Many of the characters within this story, and the universe they inhabit, are the intellectual property of Jason Katims Productions.
Roswell: Re-Imagined
Written by Horatio Jaxx
Chapter 49: Cops and Spooks
The task of maintaining surveillance over the thirteen suspected extraterrestrial teenagers, twenty-fours a day, seven days a week, was given to Ryan Kawecki. As a reward for taking on this task, he was promoted to the rank of Major. He was not eager to take on this task for several reasons. The first among these was simply his feeling that he was not qualified for the job. Ryan never thought of himself as a field operative, and more importantly he never aspired to be one. There was also the matter of time and distance. To do the job he had to separate himself from his family for a minimum of nine months. That was the opposite of the situation he was trying to create by transferring into the Defense Intelligence Agency. He also had his concerns regarding the morality of this action. He knew that the plan eventually called for the apprehension of these teenagers. What made him feel uneasy about that were the thoughts he kept entertaining about what would happen to these teenagers after they were collected. However, despite these qualms, Ryan feared that turning down the task and the promotion that came with it would stall and possibly stop any future advancement for him in the Air Force. And in addition, he wanted know who they were.
Ryan had no idea how well, or poorly, he was doing at his job. He had nothing to measure that against. He relied heavily on his senior Lieutenant, Colin Guskin, for advice and to implement whatever directive he decided to give. He based his orders on what he thought would best achieve the overall objective. And as far as he could tell, he was fulfilling that objective. He still had not found extraterrestrial number fourteen, but the other thirteen seemed unaware that they were being observed. Keeping them in the dark was a key part of his mission. Keeping their parents and the local population equally unaware was another part of that mission.
To achieve the tasks that were given to him, Ryan rented a three-bedroom house in a remote area just inside the perimeter of the city, and he set it up as the home base for this surveillance operation. His thinking here was that an isolated location would enable his agents to come and go without arousing the suspicions of neighbors or the local authorities. He was confident that he had achieved that up until the day that Chaves County Sheriff, Jim Valenti, drove up the unpaved road to the house and parked. A uniformed Air Force Lieutenant intercepted him and inquired about his business.
"I want to speak to the officer in charge," Jim instructed dryly.
The Lieutenant acquiesced to that request after hearing Ryan's voice in his radio earpiece instructing him to do so. The Lieutenant escorted Jim into the house and ushered him to the master bedroom that Ryan was using as his office.
"Sheriff Valenti, won't you have a seat," Ryan greeted with a smile.
Jim returned the smile with a nod and then took the seat proffered in front of Ryan's desk.
"I'm Major Kawecki," Ryan continued a second after Jim took the seat. "And how can I help you today?"
Jim paused to give Ryan a studied look before responding to his inquiry in a steady voice.
"Well Major, you can tell me what you're doing here."
"Actually, Sheriff Valenti," Ryan responded pleasantly. "That's the one thing I can't do."
"Really," Jim reacted with a minor display of surprise. "Because it looks to me like you've setup a little mini base here on civilian property. And I would think that would make it something you are required to share with the civilian authorities."
The mini base remark was directed at the satellite dishes, the antennas, the mobile communication vehicle, generator truck, and the half dozen computer stations and operators situated in the living-room of the house. All the monitors were conveniently turned off when Sheriff Valenti passed through the room. That was done so that he would not see that they were tapped into video surveillance feeds of multiple locations inside Roswell
"Well, Sheriff, with all due respect," Ryan countered with continued pleasantry. "I believe that if you checked with the Mayor of Roswell, you'll find out that I am here with his … approval."
Jim accepted that answer with a nod and a smirk. That fact was not a surprise to him. However, the Major's decision to use it instead of giving him an answer was a surprise. He pondered over that for a couple of seconds and responded with a suggestion that he hoped would encourage Ryan to be more cooperative.
"Well, I guess we could contact the Governor and see what he thinks about Air Force Personnel setting up camp in the middle of his state."
"The Governor of New Mexico has already been advised of our presence," Ryan reported calmly.
"Really," Jim reacted with intrigue. "I'm surprised he didn't tell me about that."
"I'm sure that's because there's nothing to tell," Ryan quickly suggested with a smile.
"Oh, but there is," Jim pounced back. "A week ago, a couple of my officers ran into one of your people in Roswell."
"Air Force Personnel go into Roswell all the time," Ryan retorted with a vaguely confused look.
"Yes, but my officers tell me that it looked to them like this Air Force OSI agent, in civilian clothing, was staking out Roswell High School," Jim countered with a hint of smugness.
"That has to be a mistake," Ryan casually corrected.
"That's what I said," Jim spoke with a mischievous smile. "But the problem I've been having is the fact that my people can't seem to turn the corner around one of our high schools in Roswell without bumping into one of your people."
Jim briefly paused with a smile to give weight to this remark before continuing.
"So, you want to tell me what your people are doing in Roswell?"
"No, Sheriff Valenti," Ryan began soberly.
"If something … untoward happens in Roswell, it's my job to know about it, preferably before it happens." Jim retorted sternly and with a steady stare.
"Nothing untoward is about to happen, Sheriff Valenti," Ryan stated impassively and with a fixed stare.
"Then you'll be moving along soon," Jim stated with a questioning inflection.
"Yes," Ryan quickly assured with a nod of his head.
"How soon?" Jim quickly asked while holding his stare.
Jim was well past trying to get a straight answer from Ryan. His only thought by this time was to get a reaction out of one of his questions.
"When we're finished," Ryan answered in an even and unemotional voice.
Jim took a moment to imbibe that answer. A second later he began to smile. Despite that expression, Ryan's continued acts of deflecting his question were actually annoying him with ever greater intensity.
"When you're finished," Jim parroted with a smirk. "Well, I'm sure the Governor doesn't know that a lot of Air Force spooks are snooping around the public schools in one of his cities," he finished with more than a hint of irritation.
Ryan was unperturbed by anything that Jim was saying. In his mind, the deed was done. The Chaves County Sheriff Department was snooping around his surveillance operation, and he knew there was nothing to be done to undo that. His thinking here was simply to continue deflecting Jim's inquiry until he gave up and went away. After that he would address the issue of minimizing interference from his office.
"I'm sure he doesn't," Ryan responded calmly. "And that's because we're not conducting any operations inside the city of Roswell."
Jim visibly fumed at that response. He sat back in his seat and glared at Ryan for all of three seconds before verbally reacting to it.
"So, no cooperation, no professional courtesy," Jim spoke bluntly. "Okay, then don't expect any from me. If one of your spooks so much as drool on my sidewalk, I'm throwing the book at him."
Jim waited on Ryan's response to that. He was not expecting him to give up anything at this point, but he was not about to leave until he was sure that he had Ryan's final word on the subject.
"I'll pass the word, no drool," Ryan responded with a shake of his head. "If there's nothing else, Sheriff Valenti, I have work to do" he added a second behind.
Jim gave Ryan a smile of defiance and then got up to leave. After walking halfway to the door, he stopped and turned back towards Major Ryan Kawecki with a quizzical look.
"Oh, there is one thing you might be able to help me with, being how you're in the Air Force," Jim queried with feigned politeness.
"And what's that?" Ryan questioned with a smile.
"What's the Air Force's interest in Max Evans and Liz Parker?" Jim questioned with a hint of a smile expressed on his face.
"What do you mean?" Ryan reacted a little too quickly. An instant later he tendered a second response. "I don't know those names."
"Oh well, they're just a couple of kids here in Roswell who were caught on Air Force property about a while back," Jim explained with a pleasant demeanor. "I just thought that you might know if the Air Force is planning any legal action against them or their parents?"
"I don't know anything about that," Ryan responded with a hint of abruptness. "But I'm sure, if they were going to do something, they would have done so by now."
Jim looked to be pondering that answer for a couple of seconds before responding.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right."
Jim gave Ryan a quick smile before turning about and leaving his office. Despite the last-minute looks of pleasantry, Jim was still very angry about the secrecy around this operation that Major Ryan Kawecki was commanding. But he drove away knowing that he extracted one victory out of the engagement. Major Ryan Kawecki was lying when he said he knew nothing about Max Evans and Liz Parker. His double answer suggested to him that he had to search his thoughts for the appropriate reply. And his assumption that the window of time was closed for legal action against Liz, Max and their parents told him that Major Ryan knew exactly when their incursion on to Air Force property occurred.
Sheriff Valenti was not the only one that walked away a little wiser for the meeting. The fact that Jim was aware of their surveillance operation inside Roswell was no great surprise to Ryan. His agents reported the incident with the Deputy Sheriffs outside of Roswell High School less than an hour after it happened. What Ryan now believed, courtesy of this meeting, was that Jim Valenti suspected that his son was one of the teenagers being watched. He suspected that only a concerned father would have approached him directly rather than use official channels to find what he wanted to know. After watching Sheriff Valenti drive off, Ryan pulled back on the surveillance on Kyle Valenti. Major Kawecki had no doubts about his ability to stave off actions made by the Sheriff of Chaves County, but he feared what a protective father might do.