CHARLIE Chapter Three - (post three)

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CHARLIE Chapter Three - (post three)

Just as the men start to leave the room a messenger enters and approaches the President. He whispers something that only the President can hear.
“Wait!” shouts the President and immediately the men begin to regroup. “Men, we have just heard that the radio signals are getting stronger and stronger and that our satellite stations have picked up definite radio messages.” He is reading from a card that the messenger has given him. He turns it over then upside down and then back the right way. “At this minute we are trying to make some sense of them.” He says and quickly looks to Professor Kearns for support. “Correct Professor?” he questions.

“Yes, unfortunately Mister President…” The Professor ad lib’s. Then taking the messengers card he turns back to face the men. “Gentlemen, we could be on the verge of possibly the most exciting encounter in the whole history of man.” He speaks as though he has just thought of this, as though nobody knows that he is reading it off the card. “On the other hand it may be disaster if these people? are hostile!”

The same security man or perhaps another dressed and groomed just like the first one, puts in a question. “Is that likely Professor?” the man asks, “I mean, if they are hostile they’d hardly be attempting to contact us! Would they?”
The professor answers him rapidly. “Well, at this stage we honestly don’t know do we? They may well not be trying to contact us at all.”
The security man stares open mouthed at the professor for several seconds, finally he speaks in a squeaky voice “You mean, we er, we might’ve just stumbled onto their wavelength?”
“Something like that.” Replies the Professor quickly, then adds “Only of course much more technical and very complicated.” He shrugs his shoulders and forces his mouth into a sort of grin. The others present respond in a similar manner.

The President takes the microphone back off Professor Kearns. “Men, I wanna form a special team, this morning a foreign agent defected to us and he tells a strange story of an Eastern Party Peoples plan to control the world.” The President studies the looks on the men’s faces, then continues to speak. “I know that you all have many questions to ask but really I’m as much in the dark as you all are, however, it may well help to talk among yourselves but remember that walls have ears and that none of us can be too careful in these troubled times.” He raises both of his hands into the air as though he is pleading with God, after a moment he turns back to the gathering. “Men you are dismissed!” He says and steps down from the platform.

In a soundproofed side office the President, Professor Kearns and five other men are seated at a glass topped table. It is the President who is speaking. “Men, you are my hand-picked team, my special force, it may be the case that one of you may lose his life before this thing is over. This morning as I said to you earlier, an Eastern Party agent defected to us, but what I didn’t disclose in the general meeting was that he is a high ranking official in the organisation over there. Now as everybody here knows, they have ambitions to control not only their own people but all of the peoples of this world including us.”

One of the hand-picked operatives forces the question that is on the minds of all of the other men. “By what means Sir? Is this connected with the radio signals?”
The President looks at Kearns and then at Johnson, finally he turns to the man who is asking the question. “I don’t know,” he replies in a quiet voice. “I really don’t know anything any more, what I do know though, is that I want two of you men to volunteer to be sent on an investigation to the Metropolski.”

“The Walled City, Sir?”
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