RED MIST FALLING

by Richard T Green

‘I have informed them of that. However, in their opinion your time has now run out. Following the death of Daisy Farrow the situation has changed drastically. We now have a new set of orders.’

  He looked down momentarily, out of the corner of my eye I noticed Ryland Cooper shaking his head. Something epic was coming, that was painfully obvious.

  ‘Your time with us however is not yet over. You have been given a new mission. One which I know is within territory more familiar to you.’

  The sweat began to bead on my forehead again. Scott hadn't said it yet, but I knew only too well what the next sentence would be.

  ‘Our revered orders are that, in the PM's own words, “the threat must be extinguished”. I believe you prefer the word nullified, Madeline.’ The words were spoken with a heavy slice of sarcasm, but it wasn't aimed at me.

  ‘But what… what about Zana?’

  ‘All seven are to be nullified.’

  I leapt to my feet, emotions spiralling out of control. ‘No!’ Not Zana. She's the key to all this…’

  I slammed my fists onto the desk, felt Ryland Cooper's arms around me but shrugged them away. ‘Can't they see any further than their own fat noses?’

  ‘Maddie!’ The big man put an arm round my shoulders, I allowed him to guide me back to the chair, knowing my anger was futile. He took my hand. ‘We all feel the same way… stupid fucking bureaucrats who wield the power but know nothing; cowardly assholes scared shitless about their own careers. It stinks.’

  I wiped the sweat away, unable to stop my lips trembling as I spat out the words. ‘There's a lot more of them coming in two days, so what the hell difference does taking seven of them out make?’

  Duncan Scott let out a huge sigh. ‘I have tried to talk this down until I am blue in the face Madeline, but to no avail. The military are on red alert as we speak; the PM believes we can handle any potential threat that may materialize. And he has been advised that taking out the seven will show statement of intent.’

  ‘What a fucking joke.’

  ‘Everyone in this room agrees with that,’ he said with a shake of his head.

  Sheer panic began to overcome me, I tried to find words I knew in my heart would make no difference. ‘Sir, surely… surely it's better to arrest them, bang them up, charge them? Murder, manslaughter, intent to kill, there's a shitload of laws they must have broken? Anything but… but this.’

  For a moment he looked even more uncomfortable, glanced across to Ryland Cooper. ‘They can't be brought to justice, Madeline. There are no laws in existence to do so.’

  ‘What? Why?’

  For a few seconds no one spoke, and then Ryland Cooper lifted his eyes from the floor. ‘You've got to tell her now sir,’ he said quietly.

  Duncan Scott looked petrified. ‘Madeline, if we tell you the whole truth you must understand you become one of the privileged few who are party to extremely sensitive information. Do you also understand what that means for you in terms of national security?’

  I was hearing the words, but all I could see was Zana's face as she laughed like a little girl and rubbed freezing cold snow around my head. All I could feel was the touch of her skin and her sweet lips against mine. All I knew was that however this was going to end, I had to be the one to end it.

  I had to know the truth.

  ‘Whatever it takes, sir,’ I said firmly.

  He stood up and walked around the desk so he was close to the girl who was about to become one of the few. ‘I am assuming you do not know what the letters D.I.A.L. that make up our codename actually stand for?’

  I shook my head.

  It was Ryland Cooper who filled in the blanks.

  ‘We are the Department for the Investigation of Alien Life.’

  Chapter 56

  My brain froze. The room around me disappeared in a fog of nothingness. Ryland Cooper’s words echoed over and over, getting more distant with each repetition. My throat wanted to gag, my stomach wanted to rid itself of its contents.

  ‘Madeline?’ Someone spoke, I thought. I didn't know who. The voice was too far away. Then I could see Zana's face… but it wasn't her face. She looked like Daisy, bits of alien metal all over her. I tried to scream, nothing came out.

  ‘Madeline… say something?’ Another voice. I closed my eyes, tight, like a little girl trying to force sleep. That was worse; awful images, horrific sounds. I opened my eyes again, my vision clearing… Duncan Scott, leaning over me, a concerned look on his face.

  I found my voice, just. ‘No…’ it was a whisper.

  Ryland Cooper sat on his chair looking worried to death. ‘I'm sorry Maddie, we couldn't tell you… you weren't a DIAL agent.’

  ‘She… she's human.’ My voice gave away my pain, my desolation. ’Every bit of her… I know every bit of her.’

  ‘No Maddie, she's not of this world. None of them are.’

  Then Miles finally spoke up, a bitter sarcastic smile of his face. ‘She's probably a shape-shifter.’

  ‘A shape..?’

  ‘Yeah, you know. One of those alien beings who can take on any shape they want. In reality she's a three-hundred pound slimy black monster with tentacles sticking out everywhere and six eyes!’

  That was it. The last straw. The switch that finally flicked my stunned body to life. ‘You fucking piece of shit…’ I lunged at Miles, my hands locking around his throat as the two of us crashed to the floor. He looked scared to death, and that spurred me on. I landed one hard punch, saw the blood spatter from his nose before Ryland Cooper got to me.

  He wrenched me away, still trying to lash out wildly. Duncan Scott moved fast too, pulled Miles to his feet and gave him the stare from hell. ‘Get out of here Miles, you insensitive idiot!’ he spat out.

  ‘I was just saying…’ he protested in a very shaky voice as he headed quickly to the door, trying to stop the blood.

  ‘Out!’

  Miles went out.

  Scott adjusted his glasses, which had somehow had managed to stay in place. ‘I'm sorry about that, Madeline. Miles never really believed aliens existed, now he knows they do he's struggling to handle the fact. Are you ok?’

  ‘I could do without shit-heads like him.’

  Coop pulled his chair across next to mine, sat down. ‘This whole situation stinks, Maddie. None of us are going to come out the other side without some scar or other. If we come out of it at all.’

  ‘Does having your insides ripped out count as a scar?’

  He grimaced. ‘I hate this too. But at least now you know.’

  ‘Do you think… she is a shape-shifter?’

  ‘Don't have any truck with that crap. Just a coincidence she looks like us.’

  ‘I can't think, Coop. My head's caved.’

  Duncan Scott handed me a glass of water. ‘We can understand that. But there is little time; I need you in one piece sooner rather than later.’

  I took a swig of the water, and then turned the glass in my hand. ‘You got a bottle of something alcoholic hiding in that desk of yours, sir? That might help glue the pieces back together.’

  He looked at Coop and nodded. ‘Unfortunately not. However, this is bending all the rules, but there comes a time when needs must. Dave's Bar is just around the corner. Go with Coop and take a little time to come to terms with what you now know.’

  I nodded meekly.

  ‘Just a couple though, ok? I need you on top form tomorrow.’

  ‘Tomorrow?’

  ‘Your new mission has to be accomplished in the next twenty-four hours, Madeline.’

  Chapter 57

  Ryland Cooper found us a quiet corner in the bar. It was late, and most of Dave's punters had already headed home.

  He looked sadly at the shattered girl sitting opposite him, taking tiny sips of brandy from the glass she cradled in both hands, staring blankly at nothing.

  He'd known for a while her life was being turned upside down by Zana, known she'd crashed head-first into rediscovering the heart and soul she hers
elf thought was lost forever. And now this.

  He could feel her pain; the girl was still coming to terms with finally caring about someone, and then she's told she's an alien life form. And ordered to nullify her.

  Which when he looked at it in one way, was a tragic irony. Because Madeline’s newly-discovered heart was now the very thing trying its best to break her.

  Ryland Cooper knew he had to do everything he could to keep her in one piece.

  ‘You got any thoughts, Maddie?’

  ‘Yeah. I wish you'd stop calling me Maddie.’

  He smiled, that was a good sign. ‘I wanted to tell you the truth from the off but Scott said no, in a very forceful way.’

  ‘I'd still rather have known.’

  ‘You wasn't a DIAL agent. But there was another reason.’

  I looked up, the first time I'd actually focused on anything other than the brandy glass since we'd sat down. ‘Go on.’

  ‘If we'd asked you to go cozy up with an alien, what would you have said?’

  I nodded slowly. ‘Get your point.’

  ‘That's why we were watching you… for your own safety. We weren't sure if she had any special powers that might have an effect on you.’

  I smiled grimly. ‘She's got plenty of special powers Coop, but they're all very human.’

  The big man smiled, starting to feel a heap of admiration for the girl who'd been hit with more than most human beings could take in a single hour and yet was still trying to find a little humour to keep her sanity.

  ‘There's something I don't understand, Coop. They all look as human as you or me. How did you identify them in the first place?’

  ‘That Rolex you wear so proudly; not quite standard issue right?’

  ‘The panic button.’

  He lifted his sleeve slightly to show me his watch. ‘This here innocent looking device cost more than your bit of bling, even without the solid gold and the diamonds. Because it ain't really a watch. Got two little red lights that flash at me if it picks up unusual levels of radio-activity or DNA it doesn't recognize.’

  ‘So at some point you must have been close to Zana.’

  He nodded. ‘I attended a social function, she was there. One time she brushed past me, set the damn thing off. Thought it must be reading something wrong so I made sure I got up close a couple more times. That's how we found her.’

  ‘Pure fluke then.’

  ‘You could say. We began to watch her, discovered the other six, they all failed the red-light test, and given the field they were working in and increasingly-suspicious activity, we realised they were potentially threatening. Soon after, that’s when you came in.’

  ‘Now I know what you guys do, is this the first close encounter you've had, Coop?’

  He looked down at his orange juice, said hesitantly, ‘For your ears only Maddie, I know of a few other little aliens running around London, but they ain't no threat to anyone.’

  I raised my eyebrows. ‘Am I detecting a but in there somewhere?’

  ‘They ain't exactly common knowledge. No one else in DIAL knows they exist.’

  ‘And there's me thinking you were committed to the cause!’

  ‘Sometimes you gotta listen to your heart. And you don't ever breathe a word of this… otherwise I'll have to kill you myself!’

  I lowered my head, nervous fingers toying with the brandy glass. I didn't look up as I spoke.

  ‘I can't kill her, Coop.’

  ‘You ain't got a choice, not now.’

  ‘Like fuck I haven't!’ I ripped the Rolex from my wrist, fumbled in my pocket for my badge, and threw them both on the table as I stood up. ‘I quit, Coop. That's the choice I just made!’

  ‘Sit down, Maddie!’ the big man hissed in a loud whisper. ‘You ain't hearing me… quitting ain't an option anymore.’

  I slumped back down onto the chair, sank the remaining brandy in one gulp. ‘What's that supposed to mean?’

  He leaned forward, spoke quietly. ‘Why do you think our honoured leaders made that fucking insane decision? Because they know that if the general public discover there have been aliens running around London for months, there will be widespread panic.’

  I let out a sarcastic laugh. ‘So I take out seven, and one day later there's a hell of a lot more of them.’

  ‘That's why it's a fucking insane decision. But now you're a part of it. You know too much, Maddie; there ain't no quitting, at least not until this is over one way or the other.’

  ‘So what happens if I walk away?’

  ‘Let's just say you won't get to walk very far.’

  Chapter 58

  I parted company with Coop, but didn't drive straight home. I parked the car on the Thames embankment, leant on the stone balustrade watching the dark, gently-rippling water flow past me.

  Most of the snow had gone. The temperature has risen a little, and a mist of rain began to drift into my face. Somehow it was a nice feeling.

  I tried to force my mind to make sense of a reality that couldn't get any harsher. There was no sense to make. I was trapped in a mess of impossible contradictions that could never be resolved.

  I’d never felt so helpless in my entire life.

  After a futile half-hour I turned away from the grey river. Legs that seemed like they were made of lead somehow took me back to the car.

  I slipped the key into the lock of the apartment door and stepped inside, leant my weary body against it and cast desolate eyes to the ceiling. I felt cold. The heating was on, the apartment warm. It didn't make any difference.

  I shivered violently, frozen to the core.

  I headed straight for the brandy bottle but checked myself. That had done nothing to help before; it sure wasn't going to help now.

  Drawn to the big windows, eyes I couldn't tear away fixed on Zana's apartment. It was two in the morning, her windows were dark. Silently I wished her a good night, desperately hoping that tonight she at least was finding peaceful sleep.

  I forced my stare away from her windows. Sheer desolation was threatening to overcome me, and looking at her so close and yet so far away was getting too much to bear.

  I fell into bed knowing sleep would be difficult to find, but needing the comfort of a warm duvet. My mind filled with bitter-sweet images I tried to shut away but couldn't. We had made special memories, not so long ago, and yet right now they seemed a lifetime away. Memories that in the space of five minutes had suddenly become the most precious gift anyone could possess.

  I had no choice. I knew that come what may I must see this through to the end. Not for DIAL, not for humanity, not even for myself.

  I had to be there at the end for Zana.

  No matter what I might have to do to end it all.

  I found fitful sleep, finally leaving my bed at nine. Coop had just called, given me the mission details, and together we'd worked out the strategy.

  I had eight hours until the nullifications would begin.

  Ryland Cooper would coordinate the whole thing. I wouldn't use the BMW, Coop would drive me to each hit in his black van. Each of the seven had a spotter, already watching their marks. Once darkness fell the spotters would report on their mark's location, although they knew from previous experience the targets rarely left their homes after dark.

  I wasn't worried about the running order, not for the first five. They could go in any sequence, depending on their location at the right time. Or the wrong time, for them. But I’d already listed Arik in the number six position.

  And after he was taken care of, then go to Zana's apartment.

  After each nullification the cleaner would step in. Fifteen minutes after he and his sidekick arrived there would be no trace left that anything out of the ordinary had ever happened.

  And no one would ever find the bodies.

  I smiled ruefully as I headed to the bedroom. The plain simple truth was that everyone else did all the hard work. All I had to do was kill people.

  The smile faded in an instan
t as I pulled my favourite weapon from the bottom drawer. As I held it in my trembling hand, the nausea in my stomach began to build. I’d been proud of the simple bit of technology. I'd designed it myself, and it worked perfectly.

  It didn't really look like the deadly weapon it was; just two grab-handles connected to each end of a metre of carbon fibre filament, thinner than fishing line but fifty times stronger. I'd christened it the cheese-cutter.

  I'd trained myself so I could loop it around the victims head in less than a second. Then when the handles were pulled hard apart, it did to someone's neck what a cheese-cutter does to a block of cheese.

  Silent.

  Instant.

  Certain.

  I had been proud of it. Now as I stared at its simplicity, the nausea became too much. I ran to the bathroom and threw up.

  As the hours passed I knew I had a big problem. Nullifying people never bothered me.

  Now it did.

  I cursed Zana, wound myself up into a mess of anger and desolation. Stormed around the apartment swearing at inanimate objects that got in my way or wouldn't seem to do what I asked of them.

  Why did she have to come into my life? Why was she so…

  I took a shower, stood with my eyes closed for ages allowing the hot water to calm the aggression. I sat a while in my gown, still unsure what I would do when I next came face-to-face with her.

  Ryland Cooper had made it all too clear. Now I knew the truth, I had to take out all seven to save my own skin.

  Did I?

  Was my own skin really worth saving?

  I buried my face in my hands. Zana had begged me to allow her to do whatever it was she had to do. I thought I believed her, the look in her eyes seemed so real.

  But she hadn't even told me she was an alien.

  'Because of you, Madeline', she'd said.

  Now I was angry with her, forcing the beautiful memories we had made to the back of my mind, convincing my heart they were tainted. Now I told myself she'd lied to me all along, dangled carrot after carrot knowing if I reached out and grabbed them, she could keep me a pussycat and not a tiger.