wings extended. It touched down behind the stack of hay bales, and when the door opened, their parents ran out to meet them.
Reese’s mom hugged her so tightly that Reese squeaked. “Are you all right? Did they hurt you? What happened? Why do you have a gun?” her mom demanded all at once. She only let her go when Reese’s dad stepped in to hug her too.
Reese saw Malcolm Todd standing beside the lander’s hatch. He caught Reese’s eye and nodded toward the craft. “We should go,” Reese said, pulling away from her parents. “We’ll explain everything when we get back to the ship.”
Returning to the black triangle felt like arriving at a safe house. Reese had never been so relieved to walk down those corridors before. Everyone was gathered in the dining hall—even Akiya Deyir—where stained coffee cups were scattered all over the tables, and the screens on the walls showed several different television stations at once. The fancy headline at the bottom of one network’s broadcast, decorated with the crosshairs of a rifle scope, read:
“What’s going on?” Reese asked. “What’s the AHL militia?”
Akiya Deyir answered, “Americans for Humanity and Liberty. That’s the name of an anti-Imrian group—the same one that posted bail for the man who tried to shoot you at Fisherman’s Wharf.”
“But they didn’t kidnap us,” David said. “Blue Base soldiers did.”
“There’s a cover-up in process,” Dr. Brand explained. “AHL supposedly bombed the United Nations the day you were taken.”
“Was that the noise we heard in the parking garage?” Reese asked.
“Maybe,” Dr. Brand answered. “It wasn’t a very successful bombing. There wasn’t much damage, but the UN was evacuated and the General Assembly was interrupted. But shortly afterward, AHL—which does model itself on a citizens’ militia group—took credit for abducting you.”
“We think that AHL might have actually pulled off the bombing,” Todd said. “It was a bit clumsy, and they would have needed inside assistance, but it does line up with their anti-UN stance.”
Reese watched another of the TV stations, on which photos of her, David, and Amber were shown while an anchorwoman spoke. The volume had been turned off but the closed-captioning at the bottom of the screen read:
Deyir, who had seen where Reese’s gaze went, said, “That was right before we heard from Malcolm. President Randall still hasn’t spoken.”
“President Randall ordered the kidnapping,” Reese said.
Everyone in the room stared at her. “What?” Dr. Brand said.
“Are you sure?” the ambassador asked.
“Yes, I heard them talking about it.” Reese thought back to the voices she had heard through the floorboards. “The soldiers said the president couldn’t make up her mind about what to do with us because she’s a woman. I totally remember that.”
Amber asked, “Wait, what exactly is the official story?”
Dr. Brand answered, “The news is reporting that the AHL militia group bombed the UN as a cover to abduct the three of you. They’re supposedly holding you hostage.”
“What for?” Amber asked.
Todd shrugged. “The theory is that they’ll ask us—the Imria—for money. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, and basically shows that the Randall Administration is engaging in another cover-up without thinking through the details.”
“So what’s the true story?” Reese’s mom asked. “This is all very confusing. Why would the president want to kidnap you three?”
Reese turned to her mom. “She’s still trying to hide what happened during the June Disaster. It all goes back to those birds.”
“It goes back well before that,” Todd said.
“We need to release the news that you’ve been found,” Dr. Brand said. “We have to put an end to this fake hostage story—not to mention the fake search for you three.”
“Yeah,” Reese agreed. “We should do all that, but first we need to go to Los Angeles.”
“Why?” Deyir asked.
“Diego Luis Torres,” Reese said. “I owe someone a favor.”
CHAPTER 41
October 18, 2014
GENETICALLY MODIFIED SOLDIER FOUND DEAD
By Anthony Krause
LOS ANGELES—The body of a 23-year-old woman identified as Daniela Torres was found dead in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday. Autopsy results from the remains have not been made available to the public, but an unnamed source from the Los Angeles County Department of the Coroner said that the body held traces of Imrian DNA.
Imrian spokesperson Nura Halba said that Daniela Torres has never undergone Imrian treatment or received an adaptation procedure. “We believe Ms. Torres was part of a United States military research initiative that used Imrian DNA to create so-called supersoldiers,” Mr. Halba said in an interview. He declined to elaborate, citing ongoing legal proceedings.
According to unreleased findings from a joint investigation undertaken by journalist Sophia Curtis and citizen journalist website Bin 42 that were previewed by the
, the initiative’s goal was to create genetically modified soldiers with enhanced strength and endurance. The Pentagon has denied any knowledge of Ms. Torres and has obtained an injunction from the United States District Court, Northern District of California, to restrict publication of the investigation, citing national security concerns. Currently, the decision is under appeal in the Ninth District Court of Appeals, and is expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court.
In an unusual coincidence, adoption proceedings for Ms. Torres’s 7-year-old son, Diego Luis Torres, were filed the same week that Ms. Torres’s body was discovered. Catherine Sheridan and Richard Holloway, parents of the adapted human teenager Reese Holloway, are attempting to adopt Diego Torres, who until recently was a resident at the Children’s Home of Los Angeles. Ms. Sheridan, an assistant district attorney in San Francisco, and Mr. Holloway, an Internet entrepreneur, have refused to comment on their adoption proceedings.
CHAPTER 42
www.bin42.com
THE TRUTH
By Julian Arens, Jason Briggs, and Sophia Curtis
Posted November 17, 2014 at 6:00 AM
Tags: Amber Gray, Blue Base, conspiracies, David Li, Elizabeth Randall, extraterrestrials, Imria, June Disaster, Project Plato, Reese Holloway, Roswell, truth
Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court issued a historic decision in Bin 42’s favor, stating that the Pentagon’s concerns for national security are outweighed by public interest and the importance of the First
