Glow Ball

Chapter 1 – Reunion Party

I was stoked. The Air Force had granted me a few days’ leave to see my old war buddy, Fred. He’d medically retired three years earlier and now worked at some secret squirrel lab on a secluded base, far from civilization in the low-lying hills between California and Arizona. If you looked at a map, you wouldn’t find it.

I rented a car at the airport and drove along the twisting two lane mountain road that wove through pine forests and carved tunnels out of the red rock plateaus until, an hour later, I pulled up to the base and started bantering with the gate guards like we were old friends.

Para-rescue guys like me and Military Police guarding bases were usually loyal members of the gym rat fraternity that hauled heavy metal weights around big drafty hangars. The gate guards both knew Fred and cheerfully gave me directions to his house.

Fred had invited me and a couple of close friends and war buddies for a reunion. I smiled in anticipation of the loud war stories that were going to flow with the booze. We’d remember the pranks we pulled, our adventures in far-flung places, and then ultimately, we’d sober up over coffee in the kitchen and relive the war. I knew towards the end of the evening; Fred and I would pass a bottle back and forth and rehash our final battle together.

Parking in front of Fred’s house, I noticed how new, manicured, and ordered

everything looked on this spartan little base, a remote island of secrecy in the middle of the desert. The streets were freshly paved, and the houses were laid out exactly in the center of identical sized lots with porches, white picket fences, and car ports.

I reclined the seat back in my rental car just for a moment and let my mind drift back to our mission that day. We had flown in behind enemy lines to rescue an air crew that had been shot down. Everything went wrong. Fred, flying the third chopper, farther back, saw the op falling apart and launched counter fire missiles that took out one of the enemy tanks.

I engaged one of the shoulder fire missile teams from my door gunner post, but another one fired on and hit us from the opposite side. We spiraled down trailing smoke, but Fred and I kept firing the whole time and took out the other missile team just as we spun into the sand.

With the chopper starting to burn around us, Fred and I directed fire at the

remaining tank, but it hit us broadside, taking out the entire four-man extraction team that had been sitting on that bulkhead. Everything went black on impact.

A-10 tank buster jets flew in and mopped up behind us, but Fred and I were the only survivors. We both suffered multiple burns and got peppered with shrapnel. Fred got it the worst though. A piece of shrapnel hit him in the back, just above the hip and to this day he remained paralyzed from the waist down.

I broke out of my reverie, grabbed my duffel bag and jogged up to Fred’s door. I could already hear the loud roar of military men regaling each other with shared memories of conquests and blunders on the battlefield. Earth Wind and Fire’s classic, “That’s The Way of The World” was playing in the background from Fred’s old barracks era stereo that still blasted music from two gigantic stereo speakers. I couldn’t stop grinning.

Pounding loudly on the door with the meaty side of my fist, I was surprised when a gorgeous girl, still in uniform, opened the door. Staff Sargent Coronado introduced herself as Connie. We shook hands and lingered on the grip just a little bit too long and both chuckled.

“You staying a while?” She inclined her head in the direction of my bag.

“Um hm. I’m Hank. Fred and I used to fly together with the rescue teams.”

For the briefest of moments she studied my face then asked, “You two were also in the hospital together, weren’t you?”

“Yep.”

She ran her hand through her dishwater blonde hair. It hung loose to her shoulder; a little out of regulations for uniform wear, but it was a party and frankly, I couldn’t help but enjoy watching her do it. Half joking I asked her if she was staying also.

She grinned and shook her head. “No, I live two doors down. I’m in the Military

Police. I guard the gate into the Secret Cube.” I assumed she was referring to a classified facility. So I let it drop.

“Fred works there too. I help him get through the maze every morning with his

chair. We’re pals as well as neighbors. Sometimes I cook for him.” A smile snuck back onto her face before she continued. “As for staying, well, there’s only one guest room. If I get too sloppy, I’ll have to fight you for the bed.” She popped her eyebrows twice, teasing me.

“I pray you drink yourself stupid then.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t drink. Too bad for you.”

I grinned back, “You’re terrible. Do you do that to every man you meet?”

“No, just the ones who drool.”

I apologized for drooling, and she took me by surprise by kissing me on the cheek before slipping back into the house, turning right, and disappearing into the living room. I followed her in but turned left and thumped my way into the kitchen, hollering for Captain Bark, Fred’s call sign when he flew. His real name was Barkowski, but everyone called him Bark.

He rolled into the kitchen from the den and hollered loudly, “Hank! How the hell are you?” he had a bottle of Jack in his right hand, no glass. This was definitely going be an interesting party.

“I’m doing great, my brother.” I paused to look back towards his living room. “By the way, I love your facility security.”

He laughed. “You must have met Connie. She seems friendly, but she’s a killer!” He handed me the bottle. I took a healthy swig and felt it burn all the way down to my gut. Just then, Connie came into the kitchen.

“Fred, you want me to put his bag in the guest room?”

“Check it for contraband first, Staff Sargent!”

She smiled, walked over, grabbed my bag, unzipped it and pulled out a pair of

Superman boxers. “Really?” She teased me.

“C’mon! Those are just PJs. Get your hands off my drawers!” We all laughed out loud. Then she grabbed the bottle, took a long pull, looked into my shocked face and whispered. “Gotcha.” I watched her walk away and then sway up the steps.

Fred busted my chops, “Breathe buddy! Jesus! You never change.” With that, he pulled himself up out of his chair by grabbing onto the countertop of the island and held out one hand waiting for an embrace. We gripped the way old military men do who have been under fire together.

“Give me back my bottle and get upstairs.” Then he winked. I looked back at him unsure. “You fucking with me?” He shook his head. “Nope.”

I went up the steps but then things got really weird. As if they had been normal so far. Connie was waiting at the top of the steps, standing in the doorway to the guest room, with just the top of her uniform on. I raised my hands and shrugged, not understanding any of this.

“Just love me the way he would if he could.” A tear slowly snuck out of her eye

and slid down her cheek. I kissed her, gently, almost reverently. Trying to figure out how to do this without fucking it up for her, for him, or for me. She broke away smiling.

“That was a nice start.” She peeled off the rest of her uniform while backing away into the room. Then she closed the door and said, “Put on the superman undies! Then you can come in.” I shook my head, grinning, then I closed my eyes and let my head drop back against the wall, dumbfounded.

While I stood outside the door in my confused state of arousal, I suddenly heard another voice inside the room! I knew it couldn’t be Fred. He couldn't come upstairs by himself!? I pounded on the door when I heard her scream! Then I threw my shoulder into it.

Fred hollered from downstairs, "What the hell is going on!?"

"Someone else is up here Fred, call the police, dial 911!" I finally busted the door

open and found Connie lying on the floor, naked, unmoving. She was bleeding from a small puncture wound just below her rib cage. I looked around for the attacker. Then I heard a crackling sound like loud static electricity coming from the linen closet. I ripped the door open and sprang backward to avoid a desperate lunge from a guy with a knife that presumably he had just stabbed Connie with!

Stunned, I watched a man surrounded by a blue, wavering, electrical light, still

holding the knife. I grabbed his arm, and it started to materialize while the rest of him remained in that weird looking blue haze. "Let go of me asshole!" he shouted. We struggled for a minute or so.

"Freeze! Both of you on the ground, I’m with the base Military Police." I looked

back, an off-duty MP who was a friend of Fred’s had climbed the stairs and now had his service weapon pointed at us. Electricity crackled again as the attacker punched me with his free hand while I was looking at the MP. His other hand slipped through my grasp, but he dropped the knife. It popped out of the blue field and fell on the floor at the MP’s feet. The attacker disappeared, and the blue field shrunk. I stood there staring into the closet, stupefied.

“What the hell was that I screamed at the MP?”

He just whispered two words. “Secret Cube.”