December, 1982 — Surrey, Engnd
“You and Aric seem to be getting on well,” Ed Martell said.
Edith tried to keep any trace of emotion out of her voice and off her face. “We’ve become friends.”
Dr. Martell smiled at her. “Friends?”
She was falling for Aric. There was no longer any doubt in her mind. But she had no intention of admitting that to Dr. Martell. Not if it risked her pce on the project. She was barely able to admit it to herself. She’d always been the one in control. Like she controlled Hank or Carlos. That was the way she liked it.
But Aric...
It wasn’t that he was too beautiful for words. Anyone and everyone could see that for themselves. They could barely let him out of doors without a crowd of women forming around him. It wasn’t that he was immensely powerful, on a level that they still didn’t understand. They’d had to recalibrate their instruments repeatedly to reduce their dead time losses to something even approaching acceptable. It wasn’t his quick smile or his ability to ugh at anything, especially himself.
It was that she’d immediately felt comfortable around him. She had no expnation for it, except that he was messing with her mind. Which he swore he wasn’t. It was the most solemn they’d seen him—swearing on the memory of his departed grandfather that he would die before he invaded their privacy, or did anything to them without their express consent. Their instruments seemed to agree. The only time they picked up anything was during their tests.
“Assuming they’d see him do it,” Hank had added glumly, which she had also considered.
But others still seemed uncomfortable having him around, which she found reassuring. Edith thought that if he was going to manipute them, he wouldn’t be selective. As time went by the thought fell more and more into the background as her desire to be near him, and see him smile and ugh, came to the fore. Now, he reminded her of a favorite jacket, or a well worn sweater. Warm. Comfortable. Familiar. Something to look forward to when the chill grew unbearable. Something that made her happy.
With that feeling came the realization that she was not in control, that if he chose he could steer in any direction he wanted, even into his bed. Not that she would have fought very hard against it. But he never asked more from her than he did from anyone. Never pressed for more of her time like Hank and Carlos. He seemed at times to be more interested in Delphine. She was certainly interested in him. But it never progressed past simple friendship. Not with Delphine, and not with Edith. They’d organically formed a sort of trio. Not that they excluded anyone, just that Hank and Carlos resented the time she spent with him, and Carol spent her time consoling Carlos. Alex always seemed to be the odd man out, which Aric had picked up on, and went out of his way to spend time with the Welshman. They seemed to have almost nothing in common outside of work, but somehow they found things to discuss, or ugh about over drinks. One more thing that made Edith like Aric more.
Her mind snapped back to the moment when Dr. Martell handed her a small journal she’d never seen before.
“I think you should read this before you get too close to him.”
“What is it?”
“Something that isn’t in the main journal. Something that we were asked to keep quiet.”
“I don’t understand. Something about Aric? I thought the main research journal contained everything we have on him. Every incident, every report.”
“Not every incident. This one was cssified shortly after it happened.”
Edith felt her skin prickle at the word.
“Cssified?”
“Every written report, official and unofficial, was confiscated by the BND. Witness names, statements, anything someone could use to figure out exactly what happened.”
“What did happen?”
Ed Martell used his hand to indicate the item she was holding. “You can read it for yourself.”
Edith opened the small book. She immediately recognized Ed Martell’s neat handwriting. It reminded her of ancient monks writing on parchment.
She gnced at him, a question in her eyes.
“I wasn’t allowed to make a copy. It was in German. I had to transte it on the fly, and write it out long hand.”
Edith returned her eyes to the page.
CONFIDENTIAL / EYES ONLY
BUNDESNACHRICHTENDIENST (BND)
JOINT OPERATIONS MEMORANDUM
DATE: 24 September 1979
ORIGIN: Federal Intelligence Service – Munich (München) Station
CLASSIFICATION: TOP SECRET – NATO/KOSMISCHE (?) CLEARANCE REQUIRED
SUBJECT: Incident – Stuttgart Cinema Hostage Crisis (17 September 1979)
REF ID: BND-JOM/1979-SSU-RA/9-17
SUMMARY:
At approximately 1907 local time on 17 September 1979, armed members of the Red Army Faction (RAF) took hostages inside the Schauburg Lichtspiele cinema in Stuttgart during a sold-out screening of a controversial American film (title redacted). Terrorists issued demands via cassette recording left at the scene; recordings emphasized anti-American and anti-imperialist rhetoric and threatened mass casualties if demands were not met within three hours.
At 2105 hours, an unidentified subject entered the premises via a second-floor balcony. According to multiple eyewitnesses, the subject was male, early twenties to early thirties, with dark clothing and unarmed. Within six minutes of entry, all RAF members were incapacitated—four deceased, one unconscious. No hostages were harmed.
At 2116 subject exited the building via the same balcony and disappeared from view before w enforcement could arrive.
NOTES ON SUBJECT:
Described as “moving impossibly fast”, “silent as air”, and “untouched by gunfire” (per hostage interviews).
At least two eyewitnesses cim the subject “vanished into thin air.”
Stuttgart local radar briefly detected low-level supersonic atmospheric disturbance; origin undetermined.
No surveilnce footage captured clear image of subject.
Initial investigation into known military personnel and covert operatives yielded no matches.
Forensic analysis inconclusive.
TIMELINE OF EVENTS:
19:37: Theater staff alerts local police.
19:45: Police perimeter established. Intelligence and counter terror units alerted.
20:11: First contact with RAF unit established.
20:29 – 21:02: Hostage negotiations begin. Suspects identify themselves as members of RAF splinter cell Gruppe Morgenrot.
20:35: Unidentified object detected by NATO long range surveilnce radar, traveling southwest estimated Mach 2.2, altitude below 5,000 feet. No matching military flight pns filed.
Initial cssification: “Possible experimental U.S. aircraft.”
Radar contact lost approaching Stuttgart region under heavy cloud cover.
21:05: Unknown subject observed entering the perimeter from the north. Movement described as “erratic” and “non-mechanical” by witnesses.
21:06: Surveilnce equipment and communication devices experienced total failure.
21:07 – 21:14: Period of non-verifiable activity inside the theater. Audio/visual feeds lost.
21:15: All RAF members inside found incapacitated—four deceased, one unconscious. Hostages unharmed.
21:16: Subject seen exiting the building.
21:30: NATO radar station south of Stuttgart detects secondary atmospheric disturbance heading northeast at subsonic speed. No visual tracking.
22:10: BND order incident suppression.
22:30: All materials reting to incident cssified. Civilian witness statements collected and sealed.
RELATED EVENTS (CLASSIFIED):
Subject behavior and capabilities bear simirity to three previously documented but unexpined incidents (see files: [redacted], [redacted], and [redacted]) involving unidentified intervention in military or civilian crises. All previous cases occurred within 200km radius of Wurzburg, Lower Franconia, Bavaria, between April 1977 and May 1979.
Efforts to identify subject from within NATO-affiliated personnel have failed. Analysts recommend no further inquiry at this time.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
File pced under NATO security protocol 56-B.
Dissemination restricted to select personnel with Kosmische (Cosmic?) Top Secret clearance.
Subject designated as Potential Unknown Enhanced Asset (PUEA).
Continue passive monitoring for simir future events.
Further investigation suspended indefinitely.
Additional Cssified Notes
Several theater electrical systems overloaded simultaneously (security cameras, power regutors).
Eyewitnesses describe “localized brownouts” — none observed on adjacent street grids.
German BND and U.S. Army Intelligence agreed to cssify the event and suppress all detailed reports citing “anomalous intervention.”
Conclusion (Internal Memorandum)
An unidentified intervention prevented mass civilian casualties.
Event characterized by controlled application of unknown force, extreme precision, minimal colteral damage.
Priority: Unknown asset identification and containment.
HANDLING NOTES:
DO NOT COPY OR REPRODUCE.
Original physical files archived under sealed collection: BND-WG-A79-XI
Request access only via Joint Allied Intelligence Board.
In the margin of the st page Edith saw that Dr. Martell had written a note.
He was still stationed in Schweinfurt. This would have been just before he returned to the States. I’m certain it was him. No one else could’ve done this.
Edith sat motionless, the leather bound journal still open in her p. She felt like her mind was consumed by a thick fog.
“Dear Lord,” she said as her mind raced. “You’re sure it was him?”
Ed Martell shrugged. “It fits with his other incidents.”
“You didn’t ask him about it?”
He shook his head. “It happened months after we met. He was already back in the states when I finally got access to it. Not like I was going to write to him about it. Afterward I was focused on getting him here. Now there doesn’t seem to be a way to bring it up.”
He was being unusually cryptic and she couldn’t figure out why. “Did you show me this so I could ask him?”
“No. I showed you this because I see the two of you growing closer, and I thought you should know before...well, anything.”
“Thought I should know what?”
“Four people died. Yes, they were terrorists. Yes, more people—innocent people—would have died if he’d done nothing. But he’d never killed anyone before then. Not in West Germany at least, not that I know of. If he had, I’m not sure I would have met with him, or invited him here.”
“There has to be more to it than this,” she said as she snapped the journal closed before holding it up as evidence. “The man we’ve come to know isn’t a killer.”
“We are all killers under the right circumstances,” Ed Martell replied. “And we don’t know what really happened in that theater. Whatever it was, it led to four deaths.”
“I have no intention of mourning dead Baader–Meinhof Group terrorists. But I take your point. You believe it was, what, an escation?”
“I don’t know what I believe.”
“It was an outlier, that’s what I think. One terrible incident, three years in the past, by a man who was barely a man back then. What was he, 20? 21? Besides, have you ever seen him grow angry? Or impatient? Gruff? Anything besides amiable?
“No. He’s been quite calm since he arrived. Which is more than I could do if I had so many needles stuck in me. He’s learned control in the st few years. Discipline. What most men who join the army are looking for.”
Edith opened the small journal again and found the page she’d stopped on.
Summary of Compiled Witness Reports:
Witness A — Projectionist
“The power flickered once. Not a full bckout — just a dip, like a brownout.
Then the main theater doors ripped off the hinges and smmed into the walls. Not broken — like something peeled them off.
A kind of bright thread of light moved across the ceiling toward the auditorium.”
Witness B — Front Row Patron
“We were told to lie on the floor. I looked up once and I swear I saw two beams — like thin, white whips — fsh through the air and hit two of the gunmen at the same time.
They dropped instantly. Didn’t even scream. Just... dead. One had a hole right between his eyes.”
Witness C — Hostage Near Aisle
“I thought someone had fired at the gunmen from the balcony. But there was no sound.
It was just light. Silent, fast, and then two of the men colpsed.”
Witness D — Surviving Terrorist (Pre-Vegetative State)
[Statement rgely incoherent]
Repeated phrases: “white fire”, “voice inside my head”, “he burned us”, “God is light”.
Witness E — Rear Exit Security Guard
“I saw someone come down the side aisle, but it wasn’t like he was walking.
He floated over the seats — two, three at a time. No sound. No gear.”
“He reached the third terrorist before he even saw him. Then the terrorist’s gun just... went sck. Then he turned and shot his own comrade.”
Witness F — Balcony Patron
“It was chaos at first. But after the third guy shot his own man, he started screaming.
Not words — just screaming. Then he dropped his gun and curled up on the ground. I think he had a seizure or something.”
Witness G — Elderly Hostage
“I felt something move through the room. Like air getting thicker and lighter at the same time. I couldn’t see it, but I felt it.”
“After it happened, the atmosphere got lighter, like whatever fear had filled the theater got pulled out through the broken doors.”
Physical Evidence Summary
Two terrorists with identical fatal wounds (single hole, center forehead; exit wounds clean; charring).
One terrorist dead by small arms fire from fellow terrorist (internal ballistics match).
One terrorist survived with catastrophic neural trauma; no visible external wounds, ter decred vegetative.
Fifth terrorist dead by unknown mechanism; autopsy notes “massive disruption of cerebral electrical activity” without physical trauma.
She felt the hairs on her neck stand erect as a chill moved up her spine and down her arms. She realized that she’d been shivering as she read the witness reports, and there was a metallic taste in her dry mouth.
a bright thread of light
voice inside my head
two beams—thin white whips
he floated over the seats
massive disruption of cerebral activity
Who was this man she was working next to, studying, dreaming about, every day?
