Название: Alien Secrets
Автор: Ian Douglas
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Историческая фантастика
Серия: Solar Warden
isbn: 9780008288891
isbn:
Hunter was thunderstruck at that. His squad was close and tight-knit, but he hadn’t realized that his men felt that strongly about it. “I … I’ll have to think about this, Admiral.”
“Of course, of course. Take all the time you want … just so long as I have an answer by 0900 hours tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow!”
“If you say yes, you’ll be shipping out for training tomorrow afternoon.”
“What kind of training?”
“Again, I’m not at liberty to say, Commander. It will be extensive and it will be tough, though. Might make SEAL training seem easy in comparison.” Hunter shuddered when he heard this, and Kelsey seemed to be at least a bit sympathetic—as sympathetic as a rear admiral could be with a grunt. “That’s all you need to know.”
“I see. And if I say yes and then wash out?”
“My recommendation? Don’t.” He seemed amused by the look on Hunter’s face. “Don’t worry. I have every confidence in you.”
“Thank you, sir. Question, Admiral?”
“Shoot.”
“Does this have anything to do with the spaceship my men and I saw in North Korea?”
Hunter had expected a neutral or negative answer—something like “Spaceship? What spaceship?” But that was not Kelsey’s response.
Instead, he scowled, his expression darkening like a thunderstorm. “Don’t you ever, ever ask me something like that again, Commander! You are completely out of line!”
“So you know what we saw over there?”
“I’m not at liberty to speak about it, and neither are you. I advise you to keep your thoughts on the subject to yourself. Do not make me regret asking you for this assignment.”
But the anger inside Hunter surged up and out in a furious blast. “Sir! Someone phoned me yesterday and threatened the life of my girlfriend. That was what was out of line!” He was shouting, and it was with a bit of struggle that he caught himself and dialed it back. “I’m sorry, sir. But ever since our return from Korea, I have been the subject of rather intensive surveillance, including, evidently, in bed! If my oath isn’t enough for you—”
Kelsey was mad, but it didn’t seem like it was solely at Hunter’s outburst. “Who made the threat? Who did you talk to?”
“Damned if I know. He didn’t leave me his fucking name and number.”
Kelsey seemed to consider this for a moment, then sighed. “Commander … let’s play a game of hypotheticals.”
Hunter was about to reply that he didn’t play games, but stopped the words before they came out of his mouth. This was a damned good time to keep his trap shut. “I’m listening, sir.”
“I’m not saying there are, but let’s pretend for a moment that there are aliens, okay? They’ve known about humans, have been visiting us, watching us, maybe even interfering with us for a long, long time.”
“I’m with you so far, sir.”
“Now, just hypothetically, let’s say that there are more than one group of aliens out there. Like in Star Trek. You have the Federation of good guys. You’ve got Vulcans, you’ve got humans, you’ve got … I don’t know. Lots of other good guys. But you have others that aren’t so good.”
“Okay …”
“Now, just suppose for the sake of argument, that the bad guys are trying to take over Earth. It’s an invasion, but they’re being sneaky about it. You see, there aren’t many of them, a few million, maybe, but there are seven billion of us. They might have really wizard superweapons, but they’re outnumbered at least a thousand to one.”
Hunter wasn’t ready to admit that a mere difference in numbers would stop aliens who had the technology to cross interstellar distances. “They wouldn’t need to be sneaky about it, sir. They just trot out the Death Star and obliterate the planet!”
“That’s Star Wars, Commander, not Star Trek. Your point is taken, though. With the technology they have, just about anything is possible. But let’s just assume, for the sake of argument, that they want to take over the Earth, but they want to have the planet intact. Maybe they want us as slaves. Or, hell, I don’t know. For food.”
“Sounds like your typical scenario for a 1950s sci-fi B movie, Admiral.”
Kelsey nodded. “It does, doesn’t it? Again, this is all conjecture. But back to our bad guy aliens. They want to invade, but they don’t want to kill everyone, and they don’t want to blast the entire planet into space rubble, okay? So how would they go about taking over the Earth?”
“Well, if they looked like us, I guess they could infiltrate the government. Infiltrate all the governments of the world.”
“And if they didn’t look like us?”
“I don’t know, Admiral. Too many variables. Could they disguise themselves? Or infiltrate with a few key humans they’ve brainwashed or something? Use them as Manchurian candidates and slip them in to positions of power, but have them working for the aliens?”
“Bang on the money, Commander.”
“But … this is all hypothetical, right?”
“Completely. I just want you to understand that not everyone in the government is on our side. There are … elements, let’s say, perfectly capable of what you described. Eavesdropping. Blackmail. Strong-arm tactics. Threats. Threats to kill you or your girl or other people close to you. Even actual murder. Make people disappear.”
“And might these elements be aligned with various intelligence services?”
“CIA, FBI, DIA—you name it. A lot of our alphabet soup of current government agencies might have been compromised. Hypothetically speaking, of course. It wouldn’t take much. A few key people at the top, giving the orders.”
“Of course.”
“So what do you say, Commander?”
“I still need some time to think about it, sir.”
“Okay. But I do need your answer ASAP.”
“Oh-nine-hundred tomorrow. Yes, sir.”
He left, his mind whirling.
HE SPENT the night with Gerri.
“But СКАЧАТЬ