Three Mississippi

Many years after the Apollo astronauts vanished on the moon, a secret agent who was involved in the cover-up operation tells her story.  This is her testimony about the murder she committed to keep the public from knowing about the Apollo abductions: 

Like a praying mantis waiting on an unsuspecting butterfly to land on a flower, I waited on Ryder in the shadows of the spacecraft simulator.  He was handsome and young…only about thirty-two, and I almost felt bad about having to kill him, but my job with a three-letter agency required me to have a cold heart.  Compared to all of the dangerous people I’ve killed over my twenty-year career, I knew that assassinating a defenseless astronaut was going to be easy, especially with my skill set.  My jet-black attire blended in perfectly with the shadows as I watched Ryder enter the simulator in his gleaming-white spacesuit, alone…

It was early in the spring of 1973 when I received an order to assassinate Astronaut Allen Ryder as part of a cover-up operation involving the Apollo program.  I laughed boisterously as I read the order, which mentioned aliens and missing spacemen on the moon, and I thought it was a joke at first.  However, it was soon revealed to me during a classified briefing that the crew of Apollo 18 mysteriously vanished on the moon and that Ryder, who was close friends with the missing astronauts, was threatening to tell the public about the disaster if NASA didn’t.  He also refused to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement, furthering his threat to “spill the beans.”  If Ryder’s testimony went public, it would shed light on NASA’s secret voyages to the moon and their knowledge of extraterrestrial life; it would have been disastrous for the government!

Of course, I understood why Ryder needed to die and I was loyal to the US government.  But I never knew why I was selected for the operation; I never had the luxury of asking such questions to my superiors.  Assigning me to go kill a defenseless astronaut seemed like a waste of my abilities; I was used to killing dangerous men. The agency could have sent some rookie assassin to kill this little twerp.  Maybe everyone was already out on other assignments so they needed me to do it?  Or perhaps it was because I preferred to kill my victims with my bare hands instead of using a gun or a knife and NASA didn’t want blood splatter inside of their expensive simulator?  Or maybe there was no particular reason at all.  Nonetheless, the question of why I was chosen for the assignment plagued my brain as I read Ryder’s file.  This poor guy didn’t stand a chance against me, I thought to myself as I read his biography and looked at his photos; within a matter of minutes I knew everything about the cute but brilliant astronaut.  He was a slender space-geek with a PHD in astrophysics and another degree in geology- not my usual victim.

The three-letter agency I worked for recruited me after I got out of the Marines; I was probably the only woman in the 1970’s with confirmed kills on her service record and I was skilled in multiple disciplines of martial arts.  When I wasn’t training in a dojo somewhere I was hitting the weights.  When I wasn’t hitting the weights I was running or sparring.  I didn’t have a family or any other obligations outside of the Marine Corps, so I was always training and my hands became lethal.  In fact, I didn’t use a weapon on any of the men that I killed overseas, which is why the agency took an interest in recruiting me.  People didn’t suspect me because I was a woman and I was untraceable because I didn’t leave bullets or shell casings behind.  The agency saw value in this and they paid me well; they had my back and I did what needed to be done.

In order to buy us some time for me to get down to Cape Canaveral, the director of the Apollo Program assured Ryder that he was going to host a press conference about the missing astronauts in two days.  He also told Ryder that he was sending him and two other astronauts to the moon to search for the spacemen, so he scheduled him for training in the simulator.  Unbeknownst to him, this was a trap and he naively fell for it.  If only he knew how our government works…

The simulator was inside of an empty aircraft hangar at NASA and I arrived a couple of hours before Ryder’s scheduled “training” time.  From the outside, the simulator looked like a giant steel tube with dozens of large cables and hoses connected to it.  I could see why the director chose this as the location for the hit; even if my victim screamed at the top of his lungs, nobody would ever hear him inside of that thing.  There was only one way in and out- through a metal hatch on the side.  With nobody around, I made my way into the simulator which looked like a spacecraft on the inside.  If you didn’t know you were in a hanger, you would truly believe you were inside of a real spaceship on the moon.  Thousands of buttons, switches, gauges and lights covered a complex assortment of instrument panels.  I found the perfect spot to hide and I patiently waited for my astronaut prey to arrive. 

Waiting was a big part of my job.  Sometimes I’d wait hours or even days to kill someone and then the actual action of taking the person’s life would last for only a few seconds.  I was always an efficient killer, dispatching my victims with relative ease.  But I wanted this time to be different.  I knew that Astronaut Ryder would be no match for me and that he would be trapped inside the simulator once the hatch was closed.  I decided I wanted to have a little fun for a change.  You know, mix it up a bit.

My heart began to race with excitement as I heard footsteps approaching.  From my hidden vantage point I watched Ryder enter the simulator in his bulky Apollo spacesuit, oblivious to the danger he was now in.  I could see his face through the visor glass of his helmet; he was so damn handsome… he could have been a male model if he wanted to, but instead he chose to be a whistleblowing astronaut that I now had to kill.  Ryder’s puffy-white spacesuit made him look like a marshmallow-man and I quietly snickered to myself as he closed the hatch behind him.  The marshmallow was all mine now.

Ryder turned his attention to one of the instrument panels as I quietly emerged from the shadows, surreptitiously approaching him from behind.  I still didn’t know exactly how I wanted to kill him yet, but I wanted to have a little fun so I figured I’d see how things played out.  As I came up behind him, he removed his space helmet; maybe he wanted to see the controls better, or maybe it was hard to breathe inside of that glass fish bowl on his head- I don’t know, but it provided me with the perfect opportunity to strike!  

Without hesitation, I violently clapped my right hand over his handsome mouth, preventing any screams from escaping (not that it would have mattered), and I grabbed onto his suit with my left hand.  The soft white nylon-fabric wrinkled around my hand as I pulled the helpless astronaut in, tightly against my muscular body.  He dropped his space helmet on the metal floor as he squirmed helplessly in my grasp, desperately trying to escape and scream.  Unfortunately for him, I was in total control. I was much stronger than the squirming spaceman and I easily overpowered him.  I could have killed him immediately with a swift motion of my hand,  but I wanted to indulge myself with a quick game of cat and mouse.

“They want me to kill you” I calmly said, “But I want to play a little game.”  Ryder’s white space boots slipped and slid on the gray metal floor as I effortlessly dragged him into the back of the simulator, about eighteen feet from the hatch.  I could feel his warm tears on my hand, which I still had clutched over his mouth so I could explain the rules of our game uninterrupted.  “I’m going to give three seconds to make it to the hatch.  If you can open it before I catch you, I’ll let you live… I’ll just tell them you got away.”  Of course I knew that there was no escape for him, but I wanted to taunt him a little.  “Do you understand the rules of the game?” I asked the terrified astronaut, to which he nodded her head “yes” as he trembled in my grasp.

As soon as I let go of him, Ryder stumbled forward in his clumsy spacesuit as his desperate escape attempt began.  I was a bit disappointed, but not surprised, that he chose flight instead of fight.  “SOMEBODY HELP ME!” he screamed at the top of his lungs while continuing to stumble forward.   “One Mississippi” I calmly said as I watched his pathetic dash for the door.  Ryder’s stumbling took the form of a crawl on the floor for a moment and his screams echoed off the walls of the tin-can we were in.  I knew this was going to be easy, but I didn’t expect my new astronaut friend to be quite so clumsy.  He finally regained his balance, transitioning into something that resembled a run towards the hatch, and he looked like a little white bunny trying to escape a predator.  “Two Mississippi” I announced as I laughed at him.  Ryder still had ten more feet to cover in order to make it to the hatch, which I knew wasn’t going to happen.  His cumbersome spacesuit made a swishing sound when he ran and it greatly restricted his movements, but I don’t think he was athletic to start with anyway.  

He was my first male victim to run away from me, or try to I should say.  All of the other’s attempted to fight back at least.  I wondered what it felt like for him, as a man, to be running away from a woman. Was it humiliating, or just terrifying… or both?  For a fleeting moment, I felt bad for Ryder.  He was just trying to do what he thought was the right thing.  Of course, the government has a good reason for keeping things from the public and it was my job to ensure that his testimony never saw the light of day.  My sorrow for what I was about to do to him was quickly overshadowed by my disappointment that our game had come to an end.

“THREE MISSISSIPPI!” I yelled as I snatched him up from behind.  “NOOOOO!” Ryder screamed, knowing his futile flee was about to come to a violent end.  He was less than a foot away from the hatch when I ripped him away from it, screaming and crying and begging... all the usual stuff my victims do.  Ryder helplessly kicked his feet as I effortlessly picked him up in one swift, seamless motion and I violently tossed him into the wall like a little doll.  I was surprised by how light he was, for a man, and I deeply enjoyed throwing him into the metal bulkhead.  Just before he fell to the floor I grabbed onto his suit and threw him into another wall.  It amused me that he thought he could really get away; the thought of it actually enraged me a bit as I continued to throw the spaceman into stuff.  Ryder landed on his back and he was writhing in pain from all the brutal impacts with the hard-metal surfaces.

It was time for me to finish the job.  I stood over him for a moment, to torture him with anticipation as he squirmed on the floor.  He wasn’t even screaming anymore.  Just begging for mercy in between waves of pain.  I decided to finish the job quickly as I knelt down on top of him, straddling him with my legs.  Ryder’s annoying pleas for mercy increased, but I efficiently squelched them by thrusting my fist into his tummy; his soft white spacesuit made it feel like I punched a pillow, but the powerful blow efficiently knocked the wind out of him.  I then reached up and wrapped my hands around his slender neck and squeezed.  He flailed his arms and legs as I squeezed the life out of him, and Ryder’s blue eyes met mine as he began to slip away.  Soon he was no longer squirming but I continued to squeeze for another minute, just to be sure.

Satisfied with my kill, I stood up and paused to look down at my dead astronaut victim.  Even in death he was handsome. I fixated on a circular blue NASA patch that was neatly sewn onto the chest of his suit; it represented the very same organization that betrayed him.   If only he would have agreed to keep his mouth shut and sign that stupid NDA, I wouldn’t have been hired to kill him.  We wouldn’t have ever crossed paths.  Perhaps if he knew how our government truly works, how it silences people, he would still be alive. 

A clean-up crew would soon be coming to dispose of Ryder’s body and his “disappearance” would forever be a mystery to his fellow astronauts, and the public.  To be honest, I don’t even know what the clean-up crews do with the bodies; maybe they dump them out at sea or something, I don’t really know.  But my part was done and it was time for me to leave.  I quietly made my way out of the simulator and disappeared into the night once more.