Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers (13 page)

 “Your third source is Beverly Reed at Hillcrest’s Molecular
Biology Clinic – she analyzed a sample labeled CAMBS-3 – that stands for
Captain Adamarus Maximus blood sample three. She doesn’t know who it's from,
but she does know that the cells in that sample have stopped aging.” The caller
paused to let that sink in then continued, “Why doesn’t Reed know who the
sample was from? Because it was classified. Why? Immortality equals power,
Shelly, so all of this is being kept secret. The aliens have the secret of
immortality and they want to give it to all of us, but certain people in our
government don’t want this to happen. This is on the level. Don’t blow it! If I
don’t see this story everywhere in the next hour, then I’ll be calling 'you
know who'." The caller hung up.

Shelly stared at the com unit for half a minute before
hanging up. “You know who” obviously referred to her arch enemy, ex-husband and
news anchor of that “other” news station and the first person she now needed to
call, Donald Little. She pulled out an old tattered address book and flipped
through it until she got to the ‘L’s. Then she picked up the com unit.

 “CRN News, Little here.”

 Shelly’s mind was racing now. She needed to get the
information without giving away the story.
I’ve got to do this just right
,
she thought. “Donald, this is Shelly.”

“Where’s my check?”

Shelly rolled her eyes, “In the mail, babe.” She was thinking
fast,
Okay, first buy their time
, “Got a second?”

“Well sure. What’s up?”

Then butter them up.
“Donald, how in the world did you
sneak into Hillcrest Hospital around all that security and get into that room?”

“Well, I’d tell you but then I’d have to kill you. Professional
secrets you know. And how did you find out about that?” Donald had kept that
encounter under wraps. His headline story from that escapade had been a real
stretch but he had gotten away with it. He smiled to himself… the injured man
had said four words before Donald had been grabbed and thrown out, “I hear they’re
loud.” Donald had stretched those two words into the first real story on the
aliens and it had given them a name that had stuck! He didn’t want anyone
digging around in that area.

“Well Donald, I’d tell you how I found out about it but
then…I’d have to…”

“…kill you,” Donald said at the same time she did.

“Professional secrets you know.” She heard a grunt from the
other end of the line. “Hey listen, I need to check on something. You know, you
scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”

Donald smelled a story but knew Shelly wasn’t going to give
it to him if she could help it. She was too good. “Yeah, sure. And just what do
you need scratched?”

Shelly’s eyes narrowed. She needed to play this just right. Some
harmless misdirection was needed now, “Rumor has it that this guy’s head was
half torn off and that he had green alien bandages holding it together. You
know the story CNT ran the first day. When you were in his room, did you see
anything like that?”

“Well yeah, that’s no secret. Old news. He had this green gel
like stuff on the left side of his head – just like CNT reported it. So what’s
up here?”

Damn
, Shelly thought, she might have to risk giving
too much away. But not yet. First she’d try directly asking him but with a
smoke screen attached. “Yeah, but along with that, talk has it that this guy
was not in his thirties as reported, but over fifty. Personally I think it’s
pure crap but I thought I’d ask you as you seem to be the only reporter who
ever saw him.” She crossed her fingers and closed her eyes…
I’m wishing…come
on sweetie, tell me something I don’t know!

Donald thought back to that night. Damn, what game was Shelly
playing? Oh what the hell, he thought. “No, Shelly. I’d say that was definitely
BS. I got a pretty good look. The guy was around thirty—as reported.”

Yes!
Shelly silently shouted. She replied in a bored
voice, “Yeah…I thought so, just more of the same old, same old. People talking
shit, hoping to get a bone.”

“Yeah.” Donald sounded suspicious but it didn’t matter. He
had no clue.

“Got to run. Nice chatting with you.”

“Ah huh.”

“Ta da!” She hung up but kept the receiver squeezed between
her shoulder and ear as she grabbed her personal data assistant and turned it
on. While it started up, she dialed Hillcrest Hospital and asked for Beverly Reed
in the Molecular Biology Clinic and was transferred. Again she crossed her
fingers and tightly closed her eyes.
Wishing! Come on honey, be there!

“Hello?”

“Am I speaking to Beverly Reed?”

“This is her receptionist. Can I help you?”

“I hope so. This is Shelly White of the GSN Evening News and
I was hoping I could chat with Dr. Reed for a few seconds—reference for a story
I’m doing.”

“I just love your show, Ms. White…”

“Oh, please call me Shelly. And what’s your name?”

“Okay, Shelly. My name is Sarah Ricker. I watch you every
night! Listen, let me see what Dr. Reed is doing right now.”

Shelly waited, fingers crossed, eyes tightly closed.
Wishing!

 “This is Dr. Reed.”

“Dr. Reed, this is Shelly White of GSN,” first buy their
time, “Do you have a moment?”

“Sure. How can I help you?”

Based on what Shelly was hearing in this lady’s voice, the
buttering up wasn’t going to work on this person, at least not yet. Try to grab
her interest. “We’re doing a special on several rare medical cases. I can’t
divulge more than that during production, but we are hoping to get some experts
on film talking about these cases.”

“Really? I’m afraid I don’t have any rare medical cases here.
I don’t have any patients. I work in the lab.”

Now she was going to have to roll the dice – all or nothing. “Actually,
we sent you a sample a couple of weeks ago which you analyzed for us. It was…”
she paused as if looking it up, “yes, it was labeled CAMBS-3.”

“Oh, yes. I remember that one. Never seen anything quite like
it. Completely undetectable. So…that was from one of these rare cases?”

Okay!
Shell thought.
But what does that mean?
Her
mind raced. Make her think you already have the thing you want. “Yes…I have a
report right here.” Seeing nothing else within reach, Shelly grabbed a paper
bag from yesterday’s lunch and squeezed it several times – it made a crinkling
noise that, over the com unit, might sound like she was flipping through
papers. A couple of uneaten fries fell on the floor. “Very impressive work.” She
squeezed it once more as if turning a page, “Indeed. How long have you been
doing this?”

“Oh, gee, almost seventeen years.”

“Impressive. Now your report…” She squeezed the bag again. “…does
it…conclusively show what it states…let’s see….” She shook the bag and threw it
into the air. Another fry flew out and landed by the phone. She crossed her
fingers, closed her eyes tight and prayed.
Come on. Come on…
“…oh, now
where is that…” The bag landed on her desk making more noise. If this Reed lady
didn’t pick up the conversation now…

“You must mean the telomeres’ deterioration rate?”

Shelly sighed with relief, “Why, yes, that’s it.”

“Well as you can see, it was too low to be detected. How old
was the subject, Ms. White?”

Uh, oh…danger. Dodge and punt! “Oh, please call me Shelly. May
I call you Beverly?”

“Of course, Shelly.”

“Now I’m just a reporter, not a scientist. What does this
really mean?”

“Well, certainly the sample came from an infant or someone
very young. Telomeres, the end caps of DNA which hold it together, duplicate
almost perfectly just after birth, though normally you can detect some deterioration.
It’s rare that we can’t detect it at all, but it happens sometimes with
infants.”

Shelly’s heart pounded.
Or fifty-two year old captains
who’d been made immortal by space aliens,
she thought. She needed a little
more. “I can see that but, well, what would you see in an older person…say
someone, oh…fifty-two years old, or…maybe thirty?” She grabbed the bag, gave it
another squeeze for good measure.

“Well at the age of thirty you would see a deterioration rate
of somewhere around twenty percent. Mileage will vary, but that’s about the age
when the body turns the corner from developing to getting old. This
deterioration is why we age. At fifty-two years old the rate might be around eighty
to ninety percent. But for a newborn baby, the percentage is very low,
sometimes, as in this case, it’s completely undetectable. Of course it is
there, it’s just that…”

Shelly stopped listening and smiled.
Got it!
,she
thought,
My God it’s really true!
A chill went up her spine.
And I’ve
got the scoop!
The sound of Beverly’s voice still talking on the com unit
brought her back to the present. Shelly looked at the receiver with bored
eyes…it was suddenly just a minor annoyance. With a slight cringe, she simply
disconnected.

She then hit a speed dial number. “Vince? Hold the press,
honey! I have a bombshell! I want a planet wide interrupt, all stations at,”
she glanced at the clock on the wall, “5:00 PM – no, make that 4:40 sharp. What
studio?” She listened as she grabbed her PDA and started typing up the story. “Okay.
Can you be a dear and run by there and make sure that it’s going to be mine and
ready on time? Then drop by and I’ll fill you in. This is huge, Vince. Huge! And,
yes, solid confirmation from three independent sources.” She slammed the com
unit down and continued typing.

Dolly had been leaning against the wall watching Shelly’s
entire performance. With a look on her face somewhere between utter disbelief
and total admiration, she started slowly clapping her hands together.

Shelly turned, “Dolly?” Then she smiled and did a mock bow. “Now
get to work, girl! I’m going global in fifteen!”

---

They entered the darkened room slowly. The soundproof door
closed behind them. Grace and Nero were seeing the room for the first time and
so the strange addition did not stand out to them. Adamarus, however,
immediately saw the large black oval cylinder next to the green window. He
looked over at the counter. On it were two glass bottles. “Okay,” he looked at
Grace, her eyes wide as she looked around the room, “Nero, honey, first over
here by the sink.”

Nero glanced over at the counter and started moving towards
it, but his eyes looked back at the glowing green window at the end of the
room. Grace couldn’t take her eyes off the bottles on the sink. “Is this it?”
she whispered.

Adamarus nodded. He opened both and handed them to Grace and
Nero. Grace looked at it with awe.

Nero gave it a suspicious look then smelled it. “No way! This
stuff is gross!” He stepped over to the sink and tipped the small bottle to
pour it out.

“Noooo!” Adamarus shouted. His hand shot out and stopped Nero
just in time. This startled Nero. He looked at his Dad, “No way will I drink
this! Smell it!”

Adamarus thought quickly, “Nero…Nero, I need you to do this
for me – it’s very, very important, son.” Nero made a defiant face. Adamarus
knew how stubborn Nero could be. Think! What to do?

Grace came to the rescue. She kneeled down by Nero,
“Hey…would Swing Fist act like this. Come on Swing…Dun, Dun, Da, Da, Dun…”

Nero stood straighter, his face took on a serious expression
and his head moved from side to side in a cocky gesture. He squinted his eyes
and swirled the liquid around in the bottle as he said in a deep voice, “On the
rocks, straight up, in a dirty glass!” He downed the contents in a single gulp,
then slammed the bottle down on the sink saying, “Ahhhh…” as if it were the
best thing he’d ever tasted. But when he turned around, his was face twisted,
the color had drained from it and his hand shot to his mouth.

“Good boy!” Adamarus said. “Here,” he handed Nero some gum,
“this will get rid of the taste. He looked at Grace. She was just staring at
the bottle. Feeling his gaze she looked up, shrugged and downed it just as Nero
had.

The three of them walked around the featureless black oval
that had never been there before and approached the green window. Adamarus
hoped that Bugs was hiding behind the suspended room as he had been on the day
of their first meeting so that introducing the alien could be done in stages. But
Bugs was right there waiting patiently. Adamarus could hear the sharp intake of
breath from both Grace and Nero as they caught sight of the alien.

As soon as Bugs saw them it sucked in air and rose rapidly up
towards the ceiling. Even having been told about this, it startled Grace and
Nero and they took a step back. As Bugs pushed the air out and issued the ear
shattering screech, Nero grabbed his mother’s leg tightly. The translator
issued its words almost without delay, “Greetings, beloved wife and son of Adamarus.
I am honored by your presence.”

Both mother and son relaxed a little upon hearing its words,
but they just stood there staring at it not saying anything. Adamarus nudged
Grace and whispered, “Say hello.”

Grace looked at him, nodded and cleared her throat, “Hello,
Bugs. It’s an honor and a pleasure to meet you, too.” The progress bar on the
translation box shot across and a short screech could be heard issuing in the
chamber beyond the glass.

Bugs replied, “The honor and pleasure is all mine. Both of
you must be very proud of your husband and father. Nero, I hear that you have a
couple of questions you wish to ask me.”

Nero looked nervously at his mother and then his dad. Both
nodded, encouraging him to speak up. Nero looked back at Bugs and in a small
voice said, “Hello, Bugs. Ah…yes, if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind at all.”

“The first one is from me and is just this: How old are you?”