Crashed not killed

Associated press reporter Reginald Dwight prepared to land in Vera cruz international airport, Mexico. This mission of his had a sad personal touch. He had been sent in to cover an air crash in the mountains off Serdan city. A short flight from Los Angeles, a Boeing 737 had inexplicably veered off its flight plan to Mexico City and had crashed into the mountains near Serdan.

Reg had been in Los Angeles when he received express instructions to take the first charter flight out and rush to the crash site. He had rushed to the airport, his ticket and special instructions for visa on arrival appearing on his smartphone. He just had time to pick a bag with his special wide lens SLR camera and a few freshly laundered clothes. As the stewardess announced landing in Vera Cruz airport in Spanish and in English, Reg discovered less than 3 hours had elapsed since the crash he was asked to cover. After examination of devices was allowed while the 80 seater aircraft taxied to the arrival terminal, he checked his mail for the documents he had requested.

Reg quickly scanned the passenger and crew list of the ill fated flight again. His senses numbed with grief as he saw the name of stewardess Janet Winston. Though they had not met with their own individual busy unpredictable schedules for over a month, Reg realized with shock he would never meet the love of his life anymore. He wondered whether her family had been informed.

He grabbed his bag and moved swiftly through immigration and customs and walked out to land Rover sent by his agency. He located the car and driver and immediately set out for the crash site. Alberto the driver spoke a mixture of Spanish and English. Reg could understand and speak Spanish fairly well so he let Alberto talk in both languages while he quickly sped through Cordoba. Alberto was a trained driver for the press agency and he explained whatever he knew about the crash. The humid Mexican air was beginning to cool down as they climbed the foothills from Orizaba. Alberto handed Reg a flask of coffee and a packet of sandwiches. He knew his passengers arriving on short notice were most often tired and hungry.

Alberto veered off the highway going to Mexico city after crossing Orizaba, explaining to his alert passenger that the crash site was on a hillside and that they would have to trek for a kilometer to the site. After a hour long bumpy drive along a rough dirt track, Alberto parked the land rover to the side and motioned for Reg to get off. The steep hillside and the thick forest told Reg the rover could go no further.

As Reg got off, he had a call from his boss. He updated his location, explaining the unconfirmed details he had got from Alberto. Chief correspondent Drake Hill knew better to start a long conversation at this stage and asked Reg to update him. Reg wondered if he should ask if Janet’s family had been informed of the tragedy but dismissed the thought from his mind.

He trekked up the hillside, thanking himself for maintaining his workout schedule. Alberto was, however, a little short of breath and stopped to warn Reg that they might not be allowed to the crash site. They took a detoured route and went a little further up the hillside. Reg could smell fire and burning aviation fuel.

It was a clear bright day and Reg could see most of the smoldering plane. The broken fuselage told him it was highly unlikely there would be any survivors. He took out his camera, put on his special zoom lenses and began taking pictures. He has satisfied to see the crisp clear high pixel images.

Reg examined the entire scene and something struck him as odd. There were only airlines officials there and what appeared to United States secret Service agents. The entire area had been cordoned off and no one was being allowed anywhere near the site. Alberto hastily nudge Reg as a drone began to approach them and they hastily dove into the underbush, concealing themselves completely.

Reg’s sixth sense and his long experience in reporting instantly warned him not to expose himself. Anticipating that his camera may be confiscated at a later stage, he quickly used his camera’s wi fi to transfer the images to his own email and then shut off the mobile network and portable hotspot to any agency looking for active devices.

The drone veered off as a helicopter approached and landed near the crash site. He took pictures from a completely concealed vantage point. The chopper landed and more airline employees rushed out with 7 stretchers. Reg zoomed his camera lens and was shocked to discover they were bringing bodies in. What was going on and what did this mean? Were they planting bodies there? He could see the stretcher bearers take out what appeared to be a few bodies and they were covered, put on the stretchers and taken back to the helicopter. The helicopter rushed off. The entire operation had taken just thirty minutes, telling Reg that this had been well planned and the bodies which were to be substituted had been kept aside.

Sensing that something sinister was going on, Reg sent back pictures of the crash site and typed a few sentences of a brief report, omitting any mention of the chopper and the bodies for the moment. Alberto crawled up near Reg and raised his eyebrows. He had seen the helicopter incident and was puzzled.

Drake Hill was examining the pictures of the crash site just received from Reg when he got an unlisted call. “Did you send a correspondent to cover the Skyway Airlines crash in Mexico?” A cold angry voice demanded.

Drake instantly knew something was wrong. “Don’t ask me who I am.” The voice went on. “You’re in bad trouble. Call your man back as soon as you can. He’ll be arrested anyway. But first ask him how much he knows.” The line went dead.

Reg was expecting a call from his boss but didn’t expect it to happen so quickly. He wondered if the drone had seen them or if he had been spotted at the airport. He answered the call. There was a brief “Get your ass out of there fast” before the line went dead.

Reg knew the tone. Somehow he had been discovered. He suddenly noticed more drones being let out around the crash site and armed men creeping up. He realized both Alberto and he were in mortal danger. He whispered to Alberto. “We are both in danger and need to get out fast. They’ll be looking out for us everywhere.“

Alberto nodded quietly. “Si Senor.” He told Reg their land rover would have been seized by now. Reg quickly took out the memory card from his camera and hid it in his shoe. Assisted by Alberto, he dug a deep hole and buried the camera and camouflaged the buried site expertly. Alberto whispered to Reg he knew a safe house unknown to their press company and set off into the woods, stopping to avoid probing drones and the armed men.

Janet Winston knocked on the pilot’s door. Captain Doug Wilson opened the door. He had just shaved and washed and Janet frowned as the fragrant aroma of the captain’s after shave lotion reminded her of Doug. They had not spoken for over a month.

The captain stepped out as they went to their dining lounge in the exclusive resort they had been living for two weeks now. Seven of them including pilot Wilson, first officer Bruce Spencer and 4 stewardesses besides Janet had been sent for an exclusive training and orientation program from Skyway airlines.

All seven of them met up for an out of this world breakfast they had never got bored of. They indulged, knowing their tough workout and exercise regimen would help them burn off most of the calories. The skyway airlines crew had been quite surprised at the special training and orientation program which was a revelation about aviation technology and deep flight training. The stewardesses had had intense flight simulation training and they were told they would become future pilots and they were all being trained for a secret mission.

The first session of the day was with artificial intelligence expert who had given them field training on how artificial intelligence would man future flights without pilots. “It’s already happening” Dr. Douglas had explained. “We are already seeing driverless cabs.”

Dr. Douglas walked in, smiling warmly at his class. “Great news. “ He announced. Janet frowned and wondered why his smile appear a little forced. “Your training is being extended. Your performance has been so good that we would like to extend another 10 days and begin the next phase of your training that was scheduled 6 months later. “

Dr. Douglas looked at his audience who had disappointed looks on their faces. They all wanted to get back home. “Trust me. It will be worth it.” He added.

The 7 of them had a conference in Captain Doug’s room. “won’t our families miss us?” Mary asked. The first officer reminded her she was unattached and had no family. “What about you?” She retorted. Janet’s instinct began to pick up signals as she discovered that none of them had families and that they were all unattached and unmarried. She was stunned to realize she was the odd person out. No one knew about her brief fling with Reginald. Was this a coincidence, she asked herself. Had the 7 of them been deliberately selected because they had no families or spouses? She decided to contact Reginald somehow. She felt instinctively that something had happened and they would be in this secret resort for a long time unless she did something and took Reginald’s help.

The safe house of Alberto turned out to be the basement of a decrepit Mexican eatery on the highway going to Serdan city. There was a passage that opened out across the street in a Mexican bar. Reg found the place completely inconspicuous but safe. Even the chubby Mexican who ran the eatery did not know what was underneath.

As soon as they had settled themselves in, Reg handed his international bank card to Alberto and asked him to draw 5000 dollars from an ATM machine far away in the city and buy a bunch of untraceable phone SIM cards. When the cards and the money came, Reg inserted the first of the SIM cards and called up his secretary Doris Benson and asked her to call up a local number before she mentioned his name. Doris was a trained secretary and knew how to be discrete. She went down and called up the number from a call booth.

Doris was relieved to hear from her boss. She informed Reg that every agency from the FBI, the CIA, the NSA and the police were all looking for him. What did you find there, she asked him. “Nothing for the moment” He said. “Not safe for you to know. Don’t take names. Will contact you shortly.”

The corporate office of Associated press was visited by an FBI official and the vice president of Skyway Airlines. Drake Hill and Doris were questioned about what they knew about Reginald Dwight and whether he had contacted them at all. Drake showed the officials the email from Reg with the pictures of the crash site. The officials examined the pictures. They had already intercepted his mail but they didn’t tell him that.

“Mr. Dwight has gone completely underground” The FBI official remarked quietly. “5000 dollars was withdrawn from an ATM kiosk not far from the crash site. We found the land Rover but no camera. His driver, a local, has also gone missing. It’s quite clear He knows something and he must be found fast.”

He leaned forward, his cold grey eyes gazing at Drake and Doris. “He must be found fast, for his own safety. And please do not publish anything about this crash.”

Reg spent several hours researching the background of the crash in his safehouse. He had free access tov a secure broadband connection. Trained to be a successful investigative journalist, Reg first ran checks on the 7 flight crew, including Janet. Slowly, a pattern began to emerge. He discovered that all of them had no families and no spouses, boyfriends or girlfriends except Janet. He discovered that there had been no calls from their cellphones for over 2 weeks and that none of them had been seen at their registered addresses. He then ran checks on flight schedules to find that all 7 of them had been in the same flight 8 times during the past 2 weeks. He managed to access their bank accounts and discovered none of the 7 had withdrawn money nor made any card or bank account purchases.

The FBI official who had visited the corporate office of Associated press was sitting in the corporate conference room with the top brass of Skyway Airlines. “He’s getting too close on the trail of this project.” He sipped coffee from a mug. “Someone from a safe IP address in Mexico accessed the data of your 7 crew members before we blocked them. Dwight now knows enough to smell a rat.”

“Enough of what?” Skyway Airlines president Neil Johnson asked cautiously.

“Their addresses, phone numbers, bank records, everything. He knows they were selected for their anonymity and that they have actually been underground for 2 weeks prior to the crash.”

“We have a big problem now. The 7 of them are supposed to have been killed in the crash. “President Neil was holding his head. We managed to keep them pacified for another 10 days for proposing a training extension. But how long? We have to do something fast. If Dwight reaches out to the media, we’re finished.”

Janet was out snooping during the evening. She had to contact Reg fast. She went to the console room and found 2 desktop console monitors. She logged in with a fake ID that she used and tried to contact Reg over the messenger app. She cried in relief when Reg answered.

“Darling! You’re alive and well!” Reg was crying in relief. “Be careful. You’re supposed to be dead.” Janet was sobbing uncontrollably. He quickly told her about the 8 flights they were supposed to be in and that the last one had crashed.

“Listen carefully, Janet” Reg said curtly. “I know they’re listening. I’m coming after you and will find you. If anything happens to you and your colleagues, I’ll come out of hiding and tell the world what Skyway airlines did. Now go back to a safe room and lock yourselves in , all of you together.”

Janet logged out of the desktop console and rushed out towards their rooms. A distant alarm began to buzz and she saw 2 armed guards rushing towards her. She ran to Captain Doug’s room, knocking at all the adjoining doors. All the others rushed out and they rushed into Captain Doug’s room and barricaded themselves in as the guards just reached the rooms and began banging on Captain Doug’s door. Janet quickly told the others what she had learnt from Reg. They were all stunned.

Mary asked the question on everyone’s mind. “Then who’s been impersonating us in all these 8 flights and why?”

“Much more serious is that after this crash, all of us are supposed to be dead. “Captain Doug remarked. “No wonder they are extending our training.”

The head of FBI had the call he had been dreading.

“Sir” He said quietly.

“The cat is out of the bag.” The head of state remarked. “One of the stewardesses in the project is the girlfriend of Reginald Dwight. Do you guys know she contacted him?”

“Yes Sir. We do.” The FBI chief’s ears were red.

“So you guys goofed up. Don’t forget Reginald is an ex-military war hero. So how are you going to clean up this mess?” The head of state added. “For God’s sake, don’t start eliminating them.”

When the FBI chief did not answer, the head of state spoke up.

“Ok. Get Dwight and bring him to the resort. I’ll take it up from here.

In 2 days, the head of NASA was sitting before 8 people. Janet could not be separated from Reg and she sat tightly by his side.

“You have done a wonderful job, helping the United States in a very secret mission.” The NASA chief began.

“But we did nothing.” Captain Doug pointed out.

“Well, sometimes you do everything by doing nothing and that’s the most challenging.” The space agency chief smiled.

“So what happens now, Sir?” Reg looked the chief straight in the eye.

“Ok. I’ll come straight to the point. “The chief said. “We want all of you to volunteer for a special NASA project. You’ll be given homes but you cannot contact anyone. You will be working for the government of the United States. You have no families anyway and all of you except Reginald Dwight are supposed to be dead.”

“Somewhat like the moon landing astronauts? A life of seclusion?” Nora, one of the stewardesses asked.

“Not really.” The chief smiled. “You’ll like the assignment. You will be going on space missions and maybe in future missions to the planets.”

“So I’m to lead the life of flash Gordon?” Captain Doug shrugged his shoulders.

Janet raised her hand. “Sir, I have a question. Who were the crew in our place? Were they even humans?”

The NASA chief smiled. “You’ll work it out sooner or later as you will see further technological development.”

He stood up

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Your training begins next week at the Space centre”