Intelligent Design

Two flag draped coffins lay over the over-sized hole.  Each carried with such honor and respect one at a time, which was nothing like the life they lived, always a part of each other.

 

Mandy was born at 1230 pm on August 27, 1998 to Mr.  & Mrs. Jonathan (Michaela) Oetman of Grand Rapids, MI she was a private adoption.  The parents were never told that Mandy was a twin.

 

Michael was born at 1232 on August 27, 1998 to Mr.  & Mrs. Robert Thomas (Pamela) Hart of Kalamazoo, MI he was a private adoption as well.  The parents were never told that Michael was a twin.

 

This piece of information was done with one primary reason in mind, a matter of National Security.  These were no ordinary twins; they were a “special breed” known as Codex artificially bred for one mission to become the next generation of NDSA coders.

 

Both had “Normal” childhoods, natural athletes, born English and math aces.  Neither ever crossing paths despite living that close to each other.  Both Mandy and Michael were courted by all the military academies, both getting automatic nominations from their respective Congressional members.

 

Mandy to West Point and Michael wanted West Point but had an inexplicable denial and settled for the Air Force.  Both were scholar athletes and top of their respective classes.  At the end of their schooling, they were “courted” by the NDSA but declined both wanting to fulfill their commitments.

 

Mandy was a full-time Reservist working for criminal investigations though she had no idea how she was offered the position or rather, “given orders.”    She followed orders to the letter so she reported and began her training in the field.

 

Michael headed for one direction, intelligence; it suited his problem solving nature.  He needed to know every aspect of his enemies; at one point so driven, he paid a clerk $1000 to get orders for field duty.  The one thing he didn’t know was that was an NDSA plant used to put him on the path he would never take willingly on his own.

 

 

His first six months in the field seemed more like being a liaison between a General he never met and a light Colonel named Phillip “Aces” Thomas, commander of a “black-ops” wing that not even the Pentagon talked about even behind “secure” doors.

 

Mandy worked in an area of investigations that was designed to keep “black-ops” in check.  She had become quite accustomed to talking shop with operators known to keep secrets in-house and getting those from them without tricking them.  Her status as a female Major didn’t seem to bother anyone except those she was promoted over.  She answered to an Army two-star General named John J. Bingo, who was at the Pentagon and left her in the field to work alone, she was that good at her job.

 

On October 12, 2023, their two lives intersected when a reported Air Force black-op went south leaving an entire village decimated in a place where no one was reportedly operating in the first place.  A crew left Michael struggling to keep them out of trouble and Mandy trying to figure out what happened.

 

The team reported that when they entered the village was already decimated by the time they arrived and the entire village was engulfed in flames with a strong odor of napalm in the air.  The shell casings were all NATO Operation rounds but something wasn’t right to them.  No one was reported to be there and yet all the signs were there that NATO had someone there but those guys claimed something wasn’t right.

 

As Mandy investigated, she found that all the rounds had no fingerprints, which was odd considering that with all the rounds fired none had any prints not even partials.  And there was no napalm record of usage outside of testing since the 70’s that she could find and with her high-level clearance, nothing was hidden from her eyes.  That was except for a particular file called Intelligent Design that she happened across while searching for the napalm documents.

 

This was an odd fact since she had no idea how she found it.  It seemed out of place in the files for usage about Napalm from Vietnam but there it was.  All she saw was a lot of blacked out records with nothing but dates readable to her.

 

Michael began his covering the guy’s asses by checking on every document that was made available and even his clearance couldn’t stop him from finding out what information he wanted, the General made sure of that.  The only thing that struck him as odd was that no operators of this one were wearing gloves at all and yet there were no prints on the rounds.  He kept trying to contact a Major Mandy Oetman with no results it appeared to him she was avoiding his calls, ducking his emails in order to keep him out of her investigation since she wasn’t directly involved.

 

When Mandy got back to her office after being in the field on-site looking over the facts to her written reports, the photos and even the statements of facts from the debriefing each one had gone through, not all of them with Mandy herself.  She read all the emails from the General’s lackey, as she liked to call him and refused to give him the time of day till she had some idea what was going on.

 

That was till the day she got a personal visit from the General who was wondering why his greatest investigator was ducking the Air Force Officer who was just looking for information.  She couldn’t ignore him anymore and she knew it so she responded to his last email:

 

Dear Major Hart:

 

I have read your emails and I have not responded to this point because I am not ready to share any findings with you at this time.  I know your job is to liaison with me and the operators but I have direct access here and you aren’t here as well. 

 

Therefore, I will be continuing to operate as I have been doing till such time as you show up in person and begin to do your job.  Please don’t sick the General on me who by coincidence is here while you clearly are not. 

 

I trust your cooperation in this matter will continue as it has been and that you will await my response with my findings, unless you chose to show up here at the investigation site where I would think would be most helpful to your ability to do your job.

 

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Major Mandy Oetman

US Army Reserves

29^th Investigation Brigade

 

This didn’t sit well with Michael naturally; it was an insult to his rank, his job and his pride.  He packed a bag but was suddenly reassigned to another job in the code-breaking department at the NDSA sent TDY by the General himself.  He never returned her email but the thought of what she had said struck him to the core.  After that, he made sure he was in the center of whatever he did professionally.

 

This change in jobs became the center point of everything they had been bred for even without them knowing it themselves.  Mandy was continuing with her investigation even as Michael was actually trying to break the code that coincidentally as it turned out was about that very operation and the messages he was decoding was from a group known as “Intelligent Design.”

 

Mandy was finishing up her investigation and determining that the men were actually responsible for the decimation of the villagers when she received an email that threw her for a loop.

 

To whom it may concern:

 

I have found some interesting information that you might be interested in.  There is a group known as “Intelligent Design” that has been talking about convincing the Pentagon that those operators were responsible when in fact they were set-up.

 

Sincerely,

 

Thought you ought to know

 

Mandy couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw it there, “Intelligent Design” and there was the mysterious email.  Something was too coincidental and she knew where to start her investigation with a Major Michael Hart.

 

She was packing her bag when suddenly there was a Full Bird Colonel staring at her through the front door.  She was startled but she kept her cool, saluted after a snap-to and she asked him what she could do for him.

 

“I was wondering when you are going to wrap up that investigation the higher ups want answers and they want them now.”  He snapped as if agitated that he had to come to her for answers.

 

“Sir, I have not finished my investigation and I recently received a tip that there was a group possibly responsible and not those operators who found the village as it was afterwards.  I know we all want the truth and I cannot sign off till I have exhausted all information, these guys haven’t lied to me and I’m quite sure of that, sir.”

 

With that, response he nodded and walked away still looking pissed off that he had to come to her but he didn’t tell her to stop packing her bags.  She kept on packing, going over the itinerary making sure everything was covered for her trip to Washington, DC.  She hated going into the belly of the beast that was the beltway but with new information albeit anonymous or not she needed to check it out and it led to the belly.

 

Something kept gnawing at her, it was that name “Intelligent Design” something about it just wasn’t right, the closed files, and the visits at her barracks from Colonels.  It all added up to something wasn’t quite right and what was with the mysterious email, she would easily find out who sent it with just a phone call but she had an idea already in mind and she was going to follow-up on it.

 

Michael on the other hand was working on his report to the Director of the NDSA.  He was the ranking officer and therefore responsible yet again to answer to the big boss.  This time he thought, he was doing a good thing that was until he uttered the words “Intelligent Design” to Director T. Thomas Smith a third generation intelligence agency operator with a long history of working in the field.

 

“I don’t want you to ever utter those words in my presence again, do you understand me Major?” He snapped.

 

Michael had no idea what he had done wrong but he was certain that group had something to do with it.  He kept working on getting more information after he was done filing his report and had been given other duties still at the NDSA but they moved him into the code room, making codes not breaking them.  Each night he would go over trouble messages the office was sure were coded but not one other trained breaker could figure them out, the computers seemed incapable of discerning anything either. 

 

Of course, the computers were only capable of doing what the programmers were able to which as it happened included Major Michael Hart of Grand Rapids, MI.  He was busy thinking up new codes daily and those were being used to make up new programs, which were being used to try to break codes.

 

One afternoon he was sitting in the NDSA luncheon eating a slice of Ham & Pineapple pizza when a lady Major he had never met before sat down next to him.  She slipped a piece of paper in front of him with just two words on it, “Intelligent Design.”  He looked up and it was as if he knew her from somewhere, “I’m sorry have we met before?”

 

“No, my name is Major Mandy Oetman.”

 

He didn’t look at her again rather he picked up his coffee cup and walked away from her.  Mandy wasn’t taking that for an answer and suddenly she had the same feeling of déjà vu when she saw his face as well.  She followed him as he walked to his car; she got into the passenger seat after he unlocked the door.

 

“I know what you want and I cannot help you Major Oetman.”

 

“Yes, you can and I know you sent the email.”

 

“I have no idea what you are talking about because if I did that would be in violation of national security, are you wearing a wire?”

 

 

 

To his surprise, she ripped open her blouse to show him she wasn’t and something in his stomach told him he should be upset at looking at her naked breasts.  Mandy wasn’t one of those officers who was worried about wearing a bra, her small sized bosoms didn’t exactly press against her uniform.  That hardly mattered as he tried to cover the look on his face after realizing he had gone too far with his accusations.

 

“Alright I went too far and yes I sent the email.  I didn’t want those guys paying for something they didn’t do wrong.  It was a set-up it had to be.”

 

She buttoned up, “Yeah I know but what are we going to do about it, and I know you have the files about that group, want to share them with me?”

 

“They are blacked out, scrubbed clean there is only one way to get the answers but I need someone with a Presidential to get me in. I just don’t have a high enough to get at it.  I thought I had that level and according to my last clearance report, I had.  But when I went to get in, the files were locked saying I didn’t have.”

 

“I went to check the files that I mistakenly found inside the napalm logs from Nam when I came across it.  Something isn’t right and for some reason we are supposed find out what that is, don’t you agree?”

 

He started the car and drove out of the parking garage without answering her, he drove to his house led her inside turned on the stereo and handed her a notebook he had.  She looked at it then looked back at him with a look as if she had seen a ghost.

 

“Where did you get this?”

 

“It was my fathers; I got it by accident I think when he and my Mom were killed in a car accident last year.  I don’t think it was supposed to be in the stuff I received from their estate it was stuffed in a pair of his military boots he had since 1969 when he got back from Vietnam.”

 

 

 

She didn’t say anything else she just started reading the notebook, which was coincidentally named, “Intelligent Design” it was about a decision by the national security agency at the time deciding to breed coders they called Codex.  These children were born twins and separated at birth to avoid any cross-contamination as they called it.  The problem was Michael’s last name was Hart; his father’s name was Culp according to the notebook.

 

What she read next was the hard part according to the notebook Michael was her brother and she was separated from him at birth.  She dropped the notebook on the floor and Michael caught her before she hit the floor and the coffee table. 

 

“Sit down before you get hurt, sis.”

 

“Thanks bro, I just got weak in the knees this news was something I didn’t expect.  We need to keep this quiet till we see those files so we can find out what this was all about and why that group is named the same thing. “

 

He nodded and they sat down drinking coffee all night discussing their childhoods, military academies, parents that weren’t their parents who never even told them they were adopted.

 

“I tried to ask my “mom” about it after I got this in the mail but she didn’t want to discuss it.  A month later, they were both dead from a house fire.  I suggest you don’t contact your family about this at all, if you want them to still be alive next week.  Sorry for the brash talk but let’s face it everyone who knows anything about this besides us appears to be dead at this point.”

 

She looked at the back of the notebook got a strange look on her face and asked him, “What about this Maggie Reynolds?”

 

Michael ignored the question and kept on with whatever he was fidgeting with at the moment.  She touched his hand and as he looked at her she wrote on a piece of paper, “is she dead too?”

He nodded yes then began crying hard she couldn’t make out what he was mumbling about, something about her meeting him in a small coffee shop on the outskirts of DC an hour later she was gone.

 

Mandy didn’t ask how she died she could clearly tell it didn’t matter to him but clearly it meant something to him.  But, she could tell he hadn’t met with her before and judging by his reaction to it he was afraid saying something to her would get her killed too. 

 

He was right to be scared clearly since his arrival at the NDSA someone was watching him.  He had worked with enough operators to know that someone wanted someone gone it was only a matter of a meeting of two things.  A bullet and a brain.

 

The following morning when they woke up at his apartment he got dressed put on his bulletproof vest under his uniform shirt and drove Mandy to her apartment.  He didn’t dare take her to her car he was afraid it was already messed with once they realized the two of them found each other before they were ready to put them into play together.  According to the notebook, they had a special purpose and it wasn’t put into play for them, not just yet.

 

After a stellar military career they would be “accidentally” injured causing them to be discharged, then the NDSA would again approach them separately to work for them.  And with Michael already into his job ahead of schedule, it was only a matter of time to get Mandy into hers.

 

They would be at separate sites working together even though they were never supposed to meet, ever.  Now that this has happened, it would likely be a commonplace result in the world of national security where those who were of no more use according to some idealists ideals.  They weren’t about to let that happen no matter what “national security” had decided.

 

Those was the moment they had decided to gather up some things, get the uncensored file and get the hell out of town as quickly as possible Fortunately, Michael and Mandy knew a few operators who could help them disappear.  Mandy got her satellite phone out and punched in a code that would allow her to ignore the NDSA censors that listen for code words in the hope to buy them sometime before they were found out as being together.

“Mike, its Mandy I need a favor.  Yeah I know I haven’t called in a while, no I haven’t met someone else, and I have just been busy.”

 

Within two hours, they were in a plane with no tail numbers on their way out of town with the file retrieved from the Pentagon file rooms.  It wasn’t on the computer systems due to its sensitive nature.  They were perusing it when the flight took off and within hours, they were just sitting there stunned at what they had read. 

 

They discovered that they weren’t the only set of twins in play at this time only most of the others had no idea why they were able to understand a code no one else was able to do.  Two of which happened to have found each other in the late 1990’s and founded the group “Intelligent Design.”  They were operating out of an area in Toronto that used to be the theater district.

 

As they crossed the Canadian border there was no checks, no questions asked when they landed in Toronto just a quiet direction to a back hanger that was normally used for special operations equipment.  A man in a pair of khaki’s, jump boots and a bright smile stood waiting for them.  On his shirt, the logo was a little odd shape and the words “Intelligence Security.”

 

Mandy walked up gave him a big hug and kiss as she exited the plane.  Michael was drawing a weapon just in case when she turned and saw it she giggled and said, “Easy cowboy” this is my husband, John T. Morrison.

 

“Hi, they call me Jack and officially it’s General John T. Morrison Naval Intelligence retired, she always forgets that part.  We never told anyone when we got married in Fiji during an investigation into the domain affair I know you’re familiar with it.”

 

“Yes sir.”  Michael responded thinking of saluting but stuck out his hand for a handshake instead.

 

They got into a bulletproof Suburban with dark tinted windows heading toward the Pantages, a theater that once hosted such shows as The Phantom of the Opera.  When they arrived a man with a submachine gun opened the door for them and directed them into a darkened hallway with several men heavily armed standing guard.

 

A tall man with a scarred face walked out and began to hold out his hand when Michael stepped in front and showed he was carrying to avoid anyone from hurting his sister in anyway.

 

“Easy Michael we won’t hurt you or your sister, allow me to introduce myself, I am Michael M. Culp and this is my wife Amanda.”

 

Michael dropped his Glock on the floor and Mandy picked it up, her mouth agape, as she looked at herself only older.  “Here Mike put your gun away they aren’t going to hurt us I think.”  She giggled as she handed him the weapon.  He put it away and pulled her back from them his distrust showing clean through.  His family dead, his real family reportedly dead and now here stands his real parents within shooting distance of his sister, he wasn’t having any of it.

 

“Michael I know you thought we were dead your adoptive father wrote the last part, he was one of the greatest forgers I ever met who worked in an industry that paid him to fake documents, the intelligence community.  He saved my butt several times by making me disappear till it was safe for me to return.”  He handed him a picture from his wallet.

 

Michael took the picture and both he and Mandy were struck at their father’s standing next to Michael Culp.  Everything they had read in the notebook said their parent’s didn’t know they were twins but clearly, this isn’t the truth either.

 

Amanda spoke up when she sensed the two of them were falling apart, “They knew, yes but they kept you apart to keep you safe it was the only way the security agencies wouldn’t want you two dead.  They were too afraid if you got together what you would be capable of doing as a pair.”

 

For months after that point they were introduced to what they were trained for only to feel that something wasn’t quite right and neither one of them could put their finger on it.  But as long as they weren’t separated from one another they went along and besides Michael wasn’t alone in protecting his sister, her husband was still there to keep an eye out for both of them. 

 

At least that’s what appearances had been telling them but one night they found out the hard way it was all a ruse to get them to break an NDSA code they themselves as children wrote and had not remembered.  When Mandy’s husband asked them to follow him into a room they hadn’t seen before inside there was large computer systems that were busily trying to do something.

 

Mandy’s husband handed them a piece of paper that had some kind of scribbles on it.  Both of them recognized it at once it was a doodle they both had written when they were young, their parents had taken them to a “therapist” at some point and each of them was asked to doodle on a paper that already had some doodles on it done of course by the other one without their knowledge.

 

Both suddenly realized what was going on when before Michael knew it his weapon was being removed from his holster and Mandy was being tied up by her so-called husband who threatened to kill his own wife if Michael didn’t cooperate and vice versa the threat was made to Mandy with regards to Michaels’ fate.

 

Both looked at each other and began speaking in a language no one else in the room recognized.  And the sense of rage brewing was clear to both of them as they both shed a quick tear before the gun went off.  Michael fell off the chair as he began bleeding out on the floor just as another shot rang out and Mandy slumped over in her chair, blood running down her blouse soaking her pants a deep shade of crimson.

 

Two days later their bodies were found in Michael’s apartment lying in the bed naked allegedly having an affair complete with emails and phone calls.  No one was ever there to dispute how they got to this point after all it was a matter of National Security.  There was no investigation and they were marked as a crime of passion.