Alien Affairs

Georgia Turnbull flew to Cairo with two security contractors, Keith and Alex. An armored limo took them to the American Consulate on Tawfik Diab Street where the CIA head of station looked at her bodyguards and greeted her as ‘Madam Cougar.’ “Oh, sorry, I mean ‘Madam Director’,” he said grinning. It earned him the trademark scowl. He had prepared two blast-proof Range Rovers packed with metal detectors and ground penetrating radar. In addition to the armed drivers, he had ready three CIA engineers to operate the hardware and a flunky from the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities to make sure they weren’t stealing artifacts. Turnbull inspected the gear but felt like she was forgetting something.

“How far is it to Giza?” she asked the head of station.

“Not far at all. Forty minutes.”

“Then let’s roll.”

The exact spot that Deshler had revealed was actually a kilometer and a half south of the Alafayoom Ring Road in a flat sandy area. Even with four-wheel drive, the drivers did not trust the heavy cars on the soft sand. One driver waited with the Range Rovers and the rest of the party hiked to the coordinates lugging equipment. Two engineers scanned the ground with metal detectors while the third dragged the ground penetrating radar unit back and forth. Keith, Alex and the other driver formed a perimeter and kept their eyes on the empty desert.

“Anomaly here,” the radar operator shouted after only a few minutes. “Just below the surface.”

An engineer started digging carefully, the Egyptologist hovered with a digital camera at ready and the director with the three security men crowded around the hole. At about three feet down a metallic dome appeared and soon they had the whole sphere revealed. Turnbull knelt to examine the alien characters, a part of which was animated. She made a video of it with her phone so Carrie could translate it.

That was when they heard the helicopters. Four Egyptian military choppers approached from the north at low altitude.

Alex yelled, “Let’s get you outta here, ma’am.” He and Keith took her by the elbows and started her running toward the road. One of the Range Rovers fishtailed across the sand. It made a wide loop and came beside them slowing.

The driver opened the door and shouted, “Jump in. If I stop I’m stuck.”

On the run, Keith pulled the rear door open and Alex shoved the director into the car. He pulled himself in as well, landing on top of her and Keith didn’t even try. He banged on the side panel and yelled to the driver. “Go, go.”

The car accelerated just as soldiers slid down ropes from each of the helicopters and surrounded everyone left on the ground. One chopper separated to pursue the escaping car. It menaced the windshield with its skids but the driver kept his nerve and reached the pavement. Automatic rifle rounds banged on the armor plate and bounced off the thick Lexan windows. The helicopter circled ahead of the car and hovered crosswise over the road. There was a flash from the open side and a second later the car lifted from the macadam a split second before the blast pounded their eardrums. It did not flip and the driver soldiered onward. When he reached the rabbit warren of an Egyptian residential neighborhood the helicopter broke off the chase.

Alex still lay on top of his charge. Turnbull said, “Alex, you’re a hell of a stud, but this isn’t the time or place for this, so let me up please.”

“Sorry, ma’am. It’s part of the drill. I’d have covered you even if you were a man.”

“There was no call to say a thing like that.” She rearranged her jacket as she climbed onto the seat and said to the driver. “Are you in contact with the other driver?”

“Negative, ma’am. No response.”

“Shit. Can you find your way out of this rats’ nest and back to the consulate?”

“Yes, ma’am. No problem.”

She took her phone from her pocket and called the head of station to alert him to the attack. He said he would make some calls and get back to her. He met them when they arrived at the diplomatic compound. “None of my contacts in the Egyptian military has a clue about what’s going on.”

“Well, somebody damn well better find out.”

That evening Al Jazeera reported that a rogue band of Egyptian soldiers perpetrated the kidnappings and seizure of the canister. For the freedom of the hostages and the device they demanded the release of all the Palestinians in Israeli custody, or else the Americans would die and the canister unleashed.

“Goddammit,” Turnbull said to the agent in charge, “find where they’re being held and get me to the airport. I’ve got to see a man about a horse.”