by Jon S. Lewis
Oz walked back to the control panel. “Tell me what you know about the Thule,” he said.
“Well, they can change shapes.”
As Colt spoke, the Thule soldier flickered. A moment later Colt was looking at a holographic image of his grandfather. The image shimmered once more before it became Danielle, and finally it morphed back to its native lizard form.
“How can you tell if someone is a Thule or if they’re human?” Oz asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You can’t,” Oz said. “Not unless you have a special sensor or you cut them open. They’re like reptiles, so their core body temperature is lower than ours. They also bleed green.” He entered another series of commands before the holographic image of the lizard man turned to face Colt. It crouched as though ready to attack. “Any idea how to fight one?”
Colt shook his head. He knew the alien wasn’t real, but his heart was still beating fast.
“Their skin is kind of like a rhino’s, but there are a few soft spots.” As Oz spoke, circular lights lit up where the six arms met the thorax. There were also lights around its throat and eyes. “Are you ready?”
“For what?”
The monster leapt at Colt with arms wide. A pair of hands gripped Colt by his shoulders, a second set ripped at his stomach with its claws, while another tore at his face. He didn’t feel anything, but he got the picture.
“That was pathetic,” Oz said.
“I didn’t know it was going to attack me.”
“That’s the point,” Oz said with a frown. “You’re never going to know, so get used to it.”
The lizard man flickered, then disappeared. It surfaced on the other side of the room before attacking again. This time Colt was ready, but he didn’t fare much better. The monster spun around, using its tail as a whip. It followed up by raking Colt across the face with a pair of claws, and then it bit down on his shoulder.
“Let me try,” Oz said. He entered another code before walking over to push Colt out of the way. He waited for the Thule soldier to strike, and when it did, Oz sidestepped and struck the monster under one of its arms. A light flashed at the point of contact to show that it was a clean strike. Oz followed up with an elbow to its throat, and another light flashed.
He jumped as the monster tried to whip him with its tail. Then he struck twice more under its arms before another jab to the throat. The Thule soldier toppled to the ground.
“How did you do that?”
“Lots of practice,” Oz said. “And that was only the first level.” He walked over to the console and shut the program down.
“I thought we were going to play the game,” Colt said as he watched the battlefield on the tabletop flicker and disappear.
“How are you supposed to beat an army of those things if you can’t even beat one?”
“That’s different.”
“Not really,” Oz said as he walked over to the door.
“Wait, that’s it?”
“For today.”
“So when’s my next lesson?”
Oz smiled. “If I were you I’d sleep light, McAlister.”
: : CHAPTER 28 : :
What’s Danielle up to tonight?” Oz said as he slid into the driver’s seat of his Jeep.
“My mom’s editor finally called me back. He told me where she used to back her files up, so Danielle is looking to see if she can find that Trident Biotech story.”
“He had the password?”
“No, but my mom used the same password for everything, so Danielle got in on the first try.”
“Are you going to see her tonight?”
“Maybe,” Colt said. “Why?”
“I got a present for you two.”
“What?”
“Check the glove compartment.”
“Let me guess. You have a dozen injector drones waiting for me.”
“Just open it.”
Colt hesitated, but he eventually opened it. “We already have phones,” he said as he pulled out two sleek models with silver cases and large touch screens.
“Not like this,” Oz said. “I have a feeling Trident has been monitoring your calls and text messages, but they won’t be able to with these. I already programmed my number into both of them. You should have Danielle’s in yours, and she has your number. These are just for us, okay?”
It was late afternoon as Danielle sat on her bed reading her biotech science book. Wolfgang, her Pomeranian, was sleeping by her side. Clumps of his black fur covered Danielle’s bedspread, but she didn’t care. He was like a security blanket. Whenever Wolfgang was around, Danielle felt safe.
Her laptop was sitting on her desk on the other side of the room. Colt had sent her a text with the web address for the site where his mom had backed up her files, and Danielle was able to log on. She had used a search function to find a folder titled Trident. It was filled with image files, videos, and text documents, but every time she tried to download them to her laptop, she got an error message. She called Colt.
“What about tech support?” he asked.
“I already tried. They said the files are definitely on their server. The guy had to send me to level two support because he’d never seen that error message before, but nobody could help me. I’ve tried downloading them all at once, then I tried them one at a time. Nothing’s working.”
“Did you restart your computer?”
“Along with my modem and my wireless router. I even called my ISP and had them check the connection. Everything should be fine. Let’s hope it’s something on their end.”
“At least we know the files are there. Why don’t you just try again in the morning?”
“I don’t have much of a choice,” Danielle said. “By the way, how did everything go with Oz today? Did he knock you around?”
“It wasn’t too bad,” Colt said. “Look, I have to go. My grandpa just got home, and I’m in charge of dinner tonight.”
“I should get back to my homework. I’ll see you in the morning.”
After Danielle hung up, she had a difficult time concentrating on the chapter. Her eyes kept drifting from her book to the laptop, then up to the ceiling. She was half expecting a swarm of mechanical spiders to stream through the vent. Then Wolfgang jerked awake, lifting his head and cocking it to one side.
“What’s wrong?”
As the dog barked, Danielle could feel her pulse rise. Her parents were at a Bible study, so except for Wolfgang and the fish in her aquarium, she was alone. She forced herself to slide off the bed and Wolfgang kept yapping.
“Shhh, it’s okay, boy,” she said in a whisper as she stroked his thick fur.
He wouldn’t stop barking.
Danielle thought that she heard a noise coming from the kitchen . . . like someone rattling the doors. She picked Wolfgang up before walking over to the window, but all she could see was the swimming pool and the palm trees. Then a shadow moved across the water. Danielle froze.
Someone was back there, she was sure of it. She closed the plantation shutters, stuffed her biotech book into her backpack, and grabbed her keys. With Wolfgang still yapping in her arms, she was halfway down the hall before she remembered the laptop.
She raced back to grab the computer, and that’s when she saw the silhouette of someone standing outside her bedroom window. It took all of her willpower not to scream, but Wolfgang made enough noise for both of them. She tried to grab his muzzle, but the dog pulled away and kept barking. Danielle set him on the bed long enough to slam the laptop shut and slide it into the main compartment in her backpack. “Let’s go, boy.”
Wolfgang jumped off the bed and followed her down the hall and out the front door to the driveway. Danielle fumbled with her car keys, trying to find the right one to place in the lock. Her hands were sweaty and her thoughts were scrambled. Since when had opening a car door become so difficult?
She could hear footsteps in the gravel. “Come on,” she said, urging her fingers to cooperate. She slid the key into the lo
ck and twisted, and heard the familiar pop of the mechanism unlocking.
“Get in,” she said as she tossed the backpack into the passenger’s seat.
Wolfgang kept barking.
“This isn’t the time to play hero,” she said and picked the dog up.
She pulled out of the driveway and slammed her foot on the gas. As the Thunderbird roared down the street, she exhaled.
It wasn’t until she looked in the rearview mirror that she saw the exterminator’s truck parked in front of their house. She rolled her eyes. Her parents had told her that he would be coming over to spray, but she’d forgotten . . .
Since she had everything she needed, Danielle decided to drive over to the Coffee Rush to finish her homework. Besides, at the moment she liked the idea of being in a public place with lots of people around.
She turned on the radio before reaching over to scratch Wolfgang behind the ears. “You’re such a good protector,” she said. “What would I do without you?”
As Danielle drove down the road, she noticed that a car had pulled up behind her. It had a long front end and wide wheel wells, and a Mercedes-Benz hood ornament sitting on top of the chrome grille.
She eased into the left turn lane before stopping at the light. The Mercedes did as well. She glanced in her rearview mirror to see a man with short blond hair and a strong jaw.
When the arrow turned green, Danielle shifted her attention to the road ahead. She pulled out and as soon as it was safe enough, she crossed over to the far right lane to see if the man in the Mercedes would follow. He did. She turned her blinker on before merging back to the left. So did the Mercedes. No matter what she did, he kept pace.
Danielle felt her heartrate increase. She pressed on the gas, and before she knew it her car was barreling down the road at seventy miles per hour. Wolfgang jumped into Danielle’s lap looking for comfort. Startled, she accidentally jerked her steering wheel to the left. She tried to correct her trajectory, but she overcompensated and nearly crashed into a station wagon.
The Mercedes was right behind her.
Up ahead the light was turning yellow, but Danielle was going too fast to stop. She breathed deep, exhaled, and pressed the gas pedal to the floor. Her engine roared as she shot through the intersection. Behind, she could hear tires screech. The Mercedes narrowly missed a pickup with a horse trailer as the strange man followed her.
: : CHAPTER 29 : :
The first day she had her driver’s license, Danielle got a speeding ticket. Her parents had threatened to take her car if she ever got another one, but at that moment she was desperate for a policeman. As she sped through a school zone, she pulled at her seat belt to make sure it was cinched tight. Then she reached over and took Wolfgang in her arm, cradling him like a football.
The speedometer read eighty miles per hour now. Danielle looked in her rearview mirror again and gasped. The man was gone and in his place was some kind of lizard man, with green skin and a head that looked like a dragon’s.
“This is crazy!”
Wolfgang barked. Danielle turned in time to see that she was heading toward a stop sign. She turned to the left at the last possible second and her hubcap scraped against the curb. She risked another glance at the Mercedes but the lizard was gone, replaced by the man.
“I’m losing my mind, Wolfie.” She took a deep breath and then another before slamming on her brakes. The front end of her car dipped, and Danielle lurched toward the windshield, but the seat belt held tight. Her head snapped back into the headrest but somehow she managed to hang on to Wolfgang.
The man in the Mercedes was forced to brake as well. His car careened to the left until it was almost perpendicular to the Thunderbird. She watched as he turned his steering wheel to try and regain control. Then his car shot forward, narrowly missing the back end of Danielle’s car before it darted across two lanes and into oncoming traffic.
He steered to the left, avoiding a collision with a cement truck, but he was going too fast. The Mercedes jumped the curb and smashed into a light pole. The front end crumpled. The horn blared, and steam rose from what used to be the engine.
Danielle took her foot off the gas. Her heart was pounding and her hands were shaking as she continued down the road. “I don’t know how much longer I can take this,” she said as Wolfgang tried to lick her cheek.
At this point coffee was only going to make her jittery, so she decided to get some ice cream instead. She drove around looking for a place to stop and then a few minutes later she was inside an ice-cream shop where they mix in the toppings on a marble counter.
Danielle ordered dark chocolate with chocolate cake and sprinkles. As the ice-cream chef blended everything together, she looked out the window to see Wolfgang with his nose pressed against the windshield. He barked when he saw her, and she waved back. She paid, took a quick bite, and then went back to her car.
When Danielle slid into the front seat, Wolfgang pounced. He wanted some of her ice cream but she forced him to sit still. Then she frowned. Something wasn’t right.
She looked around the car, and then she knew. Her backpack was missing. She set the ice cream on the dashboard before turning to look in the backseat. It wasn’t there.
“Get down,” she said, catching Wolfgang trying to get at her ice cream.
She checked beneath the passenger’s seat and she sighed when she wrapped her hand around one of the straps of her backpack. It must have fallen when she hit the brakes. She unzipped the bag to see if the laptop had been damaged.
Her computer was gone.
“I’m sorry,” Danielle said when Colt answered the door. “I didn’t know who else to call.”
“What happened to the guy who was following you?”
“I don’t know. I drove by to see the wreck on the way over here, but his car was gone. I didn’t even see a police car or an ambulance. It’s like it never happened.”
“Maybe it’s time for us to back off.”
“We should at least try to download those files. Maybe it’ll work from here. Can we use your computer?”
“Sure.”
Colt’s laptop was sitting on the kitchen table where he had been doing his homework after dinner. Danielle logged on to the website, but this time the Trident folder didn’t come up after her search.
“What’s wrong?”
“The files are gone,” Danielle said. “They were there an hour ago. I saw them myself.”
“Maybe there’s a glitch in the system. You know, like a virus or something.”
“I doubt it. Companies like that have all kinds of redundancy.”
“What do you think happened?”
“Trident.”
“How?”
“Who knows,” Danielle said. “They probably own the company.”
“And you think they took your laptop?”
“Who else would take it?”
“I’m sorry, Dani.”
“Would you stop apologizing? None of this is your fault.”
After Danielle went home, Colt told his grandpa about everything that had happened. Even though it was nearly eleven o’clock in Virginia, Grandpa called Senator Bishop at home. Not an hour later, two CHAOS agents showed up at his house in an unmarked sedan wearing fedoras.
Colt hadn’t been expecting them to fly in on jet packs carrying laser guns, but as they walked up the drive he thought they looked more like accountants than elite agents who protected Earth against unseen dangers from other worlds.
When he opened the door, Colt did a double take. The man in front removed his hat and introduced himself as Agent Thomas E. Richmond. He had a wide brow, a receding hairline, and bags under his eyes. Colt guessed that he had been an athlete when he was younger, but now his stomach hung slightly over his belt buckle.
“How do you do, young man,” Agent Richmond said with a southern accent that Colt couldn’t place. “Is your grandfather home by any chance?”
Unfortunately Colt hadn’t heard a word he said.
He was too busy staring at Agent Richmond’s companion. The robot was slightly taller than Richmond, and it stood there wearing a tan trench coat. It was an odd choice for a September evening in Arizona, but the machine’s chest was too wide for a shirt, and the ball joints that connected its legs to its hips wouldn’t have allowed for pants.
Though this was the second robot Colt had seen, he was still mesmerized by its single eye. It sat square in the middle of a head that was shaped like a capsule that had been cut in half. Its arms looked like the corrugated tubing that connects a clothes dryer to the wall, and its hands weren’t hands at all. They were large pinchers that reminded Colt of vise grips.
“Forgive me,” Agent Richmond said. “I’d like to introduce my partner, Agent D3X.”
“Good to see you,” Grandpa McAlister said as he appeared from the hallway. He gently placed his hand on Colt’s shoulder and nudged him to the side so the agents could come in.
“It’s been too long,” Agent Richmond said as he slipped past Colt.
Agent D3X followed, his movements surprisingly fluid considering the robot’s size. Grandpa McAlister invited them both to take a seat on the couch before offering Agent Richmond a cup of coffee.
“Oh, no, thank you,” Agent Richmond said before he sat down. “I have to tell you, I was real sorry to hear about Roger.”
“I appreciate that,” McAlister said.
“If we had known that Mary was investigating Trident . . .”
Grandpa McAlister raised his hand. “I know,” he said, “but there’s no need to spend time on something that can’t be fixed, so let’s focus on what we can do to protect my grandson.”
“As far as we can tell, the two are connected.”
“It was bound to happen sooner or later,” Grandpa McAlister said. “Have they struck any of the gateways yet?”
Agent Richmond looked at Colt, then turned back to Grandpa McAlister. “There’s not much I can say on the record.”
“I understand.”
“What I can tell you is that we got a report about a break-in,” Richmond said, looking directly at Colt. “Someone stole your mother’s computer from her office.”
