Charlie’s mind blanked as he stared down the barrel of the gun pointed at his head. “Get in the car,” its wielder ordered.
The other man, eyes wide in surprise, screeched, “What are you doing?”
Charlie slowly moved towards the car. “Getting in the car,” he said shakily. Obviously, these guys weren’t official.
Then, screeching tires rounded the corner of the alley, and the thin man dropped, cursing, as a bullet tore through his thigh and pinged off the car. As the thin man crawled behind his car, Charlie dove to the ground and stayed there as chaos blossomed around him.
A second car, of the same make and model, screamed to a halt, and three men poured out of the open doors. One died instantly as the big man sent a slug through his head. However, the other two pulled their guns—strangely, the same weapons the first two men had—and riddled him with bullets. As he fell, a convulsive trigger pull shot a clean hole straight through a second man’s bicep.
He hissed and muttered something in a foreign language, wrapping a bandage produced from a pocket around it, as Charlie inched away from the firefight. His compatriot walked over to the cowering thug and calmly double-tapped him, the shots echoing off the alley’s walls, and then began dragging the bodies into the first car.
“Come with me if you want to live,” the other man said, pain lacing his voice as he finished tying the bandage off, red already beginning to seep through the white gauze.
Charlie didn’t think; he just followed his savior to the car. The other man drove off using the other, corpse-filled, car as the man gingerly entered the driver’s side. “Where’s he going?” Charlie asked stupidly, still reeling.
“To dispose of the bodies,” the man said calmly. “I’m terribly sorry about the inconvenience. As payment for this error, I am going to tell you something.” As he started the car, he turned around and fixed Charlie with a cold glare. “But you must tell absolutely no one about what I am about to say, or we’ll be forced to terminate you as well. And trust me; we’ll know if you say anything.”
Charlie gulped.
“I belong to an agency,” the man began, giving absolutely no doubt what agency he was speaking of. “You may call me Jan.” Giving Charlie no time to reply, he bulled on. “The attempted kidnapping you just were a victim of was an unfortunate misunderstanding. The second-in-command of our station was hasty and foolish. He has since been informed of the error of his ways.” Jan’s voice was cool and dry, belying the violence his words hinted at. “Unfortunately, this has caused a few more problems. He was a member of ‘the new guard,’ and ‘the old guard’ was rather more cautious. Relations are, let’s say, rather frosty between the two.” He smiled humorlessly. “And because of you, Mr. Duke, they’ve begun to heat up unpleasantly. There are already rumors of a schism forming.”
He pulled out into traffic, spot on the speed limit. “I am not an enemy, Mr. Duke, but I am certainly no friend. But those fools have probably exposed the entire office. I’m rather torn whether to appease them by killing you, like they would wish, or to spite them by letting you go. Convince me.”
Charlie blinked terrified sweat out of his eyes as Jan, who had just saved his life, contemplated ending it anyway. “Well... um...” he stammered. “I’m expected by the President and the Secret Service, I think. So if I go missing, they’ll investigate, right?” He swallowed convulsively. “And I’m sure that wouldn’t help... your agency’s cause. And I’ve already promised to tell no one, right? So—so if you let me go, and I say nothing of what you’ve told me, it’s probably safest for you,” he babbled.
Jan hummed. “Mr. Duke, you make a fair argument,” he said jovially. “Almost enough to persuade me not to kill you.” Charlie flinched.
“Let me offer you a deal,” Jan said, never taking his eyes off the road in front of him. “I will let you live—in fact, I’ll even drive you to the airport!—and let you go. But,” he said flatly, fixing Charlie in his seat, “If you renege on the deal, I’ll make sure you remember it. Tell me, how is Dottie doing? Or Charles and little Timmy?”
Charlie’s heart froze at that sentence, and he hurriedly agreed. “Right, deal, yes, sure, great,” Charlie gabbled. It was a terrible idea, agreeing to a deal with someone of Jan’s ilk—it might even be considered treason. But he couldn’t see any other options besides allowing his corpse—and Dottie’s— to be dumped in some ditch.
Jan grinned, this time with real feeling behind it. “Good, I thought so. Here is a number.” He handed Charlie a strip of paper with a telephone number penciled on it. “When you get to Hawaii and find out what ship you’ll be embarking on,” and he barked a laugh at Charlie’s flinch of surprise and fear at the information he really shouldn’t have known, “You’ll call this number. It will direct you to your mother, yes? Simply talk to her like you would normally, but tell her what ship you’ll be embarking on. We’ll do the rest.”
“Got it,” Charlie said quickly.
“I hope so, Mr. Duke.” He turned his attention back to the road. “Oh, and one more thing.”
“Yes?”
“The old guard won’t be chasing you, Mr. Duke, but there are no such guarantees for the new. If this becomes a matter of prestige, of honor, they will hunt you to the ends of the earth, and spend every penny to find you. I would advise prudence. And we will make no further efforts to intervene on your part—we’ve risked enough already as it is.”
Charlie nodded slightly, but remained silent. “Good. We’ll arrive at the airport shortly.”
The rest of the drive was spent in tense silence, laden with unspoken threats and promises.
As they rolled to a smooth stop outside the airport terminal, Jan parted with, “I’m glad we could do business, Mr. Duke,” in a darkly humorous tone. “I’ll be seeing you.” The car pulled away, and as Charlie checked to see the license plate numbers, there were no plates on the car.
He swallowed, before walking into the airport doors. How was he ever going to explain this to the President—Sweet mercy, to the Secret Service—without arousing suspicion, slipping up, or making any mistake in his cover story?
It was essential that he be perfect on the details. Not one mistake could be made—not even the slightest error. Frantically, he began to make up a cover story, the most realistic and detailed one he could, within his mind as he slowed his steps towards the plane. Consciously, he wiped the sweat off his brow, stopped the frantic, fearful darting of his eyes, and slowed his breathing. ‘They had to believe nothing happened,’ Charlie told himself. ‘Nothing happened at all. I’m perfectly fine, and nothing out of the ordinary happened. They have to believe everything is fine.’
The lives of his family depended on it, after all.
You had my attention, now you have my interest.
Or was it the other way around...
Hope the insurance thing goes well for you though, sorry about your friend.
I'm terribly sorry to hear about your friend, and your car. My sympathies.
But what the hell just happened in the story? Honestly, I have no idea what's going on!
Great update...and I too would like to extend my condolences.
wtf
I was about to say that whoever went after Charlie was incredibly stupid, unproffessional, and had just exposed themselves to all sorts of agencies. And then I saw the gunfight, and realized BOTH of these sides to the Agencies were even stupider than I thought.
Step 1: when being blackmailed: do not meekly submit. That way lies only madness.
Step 2: your foes are not all knowing. If you are going to lie, lie to your enemies not your friends.
4013068
Your enemies aren't all knowing. However, they don't need to be. Sometimes all they need to know is where your family lives and spends their time together to make their point.
Well while I haven't any knowledge on what you're going through myself, I still give my sympathies.
As for a cover story, I'd probably make up something about rival gangs, but I'm not sure if those existed back in the late 60's.
Sorry to hear about that.
Poor Charlie... Oh well soon we'll get back to Neil and Luna and all will be well in the rise of the New New Lunar Republic(formerly the United States of America) But seriously I'm loving this story every step of the way. See you on the next chapter.
4013336
I mean that he should be thinking more about getting to talk with Nixon alone (easy as he is the president's resident xenologist) and tell him that something is going down. Rather than worrying about lying to him
On an unrelated note, I am looking forward to luna openning up a can of Harmony on the US and USSR
Well damn, sorry to hear about all that IRL stuff! We're here for you!
No this has gotten weird....
Oh man, intenseness abounds!!! I am excited for more
I have to say, that was some stupidity all around. They go and save him, then threaten his family and him with death? All they've done is impress him with the idea that they are as malicious, if not more so, than the people who tried to abduct him. There is also the fact that he knows next to nothing and yet they're antagonizing him anyways. They might as well be wearing bright neon signs saying "We're Evil".
Interesting. I've got a gut feeling that these are a third party - Maybe not Soviet deep-cover agent but another group not affiliated with any government (at least not any more). Exactly who they are and what their deal might be will doubtless become plain in time. Are they good guys or bad guys? Well, something tells me that this is a strictly subjective judgement. I'm pretty sure that they think that they're the good guys, though. Just desperate because there isn't enough time to do things more elegantly.
As for the threats? Well, the aliens have come and all bets are off. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, is just running and trying to catch up. People are thus making short-term decisions that seem good at the time and later regretting it.
4012826
The Organization (current affiliations unknown) wants to use Charlie for their own purposes, but has split into two factions on how to go about it
Faction A consists of the Noobs who want to do everything fast and dirty: kidnap him at gunpoint, then probably interrogate him for information but definitely kill him so no one else can use him.
Faction B consists of the Old Hats who realize that that is about as stupid as trying to do 360 No-Scopes in an actual war: even if you manage to pull it off, you've just blown any semblance of cover you, and by extension the whole group, had.
A tried to go for it anyway, B managed to step in and stop them, then salvaged the situation by convincing Charlie to keep their cover for them with a threat on his wife and kids, but they're not going to "help" him anymore if A tries again (which they almost certainly will).
Sucks to hear about your recent misfortunes, man.
As for the story, looks like Luna has the attention of either a Communist organization or The Foundation. Hell, if it's the latter maybe this is what caused the Global Occult Coalition to break away.
good chapter. it was a bit hard to follow but it did make much sense
I admire your will to write this considering whats happened
sorry for your loss
Stonewall? Do you need a pickaxe?
4014125
Oh, there is a method to this madness. It's just not apparent yet... *evil laugh*
4016341
Yeah, some serious stuff has been derailing my life this February. Hopefully, since it's March, it'll all get better.
Also: YES! My car is repairable! And my (or rather, the ladie's, because it was her fault) insurance will pay for every single dime, so I don't have to go buy a new car.
Sorry to hear about your loss. You have my condolences. Thanks for the chapter, though.
Considering that Faction A is still out to get him even if he goes along with the espionage that Faction B is blackmailing out of him, he should probably just report everything to the Secret Service and reap the benefits of Witness Protection. The Soviet spy network (or whoever) may be powerful but I doubt they can crack a dedicated domestic effort to anonymize Charlie and his family AND penetrate the security that will additionally be on him.
Or is that too boring for this story?
4034846
Oh, he's in full-fledged panic mode right now. The thought hasn't yet occurred to him. And given the frantic way things are going, he might not have time to do any serious thinking while everything falls apart around him.
4035254 That's very true, for the moment. But he's traveling all the way to Hawaii before making that phone call, and he'll have time to think it over on the way, unless he falls asleep or something. It's not like today, where people can be kept constantly busy via cell phones and Internet connections. I guess he could conceivably be kept in radio contact...
4036696
Ohoho, but there's going to be... other things happening.
Oooooo dan dan dan
That's what they do.
Uh, wouldn't the secret service know he did not get a ride with them? Also, I would have thought the Space Center would have someone outback as a witness.
I feel bad for your losses.
I know it hapened a long time ago, but i hope things got better for you.
I'm so sorry for you!
R.I.P. Your Friend
What a fucking horrible day, I'm sorry for your losses
Hopefully you've recovered well at this point.
I am terribly sorry for your loss, Lord have mercy. I know it was a little ways back, but still, prayers for you and your acquaintance.
4647540
IRL yes and yes, story? Probably not unless the 'old guard' has deep roots and can get away with that
Ummm... what exactly happened? Who was what, were these Russians? CIA? FBI?
Man that's fucking horrible hope your ok mate!