Doug was taking some time off from his busy work life and was walking along the beach with his wife Susan. She was a light weight woman with green long dress on her with a small gold watch on her. She carried the grace of a lady and a wisdom that most believed Doug leaned on for support. While he was a person who worked long hours and hard worker style of man, his wife was the only person able to pull him back and smell the roses in life. They wandered across the beach while Susan smiled to herself and gave a laugh.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“It’s all this talk you have telling me about your young friend Daniel. He seems to be a good boy and yet you seem to be hard on him. I know your father was like that on you and I just hope you lighten up. What you told me about him banging the table and leaving the room sounds just like you when you were his age.”
Doug gave a real smile and though about his time with his father, “His work isn’t completely legal I would say and I am giving him a chance you know with what he wants to do.”
“The funniest thing about all of this is that you don’t believe in it and yet you let him work with you at NASA on this. Maybe you’re in real denial about all this and using Daniel to strengthen your disbelief or to show you something different,” Susan questioned her husband.
Doug laughed off his wife’s thoughts on Daniel and him, “I stand in my belief Susan and will be for a long time to come. I support Daniel to keep his mind busy. He might even do some real work in the future for NASA.”
Susan turned to her husband smiling at the beach, “If you wish to believe that then that’s ok with me. Could you get me my sunscreen from the car? I forgot it and also maybe some food is there too for you.”
“Alright, this exercise is good for my health as you keep on telling me,” Doug laughed.
He walked up the sand and to the stairs keeping his head down making sure he didn’t slip from the wet stairs. He didn’t notice a black car driving past across the street and making a turn a few car spots from where his own car was parked next to the beach. Doug made a turn from the stairs breathing harder as he had noted to his wife that he wasn’t the fittest of men on the beach. He looked up as he reached his car and opened his car and saw the sunscreen and some corn chips in the front seat where Susan left them for the pair.
He collected the sunscreen and stuffed it in his pocket and picked up the corn chips and took a few chips out and munched on them when he noticed something in front passenger mirror of two figures walking towards Doug in black suits with black hats. He turned around and closed the door locking it. The two men came up to him and moved his head to the left to notice their black car behind him in the distance in the parking lot.
“Doug Barker. You’re been doing some digging have you?” said one of the men.
“How do you know who I am?”
“You’ve been letting your young friend go around and sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. He should take a note out of your book and stop believing,” said the second man.
Doug tried to look at the faces of the men who appeared to be white skinned and stone like faces.
“Stop believing in what exactly?” Doug asked them.
The first man adjusted his black tie and put a hand on his shoulder. Doug quickly turned to feel his hand was cold as ice and looked at him.
“Stop the investigating, stop the digging. You have a nice wife down there. You would want her to stay like that would you?” he told Doug.
Doug remade silent towards the men. His mind was in a dozen places at once. Who were these people and what their connection to him and Daniel Phoenix was.
“We’ll see you real soon,” the second man said while the two of them began stepping away from Doug. The two of them started walking back to their car while Doug turned around to check on his wife who was still down at the beach near the water waiting for him to return. He rubbed the shoulder that one of the men touched and he turned back to see them again but in to surprise the two men were gone and the car disappeared. He darted around the parking lot to try to see where they went and turned back to his car.
“Where did they go? Who were they?” he asked himself.
The event had certainly shaken Doug and what he had been doing with Daniel. For the first time in a long time he wasn’t sure what the next step he should take.
The weather had taken a turn for the worst that day when Daniel Phoenix and Jack returned back near NASA when Daniel was fighting off the wind in the main streets. Jack had a laugh at Daniel about it, “You can’t beat the wind man. It’s going to do what it wants to do.”
“I just wish it stopped for a while. What’s that buzzing? My phone hang on, hold this,” Daniel said handing over a newspaper to Jack in the street as he popped out his phone to answer it.
“Hey Geoff, how are you. We haven’t had a good chat for a while. What’s the matter?”
“Doug’s not in at work today but he wants to meet you at his house for some reason. I don’t know why but he didn’t sound like himself on the phone. Somewhat unsure of himself,” Geoff replied on the phone.
“That’s not like him at all. Well thanks for that and I’ll go see him,” Daniel answered ending the call and getting back his newspaper from Jack.
“What did Geoff have to say?” Jack asked him.
“It was about Doug. I have to meet him at his house. I’m worried he found out about grave digging and I’m getting fired over all again,” Daniel replied thinking like a child has been caught by his father.
“Look if he did find out he would have blasted you as soon he heard. It’s likely to be something else. Did you get that information about the objects?” Jack asked his friend.
“Yeah I did and I’ll tell you more when we meet up with Doug,” Daniel answered, “But its good news.” He added.
The taxi drove up to Doug’s house on the corner street a fair distances away from where he lives in a quiet area. Daniel paid the driver and Jack saw Susan, Doug’s wife in the garden, “Hello Mrs. Baker. How are you today?”
“Hi there Jack, it’s been many years since we last met. Well that would be when Daniel was last working with NASA. You and Daniel should come inside where Doug is. I’m just doing some weeding here. It’s a never ending job here!” she chuckled about it.
“Yeah, I should really work on my backyard one day,” Jack replied.
The pair settled inside the house where Doug greeted them and took them downstairs to his study room where they could speak in private about certain matters. Daniel and Jack sat down on a couple lounge seats as Doug paced the room rubbing the same shoulder that the man earlier on touched.
“I was contacted by a couple men who knew what were up to earlier in the day when I was at the beach with Susan,” Doug started.
Daniel leaned forward in his seat curious about his story, “Who were these men and what did they say about what we were doing?”
“These two men appeared in black suits and there was a black car parked at the other side of the parking lot at the bench. They told me they knew what we were doing and to stop the investigations and stop the digging.”
“The digging? Did they know what we did with the graveyard? I mean there was no one at that site when we were there,” Jack replied worried.
Daniel waved his hands trying to take in the information, “We dug up the old 1897 UFO sighting in Aurora, Texas but I don’t know if that was a tipping point for your visit from them or the whole me returning and doing these investigations. Doug I want you to look at these photos for a second while I think of what these men want,” Daniel said.
Doug tried to stay calm for a moment while Jack placed the photos on his study desk and he looked at them. He noticed the large skulls but the long neck made him interested in the photos.
“This can’t be alien, it really can’t. I remembered Geoff one time talking about this case and the buried alien in the graveyard. While in any other time I would have skinned you alive for doing something illegal but this encounter has me. They threatened my wife and I can’t let anything happen to Susan,” Doug said.
“Doug if your encounter has proven anything is that there are people out there who don’t want us to dig deeper into this. Do you now believe?” Daniel asked his boss.
“I don’t know what to believe, his touch was cold on his shoulder. I felt very werid after they left. I mean the way they left was unexplainable.”
Daniel shot a look back at Doug, “Unexplainable. What the hell does that mean?”
“They disappeared into thin air, the men and the black car they were in,” Doug replied sitting down at study desk to catch his breath.
Daniel placed his hands on the desk and looked at Doug in the eye. He had figured out what had happened to him and it has happened to many in the past.
“Doug, this sounds like you have been encounter and were visited by the Men in Black. We’re in trouble now,” Daniel announced with Doug looking up to him with a sadden look and Jack in the background pulling fearful look. When Daniel Phoenix thought they were in trouble despite his skating around the law they really were in deep trouble.
“Tell me about the Men in Black. Who are they and what do they want with us all?” Doug asked Daniel.
Daniel sat on the lounge seat corner and paused for a moment to explain to them in simple terms for them to understand it, “The Men in Black has different areas of theories from people or could be the case of all them being true and it depends on what type of Men in Black you encountered. They are people that come to witnesses of UFO’s, researchers or people who have in possession of alien objects that they demand to given to them. Some have threatened such as in this case and others have killed in the name of protecting the secret. That secret is whatever you are trying to uncover. Some of Men in Black are government agents in disguise. From the black car to trying to find out who they were will be impossible to uncover. All of the accounts tell us from people who told their story is that they seem to know a lot about you. Then there’s the more sinister part about them.” Daniel explained.
“What’s that?” Doug wondered.
“There are some a number of cases when the Men in Black are actually alien themselves. More Grey type aliens and we are not sure if they work for the government or they are working just by themselves to cover their own tracks. The coldness you felt when he touched you says to me it could be a Grey alien you had encountered near the beach. One could be human and the other was alien. Both from the government working together could be the case for that.”
Doug had that disbelief look on his face. He was struggling to understand that now his family was threatened or the fact the whole thing was a joke. Part of him was starting to believe in the unexplained.
“I can’t take this as a joke. They knew about me and even where I was. Our investigations has to stop now Daniel. I’m sorry even if this latest photos you found is partly odd to me but for the sake of all of us we need to put a end to this. My career at NASA could be trouble as well.” Doug explained telling Daniel.
“Doug today is a rainy day and now you will know what I mean by that. I have saved up money than the 200 000 thousand dollars that the NASA files have on me,” Daniel said back to him.
“Why have you been saving money for all these years?”
“I have over two million dollars saved and funded by a trust fund by other researchers in case of a breakthrough or an event such as the Men in Black. Over the years I have travelled and built contacts with people worldwide to make something called The Phoenix Contactors. It’s a group of people who protect each other from any harm and research and move towards finding the truth about what I do. I want to protect you and Susan from any harm.”
“The insane investigations have to end Daniel. I don’t even feel safe at work because of this. They could contact me again. They said they would see me again. What do I do?” he asked Daniel.
“Stay at NASA, it’s a powerful agency of the government and a profile such as yourself wouldn’t be killed without media press. The Men in Black would not want that to happen. If they are smart enough they will come for me and not you, Susan or Jack. You can try to run or end my investigation but I doubt it’s going to solve much. If you believe in the unexplained than I’m the guy who knows most about it.”
Jack pulled his gun and checked it to see if it was loaded and working, “So Doug stays where he is and he’s safe right? What do we do in terms of the Men in Black?”
“You can stay here to watch over them in case anything happens. But what I want the Men in Black to do is to move their attention to me. I mean really I’m the one that they truly want. My plan of action is to keep doing what are doing, pushing through with these cases and exploring the darker areas of UFO’s and aliens. We will push into areas and things that will make the mind blow and that’s where we need to go,” Daniel replied to the pair.
“How does this Phoenix Connectors work?” Doug asked.
“It’s different locations around the world where many of them are off the grid so to speak. The government believes they are dead or they never existed in the first place. I would not be surprised if the Men in Black work similar to that.”
Daniel picked up the gun that Jack placed on the desk and popped out his phone. Doug stood up and walked up to the study room door, “I’ll be with Susan if you need anything. I want to make sure that this plan works.”
Daniel headed for the door as well and turned to Jack, “I have to do something by myself. I will come back soon to see you all again. I have to deal with a storm tonight,” he said leaving the room and heading for the front door of Doug and Susan’s house.
Susan saw Doug and Jack come from the study room and she had some coffee and coca for the two of them. She sat down on the lounge and looked up at Doug knowing he wasn’t all there and in two minds about something.
“Are you ok dear? You seemed to be stressed about something. Is it to do with Daniel or with work?” she asked him.
“Nah, nah, Susan just some deadlines I need to keep to with NASA. You know how they can get on your back about things like that. How’s dinner going? Do you need a hand with that?”
“Oh no, most of it is nearly ready. Just need to wait for the lamb to cook in the oven for a while longer,” Susan answered.
Doug and Jack exchanged nervous looks at each other while Susan went over to check on the oven and to see how it was cooking for dinner. Both were wondering where Daniel was going to and why he took the gun with him. Was it for protection? Was he going to visit someone or something dangerous? It was a nervous and worrying wait for the pair while they stayed out of the light of the Men in Black.
