MARTIAN TRIANGLE: PART 4
Truman was standing at his desk, phone in hand, listening to Aston chuckle on the other end of the line.
"Who is he? A nephew or something?" Aston chided. His feet were up on his own desk, he was taking a little pleasure in the fun, futile quest Truman had sent him on.
"What do you mean?" said Truman.
"I get it, I get. I'm impressed. This is incredible work. Whoever it is left no traces of anything. So sure, they can come by for an interview, hell, I'll hire them on the spot if they're working as fast as you say they are."
"Who's they?" asked Truman. "Do you have something?"
"Depends on what you mean by 'something'," said Aston. "Actually what I 'got' is nothing. This is the cleanest damn effects work I've ever seen. If you asked me, this was filmed practically, like with huge set pieces out in the damn Gobi Desert or something. But if that was the case, why would you be sending it to me to look at? If this is effects work, it's flawless. You gotta tell me, who is this, 'cause they're totally hired."
"This is directly from the rover," said Truman. "I told you, it's directly from the rover. It's raw."
Truman moved the phone from his ear and looked at it, "Hello? Aston? You there?"
"I don't understand," Aston said. "Then how..." his voice trailed off... "Holy shit, Truman. Holy shit."
"You signed an NDA for a reason, Aston."
"Truman... Holy... what the... hold on a minute," Aston's mind was bending from offering some amazing new special effects artist a job, to realizing that this was raw, untouched footage from the surface of Mars. "I... Holy shit, Truman!"
Aston looked up to see Bethany enter his office with a questioning look on her face. "Why are you swearing at Truman?" she asked playfully.
"It's raw footage? It's raw fucking footage?" he said into the phone, then Aston looked up at Bethany, "It's raw fucking footage."
"Well then, where's the set? I'll happily travel and do a little PR work if Truman needs it!" Bethany said loud enough for Truman to hear on the other end of the line.
Aston looked directly at Bethany, "It's raw footage. From the rover. On Mars."
"Oh," Bethany said, "Well then I could totally get on a rocket and --" Bethany stopped herself. "I... wait... WHAT?!" She looked over at the footage that Aston had on his screen. In addition to the USS Cyclops, there were other boats and even what looked to be planes in the foreground, Aston had even come to the point in the footage where the fisherman's body was hanging over the boat, it was zoomed in. "Oh my god," Bethany finally put it together, "Oh..my... god."
"You BOTH signed NDA's!" Truman barked into his phone. "This goes NOWHERE! Understood?"
Aston replied reluctantly, "Understood."
"Bethany?"
Bethany stepped up to Aston's phone, "Understood."
"And Aston," Truman continued, "Thanks for your time. Please destroy the footage."
"What? I mean, of course," Aston replied.
"Bethany." Truman said as a terse goodbye, and then the line clicked off.
Aston sat up and moved his mouse on the screen opening the File menu and scrolling down the list. Bethany stood there in disbelief.
"Wait, you're actually going to delete it?" she asked as she watched Aston's mouse pointer scroll.
His mouse pointer finally stopped on "Save."
Truman was standing in his office, hand on still on his phone, he was staring down at his desk. He was supposed to be getting off early today to help his wife run a few errands before their thirteen year old daughter's birthday party. They still needed to get balloons and gluten free cupcakes for two of the kids that would be coming. Instead, he was facing more and more evidence that the rover that he had spent years of his life on, countless meetings, calculations, and planning... was discovering not just something about Mars, but something about Earth.
He was so lost in thought that he didn't hear Tommy enter, "Boss?"
Truman flinched as his thoughts came back to the present, "What? Uh... yeah? What is it?"
"You're gonna want to see this.”