“How many more times will we have to do that?” Andy asked as he plopped down into my spare chair. I looked at him and smiled. You would think he had learned better than that by now. Smiling broadly at him I replied, “As many as it takes.” That earned me an irritated sigh.
“How many people do you think saw?”
“As many as ‘they’ wanted.” That earned another exasperated sigh from the chair.
“By now, you would think ‘they’ could get in and out without being seen.”
“I know, maybe I am just getting too old for this. I would accept retirement, but well; you know what that would mean.” I studied Andy sitting there in my guest seat as if he were suddenly an alien and said nothing.
“I know- I know I would be blacklisted.”
“You make it sound much too pleasant Andy, they put you in ’protective custody’. You would be lucky if you ever saw daylight again! There are people on death row that would have it better than you. The fear of the public finding out what we are up to is way too potent to just let us walk away.”
Andy fidgeted in his chair. He knew I would say that, just as he knew it was true. We had been charged with setting up elaborate hoaxes to keep the general public from getting too close to the truth of things.
History is riddled with accounts of visitors from outer space and flying saucers, but none of them have ever veered too close to the truth. Even then they did not seem to understand the import of these visits. No one did until that fateful night in 1947 when ‘they’ crashed landed in New Mexico.
There were two survivors who were brought to a small military base nearby. They began communicating with one of their guards, sending him mental images. He thought he had surely gone mad until he made the connection. They understood English enough to follow his side of the conversation and that was when things got weird. They asked when we thought we might be leaving.
Watching my face Andy could see where my thoughts had strayed. He looked at me and said, “Your dad had no way of knowing that’s what would happen!”
I replied, “He should have known no good would come of it and asked to be reassigned.”
Shaking his head he stated, “If he had, they just would have chosen someone else to tell their story to.”
“You are right of course. I just wish it had been someone else. I never chose this for my future.”
Andy nodded, “No one knew they could reach out so far. It was awful for you when your dad died, then to have your mind touched by ‘them’; it would have been too much for most kids your age. How long did it take you to figure out those weren’t just bad dreams?“
“How could we have known we were killing them? We were but in our evolutionary infancy at the time. Now, I spend my days making sure that their ‘hunting’ parties are not discovered.”
“Aw, you’re not alone there are hundreds of us out there! The teams in Britain have a good gimmick going there with their crop circles and there’s the group in Montana who are carving up cattle. Andy lost the frown that had worked its way onto his face during our discussion and was replaced by a slight sparkle.
“What do you think would happen if the truth ever got leaked to the media? Not just the tabloids, lord knows we have abused them enough in the past; but a respectable news group like oh, say National Geographic? Backed up with enough evidence to prove beyond a doubt what the truth really is?”
I eyed Andy carefully thinking what my next words would be. “I think the ramifications of that news would pretty much end the way we live our lives. You know they would not hesitate to kill the person who let that leak, right?”
Andy stood up and said, “Not if they can’t find me. Your not the only one ‘they’ have spoken to you know. “They” have been telling me that “they” have grown tired of sneaking around. “They” were here first, and “they” want what is theirs. It’s not like we have any use for what they need. Why should “they” have to hide? Let ‘em come take what they need, and leave. We could even open trade with them! Think about the money we could make.”
Dumbfounded I watched Andy stand up and walk out of my office for the last time. He called out over his shoulder that I should watch the evening news and was gone.