Alien Nation

by Gini Koch

  We still hadn’t been spotted and to everyone’s credit, we all stayed low and silent. Did my best to assess the scene. Got nothing, other than the feeling that Kozlow and Nerida were waiting for something. Us, probably.

  Made the “stay put” hand signal that hopefully was clear to the guys. Then I stood up.

  “Interesting setup,” I said as I walked fully into this section. “I’d like to request “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” by Blue Öyster Cult. If you’re cool enough to have that tune, I mean.”

  Kozlow shot me the “really?” look. Nerida went for derisive. “As if we’d give you anything you want?” Yeah, she said it derisively, too.

  This was fine with me. I needed my rage going, and someone being a jerk while holding my friends hostage was a big help. Looked around the room. My Glock was in my hand and I was prepped for a sneak attack. Didn’t see where Mossy might be. Also didn’t spot the guys with me. Hoped that meant Nerida and Kozlow hadn’t spotted them, either.

  “So, let me get this straight. While other people are taking hostages and killing people, you two are just up here playing around?” Started to wander the room. Neither one of them tried to stop me. Made sure I walked slowly and looked where I was going as well as all around.

  “Maybe you haven’t noticed who we have here,” Nerida said. My music changed to “Floaty” by the Foo Fighters.

  Shrugged. “I noticed, yeah. Hey, Christopher. Wondered why you hadn’t come down. I see you were all tied up.”

  This earned me Patented Glare #1. Good to see he was feeling okay.

  “How did you get through the door?” Kozlow asked. He wasn’t asking in a derisive or bored way. He sounded interested.

  Waved my free hand—I was still wearing my gloves. “Insulation’s an amazing thing. So, what’s the plan for you guys up here? I mean, I assume you were the ones ensuring that Cliff’s latest Crazed Madman Speech was broadcast downstairs and such, but it seems sort of weird to have you two sequestered up here by yourselves.”

  “There were reasons,” Nerida said imperiously.

  Couldn’t think of what they might be. My music changed to “Open the Gate” by No Doubt. Put two and two together. “You’re controlling access in and out of the building, aren’t you?”

  Kozlow nodded. Nerida shrugged. “Maybe we are. Maybe we aren’t.”

  Needed a full answer, because if they were controlling Cliff’s floater gate ability, I needed to know how and where and all the other pertinent details. But had no clear idea how to get this out of them without seeming to care about getting it out of them.

  My music changed to “Sex and Death” by Motörhead. Chose to take this as a hint. “Oh, wait! Are you two a couple?”

  Nerida made the “gag me” face. Kozlow glared at her. Not up to Christopher’s standards, but then none were. “Never in a million years,” Nerida said, making the “gag me” sound to emphasize her disgust with my suggestion. “We’re siblings, remember?”

  “Half-siblings, I think. Not that I’m a proponent of any form of incest.” Didn’t think Kozlow was interested in Nerida, but it was clear that she wasn’t just doing the gagging thing because of the familial relationship, and it was also clear that his feelings were hurt by this. “So, why are you up here then, if it wasn’t for nookie?”

  “You’re so focused on sex,” Nerida sneered at me.

  “Probably because I get to have it all the time.”

  “I’ve heard that those who talk about it the most do it the least.” Nerida wasn’t going to win the Comeback Award with replies like that.

  Was between her and Christopher now, so able to look at the equipment. They had a lot of screens they were supposedly keeping an eye on. And none of them showed the stairwells.

  This seemed patently ridiculous. Although, as I thought of it, not every high rise had cameras in the stairwells. Some did, but not all. Though I’d expect them in a building as massive and state of the art as this one. Then again, hadn’t seen any on the way up and was pretty darned sure that Siler had been looking for them, even if none of the rest of us had thought of it.

  So, no stairwell cameras made the electric current running through the door handle more logical. It wasn’t there to just stop us—it was there to stop anyone. Maybe that’s how all those people we’d found near the entrance had died, by coming into the room. We certainly hadn’t found any bodies once we’d moved further into the floor.

  “We’re running communications,” Kozlow answered. “The boss wanted someone he could trust up here.”

  The other screens weren’t showing anything of interest. The restaurant in particular. The observation deck in other particular. The observation deck looked pristine and the restaurant still looked like it was filled with dust. I only knew it was the restaurant because I could just make out a Lyssara dome in there.

  However, they also had a screen that showed the entry door from the stairwell. But they weren’t acting like they thought anyone else was with me. Looked at the picture more carefully. The bodies looked as they had when we’d come into the room. But Siler had moved some of them, rolling the bodies onto their backs, in order to examine them. And he hadn’t moved them back.

  Realized what Mossy was likely doing in his spare time—altering the feeds so that the two up here weren’t alerted to anything untoward elsewhere in the building. And he wasn’t making a move because of the kill switch Kozlow had.

  “Um, and so he picked Nerida? No offense,” I said to her sweetly. Then turned back to Kozlow. “You, I get. Her? Other than planning to short out the entire building and possibly cause it to collapse, I’m not sure why Nerida is even up here.”

  Kozlow shot me the nicest look I’d ever seen from him. “I know. I told them her up here is a bad idea, but . . .” He shrugged.

  “Yeah, no one listens until it’s too late, right? Always the way. But seriously, I get the threat with Christopher, I mean it’s obvious. But if he electrocutes, especially with what you have him attached to, I sincerely think you’ll take out everything in this building. I don’t know how you’d work access in or out if this place went down electronically. And I doubt Gadhavi would appreciate that. He has a lot of money invested in this place.”

  It was a long shot, but Kozlow nodded again, with more emphasis, and put his feet onto the floor. “Exactly! We’re finally someplace safe and he wants to wreck it all.” Knew the “he” Kozlow meant was Cliff.

  “I didn’t think you’d want to be in this region if you could help it.”

  He shrugged. “Yeah, not my preferred location. But you go where the work is.”

  “Why are you telling her anything?” Nerida sounded annoyed. “And we go where the boss says we go. Stop acting as if you have any other options.”

  Kozlow’s eyes narrowed. “Mister Gadhavi would be happy to have me in his organization. With or without the rest of you.”

  Of this I had no doubt. Noted that the three guys in suspended animation had bobbed a little closer to the floor. Meaning, I was pretty sure, that Kozlow was the one controlling that. My music changed to “Give Thanks and Praises” by the Bad Brains.

  This helped my mind give me a big nudge. Cliff thought he was all that and an extra-large bag of chips. LaRue and Reid were pretty damn full of themselves, too. Stephanie was in a class by herself in terms of hubris. Lowe and Kellogg, may they rest in eternal damnation, had been impressed with themselves as well. Casey was a supercilious bitch.

  Meaning Kozlow was surrounded by people who were busy congratulating themselves about how awesome they were. He’d been in prison in Israel before he’d been released. With help from Mahin and a bunch of other people. Because he wasn’t able to escape on his own. Took a wild one that the others weren’t big on letting him forget that. Took another wild one and assumed that Cliff was spending his time ranting and preening and not giving his loyal soldiers any feelin
gs of being necessary or important.

  “I agree with Russell,” I said conversationally as I did the lean and sit on the edge of the desk thing, meaning I looked casual but I was still on my feet and could push off with my butt if necessary. “I mean, whatever you’re doing with my friends is pretty impressive. I’m sure G-Company would have uses for it.”

  “Yeah? It’s not as easy to do as it looks,” he said rather proudly.

  Nerida snorted. “It’s nothing. You can’t even kill anyone with what you can do.”

  Rolled my eyes. “I’m sure you’re not impressed with anything unless it’s you doing it.” Smiled at Kozlow, who snorted a laugh. “And just because something can’t kill doesn’t mean it’s not awesome.” This earned me a Happy Puppy look. “However, I honestly have no idea what you’ve done to them, and I’ve seen a lot of things.”

  “It’s a form of suspended animation,” he shared proudly. “They’re surrounded by an electromagnetic field that essentially freezes them. They aren’t dead, though,” he added quickly, presumably in case that would make me unhappy with him. Which it would, so he was clearly smarter than Nerida. Not that this was a high bar.

  “How can you control it and talk to me at the same time?” Ensured I sounded impressed.

  “It’s my talent,” he said, almost shyly. “I have limited control of electromagnetic fields, and I can create them, too.” He nodded at all the equipment. “Me being up here makes sense because I can draw power from the equipment.”

  “Wow, a lot of power?”

  He shrugged. “Enough for what we need. That’s why it’s not difficult for me to have them suspended.”

  “How did you know they’d come here? What made you realize one of us might come up here?” Made sure to sound like I thought it was all Kozlow’s idea.

  “It seemed logical,” he said. “And that way we’d have prisoners if needed.”

  “Because they’re bait,” Nerida said, in an Aha! Voice.

  “No kidding.” Turned and stared at her. “Bait for whom? Besides me, I mean?”

  She seemed thrown. “Uh, for . . . whoever else is looking for them.” She tried to stare back. She wasn’t very good at it. Lots of blinking.

  “I’m the only one. Whee. You’ve caught me. Sort of.” Sniffed at her in my best Mean Girl impersonation, then turned back to Kozlow. “I sincerely don’t know how you can stand being up here with just her to talk to.”

  He grimaced. “You get used to it.”

  “Do you? Wow, I wouldn’t think that would be possible. So, is she up here merely to have buckets of water sloshing about in the worst place in this building for water to be, or is she doing something more than threatening Christopher, like helping with building access and escape and whatnot?”

  “That’s it,” Kozlow said with a resigned sigh. “They made me carry in all the water, too, because they can’t trust her not to spray it everywhere.”

  “No control? That’s an issue for this kind of skill.”

  “Russell’s ‘suspended animation’ field isn’t strong enough to hold your precious Christopher,” Nerida sneered. “If it wasn’t for me, he’d have escaped already.”

  “Huh. Good to know.”

  Unlike Kozlow, Nerida wasn’t holding anything that looked like a kill switch. She was also perfectly placed and really quite close to me. I didn’t even have to move from where I was because I was braced against the desk.

  “Don’t you want to know why I’m not worried that you have your gun out?” Nerida taunted.

  “Oh my, yes. Breathless with anticipation here.”

  She smirked. “Because, unlike Russell, I’m faster than you are. I only have to think about the water and it’ll flow up his body and fry him.”

  Nodded and looked at Kozlow. “That’s a scary thing, alright. Is she doing anything else? I mean that seriously. Is this literally all she’s good for?”

  “Yeah, and don’t let her fool you. She’s not as fast as she thinks she is,” he said, glaring at Nerida.

  She shot him a simpering sneer in return. Perfect. He was focused on her, she was focused him, and this was the expression I always thought of whenever Nerida was on my mind.

  So I shot her through the head.

  But I put two in her heart as she was going down because, I, too, believed in the double-tap.

  CHAPTER 80

  TURNED THE GUN ON KOZLOW. Hyperspeed being what it was, I had the gun pointed between his eyes before he’d done more than have his jaw drop open.

  “Feel free to give me a reason.”

  “Ah, I have a kill switch,” he said in a rather panicked and hopeful tone.

  “Which is why you’re not dead at this precise time. What does the kill switch go to?”

  “The circuit board. It’s not actually getting current right now.”

  “So, Russell, you need to ask yourself how much you want to destroy this building.”

  “I don’t want to die. So if it’s the building or me . . .”

  “We’ll ponder that. Dudes, are you still there or did you all get captured or something?” Kept eye contact with Kozlow.

  “We’re here,” Jeff said, sounding annoyed. “Siler insisted on us letting you do your thing.”

  “Is that a complaining tone I hear? Why so serious and bitter? One more Crazy Eight down, one in my sights. I’m not seeing the downside to this at the moment.”

  “He wanted to be heroic,” Siler said. “I felt that getting out of this in the easiest way possible was the better choice.”

  “Super-duper. Three things. One: Most of you get Christopher out of that ridiculous deathtrap he’s in.”

  “Ah, I have the kill switch,” Kozlow said in the way one does when trying to remind a superior of something key.

  “And if you use it, you die. Any questions?”

  “No,” Kozlow said. He carefully turned the kill switch off and put it on the desk.

  “Now, was that so hard? I knew you were smarter than Nerida. The second thing is that I want you, Russell, to explain to me how his team is using and controlling Cliff’s floater gates or whatever you guys call them.”

  “He calls it fast transport. It works a lot like your floater gates.”

  “Why not use the term floater gate, then?”

  “Honestly?”

  “Do I look like I want you to lie?”

  “No, you don’t. Honestly, I think it’s because that’s the term you guys use and he refuses to sound the same. I’m not certain how close they are to your gates, though. Ours require clashing harmonic frequencies. I know how to get the right sounds and smash them together. We used to have more people who could do that, but they’re all dead. So, right now, I’m the only one.”

  “Seriously? No one else has bothered to learn this skill?” Wondered if Cliff’s brain had fried or something.

  “It requires some talent,” he said, rather modestly. “Nerida was right—my talent isn’t strong, but it’s specialized, and it’s the right talent for this particular job.”

  “You’re right—G-Company would be thrilled to have you exclusively on their team.” Not that I was going to allow that outcome.

  He blushed. He actually blushed, despite a gun barrel settled between his eyes. This guy hadn’t heard a word of praise for years, possibly decades. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. And the third thing is that I want one of you to get my phone for me.” It was in my back pocket and I didn’t want to risk looking away and giving Kozlow a chance to try to grab my gun from me or similar.

  “I have your phone,” Reader said. “Since I’m allowed to touch your butt because I’m gay.” He also took the kill switch, which action I totally approved of.

  “No you’re not,” Jeff said.

  “Says only you, Jeff. Who am I calling for you, girlfriend?”
>
  “Chernobog.”

  At this Kozlow’s eyes opened wider, but he didn’t say anything.

  “Put it on speaker?” Reader asked.

  “Please and thank you.”

  My music switched off as the phone rang. It rang a few times but then she answered. “Hello?”

  “Boggy baby, how’re they hangin’?”

  “Kitty? Why are you calling me? Was Stryker’s phone busy?”

  “Not sure if that’s a hint that Stryker has intel for me or something, but no, I’m calling you directly. For reasons.”

  “Alright. What might those reasons be?”

  “How much do you love your son?”

  She was silent for a few moments. “I would prefer that you not kill Russell, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “It’s not possible,” Kozlow whispered.

  “In a way it is. But I want to know, how much do you love your son? I ask because I’m sitting here with him, and he seems far more thrown by hearing your voice than by the fact that I have a Glock with a lot of bullets still in the clip sitting on the bridge of his nose.”

  “I didn’t tell him I was still alive, is that a sin?”

  “Not sure. Ask my Mom what she thinks about it.”

  “She approves,” Chernobog said dryly. “Telling someone—someone identified as working against those you’ve aligned with, I might add—that you’re alive and well when the world needs to believe you dead is one of those big don’ts in spy craft.”

  “Why so testy? Did I interrupt another Hacker International Movie Night?”

  “It’s the early afternoon here, so no. Is Russell there?”

  “Mother?” He sounded as freaked out as he looked. “Why didn’t you tell me you were alive?”

  “When should I have done that, Russell? When you were in the Pentagon’s supermax prison or when you were broken out of it and trying to help the lunatic who put a contract out on me to destroy the world?”