by R. R. Stark

 

*   *   *   *   *   *

The Shadow Men are so secret that no one truly knows exactly who they are B and they want to keep it that way! Until one of their own betrays them!

   *

The blond man=s hair whipped in the autumn breeze as he pulled up the collar of his gray trench coat while he awaited the mysterious visitor. He stood near a picnic pavilion amidst a luxurious green park, elms and evergreen trees scattered liberally here and there, a kiddy playground off to the west, a parking lot to the east. During this cool evening as the sun began to set, only a few people were out, while most folks were home eating dinner or going out to their favorite restaurants.

He was a journalist from The Rapid Fall=s Oracle, a small town paper, but one where you could read about unusual phenomena and unexplained events that you wouldn=t normally see B let alone believe B in the mainstream news.

He stretched out his arm to pull back his coat sleeve, looked at his watch, then frowned. The mysterious  fellow was late. He surveyed the whole park, slowly, seeing only a man walking his dog, a chatting couple sitting at a bench, a scruffy person sitting against a tree smoking a cigarette, all out of earshot from the pavilion where he had planned for them to meet. A restaurant would have been unproductive, too many ears. But all to naught if his subject didn=t show up. The man was already twenty minutes late. Then the journalist decided to forget it. He left the manicured lawn and stepped onto the parking lot, when a passenger-side door of a beige Chevy Nova swung open.  He stopped. He heard a sharp clearing of the throat. The windows were tinted so he could not see in.

The journalist walked over, bent down and peered into the open door. The man inside the driver=s side nodded and motioned the man to enter. The journalist complied, sat in the passenger seat, and closed the door. The man wore grey slacks and an unkempt dirty white shirt, but no black suit coat, no tie, no hat, no shades. And unshaven.  He didn=t quite appear as the journalist had expected. What would a renegade from the most mysterious organization on Earth look like anyway?

What did he expect? A strange man in full black suit, sunglasses and dark fedora, driving a black sedan? Nothing typecasted him as one of those sinister dark operatives from the Shadows. But then, this was one who had actually fled from this mysterious unknown assembly of dark ones.

The disheveled stranger with a dismal, sullen expression said, AI assume you are Mr. Jeff Barnes from The Oracle.@                                   

The journalist reached out his hand for a hand shake, AYes. Pleased to meet you.@

The man did not extend his own hand.

The journalist pulled his hand back and cleared his throat. AUh, on the phone I didn=t catch your name.@

ANo names!@ the man growled.  AI=m being pursued. In fact, no story if you don=t write it the way I say it. You have to explain everything, not hold anything back. I want to rip this whole thing wide open B but it has to be done my way. Got it?@

AYes. Of course. But for now, can you give me any name? Like Carl?@
 

The man hesitated, then replied. AMac will do.@

AFine.@ Then Mr. Jeff Barnes pulled out a notepad and pen from within his coat, and opened it to a new page.

AWhat are you doing?@ the worried man shot.

AI=m a journalist. If you want to >rip this whole thing wide open,= then I have to get the whole thing down. Right?@

The man called Mac signed, then nodded. AAlright. Just don=t let anyone else see what you write B till it=s published in your paper. Got it?@

AYeah, sure.@ Jeff shrugged.

AAnyone finds your notes beforehand, you and I both will be riddled with bullets.@

AI see.@

AI=m serious!@ Mac snarled at him with the utmost of graveness. ANo one must know B until it=s in the paper.@

ABut, what=s the difference? Whether your pursuers see it in notes or in The Oracle, either way they could kill us. Right?@

AIt won=t matter then. When it=s in the news, the world will know the truth. Whether you and I are snuffed out will be irrelevant by then.@

Jeff coughed defensively. AIrrelevant? So, our lives being in danger doesn=t matter? It=s the news that=s important. Is that right?@

AYou got it right. My life is over anyway. I=ll be running all my life, till they catch me and kill me. Might as well spread the news about them first. Bust wide open their big secret. The truth will be out -- finally. Then it won=t matter what they do to me.@

ABut, Mac, I value my life if you don=t yours. I--@

AIf you don=t wanna be the one to report this, then I=ll find someone else, Mr. Barnes!@

The journalist nodded, AAlright. You=re right. This story is too big. Bigger then the both of us. I understand.@

AThat=s right.@ Mac smiled. AAnd as soon as people know, my hope is that someone can stop them. Either the CIA or FBI, or someone.@

Jeff frowned. AFrom what you told me on the phone earlier, all this sounds far fetched. Most people may not even believe any of it.  How do I know what you have to say is the real thing? How do I know whether or not you=re the real McCoy?  You could be some fruitcake phony.@

AYou decide that for yourself after I tell you my story. Deal?@

AFine.@ Jeff sighed,  AThen where do we begin?@           

Mac looked straight ahead and took a deep breath, as if surveying his wretched life he had just fled from, a life so radical and insane, it would be difficult to expect anyone to believe him. But he must try and get the word out, at all costs.  Jeff=s hand held steady, preparing to take notes. Then, as Mac spoke, Jeff wrote.

AIt all began ten years ago. I was a special agent in the CIA.  I investigated unexplained cases and solved many of them.  Then unexpectedly,  I was abducted by what many call the Men in Black, Shadow People, Dark Men, or as some call us Silencers, but we call ourselves, the Dark Ops Task Force. Nevertheless, when they recruited me, apparently they felt I had above average potential. Plus I knew how to keep secrets. . . .  until recently.  But a whole new world had been opened up to me when I came under their eerie umbrella.@
 

Jeff nodded and mm-hmmed a lot as he jotted notes on paper.

Mac continued, still staring straight ahead, looking at nothing, but he was reviewing his past in his mind's eye. AThey told me their mysterious outfit existed long before the Roswell incident. It would seem as if UFO sightings and MIBs appeared  simultaneously after 1947. But appearances are deceiving.  Unexplained and strange phenomena have been occurring for many centuries, and there has always been an unknown group of people there to disclose such events, yet they kept it secret from the rest of the world. A hidden history exists that no one knows about. For instance, did you know that B according to our archaic confidential files B Leonard De Vinci built a time machine? But the Silencers of those days, who were well aware of the dangers of time travel -- due to their specialized knowledge  B had to destroy his machine and forced him to swear never to build another, nor to write or speak anything about it. Therefore history speaks nothing of this B due to the Task Force I once was a part of. 

AAlso, Thomas Edison had almost invented a teleportation device, but the Dark Men foiled that plot likewise. Instant transportation would lead not only to fast travel all around the globe, but fast crimes as well, so it had to be stopped. Along with any new invention comes corresponding new crimes. The fact is, Mr. Barnes, technology would have begun much earlier except for our precise interventions along the way. We have thwarted many things throughout time for our own agenda or what we believed was right. And not necessarily right for humanity, but for ourselves, I soon realized. However, we didn=t only focus on strange phenomena, but we attempted to alter historical events as well.@

Jeff sniffed, AThis all sounds like science fiction.@

AMr. Barnes, it=s all true.@ Mac shot briskly.  ABut I=ve just given you the tip of the iceberg.@

AAlright, go on.@

Mac continued, AYou see, during my first training year, I was informed  that our earliest progenitors, or the members of the first Shadow Group, were travelers from a distant time, the 29^th Century. A group of observers were stranded somewhere in the earliest centuries of the Second Millennium, due to a temporal technical malfunction. So they could not return to their home time. Now these humans from the future had advanced in the science of longevity, so they could live for several hundreds of years. Therefore, they had to give themselves a purpose, an important task to undergo, make it worth their while since they were hopelessly stranded in a dark medieval era. Since they were lost and cut off from the 29^th Century, they decided to take it upon themselves to guide history according to how they saw fit. With all their knowledge of the many centuries ahead, from that point upward until the 29^th Century, or their current future, they could cut and prune events anywhere they chose, as they slowly advanced across time. However, the times and conditions were rough, diseases ran rampant in those early times, so some of the far-travelers lived only a few hundred years, some a mere hundred. Only a small handful lived on until the 17^th Century. So they wrote down in precise detail their future history and what events had to be changed, knowing they would have to recruit people, pick and chose individuals with the right qualifications, to continue their highly classified work, which they believed to be of the utmost importance. Primarily, they chose scholars and educated people who seemed more advanced then most others.
 

ASo after the last few future travelers died, the text of secret knowledge via many copies carried on, from  generation to generation, each one passing on their specialized knowledge and expertise as a sacred trust to new members as they recruited more into their little secret circle as the decades and centuries marched on. So this strange breed of people who lived only in the shadows continues to this present day. So the Dark Men throughout time have nipped and tucked historical events along the way. When they felt history went wrong, they would right it.@

AThat sounds preposterous!@ Jeff laughed. AIf that were true, why did they allow Hitler to slaughter millions of Jews?@

The ex-man-in-black smiled wryly. AWould you be shocked if I told you Adolf Hitler was  one of these Dark Intruders himself?@

Jeff=s eyes widened. AAre you serious?@ 

Mac smiled wryly, ADefinitely. He knew that a certain secret group of Jewish people threatened to be their downfall in history, according to our secret text.  They were the Men in White, so to speak, or the White Conclave, they called themselves, a different group who had traveled back in time, from an unknown era, studiers of ancient mystical ways such as the Cabala, Hermeticism, Theosophy, etc.  They believed themselves to be  protectors of what is Just and Right, who believed the Dark Men were inherently evil. So the White Conclave plotted to thwart the Dark Men.  But, the MIBs, believing themselves to be the rightful protectors of history, decided to destroy this antagonistic secret circle, and since most of them -- if not all -- were essentially Jewish Cabalists and scholars, Hitler, the prominent leader of the Dark Men at that time, decided to obliterate every Jew possible. So he and his followers believed they had accomplished their task. However, now and then there were signs or stirrings of counter forces still at work, yet too meager to bother with.

However, Hitler did not die as many presume, but he and his dark men with two and you through the darkness to pursue other tasks, such as experimentation in cloning.

AIn the meantime, a group of the Dark Men in the USA developed further, that is, the Dark Ops Task Force, when the Roswell incident occurred, for this was an awaited time as predicted by our original progenitors, and as described in our special text. This valuable information had been passed down for countless generations within our Dark Circle, which disclosed  that in the middle of the 20^th Century, 1947 to be exact, extraterrestrials would make contact with Earth people. During the original timeline, before the Dark Ops tampered with it, these friendly aliens would  help mankind to advance technology, agriculture, human health, and bring world peace, which they began initiating. Unfortunately, humanity became greedy and selfish, then with the new alien technology they learned, they started a war against their celestial guests and began to annihilate them. Then eventually they destroyed themselves. Can you guess how?@

AThermonuclear war.@

AExactly. In the early 21^st Century, the Earth became a dead planet. We had to prevent that, by creating a new timeline. So we did everything we could to prevent first contact  B in spite of how benign the prospect began, for no one could foresee that it would lead to disaster.@ He paused, as if in reflection. Then he continued. AAs you may know, the whole Roswell incident became a series of cover-ups to hide the truth from the world. But the problem is, even though we were advocates of all that was right, or so we believed, sometimes we did things the wrong way to initiate this. Our philosophy became >two wrongs do make a right.=

ASo-called UFOs had been cited over the years already, but it was time for us to take action now.  When an alien vessel entered our atmosphere, infiltrating Dark Ops agents convinced military leaders that these were hostile invaders, hence the vessel was shot down. Then several survivors were captured from the wreckage, but when a few tried to escape, to warn others of their kind, our dark agents mercilessly executed them.
 

AThe real tragedy was not in preventing the first benevolent contact or killing a few  friendly aliens, but knowing contact would lead to our using the new alien technology against them B and destroying mankind too.  But I feel we could have tried a less severe plan B yet it was too late, the new timeline had been set in motion, irreversible. Our methods were madness B or so I decided in the end. But I feel that this super-secret agency is set on a dangerous no-return course inevitably by literally slicing and dicing events throughout time on into the future, tampering and meddling in human affairs as if playing God. I feel things should have been left alone from the beginning.@

A few moments of silence hung in the air icily.

Mac looked over to the journalist. AAre you getting all this, Mr. Barnes?@

AYes, of course,@ he replied, stopping his pen momentarily.       

AAlright. Just checking.@ Then Mac continued looking straight ahead. A Here=s another thing. Any agent desiring to return to normal life or attempting to reveal the sublime secrets of the Dark Ops Task Force would be executed.  I had to do it once myself B reluctantly, mind you.  We had a job to do for the sake of future history and we had to stick to it and silence anyone turning against us. Until our group would someday reach the actual time our predecessors had come from, we had to keep things moving.@

Jeff asked, ADid it ever occur to your group that you had changed things so radically that the 29^th Century would most likely be very different?@

AOf course. But we were driven to continue, in honor of those who possessed the original knowledge of future history, the bearers of the sacred blueprint of time which has been handed down throughout the generations. We had no choice, we felt. Otherwise, our lives would be meaningless. We were slow time travelers, carrying highly important knowledge, crawling across time at a snail=s pace, until we would reach our goal, and then we would see exactly how much things would change in the 29^th Century.@

AQuite significantly I bet.@

AWe will never know,@ Mac sighed in deep thought.

ABut why didn=t others from the 29^th Century ever come back to find you? And why were there no other travelers going back to study the past?@

AYou see, in the 29^th Century time travel was an experiment, a very dangerous one with too many fragile elements. The future scientists had already experimented many times, to see how far back they could travel, and each time they lost people. They began at twenty thousand years into the past, and little by little shortened that distance, as if that would make a difference. After the failure at the ten-thousand year mark, they decided on one last attempt. The last group, our progenitors, had been sent back a mere sixteen hundred years, determining this would be the last mission, and if it failed, the whole project would be scrubbed. So, once again, the group made an attempt to return, with no success. Clearly they were stranded, as were all the previous groups. The conclusion was that the fabric of time existed as such that once a body is sent back, it can=t return. So the last mission determined that.@

Jeff looked up from his notepad and inquired, AWhy didn=t they send a person back a few days or hours at first to check the short range travel possibilities?@ Jeff asked.

Mac nodded, AAccording to the records, they tried this, and they discovered that a trip within seven days was the safety margin, beyond that, eight, ten, twenty, thirty days, etc., no returns, no success. For some illogical reason, they attempted far distant travel into the past after that to find other safe return margins. They theorized that they might find loopholes somewhere. But B  no luck, as I had said. We know so little about how time works, so small wonder the people of the 29^th Century ended the program.@
 

Tapping pen on pad, Jeff asked, AAnd that=s why your Dark Men stopped De Vinci from building his time machine too, right?@

AExactly. We knew it was a dead end endeavor, and since no one could return, why let him build it? If the Dark Men knew a person could return, believe me, they would have allowed him to build it, and besides, they would have traveled to the 29^th Century themselves, returning home. So anyone else stumbling upon the principles of time travel and building such machines would be thwarted.@

AI can see the logic in that.@ Jeff rubbed his chin in thought.

Mac continued, still staring into space. ABut the illogic and madness is that the Dark Men were blinded by their own ambition in helping and guiding future history, as if trying to impress the inhabitants of the 29^th Century. I have a feeling when those future people study their own past, as it changes, they won=t know the difference.@

AWhat do you mean?@ Jeff squinted, as if trying to understand what the man meant.

AEach time a definite change is initiated, memories change too. I=m sure the people of the new 29^th Century have changed quite drastically, due to our meddling, that all consideration and interest in the time travel experiments or the lost travelers have become null and void. Perhaps due to the Dark Men=s excessive tampering, in the new future none of these procedures ever happened!@

Jeff chuckled, ABut if that were true, none of those experimental groups would have been sent, never been stranded, hence, your group never would initiate this secret circle of Shadow Men, which became your mysterious Men in Black!@

Mac smiled wryly, AYes, quite a paradox, eh? I don=t completely understand this myself. We may never know.@

APerhaps.@ Jeff sighed in agreement.

AThe fact remains, the original timeline has been altered extremely, due to our wretched work. So we don=t know what the new future will be like.@

ANormally, no one ever really does anyway.@ Jeff snickered weakly.

AThat=s true,@ Mac nodded.  ABut, let me continue. Ever since the Roswell incident, the Dark Ops Task Force continued to suppress people who experienced UFO sightings, close encounters, etc. The extraterrestrials continued attempts toward first contact, but we stopped them at every turn. We knew many people wanted to believe in aliens, so we allowed the myth, yet while spreading rumors and blatant lies that aliens were evil and wished to invade Earth, including the sinister propaganda of countless abductions where they experimented on their victims. All lies to force people to resist any contact with aliens.  All the movies and TV shows depicting that alien visitors were here to do us harm or invade Earth, or annihilate us, were all implanted to scare people. Perhaps the real aliens, the friendly ones, became discouraged. If they realized how violent humankind really was, why would they bother with us in the first place?  So the attempts for contact became less numerous B thanks to the Dark Men.@ Mac snickered sarcastically to that last statement.

Jeff looked over to Mac now. ATell me, Mac. You suggested that a less severe plan could have been implemented.  What do you think you could have done differently?@

Mac took a deep breath. AI don=t really know. Perhaps we could have told the visitors of our actual intentions in the near future, that mankind eventually turns against them and then destroys themselves. We could have told them to not impart to us their advanced technology.@

ABut would they have listened?@
 

AI don=t know. Why did they trust us in the first place? If they are so advanced, why didn=t they foresee that humans would turn on them?@

Jeff shrugged. AI don=t know. What do you think?@

AMaybe they were only advanced technologically, not psychically or spiritually. Perhaps intuition is a human trait, not an alien one.@

Jeff laughed, AI doubt that we even have it! We make so many mistakes due to lack of foresight!@

AWell, there are a few humans who have prominent psychic abilities, although it lies dormant in most. In fact, those with the power to prophesy were really thorns in our side. Incidentally, we studied such sensitives, needing to stifle certain individuals who would have revealed key events to the masses, since we believed people were not ready to know such events, nor should they ever know.@ 

AHow do you mean?@ Jeff squinted again.

AA few known psychics did predict first contact with aliens, who would have told the public, so we had to silence them. These wide spread prophecies took place in the original history B  but  now this doesn=t exist in the new history.@

AWhat happened?@ Jeff asked.

AYou see, these psychics never became known in the new timeline we created. We executed them.@

ASeriously?@ Jeff=s brows jutted up.

AYes. In fact I was given an order to assassinate one of them. A dear lady I was falling in love with. I knew they would suspect something if I failed, then they would interrogate me, and execute me for not completing my task. The Dark Men are that strict and that ruthless. So, I had to cast my emotions aside, a discipline I had practiced time and time again as part of our early training. We are stoical, emotionless, cold-hearted people with no feeling toward others whatsoever. Any attachment or emotion would interfere with our tasks. So you see, I had to kill her. It was after that I couldn=t bottle up my emotions any longer. So I slipped away.  I had heard of others like me, renegades, and they were assassinated immediately. Some ran for days, then agents soon caught up with them and executed them.@

AHow many days has it been for you since you began running?@

AFive days. Not much actually.@ Mac sniffed.

ASo what=s the difference between you and these other renegades who were executed?  I doubt if these dark ones will let it go much longer.@

AI fear this too. But the difference is that none were able to expose the truth of the secret Dark Ops mission as I plan to do. That=s why I rely on you. Once your article is printed in your Oracle,  I hope you can persuade others and get it printed in the mainstream newspapers, like The New York Times, or even get the word out in the major networks on TV.@

ADo you think anyone will actually believe your story?  As far fetched as it is?@

AThey have to B it=s the truth.@ Mac snarled.

ASome people may not want to know the truth.@ Jeff pointed out.

ASkeptics. But I believe a lot of people out there are open-minded. They=ll listen.@

ASo why did you choose me for this task?@