sensor out there waiting for them. Tork found the first set of tire tracks and motioned Cal over to them. They walked slowly along the tracks and could see where the vehicles had stopped and they started again. It appeared no one had dismounted from the vehicles; they just seemed to stop and then start again.
They had gone about hundred yards and Tork spoke, “Cal, I’m going to move over to the next set of tracks. We’ve only seen this set and they’ve been made by only one vehicle. We saw three out here this morning. I’m guessing they were abreast and not in line. Just seemed to look that way to us. Give me a few minutes to find them, and then we can follow them together.”
Cal had walked another hundred yards seeing nothing unusual when he spotted a canister just to his left, sticking up out of the ground. It looked like a can at first, and then he noticed what looked like an antenna sticking out of the top of it. He stopped and adjusted the focus on his night glasses. It was not a can. He walked up to it and could see it was some kind of a device he hadn’t seen before. He turned and made sure his flashlight had its red cover over the lens, and then he flashed it toward Tork.
Tork had been scanning around him and had been unable to see anything unusual when he saw Cal’s red light flashing on and off. He stopped and then crossed over to Cal. “What’s up, Cal? Find something?”
“Yeah, look down here by my feet. What do you make of it, Tork?”
“Damn,” Tork almost shouted out the word. It’s a radio-controlled prox sensor, probably infrared and sound-detecting. “So that’s what they were doing. They were planting sensors around the perimeter. We better get out of here fast. No doubt they know we’re here, and right now they know where we are. Let’s move toward your cylinder area. It’s away from these sensors and we can lose them in that direction.”
Tork and Cal turned toward the location of the cylinder Cal had seen and started walking keeping low and in the shadows of the night.
The night had cooled considerably, and they both were starting to feel the desert night chill. The sky was clear and the heavens were filled with stars. Cal looking up and could see the enormity of the heavens and couldn’t help commenting on its beauty to Tork.
Tork looked up and saw the majesty of them all. “Cal, you really surprise me from time to time. In the most desperate times of your life, you always seem to find the good. Here we are in the middle of the desert looking for God knows what and you take the time to look over the sky, when you should be looking over this cold empty desert.”
“Yeah, I know, Tork. Just can’t help but see great things when they are staring me in the face. You know, Tork, it’s cold and were tired and we don’t seem to be getting what we want, but I can still smile and smell the fresh air out here. And with all my troubles, I have you as a friend. Thanks, Tork.”
“Yeah, well I…kind of like you too, Cal. Now let’s find these renegades and fix this problem. We’re running out of time and we don’t know who is after you, do we?”
*****
Security had picked them up almost as soon as the coming out of the ground, as they started walking toward the sensor line. Radar operations had brought up a ground sweep radar unit to track them, and they were now being followed electronically. Every step was monitored, and the information was being fed into the computer. There, every move was anticipated. Tork and Cal were being careful, moving slowly, deliberately. You could see the blip on the screen stop, pause, and then move again.
Yes, they had two very cautious bleeps on the radar screen.
The officer looked over to the sergeant and in a low, polite, unrestrained voice filled with confidence said, “Call Colonel Duncan. Tell him they’re on their way and ask him if he would like to be at the observation cylinder when we apprehend them.”
“Yes, sir,” he replied.
The colonel was just getting ready to call Washington when the phone rang. “Yes.… Very good. I’ll be right there. Don’t do anything until I arrive. Understand?”
The sergeant returned to the operations room and informed the officer in charge the colonel was on his way and to do nothing until his arrival. The officer nodded and watched the progress of the two bleeps on the screen as they moved across ground toward the observation post.
The colonel arrived and said, “Raise the observation post up just out of the ground, just enough for them to stumble over it or see it so they can look it over. Have the external mic on and two men armed in the post. As soon as they look it over, raise it up and have the men apprehend them and bring them to me. I’ll be in my office. Then find their transportation and equipment and impound it.”
“Yes, sir,” he said.
They watched and charted Tork and Cal’s movements, observing each step they took. They were within feet of the cylinder, and the solider watching the RadarScope raised his arm, hand closed, and his first finger pointing up. Suddenly he dropped his hand and exclaimed in a load voiced, “Now!” A hand activated a switch button, and hydraulics started to hum. The cylinder with occupants moved up to catch the prey.
*****
Tork and Cal moved very carefully across the sand in the direction of the cylinder. Tork had been searching ahead, looking for more sensors, finding none. He felt they were safe, hoping the observers had seen nothing more than rabbits moving around their sensors.
Cal spoke, “We should be getting close, Tork. And if my calculations are correct, we should see something soon.”
Just as Cal had finished speaking, Tork suddenly fell forward. “What the hell was that?” Tork had tripped over something he failed to see in his night glasses. He stood on top of a large rock when it suddenly started to rise out of the ground, knocking him down again. This time, he rolled over and out of the way as a large cylinder rose up out of the ground.
As he looked up, startled, Cal caught a glimpse of a door sliding in on the side of the cylinder, and before he could say anything at all, someone switched on floodlights illuminating them. Two uniformed men stood there with M-16s aimed at them.
“Gentlemen, welcome. We have been expecting you. Please raise your hands and don’t try anything heroic. We only want to ask you a few questions.”
They handcuffed, searched, and took Cal and Tork into the cylinder.
Tork looked over at Cal and knew at this point it would be smart to play along with them. Maybe now they could get a few answers. In any case, it seemed they were getting in deeper and deeper.
Cal and Tork entered the cylinder. It was much larger than Cal had suspected; it could hold a dozen men easily. It had a small ladder going up about eight feet to a second deck above them. It looked like some kind of observation deck. Cal could hear the valves open and the pulse of the hydraulics as the cylinder began to silently move down into the earth. Well, he thought, wherever they were going, it was a plus, for that was the reason they were here. To find out just what this was all about and why they chased him all the way to the bay area.
The observation unit dropped into the earth, and the door opened. The two men ordered both Cal and Tork out. As they walked through the doorway, a stern man with purpose and obvious authority met them.
Colonel Duncan casually invited both men to follow him and then led them into an interrogation room. He had their handcuffs removed and instructed them to sit.
“What
