by M. R. Forbes
“I’m not sure I follow, Sheriff.”
“It’s a hierarchy. Like I’m above you in ours. The trife are at the bottom of theirs. Which makes them the base unit.”
“You’re saying something’s controlling them?”
“Exactly. And it told them to take one of our people.”
“Take them where?”
“That’s why I’m here, Deputy. We need to figure out where.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s special. Because there’s another invasion force in play, unrelated to the trife.”
“A second alien?”
“Pozz. These two alien forces are at war with one another. But they’re stuck in a bit of a stalemate. My friend, Ike, they think he can end that stalemate.”
Harley’s face was pale. “Two aliens?” he repeated. “Who would have thought? What do they look like?”
“They look like you and me. Regular folks.”
“So anyone could be one of these aliens?”
“Possible, but not likely just anyone. There aren’t that many of them here. In any case, I need to know what direction the trife went after the attack.”
“Because they took someone with them when they left.”
“Pozz.”
“Are we in trouble, Sheriff? Humans, I mean. I know things have been hard, but they’ve been getting better since you and the Governor got rid of King. I joined Law because I wanted to help keep it that way.”
Hayden pushed up the brim of his hat so Harley could see his eyes. “I’ll be honest with you, Deputy. We are in a little bit of trouble. But the sooner we track down my friend, the less trouble we’ll be in.”
Harley nodded, encouraged by the statement. “I’ll take you to Priscilla. She’s working that part of the scene.” He motioned south, where another deputy was crouched over a section of the pavement.
Hayden left Zorro tethered to the barrier, joining Harley and crossing the center of the complex to Deputy Priscilla. He couldn’t stop himself from glancing to the right as they passed the alley where he had killed Brute.
And where Max had murdered Rain.
A chill ran down his spine as his eyes landed on the spot where she had died, marked by a splatter of dried blood and a few chalk scribbles the deputies had drawn around it. He could still remember the cold anger in Max’s voice. The contempt and smug satisfaction the Axon Intellect had exhibited in the wake of the killing, before he had dissolved their partnership and vanished.
Hayden knew it was his fault for putting any level of trust in the Axon artificial intelligence in the first place. It had been too easy to treat Max like a person and an ally instead of an agent for the opposing alien side. When the Intellect had helped Rain develop a counter to the trife threat, Hayden had been too damn eager to accept Max at face value.
Even worse, Colonel Gillick had tried to tell him he had made a mistake in freeing Max. She had even tried to fix his mistake. But his biggest flaw was a tendency to act without giving enough consideration to his actions, especially when people he cared about were in danger. Often, the ends justified the means.
Did it this time?
Where would any of them be now if things had gone down differently? Who was to say they wouldn’t all be dead, including him? Maybe trusting Max had been a mistake. But he’d had no other choice. At least he’d thought so at the time.
“Sheriff Duke,” Harley said. “This is Deputy Priscilla Barnes.”
Hayden smiled when Deputy Barnes jumped to her feet, surprised by the sudden appearance of the two men behind her. She turned to face him, an awe-struck smile on her face. It was a face he remembered, probably because she bore a slight resemblance to Natalia.
“Deputy Barnes,” he said.
“Sheriff,” she replied, pushing a strand of hair away from her face. “I wasn’t expecting you. Shit, Lyle. You scared the hell out of me.”
“You get too involved in your work,” Harley said.
Barnes’ eyes flashed toward Hayden. “As if that’s a bad thing?”
Harley’s face began to flush. “Uh. No. I didn’t mean it that way.”
“I get it,” Hayden said. “You both want to impress me. I appreciate that, but right now we need to focus on a singular task.”
“What’s that, Sheriff?” Barnes asked.
“The trife. I need to know which way they went.”
Chapter 4
Deputy Barnes led Hayden through the old office park. They followed a meandering line of scratches and claw marks that zigged and zagged so often it left him wondering if the trife had been drunk when they carried Isaac away. She kept talking the whole time, staying on point in describing her approach to tracking the trife considering their tendency to move in such an erratic pattern.
It wasn’t enough to follow scrapes on the old asphalt or divots in the overgrown grass and dirt surrounding it. The trife would jump over obstacles like cars, or sometimes jump onto them and use them as springboards to leap in a different direction. They were equally likely to scale buildings, in many cases preferring the high road. She had climbed nearly two thousand steps in the last two days heading up to rooftops to connect different ground marks, an effort that was paying dividends now that Hayden was there.
They went nearly eight blocks before Hayden stopped her. “How far have you tracked them?” he asked.
“Another six blocks east,” Deputy Barnes replied. “The edge of the office park. The buildings get a bit more dense, and I think they took to the rooftops again from there.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s harder than it looks, Sheriff. Mainly because they’ve crossed that area before. My intent was to circle back to it once I finished my evaluation within the perimeter if it was necessary.”
“I’m not questioning your work, deputy. I think what you’ve already accomplished is fantastic. My wife put you up to it, didn’t she?”
“Yes, Sheriff. The Governor requested we record the movements of the trife to ensure they had left the area. We don’t need refugees coming in from the east getting attacked right outside a UWT protected population center.”
“Pozz that. What’s your opinion on that, considering the work you’ve done to this point?”
“On whether or not they left the area?”
“That’s right.”
“I believe they have. As near as I can tell, they went south and then turned east, and maybe cut south again after that? It’s hard to determine accurately without at least a cursory examination of the rooftops.”
“I’m impressed. Both with your thought process and your vocabulary.”
“Thank you, Sheriff. My father always maintained that the world would never recover if people didn’t hold tight to the things that made us civilized. Not only learning to read but the enjoyment of being learned. His father was the same way, and so on all the way back to before the war. Only their families were more important to them than their books. To be honest, I have some big aspirations I never dreamed I would have the chance to reach before you came along.”
“Like what?”
“I want to be President of the UWT one day.”
Hayden smiled. “Sounds good to me, Deputy.” He paused, considering his next move. “Can you get in touch with someone back at the northern cordon, and ask them to bring Zorro to your position?”
“Of course, Sheriff.” Barnes started reaching for her badge.
“Hold up,” Hayden said, freezing her. “Have them bring horses for you and Deputy Harley too. I want you both to help me track the trife’s movements a little further out.”
“Yes, Sheriff,” Barnes said. She called in the request as they started heading east.
“What are you thinking, Sheriff?” Harley asked.
“The trife could only carry Ike so far, which means someone was probably waiting to collect him. That someone would know we would be looking for him, so they would have to be at least a little subtle in how they moved him. My best guess is tha
t they headed south past UWT territory. If they want to get around without being noticed, the easiest way to do that is to take a more easterly route before turning south. That could mean cutting into the forest, or it could mean turning south earlier than that; it just depends on how much time they wanted to spend getting where they’re going.”
“The trife can move across any terrain fairly easily,” Barnes said. “Although not as easily carrying a decent weight. But assuming they transferred your friend to a motor vehicle...”
“They’ll be more likely to stick to the roads,” Harley finished. “Are you sure they would go east then, Sheriff? Both you and King did a lot of work to keep the direct lines from here south clear, but the paths further east are still pretty rough.”
“But not impassable,” Hayden said. “In any case, that’s what we need to try to confirm. It might take a little more time at the outset, but it’s better than a wild goose chase in the wrong direction.”
“We’ll find them, Sheriff,” Barnes said. “I won’t rest until we do.”
“I believe that,” Hayden replied.
They continued six more blocks following the tracks Barnes had already identified to the edge of a former apartment complex. The buildings were three stories tall, each one close to a hundred meters long and all of them packed tightly enough the trife would be able to leap from one to the next. The structures were in decent shape. Dirty and faded, but still upright. Only a few showed signs of damage, either through accidental fires caused by squatters over the years or purposeful, pointless vandalism.
“Let’s split up,” Hayden said. “Circle the perimeter of the complex and see if we can trace where they went after they reached the end of the high road.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out his badge. “Barnes, link me?”
Deputy Barnes unclipped her badge and tapped a small button on the back of it. Hayden did the same. Then they touched the two devices together, linking Hayden’s to the same comm channel as the other officers in the area.
“I’ll head northeast,” Hayden said. “Barnes, south. Harley, wait here for the deputies with my horse and your rides. Once they arrive, meet us on the far side of the complex.”
“Roger, Sheriff,” Barnes and Harley said.
“Let’s get to it.”
Chapter 5
Hayden headed north along the outer perimeter of the apartment complex, keeping his eyes trained on both the area directly adjacent to the buildings and the walls of each structure. He was thankful for Barnes’ explanation of her methods for tracking the trife as he scanned for evidence of their passing, even as he continually discovered there wasn’t any.
Like the deputy had said, the demons had taken to the rooftops to make their way through the area, the modified trife easily large and robust enough to carry Isaac on their backs or cradle him over their shoulders while they scaled the cement walls. It felt strange to Hayden to be chasing after trife this way. He had never tried to follow the creatures before. Usually, the trife followed him.
It took him nearly thirty minutes to reach the northeast corner of the complex, which ended at a two-lane road with another complex on the opposite side. The gap between them was too wide for the trife to leap across without touching the ground.
He tapped his badge. “Barnes, I’m at the northeast corner. No sign of tracks. What have you got?”
“Nothing so far, Sheriff,” Barnes replied. “I’ll be at the southeast corner in a minute or two.”
“Pozz. We’ll meet in the middle.”
Hayden started south, maintaining his close observation of the surrounding area and searching for even the smallest clue of the trife’s passing. There were a few old cars still resting along the road. Most of them were stopped along the side, either pulled over or repositioned to clear the road for traffic. A couple were still blocking the way, including an old bus. The tires had been removed from it, the windows broken, the body rusted, dinged and painted with a simple message:
SCREW THE TRIFE!
Hayden smiled in response. Screw the trife was right.
He reached the midpoint between the two ends of the apartment complex and then watched Barnes approach from the south. She was going more slowly, stopping to examine the ground nearby and then cutting into the street in search of evidence.
“This is strange, Sheriff,” she said, finally reaching him. “No tracks anywhere on the ground that I saw. What about you?”
“Nope,” he replied.
“There’s an adjacent property on the south side they could have crossed into. If they haven’t come this way, they must have gone there.”
“It stands to reason,” Hayden agreed.
“You don’t sound convinced.”
“Something about this isn’t sitting right.” He looked out at the road again. “Have you been through this area before?”
“No, Sheriff. The occupied part of the city is still over a kilometer west of here. Why?”
“I’m trying to determine why this road is clear if nobody lives out here.”
“You think whoever picked your friend up came this close to the scene?”
“I don’t know. I’m not ready to rule it out.” He turned to face her. “Let’s check on your lead. We can always double back.” He tapped on his badge. “Harley, what’s your status?”
“I’m here with Deputies Zhi and Arlov,” Harley said. “We’re cutting through the center of the complex. I can see you. Can you see me?”
Hayden looked back. The north and south side were intersected by a short driveway that split in both directions, leading into garages beneath the buildings. Beyond that sat the next group of buildings and a central lawn. The three deputies were coming toward him, each leading a horse.
Deputy Harley raised his hand in a wave.
At the same time, all three horses began to squeal, ears stiffening as they froze in place.
“Shit,” Hayden said. “Deputies, stay alert. We’ve got trouble.” He started running toward them, reaching for his revolvers.
He could see the three officers reaching for their revolvers as they looked out around them, spinning in quick circles. They dropped the reins of the horses, who began moving back the way they had come.
Harley was the first to fire, facing the apartments to the south and sending three rounds beyond Hayden’s line of sight. Zhi and Arlov joined him a moment later, shooting to the north.
“It’s a fucking setup!” Hayden shouted, sprinting at full speed toward the deputies, Barnes trying to keep up behind him.
The sounds of shattering glass joined the gunfire as trife poured from the apartments, leaping through unbroken windows and from the rooftops to launch their ambush. The deputies fired feverishly, desperate to take the creatures out before they neared, their aim thrown off by their nerves.
Hayden ran as fast as he could, trying to get a count of the demons as he did. At least a dozen, all of them the larger, stronger trife Brute and Grace had brought north, and who Shurrath had left behind. They would be on the unprepared deputies in seconds.
“Over here!” he shouted as loud as he could, trying to draw their attention and hoping Shurrath had set them to prioritize him. He started shooting, keeping his body as calm as he could while he fired. He emptied the revolvers in seconds, dropping three of the trife.
Four of them turned his way, while the rest stayed on the deputies. Barnes opened fire behind him, knocking one of them down. Hayden dumped the used casings from his guns, grabbing a pair of speedloaders and slipping new bullets in. He closed the cylinders, diving to the ground and rolling onto his back as a trife lunged at him. He fired one shot from each gun, the rounds punching through the demon’s shoulders as he rolled out of the way and back to his feet.
Harley screamed beside him.
Hayden pivoted in time to see the trife remove the deputy’s head from his body, quieting the shout. He shot the demon from behind, killing it.
“Sheriff!” Barnes shouted.
Hayde
n turned as one of the trife took a swipe at him. He managed to get his left hand in the way just in time, the claws scraping his augment through his coat. A pair of Hayden’s bullets went through the trife’s skull, and it collapsed.
Hayden dropped the right-hand revolver, rolling the hand into a fist and squeezing his thumb. The Axon compound activated, an energy shield flashing over the material. He used it to catch a set of razor teeth, holding the trife long enough to put his other revolver to its head and pull the trigger.
He kicked it away, spinning and lashing out with the right augment without looking, making contact with a trife that was trying to come up behind him. The blow knocked the demon back, and it died beneath a hail of rounds from the deputies around him.
The whole fight was over inside a minute. Hayden eyed the field, his gut wrenching when he saw Arlov had joined Harley, his back ripped open by trife claws. The deputies weren’t wearing Space Force Marine combat armor beneath their clothes like he was.
“Damn it,” Hayden cursed, holstering his other gun and opening his hand. Two more dead deputies Shurrath owed him retribution for.
“Hell, Sheriff,” Barnes said, coming up beside him. “Those aren’t normal trife.”
“No. We’re fortunate they only got two of us.” Fortunate, but it didn’t make him feel any better. “I should have seen this coming.”
“How?”
“I’m not giving our enemy enough credit.” He sighed. “Can you call it in? We need to take the bodies back to Sanose and inform their families.” Barnes nodded. “Good shooting, by the way.”
“Thank you, Sheriff.”
Hayden whistled. “Zorro!”
The horse hadn’t gone far, accustomed to both trife and gunfire. The stallion returned to the scene, more calm now that the danger had passed. The other two horses followed behind him, staying together.
“Sheriff,” Zhi said. “Your hat.”
Hayden took it from the deputy. He must have lost it during the fight. “Thank you. Are you okay?”
Zhi was pale and shaking slightly. “Yes, Sheriff. Adrenaline. That’s all.”
