“How you figure?”
“They manipulate animals to do their bidding.” Nina traced her finger over the scar on his nose, and for a second recalled the possessed bird pecking at her face. “Can you believe how reckless Moni is, mingling with hundreds of people while infected so she can hit the jackpot? I bet this casino worker made the unfortunate mistake of confronting her for ripping them off. He paid for it.”
She glanced at two people in hazmat suits bringing in a gurney and a body bag. “She better not have spread the infection further.”
“We quarantined as many people as we could, but the place mostly emptied out after the fire trucks came,” Carter said. “No sign of infection yet. They’re sweeping the area for bacteria. It’ll be tough to spin this one. People are already speculating about aliens on social media, even the press.” He nodded toward the TV cameras and bystanders with their phones out. “I’ll say the man took synthetic bath salts, went into a rage, and lit himself on fire. That should shift the focus elsewhere. We can’t let the locals have the casino video. That’s classified.”
“What about the video of her half-naked man-child chasing the cat around the amusement park? It’s gone viral.” She glanced at the roller coaster track shining red and green from across the road. “Someone filed an animal abuse complaint.”
“Publicly, treat it like a joke. Internally, find him and don’t let him out of our sight again.”
The FBI finally identified their car, a Prius stolen from the Space Coast. Every officer got a bulletin on it. Every traffic and toll camera would flag it. Moni knew their tricks, though. Nina expected she would switch cars at the next opportunity.
“We can’t count on cameras,” Nina said. “She’s going into hiding after this. We have to anticipate her next move.”
“That’s what threw me off. What’s her motive?” Carter leaned his mouth close to her ear so no one else could hear.
He needn’t get so close to her. Carter wore a satisfied grin, the thrill of the chase turning him on. The closer they got to their prey, Nina felt it too.
“The cat infected the casino worker and then she fought the man and killed him,” Carter said. “There aren’t any reports from Florida of infected creatures fighting each other. Aaron bagged the cat before the animal spread the infection further. Both of them want the aliens contained, at least for now.”
Nina shook her head. “That bitch isn’t on our side.”
She crossed her arms and watched Carter gaze at the night sky, clearly with a retort on his mind. “I never said she was. Just consider the meaning behind her actions.”
“Moni’s actions are selfish. She’s after money, so she effectively stole from the casino, and she’s after power, so she won’t knowingly let someone else carry the infection and gain powers that rival hers. Whatever she’s planning, Aaron is in on it. ”
“You could be right.” Carter turned and locked eyes with her, stepping across her personal boundary for a few seconds that made her breathe heavily. He slipped back before the other agents noticed. “Aaron is the key. We’ll be seeing him real soon.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I got a message just before we arrived. Someone filed an E-Verify application for a one Aaron Hughes.”
“Was it one of those research labs he looked up from the library?”
“You’re good.” Carter gently squeezed her shoulder. “El Paso State University. He starts Monday.”
“And I’ll be waiting for him.” Nina could just picture the blood pouring out his nose and his swollen eyes.
“Actually, you won’t be there and neither will I,” Carter said.
“What? I thought—“
“I doubt he’ll bring his purple girlfriend to work with him. We’ll watch everything he does, every message he sends, every time he takes a shit. The next time we catch him with Moni, we swoop in.”
“What happened to you being a badass interrogator from Guantanamo Bay?” she snapped. Nina jabbed her finger at his chest.
“That I am, but I can also use my head.” He responded as if amused by her little outburst. Her accusatory finger wilted. “Aaron risked his life chasing that cat, even after seeing it infect the man and bring him to his knees. He’s come closer to Moni than anyone, playing with fire every time. That’s a man who’s willing to die for his cause. I could crack him, but not quickly. Moni won’t stay in one place for a week while I break him down. After what she did today, I don’t think we can afford giving her more time.”
Damn, he made sense. As much as it stung Nina, she couldn’t take away Moni’s man the way she had shot her Detective Sneed, not yet anyway. She took solace in knowing her opportunity would come. Moni remained dependant on him. She’d see her lover again before long.
“So the orders on Aaron are surveillance and hands off,” Nina said. “What about when Moni’s with him?”
“Kill her immediately.”
33
The cold, crisp air switched its allegiance from evening to daybreak as the red hue of sunlight emerged across the eastern horizon. Moni and Aaron reflected upon the picturesque view as they sat on the bare hillside, him with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and her wearing the desert camouflage coat Aaron had bought her during his spending spree back in town. He was due at work in three hours, yet he sat on the rock face beside her as if time stood still.
The light illuminated the faded red pickup truck, the one they had traded the more valuable Prius for at the auto yard. Its bed held the ATV he bought for her and her mountain climber-style backpack of supplies. She thought about asking him to help her unload it, a question she kept pushing to the recesses of her mind. Once she readied the ATV, she’d have nothing left to do besides leave him again.
When Moni refused to stay overnight in his hotel, even if he slept in the truck while she got the bed, he had driven her out here. At first, they were both going to sleep in the truck, but she suggested a walk up the hill so he could experience what she felt gazing at the endless array of stars. They sat there all night, communicating in the mental language that existed only between them.
“What I don’t get, Aaron, is you being so available. Most younger guys wouldn’t uproot their life for a desperate case like me when they have easier options.”
“First of all, you have no idea how amazing you are. If you could only survive in a volcano, I’d follow you into the lava. This is nothing.” He grabbed a plastic cup and raised it for a drink. “I’ve never met anyone who’s a bigger champion for the less fortunate. Until this happened, you were—“
Moni seized his wrist before the first drop touched his lips. Blushing a bit, she messaged him, “That’s not your water. I peed in there so I don’t infect the ground water. I hope that’s not a fetish you enjoy.”
“Well, not that particular fetish.”
Grinning, she took the cup from him. Moni lit a match and tossed it inside. The liquid ignited, melting the plastic down as it burned out. Any man previously hoping to get busy with her would have hauled ass down the hill by now.
“You still didn’t answer my question. You know I was stuck with that asshole Darren for a long time because I didn’t have the self respect to do better. What about you?”
“Well, none of my ex-girlfriends waved guns to stake their claim to me like Darren did for you, but I can’t say those relationships ended well. I had a girlfriend my last two years of high school. She went off to college in Pennsylvania. I took the community college route. She said she’d Skype, and she did, but it got old after a few months. I was upset at myself, frustrated that I didn’t have good enough grades to join her.”
“So that’s when you turned your life around and started taking school seriously?”
“Eventually, yeah. My parents didn’t think my study of marine biology was serious, like it was an excuse to spend all day on the water. I started a few relationships in college, but they didn’t work out. I’m the kind of person that when I commit m
yself, I’m in 100 percent. I couldn’t get wrapped with a relationship and handle my studies at the same time. Flunking out would only prove to my dad that I made the wrong decision. So I gutted it out. Well, until you came along.”
Moni leaned in to kiss him. Aaron didn’t resist. Coming to her senses, she withdrew fast enough to save his life. Aaron still shrugged in disappointment.
“It’s funny you called me a champion for the less fortunate. It hasn’t been that long, but I almost lost that identity with what I am now. I went into so many homes where the parents were on drugs, and the children had bruises, broken bones, black eyes, missing teeth. I sat down with terrified young girls and boys and asked them to draw in crayon how they were sexually assaulted. The arrests were the easiest parts. It’s what happens next, children who are wards of the state, often in foster homes. Sometimes the children overcome. Too often, I saw their names in arrest reports years later for drugs, prostitution, or worse.”
“One day, I was called to a murder scene for victim identification. I hadn’t seen the teenager in four years, yet I could never forget the eyes of that girl, even lifeless. I’d helped the state take her from a father who’d put her into sex trafficking. Her life had ended by the side of the road, strangled by her own panties.”
Moni leaned her head back towards the fading stars.
“Losing one kid used to bother me so much. I know some cops can get over it, accept that it’s just part of the job. Not me. That’s why this really hurts.”
She showed him the satellite phone, another product of his shopping spree, with its web browser set to a page dedicated to the victims of the Florida invasion. It displayed a wall of faces, middle-aged woman, teenage boys, grizzled old fishermen, stoic soldiers, wide-eyed toddlers. She scrolled down and down. It didn’t end.
“They should add one more to that list – Gary behind the ticket booth. He wasn’t the nicest guy I’ve ever met, but he didn’t deserve that. None of them did.”
“You didn’t kill all those people.” He shook his head as if denial could change the truth. “The aliens did.”
“They wouldn’t have died if I hadn’t been complicit, and that’s putting it kindly. It won’t happen again.”
Her head buzzed, a swarm of angry invaders inside her lodging a protest. Don’t be so sure of yourself. The more you resist us, the more people die.
Taking a deep breath, she furrowed her brow and clenched her jaw. “All my life I’ve let people push me around, my father, my boyfriend, my boss. I’ll be damned if I let these little shits, no bigger than grains of sand, get the best of me. I don’t care what kind of beast they’ve infected out there, I’ll hunt it down.”
“I don’t doubt you.”
With a smirk, she squeezed his shoulder, making sure the blanket protected him. Moni arose and climbed to the highest point of the hill, where the dawn sunbeams bathed her face. Closing her eyes for a second, she imagined the gentle warmth on her cheeks came from Aaron’s fingers.
“At least one person in the world believes in me. Everyone else thinks I’m a plague, a traitor. I don’t know if they’ll ever accept me, but I can mend my ways. Whether I survive this or not, they’ll know that I wasn’t so wicked.”
“You will survive, Moni. I promise you.” Shedding his blanket, Aaron shot up and reached for her hands. She wouldn’t let him touch her bare skin, so he took hold of her covered elbows.
“You can’t promise. Don’t.”
“I’ll be at the lab in a few hours. We’re working on the alien nanotech, how it’s transmitted. They’re letting me search for a cure. Just hold out. You can be normal again.”
The reaction in her head came swiftly, like a giant bubble popping inside her cranium.
“If he cures you, we’re dead! Do you think we’re going to let him walk away? No. Grab his throat and rip it out of his fucking neck!”
A spasm seized her arm, twisting her tendons like a rubber band. They threatened that she better bash Aaron’s face in or they’d rip her muscles off the bone. “Never! I won’t hurt him no matter what you do to me.” She grabbed her wrist with the opposite hand, but she couldn’t quell its involuntary flailing. Moni collapsed on her side so the thrashing hit nothing but dirt. He reached down to help her up, coming within range of her toxic nails. She scooted away.
“What’s wrong?”
Moni wobbled up and shook out her arm. She hoofed down the hill, staying wide of him, and reached the truck. She unstrapped the ATV, lowered the bed’s gate and dragged it toward the edge. Aaron hurried over, intent on helping her, but Moni, channeling the energy the aliens wanted her to unload on Aaron’s face, lifted the ATV and placed it on the ground by herself.
“I guess that’s your subtle way of saying it’s time for you to go.”
She lugged the portable solar generator from the truck bed and fastened it to the ATV. When she turned for the backpack, Aaron already had it extended towards her. Moni tried accepting it from his hands without gazing into his eyes. She failed. The golden sunrise flashed into his blue eyes, making them shimmer like the waters of a majestic bay. That soaring feeling in her heart tamed the fury of the monsters within her. She wished she could touch him, skin on skin, even for a second. If she did that, he’d peer into her mind and see how deeply she loved him. Moni could read the purity of his love for her even if he didn’t say those words out loud. Yet, if they established that communion, Moni could never leave him. She couldn’t do what she must do, what every Earth-born creature on this planet needed of her.
Moni gently took the backpack from him, carefully avoiding contact.
“Don’t come here looking for me. Call me from a new phone and use it only for my number. And whatever you do, don’t look for the other infected person. I’ll handle it.”
“Are you sure there’s another? Maybe they learned to resist your commands after the first time. They trusted you then. Not anymore.”
She couldn’t explain to him how she knew. It became clear the more she thought about what had happened inside Gary’s head. Like seeing a sailboat scooting along and deducing it was the wind, Moni knew someone with intellect on or above her level steered those nanobots into his brain.
If her instincts were right, somewhere along the way, she’d let the infection escape her. The results, given time to mutate under the alien’s guidance, would be something horrifying.
“I don’t know when I’ll see you again, Aaron, but when I do, I probably won’t be the same person.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“No human can stop what I’m about to face. My only chance is to be less human.”
Taking a step back, Aaron drank in the sight of her. Moni knew she still had that curvy figure and, despite a rearranged jaw, mostly the same face. The biggest changes were internal, so far.
“Nothing that happens will change the way I feel about you. I’m coming back with a cure.”
She listened to his thoughts, hearing the words he couldn’t quite say. I’ve waited all my life for her. I can’t let her go like this.
Moni turned around, slipped on her gloves and hugged him. She squeezed so tightly he started gasping. She eased up before his ribs cracked, but hung on. His warm breath hovered on her neck, his lips so close to pressing into their nape. Unable to stand it anymore, Moni let him go.
“You better hurry. You don’t want to be late your first day at work.”
“It wouldn’t be my first time.” Aaron closed the truck’s bed gate. He didn’t head for the door. “Be careful out here. Stay clear of hamburgers this time, and cats.”
“If you only knew.” She mounted the ATV. Moni turned toward him one last time and winked, hoping he’d remember her face the way it was today. “Show me how great a scientist you are. Bye for now.”
She squeezed the throttle and shot off into the desert. Her head pounded. They were incensed that she let him go, the man intent on wiping them from her bloodstream and into extinction.
�
��We’ll never leave your body, not until you’re cold and dead. If you don’t give us our rightful home, there’s no one who can protect your people, especially your Aaron.”
34
Danny Riggs was what might be called an intellectual redneck. Sure, he spent much of his time in an isolated shack on the edge of Peacock Springs, a sprawling North Florida wilderness between Gainesville and Tallahassee, but he didn’t speak like a backwoods hillbilly. Normally, his Southern accent came out in a measured tone, but now it sounded shaken, like an atheist who’d just come face to face with a judgmental angel.
With his beard trim and tidy, Riggs leaned across the table and, absent of his usual warmth, shook Harry Trainer’s hand and then on to astrobiologist Leonard Ho and Lieutenant Louis Pierre. Trainer noticed the red and white dive flag tattooed on his wrist, right where a watch would normally go. The Lagoon Watcher had met the man nearly a decade ago when he led him on a research dive into the aquifer. He remembered him as unflappable, even when dealing with flustered rookie divers and tourists.
Trainer had explored a small corner of Peacock Springs, the largest underwater cave system in the United States with over 6.2 miles of documented caverns that flowed into underground rivers and sprouted up as pristine fresh water. The submerged caves were both breathtaking, with their spongy limestone chambers, and extremely dangerous. They extended over 100 feet below ground, wound through tight crevices and had brittle walls vulnerable to collapse.
Riggs had seen more of those caves than any man on earth. Something he’d discovered the day before had left him pale, his normally steady hands quivering.
“It’s been years, Riggs. Remember me?” Trainer asked. “I know I haven’t gotten any prettier.”
Ho chuckled and nodded in agreement.
Silence the Living Page 17
