“No, they wouldn’t have.”
I decided it was time for me to break in. “His appearance really isn’t what’s important here. What’s important is that the reason we haven’t really heard anything about these kidnappings, why they haven’t been all over the news, is that governments worldwide actually are suppressing those reports. Lir Shalan has promised to hand over some of the Reptilians’ technology if people keep their mouths shut about the women being taken.”
“I see,” my father said heavily. “That…complicates things.”
“But why?” my mother asked, and Gideon and I looked at each other.
He was the first to speak. “Perhaps we should sit down. This may require some explanation.”
“Of course.” She headed over to the table in the nook and pulled out a chair, and after a brief hesitation, my father followed her.
Both Gideon and I picked up our water glasses and went to sit down in the two unoccupied chairs. For just a second or two, I thought about how familiar those surroundings were to me, and yet how they were made strange by having Gideon sitting there, his greenish skin a stark contrast to the black T-shirt he wore.
Then he launched into basically the same explanation he’d given me about the Reptilians relying on cloning to reproduce, and how they’d found themselves boxed into a corner when that method of ensuring the survival of their species began to fail them. He didn’t go into any great detail, but he did explain how his mother had been taken from Sedona.
During that part of the narrative, I watched my parents’ changing expressions. My father had shifted into analytical mode, brows raising or scrunching together as he took in each piece of Gideon’s story and thought it over. As for my mother, well, I could tell she was shaken by Elizabeth D’Onofrio’s fate, her pale face and the strained look in her eyes telling me how much she worried for the women who were being taken for that same purpose even now.
“How many?” she asked, once Gideon had paused and picked up his glass of water.
He didn’t pretend to misunderstand her. After he’d swallowed a mouthful of water, he replied, “A little over a thousand so far.”
“A thousand,” she murmured. Right then I could feel the worry and sorrow pulsing from her as she thought of the shared fate of those women, taken by a hostile race for a single terrible purpose.
“From where?” my father asked. I could tell he was wondering if only a few nations had submitted to the aliens’ terrible request, or whether this was a worldwide conspiracy.
“Everywhere,” Gideon said simply, and both my parents winced.
“We have to stop it,” I said.
“How?” Gideon asked.
He wasn’t being mean, or being obtuse on purpose. I could tell he genuinely wanted to know.
The problem was, I had no idea. My parents and their little group of UFO hunters had accomplished some amazing things over the years, but they weren’t exactly equipped to take on a problem of this magnitude.
My father’s jaw hardened. Right then I got a glimpse of the man who’d evaded pursuit by Men in Black and traded potshots with hybrid soldiers. He wasn’t afraid of this challenge.
“First thing,” he said, “is to get the word out. I’ll pass along everything you’ve told me to Lance, and he’ll make sure it gets through the network. And then we can start digging into the stories of the women who’ve disappeared, find as many commonalities as we can, and try to spread word as to how women in the target demographic can protect themselves.”
“Were the ones taken women who lived alone?” I asked.
“I don’t think Lance said one way or another,” my mother replied. “So we’ll have to look into that. It would be an easy precaution to take — just make sure you never sleep alone.”
“Thus encouraging tons more college hook-ups and one-night stands,” I said dryly, although actually, better to go to bed with someone you just met in a bar than to get beamed up to be a Reptilian’s sex slave.
My mother slanted a look at me. “That’s not what I was suggesting. I was thinking more about getting a friend to stay over or something along those lines.”
“It really wouldn’t change the situation all that much,” Gideon said. His tone wasn’t quite defeated, but he didn’t look terribly enthusiastic, either. “If my people have decided on a particular target, then they can take her right out of her bed, even if someone else is in the same room, or sleeping next to her.”
Mouth dry, I asked, “Seriously?”
“Seriously. In the past, they would have preferred to avoid such maneuvers, since they were riskier, but now, with your governments covering up for them, they don’t need to be quite as discreet.”
A silence fell. My father drummed his fingers on the tabletop, clearly sorting through what Gideon had just told us and attempting to see if he could find any kind of a loophole, something that would make it so those women’s fates weren’t already predetermined. I looked across the table at my mother, saw how the fine little laugh lines around her eyes appeared to deepen with worry. She’d never been the type to sit by when there was an injustice that needed to be righted, but at the moment I could tell she didn’t know what she could possibly do to fix this problem.
“They use a version of these,” Gideon said as he laid the transporter device on the tabletop. His words fell cool and clear into the silence, although again I sensed those waves of shame coming from him, as if he still thought this was all his fault. Maybe in his culture, the sins of the father were just as much the sins of the son, since they were all clones.
My father’s eyes lit up with curiosity, and he made a movement toward the silvery cylinder, then stopped himself. “Do you mind if I pick it up?” he asked.
“Go ahead,” Gideon replied. “It’s keyed to my biometrics, so there’s no chance of you setting it off.”
Lying there in my father’s hand, the device did look pretty harmless. But I’d seen how Gideon had used it to transport me back to Earth, so I knew it could do exactly the opposite, bringing unsuspecting — and most likely terrified — women up to the Reptilians’ ship.
My mother spoke then. “Is there any way of, I don’t know, blocking it? Creating a sort of field that would disrupt its effects?”
A flicker of surprise went through Gideon’s deep red eyes, as if he hadn’t ever considered that question before. “I don’t know for sure. That is, I’ve never heard of such a thing, but I suppose it’s theoretically possible.”
“Of course, Persephone,” my father said, his face lighting up at the prospect. He put his free hand on top of hers where it rested on the tabletop and gave it a squeeze. “If we could analyze the beam, find out the energy waves it’s using, then generating a counter-energy that would block it is entirely possible.”
“You could do that?” I asked. That is, I knew my father was brilliant, with degrees in astronomy and in astrophysics, but still, it sounded as if what he was proposing would need an engineer to implement the hack once the physics had been figured out.
“By myself? No. That’s not my background. But we can put the call out, get some particle physicists and a couple of engineers to come and analyze it. I know Jeff Makowski knows some people at Caltech. They’d kill to get their hands on something like this.”
And when that call went out, my father wouldn’t have to hide the origins of the device. He might have spent years being mocked by the scientific community for believing in UFOs, but no one could laugh at him now. The images of Lir Shalan and his delegation greeting the President had been carried around the world, and now nothing would ever be the same.
“Do you mind if they take it, Gideon?” I asked gently, because I realized that in his scientific zeal to start taking the device apart, so to speak, my father hadn’t actually asked permission to start reverse-engineering the thing. Also, with it disassembled, Gideon would have no way of getting back to the ship.
Then again, maybe that was a good thing.
“No, it�
��s fine,” he replied. “When the time comes, I can unlock it so they’re able to analyze the beam without my handling it. Besides, if the device is out of my possession, then Lir Shalan cannot use it to contact me. You see, they are used both for transportation and for communication.”
Those words made me go cold. I’d almost forgotten, in everything which had happened that afternoon, how Lir Shalan had sent his son down here to fetch me back.
Voice shaking slightly, I asked, “How long before he gets suspicious?”
“I’m not completely certain. But he is probably already wondering why I haven’t returned.”
“He sent you here to get Taryn?” my mother said, looking even paler.
“Yes. He was not happy to learn that I had let her go. She’s quite a prize, you see — a human with strong psychic powers. Her genetic material would have made a significant contribution.”
Gideon’s reply made her wince and look at my father, whose jaw had set even more firmly. It was clear that if any aliens showed up to take me back to the ship, they’d be doing so over my father’s dead body.
That wouldn’t happen, though. The creek would protect us during the dangerous nighttime hours, and during the day we’d just have to make sure to be around people.
A thought occurred to me. “If I’m that important, why hasn’t Lir Shalan just beamed me up anyway without waiting for you to bring me back?”
“It’s very difficult to get a lock on an individual here in Sedona,” Gideon replied. Both my parents visibly relaxed, and I let out a relieved breath as well. “Yes, the protection is strongest by the creek, but the effects of Oak Creek and the various vortexes are also distributed through the area. They create a lot of interference. It’s one thing to come down here with a device and take someone directly, but attempting to do it from up on the ship would be nearly impossible.”
“So someone would have to come down here to get her,” my father said.
“Yes. And Lir Shalan wouldn’t risk that. The chances of discovery would be much higher.”
My mother’s head tilted to one side, as if she was trying to determine whether we’d covered every angle. “Couldn’t he or one of his people disguise himself the way you did with that wristband you’re wearing?”
“No. The field it generates is a subtle one — it can alter my skin and eye color, but it doesn’t have the power to effect such a radical change.”
“And even if he can’t beam Taryn right out of here,” my father said, “what’s to stop Lir Shalan from sending a team down to the cottage to take her back in the middle of the night?”
“The creek is stopping him,” Gideon replied. “Taryn will tell you that I felt its effects as well, but because I’m half human, I was able to work past that to understand its healing energies. But those energies are actively hostile to a full-blood Reptilian. It’s like trying to walk into — ” He broke off then, frowning slightly as he attempted to describe what it did really feel like.
“Like walking into an F5 tornado,” I said. “Or trying to push your way through a tsunami. The energy is just too strong. I doubt it was coincidence that their base was located way out in Secret Canyon, far enough away from Oak Creek to be safe.”
“So you’re safe here, then,” my mother said, relief clear in her face. I could tell from the way she pulsed with worry that she’d been imagining Lir Shalan and his minions swooping down tonight as soon as my head hit the pillow.
“Safer than anywhere else,” I told her, which was true enough.
However, that wasn’t quite the same as being completely safe.
CHAPTER TWELVE
My parents wanted us to stay for dinner, but I didn’t think that was a very good idea. Yes, I was heartened by how kind they were being to Gideon, and it made me hopeful for the future — whatever that future turned out to be. However, I knew I wanted to be back at the cottage long before night fell, and since it seemed as if Gideon was going to be staying there with me for the duration, I realized that I’d need to get him a few supplies.
So I thanked them but said we needed to go to the outlet mall in Oak Creek to get Gideon a few changes of clothes. He looked surprised by that comment but didn’t argue. And my father said he was going to be in touch with Lance and then Jeff Makowski, his hacker friend, and we’d see what we could do to circumvent the alien gizmo.
Right before we left, though, Gideon went out into the courtyard with my father so he could show him how to disengage the biometric locking mechanism and use the device’s backup lock instead. He needed to do that outside, away from us, just in case something went wrong.
My mother looked as if she wanted to protest, since risking my father’s safety wasn’t something she appreciated. But then she saw the light in his eyes and kept quiet, knowing that he was willing to take the risk in the pursuit of more knowledge.
After they’d gone outside, though, she turned toward me, a question clear in her face. “So,” she said, “do you want to tell me about you and Gideon?”
“There isn’t much to tell,” I replied, although I could feel the blood rise to my cheeks.
“Really? I would have guessed otherwise, from the way he was looking at you.”
I couldn’t deny that. From time to time during the conversation, probably when he thought they weren’t paying attention, Gideon had glanced over at me, his gaze catching mine. I’d always looked away quickly, worried that my parents might notice. My father, obviously excited to play with a new toy, didn’t seem to have detected any undercurrents between Gideon and me. But my mother must have been observing us with a much clearer eye.
“Does it bother you?” I asked.
The worry line between her brows deepened. “Of course it bothers me,” she said, then held up a hand as I began to protest. “Not for the reasons you might think, though. I’m not going to hold his father against him. It seems pretty clear to me that Gideon’s had a change of heart. And lord knows we have enough aliens and hybrids and so on in this little extended family of ours that it would be hypocritical of me to judge him solely on that. But Taryn….” She trailed off, as if she wasn’t quite sure what she’d meant to say, or at the very least had thought better of it.
“You’re afraid he’s going to hurt me?”
“Not intentionally. But he must have even less experience than you do, sweetie. This could just be an…infatuation.”
She was right, of course. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but Gideon had literally never been around a human girl until he met me. He could have latched on to me simply because there was no one else.
Even as the thought swirled through my mind, I knew it was wrong. Gideon and I had only spent a few weeks together, and we’d only kissed once, but that was all I needed to convince me of the way his soul fit into mine.
I expected that most people wouldn’t understand. That was all right, though. The two of us understood, and that was enough.
In the meantime, though, I needed to set my mother’s mind at ease.
“I know it’s not like it was with Callista and Raphael,” I said. “That’s the way they’re made — to be able to recognize their soul mate when they see them. There isn’t that kind of connection between Gideon and me. But something is there, and I need to find out what it means.”
“I hope you can,” she replied. Her gaze shifted toward the ceiling, although I knew she wasn’t looking at the overhead light fixtures, but much farther away, to a place where the Reptilian ship circled the Earth in stealthy silence. “I hope they give you the time for that.”
Gideon was mostly silent during the drive from my parents’ house to the outlet mall. He stared out the window, looking at the red rock formations as they passed by. When we drove slowly past Courthouse Butte, though, a tremor went through him.
“That is where it happened, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it’s where Kirsten Jones defeated the forces from your base.”
“One woman.” The words came out flat, but I coul
d still feel the disbelief in him, as if he was trying to figure out how that possibly could have happened.
“One woman channeling the power of Sedona,” I corrected him. “Also, she had a little help.” From Martin, the man who loved her, and Michael Lightfoot, who’d given his life to ensure that she would succeed. I wouldn’t mention his name, though. Gideon and I had already talked about Michael Lightfoot, and bringing up the subject again would make it seem as if I was reproaching him for that brave man’s death. As if Gideon had anything to do with it. He hadn’t even been born yet.
The shopping center wasn’t too crowded. My parents said it had almost folded completely a few years before I was born, but some hard work had brought it back from the brink. Now it was a mixture of several national chains’ outlet stores, along with shops and restaurants that were locally owned. There certainly wasn’t time to drag Gideon all the way to the real mall in Cottonwood to go shopping, but I figured we could get enough here to manage for a few days.
He was wearing Levi’s and a T-shirt with a Hanes label inside. God only knows where the Reptilians had dug those up, but clearly they’d done their homework. Good thing, though, because that made it easy to scrounge up a few more pieces in the same sizes without him having to try anything on.
I wasn’t about to ask to inspect the label on his underwear. He was roughly the same size as my brother, and since I’d gotten stuck doing the laundry more often than not during high school, I knew that meant Gideon was probably a size medium.
By the time we got to checkout, I had a nice stack of several pairs of jeans, some more T-shirts, a couple of button-down shirts just in case, and a duffle coat I’d found on the clearance rack. He eyed the pile in the shopping cart with some surprise.
“Do you really think I’m going to need all that?” he asked as the woman at the checkout started to scan everything.
“Do you know how long you’re going to be here?” I returned, and he shook his head.
“No, I suppose I don’t.”
“Then let’s make sure you have enough clean underwear.”
sedona files 06 - enemy mine Page 15
