The Canavar

Chapter 18: The General

"Colonel Sikowski, what is your time of arrival?" General Brand listened over the com phone as the lieutenant colonel told him his 400 troops from Fort McCoy were about an hour away. Brand glanced down at his watch. An hour meant the troops would arrive around 8AM. "Deploy your soldiers immediately along the east side of the river and close off the local roads. And when those Abrams arrive tomorrow, set one about a mile upriver and one a mile downriver from the island. Update me when your troops are in position."

The Sikorsky UH-60 chopper the general rode had just set down on a flat field atop a bluff just to the west of Helle's Island. He hopped out and marched toward the captain who ran out to meet him. The captain stopped short and stiffened into a salute as did the captain's assistant.

"Morning, Captain Gerhardt." Brand saluted back without breaking stride until he was right in front of the captain. "Has the beast been spotted yet?"

"No, General," the captain replied.

Brand peered around. Camouflage nets covered a large DRASH, essentially a tent, a hundred yards away. He gestured toward the tent. "And this is to be our command center?"

"Communication gear is inside, sir. We'll have two radar units coming within the hour."

"We'll leave one of those here and have the other one deployed along a ridge on the east side of the river."

"Yes, sir."

"Hand me a pair of glasses. I'd like to look at the site with my own eyes."

Captain Gerhardt sent his assistant to find a set of field glasses.

"And where are your men, Captain?"

"I have one platoon, 32 soldiers, in position at the entrance to the land bridge out to the island you see below us. A second platoon is setting up along the riverbank north of there and third to the south along the riverbank. A total of 94 soldiers, General. The rest of my company will be here by noon. At that time I'll have 148 of my troops here in position."

Brand glanced up at the clouds. The thick blanket meant satellite imagery would not be currently useful. He had seen the forecast – it was only going to get worse. Possible thunderstorms in the afternoon. But this was the Midwest where weather forecasts changed as often as a young couple's relationship.

"Sir, could this all be an elaborate hoax?"

"Possibly, but the FBI agent that was here yesterday didn't seem to think so."

"What do they think this monster is then?" the captain asked.

"No one knows what it is." Brand turned away from the island and toward the captain. "But some think that this may be an alien."

"Alien, sir? As in from outer space?"

"It's just one speculative idea floating around. Possibly a biological weapon sent to test our defenses by aliens. Or an escaped interstellar zoo animal."

The captain didn't look like he believed the alien hypothesis. Probably still going with the hoax hypothesis. "What are our orders, sir?"

"Observe it as long as it remains static. Get samples of it if we can. And if it becomes hostile, we are to take it out with whatever means necessary."

"Samples, sir? How do we get those?"

"Some scientists will be arriving tomorrow. That's for them to figure out."

"Scientists from where, sir?"

"That's classified, and I'm afraid it's above your grade level." Brand noticed the captain's upper lip twitch ever so slightly, a betrayal to his attempt to cover up that he had been surprised.