Once they arrived, having wound their way through the catacombs of Station X, they both settled into the front row of desks, and Josh perched himself upon the desk edge. He looked at the two of them, thoughtfully.
"Well, first off, please feel free to call me Josh. Down here, I'm not the Training Director, I'm just another member of the Bureau. Actually, something that I like to find out from everybody who joins the Bureau is why they joined. Agent Reaper? Agent Lee?"
"Well, Sir..."
"Josh, please."
"Sorry, Josh. When I was 10 years old, my parents went on a trip. They were driving across some open country and were due to be gone a couple of days. They never came back. Their car was found abandoned, the doors still open, none of their personal effects, not even money, removed. They were just gone. At approximately that time, a local man claimed he saw a large object in the sky, moving to fast to be of human origin. Once old enough, I pulled a few strings, friends of my father, and they informed me an object had appeared on radar that day which was 'unexplained'. Well, since that day, I've always wondered what happened. I don't know if they were taken by a UFO or where that craft would have come from. It's more probable that the Russians took him, since he was a Colonel in the Marine Corp. Once I began looking into the phenomena, however, I saw how many unexplained incidents were going on around the USA and the world. I knew then that I wanted to find out what was going on. I'm not sure I believe in aliens, but I believe some things should not be left unexplained. That's why I'm here."
Reaper listened attentively to Lee's answer. After a moment's pause, Josh began to speak again.
"Interesting. We all seem to have our own reasons for joining. Me personally, I joined out of curiosity. I worked in Forensics for quite a while, and my work became more and more related to X-Files cases, so I made the changeover. That, and I got a promotion, which always helps."
"Now, I have a bit of a test for you. As you may or may not be aware, we have all manner of cases here in the Division. I'm going to describe one to you, and I'd like you both to describe how you'd go about solving it. I think you'll get the general jist of things once I've described the case!"
"This particular case is one that was recently done here in the Bureau. It's looking at the disappearance of scientists at a Marine Research Institute. The scientists are all members of the same research team, developing a special sonar system for the Navy. The scientists have vanished on three successive trips, always at the same spot, at the same time of night. There are a number of strange aspects to this case. Firstly, there are no apparent signs of a struggle. Only the members of the scientific team vanish, and occassionally some equipment. Crew members who have returned have reported a strange whalesong, a dark shadow in the water, bright lights in the sky and a strange whirring sound. But there have never been injuries in any of the disappearances. So, what do you make of it?"
"Well, Josh, it seems that the team were probably subject to some form of espionage. Any new sonar technology would be highly desirable to another government. Also, if a team working on a similar project were involved, this could explain the 'whalesong'. It could have been another sonar device being used. The dark shadow in the water would have been from a submarine or test station which had the sonar device on board. Bright lights would be needed by any airborne search craft in flight trying to locate the navy vessel. Also, for such a search and retrieve, helicopters would be the most logical choice. This could also explain the whirring sound heard by witnesses. I must admit, though, that the fact that no struggle was detected is somewhat more of a mystery. This would imply that those who took the crew were able to approach unmolested. This would only have been possible if they were 'friendly'. It seems most probable, however unlikely it may sound, that another government agency was responsible."
Reaper tried to gauge the reaction of Josh, but could see nothing. The man was good.
"The military can be a lot of devious SOBs. If I had to attempt a judgement, I would say from that information that another branch of the military had decided that the technology was either too good to allow or wanted to steal the project's secrets, plus any money which is granted for research in the area. One distinct puzzle is that there are no injuries. Even if a team managed to get aboard under a friendly guise, surely when they tried to kidnap someone, there would be a struggle. Also, the scenario above is fine for a 'one off' raid, but after the first time, any covert element of surprise must surely be gone. On the next trip, the crew would be ready for anything. Perhaps the airborne unit used some sort of biological agent, such as gas, to knockout the crew before boarding."
"Anyway, those are my initial thoughts. To proceed, we would have to look at the navy vessel's logs to find out what they picked up on sonar and radar. Also, we need to know what kind of facilities are in the area from which such a raid could have been launched. Are there any military projects underway *capable* of mounting such an assault and also, was there any other strange activity reported in the area? Locals on the shore seeing funny objects, or fisherman seeing a craft where there should be none. I have to say, though, I'd be inclined to go with military espionage, not a UFO theory."
NRPG:
Well, there's "Grim" Jim's first thoughts on the case. Sau Woon, what are your thoughts?
P.S. Have a good trip, Andrew!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Respectfully submitted, FCO Ens. Olivier Patru, USS Orion, Special Agent Jim Reaper, Station X, X-Files. aka Peter Shillan. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------