Encouraged by his reaction, I took his cock in my mouth and slid deep. The end hit the smooth skin at the back of my throat, and I managed to hold back my gag reflex before I released him again.
I kept up the suction of my lips around his girth and thrust my face back and forth, taking him as deep as I could before sliding back to the head and swirling my tongue around him. He grew even harder in my mouth, and he tightened his grip on my ponytail, using it to push me deeper, his hips bucking to meet me.
I pulled away, and he lifted me up, his hand still in my hair. He reached for my pants, about to slide his hand inside and take things to the next level...
A sudden shout came from the other side of the door. “We’ve got trouble outside!”
We jumped apart, as though we hadn’t just been on our way to fucking, though I was sure the shout hadn’t been directed at us.
“What’s going on?” I asked him.
He shook his head, but his expression was thunderous, his brown eyes darkening to black. “I have no idea. Any chance we can just ignore it and carry on where we left off?”
From the yells and pounding of footsteps hitting the floor outside, I didn’t think that was the right thing to do. “I can’t. I might be needed.” I hurriedly tugged my clothes back into place, doing up the buttons of my shirts, and turned for the door.
His hand shot out and caught my wrist, yanking me back around to face him. His dark eyes bored into mine. “Camille, just stay. They can cope without you.”
What did he think was going to happen? That I’d just have sex with him while the place was going to shit?
I shook his hand free, though the feel of his fingers pressing hard upon my skin remained. I wondered if I’d have bruises, and a shot of alarm went through me. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”
“Camille, please.”
“My sister and best friend are out there. I have to know what’s happening.”
I moved quickly, darting for the door. It suddenly occurred to me that he might try to stop me by blocking the door, might even try to take what he wanted even while I fought back and told him no. From the chaos outside, my shouts for help most likely wouldn’t get heard.
Panicky, I yanked open the door and slipped outside. Dean didn’t follow.
I’d been stupid getting myself in that situation in the first place. I barely knew the guy and was suckered in by a handsome face and some sexy words.
People ran past me, a mixture of military, government officials, and the people who worked at the Observatory. I searched them for signs of Molly or Tara, or any of my work colleagues, but didn’t see anyone.
“Hey, what’s happening?”
I directed my question at one of the women from IT.
She glanced over at me. “We’ve got visitors.”
My thoughts immediately jumped to the asteroids. “Alien visitors?”
“No, civilians.”
I joined the people heading toward the front of the building which was the same kind of reinforced glass that made up the dome of the Observatory. Since there were so many people coming and going now, we hadn’t been using the shutters, so right away I was able to see what was happening.
Cars, trucks, people on foot, mothers carrying children, angry-looking men. People in torn clothing, dirty faces, bloodied feet. I felt as though I was looking at survivors from a war zone, not American civilians, but then I realized these were the survivors. Word had gotten out that the Observatory was the best place to find shelter. They must have driven or walked to get here. My heart went out to them.
Sergeant Byrd stepped forward, the metal of a gun flashing in his hand.
“If they try to get in,” he instructed his men, “shoot to kill.”
I jerked my head toward him. “What? You can’t kill them. They’re just people. They’ve lost their homes and they need our help.”
“Don’t be naïve. If they get through these doors, any work we’re trying to do here will be over.”
I cast my gaze across the people. There appeared to be at least a hundred, and more were filtering down from the direction of the highway. Yes, we were going to be overrun, but now they were here, we couldn’t just start shooting them.
“They’re people,” I pleaded with the sergeant. “If you start killing innocent people, you’re no better than whoever sent those asteroids.”
Their expressions were desperate, but angry, too. They only wanted help. They’d probably lost their homes and loved ones, too, and here we were, hiding away, safe and secure.
“Please, they’ll understand if we explain what we’re doing.”
“No, desperate people can’t be reasoned with.”
He motioned his men into position. They each took a knee, spaced out at intervals to cover the front of the building, their weapons aimed. The sight horrified me. But it didn’t seem to deter the people on the other side of the glass. They couldn’t shoot through it. This was only a warning.
But the warning didn’t appear to be working.
The civilians had spotted us, and their anger increased. I understood why. We must all appear well-fed, and clean, and safe, while they were out in the open, exposed to the threat we still hadn’t identified. Someone raised a fist and shouted, and my heart lurched.
“No, please! Go back!” I yelled through the glass, but they wouldn’t be able to hear me above all the noise.
In my mind, I could see the next stage—that of military men gunning down civilians. I still remembered how terrible I’d felt at leaving people in the city who’d needed my help, and now I was about to bear witness to something else more terrible. I had to stop it, but I didn’t know how.
I spun around to Sergeant Byrd. “We can use the cafeteria to house people. As long as they stay away from the work areas, they won’t get in our way.”
He shook his head. “We’ll need to feed them all. How long do you think the supplies here are going to last?”
“So, we’ll send our parties to find more supplies. Our government must be doing something to help. They’ll send in new supplies soon.”
I glanced over my shoulder. Others had gathered now, and I spotted Molly and Tara’s frightened expressions among them. Aleandro was already at the front of the military men, trying to get them to back down. Casey and Mike pushed through the people behind me to come and stand at my shoulder. Aleandro was head of security here, but the army overrode him. Besides, he was one man against twenty, and though he was trying to talk sense, I was terrified they’d shoot him just to shut him up.
I barged past the soldiers, ignoring Casey and Mike’s shouts of “Camille!” I reached the big glass front doors and spun to face the army unit.
“Put down your weapons,” I shouted out to them. “They’re just people. Desperate, frightened people. Being in this situation shouldn’t dehumanize them to us, if anything it should do the opposite. What else are we fighting for if it isn’t for the lives of these people? If we lose our humanity, we might as well just let whoever sent those asteroids send more and destroy us.”
The soldiers glanced uneasily at one another. I was starting to get through to them.
“I know it isn’t going to be easy, but it’s the right thing to do. We can provide them with food and shelter. Those people out there have nothing. They wouldn’t have trekked all this way if they had any other option. The city is dangerous right now. Let’s have some compassion.”
Casey pushed through the crowd to join me, and I looked up at him and gave him a grateful smile.
“She’s right,” he said. “We can’t just leave them out there when they need our help.”
Sergeant Byrd frowned. “And what about when more turn up, and then more, and more? Where will it stop?”
“It won’t stop,” I replied. “This is our new reality now. This is the world the asteroid strike has created, and we’re going to have to adapt and accommodate. We still don’t know what whoever created those asteroids even want, and things might
get worse before we learn the full picture. We must be prepared for that, and if we’re going to start shooting our fellow humans at the first sign that things might get a little difficult, then we might as well just wipe ourselves out. Whichever alien race sent the asteroids won’t need to do anything else. We’ll do the job for them.”
At the back of the group, Dean leaned to one side, speaking into Rhett’s ear. Shouldn’t he have been up front with the rest of his unit? Unease shivered through me, but I couldn’t worry about that now. I had more important things to worry about than a man.
“And what happens when they want to know what’s being done to find out who’s responsible, and that you people are no further ahead?” the sergeant said. “When they start smashing up your equipment and invading your work areas. You’ll want us with our guns then, won’t you?”
Aleandro stepped forward, eclipsing the crowd with his huge frame. “Then they’ll have me,” he said in his deep baritone, his hand on the hilt of his weapon.
Sergeant Byrd pressed his lips together and shook his head. “I think you’re making a mistake.”
Hope trembled inside me. Did that mean he was relenting?
“I’d rather we make a mistake than people die unnecessarily.”
He threw his hands up in exasperation. “Fine. Men, stand down.”
The army unit lowered their weapons, each of them looking relieved at not having to gun down unarmed civilians as I felt.
“I’ll go out and talk to them,” I said.
“I’m coming with you,” Aleandro offered.
“Me, too,” Mike joined in.
“And me,” Casey said.
I looked to each of the men gratefully. “Thanks.”
Taking a deep breath, thankful for each of the men beside me, I went to the main doors. “Unlock them.”
Someone did, and they buzzed open. I pushed through. The civilians had seen us coming and directed their attention toward us. Angry shouts filled the air, but no one was going to hear anything I said like that. We stepped out into the open, and the doors shut behind us again.
“I hope the sergeant isn’t going to lock us out as well,” Casey pointed out.
“Shit.” I hadn’t thought of that.
I glanced back through the glass and caught both Molly’s and Tara’s eye. They’d find a way to let us back in if the worse came to the worst, I hoped.
Mike shook his head. “They need us too much. We’re the only ones who can work the Observatory. They need us for communications and trying to figure out who or what sent the asteroids.”
“I hope you’re right.”
I lifted both hands and waved, trying to get the crowd of civilians to quieten down. “I want to help you. You need to let me speak.”
Gradually, the noise dropped as people realized I had something to say.
“Please, just listen to me.”
One of the men stepped forward. He was armed, too, and the sight of the gun sickened me. If everyone started shooting at each other, nothing would be achieved. All that would happen was a lot of needless death.
“We’re listening,” he called back.
“This is a government facility, and we’re doing important work here. We’re trying to find out who did this to us, and we’re monitoring the skies for any signs of a second attack.”
“You didn’t do such a good job the first time,” a woman called out of the crowd.
“We think whoever did this used some kind of sophisticated forcefield to hide from us. Not seeing them coming wasn’t our fault.”
“It never is!” someone else shouted back. “No one ever takes responsibility.”
“But that’s the point,” I continued. “We are trying to find out who is responsible, and find out what they want, too. Because they will want something, and we need to be ready for whatever it is. If you try to interfere with that process, we’ll never get anywhere.”
The armed man frowned. “What are you saying?”
“We have a large cafeteria in the basement of the building. It’s safe and dry, and there’s food. If we’re allowed to get on with our work, then you can stay there until a more suitable place is found.”
They exchanged looks, and murmurs rose among the crowd.
Aleandro stepped forward. “You will be expected to leave your weapons outside of the building. The military are controlling the Observatory now, and if anyone is seen to be interfering in our work, or acting as a threat to what we’re trying to do in any way, they will shoot.”
The man jammed his hands on his hips. “So, you’re telling us we can go inside but we might get shot and we’re not allowed to bring any means of defending ourselves or our loved ones?”
“That’s your choice,” Aleandro continued. “You don’t have to come inside. If you’d rather keep your weapon than put a roof over your head and food in your belly, then by all means, keep walking, though I have no idea what you think you’re going to find out here in the desert that will be better.”
A small girl pushed forward. “Please, Daddy. I’m hungry.”
He glanced down at his daughter, and then over his shoulder to a woman carrying a baby. They must be a family.
The woman nodded. “Let’s do it. We don’t have many other choices.”
“Okay, fine.”
Others in the crowd mumbled their agreement, and the tension slowly diffused out into the air. I turned and nodded back at the sergeant through the glass doors. He didn’t seem happy about the situation, but he motioned to his men.
The doors slid open.
“Search them for weapons,” the sergeant instructed his men, “and then take them down into the cafeteria.”
People flooded past, eager to be in the relative safety of the Observatory.
One of the older women, in her sixties, I guessed, stopped to talk to me. She kept her voice low, as though she didn’t want to frighten the others.
“What are you doing about all these women going missing?” she asked.
“We don’t know much about it. Only what’s come over the radio. We weren’t sure if it was just that people have lost loved ones in the strike, and that was who they were reporting missing.”
But she shook her head, her lips pressed together. “No, these are women who survived the strike, and there’s more to it, too.”
I frowned. “Like what?”
“I’ve seen lights coming down from the skies, like blue circular beams. Huge spotlights.”
“And they’ve been seen at the same time these women have gone missing?”
She nodded. “I’ve only ever seen them from a distance, but I’m not the only one who’s seen them. One of the people we traveled here with even managed to get some footage on his phone.”
I straightened with interest. “He did. Can you point out who that was? This might be hugely important.”
The woman craned her neck, trying to spot the man she claimed had video footage of the lights. “Him, over there.” She pointed at a younger guy in his thirties.
“Thanks,” I told her. “What was your name?”
“Oh, I’m Lynn Robinson.”
“Thank you, Lynn. My name’s Camille. You’ve been very helpful. Now please, go and get yourself something to eat and rest up.”
“I will.”
Lynn left, and I pushed my way through the people to the man she’d pointed out.
“Excuse me,” I said to him. “Can I borrow you for a moment?”
He looked to the people he was traveling with, and they nodded to say they were okay. “Sure,” he replied, “what’s up.”
“My name is Camille Harran, and I’m a planetary scientist here at the Observatory. We’ve been trying to learn more about the attack, but I’m hearing rumors of women going missing, and a possible beam of light being associated with their disappearances, and I’ve been told you have video footage on your cell phone.”
“Sure do. Those lights came out of nowhere. I had to get them on camera.”
> “Can I take a look?”
He fished into his back pocket and took out his phone. Within a couple of swipes, he pulled up the footage. It was taken from some distance away, but it was exactly as Lynn had described it, several blue spotlights beaming down from a night sky. What the hell were they?
“You mind if I borrow this?” I asked him. “I’ll make sure I get it back to you.”
“Err... Yeah, I guess. I will need my phone, though.”
“I’ll take care of it, I promise. I just need to be able to see that on a bigger screen.”
“Sure.”
I pocketed the phone and then jerked my chin at Casey and Mike. They were both helping Aleandro ferry people into the Observatory, but right now we were needed for more important tasks. It seemed as though things had calmed down here, and I felt confident I could get back to my work. Hell, I needed to get back to my work.
Tara and Molly stepped forward, frowning at me in concern.
“We’ll help the new arrivals,” Molly told me. “Go do what you need to do.”
“Thanks, Molly.”
“Yeah, we’ll take care of things down here,” Tara said. She flashed me a tight smile. “We’ve got those army boys wrapped around our little fingers.”
“Be careful,” I told them both. “If things look like they’re going backward, get out of there and call me.”
Molly nodded. “We will.”
Mike and Casey came with me, and we went back upstairs to our desks. I took the micro-card out of the phone and slipped it into the correct adapter on my computer. Within a few clicks of the mouse, I pulled up the footage and leaned back to allow Mike and Casey to watch.
A dark skyline. A sudden blue light beaming down from the sky. Followed by another in a slightly different spot, and then another and another. Mike watched with his hand over his mouth, and Casey’s eyes widened behind his glasses. The lights only lasted a matter of seconds, and then they were gone again.
“Do we know anything more about where they came from?” Casey asked.
I shook my head. “No, but one of the women I just spoke to said that more women have gone missing.”
“You think the two things are connected?” Mike asked.
Their Invasion- Planet Athion Page 10
