Department 7 Adventures
Case File : Trouble at Timberlake
Part One
Don Clements here, I am an out of work astronomer. I had done my training at Jodrell Bank. I did some collaboration with our European partners on the Merlin Project, to stitch the Radio Telescopes together to mimic a giant receiver to get better data. Following that, I did a stint at the Spaceguard Center and Observatory in Knighton, Wales. We did the follow-up tracking of newly discovered chunks of rock to see if they were coming our way.
After a couple of years, I had the urge to travel to the States to see if I could get my hands on some bigger equipment. I tried to get into Kitt Peak, but had to settle for The State College at Eastern Florida. I managed to make a few connections at NASA and the SETI community. Scuba diving is the closest thing I can get to being an astronaut about now.
I managed to get a nice 10 " portable telescope from Rusty Bits, the local Pawnbroker. He was a friendly guy, he liked my British accent I could put on and we got to be buddies.
I was contacted by Department 7 originally regarding an asteroid which they thought was coming a bit too close for comfort, luckily for us, it was not as bad as things had looked.
Department 7 seemed a bit of a shifty organisation, so I did a bit of digging with Jackie Wu, a reporter on WUCF radio in Orlando. I got in a bit too deep and it was a case of either join us or have a slightly fatal accident, so, I was in. It turns out that Department 7 is similar to the CIA, but a bit more Black Ops about them, it's not exactly your regular sort of work.
I received a message -”Meet at Room 17 at the Regency Hotel on the 17th September. Your contact will be Jason”. I told my boss I was off on one of my regular field trips, got on my trusty Triumph and off I went.
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| Hotel Briefing |
I made my way to room 17, where “Jason” checked my I.D. And I checked his. I was not the only one in room 17, most of them were not very talkative, especially the lady in the wheelchair, nobody would expect her to be anybody out of the ordinary. She announces, “Just call me Ironsides.” and laughs. One chap introduced himself as “Agent A”. A tall character stood out from the bunch, Jack Daniels, well, he was louder than my bike! He was going to be a famous author, no doubt about it and we were going to have starring parts in his book, sure we were. It certainly made for a good cover story though.
“Jason” began the briefing – There had been some strange events in Timberlake, NE Phoenix, Arizona. There are reports of missing persons, UFO's, sightings of Bigfoot and other strange things, trucks are being hijacked. Not the normal mix of events.
He continued – "NORAD did have an army unit up there at one time, they checked out the mine for usefulness. The missing persons were two Navy men on shore leave – Tex and Ringo Lane. They had served for four years with clean records, no red flags. The hijacked lorries were carrying building materials. The drivers were found the next day, tied up but with water and food, all except one, who had been killed, his neck had been broken."
Our job was to find out what was going on. Jason introduced us to Rhanie Kadesh, our medic. Our cover story – we were a research group from NASA. We were issued with comms and other bits of kit he thought might come in useful and sent on our way. I found out there was another biker amongst us, Neil Bradburn, riding a Harley. We shook hands and started off together.
Timberlake was a small community, huddling together, dreaming of days past and what might have been. When the copper mine closed it was the end of the glory days. When we arrived in our mini convoy, the population soared by about a quarter. We passed the Sheriff's office on the left and pulled in by the B and B. Opposite was the General Store and the Garage. Not far behind us, Jack and his driver pulled in with a screech of brakes and a cloud of dust covered the blue camper van. Rhanie, Agent A and Ironsides arrived in a black van, pulled up in the B and B parking lot.
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Jail
Sheriff's Band B House
Road Wood
House Store Garage House Lane House |
I booked the biggest room in the place, thinking “Before the star of the show, Jack could get at it” and then chatted to Sally Ann, the waitress, asking if she had seen any of the strange lights in the sky.
“I saw them not three days ago, they go over to Raven's Claw, that flat top peak over there”, she points to the peak not too far away, “I'm not the only one, White Plume saw it too, he lives on the reservation you passed to get up here”.
“Thanks,”, I smiled,” I'll speak to him in the morning, I'm sure he will be able to help us. In the meantime, can you rustle up some food and drinks for us, I feel a party coming on.”
“Sure thing.”, she disappeared into the back room.
I went outside, “Come on in, everybody, the party's on Jack !”
“That's fine, I'm up for a party”, announced Jack, taking selfies in all directions (making sure that he covered all of the important buildings in the background, but got no lights in the sky), “But I won't be sleeping in that fleapit, I shall be in my nice warm van.”
While the party was in full swing, I nipped out the back of the B and B, finding the jailhouse in the process, slipped into Jack's Camper with the aid of my lockpick, grabbed all of Jack's booze and hid them in the cleaning compartment, in his dressing gown pockets and in his long boots. Finding a rubber duck in the bathroom, I run some water in the basin and set him afloat. Checking that the coast was clear, I slipped back to the party.
The next morning, Agent A and I go to interview White Plume on the nearby reservation.
Rhanie and Neil go off to explore the mine and army base, down the right-hand dirt track at the end of the hamlet. “We'll keep in touch by comm.” Unfortunately, the pair is soon out of radio range for some unknown reason.
Ironside plans to the local area for radiation and plans to do a radar scan of the local Indian caves later on with some fancy equipment on her van.
Jack sleeps late, he awakes to find everyone has gone off to do stuff. He looks in the cab, to find this includes his driver, who has strict instructions not to go off wandering until after he has cooked breakfast and served it. “I'll dock his wages for this !” as he threw a few sandwiches together for later.
The Hopi village was not far from Timberlake, and it did not take us long to find White Plume sitting on the porch of his wooden shack. We introduced ourselves and asked about Raven's Claw.
“That mountain is cursed”, he spat in the dirt, “All of the big game have fled from there, those that did not go soon got sick and died, there's nothing up there now but a few scrawny rabbits and what's left of the army base.”
“Would you take a few of us up there?”
He shook his head, “No”. He shuddered. “Them two navy boys went up there, looking for the strange lights, they never came back.”
“Sally Ann up at the motel said you got a clear look at the lights the other night.”
“
I sure did, I can draw you a picture of it.” He drew a saucer-shaped craft in the dirt with his stick. ”That's it, near enough.” Picture here
I added a few more details to show that I was familiar with that craft too. “The Hannenbu II - I have heard reports of these things from time to time, but I thought they were myths made up by mad housewives.”
Agent A drew one of his own ufo-Die Glockner
White Plume nodded, “Sometimes one, sometimes the other one, they go to the mountain of death. Go now, I must commune with the spirits.”
We thanked him for his time and headed back to Timberlake. Agent A said,“That other one I showed him was called “Die Glocke - The Bell”.
I replied, “It's not one I am familiar with. We might as well stop in on the Sheriff and see what he has to say for himself”.
The Sheriff was in his office, with his feet up on the desk when we walked in. The walls had colour western posters dotted here and there,“What can I do for you boys?”
We flashed our badges, he was not impressed, “Ha, that cloak and dagger outfit. So, what can I do for you fellers?”
“We're looking into the disappearance of those two local Navy men, the Lane brothers and the truck hijackings.”, explains Agent A.
He snorted, “What, those two drunks, they are nothing but deserters, plain and simple. Probably just hiding out on the reservation somewhere. That's not my usual jurisdiction. They will slip up, when they are getting supplies or moonshine and I will get them sooner or later.”
“What about the truck hijackings around here?”
“Nothing to do with us, the local store takes care of all our needs. Probably just business rivals scrapping.”
“Did you have any dealings with the Army base?”
He shook his head, “Naw, they kept themselves to themselves. One of their professors could not find the place, I put him straight, some Kraut named Franz Gorman, at first I thought he said German, so it stuck in my mind.”
“What about the strange lights?”.
“Have you been drinking moonshine, sonny? That's nothing more than fog and marsh gas being ignited by glow bugs.”
“OK Sheriff, thank you for your time.”
Once we were outside and out of sight and earshot of the lawman, I put in a call to Jackie Wu and asked her to do some digging regarding Franz Gorman.
Agent A announced, “I will check on the net for a bit too, two heads are better than one, there is nothing going on at the moment.”
I went off to brief Ironsides and Jack and find out what they had discovered.
I found that Rhanie and Nick had come back from the army base, they found that the copper mine had bee converted with giant blast doors. It was now owned by Draco Industries, as a hydroelectric power plant. Hoffman TEC was a subsidiary company listed.
At some point, Jack's driver, Chuck walks into the B and B, where we were having a meeting in the corner.
Jack stands up when he sees him and demands in a loud voice, “Where have you been all day ?”
Chuck replies, “What do you mean? I've just come in for breakfast like the rest of you? You were just a few minutes ahead of me.” He sniffs, “I can't smell any breakfast cooking, are we early or is the cook late this morning?”
Jack points at the clock on the mantelpiece, ticking away quietly to itself. “It's showing 3.30. now. What do you think?”
Chuck ponders, “That's strange, that hooch we were drinking last night must have been a lot stronger than I thought, it did go down rather smoothly. Maybe I dropped off to sleep again, I do feel a bit out of sorts, I must admit.”
Jack continues, “So, where did you go?”
“Go? Nowhere, I was just in the front cab bunk, asleep.”
“How do you explain that when I looked in the cab at 9:30 this morning, there was nobody home”, he paused, “And what have you done with all of my booze?”
He replied angrily, “Well, I don't sleepwalk if that's what you are thinking, what's the booze got to do with me?”
“You were probably out selling it to the Indians on the reservation or one of the local yokels hereabouts, so either way, you're fired!”
Chuck looks stunned.”Now, wait a minute...”
I piped up quickly, “Err, let's not be hasty here, Jack. Calm down. It was me that moved your booze, not Chuck, nobody stole anything. So, no harm was done, and so Chuck still has his job. I'll get a bottle from the van and it's your round.” I stood up and made a hasty retreat through the door, hoping things will have cooled off by the time I get back.
Later on that evening, I am sitting in my room with the lights out. My camera, with its long focal length lens, is clamped to a tripod, focused and at the ready. I stare out of the open window, checking for UFO's heading towards the mountain. Its flat top pokes out of the mist covering the valley bottom, and it is starting to swirl around our ridge topped hamlet.
I hear a bump from the room next door. Knowing that it is unoccupied, I try the door, It does not budge. I pick the lock and go through into the other room. The dim light through the window reveals a figure on the bed.
I walked over and shook him, but got no response. I checked for a pulse at his neck but detected nothing underneath the cold skin. I got on the comm,”Rhani, I seem to have a dead body in room four.”
My earpiece crackled a moment, “Have you touched it?”
“Not much”, I replied.
“I'll be right there.”
A few moments later she came in, put on a mask and rubber gloves and got to work, taking a mouth swab and some skin cells, then checked its temperature.”20ºC, he has been dead for about a couple of days,” “Jack, we have some samples that need to go to our lab.”
“OK, my chopper can be here within 30 minutes. He can land on the road between us and the reservation.”
“Thanks. I'll bring them down to you.”She packed up her kit and went downstairs while Jack made the call to his pilot.
I went through to my room and shut the door, shuddering at the closeness of death. I sit down again and try to get relatively relaxed once more, hoping that I had not missed any action on the mountain. My mind drifted back to the day's events and wondered where had Chuck been earlier?
I hear another muffled bump from next door, “Do you need help with more samples, Rhani?”
Getting no reply, I ask again, “Rhani, is that you in there?”
Still nothing. A dog started barking in the neighbourhood. I grabbed a poker from the fireplace and fling open the door, only to discover that the body had gone! “Someone has nicked the body, check outside quick.”
Jack replies,”Will do, Don.”
I go back to my room and grab a torch and my gun then head for the landing.
Jack,”I'm outside now. I can see a figure walking towards the wood, I'll ask him if he has seen anyone carrying anything. Excuse me, sir, sir. sir. Hmm, he totally ignored me. I' ll check around back.”
I get outside with Agent A just as Jack comes running around the corner of the house. “Nobody else about”, he pants.
“Where was this local?”, asks Agent A.
Jack points to a figure vanishing into the mists.
“I'll go after him on my bike.” I jump on and start it. I am just about to rev the engine when the Sheriff comes bursting out of his house, shotgun in hand.” What's all the ruckus about! Was that you that woke up my hound. Turn that off now before I run you all in for a breach of the peace! Some folks are trying to sleep around here. Now go inside the lot of you.”
Agent A complained, “But Sheriff...”
“But nothing, it's either inside the B and B or inside a cell, take your pick.”
Agent A admitted defeat,“OK, Sheriff, you win.”
We tramped back inside, to be met by Ironsides and Rhani, who asked, “Did you get them?”
“Nope,”, I replied, “But we made the Sheriff mad. That's probably the fastest he's moved all year.”
"Call the pilot again and tell him Rhani will be meeting them further out of town. A chopper landing on his front lawn would really ruin the Sheriff's night."
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To be continued in part two.
Ivor
