Black Market Grey

Penton drove six hours to Washington with only one stop along the
way. He was hustled directly through security and straight into the
office past others waiting, the boss motioned him to a seat, they had
met just once before, normally they spoke on the phone. He sat down and
placed the recorder on the desk between them.

'You're late.' Said the boss. 'I do not appreciate being kept
waiting.'

'I'm sorry sir.'

'You were successful I hear.'

'Yes sir.'

'Were did the interview take place?'

'On a river bank outside Haverhill.'

'Why there?'

'It was empty of eaves droppers but a nice place so you do not look
suspicious sitting there.'

The boss smiled, it looked wrong, it did not fit his face. 'Tell me how
you persuaded Miss Shreve to talk?' He asked.

'I posed as a federal agent sir.'

'A dangerous ruse. Could you not have used a less verifiable
persona?'

'Miss Shreve took her non disclosure agreement very seriously, the only
way she would talk was if it was for the good of the country. A
politician would have been too hard to fake, I learnt she distrusted
the CIA and the police...;'

'Wise woman.'

'So the FBI was the best choice I had.'

'Did she attempt to verify your identity.'

'She rang the Boston office, my contact there laid her suspicions to
rest.'

'Very good. Tell me about her.'

'Miss Holly Shreve, born nineteen seventy one in Philadelphia...'

'I have read the file Penton, tell me your impression of her.'

'She's a very intelligent, personable young woman.'

'Were you attracted to her.'

'Definitely, but I do not think the feeling was mutual.'

'Doubtlessly due to your excellent impersonation of a greasy
wiretapping fed.'

'Thank you sir.'

'Is she a committed career woman, will she quit and raise a
family?'

'Impossible to say sir, she is still young.'

'But single?'

'Yes.'

'Tell me about the events in question.'

'How much do you already know sir?'

'I know rumours. Tell me facts.'

'Very well. On the twenty eighth of July, at approximately three in the
morning, an event described as "a large explosion consistent with an
aircraft crashing" occurred in the desert about forty miles south-east
of Marfa, Texas. The Air Force immediately claimed it was one of theirs
and General Jeffe took over the clean up operation, sealing the crash
site to a radius of ten miles, one local man stated that "for three
days they patrolled in jeeps" and "challenged anybody approaching the
site with machine guns". My sources in the air force assert that the
crash was not a military aircraft, one stated that "They did not know
what it was but they wanted it."'

'Where does Miss Shreve come in.'

'She was contacted by an aid of General Jeffe's on the morning of the
fifth of august, eight days later.'

'Does she describe this on the tape?'

'Yes.'

'Let us hear it from her then.'

Penton reached across and pressed the play button.

Noise. Penton's voice. 'Count to three for me please.'

A woman's voice. 'One, two, three.'

Noise, the tape being stopped and restarted.

Penton. 'Ok that's fine. Interview with Miss Holly Shreve and Agent
John Hudson, the time is ten fifty-five a.m. the date is the third of
September two thousand and two.'

The boss interrupted. 'John Hudson is your FBI alias?'

Penton nodded, on the tape Holly Shreve said. 'That seemed very formal
Mr Hudson.'

Penton. 'Nothing to be concerned about, normal procedure.'

'I'm not entirely happy about giving this interview you know.'

'Would you like to state your reasons for doing so on the tape?'

'I think so.'

'Go on.'

'I guess I don't believe that the Air Force took my findings seriously,
I believe General Jeffe intends to ignore and even bury my work.'

'Good.' Less formal now. 'Can you describe for me how you were
contacted by the Air Force.'

'On the morning of the fifth of august a military woman was waiting for
me at work.'

'Where do you work?'

'I work in the zoological labs at MIT.'

'What do you do.'

'I am a biologist, specifically I do research in comparative anatomy
and evolutionary theory.'

'What did the woman from the Air Force tell you then?'

'She told me the air force wanted to buy my services as a scientist,
she told me I would be well paid, she told me it had already been
cleared with the university and she asked me not to talk about the job
with anyone, she said it was a matter of national security.'

'Did she tell you any details of what you would be working on at that
time?'

'No.'

'Did you ask?'

'Yes.'

'Why did you think they had asked for your help?'

'I presumed because of my expertise in anatomy. That is my field.
Though I couldn't imagine why.'

'Would you be considered an expert in anatomy?'

'As much as any person could, I suppose so.'

'Would you be considered the worlds foremost expert?'

'No.'

'But that is what it says on the back of your books.'

'You've read my books?'

'I read the backs, and I didn't understand all of that.'

'Well that quote is just publishers talking me up. But I might well be
considered America's foremost expert.'

'Did you agree there and then to help the Air Force?'

'Yes I did.'

'What happened then?'

'The woman gave me a non disclosure agreement. I read it and signed it
and then she drove me straight to the airport and we flew to Nevada on
a military jet.'

'Quite a morning then.'

'You bet.'

Rustling.

Penton. 'Please do not move too much Miss Shreve, it can mess up the
recording.'

'Of course, sorry.'

'What happened when you arrived in Nevada.'

'I was driven to a military base in the desert. There I was asked to
wait in a room with three other people.'

'Civilians?'

'Yes.'

'Did you recognise them.'

'Yes.'

'Can you tell me who they were.'

'I would rather not.'

'That's fine. Were they all scientists like yourself.'

'They were all leading biologists, and all Americans.'

'What happened then.'

'We were introduced to General Jeffe. He briefed us on what we would be
doing.'

'What did he say.'

'The gist of it was that the air force had recovered a body from a
crash sight that did not appear to be, "of this planet" was the term he
used, they wanted us to tell them about it.'

'How did you feel.'

'Sceptical.'

The boss said. 'I like this woman.'

Penton smiled. On the tape he asked what happened next.

'We were given a tour of the facilities and shown the body.'

'Describe it for me please.'

'The body was completely inanimate and plainly dead although decay had
not begun. It was badly burnt in several places, particularly the
extremities, and there was a large wound on the back of the head. It
was roughly humanoid, about seven feet tall and very slender in build,
it was completely hairless and a very pallid grey colour. It had three
long fingers with no opposable thumb and three long toes, as long as
the fingers. It had a distinctly heart shaped face, two very large
pupil-less black eyes, a very small, lipless mouth and no nose to speak
of, just two small nostrils. The neck too was unusually long and
slender. Oh, and it had no genitalia.'

'Really?'

'Not where you would usually look.'

'How did you feel seeing the body?'

'I never doubted they would have something to show, my feelings were
unchanged.'

The boss paused the tape. 'A smart girl your Miss Shreve. Do we know
who the other civilians were?'

'I make guesses in the report of which I am ninety-nine percent
certain. I just made a list of prominent American biologists and if I
couldn't find out where they were in mid August then it was probably
them. There were a couple of surprises, a few high flyers Jeffe didn't
approach, but a closer look revealed these people were security risks
and unlikely to keep silent.'

'Neither has Miss Shreve.'

'No, but she was poorly treated by General Jeffe, otherwise there is no
way she would ever have talked.'

The boss nodded and pressed play.

Penton's voice said. 'Did you do any work on the body that day?'

'Yes, we started that afternoon. And we were all soon convinced it was
not a hoax if that is what you were going to ask.'

'It was, describe the work for me please.'

'A very careful dissection.'

'How much would this differ from a normal dissection?'

'We were more thorough than anyone would normally be, but essentially
the technique was the same.'

'Were you asked to look for anything in particular.'

'Initially I was told to look at the wound on the back of the
head.'

'Why was this?'

'Presumably because of my past experience as a pathologist, heads are
not really my speciality.'

'What is?'

'Thumbs. Opposable and otherwise, I wrote a book on why they evolve and
why they don't.'

'Oh yes. I read the back cover.'

She laughed politely.

'What did you find out about the wound?'

'It was inflicted by a large rounded object with great force, half the
skull was shattered and a large part of the brain crushed. If I was
still a pathologist I would have said death was instant and that it was
entirely consistent with a car or light airplane crash. I requested to
see the object that the skull had been hit against but this was
refused.'

'Was this a problem?'

'I only wanted it for completeness, I could understand why they did not
want to show me their flying saucer. I was quite keen to leave the head
alone and get on to the fingers.'

'Your speciality.'

'It's more that I did not like the work. I left pathology for a
reason.'

'Care to elaborate?'

'I could never stand the violence of it, the fragility of the human
body scared me. But you must have seen some of that.'

'I used to work homicide cases, yes.'

'Is it like it's supposed to be? You know, in the movies.'

Penton coughed and said 'No, a lot of dog work and boredom, very few
fire-fights with the killer.'

'But you must get involved?'

'True, you get incredibly attached to the victim, you really believe
you owe them.'

'Wow. Why did you leave?'

The boss stopped the tape. 'Is any of this relevant Penton? I haven't
got all day to listen to you make small talk with this woman.'

'I was gaining her trust sir.'

'And I thought you were chatting her up with romantic lies of your time
working homicide for the feds.'

'It is pretty much the same thing.'

'Your methods are your own business Penton, can we fast forward past
them or do we get to hear you screw her right there on the river
bank?'

Penton, without answering, fast forwarded the tape.

Holly Shreve's voice. '...the left arm as it happens, it was the least
badly burnt.'

Penton. 'How long did you spend on the arm?'

'A few days, it would have been longer but I got distracted.'

'Describe what happened.'

'In my initial investigation I noticed a slight coloration on an
un-burnt section of skin, barely noticeable. When I started to dissect
I discovered that the flesh was bruised and cut in a line around the
wrist.'

'What did the others make of this.'

'They were less sure, the flesh was very badly burnt.'

'And they hadn't your pathology experience.'

'Maybe that.'

'What did you do?'

'I took a look at the other wrist but it was too badly burnt. So on a
hunch I looked at the ankles and found the same marks there, more
obvious this time.'

'What was the response of the others to this.'

'People were interested and it was discussed at dinner, several
different explanations were put forward. We requested a description of
the how the body was found, we deliberately did not ask to look at the
flying saucer itself.'

'And what happened?'

'We were given detailed drawings and a few photographs. The body had
been found sprawled on the floor of the burnt out wreck.'

'What did you learn from this.'

'It made me suspicious, certain things did not add up. It seemed
unlikely that a crash with enough force to do so much damage to the
head would have left the rest of the body unharmed unless it was
strapped down. Also the way the body was burnt seemed to obscure the
marks on the wrists and the ankles far too conveniently. One thing that
really bothered me though, where the body was found was a pool of wet
blood.'

'So?'

'The body was badly burnt, if that happened before death you would
expect to see evidence, the limbs would be twisted in pain, the
expression on the face of someone burnt alive is enough to give you
nightmares.'

'I know, but this wasn't a someone.'

'As was pointed out to me at the time. nevertheless I am convinced that
the burning occurred post mortem.'

'So?'

'Why was the spilled blood not burnt, the wound was burnt, yet spilled
blood still lay wet around the burnt area where the body was found. It
could only mean that the body was placed there after the cockpit fire
went out.'

'What did you do?'

'I told them I was certain the body was murdered.'

'How did they respond?'

'I was laughed out of the building, literally. Well I was laughed at
and General Jeffe had me escorted from the premises.'

'Why did you think he did that?'

'It was not what he wanted to hear, he wanted a genuine UFO crash and
he did not understand how I came to my conclusion.'

'And what about the other scientists, the civilians.'

'Opinion was split roughly fifty-fifty amongst them all, but after the
way I was treated I bet they kept their mouths shut.'

'Have you had contact with anybody on the project since?'

'I had a visit from General Jeffe at my home on the Sunday, he stressed
that I should not talk about anything. I got the impression he was
making veiled threats which made me angry more than anything else. I
tried to explain to him what it really meant but the man is an
idiot.'

'Sorry. What did you try to explain to him?'

'The real ramifications of it. The body was murdered, of that I am
certain, but it was also planted in the wreck after the crash and
mutilated to look like a crash victim. The order of events I would
suggest if I were still a pathologist is this. The UFO crashed, the
body was taken, bound but still alive to the wreckage and killed with a
blow to the head. It was then doused in lighter fluid or some other
flammable liquid and burnt to disguise the marks on the wrists and
ankles. Do you know why anyone would do this?'

'No.'

'Precisely. Is someone trying to fool us? Or are they just trying to
hide a murder? And from whom? And who the hell was flying the UFO?
Whatever happened two things are certain, that alien was already on
earth and whoever killed it was working to an agenda. Though god knows
what.'

The boss stopped the tape. 'Is that all Penton?'

'Pretty much sir.'

'Very well. I will keep the tape, you can have your recorder
back.'

'Thank you sir.'

'As far as you are concerned this case is closed. You may go.'

'Very good sir.' He got up and walked out the door, they did not shake
hands, it was not the done thing.

'And Penton.' The boss said.

'Sir.'

'I hope you did not become too attached to Miss Shreve.'

Penton said nothing, just turned his back and walked out.

The boss watched him go, drumming three, long, grey fingers on the
hardwood desk.

***

Penton walked back to his car and drove out onto the interstate, ten
miles north, in a truck stop caf?, Holly Shreve was waiting just where
he had left her. He walked up to her and kissed her on the cheek,
looking to see if it was too much too soon.

She smiled.

'We've got to get you as far away as possible.'