Operation Bat Sweep by Michael P Calligaro

Operation Bat Sweep

by Michael P Calligaro

"It's a conspiracy, man, there's no doubt about it!"

Vivek ran a finger under his collar and glanced up at the sky. Just how desperate had the situation become to find him listening to some fool in the middle of a crowd of people in the Seattle Center? He shifted uncomfortably and checked his watch. It was bad enough that he had to stand here under the blazing sun. Did the bastard have to be long winded too? The giant fountain behind them beckoned, but Vivek knew its cool water wouldn't help. It wasn't really the sun's heat that bothered him.

Someone in the crowd yelled out, "You're crazy, Gary!"

No, you fool, don't egg him on. Vivek sighed and wiped his brow. With hecklers, the AIDS rally could only drag on longer. Much to his relief, Vivek spied the rally organizer also looking at his watch. Gary wasn't the main event, not by far. He was just one of the wackos who always seemed to spring up at these things. But he was also the reason Vivek had come. Hopefully the organizer would shoo him off the stage soon and they'd get a chance to talk in private. Maybe even indoors, though he realized that was a lot to ask for.

Gary rambled on for a few more minutes, spouting inanities and half-baked diatribe. Finally the organizer asserted himself and took over the microphone. "Well, thank you, Mr. Hamilton, for that insightful analysis. Now, let's move on to our next guest speaker."

In an intense frown, Gary muttered something under his breath that caused the organizer to blink and sputter his next word. Shaking his head, Gary left the stage and stalked away. It was for just this chance that Vivek had subjected himself to the rally. Pushing through the crowd like it wasn't there, he rushed to catch up with Hamilton.

"Mr. Hamilton! If I may have a moment of your time?"

The conspiracy theorist stopped and looked back at him. "Yeah, who are you?"

"I'm a reporter for the Sun Tribune," a delicious bit of irony, that. "I'd like to do an interview."

The frown vanished and the corners of his lips turned up slightly. "Really? You came all the way from Chicago to talk with me? All right! I've been trying to get the papers interested in my story forever!"

"And now we are. Let me buy you a coffee; I need to get inside anyway." He looked up again and sighed. "This sun is killing me."

Gary stared up at the sky. "But it's overcast! Why are you wearing those dark sunglasses?"

Vivek shrugged. "Some of us are more sensitive to light than others."

With a shrug of his own, Gary said, "Yeah, sure, whatever," and headed for the Pavilion. Out of the sun, Vivek took a deep breath and aimed them at a small coffee stand. Gary poured a lot of cream and sugar into his styrofoam cup, but Vivek just took his straight. He didn't care for the vile liquid, and pouring other terrible things into it wouldn't help. But a "reporter" not offering to buy coffee would have seemed out of place.

Gary insisted he sit with his back to the wall, where he could see all the doors, so they sat in a booth way back in the far corner of the Pavilion food court. Vivek didn't care one way or the other. The possibility of someone bursting in and shooting him in the back was the least of his worries. "So, Mr. Hamilton, you believe the AIDS virus is a conspiracy. A conspiracy propagated by whom?"

The beady-eyed little man looked both ways and leaned forward, speaking in a whisper. Vivek found this humorous. His interviewee distrusted being overheard, but didn't mind speaking to some guy who'd walked up and said he was a reporter without showing any identification to prove it. "The fucking United States Army, that's who!"

Vivek, who'd been following this trail for a long time now, expected this, but he feigned surprise anyway. That wasn't hard with the sunglasses on. "The army? I'm sure you've got some sort of proof."

"Yeah, but no one wants to believe me. Everyone seems to think our government is all good--just looking out for our best interests."

With a chuckle, Vivek smiled. "Come now, Mr. Hamilton. I don't think anyone's believed that for a very long time now."

He nodded. "Okay, so people are starting to see some of the bad. But they're not ready to believe our own government would purposely create and infect us with HIV. That's why I need people like you to write stories about it. Most people believe everything they read anyway."

"So show me your proof."

Gary nodded and reached into his inner coat pocket. He drew out a couple pieces of paper that had been folded over a number of times. Vivek saw the creases were well worn while the paper was still somewhat new. The document wasn't particularly old, but had been folded and unfolded a large number of times. With hands almost shaking, Gary handed the three sheets to Vivek. "These are copies, but I can't let you keep them. I don't want to pull the originals out of their hiding place again if I don't need to. You can never be too safe." He handed them over. "There's this researcher, I won't tell you who, from the base over on the peninsula. His wife got AIDS from a blood transfusion and now he's pissed. He heard me speak at a rally and smuggled them out for me."

Vivek accepted the sheets and noted the official-looking army seal at the top of the first. They appeared to be some sort of memo, dated a few weeks ago. His eyes raced over the text, memorizing the entire contents of all three pages in a matter of seconds. He then paused on the first page, pretending to read it carefully while in fact his mind raced.

The memo was from a major to a lieutenant colonel. It alluded to "the current situation with the syndrome" and how they should probably disassemble the "Operation Bat Sweep" labs before anyone came snooping. The syndrome mentioned might have been AIDS, or any of a thousand other things. Still, he'd heard the code name before. It appeared his long search might finally be near its end. "What is this, 'Operation Bat Sweep' it talks about?" He doubted Gary would have any useful information on the matter, but he had to be sure.

"You know the military types. They've got a code word for everything. I'll bet they're using the term 'bat' to refer to homosexuals."

Vivek handed the papers back to Gary, who quickly folded them up and shoved them back into his pocket. "So you think the army invented AIDS just to wipe out homosexuals? Why?"

"You hear them talk. They hate homos!"

"But HIV is a blood borne pathological disease and heterosexuals have blood just like homosexuals. It doesn't make any sense for the military to try to wipe them out this way. Why not make some sort of disease that only kills homosexuals instead?"

"Then how do you explain the memo?"

Vivek shrugged. "I'm not even sure the memo is talking about AIDS."

"Oh come on! How can you be so naïve? Do you know what they do over at that base?"

"Well, for one thing, it's a navy base, not an army one."

Gary shook his head violently. "No, that's just what they want you to think. In the middle of the navy facade is a secret lab. And do you know what they do there? They make bugs, that's what they do! And what other 'syndrome' do you think they could be talking about here? If you don't believe me, maybe you should go over there and do some snooping around of your own."

Vivek finished off his coffee and stood. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Hamilton."

"What, is that it? When are you going to write your story?"

"When its ready, I'll write it. I'll be sure to give credit where it's due, though. Don't worry about that."

"But, what if I get more info? How will I contact you?"

"Call the Sun, they'll know who I am." Sure they would. Vivek hadn't even been to Chicago in the last decade.

"But you didn't tell me your name!"

Vivek ignored him and marched to the door. He braced himself and strode out into the sunlight, rushing quickly through the little amusement park to the lot where for his minivan with its tinted windows waited for him. His straits had become dire indeed that he'd seriously consider anything from a crazy like Gary.

He slid behind the wheel and Slan perked up from the back seat. "Any leads?"

"Maybe. I saw an interesting memo that might have come from the navy base in Bremerton. The idiot who showed it to me has no clue what he's really got, but it could mean something to us. The memo mentioned Operation Bat Sweep."

Slan nodded. "That's promising."

"It's at least worth looking into. You drive. I've got to get out of this damn sun." If only the cops would let them tint the windshield as well as the rest of the windows.

Reluctantly Slan nodded and they traded spots. Vivek pulled off his glasses and lay down in the back. He glanced at his watch again. He had a few hours to get some sleep before the sun went down. They'd certainly do their investigating after dark. Anything else would be inconceivable.

Caffeine having so very little effect on people like Vivek, he fell asleep instantly.

* * *

Vivek awoke feeling wonderfully refreshed. This was partially due to his getting some sleep, but mostly a result of his being out of that energy-sapping sun for a few hours. He always felt better at night. That just went with the territory.

It looked like Slan had parked the minivan a discrete ten miles from the base and was not currently around. Vivek got out and stretched his muscles, letting them bask in the darkness. Slan appeared next to him moments later. "I've done some recon and have found the best point for us to enter. There's a lot of security, but we shouldn't have much trouble getting by it."

"Let's go then."

While they had many options for travel, Vivek knew Slan's preference for jogging. He didn't mind stretching his legs either. The grass and trees blurring past, they moved leisurely toward the base. Vivek judged it took about fifteen minutes to arrive at their destination. Neither was sweating, but Vivek had to take an extra breath. Slan always was in better shape than him.

A high chain-link fence with looping razorwire surrounded the base. Slan pointed to a large, windowless building in the center of the compound. "If there are laboratories here, they must be in there. Guards patrol by this spot every five minutes and there goes one now." He pointed along the length of the fence and Vivek heard the heartbeat of the retreating form. "We'll have to mist to get past the front door security, but from there we should be home free. These guys put a lot of faith in the security of their entry points."

Vivek nodded and pointed to the fence. "Jump or go through?"

"Jump, of course!"

With a smile, Vivek leapt over the fence. Slan had been an athlete before and now preferred to use his heightened athletic abilities over his more esoteric skills. He was a good influence on Vivek, who favored the other skills, but knew reliance on them tended to make him go soft. They raced across the compound at full speed and immediately turned to mist on reaching the one and only door to the laboratories. Sometimes the situation required their esoteric skills.

They seeped through the gap at the floor and spied two guards with rifles standing at stiff attention before a second door. Staying in mist form, Vivek and Slan drifted passed the guards, through the second door, and passed the receptionist there. They coalesced again in a long hallway.

Vivek spoke in a voice that would be sub-audible to a human. "Okay, hopefully one of us can find a scientist who knows what we're looking for and can get us in. I'll go right."

Slan nodded and started off to the left. Vivek began looking in the unlocked rooms. He must not have fully recovered from his earlier sojourn into the sun, however, for he didn't notice the beating heart until it was right upon him. A tech in a white lab coat turned a corner and his eyes went wide in fright. Cursing, Vivek closed the distance between them in a blink of the tech's eye. He wrapped his long fingers around the tech's neck, stifling off the shout trying to escape his lungs. With little effort, Vivek lifted him off the ground and stared deep into his eyes.

Using his command voice, he said, "You will not scream. Do you understand?"

The tech's eyes bobbed up and down, the closest he could come to a nod with Vivek holding him.

Vivek set him down. "You know what I am?" The tech nodded. "And do you know why I'm here?" The tech nodded again. Vivek marveled at his luck. He'd found one of the guys working on Operation Bat Sweep. "Then take me to the lab."

The tech hesitated and Vivek sneered at him. "You will take me to the lab." Frowning, the tech turned around and headed back the way he'd come. They arrived at a nondescript door with a seal around it and a combination lock. "You will tell the truth. Is anyone else in there?" His prisoner shook his head. "Then open the door."

The tech punched a ten digit code into the keypad, and the door and slid open silently. Vivek watched him carefully, then made a particular low pitched sound followed by a series of high pitched ones, all on the outside of a human's hearing range. He and the guard entered the dark room, closing the door behind them.

With no windows and only the one door, the room would have been pitch black if not for the faint glow of the backup lights. They stood in a cordoned off section of the lab with a series of airlocks separating them from the main part. Vivek stared through the widows at the experimentation section of the lab. Tables covered with expensive-looking analysis machinery filled the place. Strangely, though, man sized cages with steel bars lined the far side of the lab. If those were to hold test subjects then the subjects could not have been Vivek's people. Simple cages like that would never hold them. Perhaps he was heading for another dead end in his search. That would be unfortunate. Time was running out for his people.

The tech reached for the light switch. "Would you like me to turn on the lights for you?"

Vivek shook his head. "You know I don't need that. Where are the files?"

The guard pointed to a set of file cabinets in the center of the room and they headed toward them. Sure that the tech wouldn't have all the keys and combinations to open the cabinets, Vivek started ripping their faces off to reveal the documents inside. After some searching, he found the memo that started the whole project off. Dated ten years ago, it was from a General Wayne and discussed some of the "amazing discoveries" the biowar labs had made recently. Then it got interesting. "This may be the first time in history where technology will give us a method to wipe out the threat of the bats once and for all. Because they regularly take in blood from all manner of victims, their immune systems must be remarkably adapt at filtering out and destroying attacking diseases. We have a plan for a blood borne disease to attack those very immune systems. Because they aren't human, we're confident we can develop a disease that will ride safely in us while being devastating to them." Paydirt. This had to be what Vivek was looking for. He set the memo aside and started rifling through the other documents looking for more details. Though he noticed the tech's heartbeat growing slightly more distant, he didn't worry. The tech wasn't moving toward the door and there was no other way out of the rooms. Vivek was confident he could easily handle anything the human tried to pull.

"So, what went wrong, general?" Vivek mumbled to himself. "You certainly succeeded in making a disease that's devastating to us, but you're hurting yourselves too." One of the later documents explained it. "Success!" it read. "The test subjects all die within a few weeks of administering the disease, while the humans show no sign of harmful effects after six months." A later document said, "It has now been two years since the human subjects were infected and none have shown ill effects. We're confident we've finally discovered our safe bat killer and will be releasing it soon." This was dated five years ago. That was right about the time a few of Vivek's people started dying unexpectedly. Three years later the first gay humans started dying. Recently they started calling it AIDS and Vivek and his people began to put two and two together. People thought it was a conspiracy to kill homosexuals, but that was just sloppiness on the army's part. Besides, humans could easily protect themselves from contracting the disease. But how could Vivek and his people possibly shield themselves from human blood?

Sickened, he set these documents aside and glanced up at the tech. He'd reached the far wall. "So, did you folks ever find a cure, or didn't you bother to look when you saw how effective the disease was against us?"

The tech sneered. "No, we never cared about a cure. There's no hope for you monsters. Just as there's no hope for you!" He reached out for a switch on the wall. What could the switch do? Deciding to play it safe, Vivek raced toward the tech at full speed. Unfortunately it was a big room and the tech's hand was already on the switch. Vivek had only crossed about half the distance when the switch closed and the main lights burst on.

Vivek instantly realized how stupid he'd been. They had held his people against their will in the cages, and he should have realized how. Now he knew. The translucent panels on the ceiling had looked like they covered normal, dim, fluorescent lights. This was a gross mistake on his part. Instead, they covered amazingly-bright halogen bulbs--a lot of them. A whole lot of them.

The room immediately became as bright as outdoors at noon on a clear day. The light instantly sapped Vivek's energy, forcing him to a screeching stop and making him dizzy. The tech sauntered over to him with a smug grin on his face. "So, how's it feel to have the tables turned, you freak of nature?" He punched Vivek in the gut, knocking him back. "Out there in the hall, you could do anything to me. You could even control my mind and make me do things I didn't want to do. But now it's different, isn't it?" He grabbed Vivek by the neck and squeezed.

Vivek tried desperately to break the grip, but under the intense light he had no strength. In the dark there were so many things he could do, but now he could barely stand, much less break free.

The tech laughed. "I watched so many of you die in the cages. Hell, we were still refining the disease up to a few months ago. And every day I wanted to come in here and kill one of you with my bare hands. But they wouldn't let me. No one will complain about this though. Die bat!"

Consciousness started to slip away. He couldn't let this happen! Damn himself for not paying more attention to the tech! Feebly, he scratched at the tech's arm, but this brought nothing but laughter from his accoster.

Then the lights went off.

The tech looked up and uttered a, "What the--"

Vivek ripped the hand from his throat, shattering the forearm's bones. Still dizzy from the lack of blood to his brain, Vivek wanted one thing and one thing only. Blood. There was no reasoning here, no chance to wonder if the tech was an HIV carrier. The animal within Vivek acted without asking his brain what to do. He went straight for the neck, expertly catching the jugular in his first bite. The tech's warm blood flowed down his throat, refreshing him far more than any amount of rest or sleep ever could.

He drank his fill and tossed the body to Slan. "Want some?"

Slan dropped it. "No. Maybe I'll come back in a few days if you're still alive."

Vivek nodded and looked to Slan's hand on the light switch. "Thank you, my friend."

"Hey, I'm just glad they put a switch by the door. Did you find anything before he trapped you?"

Grabbing the files he'd separated, Vivek stalked out. "Yes, but let's not hang around in this evil room."

Back in the minivan Slan whistled. "I guess I'm not surprised, but this was pretty stupid of them. Only two years of testing on humans? And they didn't use all that many of them either. What were they thinking?"

"They were thinking they had an unstoppable tool to fight the greatest threat to national security they knew of. And they weren't going to let anything like scientific discipline or caution get in their way."

"So what do we do now?"

"Now, we look up a certain general and pay him a visit."

* * *

General Wayne and his wife slept soundly in their big, four-poster bed. Neither of them noticed the two figures float up to their second story windows. Nor did they hear those windows slide up. They woke with a start, however, when Vivek grabbed the general by his nightshirt and ripped him out of bed. His wife tried to scream, but Slan covered her mouth and stared deep into her eyes. "You will go back to sleep. You will remember that this is just a dream. You will not wake up again until the morning." She closed her eyes.

The general opened his mouth to scream, but Vivek held up a hand. "Watch your voice, General, if you wake anyone I'll let Slan there feed on your wife. I'm sure you've been very careful to make sure she wasn't infected with your little disease."

The general looked in horror at Slan, who smiled devilishly. In a defeated voice, he asked, "What do you want?"

"I've got evidence, General. I know all about the AIDS epidemic and who invented it. The trouble is, I can't really go to the press, now can I? You and I are both happy with the current ignorance on the part of "normal" people in regards to my kind. Besides, while they might believe me, a confession from you would be so much more convincing."

"You want me to tell everyone that we invented AIDS to kill bats? Are you out of your mind?"

"Watch your volume, General. No, I don't want you to do that. I just said that I like my anonymity the way it is. You're going to tell everyone that you did it to kill homosexuals."

The general became as pale as Vivek. "But, I'll be ruined. They'll crucify me! History will remember me right up there with Hitler!"

Vivek sneered and bared a fang. "As far as I'm concerned, you are right up there with him."

"But what do you hope to accomplish?"

"I hope to accomplish a public outcry like none this country has seen before. What's being done to find a cure is pathetic. I expect that to change tomorrow when people realize where this thing came from."

The general crossed his arms. "I won't do it. You can kill my wife and you can kill me. We'd be small casualties in this war. Your kind won't threaten us any more."

Vivek smiled. "I wasn't asking, General." He looked deep into his eyes. "You will call a press conference first thing in the morning. You will tell everyone that guilt has finally forced you to come forward. You will tell them how you ordered the development of AIDS to kill off the homosexuals. You will . . . "

The End

Copyright Michael P. Calligaro

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