The Roswell Swatch

by Scott Powers

  Ziv's pièce de résistance was an actual extraterrestrial body. One of the bodies, no doubt, that the young private mortician, Glenn Dennis, reported long after he was summoned to the Roswell Army Air Force Hospital in 1947. Eve knew nothing of this and stood aside staring in motionless wonder. But Max knew. He was giddy, bouncing from his heels to his toes, staring over the top of her into the drawer.

  Ziv was not done with his show though. From a belt sheath, Ziv drew the hunting knife Eve had seen before.

  “Jen,”he said.“Pick up your video camera. Please record this.”

  Jen set up with her camera.

  “Broadcast, please,”Ziv directed. She pushed the button on the transmitter.

  “I don’t know if we have anyone receiving this,”she said.

  Ziv waved the knife at the camera.

  “You don’t,”he said.“But we do.”

  Zivleaned into the drawer, his thumb still carefully bent into the button, and lifted the alien’s right arm. He drew out a tiny hand with tendril-like fingers. He sliced off a finger, through the plastic covering, catching it between his own fingers. He slid the knife back into its sheath. With his hand free, he held up the alien finger. With two fingers, he squeezed the end of the covering, and the piece of finger, about two inches long, slid into his palm.

  Zivheld it up to the camera and handed the finger to Max.“Fake,”Zivsaid.“Plastic. A movie prop we purchased years ago. It’s all fake.”

  Meln looked as surprised as anyone. He waved his gun.

  “It can’t be,”he said.“It can’t all be fake. It’s too much.”

  Max squeezed the severed finger, examined it, and then handed it to Eve. Ziv moved to another drawer, the one with the foil packets.

  He opened it, drew the knife again, and plunged it straight down. He lifted it out. Like a paper spike, the knife held at least a dozen packets, stabbed together.

  Ziv held it to the camera, showing foils had been pierced.

  “Nothing here of value, Dr. Meln,”he said.“But thanks for trying.”

  Meln was walking tiny circles, looking at the floor and pointing the gun at the ceiling. He pulled a packet from his pocket. He waved it and then tossed it at Ziv's face, but with no weight, it fluttered to the ground in front of him.

  “I’ve tested this,”he said.“It was real, a unique carbon crystal, almost as strong as diamond!”

  Ziv nodded.

  “I’m not saying what you’ve seen before wasn’t real. I don’t honestly know. I wasn’t with you. But it’s not here,”he said.“Jen, you can turn off your camera now. We have what we need, and I suggest you carefully consider what you have.”

  She turned it off. He nodded to the floor. She placed the camera on the floor.

  “This unit has held great mysteries, it’s true,”Zivsaid.“This country has benefitted tremendously from the exploration of those mysteries. What were they? Were they extraterrestrial or some of the most ingenious things mankind has ever produced? What was fake and what is real? What is normal and what is paranormal? What is human and what is not? That’s why what I do is so important.”

  “And what exactly is it that you do?”Eve asked Ziv.

  He still had his left fist clenched on the dead-man’s button. Ziv fished the gun out of his pocket with his free hand.

  “I manage things,”he said.“The organization I work for has global responsibility. But the challenges are always local. They require someone who can go in and put out little fires before they draw attention. As Maxcan tell you, we have money, resources, technology you can’t imagine. And as Max does not have to tell you, Eve, sometimes what it takes is managing people.”

  “Managing,”Eve said.“Is that what you call this?”

  “There’s a lot at stake,”Zivsaid.“We use whatever tools are necessary.”

  Jen motioned toward the gun.

  “So, what? You gonnashoot us?”

  Eve interrupted.“You promised me some answers. Did you kill my grandmother? My grandfather? His lady friend?”she pointed at Max.

  Ziv pointed the gun at Eve.

  “I did kill your grandmother. I loosened the brake line. Not personally, not with these two hands, but yes, I had it done. And I got your grandfather drunk. That I did myself. I did not drive him into the ditch. Someone else did that.”

  Eve was ready to leap at Ziv and gouge his eyes out, but he was now aiming her gun at her. And he carried a bomb.

  “Of them all in 1955, your grandmother was unfortunate. For that, I am sorry. It was supposed to be your grandfather. Your grandmother and the baby, your mother, they were not supposed to be in the car that night. They just showed up.”

  Max put his hand on Eve’s arm. She brushed it off.

  “So, he was not in on this with you?”Max asked.

  “In on it? No, he had no clearance. He already had proven not worthy of this country’s trust when he lifted that foil. Why would I involve him?”

  “Nothing,”Max said.“I just wanted to clear something up.”

  “And when he got away,”Zivsaid,“He caused me a half-century problem.”

  “Problem? Fuck you. You? You ruined his life,”she screamed.“He was a miserable, angry shit the rest of his pathetic days.”

  “It was a life he wasn’t supposed to have. It was sixty years of stolen time,”Zivsaid.“Fortunately, it seems he told no one.

  "And he kept this to himself.”

  He slipped the hand holding the dead-man’s switch into his left pocket and, carefully, with two free fingers withdrew Eve’s swatch. The tissue lacked a corner.

  “That’s mine!”Eve said.“Or did you lie about where it came from when you gave it to me?”

  “It is not yours. This belongs to us. It always did. Your grandfather was its caretaker all these years, and for that, I wish I could thank him. He took good care of it. He showed it to no one until I talked him into showing it to me. Oh, and this too. Our men found this the other day, thank you."

  Ziv transferred the swatch to his gun hand and reached the bomb-button hand back into his pocket. He withdrew the missing corner. He held it up. He put it back. Then he took the full swatch back into his left hand.

  Meln, quietly holding his gun, looked mesmerized, moving toward Ziv and the metallic cloth. Smiling, Ziv held it out toward him. Melnalmost reached for the swatch, an addict’s obsession in his eyes, when Zivpointed his gun at Ian’s forehead.

  “When I finally found your grandfather, I got to know him. You’re right, Eve. He was a wretch,”he said.“It took me a long time to convince him I was like him, someone who had been ruined trying to hide secrets. He showed me this. Yes, it was his.

  “That night we went out drinking, just two old cowboys knockin’them back. On the way back, we picked up a friend. Your poor grandfather lost control. Sosad. I found his scrapbook, too. Yes, that was his. I added the photograph in the back. That was mine.”

  Eve was ready to kill Ziv, but he still had his eyes and her gun on Meln, who aimed Jen’s gun right back.

  Why are they aiming at one another? Where is this going? Eve settled into a state of suspended readiness, waiting for some sort of interaction between those two that would give her a chance to spring.

  “Eve, dear, I decided to offer this to you as bait,”Zivsaid, pushing the swatch back in his lab coat pocket.“Risky, but worth the risk. We wanted to set a big trap, to get into Max’s network. I tip my hat to you and your friends, son. You have caused us as much heartache as anyone.

  “And we also needed to resolve something else. I told you there were three reasons I was here, but I’ve only mentioned two. You see, we’ve had a leak. Worse than a leak, we’ve had someone inside who was working his own agenda for his own financial gain. Little things like data have been draining out of here for years. And worse.”

  Meln’s hands were shaking. He held his gun with both hands and still had trouble keeping it aimed at Ziv.

  “You three may go,”Zivsaid to Eve, Max, and Jen.“N
othing you’ve seen or heard or recorded here will ever be credible. I’m not worried about what any of you say to anyone. Sadly, this location has been compromised for us, and we are all but finished moving out of here. That needed to be done anyway.

  “So I bid you your leave, now. Dr. Melnand I must have a private meeting.”

  No one moved, so Zivcontinued.“Very well. You asked a third question, Eve, and I haven’t answered it yet. I’m not entirely sure what happened to Mr. Studebaker’s lady friend, although I have suspicions. You see, we first began to suspect we had a leak about eight years ago. Yes, it’s been that long. March. About the same time as, well, you know.”

  Now he had Max’s attention. Di disappeared in March eight years ago.

  “Di?”Max asked, turning toward Ian.

  Meln swung his gun toward Max and then quickly back to Ziv.

  “Yes,”Ziv said.

  “When she was brought to us, she was delirious, delusional, and hallucinating, but physically she appeared to be unharmed, except for a wound in her neck.”Ziv put his button hand against the back of his own neck to illustrate.

  “Damn you!”Max said.

  Ziv nodded.

  “For reasons I won’t get into, we took her in, to conduct some research on her possessions. Right upstairs, by the way. The same room you stayed in last week, Max. Quite comfortable, no? She was well taken care of. Rest assured. We had no intention of harming her in any way. She thought she was in a hospital. But she had been through something, and we needed to know more about it and to convince her that what happened to her was not real. That takes some effort. It takes a little time.

  “But the second night we had her, Di escaped,”Zivtold Max.“Or at least she disappeared, along with her things. The police found Di’s body a mile downstream from here. The autopsy said there was no indication of unnatural causes.

  “I must tell you, some of the chemical agents developed in this institute wouldn’t show up in lab tests,”he continued.“Especially after a body spends two days in a river.”

  “There were eight people on our team examining her and what she had with her,”Zivadded,“including the famous chemist, Dr. Ian Meln.”

  Meln and Zivwere now slowly circling each other, pointing Jen’s and Eve’s guns.

  “You lost your focus,”Ziv said to Meln.“How long have you been stealing from us? How long have you been jeopardizing all that we do?”

  Melnshook his head.“You don’t know,”he said.“We were trying everything to get her to talk. She was too terrified. Whatever happened to her, she was suffering tremendous post-traumatic shock.”

  “You? You killed Di?" Max screamed.

  But Meln was locked in orbit with Ziv, ignoring all others.

  “You ran your own tests. You were serving your own purposes,”Ziv said.

  “She had horrible nightmares while she slept. She kept reaching for her neck wound, not to touch it but to protect it," Meln said. "I'm convinced she was implanted there. She, she clawed it out herself. She gouged her own neck. I had to find out what she did with it. Where was the implant?"

  "And it wasn’t the last time you freelanced, nor the first, was it?” Ziv asked.

  "Don't you get it? That implant, wherever it is, wherever she left it, it must be found!"

  "So you drugged her."

  "You killed Di!" Max screamed again, and once again got no response.

  "I tried to get her into a state of consciousness where she could relate what happened," Meln said. "Don't you see? That implant, it should be easy to find. It would be covered with her blood and her tissue! We've got to find it. She knew. She knew. She needed to tell us."

  "We've been compromised far too often, far too seriously, to allow someone like you to continue," Ziv said.

  "What did you give her? What did you give her!" Max shouted.

  Finally, Meln acknowledged him.

  "Methaqualone," he said.

  "You gave her’ludes, dude?" Max screamed.

  "And I gave her an injection of a sodium thiopental derivative that's being developed here."

  "And what did you learn?" Ziv asked.

  "She went into cardiac arrest."

  "So you killed her! And you dumped her!" Max screamed. "That's why you knew about the tunnels here. Because you took her out through one!"

  Meln stopped circling. Ziv focused only on Meln.

  “You were going to let us go?”Jen asked.

  “You’re free to go now,”Ziv said. "Go."

  “We’re going then,”Jen said. She stepped toward the door. But none of the others moved.

  “Come on, Eve, Max,” Jen said quietly, urgently.

  Max was ready to kill Meln himself, but of course, he was unarmed and outside the dance that Meln and Ziv were performing. Eve was ready to kill Ziv. Both were waiting to pounce.

  “I don’t get it,”Eve said.“You told us all this. We’re going to turn it on you.”

  “Who would believe you?”Ziv said. He kept staring at Meln.“And you’ll never see me again. I’m not easy to find.”

  “He’s right,”Max said.“Shit. We tell the police, others, what? That we broke into this place only to discover we were set up? And then he told us all these stories about killing people? Stories that will have no physical evidence?”

  “Well, I’ll find you. I swear I will,”Eve said.

  “Trust me, my dear,”Zivsaid.“You shall never see me again. Or Dr. Meln.”

  Zivfired Eve’s gun. Meln bounced off the wall. But Meln fired back, and blood exploded from Ziv’s neck, splattering them all.

  CHAPTER 24

  INSIDE THE FIRE

  Zivdropped Eve’s gun and grabbed his neck, but it was like grabbing the end of a garden hose. Blood spewed through and around his fingers and palm. Still clenching his left fist, Ziv brought it to his chest. He went down on his knees and then collapsed face first as blood spread.

  Meln slid down the wall into a heap and rolled onto his gun hand, face down.

  “Let’s get out of here!”Jen screamed, and she had the door open a second later. She ran into the hallway, but Max and Eve stayed.

  Jen stepped back in and grabbed Max’s arm. Finally, she pried him away from the scene. But not Eve.“Eve!”Jen shouted.“Go! Now!”

  Jen pulled Max down the hall, but Eve stayed in the pod. She knelt down beside Ziv, whose neck gurgled blood through his fingers. He was still moving, still alive.

  With her left hand, she retrieved her gun from the pooling blood beside him. With her right hand, she felt around on Ziv’s left side. She found his lab coat pocket and slid her hand into it. She fished around carefully and found what she was looking for.

  But as she drew out her swatch and the corner sample, Ziv stirred. Somehow, he got his right hand, soaked in blood, on her face and pushed. He pushed twice. Ziv was pushing Eve away. He was pushing her toward the door. Somehow, he was buying her time.

  And then Ziv collapsed again. Eve ran, out the door and to her right, down the dim corridor. She saw Max down the hallway at the door to the tunnel stairs. He waved. He saw her coming and ducked inside the stairwell. The door eased closed.

  As Eve reached the door, someone behind her screamed.

  “Stop!”

  She almost stopped, turned, and saw Melnfollowing in a stumbling run. He was half-bent over, but both his arms were swinging. In his hand, Menlo had Jen’s gun, swinging, but generally pointed at her. Eve had stashed her gun in its holster. She was still a few steps from the stairwell. She turned and ran again.

  He fired and the shot ricocheted down the corridor behind her.

  “Don’t move,”he said, now approaching fast.

  “Max, Jen, run!” Eve screamed.

  A step from the doorway, she turned again and saw Melnsight the gun. She knew she couldn’t move farther or he would shoot. She had no idea if he knew how to handle a gun and concluded that from this distance he might hit her. She stopped with her hand on the door. For a man who should be gut sh
ot, he was moving quickly.

  She pushed the door.

  “Stop!”

  She stepped into the doorway.

  “Stop! Not another step!”

  “Ian darling, you survived!”she said as Melndrew close. She backed slowly, pushing the door farther open behind her, but she dared not make the sudden movement she’d need to get away.

  Now almost at point-blank range, he reached into his coat’s breast pocket and withdrew the metallic tile he had stolen. It was dented. He looked amused, because it was the first time he’d checked. He ripped open his shirt revealing a bloody, rectangular, swollen bruise over his heart. He put the tile into a pants pocket.

  “Now tell me that's not real,”he said.“And give me the foil!”

  He stood in front of her, just inside the corridor. She stood just outside, on the stairs leading to the tunnel.

  “What happened to that girl was an unfortunate accident. But I swear, little girl, I swear, I’ll kill you now for the foil, and it won’t feel unfortunate at all.”

  Eve reached into her pocket.

  “Slowly!”He aimed the gun at her head.“If I see your weapon, I’ll drop you. Both pieces, please. The main piece and the sample.”

  Eve slowly withdrew the swatch and the cut corner from her pocket. She held them as if they were all that mattered to her. He reached his hand out. She reached her fist, holding the foil, with ends sticking out both sides. She turned her hand over and unclenched her fist, offering it to him. Meln held it in his open palm.

  Down the hallway, the pod exploded.

  A fireball blew down the corridor at surreal speed. At the moment Eve felt and heard the shock of the enormous, deep roar, she saw the corridor around Meln turn white and then red. She saw Melnleave his feet and disappear in the flash, as if he’d stood in front of a speeding bus. As he vanished from view, a surge of blast fire replaced him. The force of the blast reached Eve, launching her through the doorway and hurling her down the stairs.

  The explosion’s sound rumbled for seconds, and its initial sound led straight to a cacophony of noise: roaring fire, wrenching metal, bursting timbers, crashing debris, collapsing ceilings and walls, and secondary blasts.