Flight of Fancy

David woke up as if he’d been drugged. He was all groggy and dazed. Lack of sleep wasn’t the problem, quite the opposite in fact. He had a solid 9 hours, but it was sleep like when you were sick and you woke up in the morning feeling even worse than the previous evening.

It was now two nights since he built the device. He hadn’t gone back. He couldn’t face the disappointment. Even his dreams were warding him off. They were usually nightmares where he felt he was being observed.

Definitely not a good omen.

He got up and put on sweatpants and a T-shirt, both black. He spent a bit more time than he needed in the bathroom, trying to clean and splash away the demons that were haunting him.

Alas, no luck!

As he came out of the bathroom, he was greeted by the cheerful face of his wife, Ana.

“Hey,” she said. “How’re you feeling?”

She’d been worried for him the past few days. He could tell that she knew there was something eating away at him. It was only a matter of time before she asked him directly. They had that sort of marriage where if one person was feeling low, the other would try to pick them up. Still, the idea of explaining it all was unpleasant, it just didn’t feel right.

“Meh,” he replied. “I think I might be coming down with something.”

Perhaps she’d think he was just sick and wouldn’t probe into him too much.

He had breakfast, then spent some time on the computer, reading all the “exciting” news. People were still squabbling about politicians, who was better, who was the lesser of two evils, blah blah blah. It was all complete nonsense to him. It made him mad that people still bought into the whole charade.

No politician is trying to help us!

He wished he could stop reading about these things, but it was everywhere and he also knew that it was a kind of secret obsession. It was as if he like making himself upset.

Ana was busy tidying around the house again.

“Darling,” he said. “I think I might go to the forest later and get some more wood.”

She turned around and looked at him with concern: “I thought you were feeling under the weather.”

“I’m feeling a bit better now,” David said. “Besides, I’ll take it very easy and the fresh air will do me good.”

She looked at him again and seemed to buy his explanation: “Okay, but you have to promise me we’ll go for a walk together later as well.”

It seemed as if she was scolding him for not spending enough time with her.

“Sure, darling,” came the reply.

That was settled then. He didn’t know where that came from, but his instincts must have been telling him it was time to see if anything had change since the last time he had gone into the forest.

****************************

It was about 10AM when he drove the car with the trailer towards the forest. It was a very short drive. You could easily walk to the little family-owned forest. It would only take about 10 to 15 minutes, but his car was needed to transport the firewood.

He was actually starting to feel better for some reason. It was as if a cloud of fog had been lifted off his head and things suddenly became clearer again. There was no plan about what would happen in the forest, he was merely curious if there were any changes.

On making the last turn towards the forest, he noticed there was a big black SUV parked in the spot where he usually left his car.

Who the fuck would park here?

People from the village knew that this was their land and never parked there. Besides, who in the village owned a black SUV? Nobody sprang to mind. Perhaps it was just somebody who got lost.

As he was contemplating the options, he noticed one more thing when approaching the car. It had a foreign registration plate.

What the fuck!?

It was becoming more and more curious. It was highly unlikely that a tourist had wandered off the main road and managed to find his way onto the backroad of all backroads. There was really no connection to the main road, this was merely a gravel access road leading from their farm. So if someone had come here, they would have to drive past their house and he would have heard the noise.

Unless…

There was one other option. You could get off the main road and drive through a field of fairly high grass and connect to the road in that way.

But you’d have to know the road was there!

This was really making him feel anxious. Something wasn’t adding up. As he was approaching the vehicle even more, it became apparent that the registration plates were actually American. He was nearly at the car when he applied the brake. It took a second of thought, but he came to the conclusion that he would need some reinforcements. He backed the car away and turned it around towards the house.

**************************

It was all happening so quickly for Jack Dawson. When they swooped him away in the black SUV, the first place they took him was their headquarters, secretively called Section 00. They gave him all the details about his assignment. He would get a car and equipment from their military base in Slovenia and would be travelling with three other agents, which they introduced to him. One was an unremarkable bald man who appeared highly muscular, his black suit straining at the seems. The two other agents were women, highly professional in appearance. Neither of them cracked a smile when introduced to Dawson. They seemed all business and highly competent. That’s the way Jack liked it. Both women were wearing trouser suits with blouses and Jack could discern the muscular physique underneath.

Probably not an ounce of fat on all three!

Besides the fact that one woman was blond and the other was a brunette, it was difficult to tell them apart with their expressionless smooth and proportionate faces. Jack didn’t care one way or another. He wanted an efficient team and he seemed to be getting one.

From what he could gather, the most important task was to retrieve any device which could be responsible for giving out such energy signatures. They would get all court orders ready upon their arrival. The little pocket country was in America’s pocket.

Finally, somebody’s playing ball!

After the briefing, they whizzed the four of them to the airport and the next flight to Frankfurt, as there were no direct flights to Slovenia.

Bloody peasants!

From Germany they would then fly to Ljubljana. He’d never heard of the city, but it didn’t matter.

It’s just another foreign country. Who cares!?

After only about an hour or so, they were already on an international flight. The journey was unremarkable, with each member of the team engaged in their own activities. They hadn’t brought any files with them, as the mission was highly classified.

When they finally arrived to Slovenia, they were greeted by two Americans, another pair of highly professional individuals, who handed them the keys to their car, an SUV with American plates and a pre-programmed GPS device. Their destination was a little town just next to the village where the signal emanated from. They would spend the night there, then head for the signal location very early next morning, trying to catch anyone nearby off guard.

They had their court orders, search warrants, badges and all other documents, courtesy of the “chatty” pair from the airport. Everything was in place and they were ready to catch some real-life criminals.

*****************************

David came back to the farm in distress. His father, uncle and wife were there. He was having trouble explaining what was going on, they all managed to understand eventually. His father and uncle went into his car to come with him. His wife Ana wanted to do the same, but he stopped her: “Please, I don’t want you to come, it could be dangerous.”

“Is this some macho bullshit?” she asked. “You know me better than that.”

“No, it’s just that I don’t want anyone to take advantage of the situation,” replied David defensively.

“First of all,” she interrupted, “we don’t even know what’s going on. And second of all, I can take care of myself. You know me, I’m the diplomat of the family.”

She gave a coquettish smile because they both knew that wasn’t exactly true. She was the more feisty of the two and would never let an argument go, always willing to fight for even the minutest rights and details. He knew there would be no arguing with her, not one that he could win anyway.

Fine,” he said, “but if something happens…”

“Nothing’s going to happen,” she interrupted. “Come on, let’s go already. Let’s get this cleared up”

He didn’t know if he wanted it cleared up or not. For some reason that couldn’t be explained, it felt as if he was walking into a nightmare. It was just a hunch, but the feeling persisted in him.

They both got into the car and drove to the little forest. As they got there, they were greeted by four people dressed in black and wearing black sunglasses. two of them men and two women. It was as if they had been expecting them.

Not a good sign!

Before David could get his thoughts straight, one of the men addressed their whole group in English: “Are you the owners of this land?”

David was stunned for only a second. He was just about to answer, but his always ready wife beat him to it: “Yes. And who are you? You have no right to…”

She was cut off by the same man: “We have every right to be here, ma’am.”

The man produced a Slovenian court order, which seemed to give them all the rights they wanted.

“If you want what’s best for you, you’d better co-operate.” It was the same man speaking. David assumed that he must be the brains of the operation.

“What could you possibly want?” Ana continued in English. “We’re only farmers…”

“Oh really?” the man jumped in rudely yet again. “That’s what you’d want us to believe, wouldn’t you? We know you’ve been doing some strange things in this forest. Our satellites picked it up.”

All the colour drained from David’s face as he realised they were possibly talking about his device.

How can they? It’s not even working.

It seemed as if one of the women saw his face change. She said something to the man in charge.

“Anyway,” the man carried on, “it’s too late now. There’s no point hiding it.”

He looked at David and David tried keeping his composure and not let it show on his face.

Ana wasn’t pleased, though, mostly because she didn’t know David had been fiddling around with a curious device in their forest. She probably wouldn’t be so upset with them otherwise.

How can you say this?” Ana protested. “We haven’t done anything wrong. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You might not,” the man replied, “but can you be so sure for the rest of your family?”

“Yes,” Ana cried in defiance. “We’re just farmers here, with nothing to hide.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” persisted the American agent.

David’s head was spinning. He was going through all sorts of scenarios. Had they found the device? Had they confiscated it? Would he be arrested for it? Was it actually a bomb or some sort of nuclear device? He couldn’t concentrate on anything and could hardly keep a normal face.

“I think one of you did something here and now that we know about it, you’re in big trouble,” the agent continued pressing his story. “However, if the culprit comes forward, we wouldn’t press charges against anyone else.”

Did they find the device?

Could he live with himself if they sent somebody else to jail instead of him. He felt his mind crumbling under the pressure.

Why did I have to start building the stupid thing in the first place?

“For now, we’ll let you think about the situation,” the agent concluded. “But we’ll be back and we’ll be watching. Just try something and we’ll be all over you like a pack of lions.”

With that, the American agents got into their SUV and drove through the grass towards the back road that led to the main road.