by Anna Argent
No one knew what was really coming for them. No one knew that the creatures they saw were only a tiny fraction of what was headed their way. They didn’t even know that the real enemy was hiding out of sight, making it impossible to find or defeat him.
That nagging sense of danger swelled in her gut, telling her just how bad things were going to get. Before this was over, a lot of people were going to die. And selfishly, all she could think about was how far she’d go—how much she’d sacrifice—to make sure that Mom and Emily weren’t among them.
Chapter Twenty-one
Emily screamed long after her voice was gone, until all that came out were pitiful puffs of air. She didn’t know how the yellow-haired monsters did it, but every time they looked at her, pain became her whole world.
At some point she’d passed out. When she woke, Mom was rocking her, stroking her hair and whispering quiet, soothing lies. “It’s okay, honey. Everything’s going to be okay.”
Emily knew better.
She opened her eyes to find that they were being held in a bedroom. It was small and dated, with wood paneling and the same musty smell Grandma’s house used to have.
“Where are we?” Emily whispered. That was all she could manage with her tortured vocal cords refusing to work.
“I don’t know.” Mom held her tighter and glanced nervously at the door. “They want to hurt Ava.”
“Ava? Why?”
“I don’t know.” Mom was hiding something. She had that same look on her face the last time she’d found out the cancer was back. She’d hidden it from Emily and Ava for a week before they’d finally gotten the truth out of her.
“Did he hurt you?” Emily asked.
Mom nodded. “I’m fine now. High pain tolerance.”
At least something good had come from her cancer.
Emily pushed herself upright on the sagging mattress. There were boards over the windows, blocking out all hope of sunlight. A dingy glass globe and a tired bulb gave them a little light to see. There was nothing in the room but a bare mattress—no furniture, no fixtures, not even a rug.
As she became more alert, the torture she’d undergone started to come back to her. “That thing… it dug around in my head. I don’t know what it was looking for, but I couldn’t keep it out.”
Mom’s eyes filled with tears. “Neither could I. It knows everything about Ava now. There was nothing I could do to stop it.”
“What does it want with Ava?”
“I don’t know.” Again Mom was hiding something.
“Spit it out. Things really can’t get much worse. We’re being held against our will and tortured. I’d at least like to know why.”
Mom closed her eyes. Tears sprinkled down her hollow cheeks. “She’s not one of us, honey.”
“What do you mean?”
Mom swallowed nervously. “Ava isn’t human.”
The shock of that revelation rattled Emily for a second, but she’d had so many shocking things happen in the past few hours that it didn’t really seem all that implausible. “She’s not one of them, is she?”
“No. She’s nothing like them. But she is special. That’s why she was sent here. Her mother brought her to Earth to protect her. Then she gave her to me when she could no longer do the job.” Mom covered her face with her bony hands. “And I failed her. I failed both of them.”
Emily had seen Mom cry before, but never like this. These were deep, wrenching sobs that shook Emily all the way to her soul.
She grabbed Mom in a tight hug and held her. “You didn’t fail Ava. Not even close.”
Mom sniffed. “That creature dug in my head. It found what it was looking for.”
“What?”
“I told you, it wants Ava. And I showed it how to get her.”
Denial rose up hard and fast. “You don’t even know where she is.”
“It doesn’t matter. All that thing needed was the right tool to use to make Ava come to him.”
“Ava won’t come. She’s too smart to come unless she has an army.”
“She’ll come,” said Mom without a hint of hesitation.
“You can’t know that.”
“I do.”
“How?”
“Because I’m going to call her and beg her to come.”
“You’d never do that,” said Emily, absolutely certain.
“I will, and that asshole knows how to make me. It’s just a matter of time.”
“I don’t understand.”
The bedroom door began to rattle as something heavy was moved away from it.
Mom grabbed Emily’s face. “Please forgive me. Please tell Ava to forgive me.”
Now Emily was starting to get worried. “What are you going to do?”
“The only thing I can: call Ava.”
“But why? You love her. You know if she comes here they’ll hurt her.”
Mom hung her head in shame. “I know, honey, but if I don’t call her, that man made it very clear that he was going to kill you.”
*****
Radek hadn’t expected an answer from Talan so quickly. The window had only been open a few seconds when his comms device buzzed.
He stepped into the kitchen so he wouldn’t be talking over the TV, then activated it, opening the channel of communication. But instead of Talan’s deep voice on the other end, it was Zoe’s.
Zoe had been raised here on Earth the way Ava and the other Taken had. Her Imonite father had brought her here and trained her in the ways of his people. Zoe had managed to straddle two worlds, and by last account, had settled in nicely in her new laboratory, cooking up all manner of tech designed to end the war at home.
“Sounds like things have gone to hell there,” said Zoe.
“A little bit. I’m hoping to do what I can to fix it, but I could use a hand.”
“Your message said you needed a way to find a Raide.”
“Right. Got anything up your sleeve?”
“Maybe, but I have something that might be even more useful.”
“What?”
“I’m not supposed to tell anyone about it, but I owe you, so here goes. Please keep this under wraps or things could become difficult for me here.”
“My lips are sealed.”
“I have a working prototype for a genetic bomb.”
“A what?”
“It’s something I’ve been working on since I got here. I’ve tested it on bacteria with great success, but that’s as far as the higher ups here have let me go. They don’t understand what I’ve done, so they don’t trust it.”
“You’re going to have to spell it out for me, too, Zoe. I’m not a Builder. I kill things for a living, remember?”
Ava came into the kitchen where she could hear the conversation.
Zoe went on with her explanation. “You put something in it that you want dead and it kills everything like it. Or, you put something in it you don’t want dead and it kills everything not like it.”
“How is that possible?” he asked.
“Do you really want to know that, or do you just want to know where to pick it up?”
“The latter, please.”
“I’ll send it through express mail. Next window, which should be in Iowa. Look for a log from a tree that grows here. I’ll hide it inside in case anyone is nearby. You do not want this thing to fall into the wrong hands.”
“How do we work it?” asked Ava.
Silence filled the line.
“It’s okay,” said Radek. “She’s with me.”
“Oh. Whew. I thought someone had intercepted our call for a second,” said Zoe. “Are the rumors true? Is Dimas there?”
“Yes, according to a friendly Dregorg.”
“Talan told me that all the higher-ups in the Raide army are children of his. Is that right?”
“That’s always been the case so far.”
“Good, because I set the sensitivity on the machine very high. Raide share too many similarities to humans and Loriah
ans for us to take any chances.”
“What happens if you’re off?” asked Radek.
“Then Earth is going to become the universe’s largest humanoid-free nature preserve.”
“Can we get rid of the Dregorgs and Cyturs the same way?” asked Ava.
“Sadly, no. This is a one-shot machine. It will burn itself up as it does its thing.”
“So we’ve only got one chance,” Radek said.
“That’s right.”
“How long will it take to work once we toss in the right DNA sample?”
“Not long. In my trials, it only took the bacteria a few seconds to die. A larger organism may hang on for longer, but not much.”
“You’re making more of these, right?” asked Ava.
“I’m working on it. They’re delicate little critters. Definitely not the kind of job to rush, you know?”
Radek could only imagine. “Anything else we need to know about your new toy?”
Zoe paused for a second. “I’ve heard things are getting bad back there. If they get really bad—and only if they get really bad—then get a clean sample of DNA from a human and put it on elimination mode.”
“What will that do?” Ava asked.
“It will kill any animals that are not human. People will have to learn to be happy as vegetarians, but at least they’d survive.”
Ava let out a low whistle. “Talk about a nuclear option.”
“It’s not going to get that bad,” Radek promised. “I won’t let it.”
“I like your plan,” Zoe said. “I really miss a good steak.”
“If this weapon works, I’ll bring you back a whole cow,” Radek said.
Zoe sighed in longing. “Do you think Talan would be upset if I told you I love you right now?”
Radek laughed, imagining the epic scowl that would twist his friend’s face if he was within earshot.
Ava was looking at him with a frown of her own. “So, any idea how we can find Dimas?”
“No. Wait. Yes. I made a doohickey one night when I couldn’t sleep.” A bunch of shuffling noises came through the connection. “Found it! I’ll send it in your care package.”
“What is it?” Ava asked.
“Just plug it in and turn it on. It will show you where Raide communications are originating. I’ll change out the plug to work on standard 110 outlets. Just leave it running. It will work for a few hours—time enough for you to get close.”
“Thanks, Zoe. I owe you,” Radek said.
“You owe me steak. I want to be very clear about that.”
“Whatever you want, honey. It’s yours.”
“Talan’s back. He’s scowling at you calling me honey. I should go now. Bye.” She ended the communication.
Ava was still staring at him with that strange look on her face.
“What?” he asked.
“She seems nice. Smart.”
Ah. Now he understood. Even though he and Ava had never discussed a relationship, they had just enjoyed the best sex ever. And here he was in a conversation with another woman in which the “L” word came up. “She’s brilliant. Beautiful. And completely in love with one of my best friends.”
“I was being a jealous bitch, wasn’t I?” Ava asked.
He pulled her into his arms. “I like that I was worth a little bit of jealousy.”
“It was just sex,” she said, as if trying to convince herself.
“Epic sex.”
She melted in his embrace. Her eyes darkened and she started staring at his mouth. “It was pretty good, I guess.”
“Pretty good? Looks like I’ll have to try harder next time.”
“Next time?”
“There will be a next time, Ava. I love the way you burned for me far too much not to see that flame again. But first we have to save the world.” He leaned down to kiss her, but before he made contact, his comms unit went off again.
“Sorry, Talan,” said Radek, anticipating his friend. “I didn’t mean to make your grumpy come out and play. I was just being friendly with your woman.”
Warden Trathen’s voice filtered through the line. “You were speaking to the Imonite, Radek? That wasn’t approved.”
Rather than lie to the man who could make his life miserable, Radek evaded the question. “We’re closing in on Dimas now.”
“Your mission has been aborted,” said Trathen. “You will return home through the next window, along with the Soricalia woman.”
Ava’s eyes went wide and she shook her head in denial.
Radek put his finger to his mouth to urge her to be silent. “But sir, her family has been taken by Dimas. There’s no way she’ll leave now.”
“Then use force. Knock her out and drag her back. I don’t care. Just get the job done.”
“I won’t do that.”
“You will, or there will be no more shipments of blockers coming through.”
Nervous sweat beaded up on his forehead. If he didn’t get more of the antidote that kept him alive, he’d spend his last few days on an alien world, dying in pain.
“Just give me a little more time, Warden, please. We’re so close to stopping the invasion here.”
“You’ve never had a problem with modesty, have you, inmate?”
Radek flinched. His quick glance at Ava told her that she’d caught the reference to his status as a prisoner.
“Just a few more days. That’s all we need. One more shipment of blockers will be enough to get me through—”
“No. You’re cut off. Return home with the woman, or stay there. At this point, it’s all the same to me.”
The comms unit went dark, signaling the connection had been ended.
“Inmate?” asked Ava. “Does that mean there what it means here?”
He wouldn’t lie to her. “It does.”
She backed away from him, all the way into the living room. “You never told me you were a convict.”
“You never asked.”
He could tell by the painful look of betrayal on her face that his response had been the wrong one.
“I’m sorry, Ava. It’s not something I like to discuss, for obvious reasons.”
She hugged herself. “What did you do?”
“Nothing. I swear.”
A cold, hard mask fell into place across her features. “Prisons are full of innocent men. Is that what you’re telling me?”
“No, but in my case it’s true.”
She held up her hands to stop his explanation. “I can’t deal with this right now. We need to find Mom and Emily. That’s all I can worry about.” She turned toward the front door and said, “I’ll be in the truck.”
Helpless fury pinned Radek in place. He knew the feeling well. It had been his constant companion for years—right up until he’d been offered this job.
Go to an alien world. Learn about them. Blend in and find the children that had been hidden there.
No one else wanted to go. It was a fool’s errand.
Radek had fully expected to die here, but even that hadn’t stopped him from taking the job. Better to die alone on an alien world than alone inside a cage at home.
He’d done hard things in his life. Bad things. But he’d always done them with a noble purpose.
No matter what anyone thought, he knew he was a good man.
He wanted to make Ava understand that, but what was the point? It wasn’t like they were going to have some fantasy life together. She was going back home to fight the war, and he was going back to prison.
Assuming he survived that long.
He only had two doses of blockers left. Two days. He could try to make them stretch, but the side effects weren’t going to be any fun. They’d make him slower, weaker. With Ava’s life on the line, he couldn’t afford to take risks.
Once he went home he could get more of the antidote he needed, but that came with a price: life in a prison cell. The moment he’d stepped foot on Earth, he’d always known somewhere deep down that he was never goin
g back home.
He’d been free for too long to let them cage him again.
As his decision settled in, along with all of the associated consequences, he felt better. At least he knew what he wanted. A short life as a free man over a long one as a prisoner. It was a good trade.
So this was it. The end of the line. He had two days left to leave his mark, two days left to live.
Might as well go out with a bang.
Chapter Twenty-two
Ava wanted to be furious, but all she could manage was fear.
There was power in rage—power she desperately craved. All fear had to offer was a whimpering, weeping helplessness that did no one any good.
Mom and Emily were missing. The whole world was going to hell. The one man she thought she could count on to help her get through this was not at all as advertised.
He was a criminal.
She didn’t know what he’d done—or hadn’t done, if she asked him. Had he stolen? Murdered?
Did it even matter what he was accused of when he refused to own up to his actions? How could she ever believe a word he said when he’d been hiding something this big from her?
The sad truth was, she’d opened herself up to a bad guy. She’d given him her virginity. Hell, she’d even started to fall for him. Maybe only a little, but enough. More than enough.
How could she have been so stupid?
She sat in the truck, itching to take off without him. If she’d had any idea how to find these windows as he called them, she would have done just that.
But she couldn’t find them without his help. She had no clue how to operate his alien devices.
Ava was well and truly stuck with him.
He came out of her house, so strong and handsome it nearly stole her breath away. It was no wonder she’d fallen for him. The man was confident, sexy, and utterly capable in any situation.
Apparently, prison had been good for him.
He got in, started the truck and headed north. She could feel him glance at her every few minutes, but so far he’d been silent.
The miles passed. The sky lightened to gray, then to gold. As the sun rose over her right shoulder, she wondered how many more times she’d get to see such a sight.
“What is it like where you’re from?” she asked.
