LIBERI FATALIS: The Therianthrope Chronicles

by Eddie-E

A crossover between Ace Combat, Katmandu and another, surprise famous furry comic. A Japanese scientist during the onset of World War II in Europe devises a groundbreaking theory of evolution whose effects will resonate not only on Earth but also throughout the universe for centuries to come. Rated M for language and mature situations.

27. DOWNFALL

ACT XXVII: DOWNFALL

---

Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated, and this was an immutable law.

James Baldwin

---

February 12th, AD 1955, Fort Bliss (Major Fitzroy's office), El Paso, Texas, United States of America, 09:00 AM

Catherine Walburg, Maj. Matthew Fitzroy's personal secretary, entered the office, as she always did every day, to begin a new day's work for her on that mild February day. As El Paso is a city located in the Chihuahuan Desert, the weather, given the time of day, was relatively pleasant and Catherine had no need, at least for the time being, to turn on the on-site fans.

But that day was completely different for her, for several reasons. To begin with, she was having some trouble walking upright, and it was evident that Catherine was visibly drowsy, as if she had had a rather difficult night.

Fortunately for her, Major Fitzroy, her immediate boss, had not yet arrived for work, so she could take the time to relax and do something else before starting work, such as listen to music on the radio, which was the first thing she did after laying out her belongings on the desk.

The song played on the radio was Unforgettable by Nat "King" Cole. And while the singer's voice intoned the song with the passion that characterized him, Catherine, on the other hand, decided to put aside her inhibitions and she put her legs up on her desk, taking advantage of the fact that no one was there, especially her boss, calling out to her.

-"Fuck, I never imagined that man was a beast!"- Catherine cursed to herself, with a devious smile in her face. -"It's a good thing he used a condom before we started doing anything, for god's sake."-

Then, she pulled a bag of potato chips out of her purse and she began to gobble them down greedily, while she listened to the music on the radio. It helped her to relax while she waited for her boss to appear in the office.

But for that woman, she wished that moment would last for hours and that Fitzroy would take his time in arriving, or better yet, that he would never show up, so she could enjoy that time of rest all to herself.

As for her last comment, everything indicated that she had sex the night before, something evidenced by the apparent physical condition in which she had come to the office. She would have preferred to be at home, resting and doing anything else, than to be in that office working for a man whom she disliked working for in the least, but the needs of life forced her to do so.

But just when everything seemed to be going smoothly for the woman, Matthew Fitzroy suddenly marched into the office, and as usual, smoking a cigar as he always did in the mornings, much to the personal disgrace of Catherine, who hated her boss smoking such cigars in her presence.

-"Good morning, Major."- Catherine greeted her superior with a certain sarcasm that she made no attempt to hide. -"I hope you had a good day."-

-"Morning, Catherine!"-

The military man said to the woman, and immediately after, he noticed that Catherine looked remarkably unwell, something that the man noticed right away.

-"By the way, you look as if a steamroller has run over you, my dear..."-

The woman did not try to soften her words, nor did she try to hide what had happened to her, as Catherine had good reasons to do so.

-"Uh...tell me about it, Major. I feel like a tiger has been fucking me all night long without stopping."-

-"Well, that would have been fun to watch, to be honest, heh heh!"- The man, with his trademark vulgar sense of humor, did not hesitate to make fun of the woman and the hard night of passion she had the night before.

Catherine, for reasons that need not be explained, did not find that remark enjoyable to hear...

-"Major, please save your bestiality jokes for the next idiot who wants to hear them, not me."-

Fitzroy couldn't help but laugh at the look of annoyance on his secretary's face when he made that offensive comment about her. He was a despicable man, but that was what he was, and Catherine knew this.

-"Okay, okay... no more jokes, Catherine."- The soldier stopped joking and suddenly he assumed a more serious attitude. -"I just want to know how it went with spying on Dr. Komatsu's assistants. I hope it went well for you."-

The woman remained silent for a minute, and after taking a deep breath, she answered her superior's question.

-"Let's say I did pretty well, Major."- The woman responded in a weary tone, as she had just managed to return home after that night. -"The target bought the hook, rod and all, although in my case, I think it was the other way around, if you know what I mean."-

Fitzroy decided to ignore the innuendo, as he was more interested in both the results and how Catherine obtained the information he needed, and asked the woman for more details.

-"And may I know who was the "lucky one", so to speak, who fell for your charms?"-

-"Nick Larkin, a poor schmuck from New York."- The woman responded with a certain contemptuous tone toward the scientist with whom she had slept. -"I knew that Madison, his senior assistant, would be a tough nut to crack, so I went straight to the weakest link, and Dr. Larkin, who didn't seem to be very happy to work with the doctor, as he told me, managed to give me the information I needed, but for that I had to take him to bed, have sex with him at full speed, and then put him to sleep with an anesthetic, in order to steal the information."-

Fitzroy was deeply amazed at the woman's boldness. He had never imagined that she was willing to sleep with another man without even a second thought, and the most surprising thing of all was that she did it with an extreme ease and composure that even for that soldier was something alien to him in other people, much less in a woman.

-"I must say, Catherine, you are a true professional when it comes to spying, heh heh!"-

The woman gave him a sinister smile as a response to his compliment.

-"Well, let's just say I have my reasons for doing so, Major, and I don't intend to discuss them with you. So, you should be grateful that I got that information in the first place."- The woman said with a shrug of her shoulders and a certain air of nonchalance.

Meanwhile, Matthew Fitzroy sat back in his chair, with narrowed eyes and a very satisfied look on his face, as he tried to digest all that the secretary said to him, and he drank a cup of coffee he had bought in the base's cafeteria previously with relish.

The officer also knew that his secretary had managed to orchestrate the events so that the man she was aiming at could prove useful to them, and he knew that she had done so with an amazing success, and with a great amount of elegance.

-"Well, I can only tell you that you did a good job, and I thank you very much for it."- The man congratulated Catherine for her services -"I just want to know one thing, Catherine dear."-

-"What do you want to know, Major?"- The woman asked.

-"How did you manage to convince this Nick Larkin guy to give you that information?"-

-"Well, let's just say I pretended to be a jazz singer from Indiana, and after I saw that Larkin person was in desperate need of getting laid, the rest was a piece of cake."- Catherine explained to her boss in a very cynical tone.

The man, Fitzroy, was more amused with his secretary's explanation than he actually wanted to be.

-"So, in other words, you took the guy to bed, and then you put him to sleep while you stole every single piece of information he held, is that correct?"-

-"Exactly, Major, but make no mistake about it: Nick Larkin is not as easy as he looks."- Catherine then explained the main difficulty in her mission in dealing with him in intimacy. -"That man looked like a tiger in heat, and if I hadn't put him to sleep first, I think I would have ended up in a hospital."-

-"At least it was worth the effort, don't you think, Catherine?"- Fitzroy replied with a smile.

The secretary-turned-spy for that military man said nothing for a few seconds, and then she continued the conversation.

-"For once, I agree with you, Major."- Then the woman smiled at Fitzroy. -"Especially considering that I win the bet we agreed on."-

-"Oh? You mean the bet we made that if you won, I would stop smoking in the office in your presence?"-

-"That's right."-

Seeing that the woman more than kept her word, even having sex with her primary target, something that was not even contemplated to be necessary, Matthew Fitzroy had no choice but to admit that he had lost the bet against Catherine Walburg.

Even if he had to hate that he had lost against a woman, he considered himself at least a person of his word, and he could not help but admire the woman's courage in taking such a risk just to accomplish something that, although it was not a life or death mission, was very important to him, at least to get rid of Komatsu once and for all.

-"Well then, my congratulations, Catherine!"- Fitzroy said with a effusive tone. -"I must admit that you did this job in a way that very few people would dare to do it, and that is to be admired. So, as a man of my word, I will not smoke in your presence from now on." -

-"Thank you, Major."- Catherine answered.

Catherine felt good that she won this bet, not only because she hated to be around that cigar smoke, but also because it caused her boss to respect her little more than ever for her efforts, something he didn't often do enough for her liking.

-"Well, now that we got the information we were looking for, now it's just a matter of seeing what we can use from it to send that Komatsu asshole back to hell."- Fitzroy said with a certain air of triumph in his voice. -"Could you give me now what you got from that guy named Larkin, please?"-

-"Here's what I could get from him, sir."-

The woman gave the major a folder with the documents and mini-camera negatives she photographed of the secret documents Nick Larkin had in his possession that night.

-"I want to remind you that some things, such as the pictures I took of the documents Larkin had in his possession inside his briefcase, may be a little blurry due to the rush I had to take pictures with my mini-camera, to avoid Larkin finding me digging through his belongings once the anesthetic wore off."- Catherine said in a slightly apologetic tone.

The major stopped looking at the papers and the negatives in the folder his secretary had just given him and looked at her.

-"Please don't worry, Catherine."- Fitzroy reassured the woman -"You did a great work, and if those pictures have been taken as you said, I am sure they will help us a great deal."-

-"Thanks, Major."- Catherine said in a relaxed tone.

-"But next time, don't take that kind of unnecessary risks, Catherine."- The man reminded her. -"It's one thing to get secret information from someone else, and another to risk contracting a sexual transmitted disease just for something as... trivial... as this, no offense to you, nor the effort you made to get this vital information, of course."-

-"Thank you, Major."- And she accepted again her boss' advice. -"But then, I think I got used to it over time, and I don't feel bad when I do something as dangerous as slide into some horny guy's bed. giggle"-

With no more time to waste, Fitzroy took a look at the documents and negatives Catherine Walburg had brought with her, after extracting them from Nick Larkin once she had numbed him with an anesthetic.

The woman's plan was a pretty cunning idea: Catherine posed as a jazz singer from Indiana named "Violetta Love", who worked at the Kitty Riot bar, which was a few miles from the base, downtown, and using her connections, she was able to work there, knowing that some employee working for Komatsu would sooner or later go there to have a few drinks.

And to Catherine's good fortune, she could not have chosen a better victim than Nick Larkin, one of Dr. Komatsu's assistants, whom she had little trouble getting information from, taking advantage of his emotional state, and the fact that, unlike the senior assistant, Phillip Madison, Larkin was an easier target due to his inexperience, and the fact that, deep down, the man was willing to sell out his boss in order to get a better opportunity elsewhere.

Looking at the documents the woman presented to him, Fitzroy saw that what he had in his hands could easily help contribute to Komatsu's downfall. Now, it was only a matter of time and finding the right opportunity to present those documents, which included partial copies of the Advanced Evolution Thesis that Komatsu was using for his project, which had enough information to use out of context, if presented to the Secretary of Defense and Dr. Ellington, to humiliate Komatsu in front of them, which would most likely cause the project to be cancelled, and the Japanese scientist to lapse from the good graces of the American government.

But, unbeknownst to Fitzroy at the time, the wheels of fate seemed to be turning in another direction...

---

February 12th, AD 1955, Fort Bliss (Komatsu's Personal Laboratory), El Paso, Texas, United States of America, 09:30 AM

-"Good morning, Nick!"-

Nicholas "Nick" Larkin had barely made it into the lab, and he was visibly drowsy, not much in the mood for work that day, so his reply seemed lacking in enthusiasm.

-"Goosh... mor-neeening..."- Larkin responded by almost slurring his tongue, having difficulty saying a full sentence, and even he could barely remain on his feet. -"Sheiiiiiiiiitttt..."-

Phillip Madison, Dr. Yoshinori Komatsu's chief assistant, watched as his friend and subordinate could barely walk and looked more like the walking dead than a healthy man.

-"Oh god, Nick, you look like you drank everything in the bar!"-

Larkin then sat back in his desk chair where he normally works in his lab, and then he put his head on the same desk, trying to rest for a few moments. Naturally, Madison was concerned about his friend's inconvenient state, so he asked more questions about his situation.

-"I'm OK, I'm OK... I jussh need to..."-

And seconds later, Larkin barfed into a trash can next to him, causing Madison to take matters into her own hands.

-"I'm OK, my ass!"- Madison said in a worried tone. -"I don't know why you didn't bother to phone to say you didn't feel well enough to come to work like this!"-

-"EIghhh... I'm sorry, Phil, I jusht... I jusht don't feel... soo good..."- Larkin tried to answer, but he could barely stand.

-"Then, what the hell did you drink, Nick?"- Madison asked in an even more concerned fashion. -"You're not normally the kind of guy who drinks yourself into a stupor, and you were in a pretty good mood yesterday afternoon. Did you have any trouble with the girl you were going to be with tonight, buddy?"-

-"I don't... know..."- Larkin replied, still in inconvenient state. -"I ounnly drank... tshuu or three beers."-

-"Two or three beers, you said?"-

-"Yesh."- Larkin answered, still slowly mumbling his words.

As he drew closer to Larkin, Madison noticed that his partner smelled faintly of alcohol, which meant that Larkin could not have had drunk enough to become that intoxicated. This prompted Madison to ask his subordinate more questions.

-"Are you sure you only drank two or three beers, Nick?"-

-"Ei, I'm shure..."-

While Phillip Madison was not especially known for drinking heavily, he knew quite well that two or three beers are not enough to get a person that drunk, as it would have taken many more bottles of beer to achieve the same effect. This meant that the effect of "drunkenness" that Larkin suffered was most likely produced by other reasons, and not by the alcohol that the beer contained.

As Madison thought about the best course of action to take, Larkin put his head on the table and fell asleep. As he was looking at Larkin, trying to find a way to help him, more doubts entered into Madison's mind about the situation.

If Larkin could not have become drunk in that way, and considering that man was not accustomed to drinking hard spirits, such as brandy, whiskey, champagne, and the like, then what was it that made Larkin so intoxicated?

At that moment, Madison could not help but think of the worst possible outcome, something he had discussed with Larkin yesterday and had warned his friend about that day: He could have been the victim of a spy.

Larkin, being a young man without much experience in matters related to classified information, was an easy target for any spy, and he was the weakest link related to the project, so it was possible that some foreign spy could have tried to get some information from him while he was intoxicated.

Now the question was to know how much information that spy obtained from him, something that Madison could not know for the moment, because his friend was asleep, and he had to wait for Larkin to wake up.

But there was one thing he could do, and that was to warn his superior, Dr. Yoshinori Komatsu, beforehand.

---

February 12th, AD 1955, Fort Bliss (Major Fitzroy's office), El Paso, Texas, United States of America, 10:11 AM

-"Major, there is a phone call for you."-

Catherine Walburg's bored voice caught the attention of the soldier, who was not expecting any phone call that day, not to mention the obvious part about the identity of the person to whom they wished to speak with him.

-"Who the hell could it be?"- The burly Texan man cursed. -"I'm not expecting any calls today."-

When Fitzroy received the phone from Catherine's hands, a male voice that he already know was heard in the other side of the phone line. The voice on the other side was barely trying to speak with him, so Fitzroy could tell that person was very nervous, but still wanted to talk to him.

-"Oh, it's you again, Dr. Mason."-

After a few seconds of silence, Dr. Richard Mason finally responded to Matthew Fitzroy's words...

-"Major, it's good to be able to reach you at your office."- Mason replied, still with some hesitation. -"I wanted to call straight to you for two reasons."-

Fitzroy was intrigued to know what were the two reasons Mason wanted to talk to him.

-"And may I know what are those reasons you want to talk with me, Dr. Mason?"- The soldier replied in an annoyed and angry tone at the man. -"I hope it has something to do with our plans, because I am busy with just that, alongside Ms. Walburg."-

-"Well, in that case I'll cut to the chase, Major."- Mason said with some hurry. -"To reply to your last question, the answer is both yes and no."-

Major Matthew Fitzroy was perplexed to hear these words, but he still kept listening to what Dr. Mason had to say.

-"What? You've lost me, Dr. Mason."-

Then, Dr. Mason explained the reasons why he called Fitzroy.

-"I will skip to the point: I talked to my wife four days ago, and in view of what happened between her and Dr. Madison in her attempt to get information from him, among other matters, she no longer wishes to participate in this plan, and the same goes for me."-

Mason then explained his ultimate reason for no longer participating in the conspiracy.

-"And the other reason why we don't want to continue participating in this whole thing is because we have decided to move to the UK for our eldest son to study in a school for gifted children, as well as to look for a better job in Europe."-

Fitzroy was visibly upset. Even if they had managed to get valuable information through Catherine, Richard Mason and his wife Claudia were still essential to the Texan soldier's plans, and in case the information Catherine had obtained from Larkin was not useful, they could still count on the Masons for another opportunity.

On the other hand, there was nothing he could do to stop the man from pursuing his and his family's dreams overseas, so all Fitzroy could do was ask all that was holy that the information they had in their hands was more than enough to bring Komatsu down.

-"I see..."- Fitzroy said, trying to hide his disappointment. -"I'm sorry to hear that, Dr. Mason, but I understand."-

Fitzroy heard over the phone that Mason sighed with relief that the former seemed receptive to the idea of letting him go to the UK, believing that at any moment, knowing his personality, that Fitzroy would try to stop him in some way, either through blackmail or threats. But this was not the case on that occasion. Even a violent man like Fitzroy had his limits, and even more so when people outside his problems were involved, especially children.

-"I just want to know one thing, Dr. Mason..."- The Texan man asked the doctor.

-"What would it be, Major?"-

-"Why are you moving exactly to the UK?"-

-"Well, the school where my son Frederick attends recommended to my wife that he should go to Bruern Abbey School, which is near Oxford, where they can cater for children like him. Just yesterday I made a phone call to England, and they told me that they could accept my son once he passes the entrance exams."- Mason replied to the Major's question. -"Regarding work, there seems to be a job opportunity for me in a pharmaceutical company in the same city, and the pay seems to be very good."-

In hearing what Dr. Mason had to say, Major Fitzroy felt a lot of emotions at once. On one hand, he was disappointed at the outcome of having to lose Mason in the process of recovering secrets, but on the other hand, as long as Mason pursued his dreams and his family's hopes, Fitzroy had to be happy with whatever result was obtained, and he would congratulate the man for his decision, whatever it may be.

-"And will I be seeing you again, Dr. Mason?"- The soldier asked.

Mason paused briefly, and moments later, he answered the question.

-"I am afraid to say that most probably me and my family will stay and live permanently in Oxford, and therefore in the UK."- The doctor explained his future plans for him and his family. -"Leaving aside the whole Dr. Komatsu thing, my family sees no future in continuing to live here in El Paso. We will be taking a plane to New York at the end of this month, and from there we will take another plane to London, and once there, a bus to Oxford. We are also in the process of selling our house and belongings here in the city, and it looks like we have found a good place to live in the suburbs of Oxford."-

After hearing everything that Dr. Mason had to say, the soldier had nothing left to say in regards to that matter. Everything was clear, and the Texan Major had to accept the fact that he was not able to stop Dr. Mason from moving to the UK.

-"I see... I'm sorry to hear this, but I wish you and your family luck on your journey."- Fitzroy wished good luck to Dr. Mason on behalf of him and his family.

-"Thank you very much, Major. I wish you luck too, and I hope you understand my decision, but this is for my family's sake and mine too."-

-"I do understand, Dr. Mason."- The soldier replied. -"And let me tell you, you and your family are always welcome to visit us here in Texas. I hope you will be able to come some day soon."-

-"Thank you very much. Now if you will excuse me, I have other things to do. I'll talk to you later."-

-"OK, see you soon."-

Once Fitzroy hung up the phone, he knew he had no one else to count on for his plans, something that irritated him greatly. But likewise, he also knew that he already had in his hands what he needed to bring Komatsu down once and for all, and quite possibly, the participation of Mason and his wife would no longer be necessary.

Now it was just a matter of knowing how to play his cards right, and praying to all that was holy that his plan to put the Japanese scientist out of action would work.

And Fitzroy was more than ready to play that game.

-"Do you think we won't need Dr. Mason and his wife anymore?"- Catherine asked her boss.

-"For the moment, I don't think so."- Fitzroy explained with a very uneasy calm. -"He and Claudia served their purpose, and besides, you did a better job than the two of them, getting the information we need so that Komatsu will end up eating shit sooner or later. And without us having to fire a single bullet to boot. hah hah!"-

Under the circumstances, Catherine would agree with her boss's words, seeing that everything seemed to be going smoothly, and nothing could go wrong at the moment.

But even so, the woman began to feel that something was not quite right, and she had a strange feeling...

What was this feeling she felt? In those moments, she felt a strange shivering sensation that surrounded her body, as if she had seen a corpse or something like that, which she had learned to notice in her years of experience in dealing with similar events.

But Fitzroy, who was staring at the secretary, noticed that something wasn't right with her, and he decided to let her know right away.

-"Catherine, what's the matter?"-

The woman took a few seconds to answer that question.

-"Nothing, don't worry about me."- She replied to her boss with a smile, to try and reassure him that everything was fine.

-"Are you sure?"- Fitzroy did not seem very convinced by the woman's words. -"Normally nothing much disturbs you, but you seem to be creeped by something after the last thing I said about the Masons and Komatsu."-

In order to stop the Major from asking her any more uncomfortable questions, and also to avoid alarming him unnecessarily, Catherine decided to make up some pretext about the feeling she felt at that moment.

-"I think it's the heat, that's all."- The secretary responded. -"I'm now having a headache because of this heat."-

-"I don't feel like it's getting too hot here in the office, Catherine."- The Major questioned his secretary's words regarding the atmosphere. -"And we are still in winter, you know."-

The woman paused briefly, and after mulling for a moment, she replied.

-"sigh ...it may be something else... You know, women stuff and whatnot."-

-"Could be..."-

But Catherine Walburg knew that what she was feeling was not the product of one of those days, but something more serious that she sensed, but unfortunately, she could not say exactly what it was that was tormenting her at that moment.

Was it a sense of danger, or was her body just playing a trick on her? She wondered, and she tried to think of something that could give her a clue of what was going with her.

Unfortunately for the woman, when she tried to figure out what was bothering her, it just led to a point of zero. It was as if something was preventing her from deducing what was wrong on her and on her surroundings...

Was what she was feeling at that moment a premonition? She quickly dismissed that idea from her mind, for Catherine was not particularly superstitious, nor did she believe in concepts such as fate or even the divine. Considering the place where she worked, where there was a man who pretended to be a god with his own creations, believing in such a thing would have been incredibly ludicrous to her.

So what was she feeling, then?

Suddenly, Catherine felt the need to walk out of the room to ease up her stress. Although she was at a loss in regard to what was happening, she could not help but feel that her concerns at that moment were a bit too premature, for she was getting into her nerves too easily.

-"Excuse me, Major... I'll just go to the bathroom for a while..."- She told her boss, who simply nodded in agreement. -"I'll be right back."-

---

February 12th, AD 1955, Fort Bliss (Women's restroom), El Paso, Texas, United States of America, 10:45 AM

Once in the women's bathroom, Catherine wet her face for a few moments, in order to refresh herself and also to think with some clarity. She tried to think that ominous foreboding she felt was simply a product of the dry, semi-desert Texas weather where she was, and her body just reacted appropriately to it.

But the woman knew that what she was feeling was not normal for her. She knew very well when she was having a period, and what she was feeling all over her body was definitely not something like that.

What she was feeling at that moment was definitely much, much worse.

-"My god, Catherine, what the hell is happening to you?"- The woman cursed, while looking to herself in the mirror. -"You don't normally act like this, and things like this rarely scare you."-

Catherine sighed, and as she removed the water from her face, she looked to see if her face was clear. Unfortunately, her face still had water everywhere, so in order to see it clearly, she had to use a towel to dry her face, and once she did...

-"Oh no... no... no... no..."-

...the woman was greatly shocked when she saw a very clear face.

...and that face was not her own...

What she saw in the mirror was a human skull instead of her face, completely smashed to pieces, as if someone had crushed it with a sledgehammer or something very powerful.

When she saw that, Catherine screamed in terror, and because the bathroom floor was wet and she was wearing high heels, she slipped due to the strong impression caused by the sight of that skull, and she fell to the floor in a sitting position.

Even though she could no longer see that skull, Catherine could feel that horrible sensation all over her face. She tried to get away from that feeling, but it was impossible to do so.

What was the significance of that skull Catherine saw in the restroom mirror? Did it mean something or was it a premonition of some kind? And if it really was, did that shattered skull mean she was going to die?

When she saw herself in the mirror again, Catherine took a deep breath and tried to rationalize that horrifying image she saw in the mirror. Was it really some kind of warning or was it simply an effect of the weather and also of the hard exertion she had made the night before by having sex with Nick Larkin?

-"Damn, maybe the anesthetic I used on that idiot might have had some effect on me too."- The secretary mused to herself as she looked in the mirror again.

But as much as she tried to forget about it, and consider it as just a dirty trick that her body was doing to her, Catherine could not get that skull out of her mind...

It just seemed so real... and so disturbing...

-"Oh god, stop this damn nonsense already!"- Catherine yelled more to herself than to any one else.

She stood up abruptly and tried to shake off her constant feeling of concern and fear, and immediately afterwards, Catherine left the public restroom, but not before stopping at a drinking fountain to get a drink of cold water.

After filling the paper cone with ice water, the woman felt much better, and the feeling of terror she felt at the sight of that skull disappeared almost immediately. She immediately concluded that what she felt was most likely the result of physical exhaustion, and perhaps a side effect of handling the anesthetic she had used on Larkin the night before at the Kitty Riot bar.

-"My god, Catherine, the next time you have to put idiots to sleep with anesthetics, first read the goddamn instructions before handling such things if you don't want to be seeing Satan and all the demons from hell the next day."- The woman said to herself as she drank copious amounts of water.

And once Catherine had finished drinking the cone of water, she made her way back to the office, this time more relaxed, seeing that those sinister thoughts had disappeared from her mind.

---

February 12th, AD 1955, Northwest El Paso (Mason's family home), El Paso, Texas, United States of America, 10:25 PM

-"And what was it your boss said about us moving to the UK, Richard?"-

Richard Mason, who only seconds earlier had just hung up the phone after speaking with Major Matthew Fitzroy, explained to his wife, Claudia Mason, what the two had discussed minutes earlier.

-"Well, he wished us all good luck, and that hopefully we would do well in the UK. That's basically what he said to me."-

Claudia breathed a sigh of relief that Fitzroy had given his approval for her husband, Richard, to leave the conspiracy in which they were both involved, which gave them the freedom to leave America and seek better horizons in Europe. Now it was just a matter of settling all their pending affairs before moving to Oxford, England, something they would be discussing next.

-"Well, now that we don't have to worry about that old idiot, Komatsu and everything related to the army, now we just have to start preparing to move to Oxford. And it's a good thing that the kids have taken the idea of moving to another country very well, even if they are going to miss their friends that they will leave behind here."- Richard noted, with a smile in his face.

-"And about that,"- Claudia asked her husband. -"have you figured out where we're going to live in Oxford yet?"-

-"As I mentioned before, there is a good house that is affordable in the suburbs of the city."- Richard discussed the issue with Claudia. -"It's not exactly the fanciest house, but it's not humble either, and we can stay there until we get a better place to live in the UK, and when we get settled in."-

-"And when are we going to England, Richard?"-

-"If all goes well, and this house sells in a few days, we leave for London at the end of this month, and should be in Oxford by the middle of next month. We just need to get the children's official documents, plus their immigration papers, and we will be in the UK away from this place in no time."-

-"And have you talked to your family about moving to Europe?"-

-"Of course. I talked to my mom yesterday afternoon, and she was fine with me moving to the UK to seek better luck there. My dad said the same thing too, and wished me luck likewise."- The man discussed his immediate family. -"And what about your family, Claudia?"-

-"Well, my mother had some reservations about it, but she also liked the idea of me moving to England, although she was a bit sad that now it would be very difficult to see each other again, although I promised her that I would come back at Christmas."- The woman explained her family's position about the topic. -"My sisters also felt the same way, and they promised to visit us when they could."-

-"Good. At least we won't be completely secluded from what's going on here in America if your sisters drop by for a visit from time to time. giggle"-

After a brief pause, Claudia asked her husband another question.

-"Can I ask you a more... personal question, Richard?"-

-"Huh? What kind of question would that be, honey?"-

-"Well... huh... even if you and I agree that we have to go to the UK to look for a better life, do you think we have to go so far away from our country and our families?"-

-"Hmmm."- Richard thought about his wife's question for a few moments. -"Well, I know what you mean, and indeed, it might be a bit painful to go so far away from our families, and England is a pretty long way from the US, but I just don't see how we can do otherwise, honey."-

-"I know, but... I don't know... sometimes I think we're leaving too much behind here in the US, especially here in El Paso, you know?"- Claudia explained her worried about the whole issue of moving to another country. -"El Paso is where we were born and raised, and while you and I agree that we need to look for better horizons for our children, not to mention all the problems you had with the army, especially with that project you used to work on with that crazy scientist named Komatsu, the fact that all of this seems more like an escape attempt than a simple moving out leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth, if you ask me."-

Richard looked to his wife somewhat worried by what she had just said. He and Claudia had discussed this issue several times, but they both felt that they had no choice but to leave behind the life they knew in order to go to a distant land in which they could start afresh.

-"I don't blame you if you think that way, Claudia..."- Richard said, with a bitter expression in his mouth. -"And I would be lying to you if I said otherwise. After all, this is partially my fault that we are in this dilemma."-

-"Well, I understand that."-

-"But I can tell you one thing, Claudia:"- The American scientist reassured his wife. -"No matter what happens, I will make sure that we are going to be just fine when we get to Oxford, and that there will be no more problems. And I don't plan to repeat the same mistakes I made here in El Paso. That's why I plan to work for a civilian company, and I don't plan to ever go back to anything military related. This working with top secret projects, conspiracies, and guys that should be in a nuthouse or in jail makes me contemplate whether I should be worried about the well-being of my family and myself as well."-

-"You're right. I know that, Richard, you always do the best you can with the best intentions for the best purposes."- Claudia replied with somewhat forced smile. -"I'm just worried about our children, that's all, and what they will have to suffer once we arrive to a new country."-

-"Well, I think they will get used to it sooner or later. Besides, they seem to be very enthusiastic about the idea, even if they are also somewhat sad about having to leave their long-time friends behind, especially Frederick."-

Immediately afterwards, Richard looked at the street intently, and even he, although he too was looking forward to moving to England, felt somewhat sad to have to leave behind his hometown and everything he knew in order to make a new life in another faraway country.

At the time, Richard Mason felt it was a bit unfair to have to give it all up, most likely because he no longer wished to be involved in any more military-related matters, and most of all, everything related to the Advanced Evolution Project he worked on with Dr. Komatsu, and all the goings-on related to that project between the government, Major Fitzroy and Komatsu, of which he and his wife were more or less directly involved by getting caught up in the conspiracy to end the career of their now ex-boss.

On the other hand, Richard felt that he was also doing something good for his two children, who would now be able to get a better education and maybe even a better future, unlike in their home country, the United States.

Claudia, who was next to Richard, knew at the time she was going to have to support her husband in everything he was going to face when they move to another country.

Now, only time would tell if they were both right to move to Europe...

But little did they know, however, that fate seemed to have other plans for the Masons...

---

February 12th, AD 1955, Fort Bliss (Major Fitzroy's office), El Paso, Texas, United States of America, 11:48 AM

-"By the way, Catherine, haven't you spoken with the Secretary of Defense to arrange a private meeting with him in the base's briefing room along with Dr. Ellington?"- Mayor Matthew Fitzroy asked to his secretary, Catherine Walburg.

-"I have been trying to contact both of them directly to their rooms, but I have not received any response from either of them since a few hours ago."- The woman responded at her boss' question regarding the whereabouts of those VIPs.

Now that Fitzroy had the necessary documents concerning the Advanced Evolution Project in his hands, all he needed to do was talk to the then Secretary of Defense, Charles Erwin Wilson, to tell him what he thought of Komatsu's project and convince him and Washington to put an end to it, And with the incriminating documents in hand, Fitzroy could use them to convince the White House of Komatsu's likely intentions with his project, and thus end both the project itself and Komatsu in one fell swoop.

But to the Texan soldier's misfortune, both men seemed not to be in their quarters, even though they should still be there at a time when they should be having breakfast before starting work.

Thinking of the most logical reason for their absence, Fitzroy gave the following order to his secretary.

-"Please call to Komatsu's lab, and ask those idiots if they are not there with him."-

-"Roger that, sir."- The woman replied.

The woman dialed the switchboard extension that directed the call to Dr. Komatsu's laboratory. Seconds after the dial, a male voice picked up.

-"Good morning, this is lab No. 4 under Dr. Yoshinori Komatsu, is there anything in particular that I can help you with?"-

-"Good morning, I am Catherine Walburg, Major Fitzroy's personal secretary."- The woman quickly recognized whose voice it was. -"I figure I'm talking with Dr. Phillip Madison, right?"-

The aforementioned man responded to the woman's question about his identity.

-"You're correct, madam. It's me, Dr. Madison."- Dr. Komatsu's chief aide replied in a somewhat forced tone. -"To what do I have the honor of reaching Major Fitzroy's secretary?"-

-"Major Fitzroy wishes to know if Dr. Ellington and the Secretary of Defense are in the lab with your boss, doctor."-

There was a brief pause on the other end of the call when Catherine asked Dr. Madison that question about the whereabouts of those two men.

-"To be honest, I don't know, I've only just arrived at the lab, but if you want, I'll go see Dr. Komatsu to ask about them."-

-"Please do, if you are so kind."-

-"Roger that."-

There was a brief hiatus in the call, as Dr. Madison went to find his boss, Dr. Komatsu, to ask him about the whereabouts of Secretary Wilson and Dr. Ellington, as it is logical that the two of them would be talking with the Japanese scientist about issues related to his project.

Meanwhile, Fitzroy, who was at his desk listening as Catherine was speaking with Dr. Komatsu's lab, waited impatiently for a response from that location.

-"What's taking those idiots so long to find the Secretary of Defense and the doctor, huh?"-

-"I don't know,"- Catherine replied, still with the phone on her hand. -"maybe they are in another part of the base, or maybe they are busy with Dr. Komatsu, at least that's what I can deduce from the delay."-

-"Well, find out then. It is important that I speak to both of them as soon as possible."-

-"Roger that."-

The woman kept on waiting at the phone, and waited for Dr. Madison to get back to her with the possible whereabouts of Dr. Ellington and Secretary Wilson.

Ten minutes later, Dr. Madison's voice was heard again on the phone line, which sounded noticeably chagrined and somewhat exhausted from the rush, as it appeared that he had been searching for Dr. Komatsu or the two men all over the base, or at least within the laboratory, which was relatively large, about the size of a medium-sized airplane hangar.

-"Are you still on the line, Ms. Walburg?"-

-"Yes, I'm still here, Dr. Madison."- Then, the woman replied with her characteristic dry humor. -"I was wondering what was taking you so long to answer."-

Madison, knowing in advance the woman's manner of speaking, completely ignored her attempt at humor and went straight to the point.

-"I spoke with Dr. Komatsu, and he told me that he has not seen the secretary or Dr. Ellington since he came to the lab."- Madison replied at the woman. -"I am surprised that you do not know where the two of them are, to be frank."-

-"No. In fact, we have tried to call their rooms, and we have received no response, and we assumed that they might be in your lab, for obvious reasons."-

-"Well, at least Dr. Komatsu hasn't seen them, nor have I, and I don't think anyone in the lab has seen those two the whole day."-

-"Good, in that case we will try to locate them by other means."- The woman concluded the call in the most diplomatic way possible for her. -"Thank you very much for your help anyway, Dr. Madison."

-"You're welcome, Ms. Walburg. I hope to hear from you again in the near future."-

-"I hope to see you as well, soon."- Then, the woman hung up the phone, as she was certain there was nothing else she could learn there.

Major Matthew Fitzroy, who was listening to the entire conversation between the two, knew that neither the secretary of defense nor his companion, Dr. Reese Ellington, were present in Dr. Komatsu's laboratory. This caused some irritation and astonishment on him, for it was not possible that two people as important as they were could simply disappear out of nowhere.

-"So, they didn't find the secretary or the doctor, huh?"-

-"That's right, sir."- The woman confirmed that info to the soldier. -"If you ask my personal opinion, I think they could have left the base for a walk around the city."-

-"Hah! And where could those two have gone?"- Fitzroy responded with a certain amount of sarcasm to that question. -"El Paso is not exactly a tourist town, unless they would have gone to have a beer in the bars around Fort Bliss."-

-"Who knows, and they have no obligation to tell us either."- The woman replied.

However, before they could continue their discussion pertaining the whereabouts of the two men, a phone call unexpectedly came into the office.

-"I wonder who wants to talk here at this hour?"- Catherine wondered to herself, while she answered the call.

When she picked up the speakerphone, she made the proper protocol introductions.

-"This is the office of Major Matthew Fitzroy of the US Army at Fort Bliss, Texas. I am Catherine Walburg, his personal secretary. What can I do for you?"-

Suddenly, a male voice was heard on the other end of the phone line, and to the woman's surprise, that voice was very familiar to her, and to the Major.

-"Good morning, Miss Walburg. I am Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson. I am sorry to have to make such suddenly call, and in this manner, and please offer my apologies to Major Fitzroy on my behalf, but we received an emergency call from the White House on various matters related to the war on the Korean peninsula, and I am currently at the airport awaiting my private flight to Washington. I only hope the Major understands my reasons for leaving."-

Fitzroy wanted to know who Catherine was talking to on the phone at the time, especially when they were just discussing where the secretary and Dr. Ellington might be.

-"Who is the person you are talking to, Catherine?"-

-"It's the Secretary of Defense Wilson, sir."-

-"WHAT?"- yelled the Texan military man when he found out who his secretary was talking to on the phone. -"Can you please patch him through to me, Catherine?"-

-"Please wait a sec, sir."-

Catherine asked the Secretary of Defense about the possibility of speaking with Fitzroy. After a brief pause, the woman repeated the Washington official's response to the Texan soldier.

-"The secretary says yes, but whatever you want to say to him, be quick about it."-

Without further ado, the woman gave Major Fitzroy the telephone speaker, and the latter first greeted the Secretary of Defense as per protocol.

-"Good morning, Mr. Secretary, I hope you had a good stay here in El Paso, and it is a pity that you have to leave so soon for Washington."-

-"I am sorry for the inconvenience, Major, and I regret not having been able to give you advance notice of our departure, but we really have to leave immediately."- Wilson replied at the phone. -"I received an urgent call from the White House about some troubling events on the Korean peninsula since the war ended, and that is why my presence in Washington is required."-

The war the secretary was referring to was the Korean War, which had begun in 1950 and ended two years earlier in 1953. Obviously, there were many things that had remained unresolved since the conclusion of that conflict, considering the division of the Korean peninsula produced by that war and its consequences that lasted for decades.

-"I guess Dr. Ellington is with you, isn't he?"-

-"Yes, of course. He also has to go back to Washington to explain to the President and Congress what we have seen of Dr. Komatsu's project here in El Paso."-

-"Regarding Dr. Komatsu's project, I wanted to talk to you privately about it, but I don't know if it will be possible to discuss it with you another time when you return to Washington. I think it might be of great interest to you and to the Congress if you would allow me to share what I have with you before you discuss anything with the President."-

-"Well, if it's something interesting, I would be happy to hear about it when I get home, but I'm probably not going to be in Washington for very long, and there is a possibility that I could be sent to Seoul if the White House sees fit, so take the time to gather the information you want to share with me before I discuss Komatsu and his project with the President first."-

-"I understand, sir."- Fitzroy replied. -"I will be talking with you again, then."-

-"All right, see you later, and good luck to you. I look forward to talking to you again next time."- Secretary Wilson bids farewell to Major Matthew Fitzroy. -"And a little advice between friends: Don't be so hard on Dr. Komatsu. What I have seen of the man is very interesting and may be useful, but let's see what the president thinks first, and without mention what the Congress has to say as well."-

Fitzroy thanked the Secretary of Defense and handed the phone back to Catherine.

-"Well, that's it. He's gone."- Catherine announced after she hung up. -"And I'm certain you are not very pleased with his departure."-

-"Hell no, Catherine!"- The man cursed loudly to her -"This delays my plans considerably, as I would have preferred to discuss the matter with the Secretary of Defense and Dr. Ellington in private here at the base. Now I will have to wait when the Secretary of Defense calls me first, but he will most likely have to go to Seoul first, and heaven knows when he will return from there."

-"Maybe so, but you shouldn't have your hopes up about having a private discussion with the Secretary of Defense. It might never happen, given the circumstances."-

-"Well, I am not going to give up so easily, Catherine. I've got to keep trying."- Fitzroy said with determinated frown in his hardened face. -"At least we have plenty of time to find out more information to incriminate Komatsu before the secretary, the president and the congress, and this will make things easier for both of us. I just hope Dr. Mason's absence doesn't hinder our plans."-

-"I just hope so, Major."- Catherine replied, while she drank a cup of coffee she had in her hand.

But just when things didn't seem to have grown any more complicated for Fitzroy and his secretary, another phone call came into the office.

-"I wonder who the hell it will be this time?"- The Texan man cursed. -"Please answer that call, Catherine."-

-"Roger that, sir."-

Once Catherine had made the proper introductions, another male voice came over the speaker phone, and this time, it was from a very close and familiar person, an all too familiar person, to both of them.

-"I am Dr. Yoshinori Komatsu. I need to speak to Major Matthew Fitzroy immediately."-

The woman, astonished, told her boss who the person she was talking to was.

-"Sir, it's Dr. Komatsu."- Catherine said at Fitzroy, with a very surprised gaze in her eyes. -"He wants to talk with you."-

-"WHAT? KOMATSU, YOU SAY?!"- The Texan soldier yelled in surprise when he heard his name, especially when they were talking about him about a few minutes ago.

After regaining his composure, Fitzroy decided to answer the call, partly to avoid any suspicion if Komatsu's call was for what he thought it was for.

-"All right, I will take the call, Catherine. I have no idea why Dr. Komatsu wants to talk with me."- Fitzroy responded.

Without wasting any more time and trying to remain at ease, Fitzroy took the phone from his secretary's hands and answered Komatsu's call in a more or less cheerful tone, in order to avoid any kind of suspicion from the Japanese scientist.

-"Good morning, Dr. Komatsu, this is Major Matthew Fitzroy, how may I help you?"-

-"I appreciate you taking the time out to speak to me."- Komatsu greeted the Texan officer back. -"I have to see you as soon as possible. This is an urgent matter."-

-"Urgent matter, you say?"- Fitzroy responded in a dry, sardonic tone. -"What is it that requires my help, Dr. Komatsu?"-

-"One of my assistants, Dr. Nicholas Larkin, arrived in my laboratory in a rather inconvenient state. At first, we thought he was suffering from a serious hangover, as he had mentioned yesterday that he was going on a date with a woman at a bar called "Kitty Riot" downtown. My senior assistant, Phillip Madison, who is a friend of Larkin's, noticed something strange about his symptoms, which were not the classic symptoms of alcohol intoxication, and sent for me to see Larkin to check what was wrong with him..."-

-"And... what happened next, doc?"-

-"Once I saw Larkin and the symptoms he was suffering from, I immediately realized that he was not drunk, but that someone had added an anesthetic that amplified the effects of the alcohol in the beers he drank, and if that wasn't enough, once Larkin was in a position to talk to us, he quickly checked his belongings and noticed that someone had touched his documents in order to take pictures of them."- Komatsu quickly summarized his problem he wanted help to deal with. -"In short, he was the victim of a spy."-

Komatsu already knew about what had happened to his assistant and demanded immediate answers to the matter. Fitzroy, for his part, tried to conceal his surprise and indignation at what had transpired, and to prevent Komatsu from becoming aware of his and his secretary Catherine's involvement in drugging Larkin to extract the information from the New York scientist's briefcase, he decided to follow the normal protocol for dealing with leaks of classified information in the military.

-"What? What on earth do you mean, doc?"- Fitzroy asked, feigning outrage. -"Obviously, this situation requires my full attention from now on, and I have to see you immediately to talk about it properly. In addition, I must speak to Larkin to find out his thoughts about what occurred. Also, I need to see you and Dr. Larkin in the interrogation room in two hours"-

-"All right, we shall wait for you there."- Komatsu replied, agreeing with the Texan officer to meet in the interrogation room.

-"OK, is there anything else you would like to comment on?"- The Texan man asked to Komatsu.

-"According to what Larkin told me, the woman he had a date with, named Violetta Love, started acting a little unusual when she asked him to sleep with her, and when he was ... you know... having sex with her, the last thing he remembered was that Larkin suddenly blacked out and the next day, he didn't see Ms. Love anymore, and since he was already late for work, he walked straight from the bar to work, due to his inconvenient state and the effects of the anesthetic that was still in his body."-

-"So you assume that woman was probably the person who drugged Larkin?"-

-"Exactly."- The Japanese man replied. -"We have no other suspect to accuse in this regard."-

-"And did she have any particular traits, doc?"-

-"Well, Larkin said she had strawberry-blonde hair and blue eyes."- Komatsu continued with his explanations. -"And she was from Indiana, and her accent was noticeably northern, according to him."-

-"OK, blonde, blue-eyed, and with northern accent, right."- Fitzroy said, while sporting a devious smile in his face and also putting his sights on Catherine, the person who drugged Larkin last night. -"I will take this into account when we question your assistant. Anything else you want to add on, Dr. Komatsu?"-

-"For the time being, no, Major."-

-"Then I will see you and your assistant in two hours."-

-"Thank you very much, Major. We will see you in the interrogation room."-

-"Great, see you later, doc."-

Fitzroy hangs up the phone and turns to Catherine.

-"What clothes did you wear yesterday to drug Larkin, Catherine?"-

-"Well, I wore an evening dress, and I sported a blonde wig. I didn't think anyone would notice my Indiana accent so quickly, to be fair."-

Catherine was a black-haired woman and somewhat more discreet than her alter-ego she used that day, Violetta Love, appeared, but Fitzroy could not risk Komatsu and Larkin suspecting anything if they saw Catherine with him, so he had to dispense with her services for the time being.

-"Komatsu and Larkin will quickly suspect something if they see you, so I'm going to ask you to go back to your room and not come out until I order you to."-

-"Yes, sir."-

-"I just hope those two don't ask any questions about you and why you are not going to accompany me, so I will have to come up with some pretext if that happens."-

And so, Catherine Walburg left the Major's office and went to her room at the base, where she would remain until the interrogation was over, and found some way for Larkin not to try to contact Catherine again. Considering that the New York vet had technically did something that endangered national security if some kind of information was extracted by a foreign spy, he just had to impose some kind of punishment that would prevent Larkin from seeing his secretary so he would start to suspect something.

-"I hope I can do something about that Larkin if we don't want that idiot to ruin our plans, but I have to find a good justifiable method to neutralize him, and also prevent Komatsu from intervening on behalf of his assistant if necessary."-

On edge as he had no plan in mind to prevent Larkin from being a threat if he saw Catherine, his secretary, and suspected that she was Violetta Love, the woman he had slept with that night, Fitzroy lit a cigar in the corner of his desk, taking advantage of Catherine's absence from the office, and tried to think of an idea to deal with his predicament.

A few minutes later...

-"I think I have a good plan to get rid of Larkin without having to resort to something more drastic, while keeping the whole façade..."-

---

February 12th, AD 1955, Fort Bliss (Interrogation Room), El Paso, Texas, United States of America, 02:10 PM

The Fort Bliss' interrogation room was not supposed to be a pleasant or even a good-looking place. It wasn't even remotely comfortable, and that was the whole point of the place: to make anyone being interrogated there to tell the truth without having to resort to torture or more drastic methods.

And that was the situation in which Dr. Nicholas Larkin found himself at that moment. The New York scientist was sitting in a chair inside the room, while he had a simple wooden table in front of him. On the other side of the table was his interrogator, Major Matthew Fitzroy, who would ask Larkin the necessary questions about the previous night's incident between Larkin and Violetta Love, who was actually Catherine Walburg, who had disguised herself in order to seduce him, drug him and steal information from Komatsu's project in the meantime.

Now it was up to Fitzroy to interrogate the man, while he maintained his cover with respect to Catherine and to prevent Larkin from suspecting anything, and at the same time, to find a way to neuter him without resorting to more extreme ways.

-"Welcome, Dr. Larkin."- Matthew Fitzroy greeted the veterinary with an enigmatic smile. -"Or would you like me to address you in a more casual way, if you wish?"-

-"Eh..."- Larkin responded with a nervous expression in his mouth. -"You can call me Nick if you wish, sir."-

-"Very good, Nick."- Then, Fitzroy began the interrogation process with the following. -"Now, Nick, I am going to ask you a few questions, and I expect you to be as clear and honest in your responses as you can."

-"Understood, sir."-

-"Well, let's get started."- Next, the Texan man did the first question to Larkin. -"According to what your boss, Dr. Komatsu, told me, you had a date yesterday with a woman named Violetta Love, right?"-

-"That's right."-

-"And what can you tell me about her, Nick? Any particular traits, like her hair, eye color, accent or anything that might help us identify her?"- Fitzroy said, while clasping his hands and waving his fingers at the same time.

-"Well... uh..."- Larkin hesitated a bit on his answer. -"She was very pretty, no doubt about it. As I recall, she was blonde-haired, gray-eyed, of medium height, and she had a very thick northern accent, from Indiana to be precise. In fact, she told me she was from there."-

-"OK, Indianan accent, blonde, gray-eyed and middle-sized. I see."- Then, the Major did another question. -"Didn't she have any particular foreign accent?"-

-"No-no... sir."- Larkin stuttered a bit. -"Not that I have noticed. In fact, what I noticed most was that her accent was clearly American and I really doubt any foreign spy could imitate such an accent."-

Fitzroy began taking notes in a small notebook beside him on the information Larkin was giving him about Violetta Love. But in truth, these notes were useless, and were only meant to make it appear that Fitzroy was doing something about the spy, who was in fact Catherine, his secretary.

-"All right, I want you to describe to me the events that occurred from the time you arrived at the bar until today when you arrived at the lab. I want you to give me as much detail as you can remember, including what brand of drinks you two consumed, the people who were around you, what you talked about before you went to have sex, and if possible, I want you to tell me what you two did at that time, including the sexual positions you engaged in if necessary."-

Larkin, for more than obvious reasons, felt it was too excessive to go overboard in describing everything he had done with Violetta up to the moment he lost consciousness during sex, something he let his interrogator know in a polite manner.

-"That sounds a little bit... explicit to say in an open way... don't you think, Major?"- Larkin asked.

-"Don't worry, Nick, I'm not going to show it to Dr. Komatsu or anyone else, but just to let you know, I need to gather as much data from you as possible to find out who this Violetta is, and what might have happened to you. So you just go on with the description you were supposed to do and we will work our way around the situation."-

The New York veterinarian sighed, seeing that he had no choice but to cooperate with the Major in describing the situation he had experienced with that woman, even if it meant giving up his dignity for a brief moment.

-"Okay, I'll tell everything I know, sir."-

Immediately after, Larkin tried to make himself comfortable, and then he began to talk about what had happened to him that night.

-"Violetta and I arranged to meet at 9 PM yesterday in the parking lot of the Kitty Riot bar. Afterwards, we started talking about different topics, you know, about my job, what I did at the university before I graduated and all that stuff. On her side, Violetta told me several things about her life."-

-"And what did Ms. Love talk to you about herself, Nick?"-

-"Well... then... she told me that she, besides being a singer, was also a dancer, and she wanted to dance professionally one day."- Then, he added the following. -"By the way, I don't think I mentioned this before, but she told me she was from Evansville, Indiana."-

-"All right let me write this down: aspiring dancer, native of Evansville, Indiana."- Fitzroy wrote down what Larkin had told him about Violetta Love. -"Anything else you know about her, Nick?"-

-"She also told me that she came from a very conservative family, which disapproved of her daughter singing jazz. And as soon as she finished her studies, Violetta went to look for a job as a bar singer in order to be as far away as possible from her family."-

-"I see, the typical rebellious daughter."- The Major continued to write down the data Nick Larkin was giving him about the woman. -"Anything else you can throw in?"-

-"Well, if you must know, we both drank beers. She ordered a Guinness and I ordered a Budweiser, while we both talked about this and other topics."-

-"What other topics did you talk about with her, Nick?"- The Texan man asked. -"Did you talk to Violetta about your work here at the base?"-

-"Uh... well... I will be honest, but I did talk about some things about my work, but only in broad, general terms, and without giving out any confidential information."- Larkin replied somewhat nervously. -"I didn't even told her what field of science I work in."-

-"That's good. That's proper."- The Major said him, while he continued with his note-taking. -"Must be hard to talk to a woman about your work, and keep it as vague as you did."-

-"Yeah."-

-"While you two were talking, how did Violetta seem to you?"-

-"She was perfectly fine, sir."- Larkin answered honestly. -"She was very sociable and friendly, and seemed like a nice person. But... I didn't really notice any reaction that could suggest she could be a spy."-

-"But I understand, according to what Dr. Komatsu told me, that your friend and superior, Dr. Phillip Madison, had warned you yesterday that there was a possibility that woman could be a spy, something you dismissed as paranoid, didn't you?"-

-"Eh... well... ughh..."-

Larkin knew that his friend had warned him about her and that he chose to ignore his advice, and now he was paying the price for disregarding his warning. At that moment, Nick Larkin didn't know what to say, as he now felt that he was knee-deep in a problem that would most likely spell the end of his career, if not worse, and now he didn't know how to respond appropriately.

-"Yes... I regret to say that I made a bad call, sir. I should have listened to Phillip instead of ignoring his warning, but I was too confident in my own judgment."- He said, while he looked down with a pensive expression on his face, feeling somewhat humiliated.

-"Well, there's no point in worrying about the past, but now we need to know exactly what other details about this woman are of interest to us."- Fitzroy reassured the young veterinary doctor. -"One very important thing I would be interested to know is how you two met. I guess you and Ms. Love met at the Kitty Riot, right?"-

-"Indeed."- Larkin replied. -"Although I don't think meeting her would be the most appropriate word to describe the way I became intimately involved with her, sir."-

-"So, what exactly happened the day you two met?"-

-"I was drinking a few beers with a friend of mine who works as a civilian employee here at the base, named Harry Mills, when we were listening to the music being sung by the bar singer, who, by the way, was singing very out of tune."- The vet explained the events that lead him to meet Violetta. -"Afterwards, most probably because of the criticisms due to the bad way the other singer sang, that woman was replaced by another new vocalist, which in this case would be the aforementioned Violetta."-

-"And, what happened next, Nick?"-

-"First, she began singing "Fly Me To The Moon." This is a very objective opinion of mine, but the way she sang that song was not only much better than the previous singer Violetta replaced that day, but she sang better than many singers I have heard before, including several professional artists."- Larkin continued with his explanation. -"Then, suddenly, Violetta asked Harry and me to help her choose a song she could sing. When we were unable to comply with her request, she had another plan, and it occurred to her that it would be better for us to sing along with her on stage."-

-"Wait a minute,"- Fitzroy puzzledly asked Larkin. -"did she randomly ask you and that Mills guy to sing on stage with her like that?"-

-"Yeah, I don't know if she didn't think we'd say yes to her request, but the way she approached us about it was quite sudden, she was just like 'Hey, you two wanna sing on stage with me?', and then she would sing in a sort of duet with one of us."- Larkin replied. -"And we went back to singing "Fly Me to the Moon" again with her."-

-"I just hope the audience enjoyed seeing two drunks like you singing with a woman on stage, and still singing that song, to top it off."- The Texan military man said in a mocking and derisive tone to the New York scientist.

-"Well, I must say that Mills and I didn't do too bad at all. At least we didn't get booed and Violetta didn't get booed either as opposed to the other girl who was yodeling before her. heh heh"- Larkin said with a mischievous grin on his face.

-"And what happened after you sang with her that day?"- Fitzroy asked.

-"After that, Mills and I were on our way back to our homes."- The young man explained to the soldier. -"After he left, and as I was about to start my car, I ran into Violetta again in the parking lot of the bar. We had a short conversation and then she offered to go on a date with me last night at 9 PM. I really liked her, so I accepted."-

-"And as I understand it, as I mentioned earlier, your superior Phillip Madison had warned you beforehand that girl might be a spy and you ignored his words of advice."-

-"Yes, I know, you don't have to remind that again, Major..."-

-"Well, that aside, tell me what happened last night when you were on that date with Ms. Love, Nick."-

Larkin paused briefly, and with Major Fitzroy's permission, he drank a cup of water to cool his throat. He then resumed his recap on the events that unfolded between him and Violetta/Catherine.

-"Well, after that day's work, I met Violetta at the Kitty Riot as agreed at the appointed time."- Larkin began his final part of his explanations on those events. -"I'll be brief from here, but before I went to bed with her, we had a few beers, while we both talked about our intimate lives, jobs and the circumstances by which we ended up here in El Paso."-

-"I hope you didn't discuss confidential information with her over drinks, I guess."- Fitzroy said.

-"No, no. It was nothing like that, sir. We just talked about our personal lives, and nothing else."-

-"All right, go on."- The Major said to Larkin.

-"Well, as you may know, we both dated for a few hours..."-

-"I know that, you didn't date her all night, did you?"-

-"No."- Larkin answered. -"But that's not the point. After drinking a few beers, Violetta groped me and kissed me on the lips... you know... all that erotic stuff that goes on... and seeing that things were getting hot, I agreed to have sex with her in her dressing room."-

-"And what happened there at that place from that point on, Nick?"-

-"Well, once we were both in the dressing room, first Violetta gave me another beer to drink, and after I drank it ... she and I gave free rein to our instincts, if you know what I mean, Major."-

-"It is my understanding, from what Dr. Komatsu and Madison told me, that you lost consciousness when you started having sex with her, and when you woke up, you realized that Violetta was no longer in bed, and you had to walk back to the base, as you were still under the effect of whatever substance Violetta put in your drink, supposedly."-

-"Yes... unfortunately for me, sir."- Larkin replied, visibly chagrined, knowing that from that point on he no longer knew what was going to happen to him regarding the incident with Violetta and any repercussions it might have on his career or his own freedom.

-"Anything else you can add regarding Violetta that might be helpful in locating her?"- The military man said.

-"Unfortunately I don't know what more I can add about it, Major."- After that, Nick Larkin adopted a pleading attitude toward Fitzroy. -"I only beg you to be considerate of me regarding this incident, as it was not my intention to pass on any information about any project being conducted on this base to any unauthorized person. I am truly sorry if this mistake of mine could have jeopardized national security or the integrity of the project on which I am working with Dr. Komatsu, sir."-

Immediately afterwards, Matthew Fitzroy closed the notebook where he was taking notes of the cross-examination he was conducting on Larkin, and then, he placed both hands on the wooden table where both men were sitting, and glared at the young New York scientist with a stern look on his face.

-"That remains to be seen, Dr. Larkin."-

By calling him by his title instead of his first name, it indicated that Fitzroy was no longer friendly with Larkin, and that the Texan officer was ready to punish him for what had happened.

-"For the time being, you will remain on this base, unable to leave under any circumstances, until your legal situation is clarified."- And then, he added the following advice for the New Yorker. -"And I suggest that you should hire an attorney if necessary, as there is a possibility that charges may be brought against you."-

Larkin did not know how to respond to the situation, even if he had expected something like this to happen. The man was so sad he could only look down and be visibly despondent, as he realized that his life and his career was most likely completely ruined for life thanks to that incident.

-"Do you have anything else to say, Dr. Larkin?"-

After a brief hesitation, Nick Larkin finally responded.

-"No, sir..."- The young man said, in a depressed manner. -"I have no more words to say."-

-"Very well, then, you are dismissed, Nick Larkin."- Fitzroy ordered to the young veterinary man, and thus, ending the interrogation.

From that moment on, when the Major Fitzroy rose from his chair and went away leaving the room, the New York vet realized that this issue that he was responsible for in the worst way that could happen to him was far from over.

But for Fitzroy himself, all that interrogation was just a cover for his own plans, and now it was just a matter of Komatsu not suspecting anything about it.

---

February 12th, AD 1955, Fort Bliss (Interrogation Room), El Paso, Texas, United States of America, 02:10 PM

Yoshinori Komatsu, Nick Larkin's immediate boss, the assistant whom Matthew Fitzroy was interrogating just a few minutes earlier, was waiting for the Texan major in the room outside the interrogation room, while Larkin was still in the room. The Japanese scientist wanted to know what was going to happen to his subordinate and what kind of information he was able to glean from him.

-"I imagine you got what you wanted from Larkin, didn't you, Major Fitzroy?"-

The American soldier looked at Komatsu attentively and contemptuously at that question, and he, without hesitation, gave him his answer without further elaboration.

-"Your assistant slept with a foreign spy, who, after fucking Larkin like a rookie at a table dance, stole information about your project after drugging him and leaving him at the bar."- Fitzroy responded to Komatsu in the most vulgar way possible. -"We don't know exactly where this woman was from, except that she had a northern accent, but she could easily have faked it or possibly she is a spy residing here in America, but on the payroll of some foreign government. Considering your record on spies, I wouldn't be surprised if the Soviets had something to do with this."-

Komatsu found it odd that Fitzroy could have immediately assumed that the woman might have been a Soviet spy, even if the Japanese scientist himself already had a history with them when he worked in the Imperial Army's secret bunker in Tokyo, something the man himself decided to ask to his military counterpart.

-"And what certainty do you have that this Violetta Love might have been a spy working for the Kremlin, Major?"-

-"That's a question you should answer yourself, doc."- The soldier pointed out in a rude way to the scientist. -"You already had a nasty encounter with Russian-paid spies in your native Japan, and I don't doubt that Khrushchev wants to finish what Stalin couldn't do."-

But Komatsu, while not a foreign policy expert, did know from his contacts in the military and from certain news summaries he received from the American government that Khrushchev was not as ruthless as his predecessors, Josef Stalin and Georgy Malenkov, and it was highly doubtful that the new tenant in the Kremlin would be interested in gaining information on a project that, to many people, would have seemed at first glance like a project out of the mad imagination of some mad scientist out of a cheap science fiction novel.

But even so, and knowing the Russians, Komatsu could not rule out that the Soviet Union could be behind that information theft, since it was the only country, besides the United States and its Western allies at that time, that had the necessary infrastructure to replicate his project for civilian or military purposes. This would obviously exclude other countries that could be spying in America, such as Mao Zedong's China, Kim Il-sung's North Korea or Josip Tito's then Yugoslavia.

-"Yes, it is true that I had a bad experience with elements paid by the Russians, but to think that the Soviets were behind all this would be jumping to conclusions, Major."- Komatsu said about his doubts whether the Kremlin was behind the event.

-"Do you think other countries could have been behind this, doc?"- Fitzroy asked the Japanese scientist with some skepticism, seeing that he did not seem to be convinced by the Major's hypothesis that the Russians could be behind the incident.

Komatsu, after a few seconds of thinking about a suitable answer, finally responded, with a certain tone of haughtiness in his voice.

-"Well, we cannot rule out other Western allies of ours, such as the United Kingdom, France, Israel, West Germany, among others, who might be interested in my project for their own purposes."- Then, he did a foolhardy and, in a way, mocking assumption. -"Heck, I wouldn't even doubt that countries like Canada or Mexico could be behind this."-

Major Matthew Fitzroy flinched at that last line, with a slight but obvious smirk on his face. It was clear to him that Komatsu had made an attempt at mocking him and because of that, disrespecting him.

-"Surely you are trying to play smart-ass with me, aren't you?"-

-"No."- Komatsu replied bluntly. -"What I mean is that I am not uneducated when it comes to foreign policy, and I simply cannot rule out that other countries, besides the Soviets, could have sent spies to obtain information about my project."-

-"Well, that remains to be seen."- Fitzroy said, after partially chewing on each word of his sentence. -"But we will continue to investigate this... Violetta Love bitch, or whoever she is, and I hope you can shed some light onto the matter."-

-"Assuming, of course, that you can manage to find her first, Major."-

Komatsu's response began to annoy the Texan Major, who seemed to feel that the Japanese scientist was questioning his ability to arrest the alleged "foreign spy".

-"Do you think we're not going to find this woman and arrest her before she leaves the country, doc?"-

-"If that woman didn't even bother to say goodbye to Larkin, that means she must have already left the country by the time she finished having sex with my assistant, so I don't think there's much you can do about this, except alert Washington about this incident."- The Japanese scientist said as a parting shot.

Fitzroy, visibly annoyed, got up and then looked at Komatsu.

-"That remains to be seen, doc."- The soldier then explained what was being done about the matter in a very aggressive tone to the Japanese man. -"In the meantime, I have already notified the Pentagon of this leak and they will take care of the matter, while we will also investigate if this woman could still be in El Paso, if she left town and if she had any collaborators who helped her. I hope this keeps you satisfied, and you see that, despite what I think of your work, at least I take the security and integrity of the top-secret projects being conducted on this base very seriously."-

-"I hope so, Major, because I wouldn't want some other country, let alone the Soviets, to be behind in trying to steal information from my project for their own ends."-

-"Don't worry, doc, I'll take care of capturing that woman no matter what it takes..."-

Then, with a mischievous smile and placing his hands on Komatsu's shoulders, he assured the Japanese scientist that justice would be done.

-"I'll make sure of that, or I'll stop calling myself Major Matthew Lawrence Fitzroy if that doesn't happen, Doc Komatsu."-

-"Well, thank you for your consideration, Major..."-

Komatsu then placed his hands on the Major's arms, in order to pull them off his shoulders.

-"...but I would appreciate it if you would take your hands off my shoulders, if you would be so kind. I don't like people touching me without my permission, least of all you."-

-"Oh! Okay, all right, as you wish."- The American soldier complied with his interlocutor's wishes. -"In that case, I'll go back to my office. If you have anything else to say on the subject, talk to me anytime and I'll see what I can do. I'll see you later, then..."-

From that moment on, Major Matthew Fitzroy did not say anything else regarding that issue to Komatsu, and he simply bid the Japanese scientist farewell, by nodding and saying goodbye before retaking his journey toward the exit of the interrogation room.

-"I think this is going to be easier than I imagined. All signs show that asshole Komatsu doesn't seem to be suspecting anything. Once Secretary Wilson and Eisenhower learn of the true nature of this nutcase's project, Komatsu will most likely end up begging for his life in the electric chair, forgotten by everyone else in this fucking world."- Fitzroy thought to himself as his plans seemed to be going smoothly.

What he didn't know was that things were about to take a completely unexpected turn.

---

February 27th, AD 1955, Newark Metropolitan Airport (now Newark Liberty International Airport), Newark, New Jersey, United States of America, 12:20 PM

The international lounge at Newark Metropolitan Airport was relatively crowded, where many people were waiting for their respective flights to their destinations, including several entire families preparing to travel abroad on vacation or to visit their families.

Among those families about to leave the country were the Masons: Richard, the husband, Claudia, his wife, and their two children, Frederick and Louise. The four family members had earlier taken a flight from El Paso to New York and then another flight to London, England.

For the leader of the family, Richard, being able to leave the complicated and difficult life he had in El Paso, Texas was an opportunity to leave behind all the politics he had to deal with every day while working for the U.S. Army, and above all, having to put aside everything related to Dr. Komatsu, his project and the conspiracy designed by Major Fitzroy to end his career, in which he and his wife were involved, and now, that opportunity to leave America and seek a better life in Europe allowed him to start from scratch in another country.

The only thing he regretted was having to leave behind his parents and his wife's respective families, not to mention the painful necessity of leaving Isabel, his maid, without a job, now that they would be moving to Oxford. Not to mention that his children also had to leave behind their friends in El Paso, although they tried to make the best of their situation, but it was also evident that they were sad to have to leave the life they had in America behind from now on.

Attention all passengers with British Airlines tickets to London, please prepare your belongings to board your flight in half an hour. Thank you very much for your attention.

The airport loudspeaker indicated that the Masons' flight to the United Kingdom was about to depart shortly, something that Frederick, the eldest of Richard and Claudia Mason's children, pointed out to his father.

-"Is the plane to England leaving yet, dad?"-

-"It seems so, Frederick."- The father responded. -"So we have to get ready to move our stuff and get ready to go up at any time, son."-

-"Yes, dad."- Said Frederick, while he was helping his younger sister to bring their suitcases to the boarding line.

While Richard Mason was doing that, he found himself thinking of everything that led him to leave El Paso behind, along with his wife and children, when they knew that such a move would be emotionally difficult for them. The fact that he had indirectly involved his children in the whole affair that originally should have only affected him and their mother made Richard feel an incredibly deep level of guilt, as they bore the consequences of the foolishness their parents had engaged in by involving themselves in a criminal scheme to end the career and even the life of another man.

Despite that, Richard and Claudia had discussed it with their children and they had agreed that the best thing they could do at that time was to move their family to Europe, as they didn't want any more harm to come to their children due to their mistakes.

Louise Mason, the Masons' youngest daughter, watched as her father stared off somewhere, and asked her father.

-"Dad, are you there?"-

The man responded quickly when he heard the voice of his daughter, who was trying to catch his attention.

-"Wha... Yes, I am, sweetheart. What is it?"-

-"Is something wrong? You looked sad when you were looking away."- Said the small girl with a worried look on her face.

-"Oh, uh... It's nothing really, I was just thinking about how we left everything behind in El Paso and all...- Said Richard with a pained and remorseful look. I don't think any of us fully realized how difficult it would be to leave everything behind when we agreed to move to England."-

-"I know... dad."- The little girl asked, with some tears trickling down her face.

-"You're right, sweetheart."- The father continued, almost as if he was barely fathoming that he was about to travel across the ocean. -"I guess you're going to miss a lot of your friends too, right?"

-"Yeah... I guess."- Replied Louise, trying to sound stronger than she really felt, which seemed to be the idea. -"When do you think we'll be arriving in Oxford, dad?"- Asked the little girl, trying to lighten up what was probably going to be a sad situation for the entire family.

-"I think it will take us about eighteen hours or so to get there."- The father responded to his little girl.

-"Uh... that's a long time."- Louise responded somewhat surprised to learn how long it would take for the plane to fly from the U.S. to England.

-"I know honey, but that's something we can't help, so I ask you to behave yourself during the whole flight and be a good girl, OK?"-

-"OK, dad."- The little girl replied. -"I would also like to see Oxford; they say that England is a very beautiful country, isn't it?"-

Richard smiled and answered his daughter's innocent question.

-"That's right, Louise."- The young father responded. -"There are many castles, and also old buildings and we might be able to see many interesting places, such as Loch Ness, Buckingham Palace, Stonehedge, Big Ben, London Bridge..."-

-"Great!"- Louise was happy to hear that she would be able to see all these places once they moved to the UK. -I can't wait to see what it looks like, dad!"-

To that comment, Richard could only smile and reply with a brief comment.

-"Neither can I, Louise."-

But before they could continue chatting about the trip, a female voice came over the airport's public information system.

Your attention please, all passengers of British Arlines flight 4563, please be advised that the flight to London-Heathrow Airport has been delayed for two hours due to technical problems. Please stand by for further details. Thank you very much for your attention.

Upon hearing that the Masons' plane to England would be delayed, Richard could not hide his displeasure at the situation, even if it was not the first time Richard encountered a problem with delayed planes. The whole family had been at the airport for hours, and having to wait more hours in that uncomfortable and crowded place was not the most comfortable, to say the least, for that family with children who wanted the plane to leave so they could get to their new home as soon as possible.

Fortunately, the Masons were in no hurry to reach Oxford, but they also had to take into account that the children might lose patience if things started to take longer than usual.

-"Boy, what a time for the plane to be delayed in leaving."- Richard responded, while checking his watch. -"I wonder what happened to delay that plane?"-

-"Let's just hope it's nothing serious, Richard."- Claudia responded, likewise sharing her husband's feelings regarding the delay of their flight to London.

-"Yes, I know, honey, but I don't know if I can stand sitting here in this place any longer,"- Then Richard looked at his two children, Frederick and Louise, who were sitting there talking to each other, ignoring their parents at the moment. -"and I don't know if the children share the same feeling either."-

Claudia agreed with her husband's remarks, because it was precisely their children who were the ones more affected by this kind of situation.

-"Well, since we are going to be here for a while anyway, may I suggest we try to have something to eat, honey?"-

-"What? Food? But I'm not really hungry..."- Said Richard, acting as if he was not feeling the need at that time to eat something in that uncomfortable place.

-"Yes, but at least let us go to that little restaurant over there and have some refreshments, that is, if it's not too expensive."-

With the passing of time, and despite the discomfort caused by the delay, they decided it was best to have something to eat to pass the time until their flight was ready to leave again, so they went to the little snack stand to eat a something in the meantime.

---

February 27th, AD 1955, Newark Metropolitan Airport (now Newark Liberty International Airport)/Restaurant Area, Newark, New Jersey, United States of America, 1:15 PM

At the snack store, the Masons bought some sandwiches to satisfy their appetite while waiting to board their plane to London. As simple as that meal was, at least it would keep them busy for a while, while they waited for the plane to be ready to take off.

And while this was going on, Richard Mason pondered several things that went through his mind as he placidly munched on his sandwich, especially the fact that he would no longer be able to enjoy many of the things he was used to doing when the whole family lived in El Paso, something he shared with his wife Claudia as she too ate her sandwich along with the two children.

-"You know something, Claudia? I think one of the things I'm going to miss about America is that we may never have the chance to eat something as good as this again."-

-"What? What do you mean?"- She asked him suspiciously.

-"Well, I mean we may never be able to eat the same things we ate when we lived in El Paso."- He said. -"But that's not the only thing I'm going to miss about that city."-

-"What else are you going to miss, my dear?"- Claudia asked curiously.

-"Well, maybe the fact that we have to part with everything we grew up with here: Our families, our friends, our jobs... In short, everything we had in El Paso, in a nutshell."- Richard responded with some sadness in his voice. -"And sometimes I feel that this would not have happened so suddenly if I hadn't agreed to get involved in all that mess involving Dr. Komatsu and Major Fitzroy... along with you."-

Claudia put her hand on her husband's shoulder in order to comfort him. He felt that it was his fault and that consequently he had involved, not only his wife in trying to spy on Dr. Komatsu's assistants, mainly Phillip Mason, but also his two children indirectly, who now had to be separated from their friends and everything they knew in El Paso in order for them to travel with their parents, not only to seek a better future in the UK, but also to escape the whole sordid and manipulative environment surrounding the military and everything related to the U.S. armed forces, especially with Dr. Komatsu's project, where he had previously worked before Komatsu himself fired Richard Mason.

-"And I feel that all this wouldn't have happened if, instead of acting like a sanctimonious ass for defending my beliefs, I would have kept quiet, and at the same time I wouldn't have gotten involved in all this nonsense, and involved you at the same time, Claudia."- The man admitted. -"Because if I hadn't done what I did, we would still be living our happy little lives in El Paso, with our friends and family."-

The woman who remained silent in order to give her husband the chance to relieve his heavy conscience for the whole mess they were in.

-"You know Richard, all this could be true, but everything that has happened before brought us to this point, to us taking this trip."-

Not being able to fully accept the idea that it was Richard's fault, Claudia continued.

-"And I believe that you acted the way you did, and since then, all this has led us to this point, and that we, as parents, had to make a hard decision that involved the safety of our own children."-

Richard felt that Claudia was trying to justify whatever he thought he had done, but he knew this was not entirely true, because Claudia was, even if only partially, supporting what he had done.

But then, Richard realized she was saying nothing more than what she had already said, so he asked her, with hope, although feeling somewhat disappointed;

-"But it's not so, Claudia; I didn't act the way I did because I was defending my beliefs, but for other reasons..."-

Seeing that her husband seemed to be hiding something more than the events he had said earlier regarding his dismissal by Komatsu, Claudia Mason sought further answers from Richard in order to obtain a more thorough explanation.

-"And what would those reasons be, dear? Did you have other reasons for criticizing Dr. Komatsu to cause him to fire you?"-

-"Yes, and I will be frank and brief with you, Claudia..."-

And without beating around the bush with his account, Richard didn't mince words about what he sincerely thought of his ex-boss.

-"Dr. Komatsu is a total nutcase as you don't have the slightest idea."-

The woman was surprised to learn that her husband had a more negative opinion of Yoshinori Komatsu than he had originally mentioned earlier about the Japanese scientist. She knew that Komatsu had a reputation for being a somewhat eccentric and strange man, according to what her husband had told her about him, but no more so than other men of science of his stature, such as the infamous Dr. Von Braun, who formerly worked at Fort Bliss with Komatsu, although the latter hated him for being an ex-Nazi and Komatsu never had the decency to speak to him.

But the fact that her husband, deep down, thought his ex-boss was nothing more than a deranged man with permission from the American government to do animal experiments, in Richard Mason's intimate opinion, made him think that her husband was possibly keeping more secrets that he didn't want to share with his own wife.

That was the reason, when Claudia Mason asked her husband.

-"And why is Dr. Komatsu like that in your opinion?"-

-"God only knows, Claudia, but all I can tell you is that I'm very happy to leave at least one person, besides the government, that I can't stand behind. And I can tell you this, Claudia... that guy is way out there... VERY way out there."- Said Richard, as he finished the last remnants of his sandwich.

At the end of her husband's speech, Claudia turned her head in disgust after realizing that Richard had probably had more to do with the problems surrounding Komatsu and Fitzroy than he was willing to say.

-"Richard..."-

-"Yes, Claudia?"- The husband replied, wiping his face with a napkin after eating his sandwich.

-"I need you to tell me something..."- The woman asked with a severe tone toward her husband. -"and I want you to tell me the truth about what you were working on with Dr. Komatsu when you were at Fort Bliss."-

-"Huh, what do you mean, Claudia?"- Said Richard, now with a surprised look on his face.

-"Since you started working with him, you have kept a lot of things from me about the project you were working on with Komatsu..."-

Claudia wanted an explanation about her husband's work when he worked with Komatsu, since that was the reason both spouses were neck-deep in the current dilemma they were in, along with their own children.

-"I understand that, at the time, that was top-secret information, but even when you were working there I always noticed that your attitude about the project you were working on was somewhat of a negative one, and even when Komatsu fired you, you were more upset about what he said to you about your religious beliefs than the fact that he fired you unjustly."-

Richard Mason was now in a quandary as to how much he should reveal to his wife. He finally said all that he wanted to say.

-"Claudia, I'm sorry I didn't tell you a lot of things about what I worked on in the army, but as you said yourself, that was classified information."-

Then, he began to explain the truth of the whole situation to her, bluntly and without hiding the truth about what he was working on with Komatsu from his wife any longer. After all, what harm would it do his wife if she knew the truth, if they were both too far away from America for it to matter? And knowing his wife, it was highly doubtful that she would discuss it with anyone else, due to the inherent strangeness of the very project that Richard himself was about to describe.

-"But you are right about one thing: Much of what Komatsu was doing was stuff that I disliked remarkably, until he got to the point of criticizing my beliefs when I had the audacity to talk about the famous incident at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947."-

Claudia raised an eyebrow at the last statement.

-"Roswell? Is that where they said aliens landed there or something?"-

-"Yes, but that was not the subject we were discussing between us."-

-"So what were they really discussing that time, Richard?"-

-"Basically, what I was discussing was my opinions about the UFO phenomenon. As you know, Komatsu has always had a very negative opinion on that subject, as he does not believe that life exists on other worlds."- The husband continued with his explanation.

-"Well, let's be honest, Komatsu is a scientist, and he had no need to believe in things that may not exist, such as UFOs."- Claudia replied, trying to justify her husband's ex-boss' actions in a way.

-"Indeed."- Richard continued. -"But for various reasons that would be very difficult to explain, the conversation degenerated into a criticism of the existence of god, since Komatsu is an atheist of the highest order, if I may say so myself."-

Seeing that his wife was having trouble following his talk, Richard decided to shorten the subject and get to the point.

-"In short, I can tell you that Komatsu proclaimed that with the project I was working on with him, we would become gods, and people like me would be something like prophets, a statement that I found incredibly blasphemous, and that was the last straw for me with him and his whole project."-

At this, Claudia Mason began to look at her husband in an uneasy manner. It was evident that her man was involved in a very grave activity that he could not discuss with her, not only because it was secret, but also because it was unethical in nature, and she wanted Richard to start telling her what he was really engaged in at Fort Bliss when he was working with Komatsu, especially considering that she had been involved in spying on one of the Japanese scientist's assistants on behalf of Major Matthew Fitzroy.

-"So Richard,"- Claudia said to her husband. -"I want to know what you were doing in Komatsu's project, and everything, everything you can tell me about it."-

Seeing that he could not continue hiding important details that his wife had a right to know, Richard Mason gave in to his wife's wishes, and finally gave his whole account of what he (and his team of scientists) did at Fort Bliss.

-"sigh... I guess I can't help but have to tell you the truth."- Richard reacted in a resigned tone. -"But I must warn you, Claudia: What you are about to hear may sound absurd, or you may even doubt whether this is crazy; and I don't blame you if you come to think that way, to be honest."-

-"Go ahead, Richard."- The woman replied, doing her best to control her skepticism.

But before the Texan scientist could say another word about his involvement in Dr. Komatsu's Advanced Evolution project, the voice of the Newark airport public address announcer echoed through the airport again.

"Passengers on British Airlines flight 4563 are advised that their flight to London-Heathrow will be delayed for another two hours due to unforeseen mechanical problems. For any further clarification, please speak to an airline representative at the corresponding desk. Thank you for your attention."

-"AWW, CRAP!"- Both Claudia and Richard exclaimed at the same time, forgetting the strange situation in which they were involved and now intensely focused on the flight that they were to take to London. -"NOT AGAIN!"-

And they had reason to be angry, since it was the second delay of their flight, much to the Masons' chagrin. Not to mention that Richard was about to tell his wife the truth about what he was working on at Fort Bliss.

-"Now what's going to happen, Richard?"- Asked the woman, her brows furrowed in annoyance.

-"We're not going to be late, Claudia; We'll only be delayed for a little while. There's nothing to worry about."- Said Richard Mason to his wife.

-"Yes, I get your point, Richard, but this is already becoming a drag for all of us, and I don't think the kids like the idea of waiting any longer for the plane!"-

-"In that case, we should go to the British Airlines counter and see what we can do about it."- Said Richard.

-"Ok, I'm right behind you."- Claudia said to her husband.

And so, the couple and their children left the restaurant in Newark's International Airport with their small suitcases and decided on heading to the airport's British Airlines' desk to see what could be done about their flight to London.

---

February 27th, AD 1955, Newark Metropolitan Airport (now Newark Liberty International Airport)/Check-In Area, Newark, New Jersey, United States of America, 2:00 PM

The Masons, specifically Richard and his wife Claudia, were in the check-in area of the airport, in this case where the British Airlines check-in desk was located, in order to speak to an airline employee and find out why their flight was taking so long. To their surprise and outrage, the answer they received was not what they expected.

-"We are very sorry to hear that your flight was delayed, Mr. Mason, but the plane suffered an unexpected mechanical issue that was not discovered during the last scheduled check the night before and therefore the flight may take at least two hours to depart, at the very least."- Replied the airline employee, clearly apologetic about the delay of the flight to Richard Mason, who had paid for the flight a month in advance.

Obviously, Richard was not a man who liked to listen to excuses, especially when his money was involved, and more so considering that it cost him a considerable amount of money to book that flight to London for him and his entire family.

-"What do you mean by at the very least, huh?"- Richard said in a stern tone toward the woman. -"And what kind of mechanical issue we are talking about?"-

-"sigh... I'm afraid that I'm not at liberty to say, Sir."- The airline employee said, looking at Richard with a small frown. -"But what I can tell you is that the issue with the plane will be fixed no matter what, and that all the airline's technicians are working nonstop to get it ready to depart, sir"-

Seeing that the problem with that plane was apparently more serious than it appeared, he knew he could not press the employee any further and only asked her to explain other things to him.

-"Well, I think I understand your situation, Miss."- Then, Richard went to another related topic. -"In that case, if I were to cancel my flight, how much would the flight cancellation fees be?"-

The British Airlines' employee made several calculations with pencil and paper, in addition to the help of an abacus, and from this, she explained to the patriarch of the Masons how much it would cost to cancel the flight to London if necessary.

-"According to my estimates, it would be approximately $500, sir."-

Both Richard and his wife Claudia were stunned at the enormous amount of money they would have to pay in such a circumstance. In today's money and adjusted for inflation, five hundred dollars in 1955 was a huge amount of money they would have to pay if they were to cancel their flight to London and fly on another airline instead.

-"Five hundred dollars? That's a lot of money!"- Exclaimed Richard. -"Wait... I'm sorry, but could I ask you to repeat the number you just told me?"-

-"Yes, I told you $500, sir."- The airline employee replied, a little confused.

Representing only one half of the total flight cost, $500 was an incredible expense, even for the Masons, who were not poor people and were actually wealthier than the middle class.

-"Oh... crap..."- Claudia cursed. -"There's no way we could pay that money if we cancel the flight, dear."-

Looking at his wife, Richard knew she was right. Canceling the flight was not a realistic option for the Masons, but they also couldn't stay at the airport any longer, as the children were becoming restless and that was what worried the young couple the most.

But with no better options, the only thing they could do was wait for the plane to be repaired, and pray their children would understand the reason the plane would not leave immediately.

-"I'm afraid that is true."- Richard admitted. -"I don't see another solution."-

And with that, the Masons decided to take a seat in one of the airport lounge and wait for the flight to London, which could take at least two hours from that moment on or maybe more. For Richard and his wife, it was already the second delay for their flight, and they were very worried about it.

---

February 27th, AD 1955, Newark Metropolitan Airport (now Newark Liberty International Airport)/Airport Lounge, Newark, New Jersey, United States of America, 2:30 PM

Seeing that there was nothing they could do but wait for their flight to depart, the Masons waited somewhat expectantly for their flight in the airport lounge. It was becoming increasingly annoying for them, as what the Masons thought was going to be a smooth flight had turned into an irksome delay.

And not only were the adults the only ones waiting for the plane to take off, but also the children were beginning to feel the discomfort of having to wait to see when they would be able to board the plane.

-"Dad, when can we get on the plane?"- Louise, the couple's youngest daughter, asked.

Richard, seeing his daughter's weariness at having to wait for so long in the airport lounge, had no choice but to be honest with his little girl.

-"I'm afraid that it will take a while for the plane to be ready to depart, Lou. But I'm quite sure it will be ready soon."- The father replied to his daughter.

Unfortunately, the toddler did not find those words very convincing, and she eventually took Claudia's hand in hers, looking at her mother with a pathetic frown.

-I don't like this place, Mom..."- Louise said in a sad tone. -"I want to go home."-

-"I know, Lou."- Claudia told his daughter. -"Just be patient, okay?"

Frederick, the eldest son, remained silent, even though fatigue was beginning to take its toll on his mood, but he preferred not to make his discomfort noticeable, out of respect for his parents.

Claudia, who was trying to cheer up her daughter, saw how her son's gaze was lost in the air, as if he was trying to ignore what was going on around him in order to avoid looking childish to his parents and the other adults around him, even if his displeasure was visually displayed on his entire face.

Then, the woman rested her hand on her son's shoulder and said to him:

-"Hey, are you alright, Fred?"-

-"Yeah... I'm fine, Mom."- He replied, still looking at the air with a somewhat staid face. -"Just a little tired, that's all."-

-"Alright, son. Just be patient, will you?"- Said the mother in a shaky tone.

Both parents were a bit wary of their son, since he appeared to be completely absorbed in whatever was going on in his head. In fact, it seemed that he was not paying any attention to the rest of them. But despite this, they understood that it was quite possible that he was thinking about something else, something that was not related to his family or the flight to London.

But before Claudia or Richard could continue trying to reassure their children while the whole family awaited their flight to the UK, a man, dressed in a black dress suit, white top hat, and certainly strange looking, walked up to Richard Mason. The man seemed interested in talking to him for some reason...

-"Dr. Richard Mason, I presume, right?"-

The scientist, who had never seen the man before, gave him back his answer.

-"Yes, that's me."- Then, out of caution, he responded in an admittedly wary fashion, not knowing who he was talking to. -"To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking, sir?"-

Seeing the Texan scientist's defensive stance, the man in the black suit responded, this time in a more cheerful tone.

-"Oh, forgive me if I introduced myself somewhat haphazardly and without first introducing myself, but in light of the situation, I had no choice but to be somewhat discreet, if I may say so, Dr. Mason!"- The other man responded, trying to excuse himself for his initial attitude, which appeared to be more aggressive than he intended. -"My name is Elio Fermi, and I work for the US Army, to be more precise, I work for Major Matthew Fitzroy."-

Richard did not expect the man to work for Fitzroy, and he certainly did not expect to meet another member of the U.S. military before he left for Europe. That meant there was a problem and the Major needed his help, at least that was what Richard thought at the time.

-"Do you really work for Major Fitzroy?"-

-"Yes, I do."- Fermi replied.

Then, Richard looked at the man he was talking to, and noticed some things that didn't seem quite normal to him.

-"I don't mean to sound rude, but I didn't know that the Major had any people, other than his secretary, working for him personally, outside his subordinates at Fort Bliss."- Then he looked again at the man who worked for Fitzroy, with some suspicion. -"Let alone if they dressed and sounded like they were members of the Italian Mafia..."-

-"Oh, this?"- The man said, while taking his top hat off and showing the scientist his completely bald scalp. -"This is my actual appearance and wardrobe. I am here incognito."-

The man's answer made the hair on Richard's neck stand up. That did not make any sense. One did not need to disguise oneself and sound like a stereotyped Italian gangster to help his friends.

-"In that case, I want to see your identification, Mr. Fermi, to verify if you are a member of the military, or some mobster who wants to shake me down in front of my family."-

Seeing that the Texan scientist was beginning to doubt whether the man with the Italian name and unfriendly appearance was really a member of the army, Elio Fermi took out of his suit a pocketbook with several IDs, and among them, he took out his ID that proved him to be a member of the U.S. Army.

-"Would this work for you, Mr. Mason?"-

Upon seeing his army ID, Richard read the following:

ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES

NAME: ELIO PIETRO FERMI

RANK: 1ST LT.

U.S. ARMY ACTIVE

Seeing that everything seemed to be in order, and that ID issued by the U.S. government was indeed legitimate, Richard had no reason to doubt that the man was a soldier. Still, the fact that the man was dressed like a mobster and had a less than pleasant demeanor made Richard right to be cautious about who he was talking to at that moment.

-"Well, I do believe that you are actually a member of the military, I see."- Richard Mason replied with a certain tone of annoyance after seeing Lieutenant Fermi's identifications. -"Though I must admit that Major Fitzroy should have a better choice of who he sends to help someone."-

-"Yes, I understand your discomfort, Dr. Mason."- replied Lt. Fermi, ignoring the fact that Richard Mason mistook him for a stereotypical Italian hitman, quite possibly because of his name and manner of dress. -"Although I need you to better explain myself as to why I need to speak with you."-

-"Very well, what is it that you want to share with me, Lt. Fermi?"-

Fermi took a breath of air, and then he answered the doctor's question.

-"We noticed that you and your family were having trouble making your flight to London, weren't you?"-

Richard was surprised to see that the man knew about the predicament he and his family were going through at that moment, which meant that they had been spying on the Masons all that time since they arrived at the airport, something that the Texan scientist did not like.

-"First of all, I suppose the Major ordered you to spy on us, didn't he?"-

Fermi did not try to conceal that fact before the man, nor was he insincere with his words.

-"You could say yes, doctor."- Fermi replied. -"Although that was not the original intention."-

Richard was a bit perplexed at the answer Lt. Fermi gave him about the fact that they were spied on, but apparently it was never a fixed plan, something the scientist demanded a further explanation from the man in the black suit.

-"What do you mean it was not your intention all along?"- Richard asked Fermi, already a bit exasperated. -"It would be good if you could explain to me what is going on here, and if this is not some kind of interrogation or something like that. I don't have time to listen to this crap, especially when I plan to move away from this country so I don't have to tolerate this sort of thing."-

Seeing that Richard Mason was beginning to lose patience, Fermi decided to jump to the point.

-"I'll cut to the chase, Dr. Mason:"- The Italian-American man explained to him. -"We explained your current situation to Major Fitzroy over the phone, and he, quite possibly as a way of thanking you for all that you and your wife have done for him, is going to lend you and your family his private plane, so that you can travel to London without any problems."-

The Texan scientist opened his eyes as wide as he could open them from the surprise he had just heard. He and his entire family would be flying on a private plane to London, as a thank you for the effort he and his wife had made to spy on Dr. Komatsu and his assistants. That news was something that middle-class man could not believe in the least.

-"Wa- wait a damn minute, Lt. Fermi! What do you mean the Major is going to offer us his plane just like that?"-

The black-suited man nodded his head, confirming Richard's words.

-"Yes, that's right, Dr. Mason. He will lend you his plane, no strings attached."- The lieutenant confirmed.

Richard couldn't believe what he heard. He never imagined that man, whom he had always regarded as a rather violent man, would bother to reward them for the trouble they had gone to in spying on Komatsu and his men. But it was more than obvious that, in spite of what his countenance might indicate, Fitzroy seemed to be a man who knew how to repay well those who helped him.

Meanwhile, Claudia Mason, Richard's wife, was listening to everything her husband and Lt. Fermi were discussing, and she was equally excited to learn that the whole family would be flying on a private plane to the United Kingdom. However, she had a question to ask to the bald man.

-"Excuse me, Mr. Fermi, I think it's a good idea for your boss to offer us his private plane to London,"- The woman asked Fermi. -"but I have a question I would like to ask you about this issue."-

-"What question would that be, Mrs. Mason?"-

-"I guess you know that we were originally planning to cancel the flight we originally had with British Airlines to travel to England, but the high cost of the cancellation fee made it impractical."- Claudia asked about the cancellation fee. -"I guess we have to assume that your boss will pay for that as well, right?"-

-"Yes, don't worry about it, Mrs. Mason. The cancellation fee will also be paid by the Major. And with this, I believe you have nothing to worry about."-

Claudia Mason, Richard's wife, let a smile stretch across her lips, which was caused by the good news Lt. Fermi gave to them.

With all those problems cleared away, there was nothing standing in the way of Richard and his family to go to London without any further complications.

-"In that case, Lt. Fermi, when would our plane leave for London?"- Richard asked the man in the black suit.

Lt. Elio Fermi looked at his watch and quickly gave the Masons a specific time.

-"Well, your plane would be leaving here at 4:00 PM."- Later, the man of Italian origin gave a warning to the Mason family. -"I would just like to warn you, ladies and gentlemen: The plane is a bit small, so it will be making stops at different points before arriving to the UK. I hope you understand that, and that this will not cause you any unnecessary inconvenience."-

-"Of course, Lt. Fermi,"- Claudia answered for the family. -"We understand, and we are grateful for everything you've granted us."-

-"Thanks, Mrs. Mason."- The black-suited man said, with a smile in his face. -"I just hope you enjoy your flight and don't forget to let us know when you arrive in London, so we know you arrived safely at your destination."-

With all this settled, the Masons notified their two children and told them that they would be leaving for London ahead of schedule thanks to Major Fitzroy's private plane. Needless to say, both children were more than happy to know that they would now be leaving for Europe without further problems.

-"Just one thing, Lt. Fermi,"- Richard asked the bald man. -"where is the plane that will take us to London?"-

-"At hangar 10, in front of terminal C of the airport. Your plane will depart from there at 4 PM, as I told you before."-

-"Very well, then we will wait for the plane until then, Lt. Fermi."- Then, he thanked the Italian-American man. -"And thank you very much for your help, and please give my compliments to your boss for his help."-

-"I'll let him know, Dr. Mason, and you don't have to thank me for anything else. Just please wait until the plane is ready."-

And so, the Masons waited until their private flight was ready to take off for London, to save themselves further unnecessary hassle.

---

February 27th, AD 1955, Newark Metropolitan Airport (now Newark Liberty International Airport)/Aircraft Parking Area, Hangar 10, Newark, New Jersey, United States of America, 3:35 PM

After waiting diligently at the airport, the Masons arrived at Hangar 10, where Major Matthew Fitzroy's private plane was housed, and also being fitted out to be ready for takeoff in less than half an hour. Upon arriving at the hangar, the family discovered that the plane they would be using was a Douglas DC-3, a World War II-era aircraft.

The Douglas DC-3 was a twin-engine airliner that was produced to carry passengers, but also to be used for supply and evacuation missions. The aircraft's first flight was back in 1935, and it had the ability of carrying up to 32 passengers. The wing span of this aircraft is 49 feet (14.94 m). Even though the aircraft wasn't designed as an attack plane, its range and cargo capacity helped make it an ideal choice for many military purposes during World War II.

Even if that plane was no longer as modern as its larger counterparts, the DC-3 was still a respectable long-haul aircraft, and the Masons could not believe that Major Fitzroy had such a plane in his service. The children, especially Frederick, were surprised to see that private plane, and even more surprised to learn that they would be flying in that plane, and only for them.

-"WOW! Look at the size of THAT plane, dad!"- Frederick exclaimed at the sight of the DC-3. -"And you say your boss has this plane? It's so BIG!"-

The whole family was amazed by the size of the plane they could see from the hangar.

-"Yes it is, Fred,"- Richard replied to the little boy's words. -"We are very lucky, and we are going to take full advantage of this lucky opportunity."-

The family could only marvel at the sight of that private plane that was to take them to the United Kingdom.

Claudia, the wife, was equally surprised to see that the plane was owned by the Major, and could not believe that soldier owned such an aircraft. That meant that Fitzroy must have had quite a lot of money to afford to have such a plane at his disposal and, above all, to have it in good working order.

-"Richard, honey, I never imagined that your boss had so much money to have a private plane at his service."- Claudia asked her husband, still surprised to see that plane before her eyes.

-"Neither do I, Claudia, and I really can't believe that a man like him could have such a plane..."- The man also replied at his wife.

And then, with a certain tone of cynicism, and looking carefully at that plane, Richard Mason couldn't help but be a little sarcastic about Fitzroy's ownership of something as expensive and luxurious as a DC-3.

-"I would hate to have to say that our tax money is going precisely on things like this."- The man reflected. -"I mean, I know Fitzroy isn't obviously some cheap hood, but this kind of plane must have cost him a hefty chunk of dough, if you ask me."-

-"You are right,"- Claudia retorted at her husband. -"but we should at least be grateful to him for sharing his fortune with us as a way of repaying us for all the inconvenience caused."-

-"Yeah, I know that, Claudia, but that doesn't mean that seeing that guy have a plane like that leaves a bad taste in my mouth."- Richard made an even more caustic point about Fitzroy, for he was annoyed that such a man had such an expensive plane at his command, while the money from that plane could have been used for better things for the country. -"I just hate corrupt people, and even more people like that jerk, taking profit of our money to get rich at our expense."-

-"Oh, come on, Richard, stop being so mean and ungrateful!"- The wife complained about Richard's attitude about the plane. -"A minute ago you were happy to know that Major Fitzroy had a private plane to take us to London, and now you are complaining that his plane is expensive!"-

Seeing that his wife was, to a certain extent, right and that he was basically rambling, most likely due to the stress caused by the trip and the strange conditions in which he and his family found themselves, including the fact that they were traveling on a private plane, he decided not to continue to voice his thoughts, no matter how disapproving they might be, about Fitzroy's private plane, and to concentrate exclusively on trying to travel comfortably, no more and no less.

-"Okay, I guess complaining about something like this at this time isn't a good idea."- The scientist grudgingly retorted to his wife.

While Richard Mason was still arguing with his wife about the trip, Lt. Elio Fermi, who was outside the hangar arranging other matters, came up to Richard to talk to him.

-"What do you think about the plane, Dr. Mason?"- The Italian-American man asked without wasting any time. -"Will it really be useful to you?"-

-"I guess so, Lieutenant, but I was just telling my wife how much this plane must have cost to your boss."- The scientist replied, unrestrained in his opinion about the price of the plane and the possible crooked way Fitzroy might have bought it. -"It must have cost him a good amount of money to have such an aircraft in good working condition and even to be able to make transatlantic trips."-

-"Heh, heh. Well, you know, as a member of the military, Major Fitzroy has to fly from one part of the country to another, and on occasion, he also has to travel overseas, so he took a chance on his savings to buy a used plane from the last war and retrofit it as his personal plane."-

-"Yes, of course, I can imagine how he must have come up with the money to buy this machine."-

Claudia, seeing that her husband wanted to continue with the plane price issue, decided to stop him at once.

-"Richard, stop this absurdity at once!"- Then, she apologized to Lt. Fermi. -"I apologize for my husband's attitude, Lieutenant, but I think the whole travel thing must have upset him. I earnestly hope that you won't be upset about this."-

-"Oh, don't worry about it, Mrs. Mason, I know how people like your husband must feel, and in matters such as this, I am prepared to understand how some people might express their opinions about it. Many people in this country, after all, want to know where their tax dollars are going."-

-"Glad you understand, Lt. Fermi."- Claudia finished her apology.

-"Well, leaving aside the airplane and its price, to avoid making my wife angry, I just want to know who is going to be the crew of the plane that will take us to London."- Richard asked Fermi about the plane's crew. -"I hope you don't ask us to be the ones to fly this thing."-

-"Heh, heh, of course not, sir."-

Then Fermi snapped his fingers, and six people, three men and three women, appeared in the hangar before the lieutenant and the Masons. Judging by their attire, the men were the pilots of the aircraft, while the women were the flight attendants.

-"Allow me to introduce the crew of your aircraft, ladies and gentlemen. Captain Dexter Stoddard will be piloting the aircraft, along with his co-pilot, Patrick Frost, and the navigator, Nigel Sinclair. As for the flight attendants, you will be serviced by Miss Pauline Weaver, Miss Flora Statham and Miss Martha Whittemore respectively."-

Captain Stoddard leaned in close to Richard and offered his hand in greeting.

-"Nice to meet you, Mr. Mason. I hope you have a good trip to London with us."-

Richard Mason, who was still dumbfounded, as was the rest of his family, to see that all these people were going to be attending to them for the entire trip to the UK, did the logical thing and shook hands with the captain of the plane as well.

-"Uh... Same here, I guess."-

-"Well, now that they've introduced themselves,"- Lt. Fermi said to Richard. -"do you have any other questions about the flight, Dr. Mason?"-

-"Also, please do not worry, sir. We are really experts when it comes to managing a plane like this, and we will have you in London in no time."-

-"Yeah..."- Richard was still a little doubtful about having all that people working for him and his family, but he voiced no displeasure at the idea of flying with this team of pilots and their flight attendants. -"Well, you better do your best then."-

After the introduction, Elio Fermi turned to Richard to settle the final details concerning the flight.

-"Well, now that they've introduced themselves, do you have any other questions about the flight, Dr. Mason?"- Fermi asked Richard, who in turn, thought for a moment over things that were bothering him. -"If you have any problems or questions about the trip, please, feel free to ask. After all, you will be dealing with these people for the whole flight. It would be advisable if there were no problems between the crew and you."-

After analyzing everything, the Texan scientist gave his answer that would settle the conversation for good.

-"Mmmh... I guess everything's okay."- Then, he did another question -"So, when do we get out of here, Lieutenant?"-

-"As soon as you board the plane, it will depart immediately."-

-"In that case, I don't think I have anything more to add to the matter. Please tell the Major that we thank him very much for lending us his plane, and hopefully we will find a way to return the favor someday."-

-"Don't worry, Dr. Mason, I'll pass the word on to the Major. You just worry about having a good trip to London, and don't hesitate to call the Major by phone when you get there."-

-"Of course we will, Lieutenant, and thank you very much for all your trouble."- Claudia thanked the military man of Italian descent in the same way.

As Claudia Mason was addressing the Lieutenant, Richard, looking at all these people and their luggage, decided to leave.

-"Well, if you don't mind, I guess it is time for us to get going now. We have to get on the plane and get out of here as soon as possible."- He said to his family. -"And thanks for the plane, Lt. Fermi. Please give my regards to Maj. Fitzroy when you can."-

-"So be it, Dr. Mason."- Then he waved goodbye to him -"Have a nice trip!"-

No more words were needed, and in no time at all, the Masons were already in place on the plane, greeting their crew in individual ways. Richard was already on board and seated, while Claudia and the kids were already waving to Lt. Fermi.

-"Goodbye, Lieutenant Fermi! Hope to see you later someday!"-

Fermi waved goodbye and waved at the kids and the adults.

-"Goodbye, Mrs. Mason, and that goes for all of you, too! See you later, then!"-

The Masons stopped waving and boarded the plane. Once on-board, they took their places and the plane began to take off. Minutes later, the DC-3, without much trouble, took off from Newark airport, first heading northeast, in order to first make its first stop in Gander, Canada.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Elio Fermi, the U.S. Army lieutenant working for Fitzroy, who was still in the hangar, was in the administrative office to make a phone call.

-"Hello? I need to speak with the boss."-

Unfortunately, what Fermi was discussing with the other person on the phone was not recorded in the historical accounts, only what the military man was discussing with his other interlocutor.

-"Just tell him the plane has taken off safely and the Masons are on their way to London."- After some chat, Fermi kept talking. -"Yeah, yeah, I know, they don't seem to be aware of anything, although Dr. Mason seemed a little pissed off about getting on a private plane. Ya know, all that bullshit about whether the plane must have cost the taxpayers a pretty penny and stuff."-

Afterwards, Fermi did more question to the other side on the phone.

-"By the way, I'm just curious to know one thing, what would it be like if anything went wrong?"- On hearing his counterpart's reply, Fermi seemed visibly concerned. -"What are you saying? That you already have something planned out beforehand?"-

Upon hearing the response from the other person behind the phone, Fermi sounded less than pleased with what he had just heard.

-"I just hope it doesn't involve having to travel abroad, boss, because I wouldn't want to get involved with something as sensitive as this. Just so you know, this is not something we do every day, especially when there are VIPs like Dr. Mason."-

Fermi again raised an oblique, grunting complaint in reaction to the answer given by that other person.

-"I think you have a very skewed opinion of us, boss, and in other times, we would have told you to go to hell, but as long as we get paid, I don't think there will be a problem."-

Judging by Fermi's response concerning his interlocutor, something seemed to make him quite upset.

-"Well, you will be responsible about what may happen afterwards, and if something goes wrong, at least be glad that we did what we could. That's all I'm going to say about the matter."- Afterwards, he bade his interlocutor a cold farewell. -"Goodbye."-

And so, Fermi hung up the phone, this time visibly angry and cursing loudly.

-"Shit!"- The Italian-American said aloud. -"May the Virgin Mary and all the saints in heaven have mercy on my soul for this..."-

---

February 27th, AD 1955, Gander International Airport, Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, 5:15 PM

After a few hours of flight time, the DC-3 carrying the Masons to England made its first scheduled stop in Gander, Canada. The airport, formerly known as Gander International Airport, was located at Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Gander International Airport was an international airport that serviced transatlantic flights as a stopover for aircraft which were flying to cities in Canada, the United States and other countries in Europe. In its heyday, it was the largest airfield in Canada and had services of transatlantic flight airlines such as Air France and British Airways using it on their routes from North America to Europe as a refueling point. It also serviced US military during World War II by being a refueling stop for heavy bombers on their way to England.

As the plane sat on the runway refueling, the Mason children watched the planes take off and land, while their parents chatted with each other about various topics. It was a good thing that Frederick and Louise seemed to be distracted by the comings and goings of the planes landing at Gander, as Richard and Claudia needed to discuss some issues they couldn't when they were in Newark.

-"Well, now that we are on the plane, can we continue talking about what we were discussing on Newark?"- Claudia said at her husband, who was reading a newspaper in the meantime.

-"You mean what we were talking about in the airport lounge?"- Richard replied as he watched the children, who kept watching the planes landing at the airport from the window of the plane they were on.

-"Yeah, I guess we can talk about it now, especially now that the children are distracted."-

Richard Mason sighed a little, for he knew that what he was about to say could change the way his wife thought of him, considering the nature of the project he was working on with Komatsu in the U.S.

With this in mind, the Texan scientist considered it opportune to discuss the subject with his wife, now that there was no one to interrupt them, and above all, that the plane's crew was not present at that moment in the plane to hear them both, to avoid eavesdropping.

-"As I've brought this up before, I just hope you don't take this the wrong way, honey."-

Richard hoped that he could talk to Claudia in a calm and relaxed manner about everything he was about to tell her.

-"Was it really that horrible what you were doing with Dr. Komatsu, Richard?"- Claudia responded in confusion to what she was going to hear next.

-"Not exactly, Claudia. I can tell you in advance, just so you don't worry, that it didn't involve experimenting on humans, although it was still somewhat... disturbing ...what Komatsu was trying to accomplish anyway."-

-"Then what was that about?"- Said Claudia, still somewhat distraught.

Richard sighed, and then, he went straight to the point, consequences be damned for him...

-"Basically, the whole project was about experimenting on animals, in a nutshell."-

Even before Richard could continue, Claudia stared at her husband with some measure of incredulity, for she didn't see anything particularly strange about experimenting with animals, or at least that was how she was interpreting her husband's words.

-"I'm going to be blunt with you, dear: I don't see anything weird about experimenting with animals, since it's something very common in your profession, isn't it?"- Claudia said skeptically at her man. -"Or is there something you haven't told me about that, Richard? You're not going to tell me that you guys did terrible things on animals, are you?"-

Richard glanced at his wife thoughtfully, and after a brief break, he answered with a certain tone of uneasiness.

-"No, of course not. On the contrary, Komatsu went to a lot of trouble to avoid euthanizing or killing animals, even when it might have been necessary."- The man explained at his wife, in a nutshell, about Komatsu's Advanced Evolution theory -"What disturbed me and what caused my sacking was what Komatsu was intending to do in the long term."-

-"What did he want to do?"- Asked Claudia, as she supplied her husband with a glass of orange juice just then.

-"The main idea of the whole project is about making animals capable of speech and intelligence similar or equal to humans, using the same method, though more advanced, similar to how we humans evolved from apes."-

Once Richard had finished that sentence, Claudia appeared somewhat shocked at this sentiment, and she paused briefly, just so she could think about it before pressing on with her husband.

-"Tell me you're serious, Richard."-

The woman met this with utter disbelief, widening her eyes as much as she could to see that her husband was working on something straight out from Frankenstein, some pulp sci-fi story... or at worst, a Disney film.

-"Would you believe me if I told you I am serious?"- Richard replied to his wife as he pointed his finger at himself. -"In fact, I have asked myself THAT DAMN QUESTION many times in the past when dealing with the bizarreness of what I was working on with that man."-

Seeing that her husband really meant what he said, and that it wasn't a joke, considering everything they had both done in relation to Komatsu, Claudia Mason couldn't help but feel uncomfortable that what her husband was working on seemed more serious than it looked at first sight.

-"How much of what you are telling me is truth, Richard?"- Claudia said, to get it right, as she had her doubts about the matter. -"I'd like to believe a word you said, honey. But the thing is it all sounds... ridiculous for me. I'm sorry if that hurts your feelings, but I just can't buy into this story."-

Richard felt pained by what his wife had just told him, but he didn't want to talk anymore; he knew that it was impossible to prove to his good wife that what he was telling her in that moment was true.

And besides, the sooner they got into their trip and could get to London, the better.

-"Alright then, honey."- Was all that Richard told Claudia, after pondering what to say next. -"We can talk about this later, or when we get to Oxford. I think we're both grumpy after the British Airlines plane delays, and I don't think we're both in the mood to discuss things like this right now."-

-"Maybe you're right, Richard..."- Said Claudia, in response to her husband's words.

She paused for a moment, and then, she reached out to Richard to embrace him.

-"We can talk about this another day, shall we?"- Then, she kissed Richard in his cheek. -"After all, we will have plenty of time to discuss this further when we reach England."

-"OK..."- The husband responded with a smile, as he looked tenderly at his wife face to face.

Meanwhile, the entire crew of the DC-3 climbed back into the plane, which meant that the aircraft had finished refueling, a fact that the captain let the Masons know before entering the cockpit.

-"Ladies and gentlemen, we will take off in half an hour from Gander, and if there are no problems, our next stopover will be in Narsarsuaq, Greenland. I hope you enjoy the flight."-

-"Thank you, Captain Stoddard."- Mason said at the captain, before he could resume the flight.

A few minutes later, the plane was refueled enough to take off and resume its journey to England, which meant the plane was on the ready. The DC-3 silently took off into the Canadian air, and from there onward to Greenland, and after that, England.

---

February 27th, AD 1955, Narsarsuaq Airport, Narsarsuaq, Greenland, 08:30 PM

The DC-3 entered Greenland's territorial airspace, and before long the plane had descended towards Narsarsuaq international airport. Since it was still winter at that time, and considering the location of that region near the Arctic Circle, the runway was somewhat frozen, so the pilots of Major Fitzroy's private plane were very careful when landing.

Not surprisingly, the temperature in Narsarsuaq in late February 1955 was 2°C, so the DC-3 and its crew could not spare any precautions to prevent the plane from skidding on the runway.

Narsarsuaq Airport is located in the municipality of Narsaq, one of Greenland's most populous towns, which has a population of 4,681 inhabitants. The airport is located on the shore of a small mountain lake as well as opposite to Narsaq and less than 3 km from it.

In winter time it becomes extra difficult to maneuver planes at this airport due to the frozen runway and increased chances for skidding off the ground in case of bad weather conditions. In addition to this, during winter time there are days when snow accumulates on the ground and it becomes difficult for planes to land or take off from there.

Once the plane was stopped and refueled, Captain Stoddard advised the Masons to try to stretch their legs for a few hours before the DC-3 would take off again for its next stop, which would be at Keflavík Airport in Reykjavík, Iceland.

-"Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are now in Greenland. I suggest you buy some souvenirs at the airport, and get some rest before we leave for Iceland for our last stopover, and arrive in London, weather permitting, the next morning."- The captain said, through with a last warning. -"I hope you have winter clothes on hand, as it is very cold here."-

-"We bear that in mind, Captain."- Richard Mason reassured Capt. Stoddard. -"Fortunately, we have winter clothes here with us."-

-"Well, if I may, I'm going to check that the refueling and any issues with the plane are in order. I'll see you later then, and try not to go too far from here, so we can leave as soon as possible, will you?"- Said the pilot, as he left the plane.

With the captain's warning in mind, the Masons decided to leave the plane as well, obviously not before dressing in winter coats and clothing warm enough to withstand the arctic climate of Narsarsuaq.

Outside the plane, Louise Mason, the couple's youngest daughter, who had only seen snow in books and movies, considering she had spent her entire life in the warm climate of El Paso, Texas until that day, was more than surprised to see so much snow everywhere, something she let her parents know.

-"Hey, daddy, look at all of these mountains and hills of snow!"- The child exclaimed, as she pointed out the surrounding area of the runway.

-"You can say that again, little girl!"- Richard said to his daughter with a bit of pride, as he put his daughter on his shoulders, to let his daughter have a better view of the snowy setting.

-"Do you like snow, Louise?"- Claudia asked her daughter, happy to see that her daughter was having fun seeing the beautiful scenery of that place outside her native America.

-"Yeah, I've never seen snow before in my life!"- The little girl said aloud. -"It's so beautiful! giggle"-

The little girl laughed happily as she waved her arms as snow was everywhere in the airport, before the American family entered the airport to have a rest before getting back on the plane for their last leg of their Icelandic stopover.

---

February 27th, AD 1955, Narsarsuaq Airport (Maintenance hangar), Narsarsuaq, Greenland, 09:00 PM

While this was going on, the DC-3 was in the airport's maintenance hangar, where it was refueled and given a few quick checks, before taking off again, and also to protect it from the freezing Greenlandic weather.

The aircraft was checked by the on-site maintenance chief, Simon Pallensen, a World War II veteran from Denmark, was known as the on-site maintenance chief in Greenland. He served in the Royal Danish Air Force during WWII and came to Greenland after his service with the Air Force, where he continued to work there. He had more than enough experience with any type of aircraft he got his hands on, from small planes, fighter aircraft to airliners and even bombers since 1953, when he was stationed as a mechanic at Narsarsuaq Airport in Greenland.

At the time, Pallensen was checking the engines of the DC-3 in which the Masons were flying to London, but not before making a final stop in Iceland. But before the plane could take off, the Danish mechanic wanted to make sure that everything on the aircraft was in order before he could give it the go-ahead.

But while checking the engines of both of the plane's propeller thrusters, Pallensen noticed something unusual that caught his attention...

-"What is in this engine?"-

Upon checking the engine chassis, the veteran mechanic noticed that the machine had a strange welding mark on the outside, as if someone had opened up the engine and re-welded it back together again. While this was not something unusual on an aircraft engine, and would not normally be a cause for concern under normal circumstances, as it did not affect the engine's performance, the fact that this strange mark and any repairs made to the propeller engine would normally be recorded in the aircraft's repair log, something that did not appear in the latter.

And the strangest thing was that same mark was also on the other engine, which meant that both engines had received some kind of major repair not recorded in the logs.

-"Why on earth do both engines appear to have been repaired, and yet those repairs are not listed in the logs?"- Pallensen said to himself. -"This is a tad unusual, if I had to say so."-

While Pallensen was still checking the engines, Dexter Stoddard, the captain of the DC-3, walked up to the veteran Danish mechanic and saluted him first.

-"How are those engines, old man Pallensen?"- The American pilot asked the mechanic.

It should be mentioned that Simon Pallensen was about 50 years old at the time, and while he was no longer young, he didn't like being called old in that way, something he let the pilot know.

-"I'm not as old as I look, Captain, so save your age jokes for some old man in a nursing home."- The Dane replied in perfect English, a product of his war experience dealing with American and British pilots.

-"Heh, heh. OK, OK, I'm just joking, man, just don't take it personally, right?"-

-"Well, to cut to the chase, Captain Stoddard,"- Pallensen opted not to play along with the American captain and went straight to the exact problem he needed to address with him. -"I need to bring up something very important to discuss with you."-

-"What kind of matter do you want to discuss with me, Mr. Pallensen?"-

-"It's about the two engines of your aircraft, Captain."-

Seeing the serious tone of the airport's chief mechanic, Stoddard opened his eyes as wide as he could, realizing that the issue could be serious.

-"What kind of problem... do the plane's engines have, Mr. Pallensen?"- Stoddard replied in a more somber tone than he was accustomed to.

-"From what I have seen so far, both engines have strange weld marks, as if someone tried to fix or repair the engines, and such repairs are nowhere to be found in the logs."-

The DC-3 captain tried to understand what the mechanic wanted to tell him. According to him, the engines appeared to have been overhauled on some previous occasion, and as far as he understood, before the aircraft took off, it had undergone a thorough overhaul and the repair logs did not indicate that the engines had received any previous maintenance.

-"From what I was told before takeoff, and from what I saw in the logs, everything seemed to be in order. Also, the plane has been running smoothly since we took off from New Jersey in the U.S., so I never felt there was any risk at all, or else I wouldn't have flown this thing in the first place."-

-"Well, in all fairness, the fact that your plane's engines have been repaired before you took the aircraft out of the ground for the first time, is not something that would reflect on your pilot skills nor on the airworthiness of your aircraft. I don't think there is even something to worry about. But I am not so sure about one thing; that is, who is the one responsible for overhauling the engines in the first place?"-

The American pilot shrugged his shoulders in doubt.

-"In this case, I don't know a damn thing."- Stoddard clarified to the Danish man. -"In fact, I am not the regular pilot of that plane, but I was hired by Major Matthew Fitzroy, a U.S. Army man who works in Texas, to fly a family to London."-

-"WHAT?!"- The mechanic said in surprise after hearing that last part. -"How is it possible that a DC-3 is being used just to take a family to Europe, huh?"-

-"Beats me."- The American man shrugged again his shoulders. -"What I do know is that family belongs to an acquaintance of Major Fitzroy, and he lent his plane when their original flight to London was delayed due to mechanical problems."-

-"Well, I must say your boss must have craplots of money to spend just to borrow them a DC-3 for something like this..."-

Pallensen then veered off to another related topic.

-"In that case, I would like to talk with that Fitzroy fellow to find out about the aircraft's engines, and why their repair does not appear in the logs."-

-"Well, I'm not opposed to it, Mr. Pallensen, but I think I should tell you that my boss works in Texas."- Stoddard clarified to the Danish man.

-"In which part of Texas does your boss work, Capt. Stoddard?"-

-"As I understand it, he works at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas."- The American pilot explained. -"In fact, the family I am bringing to London hails from there."-

-"El Paso?"- The mechanic said quite surprised to hear the name of that place. -"Gee, then they must have come a long way."-

Then, Pallensen asked something to Stoddard.

-"Do you have your boss' phone number, Captain?"-

-"Yes, I have it right here. In fact, I have his business card."-

-"Then give it to me."-

Stoddard handed the Danish mechanic the business card containing the telephone number of Major Fitzroy's office at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.

With card in hand, both Pallensen and Stoddard went to the former's work office to speak with Fitzroy by telephone to clarify the matter of the plane's engines and the weld marks they had on their chassis. Obviously, Pallensen first had to talk to the operator so that he could be connected to El Paso, Texas, and since he had to talk to the Greenland carrier first, all dialogue was done in Danish first.

-"(Hallo, operatør? Jeg har brug for at tale med et nummer, der er registreret i De Forenede Stater, tak.) Hello, operator? I need to speak to a number registered in the United States, please."-

-"(Må jeg få at vide, hvilken by du ønsker at tale med?) May I know which city you wish to speak to?"- The Danish-speaking operator asked the mechanic.

-"(Jeg skal tale med El Paso, Texas, tak.) I need to speak to El Paso, Texas, please."-

-"(Et øjeblik.) Just a moment, please."- The woman replied.

After a few minutes on hold, the Danish-speaking operator replied to Pallensen on the phone in a somewhat stern manner.

-"(Det telefonnummer, du ønsker at ringe til, er et telefonnummer på en amerikansk militærbase. Sammen med det sted, du ønsker at ringe til, vil det koste dig en betydelig sum penge.) The phone number you wish to call is a U.S. military base phone number. Coupled with the location you wish to call, it will cost you a significant amount of money."-

The operator then gave the mechanic what it would cost him to call El Paso, Texas, from Greenland. Obviously, the call would be very expensive, but for the Dane, the price of the call was the least of it, especially if lives were at stake.

-"(Jeg er ligeglad med prisen, men ring venligst til det nummer, frøken.) I don't care about the price, please call to that number, miss."-

-"(Et øjeblik.) Just a moment, please."-

Moments later, the operator sent Pallensen's call to El Paso, Texas, in the United States, and attempted to call Fitzroy.

But after several minutes of waiting on the line, Pallensen received no answer from the number that was written on the card the American pilot gave him about the person who hired him.

-"Something wrong, Mr. Pallensen?"-

-"No one answers me."- The Dane replied to Stoddard. -"I hope this number is the correct one."-

-"How strange."- The American man replied in a puzzled way. -"That's the phone number I was given for any concerns I needed to raise with him about the flight."-

-"It sure looks like it's the right number, but we'll get to the bottom when I call again."- Pallensen remarked.

But strangely for Pallensen, despite several attempts, he never received an answer from the phone number written on Fitzroy's business card that Captain Stoddard had in his possession, something that annoyed the Danish mechanic.

-"Shit!"- Pallensen cursed. -"Why the hell isn't that Fitzroy guy answering his damn phone, huh?"-

-"That's strange. Considering the time zones,"- Stoddard checked his watch. -"it would be 4:30 PM in El Paso, so Major Fitzroy should be in his office working right now."-

-"Then I will get back to him later."-

-"Excuse me, Mr. Pallensen, but I, my crew and my clients don't have time for this, to be honest, as we must be in London by nightfall tomorrow at the latest."-

Obviously, that answer was not to the mechanic's liking, as he had an obligation to inform the captain of the plane about any problems the plane might have before takeoff, and he could not let the pilot leave Greenland with two really suspicious engines.

-"Are you out of your mind, Captain Stoddard?"- The mechanic pointed his finger at the American pilot, who seemed resolved to take off for Iceland, his next stop, regardless. -"I can't let you leave here if I don't get a satisfactory answer from your boss regarding your plane's engines, and if something happens to your plane mid-air, I'll never forgive myself if I ever do that in my fucking life!"-

-"Look, I understand your concern, and I don't doubt that the plane may have received some type of maintenance before I received it as it was when we left New Jersey, and that it was not recorded in the repair log."- Stoddard defended his stance on taking off as soon as possible, despite the objections of the veteran Danish mechanic. -"There is a possibility that someone forgot to write that down before we took off and that it was just a human error. Besides, the plane has been running perfectly since we took off from the U.S., and if there had been any problems, we would have either already returned to the nearest airport, or I wouldn't be here in Greenland to comment on it, so I don't think I should worry too much about it either, to be honest, Mr. Pallensen."-

Pallensen knew there wasn't much he could do to change the American pilot's mind. Even if he was the mechanic, the plane belonged to the captain and not to him, so whatever happened was Stoddard's responsibility, not his.

Still, he felt an obligation to inform him of his concerns regarding the plane's engines, and the risks that might be involved if he continued flying without receiving a satisfactory response from the DC-3's owner, Matthew Fitzroy.

-"Just tell me one thing,"- Pallensen insisted, as the Danish mechanic attempted to learn everything he could about the flight. -"Was it your boss who asked you to fly that family to London?"-

-"As far as I know, yes, and as I mentioned before, he borrowed that plane to them when their flight to London was delayed due to the airline that would take them to England."-

-"And do you work in the army, or for him?"-

-"Technically, no. I work for a private company, and I was hired over the phone to take that family to London through a person who does work in the military."-

-"And who is this person who hired you on behalf of Major Fitzroy, Captain Stoddard?"-

-"A guy by the name of Elio Fermi, a U.S. Army lieutenant, who identified himself as such when hiring me."- Stoddard explained who hired him to fly that plane. -"I would like to point out that I was hired almost at the last minute, when Lt. Fermi verified that the Masons would not be able to leave on time for London when their flight was delayed twice."-

-"Hmmm... Fermi, I see..."-

The American pilot saw the mechanic's puzzled face, and asked him again.

-"Is there something wrong with that name, Mr. Pallensen?"-

-"No, it's nothing,"- The Dane quickly replied. -"I just have a strange feeling that I don't like at all when I hear a name like that."-

The American pilot made a naughty smirk, for he knew perfectly well what the European mechanic was referring to with such words...

-"Come on, Mr. Pallensen, you're not going to tell me that you think this Fermi guy is a mobster or something, are you?"-

Simon Pallensen, hearing that Stoddard was implying that he had stereotypical ideas about Italians or people of Italian descent, reddened his face in anger at hearing such conjecture from that pilot.

-"OF COURSE NOT, YOU BLOODY ASSHOLE!"- The Danish mechanic shouted almost in the DC-3 pilot's ear when he heard that. -"I'm not as racist as you Americans are, for fuck's sake!"-

Seeing the Scandinavian mechanic's enraged response, and also after being shouted in his ear verging on deafness, Stoddard quickly stepped back and apologized for his off-handed crack.

-"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it! It was just a joke, and I didn't think there was anything wrong with it. I didn't mean anything by it, I swear!"- Stoddard said.

Still, a few seconds later, Pallensen started to calm down, as a smile was slowly making its way back to his face.

-"Okay, I accept your apologies, Captain"- The mechanic said. -"I know people from Italy, and I cannot say that they are bad people. That's why I don't tolerate those bad racist jokes, especially when they come from American idiots like you, who seem to have a morbid penchant for denigrating other people who are inferior to your kind."-

Stoddard, on the one hand, was not pleased that the European mechanic was patronizing him for the shortcomings of his culture, let alone on his own face. But on the other hand, he had no time or interest in discussing such nonsense, especially when other people were waiting for the plane to take off.

-"All right, all right, let's leave it at that, shall we? I don't have time for discussing such crap."- The American captain replied in a tone of annoyance and contempt to the Danish mechanic. -"I would like to know, to at least get an idea of the extent of the problem with the aircraft's engines, if you could show them to me so that I would know the exact nature of the issue you are referring to, Mr. Pallensen?"-

-"Of course, Captain Stoddard."- The mechanic responded to the request, and then went to the plane's left engine.

Looking at the engine chassis, Stoddard quickly noticed a small, but noticeable, weld mark on it. Next, the mechanic showed him the right engine and its chassis also had the same similar weld mark.

While Pallensen was concerned about that mark, the American pilot, who was short on time, had a different opinion.

-"Well, to be honest, I don't think it's such a big deal at first glance. I have seen engines with similar welding marks and very few times they have given problems, except in very extreme circumstances, like in a war. Why would it be different in this case?"-

-"I would like to know if both engines were overhauled on the inside, and what type of repairs were made to them."- Pallensen explained the main problem with both engines. -"Unfortunately, without that information written in the repair log, the only way to find out would be to disassemble the engines and find out to what extent those repairs were made to either of them. And that would take me at least a day or two, at most."-

For more than obvious reasons, Stoddard didn't have the time to allow such delicate stuff as disassembling the engines, just because the mechanic suspected something fishy when he saw weld marks on them. In his own personal experience, such marks could be caused by many things, and considering that both engines had not caused him any trouble all the way from the U.S. to Greenland, he had no grounds for suspicion that the engines would give him any further issue when he took off for Iceland and on to England.

-"Maybe we should keep it short..."- A very frustrated Captain Stoddard suggested, however. -"I can barely afford to spend a couple of more days here in Greenland due to all these unexpected repairs that are taking so much longer than I expected, so I cannot take the risk to overextend myself by spending too much time with this little problem."-

Seeing that the American pilot did not seem to care much about the problem with the engines, Pallensen gave him the following warning.

-"And what if your plane started to have a problem mid-flight, Captain Stoddard?"- The Dane complained loudly at the pilot. -"Or worse, what if you had a problem that you couldn't solve by simply returning or making an emergency landing at a nearby airport?"- Pallensen continued his explanation, this time with a somewhat more concerned tone. -"I don't even want to imagine if something were to happen to your plane, with that family and children on board..."-

But Stoddard remained adamant, and he didn't seem to be willing to let a couple of insignificant weld marks stop him and that plane, especially considering that the entire flight had been uneventful up to that point. Even at that point, he came to think that man was possibly starting to hallucinate, a byproduct of his work, something he did not hesitate to scoff at immediately.

-"You know what, Mr. Pallensen? I think you are already starting to see strange things in your head from sniffing so much oil and turbosine every day..."-

Afterwards, the American pilot began to snicker somewhat maliciously at the Scandinavian mechanic, implying that Pallensen was beginning to lose his mind as a result of the exposure to the chemicals he had to work with every day in his job as a mechanic.

In other times, Pallensen would have snapped in a fit of anger at such an insult. But in view of the current situation, he didn't feel like it, nor was he in a position to get unnecessarily upset by childish jokes such as those uttered by that pilot.

-"I'm fine..."- The Dane replied somewhat bitterly to the American captain. -"Believe me, I'm just concerned about your plane and those kids on board, so I'd like you to wait a bit longer before taking off with both engines."-

-"Oh, good Lord, Mr. Pallensen, as much as I would love to spend some more time in Greenland, I cannot do that!"- Stoddard remained steadfast in his takeoff attitude, no matter what. -"My clients are already waiting for their plane, and I'm not going to delay them just because of a silly suspicion of some ridiculous weld marks, when I've seen planes with engines more manhandled than a whore in Calcutta, and they have worked perfectly without many problems!"-

Pallensen grumbled when he saw that the American pilot was not going to change his mind. On the other hand, Stoddard didn't want to just walk away and leave the mechanic unsettled with his comments about the plane's engines.

-"Look, Mr. Pallensen, if it is any consolation to you, and also to reassure you, I will call you when we get to Reykjavík or London, depending on how much time I have on me when I get to the last stopover."- The American man said at his Danish counterpart in order to calm him down. -"Should I have any suspicion of a serious problem with the plane, rest assured that I will return immediately to the nearest airport I can find."-

-"I just hope you arrive safely at your destination, Captain Stoddard."- The veteran mechanic said a few words to the DC-3 pilot, which was the only thing he could do at the time. -"But don't hesitate to come back if anything untoward should happen to your plane; and for heaven's sake, don't try to play hero up there, will you?"-

-"Don't worry, sir, the plane is in good hands."- The American captain reassured again to the Dane man. -"Besides, I've flown in worse conditions when I flew cargo planes over the Philippines during the last war, so I have more than enough experience with that sort of thing."-

Pallensen had nothing more to say, which Stoddard took as the conversation being over.

-"Do you have anything else to share, Mr. Pallensen?"-

-"No, not at the moment."- The mechanic said with a stern tone. -"I just wish you, your crew and your passengers luck on your trip to England. That's all."-

-"Well, then if there is nothing more to discuss, and if the plane is ready and fueled, then I will call the crew to take off as soon as possible."- Stoddard walked over to where the crew was resting to tell them that the DC-3 was ready to take off, and also to notify the Masons to board the aircraft in the same manner. -"I wish you luck too, and I will talk to you when I get to Iceland or England."-

-"I also wish you luck, Capt. Goddard, and god bless you."-

-"heh, you too, old man."-

---

February 27th, AD 1955, Narsarsuaq Airport (Tarmac), Narsarsuaq, Greenland, 10:10 PM

Once the crew and the Masons were on notice that the plane was ready to take off at any moment, they all boarded the DC-3 to continue their flight to Iceland, or to be more precise, to Keflavík airport, which would be the last stop of the flight before arriving at Heathrow Airport in London, England.

The Masons, meanwhile, were carrying several gifts they had bought at the airport duty free store, taking advantage of the free time they had while the plane was being refueled and serviced, not to mention taking some pictures of the beautiful Greenlandic scenery while they were at it.

Once aboard the plane, Richard Mason, the family head, quickly struck up a conversation with the captain of the DC-3, Dexter Stoddard, who was watching the entire crew and passengers board the plane.

-"Everything in order, Captain Stoddard?"-

-"Yes, everything is perfect, and we are ready to take off when you and the control tower allow it."- Stoddard said at Richard. -"How did you find Greenland, sir?"-

-"Very beautiful, and the mountains and glaciers are amazing. Shame we didn't have much time to see anything else, but maybe someday we will come back to visit this place more thoroughly."-

-"I hope so, Mr. Mason."-

Stoddard prepared to enter the cockpit of the DC-3 in order to make ready for takeoff.

-"In that case, if you have nothing further to add, we will take off at the earliest opportunity."-

-"Thank you very much, Captain."- Richard concluded the chat with a candid smile. -"Then I will not bother you anymore, and I leave the plane in the hands of you and your crew."-

And so, Stoddard made his way into the cockpit, while Richard and the rest of his family prepared to fasten their seat belts so that the plane could take off from Greenland.

Some passengers were already fastened to their seats when Dexter Stoddard entered the cockpit and started his preparations. Before that, he checked the landing gear, made sure that nothing seemed amiss with any of the engines, and powered up one of them in order to make sure it was functioning properly.

Soon enough, they were off from Narsarsuaq airport and on their way back to Reykjavík, their last stop before reaching London in England, before anyone else could even realize what happened.

---

February 28th, AD 1955, Icelandic airspace, Masons' DC-3 (Cabin), 12:30 AM

After several hours of flight from Greenland, the DC-3 flying the Masons to the United Kingdom was several nautical miles from Keflavík airport in Iceland, which would be their last stop before arriving to London.

The weather was a bit turbulent, considering that they were flying on the other side of the North Atlantic, but the captain of the plane, Dexter Stoddard, was used to flying in more hazardous conditions than those presented to him at that moment.

Meanwhile, the Masons were resting peacefully in the passenger cabin, while the plane continued on its course to its destination. The two children, Frederick and Louise, were asleep in the seats next to where their parents were located, although on the other hand, the latter, Richard and Claudia Mason, were still awake, for some reason.

As for the wife, Claudia needed to have a conversation with her husband Richard before she could fall asleep.

-"Richard, honey, I hope you don't mind if we chat for a bit, while the children are sleeping..."-

Richard, who was unsuccessfully trying to sleep, could not help but listen to his wife and have a talk with her, thinking that it would help him get some rest.

-"That's fine with me."- The husband replied. -"What is it that you want to talk about?"-

Claudia made a short break, and then, she replied to her husband.

-"I know you would prefer that we discuss this when we get to England, but what you told me about what you actually did with Dr. Komatsu in the U.S. left me a little uneasy, and I think we should discuss it now before I might forget it later."-

Richard opened his eyes in surprise, and watched his wife carefully, for he did not think she would want to return to that topic again. On the one hand, he would have preferred to wait for the whole family to reach Oxford first before bringing up such a sensitive subject like his former work at Fort Bliss with Komatsu, but on the other hand, he knew that subject was not something that his wife, or anyone else, would be able to put aside so easily, due to its own esoteric nature.

-"Alright. I was just about to be sleeping anyhow."- Richard said while he tried to make himself more comfortable in his seat. -"But are you sure we have to talk about that?"-

-"Yes, we should discuss your former work, one way or another."- The wife replied. -"And I don't think I can rest easy until you tell me the truth about what you were working on back in Texas."-

-"I thought you didn't believe me when I told you about the part about making animals talk and think like humans."- Richard asked Claudia. -"Now why do you want to bring that up again?"-

-"To be honest, Richard... I didn't believe anything you said to me at first... but then I started to ponder... you are not the kind of person who would make up something as ridiculous as making animals talk just to save your own skin in front of me, considering what you and I went through to help your ex-boss, Major Fitzroy..."-

And then, she added the following.

-"and I think... if you tell me what you really did for a living, I might understand the reason of your former work, and why I tried to spy for that man, and what was behind the whole issue between Fitzroy and Komatsu."-

Richard sighed, and when he saw that his wife really wanted to know the truth, he had no choice but to be completely honest with her.

-"I guess I REALLY owe you an explanation, Claudia, considering everything you went through because of me."-

-"It's alright, Richard. I just wanted to know what were you really doing with Dr. Komatsu all this time..."-

And after a brief pause, Richard Mason decided to explain to her the heart of the matter about the Advanced Evolution theory on which the whole project of his former boss, Yoshinori Komatsu, hinged.

-"Since what I am going to say is usually very technical and scientific stuff, I am going to summarize a lot of things about my ex-boss's theory so that you can understand it better."- The husband warned beforehand. -"Are you okay with that, honey?"-

-"It's alright. Please enlighten me as you feel."-

-"Well, where should I start?"-

Afterwards, Richard began with his basic description of the theory, and therefore the project, that he was working on with the Japanese scientist who was his boss to his wife, Claudia.

-"The theory goes like this: As the vast majority of people know, we humans are descended from apes through natural evolution over the centuries."- The American scientist explained to his wife. -"And this is where the big question of all comes in: What would have happened if other animal species, besides apes, had evolved in the same way?"-

-"Uh, I guess they could talk, walk on two legs and think like us too, couldn't they?"- Claudia responded.

-"Theoretically, yes, although, in the opinion of many, the reason other special animals did not evolve in the same way as apes is due to many reasons. And even in the case of us humans, knowing in advance the part that we come from the anthropoids, we have not yet found the missing link, the connection between apes and the rest of the animal beings, though the latter is not really relevant in this situation, to be honest."-

-"So, Dr. Komatsu's idea is to replicate the same process as humans evolved from apes, but using other animal species?"-

-"In a way, yes, but using different methods. Otherwise, it would take ages to get any kind of result if we used natural methods."-

-"And what are these non-traditional methods that Dr. Komatsu is using to accelerate the evolution of an animal into a more... intelligent and humanoid... so to speak... version of itself?"- Claudia kept asking her husband.

-"To the best of my knowledge before I was fired, we have tried to emphasize any kind of beneficial mutation or anomaly, however small or insignificant, of any animal we are aware of, and try to amplify or improve those mutations in their offspring, so that any anomaly that might serve the goal of improving the genetic material of any living thing, especially anything that might help improve the intelligence of the creature, is strongly encouraged, leaving aside anything that is not beneficial for them in the short or long term."-

-"And what results or 'offspring', if you will, did you get from this method?"-

-"First of all, I need to explain the context of this: Before Komatsu came to America, he met a Bengal tiger from India named Raghu, which, according to what Komatsu told me about him, was an animal that was raised and abused by its previous owners in his home country, and then brought to Japan, where it was kept in a zoo."-

Then, Richard, added the following

-"Most likely due to the abuse he suffered when Raghu lived in India, that tiger had a reputation for being a very bloodthirsty and violent animal, even killing several of his keepers, which caused the zoo where he was originally decided to get rid of the feline by giving him to the Japanese government for experimentation."-

-"And what does that animal have to do with all this, Richard?"- Claudia asked.

-"Well, it turned out that Raghu could use human sign language, something that is supposed to be impossible for a non-human to learn. That meant that this tiger was smarter than any animal we had ever known."-

-"That is pretty much ridiculous, Richard."- Claudia was skeptic about that last part. -"Is it really possible for an animal to learn sign language just like that?"-

-"In other instances, you would be right.."- Richard replied. -"But it double astonished Yoshinori Komatsu, and he decided to study him, because the scientist became fascinated with the possibility of improving the intelligence of any animal specimen to the point of where it could use human languages, spoken or written."-

-"And how on earth could that animal learn something as complicated as sign language?"- The woman asked, still incredulous about a tiger being able to use sign language.

-"Raghu learned sign language from a deaf-mute woman named Yuka Nagahama, who was his last caretaker, and she later died tragically in an incident with a rabid bear in 1944."-

He also explained about some tidbits about that Japanese woman.

-"And the most tragic thing about that woman is that, according to what Komatsu told me about her, was that Yuka Nagahama was despised in that zoo because of her disability, and that the owners of that place had chosen her as Raghu's keeper with the explicit purpose of having that tiger kill her, as they knew the animal's reputation for killing people."- Then Richard paused briefly. -"It seems that, when Raghu did not kill that woman, they decided to put her in the care of a rabid bear, and they succeeded in their objective..."-

Claudia brought her hands to her mouth in surprise and disgust, knowing that there were people cruel enough to make a woman meet her death in such a way, something she let her husband know right away.

-"Oh, god! That's... that's horrible, Richard! I am so sorry that woman had to go through all that just to be killed by animals like some kind of freaking circus act."- Claudia said to her husband visibly angered at hearing such story about that woman. -"How could such a thing have happened?"-

-"Beats me, to be fair, Claudia."- Richard responded, shrugging his shoulders. -"From what Komatsu told me, many of his fellow countrymen, at least at that time, were not known for being empathetic to people with disabilities, as they considered them as hindrances, which was to some extent understandable in a country that was isolated from the whole world for so many centuries like Japan, where resources were always scarce, and a person who could not support himself was just a waste of vital resources for the livelihood of others."-

Then, Richard added another point about Yuka's death and its cause.

-"Or, as in this case, it may have been a case of plain and simple sadism."-

The American woman could not help but feel visibly saddened to hear such a story about the Japanese woman who taught Raghu human sign language to communicate with her.

-"Unfortunately, that's ancient history, and there's no point in mourning for that poor woman."- The scientist tried to leave behind the topic of Yuka Nagahama's life and death, after watching his wife's distressed face. -"The important thing is to know her role in teaching Raghu such a complicated thing as sign language so that he could use it to communicate with other humans, as harsh as that may sound to you, or to everyone in general."-

-"That's true... although it's not that I disagree with you about that, Richard."-

She added, as she decided to leave the topic behind as well.

-"But it still sounds far-fetched that it is possible for a tiger to learn sign language."-

-"Well, you should ask Raghu or Komatsu, who also wondered the same thing back then."- Richard replied.

-"But what does Raghu have to do with the whole project?"- Claudia asked again, still incredulous at her husband's words about the project he used to help with. -"I guess having a tiger that knows how to use sign language must have been very useful for you and your boss, right?"-

-"Indeed, it was."- The man replied at his dear wife. -"In fact, by using various methods, and by relying on Raghu's genetic material, we achieved a major success in duplicating Raghu's sign language skills in a small kitten."-

-"A kitten?"- The woman asked once again, surprised to hear all that.

-"Yes, since after all, domestic cats are relatives of wild cats such as tigers, lions and the like."- Richard explained. -"All we had to do was amplify the effects of an actual genetic mutation already existing in some of Raghu's genes. And thanks to that, we managed to get that little kitten to learn sign language after a few months of birth. And from what I saw, I feel that little fella learned the language better than expected."-

-"And why do you say that, Richard?"-

-"Because that little kitten turned out to be a bit... rude... chuckle"-

The woman also smiled when she heard that anecdote about the project her husband had previously worked on.

-"Well, no one is perfect, not even those trying to be gods, from what I see..."-

Hearing that last part about gods, Richard Mason's attitude suddenly became a bit more somber, and he gazed glumly at the floor when he heard that from his wife...

-"Gods..."- Richard said in a depressed tone. -"I always wondered if what I was doing there in Texas was really something as unholy as pretending to be a god, and yet helping someone else in something like that..."-

Claudia, who could tell by her husband's tone just how troubled he was, looked at him worryingly before she spoke.

-"Richard...?"-

-"Hmmm...?"- The scientist said while still gazing at the floor.

-"I understand what you mean about it being a bit unholy to do such a thing, but you told me before that a lot of the stuff around Dr. Komatsu was not quite normal... I mean, what really happened with Yuka Nagahama, or the tiger Raghu, the whole spying thing on his assistants on behalf of Maj. Fitzroy weren't very normal things on any stretch... but is it really like what you say?"-

Richard turned his head towards his wife and looked at her with a look that was a mixture of sadness and shame.

-"I know it's not normal what we did, Claudia."- Richard began to say. -"And that was most obvious when Komatsu removed me from the project."-

-"Does it have to do with what you mentioned back in Newark about the Roswell incident, and how all that talk ended up with you getting fired?"-

-"Yes."- The man confirmed. -"In short, Komatsu began to question my religious beliefs, and when I tried to support my position on the matter, the man could not tolerate being contradicted, and then, he fired me. But not before he said some crazy things about what he pretends to do with his project."-

-"Crazy things?"- Claudia asked, now intrigued about the story of her husband, who sighed with some effort and then began to tell his wife the things from then.

-"Yes. Basically, he said that we humans would be the gods of the creatures emerging from that crazy project run by that Japanese idiot, and scientists like me would be their apostles. That was the death knell for me, and I couldn't help but say what I thought about Komatsu and his project."-

-"And what did you say to Komatsu, dear?"- Claudia asked.

-"In short, I simply blew him and his project to kingdom come, and that's why I also got involved in all this mess that I got you involved in, just to get even with that Japanese asshole. But I guess things didn't turn out the way they did..."-

The woman looked at her husband with a worried expression, and Richard noticed it, smiling a bit sadly.

-"And since we are talking about this, I apologize for the trouble I've caused you, Claudia."- Richard said to his wife with a very sorrowful tone. -"I'm such a lousy husband... and because of me, we are all paying for my stupidity and my vindictiveness..."-

Then, he lowered his head, and Richard Mason kept cursing to himself...

-"...If only I had had a cooler head that day... maybe none of this would have happened... and maybe we wouldn't all be traveling to another country to look for a better life away from all this crap..."-

Claudia could not help but put her hand on her husband's shoulder to comfort him, while Richard wept silently, feeling that it was all his fault.

-"I'm an idiot... sob... I really am such an idiot..."-

Claudia brought Richard into a hug, while the man kept sobbing, feeling sorry for himself. The woman could not hold back her tears either at her husband's suffering, yet she tried to comfort him by saying...

-"It's not your fault, Richard... sob... it's not..."- And then, she added. -"What's happening to us now happened because of other people's decisions... sob... not because of you, my dear..."-

Claudia then tried to continue comforting her husband, to calm down his inner suffering...

-"I just hope I don't get involved in another similar nonsense when we are in England, Claudia... and start again from scratch."- Richard said, still somber. -"In fact... sob... I've been thinking of giving up working on science-related things... and going into something less controversial than studying animals..."-

The woman was surprised by her husband's words, perceiving them as a testament of his remorse over being involved in such a project, and how Komatsu's canny comments had affected him in his spirit.

-"Is that so, honey?"- Claudia asked, visibly concerned by her husband's decision. -"Then, what do you plan on doing now after we move to England?"-

The American woman was genuinely interested on what her husband had in mind, but he was not sure about that himself.

-"I don't know..."- Richard replied, with some hesitation. -"I will think about it carefully when we get to Oxford."-

Before the conversation could continue between Richard and Claudia, they both heard something strange, which sounded like a metallic clang...

-"Hey, Claudia,"- The man said in a concerned voice to his wife. -"did you hear that?"-

The woman also felt disturbed by the sound they both heard, but she was more curious about it.

-"Hear what?"- She asked, now wondering if they just heard someone dropping something on the floor.

And then...

---

February 28th, AD 1955, Icelandic airspace, Masons' DC-3 (Cockpit), 12:30 AM

At the same time that the Masons were having a chat in the back of the cockpit, the DC-3 pilots also had other things to discuss as they flew the plane to Iceland, the last stop before reaching London.

The sounds of the aircraft's engines were now muffled, and the crew in the cockpit also had some backup. To their left, there was a window that showed they were flying over a white-capped ocean. The pilots managed to get in contact with Icelandic air traffic control, and they said that everything looked clear ahead of them as they approached their destination airport. They would be arriving in about fifteen minutes if there was no delay with landing procedures, which seemed unlikely.

Dexter Stoddard, the captain of the aircraft, after finishing the last report of the aircraft status to the local air traffic control, just looked up at the night sky of that February winter night while piloting the DC-3, while his co-pilot, Patrick Frost, set up a conversation with his superior to lighten the mood, and also to know a few things.

-"Hey, Captain, I'd like to know something."- Frost began the chat first.

-"What's the matter, Frost?"- Stoddard, that captain, replied in a bewildered way. -"I find it odd that you want to talk to me right now when you've been relatively quiet during the entire flight."-

-"What were you and the old man Pallensen arguing about before we took off from Greenland, huh?"-

-"Yeah, I think we should know, considering that we took off a little late because of him."- Nigel Sinclair, the navigator, followed suit to the co-pilot.

Without losing sight on the night sky, Stoddard explained the reason the plane took some time to take off from Narsarsuaq, Greenland to his fellow crew members.

-"Well, that guy had told me that he saw some strange weld marks on both engines, and he thought there might be something strange about them."- Stoddard gave his explanation to Frost and Sinclair. -"Considering that we had not had any issues with the plane during the entire flight until he warned me about it back in Narsarsuaq, I think Pallensen was a bit paranoid, feeling that the plane would have some serious problem if we kept flying like that."-

-"What did you tell him?"- Sinclair asked.

-"Obviously, I told him that we didn't have time for him to check that, as it would have required Pallensen to tear both engines apart, and most likely he wouldn't have found anything wrong with them, just because that old Danish fart had a bad hunch."- Stoddard continued explaining what Pallensen had told him, in a mocking and derogative fashion. -"In fact, he tried to talk to Major Fitzroy, the owner of the plane, on the phone to ask him about these welds, because they did not appear in the repair logs, but he did not answer the calls. Surely he was probably in an army meeting or whatever."-

-"And... what else happened next, captain?"- Frost, the co-pilot, asked as well.

-"I just told him that I would phone him when I get to Iceland or England,"- The American captain continued. -"whichever came first."-

-"And do you think it was a good idea to ignore his warning, captain?"- Sinclair, seeing the wait-and-see attitude that his superior was showing about something as vital as the engines of the plane they were flying, chose to question him. -"You know, Pallensen is reputed to be a skilled plane mechanic, and I doubt very much that he would go overboard with something like that, being a veteran of the last war, where he must have seen worse."-

Stoddard, noticing that Sinclair looked like he was defending the Danish mechanic, was unable to stop himself from continuing his mocking attitude on the subject.

-"Oh, come on, Sinclair, do you think Pallensen is always going to be so damn right?"- Stoddard questioned the navigator. -"I understand that idiot is respected for being a mechanic during the last war, but this is a civilian plane, not some fucking bomber or anything like that. It's likely that he possibly thought something nefarious was lurking in both engines just because he saw some unusual welds. And in my experience, I've seen planes with worse things than just welds to make them crash."-

-"Maybe, captain, but what if he was right?"- Nigel Sinclair said again with some seriousness, this time asking it directly to the captain.

-"That's why I'm planning to phone Pallensen as soon as we arrive in Iceland,"- Stoddard said, now defending his view. -"So, until then, we all gotta be calm here and not set up any kind of panic, OK?"-

Both the co-pilot and the navigator had nothing to say about it, as they both knew Stoddard could be right. The plane had been performing flawlessly up to that point, and as far as they knew, there was nothing abnormal for them to worry about with the DC-3, so the issue about those welds could be more of a misguided paranoia about the veteran mechanic's reputation than anything else.

-"Does anyone have anything better to talk about than engines with welds, gentlemen?"-

Frost, the co-pilot, thought of an interesting topic to talk about with Stoddard and Sinclair, in order to get everyone off the subject of the engines and Pallensen.

-"Well, all this engine crap aside, can anyone say what you guys are going to do when we get to London, folks?"- The co-pilot asked in a cheerful way to his fellow crew members.

Sinclair was the first to provide an answer to the co-pilot's question.

-"If you ask me, Frost, I'm going to take a few days off in London, and maybe go to Scotland to see the famous Loch Ness."- The navigator responded. -"And what are you planning to do there in the UK, buddy?"-

-"Well, I might visit some of the famous London pubs, have a few beers there, and try the famous haggis, if you ask me."- The co-pilot replied.

-"OK, well, I'm not going to do that, Frost."- Sinclair answered the co-pilot.

-"Why not? Are you afraid to haggis, or something?"- Frost replied to Sinclair's last remark.

-"Uh,"- The American navigator explained his reasons for not eating such food. -"...let's just say I'm not a fan of that kind of exotic cuisine, to put it nicely."-

Patrick Frost cracked up with a loud laugh when he heard of his friend's distaste for Scottish haggis.

-"What a pussy..."- Frost replied in sardonic fashion at his fellow crew member.

-"Well, FORGIVE me if I don't like Scottish cuisine, pal!"- Sinclair responded in a manner somewhere between annoyance and a certain mocking tone.

Frost started to laugh at his friend's response, and then turned his gaze on the captain of the plane, Dexter Stoddard.

-"And what about you, captain, do you have any plans to do in London?"-

-"Well,"- The American captain replied. -"I might go out on a couple of pubs as well if I feel like it, and I might visit some of the sights, of course. I could start with Piccadilly Circus, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, see the Big Ben ringing..."-

Both Frost and Sinclair looked with some disbelief at their senior, since the places he intended to visit were too stereotypical, which meant that he had never visited the British capital before in his life.

Stoddard, for his part, seeing the uncomfortable looks on the faces of his fellow flyers, reacted with some discomfort.

-"Hey, why are you guys looking at me like that?"-

Frost then responded with a certain sneer on his face.

-"I don't suppose you've ever visited London, have you, captain?"-

The captain had no choice but to admit the truth.

-"To be honest, no, Frost."-

Sinclair, the navigator, couldn't help but let out a slight chuckle when he learned that his superior had never visited London before.

-"Well, there's always a first time for everything, don't you agree, Captain Stoddard?"- Sinclair replied with an edge of wry sarcasm to his captain.

-"Oh, shut up, will you, Sinclair?"-

Both Sinclair and Frost could not help but snicker as their captain fully conceded that he had never before visited a place as familiar to an experienced pilot as London, which caused some apparent embarrassment in Stoddard.

But before the pilots could continue their merry chatter, the plane began to shake strangely, causing everyone to stop talking and concentrate fully on flying the DC-3.

-"Strange, I don't remember the Icelandic weather forecast saying that we could experience turbulence in this region..."- Sinclair, the navigator, said to the rest of the crew members.

-"Do you want me to talk to Reykjavík ATC, Sinclair?"-

-"Please do so, captain."- The navigator agreed with his senior.

Stoddard quickly picked up the plane's radio microphone and made contact with the Icelandic ATC.

-"Hello, Reykjavík Air Traffic Control. This is Oceana 484, How are you?"- Dexter Stoddard said to the ATC.

-"We are doing well here at Reykjavík, Oceana 484; how are things going up there with you, captain?"- The controller responded in English.

-"Well, we have some turbulence on the plane, and I was wondering if this is common."- Stoddard sought confirmation to what he considered an unusual occurrence for what was supposed to be a smooth flight that would take them all the way to Iceland.

-"Hold on, let us check with the weather forecast..."- The ATC responded at the DC-3.

A minute later, the ATC flatly spoke with the captain.

-"Oceana 484, according to our forecasts, there should be no turbulence area where you are flying."- The Icelandic ATC explained to Stoddard. -"Please check again to see whether this is an error on your side."-

-"OK, thanks."- Stoddard responded in a non-committal manner.

But despite the local ATC's assurance that there was no turbulence in the area, the aircraft continued to shudder unusually, as if the plane was passing over a particularly difficult area. This caused some concern among the DC-3 crew, who up to that point had not had any problems with the aircraft since leaving Newark in the US.

-"Well, either the Icelandic weather forecast is wrong, or this DC-3 is feeling some turbulence."- Frost, the co-pilot, said.

-"Most likely yes, because, if this is not a turbulence,"- Stoddard replied, while the plane kept shaking, and the latter put his hands on the controls in order to control the DC-3. -"then I don't know what the fuck it is."-

But before Stoddard could continue discussing what the problem troubling the plane might be, a very loud sound was heard, one so loud that the plane's crew could not simply ignore it...

-"What the hell what that?!"- Stoddard said at the rest of the crew.

And then...

BANG!

HRAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSHHHH!

-"WHAT THE FU-!"-

---

February 28th, AD 1955, North Atlantic Ocean, Calisto (Bridge), off the western coast of Iceland, 12:55 AM

In the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean, a fishing boat, of more or less medium size, was sailing undisturbed. Its name was Calisto, an Icelandic-flagged vessel that was on that fateful night in the cold winter of February 1955. The ship was 50 km off Hellnar, the closest place in Iceland that the ship was located, and apart from the extreme freezing cold that night, nothing out of the ordinary seemed to interrupt the Calisto's crew's calm.

The captain of the Calisto, Sveinn Agnarsson, was looking carefully at the sea, perhaps with some boredom, since there was nothing relevant to see in those hours of the night, except perhaps the waves of the sea that furrowed through the long, dark ocean.

Agnarsson was a seaman of more than 60 years of age, and with a lot of experience in everything relevant to the fishing business, and that day was not going to be any different when it came to finding a good place to fish...

Except that day, as they used to say, the only thing he and his crew had caught that day was that one of his sailors had possibly caught a cold...

And while Captain Agnarsson was on the ship's bridge, one of his officers, Rúnar Jensson, entered in order to have a little chat with the old sea dog.

-"Are you all right, Captain?"- Jensson asked at the old man.

The veteran captain of the ship, who was somewhat distracted by the sea, and trying to rest, without trying to sleep, quickly noticed the presence of his officer, and immediately after, the old man responded.

-"Oh? Hmmm... I'm fine, just a little bored, mostly."- Agnarsson said with a little tired and rough voice.

-"I don't blame you for that, sir,"- The young sailor said at his senior. -"we haven't had a good day's fishing here today, to be honest."-

-"You said it, Jensson, we caught nothing! And it was not that we were not able to catch a lot of fish if we wanted to."- The captain cursed.

-"I know, sir,"- Rúnar replied, still attempting to cheer up Captain Agnarsson. -"The fault is not ours at all, of course, Captain."-

After a few seconds that the captain did not offer any direct response, Jensson continued.

-"I mean, sir, maybe there's something going on with the fishing waters, I mean, like something not usual."-

-"I know, I know,"- Agnarsson replied, somewhat hesitantly. -"And I also know why we haven't caught any fish."-

-"It is possible it's not our day, sir. Perhaps it is possible that the weather at this time of the year means that there is not much to fish in this area, if I may say so, sir."- The officer replied with a grin in his face.

-"I understand that perfectly, and at this moment,"- The old man replied with an equally snarky attitude. -"I wish something would fall from the sky so that we don't go home empty-handed."-

-"Heh, that would be a miracle, Captain."- Jensson replied with a mischievous smile on his face as he listened to his captain's sarcastic words.

But before they could continue talking, an intense sound, similar to that of a thunder, was heard coming from the sky, and both the captain and his officer were unable to avoid hearing it.

-"Did you hear that, Jensson?"-

-"You mean... that thunder?"-

But Agnarsson knew that there was something strange and unusual about the sound he had just heard. First, although the cold in that area was intense, the sea was relatively calm and he understood that there were no reports of any storm that could be brewing in the area where they were, according to the forecasts he heard in the radio.

Secondly and lastly, due to his experience during World War II, he knew that that sound definitely could not be that of a lightning blast.

-"That was not a thunderbolt, young man..."-

-"What?"- Jensson replied in a puzzled way.

But before both of them could draw any more conclusions about that sound, and after a few minutes after hearing that explosive thunder-like sound coming from the sky...

THRACK!

An intense sound, similar to that of a huge plastic bag full of wet garbage hitting a metal wall, was heard nearby on the Calisto's bridge, which caused Captain Agnarsson and Jensson to jump in panic, due to the suddenness of the event.

-"WHAT THE HELL?!"- The old captain yelled after hearing that crunching sound coming from near the bridge. Then, he addressed Jensson as quickly as he could. -"Did you hear that, Jensson?!"-

-"Yeah, I heard that too, sir!"- Jensson yelled as well at Captain Agnarsson. -"Seems to be coming from the front deck of the ship!"-

Without wasting any more time, due to the possibility that something might have struck the ship, and what danger it might pose to its stability, Agnarsson ordered the obvious to his officer.

-"Let's see what the hell happened on the deck; possibly it has something to do with that sound!"- Agnarsson barked an order to Jensson.

-"Yes, sir!"-

---

February 28th, AD 1955, North Atlantic Ocean, Calisto (Front Deck), off the western coast of Iceland, 01:10 AM

Sveinn Agnarsson, the captain of the fishing vessel Calisto, and Rúnar Jensson, his immediate subordinate officer, ran as fast as they could to the bow of the ship, where the front deck was located, to find out what had happened there.

And what they saw in the front deck, when they thought they were close enough to have a clearer view of the damage and the possible consequences, was one of the grotesque scenes they could have imagined, in the calm and frozen lonely night from that dark, Icelandic winter.

-"Oh, no, no, no, no... this can't be happening... for god's sake..."-

Jensson put his hands to his mouth, in revulsion, at the sight of the horrific scene that the young sailor was witnessing before his eyes.

On the other hand, Agnarsson, who had seen almost everything from his years of experience in the war and working as a fisherman, while equally disgusted as the young sailor, tried to maintain his composure in the face of the tragedy he was witnessing in front of him, on the deck of his own ship.

-"This is... so... damn... horrible..."-

To the eyes of those two men, they saw in front of them the mutilated and charred corpse of what appeared to be a child, which appeared to have fallen from the sky, which crashed on the Calisto's front deck. Out of respect for those reading this, no specific details about the body will be given, except that Agnarsson noted that the body was that of a girl...

As both of them looked at the body, Jensson began to mumble to himself some holy words, while Agnarsson was trying to shake his head from side to side to keep those horrible images out of his mind as much as possible.

-"Oh god... god... this is horrible... so horrible... in so many ways..."- Agnarsson cursed at the sight of that macabre view he had in front of him. -"I've seen a lot of dead people in my life... but this is the first time... I've seen a child get killed in this way..."-

While Agnarsson was standing, horrified and surprised in front of what he saw, Jensson suddenly screamed.

-"CAPTAIN!"- As Agnarsson stood in shock, his officer, Rúnar Jensson, yelled at him... -"Please, Captain... LOOK AT THIS!"-

Agnarsson looked towards the bow of the boat, and noticed that several fireballs were falling from the sky into the sea. This, together with the explosion he had heard a few minutes before, and the dead body of the girl, only meant one thing...

A passenger plane had exploded in the air, and all of that was the fragments of the aircraft falling into the Atlantic Ocean.

Before the captain could assimilate what was happening at that moment, the whole incident had not gone unnoticed by some of the sailors who were sleeping at that moment, and who had gone on deck to find out what all the fuss was about...

-"Hey, can someone explain what's going on here? It sounds like something exploded around here..."- A sailor asked Jensson, the officer, what had happened.

He, on the other hand, wanted to spare them the displeasure of seeing all that, especially the girl's corpse, and immediately ordered them to stay away from the bow of the ship, where the dead body was still lying.

-"Everyone, stay off the bow!"- Jensson yelled at the sailors. -"No one will want to watch this!"-

-"So what happened, Jensson?"- Another sailor asked the man, with some morbid curiosity -"Is there a dead man around here, or what?"-

The officer, who found the question distasteful, even if unintentionally, because the sailor did not know what the captain and Jensson had seen on the bow, screamed in anger at the man.

-"THAT'S NOT YOUR DAMN PROBLEM! EVERYBODY BACK TO YOUR ROOMS UNTIL THE CAPTAIN ORDERS YOU TO!"-

Rúnar Jensson commanded at the sailors, and those who weren't out of the shock from what they saw telltale stood in silence, listening and watching.

Immediately afterwards, Jensson returned to the bow, in order to ask Captain Agnarsson what to do about what they had seen at the time about the downed plane and the corpse.

-"Captain, do you suggest we do anything special about that plane?"- The officer asked at the old man.

All that had just happened shocked and disgusted both men. But the reaction of Captain Agnarsson, the veteran seaman, was even worse. His face looked like he had just seen the devil himself in person. He did not talk for several minutes, and the question of the officer caused him to snap out of the shock he was in.

-"Eh... what did you... said, Jensson?"- The captain replied with a shocked expression in his voice.

-"I was asking if it would be convenient what we could do for that downed plane, Captain."- The officer repeated his question again in a different phrasing, while he was still as shocked as the captain regarding those terrible events.

After a brief pause, Agnarsson could only manage to say what would be the most logical thing to do at that moment, and he hoped that the entire ship's crew would understand.

-"I want you to call Reykjavík on the radio, and tell them what just happened."- The old captain gave his orders to Jensson. -"As far as we are concerned, we will go to the place where the plane went down and see what we can do, but I doubt very much that we will find anyone else alive. As for the crew, I think it's best to tell them the truth and prepare for the worst. We're going to have to pick up a lot of bodies... or what's left of them."-

Jensson turned his gaze to the place where the poor girl's body was lying, and quickly understood what the captain was referring to. With no more time to lose, the Icelandic sailor was ready to follow the man's orders.

-"Yes, sir..."- Jensson replied. -"I will handle it, as you wish..."-

Minutes later, the Calisto was heading for the spot where the plane had crashed into the icy ocean. The crew knew there was no hope of finding survivors, considering that Captain Agnarsson and his officer had seen the plane breaking apart, and the body of that girl, which, with all possible dignity, was already in the ship's refrigerator as a makeshift morgue, and the only thing they could do was to help retrieve any body they could find, so that it would receive a proper burial.

What the crew of the Calisto did not know was that the situation they found themselves in was only the tip of the iceberg of an even bigger problem than they could even fathom...

END OF ACT XXVII