0530
Motel 6, Killeen TX
Jesse has been awake for some time. She takes the initiative in waking up her partner, a morning cigarette between her fingers. Jamie answers the door bleery eyed as she mutters,"My room is smoke free."
Jesse can't help but shake her head at this, rubbing the side of her head as she replies,"Well, come over to my room whenever you're ready. I've got a rundown to show you."
Jamie mumbles an ok and closes the door to reluctantly get dressed. Her alarm wasn't set to go off for another thirty minutes. Jesse makes her way back to her room where she has a small presentation set up on her laptop. She's well aquainted with the stories surrounding Dugway Proving Ground, and in her mind this has started out typical for their reputation.
On her laptop is a slideshow she's prepared to bring her partner up to speed about what she suspects they are dealing with. Most people are aware of Project Blue Book, but relatively few have heard of Project Moon Dust. Even fewer have heard of stateside crash retrievals other than the one at Roswell. This was the brief rundown she had prepared for Jamie, and she suspected this was a risk given her personal reputation.
She doesn't wait terribly long, coffee cup beside her and cigarette in hand, before Jamie knocks on the door and Jesse tells her to come in. She waves her partner over to take a seat offering,"Have a cup, I've a few things to show you."
Jamie complies, pouring a cup of coffee and grabbing a handful of creamers and sugars to settle in for Jesse's show and tell. She starts off,"Ok, here is what I know irrefutably. Dugway Proving Ground is an army facility in Utah best known as the chemical weapons research facility for the military. Chemical, Biological, and nuclear deterrent research. Less known is that their main focus for a little more than the last decade has been drones."
Jamie yawns at this as she follows through the slides on Jesse's laptop, nodding to her occasionally as she continues,"Back in 2001, there was a mailed anthrax scare involving several deaths. It was determined that the anthrax didn't originate at Dugway, but there's still a lot of skepticism about that. Going further back we find why, in 1968 a shepherd lost the bulk of his flock to an incident involving VX nerve gas. Like the anthrax scare, Dugway's responsibility for nervegassing the sheep was disavowed." That gets Jamie's attention.
Jesse continues, privately pleased at seeing Jamie sit up at that last note,"Dugway is a self contained city where nearly everything is secretive if not outright classified. It's supervised by the Army, but nearly all the research is privately conducted rather than publicly. Contractors and such hired through the Department of Defense. The scandals extend even to disappearances, most recently that of Specialist Joseph Bushling in 2011 who disappeared a little ways outside of the main gate. His car, one of his flip flops, and his hat was all that was ever found of him but no evidence of foul play and never his body."
Jamie furrows her brows as she finally speaks up,"So...what's your point?"
Jesse quirks her lips a little as she replies,"I'm getting to it. But to get there, we have to shift gears to the esoteric. Dugway has been involved in UFOlogy for a long time, so its no surprise to see them here." This earns a groan from Jamie.
Jesse continues without regard for the groan,"In the sixties, you may be aware that Project Blue Book was well under way on the Air Force end. There was also Project Moon Dust, less talked about in public circles. Project Moon Dust was the program for investigating and possibly retrieving UFO crashes and was done under the auspices of reverse engineering soviet technology, and according to multiple reports the Air Force was not alone in this project. A sidenote, the retrieval teams were provided for under Operation Blue Fly. Multiple sources and even witnesses claim that investigators from Dugway participated in this program. One story out of Nevada even claims that the Dugway team not only beat the Blue Book investigators to the scene, but stifled their investigations and hushed up witnesses."
The expression on Jamie's face as she bravely made a show of trying to follow Jesse's presentation said that it's too early for this. Jesse eventually sat back and thought to herself for a long moment before Jamie spoke up,"Look. You don't think this could just be a crashed satellite or something?"
Jesse nods in acknowledgement of the possibility, to which Jamie replied,"That would give them just as much license to invoke secrecy and all that other shite. Who the hell knows what they got on them things, maybe its battery exploded and that was the EMP. I'm no technician, astronaut, engineer, what have you."
Jesse was satisfied that she at least had her new partner considering the fringe, but valid, possibility of a crash retrieval presently in progress. She knew she didn't stand a chance of getting out there and seeing it for herself undetected or she would have tried already, the next best thing was proving the cover up and demonstrating that this wasn't terrorism or a technical mishap.
Watching Jesse think, Jamie eventually is inclined to ask,"What the hell keeps you up at night?"
Jesse replies,"I'll tell you after we're done."
Jamie replies with a huff,"We ain't doin' nothin', why not now?"
Jesse's dodging response comes readily,"You wouldn't be here if you weren't American, why the accent?"
Jamie smirks at this,"You must not know about my own nickname. Tinker O'Connelly. So what's so awful that it has you up at this hour ready to do stuff?"
Jesse reckons that that answers that as she nods, reluctantly answering her with a sigh,"Five years ago, my baby was stolen from me."
Jamie's smirk melts from her face as if she were just slapped. She blinks, not sure how to respond so Jesse continues,"That's all I'm going to say about it, but...I'll make you a deal. If I'm right about what's going on here, I'll tell you the rest and...you have to buy the drinks. If I'm wrong, then...I'll buy."
Jamie nods, the look on her face suggesting that she isn't sure she wants to hear this story. Jesse only knows that she isn't saying anything sober. She wonders if she shouldn't have just made something up, the fear ever present in her stomach over the possibility of yet another partner labelling her a nutjob. Jamie was her last chance, Rangers just aren't solo acts anymore. They haven't been for about twenty years or better.
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