the pod. I repeat we have the pod.”
“Good,” bellowed Agent Angel. “At least I can rely on some of Team Omega to get the job done. Anything else to report?”
“Yes, Sir. Outside the Sarno gate, we also found four CDs in a wallet. Shall we bring these as well?”
Agent Angel clapped his bear-like hands in glee and extinguished his cigarette between his palms.
“Oh yes, Agent Beta. Guard them with your life. They could be as important as the pod. Proceed to the forest east of Vesuvius, locate and assist the other Yukon Team in their assignment and then proceed here. What is your expected ETA at field base?”
“If we have to locate the other Team Omega agents first then I would say approximately twelve hours, Sir.”
Agent Beta was as good as his word. Just over twelve hours later Yukon Two drove off the ferry, into a tiny port town, on a small Mediterranean island called Viz. He drove straight towards the centre of the hilly island along rarely used roads, past untidy vineyards, scrappy looking orchards and dry fields. Occasionally the Yukon drove past stone buildings that looked either abandoned or just neglected. The sun beat down and, even with the air conditioning on full blast, it was still warm inside the jeep as the six Team Omega agents were squashed together like sardines in a can. Behind the Yukon was the Fiat’s trailer and upon it, wrapped in thick tarpaulin, was the pod.
Agent Beta steered the Yukon onto a lane that led up the biggest mountain on the island and within ten minutes they were at the OSS field base. The Yukon was parked under scrawny trees, and a camouflage net was placed over it. The trailer was unhooked, and Team Omega pushed it and the pod towards the tunnel entrance.
Standing in front of the entrance, and dressed in his black Army fatigues, was Agent Angel. He was slowly smoking a cigarette. If he was happy with Team Omega’s achievements, he was hiding it under a thunderous expression. Next to him stood Jean Kurtz, who was dressed the same. On her face was a look of excitement, as if she has been running a marathon and had just seen the finishing line. The last person standing there was Professor Schwarzkopf, wearing a khaki suit dating from the sixties and a blue handkerchief tied around his neck. His eyes were fearful, and he looked very uncomfortable. This was clearly a place he did not want to be.
Team Omega stopped in front of them, saluted, and Agent Beta carefully handed the CDs to Agent Angel. He glanced at them, and his expression lightened before passing them on to Kurtz.
“Get these looked at immediately, Kurtz. For your eyes only! I want a full report on everything you know when we arrive back at Roswell. Then we’ll discuss how we are going to proceed.”
Kurtz took the CDs and skipped down the tunnel like a child with a new toy. She was followed by Team Omega, pushing the trailer with the pod and a reluctant Professor Schwarzkopf. Agent Angel came up behind him and slapped him on the back.
“You look down John, but you shouldn’t be. It’s a good day for America. We now have both pods in our possession, plus the data CDs that our intelligence officers said we would find. On top of all this, we have managed to contain a very real danger to our way of life.”
A cold chill passed through Professor Schwarzkopf’s body. There was a look of genuine shock on his face, and he began to cough.
After he had finished coughing, he said, “When you first told me about this danger I assumed you meant weapons or technology or information that could kill. You didn’t tell me that the danger was the boy we saw on Vesuvius earlier.”
Agent Angel did not rush to reply. He first took a long drag from his cigarette, dropped it on the cold, concrete floor and crushed it underfoot.
“Until you opened that pod for me we didn’t know either. A tiger cub may be cute too, but once it grows up it’ll rip your throat out in the blink of an eye. Don’t worry about him, John. After the Yukon Two team had collected those wasters from Yukon One, they told me which way the boy and the Street Kid were heading. I had this information passed onto the Italian authorities, and I’m sure they’ve picked up the two of them by now. They’ll look after the kids until we can ship them over to the States. He’s a special kid. We’ll be hospitable and keep him safe. Like a tiger all he needs is a little training and to do what his master says.”
“What about the girl?”
“If we can use her we will. If not then...,” he let his words hang in the air. “Anyway, now we have the pods and those CDs, I am not even sure that we need the boy anymore. I think we may have enough without him to achieve our objective.”
Professor Schwarzkopf did not feel any better and asked, “What objective is that, Buddy? Something new that I’ve missed since my retirement?”
“Oh no, John,” Agent Angel replied shaking his head. “This is one that we discussed at length one night at your quarters many years ago. If I remember correctly, we shared a bottle of Bourbon and ate some of your lovely wife’s delicious meatloaf.”
Professor Schwarzkopf thought about that evening many years ago and tried to remember what had been said. The memory came back with a shock.
“Identical Hybrid Beings?” he stammered.
“The very same.”
“I thought you abandoned that idea a long time ago.”
“Oh no, we’ve had some setbacks over the years but I’m confident we can correct this in the near future,” said Agent Angel enthusiastically and opened a new packet of cigarettes.
On hearing these words Professor Schwarzkopf began to cough violently. He had blocked this memory from his mind for a reason. Within a week of their last discussion on IHBs, his personal world had fallen apart and soon after Ingrid had left him. He saw it as a curse and could not share Agent Angel’s enthusiasm. Instead, he chose to remain silent and followed the pod further down the tunnels.
The Italian police arrived at the forgotten airport three minutes after Captain Hudson, and his four passengers had taken off. By this time, the plane was flying towards the sun and was impossible to see. The police ignored it. They were looking for two children not an aeroplane, so they searched the small airport but discovered nothing.
Back in their messy Police Station in Naples they filed a report, put it in their metal filing cabinet and then went out to a nearby cafe for an espresso.
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