by M. G. Herron
I tripped and fell out of the house through the giant hole my truck had made.
Anna yanked me to my feet. With her help, I hobbled away. We took cover behind the porch of the neighboring trailer. I desperately clawed three explosive bullets out of my front pocket, popped out the Kimber’s magazine, shoved the three bullets into the top, and chambered one.
I looked back as Elekatch came through the hole in the trailer. A bright burst of orange lit him up, followed a millisecond later by the pop of an automatic rifle. Elekatch screamed a horrible hissing sound and clutched at his singed body. Another shot exploded near his face, keeping him distracted.
Go, Gonzalez! I thought as I watched.
“Are you okay?” I asked Anna.
She searched her body with her hands. “I think so.”
Dyna rose unsteadily on the other side of Wallart’s trailer. She held her arms up, jerked them to the side with a noisy grunt, and the sleek, oblong spaceship knocked a distracted Elekatch to the ground and shifted my truck back a few feet.
Elekatch actually struggled to get up this time. His severed tentacle leaked onto the ground. The wounds Gonzalez and I had dealt with our weapons oozed yellow blood and his thick, black tongue lolled out.
Even so, I knew he was still dangerous. I held my ground, gripping my gun. I could hear Anna’s ragged breathing behind me but did not dare move to expose her again.
I heard another crack and an orange burst exploded against Elekatch’s body. He winced but withstood the blast, and locked eyes with me.
“Gunn, don’t!” Dyna shouted.
I was suddenly not in the trailer park at all.
I was on a tiny volcanic island in the middle of a great ocean. I could breathe so easily. The air was clean and, at least in comparison to the unrelenting Texas heat, cool. The sun was low—a beautiful sunset that painted the horizon with brushstrokes of pink and orange. I took a deep breath, and sighed. It was so peaceful here, like a scene from a movie.
But wasn’t it the middle of the afternoon?
Looking down, I saw Anna basking on the beach in a bikini, her creamy thighs and belly glowing in the orange-pink sunset.
She sat up on her arms and pointed. “What’s that?”
A wave had begun to form on the horizon, like a blue mountain sparkling in the sunlight. As I watched, my calm began to fade, and panic gripped my throat with an icy hand. The wave rose into a tsunami, filling the pink-orange sky and casting our little island into shadow.
The tide receded a hundred feet in a matter of seconds.
Desperately, I closed my eyes and imagined a protective wall forming in front of us. When I opened my eyes, a curved spread of solid steel as tall as my head stood between us and the oncoming wave.
I concentrated and a second later, another piece of steel materialized. It fused to the first, extending it upward.
The wave came on, white foam gathering at its peak.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I added another piece, and then another until there was a twenty-foot tall, solid metal barrier of my own standing between us and the tidal wave.
Anna gaped at it. “Is that supposed to save us? The wave will just flatten it!”
“It’s not real! Now, hold on!”
I grabbed her and pulled her in close to the base of the metal barrier. The whole island went dark as the wave curved overhead. I gritted my teeth, closed my eyes, and focused my whole being on holding up that wall, on envisioning it as flexible and waterproof and impenetrable.
Impenetrable! The word repeated in my mind. The wave crashed, salty spray soaked our bodies, and—
My eyes shot open.
I was staring down the barrel of my Kimber 1911, which I held pointed at my own face. Disgusted and filled with revulsion, I turned the gun away.
Elekatch, injured and on the ground less than ten feet away, stared at me with those beady eyes. He hissed when he realized I’d broken free of his simulated nightmare.
I turned the gun toward him and squeezed the trigger. The explosive round sank into his eye and erupted in a burst of mustard-colored gore.
Six visible tentacles went limp at once. Simultaneously, the shoving, stabbing force that had assaulted my mind dissipated.
Anna blinked. “Gunn? Gunn!” She threw her arms around me. “Were we just on a beach or did I dream that?”
I lowered us both to the grass and let out a sigh. “You’re safe now. I got you.”
25
It wasn’t long before people began to get nosy, inching up the street and peering out of their hiding spots behind trailers and trucks. Dyna strode toward them with a polite smile, gathering the gawkers into a tight circle around her. Holding up a finger, she turned slowly as a pattern of yellow lights danced across her hair, slowly at first and rapidly gaining speed. Between one blink and the next, yellow darkened to red and snapped out a staccato strobe. The burning intensity of the light show forced me to avert my eyes as a high-pitched warble made me work my jaw and squint. Then it cut out. When I looked back at Dyna, the people who had gathered around her were shaking their heads and wandering away with bemused looks on their faces.
“We must leave immediately,” Dyna said when she stood next to us again. “It would be a disaster if your authorities found us—a clear contravention of Federation directives, not that they know how much those contribute to intergalactic peace and prosperity. I already have enough cleaning up to do…”
Anna stood and regarded Dyna, cocking her head to one side. Then her eyes went wide. “You’re not from here, are you?”
Dyna’s head snapped to Anna. The Peacekeeper stepped forward, raising a hand to Anna’s temple. I jumped to my feet, but Dyna was too quick. Anna’s eyes rolled back into her head and her knees buckled. I caught her in my arms as she collapsed, unconscious.
“Was that really necessary?” I asked.
“Yes.”
Gonzalez snorted.
“You shut it.”
“Or what?”
“Or I’ll make you.”
“Looks like you’ve got your hands full.” Gonzalez’s eyes scanned Anna’s limp body in my arms.
“I’ll wipe her memory later,” Dyna said. “For now, place her in the vehicle. And let us hope that Elekatch did not cause any permanent damage.”
Dyna muttered a few more choice words under her breath as she kicked into the remains of Patricia Wallart’s decimated trailer. Now that the hunt for our fugitive was over, she could return to worrying about petty bureaucratic policies. Despite her grumbling, her complaints were a clear sign to me that things had gone back to normal—or as normal as they could be, all things considered.
I carried Anna to the truck, brushed beads of glass onto the ground, and laid her in the back seat. She breathed easily, and for a moment, I was overcome with a strange feeling that bubbled up in my gut—half relief, half something else I wasn’t ready to acknowledge.
I grabbed a bowie knife from the center console, then stepped through the rubble of the trashed trailer until I reached Elekatch’s warm body. While Gonzalez and Dyna were searching through the trailer and not paying attention to me, I bent down and sliced off a foot-long length one of the Pharsei’s tentacles, then returned to my truck, where I stashed it in the lockbox. The souvenir I needed to get my payment from the Gatekeeper.
I also took a moment send Alek a text message—the reply I had forgotten to send him before. I knew he’d forgive me for the slow response once he understood what had happened in the interim; and that I could trust him to do what I asked without explanation.
I returned to join Gonzalez and Dyna inside. They’d found Patricia Wallart cowering in the bathtub. Dyna squatted next to her. The terrified woman was working her mouth, but no words came out. Gonzalez and Dyna both watched with pity in their eyes.
“Ms. Wallart?” I said as I approached tentatively. “Ms. Wallart, are you okay?”
She wore an ankle-length nightgown and had messy rollers in her hair. Several of
the foam tubes had fallen into the tub. She pushed her hair out of her face and blinked a few times. “How’d y’all get into my house?”
“Er, it’s just a misunderstanding, ma’am. We’ll be out of your hair momentarily.” No pun intended.
She stared off into space, then repeated, “How’d y’all get into my house?”
I glanced behind me and realized why Dyna and Gonzalez had been staring at her, not saying anything.
“It doesn’t seem like she’s all there,” Gonzalez said.
“Is there anything we can do?” I asked.
Dyna pursed her lips, wrinkled her brow, then gave a sad shake of her head. “Elekatch broke her mind to use her for cover. Even though his starcraft was right here in her living room, she probably couldn’t see it for what it was. That kind of alteration is irreversible.”
If I hadn’t gotten that mental wall up in time, would Anna and I have ended up like Patricia Wallart, half-cracked and gibbering? I shuddered to think of it.
“You two, clear out,” Dyna said. “I’ll take care of her. I can’t heal her, but I can at least show her some mercy and wipe away her traumatic memories.”
“Wait,” I said. “Let me ask her something first.”
I knelt down next to the tub and took the woman’s hand in my own. “Ms. Wallart, when was the last time you saw Cameron Kovak?”
Her face lit up. “Cam? You know Cam? He’s such a sweet man. He was by here just the other day.”
It was my turn to nod sadly. Elekatch had manipulated himself quite the cover. Gonzalez blew out a frustrated breath. I empathized. It gouged knowing how close we’d both come to this spaceship without knowing it existed.
“One more question…” I lowered my voice. “Are you Marsha Marshall?”
“Who?” She sounded like a confused owl. “Who?”
I pursed my lips. “Marsha Marshall—the paranormal investigations blogger.”
She shook her head and looked around her in dismay. “How’d y’all get into my house?”
I let the woman’s hand go and stood. Gonzalez and I went back into the living room. Dyna whispered soothing words to Patricia, then held up a finger as she’d done with the crowd outside. The mesmerizing pattern of lights splashed against the mirror and bathroom walls. Averting our eyes, Gonzalez and I walked back outside. As we stepped around Elekatch’s body, there was a clicking, whirring noise, and then a bright flash of light at our backs.
“What the hell am I supposed to put in my report, Gunn?” the detective asked.
“What people will believe.”
She grunted. “No one will believe any of this.”
“Exactly.”
“When all this is over, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”
“I suppose I do.”
“Clever, though, manipulating the mind of Kovak’s innocent mistress.”
“It’s sick. I promise, we’ll have plenty of time to talk about it later. For now, Dyna’s right, we need to get out of here before your colleagues arrive. Come on, help me out with the truck.”
I shifted it into neutral and, with Gonzalez’s help, we rolled the pickup the rest of the way back onto the lawn.
Once she was done with Patricia Wallart, Dyna used her abilities to lift Elekatch’s body through a porthole into his ship. It didn’t seem like there was a lot of room in there, but the tentacled creature’s body hadn’t stiffened yet, and she was able to fit him in. Then she levitated the ship out of the trailer and into the bed of my truck. The Ford’s chassis sank six inches as the ship’s weight came down and the nose of the sleek silver bullet stuck up at an angle over the cab. When Dyna slapped a cloaking device on the metal hull, the ship shimmered and became invisible.
A Ford F-150 is as reliable a vehicle as I’ve ever driven. When I turned the key, the engine sputtered in protest but turned over.
We dropped Gonzalez off at her SUV, and we were back on I-35 heading north to Austin just as the cops with their spinning lights and squealing sirens zoomed south on the opposite side. They took the exit that would bring them to the trailer park, where they would find nothing but the remnants of a knockdown drag out fight, some weird stains and blast marks, and a trailer park full of folks who wouldn’t remember anything—or if they did, wouldn’t be coherent enough to make sense.
I doubted they’d ever figure out what really happened. And everyone would move on with their happy, ignorant lives. I almost envied them.
Almost.
Alek texted me back with Anna’s address. Fortunately, she lived in a small bungalow in a quiet neighborhood on the south side of town, so we didn’t attract too much attention when Dyna carried her, still unconscious, inside. Gonzalez and I watched together as red lights flickered in the bedroom window.
“What will she remember?” I asked when Dyna came out of the house.
“She will wake tomorrow knowing nothing of the last few hours. The day or two before that will be fuzzy, as if she’d been intoxicated.”
I grunted. I hoped she would remember our date, but maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if she didn’t. Getting kidnapped by an alien isn’t exactly my idea of a good first impression.
“If you try that memory wiping trick on me,” Gonzalez said, “You’d do well to remember that I’ve got a gun and know how to use it.”
Dyna regarded Gonzalez coolly. “I have no choice in the matter. It is strictly against—”
“Federation policy,” I interrupted. “Yeah, yeah, I know. But you owe us for helping you stop Elekatch. The least you could do is leave both of our memories intact. Not only do I need someone to talk to about this, but what happens if another lunatic offworlder stops by to pay our little hometown a visit? Isn’t that why you wanted my help in the first place?”
“Will you agree to become an agent of the Federation?”
“No.”
Sheila stepped up so we stood shoulder to shoulder, facing the Peacekeeper. Dyna looked back and forth between us.
“This is highly irregular,” Dyna said.
“If you want my help, it’s on my terms,” I insisted. “Beggars can’t be choosers.”
Despite Dyna’s calm appearance, I could tell by the set of her shoulders that I had her cornered. Whatever the Tetrad had planned for Earth, whatever they had sent Elekatch here to do, scared the tar out of her. She needed someone to be her eyes and ears. That’s why she bothered to befriend and try to recruit me in the first place, and it may have cost Kilos his life. Were I not involved, I have no doubt that she and Kilos could have tracked Elekatch more quickly and killed him on their own. Instead, they spent extra time trying to drag me into it. I could see Dyna doing the mental math on this decision and struggling to find a balance.
“Very well,” she finally said. “I shall leave the detective out of my report. You, Gunn, will be listed as an anonymous informant.”
“Why anonymous?”
“A necessary precaution. Additionally, I must request that you both be discreet. Keep what you’ve learned and seen to yourselves.”
“That won’t be hard,” I said.
“So, you agree then?”
“I do.”
“Fine.” Gonzalez stuck her jaw out combatively, as if daring Dyna to change her mind. “Not like anyone would believe me anyhow. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to find Simmons and apologize. Talk about not following procedures. I’ll have hell to pay for ditching him downtown.”
“Thanks, Sheila,” I said. “I owe you one.”
“And I won’t forget it.”
She climbed into her SUV. Dyna and I watched her go.
“She and I may have more in common than my analysis originally indicated,” Dyna mused aloud as Gonzalez’s SUV turned the corner.
I grunted. “No comment. Now, come on. I’m worried about your furry friend.”
Dyna cocked her head and looked up at the sky. A hot wind blew across us, and then there was the sound of something large and metallic setting down on the str
eet near my truck.
The sleek triangular craft about the size of a commercial shipping container shimmered into view. I took note of the aerodynamic angles and the distinct lack of wings before it became invisible again, blending with its surroundings. Whether this was their starship or merely the shuttle, it looked more advanced than the most futuristic jet fighter I’d ever seen.
“I directed our starcraft to pick him up while we were chasing Elekatch,” Dyna said. “The shipmind has informed me that he is unconscious, but alive. Kilos is a fighter. It will be a close thing, but we should be able to keep him alive until we get back to our homeworld, where he can be healed.”
She swallowed, looking less confident than she sounded.
“I hope so,” I said. “He seems like a good soldier.”
“He is.” The musical tones in Dyna’s voice crooned in a minor key. “Thank you for your help, Anderson Gunn. You have changed the way I think about this planet of yours.”
“You’ve opened my eyes to many things, as well.”
“Remember our agreement.”
“Don’t think this changes anything. I’m a free agent. I don’t work for you, or the Federation of Lodi. I don’t work for anyone but myself.”
“Very well. But remember what you promised. Do not speak of this to anyone except the detective. And if you hear or see anything out of the ordinary, I want you to tell me.”
“I just found out that a colony of aliens lives in Austin, and tonight we took out the Federation’s most wanted criminal Pharsei. What could be weirder than that?”
She pursed her lips. “The Tetrad may be evil, but they are not weak. They sent Elekatch to your planet to sow chaos at the fringes of the Federation’s reach. They will do so again.”
I nodded soberly. “How do I get in touch if I do hear something?”
Dyna reached into her belt and pulled out a small digital recording device, like the kind you’d buy at any electronics store.
“I will leave a small drone in orbit around your planet. It will transmit any recording you make on this device directly to me.” She tapped the knots on her head. “As long as I’m within range of a Federation beacon, I will receive your message within a cycle or two.”
