High Steaks: A Bjorn Trilogeé Adventure

Chapter 14: The Final Chapter: Armageddon

General Frank Lee Muhdeer held the View Master disc between his fingers, twirling it back and forth silently. He sat at his desk and looked at Bjorn sitting across from him, then looked back at the disc as it moved around his hand.

The General's office was situated in the sub-basement of the Saint Paul General Mail Facility. One could say it was slightly nicer than the Boston General Mail Facility, but both were comprised of grey cinder block windowless rooms of varying rectangular shapes. It is considered to be in the architectural style of American Warehouse Nouveau.

"So son, you're saying you could actually read this?" said the General breaking the dead silence in the room.

"Ya" said Bjorn slightly confused, "Why wouldn't I be able to read it?"

"Because its' a bona fide reptilian alien language son. It was first discovered by the famed magician John Dee in the 16th century. One day while staring into his Obsidian Scrying Mirror, he had a vision of an entire reptilian language. But nobody believed him,that is until Roswell. Since then a select few have been able to use and understand this language. The thing is, we never programmed you for that. Aye say, that's mighty peculiar ... strange that is!"

"What was that?" said Bjorn staring off into space. "I wasn't listening."

Muhdeer removed a lighter from his pocket, it had the 'Mr. Zip' mascot emblazoned on the side, and set fire to the disc. He then tossed it across the room into a nearby trashcan.

"Whoa, what the hell!" yelled Bjorn. "That had information about a bunch of very guilty people who were genetically splicing human DNA into American cattle supplies!"

"I see where you're coming from ... I really do, but those men, well they are all dead now aren't they? Releasing this information would only hurt their companies, which in turn would only hurt their investors. You know how many average Americans that could affect? Plus frankly it's none of your business. You work for us."

"Ya about that, I was wondering how much money I could still possibly owe at this point? My college debts must be paid off by now."

"Well funny you bring that up son. This was your last mission. You're free to go. Of course we would love to have you stay. You are now officially a full time agent and all."

"I am going to have to say no, unless this is one those situations where I say no and get killed or have my brain erased."

General Muhdeer let loose a deep belly laugh. It was a contractual impossibility to erase the mind of a full time agent. Back in the early 90's the Union of Service Agents were fairly upset by the hiring of drone workers, as it took away their overtime. In order to come to a settlement, The Service begrudgingly agreed to never again erase the minds of any full time agents. This really hurt management because their overall plan was to erase the agent's mind in order to avoid having to pay their salary.

"Aye say, Aye say, I am very disappointed to hear that. The Invisible President, well she was very interested in this mission and thought you'd make a great full time agent. But hey it's your life." The General leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. "Well as per contract we do give you a parting gift, a free weeks' vacation anywhere in the world."

Bjorn thought of all the places that he could go on vacation, maybe India to train under the Maharishi or to Tibet to learn with the Dali Lama.

The phone on the General's desk started buzzing. He nodded to Bjorn letting him know that he needed to take the call. He put the phone to his ear and listened, occasionally letting out a grunt of agreement. Hanging up, he looked intensely towards Bjorn.