SKY WOMAN OF GROOM LAKE Page 9

  Nick got his pass and, as it was time for boarding, he walked out to the plane and sat down midway to the front in a window seat so that he could watch for Amie. A few minutes later he saw her walking towards the plane, head down, behind a group of male workers. With her blonde hair and blue pants suit, she was highly visible in the mostly male environment. “If someone starts making remarks about how unusual she looks, bringing attention to her, it could end this right here,” Nick thought. But the all-male crowd was finishing their shift and paid her little attention, apparently more interested in getting home than making conversation.

  Nick was relieved for Amie, pleased that she had made it past the turnstile guard and the flight assistant without problem. He relaxed for a minute, until he spotted Ted, the friendly, outgoing, jokester-type, laughing and gesturing with another group of men as they walked across the tarmac. Ted was coming up the boarding steps, only several passengers behind Amie.

  Amie sat down near the front of the plane at a window seat. Just as Nick had instructed her, she quickly picked up a magazine from the seat back in front of her and began reading, holding it close to her face. He had told her to ignore anyone sitting beside her, and to try to turn aside slightly with her face toward the window. “Don’t engage in any conversation, beyond simply nodding your head in slight acknowledgement. Anything more might cause someone to really look at your face.”

  The seats were filling up, and only a few more passengers could be accommodated on the craft. Ted spotted an empty seat beside “Shelley”, way up at the front, and dropped down in the aisle seat next to her. He had always found Shelley to be a good conversationalist and also one willing to listen to his long-winded jokes and amusing stories. So he was looking forward to spending the short flight in amiable chatter.

  “Hi, Shelley. Last time we’ll be doing this, I guess.” When she didn’t reply, and turned her head further toward the window, Ted was dumbfounded and began wondering if she had not heard him.

  He busied himself by settling his backpack under his seat. Within a few minutes all luggage had been loaded on board and the attendant closed the door. After a brief safety announcement, the plane taxied to the active runway at Area 51 and departed.

  Once at altitude for the brief forty-five minute flight to the Janet Terminal at McCarran International Airport, Ted tried once again to engage “Shelley” in conversation. “Hey, how’s it going, Shelley?”

  Amie murmured “Okay” but didn’t dare look directly at Ted. She attempted to ignore him by rattling her magazine and placing it closer to her face.

  However, several minutes later, Ted began persistently tapping her on the shoulder. “That was a great spread you put on for us,” he said. “I wanted to stay longer but I’ve got a flight out at 1730 to California.”

  Again, she said nothing.

  “Hey, Shelley, is something wrong? This bookworm thing is so unlike you.” This time Ted’s voice was getting louder, loud enough to possibly attract attention.

  Amie put down her magazine and turned slightly toward Ted, but not directly facing him, and simply replied, “I’m okay” in response to his question. From the corner of one eye she noticed Ted was smiling, but his smile soon evaporated. She knew he was staring at her and her senses picked up his vibrations. He was nervous and obviously alarmed.

  Amie would have to react. The month before, during lunch, Amie had demonstrated to Nick how she could distract any human with a touch of her hand. She had implied, at the time, that this was a simple thing for her to do. In fact, it was not. Nick was an easy target because he had opened himself up to her, but other humans were not as receptive to her energy touch. What Nick did not know was that it had required the special vest, which she was wearing under her clothing, to increase her energy flow. It had saved her once already that day, when she had maximized her powers in order to zap Shelley and pilfer her badge. It would have to be used again to neutralize this obviously troublesome situation.

  Rapidly she turned fully around and grabbed Ted’s wrist with her left hand. “I’m sorry, I’d love to chat with you,” she verbally spoke, as he looked at her in shock. “But I am not feeling well today. Please let me rest.” Amie hoped this reply might satisfy any other passenger that had been listening in on them.

  Meanwhile, a strong current of energy had been sent coursing to Ted’s brain, blocking his thoughts, and causing him to lean back in his seat with a deep sigh, and appear as if he were asleep. He wasn’t asleep, but neither was he awake, in the usual sense. It was as if Amie had temporarily hypnotized him, and he was in her power, awaiting instructions.

  As soon as the plane landed and had taxied to the special Janet Airlines Terminal on the far side of the airport, Amie got out of her seat and edged by an immobile Ted. She touched him briefly on the shoulder, while she stood in the aisle waiting for the crowd to move out the door, willing him to return to full consciousness. Ted “woke up” apparently much confused that the plane had already landed. He could not seem to remember the flight or much of anything beyond boarding the flight and sitting down.

  “Wow, what was in that party punch?” he muttered groggily.

  When all the other passengers had departed, Ted was still sitting in his seat in a sort of daze. The flight attendant came to him, shook him by the shoulder, and stated firmly, “Sir, all the other passengers have disembarked.”

  Ted stumbled to his feet, his head slowly clearing and, picking up his backpack, he headed for the plane’s exit door. He was still mildly disoriented. He staggered slowly through the small terminal to the jitney lot where he could board the mini-bus taking him to the main terminal at McCarran International Airport.

  By then, Amie had already gone through the Janet Airlines terminal and she had hopped one of the jitney buses for workers going to the main airport terminal and flights out of Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Nick had found his Civic in the Janet Airlines parking lot and decided to sit there for about thirty minutes, listening to a Sinatra and Dean Martin CD, while giving Amie time to reach the Excalibur Hotel by cab.

  Chapter 12

  Nick had instructed Amie to take a taxi from the main airport terminal to the Excalibur Hotel and Casino. Within a few minutes of her bus arrival at the main terminal, she was hopping in a taxi for the very short ride to the Excalibur. Amie was familiar with various forms of mechanical ground transportation, not only through her studies and instruction on inhabited, intelligent-life-form planets at her Cosmic Voyager Academy, but through the daily television shows, news shows, and films which had been permitted in her residence.

  This window into life on Planet Earth gave the aliens, as they sat locked in their pod, an excellent educational opportunity to gain secondhand knowledge of the Earth communities and to better understand the bizarre world of the humans. They weren’t that shocked about the violence depicted on many of the television broadcasts and movies, because Earth was not the only planet with aggressive behavior. On the other hand, their society was more spiritual and mentally attuned to the pulse of life. If given a choice, the aliens would be much happier in their own culture. Now the world Amie had only studied from afar for all the years she had inhabited the pod at Area 51, was opening up for her to experience in reality.

  Nick had previously coached Amie on taxi etiquette. She knew, for example, to tip the driver when she arrived at the Excalibur. Nick had slipped her a twenty-dollar bill last month in preparation for the ride, but as she looked into Shelley’s purse, she found Shelley had eighty dollars in twenties already tucked away in her wallet. During the drive along a very congested road, Amie caught the driver glancing in the mirror, examining her. His mind was closed off, blocking her ability to read him. As soon as he turned his head to check for traffic, she pulled her brunette wig out of Shelley’s purse, removed the blonde “Shelley” wig, and slipped the dark one on. When the driver looked back again in his rear view mirror, his eyes registered a look of faint amusement. A small grin blossomed on his face. He was used to
ferrying hookers in this town, so Amie’s change of appearance really wasn’t a surprise, but she certainly was far from being the most attractive one he had seen.

  “First time in Las Vegas?” the cabbie asked, more for the hell of it, since he assumed she was a regular coming in from somewhere to make a few quick bucks.

  “Yes,” Amie replied, mindful of Nick’s admonishment to say very little except a “yes” or “no”. She turned and looked out the window to discourage further conversation.

  Amie was entranced as the taxi drove up East Tropicana to the Excalibur. As she knew from TV, the buildings in this city were highly unusual. But this hotel, with its colorful, fantasy-castle exterior, replete with red and blue turrets, parapets, and drawbridge, was stunning. Pulling into the Excalibur, the doorman quickly opened her door as the cab driver leaned back and asked her for thirteen dollars and seventy-five cents. Amie handed him a twenty and told him to keep the change.

  “Thanks, enjoy your stay, Miss,” he beamed at her.

  “Any bags, Miss?” the doorman inquired. When Amie answered “no” the doorman quickly moved away and on to the next incoming vehicle.

  This left Amie standing by herself in a sea of unfamiliar humans and, for the first time, she felt extremely uncomfortable and vulnerable. Standing near the entrance door, someone jostled by her, pushing her aside. She quickly stepped out of the way, only to bump into two older women who were dawdling along, clucking over a flyer for one of the many topless shows. Feeling uncomfortable standing amidst the hoards of people bustling around her, Amie backed away from the entrance and stood near the drive. She then took a few minutes to adjust her mental energies to the commotion surrounding her.

  After making this adjustment, Amie found that she was becoming rather intrigued by the noisy, laughing, oddly dressed crowd. She debated whether to stand around with her head down, waiting for Nick to arrive, as she had been instructed, or to enter the enticing hotel. She noticed no one was giving her a second glance. Feeling emboldened by this, and surmising that “hiding in the crowd” would be a better strategy than standing outside alone and conspicuous, she turned, once more, toward the double doors of the casino. “Perhaps for just a few minutes I can see what it is like inside,” Amie told herself.

  Upon entering, Amie’s senses were once again assaulted, and she was thrown off balance by the cacophony of sounds coming from the clanging slot machines in the lobby, throbbing music, the garish, pulsating lights, the smoky, cavernous room, and the general negative energy of the place. But, rather than flee, she tamped down her nervousness and sense of unease. Studying the milling throngs of people inside the hotel, she once again calmed down. She found that, while the place reeked of confusion and tension, there was also an excitement here. This was the living world; the world she had been denied entry too for all those years.

  Amie was feeling freer than she had in countless years. Her anxiety was giving way now to a feeling of exhilaration, and, rather inexplicably she was drawn to the flashing, whirling, clanging slot machines. Nick had described casinos to her before, and how Vegas was famous for having slot machines everywhere, even in restrooms. He explained gambling, and people’s obsession with getting a quick payout. She remembered his words about humans being suckered in by the prospect of winning large sums of money in minutes, sums much larger than anything they could ever make on their own by working and saving for years. This gambling urge in humans was fascinating to Amie.

  Amie walked further into the hotel lobby and approached a free machine, but then backed away, preferring to watch the reactions of other people using their machines. Right next to her, a young couple was trying their luck, inserting a five-dollar bill into a “Blazing Sevens” dollar machine and then pushing the “single credit spin” button. The young man insisted the girl push the button, and the machine cycled away, but after four tries, it hadn’t paid a cent. “This is our last five dollars, we can’t play anymore after this,” the girl pleaded. “We need to save some money just to get back home. I think we ought to hit ‘cash out.’”

  “But we could get lucky and win. You gotta stop thinking so negatively.”

  “If it wasn’t for me holding you back last night, you would have maxed out your credit card to get a cash advance for the blackjack table. How are we ever going to get out of debt, if you keep getting us into it?”

  Amie suddenly wondered if she could apply enough mental energy, with the help of her vest, to actually cause the sevens to line up like they were supposed to. This time, when the girl reluctantly pushed the button, Amie sent out a strong energy flow directed at the mechanism. The wheels slowed to a crawl and Amie let each seven stop when it was aligned with the center.

  The machine’s payoff bell rang out loudly, the young couple danced and hugged, and the light pole flashed. “Oh my God!” the girl shrieked over and over again, making Amie wonder if this gambling was a sort of religion for some humans.

  “It paid $1,000, we hit the jackpot,” the young man cried.

  A slot attendant approached to check the machine and told the couple to go to the cashier if they wanted to collect, which the young woman insisted upon. Amie smiled at their “good fortune”, absorbing some of the enthusiastic, joyful energy they both displayed. Then, remembering her purpose for being there, she disappeared back into the crowd.

  Nick was parked in the drive, wondering where Amie might be. Could his directions have confused her? Had something happened? Perhaps she had said or done strange things and been spotted for the extraterrestrial that she was, and she would be featured on AOL tomorrow as one of their weird news stories. Anything was possible. As he sat nervously waiting and wondering what to do, he began to have doubts about getting involved with her and her escape attempt. What had he been thinking?

  But then Nick saw Amie, coming out of the doors of the casino. Hadn’t he told her not to go inside; to wait for him by the door and to keep her head down? She hadn’t listened and he couldn’t get out of his car because his presence might be caught on the casino cameras. Nick put his window down and waved at Amie to come forward and get into his car.

  “Thank you, Nick,” Amie spoke in thought speech.

  “Don’t thank me yet, Amie, we have a long way to go. Those casinos have cameras all over the place. That’s why I didn’t want you to go in there, but what’s done is done.”

  “You’re angry with me, I’m sorry.”

  “I’ll get over it,” Nick replied as he put the Civic in gear and pulled away from the casino entrance.

  Nick drove silently for a few minutes trying to remember the directions he had memorized. After calming down, it came to him and he merged onto the I-215 Beltway accelerating the Civic to sixty-five mph. It was getting past rush hour and the traffic wasn’t too congested. The Civic felt smooth, and although it wasn’t his first choice for the long drive ahead, he felt it would at least be reliable, and he was certain his son would be pleased to get it.

  Nick’s initial anger had subsided as he began concentrating on his driving and the responsiveness of his newly acquired car. Amie read these thoughts and, seeking to get back on Nick’s good side, commented on how much she liked his little car.

  Actually, she was feeling exhilarated at the moment, having gotten this far from Area 51 and her “prison”. She had her own thoughts, hidden from Nick, of driving the car herself. She imagined how she could do that, along with all the other things she might do, now that she had her freedom. ”With the vest on, many things were possible,” she thought.

  The party at the hanger conference room broke up around 1700 hours. Team members hugged and wished each other good luck in the future and then left to pick up any belongings left in their lockers, before departing on a Janet Airlines flight.

  As the lead defense contractor’s assistant, Shelley had been in charge of making sure everyone had a good time. She had done an excellent job of providing the food and drink, and now she was also in charge of the clean up. She would be one
of the last to leave. Nick had earlier suggested that Shelley take the next day’s morning flight back to Maryland, as he had expected that she couldn’t catch a Janet flight out of Area 51 until 1800 hours, at best.

  Shelley’s friend, Carol, a team member on the project, had volunteered to stay behind and help with the clean up. The women were loading the last of the empty cans and bottles into a plastic bag, when Carol noticed Shelley wasn’t wearing her identification badge.

  “Shelley, what happened to your badge? Did you take it off and put it somewhere?”

  Looking down at her coverall breast pocket, Shelley registered total surprise. “I hope it didn’t fall off and end up in one of these bags!”

  “Well, hold on. Before we get crazy, dumping all this crap out again, think for a minute. Did you leave it somewhere?”

  “Oh my God, I don’t know! I’ve been so busy putting this party together. I haven’t had my head on straight all afternoon. I had no idea that I didn’t have it on. I think I must have had my badge on when I came in here. I hope it didn’t end up in one of these bags.”

  “Okay, well before we dump the contents of these bags on the floor, maybe you’d better go check your locker. Maybe you left it in there.”

  Carol did empty the contents of one of the trash bags back into the trash receptacle and started pawing through the mess, while Shelley quickly headed for the locker room. Opening her locker, Shelley’s facial expression projected absolute shock. Her identification badge clearly wasn’t there, and neither was her jacket and purse. She couldn’t believe it! She had never felt a need to lock her locker. Who would risk their security clearance to steal a jacket and purse?