The Never Army

by Hodges, T. Ellery

  “Perhaps,” Heyer said. “But knowing what you know now, do you imagine the right moment is coming in the foreseeable future? See, I do not think he is willing to put you in harm’s way as things currently stand. If he knew this, I fear there would be no persuading him.”

  Heyer sighed. “Since waking up, it is clear Jonathan no longer requires my counsel.”

  “I spent years preparing to defend Earth. The day I lost consciousness, I believed all that preparation had fallen apart. By then, the change in Jonathan was already surfacing but . . .”

  Heyer shook his head.

  “. . . I awoke to him telling me he knows how to fix a plan I have never told him. I feared his mind had broken. Then he told me what he intends. While it will in no way be easy, Jonathan’s plan is not the ravings of a mad man. He has thought this through. He did not need me to wake up and hold his hand to put the plans in motion.”

  She shrugged. “You told him to lead.”

  “Yes,” Heyer said. “But . . .”

  The alien had the look a man gets when he knows something is too good to be true. That something is wrong despite any evidence to the contrary.

  “When Mr. Clean told Jonathan who you were,” Heyer said, “Jonathan already knew. Understand, you are not simply as compatible as Rylee was. Bonded to Jonathan, the two of you could possess strength near my own.

  “He knows this. Yet, at a time when we need every advantage, the most powerful weapon this armory can give mankind drops into his lap. And what does he do?”

  Leah frowned. “He . . . he hides it from me.”

  “I am afraid it is more than that,” Heyer said. “Mr. Clean, please show Leah what events took place in this room shortly after the escape from The Cell’s facility.”

  Once again, the pedestal shimmered. This time, Leah saw that Rylee’s device was in place. A moment later, Jonathan stepped through the vault door. He stood beside the pedestal staring at the implant. It seemed difficult for him to bear looking at. Finally, he closed his eyes, grabbed the implant, and walked out of the armory.

  As the projection ended, Leah turned back to Heyer. “He took it.”

  “Yes, Mr. Clean has informed me he carries it with him at all times.”

  “Why would he do that? I mean . . . doesn’t he know you’ll discover who took it?”

  “Of course he does,” Heyer said as he leaned against the armory wall. “He is not hiding the implant. All he has done is leave me in the unfortunate position of having to ask him to return it. If he were to say no, I could simply have Mr. Clean transport the implant into my hand.”

  “So why bother?”

  Heyer winced. “If I ask for it or it simply disappears, he will know the only possible reason is that I intend to implant it.”

  Leah let all that sink in for a moment. “Jonathan was never given a choice. He knew Rylee was never given a choice. Maybe he doesn’t want it left to you to decide for me?”

  Heyer nodded. “That is one of three possibilities I arrived at. But not the one I think most likely.”

  “What are the others?” Leah asked.

  “The child. His father found great strength from his need to see Jonathan safe. Now, Jonathan shares half a mind with the man. I cannot imagine the sort of confusion that would create, but, if he knows about the child you carry, then all of Douglas’s love for his own son may well be projecting onto you.

  Leah blinked; just thinking about what the alien was suggesting was enough to give her a headache. If true, she couldn’t imagine what was going on inside of Jonathan. “Jesus, what’s the third?”

  Heyer sighed. “The bond itself. The only woman who ever survived a severed bond as long as Jonathan only did so because her captors forced her to reestablish the link with a new male. Jonathan is the only man in known history to survive without doing the same. He is the only one who knows firsthand why all the other men and women welcomed death after the connection was severed.”

  “Sounds like, he should have every reason to want to reestablish the bond?” Leah frowned.

  “Yet, here we are,” Heyer said, nodding to the pedestal with two empty sockets.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

  OCT 18, 2005 | 2 PM | JBLM FACILITY

  GENERAL DELACY AND Olivia and had been waiting pensively in a private room when the call came. They glanced at one another before the few seconds of buffering video passed. Finally, Dr. Watts was looking back at them on the monitor.

  On their order, she’d been dispatched the night before to the rendezvous point. Now, she was in a cargo carrier, and from the sound they were already in the air.

  Six Libyan operators had been sent to the coordinates on Jonathan’s map. That team had confirmed acquisition of something worth their attention upon reaching the site. What they had brought back had been sealed into a box and discretely carted out of the area. Eventually, the box had made it the nearest landing site, where it was handed over to Dr. Watts.

  The operation itself had been quick, and so far, there were no reports that the authorities in Libya had become aware of their operators’ comings and goings. This was a win both Delacy and Olivia were grateful for. Jonathan had been quite vague about what they would find out there, and neither of them had any desire to explain to the Joint Chiefs of Staff why they had executed an unauthorized mission into a foreign nation knowing full well it might result in an international incident—and had no idea exactly what it was that they were retrieving.

  While her plane would be in the air for a long time, Watts now had the prize in her possession. The operators in the desert had come back with two sets of remains. One female, human, the other—simply listed as unknown. One look at the corpse and Delacy had the sense he was seeing the husk of something pulled from a horror movie.

  Decomposition had taken its toll on both sets of remains. But the creature appeared to be in far better shape than the human. Though the inner musculature and organs had been eaten away, its dried exterior skin and skeleton were made from heavy metals that looked as though they remained largely intact. The exception being that the creature had a large jagged gash in its torso.

  “Dr. Watts, are we looking at some kind of hoax?” Olivia asked.

  “I can’t discount the possibility,” Watts replied, as she continued to inspect the remains, “but someone would have had to have gone to a great deal of trouble to fake this. I’ll run more tests on the tissues once I’m back on the ground but if I had to give my opinion right now—I’d say this is exactly what it appears. Whatever that is.”

  “I trust your expertise, so we’ll assume that thing was alive and walking around at some point. Is there any chance it originated on Earth?” Olivia asked.

  Her face looked doubtful.

  “Not like anything I’ve ever seen,” Dr. Watts said. “If it is, its morphology would suggest it was a primate, but looking at its bone structure, if we can even call this internal skeleton bones, there isn’t anything in our fossil records that is related. So, no, my vote is alien.”

  Delacy exchanged a glance with Olivia. “Dr. Watts, what about the other body?”

  “Well, that is far less of a mystery. Definitely human, female, and from the look of the remains I’d say she died from injuries acquired from a brutal mauling. Given where we found her, and some of the marks on the bones, my guess is that she barely missed being this thing’s dinner. Though, one of her arms is missing, so that might not be the whole truth.”

  “How long will it take to ID her?” Olivia asked.

  “No guarantees that we can. Will check dental records and run DNA when I get back to the lab,” the doctor said. “Until then, all I can tell you was that she was old. Perhaps seventies or eighties. Skeletal remains likely of European decent.”

  “Any idea how long she’s been down there?” Olivia asked.

  The doctor looked over the remains once more, considering. “Hard to tell, decomposition was slower. Unlike the unknown creature, her remains were placed in a body bag be
fore they were buried. Which is strange in itself . . .”

  There was a pause as she presented said bag to the camera. “This is army issue, but it doesn’t look modern. Might be able to get an idea of when she was put in the ground if you find out when this bag was in use.”

  “Thank you, Doctor, send over any preliminary findings. We’ll see you when you’re back on base,” Olivia said.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Dr. Watts said, before reaching out to kill the camera.

  Olivia turned to Delacy. “I’ll get someone to follow up on the bag, but I think it’s fair to assume Douglas Tibbs buried that woman with the creature twenty years ago.”

  Delacy nodded. “All begs the question though, why would an army Ranger keep this a secret from his command, only to wait ten years and tell his son?”

  “Jonathan knew where to find it,” Olivia said. “But that doesn’t mean his father was the one to tell him. All we can assume is that something happened to Douglas Tibbs out in that desert. My hunch is that he and Jeremy Holloway crossed paths with our escaped alien in the process. If I’m right, the alien’s involvement with Jonathan Tibbs was never random. For that matter, Holloway’s son, Grant, showing up in Seattle was never a coincidence either.”

  Delacy nodded thoughtfully. “So, why does Jonathan want us to know about it now?”

  “He said he didn’t expect we’d believe anything he had to say without evidence.” Olivia said. “That this was the only thing he could give us until he got his hands on better proof.”

  “So, what’s the hurry then? If he thinks he can get proof, why send us to fetch the remains of a twenty-year-old alien?” Delacy asked.

  Olivia’s face grew troubled.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  She reached into her front pocket and took out the folded-up piece of paper. As she unfolded it, Delacy could see it was the original map Jonathan had drawn. Then she flipped it over and slid it across the table to him.

  “He said he was going to need these things,” Olivia said. “They’re all out of the question, but . . .”

  She trailed off with a sigh. “If we complied, they aren’t things that are easily done. He said we needed to be thinking about how we were going to make that list happen long before we were convinced.”

  Delacy picked up the paper and began to read the items aloud. “Evacuation of Seattle and its surrounding counties. A military perimeter around the evacuation zone.”

  Delacy scoffed, but continued. “All remaining materials used to build the containment shells, and as much of the finished product as our sources can produce...”

  Delacy was shaking his head. Olivia, having already read the paper over a dozen times, knew he hadn’t reached the more troubling requests yet.

  “Necessary supplies and access to fit approximately thirty buildings and various structures for controlled demolition within the evacuation zone . . .”

  Delacy’s eyes bulged as he reached the final item. “Five nuclear war heads!”

  He tossed the list back to the table. “He’d have to be a mad man to think we’d provide him with any of this.”

  “Yes, but that’s the rub . . . he wasn’t crazy. He told me exactly how things would play out during the escape. That we wouldn’t be able to stop it. He knew exactly how we’d react to that list as well. Told me not to gamble, not to wait until he had irrefutable evidence before I started planning how to make that list a reality.”

  Delacy sat back in his chair and considered for a few moments.

  “If we entertain this notion, even for a moment, making this list happen . . .”

  He sighed.

  “The President would have to declare a national emergency. We’d need the National Guard and the cooperation of multiple arms of the military. Temporary housing for the evacuated civilians . . .”

  Delacy trailed off as he noticed the look on Olivia’s face. She was staring off into space, nodding along slowly with his assessment. But nothing he was saying so much as raised an eyebrow on her.

  “You have already been considering this,” Delacy said.

  “Once they escaped, along with the disappearance of the other subjects, we had no leads to reacquire them. The only way to get ahead of him is to take the list seriously. Consider it a partial blueprint for whatever it is they’re planning,” Olivia said.

  General Delacy was quieted by the thought.

  “I can’t speak for how the WMDs or the Shell materials would play into this. But, the rest . . . sounds like staging for a battle. Like, he plans to hold that city against an invading force. But . . .”

  “He’d have to know precisely where the enemy plans to attack,” Olivia said, finishing his thought. “I came to the same conclusion. I’ve wondered if the invading force he was preparing for was of the same alien race as The Mark. Given the corpse he’s sent us to recover, I’m starting to wonder.”

  Delacy sighed. “But, five warheads to contain an army of these creatures?” Delacy asked aloud. “That’s preposterous. I don’t care how big or ugly these things are, our military could take them out.”

  Olivia tilted her head uncomfortably, seemed unsure if she agreed. “We’ve seen what The Mark was capable of with the technology he had at his disposal. That was just one alien. If we assume this is another species . . . how could we have any idea what they might be capable of?”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  OCT 20, 2005 | 4 PM | HANGMAN’S TREE

  TAM WAS QUIET as he stood on the catwalk watching Jonathan and Heyer. Whatever pretense the alien gave to get Jonathan to join him seemed to have worked. When the doors opened and shut, he stepped out into the open.

  “Ready to go here, Mr. Clean,’ Tam said.

  “Confirmed,” the AI said as a monitor and a microphone formed beside him. “I will begin on Heyer’s signal.”

  “What exactly is it we’re doing here, Old Man?” Jonathan asked.

  “You do not remember everything your father knew,” Heyer said. “Do you know what accounts for the blind spots?”

  Jonathan sighed. “I don’t remember everything that ever happened to him. I remember the things that kept him alive.”

  “Interesting,” Heyer said. “You will have to indulge me. I would like to run some tests.”

  “Tests?”

  “Please activate Jonathan’s implant, Mr. Clean,” Heyer said.

  “Dammit . . .” Jonathan trailed off, as he felt Mr. Clean immediately follow through with the request. With an irritable grunt he dropped down onto one knee, glared at the alien, then fell flat on his back as the transition took over.

  “Mr. Clean, please let Tam know we will begin shortly, but anything that is said in this chamber should remain between Jonathan and me.”

  Of course, Jonathan wouldn’t hear any of this, he was in the middle of the transition. When it ended, he opened his eyes and stood, chest glowing. When he looked at Heyer, the look lacked any fondness.

  Heyer frowned. “When I trained your father, he preferred not to know it was coming. Waiting for it made him anxious.”

  Jonathan tilted his head. “Yeah, that is what he told you.”

  “You mean, it was not the truth?”

  “You only activated him outside The Never when you wanted to spar,” Jonathan said. “He didn’t say anything because it put him in the mood to punch you anyway.”

  Heyer hummed as he considered, but then refocused on why they were here. “Your father bested me in hand-to-hand once.”

  “Twice,” Jonathan corrected.

  Heyer’s eyes narrowed, but he smiled. “We agreed on a draw.”

  “Dad was polite to his elders,” Jonathan said.

  Heyer smirked, reached up slowly to remove his hat. “Would you like to select an environment?”

  They removed their shoes and any heavy clothing. When Jonathan finished, he cracked his neck, and smiled at Heyer. He whispered something, and Heyer could hear—within seconds, the void came over the projection chamber.

>   A warm sun began to beat down on Heyer as he watched structures come into being. A massive oval forming with Jonathan and him at its center. Limestone arches and columns began manifesting around them as Jonathan eased down into a crouch.

  He scooped up a handful of sand, rubbing it between his palms before a soft wind whisked it away.

  Tam watched as Bodhi and Sam approached the projection chamber followed by a group of fresh soldiers. They were quick to find the Chamber was locked down and occupied.

  “Hey, Mr. Clean, we’re scheduled to be running drills. What’s going on?”

  “Apologies, an unscheduled scenario is in progress,” Mr. Clean said.

  “Whose?” Bodhi asked.

  “Jonathan and Heyer are settling an argument,” Mr. Clean said.

  A moment passed as everyone in the group was allowed to let their imagination run with what they’d been told. Jonathan and Heyer. Having an argument. In the combat training facility.

  Sam was the first to ask, “So, uh . . . any chance we could . . . watch?”

  A monitor took form on the outside of the projection chamber. Bodhi’s team suddenly felt as though they were gathering around the big screen at a sports bar. As the video began to roll, Heyer was just removing his hat.

  Tam smiled, and lifted the microphone Mr. Clean had manifested, then did his best impression of a sports announcer.

  “Occupants of Hangman’s Tree, I’d like to welcome everyone to drop whatever the hell you’re doing and turn your attention to the projection chamber. If you’re not near a display, Mr. Clean is now manifesting one for your convenience.”

  He wasn’t lying. While he spoke, displays ranging in size as large as a theater to as small as a postcard were appearing anywhere there were eyes to watch.

  Hayden was in his quarters when he heard Tam’s voice come over the entire facility. He was lying on the bottom bunk, still getting sleep out of his eyes, when a small panel began to take shape on the underside of Collin’s bunk.