by David Archer
She giggled again, and covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh, come on,” she said. “As good-looking as you are? You’ve probably had more beautiful women than you can count. There’s nothing special about me.”
“Janet, Janet,” he said. “There’s a lot more to being beautiful than just what shows on the outside, but your outside is pretty damn hot. Thing is, I always found that it was the woman on the inside that really mattered. A lot of girls can look good, but I need someone with intelligence, with compassion, somebody who really wants to be loved.” He shrugged and shot her another smile. “Somebody like you, I think.”
Her face was beet red, and the smile looked like it was going to split her face in half. “I think you are just what the doctor ordered,” she said. “I’ve never had somebody be as charming as you are. Please tell me you’re being serious? You’re not just playing me, are you?”
“No way,” he said. “Janet, I think you might be my ticket to a whole new future.”
* * *
As Danny was following Janet toward lunch, Noah, Marco and Jenny walked into Renée’s lab, where she and Neil were staring at a computer monitor.
“You got something?” Noah asked.
“Oh, boy, do I ever,” Renée said, turning to him with a smile. “First off, you were right. The tissues and blood samples are human, even though they’ve been genetically altered. I definitely found the same compound in this creature’s blood that I found in Lieutenant Belcher, but that’s not the important stuff. I was able to isolate a few strands of unaltered DNA, and I got a match in the DNA database. That creature you killed was originally a man named Lawrence Gordon, but he never served in the military. Lawrence Gordon was, until just a few months ago, a student at the same college as Lisa Branigan, so I got Neil to see what he could find out about the guy. Check out his Facebook page. Lawrence Gordon was dating Lisa Branigan, and he disappeared from his dorm the same day she did.”
Noah’s eyebrows lowered. “I wonder why we hadn’t heard about him before,” he said. “Litchfield never mentioned that the girl’s boyfriend had gone missing.”
“Yeah, well,” Neil said, “on that note, you had told me to see what I could find out about Litchfield, remember? Everything’s been so busy that I had sort of put that on the back burner, but running across this little tidbit made me wonder the same thing, so I started digging into him. Noah, I found something pretty interesting. It seems that Carl Litchfield has actually served with Captain Swaggart before. He was also Military Intelligence, we knew that, but what we didn’t know was that the two of them were assigned to the same unit. Swaggart was a second lieutenant, and was Litchfield’s commanding officer at the time.”
He pointed at his computer monitor, which showed a photograph of several men in army dress uniforms. Neil had circled two of the faces, and Noah recognized them as Jack Swaggart and Carl Litchfield.
“And yet they claimed not to know one another,” he said. “I had the feeling they were up to something, but now I’m even more convinced.” He chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment, deep in thought. “Renée, tell me something,” he said. “When Swaggart and I came face-to-face with that creature, it turned and looked at us. It distinctly looked directly at Swaggart first, then turned its attention to me and attacked. Can you think of anything about it that might have made it ignore him and think of me as the danger it needed to deal with first?”
Renée stared at him for a moment, then shook her head. “Nothing that I’ve seen in the samples I deal with,” she said. “You might want to ask Doctor Emerson that question.”
Noah nodded. “I think I will,” he said. He turned and left the lab, going next door to the autopsy room where Emerson was reclining on a couch. “Doc?”
Emerson sat up suddenly, his eyes blinking as he tried to force himself to full wakefulness. “Noah? Oh, sorry, I’m think I might have dozed off for a moment.” He rubbed his eyes for a couple of seconds, then looked at Noah again. “What can I do for you, sir?”
Noah repeated his question, and Emerson lowered his gaze to the floor as he thought about it. After a moment, he looked up and shook his head.
“I’m afraid I can’t think of anything,” he said. “Are you certain of what you saw?”
“I’m certain that it looked at him first,” Noah said, “but I can’t be sure that there was any reason it chose me over him for its attack. It could have simply been that I was taller.”
Emerson scowled. “That could be possible, I suppose,” he said. “I’ll keep thinking about it, Noah, and if I come up with anything, I shall let you know.”
“Thanks, Doc,” Noah said. “Right now, it looks like we’re going into this place tomorrow night around sundown. We’ll be leaving sometime tomorrow afternoon to go to the forward observation base, and I’d like you to keep yourself ready. When it’s all over, there will probably be quite a bit of work for you out there.”
Emerson nodded. “I am at your service, sir,” he said.
* * *
Swaggart had listened through the thin walls as Noah spoke to Emerson and Renée, and waited until Noah was gone before he turned back to his team. Litchfield, Graves and Smith were all gathered in the tiny room, so he kept his voice low.
“Wolf is no fool,” he said. “I never would have guessed he would spot the thing avoiding me, but he did. The repellers work very well, and that’s going to work in our favor. When we get to the compound, make sure you have them turned on; that way, the hybrids will avoid us and go after Noah and the soldiers.”
“So, what’s going to happen when we get there?” Graves asked. “I’m assuming we got word to them?”
Swaggart scowled. “We got word out, all right,” he said. “We suggested they move the entire operation, but we haven’t heard back from Randall. They have nearly four dozen hybrids, now, and I’m afraid they think that’s going to be enough to handle whatever happens. He may be thinking it’s time to go ahead and launch phase 3.”
“Phase 3?” Smith asked, his face shocked. “But that means dumping these things all over the world. Do they really think that’s advisable, right after a raid like this?”
“What raid?” Litchfield asked. “If the entire attack force is eliminated, who’s ever going to believe anything actually happened? Once they finish up with Noah’s team and the soldiers, Randall will probably take out that forward observation base. From there, it’s just a matter of loading hybrids into the ships and sending them out to their destinations. All the world is going to hear about is attacks by alien creatures, and that should be enough for the Coalition to get the backing of the United Nations. All nations that want to survive will submit to Coalition leadership, and that will evolve over the next few months in to a global government. By the time anybody realizes there aren’t any more aliens, it’ll be a done deal.”
“But, you heard the lab girl,” Graves said. “She was able to identify human DNA in the hybrid, even figure out who he was. How can the Coalition expect to pull this off when at least some of those hybrids are going to be killed? Any halfway decent lab can do what she’s done, and figure out that these things used to be human beings.”
“Who cares?” Smith asked. “The story will be that aliens have landed, and that they are converting humans into their attack force. By the time all of the hybrids are rounded up, the Coalition will have come up with a story that convinces the world that, by all the nations coming together, we were able to defeat those nasty aliens and put a stop to their plans.”
“But once the threat is gone, what’s to stop the nations from wanting to break up into sovereign states again?” Graves asked.
Litchfield grinned. “That’s the beauty of the plan,” he said. “The threat won’t be gone; the world will simply believe that we were able to stop the current invasion from happening, but that means we have to worry about when the aliens come back. Only a global defense force would be able to protect us, you see? That will simply make it more desirable to create that
one world government that has been the plan all along.”
Smith whistled. “It’s brilliant, I’ll say that,” he said. “And all of us end up at the top of the food chain. Right?”
“You know it,” Swaggart said, glancing over at Graves. “This is the very reason Randall recruited me in the first place, because he’s going to need people like us in the upper echelons. Carl and I will be running the security division in the new world order, and each of you will have prominent positions of power.”
The four of them looked at one another, and then Graves and Smith smiled. “Let the good times roll,” Graves said.
THIRTEEN
Something was happening, Danny realized the next morning. There was a lot of activity going on around him, but he wasn’t sure whether he should ask what was going on or just keep on working. He was trying to decide on a course of action when Janet suddenly appeared at his cubicle.
“Danny,” she said, speaking rapidly. “I just got word, we’re packing up. I guess the soldiers who have been watching are getting ready to raid the place, and we’ve decided to move to one of the backup locations. Save your work and then start taking down your computer. Somebody will bring you the packing crates and help you get all packed up.” She leaned close and put a hand on his shoulder as she whispered in his ear. “I got you tentative approval,” she said. “You’ll be on probation for a couple of weeks, but I think you’re going to be staying with us from now on.” She giggled softly. “And I got the okay for us to share quarters at the new base. I hope that’s okay?”
Danny turned and glanced around to make sure no one was looking, then quickly kissed her cheek. “Thank you, baby,” he said.
Her eyes lit up to match the smile that spread across her face. “Oh, Danny, this is gonna be great.” She turned and was gone instantly, and Danny quickly saved the work he had done on the computer. A man in a pair of blue coveralls appeared with a large plastic crate, and the two of them worked together to pack the computer safely inside.
“So, we’re bugging out?” Danny asked.
“That’s what they tell me,” the man said. “I hear you decided to join up, is that right?”
“Hell, yeah,” Danny said. “Man, this is about the most exciting thing I’ve ever seen.”
The guy grinned. “Cool,” he said. “I’m Brandon, I work on the tech side with craft maintenance. Once we get settled in the new spot, maybe we can hang out. Word’s already out that you’re with Janet, and my girl Kimmy is her best friend.”
Danny smiled. “Sounds great,” he said. “I’d love to know more about those ships, whatever you can tell me sometime.”
Brandon winked. “Dude, they are awesome. I got to go pack up some more stuff, you want to come help?”
Danny glanced around. “Is it okay? Usually, they don’t like me to leave this spot…”
“You’re good, now,” Brandon said. “Come on, I have to pack up the diagnostic system for the craft. You’ll get a kick out of it.”
Danny followed him out of the building, keeping a wary eye on the security guards. None of them seemed to be concerned about him going with Brandon, and a moment later they stepped out into the mid-morning sunshine. Two of the incredible flying saucers were sitting on their extended landing legs not even fifty yards away, and ramps had been lowered to allow loading. Men and women were pushing carts up into one of them, and Danny let out a low whistle.
“Man, that is incredible,” he said. “Are those for real?”
Brandon grinned. “They are real, but they’re not what they look like. Don’t expect to be going off into space in one of those. The biggest part of them is nothing but a gasbag; what you’re looking at are a couple of super high tech, high-speed lighter-than-air ships. Each of them can carry about three tons of personnel and cargo, because they aren’t entirely dependent on the helium inside them. They also have thrusters that help them to lift into the air, and then the shape is also designed as a lifting body. Once it gets a little altitude and starts moving forward, it has more lift than the wings on a jumbo jet. There’s a pair of EMP motors in the back that can push those babies along at just short of Mach 1.”
Danny stared at the craft. “Geez, are you serious?” he asked. “You mean, these aren’t some kind of alien spaceships?”
“Nope. I’ll tell you a couple of other neat things about them, too. They don’t show up on radar, and they can even become invisible when they need to. They’re coated with millions of dots of electroluminescent paint, so they can change color or even camouflage themselves to look like the ground or a cloud or whatever. These babies are really incredible.”
Danny nodded. “And what do you do? You said you work on these things?”
“It’s not anything special,” Brandon said. “I maintain the thrusters. They’re basically just electric fans that blow downward, but since those things are loaded with so much helium, it doesn’t take a lot of force to lift them up into the air.”
“So, it’s really just a balloon? How can it go so fast, then? Won’t it just collapse?”
“It’s not a balloon,” Brandon said. “The outer shell is made of a new material that was developed by the people who came up with nanotubes. It’s a lot stronger than steel, but it weighs almost nothing. That entire hull, without all the thrusters and engines and storage structures inside, weighs less than a hundred pounds, and that’s about six hundred pounds lighter than a balloon the same size. It’s also impervious to helium, so it doesn’t leak like a balloon would.”
“You said it has MP motors?” Danny asked. “What are those?”
“EMP, I said. Electromagnetic propulsion. It’s something out of science fiction, but some of the scientists connected to this project have managed to develop it into something feasible. Each one of the motors weighs about thirty pounds, but it puts out as much trust as the engine on one of those little Cessna business jets. Extremely powerful, and it just runs on electricity. It uses the Earth’s magnetic field to move itself from one place to another, it’s really incredible.”
Brandon continued into a garage-like building and began taking down various items of electronic equipment. “This is the stuff I use to diagnose problems with the thrusters, and some of the other techies use it to deal with other electronic components on the craft. You want to drag that crate over here?”
Danny grabbed the one he had pointed at and pulled it close, and the two of them began packing the equipment up. When they were finished, Brandon told Danny to go back to his station and wait, because he would be responsible for seeing his own computer system loaded.
He turned and walked out of the garage, took another look at the craft that were sitting on the ground and then noticed another one hovering in the air overhead. He stopped where he was to watch as one of the craft suddenly lifted off, the quiet hum of the thrusters making the only sound involved. It rose about ninety feet in the air, then suddenly began moving forward. As it disappeared over the treetops, the one that had been hovering overhead settled into the spot it had vacated. Moments later, when it was securely on the ground, the ramp descended from the back.
Danny thought briefly about trying to sneak into the craft after its crew disembarked, but he had no way of knowing what kind of control system it might have. The chance that he could steal it and fly away, get back to any place where he could get help, was probably nonexistent.
There will be other chances, he thought to himself. For now, I need to keep learning everything I can about what’s going on here.
He walked back into the main building and spotted Janet near his station. He hurried over quietly and managed to come up behind her, slipped his arms around her and kissed her on the ear.
“Did you miss me?” he asked.
She giggled, then twisted around until she was facing him. “Where did you go? I was scared when I didn’t find you.”
“Guy named Brandon helped me pack up, then asked me to help him get his equipment. I didn’t do anything wrong, did
I?”
She looked up at him with rapturous excitement in her eyes. “No,” she said. “No, that’s fine. Come on, we need to get your station loaded up.”
* * *
Just after lunchtime, Noah let Swaggart know they were getting ready to go, and Major Wilson came through with a supply of M32s and a C-130 to carry them and their equipment to the forward observations base. It took less than an hour to get everyone ready, and then they were ready to board the plane.
Neil waited until he caught Noah alone, then motioned for him to come outside for a moment. Noah followed him, and they walked a hundred yards away from the Quonset before Neil turned to talk.
“Look,” he said, “yesterday you said something about how that creature ignored Swaggart and came after you. Remember that?”
Noah nodded. “Yes, of course.”
“Well, I got to thinking about it. Just for the heck of it, I hooked up a microphone to my computer and started scanning for sounds, particularly sounds outside the range of human hearing. Every time I got close to Swaggart or any of his people, I picked up a tone, and I got to thinking that maybe that’s the reason the thing didn’t bother him.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out three small devices. “So I cobbled a few of these together. They put out the exact same tone, so hopefully they’ll keep those things from bothering any of you guys.”
Noah accepted the devices and looked at them for a second, then put them into his pocket. “Thank you,” he said. “I wish we had enough of these for everybody.”
“Yeah, well,” Neil said, “I couldn’t do that, but I did manage to make enough for the three of you.”
Noah laid a hand on the skinny kid’s shoulder. “Very good thinking,” he said. “Now, let’s get back in there before they start wondering what we’re up to. It’s time to go.”
