by Susan Grant
Cavin pressed his thumb to her chin and turned her to face him. “You have the only qualifications needed—heart and your ability for public speaking.”
“Only because you gave it to me, Cavin—the gift of gab. I wouldn’t have had it otherwise.”
He shook his head, confused. Didn’t he remember?
“I grew up not being able to talk. I was mute. I had to leave school to be educated at home. I had no friends except for my family. I was a freak. You—” her voice caught “—you were the first friend I had who didn’t care that I couldn’t speak. I didn’t have to with you. We didn’t need to talk. You liked me the way I was. And then, the night you left, you gave me the most wonderful gift of all. You healed me. That homeless vet might call what you do a miracle, but to me it was magic. Magic, Cavin.”
Cavin concentrated, clearly thinking back to that starry summer night. “I healed your knee. Is that what you mean?”
“No. I thought you were like a genie, and that when I freed you, you’d grant me three wishes. I wished for a first kiss, which you gave me. I wished that I’d see you again,” she blushed, “well, that I’d marry you, actually. And I wished that I could talk. You touched my knee and healed it. Then you kissed me, and from then on, I was able to talk. You changed my life forever, Cavin. I went on to do everything I’d dreamed of doing.” She glanced at the black sedan. “One problem. I’m a fake. I’ve achieved a lot, but it wasn’t because of me. It was because of you.”
“All these years, you believed this?” he asked, incredulous.
“Well, yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Ah, Squee…” He heaved a sigh and moved her hair back from where it had fallen over her cheek, gazing at her with deep green eyes so full of love it made her throat ache. “I didn’t give you your gift of gab. You were born with it. I healed your knee using simple bioregeneration. I never did anything to your voice.”
“But you—”
“I kissed you. That’s all.’
“But, Cavin, I—”
“Jana, I didn’t know you couldn’t speak! You were silent, yes, but so was I. I thought it was because we didn’t know each other’s languages. I healed your knee, but I didn’t give you the ability to speak. That gift is yours, and yours alone.”
She sat still, frozen in shock. Everything she’d ever assumed about herself had been knocked on its head. Then she gave Cavin a hard stare. “You’re not kidding, right? You’re telling the truth.”
“I swear to you. Your beginning to speak at that time was coincidence. From the sheer novelty of our meeting, perhaps, or new confidence.”
Doctors would agree with Cavin. They’d say she was a delayed speaker because something hadn’t been working quite right in her brain. They’d explain away her sudden chattiness as a result of the excitement from meeting Cavin and her desire to tell Evie about the experience. But Jana shook her head. “No, Cavin. It was magic.” She touched his incredible mouth with shaking fingers and whispered, “Magic may be how we explain what we don’t understand, but it’s magic all the same.”
His good hand curved behind her head to pull her close for a kiss. A poignantly tender kiss.
The cell phone rang. Her eyes tracked to the phone number. “It’s the general!” She made sure the headset was fitted firmly in her ear and said, “Jana Jasper here.”
“Hold on, Jana. I have Colonel Connick on the line…”
“Senator, this is Tom Connick. I’m the commander of the base that contains the hangar known as Area 51. I wanted you to hear it from me. There’s no ship hidden there.”
“Yes, there is. I know there is.”
“No, there’s not.”
They sounded like petulant four-year-olds fighting over a teddy bear rather than adults debating the fate of the world.
She steadied herself. The gift of gab is yours. Yours! “We’re about to be invaded by an army intent on evicting all six-plus billion of us from this planet, and you can’t cough up the truth? No ship at Area 51? Bullshit. Even in our darkest hour, you and your associates insist on perpetuating the lie, Colonel. How shameful is that? We’re going to be invaded. If this isn’t an example of a threat to national security, I don’t know what is. Maybe we Earthlings deserve to lose our home. We certainly aren’t fighting very hard to keep it!” Shaking, she hung up.
Cavin gaped at her. “What did you just do, Jana?”
“I used Grandpa’s brand of diplomacy.” She frowned at the sedan in the mirror. It just sat there, doors closed. What were the goons doing—waiting for Connick’s kill order? “Men like Connick, the ones who won’t bend the rules, they’re going to allow the invasion. I can’t wrap my mind around the unimaginable horror of that. I know you told me that Coalition policy discourages civilian casualties when acquiring populated worlds, but death and destruction are inevitable. Inevitable when it doesn’t have to be. Inevitable because no one has the backbone to make a fucking decision!”
The phone rang again. Jana’s mouth curved into a smile. Oh, yeah. The boys are eating out of my hand.
Astonishment and respect lit up Cavin’s eyes. “You sure you never served in the Coalition Army?”
Jana snorted and took the call. Connick said, “Perhaps we can talk about this.”
“Where? We don’t have a lot of time, Colonel.”
“We’re, uh, closer than you think.”
The sedan honked. Jana jumped and glanced in the rearview mirror. “Omigod. It’s them, Cavin. They’re in the car, the general and the colonel.”
The sedan pulled up beside them. The window slid down. Behind the wheel was a handsome, silver-haired air force officer sporting a pair of Oakley sunglasses. In the passenger seat was an elderly man dressed in a pale denim shirt and crisp Dockers. His smile revealed perfect teeth. She remembered that Hollywood smile. “General Mahoney,” she said. “Or should I call you Baloney?”
The old man ignored her sarcasm. “Let me introduce you to Colonel Tom Connick.”
She shook both men’s hands. But it was Cavin they seemed eager to see, staring across the seat at him. “I’ll go meet them,” he said, taking off his seat belt and opening the door.
“Don’t be too trusting,” she warned him under her breath. “If they ask if you want to see their puppy, run.”
Cavin gave her a funny look.
“Just be careful.”
He nodded. The men got out of the car to shake his hand. Despite how ill he was, Cavin greeted them with a proud, military stance. The colonel opened a folder of photos to show him. Cavin beckoned to her. “Jana, you may want to see this.”
She climbed down from the Jeep. It was silent outside, no traffic noise. A dry wind stirred what little brush there was eking an existence from the hard-packed dirt. Three military men, one active, two former, and one politician huddled around classified photographs on an isolated stretch of highway. It could be a scene out of a Tom Clancy novel, or a 007 movie, but definitely nothing resembling her former life.
The colonel’s folder contained four black-and-white photos: close-ups of machinery, or aircraft parts. “If one of these was a photo taken of an alien ship, which do you think it would be?”
Cavin answered without hesitation. “I see two photos that fit your description, not one.”
The slightest movement of the colonel’s mouth told her Cavin had chosen the right answer. “Which two?”
Cavin pointed to the lower left image. “That’s the ship’s identification number.” He translated the blocky little hieroglyphics using his fingers. “And its name. Shakree.” He wrinkled his forehead. “It translates roughly to a type of seedpod that is distributed by the wind.” Then he pointed to the lower right photo. “And that is part of the forward instrument panel.”
“This is an alien ship?” Jana glared at the officers. “You said there was no spacecraft hidden at Area 51.”
Connick’s expression didn’t change. “There isn’t. But I’m going to tell you where it is, and how to get there.”<
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ALONE AGAIN, THEY SPED along a road they’d taken from Highway 6 East. There were some ranches, but little else. Someone pulling a horse trailer had been behind them for some time. No one else was on the road. “Scratch what I said about being able to see the middle of nowhere from here, Cavin. This is the middle of nowhere.”
First they were supposed to find a farmhouse. There, they were to meet up with someone Connick called the Gatekeeper, a name that was satisfyingly mysterious. He’d given no other directions except that they had to find exit 17 and take the unmarked road immediately following.
Jana veered into the right lane. The horse trailer followed. If only it would pass them already. She was in no mood for tailgaters.
A small road marker came into view. “There it is,” Jana called out, her heart leaping. “Seventeen.”
“I confirm that,” Cavin said. He’d rolled his window partway open. The wind ruffled his hair and he seemed to welcome the air. His skin was pasty. Likely he was sick to his stomach.
“Tell me if you need to stop,” she said.
He shook his head, and the movement seemed to cause him pain. He grimaced, sucking in some air. “Keep going. Not much time.”
Not much time for whom? For Cavin or for Earth? Or both? Gods. Her stomach hurt.
The turnoff came quicker than she expected. Worse, the horse trailer was right on her butt. Idiot! She didn’t want to slam on the brakes and cause an accident, nor did she want to miss the turnoff. Letting off on the gas pedal, she jerked the wheel to the right. Tires skidding, she fought to stay on the road which was hard-baked dirt. The second the tires got traction, she sped up. There was no time to waste.
Cavin’s expression didn’t change in reaction to her wild driving. It told her how much pain he was in. All his concentration was on survival.
But as soon as she was headed straight again, the sound of scraping and skidding echoed behind them. “I don’t believe it. That horse trailer just followed us off the road.”
Cavin was instantly alert. He turned in his seat, and his lips compressed. “It’s him.”
She threw an alarmed glance at the rearview mirror. She couldn’t see who was behind the wheel, only the silhouette of a lone man, unmoving as he bore down on them. Her stomach sank with dread. It was the REEF. “But I thought he was gone.”
“He’s a REEF.”
No time to reason it out now. She shoved the gas pedal to the floor, but the assassin pulled up even with the Jeep. Side by side, they were road racing on what was little more than a dirt path.
The REEF rammed into the Jeep’s driver’s side. Wind whistled through broken glass as Jana fought wildly to keep the Jeep on the road. She ground her foot to the floor, trying to squeeze every last bit of speed from the poor Jeep, and pulled ahead of the heavier vehicle. The horse trailer swung from side to side, causing the truck to fishtail, but he gained on them. This time he hit the Jeep even harder. Her door caved in, shoving her sideways in the seat.
“Faster, Jana.”
The damaged Jeep shook, sending vibrations up her arms to rattle her teeth. “I’m giving it all she’s got.” She couldn’t believe she’d said that. It was as if she’d fallen into a cheesy sci-fi thriller.
But everything depended on her being able to evade the REEF. Everything: Cavin, the fate of the world, their future.
Perspiration ran into her eyes. Her legs quivered with adrenaline. But her only thoughts were the gas pedal under her foot and the road ahead. If she kept control of both, she kept Cavin alive.
The horse trailer pulled up alongside them. Ready for the next hit, Jana braced herself. Thick seconds clicked past and no crash. She glanced over at the REEF. He pointed something at her. It glinted in his hand as he took wobbly aim. Fear flared in her chest. “Cavin,” she yelled. “He’s got a gun!”
Cavin grabbed her by the back of the collar and yanked her lower in the seat. Jana spun the wheel, hoping to cause a miss when the assassin shot at them. A sharp bang rang out, followed by a whistling hiss. The Jeep pulled hard to the left. Somehow, she stayed on the road. The stench of burning rubber made her eyes water. She gritted her teeth, squeezed the steering wheel, and kept the gas pedal jammed to the floor. The car was shaking violently now, riding on a bare rim. It sounded as if it were coming apart.
Another shot boomed. A geyser of water gushed out from under the hood and splattered all over the windshield, turning the dust to mud. “We’re going to have to ditch this baby!” she yelled. It sounded like something her fighter-pilot brother would say. For a woman who never had any desire to be in the military, she’d seen enough combat in one week to last a lifetime.
While she still had some speed to play with, she rolled the steering wheel to the left. The Jeep hurtled off the road, into a ditch and flipped over. Yenflarg. She hadn’t planned on the rollover. The screeching was horrific. Please, I don’t want to die this way, not me, not Cavin. Finally the Jeep spun to a whimpering stop, upside down.
Pebbles and sand rained down on her as she hung in her shoulder and seat belts. The smell of dust and hot rubber burned her nose. “Get out,” Cavin shouted hoarsely as he untangled himself from his seat belt. “He’ll be back, but we can get a head start.”
She grabbed her tattered purse, threw the strap over her shoulder, and they took off running across the desert. Leaning on her heavily, sometimes grunting in obvious agony, Cavin grew worse by the minute. He steered her to where the landscape was rockier. It afforded a few hiding places but it was at least a half mile away. She wasn’t sure Cavin could manage that far of a run, but his face reflected such raw determination. He’d die trying, no doubt about it.
Her heart wrenched. She loved him so much. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing him.
And Earth couldn’t afford to lose him.
The horse trailer roared up behind them. Cavin caught her by the hand and almost jerked her off her feet in his rush to get to a dried river bed strewn with boulders. The REEF would not be able to drive between the rocks. She gasped, the dry air burning its way down her throat. Cavin was slowing, grunting as he pushed himself despite his failing body.
But the horse trailer fishtailed to a stop. Smoke billowed out from under the hood. The REEF jumped out—and plunged to his knees before staggering back up. He was in bad shape, too.
“Run,” Cavin demanded harshly.
A shot rang out from behind. In front of them, the side of a boulder splintered. Slivers of stone arced in all directions. Shrapnel. Another bullet plowed harmlessly into the sand about six feet away.
The REEF missed because he was sick, she thought, her hopes rising. Then something whizzed by so close that she felt hot wind as the bullet screamed past her right ear. Scratch what she’d thought about his condition; his aim was improving—and he still had one last bullet before he had to stop to reload.
With grudging respect, Jana acknowledged the single-minded, almost superhuman tenacity of their enemy. He’d left all his futuristic weapons behind at the Capitol, but despite being so ill, the ever-resourceful assassin had managed to rearm himself.
The REEF fired again. The last shot made a deafening crack. Cavin stumbled, and she caught his arm. He was so heavy he took her down with him. “Where did he hit you? Where?” she screamed, running her hands over his chest and stomach, dreading the sight of blood. Please, please don’t die. Don’t die.
“I stumbled.” Cavin’s voice was hoarser now. “He missed.”
She spun around to see the REEF closing on them. He’d thrown down the empty pistol. As he neared, she expected him to look as he did in the Capitol: a hard face and even harder eyes, blue and laser sharp. But he was sweating and pale, and sported a horrible grimace. Limping along, he resembled Quasimodo with a bad hangover.
Cavin pushed her away and struggled to his knees. “If anything happens to me, you know what to do. You know where to go.”
“Nothing is going to happen to you. Stop talking that way.”
“Jan
a.” He took her chin between his fingers and forced her to look at him. “You will go back to the road and continue in the same direction. They’ll come looking for us eventually. Once you are safe with the Gatekeeper, you’ll call your brother. Jared will do as I briefed him, and you will turn on the spaceship here.”
“But what if I can’t? What if it’s been sitting cold for too long? What if—?”
“Then Jared’s signal will go out. The fleet will see it. It will give them something to ponder.”
“For how long?”
His voice took on an edge. “A day. A month. I don’t know. It’s all we have, and we have no choice but to take it.”
Cavin said “we” with such ease. We as in Earth. He’d truly come over on their side, heart and soul. She twined her fingers with his. She’d met many heroes in her life as a public figure, but none as incredibly selfless as this man.
He lifted their clasped hands to his mouth and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. His eyes were bright with emotion. “I’d rather have half a chance at saving you than none at all.”
Then he rose to his feet. After taking a few seconds to gain his balance, he stormed off, or rather limped off, his bad arm hugged to his ribs.
“Wait a second,” she screamed. “Where are you going?”
He didn’t answer. He was on his way to confront the REEF.
He was crazy. They both were crazy, she decided. As sick as they were, how could they fight?
Seething, the men glared at each other, teeth bared, like two champion gladiators in their final confrontation. Both looked as though they were dead on their feet the way they wobbled, hunched over and in pain. The REEF made the first move. Cavin blocked his kick, sending him sprawling. The assassin climbed to his feet. He hissed in rage, in pain, or maybe plain old frustration, and lunged at him.
Cavin went flying backward. He landed hard, skidding across the dirt. And got back up and dived for the REEF’s midsection. With none of their alien equipment functioning, it was an old-fashioned street fight. A barroom brawl. Punches flew. Grunts and muffled cries of pain had Jana fearing neither of them would come out alive. They rolled over the ground, leaving smears of blood.
