The Last Christmas On Earth

EPISODE III-5

That brief hesitation cost her dear, the two reached out to her by voiding her escape plan while she was still clinging to the handle.

"Miss Margareth Turner?" He asked her in a gentle manner again, the taller of the two.

"I ... I am," she confirmed, more and more worried.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Jason Ross," he introduced himself cordially, "and this is my colleague Ben Kowalsky. We're from the National Security Department," he informed her, then they both moved under a lamp to show them their badges.

"Damn ..." she missed out, bringing a hand to her mouth. Immediately afterward, she thought that if she had even bothered the Department she must have done something really bad.

"The President needs your precious collaboration," Jason Ross informed her with a naturalness that seemed unbelievable.

"The ... President?" The girl repeated doubtfully.

"This is a very urgent, extremely confidential and extremely important issue. You should be so polite to follow us, there is a plane ready for takeoff that is waiting to bring us to the Pentagon."

Margareth's first reaction was one of skepticism and immediately realized that she was terribly scared. She ran with her mind to look for a credible excuse that would allow her to decline that invitation without hurting their susceptibility too much, but from how those two were keeping her close she thought they would not willingly accept her refusal.

"Okay," she agreed resignedly, taking her car keys from her bag, "tell me where I need to go and I'll be there, but first I have to spend a moment with my friend Louise."

"I'm afraid we don't have enough time, we are sorry but you have to leave your car here," Kowalsky informed her, and the girl realized that protesting wouldn't have mattered.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of watching over your Beetle," the man added to reassure her.

"Can ... can I at least make a phone call? Louise is waiting for me for dinner and I don't want to let her worried."

Ross was starting to get annoyed, checked the time and nodded to his colleague.

"Go ahead and make your call," Kowalsky agreed, "but hurry and above all, of course, make no mention of this. We will wait for you on the vehicle."

For a fleeting instant, Margareth was tempted to jump in the car and run away, but she knew that with those two mastiffs at her heels her flight would have lasted 2 seconds. She called Louise and warned her with brisk ways that she could not go because of a mishap, she shouted something incomprehensible on the phone and then hung up without giving her the time to reply. Margareth threw the phone into her bag and walked headlong toward the van, chewing on insults.

"Louise will hate me for all her life," she said disconsolately to Kowalsky, fastening her belt.

Around 7 pm, the officers paraded one by one with their heads down in front of Helen, their investigations had been completely inconclusive and none of them dared to look into her eyes. She waited patiently for them to sit at their desks, then closed the meeting room door and took her seat behind the bench. Peering at their faces, she judged that any fairy tale she had tried to tell them would not have had the slightest chance of success, so she decided to rely on her instinct and to say the real truth. She cleared her throat and exposed the facts simply and straightforwardly.

"Do you mean that there is some kind of intrigue involved?" Claretta suggested breaking the long silence of embarrassed looks that she had created when she had finished talking.

"And who would have bothered to come here to make his own comfort? And above all why?" Asked Dower.

"No one, of course," Helen replied, and the officers looked at her disoriented. "I mean that officially nothing happened here at all," she tried to explain it better.

"But if ..." Dower said, insisting.

"I just said nothing happened here," she said, annoyed by his stubbornness, "nothing of this has never happened."

"And what shall we say to the people of Rockland? They are all curious and look at us in a strange way, sooner or later someone will find the courage to ask us questions" asked Joe who had been the first to understand.

"We will write in the Rockland's News journal that the case has been passed to another jurisdiction," said Helen, who, finding nothing better to say, opted to repeat the lesson imparted by James.

"Some agents came at night to take all the material, including those bodies, as the investigations were their responsibility. Fortunately, soon we will have to dedicate ourselves to the Festival, so this matter will take a back seat and will be quickly forgotten."

"Chief ..." Cindy called, raising her hand timidly.

"Yup?"

"But his son ..." she ventured, pointing to James, who answered her with a grim look.

"Yes, sorry James, but ... I mean ... in all this your son has nothing to do with it, doesn't he?"

Instead of answering, James looked at Helen for her to think about it, and she felt a painful twinge in her stomach. Even though Harry seemed to have emerged unscathed from that story, an inner voice kept telling her that unfortunately, probably, adversities were not over yet.

"Of course he has nothing to do with it, Harry is a little boy and he just escaped, he probably took refuge spending the night with some friends," said Helen.

"One more thing, Sheriff," Cindy insisted.

"Come on, talk," Helen urged, looking at her badly, beginning to be impatient.

"So the case is really closed?" She asked, and then Helen looked at the ceiling, clenching her fists.

"If I haven't managed to be clear, there has never been a case here. No case," she repeated, spelling it out.

"Have I been clear enough now, Cindy?"

"Certainly Sheriff, I understand ... no case!"

"Good! I'm glad. Starting from tomorrow morning each of you will return to work on your old assignments."

"James told me they took everything, they have nothing in their hands. He and Helen even thought of burning the reports and photos taken at the dumpsite, so as to definitively eliminate any connection with facts," said Eve.

"So when I said that the Men in Black were involved, I was right," Adam said, showing her the tiny dart she had drawn from James's neck and entrusted him to analyze it. "This is not a sting, it is its perfect imitation. I studied it under a microscope, it is totally a narcotic spear and is entirely made of organic material. Once it has penetrated under the victim's skin and fulfilled his duty, it begins to melt, disappears without a trace in the space of twenty-four hours. And if you then consider the black helicopter that carried out environmental investigations over your home and the disappearance of the bodies and the car, then there can no longer be any doubt about it. The Men in Black are the only ones who have the means to do all this while remaining in the shadows and, especially lately, no one knows how they manage to be more and more often in the right place at the right time. I read somewhere that they are being helped by people with paranormal powers," Parker concluded, scratching his chin. He paused and took off his glasses, watched them against the light to blow off an eyelash from a lens and then put them on again. "On one hand it is better this way," he resumed, "putting everything to rest before the news emerged from the borders of the County unknowingly served as our shield. If they hadn't moved so fast now in the village there would be a lot of people coming and going, and a lot of people turning around asking questions, it is the last thing we need right now."

"I agree with you, but then why do you say "on one hand "?"

"Because now that we have the certainty that the Men in Black buzz around here we will have to be even more careful.

They have the habit of kidnapping abductees to study them, and even if they are not sure that Harry was abducted, what happened yesterday morning into your home was really an attempt of Military Abduction."

"You say?" Eve said, twisting her mouth, still not entirely convinced.

"I'd put my hand on the fire!" Sometimes they don't even know what they're looking for, but they're professionals and they know how to move. And then they are stubborn and sticky like ivy and when they sniff the bone they continue to dig and dig until they find it. The fact that James recovered almost immediately, probably prevented them from getting to the boy. We were very fortunate, you have no idea what a disaster it would be if Harry fell into their hands for even a few hours. They are able to dismantle a human mind piece by piece, study it and put everything back in place without anyone would notice anything. Think, especially now that Harry has just acquired the basic information, what could they pull out of his head."

"Damn! We must tell Abel to intervene immediately," Eve proposed.

"Forget Abel. I just heard it over the phone and he told me that he has other issues to deal with, he confirmed time is running out."

"But couldn't he at least try to keep us out of them? If I am not mistaken, he enjoys a certain consideration on the part of ..."

"I told you to let Abel go, it's better to focus on what he has to do. And then it's too late, the Men in Black are already here and this means that she hadn't done her duty properly."

"... What if they try again to kidnap Harry?" Eve then hypothesized slightly distressed.

"For the moment they won't."

"What makes you think so?"

"They are not sure that Harry was taken by the Greys because the two agents in the woods died before the incident happened and they risked being caught. They are too exposed, so before making another attempt they will wait and study the situation and this works in our favor. They will probably take advantage of the Festival to place some of their permanent agents here, to see if they can figure it out and decide the next step."

"And they think no one will notice them?" Eve commented sufficiently.

"Don't be superficial, they're not like the FBI! Of those ones you smell their stink a mile far away, they hide in the pastry shop vans ... and then they go around in suits and with their nice badges always exhibited. These other ones are different, they can be a couple of old men next to you when you sit on the bus or the junkie who asks you for two pennies on the street corner."

"And when will they leave?" She asked, starting to worry seriously.

"And how can I know? I told you, they are irreducible and it will not be easy to take them off your feet. We will likely leave first."

"Do you intend to prepare one of your usual big exits?"

"I'm working on it and we can't afford to go too soft this time. In just a few days this place will be teeming with people and by staying here we won't know where to look. Also, there are a lot of people who still know things. It has come the time to clean up this mess," Adam explained. "For the rest, what news do you bring me?" He inquired afterward.

"What do you mean "for the rest"?" She replied.

"You know what I mean, have you done what I asked you?"

"Yes, I had s*x with James ..." she admitted disgruntled.

"But?" Parker urged, catching the vein of uncertainty in her voice.

"I don't think it helped, it doesn't seem to have changed at all."

"It's too early to say it, he is probably just shaken because in the last few days too many things have happened to him. You continue to behave like a caring little wife and you will see that your husband will soon be the good old James who watches the TV draining a bottle of Bud one after the other."