Baxter’s head still pounded and his nerves were frayed. He desperately wanted to sink into the bottle of 12 year old scotch that he had hidden in his bottom desk drawer.
Thoughts of drowning his sorrows and settling his nerves battled against his better judgement. He desperately needed something, anything, to battle with the growing presence in his head. Unfortunately, he knew that falling into a bottle wasn’t going to buy back his life.
The aftermath of witnessing the scene of the brutal murders of two elderly and seemingly defenceless people had clearly rattled his normally outwardly calm persona.
He was unclear as to why this particular murder scene had made him feel so rotten. He figured it was because the murderer seemed to be thumbing his nose at the authorities as if he was somehow immune to prosecution or to even being apprehended.
The prick left so much DNA, why would he be so careless?
The rage growing within Baxter drew him ever closer to attacking the bottle in his desk and he was just about to succumb to his overwhelming urge when he was disturbed by someone knocking on his door.
He looked up from pretending to read a report and noticed two of his Agents, Webster and Durning, the remainder of his team. They looked excited.
“Hi Boss, do you have a minute?” Webster asked as she sauntered into the room, accompanied by a rather smug looking Durning, who collapsed onto one of Baxter’s visitor’s chairs and promptly put his feet up onto the coffee table.
Baxter scowled as he took in the two agents and thought about why he had selected them for his team.
Agent Drew Webster was an astoundingly brilliant individual who, according to her profile was the youngest ever graduate from Caltech. She was promptly scooped up by NASA to work in their Jet Propulsion Laboratories. They wanted her specifically to work on their Mission to Mars project. They considered her to be gifted in the field of advanced technological systems.
It was only her desire to move to Washington to be closer to her aging parents that enabled her to be head-hunted by the FBI.
Agent Jason Durning was another story entirely. He was an ex Intelligence Analyst who joined the Bureau to follow in his Father’s footsteps. He was placed in Baxter’s team.
His Father was a close friend of the Deputy Director. Considering Baxter’s volatile history with Howard Elliott, the placement was doomed from the start.
He often wondered whether Durning was informing on his performance to the DD. He had his suspicions but had to keep them to himself. He found it difficult to keep his cool around the agent who seemed to have a knack of rubbing him the wrong way.
“Get those fucking filthy things off my coffee table, Durning,” he said as he shoved the report aside and slid his chair back from his desk.
“I expect a little bit more professionalism from my agents, do I make myself clear?”
Durning slowly took his feet down from the coffee table and smiled as he sat back in his chair and placed his hands behind his head.
“Yes Boss, sorry Boss,” he said as he winked at Webster who instantly blushed.
Baxter saw the discomfort blaze across Webster’s face.
Was it discomfort or was there something going on between those two.
He shook his head and decided to ignore Durning’s insubordinate behaviour and turned his attention to Webster.
“What have you got for me Drew?” he asked as he held out his hand for the report that the young agent had been clasping under her arm.
He took the report and started turning the pages as Webster found her voice.
“Well boss as you can see from the satellite photos in this report, it is obvious that something has caused a large crater to appear in Mount Vinson Massif in Antarctica.
A team of Scientists from Byrd station, which is the nearest outpost to Vinson Massif, were dispatched to investigate this anomaly. As you can see from the photographs they took, what they discovered was quite disturbing.
Baxter took in the grisly scene that had been captured by the team of Scientists. He could clearly see the charred remains of what appeared to be a human.
“What could possibly cause these injuries?”
“From what they have been able to ascertain, the body had been cooked from the inside out.”
“Do you mean this person had been cooked like he had been in a microwave oven?” Baxter asked with some degree of scepticism in his voice.
He raised his eyebrows at Webster who flushed slightly and cleared her throat subconsciously as she continued.
“Well that is a good analogy. The body has been exposed to a massive dose of ionising radiation. The strange thing is that there was no trace of any kind of anomalous radiation when the Scientists first scanned the area. Whatever or whoever had caused the crater and the death of the Geologist, had vanished without a trace.”
“The victim was a Geologist?”
“Yes he was, the Coroner was able to determine the identity of the individual from dental records.
His name was Matthew James Rojerson. He was with another Geologist, Robert John Webb.”
“What were they doing there and what happened to Webb?”
“Why don’t you just read the report?” Durning interjected suddenly as he pulled out a stick of gum from his pocket and was about to place it in his mouth when he caught the full force of Baxter’s rage who had stood up from behind his desk and had slammed the report down onto the mahogany.
“Tell me again why I keep you on my team Durning. Oh that’s right, you’re Daddy’s little boy, the DD’s pet project.
Unless you have something useful to add to this discussion, I would appreciate it if you kept your mouth shut and that includes not chewing gum. Do you understand?”
He waited for Durning to nod his acknowledgment and put the gum away. Baxter turned his attention to the other agent.
“Now, Webster, I believe you were going to answer my questions,” Baxter said as he collected the dishevelled pages of the report and sat back behind his desk.
He noticed that Webster appeared to be uncomfortable at the obvious tension between himself and Durning as she struggled to find composure before continuing.
“Yes uh, right, well according to Byrd station, Rojerson and Webb had been sent to Vinson Massif to investigate the discovery of some rare metals that had been picked up by Satellite surveillance. They probably believed that they were looking for a meteorite.
As far as Webb is concerned, they were unable to find any trace of him. They suspect that he had fallen down one of the many fissures that had spontaneously appeared when the crater formed.”
Baxter remained silent as he finished reading the report and then sat back in his chair. He noticed the expectant looks on the two agent’s faces.
“Well this is certainly an interesting story, but I fail to see what relevance it has to our current case.
What has the assassination of a Senator got anything go to do with the fate of two unfortunate Geologists and some mysterious Antarctic crater?”
Baxter could not help but notice the smug look on Durning’s face as he handed over the report that he had been holding.
“Well Boss, after you read this you might change your opinion of the DD’s pet project.”
Baxter was well aware of Durning’s material forensics ability and begrudgingly admitted that the man was a specialist in the field.
He retrieved his glasses from top drawer of his desk, glanced over the report and then glared at the smug agent over the top of his glasses.
“Humour me Durning, what does all of this technobabble mean?”
“Well Boss, after the science team couldn’t determine the exact nature of the Ionising radiation, I began to wonder about these specific exotic metallic compounds that had been detected at the precise co-ordinates of the crater.
Using Occam’s razor, that is a principle stating that among competing hypotheses, the one that makes the fewest assumptions should be selected, I put two and two together and came up with ET.”
Baxter could not hide the sceptical look on his face and raised an eyebrow at Durning and Webster.
“Ok, I’ll bite, you mean ET’s as in extra terrestrial, as in little green men etc etc.”
“Well that seems to be the most logical explanation at this point in time.”
“That’s bullshit. Obviously someone has been watching far too much sci-fi shit.
The X-Files was a fictional TV series and you’re definitely not Mulder. Surely there has to be some other explanation.
Besides all of that, you still haven’t given me an answer. What the fuck does all of this have to do with the Baker case?”
Baxter noticed that Durning’s smug smile became wider. He really had the urge to wipe that smile off his face. He took a deep breath and glared at him.
“Well? Have you got something or are you just wasting my time?”
“Since the kid and his Mother disappeared, Webster and I have been looking into other missing people cases in their area, the exact same area that the Senator’s assassination took place and we noticed that there have been quite a lot of people reported missing.
We analysed the numbers and found that there has been a spike in the numbers of missing people in this area compared to the national average. We found that the spike occurred around the time that the data of the exotic metals had been detected in Antarctica.”
Baxter tried hard to hide the look of confusion that must have washed over his face at this latest revelation. Webster must have sensed Baxter’s confusion and continued from Durning.
“Do you see the significance?” she said, whilst pointing to the graph in the report and looking expectantly at Baxter.
Suddenly the penny dropped for Baxter and he could feel the heat swell up within him.
“Do you think the Senator was shot by an alien who then abducted the boy and his Mother plus a whole heap of other people?
Because if you do I will have you both transferred for psych evals.”
Baxter noticed the flustered look on Agent Webster’s face as she looked at Durning as if imploring him to say something. Durning took the bait and smiled as he sat back in his chair.
“You wanted a theory – we gave you one.
If you take a look at the data you can see for yourself that there is quite a significant difference between that area and the national average. If you also take a look at the NORAD report you might find something else that’s quite interesting.”
Baxter flicked the pages of the report until he found the NORAD report. As he read the first paragraph he could feel the blood drain from his face.
“…intermittent detection of exotic metal compounds and slightly raised levels of Ionising radiation within the Washington area.”
The pounding in his head caused little flashes of white lights appear in front of his eyes.
He suddenly felt the urge to attack the bottle in his desk again as the significance of the report dawned on him.
He composed himself and took a deep breath. He removed his glasses and put them back in his drawer. He then sat back in his chair as he rubbed his temples.
“I grant you that this is compelling reading but I’m afraid I still must reserve my judgement.
I think we’re grasping at straws but maybe we should get someone on the ground in that neighbourhood.
Is there anything in the data that suggests there is a link to these missing persons? Do they have anything in common?”
“As far as we can tell, the vast majority of the abduc… er, I mean missing persons, were itinerants, homeless people.” Webster said as she pointed to the graph on the report.
“The homeless were the people that the Senator was trying to help and before he was assassinated, he was in the middle of introducing legislation, ‘The Philanthropy Bill’ to provide cheap or free accommodation to that area.”
“I see – that is interesting. Maybe that’s what got him killed.”
Apart from the whole alien abduction theory, Baxter had to admit to himself that Webster and Durning might be on to something.
Was there a correlation between the missing homeless and Baker’s assassination?
He detested the thought of thanking Durning, but he knew that came with the responsibility of leadership.
“This is good stuff. Thank you both for your research, however I want you two to continue looking into this. See what else you can find out from NORAD. Talk to homeland security as well and find out if they have anything.
In the meantime, I think I might mull around in the Peter’s neighbourhood and talk to a few of the homeless in that area and see if I can’t get to the bottom of the disappearances and find out if anyone has any more information about the Senator.”
“Sure boss,” Durning said with a hint of sarcasm. Baxter watched as they both rose from their chairs and proceeded to leave his office.
He could see that Durning still maintained his smugness as he turned and added.
“Oh, by the way, say hi to Yoda for me.”
Baxter scowled at the comment. “Yeah, yeah very funny, just go and do your job!”
After the two agents had left his office, he slouched back into his chair and reached for the bottom drawer.
He pulled out the bottle and a glass and proceeded to pour himself a drink.
He took a long sip of the whiskey and savoured the warming sensation of the fluid. He closed his eyes and thought about the information that his agents had presented him.
He knew that the link between the Antarctic incident, the missing homeless and the assassination of the Senator was tenuous at best, but he just couldn’t shake the niggling feeling that he was missing something.
He retrieved another handful of pills from his pocket and swallowed them with another long sip of the whiskey. He started gathering all of the reports that he had collected so far and starting poring over the pages.
He opened the first report, took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He looked at the large stack of papers and then looked at the clock on the wall of his office.
It’s going to be a long night, he thought as he drained the remaining contents of the glass and put it and the bottle back into his desk.
He rubbed his temples again as the growing pain in his head throbbed. He pulled out the pills and downed another fistful as he contemplated his next move.
He knew that even though it flew in the face of protocol, as soon as he had finished at the office he would have to go out into the field incognito and find out for himself the truth behind the disappearances.
He thought of the young boy and his Mother.
The boy witnessed the murder; he could be the key to this whole thing.
He frowned and ignored the growing knot that was forming in the pit of his stomach and the spectacular pain in his head as he started poring through the report.