Crossover Earth '98

The terrorist organization known as Apocalypse Now struck again on February 16--this time with a daring daytime kidnapping near the Pentagon in Washington D.C.

At approximately 4:30 p.m. E.S.T. Dr. Varden Singh, Nobel prize winning microbiologist, and Captain Bass Rankin, U.S. Army left the building and headed toward a nearby parking garage when they were accosted in the street by five men in black suits who claimed to be F.B.I. agents. The men flashed badges and a warrant and claimed they were arresting Singh for espionage against the United States.

At this point two of the black-clad agents grabbed Dr. Singh and hustled him toward a large black sedan waiting nearby.

Captain Bass protested strongly, claiming that Indian national Singh was in the country as a guest of the United States Army, and that charges of espionage were ridiculous and would be handled by Army Intelligence in any case. The so-called F.B.I. spokesman warned Rankin not to interfere with F.B.I. business.

At this point, the encounter became violent. Captain Rankin pulled one of the agents away from Singh when a fourth man struck the Army Officer on the side of the head, knocking him to the ground. When Captain Rankin reached into a coat pocket, attempting to bring out a cellular phone and call for help, the fifth agent pulled a pistol and shot him twice in the abdomen.

Captain Rankin is now in intensive care at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Arlington, Virginia where his condition is listed as critical.

A Pentagon Security team of three officers had been alerted by the doorman nearest to the scene and they now burst from the building with guns in hand ordering the agents with Singh to "Freeze!" Of course, they didn't. Singh was forced into the black car as gunfire broke out between two agents and Pentagon Security. The spokesman was waving his badge and yelling F.B.I. business when a flying bullet hit him, killing him instantly.

The remaining two kidnappers broke and ran, firing wildly as the black car screeched away with Singh inside. Pentagon Security was calling backup, but at that moment, and officer, Lt. Vicenzo Baldacci, went down under a hail of fire from somewhere else. As the security officers took cover, the two remaining kidnappers managed to escape into a building across the street and disappear from sight.

Sniper fire continued to pin down anyone attempting to exit the west face of the Pentagon for another five minutes. After several more minutes without a shot being fired, cautious exploration revealed that the snipers had also departed.

A U.S. Marines helicopter already in the air nearby was dispatched to follow the fleeing black sedan from above. The car changed directions several times, but finally headed northeast on the highway to Baltimore. At this point they coordinated with the Maryland State Police to set up a roadblock about two miles ahead. The helicopter lost sight of the fleeing vehicle when it entered the Montgomery Tunnel, but it soon reappeared from the other end.

A few minutes later the car stopped at the roadblock and officers searched it, but there was no sign of Dr. Singh. The car's driver, one Michael Douglas, offered no resistance to the arresting officers, but he claimed that Dr. Singh had never been in the vehicle, and he had no idea what they were talking about. Mr. Douglas is being held for further questioning, but he claims not to remember much except that he was out for an afternoon drive. His driver's license turned out to be totally fictitious, and he had no other identification on him.

Oddly enough, the kidnapper dead at the scene of the crime, also bore a bogus F.B.I. ID card issued to Michael Douglas. Authorities are at a loss to explain the Michael Douglas fixation of these Apocalypse Now agents.

No ransom note has been received at this time. Authorities are investigating the leads they have, but aside from a tentative identification with the terrorist group that bombed Los Angeles International Airport last month, they have nothing further to say. Both Army Intelligence and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are looking into the case with F.B.I. Director Matthews highly incensed that anyone could think the F.B.I. would just grab people off the street like that, or that anyone would dare to impersonate his agents. (See related story: F.B.I. Credibility Sinks to New Low on page 4.)

Paco put down his copy of the Gazette with a satisfied smile on his saturnine features. The abduction hadn't gone perfectly, but the backup planning with the snipers and the car switch in the tunnel had worked well.

At this moment Dr. Singh was in the secret base in the New Jersey swamps becoming a loyal member of the organization. It was amazing, really, what the right drugs combined with hypnosis could do. The fact that Singh was of Indian nationality would make him especially susceptible to the visions of Kali demanding his help that he would soon be experiencing. No matter how much education a man got, the myths and legends of his childhood retained their effect on the subconscious mind.

And after the indoctrination was complete, he would begin work on creating Apocalypse Gas. Paco had seen it in a popular film last year--the Americans had such gruesome imaginations. An odorless gas that made the victims die laughing with a terrible rictus on their face--what a ghastly thought! His scientists assured him that no such gas existed, but that one could probably be devised by a scientist knowledgeable enough in biology and chemistry. Varden Singh of Gujerat, currently serving with the Pentagon in the United States, seemed like the perfect choice to develop his Apocalypse gas--and the antidote, of course. Paco wanted his own agents to be immune to the stuff.

In a few months he should have the gas, and then he'd try it out on New York City. New York, New York! Talk about hellholes that needed to have the vermin cleaned out! Depopulating New York would be a gas.

But now, Paco had to get back to California and get his earthquake scheme under way. His agents had been buying up deserted properties along remote stretches of land near the San Andreas Fault. Others were getting crude petroleum from wells in Los Angeles, and still others were amassing explosives. He thought some combination of the three elements might well trigger the biggest earthquake California or the world had ever seen, and he was eager to get things started.

to be continued . . .

Crossover Earth Home