Tex had not wanted to involve Dr. Randall further in anything he did. His feelings about Dr. Randall were still confused. The old man had been like a father to him, but he had also kept Tex as a captive all those years. Tex shot Erika a glare, but she ignored it.
Erika continued. “He is currently working with Dr. Montoya at the CDC in Phoenix.”
“With Dr. Montoya? Then he must be working on—”
“The virus. Yes, it was instigated by the Conexus, also known as the Greys,” Tex said. Though he was not happy about Dr. Randall getting back into his life, he had to admit that perhaps Erika was right to suggest Dr. Lewis contact him. Dr. Randall lent authority to their statements.
Dr. Lewis attempted to move but was stymied by the invisible cords that bound her. “I won’t bolt. You’ve convinced me that I at least need to learn more before I decide what to do. Will you release me so I can contact Dr. Randall to see if your story checks out?”
In the instant he thought it, the bindings were removed. Dr. Lewis’s shoulders dropped as she let out a big breath. Relief washed over her face. She pulled her phone out of her pants pocket and dialed but looked frustrated.
“His prior phone number is not a working number.” Skepticism had worked its way back into her voice.
“How long has it been since you talked to him?” Erika asked.
Dr. Lewis put her phone on the table. “Years, I suppose.”
Erika snatched the phone up. “I told you, he’s with Dr. Montoya at the Phoenix CDC.” She swiped and tapped until she had the number pulled up and dialed. Erika listened until she heard a voice then handed the phone back to Dr. Lewis.
Dr. Lewis stammered, “Yes, well, I’m not sure you can help me, but um, I’m uh—well, I’m looking for Dr. William Randall. Do you have anyone by that name there? Working with Dr. Montoya?” She listened for a few seconds, then her eyebrows rose. “You’ll connect me? Thank you.”
Tex heard only one side of the ensuing conversation, but Dr. Randall was clearly confirming the story Tex had given her. Her face continued to soften, her jaw becoming less rigid as she spoke to him.
Tex had wanted to convince Dr. Lewis to help him and achieve his mission on his own—to feel like a man, not a boy. He hated that he needed Dr. Randall and Erika to make things happen.
“That’s a good question, and one I had not gotten to yet,” Dr. Lewis said. “As you can imagine, I was trying to get my head around his story.” She tittered then said, “Let me ask him.” She put her hand over the phone and said, “He wants to know why you’re here and what help you think I can give you?”
Tex took the phone from her and spoke to Dr. Randall. “I need your assistance to convince the scientists here to align the telescope array so that I can travel to the planet of the Architects of the galactic gateway being used by the M’Uktah to travel here. I aim to ask the Architects for their help to shut it down.”
Dr. Lewis’s face turned ashen, her eyes wide. Erika was quiet, but Tex felt her heart racing and smelled sweat pouring from her. Aunt Dana sat back in her chair and listened quietly as Tex laid out to Dr. Randall the entire plan and the likely issues they would face, getting it to happen.
After a few minutes, he hung up the phone. “He says he’ll be here as soon as he can.”
Dr. Lewis was quiet for a few seconds, and when she spoke, her voice was shaky. “What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to convince whoever is in command here to align the dishes to my specifications. And I need the Arecibo dish aligned as well. Oh, and I need them to flood the great pyramid in Giza with water.”
Dr. Lewis tittered nervously. “Anything else?” Clearly, she had meant it sarcastically, but Tex answered anyway.
“No. That will be sufficient. And we must hurry, Dr. Lewis. Before someone orders a nuclear strike.”
Dr. Lewis’s sarcastic smile disappeared.
21
JACK
Jack stood in Dr. Randall’s makeshift lab at the CDC and wound electrode wires onto a hard plastic storage board. After two days of putting Alecto through test after test, Dr. Randall had officially pronounced her cured from her vulnerability to water.
Anna was finishing typing data they had collected into the computer. “I wonder if it will work as well for Tex?”
Alecto hopped off the table. The electrode Jack had been trying to gently peel off ripped off and left a glue stain on her collarbone.
“You will cure my brother too?” Her voice quavered.
Jack didn’t know if excitement or fear was in her voice.
Dr. Randall nodded. “That’s the plan.”
Ian had been preparing slides for Ben and Dr. Montoya, but he ran into the small lab where they were working. “Dr. Randall, you have a call. It’s Tex.”
“Speak of the devil,” Jack said.
Dr. Randall’s fingers froze, an electrode stuck in mid-peel, half on and half off Alecto’s upper chest. Alecto’s eyes grew wider, and her lips curved into a frown.
Jack’s chest tightened though he wasn’t sure why. He was with Anna now. What Tex and Erika did wasn’t his business.
Dr. Randall finally unfroze himself. He peeled the electrode off and handed it to Jack. “I must take this call.”
Jack nodded and stepped into the spot where Dr. Randall had been. He continued to peel electrodes off and wind them for storage.
By the time Dr. Randall returned, Alecto was finally free of wires. Jack used cotton gauze damp with an alcohol solution to gently wipe the spots where the electrodes had been attached, to remove the remnants of adhesive from Alecto’s skin. He had never thought of working in a medical or research field, but he had enjoyed helping Alecto over the past few days. He was satisfied knowing he had played at least a small part in helping her to live a more normal life.
Dr. Randall’s face was drawn and even more ashen than usual. He walked slowly, and his lips moved as though he was talking to himself.
Alecto, normally dense about human emotions, immediately sensed something was amiss in Dr. Randall’s world. “Is 9—is my brother in danger?”
Dr. Randall turned his head toward her slowly and looked at her for a few seconds almost as though trying to remember who she was and why he was there. He shook his head. “No. Not any more than usual, anyway. No, Tex is fine. In fact, he may be better than fine.” His look was far off and preoccupied.
Anna took Dr. Randall’s hands in hers. “What did Tex say?”
“That he needs my help.” He cast his gaze downward at Anna and smiled wanly. “And he apologized for how he spoke to me before he left Arizona.”
Alecto snorted. “Of course he did. He wants something of you.”
The venom in her voice was unmistakable. Jack didn’t have siblings, but he was pretty sure Alecto had a serious case of sibling rivalry with Tex. Jack agreed with Alecto’s note of caution, though. He considered Tex a dangerous person with a penchant for manipulation as great perhaps as Tex’s “mother,” Commander Sturgis.
“Alecto’s right, Doc. You should be careful in your dealings with him,” Jack said.
Anna shot a glare at Jack though he had no idea what he’d said or done to justify the look.
“Focus, people,” Anna said. “Can’t you see he’s shaken up? Clearly, that call was more than just an apology.”
“You are exactly right,” Dr. Randall said. His eyes were far off again, and he mumbled. “It’s not possible, but he says it is. It’s crazy… It can’t be, but is it? I suppose it’s theoretically possible if you have all the signals triangulated and the frequencies matching precisely, but—”
Ian clapped Dr. Randall on the back. “Doc, stop rambling. What are you talking about?”
Dr. Randall stopped mumbling and ran a hand through his gray hair. “Tex wants to activate and triangulate electromagnetic energy in three locations on Earth so that he can hitch a ride on the energy waves and travel to a planet many light years away in our galaxy.”
No one resp
onded. Jack could almost hear the brains of the others trying to wrap their gray matter around what Dr. Randall had just said and make sense of it.
Jack didn’t tax himself over it. He didn’t want to waste his mental energy on figuring out the “how.” He was only concerned with one thing. “Why would he want to do that?”
Dr. Randall stared blankly at Jack, blinked a few times, then said, “To meet with the architects.”
Jack rolled his eyes. “Sure. The architects. Makes perfect sense.”
Dr. Randall nodded. “Yes. You understand!”
Jack took a deep breath. “No, I don’t. How about explain it in plain English without metaphor.”
Dr. Randall pushed his glasses up his nose. “He wants to have a chat with the architects of the intergalactic highway these alien invaders are using to come to Earth.” Dr. Randall smiled, and when he spoke again, his voice was filled with pride. “My boy wants to find a way to shut it down.”
Alecto crossed her arms and looked for all the world like a petulant child. Jack figured she wasn’t a fan of her brother getting all the attention.
“What does he need your help with?” Anna asked. “Electromagnetism, radio waves, and stuff—that’s not exactly your area of expertise.”
“True,” Dr. Randall said, “but I speak the language of science, and I know a lot of people both in the scientific community and within government. Apparently, he is at the VLA in New Mexico and is working with a Dr. Lewis from NASA. But he says they are having quite a bit of trouble cutting through bureaucracy and convincing military brass to allow them the resources to move forward.”
Ian pulled a chair out from under a desk and sat backward on it. “And he thinks you can help with that?”
“Well, I have worked off the books and black budget for over thirty years. I know a thing or two about getting things done by going through back-door channels.” He took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. “But who we really need for this is Commander Sturgis. She is frankly much better suited to the task than I.”
“But we don’t even know where she is,” Anna said. “Sewell refuses to tell me her location. He fears Alecto and I will go to her if we know where she is.”
“I will go to her,” Alecto said.
Jack believed Alecto would and decided Sewell had best keep the info from them. Alecto was growing more independent each day, but if she went to Commander Sturgis, she’d likely revert back to the machinelike automaton she had once been.
Ben poked his head around the door frame. “Oh, there you all are.” His messy hair looked as though he’d raked his fingers through it, and his eyes were bloodshot behind his thick glasses. His hands were in the pockets of his white lab coat. “Whatchya doin’ all huddled together in here?”
Ian’s face brightened at the sight of Ben. “Hiding from you,” he teased.
Ben looked astonished for a moment. Then, realizing it was a joke, he laughed nervously.
Dr. Randall placed his glasses back on his face. “Well, I best shove off. Any of you youngsters willing to volunteer to drive an old man through the desert to the VLA?”
Jack had driven nearly three thousand miles, almost single-handedly getting them from New York to Phoenix. He didn’t even want to get in a car, and he wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of seeing Erika and Tex. If they were together, and he assumed they were, he wasn’t sure he could be civil toward the guy that he blamed for putting Erika in danger.
No one volunteered, and an uncomfortable quiet permeated the room.
Alecto broke the silence. “I will go.”
Dr. Randall shook his head. “No, you can’t.”
When she balled her fists at her side and began to argue, Dr. Randall put up a hand. “Your place is here for now. Rest and recover your strength.”
“I am rested. I can take care of myself, you know,” Alecto protested.
Jack was ready to back her up. He’d seen her more than able to hold her own.
Dr. Randall gently placed his hands on her shoulders. “You will have plenty of opportunity to fight, young lady.” His eyes teared up. “There will be much to fight in the weeks to come. Stand down for now, Alecto. When the time comes, we need you with us and not holed up in a dank government lab somewhere. You’ve had enough of that.” He looked around at them. “We all have.”
“Where you going?” Ben asked quietly.
“I’ve been summoned by someone at NASA to the VLA.”
“Oh,” he said. “If you need a ride, I could take you I guess.”
“No, Ben. Dr. Montoya needs you here,” Ian said. He rose from the chair he’d been on and turned it back around.
Ben took Ian’s hand in his. “She does need me. We’re just about ready to upload her findings to the main office. Ian, why don’t you take Dr. Randall?” He put his hand on Ian’s cheek and kissed him softly. “You’ve worked so hard. Time away from all this may do you some good.”
“I would like to see Erika again,” Ian said. “She’s probably a disaster without me.”
Jack chuckled. “Probably true.” A flood of memories of the three of them spending time together came to him. Ian and Erika were more like twins than friends and had been close long before they knew Jack. They needed each other in a way that Jack would never quite understand. Erika was likely an emotional wreck without Ian by her side, especially given that her mom had died recently. Also, if not for having Ben near him twenty-four seven, Ian would have been a mopey mess without Erika there.
Dr. Randall shook Ian’s hand and clapped him on the back with his other hand. “Great, my chauffeur. Get your stuff together. We should leave immediately.”
Ben hugged Ian and kissed him again, a bit longer that time. “I should head back to the lab.” He took a few steps toward the door and looked back at Ian. “Come find me before you go.”
As Ben disappeared down the hall, Ian looked as though he would cry. Jack knew the feeling of saying goodbye. He ached for the way Ian had to be feeling.
Dr. Randall turned his attention back to Anna and Jack. “The two of you are responsible for Alecto until I get back. I know it’s a lot of responsibility to lay on you, but—”
“Doc, I think we’ve got this,” Jack said. “We did rescue her from Croft and got her safely to Arizona, remember?”
Anna turned her attention to Alecto. “Besides, she hardly needs a babysitter. She’s not a child.”
Alecto stood a bit taller, her arms still across her chest. She forced a wan smile and nodded once to Anna.
Within a few hours, Ian had said goodbye to Ben, and he and Dr. Randall were on their way to New Mexico. Ian promised to text Jack when they got there and to keep in touch.
Jack caught his arm before he got into the car. “Tell her… Let her know—”
“That you’re okay. Oh, and that you’re falling in love with a beautiful, highly intelligent, über-rich older woman?”
“Love? What are you talking about. We’re just friends.”
Ian rolled his eyes. “Come on, Jack. I’ve got eyes. It’s okay. She’s definitely hot—if you’re into girls, that is.” His lips curled into an impish smile.
“How about leave Anna out of it. Just let Erika know I’m okay and that I hope she is too.”
Ian gave Jack a quick hug then got into the driver’s seat. “It’ll be okay, Jack. You’ll see. Things like this have a way of working themselves out.”
Jack watched the dark silver-gray sedan pull away and drive off into traffic, headed east. Until the night they met Tex, Jack had never thought about the possibility that he’d never see someone again when they left.
His mom was gone, though. Most of the people in his town were gone, and Erika was as good as gone, at least to him.
Anna took his hand in hers. “You’ll see him again.”
“I hope so.” He smiled down at her. Her hand was small and warm. He wanted to kiss her, but by the time he was nearly ready to lean in, she let his hand go and headed back to the building.
In the elevator on the way up to the lab, Jack said, “We’ve finally got a bit of free time. Why don’t we blow off work this afternoon and do something fun?”
She glanced up at him, her long hair partially covering her injured eye. “What did you have in mind?” Her voice was a soft purr.
Come on, Jack. She’s practically giving you a written invitation.
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe a movie.”
The sultry look was gone. He wasn’t sure what she’d wanted him to say, but apparently sitting in a theater wasn’t the right answer.
“I’ll take a rain check on that. Besides, I should check on Thomas. With Dr. Randall gone, I need to make sure he’s got food in his place and look after him.”
The bell dinged, signaling they were on their floor. The elevator door opened, and Thomas stood only a few feet away.
Thomas’s face was slick with sweat as though he had run there. His beard was scraggly and needed a trim. His eyes were wild and rimmed in red. “Good, you’re back. I’ve got to talk to you.” He pulled Anna by the hand and yanked her along behind him as he walked to a small office.
Jack followed even though Thomas hadn’t indicated the conversation would include him, but Thomas didn’t ask him to leave when he closed the door behind them.
Anna sat cross-legged on the light-blue pleather couch. “What’s up?”
Thomas ran his shaky fingers through his greasy hair. It was still short but was getting shaggy and needed a trim that would likely not happen unless Anna took the time to cut it herself. “I know I shouldn’t have done it—know it’ll likely end up bad for me—but I had to monitor. Gotta know what’s going on.” Thomas paced as he talked.
Jack had been standing just beside the door, his arms across his chest, leaning against the wall. Anna rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. She was just about to get up, but Jack held up his hand in an I’ve-got-this motion. He stood in Thomas’s pacing path, forcing him to stop.
“Slow down, and tell us what you came to say. Who did you monitor?”
Thomas raised his eyes from the floor and looked into Jack’s. “The Crofts.”
H.A.L.F.: ORIGINS Page 17
