Across Book 2

Chapter 2 : Call For Mission

Hamburg Germany, February 2018 :

Vinsh unlocked the door and entered his house, wondering if he should just get rest or work on the current project. His home phone was laying low in an organized case, which was only used for very special purposes. He rarely checked his home phone since he rarely got any calls or texts from it. But that night, it was different. When Vinsh was reaching for orange juice in the refrigerator, he saw his home phone blinking. After two whole months. A jolt of contentment hit Vinsh, and he immediately poured the orange juice to recharge his much needed body energy after a long day at work. Carrying the glass and sipping the juice a few times in small quantities, he picked up the home phone and played the voicemail that was blinking since the morning while he was long gone.

"Greetings from the past, Vishnu. This is from ACROSS, we have received a rescue-request from Hamburg, Germany. There seems to be some disturbance in the abandoned construction side by the docks. Call back for accepting the mission. We will fill you in with the necessary information. Ignore if you want someone else to take the post."

ACROSS - Alternate community regarding overall space search, an organisation which is spread over the world, but has sworn to secrecy about its existence. It sends different divisions of special people to eradicate certain threats. Of course extraterrestrial invasion is one of them. ACROSS is funded by more than forty countries, and the number keeps on increasing by the end of each year when a request is sent for immediate eradication of threat. Not only this helped the countries get rid of uninvited troubles but strengthened their relationship and trust.

Vinsh has been a member of ACROSS since 2014. This was where his life stood, so thought Vinsh. He called back on the same private number.

"Greetings from the past, Aiden," Vinsh said once the call connected.

"Vishnu, I'm certain you're calling back after listening to the voicemail. You are to gather a team and head to the given spot within tomorrow morning. You have till sundown until the local cops launch a full scale investigation and discover secrets that cannot be unseen."

"Understood."

"I am sending you a list of members, pick your team and head down there as soon as possible"

The call disconnected.

Within seconds, Vinsh received an encrypted email which had all the details of the members according to their rank numbers. The ACROSS guidelines clearly stated that one could pick his or her own team if his or her rank is reserved well within the top twenty members. If not, they must assemble members randomly and put in-charge the highest ranking one among them.

Vinsh looked at the list of names and their respective abilities. There was Kevin Carson, ranked twenty one, which meant if Kevin was just a rank higher, today he would be picking his own team. But what Vinsh saw in Kevin was, since he was so close, Kevin might try to pick his battles passive aggressively to prove himself. Vinsh looked at the next rank holders and marked the available ones - Brock Gibbs and Jacob Hutton. Vinsh called them one by one, inquired about the mission and thought if four people were enough for the next day. He agreed to himself that it was.

The next day Vinsh woke up, he spaced out for a second. His home phone had three missed calls which reminded him that day was important, but not more important than calling in sick for his corporate job first or as Vinsh liked to call it - the cover up job. He made himself some tea and called for a cab. He strapped his wrist watch on which was an important accessory for the task. The ride to the destined location took about twenty minutes which Vinsh spent inside the cab to go through the request reports. From the cab window he could see the scenario of the passing traffic and the busy life of the city, the people hurrying for their ten o'clock jobs and project reports, high school students talking in the parking lot, vehicles rushing in the same traffic spot, thinking if car pooling was a good idea