Flight of Fancy

To say that Steven Keffler was apprehensive about meeting the bosses was an understatement. In fact, he had been absolutely terrified for a while and was unable to get any sleep for several nights (not that sleep was particularly fond of him, in any case). However, as the day grew nearer, his brain told him that it made no difference to worry about it and beat your head too much. There was nothing he could do and stressing himself out would only cause him to underperform at the crucial moment. It was easier said than done, but somehow he managed to relax just a little bit. There was no way of relaxing completely with the big meeting coming, but at least some of the tension was gone. As was usual, his wife had taken the brunt of his verbal anger.

She can take it.

After all, she was living the high life in a beautiful home with two children. Most of the time she had the house to herself. So to listen to him take out his frustrations was the least she could do. She owed it to him. It was part of her duty and part of the package when you married a man of influence. That had helped him calm down. He needed to take it out on someone and she was the perfect target. It didn’t matter what he yelled at her for. It might have been the kids’ clothes, the tidiness of the house or any other small matter that he really didn’t care about. She had taken it in her usual manner – without talking back and accepting the blame.

She knows better than to talk back. Women know a man of power when they see one.

It also helped when he hired that prostitute. That also took away a lot of his frustrations. Again, he had taken it out on her, this time not verbally. They were a discrete facility and they catered to his particular tastes. After all, he was a big spender and money will get you anything. It wasn’t exactly legal, but people like him were above the law anyway.

So, here he was, much more relaxed than even a few days ago, awaiting the arrival of the bosses. It would be the first time he would see them, if they allowed him that particular pleasure. They had decided to meet him at his headquarters, just like their emissaries.

Who knows why?

It was one of the best protected buildings in the world and could withstand major damage.

Not that anyone would dare attack it.

How could they attack a place they didn’t even know existed? His agency was one of the best kept secrets in the world. Of course, there were conspiracy theories circling the net about places like this, but they were much too vague to be of any danger.

As the buzzer on his desk rang, he knew it was time. Still, he answered it: “Yes?”

“Sir, the people you’ve been expecting are here to see you,” said his secretary.

“Very well,” he replied. “Send them up to the top floor meeting room and send security guards up there as well…”

“Sir,” came the unsure voice of the secretary, “they appear to have their own security and they said they would rather…”

“Sure,” interrupted Keffler, “whatever they want. “Make sure nobody goes near the elevator and put security guards on the elevator door.”

“Okay, no problem, sir,” replied his secretary and ended the call.

Even though the elevator was security protected, it was still better to be safe. Only a few people had the passwords for the top floor elevator. One of them was he, the rest were the emissaries and the bosses themselves. Apart from the password, you needed a fingerprint and retina scan as well. It was possible for somebody to break their defences, but most of the time, the top floor was unoccupied anyway and it didn’t matter. The security measures were put there for cases like today, if the bosses or the emissaries decided to show up.

Even though Keffler wasn’t looking forward to the meeting, there was a sense of excitement as well. He would meet the rulers of the free world, the people who made the big decisions about everything that happens, from industry, banking, police, government and anything you can imagine. They controlled all the world governments, they controlled or even created secret societies like freemasons, owned the Rotschilds and Rockefellers and had CEOs of pretty much all major companies in their pockets. Their reach extended to who knew where and they were a scary prospect even without having met them.

Keffler tightened and straightened his tie, took a deep breath, then headed for the elevator. After getting through the necessary security procedures, the elevator took him to the top floor in what seemed like lightning speed. He had never been able to get used to the quick elevator. It seemed unnatural. The elevator then came to a rather too fast halt, bringing his stomach up to his throat.

That’s all I needed!

After a second to compose himself, he stepped out of the elevator. There was no worry the elevator would go anywhere. It was there just for him and his most important guests.

Keffler walked into the lush meeting room, which was full of granite features and expensive oak furniture. The windows were naturally bulletproof and the room was at a very comfortable temperature of 71°F.

The first thing he noticed was that in the middle of the party of guests were three men of highly important appearance. They were obviously the rulers of the worlds. At first their appearance was quite unremarkable – one was black, one was obviously oriental and one white. It was almost as if they were some fake people, put there to represent most of humanity. They formed the middle of the group. On each side were their emissaries and behind them were about a dozen security guards, not particularly large in stature but undoubtedly equipped not only with state of the art weapons, but also with a keen knowledge of martial arts.

As Keffler approached the group, he noticed something about his bosses’ faces. At first glance they seemed normal to an unobservant eye, however the more he looked and the closer he got, there was definitely something off about them. It appeared as if their faces had an almost rubbery quality about them and certainly an unnatural sheen about them. It only made them look scarier in Keffler’s eyes.

My God! They might not even be human.

Their features were also very smooth and wrinkleless, while their hair was made to look normal, but again to Keffler appeared artificial, like everything else about them.

Maybe they’re robots.

There were conspiracy theories of artificial intelligence taking over humanity at one point, however Keffler took no stock in such obvious bullshit. Still, looking at them in this room, the rumours were making more and more sense to him. He tried composing himself and reassured himself that if they were truly robots or aliens they would make more of an effort to appear realistically human. It was quite possible these were very old people who had managed to prolong their lives with artificial methods, which made them look highly unnatural and creepy.

Keffler waited at a respectable distance from his bosses, allowing them the opportunity to invite him to sit and not wanting to provoke their security guards in any sort of way.

The man with oriental features invited him to take a seat and Keffler accepted the invitation silently. It wasn’t as if he had an option.

The black man then started speaking: “So, Mr. Keffler, nice to finally meet you. We’ve heard mostly good things about you. Your job in our service has been quite satisfactory.”

It was a backhanded compliment, however Keffler decided to take it as a compliment. He merely nodded his head to acknowledge what was being said.

It was time for the oriental man to speak: “We have heard you have a very interesting theory about what has been going on. Would you care to explain how you came to it?”

It was very creepy. Even though the men looked completely different due to their skin colour, their voices were almost identical, with a pleasant mid-range ring to them and no distinctive regional accents. Keffler was caught off guard by this strange phenomenon only for a second, but still managed to come up with a reply in an acceptable time: “Well, as you know, our agency and the one I worked for before have almost unlimited resources at our disposal. Going through the years and the material we’ve accumulated, there are numerous instances of occurrences which are hard to explain. As you well know, there are also cases when the government found wreckage and bodies which would appear to be of alien origin. While some of it could be attributed to scientific experiments, I have come to the conclusion that there are forces out there that are beyond our reach and scientifically far more advanced.”

The three men nodded their heads, as if satisfied by his answer. Then the white man of the group began to speak: “It is quite possible, Mr. Keffler, that what you say is true. There could be aliens out there that have technology beyond human understanding at this moment. But from our sources, most of these aliens still inhabit out normal realms of existence and adhere to similar physical laws as the human race. So, this would not really explain the occurrences with your prisoners. Their escapes defied any laws of physics that we are aware of.”

Again, the voice was similar to the two other speakers and Keffler couldn’t shake the feeling that they were indeed programmed robots, who could only speak in a certain manner.

“You’re right,” replied Keffler. “These instances can’t be explained with the alien cases we’ve encountered before physically. However, there are a number of cases in our files that defy belief, with no logical explanation, apart from the paranormal. As the paranormal is not something I believe in, the only logical explanation would be that we’re dealing with some alien entities that exist in a different way to our own kind and can perhaps break our laws of physics. I know most people wouldn’t put much stock in such theories, but I personally can’t see any other option.”

It was times for the black member of the group to speak again: “You make a convincing argument, Mr. Keffler. It is like Sherlock Holmes said: ‘Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.’ I think you are on to something with your theory. Obviously, you know what this means.”

All eyes were now on Keffler, waiting for a reply. Keffler was beginning to sweat again, unable to think of something sensible to say. The back man helped him out: “It means this situation is extremely dangerous for our way of life.”

Keffler nodded and scolded himself that he couldn’t think of such an obvious reply.

It was time for the oriental man to add his opinion: “If this alien race has decided to interfere in our matters, that must mean they will do something big, something that we probably cannot foresee at this time. So far we have had little or no alien interference in modern society. If they decided to help escape a few prisoners, we can only assume they mean to do something that could jeopardise all that we have been building for hundreds of years.”

Keffler didn’t know how to reply and merely sat there looking at the table, occasionally glancing over at his distinguished guests.

I have nothing!

“Something needs to be done, Mr. Keffler,” started the white man. “We cannot let this provocation pass, especially if some grander gesture is forthcoming. We need to devise some sort of plan to stop whatever is coming.”

“I agree,” replied Keffler, finally collecting his thoughts. “But how can you come up with a plan if we don’t know what we’re dealing with. We don’t even know what they’re capable of.”

It was time for his bosses to remain pensive, as if struggling to come up with an answer.

“It is quite a conundrum,” said the oriental man. “How do you fight a force which you cannot comprehend or see?”

It was a rhetorical question and Keffler wouldn’t be baited. He simply waited to see what the puppet masters would come up with.

They’re good at this sort of thing. They have the whole world at their feet, for Christ’s sake!

The three men then spoke amongst themselves, as if trying to decide on a plan of action. Keffler looked at them, unable and unwilling to come up with any solution of his own.

This is way beyond my abilities!

The three men talked quietly and calmly for a few more moments, then the white man turned to Keffler: “Right, Mr. Keffler. As the situation has not gotten out of hand yet, we believe that the best course of action for the time being would be to observe the situation even more closely. Put cameras and security systems in place wherever you can, observe what is going in at all the sights of the energy sources. Very soon we might have to take more drastic measures, but for the time being, we do not want to upset the population too much.”

Keffler knew what they meant. Soon, they would have to stage another fake shooting or terrorist attack. He was curious why they didn’t want to do it immediately: “As you wish, but wouldn’t it be better to do these things straight away. If we stage it just right…”

“Mr. Keffler,” interrupted the oriental man, as if insulted by Keffler impertinence, “these people are members of a local community, they have neighbours and relatives. It is convince them that one person is a criminal, but convincing them that a huge section of the population is responsible for something atrocious, might be too much even for their limited cognitive abilities.”

Keffler could see the logic in that and nodded his head, regretting his insolent question.

“We will be in touch through our emissaries,” said the black man. “For now, implement the actions we have discussed. If there is a need for something more drastic, we will send our emissaries over.”

“That is fine, no problem,” replied Keffler.

With that, the group squeezed into the large elevator and went down to the parking garage under the building.

Keffler didn’t know what to make of the meeting, but he realised not much has been accomplished. There were no answers, just more questions. One thing was certain, though. He was more afraid than ever before in his life. He didn’t know what was scarier – his bosses or the prospect of a new alien race interfering in human matters.