Paired Pursuit

by Clare Murray

  Infuriatingly, Hobart took his time, examining his surroundings in a way that bordered on rude while he finished the water. Then he turned his attention to her—and Mari didn’t like the gleam in his eye.

  Neither did Patrice, apparently. “Talk,” she demanded. “Now, before I run you outta here. Tank?”

  The Rottweiler sat up, fixing his attention upon Hobart.

  “All right, all right. Traveling is hard work these days. I haven’t had a moment to sit in peace for weeks, so I forgot myself for a minute.” Hobart set the glass on a side table and pulled out a large notebook. “You are Marisol Aquino, right?”

  “How did you find me?” Mari was starting to wish she’d brought her Glock downstairs. Her father had hosted many reporters pre-Invasion, all asking about his scientific breakthroughs…but they’d stuck to the facts, treating her father—and her—cordially. This reporter seemed as if he’d sell his own mother for a quick buck.

  Even so, he was well-dressed and his notebook and pen spoke of authenticity. And Mari wanted to know what he knew about her father.

  “One of my colleagues saw your name on a list of people traveling from Flagstaff to Reno. He figured you’d be interesting to talk to because of the train breakdown. I heard there were Twins aboard.”

  Mari waited stonily through the ensuing silence, all but certain the man was withholding information.

  “Anyway, someone else recognized your name as being Dr. Jorge Aquino’s daughter, and since you were coming from Flagstaff, his last known location, we figured there might be a chance we might find you.”

  “What do you want with her?” Patrice challenged. Mari sat up straighter, confidence rushing through her at the other woman’s implicit support. After so many years of being mostly on her own, it was nice to have someone like Patrice at her back.

  “Look, Dr. Aquino contacted the government shortly before he passed away, claiming he had some information we might be interested in. Bureaucratic incompetence prevented that information from actually getting passed on. We were hoping you might fill us in.”

  The room seemed to grow ten degrees colder, and Mari schooled her expression to neutrality. She knew Hobart wanted talk about the device—devices, she reminded herself—but she didn’t trust this man enough to spill the beans. There was something about him that made her think he wouldn’t use the knowledge in an ethical way.

  “Dad had cancer, and he wasn’t very lucid in his last weeks.” That much was true. The pain meds she’d near-bankrupted herself to get had been effective, but they’d left her father in a deep sleep much of the time—or at best, a zombielike state. “So maybe you ought to start with what you know.”

  A flicker of annoyance crossed Hobart’s face and was rapidly smoothed away. “Sure. When Dr. Aquino contacted my source, he told them that he knew of a device that the aliens sought. At that point, he was cut off due to communication issues, and my source was unable to reach him again. Do you know anything of this device he mentioned?”

  Mari shook her head, curling her toes as she did so. Judging by the intensity of the nightly attacks, the Barks were determined to get their property back, but she preferred to save that information for the Twins rather than involve this man.

  “Ah, well.” Hobart looked deeply disappointed, but a certain hardness about the set of his jaw betrayed his anger. He got to his feet. “I’m going to give you my card in case you unexpectedly…remember anything. I’ll be staying in a room at the Wanderer Inn downtown. Call in anytime you like.”

  Mari heroically refrained from wrinkling her nose. That down-at-the-heel gaming hall was the perfect place for Hobart. She took the card he offered and slipped it into her pocket. “All right.”

  Hobart paused on the doorstep, thin eyebrows drawing downward. Pacing a few steps into the street, he gestured at her. “One last thing. Could you tell me which way the main gates are?”

  Mari nodded, leaning out to point down the street. “If you—”

  Hobart lunged, grabbing her arms and yanking her into a tight embrace. One foot lashed out, slamming the door behind her. “Okay, you’re coming with me. Don’t scream.”

  She obeyed—only because she opted to sink her teeth into his shoulder. He jerked, swearing at her, calling her a bitch and a whore, but his grasp never lessened. To her horror, he was strong enough to half carry, half drag her down the street. At this rate, Patrice wouldn’t catch up with them, and she wouldn’t get a clear shot either.

  But Mari had underestimated her landlady.

  “Tank, get him.”

  A blur of black-and-tan fur barreled into Hobart, knocking them both to the cracked asphalt. The Rottweiler planted his paws on Hobart’s chest with a snarl and latched on to the man’s arm, holding him firmly to the ground. Mari got to her feet, shakily clawing her hair back out of her eyes. Patrice hobbled toward them, considerably slower than her dog. She looked pleased as punch.

  “Tank, release the bite. Good dog.”

  The last words were interrupted by a shout, and Mari looked up to find the Twins sprinting toward them. Finn enveloped her in a tight embrace while Gareth—no, Mari wasn’t going to look. There was a crunch and a yell as she buried her face in Finn’s chest.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  Mari swallowed hard. “Yes, but there’s something important I need to tell you.”

  * * * * *

  Finn acknowledged her with a neutral murmur, but his focus was on his brother. Gareth was in a killing rage, and Mari’s abductor was very much at his mercy. With a whimper, the man cradled his broken arm and glared upward.

  “Don’t hurt me anymore—there’s money in it for you.”

  “Yeah?” Gareth’s tone should have tipped the man off, but he kept talking.

  “My boss pays really well for Experiments who defect—”

  “Easy,” Finn warned as Gareth placed a booted foot on the man’s throat, effectively shutting him up.

  “I’m done hearing this shit.” That could mean anything—and the turmoil that racked Gareth’s mind wouldn’t let him get a clear reading on his brother’s intention. A movement forward would kill the man under his foot; a movement backward would spare him.

  “Mari needs us.” Not for the first time, Finn was relieved to have someone else in their lives, someone whom Gareth cared about.

  “Someone to distract me with, you mean. I know what you’re doing, Finn, and I appreciate it, but this guy’s a damn Shadow Fed. What the fuck does he want with Mari?”

  “I don’t know, but killing him isn’t going to provide an answer.”

  “You’re right.” Gareth took his foot away and there was a corresponding wheeze as the man got his breath.

  “His name is Josh Hobart. He says he’s a reporter from New York,” Mari supplied in a low voice.

  “He’s not. He’s a Shadow Fed, one of the power-hungry assholes trying to topple the current government.” Finn spoke absently, still observing Hobart’s every move.

  “Dad says—said the current government only rules because everyone pretends they do.”

  “Yeah, these guys don’t want to pretend anymore. What did he want with you, Mari?”

  “He said he had information about my father.” She peered ruefully up at him. “He did, but it wasn’t anything I didn’t know—and then he tried to strong-arm me into telling him anything I knew about the device Dad discovered.”

  The flicker of worry in her brown eyes made him think that the bastard Shadow Fed was actually onto something. “Okay, Mari. Did you tell him anything?”

  “No, but I need to talk to you and Gareth.” She lowered her voice to the point where a human wouldn’t be able to hear her, but Finn had no problem. He inclined his head, acknowledging her silently.

  “Gonna take him to the human jail,” Gareth sent. “That guy I dealt with yesterday should have something
to keep him on his toes. Too much solar-powered solitaire might warp his brain.”

  “Sure.” Finn kept a lid on his surprise. The old Gareth would have required a bit more cajoling to back off. “I’ll take Mari inside, get her a drink and calm her down a bit. She’s trembling.”

  It wasn’t long before Patrice and Mari were settled back inside, with a smug Rottweiler at their feet. Finn sensed that Mari didn’t want to share the information before Gareth was back, so he busied himself making drinks, keeping a mental ear out in case Gareth needed anything.

  But his Twin returned without incident, taking the seat next to Mari and tucking her under one muscular arm as he gave her a critical once-over. “You okay?”

  Her dark head dipped in a nod. “Physically, yes. Mentally… Well, maybe with a good night’s sleep. I read my father’s diary. That man—Hobart—is right. Dad did discover a device, a communication device.”

  Gareth nodded. “A couple of the scientists have a theory that the aliens might be able to call up some buddies. After the first ships invaded, there was a second wave about a month later. They studied the radar readings and found that a large concentration of them landed in the Arctic or Antarctic. That environment would aid cryogenic sleep.”

  “Oh great,” Patrice interjected. “More Barks. Just what the world needs.”

  “So the device my dad stole…” Mari trailed off, going a bit white.

  “Wakey-wakey,” Finn said, disguising his worry in wryness.

  “Surely those aliens would be more organized than that.” Patrice’s words were laced with disgust. “Wouldn’t there be more of those devices?”

  “Maybe that’s where the second half fits in,” Mari said. She glanced at the other side of the room as if she were frightened. “Patrice’s daughter might have found another one.”

  Finn nodded. “Makes sense there would be more than one. Think about it—we put up way more resistance than the Barks expected. We shot down one of their motherships just a few miles away from here, and our missiles obliterated a decent chunk of their fighting force midair. For all we know, they were used to prey that rolled over and died, so the fact that we fought back damaged their usual strategy.”

  Finn wasn’t merely parroting the scientists’ favorite theory, he fully believed it. He’d also spent numerous hours in their file system, browsing information he probably wasn’t supposed to see. He strongly suspected there was more to the Barks than met the eye, that they were a piece in a puzzle nobody had figured out yet.

  “So…you do something with these devices, and they call up the sleeping Barks?” Patrice fixed him with a skeptical look. “That’s a big range on these things. My late husband would’ve been in seventh heaven with a remote like that.”

  “Given that they probably piloted that second wave of ships through space via remote control, that’s very probable.” But Gareth cracked a smile at her phrasing.

  “Okay. If these devices are remote controls,” Mari said, her voice wavering a little, “you should know that they’re also being tracked by the Barks. My dad stole his out of an intact ship near Oregon. After that, every City we went to was attacked by increasing waves of aliens. When we went to Arizona, he left it here. From what I gather, the attacks here kept intensifying.”

  “Ah, that explains a lot,” Gareth sent. “Makes sense that they’d have trackers attached.”

  “We think one of them might be on that table over there,” Patrice said, gesturing to the other side of the room. We haven’t been able to bring ourselves to look through it yet—I’m too damn sentimental, and Mari’s scared.”

  “I’m not scared,” Mari protested. “I’d rather not…touch it, though. The idea of being tracked gives me the creeps.”

  “We’ll deal with it,” Finn soothed. “Can I read Dr. Aquino’s diary, Mari? I need to know what I’m looking for.”

  Mari nodded. “Of course. Dad drew a few detailed diagrams.”

  “Why are the Barks so bound and determined to get to these particular devices?” Finn asked his brother while Mari went to fetch the diary.

  “Could be that the others went down with their ships. Maybe these are the only ones left. Maybe Dr. Aquino was right, and they’re two halves of a whole. Question is why the aliens are so determined to get at them.”

  “Some of the researchers believe the aliens kept their females on the second wave ships.”

  “Then they aren’t going to give up looking. Let’s find the things and get out of here.”

  “I’m with you on that. Let’s handle it carefully, though. Mari’s pretty sensitive.”

  “You think she feels guilty?” Gareth would have been impatient with anyone other than Mari, but Finn sensed nothing but consideration from his brother. “She was an adolescent when her parents took her from here.”

  “I think she feels bad that her father inadvertently brought this upon Scar City. She feels guilty on his behalf.”

  When Mari returned with the diary, Finn took her hand and squeezed it gently. “Look, there’s a lot we don’t know about the aliens. Your father couldn’t have realized it was being tracked until too late—and what was he going to do about it? Turn around and give it to the Barks?”

  “Maybe that would have saved this City.” Mari’s hand remained limp in his.

  “Hey now, this City hasn’t fallen yet.” Patrice thumped her cane on the floor and rose, laboriously, to go into the kitchen. “For that matter, we haven’t eaten yet either. You boys bring anything?”

  “Got some bread in my pack,” Gareth offered.

  “Good. I have jam. And I got canned peaches, which we might as well eat up if they’re still good.”

  Finn watched Mari perk up a little at that last. “Peaches?”

  “In syrup.” With a flourish, Patrice produced a large can from her cupboard. “I’ve been saving this damn thing for nearly a decade, but…well, with the state of things, I don’t want my granddaughter coming back to Scar City.”

  “Have you thought of leaving yourself?” Finn didn’t miss the way the elderly woman’s shoulders tensed, the slightly too long pause before she answered. She was thinking about it.

  “I’ve lived here for thirty years. I don’t see myself upping sticks at this point.”

  “Well, we’re taking Mari to Chicago.” Gareth took the can opener from her shaky hand and earned a grateful look from Patrice. “You ought to come along.”

  “I’m too old. I’d be a burden.”

  “Nope. And you know that Tank would pine for you.” Gareth dipped a slim stick into the can of peaches, testing for botulism before he began doling out peach slices. The aroma was heaven to Finn’s nose. The overly controlling scientists had frowned upon Twins eating anything outside of the officially sanctioned cafeteria, but they’d sometimes eaten at Hailey’s house. And Hailey hadn’t been much of a cook, so they’d eaten plenty out of cans.

  “He would,” Patrice murmured. “Hard to teach an old dog new tricks, though.”

  The food didn’t last long, and Gareth rose to do the dishes. “Now’s the time to go root through all that junk on the table and see if there really is some kind of alien device hidden in there. I think we really need to find it and get the hell out of here.”

  “Agreed,” Finn replied, already cracking open the diary.

  “When I was dropping the idiot Shadow Fed off at what passes as a government office, they were already drawing up battle plans for tonight. I promised them I’d drop by after dark and see if I could be of any help.”

  “Good. They could probably use you.”

  Mari snuggled up next to him on the couch, seeming all too happy to hand over some of the responsibility. There was a slightly glazed look in her brown eyes that spoke of stress and information overload. So he tucked her under his arm and began to read.

  An hour later, he set the diary down, h
aving read it from front to back. Mari was asleep on him and Patrice dozed in her armchair. Gareth sat nearby, idly stroking Tank while watching an action movie on his tablet. Finn was vaguely aware of the tinny sounds of explosions through Gareth’s headphones.

  “Anything interesting?”

  “Yeah, there are two devices. Dr. Aquino stole one directly out of a spaceship, hid the thing somewhere in Scar City, and then felt guilty as hell afterward when he heard of increased alien attacks. But with his wife dead and him suddenly in sole charge of a young teenager, I don’t blame him for not going back.”

  “Hid the thing somewhere in Scar City? That’s not exactly helpful.”

  “He mentioned the south wall a few times, and that’s where the attacks have been heaviest.” Finn gently lowered Mari’s head onto a pillow. “We have bigger fish to fry, though.”

  “What?”

  Finn strode over to the table in the corner, looking in mild dismay at the huge pile of random items. Several minutes later, he’d shoved aside everything obvious and stared down at a tangle of wires. Computer parts? Patrice had obviously made an attempt at keeping things tidy, placing the electronics inside a shallow cardboard box.

  He almost missed the gray corner jutting from underneath a motherboard. Carefully, using his index finger and thumb, he pulled the thing free from the wires that had hidden it for so many years. Strange that a seemingly simple-minded alien race possessed such a sophisticated device, but he’d learned not to underestimate the Barks.

  Gareth whistled as Finn held up the thin metal triangle, seemingly made out of the same gray material as the alien spaceships. Mari had been right—Patrice’s daughter had managed to dig up a goddamn alien device.

  “Dr. Aquino theorized he possessed one half of a whole. Here’s the other half. Except…this is different from the diagrams in his notes.” Finn sent.

  “What’s different about it?”

  “It has extra…control parts—their equivalent of buttons that they can suck or whatever with their tentacles. This isn’t the exact one that Dr. Aquino diagrammed.”