Strange Roadfellows
Dr. George with his two associates drove up to the entrance to check all the locks, making sure that there were no signs of them being tampered since the last time they were there. Then parked inside a burrowed out parking garage.
"Did you hear how he talked to me in the van?" Lurch complained.
"I heard. But I paid no attention," Isotophes answered. They were bringing out sealed crates from the back of the van. Dr. George disappeared into the building.
"You know what would be funny?" Lurch then said.
"We didn't bring everything?"
"No, no." Lurch paused and checked around the corner of the van. "We could put in black lights in the lab room."
"O.K. but I'm not putting the lights back together if you blow up another fuse-box," She said as she dropped a crate. "I hope that wasn't the one with the lens."
After a while they were sitting in the dark. Lurch was repairing some wiring and a adjusting some fuses while Dr. George, holding an ice pack to his head, was leaned back resting. A small lantern kept the area lit. "My niece is coming out here." Dr. George informed them.
"You have a niece?" Lurch asked.
"Yes. She's basically being grounded for hacking into government files and re-routing Swiss accounts tied to foundations so that they ended up going to all the recycling machines that offered cash back and got them to pay out large sums of money for aluminum cans. And for circulating game codes so that corporate markets offering them for money are pretty much obsolete."
“So why send her all the way out here to Hell's Basin? Is she in hiding?" Isotophes asked.
"Her parents just want the heat to die down. She didn't do anything illegal. They're just sending her to stay with me since I used to take care of her so many years ago, and saw to it that she got to school and church on time" Dr. George concluded.
"How is all that not illegal?" Lurch asked.
"Well, maybe it is. Small little world with its small little world problems. No one who runs things are ever grown up or sane." Dr. George sighed. And it was true. From the things that he's been a part of, the scheme of things in the universe lessened anything of grave concern on earth as trivial.
“No wonder she's screwed up. You kept threatening to take her to church when she was younger." Lurch put in.
“You’re such a Satan worshiper." Isotophes replied.
"Who me?" Lurch asked.
"Okay what were we talking about?" Isotophes shook her head and had to go outside and bring in the last parts of her telescope that she was setting up in the domed section of the base.
They were all expecting to get word from the rogue team coming out to meet them at the abandoned airport. After waiting for days, they finally got a message that the other team would be driving an unmarked van. But as they drove toward their destination they spotted a bus that was also driving on the same dusty highway. What was unusual is that the bus had a large red NASA logo on its side.
The occupants of the NASA bus, which was acquired from a salvage yard and obviously rebuilt, were none other than the magicians known as Penn and Teller who were on a small tour scouting for a perfect location for their next television show. Of course the team from the real NASA didn't know that and didn't know who Penn and Teller were.
There was a storm coming. They drove toward the approaching storm, taking little notice of it. "Oh look, we're out of gas," Penn said nonchalantly. Teller flinched.
"Oh look, Hell's Basin," Penn mused.
Teller looked at Penn with a somewhat annoyed expression.
"Well, I don't know what it's really called, but it looks like something that would be called Hell's Basin."
Teller rolled his eyes and looked out the window.
"We're out of gas." Penn spoke again, smiling.
The rogue team couldn't wait at the derelict airport now, plans had changed. They would now have to find Dr. George's location and hope that the strange NASA bus would go on. They sent a message asking if they were still secure, and explained that the equipment they had with them must be gotten off the road, off the surface, and underground as soon as possible.
There were three members of the fugitive rogue team, consisting of a marine named Breaker, an engineer who simply went by Nuzz and an older woman who used to work in the utmost secret areas of Area 51 who had been living under the alias Monday Eve. She had been in hiding for decades, and she did not want this mission to go awry. This NASA bus was far more than jarring, it was a curse in her eyes. A very ill omen.
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