Rise | Book 3 | Reclamation

by Ford, Devon C.

  “Speaking of clouds,” the doctor said, unoffended by her momentary absence, “seeing that we can’t mass produce something to kill them, how about we focus on these?” she said, holding up one of the alien misters.

  “Are we sure this is the right way?” she asked, her eyes finding an elder of one of the villages she’d rescued. “I mean, wiping them all out like this? Can’t we, I dunno, make them not work so they’re forced to go home?”

  “Our people are no strangers to genocide, Lina,” the elder reminded her gently. She wasn’t sure if he meant humans or her own people, deciding it didn’t much matter, as their species had been on both sides of that particular coin before.

  “You mean hijack their stores or render them inert and issue an ultimatum for them to leave?” Parvati asked as she focused on the task of disassembling the mister.

  “Why not? That could work, right?”

  “I’m sure it would,” Parvati said, prompting a smile that her next words wiped clean from Lina’s face. “Until they bring more through their gateway and make sure to protect their process against all attacks. It’s admirable, if not slightly naïve.”

  The other scientist in the room, a quiet woman who spent much of the time hiding, placed a reassuring hand on Lina’s shoulder.

  “She’s right,” she said. “We need to kill them; otherwise, this will all be for nothing.”

  “Which brings us back to the question of how,” Parvati asked, putting down the mister and spinning her own chair to move to another workstation where she could press her eye to a small tube and turn dials with her fingers.

  “The tissue samples from the prisoner have yielded some interesting results, but I’d like to concentrate on the blood. Don’t suppose you found any hematologists on your travels? No? Anyway, it makes logical sense given the physiology of a mammal to attack it on a respiratory level, doubly so when we consider these things have a problem with our atmosphere.”

  “Which is?” the elder asked.

  “Given that the only identifiable substances in their inhaler devices are nitrogen and carbon dioxide, it makes sense that our environment is too oxygen rich for them. Ironic, really.”

  “Why?” Lina asked.

  “Why what?”

  “Why is it ironic?”

  Parvati chuckled and rubbed at her cheeks with both hands before she answered. “I forget sometimes how few of us there are from before. My dear, for the last ten years and more before they showed up, we were on some global mission to stop polluting the air. It was all about rising sea levels, melting polar ice caps and global warming, when in fact, had we known, we could’ve told the world to stop polluting the atmosphere, so the air would remain toxic to an advanced alien species. I’m sure that would’ve been more effective than parading angry children in the media.”

  The room fell silent after she spoke, as none of the others recalled much of what she was talking about.

  “I’ll need more blood from it,” Parvati said again as she resumed peering into the tube. “Pass me that virus sample?” she added, holding out a hand wiggling her fingers in the air to hurry it up.

  “Is it safe doing that?”

  “Doing what? Using viruses? I assure you none of what we’re using here is fatal to us. Sadly, we don’t have any of the really good stuff left.”

  “Good stuff?” Lina asked, confused and a little worried.

  “We used to have an organization here that specialized in nasty biological threats. They had samples of everything. Ebola, Marburg, rabies, smallpox, HIV, Covid-19… everything you’d need to wipe out mankind.”

  “Why would we…”

  “You need to dissect what something is so you can test against it. It seems backwards, I know,” Parvati said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

  “So we could kill ourselves by using a virus?” Lina asked cautiously.

  “Not if we use something that isn't lethal to us, with the obvious exceptions of the very old and the very young and others at risk of reduced immune system issues.”

  “So… so how about we make them all sick, then we can send them home and close the gate?” Lina asked hopefully. Parvati gave her a sympathetic look before he spoke.

  “My dear girl, I doubt you ever came into contact with the world’s most deadly and debilitating influenza, did you? The M4N influenza strain?”

  The elder chuckled, making Lina even more confused.

  “Man flu,” Parvati said. “Trust me, if we give them man flu, they’ll be begging to go home for chicken noodle soup and their own beds.”

  “So…” Lina said, not getting the joke, “how do we give it to them?”

  “We have to find out if they can catch it first,” Parvati said, picking up a small metal tray bearing a syringe. “Which is why we need more blood from that thing.”

  It was terrified, that much was obvious. The way it shrieked and cowered in the corner of the cell when people entered the room made Lina’s chest ache even after everything the aliens had done to her and the planet.

  “It seems to have regained some strength,” Parvati said, raising her voice over the noise it made. It chattered and chirped in rattling clicks that interspersed words none of them understood.

  “It’s frightened,” Lina said.

  “Damn thing should be,” one of the guards in the room snarled, banging a long baton against the bars to intensify the frightened noises.

  “Thank you,” Parvati said with undisguised disapproval of the man’s actions. “Is it possible to contain it without causing harm?” The man turned to his counterpart in the room and nodded. The two of them went to either side of the cell and turned handles to wind the rear wall toward the front like some huge vise and force the alien out of the furthest corner.

  It shrieked and clicked desperately as it tried to push back against the wall and keep its distance from the humans, but the mechanics were stronger than it.

  Lina knew she’d be petrified of the cell crushing her if she was treated like that, and in spite of everything the aliens had done to them, she couldn’t help but feel bad for being there to witness this mistreatment.

  “Stop,” she said, repeating the word louder. “Stop!”

  The wall ceased moving and the shrieking died down. She stepped forward and rolled up her sleeve, making eye contact with the creature before shoving her arm through the gap furthest away from where it cowered.

  “What does it eat?” she asked quietly without breaking eye contact.

  “We’ve been giving it vegetables,” a guard answered. “But we keep it hungry so it doesn’t build up the strength to escape.”

  “Hand me one.” Her words were obeyed, and she stepped closer to the alien to see the flash of recognition and hunger in its eyes as the handful of baby corn in her hand came into view. It hesitated, twitching its head left and right at the guards in fear.

  “It’s okay,” she said, still maintaining eye contact. “Back away.”

  Slowly, patiently, she coaxed the creature to stick a nervous hand out through the gap and snatch the single piece of offered food. It retreated fast, chomping on the corn like a desperate animal before inching forward again for more. Each time, she persuaded it to put its arm further and further out until she began touching the alien’s skin with her own and feeling the faint electricity passing between their bodies. On the third time she touched it, the alien didn’t recoil and chatter at her but stayed with long fingers extended to try and reach the food.

  She grasped the wrist, tightening her grip slowly so it wasn’t a shock, and began to hand the rest of the food through another gap to its other hand rapidly.

  “Now, Doctor,” she whispered. “Quickly.”

  Parvati was smooth and fast with the needle, sliding it into the alien’s skin and the vein beneath with barely a reaction as it was distracted by eating as fast as it could with the other hand until a shift in position made the needle touch something inside that caused it to shriek away from the wall.


  They turned to leave the cell, Lina looking over shoulder to address the guards as she waved the last remaining carrot in her hand.

  “This or the stick,” she said. “Maybe try this first next time.”

  Chapter 8

  Alec

  “I see you’ve been enjoying yourself,” Alec told his brother, greeting him at the east entrance near the forest’s edge. Soares trailed behind him, and a few of the Freeborn were grouped together, carrying two deer carcasses.

  “Zhao wants food, we’ll find food.” Cole grinned. Buddy sniffed at Alec’s hand, as if seeking a treat, and continued to enter the fence line.

  Soares patted Alec on the shoulder as he passed by him. “Any update on the virus?”

  “Parvati thinks she’ll have it ready by tomorrow or the next day,” Alec told them.

  “Good. Good.”

  “It still leaves us with the decision on who’s going,” Alec said.

  “It’ll be me. I’ll do it,” Cole said, settling to an old picnic table near a storage facility. The Freeborn kept moving, taking their prizes to their camp a half mile away. Cole waved to them and grinned. “Those guys can hunt with me any day. One of those deer was felled with an arrow. Can you believe that?”

  “Don’t change the subject. You really think you should be traipsing off to China?” Alec asked, not wanting to be separated from his brother so soon.

  “Sure. Why not?” Cole’s expression once again turned dark, and it was clear he was carrying a lot of anger.

  “Look, Tom’s dead, and I get that you’re upset about it, but don’t take it out on me.”

  “I’m not taking anything out on you. You asked who was doing it, and I said I was. Simple as that.”

  “You don’t know anything about a submarine,” Alec said.

  Soares stepped a foot onto the table’s bench and leaned in. “Cole, I think you have another mission.”

  He squinted into the sun and stared toward the older man. “I do?”

  Alec had been waiting for Soares to bring this up again. “I need to shut the gates down, and there’s no one I trust more at my side than you, son.”

  Alec bristled at the man’s casual use of the word, maybe because Soares never used it in reference to him. “We have no plan.”

  “Lambert will get us the information we need on the ore delivery schedule, and in we go. To the hub. I’ll make sure we shut it down somehow,” Soares said.

  “And how are you going to return?” Alec asked.

  Soared shook his head. “You let me worry about that.”

  “Fine. If you and Cole are leaving for Detroit, who’s going with Monet to China?” Alec asked.

  “I am.” Lina stepped closer, her hand in the air. Buddy sauntered over to her, playfully rubbing his head on her leg. She pulled some meat from a pocket and passed it to the coyote, and he took the offering to the shade behind the table, chewing it noisily.

  Cole stood as she approached. “You can’t!”

  “Why not?”

  “Because… I don’t think it's safe.”

  “I didn’t realize you were the authority on where I go or don’t go,” she said, standing closer to him.

  “I’m not… I just don’t want you to get hurt,” Cole said, and Alec knew there was more than a friend’s concern behind his tone.

  “Tom thought I was strong enough to go with Monet the first time, so I think he’d want us to team up again,” Lina said.

  “It’ll be two weeks underwater. And that thing might never make it,” Cole said, and Alec remained silent as they went through the paces.

  “We’ll be fine. Parvati is nearly ready. We have contact with Shanghai, and all we need to do is a handoff. Our contact will do the rest,” she said.

  Alec couldn’t imagine being under the ocean for that long, and he was glad he was staying here. Until they needed the distraction. It was going to be dangerous, but at least he had the assistance of Jack Paulson. The timing had to be perfect.

  “Are you sure?” Cole asked Lina, and she took his hands.

  “I’m sure.”

  “Okay. We’re on the same page,” Soares said. Judging by his expression, the captain had been guessing this was the eventuality the whole time.

  The shadows were growing long as the sun began to set, and Alec suggested they grab some dinner and talk about it. Cole made an excuse, saying he needed to wash up, and he’d meet them there in a bit. Lina stared after him, and Alec walked beside the woman.

  “He’s only worried about you,” Alec told her.

  “He needs to worry about himself. I’m fine on my own,” she said, and Alec wasn’t going to argue with her. She was strong-willed, and Alec wondered if the two of them were ever going to realize they were perfect for each other.

  Izzy was inside the mess hall, and Becca sat beside her. Zhao was there too, sitting across from his daughter, and Monet rounded out the group.

  “We were just talking about you,” Alec told Monet as he sat beside her.

  “Is that so?”

  “Lina will be joining you,” Alec said.

  “Good. I can use the extra set of common sense,” Monet said, smiling at Lina.

  Zhao cut a baked potato as he watched the conversation, and finally spoke before taking a bite. “I checked the location of the latest mister shipment using Trent James’ datastick links.”

  Alec’s ears perked up. “And?”

  “And it’s heading for Spain before coming to the US. I think we need to stop the supply. It will make it all the more imperative they use the new supply run of misters once we have added our special ingredients to the batch,” Zhao said between chews.

  “When does that shipment depart Shanghai?” Soares asked.

  “In a week. They’re using hovercars to transport them, since the human population is no longer an option.”

  “A week.” Alec wondered how the heck they were going to interrupt a hovercar delivery in Spain in a week.

  “Sylvie is close, but we’ll need to back her up,” Zhao said.

  “Jack isn’t too far from her. Do you think we could make it to Spain without being discovered?” Alec asked.

  “If that’s the case, why the hell am I going to China in a damned submarine?” Monet asked.

  Soared shook his head. “We think there’s a path to Europe that doesn’t fall above any of their current sites.”

  Zhao was frowning, his mouth half full as he spoke. “But we don’t know for sure.”

  “Listen, everything about this is a gamble. We’re going for the win here, not second place. Because second place means death.” Soares rapped his knuckles on the tabletop.

  Alec thought about who would lead the Spain mission, and he guessed he’d just found his next job. “Becca, how do you feel about flying me to Spain?”

  Dex

  He’d waited too long already, but the survivors in Wisconsin weren’t overly keen on leaving the area. He was tired of trying to talk them into it, but he couldn’t let them stay, in case Hansen didn’t believe Dex had hunted them all down.

  “Bernie, I’m telling you, it’s your best bet.” Dex was on the porch of the log cabin near the lake with the big bearded man, who was hardly paying attention as he whittled the end of the stick into a sharp point.

  The tablet beside him vibrated, and Dex picked it up, seeing the information he’d been waiting for. He’d programmed it to advise him when the next scheduled ore delivery was leaving Michigan so Soares could investigate the shipment.

  Bernie was glancing over his shoulder, and Dex turned to block his view as he typed a message in the hidden program that would reach the twins. Next ore leaves mine noon four days from now. He sent it and stared out at the calm water.

  “We’d better get moving then,” Bernie said.

  “What?”

  “To this place on the west coast.”

  “Good. What changed your mind?” Dex asked.

  “I can tell you’re a good man, Hunter. I wouldn’t
want to see you in any sort of trouble,” Bernie said.

  “Thank you. I’m only trying to do my part.” He suddenly had a craving for a cigarette and a beer. It was something about the ambience of the lake, the sun setting, and the frogs croaking softly.

  Bernie gathered the others and discussed leaving in the morning, and Dex saw the reply come through late at night.

  We’ll be there – Cole

  Chapter 9

  Cole

  Next ore leaves mine noon four days from now.

  The message flashing up on Cole’s tablet surprised him. He read it over and over, rolling each word around inside his brain, picking it apart in search of any reason not to trust the Hunter.

  Is he on our side? Truly?

  Cole couldn’t fathom how the man, if he was really on their side, could just stand and watch as that bastard executed Tom. Logic reminded him that he was following Tom’s orders, but they were instructions that neither he nor Alec would’ve followed. He doubted even if Soares would have done his duty and obeyed the orders from his commanding officer to watch him be murdered to fuel the fire.

  Fearful of betrayal or not, Cole couldn’t ignore the intelligence the man fed to them. This was the key, Soares had been certain of it. This was how they crept inside the belly of the beast and killed it from the inside.

  As if thinking of the man had conjured him from thin air, Soares appeared opposite bearing a tray of food and swung his legs over the bench in turn to sit with an involuntary groan of a man who seemed to have been born with an aching back.

  “What’s the scoop?” he asked, nodding at the tablet. Cole turned it around to show him, seeing his eyebrows rise before a cruel smirk spread across his mouth.

  “Perfect,” he said, handing over the tablet.

  “Why is that perfect? And why aren’t you concerned it’s a trap?”

  “It’s a trap!” Soares mocked in a strange voice before chuckling to himself. Seeing Cole’s confusion, he composed himself. “Wrong crowd. Anyway, why are you worried it’s a trap?”