Read The Dig: A Taskforce Story for Free Online

Jennifer’s door. I knew she’d be aggravated, but I wanted to find out what was going on. At the time, I figured I’d be back before she woke up. Now, I hoped she’d just stay put.
    Aegis had a sector of land on the old Walker Air Force Base that was now no longer used. Unfortunately, the base had also become the “international” airport of Roswell.
    Ever wonder why every airport in America is called “international”? Yeah, me too. In this case, the Roswell airport had taken over the runways of the old Air Force Base, with most of the remaining land leased out. Walker used to be a strategic nuclear strike platform, with a bunch of old bunkers all designed to launch a bomber with nukes before the fateful ICBM struck from Russia. Aegis had taken over one such platform.
    It was pretty ingenious, actually. Their back door was protected by the airport, which, after 9/11, had become a security nightmare. There was no way I was getting close by that route. So I went the other way.
    I’d traveled around to the front, then parked in the desert, going dismounted for a closer recce. I saw the perimeter fence and began probing every hundred meters, but the place was sealed up tight as a drum. The fence itself had razor tape on the top, and telltale strips of aluminum threaded in the chain link. It was wired for disturbance. If I tried to climb it, a sensor would alert, much like a spider waiting for a vibration in a web. Which told me something big was going on inside. Why have such an expensive security system unless you were protecting something?
    I’d worked in a lot of secure environments of three letter agencies—CIA, NSA, you name it. Very few had this level of security, and none were out in the middle of nowhere. It perked my interest, but I’d have to find another way to get inside.
    Using a pair of cheap binos I’d purchased at an all-night Walmart, I could see the bunker-like building and the hangars outside, but nothing else. By the time the sun had climbed in the sky I was no closer to finding out what the hell was going on. All I’d seen was a roving mounted patrol that ripped along the fence line every hour.
    I was considering heading back to the hotel when I saw a ribbon of dust in the distance. It approached the front gate and I ducked into the dirt. I was wearing drab clothing—a khaki shirt and some brown brush pants—so I was fairly sure they wouldn’t spot me in the ditch next to the gate, but it wasn’t a given.
    I was even less sure of my dumb-ass idea, especially considering the video cameras at the gate.
    The convoy advanced, a three-car motorcade, consisting of an SUV followed by a panel van and something else. The last vehicle came into view and I saw a black pickup truck with a large rear bumper. An arm came out of the SUV and punched a code. The chains began to move, the gate opened, and the convoy began to roll. The SUV cleared the fence and the panel van went forward, blocking the camera’s view of my side of the ditch.
    Before my conscious mind could protest, I rolled out and leapt to the rear of the truck, holding on to the tailgate and crouching on the bumper, praying that whoever was watching the camera feed had lost interest when the SUV guy had punched the code. I rode forward, wondering how embarrassing it would be to get caught like this, when I reached the far side.
    I dropped off, rolling in the dirt and waiting for the storm troopers to hit. Nothing happened. I scrambled into the bush.
    Now what?
    I wondered what the hell I was doing. Finding an alien experiment? Solving the X-files? What the was I hoping to accomplish?
    I crawled forward and surveyed. At first glance, the ground was devoid of cover. A stretch of desert full of scrub, it was clear all the way to the bunker building and hangar. No way to get closer. And now no way to get out.
    Studying the terrain, I saw it wasn’t as bad as I initially thought. It wasn’t possible to walk to the buildings, but, snaking