The Chrononauts
Chapter 25: Phantom Killers

The Bradys had found the dead man Jack had shot. A day later, Jack’s body was found with all his bones broken. Snowflake flew off for places unknown. Matt sighed. “We can’t follow their trail any further. The rocks are everywhere and the exotic plants are hindering Larry’s sense of smell.” Larry stopped and his ears went back.

A glowing silver-white puddle appeared in front of Brady. It rose up and became the silver glowing coyote with yellow eyes. It started trotting through the rocks. They followed it for five hours. It disappeared over a hill. They found Victoria and the Dutchman on the other side.

Matt asked about the rest of the bad guys. The Dutchman shook his head. A pool of white water appeared next to Victoria and turned into the coyote with yellow glowing eyes. Victoria smiled and stroked its head and it morphed into an old Apache Indian.

Snowflake flew over to his shoulder. He was surprised but laughed. He rubbed her under the neck. She nipped his ear and he chuckled. He put his hand gently on Victoria’s head and then became the coyote again. He trotted off into the sunset. Victoria turned back towards her friends and laughed. Dave had fainted against a rock.

Meanwhile, Molly told the new interrogating officer her story. The captain chuckled. “I believe you’re telling the truth. We had a few visitors that were searching for a Massachusetts detective’s sister.”

She looked surprised. “You mean my brother, Matt?”

The man confirmed, “Yes, and all his far-out friends were here looking for you. They left to go to some secret base somewhere.”

Another officer was talking to John. “Your name is John Hollings and the last real thing you remember is being shot down by a Hun, is that correct?”

John perked up. “Yes, sir, that is correct.”

The officer laughed. “Your friend Molly says you think you are a World War One aviator ace.”

John laughed. “She showed me a picture of myself on what she called a laptop.”

The officer was surprised and looked him up. “You certainly look like him, but that is not possible.”

John chuckled. “Molly did a, what she called a ‘DNA test’, and was shocked by the result. She wouldn’t tell me what she found.”

Molly sighed. “There are people after us who work for the government. They will attack you if they know we are here.”

The captain chuckled. “We have already met the little darlings. They killed twenty men and blew up some really cool helicopters. We were unprepared for them last time. We are now.”

He called in an aide. “Send out an unscrambled message that we captured Dr. Meagher and her patient and are holding them here.”

Molly glared at him. “You’re going to use us as bait?”

He laughed. “Well, they were my favorite helicopters and I wrote their software.”

Molly smiled. “I should have known. Ethics and fair play went the way of the dodo. They will know it is a trap. They are not idiots like you are. I take it you’re new at your job.”

Brady’s group approached Goldfield. The sheriff had disappeared the night before. Snowflake sat on Matt’s shoulder, resting as they walked away from the sun.

Matt was shocked when two of Jack’s men appeared out of nowhere. They didn’t speak but quickly aimed their rifles at a surprised Snowflake. Matt turned to put his body between them and the bird.

The leader chuckled. “Very noble of you, but it will do you no good.” They both aimed at her, but two shots rang out from a great distance and hit both men in the chest.

They didn’t fall and looked surprised as they gazed down at their bloody chests. One wailed, “It is not possible. You can’t kill us.” They fell to the ground and turned into two puddles of black liquid and were quickly absorbed into the dry, hungry sand.

The group turned quickly and saw a tiny dot walking towards them. A few minutes later, they could see it was the sheriff. He was walking with his rifle lying across his shoulders. He smiled, embarrassed, and chuckled, “Victoria, Snowflake, Mrs. B. I knew there were two phantoms after your owl, Snowflake. She and I would be masked from knowing they were anything but two of Jack’s men. I had to give them a chance to kill her to replace out who they were.”

Matt looked at Snowflake and got one hoot and a peck on

the ear. Snowflake flew to the sheriff’s ear and pecked it gently.

He laughed. “Why, thank you, Snowflake.”

Victoria chuckled at the sheriff’s blush. “What is your name, Sheriff?”

He smiled. “Just call me Sheriff Hathcock.” Matt, Brady, and Victoria laughed. He looked surprised but just smiled and shook hands with everyone. He got a hug from Mrs. B. and blushed again. He cleared his throat and sighed. “I have to leave now.” He walked away and melted into a pool of white liquid and was devoured by the fine white sand.

His rifle remained on the ground. It was quickly picked up by Dave. It rusted out in his hands. He sighed. “Well, that’s a bummer.”

The Bradys got back to Goldfield. It was full of people but none were moving. The sheriff reappeared on the outskirts and stopped walking at the cemetery. He smiled at them. He sighed and took a step into the town. Everyone vanished, including the sheriff. The only sound was the wind blowing the open, weatherworn doors.

They picked up their gear at the old hotel. Dave was relieved to see the Colt firearms he had bought were still there. Matt saw the Area 51 message reporting they had his sister and the unknown man. He was angry. “Those assholes are using them as bait.”

The general was pleased. “Pull our men back from the alien base and get everyone out of Nevada.”

His assistant looked surprised. “Aren’t we going to go in and take out the two targets?”

The general just smiled at him. The aide looked shocked. “Wait, we’re not going to nuke them, sir?”

He smiled. “We got it; we might as well use it. We couldn’t set it off in Yellowstone last year. Why not blow up a top secret base? They asked for it. Let’s let them have it. We can use an old F-18 for the delivery.”

Matt and the Bradys headed back towards Area 51. They would not be in time. Snowflake was very edgy. Victoria looked at her. “Snowflake says we can’t get close enough for her to stop the event. She says it will be nuclear. She wants to get out of the vehicle now.”

Brady pulled over. “Let her out.” She didn’t head towards the base, but flew back where they had been, in Goldfield. Their vehicle continued on towards the base.

A jet took off from New Mexico. The F-18 was on a scheduled visit to the infamous Nevada base with a state senator on board. The pilot chuckled and thought it ironic that the Americans had trained him to fly the jet.

He was shocked to see an eagle floating next to his plane. He checked his altitude: thirty thousand feet. He checked his speed: five hundred knots. The eagle was still floating along beside him.

His partner, the fake senator was alarmed. He called in to the base and told them about the bird.

They laughed and said it was impossible for an eagle to go that high or that fast. The people at Area 51 were monitoring the conversation. It was a planned flight, but it still made them uncomfortable. They sent up a jet to look them over. The jet’s pilot caught the incoming jet ten minutes out. He saw the bird and called it in, laughing. He stopped abruptly when he saw the ordnance. He screamed, “This bird is hot! Take it out.”

The bad guy had a wingman. He pulled behind the observer and blew him out of the sky. The base decided to move their visitors to a bunker. The F-18 dropped its bomb and headed for safety.

He had passed right over Molly, John, and their escort. They could see the falling bomb. Molly grabbed a surprised John and gave him a violent kiss. They could see an eagle circling it as it dropped.

The two cringed as the bomb neared the ground. It hit the concrete runway and bounced fifty feet into the air. It bounced a couple more times and rolled to the edge of their bunker. The eagle landed on the runway and looked at the bomb before flying off towards the east.

The pilot reported that the bomb didn’t detonate. He was surprised to get only static. He looked down and was shocked to see a red, glowing earth below him. “Welcome to three billion years in the past.” He stayed in the air briefly and then plummeted into the inferno.

The DNA test was back and the police were pleased to see Steve was a match. They sent two officers to go pick him up. A voice spoke in his head, saying, “We need to teach them a lesson about who they are screwing with.” Steve smiled.

The officers knocked on his door. He opened it and grinned at them. “I hope your lives are in order, gentlemen.” They looked at each other and roughly cuffed him. They read him his rights and put him in the back of the squad car. The officers arrived at the station without incident. They put him in a locked room for an interview.

A detective came in and sat down. “We have your DNA from the crime scene.”

Steve laughed. “Well, that is understandable. I was there killing the bitch, after all.”

The detective was shocked. “You admit to killing her?” He smiled at the detective. “Sure. Why not? She was my tenth.” The detective heard a knock on the window and excused himself.

He smiled to his boss. “We got the little son of a bitch on tape confessing.”

The man shook his head. “I don’t know how to tell you this.

The recorder crapped out. It started smoking and kicked the breaker. I heard nothing because I was busy resetting the circuit breaker.” The detective walked back into the room.

Steve smiled. “I smell something burning. You might want to check out your equipment.”

The pissed detective snapped. “Don’t you worry; we have sprinklers.” They all instantly came on and sprayed ice cold water. The one directly above Steve stayed off.

He smiled. “It must be rusted shut or something. I would like to return to my cell now.”

The detective stared at the ceiling. “It is probably wet.”

Steve laughed. “Well, it doesn’t hurt to check.”

They led Steve back to his cell. As he walked back, each sprinkler turned off until he had walked under it and then came back on once he had passed.

He laughed all the way there. They were shocked to replace his cell was dry. He told them he wanted a court-appointed lawyer. A curious detective asked, “You have a lot of money. Why aren’t you getting a good lawyer?”

Steve laughed. “I don’t need one. Nobody will testify against me.” They waited for the official report from the lab, but it never arrived. The detectives were told it was sent by overnight mail. The service said it was never sent. The person who was to mail it had disappeared.

The captain was incredulous. “You didn’t think that fact would be important to us?”

The head of the lab sighed. “We did the test and we got the results. You can come up and hand-carry the report back with you. We are then out of the loop. We want nothing more to do with this sample.”

The captain laughed. “I’ll send a detective up to get it. We have to present it to the grand jury next week.”

The head of the lab sighed. “If I were you, I would send up more than one detective.”

The bomb sat on the runway. Several men slowly approached it with a Geiger counter. One laughed nervously and chuckled, “Yup, it is a nuke.”

The new commander at the base didn’t hear them. He was busy explaining why he purposely released the capture information unscrambled for the world to see.

The commander argued, “Sir, they attacked our base. We wanted another shot at them.”

The voice on the phone was irate. “You used two civilians as bait and broadcast it to every news service in the world. Now, I am told you have an unexploded nuke lying on your runway?”

The officer bluffed, saying, “We don’t know that is nuclear.”

The man on the phone was abrupt. “We do. I am sending in a replacement for you. Consider yourself relieved as of 2:00 p.m. Our man will be there by then.”

The scientists carefully checked the bomb. The radiation level was off. The scientist sighed and spoke to the base commander. “This bomb is weird. The plutonium is old. Since plutonium is manmade and has a half-life of one hundred and ten years, well, this sample isn’t traceable. Something or someone didn’t want the bomb to cause damage to our base.”

The commander asked, “What do you mean by something?”

The scientist chuckled. “Well, unless we can time travel, something nonhuman.”

Two detectives arrived at the lab to get the DNA report. The report sat on the security desk. The two guards wouldn’t touch it. They made the detectives pick it up from the desk. The detective laughed. “What is with you guys? You couldn’t hand it to us?”

The lead guard looked spooked. “No way, man. We are not touching it. Everyone that does gets sick or is involved in a serious accident or gets killed.” The detective laughed and picked up the folder.

The two guards backed away from the detectives like they had the plague. The two men got in their car and prepared for the three-hour trip back to the precinct. Soon after they left, it started to rain hard. The rain was cold and caused the windshield to keep fogging up.

The driver chuckled, “Maybe those guys were right.” He saw a blurred black shadow coming at his car. It was a trailer truck, sliding on the slick road at sixty miles an hour. He yelled to the other officer, “Duck, Mike!” He jerked the steering wheel hard to the right. The car slid off the highway and down a deep bank into the woods. They got out of their car just seconds before the gas tank ignited.

Mike had managed to grab the DNA folder. The two men scrambled up the hill and were met by the frantic truck driver.

The driver stuttered, “I was driving thirty miles an hour because I couldn’t see well. The truck sped up all by itself and went into a skid. I tried to turn away from your car, but the steering wheel wouldn’t turn. I never had anything like that happen before.” He whined, “I’ve never even had an accident.”

He was surprised that the two detectives were easy on him. Another vehicle’s driver had seen the whole thing and called the police, who came and collected them. The police driver was alarmed that they kept looking behind their car and out the windows at everyone they passed. “What? Are we being followed?” the driver asked.

They got to the station and immediately made copies of the file and hid them throughout the squad room. A copy was even placed in the safe. The commander laughed at them. “Boy, you guys are jittery.”

Dan blushed. “Well, with all due respect, sir, you didn’t see the lab people or the guards and you didn’t have a truck coming at you in a controlled slide at sixty miles an hour. There are weird things happening here.”

People on the grand jury kept becoming sick. They finally had enough jurors and reached a decision that there was enough evidence to go to trial.

The FBI and Bradys arrived at Area 51. They were surprised to be let on the base. They were more surprised to see a team of men examining something that looked like a bomb on the runway.

They were led to a room where Molly and John waited. Matt was overjoyed to see his sister. She blushed as she introduced him to John. She told Matt everything she could remember about the events that had occurred.

She laughed. “I know this weird stuff is hard to believe. They even showed me a fake video of you with a monster on a jet plane’s wing.” Matt looked at his friends and smiled. Molly suddenly realized that the video was real.

Barry and Bob were outside, looking at the bomb. The new base commander was in place. He was a friend of the FBI. He was at the bomb site, staring at the owl sitting on the mirror of his jeep.

Bob was talking about the bomb. “It was stolen by the former vice president and his group last year.” He told him the bad news that there were two more bombs missing.

Barry added. “The message that idiot sent out from here puts your base in peril of having another nuclear bomb dropped on your head.”

The owl hooted twice.

Bob looked at the owl and chuckled, “Or not...”

The commander looked surprised. “I thought the owl was a pet or something.”

He got two angry hoots from the owl.

He laughed, “Now I am beginning to see why the old commander was freaked out by you guys.”

Bob laughed. “Snowflake just looks like an owl. If she says we are safe; you can take it to the bank.”

They got one hoot.

An aide ran up to the commander. “Sir, we are tracking an unknown F-18.”

The commander looked at an unconcerned Bob. He looked over at the owl. “We are safe; correct, Snowflake?” He got one hoot and the owl flew off.

His aide looked curiously at him. The blushing commander chuckled. “I’m just humoring her, Lieutenant.”

The pilot felt a shadow from his starboard side. He looked out and saw a witch on a broom. He looked away and back but she was still there. He took a picture with his iPhone. He advised the base, “I know it’s near Halloween but ah...I got a witch on my starboard side on a broom doing five hundred knots.”

The radio man laughed. “Be advised the general is standing beside me.” The pilot e-mailed the picture to them.

The general spoke. “Son, this is not the time for practical jokes. I will fry your ass when you get back here.”

The pilot sighed. “This is not a joke sir. Wait. She is moving in front of the jet now. I got turbulence. Cameras on. Now she is beside me again. Whoa. She grabbed the edge of the wing and is tipping the jet. She is laughing now. She is in front of me again.”

The general yelled at him “You got guns! Shoot her ass!” The pilot fired at her with malice. She got pissed and flew next to the cockpit. She opened her mouth and green slime came out of her mouth and covered the canopy.

The pilot was blind and had to rely on instruments to lead him to his target. He waited to have the plane’s location verified by the general. His cockpit started to fill with a warm blue glow.

He panicked. “Oh my God, the beryllium cover has dislodged. I have a neutron chain reaction.” He released his nuke right on top of the general. The canopy instantly cleared and he saw the bomb dropping on the home base.

The witch was next to him again. She smiled maliciously as he was unexpectedly ejected from the jet and followed the nuke down towards the ground. He screamed his final scream.

An aide ran out to the runway to pass the news to the commander. “Sir, the unknown jet returned to New Mexico and apparently dropped her ordnance, a nuke, on the point of origin.” The commander looked at Bob and then the owl. Snowflake gave him a single hoot. He couldn’t wait to get them all off his base.