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Authors: Nick Pollotta
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our ears at that.
"So this is our main HQ?” Mindy asked eagerly.
The chief scowled. “That's Need-To-Know information only, Miss. Let's just say this is one of the Bureau headquarters and leave it at that."
"Any details on the cloud available yet?” I inquired, changing the subject away from the breach of etiquette.
He nodded. “Lots. None of them good. Satellite photos show the area of the fog is some sixty miles in diameter, steadily growing and will reach land in 36 hours. Radar stops dead at the edge of the cloud. As does sonar, CAT scan, X-rays, radio waves, lasers and masers. Some of the fog was trapped in a jar, but it defies chemical analyses. Kirlian photos show the cloud to have a solid black aura, laced with green."
Evil and magic. Swell.
Turning the page over, words faded away and more replaced them. That was a new trick.
"Scout ships were sent in to investigate and never came out again. They are presumed sunk. An AWAK reconnaissance plane was sent in. It disappeared. Next, an armored jet fighter tried for a penetration and vanished. As did a Blackbird stealth bomber. A submarine nosed in close and was heard of no more. So the Navy tried a stealth sub, one of the best we have, same thing. NASA even dropped an unmanned probe, to the same result. When anything vanishes from normal vision within the cloud, or crosses that line of effect—” Gordon snapped his fingers. “That's it. You're gone."
"Maybe just rendered temporally inert,” Richard suggested, leaning forward in his chair.
"We thought of a time status and had our people run a chronometric density test."
"The result?” Jessica prompted.
"Reports show a perfectly normal time flow."
I was surprised. So far, it was the first normal thing about this cloud. At least it wasn't an invasion of dinosaurs from the past. But then again, maybe it was. Time is a funny thing.
"Sir, has the Bermuda Triangle moved?” George asked.
"We checked that. No."
"At this point, I would assume the military got tough,” Father Donaher remarked, reclining in his seat. “And decided to have a quote, incident, end quote."
"Affirmative. SAC was consulted and tried high altitude bombing. No go. They even attempted an air burst using a state-of-the-art multiple ton blockbuster thermite bomb, hoping to disperse the cloud. Then a gas vapor bomb was tried. Both useless. Alerting NORAD, an ultra-fast, stealth missile was launched. It went into the cloud, and that was that. No explosion, no heat flash, no ... nothing."
Heroically, I refrained from mentioning the double negative as this was more important than proper grammar. This cloud was really something.
"Naval gun fire? Torpedoes? Rail Guns?” George queried hopefully, his voice plainly stating that military ordinance could not possibly fail to solve the problem.
"Ditto,” Gordon said, resting a hand on the pistol in his belt holster. “After trying everything they could think of, the Pentagon finally reported to the president, who immediately alerted us. But of course, we already knew about the problem."
"What about nukes?” I asked, not really sure I wanted to hear the answer. But thankfully, the chief said those were being saved as an absolute last resort.
Politely, Richard raised a finger. “How much of this is hearsay and how much confirmed from official sources?"
"Its the truth. Straight from the portrait of Washington."
Good enough for me.
"What have we tried so far?” I asked, meaning the Bureau, not America. Our techs had a lot of stuff the Pentagon would hemorrhage over if they knew it existed.
"Divination, telepathy, and magical probes. We even tried talking to the local fish. But from flounders to whales, they want nothing to do with the cloud. Scares them silly. Our best telepaths can't even get a glimpse of the cloud, much less see inside. However, for a brief second, our top mage managed to use her crystal ball and penetrate the cloud to see an island in the middle of the fog
"So this is our main HQ?” Mindy asked eagerly.
The chief scowled. “That's Need-To-Know information only, Miss. Let's just say this is one of the Bureau headquarters and leave it at that."
"Any details on the cloud available yet?” I inquired, changing the subject away from the breach of etiquette.
He nodded. “Lots. None of them good. Satellite photos show the area of the fog is some sixty miles in diameter, steadily growing and will reach land in 36 hours. Radar stops dead at the edge of the cloud. As does sonar, CAT scan, X-rays, radio waves, lasers and masers. Some of the fog was trapped in a jar, but it defies chemical analyses. Kirlian photos show the cloud to have a solid black aura, laced with green."
Evil and magic. Swell.
Turning the page over, words faded away and more replaced them. That was a new trick.
"Scout ships were sent in to investigate and never came out again. They are presumed sunk. An AWAK reconnaissance plane was sent in. It disappeared. Next, an armored jet fighter tried for a penetration and vanished. As did a Blackbird stealth bomber. A submarine nosed in close and was heard of no more. So the Navy tried a stealth sub, one of the best we have, same thing. NASA even dropped an unmanned probe, to the same result. When anything vanishes from normal vision within the cloud, or crosses that line of effect—” Gordon snapped his fingers. “That's it. You're gone."
"Maybe just rendered temporally inert,” Richard suggested, leaning forward in his chair.
"We thought of a time status and had our people run a chronometric density test."
"The result?” Jessica prompted.
"Reports show a perfectly normal time flow."
I was surprised. So far, it was the first normal thing about this cloud. At least it wasn't an invasion of dinosaurs from the past. But then again, maybe it was. Time is a funny thing.
"Sir, has the Bermuda Triangle moved?” George asked.
"We checked that. No."
"At this point, I would assume the military got tough,” Father Donaher remarked, reclining in his seat. “And decided to have a quote, incident, end quote."
"Affirmative. SAC was consulted and tried high altitude bombing. No go. They even attempted an air burst using a state-of-the-art multiple ton blockbuster thermite bomb, hoping to disperse the cloud. Then a gas vapor bomb was tried. Both useless. Alerting NORAD, an ultra-fast, stealth missile was launched. It went into the cloud, and that was that. No explosion, no heat flash, no ... nothing."
Heroically, I refrained from mentioning the double negative as this was more important than proper grammar. This cloud was really something.
"Naval gun fire? Torpedoes? Rail Guns?” George queried hopefully, his voice plainly stating that military ordinance could not possibly fail to solve the problem.
"Ditto,” Gordon said, resting a hand on the pistol in his belt holster. “After trying everything they could think of, the Pentagon finally reported to the president, who immediately alerted us. But of course, we already knew about the problem."
"What about nukes?” I asked, not really sure I wanted to hear the answer. But thankfully, the chief said those were being saved as an absolute last resort.
Politely, Richard raised a finger. “How much of this is hearsay and how much confirmed from official sources?"
"Its the truth. Straight from the portrait of Washington."
Good enough for me.
"What have we tried so far?” I asked, meaning the Bureau, not America. Our techs had a lot of stuff the Pentagon would hemorrhage over if they knew it existed.
"Divination, telepathy, and magical probes. We even tried talking to the local fish. But from flounders to whales, they want nothing to do with the cloud. Scares them silly. Our best telepaths can't even get a glimpse of the cloud, much less see inside. However, for a brief second, our top mage managed to use her crystal ball and penetrate the cloud to see an island in the middle of the fog
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