The Manhattan Incident Read online

  The Wedgie suddenly stopped directly above Grand Central Terminal at a height of a few hundred feet just above the nearby taller buildings as seen in the video. Suddenly, we see what looked like clear water balloons in the hundreds dropped from various apertures that opened on the underside of the Wedgie. As they dropped they suddenly popped, releasing liquid that became a concentrated mist that floated to the ground. This action was not visible to the F-16Cs as they were descending. In the video several people started screaming and running in various directions in fearful panic. Suddenly the Wedgie shoots straight up at an extremely rapid rate in the video. It levels off just below the descending F-16s and rapidly proceeds eastward toward Long Island Sound as seen in the video.

  Hopper just finished updating the Eastern Air Defense Sector headquarters in Rome, New York as the Wedgie suddenly shot eastward. “Wedgie is now proceeding away from New York eastward. Appears there was no visible hostile action down below. What are my orders?” ”This is EADS, you are to pursue until further orders or fuel constraints force you to return to base.” The squadron dutifully pursued the Wedgie which was below them and moving fast.

  At the entrance to the terminal, Alexi shivered as he sensed a chill brush of moist air on his cheek. Touching his cheek, he felt a slight dampness. Damn, he thought, it wasn’t expected to snow or rain today. Alexi looked up and is astonished to see the Wedgie above at a height about 200 feet or more above the nearest tall building. Alexi thinks God, how quiet it is. He had not even heard it rapidly descend. Next the craft suddenly shot upward extremely rapidly. Alexi felt a sense of panic. The scene shows him running inside the terminal to the public bathrooms and vigorously washing his hands and face. He worried that the moisture might have come from the alien craft. Next he scanned the departure board and ran to the Metro North train heading to New Haven, Connecticut. He just made it as the doors closed. His imagination provided too many unpleasant possibilities about what the mist might or might not be. He had mixed emotions about reporting the incident. What if it was only water? Maybe the NSA would take him away again. He took out his cell phone and called his current female companion in Greenwich, Connecticut. He knew it was short notice, but she liked him a lot and would undoubtedly put him up for a few days. Fortunately, he kept some clothes there. Margaret answered and said “Sure, but you’re taking me out to dinner tonight.” Alexi hoped in a few days things might return to normal in the city. If not, he had a place to stay.

  Meredith Parker saw a lot of commotion as she approached Grand Central Terminal. She felt the moist air and ignored it. Meredith saw people running in all directions and wondered what’s up. Looking around, she saw nothing to worry about. She did not look up, having no idea that the craft was above. All Meredith could think of was getting the Amtrak train to Rutland. She hurried into the terminal and down the stairs. She just caught the shuttle as it pulled away toward Penn Station. Meredith had just left her last class at NYU and was on her way to meet her boyfriend, Anthony, in Rutland. He attended Green Mountain State College and would be on his way home to his parents’ house in Rutland. Anthony Ianelli would pick her up at the Rutland train station. A great weekend of skiing and parties was ahead. She could hardly wait. Having her last class on a Thursday morning early was the cushiest schedule she ever had. Anthony had to cut some classes to meet her, but she knew he didn’t mind. Any excuse for a party and sex, she mused.

  Mists were released from all the crafts over the major US cities, in fact, all over the world’s major cities at the same time. Often, it went unnoticed except for a few individuals that happened to be looking up or felt the wetness of the mist or those who had seen the Wedgies rapidly and quietly descend and then ascend just as quickly. The Wedgies not over cities elsewhere did nothing, except remain on station. Numerous exposures, mostly unknowingly, took place in all the major cities. People hurried onward doing their business, their errands, and their daily routines. All the exposures were at high traffic areas such as Grand Central Station in New York, Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, Colaba Causeway in Mumbai, and Las Ramblas in Barcelona.

  Tech Sergeant Munger at NORAD observed the sudden descent and ascent and then departure from the major United States cities through the radar satellite images. He immediately picked up the phone to notify General Straub. General Straub puzzled over the news. He had requested Munger to notify him where the departing Wedgies were going as soon as possible. What were the bastards up to, he wondered.

  After the events of 9/11, biological sensors had been placed in strategic locations, especially in New York City. Shortly, these biological “sniffers” began to detect something that was no longer ambient. No alarms triggered at the sensors, but alarms at the NYC Homeland Security Office began to trigger. The first signals were at Grand Central Terminal; and then they spread to nearby subway locations. The duty officer at the NYC Homeland Security Office sounded the klaxon to rouse the on duty crisis response team. He then notified Director Richmond Garrett of his actions. As they donned their biological hazmat suits and collected their sampling gear, the duty officer notified the NYPD and requested an emergency quarantine situation. The special NYPD quarantine team donned their protective equipment and raced to the scene. There was no protocol for notifying the National Guard, as normally they would be called later if the NYPD thought the situation warranted it. Given that the Guard was on duty in the city, the duty officer thought it might be prudent to do so. He called their headquarters. Their duty officer passed the information on to the Commandant of the Guard.

  In the NYC National Guard Headquarters, Commandant Gerald Lohnstein had already issued earlier biological protection orders for the National Guard troops out in the city until further notice as a precaution. He worried about the age and reliability of the protective masks. At least his was new and reliable, he thought, as he pulled it from his desk and put it on. He issued orders to the on duty staff to do the same. The Commandant then remembered General Straub’s order to notify NORAD of anything out of the ordinary, given the hostile craft. The biological alert from Homeland Security certainly was not ordinary. At this point no one had made the connection between the biological warning and the mist from the “Wedgie.” Commandant Lohnstein picked up the phone and insisted it was urgent that he speak to General Straub immediately. When General Straub hung up, he now knew what the bastards were up to, biological warfare. “God preserve us,” he muttered. It had been 20 minutes since the incident at Grand Central Terminal. There was no question in General Straub’s mind anymore about the intent. It was hostile.

  Just then, his Aide, Sergeant O’Malley, dashed in out of breath. “Sir, there is an urgent request from EADS. He listened to the report. “Where is the Wedgie right now?” Lieutenant Colonel Hopper responded, “The alien craft is now over the Atlantic Ocean and turning to head due south. The Squadron is running low on fuel and will have to turn back soon.” General Straub makes a split second decision. “How many and what missiles are you carrying?” “General, we are carrying Sidewinders and have a total of 24.” “EADS, please confirm and relay the following order. Have the squadron lock on with all 24 missiles and fire from overhead as much as possible.” General Straub was counting on the fact that defensive armament would be weakest at the topside of the Wedgie as was the case with our own jet fighters.

  Colonel Hopper received the confirmation order from EADS a short time later. As luck would have it, they were positioned above the Wedgie almost directly overhead at 2,000 feet above it. “Squadron leader Hopper here, team arm all Sidewinders and fire on my mark.” “Armed and ready came back” from the other three F-16s. “Fire!” All 24 Sidewinders streaked downward toward the Wedgie in the video. Almost immediately laser beams flash at the approaching Sidewinders. All but four explode. Time had run out for the Wedgie defensive ordinance because of the close quarters and missile number intensity.” Four Sidewinders hit and Hopper noted multiple explosions as shown in the video. Suddenly the craft wobbled and starte
d an erratic downward spiral. Somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean, it split in two pieces and then sank below the waves. General Straub is highly pleased when the EADS reported back. Good, they can be destroyed, he thinks.

  The scene shifted to the train carrying Alexi to Greenwich, Connecticut. Alexi sat rigidly in his train seat. As a reporter, he thought it was his obligation to report the mist incident over Grand Central. Yet he worried that were he to do so, it was highly likely he risked being quarantined by NSA as a precaution. He rationalized that since he felt fine, there was no problem. Didn’t nerve gases act real fast? Yes, they did, he confirmed on his mobile google app. A nagging thought said what if it was a biological agent? He rationalized that his prompt washing ended the threat. Finally, he knew what to do. He called the Times desk and reported in as being on a train to New Haven (throw them off a bit, not mention he was getting off in Greenwich just in case) and that he had several tweets from his highly reliable street sources that a mist had been observed coming from the craft over the Grand Central Terminal. He closed with the comment, “You might want to check it out with the authorities.”

  2. VIDEO: THE INCIDENT, DAY 1 THROUGH 3, PI

  VIDEO: THE INCIDENT. General Straub sat at the head of the table with the NORAD Crisis Management Team. “So, to date we have confirmed reports of biological sensors triggered in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Philadelphia. Lockdown and quarantine have been established as best as possible at these sites by the National Guard, Homeland Security, and local police. I have ordered the Guard to enact quarantine protocols for all cities where a hostile craft had been present. We’ll have to assume that mists were released at all these sites, unless we determine differently following air testing. That will be up to the CDC once they receive all the samples. We have unconfirmed visual reports of mists originating from the hostile craft, but only at some of the major cities. Our most reliable data appears to be in New York with the Times reporters asking questions of people near the terminal earlier this morning. Their lead comes from their reporter, Alexi Utkin. He indicated tweets from anonymous sources stating that the mist came from the hostile craft. The NSA has checked his cell phone calls. There are no tweets dealing with the mist other than his and his present location is on a Metro North train heading to New Haven, Connecticut. We have requested the FBI to pick him up for questioning. They’ll board the train at Greenwich.”

  “There are no known casualties yet. Air samples from Atlanta and New York are on their way to the CDC in Atlanta. Additional samples from all the other cities will be on their way by special couriers before the day ends. No activity over military bases, biological labs or the Mount Weather Facility has been detected. The hostiles are just maintaining a stationary presence there. Does anyone have any thoughts?”

  The first to speak was Lieutenant Colonel Kyle Lanzo of Military Intelligence. “Sir, from the actions so far, given their probable weapon superiority, it is likely that they wish to preserve as much infrastructure as possible. Otherwise, they would have deployed nukes like they did in Iran. Therefore, it is likely that their goal is occupation and exploitation of our resources and possibly slave labor. However, the hostiles have a critical balance problem. Too many people would be hard to control and use too many resources. A rather large occupation force would be needed far beyond the capacity of the number of hostile craft currently here. It is our belief that they will likely thin out the population to a more manageable level. Thinning would be best aimed at the softer and weaker among us. We think they are starting the thinning at the major cities right now. Our projections are that the mist is a biological weapon, likely some type of fatal infection over which we currently have no medical defenses. Sort of like when AIDS first occurred. Think of this as the first wave of the invasion. They are setting us up for the occupation force, the second wave.”

  Dr. George Chrispeels interrupted. He was the psychologist on the team. “Yes, that makes sense from a psychological perspective. Of course, that assumes they think and act like we do.” General Straub looked at Chrispeels and spoke. “Why haven’t they attacked the military bases, or labs, or the Presidential hide-out?” George answered. “Of course, I can only speculate, but here’s what I think. They want the strongest of us for their slave labor. What better than the young men and women in the military. They are in superb physical condition relative to the rest of the population. They are also younger and likely to last longer than the average city dweller. They are used to deprivation, so the perfect labor force. The hostiles have already demonstrated their weapon superiority, so they don’t expect a counter attack from our forces. So, we only have a one-time chance of a surprise attack against them. There might also be the element of respect, one warrior to another, you know, the fair treatment of prisoners of war. Although another possibility is that they are toying with us, like the hunter with its prey, the cat with the mouse. If the latter is true, I would expect that now their city wipeout plan is complete, the remaining hostiles will join the others over the non-city targets. At that point I would expect a call for surrender or an all-out attack.”

  “Well,” said General Straub, “I have to tell you that we have already destroyed one Wedgie in a limited engagement off the Eastern Seaboard. It took several missiles. It appears they are not invincible, but it will take large numerical superiority to assure results. Costs in lives and equipment will be very high undoubtedly. We don’t know if the remaining Wedgies know yet what happened, but eventually I’m sure the missing craft will be noted.”

  General Straub was rubbing his temples and thinking to himself. Was the wait and see approach the best one? If they had attacked the hostiles either when they arrived or once it was clear they were moving toward major cities, it would likely have failed and the hostiles would get to the cities anyway. Perhaps they might have been pissed and nuked a few to demonstrate their pique, like they did in Iran. Also, an earlier aggressive attack by us probably would have destroyed most of our fighter jets, too, given their demonstrated weapons superiority in the Chinese incident. His head hurt. Being outgunned was not something the military liked. On the other hand, the wait and see might have doomed a large number of civilians to some type of plague. Either way the casualties were going to be high. Well, if the CDC boys can do their magic and stop whatever is coming, we’ll still have military and civilian infrastructure. Maybe the wait and see was right. The problem now was what to do about the military bases, labs and presidential hide-out. Order a preemptive strike, or more wait and see? Time to bring the President up to date, concluded the General. He closed the meeting with a request to work out various scenarios for dealing with the hostile crafts over the non-city targets.

  But first, he would call his son. Ever since his wife had died in that tragic car accident, Brian and his family were all he had left. They were very important to him. Brian Straub answered on the second ring of the cell phone. “Brian, are you at the cabin? “Yes, Dad” answered Brian. “Good,” said the General. “Listen carefully and do as I say. Your family’s survival depends on it. There might be a major disease epidemic caused by the aliens. Go to town no later than tomorrow and stock up on food, medical supplies, lanterns, batteries, lamp oil, blankets, polyester or wool winter underwear and other warm clothing, and 9mm ammunition plus 12 gauge shotgun shells. Don’t tell anyone where you are staying.” “Dad,” said Brian, “you know my position on guns. We have agreed to disagree on this issue.”

  “Brian, listen to me. If the plague strikes near you, people will panic and flee. Some might come to my cabin, like those who built it or serviced it over the years, or maybe hunters or the mail carrier. The drive-way perimeter alarm will alert you to anyone driving in. It also has a battery back-up that lasts quite a while. If they walk in, the dog should alert you. They will likely be armed and throw you out or kill all of you. You need to warn off anyone coming near. You can’t be a credible threat with just your empty hands. If they continue coming, fire a warning shot. Kill them if they
continue on, as you can’t take a chance on whether they are infected. Your survival is your highest priority. Leave the bodies there as a deterrent and for heaven’s sake, don’t touch them. Keep the dog away, too. We don’t know the vectors yet. We don’t know the contagion level or how it spreads. I suspect all law and order will break down, as will the veneer of a polite society. Don’t go to town after tomorrow. We have no idea of what this plague might be or how fast it will spread. Take no chances.”

  “I expect that the electrical grid will fail at some point. You have enough firewood on hand to ride out a winter, if need be. Winter underwear and warm clothing will help. Buy some if you don’t have any with you. There is a generator, so buy some gas. There are two five gallon cans in the garage. Fill them both. Use it sparingly. Since it is winter time, you can keep food cold in the garage. Under the master bedroom bed, there is a radio that can run on batteries or by hand crank. The gun safe code is L-24, R-56, and R-12. Write it down. There is a shotgun, a 9mm Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol, a 9mm Marlin camp carbine, and a Browning BAR safari with scope. The magazines are interchangeable between the pistol and the carbine. The BAR is your first line of defense for stopping at the maximal distance. The shotgun and carbine are good for medium distances or when there are several targets. The pistol is your last resort for close encounters. Make sure you buy hollow point 9mm ammo and the heaviest grain, 150 or higher, for the 30-06. You should buy as much ammo as possible. If the store owner asks why so much, just say a bunch of your buddies are coming and you are going hunting. Promise me that you will fire all the guns at targets so that you familiarize yourself with their operation. Have the kids and Mary practice, too. Promise me.”