Dreamland: A Rogue Three Novelette

by Josh Craven

  First were collections of documents on media reports of Area 51-related UFO sightings and whistleblower “interviews.” Apparently all were staged by the Air Force and the DoD. Next were analyses of the national security implications of these reported sightings and interviews with an emphasis on how these red herrings diverted the public’s attention from the official activities of Area 51. Beyond that level of records Ben hit a wall of security that took him a full hour to circumvent. He could have simply disabled the security firewall, but that would have set off alarms at the highest levels at the Pentagon. Better to slip around until he found an unlocked window than to kick in the front door.

  When he made it past the security wall, he had access to all types of documentation on Top Secret aircraft dating back to the early days of the Cold War. But unless the Air Force had an airplane named Hannah Witter, Ben didn’t give two shits about covert aircraft development. He rubbed his forehead red and slammed his fist on the desk. Where the hell is my sister?! he thought.

  In searching for Hannah, Ben had long used Tor to surf the dark net. It was during one of these sessions that Ben had first come across a message board in which a handful of ghost-sources claimed that there was a deeper, darker secret hidden below the Nevada desert. Referred to on the dark net as JOMA Secret, the name sounded much more mundane than extraterrestrial autopsies and reverse-engineering UFOs, but, if the rumors were true, the desert held a darker and more sinister secret than the American people could ever accept—that Area 51 was a U.S. Government human research facility, and not the kind with institutional review board oversight. More like Mengele-Auschwitz-twins. For years Ben found the paranoid ramblings of these schizophrenic conspiracy theorists entertaining. He particularly enjoyed the shit-house-rat ramblings of a self-labeled ghost-source calling himself invisiblepatriot92, who often talked about doing contract work at Area 51.

  In one lengthy post that was more manifesto than narrative account, invisiblepatriot92 claimed he caught a glimpse of a thrashing pregnant woman being held down by three men in scrubs who strapped her into an obstetrical examination chair. The whole scene sounded like sensational fiction until invisiblepatriot92 quoted the last words he heard the poor woman scream as the heavy, soundproof door sealed shut: “No, NO! Help me Bonk-Bonk!”

  When he read those words, Ben’s heart nearly exploded from the adrenaline spiking his bloodstream, and fuzzy images from the CPS hearing of Hannah and the beady-eyed mole-man swirled in his head.

  People on the dark net don’t want to be found, and that was true of invisiblepatriot92. Ben posted in response to his message, and invisiblepatriot92 followed up with a lot more crazy rambling and very few additional facts. When Ben tried to direct-message him with pleas for help finding his sister, invisiblepatriot92 made good on his name—he vanished.

  There, in the lab two hundred feet underground, Ben reached the bottom of the experimental aircraft documents and slammed into a digital wall. Beyond this wall resided the true nature of Area 51: the human research program that invisiblepatriot92 and his ilk called JOMA Secret. Ben’s fingers flew over the keyboard as he tried to get around this second, more complex security wall, but the clock was melting like a candle. As the clock ticked past one p.m., Ben’s armpits grew increasingly damp.

  “Son of a BITCH!” he growled after another failed attempt to get into the JOMA files. He stood and flung his chair, sending it skidding across the shiny, black floor. It slammed into the far wall with an explosion that reverberated in the clinical shell of the lab. He paced and chewed his fingernails and barked the occasional “piece of monkey shit” at his computer station. He eyed the clock; Maldek would be back in just over three hours.

  Ben resigned to break straight through the firewall. He knew it would set off red alerts in Seattle and Washington, DC, and every military installation in between. As soon as he infiltrated the database, he would have to search quickly to locate Hannah. With any luck, he could find her records quickly. He prayed she was still alive, that he could get to her, that they could get topside before the entire installation went to DEFCON status Round House and seal him in this subterranean tomb. Of course, best-case scenario, he and Hannah would still be in the middle of the Nevada desert, but he would deal with that situation if he was lucky enough to get there.

  This was a mess of his own doing. He had told Maldek he would have his work completed today; there would be no coming back to try again tomorrow. He hadn’t counted on running face-first into an impenetrable database. He had overestimated his hacking abilities and put himself in a box. Time to kick down that door, he thought.

  He fetched his chair, hunched over the keyboard, and started clacking keys. When he had typed out the last crash code to punch through the security wall and into JOMA, he paused. His pointer finger hovered over the ‘enter’ key. It shook uncontrollably as he weighed the shitstorm that was about to be unleashed with his next keystroke.

  “Please God…,” he whispered as he closed his eyes and slowly lowered his finger toward the little button that would end life as he knew it.

  Bam, bam, bam! The three sharp raps on the lab door made him stop and open his eyes. He looked at the clock; it wasn’t yet two p.m. Maldek shouldn’t be back yet, he thought. Besides, she wouldn’t knock; she would swipe her card and walk in.

  Ben exited the lab and snapped his head to his left then right. There was nobody around except the MP.

  “Airman, did you knock?”

  “Yes sir,” he replied with military brevity.

  After an expectant pause, Ben realized the kid wasn’t going to elaborate and asked, “Do you need something?”

  “No, but I think maybe you do.”

  “Really? Please explain, Airman.”

  “Please call me DeShaun,” the MP said. “What I mean is, you’re still in that room, and I know you’re here to do something else besides work on that computer. Plus, I heard you slamming stuff around, and I figure that means you’re jammed up.”

  “DeShaun, I’m not sure what you think you know, but I’m here to work on some computer coding for some medical equipment that my company sold to this installation. What you heard was me tripping over my chair when I got up to stretch my legs a bit ago. Now if you don’t mind, I need to get back to work.” Ben started back into the lab.

  “I misunderstood the situation, Mr. Witter,” DeShaun said. “Sorry to bother you, won’t happen again.”

  “Thanks DeShaun.”

  “I’m here if you need me. Otherwise you won’t even know I’m here. Just an invisible patriot.”

  Ben stopped in his tracks and slowly turned back toward the MP.

  “Actually, DeShaun, can you step into the lab for a moment?”

  ###

  Jennifer Maldek watched Ben on the computer monitor in her office in the underground medical facility. She didn’t fully trust the man. He had declined her advances last night, and that didn’t sit well with her. She was sure he was straight, and he seemed cocksure. In addition to the DoD brief she received, she had Googled him before his arrival. She was aware of the media reports of his eligible-bachelor status. The current word on social media and the tabloid websites was that Ben was single. She knew men were attracted to her, and she had felt his eyes sliding over her body. She never would have believed he would come to her apartment, de-frag her laptop, and then fall asleep on her bed without making a move on her. Definitely something shifty about this guy.

  The closed-circuit camera hidden in the air vent relayed video of the playboy biotech geek in his natural environment: the computer lab. For most of the morning he had been planted in his chair, fingers twitching atop the keyboard, but close to noon, he started to fidget with his right ear. She couldn’t read any characters on his screen, but she could tell it was a page full of geek-code jibberish. A little bit later he flung his chair across the room and stalked around while nibbling on his fingers.

  Maldek was amused. Serves you right, you limp-dick nerd, she thought.
She knew she was the epitome of the woman scorned cliché, but she didn’t get many male visitors as good-looking as Ben Witter. Plus he had put off clear signs of attraction, staring at her chest, looking at her the same way he had looked at the steak on his plate. Maybe he’s not straight after all, her ego consoled.

  She was enjoying watching him pace in anxious frustration when he stopped and looked toward the door. Then he walked over to it and swiped his key card.

  “Where the hell are you going?” Maldek said aloud. “And why the hell don’t I have audio in there?”

  The camera didn’t have a good angle, but she could tell the door was open and she could see his feet. He was just outside the lab, apparently talking to the MP. That’s a no-no, boys, she thought. Then Ben re-entered the lab with the MP following behind him.

  “Not cool, Airman!” she said to her monitor. “What are you guys doing?”

  Maldek slapped a few keys on her computer and pulled up the live relay of the hallway outside the door. The hallway was empty save for the MP’s vacant chair. She rewound the video a little and watched the interaction between the two men, again cursing the lack of audio on the closed circuit cameras. She rewound the feed to a few seconds before Ben opened the door. The Airman was seated immediately to the right side of the lab door. With a motion so smooth and quick it was almost imperceptible, his right arm dropped to his side and reached over and knocked three times on the lower part of the lab door. That’s what brought Ben out of the lab. What did you have to say to him, Airman…?

  Maldek switched the camera back to the current feed in the lab and saw that the MP was seated at the computer, Ben standing just off his right shoulder. The MP’s fingers were a blur. Oh, shit, Maldek thought as she jumped up and flew out of her office.

  ###

  “You said online you were a contractor,” Ben said to DeShaun.

  “Yeah, well, I couldn’t say I was an Airman. Can you imagine the shitstorm?”

  “You know I thought you were nuts when I starting reading your posts, right?”

  “That’s ok, it’s better if most people don’t take me too seriously. The folks that count know I’m legit,” DeShaun said. “You figured it out.”

  “Why’d you disappear without responding to my private messages?”

  “Sorry, man. There’s no way I could know one-hundred-percent I could trust you. Couldn’t risk the communication.” DeShaun’s fingers rapped on the keys with calculated precision, hammering home the ‘Enter’ key after each completed section of code.

  “Are you sure you can get past the firewall? How do you know how to do this? How did you know I was coming? How did you get assigned to this detail?”

  “Whoa—slow down, Ben,” DeShaun said. “First off, I’m better at this than you. You just gotta accept that.” He cracked an easy smile. “I’m self-taught for the most part. Ma passed away when I was little. My brothers played sports, but me and my pops, we played computer games when I was growing up. He passed away right after I enlisted, and now I’m out here in the damn desert. There ain’t nothing to do when I get off shift, so I started messing around, hacking. Turns out, I’m pretty much brilliant.” DeShaun looked up at Ben and shrugged his shoulders.

  “How much longer?” Ben asked. He looked at his watch for the thousandth time since DeShaun got on the computer. He had been firing the keystrokes like a machinegun for ten minutes. Ben wiped the sweat from his forehead with the palm of his hand.

  “Not long… Just about there… Okay!” DeShaun slapped the ‘Enter’ key one final time. “This is the map of all areas of the underground complex.”

  Ben’s mouth fell open. The hallways on the map looked like tunnels in an ant farm. Tunnels sprawling everywhere, leading to chambers that were multiple levels deep. The web of passageways extended off the screen on both sides. He felt like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had just punched him in the stomach.

  “Take note of the path you want to follow. Here’s where we are now.” DeShaun pointed to a spot left of the middle of the map. “See this area?” DeShaun pointed to a section of the map on the far right of the screen. This room is where I saw your sister being strapped to the chair, but over here…” DeShaun scrolled further to the right, to a part of the map that wasn’t initially visible because it was so far from the computer lab. “Over here are the dorms. This is where you’ll find your sister.”

  “Oh shit…” Ben said. “I can’t save her.” His eyes stung at the corners.

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t have clearance on my badge to open any doors except this lab and the breakroom. I can’t get past the end of this hallway.”

  ###

  Maldek and the four MPs flanking her left and right turned the corner of the hallway, and she could see DeShaun’s empty chair forty yards down the corridor, sitting beside the lab door.

  “Airman Downsen abandoned his post. You two…” Maldek looked at the two guards on her left, “arrest him and take him away as soon as we get in there.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” said the two MPs in unison.

  “You two stay with me until I decide what to do with Mr. Witter. Unfortunately, he’s a damn civilian,” she said to the MPs on her right just as the group arrived at the door to the lab. Maldek swiped her badge and yanked the door open.

  ###

  “While I was in the lab, I adjusted your clearance level. Your badge now has Colonel Maldek’s clearance access, which means you can go anywhere you damn well please,” DeShaun said.

  “You sure about coming with me on this? There’s a very high chance this day will turn out very badly,” Ben said. “I may never see the sun again.”

  The pair walked at a crisp pace, like they were on important government business. To the eyes around them, they were a high-level contractor and his MP escort. When Maldek realized they were gone, they were going to be the most wanted men in America and trapped in a two-hundred-feet-deep hole.

  “This day was going to end badly for me from the moment I stepped into that lab. I’m in with both feet, Ben. When Maldek realizes I’ve helped you, I’ll likely be charged with treason.”

  Ben considered DeShaun’s situation for a second. “Yep, you’re screwed. Let’s go get Hannah and find a way out of this maze.”

  The two approached the wide double doors to the medical unit in which DeShaun saw Hannah being forced into an exam room. Ben’s hand quaked like he was ninety years old as he reached to swipe his badge. He paused.

  “Ben, don’t act nervous. Swipe the card. It’ll work. If it doesn’t we will figure out a plan B, but you’re going to draw attention to us.”

  Ben knew DeShaun was right. He steeled his spine and swiped his badge. The little pad chirped and turned green and the doors slid open with soft swish. He looked at his partner.

  “You’re about to step off into a whole new world, baby,” DeShaun said.

  “Show me where you saw her,” Ben said.

  The little exam room looked like any obstetrical exam room in the civilian world: A bulky chair with stirrup foot rests, a round stool on wheels, a big light on a swinging arm that extended from high on the wall, and a computer terminal sitting atop a counter with storage below and cabinet space above. Against the far wall sat a Witter Biotech transvaginal ultrasound station on a mobile cabinet.

  The scene was a stark reminder that Hannah had been pregnant, a thought that was hard for Ben to wrap his brain around. The last time he had seen her, Hannah was only six years old. Now, she would be twenty-four, still mentally disabled, and a mother. Ben felt a heavy weight in his limbs and a big fish flop in his belly. He closed the door so he could talk to DeShaun without others overhearing.

  “We don’t know where to go from here, DeShaun. Hell, I don’t know her name since she was adopted, or even that she’s still alive. You saw her, what, a year ago now?”

  “She’s still alive, Ben, and I know where her room is in the dorm. After your posts and your private messages, I crawled around in t
he system. I knew the time, date and the exam room in which I saw her. The whole thing stuck with me—it’s the only time I’ve seen anything like that going on here. I’ve only been in this part of the installation that one time. I was assigned to a General that day, and he passed through here on his inspection.

  “Anyway, I hacked into the system and checked the room reservation schedule for that day, November 17. The room wasn’t scheduled under a name; it was for patient number MM-4162.”

  “Just initials and a number…” Ben said to the floor. A frustrated tear rolled down his cheek. “Can you believe that evil bitch Maldek tried to sleep with me last night?”

  “She’s attractive, I’ll give her that.”

  “But she has to know about all this, right? I mean, she’s in on it? She’s kinda the boss down here.”

  “Ben, she knows about it all. She runs the whole show. She’s not kinda the boss; she’s THE boss.”

  Ben started opening cabinet doors, and he quickly found what he was looking for: a pair of white doctor’s lab coats. “Put this on,” he said and tossed one of the coats to DeShaun.

  ###

  At the security desk Maldek hovered over a guard that was pulling records on a computer.

  “I want to know where Ben Witter and Airman DeShaun Downsen have swiped their cards today,” Maldek said. “There will be a record of every swipe, and we’ll follow their dumbasses like they left a trail of breadcrumbs.”

  “I’m pulling the records now, ma’am,” said the young MP.

  Maldek could see his hands were jittery and his cheeks were flushed. She often had this effect on men, but at times it was hard to tell if it was due to her rank or her beauty.

  “Colonel Maldek, there have been no swipes on either of their badges since early this morning. According to this, they should both still be in the lab.”

  “Do you think I’m blind, Airman? I must be, because I was just at the lab, and I didn’t see them.” She turned to one of the four MPs that she had pulled onto her detail. “Did you see them Airman Gonzalez?”