The Ride [TTSSC]

Hanna Masterson had lived in Pahrump all her life. The daughter of a civilian contractor, and a home maker. Being in the part of the country that was considered by most to be 'the' hotbed of the UFO community, Hanna had never given any of that a second thought. She grew up in a loving home, and never really wanted for anything. Her mother was always there for her, and her Dad was the rock solid bread winner in the family. He often worked long hours, but it provided a good life for them.

Once Hanna reached high school, she gained a new set of friends.....her interests changed, and she was being introduced to this wonderful mesa of secret bases and quiet black programs. She was pretty much on the geeky side, good with computers....and even better at social engineering! I can still remember the first time she tried her hand at social engineering.....just like it was yesterday.

"Bodie, you just follow my lead. Think you can handle that?" Hanna said to him.

"I don't know....are you sure these badges will work? And why do we want to get into the airport anyway?" Bodie told her.

"I told you" she said "I heard that one of the Pilatus PC-12 planes that belongs to the Department of Energy was supposed to be laid up here overnight. I want to see if I can get some pics of it."

Bodie fires back "I just want to go on the record and say that this is a bad idea. But I aint no wussy either, and I aint gonna have you telling everyone that I was afraid either."

"Okay, just follow my lead. These guys are just rent-a-cops anyway that the podunk airport hired. everything will be fine."

As they pulled up to the gate, the guard asked what business they had at the airport. As Hanna went into her spill, Bodie could feel the sweat building on his forehead, and his stomach was turning into knots.

Hanna, ever so eloquent, began to run the scam on the guard.

"We are here to check on my uncles plane. He could not remember if he tied it down good when he came in this afternoon."

The guard, coming out of his slumber, said "Young lady, I don't have the authorization to let you onto this field, especially after hours. Do you have any ID on you?"

Hanna didn't miss a beat "Well actually, no I don't have anything on me. Me and my cousin here were just going to do this favor for my uncle before we went out. We have his airport badge right here. You wanna see it?"

"Just because you have his badge does not mean that I can let you in. I am gonna have to check this through my boss." The guard began to walk away to make the call.

Hanna had done her homework. She knew that the manager of the Airport was Tom Strider, and she also knew that Tom had a secretary named Amy. Hanna had done some reconnaissance work in the previous weeks, making innocent phone calls, and learning some of the inner workings of the company. Back to work she went...

"Sir, are you getting ready to call Tom? Tom Strider?"

To which the guard replied "Actually, yes I was. Do you know Tom?"

"Actually, I am good friends with he, and his secretary...Amy. Are they both still at that meeting tonight, you know, the one with the city about re-working the runway's? I sure would hate to get a call in the middle of that delicate situation about someone just wanting to check a tie down on a plane."

The guard was really starting to think hard about his decision now. I mean what could it hurt for him to let them on the field for 15 minutes....they were not going to steal a plane or anything. After a few more questions, and some small talk to lighten things up, the guard checked the ID. It looked legit. So he waved them through the gate. Fifteen minutes later, Bodie and Hanna exited with the 'N' number of the plane....and some nifty pictures by the plane to prove they were there.

Hanna's appetite for black projects and secret aircraft became insatiable. About a year later she decided that she wanted to try the ultimate. Hanna wanted to try and fake being an EG&G employee that worked at Area 51, and try to at least get on board one of the Janet Airlines that leave McCarran Airport daily en route to Area 51. She did not clue any of her friends in on it, so as not to implicate them if anything happened. Hanna wanted to see what was really out there, and she was willing to risk it all to do that.

The first order of business was surveillance. She began to gather intelligence from the internet, magazine articles, news interviews, and by actually performing active surveillance on the EG&G Terminal. The latter proved no easy task. She would walk, drive, jog, and another means of going by the terminal to get as much detailed info as she could. One time, she even borrowed one of her friends junker cars and had it break down right in front of the terminal. Of course, the guards were none too happy, but she managed to get some good photos of their badges, and was able to see some of the people leaving the terminal.

Next, Hanna picked one of the workers out....a female worker that seemed to be a little complacent sometimes on her way home. This worker would sometimes go by the grocery store on her way home, and would leave her EG&G badge clipped to her purse. One day, Hanna followed her into the grocery store While the employee was checking out something on the top shelf, Hanna swiped the badge. Hanna knew she would not have much time. She went quickly to her car, where she had her computer and a portable scanner already setup. She quickly took several high res photos of the badge, and made a quick scan of it as well.

Hanna quickly went back into the store to find the woman almost in tears over losing the badge. She was at the managers booth, and they were just about to announce to the other shoppers that a badge had been lost. Hanna calmly walked up, and like it was nothing, told the manager that she had just found this badge in the parking lot.

Hanna said "It looked important, so I brought it right in."

The lady was overjoyed, and even offered to buy her something to eat. Hanna politely refused, and went back into the store...as if she had not been there at all.

Hanna found that the badge was surprisingly simple. A picture of the female worker, with the EG&G logo. What looked to be some clearance mumbo jumbo, and a simple barcode. As far as she could tell there were no embedded chips to worry about, and no security features such as watermarks or strips through the badge. She could not believe that EG&G was so lackadaisical about their badging system. She went back to the terminal at shift change and watched as people simply drove into the lot and scanned their badges from their car, or walked in on foot from the nearby bus stop and did the same thing. That was her way into the lot....right off the public bus. She was surprised to see that the guards did not intervene unless there was a problem with a badge.

Weeks went by, and Hanna had finished her badge. She would use the badge on the female workers day off, and she hoped that they did not have some kind of filtering in place for that. She replaced the photo with one of her own, and was able to make a badge that looked just as good as the original. The question was, would it work? The day had come. Hanna got off the bus and went through the checkpoint with a group of other people so as not to draw attention to herself, especially if the badge malfunctioned. At least in a group she may be able to cause a little confusion as to who's badge it was and buy some time. She made it through with no problem! When she got to the Tarmac though, there was something she had not anticipated...another checkpoint. She had not been able to see this one from the road. She slowly approached the next scanner. She badged in just as before, but there was a loud beep....a malfunction!

The Ride [TTSSC] Continued...

She noticed a guard approaching from her left. the line was starting to pile up behind her as well. She felt her stomach instantly start to bottom out. She began to sweat profusely in the morning heat. What could she do now? When a voice from behind her said "hurry up and scan your card again so robocop won't detain us all here"

Of course! What was she thinking?! the guard was drawing ever closer, she took her badge and scanned it again. This time.....just as the guard arrived at the check point, the badge worked and she got the green light. She smiled at the guard and hurried to the Janet airliner. She could not believe it! She actually made it on the plane! As they buttoned up the plane for the short hop to Area 51, she just mimicked what everyone else was doing, so that she would not look out of place. No one talked to her. They were all too busy reading the morning paper, drinking coffee. She thought to herself
"Who woulda thought that these guys just seem as normal as the guy next door?", it really just miffed her.

As the plane took off, she started to realize the gravity of her situation. She was actually going to Area 51. She started to panic. What would she do when she got there? Where did Miss so and so work at? The badge really did not tell her anything....she had no idea where to go. Now she was really reaching maximum panic mode. She had been so busy planning the badge and getting through the gat, that she never really planned on what she would do if she actually got through!

"Oh my God, I am so stupid! What the heck am I going to do?"

She thought about just going up to the pilots door and knocking and admitting her mistake. She was in way over her head now. But it was too late. The pilot came over the intercom "Prepare for descent to Dreamland" Dreamland......wow, she was wishing that this was all just a dream now. It was too late for her. She decided that she would just have to ride it out, and when she got off the plane, she would turn herself in. She knew she was looking at jail time.....but WHAT A STORY TO TELL WHEN SHE GOT OUT!

As the plane landed and taxied in front of a hangar, she prepared to get off. Before she could do so, security troops entered the plane and told everyone to remain seated. She knew something had happened and that they were there for her. She gave up quietly, and prepared herself for harsh questioning, and a ride back to Vegas to the jail.

She was escorted to a secure room. No windows to the outside (but there was a two way mirror), one door, and one light bulb.....just like she had read about. A voice came over a speaker in the room. They started asking her questions about how she did this, who she was working for....all the questions that she had expected.

Then the questions took a more personal turn. They knew things about her, things that only her family knew. "Oh no" she thought, "have i involved my parents? Have they done anything with my parents?". She could not bear the thought. She told them everything. She spilled her guts, until there was nothing left to tell. the voice on the other end told her to sit still, and that someone would be with her in a minute.

She waited. The room was rowing hot. She could feel her face becoming flush with sickness. Then, from the other end of the room, what appeared to be two men in uniform came in. She could not make out their faces due to the lighting in the room, but she could tell that they were military, and males. She said to them,

"I am really ready to go home now. I know I was wrong for what I did, but I am ready to leave now. I feel sick."

One of them said to her.

"Well Hanna, that is going to be easier said than done I am afraid. You see, you are the first one to have been able to penetrate our security, and actually make it this far. We never thought to change the badging system, because believe it or not, we just did not figure that there was anyone out there with enough balls to pull off what you did."

She began to get nervous all over again. A fear that she had never really felt began to permeate her very soul. As she sat there, she started crying. the other male figure began to speak up now. He said,

"There there tiger, no need to cry over spilledmilk. You just got in over yor head. You know, you really should have stopped while you were ahead at the airport when you took the picture of you and your buddy Bodie by the plane. But you just had to push it. "

That voice, she thought....it is so familiar. No one has called me tiger since I was a kid....

The man continued, "We have your buddy Bodie in the other room. We will get you two together just as soon as we can. But rest assured sweetie" and he leaned his face into the light, "neither one of you is leaving this desert alive."

As she looked at his face, the horror struck her like a ton of bricks, as she screamed....

"DADDY....NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"



The End of The Road....



Added second part to first part

[edit on 15/9/09 by masqua]

reply to post by desertdreamer


What a great adventure with a wicked twist desertdreamer! That was really cool how Hana became so eloquent at her social skills. I loved reading about how she seamlessly outwits the older people with her childlike innocence. The whole Dreamland thing of course had me intrigued as well.

Seriously, you could've gone on and on with that theme because I was into it. The twist at the end became deadly serious though. Not something I or Hana was expecting in the least. Great story my friend and star and flagged. Awesome post!

reply to post by jackflap


Thanks Jackflap, I appreciate the kind comments! Have a great evening!

What a wonderful story! I love the way it reads....it sure kept me interested. Good twist, too! I'm thinking this will do well in the contest.

reply to post by ladyinwaiting


I hope it does! Thanks for taking the time to read it! Have a great day!

That was very fun.

The twist was very cleverly concealed. I really liked it. The depth of detail in the story was great. You, my friend are very talented.

You have the ability to put us there, in the story and I really, REALLY liked one.

Thanks for putting out the effort, it was great!

reply to post by KSPigpen


Wow KSP....thanks! I appreciate the comment! Have a great day!

I enjoyed reading this story..

Easy to read and very well written. I agree about the great depth of detail too.

Thanks for the story. Hope it does well.

Cheers,

JQ.

reply to post by John Q


Thanks for checking it out John, appreciate it.

A Wow written story, with drama and action in between, good job!

reply to post by catalyst2466


Thanks for checking it out! Have a great day!

Daddy is a schmuck. Hannah deserves to be on the team protecting Area 51 as a 'permanently on-base employee'. Brodie should be a janitor.

I liked your writing style, dd, because it sounded like you were 'telling it' instead of 'writing it'. There's a difference. You've also done your homework on this and made it very realistic.

Keep up the good works and good luck in the contest.

reply to post by masqua


Thanks for the compliment! Look forward to hearing back from the judges. Have a great day.

This is great, I actually thought you were writing from an experience similar you may have had!!! Cheers Zazz

reply to post by zazzafrazz


Thanks Zazz, good luck in the contest!

reply to post by desertdreamer


That was a really fun read. You had me pulled into the plot very quickly.

I really admire people who can write

reply to post by Anjin


No problem, thanks for the compliment!