V: The Florida Project

by Tim Sullivan

  "He came looking for you. Curious behavior for one of your gladiators, I'd say."

  Sabrina recalled how her colleagues had made such jokes about Jack. Jock, ape, muscle-bound clod, they had called him. But none of them had really known him. He was intelligent and, in spite of his profession, gentle. She had thought about him often since she had been trapped here, but she never thought he would be able to track her down.

  "Do you know this man, Dr. Fontaine?" Thorkel asked.

  "Yes," Sabrina said, wiping away her tears. "Yes, I know him."

  There was no use in trying to hide it. Her reaction had given her feelings for Jack away the moment she had seen him, if there had ever been any doubt in Morrow's mind to begin with.

  Jack stood proudly in the center of the arena now. He showed no fear in spite of what he had just seen. He had considered T.J. Devereaux a friend, even though they had only known one another for a short time. T.J. would not have died in vain if Jack could help it.

  "Sabrina," he said in a clear voice, "I love you."

  "Jack!" she cried. She started out of her seat, but Dr. Morrow's hand on her arm restrained her. She could have broken free of his grip, but she was afraid it would go worse for Jack if she did.

  Dr. Morrow dismissed those remaining in the arena with an imperious wave of his hand. Jack was taken away, stealing one last glance at Sabrina before the door in the arena wall closed behind him.

  "Yes," Dr. Morrow said, "he will do very well in the experimental combat arena. I'm certain of it."

  "Is there ..." Sabrina could hardly speak, she was so choked with emotion.

  "Did you say something, Dr. Fontaine?"

  Is there ... any way that you could use another combatant perhaps a nonhuman one?"

  Non human—a very interesting idea," Dr. Morrow mused, but not a very practical one. No, we must have a human, I'm afraid."

  Sabrina was ashamed to be begging, even for Jack's Life. She had no choice, though.

  II you must have a human," she said, "can you ..."

  "Can I what, Dr. Fontaine?"

  "Can you make it someone else besides Jack?"

  "Ah, you want me to do you a favor." Morrow stared at her through his dark glasses. "And what are you prepared to do for me in return?"

  Sabrina sighed. "I'll do anything you ask," she said meekly.

  "Good," he said, smiling. "Then we understand one another."

  She nodded, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand. Just as Dr. Morrow had predicted, she was beaten. She would work for him.

  But at least she had saved Jack's life.

  Chapter 24

  Like a wild animal, John Tiger had lived in the thick growth of the swamp, eating berries and a snake he had killed. He was slowly working his way back to the reservation by an indirect route. He wasn't going to be caught out in the open, no matter what. It troubled him that Billy would have to wait for help while he backtracked, but he wouldn't be able to do much if they captured him. He had to stay free if Billy was to have a chance.

  His clothes torn and dirty, John crouched as he made his way through a stand of palmettos. Suddenly he stopped moving, hearing voices.

  A frog croaked near him. A mosquito buzzed by his face, but he didn't slap at it. He lay flat on his stomach in the mud.

  The voices came closer, and there was another sound accompanying them: the soft splash of paddles striking water. Were they human? Perhaps—and perhaps not. The Visitors could have adopted this mode of swamp travel to look for him.

  The voices came closer still, gaining clarity. They sounded like men's voices, speaking in low voices. And then he heard a woman's higher tones.

  Marie.

  John fought his way out through the thistles and thorns. "Marie!" he shouted. He could see them, Marie and some men in canoes, as they rounded an old dead tree whose branches stretched out of the water like the hand of a skeleton. The two CIA men were with her, and Martin was leading them!

  "Martin! It's me, John Tiger!"

  They looked up and saw him as he splashed waist-high into the water.

  "Johnny!" Marie cried. "Watch out for 'gators."

  "Get back on land, John," Martin called out to him. "We'll be there in a minute, son."

  The big CIA man started paddling toward him, but John didn't follow Martin's advice. He waded through the lily pads to meet them.

  "I found their camp," he told them breathlessly. "But they saw me, and they've been chasing me ever since."

  "Come on now, boy," Martin said. He reached out to pull John in. "There's not much room in here for three, but I guess we'll manage somehow."

  John was in water up to his chest now. He couldn't have been more than four feet from the canoe. He raised his hand and surged forward. Martin's powerful fingers grasped his and began to pull him out of the water.

  A blue flash blinded John for a moment. At first he thought it was the sun reflected off the water, but then he smelled the terrible odor of burned flesh.

  Martin was staring straight into his eyes. In his chest was a smoking hole through which John could see daylight.

  Martin tried to speak, but he couldn't. He slumped over, a hand dangling in the water. John still held the other hand in his own.

  "Martin." He had known this man all his life. He was like a relative. He couldn't just die like this.

  Blue beams crisscrossed the air behind the canoe, but John didn't move. He just held on to Martin's hand.

  "Johnny!" Marie cried from the other canoe.

  Tyler was with her. He pulled out a laser gun and fired at a Visitor coming in low on an antigravity disk. The Visitor was hit in the head. He went into the water, yowling in pain.

  Chris was firing too. He burned the pins out from another one. One disk after another sliced into the water.

  As another flew in over them, Marie fired a .410 shotgun at him. She didn't hit him, since he was almost directly overhead, but the blast flipped his antigravity disk neatly over and dumped him in with his companions.

  She blew another one off his disk a moment later. John watched her and the other two fighting, but it didn't seem real. Only when he saw the Visitor coming up behind her did he take action.

  Chris was busy firing in the other direction as John leaped into the canoe and dived from there onto the disk. He caught the Visitor by the legs, but he didn't succeed in toppling him.

  The alien fell to his hands and knees, John's torso sprawled across the disk under his chest. The creature fumbled with his laser pistol, trying to get off a shot.

  John drew his knife out. Just as the Visitor trained his laser on him, John plunged the knife into his guts.

  Black lips drew back from the Visitor's fanged mouth, and blue-green ichor spilled onto John's hand. He tossed the body off the disk and stood proudly on it in the Visitor's place.

  There were still four or five Visitors buzzing the two canoes. None of them seemed to be aware of the hijacking that had just taken place under their noses. John tried to steer the disk, found it easy, and joined the skirmish once again.

  Tyler shot another Visitor off his disk just as John came up behind one of the others. Reaching over, he tapped the alien on the shoulder.

  The Visitor stopped firing his laser pistol and turned his head slowly. John smiled at him.

  "See that?" John pointed into the distance with his index finger.

  The Visitor looked away to see what John meant. When he turned around again, he was met with a terrific uppercut that lifted him right off the disk, headfirst into the water.

  "All right!" Chris shouted from below.

  John smiled but not for long. A Visitor was coming right for him laser pistol pointed straight at his head.

  Something like a thunderclap exploded, and the Visitor clutched his chest as he flew into the water.

  Marie sat below in the rocking canoe, shotgun smoking in her hands. The smell of gunpowder permeated the damp air.

  The remaining two Visitors glanced at e
ach other and shot off into the swamp as fast as their disks would carry them.

  Chapter 25

  "These men are not our enemies," John told the assembled tribe in front of the visitors' center. "I saw them fight bravely against the Visitors, and I believe they will help us."

  "You saw them fight for their lives, John Tiger," a middle-aged man in the crowd said, "but if they hadn't come here, maybe Martin Wooster would be alive today."

  "Martin knew what he was getting himself into," John replied. "I was there when he invited these men into his office to talk. He decided it would be best for our people if he helped them find the Visitors' camp."

  "They left us alone until these CIA men came," a woman shouted angrily. "Maybe they'll leave us alone when they're gone."

  "Leave us alone?" Marie spoke up. "Do you call kidnapping people whenever they stray away from the village leaving us alone?"

  "We don't know that they were kidnapped," the woman persisted. "You want to believe that, Marie, and we all know why. You don't want to believe your man walked out on you."

  "Billy didn't walk out on me," Marie said through clenched teeth he was taken forcibly."

  "How do you know? Did you see it happen?"

  "I don't have to see it rain to know there are clouds in the sky," Marie replied.

  "I think Marie's right," another woman put in. "Nothing has been right around here lately. The animals are nervous, people vanishing, and there are strange sounds out in the swamp at night."

  A murmur of agreement rose from the crowd.

  "Look," John Tiger said, "we're five, six hundred strong. We can put up a fight, at least. The rest of the Visitors were driven from the Earth, but those out in the swamp stayed. That means they've developed a cure for the Red Dust. All of the earth is in danger once again unless they are stopped."

  Ham and Chris looked at each other as the Indians shouted their approval of what John had just said. "He's quite a politician," Chris said, grinning.

  "The next chief," Ham agreed.

  "Let's go out there and deal with them now!" someone shouted.

  The crowd roared, some of the men starting toward their homes to get guns.

  "Wait a minute!" Ham shouted. "Wait just a minute!"

  After a few seconds they calmed down enough for Ham to be heard.

  "I know you're ready to fight," he said, "but it's going to require a little planning. You can't just run out there and start shooting."

  "Why not?" several people wanted to know.

  "Because you'll lose."

  An irritated buzz rippled through the crowd.

  "You won't lose because of lack of courage or fighting ability. You'll lose because the Visitors have got advanced technology. You just don't have the weapons to fight them with."

  "Well, what are we going to do, Ham Tyler?" Marie demanded. "Wait here until we're all killed? At least we can go down fighting."

  "I didn't say you shouldn't fight, only that you don't have the weapons to fight them. I can get you those weapons."

  "Do it, then," John Tiger said. "Let's not waste any more time."

  "Just lead me to a phone," Ham said. "And I'll have them here by this time tomorrow, if not sooner."

  "What do we do in the meantime?"

  "Plan our strategy." Ham flashed a rare grin. "We can beat those lizards."

  John nodded and led Ham and Chris inside the building to Martin's oifice. Marie went with them.

  "So they've appointed you acting chief," Ham said.

  "That's right."

  Ham picked up the phone and dialed Los Angeles. In the quiet room, the tone could be heard even over the air conditioner.

  After four rings, the receiver clicked. "Hello?" said a faint voice.

  "Hello, this is Ham Tyler calling. I'd like to speak to Mike Donovan or Julie Parrish, please."

  Chapter 26

  "Do you find our laboratories interesting, Dr. Fontain" Morrow asked as they walked through the compound's genetic facility.

  "I'd be lying if I said no," Sabrina admitted.

  They stopped to look at a hologram magnifying a cell to the size of a football. In three dimensions all the organelles could be seen from any angle, even while they were inside the pulsing cell wall. Color enhancement emphasized the difference between the genes that were found naturally inside the cell and those introduced in the laboratory.

  "Sit down at the console," Dr. Morrow instructed her. "Get the feel of it."

  She touched a red rectangle on the console, and it began to glow. The hologram showed a gene, like a tiny red coil, being inserted into the cell.

  "Is this a training device?" she asked.

  "No, you have just added a gene to that cell."

  "How does it work?" Sabrina asked.

  "There is a miniaturized robot that responds positronically to your command. We can arrange it so that you need only speak to make it do your will."

  Make it do your will. That was the key to the way the Visitors thought. Making things do your will—and people too. To Dr. Morrow, a perfect world would be one in which he was never questioned, never challenged—except by his superiors, of course.

  "It's an amazing machine, Dr. Morrow," Sabrina said. "What I don't understand is why, when you have technology like this, you need me and Dr. Thorkel."

  "There were others too. Like you, they refused to cooperate. After a while I grew tired of their intransigence."

  The iciness of his tone chilled her to the marrow, but she tried not to show it. "But that doesn't answer my question, Dr. Morrow."

  "Very well, I shall answer you." He bowed his head in thought for a moment and then said, "We wouldn't need you if we had more time."

  If they had more time. Perhaps the antitoxin didn't cope with the bacteria for very long. A matter of weeks or months, perhaps.

  "Of course," Dr. Morrow continued, "we would require no aid from native scientists otherwise. But there are certain peculiarities about mammalian gene structure that are puzzling. In time we would come to understand them, but ..."

  "But there is no time," Sabrina finished for him. "I see."

  "Yes, clever creature that you are, I knew that you would comprehend our situation once your stubbornness was overcome."

  "I'm only doing this to save Jack, you know."

  "Yes, but I see your scientific curiosity is already piqued by what you've seen here. In time I am certain that you'll wish to work with me without coercion."

  Sabrina started to protest, but then she thought better of it. Perhaps it was a better strategy to remain silent and let Morrow labor under his delusion that she wouldn't be able to resist. If she continually voiced her true feelings, she might find herself at an even greater disadvantage.

  "Come," Dr. Morrow said. "I want to show you something, Dr. Fontaine."

  "Call me Sabrina," she said.

  Dr. Morrow seemed pleased. "Sabrina, if you'll follow me."

  He led her through a warren of laboratories and storage areas. At the end of a long corridor, two sentries stood in front of a door.

  "What do you think our work is here on Earth?" Dr. Morrow asked as they approached the door.

  "You've succeeded in developing an antitoxin," Sabrina said, measuring her words carefully, "and you've achieved remarkable results in genetic engineering."

  "Yes, we've synthesized a virus that holds the bacteria at bay for a while." He looked straight at her, a cipher behind his dark glasses. "You guessed that, didn't you?"

  "Guessed?" She tried to play dumb. "Guessed what?"

  "That we have not been completely successful in fighting the Red Dust. But we will be, in the end."

  They stood before the two lizard-faced sentries now. Dr. Morrow removed a pointed crystal object from his lab coat pocket.

  " The things we have just been discussing are extraneous to our real work. Behold."

  He opened the door.

  Across the threshold were endless banks of tiny, podlike sacs. Inside them were i
nfants, curled in the fetal position with their eyes shut. They were breathing, floating in nutrient fluid within the artificial wombs. As Sabrina examined them more closely, she saw that the babies had characteristics of both humans and Visitors. Some were pink and some were green, but the pink ones had ridges in their skulls or clawed fingers, while the green ones possessed upturned noses, puckered little mouths, or tufts of red hair on their scaly heads.

  It was horrible but fascinating.

  "You have heard of the child Elizabeth?" Dr. Morrow asked. "Her birth was an experiment that succeeded. But even so, we don't quite know how it succeeded. You might say it was an accident. We are very close to understanding how it worked. That is our real purpose here."

  "And when you understand how it worked?" Sabrina asked. "What then?"

  "Then there will be another child like Elizabeth, and we will raise it."

  Chapter 27

  The two soldiers stood before Dr Morrow. His human makeup made him no less intimidating in their eyes. They waited for him to speak.

  "So you let them escape," he said in their own tongue.

  "We were outnumbered," one of them blurted out.

  "Then you should have died."

  They both fell silent. They had just heard the death sentence, and there was nothing they could do to change it. They exchanged glances, both of them wishing they had never been assigned Earth duty.

  A communication device on Dr. Morrow's desk trilled, announcing a visitor outside his quarters. "Go now," he said to the unfortunate soldiers. "I will deal with your execution later."

  The door slid open, and they nearly collided with the incoming Dr. Thorkel.

  "Dr. Thorkel," Morrow said. "So good of you to come."

  As if he had any choice, having been summoned. "What was wrong with those two?" he asked.

  "Nothing, nothing. Please come in and sit down."

  Dr. Thorkel selected a chair and seated himself, folding his arms over his chest as he waited for Dr. Morrow to tell him what was on his mind. He had come to expect the alien scientist to toy with him a bit before coming to the point.

  "You are a Terran," Dr. Morrow began, "and I am a Sirian."