7:23pm
The tape stopped and Peter heard a click. He took off his headphones and threw them across the room in frustration. He hadn't found anything unusual about the tapes- no voice changes, no hesitations, nothing. They were maddeningly normal.
He got up and stretched. He had been sitting back listening to the tapes over and over for over two hours, and he was sore. He collected his thoughts and went to the conference room for the meeting.
Anton was already there, but besides him, the room was empty. Peter took his seat, diagonally across the table from Anton, and wiped the sleep from his eyes, and spoke up.
"Anton, did you find anything unusual?"
"Not a thing. They're all in peak condition," he replied.
"Do you think someone's hiding something? A hoax, a reason this could have happened?"
"If one of our witnesses is, they're very good at hiding it."
Right then the rest of the team came in and sat down. Matt, as usual, sat at the head of the table, Lindsay sat to the left of Peter, and Cooper sat between Matt and Anton.
"Guys, what did you find?" Matt asked his team.
"Nothing much. The videotape proved to be authentic, and everything is normal," Lindsay spoke first. That basically said everything.
"That's it?"
Everyone nodded.
"Alright then. Tomorrow we'll be going out to sea to see if we can find traces of a hoax." Matt stood up as he talked. "Just get some rest for now and we'll meet in the morning."
Everybody got up to go do their own things. 
"Wake up!" Matt called in the bunkroom while switching all the lights on. Anton, Peter, Lindsay and Cooper stirred and groaned in their beds. It was 8:45 in the morning, and everybody was tired. Jet lag had its effects on them.
"Five more minutes," Cooper said while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
Peter threw off the blanket and got up, jumping to the ground. Cooper got a start, not expecting Peter to jump down right in front of his face. Everyone got up, taking turns going to the showers down the hill, where people going to the beach would take the sand out of their shorts.
When everyone was back and in their clothes and awake, they had a briefing in the conference room.
"Pete, get the audio and video equipment set up on the boat. I want full surveillance of everything." Matt began telling everyone their jobs. "Lindsay, I want you to make sure the police know where we're going, just in case of... you know..."
"Yeah," Lindsay agreed while getting up to go call the police.
"Anton, you and Coop go and make sure all the things we need are on the boat. You know, medical stuff and things. I don't want any unnecessary injuries."
"Sure," Cooper said while he and Anton got up to do what they were told.
"Matt," Praeger said to himself, "I want you to go and check the instruments on the Galahktikah." Matt got up and followed his own instructions. |
