The Confrontation
Jim plopped down on one of Philips plush dark blue couches. He told Philip everything that took place that morning.
“We need to learn more about this John Smith and his girlfriend Samantha.” Within minutes Philip’s printer was churning out page upon page of data. It was the size of a book by the time his printer stopped. John Smith was VP of a company called Verna Tech. John was an Iraq war veteran and Green Beret. He graduated from the Citadel, a military university somewhat similar to the West Point Academy.
“Nothing to be worried about, I was a Vietnam veteran myself, so we have something in common. Hopefully, that will help me when I get him cornered.” Jim was going to find out what was going on, whatever it took.
The trail was warm and he wasn’t going to wait for it to cool off. Jim had all his contact information, so he thought the best approach would be the direct approach. Call him!
Voice mail! Left a message; “John, this is Jim Sullivan. I am a reporter for the Las Vegas Desert and I have a few questions concerning your unusual appearance and disappearance this morning at the police station.”
“Please call me as soon as you can. I am going to run this story in the morning if I don’t hear from you.”
“It looks as though this Verna Tech has some military contracts with the government, but this just doesn’t make any sense. Like you said Phil, this is alien kind of stuff. Not something our government or any government would be capable of!”
“I haven’t told you much, well nothing about my government work, but I can tell you, Jim, I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe, and nothing compares to this stuff. Look at this movie, the angle of the cameras, the quality. These pictures were taken from a satellite, no many satellites, and believe me, there is no satellite up there that can take these kinds of images.”
Philip was replaying the movie and stopped it at the beginning as the van was leaving with Kerry. “Look at this; you can walk right into the van.” Sure enough, they were inside the van. Look at the detail, there had to be cameras inside the van man, but look (pointing to the interior of the van) there aren’t any cameras.
“It’s impossible! It means the satellites that recorded this could see through the walls of the van.” Phil fast forwarded to the end! “Look here, we’re inside this guy’s garage and the garage door is shut. This isn’t a story anymore Jim. Forget you’re a reporter. This is bigger than us, bigger than a news story, bigger even than anything we can imagine.”
“Have you figured this out yet?” “What do you mean, Phil?” “I mean this isn’t just a picture of this one event. This was put together after the event. So, what difference does that make?”
“No one could have known that this event was going to take place. This guy, John Smith heard about the abduction and then somehow rescued this girl, and then compiled this video. The only way he could do this was from a database that had this footage, which means someone or something is recording everything.”
“What do you mean everything?” “I mean everything in the world.”
“Keep a lid on this Phil. This could be potentially dangerous stuff we’ve stumbled upon. I’m going to go home and try to get a little shut-eye. I’ll call you as soon as I hear anything.”
“Sure, and you be careful Jim.” “I always am Phil.”
On his way home, Jim realized that he had forgotten to get a copy of the video. Suddenly, a beep from his smartphone and a new email message appeared. Sure enough, it was from Phil with attached video. Phil never misses a beat.
Not back home more than a few minutes and Jim’s phone rings. It’s a return call from John Smith. “Okay, Jim thought, keep calm, don’t be threatening, let him talk.”
“Hello, John thanks for returning my call.” “Hello, Jim! How much did you see?”
“I saw everything. I saw you appear and disappear, Kerry appear out of nowhere and the hologram of the entire abduction. What’s going on John?”
“Please don’t run your story. Give me some time and I’ll explain everything. I can tell you this much. This is the biggest most unbelievable event that has ever happened. This will rock; no destroy the very foundation of human society. We will never be the same again Jim.”
“I will give you not only an exclusive, but I will personally show you everything, just as soon as possible. Give me a day or so to collect myself. I have only stumbled upon this today myself and need some time to figure out what I’m going to do. What do you say? Will you keep it capped for now?”
“I don’t know. This is big. What assurances do I have?”
“Well, I can only give you my word right now, but if you run this story you may be putting my life at great risk. There are people that would kill me for what I have discovered. And, if you run the story before I tell you, I will disappear, no one will ever hear from me again, and you will be deprived of the greatest story ever, and revelations far more extraordinary than a simple hologram.”
Jim took a long and deliberate pause, and finally said, “Okay, I’ll plug it! I will hear from you soon, though?”
“Yes, as soon as possible, but certainly no later than the day after tomorrow.”
“Be careful!” “Thanks, Jim, bye!”
My boss, Max Coulter was more than a little impatient when I finally called him.
“I’m sending you over the abduction story as we speak. Sorry, it’s a bit late.”
“A bit late, my ass, the story is everywhere else but here, at the Desert. All the other news outlets have been discussing it since this morning.”
“Well sure they are, but then, they don’t have the whole story either my friend. There is more to this than meets the eye. And, the story I just emailed to you will be a little different than the one’s you’ve been hearing, so you’ll have one up on the rest of them.”
“I see that! What’s this attachment that you say not to open?”
“I think it would be best if you wait until the morning when I get there. I’ll explain then.”
“Too late, I already opened it. This is the coolest thing I have ever seen. I’m in the middle of a movie. How on earth did you do this?”
“Look, Max, I promised to keep this quiet for 24 hours, so you can’t run it tomorrow. I’ll be in first thing in the morning to explain. I need sleep.”
“Okay Jim, see you in the morning!”
Max is an old war buddy of mine and the major reason I came out to the Desert. I can trust him with my life.