Compton.'
At the mention of Lee's name he saw his father's shoulders twitch and his body tense.
'I take it I have your attention, for the moment at least?' The younger man enjoyed the advantage he momentarily had over the old man. He knew it upset his father no end that Garrison Lee still had people who depended upon him for advice, when his father had been cast aside by the ever-changing environment of a very different world, a world of science and manufacturing, not dreaming about monsters and invasions. Lee had outlasted him and he hated him for it. But the younger man decided to soften his approach. He still respected his father for his strength and foresight when America needed it the most.
'It's my understanding our distinguished president meets with the Event Group once a week, why should it concern me? It's you and our company that has a misguided interest in antiquities and mysteries from the past, not I,' the old man replied without turning.
The current president and CEO of one of the largest defense contractors in the world, the son still tried to keep his father up-to-date on all that the corporation was doing, even their search for antiquities as investments.
'Even if it's something from the past that involved Roswell and Purple Sage?' the son said, letting the statement sink in for a moment. 'The meeting was held in regards to a situation this morning involving an incident where two navy F-14s were downed.'
'Purple Sage?' The old man went rigid in his chair.
'It's my understanding from what we received from our asset at Camp David that this incident involved two unidentified craft that closely resemble what you're looking at right now. We First learned of the incursion from our station at the pole. We even have infrared evidence of their arrival.'
The old man didn't move for a moment. He just sat and absorbed the information his son had just delivered. The technology gained in Roswell had once again paid dividends. He blinked and he felt his body and mind kick into a gear he no longer thought he had.
'Purple Sage,' he mumbled with a smile.
'The information has been confirmed by our Event Group asset who used the code name in his phone conversation.' His father had given the Roswell Incident this code name years before.
'We must learn everything we can,' the old man said as he finally used the electric motor and spun his chair to face his son. 'If this is a new part of Operation Purple Sage, we must be in on it at every step, is that clear?'
The younger man stood and buttoned his coat. His father's manic demeanor where this subject was concerned was something he never liked. Purple Sage had been a godsend for the company and indeed it wouldn't even exist if it weren't for what had been found, but his father was overzealous.
'I understand how important this is, not only to you, but to the defense of our country. That's why we do what we do. But remember, it was you who drove the Genesis Group and aspects of our corporation so far underground that it was hard for us to maneuver in the light of day. It was handled so badly your friends had to fake your death. Because of the way you and those two maniacs LeMay and Dulles handled things in '47, we're underground patriots. I won't allow such misplaced zeal to harm the corporation or this country again, is that clear...
The old man ignored the reference to his past and his official nonexistence. 'You have someone competent to debrief the Event asset?'
The younger man never liked being too close to his father. It was as if he still had to look up slightly into those dark eyes, as if the old man had never been condemned to that damn wheelchair, and that unnerved him, and a man in his position never liked that loss of control.
'I'm going to contact the Frenchman's Black Team in L.A. He's not using them at the moment.'
'What? Why not send the Frenchman himself?'
'The asset believes he's delivering information we don't have. I don't want Farbeaux anywhere near that man, he's a mercenary we cannot trust near Purple Sage, he would try and profit from it any way he could. You have shown too much trust in him in the past. If it weren't for the antiquities we pay him off in, he would have stabbed us in the back years ago. Now, with Purple Sage, he would have a reason to forgo his rewards.'
'Do as you wish, but handle it carefully.'
'I'm informing the Black Team to eliminate the Event asset as soon as they arrive in Las Vegas. We already have the information he's selling, and we simply don't want Reese and his treachery to lead anyone to us.'
The old man reversed his wheelchair and stared at his son. 'That's our main information source at the Event Group! We can't just eliminate him. I taught you better than that! We need eyes next to Lee and that egghead Compton. We have to know everything they're doing, because if I understand Lee correctly, he'll see a danger to the country and that is all, not a possible resource.'
'Hear me, Father. I don't order the deaths of anyone as casually as you did in your day, and you did teach me very well about dangerous people. This subject matter is far too hot to take a chance that Reese won't screw up somehow and lead the Group right to the doorstep of this company, or even, God forbid, the doorstep of this very building. We cannot have the Genesis history come spilling out, now can we? As a courtesy to you, and because I
'The thought of Lee being stabbed in the back by such a man, well, it has always made me sad.' He looked at his son. 'Just because I hate the bastard and because Lee's a Boy Scout doesn't mean he's not an American and a patriot in his own misguided way, he's just blind to the things that need to be done.' The old man smiled when he saw the strange look on his son's face. 'Does that shock you that I almost admire Lee after all these years?'
'No, but don't think for one minute that Lee has forgotten about his missing personnel back in '47. Everyone tells me, including yourself, that Lee has been waiting for years for some link as to what happened to his men. From his history, patriot or not, I understand
'Of course, you're right, but imagine what this country could do with a specimen such as that animal? Our soldiers wouldn't have to die fighting madmen around the globe. We must find out, we must.' The old man reached out and took his son's hand.
His son exhaled and patted his father's hand. 'We'll take care of it. If it's happening again and we can get anything out of it, more technology, or the animal, the country will be the better for it. As you say, maybe we can turn the situation, or the creature, to the benefit of the United States, to use against our enemies, either here, or out there,' he said. Glancing upward, he patted the hand again.
The son released his father's hand and turned and left. The old man slowly sank into the plush cushion of his wheelchair. Then he lowered his aging head and turned the chair and faced the exhibits once again. His gaze centered on the containers holding the bodies of the three alien life-forms, and a sick smile slowly formed on his thin lips as he turned and looked at the cage that had once contained an animal that had specifically been brought here. A creature that might very well be back on this planet, and this time, it might just be alive.
He knew his son would want the secrets that came hand in hand with the animal. But it would all be wasted if Lee got there first. Everything they could have learned from such a magnificent species would be lost to that fucking Boy Scout.
He tapped the box containing the claw of the beast and smiled even more broadly.
'You better be careful, Senator Lee,' he said. 'If
The man sat at the ornate czarist-Russian antique desk and studied the gold-encrusted cross that had just recently come into his possession. It weighed an astounding half kilo. With a jeweler's loupe he examined the green emeralds that adorned the cross down its center. Smiling, he removed the glass from his right eye and turned his large chair to face the huge glass wall that afforded him a view of Los Angeles as it sprawled westward toward the
