X war infiltration, p.3
X WAR: Infiltration, page 3
5 Paris
SITTING IN THE SEDAN's front seat, Florian Lartigue reached down and pulled up a small paper bag from between his legs. Placing it on his lap, he kept one eye on the apartment block twenty meters in front of him as he took out the baguette sandwich and bit into it. The slightly sour taste of hummus mixed with boiled vegetables instantly made him retch, and he inadvertently spat out what he had just chewed back into the paper bag.
The tall, hulking black man sitting to his left gave a slight chuckle. "That bad?"
Wiping his mouth with his wrist, Florian grimaced. Thankfully it was late at night, and the streets were deserted, so he could tell it was just his partner who had witnessed it all. "When your girlfriend is a vegetarian, it means you are one too. It is a bit of a curse, but one I am willing to live with, for her sake."
Thierry was called the Bull by the others in the team because of his powerful strength and build, and it seemed he barely fit in the driver's seat. "You'd prefer ham and cheese?"
"I could eat most of what she makes, but her hummus tastes like liquid cement."
"Ask her to put some spices into it, like—"
Thierry immediately stopped talking when they both saw a thin, gray-haired man with a salt and pepper beard walking down the opposite side of the street before stopping in front of the apartment block entrance. Florian quickly tossed the paper bag into the backseat before pulling out a pair of night vision binoculars from the car's glove compartment and peering through them.
"Is it him?" Thierry asked.
"Yes, it's him."
Thierry quickly pulled out his handheld radio and activated it. "Command, this is Bull. Subject just entered the apartment building."
A feminine voice answered. "Acknowledged. Stand by."
Both men worked for the DGSI, France's internal security agency. They had been sitting in the car for hours, waiting until their target had finally showed up. The man they had been watching out for was Reza Shirazi, a dissident Iranian scientist who had defected to the West, and now lived in Paris.
In addition to counter-intelligence and anti-terrorism operations, DGSI's other main focus was surveillance of any possible economic and social threats to the country. One of their sources had tagged Dr. Shirazi as a potential high technology leak, and he’d been spotted engaging in conversations with suspected FSB agents, Russia's national intelligence service.
An operation was quickly hatched by DGSI to try and determine what sort of valuable information the man knew, if any. One of DGSI's agents would pose as an FSB operative, and a meeting was quickly set up inside a nondescript apartment in Belleville. With the director present and in communication from the command center at DGSI headquarters, they could decide whether to arrest him or allow Shirazi to continue operating by feeding him false information.
"Subject is now just outside the apartment," the voice from headquarters said. "Our man will open the door and begin negotiations. Stand by."
Florian leaned back on the front seat and took a sip of water from a plastic bottle to cleanse his palate. He had done this for many years, and the majority of the meets would usually end with a whimper.
Thierry started up the car, but didn't turn on the headlights while keeping his eye on the street. "Lanes are clear, no vehicles along the road other than the parked ones."
Florian nodded. "When I get back home after this, I'm going to give Babette the best fu—"
His words were cut off when a sudden bright light shone down onto the entire street, half-blinding him. The intense glare was like a gigantic spotlight beaming down directly at them, and both men muttered curses while shielding their eyes.
Thierry fumbled as he grabbed the walkie-talkie sitting on his lap, and had to use both hands to operate it. "Command, there's a blinding light hovering above us. Did you deploy a helicopter or something?"
There was no reply, only static at the other end of the line.
Florian immediately sensed danger. "Are we being jammed?"
Thierry tried switching to another channel, but it was no use. "Command, come in. Team Two, come in." He turned to look at his partner. "I can't get anybody."
Turning to his right, Florian made a decision as he pushed the car door open. "I'm going."
"But we don't have any orders or backup!"
"I'm going anyway," Florian said. Using his left arm to shield his eyes, he darted across the street and began sprinting towards the apartment entrance while drawing his 9mm Glock 19 pistol. He could hear voices from nearby tenements asking what was going on, as well as the howling of pet dogs.
After an initial bout of hesitation, Thierry cursed as he threw the car door open before sprinting after his partner, pulling out his own Glock and readying it.
Florian was in excellent shape, and he quickly entered the building. Several apartment doors had been opened, with half woken residents wondering where the blinding lights were coming from. Florian ignored them as he raced up the stairs towards the fourth floor, his partner just a few steps behind him.
The outer door of the apartment where the meeting was being held had been closed shut. Florian tried to use the emergency key he had in his pockets, only to stare at a keyhole that had been melted over by some unknown means.
After bounding up the stairs and getting onto the landing, Thierry took a deep breath and began kicking the door open, as Florian gestured at him to do so while he stood back.
After three successive blows, the lock finally gave way, and the door opened inward. Crouching down, Florian aimed low while his partner loomed beside him, Thierry's gun at eye level. Both men uttered gasps at what they saw.
The DGSI operative that was supposed to be meeting the Iranian scientist was lying on the floor. His lifeless face was staring up at the ceiling. The man's eyes were unmoving, his mouth open in a silent scream of death, even though there were no apparent wounds on his body, nor was there any blood on the living room carpet.
Florian could only gape in disbelief at the pair of tall, pale-skinned men wearing trench coats, fedora hats, and sunglasses who were busily carrying the seemingly unconscious Dr. Shirazi towards an open balcony, where the blinding light was directly shining above the inner courtyard of the building.
Thierry aimed his pistol at them. "Stop, put that man down and place your hands in the air!"
The second pale man quickly let go of the unconscious scientist's legs as he turned around and reached into his trench coat. Thierry opened fire, and two of his shots hit the would-be abductor in the chest. The pale man uttered a strange inhuman shriek before dropping to the floor.
Florian tried to aim his pistol towards the remaining pale man, but the mysterious intruder held up the stunned Iranian in front of him like a human shield, and he couldn't get a clear shot.
The pale man grimaced, exposing a set of fangs around bluish colored gums. He reached into his coat before holding up a fist sized glass sphere and tossed it towards the two DGSI agents.
"Look out," Thierry bellowed as he leapt forward, using his own body to shield his partner.
Florian screamed as the entire room was suddenly engulfed in a wave of searing, blinding heat. It felt like he was thrown into a microwave furnace as the solid white light seemed to penetrate every part of his body. The unbearable pain seeped all the way past his closed eyelids, through his internal organs, down to his very bones. It was the last thing he sensed before elapsing into oblivion.
6 Los Angeles
AFTER BUTTONING UP her denim jacket, Piper Torres brought her knees together and let out a deep breath, watching the vapor come out of her mouth as it melded into the chilly night air. The sun had set less than an hour before, but she preferred to sit outdoors and be by herself.
Torrance's Del Amo Fashion Center was one of the biggest malls in the country. A few years back the management had decided to revamp the property, creating open air avenues around some of the various lifestyle stores and restaurants, with manicured date palms and even an outdoor fountain in order to attain a trendy beach aesthetic that was popular with the chic culture scene of Southern California.
While the mall patrons preferred the indoor areas of the structure when evening fell, Piper didn't want to be around other people, so she continued to sit on one of the benches facing the lighted, multicolored fountain, just south of the movie theaters. She had hung out with her friends from high school for most of the day, but the others had all left to go back home, and Piper didn't want to do that, not yet.
She hadn't looked her parents in the eye, not since the day her brother died. In her junior year after she had gotten her driver's license, her daddy gave her a used car as a present. The next evening she had been invited to a party at the house of one of her friends, but her parents insisted that her younger brother Derek accompany her. Piper reluctantly brought the twelve-year-old along.
The evening had started out okay. The music had a fast beat, and the adults weren't home. After telling her brother to go make himself invisible, she fell in with her clique. Lots of boys showed up, some carrying six packs of lights and lagers that they stole from nearby liquor stores during a beer run, while others brought weed. One of the guys gave out even harder stuff. Piper sat there while two of her close friends snorted lines of cocaine. Not willing to be left out, she tried half a pill of ecstasy.
She could barely remember what happened next. The police later told her that she had insisted on driving herself and her brother back home, even though a few of her friends suggested not to. Piper woke up in a hospital bed the next morning. They said her car had collided with a tree. When she asked about her brother and they were slow to answer her, she knew then Derek was dead.
Aside from the broken arm, she came out relatively unscathed. Her mother stopped speaking to her, and her father barely acknowledged her presence. She stayed away from school for the rest of the semester, and begged to be transferred. The district superintendant granted Piper's request, and she started her senior year at another high school. Piper just couldn't take all the gossiping behind her back, all the hard stares, and felt a need to start over again.
The cold air continued to sap away at her, but she remained rooted to the bench. Piper would be graduating next spring, and she knew she was going to be alone in the world. They're going to kick me out of the house as soon as I graduate, she thought. I need to find a job and try to get a roommate or something.
After a long moment of inner contemplation about what she would do with the rest of her life, Piper heard some chuckling behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, she could see a gaggle of youths coming out of the movie theater, backslapping and pushing each other while making crude, juvenile jokes at one another's expense. One of them looked familiar. When a couple of them turned in her direction, she looked away.
Holding her breath, she looked down at the concrete tiles on the ground. It's him.
A voice belonging to one of the young men came from behind her. "Piper?"
Biting her lip, she turned around and looked up into his freckled face and wavy hair. Jeff Gamble had been her boyfriend back at her old high school. She couldn't think of anything to say, so she just gave a faint smile instead.
Jeff smiled back, before he turned and waved at the rest of the group. "I'll see you guys later." The others didn't seem to recognize her, and they soon moved off, back towards the mall interior, where it would be warmer.
Her former boyfriend casually walked around until he stood in front of her. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"
"If you want to," Piper said softly.
"So how you been?"
"I'm okay, I guess."
"Did you transfer to another school or something?"
"Torrance High."
Placing his hands into the forward pockets of his varsity jacket, Jeff gave an energetic nod. "We beat them in volleyball last week. Saxons are number one!"
"So I heard."
"I'm one of the team captains now."
"That's great, Jeff. I'm happy for you."
"So... you got a new boyfriend at that school?"
"No," Piper said softly. "I keep to myself. What about you?"
"I dated Shannon a few times, but we're not... exactly official yet."
"Shannon Abbott? She's okay. I'm glad you've bounced back."
He rubbed the back of his neck before speaking again. "I never got the chance to talk to you after that night. I called your house up several times for over a month. I-I even drove up one night. Your bedroom light was on, but I decided not to go in."
Piper kept her eyes on the ground. "Yeah, they told me you called. I-I guess I was just too ashamed to talk to anybody."
Jeff sat down on the bench, but he respectfully gave her some space. "Look, I just wanted to say, it wasn't your fault. Keith took some of those vitamin-e pills too, and he couldn't even walk afterwards. Those things were freaking potent."
Despite the cold breeze, her eyes became moist. "I-I would do anything to turn back time. My life is so m-messed up now."
Jeff moved closer and placed an arm over her trembling shoulders. "It's okay. I still like you, and I don't blame you one bit for wanting to start over."
Piper began sobbing, and her head tilted sideways until it rested on his shoulder. "Why did my brother have to die?"
"I don't know, babe. I kept telling myself that I should have insisted on driving you and your brother home, and I'm still kicking myself for not doing it," he whispered in her ear.
His soothing words and the numbing cold soon dissolved her emotional outburst, and the tears on her cheeks began to dry. Piper straightened herself up, though her right hand remained clasped with his. "Thanks, Jeff. I-I think I would have coped better if I had a talk with you. I'm so sorry for snubbing you."
Jeff let out a short chuckle. "It's okay, I don't know what I would have done if—"
A shout from one of the shoppers strolling through the open concourse while pointing towards the night sky interrupted their conversation, and both teenagers looked up.
The evening was clear of any clouds, but a huge, circular disk of light seemed to hover in the lower atmosphere. Its total area measured nearly a kilometer. The reflected streetlights from the city below gave it an orangey sheen. A strange droning sound could be heard in the distance, while the ground beneath everyone's feet had begun to shift slightly.
Piper's senses were overwhelmed by both the strange disk above and what seemed to be a minor earthquake. She tried to get up, but she nearly fell forward due to the tremors making the tiled floor of the promenade somewhat slippery. Jeff managed to stop her fall as he held onto her and they both slowly stood up.
The roar of jet engines could be heard somewhere out in the distance. The strange object seemed suspended in place as the small earthquake suddenly stopped. Crowds of people had moved out into the open air spaces of the mall, pointing up and gawking.
"What is that? Some sort of UFO?" Jeff asked aloud.
Piper began blinking rapidly, as a strange projection of images started to overwhelm her mind. At first she thought it was just flashes of lights dancing in front of her eyes, but the forms were so distinct it felt like she was experiencing a vision of some kind. It seemed as if she was standing in front of a TV screen showing actual, lifelike objects appearing in front of her, only she could hear, touch, and even smell them.
She felt her astral body travelling through space. The unending, airless void seemed to stretch out into infinity. At first she seemed to float in the nothingness, unable to move, but her acceleration suddenly progressed, and now it felt like she was being pulled across the cosmos, travelling faster than the speed of light.
Heading towards a blue star, she sensed her body being drawn closer, until all she could see were the pulsating aftereffects of fusion discharges along its gargantuan surface. Without warning, the scene shifted again, to what seemed to be a time in Earth's past, when massive herds of dinosaurs roamed the primordial landscape. Before she could even narrow her senses, Piper felt herself being thrown forward through time.
A succession of strange beings now stood in front of her, each one extending their limbs as a form of greeting. The first was a small, hairless creature with large black oval eyes and mottled gray skin. The second looked like a mix between a human and a gorilla, with long arms and an ape-like face. The third seemed human enough, but when this robed female turned sideways Piper could see she wore a strange conical hat. A fourth being lay partly hidden in shadow, but its eyes blazed in the darkness like tiny red orbs.
The fifth and last image was the most unnerving of all. It was her brother. Derek looked up at her with a pained desperation in his eyes before his mouth opened in a silent moan. The young boy's pleading face grew bigger until it filled the corners of her sight.
With her mind unable to take any more, Piper let out a terror-filled scream before passing out.
7 Minneapolis
NORMALLY A WORKING class bar, Bob's Brewskies in Camden would normally see an influx of less than a dozen regular patrons on a late Sunday night, but the event that had just occurred over Los Angeles was the talk of the entire world, and the place was packed with people from the nearby neighborhoods, all eager to discuss what had just happened out on the West Coast. The family that owned the establishment decided to keep it open until they ran out of beer, and the taps flowed freely.
Ducking underneath the waving arms of tall bearded man who looked like a lumberjack, Elsner Bravy was able to make his way to the edge of the bar and tapped the forearm of the overworked waitress moving assorted glassware behind the bar counter. "Could I get another beer?" he asked, placing an empty but still frothy mug in front of her.
The middle-aged woman was clearly overworked, yet she nodded anyway. "Do you need a new jug, or is it just a refill?"
He winked at her while placing a five dollar bill on the counter. "My friend wants a new one, but he won't know the difference, so you can fill this one back up."
