“Getting back to some news Sarge and I were discussing which is timely for our meeting. We know how news outlets work, don’t we? Journos have egos and like attention.”
Lee stood and headed toward the coffee cart. He dropped a pod in, placed his cup on the cup holder and pressed the button. The sound of the coffee machine’s pump and motor vibrated through the room.
“Journos … which is a good lead into what I want to chat about.”
The alcohol was still impacting the conversation.
“There are stories starting to circulate about the thing in the sky. For example, I’ve heard it’s being referred to as an alien spacecraft in some circles.” Lee sat down.
“That wouldn’t be out of the norm,” Jones said. “Aliens are a popular topic with most news organisations and why not? The solar system is so vast it’s hard to deny there must be other intelligent lifeforms out there.”
“Is that so? Wonder why we haven’t encountered any yet.” Lee rubbed his chin. “But these alien stories are normally jammed in with all the other news and don’t seem to remain of interest for long.”
“That’s true. I like reading about such things. But they don’t hang around for long,” Bruce said. “There was an object discovered some years back that they believed could have been part of an alien craft, but the object passed us by, and the news soon died off. There was no panic.”
Lee nodded. “But—and this is a big but—the world can see this thing. Normally alien stories or asteroids don’t have any connection with the people—out of sight, out of mind. This thing reminds everybody, every day. ‘Hey, I’m up here’”
“So is it an alien ship?’ Jones asked.
The boss took a large sip of his coffee and coughed. "Apparently, there are pictures circulating that show an outline of some kind of infrastructure inside the asteroid.”
“Where have they come from?” Jones asked.
“The aliens or the pictures?” Bruce grinned.
Sarge took a deep breath. Bruce better keep his thoughts to himself or else rumblings would come, as Lee had little time for flippant behaviour.
“Thank you, Bruce, for lightening the mood in the room.” The words came through tight lips. “The pictures apparently came from NASA.” Lee looked at each of them. The energy in the room didn’t change, which seemed to please him. “Now, let’s discuss strategy.”
“Pictures can easily be refuted. We can circulate stories easy enough,” Jones said. “But if it remains in the sky or even gets closer, then it could be difficult to control the message.”
“NASA will be able to do something. They must have the technology to deal with it,” Bruce said.
“Then we need to push that out there too. It would be good if someone from NASA could refute the pictures and also discuss their strategies for dealing with such.”
Jones nodded. “I have contacts that can help me there.”
They discussed strategies for a good hour, sometimes going over the same things. Jones left the room to make some calls and returned with a smug look. This lady had a firm belief in herself.
“Great Leader.” Jones looked directly at Lee without a hint of uncertainty. “It’s done. The machinery is now in play.”
The world was about to be ‘botted’.
23 - Where’s Wiley?
Jack and Cath arrived back in the office just before lunchtime, refreshed after the brief trip to the Sunshine Coast. Tiredness lingered in the background, a mind-induced tiredness, a God-versus-aliens tiredness.
They’d just got to their desks when Cath’s phone rang. “Unknown number. Odd.” She answered. “Cath speaking.”
He raised his eyebrows and opened his hands.
Who is it?
She signalled a spherical shape with her free hand. A sphere? The asteroid? He was never any good at charades. Now she looked like she was eating. That made no sense. She rolled her eyes and reached for her notebook.
“May not be anything.” Cath was nodding.
Soft murmuring came from her phone.
“Yes, I can imagine you would be fine-tuned, considering what has happened.”
Jack had no idea.
“Yes, text me his name and whatever else you have on him.”
A few pleasantries, and she signed off. “Thanks for the call, Walt.”
Got it. A sort-of sphere. Watermelon. Walter Melon.
“That was Walter Melon.”
Jack nodded. “Thought so.”
Cath gave him the ‘I don’t think so’ look. “John attended an emergency disaster planning meeting last night. One of the members asked irrelevant questions regarding the use of drones in their emergency situation. He was interested in the payload they could carry—said he was thinking of a starting a pizza business.”
“An emergency meeting, and this guy was talking about pizza? That’s a red flag.”
“John agrees. His police sonars went off. He sensed something more underlying and says we should check the guy out.”
