The Bella Project

Written by Thomas G. Arndt

What exactly am I looking at

Chapter 1

A man maybe in his thirties was walking through the Pentagon, this was his first day as Special Agent Major Jason Witlock. He had heard of soldiers being recruited before, but never in his days did he think he would be one of them. His hair was sandy brown, not that you could tell through his crew cut, but he was told that his deep blue eye's drove women crazy. He had never been married before, his job in the Army was that of Army Rangers, he had been stationed in Baghdad recently. He was in a unit that was recently faced down with something strange, he was sure that they had gotten whatever it has, but when they got there where it had fallen, there was nothing but dust.

Whatever it was, it did look human, she was so confident that they couldn't hurt her, but all it took was one Wiley Pete grenade. She screamed like a woman, but her speed was unnatural, and she never came out in the sun light. They told him that was the only reason why he had been recruited, he, as they said it, had special knowledge of these things. But why not his entire unit then, why was he selected over all the rest, he had earned his strips, he had seen a lot of action in his twenty-two year. They say he should be a Coronal by now, but it was a special ancestor that was holding him back, he had no idea of this ancestor, in fact in all their family albums there's no picture of him.

The story goes he was put in charge of Galveston, but on the eve of the union attack he deserted his post, he wasn't a coward, just no one really knew what happened to him. His father had told of a story of how the family had two hundred pictures of him, then one night a burglar came and stole them all, not his wife's, just his, and that was the end of them remembering him. He then turned, he looked at the room number 913, this was where he was supposed to be, he had to think of what kind of weirdos there would be in there. Were these guys like those on that show the X-files. He then leaned forward and knocked on the door.

A woman then opened the door, she was a handsome woman with dark brown hair. She gave him a patronizing chuckle as she said, " Dress blues really, did anyone tell you this was a field office?"

He gave her a look as he replied, " Ma'am this is my first day, we in the Army always do things the right way."

A man behind her then said, " Come on in Major, don't let Sally get to you, she's just mad we told her she's going to get a new partner."

He then walked into the room and said, " Major Jason Witlock reporting as ordered sir."

The man then said, " You can be at ease here Major, you will have to where your uniform while you are here, a normal uniform, but out in the field you'll where plan civies."

" Yes Sir," He replied.

" Oh and sir and Ma'am are out while your in the field, I understand the reason why you have to do it here, now the general had a meeting, he'll be here as soon as he can."

" Sir am I to understand you are all military?"

" No Sally is FBI, I'm just a hired gun, a scientist really, but I'm not the original scientist on this project, son this has been going on since the late forties."

" Yes sir, and exactly what is that sir?"

" The general will fill you in, but what if I told you that there weren't really any UFO's, that something natural was causing all these sightings."

" So what your telling me is that something natural has caused people to see things like UFO's?"

" Yes son, but really several things."

Then the door opened up and a four star general came in, the man went immediately to attention, he then put his hand out and took the mans hand, they shook each others hand vigorously. Then he moved to the seat behind the desk, he sat down and said, " You maybe seated."

He was the only one standing, he then took the only seat left, the general then hit a button and a picture appeared on the black board, the scientist then cleared his throat. The general then looked behind him, then he stood up and pulled the screen down, then he used a red laser pointer. And as he did he asked, " Major do you know what your looking at?"

He replied, " Yes sir, it looks like a sonar blip."

" Almost right, it's called a motion blip, I could bore you with all the motion blips we had gotten, but this one head right toward a set motion camera."

" Yes sir, a camera set to take a picture every 15 seconds."

" Yes, and this one caught this."

He then hit a button and all they saw was a blur, he then said, " This image was caught .15 seconds behind the triggering of the sensor, it was set exact 120 meters behind the sensor. As you know this would have been the first picture taken, our photo division in the Air Force enhanced the picture, they used every type of enhancements they had."

He then hit the button again, all we saw was a leg, he then had to ask, " Was it the same thing my unit faced in Baghdad?"

" We believe so, but Major this was taken in1978, since then we've enhanced our lay out in Washington, but we caught nothing, well up until recently, and what we saw was disturbing."

He then hit the button, all our eye's got wide, he then said, " There seems to be two groups of them, and they seem to be at each others throats, the group in Washington recently went to Brazil. They seem to feel free to move as normal humans, our agents really can't get close, but we can use other means to watch them. Here on a a beach in Brazil is two of them, they were alone, but in all respects they appear human, we feel that she is the key, see how the two males and one female seem to cling to her."

" But sir how old is she, she can't be no more then twelve."

" Yes, we believe she is the first child among them, we believe through film footage, that is why the two groups didn't fight, now you will be taken out to Nevada. There you will be fully informed on what we truly know, we have a special tactical unit if needed, they'll be stationed at Fort Lewis. You'll all be given ladars for instant communication. It's a new type on phone that works off the jumping principle."

The scientist then said, " General Addair, I didn't know they perfected that yet."

" Doctor Stanley we in the arm forces are privileged to many things, like your trip will be on the A0173, most of you scientist know it as the shock wave. The Air Force has made leaps and bound over what the world truly know about flight, you have two hours before you leave, be at the air base before that. All of you will need special suit for this flight, but because we've not yet perfect how to fly this thing, you'll be traveling the other way. You see the flight crew needs the time to figure out how to land the thing, but don't worry, you'll be in Nevada in two hours."

Doctor Stanley then said, " It's faster then we predicted."

" Yes doctor, and we've just gotten it under control, you will go at what they're calling hyper sonic, and you'll need special G-suits."

" Yes one the can also handle negative G's as well, with most likely an air helmet."

" Yes, and the other member of your team will meet you there, his name is Major Petra Latemer, he's helping us on the Air Force side of things. Sally the Marines had recommended you for this mission, they have nothing but praise for your abilities. The Navy will send a Representative as well, but they don't have the experience that we have in the field. Major Witlock, you and Sally Fields have had experience with these things, you both came up against one and survived, in the past our operatives have all disappeared. One more thing, Doctor can you get the lights."

The room then got dark, he then said in very calm voice, " Watch this carefully."

The he hit a button, we could all see the enhanced vision on the screen, it was of a fully nude woman, she just jumped and in seconds she was a full wolf, then she shot off the screen. Then it showed again, this time it was slowed down almost one hundred times, we watched in awe as we watched her burst out of her skin and transform into the wolf. He got up and asked, " What kind of tree is she standing by?"

The general replied, " That's a red wood spruce, and yes they are huge as to speak, if we put it into wolf lingo, she's an alpha bitch, there are two groups, she's in the smaller group. She broke with the larger group and joined the smaller group, but in truth she's more of a loner then any of them, she often goes off on her own."

He then hit the button, and the picture with the four came back up, he then said, " We believe she's his second, his pointer went to the young Indian boy, most of the wolves coats are gray, except for three. The Black one you saw in the fight, he was the red one behind them, and she is gray like the rest, but she has a speed out of this word."

" And why have you told us this?"

" Well her mate is off with this other group, she chose to move north, if we wanted we could have had her if we wanted her, she went right through a training ground by Fort Lewis."

" Oh I see."

Sally then said, " Well I don't, will someone please explain this to me?"

The general then replied, " We're setting up a trap for her, we mean to study her, we believe they are human hybrids, if they are maybe we can get something from her."

" Oh your going to dissect her, cut her open and see what makes her tick, general could it be because they know us that they hide from us."

" Yes Sally, but she's very important to them, so we believe we can't just cut her open, we don't want a war with these things, we will take her blood and things like that. Think of it as a bear study, we put her out and get what we want, then after we're done we just release her back to her own, we don't think we could control them even if we wanted."

The doctor then asked, " General, most studies involve a transmitter, where would you put it on her."

" Dermally, just under the skin, we figure we couldn't put a long term transmitter, so this will just have about a six month window."

He then asked, " And what if something goes wrong?"

" They have a new female, but she's only fifteen, so we figured we would only go after the older one, we figure she has to be in her twenties."

I nodded my head, it was wrong, but I always did as I was told, I stood up and said, " Sir I haven't had time to unpack yet, could I have a porter help me?"

" Yes son, we knew you would just get in, so we sent a transportation officer over to do it for you, she was instructed to have your uniform ready, he name is lieutenant Martha Polley. She's suppose to meet you with your bags ready to go, you'll meet up with the good doctor and Agent Fields at the entrance of the base. They have been instructed to allow you in with guests, we really don't want them to know whom you are, Major Latemer will take you in to change into your suits. Now if that is all dismissed."

I then got up and agent Fields said, " Just a Holy hell fucking minute, why don't you want them to know whom we are."

" This is on a need to know basis, you two were only chosen because you already know, Major you have a special connection to this, but we aren't at liberty to tell you yet."

I nodded my head as the doctor asked, " Why me then?"

" It's your special area of study."

" Oh, well then I guess I'm ready to go then."

We all then left the room, we made our ways to our perspective hotels, as I entered the hotel I was cut off by a beautiful young woman, she smiled at me and said, " I set out your uniform, you'll have to pack that one, I've sent everything else to Fort Lewis, I've made you two bags, you'll have to change again once you get there."

Then she turned and left, I then went to my room, she had set out my green uniform called class A's. I then changed uniforms, I was careful to replace the one I had on with the one I was putting on, then I put it into my garment bag. She had set me a garment bag and a regular bag, I then laced up my jump boots, and lastly put on my black beret. Going to Fort Lewis was a home coming of sorts, it was the home of the second ranger battalion, I served as a second lieutenant there.

As a young second lieutenant I was almost kicked out of the rangers, we were on a field problem, but we were told we were aggressing against a National Guard battalion. But there was a regular Army company in the area, it was a company from the Red Devil brigade, if we would have known that we would have had a better guard. I remember waking up to a red line cross my neck, they make the rangers look sick, they snuck into our camp and used permanent magic markers to show that we were all dead.

It was an embarrassment to the rangers, and you could say we had to wear our red badge of courage until it wore off, to this day I figured they had to be ghosts. We had gone to twenty-five percent security, they still got into our lines and did this to us, of course the line making made us all wake up, and for the rest of the mission we were on seventy-five percent security. I was know in a taxi speeding to the air base, I had to think to young private Larson, he had so many problems, I had to wonder if he was still in Leavenworth. You don't get away with shooting a soldier in the head with a slap on the wrists, I had to shake my head, he surely had gotten out by now.

I saw a black SUV parked just outside the gate, I then said, " Stop next to that SUV, I think they are waiting on me."

He then told me the total and I gave him five dollars over the amount, then I got out and the girl named Sally Fields then got out and said, " It's about time, what took you so long?"

I then got my bags and asked, " Hey do people make fun of your name?"

" Yeah all the time, but I punched a Marine for calling me the flying nun."

I had to chuckle as I asked, " I think you and I will get along greatly, did you at least break his jaw?"

" No his nose."

" Good shot, by the way I would never say anything like that."

" I know, I read your bio, your kind of a boy scout you know, and man why haven't you made general yet, your record points to it."

We then got into the SUV and sat down, I then replied, " There's something in my family past that's keeping me from rank, but I never had time to clear it up."

" Your telling me, three time in Iraq, once in Afghanistan, you really like combat."

" No I don't, this was supposed to be my last stint, I have no idea why I re-upped, I guess I'm just a sucker for punishment."

I then flashed my idea, the guard, then he asked, " Will your guests be staying long?"

I replied in a military manor, " No sergeant, we're just taking a special flight out of here, the generals at the Pentagon said they would clear it later."

" Just like generals, they know everything and tell us peons nothing, ok I guess you can go."

I nodded my head as the driver moved on, I had to notice that the drivers never even looked at me, well one driver and one guard. Sally then said, " Speaking of a sucker, do you know what the doc's specialty is?"

" No, no I don't."

" Do you want me to tell him, or would you like to do the honors doc?"

He replied, " The occult."

I then asked, " What?"

She then said, " The occult, please, his specialty is on vampires, can you believe it, fucking vampires."

He was older than the two of us, he had to be in his late forties or early fifties, he had mouse brown hair, he smiled at me and said, " My mother died, then I got stuck on wanting to be the same age forever, all I wanted to do was live forever."

I then asked, " Hey Doc, have you ever been married?"

" No, were you two?"

" I was tor two days, she was a stripper, and I was really drunk, but the Army annulled it for me, so in a sense no."

She then replied, " I was, we had a boy, he couldn't handle his death, so we got a divorce."

The doctor then asked, " Why did you even ask if I was married."

I replied, " Well a wife would never put up with a son being so close to his mother that's all."

We then approached the hanger, the SUV just drove straight in, another very beautiful woman then came up to us, she then said, " Hello I'm Major Latemer, if you'll just follow me, I'll show you to your suits."

We then followed her as Doctor Stanley asked, " excuse me Major, but the general was at idea that you were a man?"

She talked over her shoulder, " Yes, I get that all the time, for some reason everyone thinks Petra is a guys name, I guess I was lucky though, my Dad wanted to name me Pantera."

I then asked, " Pantera like the band?"

" Yes, he was one of their roadies, I'm first generation Air Force."

" Oh, I'm like eighth generation Army, but we really got our start in the Civil War serving on the wrong side."

" Your family were confederates?"

" Yeah, the first was my like four great uncles, they say he was just out of Ireland, but we really don't know much about him."

We then got into a room, she turned and said, " A flight room is co-ed, so these three lockers are yours, not that your going to really use them though, just pack your things up, then a sergeant will be by to stow your gear. You have just ten minutes to get ready though so hurry up, you have to be locked in, I'll be back to check on you."

We all then undressed down to our skivvies, to lay people that's underwear, I didn't expect to see Sally in black lace, I then showed them how to roll it on, then we zipped them up. She then came back as the sergeants were taking away our bags, she then asked, " How did you guys now how to put them on?"

I put my hand up as replied, " I like my Air Force counter parts, a fighter pilot showed me how to do it, even though I had never really put one on, his didn't have all this extra metal stuff though."

She smiled at me as she said, " That's for your monitors and helmet gear, this will be almost like going into space, the pilot told me we get really close, and in time it's meant to go there, but only after the one that's being built by NASA is done."

The Doctor then asked, " Just how many of these do you have?"

" A fleet, but I really don't know, It's top secret, you need such a high rating that I heard they had to make a new level just for that, even the President might not know."

I then said, " Oh, on a need to know basis, like we have to forget we even saw this one."

" Yeah, my rating isn't high enough, but as the three of you, I've had experience with these things, I witnessed my husband getting killed by one, we really have to be prepared for anything."

I had to look at her as I said, " Apparently the doc is an expert with these things, he has study them because his mother died, wait was she killed by one?"

He replied, " No she died of a PA, it was the result of cancer surgery she had had, but you have to understand, most of my research was from books, I'll have to weed out the truth from the fiction."

Sally then said, " Then your as blind as we are."

" I guess so, but maybe they can shed some light on it for me."

Major Latemer then said, " Ok, we really need to get set in."

I then pointed toward the door, we were met by service men that hooked us up to all kinds of things, then we walked down a long corridor to seats, men in white suits then hooked us in. It felt like we were getting hooked up to the space shuttle, I have to say, the seats were far more comfortable then I expected, it looked all metal. Then they closed the door and it was very dark, I have no idea of how long we just sat, then we seemed to be moving, to me it felt very slow, and we seemed to be leave far to long.

Then a popping noise came, a voice came over and said, " We have separation, going to power up."

Then red and green lights started to come on, moments later we all heard a loud boom, we sunk back in our seats, then our suits started to fill up, from the legs up. Then we went slowly vertical, slowly back to horizontal, then we heard, " Powering up the shock wave in five, four, three, two, we have our wave."

It was a weird feeling, at first we almost floated, then we seemed to get down to earth, then I heard, " You have three buttons on your helmets, don't hit the first one, only hit the second one if the pilot wants to talk to you, the third button is for us, they're on the right side of your helmet as most are right handed."

The doctor then reach for his button, I saw he was going for the wrong one, so I helped him find the right one, he then said, " Just like Buck Rogers."

I had to laugh as Major came over and said, " Try not to laugh, it could cloud your visor."

We were in four seats that faced each other, the two girls were across from us, I then asked, " Sally are you all right?"

She shook her head, the Major then came across with, " Don't worry your stomach will come back, only ten percent feel that, it's normal, if it gets worse we have a sedative you can use."

She nodded her head as she said thank you, no one heard her, she didn't use her intercom, but there really wasn't anything to do on this flight, well except to watch the lights change color. After awhile I said, " I should have brought a book."

She then said something, I then pointed at her intercom, she then hit it and asked, " You read, what kind of books?"

" Mostly old ones, I kinda like the old Greek ones like the Odysseus."

" Wow, I would have thought you were more into comic books."

" I like a good graphic novel now, I don't mean like Bat man, I like them when they have deep meaning, of course I also have a passion for the Chessmen of Mars."

" The Chessmen of Mars?"

" Yeah, they made a comic book out of it, they call it John Carter Warlord of Mars, but they really aren't the same, the Chessmen of Mars is far darker."

" Wow, I only read what's at the counter at the time."

" You mean romance novels."

" Well yeah, but some times they can really be racy, that's what I really want, it kinda helps during my down times, you know so I don't think about my boy."

Major Latemer then asked, " Oh did he die?"

" Yeah, I was driving him to day care, then we were hit in the side by a drunk, I was hurt really bad, he died, I lost my second baby, well then they had to take my stuff to save me." She then looked away and added, " We didn't even know I was pregnant, I had just missed my period, I had planned to buy a pregnancy test that morning, you know life can really be unfair."

Well we were silent the rest of the trip, then a voice came over our headsets, " Going to reserve power, powering down, prepare for negative flight."

Then we were in the dark again, I have to say that the flight down felt much gentler, it was as if we were floating, then we had a sudden jerk as we heard a screech. We heard this like ten more times, then we heard a fluttering noise, added by a second, then a third, then we seemed to rock, then another jerk, then came over the speaker. " Going to oxygen, please be patient."

We then felt another jolt, and the pilot then said, " Now we're on normal air, we're being pulled into the hanger, two minutes to lock down."

We sat in the dark, then the door cracked as a blinding white light hit us, then people in white suits started to scurry around, they hit the release buttons and we were free. They then hooked us up to tanks, we then walked out onto a long ramp, there was steam all over the place, plus men in red suit with fire hoses. They were spraying down the hull with water, it hit the hull but nothing fell off, it just steamed up, this ship was huge, it had to have filled this hanger, at least as large as a B-52. And red, it looked like hot steal, the wheels we landed on looked flat, I had to figure they were in some kind of well or something, they escorted us to a changing room.

The six of us then changed out of our suits, did I tell you two guys followed us, I had to figure they were the pilot and co-pilot, as I sat there one then said, " That was different?"

I then asked, " What was different?"

" Oh we normally travel with a crew or eight, we only had four four this trip."

" Yeah, hey what do you two guys do anyways?"

" Oh I'm the Navigator, this is the radioman, we usually travel with an engineer, two air techs, and a hydraulic specialist."

Sally then had to throw up, Major Latemer then said, " That's normal, it's like getting your sea legs back."

The other two men started to get dressed, then the sergeants came in with our bags, I pulled out my uniform from my garment bag, I then asked, " Sally did you pack mouth wash?"

She nodded her head as she put her pant suit back on, then we all got dressed as a man came in and asked, " Doctor Sterling?"

He put his hand up as he replied, " Over here."

Sally then pulled out her pistol, it was a beautiful Glokk 9mm, she put it into her jacket as the man asked, " Did you have that in your bags?"

She replied, " Yes, I never leave home without old Betsy."

" You know with the pressure you experienced that could have blown up, you shouldn't have traveled with that thing."

" Then where in the hell are we going to get guns?"

" We have many fine issues here, but your not staying here, in time your going to be transported to Fort Lewis, your only here long enough to get your briefing, then we have a C-130 going to take you there."

The doctor then said, " From the future to now, well it was fun while it lasted."

Major Latemer then said, " I hate C-130's, they can be so loud, no one can speak on those things, well unless you want to yell. And there so slow."

We all then followed the two men as they spoke, we walked out to a bus, then we were transport to a small building, we walked in and there was nothing. We walked over to what looked like a closet, he opened the doors, and it turned out to be an elevator, it was a platform elevator, he then hit the lever and we started to go down. I then asked, " Just how far are we going down?"

He replied, " Oh only about three floor worth of earth, that's where our briefing rooms are, you should see the film footage we have, they have no idea anyone's even watching them. We have had to go all over the world to do this, we lost a few agents over time, but the one in Italy is the longest one we've been watching. We placed them all there during the war, I'm afraid the quality isn't as good there though, it's fascinating how much they really don't care for humans. I think they think of us as hamburger meat, and the things we've seen, they really make a party of it when they feast."

Sally then asked, " As in feeding on humans?"

" Yes, they have a special crew that hunts the most out there, you know the ones that won't be missed, even tough mistakes have been made. They went into hiding when they got bombed out, that's when we put the sensors there, well the British did. We've been working this jointly for years, we were in a total state when they left Italy, we thought they were leaving again, it did give us time to put in better sensors."

We then entered a room with tables and chairs, almost all of the chairs were filled with a uniform or a white coat, then we were direct to four chairs, there was a fifth, he sat in it. Then a man came in with normal clothes, he went to the front and said, " Gentlemen and ladies this is all new to us, we have been able to observe them for a long time, but never did we suspect they were just on our door step. Through what we have learnt is that this group in Italy had kept them at bay, but now this group in Washington has challenged them, we don't know what this means. My name is Admiral Thantos, we have worked with the Royal Navy for years on this, they see the precedence in this also, they have given us a free hand to a point. First lets hear from fleet admiral Cowley."

A man in a strange uniform then stood up and said, " Yes admiral, let us look at what we did know."

The light then went down and he then said, " This is the group from Italy."

Then they showed us a lot of black and white film footage, it came in and out of focus and there wasn't any sound at all, then the film footage cleaned up, and some how they were able to add sound. After awhile just a my butt became numb the lights came up, I had to look at them and ask, " Is this what we're fighting?"

The admiral then said, " Yes in a way, we've seen that they can be good, but they are mostly bad, now Lieutenant coronal Smith, another British officer then stood up and said, " Yes, yes, this is what we've seen over Europe."

The film footage started out black and white, then went to color, and most of it had sound, I then leaned over and asked, " Can I stand while I watch all this?"

He nodded his head, so I stood up and watched, they had film footage of all kinds of things, I had to figure the wolves were werewolves, and the ones that looked like humans were vampires. As the film ended the lieutenant coronal then asked, " Is there a problem Major?"

I replied, " No my butt was getting sore, go on, I do have one question though?"

" Yes sir?"

" We are talking about vampires and werewolves right?"

" Among other things, did you see that group of people with peasant clothes?"

" Yeah."

" They are normal humans, for some reason all the vampires and werewolves are scared have to death of them."

" So we have an ally in our fight then?"

" Well no, they really don't want to cooperate with us, I think they fear us, we have made end roads in our talks with them, but it just keeps going sour for some reason. Now for the states, Emily this is your show."

A lady then got up, she had to be like ninety, she then used an old pointer and said, " Our werewolves are different, some still rely on the moon, but the Indian ones don't seem to have to rely on this, and at times we have seen bears and large cats. These are two photos of the difference, you see how they change, some can only change partly, change to the next photo please."