Martello continued his surveillance as he followed Karen and her friends leaving the Police Station. He watched them board one of the Ocean City buses. When the bus reached 60th street, Martello saw a truck pull out of a side street and stop immediately in front of the bus cutting it off. Two men jumped out of a small van parked on the same side street as the truck and boarded the bus flashing badges at the driver.
Oria, Karen, and Bob were standing towards the back of the bus when it came to a screeching halt. They heard the bus door open and the two men enter it. The men worked their way towards the back of the bus armed with FBI badges and pistols. Karen heard the men speaking with heavy French accents to the crowd telling them that they were FBI agents and had to search the bus. Karen did not believe for one moment that the phony agents were with the FBI. She suspected they were part of a covert French group loosely connected to the French government.
Oria heard Borella’s voice in an implanted communication device near his ears. Borella told Oria that the phony agents were planning on capturing him; or at a minimum kidnapping Karen to use her as leverage against them. Oria decided to take action. He quickly stepped in front of Bob and Karen and towards the front of the bus. In seconds, Oria faced the first agent. The agent took his pistol, shoved it into Oria’s belly, and told him not to move. Oria flexed his abdominal muscles, reached down with his left hand, and grabbed the pistol as it went off into his stomach. Oria felt a slight sting and then connected his right fist to the agents face dropping him instantly to the ground. The second agent was about to fire at Oria’s head when another shot rang out from the front of the bus. Martello, seeing the action, had jumped out of his car, ran and boarded the bus. Seeing drawn weapons, Martello drew his own pistol and shot the second agent’s head. The agent collapsed in a lump at Oria’s feet.
The crowd on the bus began screaming and storming the front and side doors to get out. In the commotion Karen, Bob, and Oria slipped out the side door. Karen’s mind was racing. This was the second attempt on Oria and her life in less than an hour. Bronson was right; their simple presence would draw agents out into the open. What amazed Karen was the brazen madness exhibited by the groups. This latest attack was in the middle of the day on a crowded Ocean City bus.
Karen, Bob, and Oria started their long walk on Ocean Highway headed north towards their condo. Karen wanted to get there and pick up their stuff as quickly as possible. It was likely that at least one of the enemy groups knew where they were staying. It took a little over a half hour for them to reach 90th Street.
Bob searched the area around the condo complex for signs of enemy activity while Karen requested a valet to get her car ready. Once the valet departed, Karen slipped her hand into Oria’s hand and suggested that they head to the condo. They walked hand in hand to the elevator lobby where Karen hit the open button. As the elevator-chimes signaled the arrival of the elevator, a loud explosion emanated from the garage and shook the building. Oh great, now what, Karen thought, as she made a mad dash towards the garage door entrance with Oria directly behind her. About 100 feet away, Karen saw her Porsche on fire with a couple of people standing around screaming.
Karen and Oria ran to the car and saw the charred remains of the valet. Karen took a deep breath thinking that could have been her.
Within minutes several fire engines, ambulances, and police arrived. It took only several minutes for the fire fighters to extinguish the remaining flames while the police cordoned off the area. Several officers walked around asking the crowd if anyone saw what happened. Karen and Oria used the commotion to slip back into the condo lobby and head for their condo. When they arrived, Bob was already there. Someone had broken in and trashed the condo. All their belongings were disturbed and scattered across the floor. “I’ll tell you what”, said Bob, “somebody sure wants us outta Dodge”. Karen and Oria couldn’t agree more, although Oria was trying to figure out what “dodge,” meant.
The three of them had started to pick up their belongings and pack their suitcases when a loud knock broke the silence. It was the police with Agent Henson. Agent Henson had tried to delay the Ocean City Police but they were starting to get disturbed at the crime wave that seemed to follow Karen and her friends. In a single day since she arrived, a mob hit ended in a shot child, a friend of hers was murdered, a gunfight broke out on a public bus, and her car exploded killing a valet. The Ocean City Police had many questions and no answers. They weren’t buying the Federal Investigation story anymore and demanded that Henson and Karen provide them details that are more substantial.
“Major Karen Brown, I’m Detective Rod Damico, you might remember me from last night.”
“Yes Detective. What can I do for you?”
“You might start by telling me how much you know about the situation with your car.”
“My car? Is there a problem with my car?”
“Major, don’t play games with me. I’ll take you down to our station right now for questioning if you want to play games.”
“Ok Detective Damico. I gave my car keys to the valet. While we waited for an elevator, we heard an explosion in the garage. We ran out and saw that my car had exploded. That’s really all I know about it.”
“Are you sure? Maybe you should also tell me a little about your gun fight on your bus ride this afternoon.”
“Detective, I don’t have a clue as to what, as you said, “my little gun fight” was all about”. “Yeah, those phony agents were going to attack us. Oria stopped one of the agents. Someone else, maybe one of your police shot the other agent.” “Furthermore, Detective, I don’t know why people are attacking my friends and me”.
“Look Major. I’m not buying your story.”
Agent Henson cut in “Detective Damico, careful now. You are stepping into a Federal Investigation.”
“Look Marshal, you and your Federal connections better have some good answers. You are turning Ocean City into the Wild West. I don’t think the Mayor wants to hear this and I’m sure that your bosses will simply love what they see in the news after I get done feeding them information.”
Oria was getting annoyed with all the bureaucratic arguing. With these groups stepping on each other’s toes, they would accomplish very little. Oria wanted to complete packing and get out of there. He was starting to worry that the U.S. Military with all of their factions might also act like these law enforcement geeks. He had to figure out a way to get the groups moving in a more productive direction.
“Detective Damico. I think everyone here shares your concerns for the safety of the citizens of Ocean City.”
“Well, Mr. Kung Fu actually speaks.”
Oria chuckled. “Whatever, Detective, we’re on a two way street here. Karen, some friends, and I came down here for some R&R and have been attacked repeatedly by different groups and harassed by police. In broad daylight on one of your main streets, someone shot Karen’s friend! I think if someone has a problem, it is you and the lousy protection you provide in this stinking city.”
“Ah, perhaps you’d like to come with Major Brown to the station?”
“You’ve got nothing on me or Major Brown. We are just visiting the beach. “However, if you arrest us on false charges, my attorney will have a field day with you. I hope Ocean City has deep pockets.”
Damico hesitated for a minute. Oria was right. He really didn’t have much to go on. This group looked more like victims than perpetrators. “All right, this matter is not closed. I want you to stay close by for further questions. Don’t plan on leaving.”
Karen responded angrily. “Yes Detective Damico, and just WHO is going to provide us protection?”
“Looks like you’re quite capable of protecting yourselves.”
Agent Henson cut in. “Detective Damico, you are out of bounds here. These people have had one of their friends murdered, their place trashed, and a bomb set off in their car. I think some sort of protection is clearly called for.”
“Fine, I’ll check into gett
ing them a safe house. Why don’t you grab your stuff and we’ll head down to the station.”
It took the group about 30 minutes to complete packing their stuff. A police cruiser and a young officer eagerly waited for them in the condo’s garage.
At the police station, Detective Damico greeted Oria, Karen, and Bob. His mood seemed to have changed. Damico had just gotten off the phone with his Chief. The Chief instructed him to cooperate fully with Major Karen Brown and to support her investigation any way possible. It did not surprise him to learn that the Major was on some sort of classified mission.
12:00 PM: Nanticoke Diner, Cambridge Maryland
Linda StalkingWolf caught up with Jack Stone at her brother’s diner in Cambridge, Maryland. Jack had called and requested the meeting to discuss Peter and Hoss’ reports and the recent newscasts. Jack was particularly excited about the mysterious healing that occurred Friday night in Ocean City. He was more convinced than ever that Oria was the anointed one sent by the spirits to redeem his people.
“Hi Linda, thanks for coming.”
“You’re sort of a hard one to resist, Chief Stone, or should I say soon-to-be Chief Stone?”
“Ah, quick with the wit, under normal circumstances, I would have agreed with you. I have spoken with my father and he agrees that Oria is the first son of the great Chief Stoneax and the true successor to chief. Moreover, he agrees that Oria must be the anointed one sent on to redeem our people.”
“Wow, don’t you think you’re jumping to conclusions?”
“No!”
“Jack, I know Oria is human and on a perfectly human mission with a perfectly reasonable explanation on why he returned after being away 500 years.”
“Then you agree that he is the true heir to chief?”
“Uh, well, yes, but that’s not my point. Remember that Oria has lived in space with aliens for most of his life! He is just now returning home to save Earth!”
“Linda, you then agree that Oria has returned to redeem his people.”
“Well yes, but not as some super-natural event like you are suggesting.”
“In short, you don’t believe Oria has been sent by the spirits.”
“Exactly, Oria has been away and learned of an eminent attack on Earth that could result in the painful deaths of millions. Oria wants to stop that from happening.”
“Linda, you can’t see how these things can work together. It grieves me that your generation is losing the way of our people.”
“Hold on, please don’t lay that on me. I work harder for our people than just about anyone! Yes, I’m a scientist and yes, I am proud of our heritage. I just don’t buy into all of this religious stuff.”
“I know you work for our people. You just don’t completely understand the spirit of our people. If you did, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“Jack, I’m not going to argue with you. We’ve been through this before. Go ahead and believe what you want. At least we both agree that Oria is here on a mission whose goal is to save all of our ways on Earth.”
“Yes, Linda, on that we can agree.”
2 PM: West Virginia
Commander Retilia and Lieutenant Durinea felt good to get a complete copy of the White House Database and of the disk drive off the President’s desktop computer. They walked back into the room with the little kids, in the mood to celebrate. Young live human children were a rare treat in the Creyte Federation. It was expensive to fly live children off farm planets.
The young children screamed as the two Creyte Officers divided the children evenly between them and devoured them. When they finished, Retilia ordered Durinea to have the lackeys execute the kids’ parents. That way there would be no trail back to them.
When Retilia and Durinea returned to their offices, they began to analyze the captured data. Retilia discovered that the President was having an affair with his Security Advisor, Helen Marshal. She frequently visited him on Sundays for a little “advisory” business. Next, Retilia dug into the data to get leverage on Marshal. The database contained information on birthdays, parents’ names, religion, etc. Nothing juicy yet, in a coded part of the file was a large blob of information encrypted with a 256-bit key, impossible for anyone on Earth to decrypt. Retilia didn’t give the primitive encryption methodology any thought and ran it through his quantum entanglement decoder. In seconds, the message was decoded and he found a complete FBI background investigation on Marshal.
Retilia soon discovered that the database contained incriminating information on many power brokers within the U.S. Government. Retilia was quite pleased with this goldmine. It would be much easier to coerce important people into cooperating with his plans. They would know of the White House break in and know that someone compromised the White House database. It was now time to get on with his initial objective, Helen Marshal.
Retilia called Helen Marshal on her private residence line. A number she gave out to only a select few people, like the President.
Helen was extremely upset when she answered her private line with a simple hello; only moments earlier she learned from the TV that the White House Home Page had been hacked and the engineers responsible for security and the database were murdered.
“Hello, I’m Commander Retilia, I . . .”
“How did you get my private number?” hissed Helen.
“That’s not all I have. I understand you did some drugs back in college?”
“So what, you didn’t answer my question!” Helen didn’t have time to play these games.
“That’s right! You could lose your security clearance if that information got out”, cackled Retilia. He was drooling at the prospect of Helen’s demise.
“Listen Commander whoever you are, I don’t have to speak to you. My security clearance has been approved at the highest levels.”
“I’m sure it has. It doesn’t hurt that you’re also sleeping with the President.”
“How do you know that? What do you want?” Helen demanded. Meanwhile, Helen was racking her brains on where she had heard of this Retilia character.
“Not much really. I want you to introduce me to President Ratherson tomorrow.”
“And why should I do that?”
“It wouldn’t look good if a story broke that Ratherson forced an approval of your security clearance in spite of your record of drug use, and all because he liked making love to you. There may even be some other things that I could add from your FBI file.”
Helen felt trapped. She knew that Ratherson would immediately deny any knowledge of an affair with her and the approval of her security clearance. Ratherson would fire her and that the DOJ would pursue her as a criminal. She had no choice but to go along with Retilia’s request even though she was almost certain that Retilia was involved in the White House murders.
6:00 PM Ocean City
Detective Damico dropped off Oria, Bob, and Karen about two blocks from the DOD safe house provided by an undisclosed source of General Bronson’s. Everyone involved thought it would be safer to keep their location secret, even from the Ocean City Police Department. Bronson ordered them to stay put at the house and not to venture out. Late Sunday, Martello would pick them up with an armed escort and have a helicopter transport them back to the Pentagon.
When they finally reached the house, Karen and Bob scanned the room and prepared to settle in. There was already a fresh stock of food and beverages in the refrigerator with the notable exception of beer. Karen mumbled to Bob “I guess the General wants to keep us sober, at least for a few days.”
“It looks that way. I can’t believe we’re in Ocean City, only blocks from the beach, and we are stuck inside.”
“I know Bob. After today, I could sure use a beer. I can’t believe Jack’s gone!”
“Me neither. STAR Hawks won’t be the same without him.”
“You got that right! We better check on Oria in the other room.”
“Right. Sorry, I’ll be more careful. I almost forgot that Oria’
s not part of our team.”
Bob followed Karen into the small living room looking for Oria. He was gone! They saw a note sitting in the center of the coffee table. It had Oria’s handwriting scribbled on it. All it said was that he was sorry he had to leave so suddenly and he would be back in touch. Karen felt a huge emptiness fill her heart. Jack, her best friend was dead and her new love had just left without even saying good-bye. Their trip to Ocean City had been a disaster. She knew only minimally more about Oria, his purpose, and his true-identity, remained a mystery. Immediately prior to Jack’s death, he hinted that he had found something out. Unfortunately, he died before being able to pass any information on.
Karen collapsed into the sofa facing a small TV. She turned the set on and was in the middle of an emergency broadcast. Apparently, several White House computer system people had been murdered and the White House Home Page hacked by what appeared to be a neo-Nazi group. President Ratherson had ordered the FBI to start an investigation and use whatever resources are necessary to determine who murdered the White House employees and hacked their Web Site. Ratherson also assured the public that the thieves took nothing of importance and that they were unable to compromise any of the White House computer systems. Ratherson further assured the public that Justice would investigate the crimes and apply all applicable hate crime laws to the perpetrators. He and America would not allow hate groups to intimidate the White House.
“Bob, can you believe that! How would Ratherson know if anything’s been compromised?”
“I don’t know Karen, after all that’s happened to us, it can’t be some neo-Nazi thing.”
“Interesting theory, we know Oria wasn’t directly involved since he’s been with us the entire day!”
“I know. Something big is going down. The science that dropped on us is more than anything known on Earth!”
Legend of Oria 1: Initial Contact Page 20
