They're Among Us Read online

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  First and foremost, I want to thank God, the creator of all things. Next, I want to thank my family…past, present and future. A special thanks goes to my parents, Thomas and Doris, for raising me the right way, in spite of my resistance in my younger years. Without them, my life would have been a very different one.

  AUTHORS NOTE

  When I was a young boy, I witnessed a strange sighting in the sky while I was out Christmas shopping with my parents. That sighting will stay with me for the rest of my life.

  It was around ten o’clock at night when my mother and I noticed people in the store rushing outside. My mother took me by the hand and rushed outside to see what the excitement was about. What we witnessed was astounding.

  In that dark, starless December sky sat an orange ball of light. I remember people looking and pointing at it and wondering what it could be. After a few moments, the light started gradually getting larger and larger (it either got larger, or it got closer—I don’t know which).

  What was once the size of a quarter, this orange ball of light now appeared bigger than the sun at sunrise. There was no sound; it was not bright to where we could not look directly into it, just a perfectly round ball of light.

  After a few moments, it began to gradually shrink back to the size of a quarter. It sat in the sky at that size for a few more moments and then disappeared.

  Thus began my fascination with the unexplained, especially with the sightings of UFOs. Even today, I still look at photos and videos of unexplained sightings, such as the Lights over Phoenix in the late nineties, and wonder about the possibility of life on other planets.

  I’m not a big conspiracy theorist, though after reading this book, you may conclude otherwise. Even though I don’t dwell on conspiracies, I do wonder about the strange sightings in the skies that have been witnessed over the years by thousands of people around the world, and why governments seem to be able to readily explain away every sighting so easily. I’ll leave that to you to ponder.

  My debut novel, THEY’RE AMONG US is the first of a two-part series. Part one is a good mixture of actual documented events and fictional drama with conspiracies to satiate your appetite for action and intrigue. So get ready for an exciting adventure. Turn the page and hold on tight.

  “We have, indeed, been contacted-perhaps even visited-by extraterrestrial beings, and the U.S. government, in collusion with the other national powers of the Earth, is determined to keep this information from the general public.”

  Victor Marchetti

  Former Special Assistant to the

  Executive Director of the CIA

  Table of Contents

  PROLOGUE: GENESIS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  PART I: A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  PART II: THE WAR’S WE FIGHT

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  PART III: CLUES

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  PART IV: THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO GET BETTER WITH TIME

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  PART V: THE STUFF THAT HERO’S ARE MADE OF

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  Chapter 85

  Chapter 86

  Chapter 87

  Chapter 88

  Chapter 89

  Chapter 90

  Chapter 91

  Chapter 92

  Chapter 93

  Chapter 94

  Chapter 95

  Chapter 96

  Chapter 97

  Chapter 98

  Chapter 99

  Chapter 100

  Chapter 101

  Chapter 102

  Chapter 103

  Chapter 104

  Chapter 105

  Chapter 106

  Chapter 107

  Chapter 108

  Chapter 109

  Chapter 110

  Chapter 111

  Chapter 112

  Chapter 113

  Chapter 114

  Chapter 115

  Chapter 116

  Chapter 117

  Chapter 118

  Chapter 119

  EPILOGUE: TWISTS & TURNS

  Chapter 120

  Chapter 121

  Chapter 122

  Chapter 123

  Chapter 124

  Chapter 125

  PROLOGUE

  GENESIS

  CHAPTER 1

  SPACE.

  ONE OF THE many things that God created in those first six days. It has been the inspiration of poetry, art, and song. Planets, stars, galaxies of all shapes, colors, and sizes. Stunning images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope fill our hearts with a longing to reach further into the unknown.

  For centuries, mankind has sought the secrets of the universe. And while its awe-inspiring beauty is ineffable, the universe is still well beyond the comprehension of mankind.

  While astronomers and scientists study the stars and the gases that make up our galaxy, the question asked by all of mankind is how such vastness could possibly contain only one intelligent life form. Since the days of Copernicus, mankind has looked to the stars and pondered the existence of extraterrestrials.

  And while organizations such as the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) insist on their existence, and amateur photographers claim to have photographic proof, the government continues to reject such claims, yet continues efforts to contact other life forms.

  Eventually, mankind will come to know the truth: there is indeed life on other planets. And as beautiful as the universe is, even its immense splendor can go unnoticed in times of war. This is the story of a war between two alien races—the Promelians and the Cereleans.

  The Promelians, a warring race and ancestral cousins of the Cereleans, grew weary of
what they perceived to be living in the shadows of the Cereleans.

  The Promelian war council unanimously agreed that the Cerelean “problem” must be resolved once and for all. The war council directed the Promelian armies to prepare for an invasion of Cerelea, kill every man, woman, and child, and occupy the planet. This order was much to the delight of the Promelian generals, who longed to wage war against what they perceived to be a weaker species.

  The Promelians launched every warship in their arsenal, armed with laser cannons and ionized torpedoes. Over ten million Promelian troops dressed in Promelian battle armor boarded those warships. That day was inevitable.

  The Promelians knew it.

  The Cereleans should have.

  CHAPTER 2

  THE ATTACK CAME without warning. Thousands of Promelian warships filled the orange skies of Cerelea, as horrified Cerelean citizens watched and then scrambled for their lives. The armada was so massive, the ships casted an ominous shadow over the Cerelean cities from orbit as it eclipsed one of the planets two suns. Taken by surprise and not much weaponry with which to fight, the Cereleans were no match for the invading force.

  Missile strikes from the warships were the vanguard of the attack. Thousands of missiles hit the streets and buildings of the Cerelean cities as Cereleans ran for cover. Most of them did not make it to safety, as the force of the explosions incinerated them. Their screams for help went unanswered. Their begs for mercy were ignored.

  The warships leveled ancient buildings that had stood for thousands of years. Temples of worship, symbols of their race’s history, everything the Cereleans stood for, everything that they were, was all destroyed in a matter of minutes.

  After what seemed like an eternity, the missile strikes stopped and hundreds of thousands of Promelian infantry troops were teleported to the cities across the planet to begin the ground campaign.

  The Promelians were ruthless; killing every man, woman and child they encountered. Mothers escaped and hid with their children in the basements of their homes, while fathers took up arms and engaged Promelian troops. A futile effort, as Promelian soldiers easily dispatched with the “rebels”.

  The soldiers went from door to door, searching for Cereleans to kill. Many times, they found the Cerelean homes empty. Other times, they found those mother’s clinging to their children, begging the Promelian soldiers for mercy.

  No mercy was given, as they fired their rifles at both mother and child, instantly disintegrating them both.

  There was no stopping the onslaught. In a matter of hours, millions of Cereleans were killed; their cities were reduced to rubble. Those who remained sought to escape the savagery of the Promelians.

  Cerelea is lost.

  Escape was the only option.

  Only a few thousand Cereleans remained to make it to the ships. The men hurried the women and children aboard to safety, unsure of their destination. Not even having a destination. Escape was all that mattered.

  The ships were filled to capacity as those unlucky Cereleans who did not make it to the ships in time, looked on as the ships ascended to the skies. They begged the ships to come back and get them.

  Too late.

  The departure of the Cerelean ships did not go unnoticed by the Promelians though, as they attacked the ascending ships. Several Cerelean ships were destroyed, but the remaining ships broke through the planet’s atmosphere and accelerated to transwarp drive.

  They escaped, but to where?

  The Cerelean ships roamed the galaxy for months trying to find a place to hide from the Promelians. They knew the Promelians would not stop until all Cereleans were eliminated. After months of wandering aimlessly in space, the Cereleans found a wormhole on their long-range sensors.

  Finally, there was hope.

  CHAPTER 3

  THE YEAR WAS 213 AD when the Cereleans first arrived on Earth. The lights were witnessed all over the world; worshipped by some, feared by others.

  The Bambuti tribe of Africa viewed it as a sign from Arebati, god of the sky, while the Chinese considered it a sign from Chu Jung, god of death, and they looked upon it in despair.

  These were primitive times, lacking the scientific technology to investigate the streaking lights in order to reach a scientific conclusion.

  It was perfect timing for the Cereleans. They could easily blend in with our species.

  The ships came by the hundreds. Thousands of Cereleans hoped for sanctuary and a chance to return to their home world. The worm hole they came through would not occur again for another 1,800 years. Earth was home to the Cereleans now.

  The ships submerged in Earth’s oceans and seas at depths that could not be reached by humans. There was no substance like water on their planet, but their scientists assured them that it was not harmful to them.

  Each Cereleans appearance was cloaked to give them the appearance of being human.

  Coming to rest on the floors of earth’s oceans and seas, the commanders of each ship gave final instructions to their crews and passengers before they disembarked to populate the Earth. The most important instruction of all: avoid exposure of their true nature at all costs. Even if it meant their death.

  And so the Cereleans began to live their lives as humans. A generous race, they made subtle contributions toward agriculture and engineering. They longed to provide much needed advances in technology and medicine to help ease suffering and improve the quality of life of their human hosts, but they could not expose themselves. Instead, they were forced to watch as diseases and plagues ravaged mankind, killing millions. They were forced to watch as mankind waged war on each other over the years as easily and callously as the Promelians had on their home world.

  With the exception of appearance and a longer life span, the Cereleans are not much different than humans— they eat, they sleep, they procreate, and they die. As the years went by, their population across the Earth grew to over one million. Unfortunately, with the passage of time, the Cereleans grew apart from each other.

  The generations that came after the first settlers rejected the old ways of their people and chose to embrace the ways of mankind instead. They began to grow comfortable in their new home, believing that they would never return to restore their home world.

  But they took comfort in knowing that in spite of the best efforts of the Promelians, their race would live on. The Cerelean people would live on, knowing that they have escaped the genocide of their people. They escaped the Promelians.

  Or so they thought.

  CHAPTER 4

  August 15, 1962…2 a.m.

  THE USS FRANKLIN D. Roosevelt was on a routine mission off the coast of Tunisia. Seaman First Class David Peterson had just concluded his watch duty and decided to take his usual evening stroll on the deck to relax. His nightly stroll was his time to himself; his time to think of home, his marriage, and a baby on the way.