Aggie & Agent X: The Mandarin Mystery

AGGIE & AGENT X

THE MANDARIN MYSTERY

A Science Fiction Mystery Novel

By Gary Alan Ruse

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2016 by Gary Alan Ruse

The cover design, Aggie & Agent X logo and the cover

illustration are also copyright © 2016 by Gary Alan Ruse.

This novel is based upon characters and concepts created

by the author in his 2012 novel, Aggie & Agent X.

All rights are reserved.

The photo of the girl in the trench coat is by

Robert Lehmann, licensed through Bigstock Photo.

The photo of Agent X is used with the

permission of Area 51 Central Command.

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This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 – The General

CHAPTER 2 – The Case

CHAPTER 3 – The Factory

CHAPTER 4 – The Plan

CHAPTER 5 – The Meeting

CHAPTER 6 – The Lead

CHAPTER 7 – The Capture

CHAPTER 8 – The Puzzle

CHAPTER 9 – The Hawk

CHAPTER 10 – The Mob

CHAPTER 11 – The Emergency

CHAPTER 12 – The Laboratory

CHAPTER 13 – The Empire

CHAPTER 14 – The Surprise

CHAPTER 15 – The Triad!

CHAPTER 16 – The Return

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Dedicated to Helen, fellow writer and co-conspirator, and the love of my life….

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author wishes to thank the Community Relations Office of the San Francisco Police Department for their assistance with a research question. And a special thanks to author Robin Burcell for also answering a question about the department. Special thanks also to a dear friend, Linda Cox, for her ongoing encouragement, support and feedback during the writing of this novel.

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CHAPTER 1

The General

Should I be nervous about meeting the general? asked Agnes Westfeld as she paced slowly around in Agent X’s office, roughly two miles below ground in the super high security sub-sub basement section of Area 51, hidden beneath the desert facility at Groom Lake in Nevada.

No, not at all, said Colonel Lee Curtis, her immediate supervisor and an Air Force officer in a khaki uniform with eagles on his collar. Tall, trim and ram-rod straight, he was ruggedly handsome and his age was hard to guess despite the touches of gray at his temples. He gave her a disparaging look. You’ve met generals before, Westfeld.

Agnes gave a reluctant nod of agreement. "Yes... that’s true. Even the CIA Deputy Director, Joshua Danton... my boss... our boss. He’s a general, too."

Agent X was seated at his desk in a casual pose, his fingers knitted across his chest, his thumbs slowly tapping together roughly in time with Agnes’s pacing footsteps. Yes, she’s met generals before, he agreed, but none, I daresay, who are anything quite like Brigadier General Wilton Elias Edgemont!

Agent X, dressed in his usual trench coat and fedora hat, worn Humphrey Bogart style, was a perfect fit for his 1940’s design office, looking like a set from The Maltese Falcon or The Big Sleep with its woodwork and antique furnishings and its fake window overlooking a video scene of old Los Angeles. The only odd thing about his image, Agnes sometimes had to remind herself, was that Agent X wasn’t human. He was a grey alien, lanky and only slightly shorter than herself, with large black almond shaped eyes and skin that was bluish-gray. Although their first meeting had sent shivers up her spine, Agent X... or Sam as he liked her to call him... was just so boyishly exuberant and endearing that he quickly won her over. Their adventures together on their first case had sealed the deal.

The corner of her mouth twisted up in a bit of a wry grin. Are you trying to worry me, Sam?

Agent X quickly straightened and rose from his seat with a look of concern. Oh no, Aggie—not at all! Sorry if I gave you that impression. It’s just that General Edgemont is... well... rather unique. But you’ll find that out for yourself. He picked up a small tray from his desk and removed the cover. Would you like a pastry before we go? They’re really quite good.

Oh, no thanks, Sam, Agnes replied, smiling but glancing away from the stack of Danishes on the silver tray. She checked her watch. It was 8:00 a.m. I had a good breakfast just a little while ago.

I’ll vouch for that, said Colonel Curtis wryly. Fortunately the Officers Mess was prepared with extra everything this time.

Agnes gave him a bit of a smirky glare, but she was secretly glad that she had been blessed with a metabolism and figure that never seemed to show a stray pound. Of course, she was only in her twenties. What the future held in store for her remained to be seen.

There is one thing about the general I want to caution you about, said Colonel Curtis, his tone strictly business once more. He’s blind. It’s the result of a terrible injury some years back, when he had insisted on flight-testing an experimental aircraft topside. He was far enough along in his career that he didn’t need to be pulling test pilot duty anymore, but he was in charge of the project and he felt that there was more danger than usual involved with the test. He didn’t want to make someone else do it. It turned out he was right about the danger. He crashed at the edge of the mountain range, just minutes after takeoff. The canopy shattered.

Agnes winced at the thought, visualizing the impact and the results. I... I’m so sorry to hear that.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know, said Curtis. And... please don’t stare at him. It annoys him.

Agnes shook her head reassuringly. "Oh no, of course not! I would never do that. I would never want to hurt anyone’s feelings by being rude or disrespectful. I... She stopped in mid-sentence as she rewound the colonel’s words, ran them forward again and mulled them over. Wait a minute. Forgive me for asking, but since the general is blind, how in the world would he know whether I was staring at him or not? I mean... I’m just wondering."

Well, he’s blind, explained Colonel Curtis. But he can still see everything around him.

Agnes raised a delicate eyebrow and absentmindedly twisted a strand of her blond hair in the fingers of her right hand. Her pretty mouth scrunched in a puzzled pout but she said nothing.

To further explain, added Curtis, after his face and body had healed from the crash, the doctors and scientists here used some of the advanced technology that has come out of our projects and reverse engineering of alien craft to fit him with special equipment. Little cameras and circuits that take the place of his eyes and feed the visual signals directly to his brain so that he has, well, a close approximation of normal sight. I can’t honestly tell you what it looks like to him, but it seems to work well enough that he can function normally. And with his experience and remarkable intelligence, I can’t think of a better person for the job of base commander.

I agree whole-heartedly, said Agent X. Then he added, telepathically, for Agnes’s mind alone in that odd way he had of communicating with her, But he still creeps me out. He flashed her a subtle wink for good measure.

Agnes swallowed hard. Anything that would creep out Agent X sounded weird enough to worry her as well. And those thought-words in her head carried traces of emotion that had more impact than his words alone.

Well, Agnes said, stoic but mustering some enthusiasm, so when do we go?

Colonel Curtis checked his watch. Now would be good. Are you ready?

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Yes, Sir!

Excellent. Curtis led the way through the outer office and the hall to the massive security door that was like a bank vault’s entry, activating the circuits that would open it.

Back during her first visit to the base, before she had learned in the most spectacular way of Agent X’s alien talent for teleporting out of the place and taking her along for the ride, she had thought that the massive impenetrable door was not only to protect Agent X from the outside world, but also to keep him safely locked up and in the control of his human handlers. Like the Prisoner of Zenda. Agent X had even gone to extreme measures to keep from being discovered, jumping them back in time a few hours to the moment they had left, so their security chips wouldn’t go noticeably missing and set off alarms.

But their little secret was an illusion. The powers that be knew all about their little field trips hither, thither and yon in search of clues, and had merely kept mum about it. Now everybody knew, and knew they knew, and... and... So why did they still need the mighty door and fancy locks? Agnes sighed to herself. Probably, she thought, still for the original reason—to keep unauthorized people away from Agent X. Maintaining a long-standing tradition was also probably a factor.

As they emerged into the plain concrete walled corridor beyond, Colonel Curtis climbed into the driver’s seat of the small electric cart they often used to get around in the underground facility. Agent X took his usual seat in the back, and Agnes slid in beside him, having already shared the front seat with the colonel earlier during the trip from her quarters.

Why do we need the wheels? Agnes asked suddenly. Why couldn’t Sam and I just pop into the general’s office... you know, through hyper-space or whatever?

Curtis shook his head negatively. "Not the proper protocol! And the general really wouldn’t like it. Besides, I need to make the introductions, not to mention fulfilling my usual role as security escort around here."

Understood, Sir, Agnes replied. She settled into her seat as the little vehicle sped away with a hum of power that echoed faintly in the grimly non-decorated tunnel.

It took only a few moments for her to realize that they were not going the usual route to the elevator to the next level up, where her quarters and the Officers Mess and most other sections of the top-secret facility were located. They were instead heading down a portion of the sub-sub basement corridor she had never seen before, and after a few more moments the electric cart turned to the left along a cross corridor and the colonel pulled it to a halt beside a doorway flanked with its own special security devices and an armed military guard. That guard snapped to attention and saluted Curtis, who returned the salute routinely.

Agent X got out and in lieu of a salute gave the guard a wink and a smile and touched the brim of his fedora. The guard smiled back and returned the wink, too, then winked and smiled at Agnes before quickly returning to his sober, stone-faced all business expression. Agnes suspected that in her case, since he had never met her before, the guard’s wink was more flirty than friendly, but she smiled at him anyway.

Then her smile faded as they reached the door to the office beyond and she watched as Colonel Curtis worked the controls on the security panel next to it. Much of the procedure was the same as it was at the other check-points around the base, with the lighted palm-print scanner, the laser retinal scan and the glowing light that also made the imbedded microchips in their arms glow as well as it checked their identity. But it seemed as if he had to enter an extra set of security codes for this door.

Then the entry lights changed to an approving yellow and she could hear latch mechanisms whirr within the door and framework. Curtis turned the handle and swung the door inward, motioning for Agnes and Agent X to enter.

Agnes took a deep breath and stepped through. She wondered if Sam felt the same way she did.

"It’s okay, Aggie," Agent X’s thought words said in her mind. He’s really a pussycat, somewhere beneath the military exterior.

"Thanks, Sam," Agnes thought back. I’ll keep that in mind.

Once inside, there was a short hallway leading to an outer office that was Spartan and proper, with a number of file cabinets along two walls. There was also a desk with an African American Sergeant Major, who no doubt was the person who really kept the office running.

"Hey, Sam," thought-spoke Agnes suddenly. In this age of digital data processing, why the heck do they need all the file cabinets they have in this place?

"Oh, you know how the military loves their paperwork," Agent X replied telepathically. Besides, the Chinese can’t hack into their file cabinets, the way they can stuff that’s accessible on the internet.

"Good point."

The Sergeant Major rose and gave them a routine salute, then gestured toward the door to the inner office beyond. He’s expecting you.

Curtis returned the salute and smiled. Thanks.

Curtis opened the door, but this time he moved inside before holding it open for Agnes and Agent X to enter. His posture, always straight and military perfection, seemed to Agnes to get even straighter and more rigid.

As they entered the office, which was good-sized and pleasantly cool, she noticed that the walls seemed covered with big screen displays of security camera views from around the base, alternating with displays of scrolling data from a variety of news and intelligence sources. Something resembling kinetic art was in one corner, a lighted gizmo with dozens of long vertical glass tubes of colored liquids that had bubbles trickling up their lengths as the lights coolly flickered. Or was it just art? Agnes wondered.

And then she saw the general. He sat there at his desk where several computer stations were active and running, not quite as ramrod straight as Colonel Curtis was, his hair neatly combed but sparse in odd spots. His face bore scars and showed the kind of restored melted tissue that burn victims often have. His eyes were hidden by what looked at first like traditional glasses a blind person might wear, with round black lens that hid whatever lay behind them. But Agnes noticed quickly that the frames of those glasses were a bit bulkier than usual and tiny cables ran from the earpieces to spots on the sides of his head, where they disappeared into the hair that was there. The artificial vision connections, no doubt. She tried to suppress a shiver that ran up her spine, and almost succeeded.

And then the general turned to face them, his features an emotionless mask that was impossible to read. He returned Colonel Curtis’s salute without rising, then looked directly at Agnes.

Ah, Officer Westfeld, he said in a crisp, well-modulated tone. "I have