The air was crisp and the sky was clear the next day when Ada strolled down to meet Ciara at Dundrum town.
“You're not going to believe the shit coming out of Idaho!” Ciara roared across the pavilion.
The petite brunette’s frizzy hair poked out of a blue ESA branded woolly hat as she sauntered in Ada's direction with a smile from ear to ear on her face.
“Afternoon to you too” Ada said, embracing her friend. “Why? What's the latest?”.
“The Americans took somebody… OR SOMETHING…out of the tent” Ciara said beaming. “Our lads staked it out from ages away with, like, night vision goggles or something and they saw a massive cage being taken away in the middle of the night”
Ada stopped walking. "Wait. Something was IN it?”
“Yeah, something living. Human shaped” Ciara said.
“In a cage? Like a huge domed bird cage with that Bugs would trap Daffy in? “ Ada said while pretending to rattle the bars.
“Noooooooo!” Ciara replied indignantly “They actually said it was more like a huge transport cage for wild animals. Fully metal with slits in the side for air. That kinda yoke”.
“Bear with me now, maybe it was a…” Ada looked around and proceeded to say quietly “fucking wild animal. It could have been a bear or something”.
“Or it could definitely be ALIENS!!!” Ciara raised her arms triumphantly into the air as she said the last word. “The guys over there said there was, in their words, ‘some kind of person shaped thing in there’. How do you explain that smartarse? “
“I dunno, maybe it was fecking Hannibal Lector” Ada replied “That's as plausible as anything you've said. And don't use the ‘A’ word. We're scientists for fuck sake”.
“Aliens!!!” Ciara roared. Passers-by were starting to look now. “The only reason you're not entertaining this is because you've probably met one already. We have to find him!”.
“I will in my hoop. He ran off into Milltown somewhere, you go hunt for him” Ada replied
As they neared the shopping centre they could see a large crowd gathered around a small podium. A slim man in a 3 piece suit and square rimmed glasses spoke to the mass.
Out of curiosity, Ada paused for a second to listen.
“… weariness and exhaustion from the lies, treachery and deceit of the ruling political parties that have been ruining this country for decades have…. “ he said over the microphone.
“Oh, it's that lad from the telly, whatshisname? Parrot or Partridge or…. Parish! That's him” Ciara said.
Garvan Parish continued in the background “….and it's hard to see where solutions will come from without the people rising up and demanding….”
“Whoever he is, that's probably enough of that long-winded shite for me. Will we move on?” Ada suggested.
Parish continued, his voice appearing to emanate from all around “…and the systems in place that allow for the modern day oligarchy to take advantage of those of us trying to make an honest living… “.
As Ada moved past the crowd she could feel a number of eyes on her.
“What are you calling ‘long-winded shite’? ” a voice said suddenly from the crowd.
“What was that?” Ada asked.
”What's your big plan to fix this shithole of a country, huh? Well? ” a larger man shouted more pointedly.
“Using an extensive vocab doesn't make him a prophet, fuck sake?” Ada wanted to say….but nothing came out. She stood staring at the group. “Don't make it worse” she thought.
Sensing the tension Ciara said “My big plan is to get a bottle of wine with dinner lads. Definitely not to stand around talking to ye bunch of saps”.
“Gentleman please.” Parish said softly over the speakers, addressing the two men directly. ”This is a peaceful gathering. There's no need to cause outrage here. We're trying to find solutions to this country's issues, not divide ourselves further. Let these fine people go on their way.“
“My apologies for that my dears.” Parish said now addressing Ada directly. ” The messages that myself and the party espouse can stir up emotions in us all which can often be directed incorrectly in the heat of the moment”.
“Now, where was I? Ah yes…..I grew up in a socio-economic class that is still under served by the political system which leads to drug addiction and…” he continued on with his speech again.
----------------------------
After a couple of bottles of wine and a few shared tapas plates they made their way to Ada’s local. O’Reilly’s wasn’t the prettiest establishment in the county but it had a certain type of traditional charm. Large open fire, mildly comfortable seating, low lighting and only a faint smell of piss near the door to the toilets.
The second they settled into one of the lower tables near the bar Ciara started in “We've gotta find him though?”
“Oh give it a rest Ci” Ada replied “I don't want to go anywhere near him. He could be nuts”.
“Or he could tell us everything.” Ciara said. “He's the only person that could know more for fuck sake. You and the other 2 bumbling fuckwits didn't see anything at all.”
“Well excuse me but there was fuck all to see” Ada said. “You could have gone up there yourself Benoit Blanc ya know”.
Ciara interrupted loudly “You know I'm allergic to hikes. It had to be you”
“That's not a real allergy and you know it” Ada replied.
“It's real to me! Anyway, stop distracting me. We need to find this guy” Ciara said, aggressively sipping from her bowl of gin and opening up her phone. “Here is he any of these lads?” thrusting her phone into Ada's face.
A stream of social media accounts sped past Ada. She shook her head in defeat.
“What about these?” Ciara asked. “Don't touch anything, I don't want to add any of these freaks”.
Again, nothing.
“Shit!” Ciara roared, taking a another sip. “That means he's definitely not from this planet”.
“Or he doesn't use our apps. Or doesn't use social media maybe”. Ada tried to reason with her.
“Don't be a complete fool Ada. Americans only come here to show people back home that they've been in Ireland. If he was really from the States he'd be all over the gaff posting pictures” Ciara replied.
“What do you ye think anyway girls? When did this place go to shit exactly?” Jimmy bellowed from the counter of the bar. The portly balding man who could have been 35 or 70 was staring down at two girls.
“What, O'Reillys? It's not that bad” Ada said, looking around at the 10-15 sparsely spaced regulars on a Saturday night. A single cough echoed through the bar.
Jimmy chortled, “No, not this specific shithole. Dublin! Just in general.”
Pointing to his wife “Paula reckons it was 2016. I'm saying further back, around 2008”.
“There was still a lot of craic to be had in the recession though and then it really went to shit after it” Paula said .
“I dunno, it was alright but the last few years ha….” Ada started but was interrupted by a loudly slurred “EVERYTHING’S BEEN SHIT SINCE THE SUMMER OF 95!”. She had thought Big Aidan was asleep at the counter until right then. They really had to stop giving him whiskey after 11pm.
“It's definitely been a bit more grim over the last few years anyway. The city doesn't feel safe, no matter where ya go.” Paula said.
“Yeah, I'd probably agree with ya on….” Ada started again but was this time interrupted by Young Aidan, coming up to the bar with an empty glass.
“And that's because the government is letting it go that way. On purpose. They don't want us feeling safe, owning our own houses or enjoying ourselves. They want to keep everyone down in the lower classes so them and their rich buddies can take what they want, when they want, without anyone fighting back.” he said handing over the empty pint glass at the bar.
“Would you ever feck off with that parroted shite? You sound like a pamphlet that I'd fuck straight in the bin”. Jimmy said, half mocking but with enough of a hint of seniority to keep the young lad in check.
“It's still true, whether you like it or not” young Aidan replied sheepishly, taking the now refilled pint and heading back to his table.
Out of nowhere a roar filled the room “LAST DRINKS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PPPLEASE”.
“Feck off Sean, you'd swear you owned the place” Paula said with one hand over her ear and a wine still in the other.
“Ehhhhh, I do! Now, any pints before the guards come rapping on my door again?” Sean said, flashing the lights as obnoxiously as possible.
Ada turned back to Ciara and said “Right, listen, I’ll take a look at whatever was uploaded to Nemetode and so my own estimations on it. If I think something seems up and whatever it was I was out there looking for was too big for me to miss then I’ll start doing a bit of more digging”
“Atta girl” Ciara said. “But why wait, I’ve got half the data uploaded to the Discord already, I can add you in”
“I really don’t think they want you doing that” Ada said with frown pressed across her face.
“Relax ya swat, they’re pictures of the sky. Everyone can look at the sky” Ciara replied while frantically scrolling through her phone. “That’s weird, my posts and they replies are gone. Not just deleted, gone. Like the never existed”
”Maybe the mods deleted them because **you’re not meant to upload them onto a forum** for fuck sake.” Ada said.
”They left decrypted NASA files up there for months before anyone said a word, can’t be that.” Ciara said scrolling through her phone more aggressively now. “Ah here, I can’t find them in my downloads either”.
“Weird” Ada said standing up from the table and to make her way to the bar “We’ll check the files in work on Monday sur. One for the road?”
“Go on. And If those files aren’t on the system then you owe me four more. I’m telling ya, something is definitely fucked here.” Ciara replied.