The Hunter, The Dragon And The Smokey Mountain Angel

Method stopped before a large steel door. She typed in her security code then placed her finger against the fingerprint reader.

There was a beep.

Then the hologram of Roger appeared and he said, “Hi method.

Method said, “Hi Roger.”

Roger replied, “Voice recognition affirmative.”

Then Roger seemed to lean forward, though only his image had enlarged. He said, “Look closely into my eyes.”

Method leaned forward, looked Roger in the eyes and then the door clicked. She turned the knob and walked in.

Before her was a large room with paintings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Cicero and behind her was a giant mural of Andrew Jackson and below it, the inscription read Defender of New Orleans. A long table filled the room surrounded mostly by men. They were all dressed in full military uniforms and everyone wore a funny hat that covered their forehead, stretched back over their crown and disappeared under their collar.

A man sitting at the head of the table motion for her to sit next to him. Method continued walking and took her seat.

She nodded respectfully and said, “Gen. 71, special council.”

Gen. 71 nodded and said, “You activated the emergency command team. You have all our attention.”

Method gave a curt nod and glanced around the table. She saw another general, a commander, two scientist, three billionaires, a few novelist and even one journalist. She had met privately with each person before. This wasn’t the first time they had all been in one room. The first time they had met was for introductions. After everyone knew each other and understood why they were each selected for this particular committee they began discussing possible crisis that could arise within the nation, and even the world, where their assistance might be needed.

They had discussed what to do if terrorist were to take out the top leadership of the United States or any of her allies. They made plans to fight mass hysteria in the event of a major biological outbreak. But the most sobering conversation that they ever had was the talk of revolution…

Method adjusted her wristwatch and then tapped on its screen. The hologram of the cave and the space cruiser with the dragon attached to it in a field of blue energy appeared before them. A moment later, a girl descended from the ceiling of the cave and landed in front of the dragon. She seemed to be looking at it and the dragon seemed to be looking at her. It was hard to tell, but it looked like they were communicating.

Then the image changed and the time stamp below the image showed 90 minutes earlier. The hologram was of the control tower, which was cut into the side of the cave, overlooking the spaceship from a distance. From inside of the tower, they could see the whole cave. In front of the window, sat a bank of computers and a dozen operators faced the cave as they steadily worked.

Then one of the operators, a young girl, stood up, turned around and walked to the back of the room. She just stood there facing the back wall. A moment later two other operators stood up, turned around and walked to the back of the room facing the rear wall. Then another man did the same thing. Within moments, everyone but a single young man had stood up, walked to the back of the room and stared at the blank wall.

The last computer operator hadn’t noticed what the other operators next to him were doing. His attention had stayed fixed on a disturbance outside the mountain. Something or someone was approaching the most top–secret base in the world from the air. The hologram zoomed in on his computer screen. He was flipping through each special operator’s night vision cameras that were guarding the mountain, and calling emergency action codes. Only one out of 100 snipers responded. They were all just looking up at the sky or the rocks. Then, the lone sniper fired at a small unidentified flying object moving into the kill zone.

The loan computer operator shook his head, looked to his left and started speaking, “Can you believe…” He slowly turned his head to the back of the room, saw all his fellow operators standing with their backs to him and said, “What the hell are yall doing!”

Then he looked forward and saw the dragon. Before the dragon was a woman. He whispered to himself, “That looks like the very same operator that’s been on television and she’s standing in front of the dragon.”

The video ended with the young man standing up, and just before he started for the emergency staircase leading down to the cave, he hit the emergency alarm.

Method tapped a button on her wristwatch and the hologram disappeared and a moment of silence passed before she said, “We are dealing with something more powerful and more complex then we first thought.”

The people in the room remained silent as they glanced at each other and then back at Method. Method continued, “We know that the space cruiser had a commander. We know that this creature is that commanders captive. We also know that our operator, the woman we tried so very hard to hide is somehow connected to the appearance of this spaceship and our friend.”

Gen. 71 said, “So this is why we’re all wearing these stupid hats.”

Method swallowed and nodded as she said, “These silly hats are the only thing protecting us from whatever is able to control 99 highly trained snipers and 11 top security computer operators.”

Gen. 71 said, “But what about that other operator. How did he avoid being, I don’t know manipulated, hypnotized.”

Method nodded. She said, “I wish I knew. I suspect everyone from the commander of this base down to the janitors is somehow being manipulated–”

“Manipulated by who,” Gen. 71 asked?

Method tapped her wristwatch again and the image of the Dragon looking at Julia filled the space above the center of the table.

Gen. 71 said, “So you think our friend is somehow manipulating all these people.”

Method raised her eyebrows and said, “Permission to execute order 15b.”

Gen. 71′s eyes went wide. He looked across the table but everyone in the room remained silent. His eyes relaxed and he nodded.

Method stood up and walked to the portrait of Gen. Jackson. With her thumb, she pressed the plaque that said, defender of New Orleans, and the room went dark. A second later, the emergency lights kicked on and a red hue filled the room. Method said, “I not only believe the dragon is capable of manipulating human minds but, either the commander of that ship or both of them are already in our computer networks.”

A reporter asked, “What about the girl?”

Method said, “Order 15b will take care of her. Julia is both our target and asset. She will not be harmed.”

Gen. 71 asked, “How do we know which of these, the dragon or the ship’s commander, is our enemy? How do we know who or why they have infiltrated our systems? Who is on our side?”

Method said, “We can only assume that everyone is compromised. I’m not even sure if these funny hats work or not, however I am sure that one or both of our visitors are capable of destroying everything this organization has been defending for the last 300 years. I don’t know if one or both of them are doing this but I do know that I am going to soon find out.”