Invaders_The Antaran

by Vaughn Heppner

  “The reason for such bluntness might be arrogance,” Rax said. “Perhaps he considers the aboriginals of this planet inferior in quality. Thus, he believes he can act in a rougher or more lordly fashion.”

  Scowling, I said, “I’m getting sick of aliens thinking they can push us Earthmen around.”

  “To the contrary,” Rax said. “It is excellent that they think so. It has allowed us to maneuver inside their arrogance. If they had acted with greater caution each time, it is doubtful we could have won the various encounters as we did.”

  I picked up the binoculars and continued studying the beastmen and floaters. I didn’t see any sign of Beran or other Antares dominies. I watched for another fifteen minutes as the beastmen kept filling up the alien U-Hauls. At the end of that time, the beastmen herded fifty or so people out of CAU and onto the floaters. All of the people were handcuffed as I’d been in Friday’s Station. I couldn’t tell the identities of any of the individuals, just that they were human.

  Finally, beastmen shoved the ramps into the floaters and climbed aboard. I expected to see them race away. Instead, the floaters shimmered for several seconds and then disappeared.

  “Did you see that?” I said.

  “I scanned the situation at the last second,” Rax replied. “The jamming quit, allowing me to use my internal sensors. They transferred.”

  “I can see that.”

  “You did not let me finish,” Rax said. “They transferred off-planet.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I scanned the direction of the transfer signal. It flashed off-plant.”

  “To a waiting spaceship?” I asked.

  “I do not think so. The signal was strong and continued past my scanning range. Of course, if I’d been in the Guard ship I could have followed the signal farther.”

  “Where do you think they transferred?”

  “The moon would be my guess,” Rax said.

  “You’re kidding?”

  “I have no reason to hoodwink you.”

  “But that’s incredible. Do you think Beran or his people have a base on the moon?”

  “That seems likely.”

  “Wouldn’t NASA or someone see that from Earth?”

  “That is an interesting question. It would seem this theoretical base has remained hidden so far. Yet, the clone Director knew about radio signals from Saturn. The question raises itself. Where did these signals travel? Were they aimed at the moon? Did the aliens radio anyone, or were those transfer signals that the clone Director detected.”

  “This is all twisted up,” I said. “CAU had to be under assault when I called. Yet, the clone acted as if nothing was the matter there.”

  “Perhaps we should investigate the premises.”

  “Is anyone down there?”

  Rax did not reply right away. “Yes,” he finally said, “I sense several people. Logan! Danger! There is—”

  Before Rax could finish, a fantastic explosion erupted. Half a mile away or more, salt and dirt roared upward in a vast geyser as the ground shook under me. A shock wave must have been traveling at us—

  But it never struck me. I staggered in an upright position near Harrah’s hotel tower in South Lake Tahoe. Rax must have transferred us just before the shock wave hit.

  “Why are we here exactly?” I whispered.

  “I used an emergency transfer,” Rax said quietly. “Harrah’s was in my processor. I adjusted it at the last second, appearing down here on the surface instead of up at Friday’s Station on the eighteenth floor.”

  There were ambulances, cop cars and fire trucks galore. Some of the cops had already set up their yellow tape. Crowds had gathered. Some of those people were near me. I saw a woman giving me the stink eye. Had she seen me teleport into existence?

  I gave her a nod before moving along, plunging into a crowd.

  “Is she still watching us?” I asked.

  “I do not know who you are referring to,” Rax said.

  I glanced back. The woman was no longer watching me as I’d moved too deeply into a crowd of gawkers and she had plenty else to snag her attention. I kept pushing my way toward the rear of the crowd. It helped that as soon as people looked at me they moved out of my way. Then, it struck me that maybe that wasn’t so good. I was likely memorable.

  I began dusting salt and dirt from my clothes. I wore a heavy backpack, must have looked beat up and was probably grimy. I needed to get cleaned up. I also needed to catch my breath and figure out the next move.

  I glanced around and headed toward a restaurant several blocks away. I heard hurried footsteps behind me and began to turn—

  “Keep moving,” she snapped.

  I felt something hard press against my side. It felt like the end of a gun. I realized then that the voice had sounded familiar.

  I began to turn.

  “Don’t,” she said.

  I did it anyway, seeing Jenna Jones of the CAU, with a snub-nosed .38 pressed against my side.

  -11-

  “I told you not to look back,” Jenna said, digging the end of the barrel into my flesh.

  “Hey,” I said. “That smarts.” Before she could react, I twisted around and grabbed the .38. She tried to hang on, but she didn’t have any luck, as I was far stronger than she was.

  Jenna cried out, yanking her hand from the gun. She sucked on the finger that had been twisted by the trigger guard.

  “Are you an idiot?” she half-shouted. “I could have accidently fired the gun. That might have wounded you. It certainly would have brought the police running.”

  “So why did you stick the gun in my side?”

  “Give it back,” she demanded, holding out her unhurt hand.

  I studied Jenna.

  She wore an orange baseball cap with a mane of long dark hair spilling out from under it. She was tall, with blue eyes, a face to launch a thousand marriage proposals and a statuesque figure. In other words, she was a babe, but she was tough and threw herself far too seriously into her work as a CAU Field Agent.

  If I hadn’t been attached to Debby a year ago…

  I handed Jenna the .38.

  “Thanks for nothing,” she said, shoving the snub-nosed into the shoulder holster under her windbreaker.

  “So…?” I said.

  “Go,” she said, shoving me. “Keep walking. It’s better if we don’t stay out here.”

  I complied, continuing for the restaurant.

  “Well?” I asked, as Jenna moved up beside me.

  “What’s in the backpack?” she asked. “It looks heavy.”

  “Never mind about the pack,” I said. “Why are you here?”

  “Where should I be?”

  “At CAU headquarters,” I said.

  “What’s that supposed to mean? I’m a field agent, which means I should be out in the field.”

  I looked in her eyes. The Good Book said to be careful when looking into a woman’s eyes. They can trap a man with sexual temptation. Jenna’s eyes certainly were beautiful. I’d been attracted to her before—

  “You never change,” she said, breaking the connection by glancing away.

  I raised an eyebrow, but I wasted the suave gesture because she wasn’t looking at me.

  “Are you hungry?” I asked.

  She looked at me again, perhaps divining my destination and shrugged. “I guess so. I haven’t eaten since last night. Are you buying?”

  “Why not?” I said.

  Soon enough, we slid into a booth. I’d taken off the pack and slid it into the booth ahead of me.

  “What’s in it?” she asked again. Her focus on my backpack didn’t hit me as out of sync until subsequent events had transpired.

  “Stuff,” I said.

  “Where’s Rax?”

  “Around,” I said, picking up the menu, scanning it.

  She pulled down the menu to stare at me. “What happened up at Harrah’s?”

  “How should I know?”

  “People
saw someone fall from the eighteenth floor,” Jenna said. “I’ve spoken to a few of those people. Those that watched this person said he simply vanished before hitting the pavement. There’s only one man on Earth who can do that, and that’s you.”

  “Oh?”

  “No, not oh,” she said. “A score of people were murdered in Friday’s Station. A few shocked survivors are reporting werewolves firing laser rifles. That’s crazy, of course. The police are baffled as to what actually happened.”

  “You talked to the police?”

  “To the lieutenant in charge of the operation,” she said. “Luckily, the lieutenant is more worried about keeping this from the news and having it turn into Tahoe’s Vegas shootout than coming to the obvious conclusion.”

  “That aliens are involved?” I asked.

  Jenna kept her hand on the menu as she scowled at me.

  “There’s more?” I asked.

  “What’s that mean?”

  “I’m the one asking you,” I said.

  “No,” she said. “I’m asking you what happened at Friday’s Station. You were up there obviously. You jumped through a window, fell and Rax saved your butt by teleporting you to safety.”

  I studied Jenna more carefully. I believed that her anger was genuine. But was this the real Jenna Jones or was she another CAU clone?

  The waitress showed up, asking if we were ready to order. Jenna studied her menu and made a quick selection, and I did the same. The waitress returned almost immediately with our waters with lemon slices.

  I drained my glass and asked for a refill. Jenna shoved hers over to me and asked the waitress for another glass.

  I drained that water, too.

  Soon, Jenna had a new glass while I had two refills. I drank the one and held the last in reserve.

  “Why so thirsty?” Jenna asked as the waitress walked away.

  I glanced around to see if anyone was eavesdropping. It didn’t seem like it. No one was in the booths on either side of us. Even so, I leaned across the table and kept my voice low.

  “I have some bad news, Jenna.”

  Her immediate frown drew a vertical line between her eyebrows.

  I gave her a quick rundown about Friday’s Station, the clone Director dead in the ocean and what I’d seen at the salt flats, including the fantastic explosion that must have demolished CAU Headquarters.

  By the end, Jenna slumped back against her couch. She was pale, obviously shocked and she struggled to hold back tears.

  “An explosion?” she whispered.

  I nodded in a sympathetic manner.

  “CAU is destroyed?” she asked.

  “I don’t know the extent. Rax took me out of there in an emergency transfer.”

  “To here?” she asked.

  I nodded, and I realized I still trusted Jenna. Her grief was too sincere to be fake.

  Although she was pale, Jenna was frowning again, staring down at her hands. Finally, she began to shake her head. She looked up at me in accusation.

  “Your story doesn’t hold together. The time sequences are wrong.”

  “I agree,” I said.

  Her scowl intensified. “Don’t give me your diversion crap,” she said. “You’re giving me a tall tale.”

  “I’m not. But before we go on, I want to know who ordered the cloning of the Director and how CAU matured the clone so quickly.”

  “I have an observation to make,” Rax said from my pocket.

  I reached back and brought Rax onto the table, placing him near my full glass of water.

  “Hello, Jenna,” Rax said.

  She stared at the cellphone-like object, finally muttering a greeting.

  “The time sequence is off,” Rax said. “That would mesh, however, with the clone’s advanced age.”

  “Right,” I said. “You’re talking about the chronowarp.”

  “I am,” Rax said. “That is the only method I know that could account for the adult clone. The chronowarp must have sped up time in a concentrated bubble around the clone, aging it to maturity.”

  Jenna glanced from Rax to me.

  “You didn’t know about the clone?” I asked.

  “No,” she said.

  “Rax?” I asked.

  “By all bodily indications,” the crystal said, “Jenna is telling the truth.”

  “Hey!” she said, sitting up indignantly. “Is Rax acting like a lie detector?”

  “You passed,” I said. “So why worry about it?”

  She drummed her fingers on the table. The food arrived, interrupting the conversation, and she appeared to relax.

  Jenna had a Caesar salad. I ate a bacon burger that was heart-stoppingly good.

  I finished first as usual, wiping my lips with a napkin and still feeling hungry. I ate the lonely pickle slice on my plate, flagged down the waitress and ordered a side of fries.

  By this time, Jenna shoved her plate aside. She seemed to have been thinking while she ate. She now looked up at me.

  “I’ve been trailing Kazz,” she said. “The Director had grown interested in the Neanderthal again. Until the new orders, I hadn’t seen Kazz since the Bermuda Triangle when we all returned to Earth. The Director said there were some bizarre stories piling up surrounding someone who could only be Kazz. I almost talked to Kazz several times, but he always gave me the slip. I knew he’d come to South Lake Tahoe…”

  Jenna lowered her voice. “Why did Kazz show up when he did? Why did he try to save your life in Friday’s Station?”

  “Exactly,” I said. “I’d like to know that, too.”

  “You claim to have no idea?” she asked.

  I spread my hands.

  “Are you not saying anything so you don’t have to lie to me?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “This whole thing baffles me. I want to know where this Antares dominie Beran took Debby. Do the aliens have a moon base? If they do, why haven’t we seen it? Why did the clone Director talk about radio signals from Saturn?”

  “I know CAU has detected that,” Jenna said. “The signals have been intermittent. It first began…two months ago.”

  “Oh,” I said. “So the clone wasn’t lying about that?”

  “I still find it hard to believe there was a clone,” Jenna said. “Do you realize how many complexities the idea of CAU clones raises? For instance, let’s say for the sake of argument there are clones. How did the clone Director become a midlife adult in a year? And if Rax’s idea of the chronowarp is right, how did the clone learn what the Director knows? Why didn’t I know about this clone? How did the—?”

  “I am certain the chronowarp is the key to all this,” Rax piped in, interrupting her litany. “Do you happen to know the location of the ancient device?”

  Jenna opened her mouth as if to say. She stopped suddenly. Her eyes grew wide and wary. I thought I detected fear in her bearing.

  “I’m not going to do anything to you,” I said. “If you feel that you have to run away from me, go ahead. Run.”

  Jenna’s head came up sharply as she focused on me with hyper-alertness.

  “Why did you just say that?” she asked.

  “You just figured something out,” I said. “Whatever it was scared you and made you wonder about me… Oh,” I said, after a moment.

  She was watching me closer than ever.

  “You wonder if I’m me,” I said.

  She hesitated before nodding in agreement.

  “You’re thinking…what?” I asked. “That I’m an alien in a Logan disguise?”

  Her hands had slid under the table. I had the feeling she was aiming the .38 at my midsection.

  “If I fire,” she said, confirming my suspicion, “and you live. I’ll know you’re an alien. If I fire and you die, I’ll know I was wrong.”

  “How does that help?” I said. I could actually feel the pistol pointed at my gut, and I didn’t like it one bit.

  “I’m going to ask you this once,” she said. “You said your Guard
ship took a hit, a hit from the—what did you call it?”

  “A double helix cobalt bomb,” I said. “Have you ever heard of it?”

  “Never.”

  “Rax?” I asked.

  The crystal was silent. I reached for him.

  “Don’t touch it,” Jenna said.

  I frowned at her. “What’s going on now?”

  She hesitated again, before saying, “I’m trying to verify the truth.”

  “Why don’t you want me touching Rax? And why isn’t he answering?”

  “Let’s stick to the issue,” Jenna said. “You always dodge a question you don’t want to answer. Do you know that about yourself?”

  This turn in the conversation was starting to strike me as seriously off. What was wrong with her?

  “Your Guard ship,” she prodded. “You said it sank.”

  “Yeah… That’s right.”

  Jenna moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. It was a pretty gesture and those were pretty lips, even more so with a gloss of wetness.

  “Where did the ship sink exactly?” Jenna asked.

  “How does my answering that make any difference to you?”

  “Just tell me,” she said.

  “Well—”

  A shot rang out, a single and unmistakable sound. For just a second, I thought Jenna had pulled the trigger. I winced, but didn’t feel any pain. I did see her head disintegrate before me. It was as ugly a thing as I’ve ever seen.

  Blood jetted from the head wound, and she toppled sideways in the booth.

  People began screaming. Some jumped up and raced for the exit. As they did, a shadow loomed beside me.

  I was stunned by the latest event. I might have become a little woozy at watching Jenna die. A thick-necked man reached over to Jenna’s corpse and grabbed her. It seemed like an obscene thing to do. He yanked her upright, reached inside her windbreaker and took out a blinking green device. He examined it and seemed to find what he was looking for. He clicked the device.

  “Logan,” Rax said immediately, “I have detected a control device inside Jenna’s brain.”

  “What?” I said, my lips feeling numb, my entire face feeling cold.

  A strong hand grabbed me, shaking me until my head wobbled.

  “Snap out of it, man,” Kazz said. “If you can, transfer us out of here.”