By Stoney M. Setzer
“Our triumph is close at hand, thanks to Dr. Drago!” General Kohl proclaimed triumphantly as he stood in front of the B-17 Flying Fortress, the sunlight reflecting off his bald head. He pointed to a huge, opaque metal cylinder directly beneath the aircraft. “Our surrender weapon will bring the governments of the world to their knees, one at a time! We shall either rule them or ruin them!”
His followers stood on the airstrip, listening intently. For years, the Agency had considered Wolfreich just a splinter cell—minor players on the stage of global terrorism. Until now.
Kohl looked toward me. “Dr. Drago, explain how your invention will bring us victory!”
Applause erupted as I stepped in front of the metal cylinder. I had been anticipating this, knowing Kohl would have me make the speech, so I had mentally rehearsed it a hundred times. No matter what, I had to make this speech as good as my disguise.
I held up my hand to get their attention. “What we call the supernatural is very real and all around us. For years, I have researched how to harness something of that world and subject it to human control, finally realizing that force fields were the answer. This weapon is the fruit of my work.” I paused for effect. “I have captured a banshee.”
I pressed a button on my handheld remote. A panel in the cylinder slid aside to reveal a female figure, more specter than flesh, behind a transparent barrier. She banged her fists on the side of the tube and howled in mute fury. The troops gasped in astonishment.
“Contrary to folklore, banshees are more than mere omens. Their scream is actually quite destructive. And with our force field technology, we will be able to unleash this one’s voice upon any target, directed outward like a devastating laser. No military force can stand against the concentrated power of her scream, so they will surrender rather than face her.”
Beside me, Kohl tilted his chin up proudly. “With this surrender weapon loaded into our Flying Fortress, we will be invincible! Nations will either bow or be destroyed!”
He was right. Already armed to the teeth, the Flying Fortress was a formidable enough asset. Loading this weaponized banshee onto the aircraft would make them unstoppable…
…Assuming it was properly installed. That was where I came in.
“Dr. Drago, how long will it take you to install the surrender weapon?” Kohl asked in an almost theatrical voice, no doubt trying to pump up his followers.
“Thirty minutes, sir.”
“Perfect!” Kohl turned his attention back to his troops. “We will take off at 1400 hours. Then the new world order will begin! We will start by making an example of—”
“Stop that man!” someone shouted—a voice I had studied in preparation for this mission. “He is an impostor and a saboteur!”
Everyone turned to see the white-haired man who had just arrived—the real Dr. Drago. I had left him handcuffed to the steering wheel of a car. Clearly, Dr. Drago was a master escape artist, just as I was a master of disguise.
The Agency’s training had prepared me for this. “I’ll give you credit,” I said. “You’re pretty clever! Barging in here, pretending to be me, when you’re the real impostor!” Play it confident. The more confident you act, the more believable you are.
Drago seemed equally self-assured. “Absurd. Why would an impostor come in at the last minute like this?”
“Because nobody would ever expect it, and you’d count on that to reinforce your story,” I replied calmly, ensuring that I was still employing all the inflections and mannerisms that I had studied. After all, the fate of the entire world depended on my sabotage. No pressure.
“Silence!” Kohl yelled. He squinted his beady eyes, looking first at me and then toward Drago. “Whichever one of you is the impostor, surely you have done plenty of research getting into character. Any question I could ask in hopes of identifying the real Drago, surely both of you would provide the same answers.”
Kohl was clever, I’d give him that. I had spent so much time preparing for this assignment that I probably knew Drago better than he knew himself. So, what did the general have in mind?
“Fortunately, I have long anticipated the possibility of infiltration.” Kohl produced a small device that looked like a jeweler’s magnifying lens. “A portable retina scanner. It glows red if it identifies a scan not in our database.”
“Sounds good to me,” the real Drago sneered.
It sounded disastrous to me, but I had an ace in the hole—the remote control to the banshee’s containment cell. Instead of tapping the OPEN button to release her scream, I held it down. The cell opened, and the banshee ascended from her prison, her emaciated, inhuman face framed by stringy, unkempt hair. For a moment, she looked at me as if she understood that I was her liberator. Then she looked out at her captors, and her face twisted into an expression of terrifying fury. I dove for cover.
Screams erupted all around me—some from the banshee, and some from her victims. There was some gunfire, but it was fruitless. What good are bullets against a banshee whose scream can disintegrate them in midair?
An eerie silence fell. I crept out to look around. Lifeless bodies were scattered everywhere, including Kohl and Drago. Since my “installation” job would have been sabotaged to turn the banshee’s screams against the Flying Fortress anyway, I couldn’t feel much guilt—Kohl and his followers were never meant to survive. The banshee was gone, no doubt having fled as soon as she had taken out her vengeance on her captors.
Wolfreich was no more, and the world was safe again—for now, anyway.
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Loading...ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Drago’s plan wouldn’t work. The world has been effectively inoculated against screaming through long exposure to feminists. Thank you, Simone de Beauvoir!