A few days after Creed had miraculously returned home, Col. Posey was sitting in his new office at Luke Air Force Base. Around two o’ clock in the afternoon, his telephone buzzed. The colonel picked it up and sat back in his chair.
“Col. Posey speaking.”
His receptionist was on the other end. “Yes sir, I have a Desiree Stone from ABC fifteen on line one. She wishes to ask you a few questions.”
As soon as he heard his receptionist explain who it was, the colonel perked up and immediately sat up. Was this the recognition he was waiting to get, he wondered...
“Alright captain put her through.”
“Yes sir.”
He waited for the transfer tone before speaking with an instant sense of stoic provocation.
“Yes, this is Col. Posey speaking.”
“Good afternoon Colonel. My name is Desiree Stone. I’m an investigative reporter from the ABC local news station here in Phoenix. There seems to be a developing story unfolding in Mesa that I thought you might be particularly interested in. So, I was wondering if we could get a statement from you?”
“Is that so? What kind of developing story?”
“Well, a couple of years ago the army had reported the death of a young teenager while assisting your division in the war. You had used the term hero? Creed was his name, correct?”
“Okay, I don’t remember everything that happened two years ago, but that sounds familiar. I definitely remember Creed.” The colonel paused for a second with a confused look upon his brow. “I’m sorry, Desiree is it?”
“Yes, Desiree Stone.”
“Right, well Ms. Stone, if you don’t mind me asking what this might be about, I don’t understand?”
“Well it’s interesting colonel. About three days ago that same young boy showed up back at his house alive.”
“Well that’s impossible Ms. Stone, he was unfortunately killed in action.”
“Creed O’Connor, right? That was the name of the boy that was assisting the military at Sky Harbor?”
“Yes, I know the boy you are talking about, but that’s impossible ma’am.”
“Please excuse my ignorance colonel, I’m just trying to get your thoughts on the matter, if you guys had faked his death, or if his death was actually a cover up?”
“I’m sorry? Is this some sort of a prank?” The colonel asked.
“No, not at all. We were all pretty surprised here ourselves.”
“Look, that’s just ridiculous. I have no idea what you guys saw, but I can assure you it wasn’t Creed. He was confirmed killed in action. Your claim would be most certainly impossible Ms. Stone.”
“Yeah, we thought the same thing at first Col. Posey, until we eventually saw the boy ourselves. That’s obviously why we wanted to reach out and call you colonel, to see if you had possibly heard about this or not?”
“I don’t know what you want me to say, but that’s impossible, I reviewed the body myself.”
“Well then, that would just make this situation an anomaly, wouldn’t it colonel?’
“I’m sorry Ms. Stone, I’m afraid this conversation is over.”
“Sir, please –”
Col. Posey snapped and quickly hung up the phone in a sudden fluster. He sat there at his desk staring at his phone for a few seconds before picking it back up and dialing.
“Sgt. Davis, get me Col. Mitchell.”
“Yes sir. Just one moment.”
It was only a matter of seconds before Sgt. Davis was back on the other end of the receiver. “I’m sorry sir, but he left for the day.”
“What do you mean he’s gone for the day? It’s only three.”
“Yes sir, he had some business off campus he had to attend to.”
“God damnit. Alright fine, just tell him I need to talk to him as soon as possible, it’s urgent.”
The colonel hung up the phone and stood to his feet like a wild man. He furiously walked towards the door to his office, but before he could swing open the door, he heard the phone ring once more.
“What is it Jean?”
“Sir, I got another reporter who says he’s from Fox News. You want to speak with him?”
“No, not right now, just say I’ve left for the day.”
“Yes, sir.”
Col. Posey hung up the phone and stood there in silence for a few seconds.
“What the hell is going on?” He uttered before grabbing his briefcase and adamantly stammering out of his office. The colonel’s receptionist waved him down as he made his way down the hallway.
“Sir, I’m getting back to back calls from multiple reporters. What’s going on?”
“Ugh, nothing Jean. Look, just tell them all I’m gone for the day.”
“Yes sir.”
“If a Col. Mitchell calls the office, please forward him my cell number.”
“Will do Colonel.”
“Thanks.”
The very next morning the colonel nervously sat in his office, continuously tapping a pencil on his desk while staring at the clock. It was reading 7:45 in the morning. Just then the phone rang and before it could even finish the first ring, The colonel anxiously picked up the receiver.
“This is Posey.”
“Morning Colonel, I have a Col. Mitchell here to see you.”
“Okay yes, send him in immediately please.”
Moments later Col. Mitchell was knocking on the colonel’s door.
“Come in.”
“Morning Richard.”
“Colonel come in and take a seat.” Posey instructed.
“How are you doing?”
“I’ve had better days. Why don’t you sit down?”
“I got your message. What’s going on? And does this have anything to do with Ms. Stone?”
Col. Posey’s eye brows creased upwards at the very sound of the reporter’s name. Col. Mitchell simultaneously pulled out a newspaper from his bag and slammed it down on the table.
“What’s this?”
“Well, there it is. What Ms. Stone was calling about. This article was written by Steven Abrams of the East Valley Tribune. He’s the one that first broke the story. Now every news outlet wants a piece of the pie. It’s a fucking mess.”
Col. Mitchell slid the paper across the desk and gave Richard a minute to read the headline. Right there on the front page read “Boy Pronounced Dead Miraculously Returns Home: Foul Play?”
“I can’t believe this shit. How is this even possible?”
“That’s the thing, your guess is as good as mine right about now. Keep reading, it gets better. Apparently, they interviewed him and everything. He remembers everything that happened.”
“What is he saying?”
“Just read it.”
Col. Posey glared back at the column. There was a part in the article where they asked Creed what exactly had happened at Sky Harbor. Creed responded simply by advising them to inquire with Col. Posey for the details surrounding his fate, as well as Capt. Romano’s.
“That little shithead.”
“What the hell are we going to do about it?”
“Just give me some time Mike, I’ll figure something out. For now though, I’m going to take a drive down to Mesa and have a friendly conversation with our little friend there.”
“Don’t do anything brash sir. After what that little bitch said about everything, and the whole world now apparently watching. If the truth was to get out, we’d be toast.”
“Don’t worry Colonel, I’ll figure something out. But let’s keep a close eye on him. If the Chinese ever decide to grow their balls back, we’re desperately going to need his help again.”
“You’re not serious, are you?”
“Of course I am, why’s that?”
“Just with everything that happened, There’d be no way we’d be able to duplicate the same results as two years ago? People wouldn’t believe us next time around.”
“Let that be my concern Colonel.”
“You got it.”<
br />
Both men stood up and exchanged salutes before Col. Mitchell made his way towards the door.
“We’ll be in touch Mitchell.”
“Yes sir.”
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
In Beijing, the premier and thirty three other members making up the state council of the People’s Republic of China all sat sullenly in the Zhongnanhai, adjacent to the Forbidden City. Premier Shui looked around the table in search of answers. It was parallel to a lost kid looking for his parents in a crowded movie theater.
“Gentlemen, we are all here for one goal. We all can agree that there is no future as well as any type of diplomatic relations with us and the United States, until that pompous and imperious man is out of office. The President wants to try again with a more elaborate resurgence, but we can’t move on any type of plan until we can assure him that we won’t suffer the same type of embarrassment that we faced two years ago. Now I want everyone’s input, and we won’t leave until we find the answers that we are looking for.”
The room became quiet once again. Members of the state council looked at each other with confounding glances. War alone was difficult to plan even with a formidable plan of attack, but this was different than anything else they had faced. The United States supposedly had flying men. Soldiers with abilities that even technology couldn’t touch.
“Sir?” Vice Premier Chen Li asked. “Beg your forgiveness sir. But is there even a way? We lost approximately ten thousand men in just a few days, fighting against bewitched fairytales. Mystic witches or wizards, or whatever necromantic anomalies they seemed to be.”
“I have to be honest here gentlemen; I have no idea what we are dealing with. However, I think we are seeing this the wrong way. If the United States still refused to remove their leader, then we must continue to force their hand. Victory is paramount here men, at all costs. Maybe we are up against goliath himself. But even he had a weakness. If history has taught us anything, it’s that evil and wicked men don’t last long and their time on this earth is limited. Our job is to fight the evil in the world. To fight this giant.”
“I can already tell you without divulging into folklore stories, that we’ll need more men and more armament.” Chang Kao, the Minister of Foreign Affairs added. “We need a better way to initiate a more thought out surprise attack. They can see us coming from a mile away with the distance we have to travel. What about communications, is there a way to cut off their communications?” Minister of National Defense, Chou exclaimed.
“We are currently working with the Ministry of Science and Technology on a non-lethal bomb that could give us some time to move under the radar. The only problem is that it wouldn’t last that long, and we are far from the States. Even if their system reboot ultimately stalls our positions, it wouldn’t take them long to re-calculate and initiate an attack.” Miao Lin, Ministry of information announced.
“Well we recently spoke with Ki-nam Kyong; he said Myung-yong Pong and all of North Korea is backing us one hundred percent. So is President Bautista and the Philippines.” Wang Yang, the second of four vice premiers mentioned.
Just then Keung Shiua, another one of the four vice premiers of China, came barreling through the doors and decisively made his way towards Shui at the head of the table.
“Sir, I think you need to look at this.” Keung instructed. He slapped a C.I.A. classified file folder on the table, slid it in front of Shui, and then opened the folds.
“What is this?” Shui asked.
“That file folder is directly from Karen Wang, our top MSS agent who’s been an acting undercover C.I.A. operative in the states. She uncovered these files submitted by a top acting Colonel that oversaw some operation in Arizona.”
Everyone in the room froze and peered over towards the folder with high anticipation, like rabbits when they fear a predator. Premier Shui looked over the contents including medical notes and pictures of Creed. He flipped through the pages and read the bold text.
“Operation Neptune? What is this?”
“I’m not fully sure on the exact contents of the operation but briefing the pages it looks like they had captured a kid with extraordinary abilities. They were able to extract his blood and inject it into their soldiers.”
“My God.”
“I believe this is the bread and butter to how they were able to eliminate our threat so easily.”
“Here’s our superman gentlemen?” The Premier held up the photo of Creed to the rest of the state council. Exasperated and confused looks started to take over everyone in the room.
“The good news is that based on the notes provided by the lead physician in the operation, the effects wore off quite rapidly sir.” Vice Premier Ma Kai expelled.
“How long?”
“The blood was able to sustain in the soldier’s system for forty eight hours. They lost all abilities after that period.”
“So, where’s the boy now?”
“He’s dead sir.”
“Dead?”
“Yes sir. According to the notes, based on the little time frame they were awarded until the blood wore off, they were compelled to drain as much blood as they could. The boy suffered massive blood loss and eventually died there in the medical ward.”
“Savages.”
“Yes sir.”
“Do we know if they have any more of this kid’s blood left over? Is there a shelf life to the potency of his blood?”
“No sir. However, with the boy now deceased, whatever they have left won’t work past twenty four hours.”
“Yes Kueng, that is true. However, how many of us would you sacrifice in taking that chance? They could still take out many of us before those effects were to wear off. Is that even worth the risk?”
The vice premier sat there in silence as did the rest of the state council members. Premier Shui looked around at everyone in the room and then back down at the file.
“Gentlemen, I have a decision to make and I can only pray that none of you ever have to face such declarations, equal to this tumultuous edifice that currently plagues our world and our ways of life. Even as I stand before you today and perpetually preach about this imperialistic leader and his calamitous provocations; I wish not to make such demanding orders with any form of intentions that result in the loss of life. However, I fear that if we do nothing to end this nefarious figure’s rule, then those consequences will most certainly echo farther than any other act of destruction we might induce.”
By the time the premier had paused in giving his speech, he had looked everyone in that room in the eye, one by one until they landed on Kueng. With great sadness the premier closed the folder on the table and then closed his eyes.
“Initiate the second wave of attacks.”
“Zhè'er zhè'er(这儿这儿)” Everyone stood up and shouted here, here while the premier ended up excusing himself from the room. There was still a lot to accomplish before Shui could officially order the attack however; part of the perilous future between the two conflicted countries was currently being written here in Beijing, and this time around it was going to involve more countries, and unfortunately last much longer. Now that the decision to strike resurgence had been made, the next step was coming up with a newer and most impervious plan of attack then before.
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
It had now been over a week since Creed had returned home. His parents had almost fainted at the sight of him when he first appeared on their door step. They irrationally refused to let him out of their sight the entire time he had been back. The media circus that followed was unnerving for Creed; it had become increasingly difficult to conjure up any type of reasonable explanation surrounding his situation. There was just absolutely nothing he could think of. He knew that whatever he came up with, would most likely lead to more questions and follow-up’s. Creed just wanted it all to just go away so he could attempt to get back to his life.
Creed ultimately decided not to talk to anyone about what happened. Instead he took
the Army’s lead, back when everyone presumed he was dead. Creed began telling everyone that he was sworn to secrecy, and that he couldn’t speak about any type of details since it was all top secret. After much given thought, his elaborate plan to eradicate the attention off himself grew from there, as Creed purposefully began dropping names of those that might’ve been involved. At first it was simply ingenious, unfortunately, it didn’t fully produce the exact deflection he was looking for, and the media harassment continued.
After a few weeks, Creed eventually pleaded with his parents to allow him to stay at Genesis’ house until it all blew over. As you could probably imagine, that didn’t go over very well at first. Although his parents understood the nuisances he was dealing with, as they too were continuously dealing with them too every time they left the house; the thought of giving him up after just recently realizing their son wasn’t dead, was very difficult. They’d eventually give in but not with some understandable conditions. They both had Creed promise them that he would keep in touch, and that no matter what, he would finish his high school career. Genesis was fiercely thrilled, and it was like they were sixteen all over again, with a burning crush they both couldn’t control. With all the excitement surrounding Creed’s return and the following media circus, nobody thought to ask about his abilities that started it all. This included Creed himself, as he was just relieved to be alive and back with his family.
Goodbye Sky Harbor Page 20
