ACT XXXI: STALKER
Beware the fury of a patient man.
John Dryden
April 25th, AD 1955, El Paso International Airport (Parking Lot), El Paso, Texas, United States of America, 11:45 AM
-"Hey, buddy, do you know what time our VIP is supposed to arrive in town?"-
A person, which seemed to be the driver of a car, a limousine to be more exact, was sitting in the drivers' seat of his vehicle, while he was talking with a man dressed in a black suit who was next to him. Both men were inside the car, with the air conditioner running at full blast, due to the intense Texan heat that spring day, and they were barely able to endure being outside for a few minutes due to the weather.
The vehicle was a dark-blue limousine, which had a highly polished exterior with a trunk in the back. The interior was composed by a front section, with a thick white leather seats with red stitches, and the seats were reclining. In the middle it had a counter. The passenger seats were in the middle of the vehicle, one on each side, and they had the same red stitches as the driver seats in it.
Because the large size of the vehicle and the comfort of sitting inside, both for the people in the back and for the driver and passengers, being in that limousine was not as distressing as it might sound.
But even so, it was still uncomfortable to have to wait for someone in a public parking lot, in the middle of a hellish heat wave, and even more so when you don't know when the person the limousine was going to transport would arrive.
-"I don't know, and I'd give anything to know that, 'cause I'm tired of having my ass sitting on this goddamn leather seat!"- The other man made his discomfort noticeable to his other partner. -"I don't get paid enough to have to wait for idiots like that guy we're going to take and have to put up with this kind of shit."-
-"Gee, the government pays you supposedly to protect the asses of all the VIPs you have to work for, and it turns out you don't like your job. If someone heard you say that, they'd sure fire you right away, wouldn't they?"- The limousine driver asks his partner, who appeared to be a US government-paid bodyguard.
-"Technically yes, but I don't give a shit, as the guy we are going to take in this car is said to be involved in some crazy stuff related to the plane crash that killed a scientist and his whole family in Iceland."-
The driver was quite astonished at this, as he did not know the details about the person he and his bodyguard friend were about to drive, and he never for a moment thought that his client was involved in murky matters.
-"Wait a minute, are you referring to the plane crash that was on the news two months ago?"-
-"Yeah, that same plane crash..."- The bodyguard confirmed his friend's assumptions in no uncertain terms. -"That is why I have no wish to work with assholes like him..."-
Then the bodyguard clenched his fists, and his face changed from one of annoyance to one of extreme hatred, as if he wanted to kill someone at that moment.
-"...and If it wasn't for me being a bodyguard, I would strangle that son of a bitch with my bare hands, and leave him to rot out here in the sun, whether that bastard works for the government or not!"-
-"Hey, hey, calm down, buddy!"- The chauffeur was frightened by the bodyguard's tone. -"If anyone hears you saying any of that, you'll get us both in hot deep shit, OK?"-
-"Fine!"- The bodyguard yelled in response, and then calmed himself down. -"Can we just get out of here... please?"-
Fortunately for the driver and the bodyguard, their prayers were about to be heard at that instant.
-"And speaking of the devil..."- The driver said, as he looked to his left to see who was walking up to the vehicle.
A few of feet away, appearing to be someone of importance, was standing by the parked limousine. He was a tall, burly man, with a thick beard, full of gray patches, who was dressed in a suit made of what looked like polyester, and the buttons of his front were undone, as the top two were missing. He was also carrying a pair of round, half-moon glasses on his thin nose that had a narrow frame with pink plastic around the sides.
Next to him stood a black-haired woman, dressed in a black formal suit, just like the rest of her clothes, and she also wore black glasses. If it were not for the fact that the situation did not seem so serious to the bodyguard and the limousine driver, both would have thought that the woman and her partner appeared just like they had emerged from a funeral.
In addition to the two of them, a trio of three men, also dressed in black, escorted the couple to the limousine. It was more than obvious that these three people were also bodyguards, and that they too would be traveling along in the vehicle to their designated route.
-"Hey, who is that woman?"- The limo driver asked the bodyguard.
-"She works for him, and she was also sent to Washington to testify before the Pentagon about the plane crash."-
The driver looked at the woman, and although he could tell that person was not exactly unattractive, the man sensed that there was something off about her at the same time. It could be the fact that she was dressed in black, and she didn't look cheerful at all, but, given what had happened, maybe it was too much to ask of the woman to smile.
-"To be honest, she looks like someone from her family had died in that plane crash you mentioned earlier..."-
-"Well, that's her problem; for the time being I have a job to do, even if I don't like it."- The bodyguard clicked his tongue in annoyance, as he stepped out of the limousine to welcome the VIPs.
-"Good luck to you, buddy!"- The driver chuckled a bit.
-"Oh, shut up, will ya?"-
Once the bodyguard was outside the vehicle, the man prepared to greet the two VIPs, who, based on what the bodyguard was saying minutes earlier with the limo driver, sounded like they were coming from Washington, DC.
-"Good morning, Major Fitzroy. I guess you had a good trip from Washington."-
-"Thank you, young man."- Matthew Fitzroy, the older military man, replied at the bodyguard. -"The flight was fine, but the food on board was terrible, to put in nice terms."-
-"Sorry to hear that, sir."- The bodyguard replied in a nonchalant tone.
-"Well, let's cut the crap and the sooner we get out of here the better, okay?"- Fitzroy reluctantly responded.
-"Yes, sir."-
Then the bodyguard opened the doors of the limousine. He walked around to the driver's side and peered in.
-"This way, please."-
Once the limousine doors were opened, Fitzroy, his secretary Catherine Walburg, and the three bodyguards who had escorted him from Washington, climbed inside the fancy vehicle, and after settling in as comfortably as possible, the chauffeur started the vehicle's engines, and the car left the airport parking lot in a rather fleeting manner.
April 25th, AD 1955, Robert E. Lee Rd., El Paso, Texas, United States of America, 12:21 PM
Although Fort Bliss, which was where the limousine was headed, was basically across the street from the airport, the city traffic at that time of day was not going to allow the limousine to reach its destination quickly.
But for the passengers, time was not an issue, as there was no hurry to arrive, so the chauffeur, perhaps to kill some time while the limousine was making its way down the busy avenue, tried to strike up a conversation with Fitzroy.
-"I hope I'm not being nosy, Major, but how did it go for you in Washington, huh?"-
-"Hmm? Oh, you know, I suppose I can't complain."- Fitzroy replied in a relaxed mood.
-"What do you mean, sir?"-
-"The Pentagon really took their time to see that there was nothing wrong with me after what happened with Dr. Mason. If it wasn't, I wouldn't be here talking about it."- Matthew Fitzroy said, trying to sound relaxed.
-"I see..."- The driver replied. -"I guess you had to explain a lot of things that were said about you after that plane crash, right?"-
-"Yes, and that's all I'm going to say about it, so, if you'd be so kind..."-
The tone of the major's voice turned from businesslike to a certain shade that rang threatening in some ways.
"...I'd rather not discuss that again while I'm in this limo; it's that right for you, young man?"-
Seeing that Fitzroy was being intimidating with his warning, the chauffeur gulped, and he merely replied to the soldier with a succinct "yes, sir", with nothing more to say.
-"I think we get along better that way, like good soldiers... hehe!"- The major replied with a wry grin on his face after humbling that man driving the car.
The chauffeur, on the other hand, could not help remembering the words that his other friend, the bodyguard at his side, had told him about Fitzroy, and he quickly felt, first hand, that he was truly a person with whom no one would want to have as an enemy at any time.
-"Shit, that guy really is one son of a bitch with a capital B!"- The limousine driver thought to himself, as he gritted his teeth at the same time out of nervousness caused by the implied threat he received from Fitzroy. -"Now I totally understand why this fuckwad was accused of causing that plane crash in the first place."-
On the other hand, Fitzroy observed that the vehicle's speed was being slowed by the heavy traffic at the time, and did not hesitate to make a comment about it.
-"Crap, even though the base is practically next to the airport, it's unbelievable that we're stuck in the middle of a damn traffic jam..."- The Texan military man said aloud, while watching the traffic surrounding the limo.
-"I thought you were more than used to this kind of thing, being that you work at Fort Bliss, weren't you?"- The driver asked the major in a polite manner, trying to avoid anything that might upset him any further.
-"Yeah, but I don't normally go through this intersection, and I think that's why I'm not used to seeing so much traffic around here."- The soldier explained, while still gazing out of the window at the vehicles surrounding the limo.
-"Well, at this time of the day people usually leave for work and that is why the traffic slows down a lot along this stretch of road."- The driver explained as well. -"Also keep in mind that, being a border town, the traffic from Mexico also makes things chaotic at the same time."-
-"Well, at least our vehicle is moving, and that is something to be thankful for, huh?"- Fitzroy said, nearly laughing at his own sarcasm.
-"I guess you could say yes, couldn't you, Major?"- The driver also responded sardonically to the high-ranking military officer.
But it was more than evident that the driver was not having the time of his life. Transporting a person who not only gave him a very bad vibe, but who was equally unpleasant and unsympathetic was something that the limo driver was doing his best to tolerate not only Major Fitzroy's lousy sense of humor, but also his aggressive attitude towards him. And deep inside his own mind, he just wished all that nightmare would end quickly.
-"Fuck yourself, pal!"- The driver cursed the Major inside his own head. -"I don't get paid enough to put up with idiots like this five-star asshole to threaten me while driving this piece of crap!"-
Fortunately for him, the traffic began to move faster, and after half an hour of driving at a slower pace, the limousine began to speed up down the avenue, bringing the vehicle closer to its destination, much to the relief of the chauffeur and the passengers in the vehicle as well.
-"Well, Major, we are about to arrive at Fort Bliss."-
-"Oh, I see."- Fitzroy responded with an annoyed voice. -"I was starting to wonder when this junk would make it to the base."-
And so, the vehicle was only a few meters from the base entrance, as the limousine began to gradually slow down as it made a turn at the next fork in the road leading to Fort Bliss.
April 25th, AD 1955, Fort Bliss (Entrance), El Paso, Texas, United States of America, 01:11 PM
After the short, yet, annoying travel delay that Fitzroy and his group experienced on the way to the base, the automobile finally arrived at the entrance to the installation, where they were greeted by a tall, burly sergeant who was guarding the gate.
-"Good afternoon, Major. Welcome to Fort Bliss."- The soldier greeted Fitzroy after he stopped the limo and requested his and the rest of the passengers' IDs. -"I hope you had a good trip from Washington, I guess."
-"Good afternoon, Sergeant."- The old soldier said to the gate-keeper when meeting up for the first time. -"Thank you for your thoughtfulness; I had a good trip, other than the food was terrible."-
-"Ouch!... Sorry to hear that, Major."- The sergeant responded with a mischievous grin at the seemingly funny quip about the food on the plane that brought Major Fitzroy back to El Paso. -"That aside, it's good to know you're back, sir."-
-"Thank you, Sergeant."-
Then, Fitzroy set his sights at that military man, and he addressed him in a more nonchalant way.
-"If you have no further comments to add, I wish to enter the base now, if there is no additional objection."-
-"Oh, excuse me, Major!"- The sargent apologized at his senior. -"I won't keep you any longer, you may come in, please."-
-"Thank you."-
And without additional delay, the limousine drove into Fort Bliss, carrying Major Matthew Fitzroy, Catherine Walburg and their bodyguards inside, as the vehicle prepared to stop in the base's parking lot.
But on the other hand, the sergeant in charge of the base's entrance checkpoint could not hide his displeasure at Fitzroy's certainly unfriendly attitude, in no uncertain terms.
-"No wonder that motherfucker was sent to Washington and the Pentagon thought he was behind the accident. With that kind of attitude, any asshole would think that guy was up to something!"- The sargeant complained to a junior officer next to him.
-"I don't doubt it, sir, if I may be honest. Major Fitzroy has always had a record of being an unfriendly man, to put it kindly."- The junior soldier replied with all frankness to his senior.
-"Indeed, young man."-
And following that, the sergeant added one more quip about Fitzroy...
-"And I can tell you that attitude of his is gonna send him straight to the grave if he doesn't watch his big, loud mouth one of these days..."-
-"I don't doubt it, sir... you are absolutely right in that."-
April 25th, AD 1955, Fort Bliss (Major Fitzroy's Office), El Paso, Texas, United States of America, 04:17 PM
Once Fitzroy and his secretary were back at Fort Bliss, the first thing both characters did, before returning to work, was to first eat something at the base, and after resting for a few hours, Fitzroy and Catherine went into the office where they both normally worked, trying to make up for some of the time lost while they were both in Washington during the interrogation they both suffered from the Pentagon, and therefore, the U.S. Department of Defense, as part of the investigations related to the accident that killed Richard Mason and his family near the coast of Iceland.
When they both entered the office, they noticed that everything was tidy, and that nothing seemed to be in the wrong place, and even the janitorial staff at the base took the trouble to clean the desks, cabinets and other office furniture, leaving them spotless to the naked eye, which was something to be thankful for, considering the circumstances in which they were both involved during their stay in the U.S. capital.
-"It sure is good to be back to work after being away for so many days."- Fitzroy said with a smile on his face after seeing his old workplace in front of him.
-"I concur with your sentiment, Major."- Catherine Walburg followed suit at her senior officer. -"The truth is that I too missed my desk and my typewriter, especially after sitting for hours while being questioned in all sorts of ways."-
And the woman also noticed that her radio, which she normally used to listen to jazz music, was in the same place, and someone even took the trouble to clean it, and even put new batteries in it.
-"And it's also good to know someone paid attention to my radio while I was away, from what I'm seeing."- Fitzroy's personal secretary noted that as she checked her radio to make sure everything was in order.
The only thing that seemed to be out of place, so to speak, was that, on Fitzroy's desk, there was a rather thick folder with several documents inside.
-"What's that, sir? I don't recall that folder being here before we went to Washington."- Catherine pointed at the folder with the documents in it.
-"Most likely a summary of the events that have happened at the base and in the city while we were away, in addition to the usual reports."-
Fitzroy, without hesitation, sat down at his desk and began to read the folder's contents, most likely to catch up on anything of significance that may have occurred during his absence.
-"Let's take a look at this, and see what has gone on here during my time away..."-
Matthew Fitzroy began to read carefully and conscientiously through the reports and summaries that were included in that folder, in order to catch up on all the events that had transpired during his and his secretary's stay in Washington, DC. He knew it would be a tiring and tedious job, but he preferred to have to find things out beforehand than to have to do it in an unplanned manner,
Not to say that it was also his duty, being the director of the Third Military Research Division at Fort Bliss, where the other scientists who worked under Yoshinori Komatsu, including the late Richard Mason, answered to him in the same way.
After an hour of reading all those reports, Fitzroy's face suddenly became stern, and he, without warning, clenched his fists, as if something had really made him angry. There was something, in those reports, that might have angered the Texan soldier, but the man could only express his anger in a corporal way.
And all that did not go unnoticed by Catherine Walburg, who was quick to notice her boss's anger.
-"What's the matter, Major? You look all tensed up..."- Catherine asked her superior.
-"Things are not good, Catherine dear... not at all."-
And without saying anything extra, Fitzroy picked up the phone he had in his office, and he suddenly started dialing a phone number. Catherine was a slightly startled to see the sudden reaction of her superior after he had mentioned those words.
-"Good afternoon, I need to speak to Major Andrew Summerfield, please."- Fitzroy said at the caller.
-"Oh, it's you, Major Fitzroy!"- Barbara Palmer, Summerfield's personal secretary, answered the call. -"I am glad to be back to hear from you again, sir."-
-"Thank you for that question, Miss Palmer."- The Texan soldier retorted with a certain curt tone to the secretary, as he did not sound inclined to talk at length with her.
-"And if I may ask, how did it go for you in Washington, sir?"-
It was evident from the tone of the woman's voice that the question was asked with a certain tone of sarcasm, because Barbara Palmer, as well as other people who worked at the base, did not have much sympathy for the man, and the only reason she was apparently being nice to him was because of the rank he had in the stripes Fitzroy wore on his shoulders.
As for the aforementioned Texan soldier, he noticed the woman's sarcasm, and he responded to her in the way Fitzroy normally dealt with those who dared to play dumb with him.
-"I'm not in the mood to address your nonsense, Miss Palmer."- The veteran soldier responded in a notably belligerent manner, but without raising the tone of the argument to a violent one. -"Just put me through to Major Summerfield, and spare me the embarrassment of reporting your language to me to your superior. Am I clear?"-
Hearing that Fitzroy was upset, and that the man seemed to mean what he said when he made that threat, the woman had no choice but to pass the call on to her superior, and put aside those unwelcome comments to the ill-tempered American serviceman.
-"All right, Major, I'll patch the call through to Major Summerfield."-
-"Thank you, Miss Palmer."-
After a few minutes of waiting, the voice of an elderly man was heard on Fitzroy's phone. The latter was eager to speak to his counterpart for some reason that Catherine, Fitzroy's secretary, was eager to know the exact reason, and why her boss was visibly upset.
-"Hey, good afternoon, Major Fitzroy!"- Andrew Summerfield began the call in a remarkably friendly overtone to his other partner at the other end of the phone. -"It's nice to hear from you again since you and Catherine were out of town for so many days!"-
-"Good afternoon, Major Summerfield, the pleasure is mine as well."- Fitzroy replied without much inclination to play along with his counterpart. -"It's amazing how quickly rumors have spread around this base since Washington asked me and my secretary to travel there as part of the inquiry regarding the accident that killed Dr. Mason."-
-"Well, I think that's quite natural, knowing that you have a certain notoriety around here for being somewhat unsociable among the base personnel, if I may say so."- The other major, a World War II veteran, replied with a mischievous chuckle, mentioning Fitzroy's shady reputation within the U.S. Army.
-"Yes, I know that, and I don't want to elaborate on it, if that's what you're going for."-
-"Well, in that case, what is the reason for your call to my office?"- Summerfield asked, this time in a more serious tone, seeing that his counterpart was not in a joking mood, and wanted to get to the point of the matter. -"Is there something you wish to address regarding something that took place here during your time away?"-
-"Yes, there is something I wish to ask you, Major..."-
Then, Fitzroy explained what he wanted to know from Summerfield, the man who took his place during his leave to Washington, while also holding the documents in his other hand.
-"As you may know, I have just received a rundown of the events that have occurred here at Fort Bliss, and I have been reading all the reports to keep up to date. There are two things that make me uncomfortable in the reports I have just read, and I need you to explain the specifics to me."-
-"And what would those two things you need me to explain to you be, Major Fitzroy?"-
-"The first issue I need to know is the following: The report says that Dr. Yoshinori Komatsu, who worked under me, was transferred to Nevada. Is that true?"-
-"Oh, I guess they didn't tell you anything in Washington about it, did they?"-
-"No, not at all."-
-"In that case, I'll explain: Dr. Komatsu was transferred from Fort Bliss to a new military facility located at Groom Lake, a dry lake in southern Nevada. Other than that, I know no other details, except that Dr. Komatsu was sent alone, without the rest of his assistants, most likely until the Pentagon cleared their transfer in the same manner."-
At that answer, Fitzroy stayed speechless for a few moments, and after regaining his composure to resume his conversation, the Texan soldier asked more questions.
-"May I know why he was transferred to another base?"-
-"Well, I don't know all the details, as a lot of the information is even classified to me, but I think it has something to do with the government seemed to be very enthusiastic about what Dr. Komatsu is working on right now, based on the reports that Secretary of Defense Wilson and his scientific assistant, Dr. Reese Ellington, provided to the White House."-
-"Wait a minute, Major Summerfield, I need clarification on something."-
-"What would it be?"-
-"I understood that the Department of Defense and some members of the President's cabinet had their doubts about Dr. Komatsu's Advanced Evolution Project, and I find it unfathomable that they would change their minds so quickly, especially given how esoteric that project is or was, and the consequent theory that doctor used for it."-
-"I'll be honest, Major: I'm of the same opinion as you, and I don't understand why they changed their minds. I think Secretary Wilson's word was enough to convince President Eisenhower to allow Komatsu to continue with his project and receive more direct government funding, instead of the paltry amount he originally received because of the doubts that existed as to the viability of that Japanese scientist's work."-
-"I thought Eisenhower was less enthusiastic about esoteric projects than Truman."- Fitzroy was astonished after hearing that puzzling piece of information.
-"I thought so too, but I think there is something going on within the White House that made them change their position about such ideas."- Summerfield replied as concerned as his peer was. -"Unfortunately I can't say what that would be, but I wouldn't hesitate to say it had something to do with the Soviets."-
-"Uh? Don't tell me the Russians have something similar to Komatsu's project, or do they?"-
-"Knowing how practical they are, I doubt it."- Summerfield gave his opinion, disputing the likelihood that the Soviets were also carrying out some project similar to Komatsu's. -"I think the Russians are doing something bigger and more useful than making animals talk."-
At this revelation, Fitzroy felt more than intrigued, but at the same time, angry on the Japanese scientist's behalf. The opportunity he had to figuratively and literally ruin Komatsu's life was completely gone, and to make matters worse, his enemy had been rewarded by the government by being transferred to another base where he could continue his project, undisturbed by Fitzroy or anyone else.
The death of Dr. Mason's death in that plane crash near Iceland, and the forced trip that Fitzroy and Catherine, his secretary, made to Washington as part of the inquiries about the crash and their possible responsibility in that tragedy meant that any of the criticisms that the Texan military had previously made to the Pentagon about Komatsu and his project, regardless of whether they were justified or not, were quickly ignored, which gave the Japanese scientist the opportunity to expose the merits of his project without any opposition from anyone within the U.S. government or armed forces.
And if that wasn't enough, the fact that Komatsu was moved to a top secret base, which almost no one in the military except the White House or Pentagon brass knew much about except that it was located in that remote part of Nevada, meant that Fitzroy would no longer have the ability to know what the Japanese scientist was doing there, much to his personal disgrace.
To say nothing of the fact that all the efforts he had made to reveal the true details behind Komatsu's project that would have caused its opposition within the government, including the spying efforts of the late Dr. Mason and his wife Claudia on the scientist's assistants, had been practically gone down the drain.
-"So, Major, what is your second issue of concern?"- Summerfield asked Fitzroy, to see how his counterpart was silently processing the information he had just been given.
Having been silent for a few moments, while trying to assimilate all that he had received from his counterpart, Fitzroy had another question that needed an urgent answer from Major Summerfield.
-"Regarding Komatsu and his assistants, I just read in one of the reports that one of them, Dr. Nicholas Larkin, died on the 14th of this month in an accident at his father's business, who also died, when the oven in the bakery that Dr. Larkin's family owned exploded due to possible malfunction."- The veteran Texan soldier asked. -"How true is that, Major?"-
-"Oh, you mean the accident that killed Dr. Larkin and his father in New York?"- Summerfield replied at the phone. -"Yes, that's right. Dr. Larkin, along with his father, Jeffry Larkin, died when, according to the findings given by the FBI and local authorities, a very possible sudden gas leak in the oven of their bakery due to a malfunction, which caused an explosion. Because Dr. Larkin and his father were near the oven, to say they were reduced to ashes would be an understatement, to say the least, Major Fitzroy."-
Just when he thought he had heard all about Dr. Mason's death, he learned that another of Komatsu's assistants, in this case Dr. Larkin, had died under equally violent circumstances, this time in another apparent accident in his hometown of New York City.
While he had nothing to do with the conspiracy to ruin his boss, and in fact he was the target of the espionage effort made by his secretary, Catherine Walburg, to extract information related to the Advanced Evolution Project, Fitzroy began to worry that Larkin's death was beginning to mirror Mason's in a bad way.
Summerfield, noticing the silence of his colleague, asked him a question on the subject.
-"I guess they didn't tell you anything about it back in Washington, did they?"-
-"Technically, no."- Fitzroy replied quickly at that question. -"In fact, I was basically held in solitary confinement in a five-star hotel on downtown Washington while the inquiry was going on. I was lucky that no charges were brought against me and that I was not thrown in jail first."-
-"I see."-
-"Well, leaving aside about my stay in the capital, I just want to know something else."- The Texan major did another question.
-"What else would you like to know, Major Fitzroy?"-
-"Do you know anything else about that accident?"- The Texan soldier asked seriously and with a hint of doubt. -"Anything, including possible causes, any suspicions the authorities have about the causes of the explosion, theories, etc."-
The other veteran soldier on the phone tried to do some recall, and after a few seconds, he answered the Major's question.
-"Mmmmm... The only thing I know for sure is that the FBI ruled out any indication of a criminal act, and everything points to the explosion being an unfortunate accident."- Summerfield replied. -"Other than that, I have no idea if there are any other leads in the case, and most likely that matter has already been considered as case closed."-
Seeing that there was nothing more Fitzroy could get from his counterpart, the Texan major saw fit to end the call.
-"I see..."- Then, he waved his farewell to Summerfield. -"Well, I guess I have nothing more to say on the subject. I will continue reading the reports, and if necessary, I will call you back if I have any other questions that need to be clarified with you."-
-"All right, then, I'll see you later, Major, and try to get some rest, don't you think?"-
-"Heh, I will take your advice into account. I will see you too later then, Major Summerfield."-
The Texan soldier ended the phone call and was dumbfounded. However, he was unable to do much other than wondering if Dr. Larkin's death was accidental as well, and while it was still highly unlikely that the two deaths were linked to his own plans to put Komatsu out of the picture, they were not entirely unrelated either.
And on that note, Catherine, Fitzroy's personal secretary, wanted to have a word with her boss. It was also evident that the woman was visibly troubled by what she heard from the man when he was on the phone with Andrew Summerfield. After all, she had had sex with Nick Larkin to get information out of him about Komatsu's project, the man's boss, and while she was not in love with the New York scientist, the fact that the man was now dead caused her some pain, even though she knew she had to take advantage of Larkin for other purposes.
-"So, Larkin is dead, is he?"-
-"Regrettably, that is the case."- Fitzroy responded with a certain more empathetic touch to the secretary, knowing in advance the relationship she had with the late scientist.
Catherine appreciated the kind words, although she looked noticeably downcast, hanging her head when she heard the tragic news, while also feeling that she was a bit guilty on the matter of Larkin's death. She was sure that while Larkin's death was unrelated with the conspiracy she and her boss were carrying out against Komatsu, it was probably true that the death would have happened regardless.
-"I am sure that it was an accident, no?"- She asked to the Texan major.
-"All indications suggest that it is."-
They sat in silence for the next few minutes, neither of them willing to break the silence. For both Catherine and her boss, Larkin's death did not benefit them in the least, for, apart from the fact that he had nothing to do with their conspiracy to ruin Komatsu, and also that Catherine stole information from him by passing herself off as a novice jazz bar singer, the fact that the New York scientist's death came shortly after his other professional partner, Richard Mason, also died within a few months of each other in equally suspicious circumstances.
And unlike Larkin, Mason and his wife did have a hand in the conspiracy, so the former's death could not be simply ignored as a simple and bizarre coincidence on the face of it, and they both knew that full well.
After a few minutes of silence trying to assess the situation in which they were both knee-deep in, Catherine was the first to break the silence.
-"I hate to say this, Major, but I don't think this is going to help us at all if someone looks into our relationship with both Dr. Mason and Larkin."- The woman explains her concerns about the issue. -"It is likely that someone from some civilian agency will start to inquire about whether there is a link between the death of both men and both of us, and if that happens, we will surely be screwed."-
But Fitzroy had an even greater concern on that subject, something his secretary had no knowledge of at the time, and which the man was ready to explain to her immediately.
-"I have another suspicion about this, Catherine, and it is most likely that someone out there is murdering Komatsu's men, possibly someone who was aware of our plan and is using us as a scapegoat so that we can be blamed for their deaths."-
That possibility puzzled the woman somewhat, for she knew that no one else besides Dr. Mason and his wife knew of the plans they had to sabotage Komatsu's life, and the possibility that someone was using her and her superior as patsies sounded outrageous to Catherine.
-"What makes you think that someone out there is hunting Komatsu's men, and wants to use us as their fall guys, Major?"-
Matthew Fitzroy, after a few seconds of silence, chose to explain his views to the secretary.
-"What I'm about to tell you is supposed to be confidential information related to the inquiry into the death of Mason and his family, so don't go around telling anyone else about it..."-
-"Don't worry, sir, you know my lips are sealed when it comes to classified matters."- Catherine assured her silence to the Texan soldier.
The Major then explained what he knew about Mason's death, and that information came from the government itself.
-"According to what I was told in Washington, someone used my name, and rented the plane on which the Masons flew to the UK. Although everything seems to indicate that it was an accident, there are clues that there was something wrong with that plane, but there is no supporting evidence for that theory..."-
-"I thought that plane was yours, Major."- Catherine replied with some puzzlement.
The soldier scowled in disgust and he answered the woman's query.
-"That plane was never mine in the first place. The DC-3 in which the Masons flew was leased by the Fort Bliss authorities to transport high-ranking personnel from Texas to Washington, and I only flew on that plane once in my life. I don't know how the fuckin' hell that plane ended up in New Jersey to begin with."-
-"And you have no idea who rented the plane?"- Catherine said.
The Texan major responded to the woman in a somewhat more earnest vein than usual.
-"According to what I was told in Washington, it was a man by the name of Elio Pietro Fermi."-
Catherine was somewhat astonished in response, due to the unusual nature of the name, and all that it entailed.
-"Was he an Italian?"-
-"More like Italian-American."- Fitzroy responded, and then he explained further at his secretary. -"According to what the authorities were able to find out at Newark Airport, that Italian scumbag used my name to rent that plane, bring it from Texas to New Jersey, give it to the Masons to fly to London, and God only knows what happened that caused that damn plane to fall out of the sky in pieces."-
-"And how was that Fermi man able to procure that plane, sir?"- The secretary again questioned her superior regarding the details of how that person of Italian origin was able to procure a DC-3 that was originally used by the military.
-"I don't know the details, but I do know that not only this Fermi guy is not a member of the U.S. Army, according to Army records, but that he somehow managed to forge my signature and rent that plane on my behalf."-
After this, both Fitzroy and his personal secretary remained silent, trying to ponder what they were saying on the subject of the accident, and the alleged responsibility of the man who called himself Elio Fermi in the events that caused the death of Dr. Mason and his entire family.
The only things that were certain were that not only was the DC-3 in which the Masons flew not Fitzroy's, but that the man with the Italian name was not a military man, which meant a lot of things in context.
-"This may sound cliche, and even stereotypical, sir, but would there be a possibility that the Italian Mafia could be involved in this?"-
Hearing this, the American soldier could not help but let out a derisive chuckle at that scenario Catherine had raised, for reasons that he would explain below.
-"And since when would the goddamn Cosa Nostra be interested in something as seemingly stupid as Komatsu's project, huh?"- Fitzroy angrily responded at the woman. -"Besides, how on earth could the Mafia, or any criminal organization, let alone any country other than the Russians, have known about all this to begin with?"-
-"I guess you are right about that, Major."- Catherine said, knowing that her senior officer was right on that part. -"This is supposed to be a top secret project, which only the people working on this military base are allowed to know about."-
The secretary remained silent for a few moments, only for her to resume the conversation.
-"Well, another point we could also consider on this whole mess is that Fermi person could be some kind of terrorist, or a hired assassin paid by some foreign government."- The woman replied, while pondering other options about the identity of the person who rented that doomed plane to the Masons. -"And on that point, hasn't the government or the authorities been able to learn more about Elio Fermi?"-
-"Unfortunately, no. The company that rented the plane to that Italian only has the personal data that the suspect gave when signing the documents that allowed him to rent the plane on my behalf, but other than that, we only know his name and nothing else."- Fitzroy explained. -"That idiot simply vanished from the face of the earth, and there is no clue as to his whereabouts, except for his physical appearance and his accent."-
-"And do you think he may also have been behind Larkin's death?"- Catherine asked.
It took Fitzroy a few moments to respond, then he sighed deeply before answering.
-"Without any solid leads, I really don't know, Catherine. All indications are that it could have been a tragic fluke. Nothing more, nothing less..."-
Putting aside the issue of Mason's death, Catherine was visibly depressed to learn that Nick Larkin may have died accidentally or even possibly someone may have been behind his death; it didn't stop her from feeling that the man she had slept with, even if it was to steal information from him, was no more.
She even began to shed some tears, which caused Fitzroy, who normally would have wished his secretary to put it all aside, as Larkin was related to his hated enemy Komatsu, to also begin to worry about her in his own way.
-"I am very sorry to learn about what happened with Larkin, Catherine. I didn't know you really had feelings for him, in all honesty, dear..."-
Tears were still running down the cheeks of that woman, who could not believe that what she had heard about the death of the person with whom she had an intimate night...
-"I can't help it, sir... sob... Even if I didn't really love him... sob... the fact that he's now dead... makes me feel so guilty..."-
Catherine's tears moved Fitzroy to stand from his desk, and then, to lay his hand over her palm, trying to comfort her in the only way that was possible for that soldier.
-"I don't blame you for having feelings for Larkin, it's only natural, right?"-
-"Yes, but it doesn't make me feel any better…"-
Catherine said sadly, and then, she removed her palm from Fitzroy's hand.
-"I shall leave you now, Major, I am sorry, but I don't feel well now..." - She added, also getting up.
-"All right, Catherine, try to rest and get some fresh air. I don't need you for the time being, and I don't think all the rattling from the trip back isn't helping things much."- Matthew Fitzroy said to the woman, trying to console her as best he could.
-"In that case, excuse me, please..."-
Immediately after, Catherine Walburg left the office of her boss, Major Matthew Fitzroy, devastated by the tragic news of Nick Larkin's death, and with tears in her eyes. She felt that the New York scientist's tragic demise may have been her fault in an indirect and circumstantial way, even if Catherine did not know the exact details of what might have actually happened that fateful day.
But that didn't matter to her. Catherine felt that Larkin's death was the product of having extracted information from him after drugging him and leaving him to his fate in that sleazy bar in El Paso, and even if she had no part in those tragic events, the man's loss weighed on her shoulders more than she could bear.
Meanwhile, back at the office, Fitzroy looked at his secretary with a concerned look in his face, wondering if Larkin's death had somehow gotten to the woman.
And even though he had nothing to do with the deaths of Mason and Larkin, Fitzroy began to feel that the plot to ruin Yoshinori Komatsu's life was beginning to destroy the lives of other people unrelated to the vendetta the Texan had against the Japanese scientist.
Was it worth all the drama and tragedy that both Matthew Fitzroy and Catherine Walburg were having to endure in order to make a simple man's life to go straight, figuratively and literally, to hell?
Even a seemingly ruthless man like that Texan soldier was beginning to have his doubts about it. It was one thing to hate another man because he was different from him, and because his ideas did not suit him, but it was another matter entirely when other people who were not involved in all that quarreling died.
In the face of all this, the only thing he could do, taking advantage of the fact that Catherine was not in the office, was to open one of his desk drawers, take out one of his Cuban cigars, and smoke nervously, sitting in his chair, and completely powerless in the face of all that was unfolding before his eyes.
-"Shit. I never imagined things could end this fuckin' way..."-
April 26th, AD 1955, Narsarsuaq Airport (Maintenance hangar), Narsarsuaq, Greenland, 08:00 PM
-"Hey, by any chance has anyone seen Mr. Pallensen around?"-
One of the young workers working in the maintenance hangar at Narsarsuaq airport asked this question, while seeking his presumed boss, whom he could not find anywhere.
But for some reason, no one wanted to give him a concrete answer. It seemed as if no one wanted to touch the matter, and even more so when it came to that man, Simon Pallensen, the maintenance chief of that airport located in the southern region of Greenland.
At first, no one responded to his question as they kept hammering away at their tasks. The young repairman asked again, louder this time.
-"Hey, why won't anyone tell me anything, huh?"- The newcomer raised his voice to be heard by the rest of the other mechanics working in the hangar, who seemed to be ignoring him for some reason. -"Is there something wrong with him, or what?"-
Seeing that no one was giving him an answer, one of the mechanics, a man in his 30s, decided to stop his work on the engine of a plane he was servicing, and finally answered the young mechanic's question about Pallensen's whereabouts.
-"I guess you're new around here, right?"- He asked, stony-faced, as he looked at the young working man before him.
-"Well, yes. In fact, I'm not from Greenland, but I come from Denmark; Copenhagen, more precisely."-
-"And what's your name, kiddo?"-
-"Victor Thorsen, sir."- The young Danish man, approximately 24 years old, replied to his senior man in front of him. -"I moved to Greenland after I graduated as an aviation mechanic a few weeks ago, and was offered a position to work here. I was told to talk to Mr. Simon Pallensen, but I can't find him anywhere."-
The other older mechanic began to shake his head in disbelief, as if the presence of the young mechanic had come at the most untimely juncture for all the employees in the hangar, for reasons that would be explained later.
-"Oh, fuck... who the hell thought of sending us a damn rookie at such a bad time, for Christ's sake?"- The man responded, while facepalming.
Victor was puzzled by the other man's negativity and asked him about it.
-"Something wrong, sir?"-
The other mechanic responded, this time in a more explanatory tone towards the young new mechanic who had come from Denmark to work with them.
-"I'm sorry to have to say this, Victor, but it's not going to be easy for you to find the old man Pallensen these days..."-
The young man raised his eyebrows in astonishment, and asked again, without understanding what the mechanic was telling him.
-"What do you mean, sir?"-
The older mechanic, who actually seemed gloomy, made a long pause before responding to the question about what he meant by what he was saying.
-"Look, Victor. It's just that... the old man Pallensen is not exactly... available... to put it nicely..."-
-"Can I ask why?"-
The other veteran mechanic responded, sighing first, and then he was forced to be honest with Victor.
-"Two months ago, a plane, a DC-3 to be exact, made a stopover here in Narsarsuaq from the U.S. and Canada, and the old man Pallensen personally took it upon himself to do a maintenance check during the plane's stay here in Greenland..."-
-"And what happened next?"- Victor asked.
-"The chief noticed that the plane looked like there was something strange about its engines, as if they had been tampered with or repaired before the plane left America, and there was no information relevant to this in the DC-3's maintenance logs at the time the plane was being inspected."- The older mechanic explained to the young Danish man. -"Faced with this irregular situation with the plane, Pallensen begged the pilot to allow him to do a more thorough check of the DC-3's engines, but the pilot refused, arguing that he was in a hurry to get to his next stop in Iceland, and then land in London the next day..."-
As Victor Thorsen listened to the details about that plane, he quickly realized what the mechanic was talking about.
-"Wait a second, sir! Was that plane...?"-
The other old man nodded his head as he became increasingly stern. He had a serious look on his face before changing it to one of sadness.
-"Yes, Victor... it was that plane..."- The man responded, in a quite sad tone. -"The DC-3 exploded mid-air, near the coast of Iceland. No one survived the crash, and it is even rumored that human remains fell on a fishing boat that was in the same region where the plane fell into the sea."-
Victor was shocked by the sudden revelation.
-"Holy... crap!"- The young Dane stepped back after hearing that from the older veteran. -"That must have been... really, REALLY horrible for him, no doubt..."-
After a few seconds of silence, the other mechanic continued to explain what happened after the accident.
-"To say that tragedy affected him greatly would be an understatement, young man."- The veteran worker continued with the summarization of the events that transpired after the plane crash that killed the Masons. -"After that accident happened, the U.S., Danish and local civil authorities questioned Pallensen to determine if he had any responsibility in the whole tragedy, as he was the last person to touch the plane's engines before it took off from here. Though it was found that he had nothing to do with it, and no charges were brought against him, the incident has affected him in a way he has never felt before in his life."-
Victor then did a tight-lipped smile, and he could not help but feel sorry for the man and the tragedy he had suffered a few months earlier. After all, Pallensen, a renowned mechanic with experience dating back to World War II, might have prevented that accident from happening... if he had been more insistent that he be allowed to check the engines of that DC-3, instead of allowing the American pilot of that ill-fated plane to continue flying under those conditions.
After a few long moments of silence, Victor then nodded his head and once again asked the older mechanic for more information, because he still wanted to know what happened to the old man.
-"And what happened to Mr. Pallensen?"- Victor said, with a hint of worry in his voice. -"Does he no longer work here since then?"-
The other mechanic looked at him for a second, then responded.
-"No, he still works here, but I don't think you would want to talk to him right now..."-
That last part intrigued the young rookie mechanic from Copenhagen even more.
-"What do you mean by that? You're not going to tell me that..."-
The mechanic sighed and said nothing more, leaving Victor standing just there, in the middle of the hangar, unable to receive a straight answer from that man.
The Danish mechanic stood there for a moment, then asked, -"But can I still talk to him then, sir?"-
When he received no answer from the veteran mechanic, another hangar worker, less willing to keep secrets, chose to talk to Victor and tell him the truth about what Simon Pallensen was doing at the time.
-"If you've figured it out, the old man Pallensen is outside the airport, getting drunk as a skunk."-
The other mechanic's response made Victor Thorsen feel considerably depressed, for he felt that he had arrived at that place, and on his first day on the job to boot, at the worst possible moment, not knowing what he could do about it.
-"Anybody who's had to go through something like that would be looking for a way to forget a tragedy of that magnitude, rookie."- The other mechanic continued. -"So the best thing to do would be to leave the old man alone, while he soothes his sorrows in alcohol on his own."-
Afterwards, the young man did a vacant stare at the rest of the hangar, and then, he did asked another question to that mechanic.
-"Is there a place where I can rest until Mr. Pallensen returns?"-
-"There is a couch at the back of the hangar. You can rest there for the time being, if you wish."- The mechanic pointed out with his finger at the back of the building. -"There are also some cookies and hot coffee, in case you are hungry."-
-"Thank you, sir."-
-"Hey, you're welcome too, rookie."-
Seeing that he could do nothing more, and that he would have to wait for Simon Pallensen to return from whatever he was doing outside the airport, Victor left his belongings on a couch located at the back of the hangar, while he sat there, trying to rest. The tragic news about the person who would be his immediate boss had made him considerably nervous, as Victor felt that he had arrived at the wrong time and under the wrong circumstances.
Now, the only thing he could do was to wait, and nothing else.
Unbeknownst to him, the wheels of fate had another surprise in store for him...
April 26th, AD 1955, Near Narsarsuaq Airport, Narsarsuaq, Greenland, 09:10 PM
It was a terrible night to be outside. The temperature was as low as -10 degrees Celsius and the snowfall that day had been 16 inches high, not including the snow that had just fallen from the sky, which gave everything a lovely white coating on top of its darkness.
But for Simon Pallensen, all those inconveniences were the least of his worries, especially when it came to forgetting his sorrows...
Pallensen was sitting on a rock that was located on the side of a hill north of the airport, completely hammered after drinking a whole bottle of cognac. The man just wanted to forget all that he had suffered in the last few months, when a plane in his care crashed near Iceland, killing all its occupants, despite his attempts to convince the captain of that plane, a DC-3, to allow him to check the plane's engines, to no avail.
That tragedy permanently scarred that man in many ways, as, for being the last person to inspect the plane before taking off for its final stop in Iceland before landing in London the next day, he was the target of an investigation by the aviation and civil authorities of both Denmark and the United States, the country from which the DC-3 hailed, believing that he may have had something to do with the accident.
When it turned out that he had no connection with the tragedy and that he even tried to convince the American captain of the plane to allow him to check the engines, which could have prevented the accident in the first place, Pallensen was released and no charges were brought against him, but the fact that he had been unable to prevent a fatal accident haunted his psyche in such a way that no amount of alcohol was enough to ease his pain and suffering.
Nowadays, he often wondered why he did not checked the engines and why he let the DC-3 take off under such conditions, and when he recalled that horrible day, he felt ashamed of himself, but the cold was beating against his present frame and the sorrow always won against the one that he had been drinking.
-"Hey, why are you sitting here, man?"- A voice yelled to him from behind. -"That's a great spot, but it's not the right time for that at all."-
The voice came from one of the inhabitants of the village of Narsarsuaq, the small town in Greenland where the airport was located. The man was returning home after having been out hunting since before the sun had set, but he was concerned that the man was sitting there on the edge of the hill, alone and drinking, in the bitter cold, even if Pallensen was wearing winter protection.
Obviously, Pallensen did not appreciate being disturbed in that moment, especially when he wished to be alone.
-"I want to be alone, is that a problem for you, you idiot?"- The veteran mechanic shouted angrily at the hunter when he saw that he was feeling inconvenienced.
The other man was surprised to see the mechanic reprimanding him, but he still insisted on helping him in some way.
-"No, I just thought you might like to go back to your home instead. You're not freezing, are you?"-
The veteran Danish mechanic remained silent for a few moments, and after a few moments, he responded in a very aggressive mood...
-"And what if I want to freeze myself to death, asshole?"-
The other man, seeing that the mechanic did not want to be helped, and also trying to avoid having a more serious argument with Pallensen, saw that it was convenient to leave the troubled man alone.
-"All right, suit yourself, old man, but I recommend you go back home if you don't want to wind up as a popsicle out there alone in the cold."-
-"And who the fuck asked for your opinion, huh?"- Pallensen yelled at the hunter, fed up with the man's unsolicited compassion. -"Get the fuck out of here if you don't want me to break your bloody face!"-
-"OK, OK, I'm leaving now!"- The young man left the place as quickly as he could, not wanting to provoke the man even more than he already was, especially since Pallensen was seriously drunk.
Pallensen was alone again, but he knew that sooner or later he wouldn't be able to stand a few more minutes in that bitter cold, especially since some were falling from the sky now, and he decided to get up from the rock he was sitting on and start walking back to the airport.
As he walked, Pallensen continued to drink, even though his bottle of cognac was nearly empty. He also began to violently drink more from the bottle that he was carrying inside his jacket, which wasn't the first one he had consumed that night.
Without realizing it, and as the snow began to fall with more intensity, to the extent that the snow falling from the sky turned into a storm, Pallensen could not see where he was going halfway down the road. This, coupled with his drunkenness, caused the veteran Danish mechanic to miss the road, and he headed in a direction other than the airport.
In fact, Pallensen walked straight, until the road was unrecognizable under the snow and he found himself entering the woods in that snowy night. He was walking aimlessly and desperately intent on finding his way back home, but his passage was so hard because the snow was so intense and also because his mind was clouded as a result of all the cognac he drank hours ago.
-"Where the hell am I?"- The man cursed to himself. -"What is this place?"-
Simon Pallensen had realized that, as a result of walking in a more than inconvenient state, not to mention the intensity of the snow that was falling that night, he accidentally seemed to have walked first up a very steep uphill path, and when the mechanic realized where he was, the first thing he realized was that he was near on the top of the hill where he was drinking minutes ago down in the foothills of that place.
The mechanic, still confused and seeing that the snow was falling more and more, did not know what to do. He tried to return back to the airport afterwards, but he couldn't see the path anymore, so he returned to the place he was before, feeling discouraged and confused. He had nowhere else to go but the top of the hill, so the veteran Danish man decided to stay there and hoped the snow would cease to fall soon.
And if that wasn't enough, there was so much snow falling that he couldn't see exactly what was in front of him at that moment. He was also in a state of drunkenness, which impaired his ability to register what was around him accurately.
When Pallensen was reaching the peak again, he noticed that he was standing on the edge of an abyss. Despite not being able to see very well what was in front of him, he immediately knew it would be a very dangerous place to step on, so he decided to follow the edge of the cliff carefully until he would be able to reach the top of the hill on the other side.
Even with everything going against him, Pallensen noticed that something or someone was following him as he walked to the top. Believing that it might be an animal, such as a polar bear or an arctic fox in search of food, the man continued walking uphill if he did not want to be the food of some wild beast that might be roaming around the hillside.
-"Damn... first I end up getting lost on this hill, and now the animals are hunting for me to turn me into their dinner tonight..."-
Faced with that possibility, Simon Pallensen continued walking, this time faster, in order to avoid being chased by the animals that might still be tracking him. He knew that in his current condition, he would have no chance of surviving a direct fight against a Greenlandic animal, considering that the only weapon he had with him was a Swiss Army knife that he used for his job as chief mechanic in the hangar of the Narsarsuaq airport.
And regrettably for him, the knife that came with it was already past its prime.
-"I couldn't even kill a rat with this piece of crap, much less a fox or a bear..."- Pallensen cursed himself that he had no more weapons available to defend himself against the wilderness that surrounded him on that snowstormy night.
With no other aids to defend himself, and no other way to get back to the airport, the Danish ex-military veteran continued walking quickly up the hill, praying that he would not encounter another peril on his way.
In fact, Pallensen continued walking for what it seemed like a very long time, until he stopped when he reached the top of the hill and got lost in a forest located there. It was so dark that the Danish mechanic could not even see the tip of his own nose. He was also confused and tired, so the man was looking for a place to rest where he wouldn't be seen by the animals that were hunting for him.
Therefore, when Pallensen walked a few more steps, he stumbled and fell himself over a rock.
-"SHIT!"-
The man cursed as hard as he could when he fell violently to the ground as a result of the trip he took with that rock, remaining on the cold soil of the hill for a few seconds...
And when Pallensen finally stood up from the ground, while he was trying to remove the snow that was all over his body, when he was able to look at what was in front of him, the first thing he noticed was what appeared to be a human-like silhouette standing just a few centimeters away from him.
-"WHO THE HELL ARE...?!"-
But before he could receive an answer, Pallense felt as if someone was pushing him violently, hitting him with both hands to his chest, backwards.
Even if the blow itself was not violent enough to hurt him, that was the last thing he thought at that moment...
"HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
...because the last thing he thought, before his head and brain exploded into pieces, was how his body fell from the edge of the hill into the abyss behind him, unnoticed at the time due to the intensity of the snowstorm...
April 26th, AD 1955, Narsarsuaq Airport (Maintenance hangar), Narsarsuaq, Greenland, 10:30 PM
In the maintenance hangar at Narsarsuaq Airport, mechanics continued their work repairing some aircraft that required some preventive maintenance or repair, while the snowstorm was falling heavily in that region of Greenland. That was the least they could do to pass the time, and it also helped them to warm up from the intense cold that was being felt at that moment.
On the other hand, Victor Thorsen, the young mechanic from Denmark, remained on a couch at the back of the building, drinking some hot chocolate and a few cookies to kill his hunger, while he waited attentively for the arrival of Simon Pallensen, the head of maintenance at the airport, and therefore, the one who was supposed to be his boss from now on.
But it had been more than two and a half hours since Victor had arrived at the airport, and that man had still not shown up at the hangar, much less at the airport, which was beginning to worry the young European mechanic, due to the intensity of the snowfall and how dangerous it would be to be outside, even with the proper protection, considering that the temperature had dropped to more than 15 degrees Celsius below zero.
-"That man haven't even showed up... I wonder what happened to him...?"- Victor thought to himself before he drank some more chocolate in order to warm up a bit.
After a few seconds, his thoughts have changed from worrying about his boss to the snowstorm that continued to go on outside that hangar.
-"I wonder how long the storm will last..."- Victor asked himself in order to diminish the tension he was feeling.
And after he had calmed himself down, the young Dane continued eating his cookies while he looked out the window, watching the stormy environment around them fall heavily on the clouds.
But suddenly, something altered this circumstance in an exceedingly critical way...
At that moment, all the workers in the hangar stopped working. They were unable to continue with their work because something had happened that kept them from doing so...
Seeing that the typical noise of the hangar had been replaced with the sounds from the blizzard raging outside, Victor couldn't help but ask his new colleagues what was going on.
-"Hey guys... how come you are not working anymore? What happened?"- Victor asked, feeling a little curious about the situation, in spite of feeling tired and in need of a rest after the long trip he made from Denmark to Greenland.
One of the mechanics said, while looking at his colleagues and seeing that they all had the same idea in mind.
-"I think we all heard it."-
-"Heard what?"- Victor asked curiously.
He could not understand what was happening when he saw that a few mechanics of the team were going outside to investigate. In any case, as he followed them out of curiosity, he also noticed that there seemed to be something in the air or atmosphere which led him to believe that a terrible thing may have happened outside the airport.
-"Hey, can I ask where you guys are going?"- The young Dane asked his work friends as they headed out of the hangar in the midst of the snowstorm.
One of the mechanics did not hesitate to respond to Victor in a blunt fashion.
-"You'd better come with us, young man. We may need your help."-
-"To follow you, guys? And why?"- Victor asked
Another man responded somewhat more bluntly and without beating around the bush.
-"I just hope it's not what we're thinking right now..."-
-"What do you mean with that?"- The young man asked again, and immediately, he realized what they were referring to with those words, which filled him with some trepidation. -"Wait a minute! You're not thinking that...?"-
-"You better not say anything else, and just follow us!"- Another man warned Victor. -"Understand that, kid?"-
-"OK, OK, I get it now!"- Victor responded with some concern, seeing that many of his work colleagues were heading out of the airport to possibly look for Simon Pallensen, his boss, who had not returned to work, and who everyone thought something terrible might have happened to him out there in the middle of that storm of snow falling on Narsarsuaq. -"I will join you, folks!"-
And without further ado, most of the hangar workers, along with Victor Thorsen, left the airport in search of their boss, and to find out what had happened to him. They all knew that it would be a dangerous search, due to the weather conditions in the area, but they could not stay idly by without being able to help their boss, especially knowing that he was in a state of drunkenness that could have prevented him from returning to the airport in time.
April 26th, AD 1955, Near Narsarsuaq Airport (Hills), Narsarsuaq, Greenland, 10:51 PM
The maintenance hangar workers at Narsarsuaq airport, together with the young mechanic Victor Thorsen, recently arrived from Denmark, set out in search of their boss, Simon Pallensen, who had not returned to the airport after having left the premises to drink alone without being disturbed. Armed with nothing more than flashlights, axes, and first aid tools, in case they or Pallensen needed them, the men knew they had a very dangerous task as they ventured into the hills surrounding both the town of Narsarsuaq and its airport.
But at the same time, they knew they could not leave their superior alone in the middle of that dangerous storm, especially knowing that they had heard something coming from the hills. Most of the workers, who had been laboring there for several years, knew better than anyone that no sane person would dare to climb the icy hills of the region in the middle of a blizzard, let alone when wild beasts were roaming the area in search of food.
Victor was trembling from the cold when he began climbing that very high hill with his friends. But despite feeling somewhat afraid about the way he was feeling, the young man knew that he could not let his companions go alone, and that he had to join them in helping Pallensen. But the Dane wasn't worried about his boss only. He was also worried about himself, because he thought that he could face some trouble in the middle of that blizzard.
The young man was worried, and that fear was justified. But he knew that he could not turn back, that he was needed by that man, and that he had to help.
-"HEY, OLD MAN! WHERE ARE YOU?"- The men under Pallensen's command shouted his name all over the hill, hoping that he would respond, to no avail. The only response they received was the sound of the intense wind, and the echo of their voices bouncing off the slopes of the hill.
Now, the fear of every man present was growing by the minute. They knew that it wouldn't be long before the search could become even more dangerous thanks to the unforgiving freezing weather. The men searched and searched for the man who was the reason they all were there. But there was no trace of Pallensen, or any clue pointing to where he could be.
-"Shit!"- One of the mechanics cursed loudly as he and his comrades continued to search up and down the hill. -"Where the hell did that old man get to?"-
-"Who knows."- Another man responded with some sarcasm. -"I wouldn't be surprised if the old man Pallensen has been eaten by some hungry polar bear hanging around here..."-
-"Quit talking that kind of bullshit and keep looking for him, gentlemen!"- Another older man, who was not amused by the comment, reproached him for these distasteful words.
Victor, on the other hand, tried to help where he could, although he couldn't help feeling incredibly depressed that his first day on the job meant having to look for his own boss, who was lost on that icy hill from that region of southern Greenland.
All working men went as far up the hill as they were able to go. They did not find their boss, but they found some evidence that made them suspect that something terrible might have happened out there. A little bit surprised, the men kept on walking forward, almost as if they were walking on some kind of a hidden path.
And after half an hour's walk up the hill, the men reached the top, trying to find some kind of trace that might indicate the whereabouts of the veteran Danish mechanic. Unfortunately, apart from some animal tracks, they had found nothing about the man.
-"This is fucking crazy!"- One of the men cursed. -"At this rate, if we don't find that old man, we'll be the ones freezing to death first on this damn hill!"-
-"I agree with you, pal. I think Pallensen was so drunk he couldn't find his way back to the airport and ended up here on the hill."- Another mechanic conceded with his other partner. -"I just hope nothing bad happened to him."-
The mechanics searched around the top of the hill for what seemed like an endless amount of time. They did not give up, and they continued their search, even when they had nothing left to do except waiting for the night to come. They knew they could not spend the night finding Pallensen, and they knew that they would have to return home sooner or later.
Suddenly, Victor Thorsen, who was also looking for the veteran mechanic at the top of the hill, saw something strange lying on what appeared to be a cliff to the east of the hill, or to be more precise, on its frozen ground...
-"What will that be?"- The young Dane was wondering, as he walked in the direction of the object he wanted to see on the ground.
When he reached the edge of the cliff, and crouched down to the ground, Victor pointed his flashlight at the ground, and he noticed a bottle of cognac, which was broken and its contents spilled on the cold Greenlandic bedrock.
After the young man lifted what was left of the bottle, he read its label...
-"Martell Cordon Bleu..."- Victor said to himself. -"I must admit that man sure has a good taste in wines..."-
But before he could see the bottle any further, the young mechanic sensed what seemed to be a strange and unusual presence in that spot...
-"WHO IS IT?"-
Victor had many reasons to be afraid at that moment: Not only was he alone, but also his other friends were looking for Pallensen on the other side of the peak, and if someone or something wanted to attack the young mechanic rookie, he had no weapon to defend himself with, except a wrench that he had at that moment when his other companions went out to look for their boss, and that would not do him much good if his attacker was a wild animal like a polar bear, or someone with a knife or a gun.
The only way to prevent anything bad from happening to him was to call his other partners, so as to scare off any aggressors who might be willing to harm him.
-"HEY, GUYS, LOOKS LIKE I FOUND SOMETHING!"-
After waiting almost five minutes, and with the wind inching closer and closer to him, finally, the young Dane saw some faces appear on the other side of the rocky outcropping, one after the other. They belonged to his partners, who had made their way up the slope as soon as they jumped to the young man's help.
Victor sensed something following him. At first, Victor thought it was the same thing that had been stalking him before his friends arrived. But when they showed up, whatever was there quickly disappeared, hidden among the trees on the hill.
-"What happened, buddy?"- One of the mechanics asked Victor. -"Did you find out anything about the old man Pallensen?"-
-"Well, I found this broken cognac bottle lying on the ground... I guess it might have something to do with him..."-
The young man from Copenhagen handed the bottle to his other companion, who took a look at it. When he saw the brand name, Martell Cordon Bleu, he could quickly tell to whom the bottle might have belonged.
-"Undoubtedly, this bottle is of the brand of cognac that Pallensen likes to drink..."-
But before they could discuss more about the bottle, Victor also alerted his co-workers to what he had sensed a few minutes earlier...
-"There is also something else I sensed before you came here, guys."-
The other men looked at the young mechanic inquiringly.
-"Uh? What do you mean?"- One of the men asked him. -"What else did you notice before we arrived?"- The other man asked the young mechanic.
Victor looked toward the forest in front of him, and pointed his finger toward the trees, signaling where the strange and dangerous feeling he sensed before the other men reunited with him came from.
-"I felt like there was someone or something was stalking me. When you guys arrived, I felt safer."- The young Dane mechanic explained what he felt. -"You guys didn't see anything weird around here, by any chance?"-
The other mechanics nodded their heads in denial...
-"No, unfortunately not. It may just be you, pal."- One of them told him. -"And besides, if we had seen anyone or any dangerous animal besides you or ourselves, we would have warned you beforehand."-
-"I know, but I sensed something..."- Victor said. -"I swear it."-
-"Or maybe it was your imagination."- One of the men replied with a sly look in his face. -"If it had been an animal or someone who didn't want to leave witnesses, you wouldn't be here to tell us about it. Think about it, pal."-
The young mechanic just gave his shoulders and remained silent. Then, he responded with some resignation.
-"sigh... Well... I suppose you could be right."-
But before Victor and his other companions who had gone out in search of Simon Pallensen on that icy Greenland hill continued to discuss the matter of the presence of someone or something other than themselves at the scene, one of the men, clearly in shock, suddenly started babbling...
-"Oh, no... no... no... no...!"-
Seeing the horrified look on the man's face, the other men who were with Victor urgently asked the man what was bothering him.
-"What's the matter, man?"-
-"Pa- Pa-"-
The other man grabbed him by the shoulders and began to roughly shake him, seeing that he was in a state of shock.
-"For Pete's sake, what in the world is wrong with you?!"-
And then...
-"PALLENSEN IS DEAD!"- The man yelled his lungs out, in sheer horror from what he saw. -"OLD MAN PALLENSEN IS DEAD!"-
-"WHAT?!"-
Victor and the other men stood shocked by those words. And when they looked in the direction that the man's gaze indicated, at the bottom of the cliff, they realized why he was so horrified...
The corpse of Simon Pallensen, or what was left of him, lay at the foot of that hill, completely mangled after having fallen down from a considerable height onto the hard rocks below, leaving his body as if it were a broken egg after having been thrown from the table to the ground...
April 27th, AD 1955, Near Narsarsuaq Airport (Hills), Narsarsuaq, Greenland, 07:00 AM
The peaceful tranquility of that region of Greenland, apart from the planes landing at the airport, was brutally interrupted by the news of the tragic death of Simon Pallensen, after falling from the top of a hill into a precipice. The only thing that could be seen at that moment near the hills were the first aid vehicles that had arrived to pick up the body of the deceased Danish mechanic, in addition to the presence of the police, who were trying to determine if that tragic event was the result of an accident or something intentional.
The scene of the tragedy was devastating for the men who used to work for Pallensen. They had no idea what to think, what to say, or what to do next, when looking at the remains of the old man whom they had just begun to respect and like, now thrown to the bottom of that cliff.
In the meantime, the police decided to question the mechanics who had gone out the night before in search of their now deceased boss, in order to determine possible responsibilities. They had stayed overnight near the place where Pallensen's body was found in order to prevent it from being eaten by the animals of the region, and the security forces wanted to make sure that they had nothing to do with the tragedy.
-"Well, according to what you say, you guys heard a scream coming from the hill, and knowing that Mr. Pallensen was in a drunken state, you went out to look for him fearing the worst, didn't you?"- A detective asked one of the mechanics, while taking notes.
-"Yes, that's what really happened."-
One of the other men added to what the other had said, still in shock from the accident and the death of his boss.
-"We really thought something bad happened to him, so we went out to see what happened. Unfortunately, we arrived too late to help him or something."-
-"Did you find anything suspicious on the way to the top of the hill while you were looking for him, such as someone else, a dangerous animal, or any unusual thing?"- The agent did another question.
-"Well, we didn't find anything unusual during our search, but our buddy, Victor, says he saw or felt something strange when he found the bottle of cognac our boss was drinking before he disappeared."- Another one of the older mechanics responded to that question. -"I think you'll want to ask him about that, Mr. Detective."-
The agent asked the young Dane mechanic about what he saw at the top of the hill when looking for Pallensen.
-"You don't have to worry about that, sir."- Victor finally said. -"Even though I would have wished that things had been different today."-
-"Yes, I understand, young man..."- The law enforcement agent said with a deadpan voice at Victor. -"I also understand, according to what your friends said, you felt or sensed that someone was watching or stalking you. Isn't that right?"-
-"Yes."- The young Dane replied at the detective. -"I felt like there was someone or something stalking me when I was looking for Mr. Pallensen."-
-"And what do you mean by stalking you, my friend?"- The agent asked him.
-"I mean... I felt like I was being followed by someone when I was near the cliff, while I picked up the broken cognac bottle that Mr. Pallensen had dropped before he fell off the edge."- Victor explained what he felt the day before. -"The sensation came from the forest a few meters away from the cliff, and I felt as if someone or something was watching me."-
-"And what happened next, Victor?"-
-"Then, my friends arrived on the scene when I yelled for them to come, and immediately afterwards, the feeling simply disappeared like a gust of wind."-
Victor paused for a moment, after saying that. Meanwhile, the detective kept writing what the young man said in his notebook, interested in knowing that there was someone suspicious behind Pallensen's death.
-"I see... I see..."-
Immediately afterwards, the law enforcement officer decided to ask more questions, this time related to the late Danish mechanic, in order to find out if his death was related to events he had been involved in in the past.
-"There is something I would like to know, gentlemen: I gather that Mr. Pallensen was under investigation a few months ago in connection with the incident involving the American DC-3 that crashed near Iceland, right?"-
The mechanics looked at each other and answered by nodding, indicating that yes, that was the case.
-"Yes, that actually happened; Both the FBI and the local authorities were looking for the old man Pallensen, who was the last person to touch that plane before it took off for Iceland."- One of the men explained what had happened to his boss regarding the incident and its outcome. -"But it turned out that he had nothing to do with that plane crashing, and he even tried to convince the pilot of the plane to allow him to check the plane thoroughly, without success."-
-"I must assume that accident must have affected him a lot, I guess."- The detective asked again.
-"And boy, did it hit him hard, detective."- Another worker at the maintenance hangar explained how the accident affected his boss. -"He could never forgive himself for allowing that plane to take off, only to have it explode in the air, with women and children on board, hours later..."-
The man paused briefly, because what he was about to say made the man start to shed tears...
-"And then..."- The mechanic said, with tears flowing from his eyes. -"Old man Pallensen began to drink more and more uncontrollably with each passing day since that accident. He was looking for a way to forget all that, to such a degree that in the last three days, he almost didn't work in the hangar anymore, leaving us with all the workload... while he went out of the airport in order to get drunk undisturbed by anyone..."-
Seeing that the man was silently crying for Pallensen, and the fact that they were unable to do anything to save him, the detective pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and gave it to the mechanic to wipe away his tears.
-"Thank you, sir... I really need that..."- The man thanked the agent for his kindness in giving him that handkerchief.
-"It is the least I can do for you after you lost your boss."- The detective said with a worried tone. -"I'm so sorry for your loss, guys..."-
The detective closed his notebook, and immediately after, he stood up from the place where he was sitting, which was another fallen tree that was in front of the other tree where the mechanics who worked for the late chief mechanic were also having a seat, answering the questions of the police officers and mourning the death of their boss.
-"Well, I have no more questions to ask you gentlemen. I can only tell you that none of you, at least until the investigations say otherwise, have any responsibility in this tragedy, and in case we need your further cooperation, we will let you know."- The police officer then asked another final question. -"Do any of you have any other questions you would like to ask?"-
-"For the time being, no, sir."- Victor, the rookie mechanic, replied.
-"Neither do we, officer."- The rest of his workmates followed suit.
-"In that case, I'm leaving, gentlemen... I hope you can get through this somehow, and that's as little as I can say at this time."-
Several minutes later, the detective and many other men with him had finished questioning the mechanics, and now they were just waiting for the ambulances to transport the body. Since there were no forensic laboratories in Greenland at that time, all investigations related to accidents or high-impact crimes involving deaths required that the bodies be sent to Copenhagen, Denmark, in order to find out the cause of Simon Pallensen's death.
From what little the police officers had been able to investigate the body of the Danish mechanic, and what evidence they could gather at the scene, it was obvious that Pallensen was drunk at the time of his death, and that there was no apparent evidence of foul play, either on his body or on what little they could find at the scene where the troubled man fell to his doom.
But there was something that seemed to complicate things: Victor Thorsen's mention of the presence of something or someone at the scene of the accident.
Was that a murder, an attack by a wild animal, an unfortunate accident caused by the man's drunkenness, or even a suicide? And if it was murder, would it have had anything to do with the DC-3 crash near Iceland?
What they didn't know was that this was just a small piece of a complicated cosmic chess game, of which no one present knew that they were just the pawns, being controlled by a force unknown to them...
May 2nd, AD 1955, Fort Bliss (Major Fitzroy's Office), El Paso, Texas, United States of America, 05:20 PM
Working in an office during normal business hours from 9 am to 7 PM without leaving the place is not exactly pleasant under normal circumstances, but considering the intense desert climate of that Texan border city, being in an office, even with fans and air conditioning that made the stay more pleasant, was becoming something hellish for the people who were inside that place...
That was the situation for both Major Matthew Fitzroy and his secretary, Catherine Walburg, who had not left their workplace since they started work, except for a brief lunch break and to relieve themselves.
Since both had been out of state for several days because they were in Washington, DC due to investigations following the plane crash that took the lives of the Masons over Icelandic skies, the military man and his secretary had to make up for lost time by working overtime, including weekday work to catch up on what had happened at Fort Bliss during their absence.
Even if the people who were under Fitzroy's command, in this case Dr. Komatsu and the men who worked for the Japanese scientist, were no longer working at the base, that did not mean that the workload of both had been reduced, but rather increased exponentially, for there were other projects that Fitzroy had to manage, and Catherine had to help her boss with that tedious task.
Meanwhile, the secretary was sitting at her desk reading a file, and the Major had just placed his coffee mug on one side of his own workplace. Fitzroy, for his part, had already finished working on his part, especially when he had to go to check on some projects under his care and attend a meeting with the base's top brass to discuss some issues related to military matters and the projects at Fort Bliss that were related to them. It was not an easy job, considering that he had to deal with many people with very different personalities, but at least he no longer had to deal with Komatsu, even if he would have preferred to destroy him with his own hands.
Well, at least he thought at that moment, the only thing he could hope for was that the government itself would handle that Japanese scientist, and thus wash his hands of the matter in case that man did something that was not to the liking of the Pentagon or the White House.
Within a minute, then, Catherine had suddenly stood up.
-"Sir, will you need me to bring you anything else?"-
Fitzroy sighed and slumping his shoulders a little.
-"No Catherine, thank you though. I'll be fine for the time being."-
Then, Fitzroy returned to his work, reopening some packets of files that he had already read. He needed to verify some data on some projects under his command, and he wanted everything to be in order before the end of his day.
On the other hand, Catherine, to lighten the mood, turned on her radio to listen to music, in this case, her favorite music genre, jazz.
-"I hope you don't mind if I listen some music on the radio, Major."- The woman addressed her boss about the music.
-"Oh, no, please do so, Catherine, I don't care."-
The music helped that woman work on those tough days, again. Still, it struck the Indiana woman as odd that her boss had no objection to her listening to jazz in his presence because of his... prejudiced... opinions about that genre of music. It was likely that Fitzroy simply didn't care, as there were more pressing issues to deal with, and anything to liven up a tedious workday, even if it was jazz, was better than listening to nothing at all.
Ironically, the music played on the radio was not jazz, but Brazilian bossa nova, which was much more relaxing than the rambunctious rhythms of American jazz. Not that it mattered much to either Catherine or her boss at this time of hard work; the secretary was busy typing reports on her typewriter, while Fitzroy continued to read his files.
Suddenly, the phone on Fitzroy's desk rang. He quickly picked up the speaker and answered the call.
-"Good afternoon, Major Matthew Fitzroy speaking, what can I do for you?"-
The voice sounded like a man in his late 30s, who seems to want to speak to the Texan military veteran personally.
-"Good afternoon too, Major Fitzroy, I hope you are well, and I'm glad to find you at this time of day."-
The American soldier found it strange that person was looking forward to speak with him, which caused Fitzroy to take the necessary precautions, considering what happened to him in the last months.
-"Who am I talking to, if I may ask?"-
-"Oh, excuse me for not introducing myself first, my name is Ronald Warrick and I work for the Department of Defense, and I think you know what that means, don't you?"-
Fitzoy made a pause, and then, he answered in a subdued tone.
-"I assume you are calling from the Pentagon..."-
-"That's right."-
Fitzroy found the call somewhat unusual, as the tone in which the man spoke to him sounded somewhat strange. To begin with, the accent of the person he was talking to, although it sounded American, had a certain tone that sounded somewhat out of what he would consider normal.
Likewise, he had no reason to suspect that the call came from any source he might consider suspicious. Even though caller ID technology did not exist at the time, there were certain protocols within the U.S. military and the government that made it possible to know when a call was coming from a legitimate source, in this case the Pentagon in Washington, and when the call might be coming from someone posing as a member of the government or its armed forces, such as a foreign spy.
Fortunately for Fitzroy, he was able to confirm that the call did indeed come from the Pentagon, dispelling his doubts about the legitimate origin of the call.
-"May I at least know what you wish to discuss with me, Mr. Warrick?"-
-"Well, I speak on behalf of the Secretary of Defense, who, perhaps as a way of making up for the inconvenience he caused you after the whole thing with Dr. Mason's accident, wishes to ask you to take a few months off, with your salary intact of course."-
While the option of taking time off would have sounded tempting, especially for someone like Fitzroy, who had to oversee several projects at once, he also realized that the Secretary of Defense, who just a few months ago Fitzroy had had the opportunity to speak with him when Charles Wilson, then an official in President Eisenhower's administration, had personally visited Fort Bliss to oversee the Komatsu's Advanced Evolution Project, not to mention what he had been able to discuss with Wilson when the Texan military officer had been in Washington a few weeks earlier.
In that case, why didn't Wilson give him those days off when they were both in Washington, instead of using a third party to speak on his behalf to tell him the news? Wouldn't it have been better if that official had informed him personally, since he was the most important authority in the DoD to make such a request?
-"May I speak to Secretary Wilson, please?"- The Texan man asked the man from Washington. -"I am not convinced of his request for me to take days off."-
-"Unfortunately, he is on a work trip to France, so he asked me to tell you the news."-
Upon hearing this, Fitzroy pondered the offer made by the government itself, and moments later, he gave his response.
-"I'm sorry, Mr. Warrick, but I can't take any vacation for now, as that would jeopardize the efficiency of the projects I must oversee."-
-"Oh, I see."- Warrick responded. -"In that case, wouldn't you prefer that Maj. Andrew Summerfield take your place while you are away?"-
The Texan soldier was surprised that the man knew the name of the person who normally filled in for him when he was out of town for several days. Considering that the call came from the Pentagon, it would be logical that they would know that kind of information.
-"I assume Summerfield already knows this, right?"-
-"Yeah, I spoke to him an hour ago about the possibility that you might be able to take a few days off; you can confirm that if you wish."-
Fitzroy did a brief pause, and then, he continued with the chat.
-"Well, I guess in that case I would have no reason to doubt your word, Mr. Warrick, although personally I would prefer to continue working."- The military officer replied. -"Anyway, I'll talk to Summerfield tomorrow and see if I can take that break."-
-"Very good, Major, I hope you have a nice vacation, and we are very sorry for the inconvenience caused by all this investigation that fell against you."- Said Ronald Warrick, the man in the other line of the phone call. -"You know, embezzlement is not something we take lightly here in the US Army."-
-"Yes, I understand that very well, and I hope you guys can find the bastard who forged my signature to rent that plane to the Masons, and got me involved in this whole mess in the first place..."-
Fitzroy responded with a clearly furious voice, as the whole situation had happened thanks to that person known as "Elio Fermi", who had arranged to use his signature and lease the DC-3 on his behalf in order for Richard Mason and his family to fly to the UK, only for the plane to crash before arriving in London.
Whoever that Fermi was, it was obvious that he most likely wanted to kill that family for some reason, and for some reason he found it easy to pin the blame for that accident on Fitzroy, and the Texan soldier knew that, if the law enforcement authorities succeeded in getting their hands on that person, the only way Fermi would leave prison would be as a charred corpse following his execution in the electric chair.
Suddenly, Fitzroy realized that Warrick was taking a slightly longer time to answer; he let him know right away.
-"Something wrong, Mr. Warrick?"-
-"Uh... no, it was nothing... I was just reading some papers at the same time, and I got distracted for a few moments, that's all."-
-"Oh, I was just asking; I noticed that you didn't answer me right away when I mentioned about the person who forged my signature and rented that plane."-
-"Sorry for the delay in answering you, but I needed to read your file to know who the person you were referring to was..."-
Then, a loud sound of sheets of paper being read could be heard on the telephone.
-"According to what it says here, the person who rented the DC-3 that crashed was named Elio Fermi, right?"-
-"Yes, that's right, Mr. Warrick."-
-"And according to the case file, the suspect was bald, posed as a soldier working under him, and spoke with an Italian accent. Is that true as well?"- The man from Washington asked Fitzroy.
-"Yes, that's true, or at least that's what the company that owns that plane told the FBI when describing the person they rented the DC-3 to."-
But the Texan military man did not have much desire to continue with the conversation regarding Fermi and the plane crash, because of how painful it was for him to have to talk about a subject that brought back bad memories, especially when a person who was close to him had died along with his family, and the fact that this person of Italian origin had used him to cover up a possible crime.
-"I'm sorry to have to interrupt your talk regarding the accident, but I'm not in the mood to talk about that subject. As you may already know, the fact that a person under my command and his entire family died is not something I like to talk about as something normal, and I prefer to leave it at that for a while... I hope you understand that, Mr. Warrick."-
After a brief silence, Warrick could only reply with.
-"I understand, Major, I understand that perfectly."-
-"Well, it was a pleasure talking to you anyway, Mr. Warrick. I hope we can meet in person and chat again the next time I travel to Washington."-
-"Well, I look forward to meeting you too, Major... when possible, of course."-
-"Hehehe... yeah, right. Well, see you later and thanks for your call."-
-"You are welcome, Maj. Fitzroy, and good luck."-
After acknowledging to Warrick that he would take the offer seriously, the Texan man ended the call. Immediately afterwards, Catherine Walburg began to ask her immediate superior some questions about the call he had received.
-"Who was the person who spoke to you, sir?"-
-"A guy named Ronald Warrick, who works for Secretary of Defense Wilson at the Pentagon."- Fitzroy explained to the woman. -"He spoke to me on behalf of the man to offer me a paid vacation as a way of apologizing for all the trouble caused by the investigations related to the plane crash."-
-"And you said yes?"-
-"I told him I would accept the offer only if Summerfield has no objection to him taking over my position while I am away."-
-"And what do you think about it, Major?"- The woman asked the soldier. -"Knowing you, I don't think you're going to take those days off with all the workload we have on top of us since we got back from Washington."-
Fitzroy sighed briefly then, following a brief pause, replied to Catherine's question.
-"Personally, I'm not opposed to taking a few days off and taking a break from all this crap you and I have been up to our necks in regarding Komatsu and the related shit involving him, not forgetting our own jobs, of course."- The man explained his position about the idea on taking some days off for himself. -"On the other hand, I would rather stay here and keep working than draw more attention to myself by going on vacation."-
-"Considering your own reputation here at Fort Bliss, and the rumors that have swirled since Richard Mason's death, I don't blame you if you would rather stay and keep working than simply ride away without further explanation."- Catherine gave her own opinion. -"It wouldn't do much for morale among the workers, soldiers and officers who work here, if I may say so."-
-"Yeah, I already know that, Catherine..."-
After saying that, the Texan soldier posed another question to the woman.
-"And in case I go on a trip, do you have any plans in mind for yourself?"- Fitzroy said. -"Since I won't be here, I don't think it makes sense for you to stay here alone, working on the base for someone else in the meantime."-
-"Hmmm... well..."- Catherine pondered that question. -"I could go back to my native Indiana to spend a few days with my family; it's the only thing I could think of doing at the moment while you're away on vacation. I'd have to take care of a few things in you-know-where first, though, sir."-
-"Oh?"- Fitzroy responded in astonishment. -"You mean... that bar near here?"-
-"Yes... that place, sir."- The secretary replied. -"If I am to return home, I must first talk to my boss at my other job here in El Paso about using another singer while I am out of town."-
-"Well, it's quite fitting, considering you are always full of surprises."- The Texan man commented.
-"You should not be surprised, Major. I have my own life outside of the one I have here at Fort Bliss working as a secretary."-
The burly military officer kept quiet for a few seconds...
-"And before concluding this talk, sir, I would like to ask you a question."-
-"What would that be, Catherine?"- Fitzroy said at the woman.
-"I am surprised that you, for all your faults, have no problem with my other job that I do for a living besides this one in the military..."-
-"Do you mean that you basically work in a... cabaret... if that's what you mean?"-
-"Yes..."- Catherine replied with a stern face. -"On another day, any other man, especially one of your own type, would have been scandalized by my work, or at worst, would have asked me for favors of the... erotic type... if you know what I mean. But you, on the other hand, don't seem to give a damn that I basically work singing jazz to men in a sleazy bar in a dusty town near the Mexican border, when you could have accused me of going back to being a whore, or anything like that, if you had wanted to..."-
Then, Catherine did another, more straightforward question to the other man who was her boss.
-"May I ask why, Major?"-
After being silent for a few moments, Matthew Fitzroy responded to the woman in a tone uncharacteristic of what Catherine was accustomed to hearing from a man who had a reputation for being a rude and coarse man.
-"To be fair with you, dear... I don't know."- The soldier replied. -"Maybe because you are a very special person, and so far you have shown me results, unlike that Japanese idiot. Besides, you are very professional, and I have never seen that your other job has caused you any problems that would harm your performance here at the base, and not to mention that I don't know anyone better than you to be my personal secretary."-
The Indiana-native secretary was surprised by the words of appreciation the man had spoken to her, considering her temperament and her notoriously unsociable attitude towards many people. Fitzroy might have many faults, but at least he knew how to recognize a person's talent when he saw it, and that woman had helped the Major in his mission to ruin Komatsu's life, even though she had nothing against the Japanese scientist. Why she agreed to help Fitzroy in something that was alien to her personally is a mystery that remains unsolved yet.
-"Thank you, Major!"- Catherine said with a smile. -"You are very kind, especially considering the fact that you don't know a lot of things about me."-
The Texan sighed, then replied to his secretary with a tone that only could be described as somewhat pleased...
-"Well... don't need to thank me, Catherine. I'm just saying what I see about you, and that's the truth. I also have to thank you for the risks you've taken... especially when you had sex with Larkin."-
The mere mention of Nick Larkin's name suddenly made Catherine's positive attitude become a little more somber. The thought that the man she had slept with was now dead was not something she was happy to be reminded of, and without mentioning that there was a possibility that the scientist's death might not have been accidental...
-"Oh, I'm sorry, Catherine... I forgot that you still grieve for Larkin's death..."-
-"No, Major. you don't need to apologize..."- Catherine replied, with some tears in her eyes and with a broken voice. -"...there's nothing to apologize for..."-
Suddenly, Fitzroy checked his wristwatch, and realized it was time to leave work. He wished he could have had a more in-depth discussion about her and her sexual relationship with the late Nick Larkin, but even he knew better to avoid discussing such a sensitive subject with someone who still felt the man's death was a personal issue, even if it was very brief and selfishly motivated.
-"Look, Catherine, we can discuss this topic another day, and sorry if I brought up Larkin again..."-
Then, he changed the topic.
-"For the time being, I will talk to Summerfield later about the possibility of me going on vacation for a few days while he fills in for me, and if there is any change of plans, I will let you know by phone, OK?"-
After a few seconds of awkward silence, and after she wiped away her tears, she finally responded to her boss.
-"Thank you for your kind words, Major... I can't tell you how much I need them..."-
-"You are welcome, Catherine dear... I just want you to return home with a calm mind and leave the sad things for another time. You can also take advantage of my break that I am going to take for you to travel to New York and go to Larkin's funeral, whether you think it is best for you..."-
After a brief pause, Catherine responded, still with a quavering voice...
-"Thank you, sir... I will keep that in mind..."-
-"Well, in that case, we should get going. I'll talk to you tomorrow if Summerfield and I come to any agreement regarding my vacation. You should try to get some rest in the meanwhile..."-
And then, in an unexpected turn of events, Fitzroy raised his hand to his forehead in a gesture similar to what an old-fashioned soldier used to do when he saluted to his general, as a way of thanking Catherine for the services she had done for him, and as a way, perhaps somewhat cheeky and symbolic, of cheering up that grieving woman.
-"Thank you for everything, Catherine."- Matthew Fitzroy said at Catherine Walburg, his secretary, in a very respectful tone. -"And I will see you later."-
The woman responded in the same way to her superior, this time with a smile, albeit a slight one, on her lips, knowing what the man's intention was in making that military salute.
-"See you soon, Major Fitzroy..."-
And so, they both left the office, leaving it deserted for that day.
May 4th, AD 1955, Evansville Regional Airport, Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 01:50 PM
-"Gosh, this is my first time flying home from Texas, and it was quite a ride!"-
These were the words Catherine Walburg said to herself as she stepped off the plane after taking a flight from El Paso, Texas, not without first transferring in Dallas to return to her hometown of Evansville, Indiana. This was somewhat justifiable for her, since she had traveled to El Paso by bus from her hometown years ago, and now that she had the money, Catherine could afford to fly back to Evansville, something that was rare for middle class people in that time.
The airport itself was not particularly fancy, like many similar airports in the 1950s in small cities such as Evansville at that time, as it only served its purpose of being merely an important air connection between that American city and the rest of the country, and nothing more. Nor was it particularly luxurious, or particularly pretty, to put it bluntly. It simply fulfilled its task of being an airport, with nothing more to ask of it.
That was also reflected in the facilities and amenities inside. Aside from the ticket booths, there was only a small restaurant, a newsstand, a few pay phones, and the parking lot itself.
As a result, Catherine didn't even bother to be distracted any longer in that place, and the first thing she did, upon leaving the airport runway and passing through security procedures, was to head for the exit, and hail a cab to take her to her home.
May 4th, AD 1955, Rosedale South, Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 02:30 PM
Rosedale South is a small suburb south of Evansville. At first glance, it was like any stereotypical suburb of America: traditional houses with their gardens, churches and schools, the latter of which, on that day in May, were having their usual classes. There are no things that stand out about this particular place, outside being a quite tranquil location to live.
And this place was Catherine Walburg's original home, before she went to work in El Paso. It should be noted that she was not originally from that suburb, but was born further north in the city, but after Catherine emancipated herself, she moved to Rosedale South. Shortly after that, she accepted a job in Texas, and consequently headed south.
As she stepped out of the cab, Catherine noticed how much had changed in the neighborhood since she left. Many new houses were being built in the place she used to live; there were also some stores that closed and other stores that opened, if not before the buildings they occupied were demolished. In short, everything had changed very radically, and the secretary who worked for Major Matthew Fitzroy felt like she was in a completely different place, even though she knew the neighborhood quite well.
And at that time, she was at her home. The house was not particularly flashy, but it was relatively large, even for a woman who used to live alone, being still single, and Catherine noticed that everything was in perfect condition and in order. This was because the woman had asked a friend of hers to take care of her house while she was working in Texas, and the secretary had asked that friend to arrange her home so that it would be neat and tidy when she arrived back to Evansville.
And without wasting any more time on distractions, the woman opened her front door and entered her home, along with all her things she had brought with her from El Paso.
May 4th, AD 1955, Rosedale South (Catherine Walburg's home/Main hall), Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 02:47 PM
-"I'm home!"-
A white woman, with blonde hair and gray eyes, stood in the foyer of the house, waiting for Catherine to arrive at her home, while she took care of the last details to welcome her friend who came from Texas.
-"Hey, welcome back, Cathy!"- A female voice said, this one belonging to Cathetine Walburg's friend, who had just finished arranging her things on the table, on which Catherine placed her suitcase.
That woman was Alena McWild, Cathetine's best friend for many years, who has lived in Rosedale South since she was eighteen years old. She graduated from high school the same year Catherine did, and following that, both of them went to graduate school. Soon after they both finished their studies, each of them went their own way: While Catherine traveled to Texas to work in the army, in addition to her side job as a bar singer, Alena owned a clothing store downtown. Despite that, the two women tried to communicate when possible, and Catherine had left her the keys to her house so that Alena could maintain it from time to time while she was away.
Obviously, upon seeing her friend, Catherine hugged the other woman effusively, happy to see her after several years of absence, and also happy to see that the house was completely tidy and clean.
-"giggle... Hey, Cathy, it's been a long time since the last time we met!"- Alena greeted her friend. -"How was the plane ride home?"-
-"Fine, the trip was pleasant, although I had to make a stopover in Dallas to transfer and catch a plane to Evansville, but other than that, the trip was smooth and uneventful. The military has its conveniences when it comes to paid vacations, you know."- Catherine replied.
-"I imagine so... But it's not just any holiday you've come back for, is it?"- The clothes store owner asked back.
-"Well, technically my boss was given paid vacation because of the... hassles... so to speak... that he and I were sent to Washington on work-related matters. I cannot give you any more details for reasons of national security, but I can tell you that it was not at all comfortable to be in the capital, to put it frankly."-
-"Oh, I see..."- Alena replied in a surprised tone.
But for the woman who worked in the U.S. Army, talking about sad topics was the last thing she wanted to talk about with her long-time friend, so she quickly changed the subject.
-"I'm sorry, Alena, but I don't want to talk further about that subject, as it's not something I'm interested in discussing with anyone else, if you get my drift."-
-"Nah, don't worry, Cathy dear! We can talk about anything else if you want."- The other woman complied with Catherine's wishes. -"I guess you must be tired, right?"-
-"Heh, tell me about it... I slept for a few hours on the flight, but I don't think it'll be enough to fall asleep right now."-
-"Then, would you like to sit in the dining room to talk and have a bite to eat, if you wish?"-
Catherine gave it some thought, and then the woman gave her answer.
-"That sounds good to me. I haven't eaten a damn thing since the plane landed, so I could eat something."-
-"No problem, you really look hungry, if you ask me... giggle"-
The secretary responded with some snark to her friend...
-"That's very funny."-
-"Well, thank you, Cathy."-
With that settled, Catherine and Alena went straight to the dining room to rest, chat for a while, and then have something to eat after that long plane ride.
May 4th, AD 1955, Rosedale South (Catherine Walburg's home/Dining room), Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 03:10 PM
At the same time, the two women made their way into the dining room, which was adjacent to the main hall. The place was also fully furnished, giving it a cozy appearance, and it was furnished with four small marble tables, each with four chairs around them, to accommodate four people.
As for the rest of the house, Catherine's one was set up as a single-family dwelling, with three full bedrooms, a large living room, and a dining room, as well as a full bathroom on the same floor as the dining room. This place also included two more rooms on the top floor: one for the owner, and another sliding door that led to the attic.
All of this might sound like a lot for a woman living alone, but Catherine was always a woman who liked big spaces, and she wasn't going to settle for living in a small house all to herself. Besides, since she had to receive visitors, a small house was not always adequate for her needs, so she spared no expense in buying that house, even if she had to go into debt with the bank to get it. Fortunately, the salary she received from working in the army and at the Kitty Riot Bar helped her pay the mortgage on that house quickly and without much trouble.
Now, both women were sliding into chairs at one of the tables, and Alena and Catherine were chatting and laughing as the former was trying to bring some food to the table.
-"Hey, Alena, not to be rude, but that roast chicken you're serving doesn't look like something you cooked beforehand..."-
Catherine noticed that her friend Alena was serving her roast chicken, but it was obvious that that chicken was from a restaurant and not home-cooked, something she let her know.
-"Oh, you noticed that."- Alena apologized to the friend. -"Sorry if I have to offer you ready-made roast chicken, but the oven at your house was not working yesterday afternoon when I went to see if everything was all right, and I had to send someone to fix it just this morning. The repairman asked me not to use it until tomorrow, for some reason."-
-"Oh, I see..."- The secretary replied, quite comprensive to her friend's issue regarding her kitchen. -"Considering how long I've been out of town, I think it's only natural that something has to break down sooner or later."-
And then, she added the following.
-"But that's fine; I was only saying that because I know how much you love to cook, and would not mind having you cook something for me. It is just the two of us here, so anything you prepare is all yours to serve."-
-"Oh, thank you, Cathy. It's good that you understand that."- Alena said, quite happy to see her friend wasn't upset for her about that problem with her house's oven.
-"But now, let's get something to eat first and then I'll take care of the stove later when I have time, OK?"-
Both Catherine and Alena had nothing to say to each other after that, so they spent the next few minutes eating while they were chatting on some other subject. Then, Alena, while enjoying her food, spoke to her friend.
-"And how's life there in El Paso, huh?"- Catherine's friend began the chat. -"It must be tough living in a border town near the Mexican border..."-
-"Well, as you can imagine, El Paso is a small but chaotic city. It's not exactly known for being pretty, nor is there much entertainment outside of going to the bars and restaurants for a drink..."- Catherine explained to Alena about the life in El Paso. -"And if that city doesn't appeal to you, there's Ciudad Juarez right across the border, although it's not a place a single woman would go alone without company, unless you feel like getting raped or killed by some lowlife, to be honest."-
-"Oh my...! I had heard from some friends, and from what I read in the newspapers, that city is really very dangerous due to the activity of many criminal gangs, but I never imagined that Ciudad Juarez was really such a bad place to visit, at least the way you put it."- Alena replied quite surprised at hearing about the state of things about El Paso's neighbor city in Mexico.
-"Yeah, but El Paso is not far behind. The only reason that city hasn't fallen into anarchy or irreverence is because of Fort Bliss, which is where I work. That's where I make most of my money working as a secretary for a high-ranking army officer. And besides that, I work in a restaurant on the weekends as a singer."-
-"I guess you're not one of those cabaret singers, are you?"-
As obvious as it was, Catherine was not going to tell Alena that she actually worked in a seedy bar in El Paso, so she sugarcoated her words on the subject of her other job.
-"Of course not! I work in a French restaurant as a jazz singer, not in one of those places, thank God."- The secretary and also singer replied, quite offended. -"Although to be honest, there are several of those places in the city, and you can imagine what people attend those pubs."-
-"Soldiers, right?"-
-"Yeah. A bunch of horny G.I.s from all over the country, who stop at these places to drink like crazy and sometimes cause riots and unrest all the time."- Catherine replied, while drinking a glass of a very expensive French wine Alena bought for that occasion.
-"That's for sure! That's why they call them Riot Bars! hehehehehe!"- The other woman said, while laughing.
To Catherine's irony, the bar she worked at was called Kitty Riot, which was not lost on the Indiana native. And by the same token, that place had a reputation for being precisely what Catherine was explaining to Alena about being a dangerous place frequented by drunken soldiers looking to drown their sorrows in alcohol, providing they didn't drink and fight each other first.
-"Yeah... you are right on that..."- The secretary answered dryly with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
-"Well, that aside, how is your other job in the military?"- Alena asked about Catherine's job as a secretary -"I can only imagine that you are paid much better than the French restaurant where you also work."-
-"That's right."- Catherine replied. -"I can't mention the salary they pay me there, but I can tell you that with what they pay me to work as a secretary, I can live comfortably and carefree for the rest of my life."-
-"And what do you do exactly there?"- Alena was curious how her friend's life was in Texas.
-"Technically speaking, I do a lot of other things for commanding officers and senior officers, including writing letters, documents and similar stuff that come through the base, including, obviously enough, top-secret documents."- The woman responded in vague terms, without saying who she worked for or what she actually did at Fort Bliss, due to the confidential nature of the projects being carried out at the military base.
-"I take it that you must work for some very important people in the government, don't you?"- Catherine's long-time friend asked, while eating some chicken breast in the meantime.
-"Hah, as if it's really like that!"- The secretary responded in response with some mockery. -"I have to deal with all kinds of men every day, including some who you might say..."-
Then, she pointed her finger at her head.
-"...they just aren't quite right up here."-
For Alena, that answer was very hard to believe. She wondered how her friend was capable of working in such a place, since doing such a thing in such a dangerous environment sounded like a very big risk to her. But judging by the look of calmness in her eyes, the woman knew how to deal with such issues, so scared or nervous she actually was, she actually turned it into a joke of sorts.
-"And you're not worried about having to deal with such dangerous people, Cathy?"-
-"Nope. Not that these people are really dangerous, Alena; you could say that many men working at that base have an ego larger than their own dicks... at least that's the least I can tell you without mentioning classified information to you."-
Catherine's long-time friend was unable to stop herself from laughing when she heard the crass comparison the woman who worked in the military made about the people Catherine Walburg worked for on a daily basis.
-"Well, I don't doubt that in the least, dear... giggle"-
Catherine was also happy about the fact that Alena wanted to have dinner with her, since they hadn't seen each other for so long. She couldn't help but feel nostalgic about the days when they were classmates at the college, when the two were inseparable, and were almost always together for everything, even when it came to cheating on exams. Seeing that her friend had taken the trouble to clean and fix her house, including having her faulty stove fixed, was a nice touch that she planned to thank her for later.
On the other hand, Alena had other things to say to her friend, leaving aside the topic about the military.
-"Well, leaving aside all that mumbo jumbo you have to deal within the US Army, I still can't believe you live alone in this big house; I'm glad you're all alone, but I can't imagine having no man in your life for this long while I'm surrounded by lots of men while I'm at work. Do you like living alone or does it make you feel lonesome sometimes?"-
-"Oh, I tell you, Alena, I'm fine living alone."- Catherine replied. -"I've gotten used to living alone since I became independent from my parents years ago, and I don't need anything from them, especially now that I have money to spend only for myself, and that I don't have to share with anyone else."-
Almost immediately, there was a brief pause. Catherine's best friend knew there was something the latter didn't want to say out loud, and Alena, in turn, chose to do it for her.
-"Your parents are still bitter with you because you wanted to pursue a music career, instead of just getting married and having a family like everyone else, right?"-
Catherine was dumbfounded when she heard that, since she didn't expected Alena to bring out that topic about her family in such personal moment, after many years without seeing each other. She could have been upset at having to give such a response, but, instead, Catherine preferred to take it in a more tactful manner, just as she normally did when she had to deal with unsavory people at Fort Bliss.
-"What my parents think of me is none of my business anymore, to be honest."- Catherine answered, but couldn't keep her emotions from speaking through her face. -"I have the right to make my life as I please, and if they don't agree because of their outdated beliefs, then so be it."-
She stayed silent for a while, before she went back to eating her dinner. And so she remained that way until the end of dinner, but not without thanking her friend for the food.
-"By the way, thanks for the chicken, Alena. It was delicious..."- Catherine said, with a certain curt tone in her voice.
Then, when she finished, she started to put everything in her kitchen's sink. Before she finished doing that, Alena spoke in a very serious manner:
-"I'm sorry for bringing out that part, Cathy. I know that you and your parents don't get along particularly well, and that you didn't talk again about them after such a long time..."-
-"Don't worry Alena, I'm not mad at you..."- The Indiana woman replied, this time in a more tactful tone. -"I'm just uncomfortable to have to talk about my parents, after all the hell they put me through."-
-"I guess it has to do with the fact that they wanted you to study piano, and instead, you dedicated yourself to singing jazz."-
Catherine actually felt a sudden cold shiver, as well as a cold feeling running all over her body due to the unpleasant memories the woman who lived alone had. She remembered all the times her father physically punished her for wanting to sing jazz, a genre of music they hated as "black music," and that a woman from a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant family like the Walburg family had no business in that genre of music. They wanted their daughter to play the piano, and become a gifted pianist, as her father and grandfather had been in the past.
Unfortunately for them, Catherine preferred to sing jazz, simply because that genre of music had always fascinated her since she was a child, and she had never had the same racist prejudices that many members of her family had at that time. For that woman, jazz was simply a genre of music, nothing more, nothing less, and the fact that she was white, black or any other ethnicity did not make her any different when it came to singing that kind of music: it was simply her passion, nothing more, nothing less.
This difference of opinion, along with the constant abuse she received from her parents, caused Catherine, as soon as she had the resources to become independent from her parents after finishing college, the first thing she did was to buy a house for herself, and then, as soon as she could, she got a job as a singer in a bar in El Paso, Texas, plus a job as a secretary in the U.S. Army, and she moved to that border city at the first opportunity.
One thing that, as has been mentioned before, is that not much about Catherine Walburg's past has been kept in the existing historical records regarding what she was engaged in from the time she moved to El Paso, Texas until she became involved in the conspiracy to destroy Dr. Komatsu along with her boss.
It is known that Catherine was a woman with many unusual skills for someone who worked for the military as a secretary, in addition to her other job as a jazz singer. Some sources also say that Catherine may have been involved in criminal activities of some kind, or even may have been some kind of Mata-Hari-style spy, but there is no hard evidence to indicate that or any other possibility. What is known is that, whatever Catherine really was in that turbulent post-World War II era, her influence on the future events that would affect many people thereafter cannot be overlooked.
-"Please don't remind me of that..."-
Seeing her friend's dry reaction, Alena could only apologize for perhaps having spoken too much.
-"I'm sorry, Cathy. I didn't mean to bring back bitter memories, honest."-
Catherine hesitated for a moment, and then replied:
-"It's alright. Like I said, you're not to blame for one very painful childhood experience... it was my fault after all..."-
After a brief awkward silence, Catherine's friend from college simply preferred to talk about a more pleasant matter.
-"Well, leaving that thorny issue aside, Cathy, do you have any plans for tomorrow?"-
-"I really don't know."- The mysterious woman replied at her friend. -"Everything seems to have changed since the last time I was here, and I will need some time to get used to everything around this town again."-
-"In that case, would you like to phone me tomorrow to see if you would like to go for a walk around town and see what we can do together to kill some time, likinf drinking a coffee or something?"- Alena asked.
Catherine could not refuse her friend's invitation to see what was new in Evansville, and she was ready to accept it.
-"Of course I will. I'm sure I will be up for it..."- Catherine answered honestly.
-"Well, in that case, I'm going home, so I'll see you tomorrow."-
-"All right, just let me walk you to the doorway to bid you farewell first..."-
At the entrance of the house, Catherine Walburg said goodbye to her friend, Alena McWild, while the latter gave a kiss on the cheek to her friend who had just arrived from Texas a few hours ago.
-"Alright, Alena, I wait for your call tomorrow, see you soon, hon!"-
-"Yoo too, Cathy, I'll talk to you tomorrow for sure, and try to get some rest, will you?"-
-"giggle... I will consider your advice. See ya!"-
-"See you tomorrow, Cathy!"-
Alena left Catherine's home, and quickly returned to her own place. Meanwhile, Catherine was still standing in the doorway of the home she had left behind for several years, and now that she was alone, she wanted some privacy, something that was not always possible for her due to the nature of the two jobs she held.
Now she only had one problem: what was she going to do tomorrow? Even Catherine didn't know, for everything had changed in Evansville during her absence, and now she had to ask her friend to explain to her tomorrow everything that had changed in the city.
But before that, the secretary who worked under Major Matthew Fitzroy had to rest first, and make plans for her life later, now that she was in her hometown.
What she didn't know was that outside forces would have another ace up their sleeve for her...
May 5th, AD 1955, Rosedale South (Catherine Walburg's home/Main room), Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 08:20 AM
The first thing Catherine noticed when she opened her eyes was that the sun had already risen on the morning of May 5th, 1955, and she had to wake up, because she had a lot of things to do that day. With a sigh, Catherine put up her arms and stretched her body to wake up, and then she went to the window and looked outside.
-"Oh dear... I remember... it has been a long stretch of time since I have seen such a beautiful sunrise, after getting used to the awful weather of El Paso."-
The woman then went to the bathroom in her room in order to first take a shower before doing anything else that day. In the meantime, she played some music on a radio she had in that bathroom, near her shower. The song played at the time on the radio was "My Heart Belongs To Daddy", written by Cole Porter and performed by Mary Martin, which was featured in a musical film in which she took part called Leave It To Me!, released in 1938.
Catherine finished showering after half a shower, but, before she could finish dressing, her house phone suddenly began to ring. Considering that she had only arrived in Evansville the day before, only two people could have known to look for her on the phone.
-"Hmm... it must be a phone call from Alena..."-
So Catherine stepped out of the bathroom, covered in a bathrobe, and quickly picked up the handset. And, assuming the caller was Alena, she used her name...
-"Hello?"- The woman began the phone call. -"It's that you, Alena?"-
To her surprise, the person who was calling her home was a man. And it wasn't just any man to begin with...
-"May I ask who this Alena is that you are confusing me for, Catherine dear?"-
Catherine Walburg's face immediately turned pale at the sound of that voice. She knew perfectly well who the man she was striking up a conversation with was, and he was the last person she expected a phone call from...
-"MAJOR FITZROY?!"-
-"Yeah, it's me,"- The soldier replied with some derision in his usual Texan accent -"and who were you expecting, the tooth fairy?"-
Indeed, the voice belonged to her boss, Matthew Fitzroy, who wished to speak to her. Knowing perfectly well his personality and that she had mistaken him for her friend Alena, perhaps he would not be pleased to have been taken for a woman.
-"(Oh my god... why the hell is he calling me? What does he want?)"- Catherine quickly thought, believing Fitzroy would be quite annoyed with her.
-"Is something wrong, Catherine?"- The Texan military officer's response to his subordinate's lack of call was an interrogative one.
-"No, everything is fine, sir!"- The secretary responded to Fitzroy's question, trying to make a good impression on the major, and without wasting any more time. -"It's just that I was expecting a call from a friend of mine from my college years, named Alena, and I wasn't expecting one from you, that's all..."-
-"Oh, I see... heheheheh"- The soldier laughed a little at this. -"Well, I guess it happens often, especially when you live alone."-
-"Yeah... I suppose so, Major, to be honest..."-
Afterwards, the woman wanted to know the reason for her boss's call to her home in Evansville.
-"That aside, why are you talking to me at home, if I can know?"-
-"Well, I just wanted to let you know that I managed to reach an agreement with Major Summerfield to fill in for me during my absence, and I will be out of town for two months, so unless you have other things to sort out here in El Paso, that means you can take that same time off for yourself, Catherine."-
-"And may I know where you plan to spend your vacation, sir?"- The secretary asked to her senior officer.
-"Oh, well, I plan to go to Arizona to visit the Grand Canyon; I've always wanted to see it in person, for starters."- Fitzroy responded with some entusiasm. -"I might also visit Tucson, Albuquerque, and maybe some points of interest in that same area, who knows..."-
-"Well, it is hard to say, sir."- The woman responded to the latter part of the major's statement. -"I can only say that... I did not expect that you were planning to visit places already well known to all, if I may say so, sir."-
-"I guess I've never had the opportunity to do that before, Catherine, due to my job, and now that I'm an old man, I want to visit those places before I kick the bucket."-
-"I suppose you are right on that, Major."- Then, the woman did another question. -"And you want me to do something while you're away from Texas, sir?"-
-"No, I don't need anything from you at the moment."- The Texan soldier responded. -"In case you have to return to El Paso early, please get in touch with Summerfield, so that he can tell you what to do while I am away."-
-"Sir, I don't know if I should say this over the phone, but that's not what I meant, if you know what I'm talking about..."-
Fitzroy quickly understood what his secretary meant by those words, and the man quickly responded to the woman's concern.
-"Oh!... are you talking about... our plan?"-
-"Yes, that's it."-
-"Well... I don't think there's anything you and I can do about it, just like I said when we were in El Paso. Komatsu is in Nevada, and his men have gone home, so there's nothing we can do without raising some eyebrows either in Texas or in the Pentagon."-
Both Catherine and Fitzroy remained silent for a few moments before continuing their chat.
-"Yeah, I understand that, Major."- The woman replied. -"And I don't suppose you're going to continue trying to do anything against him, are you?"-
-"Unfortunately, no. The only thing we can do is for the government to see what kind of person Komatsu is. Although we can speed things up if I send a copy of his project to the Pentagon or the White House, with my own observations regarding the project, and we may still have a chance if we can bring that jap down in front of the President and the Secretary of Defense at the same time."-
-"What if that doesn't work, Major?"-
-"In that case, I will be forced to take more dramatic steps..."-
For obvious reasons, the woman who worked for this soldier did not like the tone in which Fitzroy explained his plans to destroy Yoshinori Komatsu's life, because she knew what he meant by taking dramatic steps...
-"Wait a minute, sir... don't tell me you intend to mu..."-
-"OF COURSE NOT, CATHERINE!"- Fitzroy interrupted the woman when she tried to say what she was hinting at what her boss might be planning against Komatsu. -"I'm not that nuts to get down to that level!"-
-"In that case, what is the plan you have in mind for dealing with Dr. Komatsu, Major?"- The woman responded with a certain tone of concern, when she heard that her boss was planning to take his hatred for the Japanese scientist to its logical conclusion.
After a few brief seconds of silence, Matthew Fitzroy finally answered the question posed by his personal secretary, who was answering from her home in Evansville, Indiana.
-"My plan is much better than that: I'm going to release the contents of that crazy doctor's project to the press, and we'll see how the press and the public eat him alive."- The Mayor explained last resort plan to Catherine. -"I doubt very much that the average citizen of this country will like how their taxes are being used to pay for crazy ideas like the one that jap has in mind, and the government will be forced to do something about it, either against Komatsu, or at least to do damage control before the national public opinion."-
The woman was silent for a few moments. Even if that plan didn't involve killing anyone, Catherine Walburg knew that making the contents of classified information public was a federal crime punishable by jail time, potentially life imprisonment, and if the government discovered that either of them were behind such possible leak, the consequences would be dire for both Catherine and her boss.
-"I'm sorry, Major, but... are you sure about this?"- Catherine raised the tone of her voice after she heard her senior officer's idea to take down Komatsu once and for all. -"You know that if the government finds out that we were both behind it, we may end our lives in a federal prison, and I'm not going to ruin mine just to satisfy your jealousy and hatred for Dr. Komatsu." -
-"Well, I assumed from the beginning that you would not agree with my plan, Catherine dear."-
-"And who wouldn't be? Your idea is basically pure nonsense, and I don't think destroying that man's life is worth enough for me to rot away my life behind bars."-
-"The government does not necessarily have to know it was us."- Fitzroy explained his idea to his secretary. -"After all, Komatsu's project is supposed to be a top-secret affair, and there are too many people working at Fort Bliss who know exactly what Komatsu and his cohorts are doing in their lab. It's just a matter of putting the blame on other people, such as his assistants or even other people working at the base."-
-"If it comes to pinning the blame on one of his assistants, I don't think there's much of a problem, sir, but..."-
Catherine took a brief pause in the banter and in annoyance, she responded to her superior.
-"...I hope you don't intend to involve someone else in all this nonsense, do you?"-
Pause.
-"I can't promise you anything on that point, Catherine."-
The woman facepalmed at hearing that. She knew it didn't look good if Fitzroy used someone outside of that conspiracy as a scapegoat to keep the government from finding out who disclosed classified information to the public.
-"For god's sake, Major, I don't want you to involve any more people in this crap!"- Catherine, without hesitation, did not hesitate for an instant to criticize her boss out loud, knowing full well what she could expect when she lashed out at him in such a way. -"I have enough with the Masons and Larkin already dead, and I don't want other people to die because of us! DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT, DAMMIT? I DON'T WANT ANY MORE INNOCENT PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY CHILDREN, BEING KILLED THANKS TO THIS BULLSHIT!"-
Matthew Fitzroy was silent for a few moments after hearing his personal secretary blow up at him. His secretary's refusal to hold his hand and go the full route with that insane and dark plot he had in mind made him a bit upset, but he understood that she had a point.
-"Ca... Catherine..."-
The U.S. Army Major responded basically stunned to hear that woman, who was normally a woman with a cold and sarcastic personality at times, shoot back at him in the most tearful and emotional way he had ever heard from her in all the time she had worked for him.
-"Please... pleeeaseee... sob... for anything sacred for you... sob... just promise me that you won't involve anyone else in this..."- Catherine continued her rant to Fitzroy, her voice breaking on the verge of tears. -"I don't want anyone else to die... just like Dr. Mason, his wife and his children... and much less like Larkin... sob..."-
Hearing his assistant break down in tears, Fitzroy realized immediately that Nick Larkin's death really impacted Catherine far more than he could have imagined that day when they both learned of his passing due to the accident at his father's bakery in New York.
Fitzroy could have many faults, including being vindictive, but to hear a lady cry was something that even a man like him could not remain unmoved, no matter how much he wished he could be. Perhaps it was part of his own upbringing and values that had been instilled in him from an early age, and much of his own bragging and machismo rubbed off more on other men than on a woman.
That is if one also considers that Fitzroy was single, and the only time he had sex with anyone was with a prostitute many years ago, and even then he regretted having had intimate relations in that way, and since then he had never been closely involved with another woman in his life.
But that didn't mean that Fitzroy hated women, it was quite the opposite; his problem was that he would rather spend time on his work for the army and his country than worry about getting romantically involved with someone else, and thus avoid causing unnecessary harm, both to another woman and to himself.
As Catherine's crying continued, Fitzroy's expression softened and he spoke to her.
-"I'm sorry, Catherine my dear, I was completely insensitive and tactless and I regret that you had to go through all that pain and suffering."- The Major replied at the woman. -"I never thought that all of this, especially Larkin's death, really affected you so much."-
The woman sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes as she addressed at Major Fitzroy on the phone.
-"It's okay, Major... I just wanted to get it off my chest and say what I think about the issue, that's all."- Catherine said, still with a sad voice. -"I just think it's so insensitive to involve more people in all of this... I just don't want another death like the ones as that man and the ones from the Masons..."-
After a brief pause, Fitzroy responded, this time in a more humble and thoughtful manner.
-"Look, I have a better idea, if that makes you happy, Catherine:"- Fitzroy thought of another option to the secretary. -"How about we discuss this when we get back from our vacations ,and we talk about it more calmly in El Paso, huh?"-
Catherine nodded out loud to that suggestion, then sighed in relief after she heard that her boss had changed his mind.
-"That will do just fine, Major, I'm glad you see things my way."-
-"Well, in that case, I won't bother you anymore. I'll talk to you when I get back from vacation, and you should enjoy yours as much as you can too, Catherine."-
-"Oh, thank you, sir. I hope you also have a good trip."-
-"Well, see you later then. Have a nice stay!"-
-"You too, sir. Goodbye!"-
Catherine then hung up the phone. Afterwards, she lay down on her bed, and she began to cry, trying to unburden herself that the man who was her boss intended to involve more people in the conspiracy, while she also felt a crisis of conscience at having helped the man, and all the innocent deaths that resulted from it.
The woman only wanted to help her superior to show him what she could do, and although she did not have much sympathy for Komatsu, like her boss, she expected that her participation in the conspiracy would be relatively simple, and the only person involved in the plot would be the Japanese scientist.
But upon learning of the deaths of the Masons and Nick Larkin, the latter being a person Catherine was beginning to have feelings for, she realized that her actions were beginning to have harmful consequences on other people outside of the whole scheme, and she was beginning to regret helping that man, Major Matthew Fitzroy, in his quest to destroy Yoshinori Komatsu just because Fitroy hated him due to the unusual nature of his project, and not to speak of the fact that Komatsu was Japanese.
Unfortunately, she could no longer turn back, and now the only thing left for her to do was to continue working on the conspiracy to the very end.
May 5th, AD 1955, Rosedale South (Catherine Walburg's home/Main hall), Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 09:32 AM
-"Hello? This is Alena McWild."- A female voice was heard on the other end of the call. -"To whom am I speaking, please?"-
-"Hi! It's me, Catherine!"- The woman replied at her long-time friend. -"I'm happy that I managed to found you at this hour, hon!"-
-"Oh! Hello, Cathy dear!"- Alena followed suit in her always upbeat tone. -"I hope you had a good night's sleep last night, didn't you?"-
-"Well... you can say yes, although I think I could have slept more if I had wanted to."- Catherine responded at her friend's question. -"I'm kinda used to getting up early when I was in El Paso..."-
-"I guess it's because you work for the army, right?"-
-"Yes, together to my other job I have at the French restaurant, and I need to plan my day so I can have enough time for both of my jobs. Working all day is exhausting, and, on more than one night, I have gone to bed almost dead after a hard day..."-
Alena tried to assimilate that comment about her friend's jobs, and she couldn't avoid being surprised that Catherine had no qualms about working hard on a continuous basis.
-"Well, you're one of those people with a strong will, not to mention being a workaholic at heart since college."- She said with a little laugh. -"I wish I could put that into practice once in a while, but my work is relatively easy."-
-"Yeah, sure, selling clothes is like nothing comparing to working on a military base, besides being a restaurant worker."- Catherine responded with a certain air of well-intentioned wryness to Alena.
Obviously, the other woman was quick to note that comment about her job, to which she responded with a certain playful tone.
-"I can tell that after all these years, you haven't lost your ability for sarcasm in the least."-
-"Well, when you have to work among men with very conflicting personalities and see every strange thing that happens on that base, it's the only thing that keeps me from going crazy ahead of time."-
Then, after a brief moment of silence, Catherine began to talk about the reason of her phone call.
-"Anyway, leaving aside the army for a while, I just wanted to talk to you to agree with you about your idea of going for a walk around the city as you mentioned yesterday."-
-"Oh, yeah, it's true!"- Alena said quite surprised. -"I agreed with you yesterday to go out in the city today and show you everything that has changed since your absence!"-
-"I guess you forgot about that, didn't you?"-
-"No, of course not, I just thought you wouldn't be interested in going out today, and that you would have preferred to stay at home."-
-"And what the hell am I going to do in my house, huh?"- The secretary responded in response to her friend's question. -"I'm all alone right now, and I don't have anything important to do here, so I could use to go outside. Besides, I'm sick of being cooped up in the four walls of the base where I normally work, outside of my job at the restaurant, and I need to do something different this time."-
Alena could not fail to understand Catherine's motivation, since the secretary mentioned that she was quite eager to go out with her.
-"Well, if you want to do something today, I'll be waiting outside my house in an hour and a half, is that okay with you, Cathy?"- Alena suggested.
-"That's perfect, and you know I can't refuse an offer like that. See you soon!"-
-"Bye!"-
After Catherine hanged up the phone, she went to the kitchen, and made herself something for breakfast that day. Since she had just arrived home yesterday, and Alena had only bought a few essentials for the pantry, practically all she had were non-perishables, such as soups, white bread, peanut butter, jams, some fruits, and other things.
At this, Catherine prepared to eat the quickest thing she could prepare, bread with jam and peanut butter, along with a glass of milk on hand. It was simple, but delicious, and it helped her to eat her breakfast quickly, so she wouldn't waste any more time than she should.
After her breakfast, she went to her room to dress for the occasion, placing on her attire a pair of tight dark blue jeans, a white blouse with short sleeves, a pair of red sneakers, and a blue handbag, with a little money inside it, just in case the two of them spent the entire day out. Lastly, she put on a light blue denim jacket that matched with her shoes.
Then she went outside her house, while Alena was waiting for her in her own home...
May 5th, AD 1955, Willemette (Alena McWild's home/Porch), Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 10:40 AM
After a few minutes' cab ride, Catherine arrived at her friend Alena's house, which was located in the northern suburb of Willemette. That neighborhood was not exactly an elegant or particular place, like many other parts of the city, and it only fulfilled its purpose of being a decent place to live.
And after a few minutes in which the hired vehicle drove through the streets of that residential area, the cab carrying the woman arrived at its destination.
The house was the smallest in the street, with only one floor. The porch, where Alena was waiting for her friend, was in front of it. It had a sort of old-fashioned and dusty look to it and its windows were intact and without any broken panes. Alena appeared on the porch, waiting for her friend to join her, and the blonde soon noticed her as she was approaching her at a leisurely pace. Once she found her friend's home, Catherine stepped out of the cab, and immediately she greeted Alena, who was waiting patiently for her.
-"You're late, hon! I thought you weren't coming today!"- Alena said with a teasing tone of voice to her friend.
-"Sorry, but the cab driver could not find your address at the first try, and we had to ask several neighbors in this area to find your home."- The secretary apologized to her friend.
-"Okay, it wasn't your fault anyway, dear. But I guess we can go already, right?"- Alena suggested. -"I'm all warmed up and ready for a walk around the city and show you all the new things I've seen since you left town, don't I?"-
-"Yeah, of course, I can't wait to see everything that's changed since I left, and I don't want to miss any of those new places."- Catherine asked.
-"Yes, but before we start, we have to go to my store first."- Catherine's friend explained one thing that was of utmost importance to her. -"I need to hand it over to my associate for the day, while you and I go out for a walk in the city."-
-"Well, I guess that would be the logical thing to do, wouldn't it? Also, I'd like to know what your workplace is like, while we're having fun with our tour."- Catherine commented.
-"Then, if there's nothing else to say, let's go!"- Alena replied, quite in joy. -"Do you want to ride in my car or do you want to pay for a cab for both of us?"
-"We would probably be wiser to take your car, if you are amenable, Alena."-
-"For my part there is no problem; I was hoping you would say something like that."-
Catherine giggled a bit after hearing that...
-"Well, in that case, let's not waste any more time and let's head to your store, OK?"-
-"Roger that, honey!"- Alena replied with some laughs.
After deciding how they would travel around the city, Catherine climbed into Alena's car, which was a 1950 Studebaker Champion. It was not a car that could be called pretty, but at least Catherine's friend seemed to have it in very good condition. And after a while, Alena started the car, and the woman drove it towards downtown, where the clothing store that Alena owned was located.
May 5th, AD 1955, Downtown Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 11:10 AM
The downtown area of Evansville, Indiana, was a rather unique place, due to its geographic location. Just a few blocks away was the Ohio River, which divided the state of Indiana and Kentucky to the south, and it was possible to see a few boats plying the river as Alena drove her car along the city's boardwalk, when Catherine could only see many of the things that had happened in Evansville during her absence.
Yet to her own disappointment, not much had changed since then. Except for a few businesses that weren't there before, and the occasional building that had received a coat of paint or two, everything seemed to have remained the same since the day Catherine left that town to go to work in Texas. In fact, Catherine could only observe, with quite a condemning look, everything around her, as her friend Alena drove her car while she tried to show the secretary everything "new", so to speak, that was in town.
-"And what do you think of the city, sugar?"- Alena commented while still driving her car. -"You can tell it has changed a lot, eh?"-
-"Well, for starters, there's a lot more traffic all over the place, Alena."- Catherine commented, trying not to betray her expression of disapproval by what she saw around her, while her voiced sound quite sarcastic at the same time.
-"Well, that's because it still has a lot to grow, that's all."-
-"Yeah, sure, if your definition of "growing" includes opening a few new stores, building the occasional new building, among other boring things..."-
Hearing her friend's unenthusiastic reply, Alena turned her head for a few moments, taking advantage of the fact that she had stood at a stop light, and she saw how her friend, who only the day before had returned to her hometown from Texas, did not look happy.
-"Cathy, what's wrong?"- The other blonde woman asked. -"I'd thought you'd be really happy to see the changes that have taken place here in the city during all this time."-
After a few seconds without answering, Catherine Walburg finally responded to her friend's question, as she sped up the vehicle again once the traffic light turned green.
-"Well, I am... sort of..."- The woman, who worked as a secretary in the U.S. Army, answered the question with a certain sulky undertone. -"I was just hoping to see something else, something more... exciting... I mean, there's nothing here that wasn't there before. In fact, leaving aside some new unimportant things, everything remains the same for me."-
Surprisingly, Alena did not seem to be bothered by her friend's negative attitude, as she understood that Catherine might possibly be disappointed not to see anything really that she could consider new after several years of being away from that city.
Yet, for her part, Catherine herself also admitted, inwardly, that El Paso, the city where she works in Texas, wasn't exactly the best example of an interesting city either; quite the opposite. The only reason why that Texan town was halfway relevant, besides being close to the Mexican border, was the fact that it was home to Fort Bliss, an important military base for the U.S. Army in that region. Had that base not existed, El Paso would most likely have sunk into its own mediocrity and irrelevance long ago.
-"Cathy, I don't blame you if you think that way about this city. You probably feel like that because you have been away for many years and you feel that things haven't changed, right?"-
-"To be honest, I was expecting something more, and I'm just seeing the same shit I left years ago..."- The woman responded soberly, doing a small pause for a few seconds...
...just for resumming her complains afterwards.
-"...although to be completely candid, El Paso is no better than this town either."-
Obviously, Alena didn't take any offense to her friend's statements, as she understood that her friend hadn't moved to Evansville just for the sake of seeing some changes, but that she was indeed disappointed at how this little town hadn't changed much.
-"Well, I think you'll be happier when we get to my store. If you wish, you can buy some things that might interest you."- Alena said, when she saw that she was a few blocks away from her store.
-"sigh... I guess it wouldn't do me any harm to check out your store..."- Catherine responded, as she continued to look around the downtown area and its surroundings rather half-heartedly.
-"I know you'll love my store, you'll see..."- Catherine's blonde friend said with a smile in her face, -"...just wait until we park first and leave the rest to me."-
And after a few minutes of driving around downtown, Alena's car reached the place where her store was located, and she parked her vehicle in a proper place.
May 5th, AD 1955, McWild's Store, Downtown Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 11:37 AM
McWild's was located in the heart of the city, right at the center of downtown Evansville. On its outside it had a small sign with black letters (painted with black paint) which said «McWild's». It was a store aimed towards women and it sold all type of clothes geared for them. Its inside was very spacious and there were many pieces for sale; if you wanted any type of clothing it could be found here.
As both Alena, the store owner, and Catherine, her guest, walked up to the store, they both noticed a woman of their own age outside the entrance of the store, opening its doors. Seeing the two women, she gave them a warm welcoming greeting.
-"Oh, hello there, Alena!"- The other woman greeted her first. -"It's unusual for you to come somewhat late. I thought maybe you wouldn't show up for work today."-
-"Oh, hi, Serena!"- Alena returned to greeting to her other friend. -"Sorry if it took me a while to get here, but I was showing my friend, who has been out of town for several years, what has changed around here since she left."-
The other woman, named Serena, looked at Catherine, her boss's other friend, with some curiosity, as she didn't know much about her existence. However, that didn't stop him from being nice to her, and she made her proper introductions.
-"You must be one of Alena's friends, right?"-
-"Indeed."- Catherine responded at the woman. -"I was born here in Evansville, but have been living in El Paso, Texas for several years, as I work for the Army as a secretary."-
-"The US Army, you say?"- Serena responded surprised to learn that a woman worked for her country's armed forces, even if it was in something as seemingly simple as being someone else's personal secretary. -"Wow! That's something you don't hear often around here. I imagine you have to deal with a lot of men, don't you?"-
-"Well... you could say so... in many ways."- Catherine responded in vague terms to avoid saying too much about what she did in the army.
-"I see."- And then, Alena's partner changed the topic. -"Well, leaving that aside, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Serena Kendrick, and besides being a friend of Alena's for a few years now, I help her with the store, especially when she's away. Nice to meet you... eh..."-
-"Catherine."- The woman who worked for the army presented herself. -"Catherine Walburg. That's my name."-
-"Oh, Catherine, I see!"- Serena laughed a bit after hearing her name. -"So that's your name. Well, it's nice to meet you, Catherine. And how do you like to be called, by the way?"-
-"Call me what you want, Catherine or Cathy, I don't care."- The Indiana woman explained how she prefered to be called by other people. -"As long as it's not offensive, I don't mind what people get to call me, to be honest."-
After a brief pause, Serena addressed both women, while she had already opened the doors to the store.
-"Well, since we've already introduced ourselves, would you like to take a look at our store, Catherine?"
-"Ah... yes, please... Personally, I'm curious of how it's like in here, since Alena is the owner of this place."- Catherine answered to her.
-"I know you're going to love the store, and I don't think you'll be disappointed with what we have for sale here. So you're welcome here, Catherine."-
-"Oh, thanks!"-
After this, and without wasting more time, both women followed Serena inside the store.
May 5th, AD 1955, McWild's Store (Inside/Main aisle), Downtown Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 11:50 AM
As they walked up to the store and went in, Catherine saw that McWild's wasn't like any other regular clothing store in the town, and for a good reason. Many of the clothes that were sold there were very well known brands that would cost a fortune anywhere else, and it was evident that the clientele of that store was not the typical middle class that would normally go to a clothing store, but people with considerable purchasing power to buy those expensive brands.
That meant that Alena must either have more money than she really looked, considering that the house where she lived was located in a middle class suburb without many apparent luxuries at first sight, or she had good contacts who could provide her with all those expensive designer clothes to sell.
Looking at the clothes one by one, Catherine also realized that she was at the right place, as she knew all of the brands that Alena was selling. But, on the other hand, she was intrigued by that, as she couldn't image Alena being able to such kind of fancy items all by herself, with the help of her friend, Serena.
-"And what do you think about my store, Cathy dear, huh?"- Alena asked to her friend.
-"Hmm... I have to admit, Alena, that's a pretty nice store..."-
The woman who worked in the army replied, as she curiously observed the store and everything around it, considering the amount of designer clothes sold there.
-"...although I wonder how you managed to get all these expensive clothes to sell."- Catherine turned her head to Alena. -"All this is not something you can get so easily... and even more so in a city like Evansville."-
-"Well, Cathy... I'm not going to lie to you."- The other blonde woman explained to her friend. -"Technically, many of these clothes are sold on surplus by many of the manufacturers, and therefore it is possible for me to buy them at reduced prices, without having to sacrifice a lot of quality. This allows me to buy all of this dirt cheap, and sell them at the price I want."-
That statement caused Catherine considerable alarm, as she sensed that her friend Alena was selling substandard or even counterfeit products, something she needed Alena to straighten out immediately.
-"Don't tell me you're selling products that the manufacturers threw away, Alena?"-
-"Of course not, dear, I'm not that stupid!"- Alena clarified aloud what exactly she sold in her store, seeing that her friend questioned her about the quality of the clothes sold in her business. -"What happens is that a lot of this clothing is merchandise that was discarded due to quality controls, which are usually very strict in many cases. And a lot of those cases, it can be things as simple as a button with a few inches out of place, a shirt with colors that are fainter than they should be, a belt with extra holes for the buckle, and things like that, nothing egregious like shirts that shrink or fade at the first wash, pants with holes in them, or things like that."-
-"But still, you are selling defective clothes, even if the defects are not serious. That's not something I would consider ethical, if you ask me."-
Seeing that her friend was beginning to seriously question her for her underhanded way of selling flawed goods, even if the flaws aren't exacly serious, as if they were in perfect condition, Alena McWild tried to put a positive spin on her situation, even if she knew that her friend's inquisitive stance was gradually beginning to irk her, although Alena was restrained enough to avoid showing her annoyance towards Catherine.
-"Well, if you ask me, there is nothing ethical when it comes to doing business and making money. That's capitalism, honey."-
Hearing Alena's defiant and cynical attitude regarding her money-making philosophy, Catherine couldn't help but facepalming as she was disappointed to see that her friend was willing to do anything to make money, even if it meant ripping off her customers, taking advantage of their ignorance about the products she carried in her store.
-"Alena... I never imagined you would be so unscrupulous when it comes to making money."-
-"Well, at least my products have not killed anyone, unlike you, who work in the army, where surely your bosses must have killed a lot of people in the last war."-
Catherine knew that the conversation was becoming very dangerous after hear that political spin on it. She could neither deny nor admit that her job entailed standing alongside men who were engaged in military or even unethical projects, such as, for example, Dr. Yoshinori Komatsu's Advanced Evolution Project, even if her boss, Major Matthew Fitzroy, was against it for the very same reasons that Alena was against Catherine's work in the U.S. Army as a secretary.
Considering that their current conversations had gotten to a point of being awkward, Catherine decided to change the topic and turn the focus of their conversations to something more pleasant and helpful.
-"Look, Alena, I don't feel like discussing something like that right now. I just came with you to see your store, not to discuss politics, so let's leave that for another time, OK?"-
The store owner did not hesitate to agree with her friend, even if she felt that her friend had meddled in something that was none of her business, but at least she preferred to put it to rest, rather than delve further into the matter.
-"sigh... Whatever you say, my darling."- Alena replied, now certainly comforted that Catherine had no intention of dragging out the discussion.
-"Well, politics aside, can I at least check out your store to see if there's anything decent I'd be tempted to take?"-
The secretary asked, not putting aside her caustic self as she asked if there was anything decent she could buy in the way of clothes, considering the quality of the ones Alena was offering.
-"Of course, come on in, honey... the store is all yours, while Serena and I go to the office for a while to prepare coffee for the three of us."-
-"All right, I'll wait for your coffee, and in the meantime, I'm going to take a look at your store."-
-"Well, have fun, dear!"-
As Alena went to make some coffee for her, Serena and her friend, Catherine immediately headed to the rack chiefly containing the designer jackets. In there, she found a few new winter jackets, with a two-figure price tag a piece. Going through the racks, it seemed that most of the outerwear was of a lesser quality. Catherine reached for a few jackets, feeling their delicate materials, but definitely they were exactly what someone could call well-made by any chance, since they felt like the kind of clothes you'd buy at a dollar store.
-"Alena dear... I'm looking for something more luxurious... and the clothes you sell in this dump are definitely clothes that should be as donations to the Salvation Army, not in a decent store, for god's sake!"- Catherine thought to herself, trying to look on the bright side of her situation, even if she knew she was contributing to Alena continuing to swindle people by selling defective clothes as if they were name-brand clothing.
Meanwhile, the woman went to a fitting room and tried on what appeared to be winter clothes... and to her dismay, what it said on the tag on the clothes about the size of the garment did not match Catherine's exact size, causing it to fit smaller than it should.
Once the woman was dressed again, she could no avoid thinking to herself that she was dealing with a person who was in the business of ripping off her customers by selling them substandard apparel in order to make more money. But, as Alena had said minutes before, when it came to making money, anything goes.
That was not what she and Alena had learned when they were in school, much less when they were both in college, where she had been taught to have ethical integrity in business at all times, and seeing how far she had fallen for the sake of a few more dollars, she cursed her friend in the bottom of her soul...
-"I never imagined that my friend had become a fucking capitalist bitch!"-
May 5th, AD 1955, McWild's Store (Inside/Alena's office), Downtown Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 12:20 PM
-"Hey, Alena, who the hell is that nosy friend of yours you brought along?"-
-"Oh, she's a friend of mine from my college years. She moved to El Paso because of her job in the army, and besides that, she also has a side job as a jazz singer in a French restaurant there."-
But suddenly, Alena leaned close to her coworker's ear, in order to mention something more intimate to her in secret...
-"But here among us, if you ask my opinion, that woman is probably the meretrix of the men who work in that base, and her gig as a jazz singer is probably in a cheap brothel in that shitty little town where she works now."-
Serena couldn't imagine that her friend had no qualms about telling her what she thought of her friend Catherine in a hypocritical way, even though Alena considered herself her best friend. But it was obvious that Alena was not willing to tolerate being criticized for the way she conducted business in her store, whether Catherine was her friend or not.
-"Wow, and yet you consider yourself her friend, Alena..."-
-"Well, yes she is,"- The blonde woman explained, still quite annoyed. -"but I don't have to put up with her criticism. She's lucky I don't bring up what I think of her in her face. In fact, if it were me, I would have kicked her ass out of this store, plain and simple."-
-"But still, I think it's kind of hypocritical for you to talk about her behind her back, after you went to the trouble of bringing her to this store to see it..."-
Alena was silent for a few moments, and then she replied to her other co-worker, this time in a less harsh manner.
-"Well, maybe you're right... it just bothered me that she said all those things... sigh."-
Immediately afterwards, she approached the coffee maker in order to prepare the coffee she promised to make for the three of them, without saying anything else. It was obvious that she preferred to concentrate on making the drink rather than continue to be upset by the words of grievance that her friend Catherine said about her business, however true they were.
-"Hey, Alena, what did you say your friend's name is?"-
-"Catherine Walburg."- The other woman responded, while preparing the coffee. -"You didn't already know her name when she introduced herself to you, huh?"-
Afterwards, Serena Kendrick remained silent for a few moments, as if there was something that made her uncomfortable to hear, something that caught the store owner's attention.
-"Is something wrong, Serena dear?"-
-"I don't know if I should tell you this, Alena, but, now that I remember, before you and your friend Catherine came to the store, a suspicious-looking guy came up to me when I was just starting to open the store, and asked about you and her..."-
This came as quite a surprise to Alena, as she did not expect anyone to be looking for her, much less Catherine, who had only arrived to Evansville yesterday, and it was assumed that only Alena knew that her friend was coming and no one else, so the occurrence of someone asking for the whereabouts of both was beginning to sound a bit suspicious for that woman.
-"A strange looking guy, you say?"- Then, the store owner asked Serena for more information. -"And can I know what he was like, if you recall anything about that man?"-
At that moment, the friend of the store owner began to think back to the details she remembered of the peculiar visitor.
-"If I remember correctly, the man was dressed in a formal suit with bright colors, like the kind they use in circuses, was about a little taller than me, and spoke with a foreign accent that sounded European. If I had to deduce what accent it was, I think it sounded like Italian or something. Also, he was wearing a dress hat; I couldn't tell the color of his hair, but I think it was either too short or that guy was bald."-
-"And what exactly did he ask you, besides our whereabouts, Serena?"-
-"Well, he just asked me that, and I told him that he could wait for you to come, in case he wanted to discuss something with you."- Alena's co-worker replied. -"I guess you don't know him, do you?"-
The woman tried to do some recollection, but it was obvious that the person Serena was talking about was no one she remotely knew...
-"As I can recollect, I do not know of anyone who has the traits you mention."- Then, she did another question. -"And may I know what happened next, Serena?"-
-"Well, he said nothing more, and left, although he said he would come later. I can only tell you that, apart from having a certain creepy look, he didn't do anything else that could be considered negative, other than ask me about you and Catherine. He didn't seem to be very talkative as well, as far as I could tell..."-
After explaining the incident with the European-accented man, Serena noticed that the coffee maker had already finished brewing coffee, and her friend began pouring the beverage into three white cups. Meanwhile, Alena was trying to come to conclusions as to what might have really happened and who might have been the man who asked about her and Catherine.
-"Possibly he could have been an acquaintance of Catherine's who was looking for her, I suppose..."-
But while Alena put coffee cream in the three cups, she knew that there were some points in that situation that didn't seem to completely add up...
-"But still, how did that guy know she was coming to this city and this place today?"-
-"Perhaps a former boyfriend of your friend is looking for her?"-
-"I don't think so, she wasn't exactly someone who was popular with men..."-
At those words, Serena inferred that her friend was implying something else about Catherine...
-"You're not going to tell me she likes wo-?"-
-"Of course not!"- Alena silenced her friend at that idea she was saying about her friend's sexual preferences. -"She was never, or at least that's what I've always noticed, interested in anyone, men and women alike. She only seemed to care more about music than people, at least when we were in college."-
Then, a brief pause was done, and a few minutes later, Serena resumed the talk.
-"Anyway, we don't have to worry about that guy anymore. Considering the time of the day, maybe he got bored, so we it's useless to think about him right now."-
Afterwards, Alena placed the coffee cups on a table, in order to invite Catherine to have coffee with them. Serena could only look at the cups, and at the same time, think that there was no more point in thinking about someone who was not likely to come back again.
-"Well, I guess you're right..."- The other woman said, with a neutral gaze in her face.
-"In that case, let me call Cathy to come and have a cup with us."-
-"OK."-
May 5th, AD 1955, McWild's Store (Inside/Main aisle), Downtown Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 12:44 PM
In the meantime, Catherine Walburg was still looking at what she planned to buy at her friend Alena's store, trying to find something that might be of interest to her. Her attention at the time was primarily on some of the shirts, while she took a few moments to look at every single item in the store at the same time. Then, she found some really nice looking outfits and started looking for some that might fit her.
To her chagrin, she realized that some of those suits were for men...
-"Shit, aside from being a liar, Alena doesn't know a goddamn thing about how to organize things in a store..."- Catherine cursed her friend in her mind as she saw that the clothes sold in the store, besides being of dubious quality, were poorly sorted, and it was not infrequent for her to find men's clothes alongside those of women.
While she was still looking for women's clothing in that area, she heard Alena's voice, which was heard behind her.
-"Hey, Cathy, coffee's ready. Wanna come over and have a cup with us?"-
While Catherine turned around, finishing looking for a nice-looking but quality blouse she liked, she made a short conversation with her friend. She was a little bit shocked, but she simply replied with a neutral, "Sure," and she rushed to join the other women.
May 5th, AD 1955, McWild's Store (Inside/Alena's office), Downtown Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 12:58 PM
Once inside the office where Alena ran her business operations, Catherine noticed that there were three cups of hot espresso coffee on a serving table that her college friend had on hand to serve her guests. The delicious aroma of that brew was noticeable as she entered the room.
-"Wow, I can tell you know that I love espresso..."-
After her comment, Alena gave her a smile, seeing that her friend liked the coffee she prepared-
-"Yeah, it's only natural, isn't it? I mean, ever since I've known you when we were both in college, I know you had a weakness for espresso."-
-"Yes, but you wouldn't have taken the trouble to prepare one for me, dear."-
-"Well, in that case, would you like to sit down with us and have a chat, while we drink our coffee?"- Alena asked her friend.
After a few seconds of thought, Catherine gave her answer.
-"To be honest, it doesn't bother me at all. Rather, the question would be whether I'm not getting in your work, Alena."-
-"No, of course not, in fact, there are two other girls besides me and Serena who are attending to the other clients, so we can be here without any problems."-
-"Well..."- The army secretary rolled her eyes. -"at least it's good to know that at least you have someone else to help you in the store besides your friend."- She replied with varying shades of sarcasm.
Once the three women were seated around the serving table, which, in addition to the coffee, also had several cookies on the table, they began to talk about different topics.
But there was one issue that Alena wanted to discuss with Catherine before the conversation began...
-"Hey, Cathy, besides me, is there anyone else who knew you were coming to town?"-
Catherine placed her mug on her lap when Alena asked the question.
-"No. I only notified you by phone; I didn't even called my parents."- The woman asked with curiosity. -"May I ask why, Alena?"-
-"Well... uh... according to what Serena told me, a strange guy with a foreign accent was looking for you, and also for me, for some reason, when she was opening the store."-
Her friend's response left the army secretary a bit bewildered, and she had no idea who the person was that Alena and her coworker Serena were referring to.
-"You said some creepy guy was looking for both of us?"- Catherine asked once more.
-"Yes, that's what that man told me."- Serena responded on behalf of her other friend. -"The only thing he told me was if you and Alena had already came to the store. After that, when I informed him no, he left without saying anything else."-
Catherine had a puzzled expression on her face, to the grade she even put Alena's coffee aside for a few moments. She didn't have the slightest idea who this person Serena was talking to was, let alone when she asked for more details.
-"Can you give me more info about that man, Serena?"-
-"Well, the guy was dressed like a circus reject, more specifically, he wore formal clothes with bright colors and stripes. Also, he was wearing a hat with the same colors; since I only saw him out of the blue, I can't tell if he was bald or just had very short hair."-
Catherine knew she'd never met this man, let anyone who had the same physique describe by Alena's friend. To complicate matters further, apart from Alena, there was no one else, not even her own parents, who knew that she had plans to return to her hometown, so the appearance of that mysterious man, who not only knew Alena's name, but also her own, made her start to worry significantly.
Did the man have any connection with the army, considering her previous brush with the American military authorities following the death of Dr. Mason and his family? Or was he a foreign spy?
Whatever the case, she could not simply think that the man was just an old friend or acquaintance from years ago, but someone who might be looking for her for some specific purpose for which she had no idea... and considering the time, at the dawn of the Cold War, she could expect anything to happen to her, working in a highly classified military facility, and it wasn't necessarily going to be a good thing...
-"Is something wrong, Catherine?"- Serena asked the female secretary, who remained silent for a few seconds, as she pondered all that beforehand.
Then, in a sudden move, she raised her mug of coffee again to answer her friend's question.
-"No, I'm OK."- Catherine responded. -"I was just trying to remember, that's all."-
-"And do you have any idea who that man was?"- Alena also asked to her friend.
-"Unfortunately, I don't have the slightest idea, girls."-
Catherine's response caused some alarm among Alena and Serena, for all that it implied, for, if no one outside their small social circle knew that woman who worked in Texas was coming to Evansville, who else would know their names? Faced with that strange circumstance, Alena could only picture the worst.
-"I just hope it's not some kidnapper..."- Alena said, while biting her lip due to worry.
-"...or some rapist or serial killer lurking around here."- Serena completed, also with the same face as her friend as well.
The reactions caused by the two young women had some effect on Catherine, who finished her own coffee fast.
-"Calm down, girls; I'm sure this is nothing serious. Maybe I had some run-in with someone while I was heading here,"- The secretary said that line, hoping that her two friends would stop fretting, or at least it would calm them down a bit. -"like, for example, someone who would be looking for me in case I dropped some of my luggage at the airport on my way home."-
She knew that the last thing she said was a lie. She was completely sure that her luggage was complete when she arrived in the city, which meant that that man was looking for her, and if that foreign-looking man was also looking for Alena, it was exclusively to find Catherine's whereabouts, and no one else.
And the reason for that lie was simple: She didn't want to involve her friends in her personal affairs, in case someone wanted to harm her. She knew that working for the U.S. Army had both its perks and its dangers, and those dangers included being spied on by foreign spies.
And knowing how certain secret services of some countries, such as the then Soviet Union, were notorious for being quite persistent, she couldn't rule out that they might be following her even as far as that northern U.S. town, so she did not want anyone else to come to harm or be killed because of her.
-"...In short, I don't think he's anyone we need to worry about."- Catherine wanted to put that issue aside, so that her friends wouldn't become more involved with her life than they should if someone, like a spy, was stalking her somewhere. -"And we'd better continue drinking our coffee, and change the subject, would you ladies?"-
-"Well, I agree with, Catherine. Let's change the subject, shall we?"- Serena answered, although with a certain uneasiness shown on her face, due to the way that woman wanted to avoid further discussion on the subject.
-"That's a good idea. All this discussion about that weird man is not going to help us at all, right? right?"- Alena said that words with a dazzling smile, endearingly putting an end to their conversation about the man who looked mysteriously like a circus man.
Once the subject of the man was out of the way, Alena decided to go into a subject that was of interest to her.
-"Hey, Cathy, do you already know what clothes from my store you plan to buy?"-
In response to the question from her best friend, Catherine looked at her with a deceptive gaze, seemingly thinking about it.
-"Well, I haven't figured out my exact decision yet, but... I think I'll buy this for today."-
Catherine took some pieces of clothing out of her handbag, and showed them to Alena, while she looked at them closely.
-"Well, are you just going to buy that, Cathy?"-
-"I think that's all I'm going to take with me for the moment..."-
And then, the woman who worked in the army replied caustically to her friend about the quality of the clothes she sold in her store.
-"And if there were better stuff to buy, I'd take more."-
Obviously, such a brutal response was not to Alena McWild's liking, but she preferred to retain her good friend facade in front of Catherine, and only replied with the following.
-"Well, I think I already told you what kind of clothes we sell here, didn't I?"-
Catherine did not wish to embark on a debate with a woman who had no desire to know about ethics, or any guidance on how to do business in an honest manner.
-"Holy shit, this woman has no sense of decency. If she could, she would sell even her own mother!"- The woman replied to herself in her own mind, as she rolled her eyes in disapproval and frustration.
And then, she returned to the conversation, looking for a way to avoid arguing with Alena about it.
-"I'm not going to get into that discussion again, so let's change the subject before I say something I might regret later, shall we, Alena dear?"-
Alena agreed to Catherine's words, though a bit choppily, as her friend's face showed some disgust at the fact that she was selling poor quality clothes at brand name prices.
-"OK... as you wish."- Alena returned her words, before staring absentmindedly into her coffee mug.
After that heated discussion with both women, Catherine finished drinking the espresso she had been drinking up to that point, and she looked at her wristwatch with some concern.
-"Look, Alena, it would be better if we leave the whole issue about your store for another day, and I would like it if we could go and see the city now during daylight hours, is that okay?"-
Seeing that Catherine didn't seem to hold any hard feelings against her at the moment because of the discussion about her business, Alena couldn't help but agree to her idea.
-"if there's nothing wrong on your part, Cathy, I'm more than willing to accompany you around."- The owner of "McWild's" agreed with her friend's idea. -"I guess you want us to leave now, right?"-
-"If it's possible for you, yes."- The other woman replied.
-"Well, in that case, let's go to the cash register, so you can pay for your stuff and we can leave at once."-
-"Sounds good to me."-
-"So, let's go then."-
The three women then rose from their chairs and were about to leave Alena's office, heading for the cash register of Catherine's friend's business. The latter, immediately afterwards, gave an order to Serena, her other co-worker.
-"Serena, come with me so Cathy can pay for the items she's going to take."-
-"Roger that, Alena!"-
And so, Catherine Walburg, Alena McWild and Serena Kendrick left the office, so that the first two could resume their walk through the city, but not before the woman who worked for the army paid for the clothes she planned to take from her friend's store.
But Catherine would simply have preferred, in other circumstances, to have returned home, considering how little the city had changed during her long absence, but she could not afford to break up with her friend over something as silly as her business, however dishonest it might be.
That is because, at the end of the day, Catherine felt that she was as dishonest as Alena was as well, if only because she was involved to the hilt in really dangerous matters due to her work in the U.S. Army, and more so due to her involvement with the conspiracy to ruin Dr. Komatsu.
And she felt she was the last person who could judge someone of being dishonest when what she was doing was in perspective much worse...
May 5th, AD 1955, Main Street, Downtown Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 02:00 PM
Catherine and Alena were walking along the sidewalks of the city's Main Street, as they glanced at the businesses around them. Even if the city hadn't changed much since the last time Catherine had been there after she graduated from college, at least she could recognize that there was a variety of restaurants and interesting places to visit, including the Victory Theater, the city's oldest theater, which has been in existence since 1921.
But at that moment, Catherine Walburg had no interest in entering that theater, as she began to feel hungry and wanted to eat something first before continuing her walk.
-"Hey, Alena, it would be nice to stop somewhere for a decent meal, don't you think? My stomach is already screaming with hunger, especially after drinking coffee..."-
-"Well, there's an ice cream store around the corner, if you fancy one."-
-"That would be nice, especially considering I haven't eaten a damn ice cream in years, to be honest."- Catherine responded.
-"And why not?"- Alena asked her friend out of curiosity. -"Don't they sell ice cream in El Paso, if I may ask?"-
-"Well, they do sell ice cream there... but if I were you, I wouldn't recommend you to buy one there, if you value your health and your stomach."-
-"And why?"- The curiosity was growing on Alena on regards of that issue.
-"Just do the math. El Paso is in the middle of the desert, it is very hot there, and products made of milk melt or spoil very quickly there..."- Catherine explained the reason why she never bought ice cream on El Paso. -"And if this were not enough, the ice cream makers in that city are not exactly good, to put it in the nicest possible way. In few words, it sucks!"-
-"Oh, I see."-
-"But still, I wouldn't mind some ice cream. So, we'll go and get some then, shall we?"-
-"Yeah, let's do that then."-
And so the two women took the way to the ice cream store, located on the near corner. Once there, Catherine and Alena began to ask the employee what kind of ice cream they wanted.
-"Okay... I'll have a scoop of vanilla, please."- Catherine said.
-"Alright... well... I don't know... Maybe I'll go for a scoop of chocolate."- Alena announced after hearing her friend's order, and both women smiled at each other's words and started laughing.
-"Chocolate, you say?"- Alena's friend replied, still laughing a bit. -"Couldn't you have chosen a more original flavor than just chocolate?"-
-"Well, I'm craving for some chocolate ice cream, I can't help it!"-
-"Okay, suit yourself, Alena; I'm just saying that."-
Afterwards, the ice cream store clerk told both women how much the two ice cream cones would cost.
-"That would be 50 cents for the two ice cream cones, ladies."-
Soon after, Alena opened her wallet and took some coins out of it, in order to pay for both desserts.
-"Since I'm the one who invited you for a walk, I'll pay for the ice cream."-
-"Oh, that's okay, I don't mind if you do."- Catherine replied cheerfully that her friend, despite their personal differences, had no grudge against her, and was even willing to pay for her ice cream.
And once they had paid for their ice cream, Catherine and Alena left the store, and continued walking further south towards the city's boardwalk. Meanwhile, they both happily enjoyed their ice cream as they walked through the street.
-"Mmmmhhh... my god, this ice cream tastes amazing!"- The woman working for the U.S. Army enjoyed her ice cream like a little girl, considering she hadn't had a decent one in years since she lived in Texas.
-"My, I can see you haven't tried one in years, Cathy dear."- Alena replicated with a certain sardonic touch when she saw her friend's joyful face when she tasted that simple ice cream cone.
-"Well, not in El Paso, that's for sure."- Catherine responded after she finished deliciously eating the ice cream.
-"You already told me that."-
-"Yes, I know, I was just repeating what I told you about that town."-
And then, the two women kept walking while they continued to enjoy their ice cream. However, after a few times of enjoying the extremely delicious dessert, Catherine began to feel some kind of bizarre sensation inside her head. This caused the woman to stop walking for a few moments and stand still in the middle of the sidewalk for a few moments. Seeing her in that state, Alena attempted to take back her attention...
-"What's wrong, Cathy?"-
The other woman remained motionless, speechless towards Alena, which raised some red flags for her, thinking that her friend might be having a sudden health problem, such as an epileptic seizure or the like.
-"Hello? Calling to Cathy here, please respond."-
When she saw that her friend was starting to move her hands back and forth in front of her face, the woman who worked in Texas quickly reacted.
-"Uh? Eh? WHAT?"-
Once she managed to win her friend's attention, Alena loudly reprimanded her for her attitude.
-"What MY ASS!"- Alena yelled to Catherine. -"What the hell happened to make you stop in the middle of the sidewalk, and act like there was something wrong with you, Cathy?!"
After taking a deep breath, Catherine grabbed Alena's wrist, and forced her to follow her into a pizza parlor in front of the two of them.
-"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU...?!"-
-"JUST FOLLOW ME, FOR GOD'S SAKE!"-
And so, Catherine forced Alena to enter that restaurant for some reason that the latter would find out minutes later...
May 5th, AD 1955, Main Street (Inside pizza parlor), Downtown Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 02:27 PM
After walking into the Italian restaurant that sold mainly pizzas and other typical Italian dishes, Alena McWild sought an explanation as to why her friend, Catherine Walburg, had forced her to enter that place against her will.
-"Why the hell did you make me go in here, Cathy? I thought we were keep walking around town, but you dragged me here, and I don't the reason why..."- Alena said with a tone that couldn't hide that she was angry.
-"Just be quiet, and do as I say!"- Catherine angrily replied back to her friend. -"Drawing attention to us in here is not a good idea."-
Obviously, those words did not reassure Alena in the least, fearing that something wrong was going on that was triggering her friend to react in such a way.
-"Can I at least know what the fuck is going on to get you to behave that way, Cathy?"-
Catherine gave her answer to her friend's question, seeing that she was not happy to be involved in a situation she had no idea about.
-"I sense that we are being followed, Alena."-
The other woman could not hide her disbelief when she heard that...
-"WHA- WHAAAAAT?"- Alena said with some jitters in her voice. -"And how are you sure of that?"-
-"I don't know; call it a gut feeling or whatever you want, but I'm sure we're being followed by someone else..."-
Then, she went on to explain who could be the probable culprit...
-"...and I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with that weird guy who came looking for us in your store before we got there..."-
-"That guy?"- Alena catched the attention of her friend, who was now looking at her with great curiosity. -"You mean that Italian-looking man that Serena was talking about?"-
-"Yeah, that one."- The woman who worked in the U.S Army replied. -"I wouldn't be surprised if that man is a spy working for the Soviets or some satellite country of theirs."-
Obviously, Alena did not find it nice to be involved in what seemed, at worst, like something out of a war movie involving spycraft, except it was actually the real life and not a movie script. She even came to doubt her friend's words.
-"Are you sure you're not being delusional and all this isn't some kind of paranoia of yours?"-
-"Do I look like that kind of woman, Alena?"- Catherine replied at her, almost as angry after being called basically insane by her long-time friend.
-"Well... no, you don't..."- She then thought for a few seconds before she continued. -"But still, how would you know that that man is following us?"-
Immediately afterwards, Catherine gestured for her friend to look through the glass windows of that restaurant.
-"Oh, you want me to look at that place you pointed out, Cathy?"-
-"Yes."-
Alena moved near one of the front windows of that restaurant, and then she looked through it with some care, in an attempt to not attract too much attention to herself.
-"I don't see anyone suspicious out there."-
-"Look at that person with the trench coat standing there on that power pole."- Catherine outlined the person who was following them, without giving any signs as to their exact location, to prevent the stalker from realizing that they knew that person was tracking the two women.
When Alena caught sight of the person who seemed to be following both of them, she noticed the way the person was dressed. The first thing the blonde-haired woman noticed was that there was a mysterious person, dressed in a light brown trench coat, the color of which matched his suit pants, shoes, and even his hat.
Due to the angle at which she was watching, it was not possible to infer the face of the person who was following them, and due to the clothes that the lurker was wearing, it was also impossible to deduce even his sex, although judging by the clothes he was wearing, the individual was likely a male.
-"So, you say this person is the one following us, Cathy?"- Alena said without knowing the identity of the person following them, but seeking confirmation to its presence.
-"That is what I am trying to warn you about, Alena. I believe the guy is right there, on that power pole."- Then she pointed out at the pole where the man was standing on there. -"I think he is stalking us right now."-
For more than obvious reasons, and knowing what her friend was doing in Texas working for the military, Alena could not help but criticize her friend for involving her in what, in her opinion, was more than evident that it seemed to be a spy game, Alena being foreign to it all as she was a civilian.
-"Hey, Cathy, I hope you're not involving me, my business employees or my family in this whole spy shtick, because otherwise..."-
-"Yeah, I know, Alena, and I'm very sorry for involving you on my stuff;"- Catherine apologized to her friend, who was angry as being involved in such kind of spy warfare. -"that wasn't my intention at any time and the truth is that I didn't anticipate that something like this would happen to me, much less in a town as humble as Evansville."-
-"Do you think that man is a spy?"-
-"I don't know, but, without giving you too many specifics, I can say that I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case."-
Alena McWild may have been a seemingly naive woman, or even someone who was simply protecting herself from what appeared to be a possible threat from an outsider seeking to harm her other friend, Alena being collateral damage at worst, but she wasn't stupid enough to realize that there was something at odds with her friend. And immediately afterwards, the Indiana woman pressed her friend Catherine for an explanation as to exactly why the suspected spy might be following them.
-"Hey, Cathy, I may not be the smartest bulb around, but I think I can tell that this spy or whoever he or she is has an eye on you because you or the place where you work are involved in some shady biz that possibly the Russians or someone else has an interest in learning from you..."-
The other woman could only take a deep breath, and at that accusation, she replied to her friend strongly, without raising her voice any higher than it should have been.
-"Look, Alena, you know very well that I can't speak about classified information with civilians, so I can't give you any more details about what I'm working on down in Texas, so please take it easy on me, will ya?"-
-"And you think I'm not scared of all this crazy shit, huh?"- Catherine's friend complained loudly at her, in the most vulgar terms she could say at that critical situation she and her friend where neck-deep in. -"Even if that guy walks away, who's to guarantee that he or she won't come looking for me at my house or my store, and try to get some information out of me, or worse, try to do some harm to me or my closer ones?"-
Seeing that her friend was visibly nervous, and on top of that, furious at being involved in something that was none of her concern, Catherine began to sense that having to keep the truth from Alena might not be a good idea, even if she knew what she might risk if she divulged that information to her friend.
-"And if that spy turns out to be the Italian-accented creep that Serena talked about, he most likely already knows where I work, and he won't hesitate to follow me to get some information about you, or even hurt me if he can."-
Alena continued to voice her concerns about the mysterious man or person who was following them. And she had every reason to do so.
For starters, Evansville was a small town, and for a professional spy, knowing Alena's whereabouts would not be that complicated, which would allow a secret agent to either get information from Catherine via Alena, or use her as bait in order to lure her out and obtain any information that was valuable to her home country.
Considering all that, and the fact that she accidentally involved her college friend in a predicament that was dangerous for her and her loved ones, Catherine Walburg, perhaps because she thought she was doing the most honest thing she could think of at the time, or quite possibly being a victim of fear that she and Alena could be hurt, and not wanting her friend to possibly be killed for something she didn't even understand what she was involved in, made a snap choice...
-"Please follow me..."- Catherine said as she made her way to the counter of the restaurant, bewildering Alena on the spot.
-"Where are we going, Cathy?"-
-"You shut your mouth and let me talk, OK?"- The woman who worked for the army replied to her friend angrily, not wanting to elaborate anymore. She knew she was going to do something she might regret later, but in the dangerous predicament Catherine and Alena were in, she had no other choice.
Alena dutifully remained silent and let her friend take care of the matter, being the one who worked for the U.S. Army, and therefore, the one who knew best how to deal with such a delicate matter as evading a spy.
Once at the counter, she spoke directly to the employee who was working at the time, who was a man with an Italian accent.
-"Good afternoon, ladies, how may I help you?"-
-"I would like a large pizza to eat here with pepperoni and mushrooms."- Catherine said at the man, while ordering a pizza to eat.
The man began taking Catherine's order, and seeing that she only seemed to have ordered pizza and nothing else, the Italian-accented clerk asked more questions.
-"Alright, a large pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms... would you like to order anything to drink?"-
-"Yeah, I would like two ice cold Cokes..."- Then, the woman added something else to her order. -"oh, and while you're at it, can you bring some breadsticks too?"-
-"Certainly, miss. Let me confirm your order: A large pizza, two Cokes and breadsticks."- The man at the counter had another query to ask. -"Anything else you want to order, Miss?"-
-"No, not right now."- Catherine replied. -"Where may we sit, sir?"-
-"Well, you can sit at table number 6."- The Italian man pointed out to the two women where they could sit, which was a small table for two on the right side of the pizza restaurant, away from the other tables in the place. This served Catherine well, as few others could overhear what they could be talking about. -"In the meantime, we will bring your order right away."-
-"Thank you very much, sir."-
-"Oh, you are welcome. Enjoy your meal, ladies!"-
With that, Catherine and Alena moved to the table, and once there, they sat down, both clearly affected by heightening tension on regards of the spy stalking them outside the restaurant. For more than obvious reasons, Alena McWild didn't understand why they were going to eat pizza there, given their current plight.
-"What was that all about, Cathy?"- Alena asked impatiently. -"I thought we were going to get away from that guy or whatever is following us."-
Catherine Walburg then rose from her chair, and she waved Alena to do the same.
-"Follow me."-
-"And where the hell are we going now, Cathy?"- The friend replied, already quite annoyed at feel being bounced around like a ping-pong ball.
-"To the restroom."-
-"The restroom?"- Catherine's friend asked with incredulity.
-"Yes."- The other woman responded in a curt tone. -"We will talk there in private."-
Both Catherine and Alena went into the women's restroom near them. Alena didn't enjoy the idea of having to talk about something as sensitive as in a public restroom, but seeing as there were so many people around them, that place was the only appropriate place where Catherine and Alena could talk about it without anyone else overhearing them.
May 5th, AD 1955, Main Street (Inside pizza parlor/Women's restroom), Downtown Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 02:37 PM
The two friends entered a public restroom that was for the purpose of females only. The room was relatively clean and very neat, with a large counter at one side where women could dry their hands. There were a row of mirrors above the row of sinks and water taps, as well as a variety of toilet cubicles available for use, which were dispersed in an orderly manner around the room.
Once inside that private place, Catherine instructed Alena to walk into one of the cubicles, which Alena did dutifully, while her other friend did the same. Once inside, the secretary who worked for the army locked the door of the cubicle. With the two women alone there, Alena now asked for an explanation of what her friend intended to do.
-"All right, Cathy, now we're alone, what is it that you want to talk to me about in this place that you want me to discuss with you next to a toilet?"-
Catherine took a deep breath, so she could finally speak, but not before giving her friend a warning.
-"Before I tell you the truth, I want to warn you about several things, Alena."- The woman began her talk with a stern voice. -"The information I am about to tell you is confidential information considered a state secret by the U.S. government. In fact, the only people who know this, besides me, are some of the people who work at Fort Bliss, my superior, the U.S. Department of Defense, the White House and obviously, the people who are involved in the project I am about to discuss with you."-
-"Is that how secret what you're gonna tell me?"- Alena responded with some fear, due to the consequences that could befall to both of them.
-"Yes. That is how secret it is, and equally serious is the matter that I am going to reveal to you."- Catherine continued. -"But at the same time, I ask you not to laugh when I tell you this because it maybe could sound absurd to you."-
-"What do you mean by absurd, Cathy?"- Alena responded with curiosity upon hearing about the "absurd" part her friend was engaged in in the army. -"Is it some kind of strange secret weapon, or possibly related to the flying saucers that crashed in New Mexico years ago?"-
-"It doesn't have anything to do with the flying saucers, secret weapons or anything like that."- Catherine declared with some tone of notorious exasperation. -"In fact, there are times when I wish that had been the case..."-
Seeing that her friend seemed to speak in a sterner tone than Catherine was normally accustomed to, it was clear that the woman held a very big secret that she was about to reveal.
-"In that case, what is it that they do in your job in the army, Cathy dear?"-
Catherine Walburg took another deep breath, and decided to spill the beans to her friend Alena McWild, with no more beating around the bush.
-"I'll get straight to the point. My army superior is the supervisor of a secret government-sponsored project called the Advanced Evolution Project. And leaving aside the technical and complicated stuff, that project has only one goal in mind: To make animals able to talk, act and think like us humans."-
The moment Catherine revealed the truth, Alena's face, which at the time was one of worry and fear due to the matter related to the spy outside the restaurant, changed to one of disbelief and anger.
In all her life she had heard all kinds of things, from the most plausible to the most absurd, such as those related to the Roswell Incident she mentioned minutes ago, and considering the era in which she lived, she expected to hear something more delicate like the development of a secret weapon, some private affair of an important politician, or anything related to the then Cold War between the USSR and the USA.
But to hear that the government of her country was seriously pursuing, without any degree irony, the idea of making animals talk and act like humans, something that would be straight out of the wildest dreams of a science fiction writer, or from the mind of Walt Disney, was something that she, even if she didn't have much knowledge on the subject, found fractionally in the territory between the absurd and the insanely outlandish.
Alena even thought that her friend was either playing a bad joke on her, or even that it was all a result of a paranoia-induced delusion... or maybe something else.
-"Can I ask you something about this, Cathy?"- Alena asked her friend, while holding back her anger and biting her lip.
-"Yeah, what is it?"-
Alena stared at her friend Catherine with a look of disbelief. She tried to stay calm, but at the same time, she had to admit that maybe her friend had some loose screws in her head...
-"Do you smoke weed by any chance?"-
Normally for anyone, being called a junkie by their best friend would have been reason enough to infuriate anyone, especially considering the dire predicament in which they were both mired, and Catherine was in no mood for that kind of tasteless questioning. But, knowing that what she had just revealed was not something that any mentally sane person would say without irony, the woman who worked as a secretary at Fort Bliss in Texas knew that her friend had every right in the world to question her sanity, believing that her friend in front of her had possibly gone stark raving mad.
-"Well... I don't blame you if you don't believe me, Alena, and I understand your frustration perfectly."- Catherine replied at her friend in a more calmer way than before. -"But I can tell you two things: The first is that I don't use drugs, and I don't smoke weed either. And the second is that what I have just told you is the absolute truth, as absurd as it may or may not be."-
Even if her friend was assuring her that she was telling the truth, Alena, rightly so, was more than doubtful that Catherine was being genuine with her, and that all this was the result of some psychotic experience that she was suffering at that moment, and she did not hesitate to let her know her discomfort in the most caustic way possible.
-"So, I guess Walt Disney is in charge of that project of yours, isn't he?"- The blonde woman said at the friend, while putting a wryful smile in her face. -"And I wouldn't be surprised if Walter Lantz also works for the military, making a real woodpecker talk like Woody Woodpecker. Oh, can you also tell me if Warner Bros. is also involved in that project as well?"-
At her friend's response, which questioned the veracity of what Catherine was saying, the latter could not help but facepalm at her disbelief and apparent facetiousness at the revelation.
-"Oh, god, Alena, what do I need for you to believe me, dear?"-
-"Well, do you have any kind of evidence proving that what you've just said is the truth?"-
At that moment, Catherine pulled out her wallet from her handbag, which contained several of her personal documents that accredited her as a worker at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. In addition to that, she also had a black and white photo, which showed her with her superior, U.S. Army Major Matthew Fitzroy, along with several men, among them a man of Asian origin who Alena knew could not be American in any way.
-"What the hell is the meaning of this picture, Cathy?"- And then, she pointed at the foreign-looking man. -"And who is that oriental guy in there with you?"-
Putting aside the implicit racism of that pushy inquiry made by her friend, even if the nature of the question was due to the stress she was experiencing at the time, Catherine responded to her friend's question.
-"That person you are referring to is called Yoshinori Komatsu, and he is the director of the Advanced Evolution Project for which he is developing for the government."- The woman responded. -"He was one of the scientists that the government captured from the Axis powers after the last war, and now he is working on that project, although, as far as I understand, he was already working on that same project long before the war started."-
-"Oh, so he's Japanese, right?"-
-"Indeed."-
Alena rolled her eyes, and she looked at the restroom's ceiling in disbelief..
-"Gee, and I thought the Nazis were the only ones who were beyond being crazy, to be frank..."-
-"And as I said before, I don't blame you if you think so, Alena."- Catherine retorted. -"In fact, when I heard about the nature of that project, I thought the same as you..."-
-"In that case... what changed your mind, you know, about all this 'talking animals' business?"-
-"Well, there were two things: The first is that Dr. Komatsu had a tiger, which was used as an experimental animal, named Raghu, which was an animal brought from India, and which was brought to Japan first, and then to the U.S. when Komatsu was captured and sent here. That animal is able to use sign language, which he learned from a deaf-mute woman who was his keeper in a zoo and was able to communicate with humans without much trouble. That was very helpful to Dr. Komatsu in his further research."-
-"A tiger that knows sign language?"- Alena responded with some skepticism. -"Are you sure you're not pulling a prank on me?"-
-"I'm actually serious, Alena."- Catherine denied her explanation was a joke. -"Dr. Komatsu was incredibly amazed by the intelligence of the animal, and today, his project is attempting to recreate his intelligence and abillities, not just on other tigers or felines, but in another animals as well."-
-"And so, what would be the second reason that convinced you that Japanese scientist was really planning to make animals talk?"-
-"He managed to make a small kitten, using some of the processes indicated in his theory, do exactly the same as Raghu, which meant that his theory had a solid scientific basis. That convinced the White House to expand his project, and try to apply it to other species, and on a much larger scale."-
Catherine ended her explanation with this. Alena looked at her friend in amazement.
-"You know what, Cathy dear?"-
-"What?"-
-"I always thought you were an intelligent person... but I guess I was wrong..."-
Catherine responded with trepidation as she saw that her friend didn't seem to believe what she was saying, no matter how sincere her words were.
-"You don't believe me, right?"-
That last was perhaps a supreme expression of the woman's cynicism towards Alena. She might have believed many things, even the existence of flying saucers if Catherine had told her in the same tone, but the thought that her country's government was working on making animals talk bordered on the absurd to the unbelievably insane, and she thought her friend was playing some kind of sick joke on her, something she made her known... in the most heated words she could muster at the time.
-"BELIEVE YOU? ARE YOU FUCKIN' OUTTA YOUR MIND?"-
Catherine responded warily as she saw her friend raise the level of her voice.
-"I beg your pardon, Alena?"-
That incredulous question only made Alena McWild's response to her friend more loud and vulgar as possible, feeling that her sanity was being insulted by such a revelation that she could not believe in the least.
-"IF YOU THINK I'M GOING TO BUY THIS STORY ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT IS WORKING ON MAKING ANIMALS TALK LIKE IN CARTOONS, THEN YOU'RE SERIOUSLY FUCKED UP!"- Alena exploded, seeing that she could no longer listen to something that sounded so insane, and even more so when she found herself involved in a conflict that was unrelated to her, thinking that it could be a fabrication or a joke to make fun at the woman's expense. -"AND I'M NOT GOING TO LISTEN TO ANY MORE OF THIS INSANE BULLSHIT FROM YOU!"-
And immediately afterwards, Alena left the toilet cubicle, heading for the door of the public restroom, most likely to leave the restaurant by herself, no matter what would happen to her if Alena left the place without company.
-"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU GOING, ALENA?"-
-"WHERE AM I GOING?"- The other woman cried out to Catherine in response. -"I'M GOING HOME! 'CAUSE I'M NOT GOING TO LISTEN TO ANY MORE OF YOUR CRAP!"-
-"ALENA, PLEASE, LET ME FURTHER EXPLAIN... !"-
And then, she opened the door, and later on, Alena violently closed it behind her.
Catherine was silently pondering what had caused the outburst of her friend. She had expected Alena to react negatively at such revelation, but she did not expected it to her acting so violently to at hearing that. After a few moments of silence, Catherine got up and left the restroom, visibly worried that her friend would be attacked by the spy who was outside waiting for both or either of them to leave the restaurant.
And yet, Catherine Walburg regretted that things between both women had suddenly turned ugly. If it hadn't been for the presence of that spy who was on her trail, and perhaps if Catherine hadn't brought up the whole Komatsu's project to Alena, which probably made her friend even more nervous and disturbed than she already was, she would have ended the day on a very high note.
-"Crap, I might have fucked things up big time when I blew my big mouth wide open..."-
But on the other hand, if there was any consolation for the woman who worked for the U.S. Army, it was that Alena would most likely not attempt to comment on what she heard from her friend in serious company. It was one thing to talk about state secrets that would be things that anyone would expect, for example, the existence of life on other planets, secret weapons, new vehicles such as tanks, planes, or similar things, and another thing to talk about things that, under different scenarios, would be considered as ideas out of fantasy or science fiction novels... or coming from someone's twisted mind...
And even Catherine herself struggled to recognize that what she and her boss had been overseeing for years was basically just that, and in an unironic way.
Extra irony that she and her boss were looking for a way to destroy Komatsu's project just to satisfy Major Fitzroy's desire to end with the Japanese scientist's career and life, only for the deaths of Dr. Richard Mason and Dr. Nicholas Larkin, the former assistants of that aforementioned man of science, to cause a sudden disruption in her boss's plans, especially when Komatsu was sent to Nevada during the time she and Fitzroy were in Washington, DC to be probed for Dr. Mason's death.
And it was fortunate that she didn't bring that up to Alena as well. Although that wouldn't have helped her either; it would have been quite the opposite effect instead.
But now, she had to know if her friend had left the restaurant, and if so, at least know if the spy was following her at that moment.
May 5th, AD 1955, Main Street (Inside pizza parlor), Downtown Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 03:03 PM
Once outside the women's restroom, Catherine went to look for Alena, conjecturing she might still be in the restaurant, probably thinking that it would have been wiser to be inside than just leave the place and risking being caught by that spy who had been following them some minutes before.
But to her dismay, Alena McWild had left the restaurant, regardless of the consequences. It was evident that the revelation must have been too much for her to take in, and Alena simply felt that she had had enough of being around a friend who, in her judgment, was either really dangerous for her to be with, or had a few screws loose in her head...
The first thing Catherine did was to check, from the window of the restaurant, if that spy went to follow Alena the moment she left the place.
To the woman's astonishment, what she saw turned out to be the opposite. Not only was the spy still standing there at the same power pole, but he didn't seem to be interested in her friend in the least.
That meant one thing: The spy was interested in her, and no one else, and he didn't seem to have any intention of involving outsiders in it all. If the only reason the man was interested in Alena, it was only to track down Catherine, her friend, and nothing else.
-"Damn it! What the hell does that man want from me? It's obvious he's not looking for Alena, that's for sure."-
This made her uneasy, because Alena would have been a very easy target at first glance, but the spy did not seem to be interested in her friend, but in Catherine, who was still in the Italian restaurant. That meant that she had to find a way to escape from there without the man realizing that she was no longer there.
But first, she had to deal with a matter with the restaurant itself...
-"Excuse me, is my order ready?"- Catherine asked to the restaurant cashier, once she walked from the window to that point to ask him that question.
-"Yes ma'am, it is."- The man said. -"Your order is served at table No. 6, as I had told you before."-
-"OK, thanks a lot."- The woman thanked the clerk and was about to go to her table to eat.
But before she could do that, the man had an important question to ask Catherine...
-"Excuse me if I'm butting in, but what happened to your friend?"- The Italian-accented clerk asked to the American woman.
-"Oh, you mean the other woman who was with me?"- Catherine replied, when the man asked bout Alena, who angrily stormed out from the restaurant.
-"Yes, I'm talking about her."- He clarified. -"I only noticed that she came out of the restroom quite angry, and walked out of here without saying anything else..."-
Catherine now had a problem to solve on her hands. She had to come up with an excuse to explain the reason why Alena left the restaurant, without the managers raising suspicions about what her friend and Catherine were involved in, and having the latter have yet another problem to deal with.
-"Well... you could say that she had a very... private issue that she experienced at the last minute, and that's why she left here... if you know what I mean."-
The Italian-born man quickly understood what Catherine meant by that, and so he sneered at the fact that a woman was having one of those days. And it was even more surprising to him that another woman had to explain it to him in a more or less explicit way in order to avoid further trouble for herself.
But still, he didn't seem to have a problem with it, as long as Catherine was the one to pay for the order, of course.
-"Well, I guess you'll be footing the bill, won't you?"-
-"Right."- Catherine replied. -"Don't worry about the bill, if that's what you mean."-
-"Well, in that case, I won't take up any more of your time. Enjoy your meal, miss!"-
And so, breathing a sigh of relief, Catherine went straight to table number 6, where her food was waiting for her. As she approached the table, she was struck by two things: The first was that she was lucky that the clerk or other staff members of the restaurant didn't notice the problem she and Alena were facing thanks to the spy who was stalking them outside, even if it was obvious that the man was only interested in Catherine, and the last one was that she had to eat all that food by herself.
Once at her table, the woman saw that the pizza with mushrooms and pepperoni, along with the breadsticks, was ready to be eaten. That pizza was a very delicious thick, round crust with a generous filling of mozzarella, cream, and Parmesan cheeses. And the dough was cooked in the oven until it was crispy around the edges before the toppings are placed on top. Also, the dough itself was topped with more cheese and green sauce, before being baked again in order to melt everything together.
The breadsticks, in the same way, were made from fresh dough that's twisted into elongated spirals that are then deep-fried and sprinkled with coarse salt or garlic powder.
Even with that spy-related problem looming over her, Catherine just couldn't help but enjoy all that food before her eyes; after all, enjoying it all might help distract her from that difficult matter, as well as forget about the heated quarrel she had had with Alena about having told her about Dr. Komatsu's Advanced Evolution Project.
The only problem was that all that food was perhaps too much for her alone, as she ordered a large pizza, along with its respective breadsticks, and back then, the concept of taking food home from a restaurant was still unknown in the 1950s.
-"Well, I think I'm just gonna forget my diet right now..."- The woman said to herself, knowing that all that would translate into a lot of calories in her body.
And so, she began to eat the pizza, trying to forget about the problems hovering over her, if only for that moment.
May 5th, AD 1955, Rosedale South (Catherine Walburg's home/Main hall), Evansville, Indiana, United States of America, 06:19 PM
A cab approaches the home of Catherine Walburg, located in the Evansville, Indiana suburb of Rosedale South, and after parking at the curb overlooking the home, a light brown-haired, blue-eyed woman of medium height quickly steps out from the vehicle.
-"That would be $5 for the trip, Miss."-
The woman took out her wallet and gave the cab driver a ten dollar bill, of which the man gave the woman the other five as change.
-"Well, hope you have a nice day, miss, see you later!"-
It was a nice room and it had a lot of sunlight but once inside she felt anything but welcomed. Her stressed and exhausted mind traveled back to that day, since it was really difficult one due to many reasons that would be explained next.
That woman was the owner of that house: Catherine Walburg.
-"Shit, I haven't had a day like this in years!"- The woman cursed herself aloud, wondering the way she had managed to leave the pizza parlor without the spy noticing that she was no longer there.
And she had reasons to curse her luck: She never imagined that she would be followed by a foreign spy, most likely a Soviet one, or someone on the payroll of the USSR government, much less to her hometown of Evansville. That meant that the Russians possibly knew that Komatsu was still alive, and that she was working for the Americans in Texas, and it was likely that they were trying to find the weakest links, in this case her or anyone directly or indirectly related to that Japanese scientist's project.
But still, that didn't explain why the spy ignored Alena, her friend, when he could have followed her home, and instead preferred to wait for Catherine to leave the restaurant. That didn't make much sense, since Alena was the weakest link that the supposed secret agent could have obtained anything useful.
As for her, Catherine, after resting for a few minutes on her sofa, picked up the handset of her phone that was there, and dialed Alena McWild's home phone number, intending to talk to her. Catherine wanted to make sure that her friend was all right, and that she had arrived at her home safely.
-"Hello, this is Alena McWild speaking, who am I speaking to?"-
-"Alena, it's me, Catherine."-
Surprisingly and contrary to what she expected, the friend of that woman who worked in the army responded in a good way, even though Alena had been angry with Catherine in the public restroom of the restaurant because of that situation with the spy. She was obviously pleased to know that her friend had returned to her home safe and sound.
-"CATHY!"- The blonde woman yelled at her phone, almost crying at the phone after hearing her friend's voice. -"Thank goodness you made it home safely! I thought you wouldn't make it back alive after what happened, dammit!"-
-"Yes. At least I made it out of that restaurant without that spy seeing me, and it wasn't exactly easy, to put it that way, Alena."- Catherine explained in broad strokes how she escaped from that plight, although she had more important things to say to her friend. -"But I'm more glad that you're not mad at me, especially for what we were discussing in the restroom."-
-"I know that too, dear, and I'm sorry for what I said to you in the restroom."- The blonde woman apologized, with notorious tone of shame in her voice. -"I was scared and angry about what happened, especially after what you told me about your work in the army."-
-"I know, Alena; any ordinary person would be scared like hell to hear something like that, and I don't blame you if you get angry about it. At the end of the day, it's the money we all pay in taxes that's being used for that sort of thing."-
-"I think money would be the last thing I would worry about..."-
-"Certainly."- Catherine agreed with her friend on the phone. -"Anyone who heard us talk about it out loud without irony would probably think we either lost our minds, or watched too many cartoons."-
And after a brief pause, Alena wanted to know something more important than all that, and that was the elephant in the room of the discussion.
-"And leaving that aside, what sly strategy did you use to escape from that secret agent and the restaurant unnoticed?"- Catherine's friend asked her for the details of how the woman managed to evade the spy and slip out of the Italian restaurant. -"Did you pull some weird trick or what?"-
-"Well, basically I had to make up a tall tale in order to leave the restaurant through the kitchen's service door."-
-"And how was that?"- Alena asked for more details. -"Now, that would be interesting to hear from you."-
Catherine, calmly as possible, explained how she left the restaurant...
-"Here goes: I told the restaurant clerk that I needed to wash my hands. To make my excuse more believable, I had to break one of the sink faucets beforehand, so he could let me wash my hands in the kitchen's sink."-
-"Don't tell me you broke a restaurant's private property in order to escape from there?"- Alena responded in surprise to hear the lengths her friend went to in order to achieve her goal.-
-"Well, to be honest, yes."- And then, she added the following. -"And the best part is that he didn't suspect a thing."-
-"Wow."-
-"I know, it is a bit weird, but it could have been worse."-
-"And what happened next?"- The other woman wanted to know more.
-"Once in the kitchen, and after pretending to wash my hands, and without the other cooks noticing, I managed to get out through the service door of the restaurant, and left the place through an alley."- Catherine continued with her explanations. -"I was lucky that the cooks were busy working so they didn't noticed that a customer left the restaurant through the back door, because they would have thought that I left without paying my bill."-
-"I guess you did pay your bill, didn't you?"-
-"Of course I paid that bill! The last thing I wanted was to have more trouble, and I already have enough shit on my hands just to have another one under my belt!"- The light brown-haired woman retorted rather sulkily, as she wanted to assure her friend that she had not left any more problems in that restaurant that her other friend would have had to pay for because of Catherine.
-"OK, I see."- And then, Alena did another question in order to finish the chat about that incident. -"And how did you make it back home, huh?"-
-"Well, once in the alley and after walking for a while, trying to check if the spy was not following me behind my back, I found a cab passing by the avenue, and immediately after, I got in it, and headed back to my house."-
The whole summary of that adventure left Alena speechless, who could not believe that her friend had been able to devise a cunning plan to sneak out from the restaurant unseen by the spy, and to have achieved it almost perfectly, even if she had to damage other people's property to do so.
-"Wow, that must have been a very stressful undertaking for you, Cathy!"-
-"It surely was, Alena. I just got lucky when I found that taxi to take me home, and surely that man must now be wondering where I got to."-
Afterwards, both women paused for a few seconds to catch their breath, and then Alena wanted to have a few more words with her friend.
-"Well, leaving all that aside... and with respect to what you were talking about your work in the army..."-
Catherine quickly interrupted her friend before she could dig any further into the topic. She knew that the best way for both of them to be safe was for Alena to try to forget the whole issue, and to look at it in a different way...
-"Look, I'm sorry for interrupting you, but I want to tell you a few things: The first is that you should forget everything I told you in the restroom, and consider it as an idiotic thing I said out of my nerves, because I wasn't thinking straight due to all that fuss with that spy..."-
Akane wanted to try to set the record straight with her friend about what she said about Dr. Komatsu's project with Alena; then she continued with her warning.
-"...The other is that you should not discuss any of this with anyone, not even with your family or friends, even if you consider all this as a crazy thing out of my ass, along with the whole spy stalker stuff that happened to us today. I don't want to see anyone innocent get hurt out of this, and I'm very sorry for dragging you into all of this in the first place..."-
Seeing that her friend was sincerely apologizing for putting her in unnecessary danger, as well as causing her unnecessary stress by telling her the truth when she was not ready to accept it, Alena simply wanted to put the matter behind her and leave the incident as an unusual incident resulting from her friend's military work. After all, she knew that there was a cold war situation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and that this kind of thing was not so unusual at the time, considering the intense rivalries between the two nations since the end of the last war.
-"Well, okay, I guess I can forget all this, if you ask me to."- Alena replied in a sheeply way. -"And I promise you that my lips are sealed, and I won't mention a peep of this to anyone."-
-"Thank you, Alena..."-
-"But..."- The other woman from Indiana asked another important question. -"Who is going to assure me that this spy is not going to look for me at my home, or try to snoop on me or my family?"-
-"I can't assure you anything, but I can tell you one thing, Alena: When you left that Italian restaurant in a huff, the first thing I noticed was that spy not only didn't follow you, but also ignored you as well, and he rather stayed in the same place I mentioned to you at the beginning of the whole thing. That means that the man was only interested in me and no one else."-
-"Does that mean that I am not in danger?"-
-"If that spy didn't show any interest on you, chances that you were probably just an unwanted extra for his plans, and he preferred not to follow you."-
Then, Alena breathed a sigh of relief at hearing that, knowing that she was surely not of interest to that secret agent.
-"...That is a relief to know."- Alena replied to her friend. -"What about you, Cathy? Are you going to be all right?"-
-"I'll be fine, but I rather just like to stay home for a few days, to let the whole thing die down and be forgotten, before I could ever think to return to El Paso."-
After a momentary pause on the phone, Catherine's blonde friend came up with a plan...
-"Hey, I was thinking about something, Cathy dear,"- Alena suddenly thought of a way to cheer up her friend, knowing that she was likely to be alone for many days. -"what do you say me and Serena pay you a visit tomorrow at your place to talk about all this in peace, and we'll have something to eat in the afternoon as well, huh? At least you won't feel lonely all this time you're cooped up there at your home."-
The woman with light brown hair accepted her friend's offer after turning it over in her head.
-"Sure, I'd love that!"- Catherine replied with a more cheerful tone of voice when her friend told her of her plan. -"What time would you and your friend come?"-
-"Is 2 PM okay with you?"-
-"Well..."- Catherine thought a bit. -"I think it's fine for me."-
-"Well, in that case, I will see you tomorrow, then."- Alena then waved goodbye at the phone. -"Have a good day, and try to get some rest, Cathy."-
-"You too, Alena."- The other woman followed suit. -"See you tomorrow too. Bye!"-
-"Bye!"-
Then, the two women from Indiana ended their conversation and hung up their respective telephones. On the one hand, Catherine Walburg was happy to know that her friend did not hold a grudge against her for the whole incident with the spy, and that Alena was willing to forget all that.
On the other hand, the woman was concerned that she had involved her friend in a matter of international espionage against her will, and that Catherine had put her friend's life in danger by discussing state secrets with her, product of a mixture of despair and nervousness, believing that things could have gone worse if that spy were to take matters into his own hands.
Little did she know that the next day would be a day she would never forget for the rest of her life...
END OF ACT XXXI