I pointed at the port-a-potty. It was three feet high and just as wide. There appeared to be a portal in the center.
“Do you see that?” I asked.
“I am going to keep watching you,” Sergei said. “This time…there will be no complications.”
“I must be hallucinating,” I said for the second time.
“Examine yourself,” he suggested.
I did. I had bloody clothes, a few aches and bruises that had already begun healing. Pulling up my shirt, I saw the scab from the bullet singe along my side.
Okay. I wasn’t hallucinating.
“Are you an alien?” I asked, as I lowered my shirt.
“I am quite human.”
“You’re not really Ukrainian, though.”
“We are not here to discuss me.”
I snorted. “You can threaten me all you want…” I glanced out the door. “Jenna!” I shouted.
“She will sleep a while longer.”
“What did you do to her?”
“Drugged her, of course. She received a head trauma—”
“You’re not supposed to drug someone with a head trauma.”
“She will be fine. I injected her with a healing substance. As I said, she underwent physical and emotional traumas. Believe me, this is for the best.”
“She belongs to the CAU, your sworn enemy.”
Sergei smiled faintly. “You don’t know what’s really going on, my American friend. Therefore, do not seek to—”
“Android,” I said, interrupting. “You must be an android.”
“I am flesh and blood the same as you.”
“Bull!”
Sergei sighed.
“What about your men?” I asked. “Did they…reappear as well?”
“I am unique. They are all quite dead. However, I took the liberty of cleaning up the plane while you slept. I have disposed of the corpses, and you will find little blood anywhere.”
“Right…” I said. “You disposed of the corpses, including the one of the headless Sergei Gromyko.”
The smile slipped, and I thought I detected the faintest hint of concern in his eyes. “That was strange, I admit. However—” He raised the revolver. “It has solidified my conviction that you are highly dangerous. They warned me about you, but I did not truly believe it.”
“They,” I said. “Who are they?”
“That is the perennial question, is it not?”
The concern in his eyes about disposing of his own corpse had convinced me more than anything else. The corpse hadn’t reanimated. It hadn’t picked up its head and reattached it. How could he be sitting here, then?
“The Unguls or the Min Ve must have had a piece of equipment that is causing this,” I said.
“Never mind about me,” he said. “I am concerned—”
“Hey, I’ll concern myself about what I want to concern myself about. So, you’re back, but not your men. That means you’re outnumbered.”
“I count it differently. One,” he said, moving the gun just enough to make his point. “You have zero. That means I hold the majority.”
“What’s your plan?”
“You have turned the plane, I noticed. Where are we headed?”
“You’re the navigator. You tell me.”
He considered me. “I can shoot the girl in order to elicit your cooperation.”
“Are we going to go through all the same rigmarole as last time? Look where it got you. I’m not going to tell you jack unless you start leveling with me. Let’s start with the monkey alien. You remember Hap, right?”
“He is a prodigy,” Sergei said.
“Okay,” I said. “Now, we’re getting somewhere. Hap is a prodigy. He was wearing a manacle…” I trailed off.
“By all means, continue.”
“Hap is behind this,” I said. “The manacle was a ruse. He wasn’t your prisoner. Was that little monkey creep in charge of the operation?”
Sergei frowned.
“Yeah…” I said. “The port-a-potty was something else. I bet a knockout gas seeped out of it. There must be a security system in here, with cameras or something. Hap watched me fall asleep from his…escape pod.” I nodded, convinced that I was close to the truth. “While I slept, he slipped onto the plane. In fact, the monkey might have docked back in the plane.”
I stood up.
Sergei stood, too, aiming the gun at me.
“I’m going back to check the cargo hold,” I said.
“Sit down,” Sergei ordered.
I laughed at him. “What are you going to do, shoot me?”
“Yes.”
“No you’re not. You need me. That’s what this is all about. Hap wants to know where I’m going.”
“Let us suppose you’ve stumbled onto a truth, not the truth, but part of it.”
“Start supposing,” I said.
“Let us suppose I’m not supposed to kill you. I can still wound you, or I can kill the CAU agent.”
“I bet you’re not supposed to even wound me. But why is that…?” I stroked my chin. It finally came to me. I’d received the visions from the Polarion machine. Somehow, Hap knew that. He wanted to know what the machine had imparted to me.
I backtracked. How would Hap have known that? That brought me back to Sergei.
I turned to the hatch, heading for it.
“Stop,” Sergei said.
I kept going. I heard him following me, so I broke into a sprint. Despite my conviction that he wouldn’t fire, I hunched my shoulders, expecting a bullet to plow through my flesh. I ran past a sleeping Jenna and raced for the door to the second compartment.
Sergei ran after me.
I made it through the door. There were no corpses in here and little blood. I ran for the floor hatch.
“Mr. Logan!” Sergei shouted. “I cannot allow you to go down there. I demand you halt.”
I did not halt. I slid to the floor hatch and flung it open. I saw a clear tube come down on Hap. The little creep looked up at me. He seemed angry—then he zipped down out of sight.
“Mr. Logan—”
I jumped into the cargo hold and moved to the tube. Just like before, I saw Hap in his mini-ship or escape pod ejecting from the plane.
I’d guessed right.
“You must come up here, Mr. Logan,” Sergei said from the top of the floor hatch.
“No sweat,” I said.
In a few moments, I hoisted myself back into the second compartment. Sergei regarded me, aiming at my midsection.
I held out a hand. “Give me the gun.”
“That is ridiculous,” Sergei said.
“No it isn’t,” I said. “You want my help. Correction. Hap wants my help. You can’t have it if it’s forced. Maybe we can work together, though. The only way I can trust you is to have you give me the gun.”
Sergei shook his head.
“Ask Hap about that,” I said.
“I do not need to—” Sergei groaned, clutching his head as if in pain. “Stop it,” he whispered. If anything, the Ukrainian clutched his head harder. “Yes,” he panted. “Yes, I’ll do it.”
Sergei let go of his head almost right away as he straightened. Without another word, he reversed the revolver and handed it to me.
-37-
What had that little episode shown me, exactly? How did I know Sergei’s head had really hurt? He might have faked it. I doubted he had, but I couldn’t be one hundred percent certain. It did show that Hap was in control. The alien monkey had gone so far as to slip back onto the plane.
The space plane must be Hap’s headquarters. It would appear that the alien monkey was the big boss behind the Ukrainians. Did all the Ukrainian Mafia bosses know that?
I was willing to believe Sergei had acted truthfully a few moments ago. It showed that Hap did not possess willing…slaves. Hap had used coercion on Sergei. Hap must have inserted a coercive device into the Ukrainian’s head.
That told me enough about Hap to cause me to l
oathe the alien monkey. We could possibly work together. I would never trust him. I believed that Hap would never trust me until he put a coercive device in my head.
On no account did I want the alien monkey on the space plane with us, especially as he had a knockout gas container. I was lucky I hadn’t woken up with one of those coercive devices in me. I wondered why not.
“Why does Hap want my help?” I asked.
Sergei looked away before he turned back to me sharply. I saw the shame of his condition in his eyes.
“He…” Sergei spoke roughly, as if against his will. “He is stranded on this primitive mud ball. When you and the Starcore destroyed the Min Ve privateer, you destroyed Hap’s ride home. He provided technical service to the Min Ve. It was a short duration contract. Hap had to implement an emergency shipwreck plan. This is a brutal and vindictive world—”
“Stop right there,” I said. “If Hap hates Earth so much, he shouldn’t have signed on with the Min Ve to drop hell-burners on us. That was his bad, not ours.”
“No one cares for Hap,” Sergei said.
“What did you do to Sergei Gromyko?” I asked.
The Ukrainian stiffened, almost as if in anticipation.
“Do not seek to strip me of my secrets,” Sergei said as if by rote. “We can cooperate and help each other.”
I did not trust Hap at all. He’d been a mercenary and a stellar privateer. Through Sergei, he’d just told me what he thought about humans and our planet. Still, I could use his help, such as it was.
“How can I help you?” I asked.
“I am interested in this ancient Sumerian site,” Sergei said in the alien’s rote way. “I believe there might be ancient hardware I could use to attempt a flight to the nearest civilized star system. From there, I could buy passage home.”
While that sounded plausible for Hap to want to get to the site, I did not believe him. The alien monkey must know more than he let on. There had to be something at the ancient site he wanted. That part I believed.
The question was, could I use a double-crosser to help me find the ancient Iraqi location? Why did Hap believe this thing was still there? Did Hap have anything in common with Kazz and Philemon?
I didn’t think so. Hap had started with the Min Ve. Kazz and Philemon had started with the Starcore. Those beings had been diametrically opposed. To that degree, I could trust that Hap wasn’t working with Kazz and Philemon.
“Let’s set a few conditions,” I said. “While I’m on the plane, you stay off it.”
“I assume you are referring to…Hap,” Sergei said.
“Yup.”
Sergei waited. Finally, he nodded. “That is agreeable.”
“Second,” I said, “you have to show me the location of the Guard ship.”
“I cannot do that, because I do not know myself. The Guard ship has gone into stealth mode.”
“Why doesn’t the Guard ship simply shoot us out of space?”
“I find that a troubling possibility. In this case, I accept the risk in order to gain the prize.”
“Fine,” I said. “Here’s my second condition. Tell me what’s at the ancient site.”
“I have already told you, a means of escape.”
“I want specifics,” I said.
“That is reasonable. Unfortunately, I lack specifics. We shall both know the object when we see it.”
“Can Sergei fly this thing so radar or other sensor stations don’t see us?”
“I assure you that is possible.”
“We have a deal then.”
“I have something to add,” Sergei said.
For a moment, that threw me off. Then I realized that Sergei was speaking for himself. “The CAU agent might not agree to this.”
“Don’t worry,” I said.
Sergei waited, finally saying, “That is acceptable for now.”
“Oh,” I said. “I do have one other condition. How did Sergei Gromyko get here?”
“That is not germane to our situation,” Sergei said, once more speaking as if by rote.
“I don’t care if it’s not germane,” I said. “I have to know.”
A few seconds passed.
“Sergei Gromyko is a replica of the original. His brain lattice is connected to others similar to him. When one dies, I stimulate the next in line.”
I stared at Sergei. For the first time, his look appeared wild. Had he not known about this before?
“How many…replicas do you have?” I asked.
“Enough.”
There was something about the way Sergei had just said that… These replicas—were they clones? If Hap had clones of Sergei, how had he gotten them fully grown so fast? There was something odd happening here. Something I could sense but couldn’t articulate.
I put that to the back of my mind as the plane continued along a low Earth orbital path to Iraq.
-38-
Sergei Gromyko sweated, and swore constantly under his breath as he piloted the space plane. I suspected that Hap could see all the sensors and gauges on his own mini-ship. The alien monkey gave Sergei wireless orders, and the Ukrainian was clearly finding the process straining.
I retreated from the piloting chamber and sat beside Jenna. I napped for a time, waking as I heard her stir.
She rubbed her face, sat up and grabbed my arm. “Look!” she said. “The corpse and head are gone.”
“Are you awake?”
“What kind of question is that? Didn’t you hear what I just told you?”
“I have something to tell you,” I said.
Jenna woke up the rest of the way, staring at me. She obviously suspected the worst.
I gave her a rundown on the situation, and she became more shocked by the moment. Soon, she started interjecting comments. The majority of them had to do with us contacting the CAU.
“Forget about the CAU,” I said angrily. “We’re heading for Iraq.”
“That’s crazy,” she said.
“Don’t you understand yet? We don’t have time to screw around. The Eshom is dangerous.”
Jenna clutched one of my forearms with both her hands. She gave me an intensely earnest look. “Don’t you see? Hap is trying to use you.”
I gave her a look that said, “Shhh, shut up. I think Hap is listening to us.”
“It’s true, Logan,” she said, clearly misinterpreting my look.
“It’s not true,” I said.
“You need help. You’re not a superhero who can save the world on your own. You’re in over your head.”
“I haven’t done too badly by myself in the past.”
“Then you had Rax’s help,” she said. “Admit it. You lost the Guard ship, your—”
“Hey!” I stared at her, and I put something extra into my stare.
I think she finally got it that I wanted her to quit talking. Hap likely had listening devices planted everywhere on the plane. She had to help me shore up his trust in us, not get him even more suspicious because we were so suspicious of him.
“I don’t know,” she finally said. “Maybe Hap will help us.”
I didn’t nod in case he had cameras to pick that up.
Our conversation petered out after that.
“You feeling okay otherwise?” I finally asked.
“I’m hungry.”
I got up and talked to Sergei about that. He said there was food in a fridge in the second compartment. I wondered if it was tampered food. I went back there and rummaged in the fridge, bringing Jenna some waters and plastic-wrapped sandwiches.
“Aren’t you hungry?” she asked.
“Maybe later,” I said. I wanted to see what the food did to her first. If she was fine after several hours, I’d eat then.
In order to escape the aroma of food, I went into the piloting chamber.
“Hap has spotted the Guard ship on the other side of the planet,” Sergei told me. “This is probably a good time to land.”
I glanced at the grid screen. We’d left t
he Indian subcontinent some time ago, heading northeast toward the Persian Gulf.
“Seems like that’s the wrong way to come in,” I said. “Bunch of worried people keep track of the Persian Gulf due to the oil lifeline. We should overfly Yemen, Saudi Arabia and come in at Iraq from that direction.”
“We’re using stealth tech,” Sergei said.
“That’s all well and good. Why not add to our safety?”
Sergei tilted his head in the way he did when he heard Hap instructing him. “We’ll go in your way,” the Ukrainian said.
I didn’t say anything more. It troubled me deep in my gut to watch an alien use an Earthman like this. True, Sergei Gromyko might not exactly be an ordinary Earthman anymore. He was a replica of the original. Still…he had Earthman genes. The bad part of me wanted another chance with my hands wrapped around Hap’s scrawny neck. Next time, I’d wring it like a chicken’s neck.
“Where do we land?” Sergei asked.
I caught the hint of subtlety in the question. We’d all been fine friends after our little run-in at the beginning. We’d been good friends because we still needed each other. Once we reached the ancient site…all bets would change.
There was another problem. I didn’t know the exact location of the site. Besides, it would be old. I knew one thing about Ancient Sumer. They had built it on an alluvial plain. That meant a plain of mud. Each year, in ancient times, the Twin Rivers Tigris and Euphrates dumped fresh mud over the old. Often, floodwaters had washed everything away. Palm trees grew on the alluvial plain, but not building-wood kinds of trees. Most of the buildings there in ancient times had been made of mud-brick. Those kinds of bricks dissolved in too much water.
The point was, the alluvial plain didn’t hold ancient sites too well except in one major location. Those were called Tells, the sites of ancient cities. The people of that region had constantly added new brick homes to the crumbling ones. Over the centuries, the cities literally rose higher. Archeologists dug into these Tells, finding a wealth of pottery shards and baked clay tablets.
No one had yet found the ancient Sumerian site impressed upon my memories.
Invaders: The Chronowarp Page 14
