Insider

Off to USA

Back in Ghana, J.Nagi was taking a brief go through of the mission. He congratulated the trio upon their success, and relayed his grief for the deceased leader, "Erik shall be deeply missed by the SIEVE, he was a great asset for this organization, one of its most successful assets. But he knew what he was doing when he sacrificed himself for the team, so let's respect his choice with a moment of silence."

He continued after pausing for some time, "The information for your next mission has already arrived, so you won't be going back to Atlantis II for now."

"Where are we heading?" asked the Russian.

"East USA, Nevada. To be absolutely precise, Area 51."

The next day the three met again after lunch for the complete briefing for their mission. There had been an addition to the team, Eoin Grace had joined them.

Jahi told them, "Due to the loss of Erik, Mr. Eoin will join you. But the leader will be Axel as I believe you have built some trust among yourself."

Castillo and Valeriya nodded in agreement.

"The main aim of the mission is extraction and destruction. We have developed fake identities for you all. Smithson and Eoin will be partner scientists and the two of you remaining, their assistants. I chose this as the British and the American who will be known as Gary Turner and Michael Brown respectively have a great knowledge of rocket science and nuclear physics, one of the main topics researched there. Valeriya will be known as Anna Ivanov while Castillo will be known as Martin Herrera."

"You will be leaving today night. Best of luck!"

That night in the Learjet Axel sat stargazing.

They were in the stratosphere thus

There were no clouds to block the view. It also was a new moon day so no moonlight was there to outshine the glimmering stars in the night sky.

It was the month of November. He could easily spot the constellation of Scorpio dominant in the night sky. The little and big dipper were shining near the north pole. Orion could be easily spotted with the help of its significant belt; he three stars in a straight line.

This reminded him of his childhood and his parents. His house had a balcony facing away from the bright lights of London. Axel's father had an avid interest in astronomy. They had a huge telescope with which father and son stargazed in the night. After his parents' death, Axel often took out the telescope to remind him of his father. He often had hallucinations; he would see his father's smiling face looking down from the stars.

His trance like state was broken by the pilot's voice on the PA system, "We have crossed the Atlantic Ocean we will take three more hours to reach Nevada. Axel looked from his window different shades of browns, greens and yellows were rushing underneath, a refreshing change from the constant blue of the ocean

Sleep started taking over Axel as he slowly slipped into a deep slumber.