Mind Over Matter

Chapter 05

"Message in the gold brick?!?!?"

Carroll said. "I was at loss too," I said. I was telling her and Don about Timmy's research the next morning at HQ. "That's interesting," said Don. "I thought so," I said. "No," he replied, "I mean you, at a loss." "Hilarious," I replied sarcastically. "But seriously," he said, "Can I read that letter?" "Here," I said handing it to him, "It was attached to the research." He took it and read through it. When he was done, he stared at it for a moment, looking thoughtful, and slightly puzzled. "That's odd," he finally said. "I know, right?" said Carroll. "No," said Don again, "I mean the part about the FBI." Just then it clicked in my head. I thought that part was weird, but other parts were even more so, so I didn't really think about it. "Oh, snap!" I said. "What?" said Carroll. "They're supposed to keep their nose out of our business," said Don. "So they have an agreement with us?" asked Carroll. "Yes," I said, "And they may have just broke it."

-----

"We can't jump to conclusions," said Commander Samson, "But this mission has just been moved up on the priorities list." We were in a video meeting with Commander Samson. He's over everything in our agency. It's rumored that nobody has ever seen him in person. He always contacts everybody through these video meetings. Everyone but him usually gathers in the meeting room, and his face shows up on a huge screen at the end of the room. This time, it was just me, Don and Carroll. "I want this person found and whoever's chasing him." "Yes, sir!" all three of us said. "All avenues of help will be available for this mission if you need it." said the Commander. "Does that include the Five?" Don asked. "I said all avenues, didn't I agent?" said the Commander. His face on the huge screen made him look really intimidating just then. I almost laughed at Don. Everybody knows that when the director says something, he means it. "Yes, sir!" replied Don. "Very well then," the Commander said, "Dismissed!"

-----

So with that, we went back to Timmy's house. We found the broken wall in the bathroom, and the stains on the floor. "Get a sample of that to bring back to headquarters," said Don. I got out my pocket knife and started to cut a square of carpet out with the stain in it. "I need a better knife," I said after having a lot of trouble and cutting only a little. "No you don't," said Carroll, "Hand me the knife." I got up and handed it to her. She got on her knees and started cutting with no problem. Before I knew it, she was done. "Here you go," she said, handing me the knife and piece of carpet, grinning. "How did you do that?!?!?" I asked. "It's just a matter of how hard you push," she replied. I didn't say anything in reply. I was pushing as hard as I could and barely got anywhere. She did it just like that. Of course, there is something about Carroll that only Commander Samson and I know. I'm supposed to break it to her, but slowly. I probably could have got the carpet up, but I wanted Carroll to try. I looked at the carpet. It was a perfect square. It's hard to cut carpet with a pocket knife and not have imperfections. Again, there's something different about her.

I started to examine all of the clues. The bed. Why was the bed there, but nothing else? Timmy's right. There is something odd about that. The letter. Why would he write a message to himself? Why would the FBI be after him? He said he left clues as to where he went, so where are they? I can't get over that part. The clock. If he doesn't need anything else, why a clock? The gold brick. Timmy said that there was a message in it, there isn't one on it. He also said it explained everything. How did it do that? I looked at the clock. "Carroll," I said, "Would you say that there's something behind that clock?" She looked at it a moment. "Now that you say that," she said thoughtfully, "Suddenly I have a feeling that there is." I grinned. I took the clock off of the wall.

My grin turned into a frown. There was nothing there. No mark on the wall, no nothing. I started to put it back. "Wait," said Carroll. I stopped. She put her hand on the wall where the clock was, and pushed. About a square foot of the Sheetrock broke and fell off to the floor. A piece of paper that was folded up with a paper clip in it was sitting on one of the boards in the wall. Carroll picked it up and took the paper clip out and put it in her pocket. Then, she unfolded the paper. "What is it?" asked Don. "It's a picture of some kind of cartoonish alien," replied Carroll. She flipped the paper over. "And a picture of New Mexico," she added.

She flipped the paper over. Duh. Why couldn't I think of that? "Don!" I said, "Do you have that letter?" "Yes," he said, handing it to me. I was looking at the side that we read earlier. I flipped it over. What?!?! Nothing?!?!?!?!? Wait, no! At the bottom of the page! In very small print was an address, or at least part of one:

364 Ohio

No city or zip code, not even a state. But the picture of New Mexico! So all we need is the city... Alien. What was the alien for? There were old legends about aliens that visited earth... One was in Roswell... New Mexico! "Do you know about those old legends about aliens?" "Some of them," replied Don. "Well, in one of them, a so called 'UFO' landed in Roswell," I started, "And later the government said that it was just a weather balloon, but people still believed that it was a 'UFO' and that the government was just covering it up, and so Roswell became a little tourist attraction for a few years." "And your point?" said Don. "Roswell is in New Mexico!" I replied. "Oh!" said Carroll, "So we're going to Roswell?"