DIAMOND CITY
BOOK 1: MAD RIVER
PART 1: BABYLON ON THE RIVER
Chapter 2: The Air Base
“Hey! I just saw something on the screen!” shouted the radar technician.
This was only his third day at Kayleh Air Force Base. Just nineteen years old, he was disappointed when his orders came in earlier in the month to transfer from White Sands in New Mexico to Kayleh near Brightson, Ohio. He was an Oklahoma boy and joined the US Air Force to get away from farm work. At least White Sands had the desert. This part of Ohio had a lot of cold and rain.
But that changed in a second. What he’d spotted would get him noticed by the brass. No more boring reports and loose wires.
Two seconds ago, the radar screen had lit up with a pulse. It was unlike anything he’d ever seen. He’d spent the previous nights logging in the travels of commercial and military planes. Oh, there was the exceptional flight of birds or private single-engine planes that flew too close, but this was worth grabbing his commanding officer’s attention.
And it was huge. The only thing that would cause it was a massive electromagnetic blast of energy. He hadn’t been informed of any new tests in the area.
He reached for the phone next to the screen. His CO wasn’t around. The airman began to dial the number for the intercom. He wasn’t supposed to do that, but this was important, dammit!
He’d reached the third digit when the steel doors to his station flew open from the outside. It wasn’t his CO. At the door entrance stood two men in suits with a full-bird colonel. What the hell was happening? The two suits carried brief cases and the colonel a thick manilla file.
The airman remembered where he was, stood up, and saluted.
“Lester Colt, Airman First Class?” the colonel spoke to him after returning the salute.
“Yes, Sir!” Colt replied. “Glad you came Colonel; I just saw a huge burst on the radar screen. Is that why you’re here?”
“Burst?” The Colonel repeated, “Let’s see this thing.” He walked over to the screen and looked down.
Of course, the screen showed normal activity.
“I don’t see anything funny,” He informed Colt.
“It was only a few seconds ago. The screen went crazy. I was about to call my CO and get him over to have a look.”
“Did you make a record in the log?”
“I was about to.”
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“Don’t bother. I need you for something else right now.”
Colt looked back at the screen, trying to keep composure the best he could.
Whatever caused the pulse left no trace on it.
“Probably a malfunction,” the colonel informed him again. “Don’t worry about it. If it happens again, we’ll have maintenance look at it. Come with us.”
Colt followed the trio down the nearest corridor. He’d learned not to ask too many questions since this transfer. Whatever took place at the base was kept secret. None of his fellow technicians were given more than a brief sketch of what they worked on each day.
The two suits with the colonel wore dark glasses. Under the dim interior light, this was odd. Plus it was close to nine in the evening. He guessed an intelligence agency connection. Another question best left unasked.
The air base wasn’t that old. It was built on top of a landing field used by the Army Air Corps before that was spun off into a separate branch of the military after World War II. Colt smelled the oil fumes in the air and the damp musk of cured concrete. During the day, construction took place on the latest additions. No one talked about what those buildings were for either.
They emerged into a large warehouse attached to the building where he worked. Ten or twenty airmen sat around with bored expressions. Then they saw the colonel and company. In seconds, all stood at attention.
The colonel, still flanked by the men in suits, looked the airmen over. Colt took the hint and fell into one of the rear rows. Satisfied, the colonel turned to the suits. They all nodded in agreement. Then the colonel turned back to the rank-and-file.
“At ease,” the colonel called out. Everyone relaxed, but no one sat down.
“You’re all probably wondering what this is all about,” he continued. “I need all your help to receive a special shipment. It’s coming in on an unscheduled delivery in twenty minutes. Everything will be place on pallets, but you’ll still have to get them from the plane and into cold storage. I need this done in under an hour. Don’t worry about the records, we’ve taken care of that already. Any questions?”
A lone hand went up in front of Colt. It was an airman he didn’t know from another division.
“Can we ask what’s in this delivery?” the young man inquired.
“Yes, you can,” the colonel responded “but I won’t tell you. No one will. That’s another thing to keep in mind. No talking about tonight to anyone. Not your bunkmates, mothers, or girlfriends. And I’ve got ways of finding out if you do. So, unless you want to finish your enlistment in Antarctica, keep your mouths shut.”
He gave it a few more seconds to sink in.
“Alright,” he told the airmen, “let’s move. I think the plane’s already here.”
Cole and the others were led out onto the tarmac where a large transport plane waited. It was an older model, a Curtis C-46 Commando. It was unusual to see one still in use, given the amount of work needed to keep them airborne. Still, they were durable aircraft made fifteen years earlier for one of the last wars. As they waited, the rear door to it opened and a portable stair was rolled in place. Twelve pallets were lined up on the ground next to it.
They watched as a series of crates were hauled out of the Commando by its crew. Once on the ground, the waiting airmen strapped the crates one-at-a-time to a pallet on the ground.
When it became their turn, Cole, and another airman named Bobby, walked out and manipulated a pallet with a floor jack. In silence they pulled the pallet, and the wooden box tied to it, across the tarmac and into the warehouse next to the tarmac.
Minutes later they’d joined the line of airmen moving their cargo down a long corridor. Wherever the boxes came from, it was a cold. Cole felt his body heat sink into the box next to him. The box was covered with a layer of frost. He looked down the corridor and saw the first pallet crew move theirs through open doors into a refrigerated room.
Both he and Bobby tried not to look at each other. Right before they drug their pallet into the cold storage area, Cole glanced down and noticed a gap in the boards that made up the wooden box strapped to it. He then noticed something odd.
Cole’s blood temperature dropped ten degrees when he saw a pair of lifeless green eyes stare back at him through that gap.