[Atrocities]

A Dangerous Game
Part 1

“I don’t understand.” Said Dr. Mentor as he stood in the Operation tent before a holographic image of General Green. “I asked to speak directly with the Prime Minister.”
“And as I have explained to you Dr. Mentor, the Prime Minister has asked that I handle your request.” Replied the holographic Green.

“With all do respect General, my team discovered this object, and we feel that our continue involvement is warranted. After all, we are some of the best scientists on the planet.” Comment Dr. Mentor.
“Of that I have no doubts Doctor, but this is now a matter of Global security an-”
“With all do respect Gener-” Interrupted Dr. Mentor.
“And your continued involvement is no longer required Doctor. In fact, once the Regional Military Commander and the team from the GEC arrive, I expect you and your team to depart the site.” Continued Green in an angered tone for having been interrupted.
“But General, surely you can understand our desire -”
“If you continue to press me Doctor, I will have you and your entire team arrested and held indefinitely.” Green interrupted. “And if you refuse to vacate as directed, not only will you be arrested and detained, but charged with violating Global security. Now do you understand me Doctor?” Asked Green in a venomous tone.
Dr. Mentor simply nodded yes.

Even though these men were separated by thousands of miles, each other could see the other man in front of him as if he were standing there in the flesh. Mentor thought to himself ‘if only he were here, I could throttle him in person.’

“Additionally Dr.” Continued Green in more civil tone. “I am placing you and your entire team under a non disclosure directive. Any violation of this directive will result in your immediate incarceration. I need not remind you that in the event this should occur, your incarceration will be for life.”
“I understand General.” Replied Mentor as he boiled inside. “No one here shall discuss this discovery with anyone who does not have top secret clearance.”
“Make sure your staff is so instructed. Green out.” With that General Greens holographic image disappeared. Mentor raised his hand indicating he wanted silence as he switched off the holo-com. When he lowered his hand, Nina Smith was the first to speak.
“That bastard! Who the hell does he think he is threatening us like that?” She demanded.
“He is the Military Adviser to the Prime Minister.” Replied Dr. Ramzies sarcastically. “He might as well be god for all the good it will do us.”
“Are you both finished?” Asked Dr. Mentor politely as he looked first to Nina then to Dr. Ramzies. “I have someone else I can call.” He added a second later.
“You heard him Doctor. You will be locked away for life.” Nina said in concerned voice. “If you talk to any one about this.”
“I do not believe that our request for the Prime Ministers intervention was ever received by the Prime Minister.” Dr. Mentor said as he sat down. “I know Robert Benton, and I know that he would never ignore a request from me. If he was going to turn our request down, he would have done it personally.”
“Are you sure Brook?” Asked Dr. Ramzies.
“I am sure of it.” He replied.
“Then who will you contact? The official channels all lead to the Office of the Military Advisor?” Asked Nina as she to took a seat.
“I will call John Lesser, the Director of the Space Exploration Division. He has a Level Five security clearance so I will not be in violation of General Greens directive.” Dr. Mentor said as he eased back in his chair a bit. “If any one can help us now, it will be him.”
“I hope your right Brook, or else it will be the end of your career.” Said Dr. Ramzies.
“Don’t worry Bill, I have known John for many years. He has the Prime Ministers ear.” Dr. Mentors tone was calm. “I will contact his office in the morning. Right now its to late. Besides, I suspect that our friend the General will have ordered our satellite uplink suspended or at the very least monitored. So in the morning I will take one of the Snow Marshals down to Davenport and make the call from there.” With that he stood and moved to the tent entrance. “I suggest both get some sleep. I think tomorrow is going to be a very long day.” He smiled at them both then existed the tent.

It was time for some food and what sleep he could force his mind to drift off into. The trip down to Davenport would take about half an hour if the weather holds. If it did not, then the trip would take longer. He figured that at best possible speed, the Regional Military Commander and the GEC would be on site by the end of the day tomorrow. He would have to work fast in order to secure the support of the Prime Minister. He hoped he was right, and that Bob Benton did not known of what was going on here, if not, all was lost.

“What do you think will happen Dr. Ramzies?” Asked Nina as stood and prepared to leave the tent.
“I think that we are all in over our heads. I know General Green. He is a very dangerous man, and I for one will be surprised if we don’t wake up tomorrow and find ourselves lying face down in a snow drift with a depleted uranium shell in our heads.” Deep down he was more scared than he had ever been in his entire life. He knew that even if he and the team left the site, they would all eventually end up dead within a matter of months. He had heard stories of other discoveries where the scientific teams were wiped out. He knew of what had happened to the research camp at Pennington, and of all the people murdered there. There was no way that the military was going to let them simply walk away from a find of this magnitude. If that object out there proved to be a space vessel, and he sincerely thought it was, then it was a death sentence for them all. At first he had held out hope that the military would view this discovery as nothing more than a lost city or something, but now with General ‘Psycho’ Greens involvement, all of there lives were in grave danger.
“I’ll see you in the morning Bill.” Said Nina simply as she left the tent.
“I hope so.” Replied Dr. Ramzies as he followed her. “I really do.”

***
“Why do we not have a team on site by now?” Asked General Green very angrily as he and a few of his trusted aids walked together down the main hall of the Military Advisors to the Prime Ministers building.
“Our team is in play now and will be on site by mid day tomorrow. They had to prep for cold weather deployment, and that has taken sometime.” Replied a lanky and weaselly looking Lieutenant by the name Jasper Elise. “As for the Global Engineering Corp, well they are not as efficient as we are. They had to first process the request for assistance, then notify Global Command to seek permission to excavate on an unknown object. From-” Green waved his hand in the air.
“I get it Elise.” Quipped Green sarcastically. “I want all of their satellite uplinks redirected to one of our secure facilities.”
“That has already been taken care of sir. All sat-com communication from the science team at the Victorian Glacier discovery site and their adjacent base camp site will be processed by General Wilson’s and her staff at Andover Base.” Said Sergeant Ruddy Arnold, a man who looked more like a fish than a human.
“She is on your list of loyal officers sir.” Commented Elise hoping to capture back some of the lost brownie points that Sergeant Arnold had just scored. Elise despised any member of General Greens staff who interfered with his agenda to get his nose as far up the General *** as humanly possible. And Sergeant Arnold was his chief competition in that regard.

“When our team arrives on site, I want all of the scientist placed into custody. Who is commanding the team that is being sent up there?” Green asked as he and his staff entered a conference room.
“A Captain Macmillion O’Connor is the team leader.” Replied Elise before Arnold could speak.
“Is he a team player?” Asked Green as he took a seat.
“As far as we know, he follows orders.” Replied Elise.
Green looked at Elise as if he was going to shoot him right where he stood. “Oops dropped the clip on that one Elise’ thought Arnold to himself as he tried in vain to suppress the smirk on his face. ‘Even I knew better than to answer that question.’

“He follows orders.” Green said simply as he slowly stood and started moving toward Elise. “For your sake Elise,” Green was now standing directly in front of Lieutenant Elise, with his face less than an inch from Elise’s. “he had better follow orders.” Greens eyes were among the most intense of any mans when he was angry, and from the look of his eyes now, he was extremely angry. Green only wanted people he could trust doing his bidding. When that did not happen, Green became very angry. It was up to his staff to ensure that his desires were followed to the letter when carried out. In Greens opinion, to trust this mission to someone who was an unknown was an unacceptable risk. A genuine screw up that Elise should have prevented. As Green stood face to face with Elise he considered smacking the idiot for allowing this to happen, but after a few seconds of glaring angrily at his junior officer he slowly began to calm down and backing off returning to his seat. Over all, Green liked Elise about as much as he like any *** kissing brown nosing SOB, so taking him down a peg or two every now and then would do the little weasel some good in the long run. Green had no doubts that Elise would weather the embarrassment and come out the other side a wiser man. One day he would make a fine General provided he did not continue to piss Green off.
“Lets get this briefing over with, I have plans this evening.” Green ordered sharply as his staff began to take there seats.

[ January 07, 2003, 10:53: Message edited by: Atrocities ]