Fallen Star (Project Gauntlet Book 1)

by Richard Turner

  “Right now, we have no idea,” said Elena. “They weren’t here before the first UFO flew over your town, so I think it’s safe to say they’re somehow related to its arrival.”

  “Sheriff, can you please come here?” called out Sheryl.

  Black stood and walked out of her office. Grant and Maclean followed her.

  Mrs. Norton from the town’s clinic was standing next to Sheryl’s desk.

  “Is something wrong, Jane?” asked Black.

  “Yes. That girl you dropped off an hour ago has gone missing,” replied Norton.

  “What girl?” said Grant.

  “I found a teenage girl on the road outside of town,” explained Black. “She was alone and looked to be in shock, so I took her to the clinic.”

  “After you left, the girl seemed to come to life,” said Norton. “I never got her name, but she seemed real interested in the room Joe Sparks had stayed in.”

  “How did she know about Joe?” asked Grant. “Did you tell her he had been there in the afternoon?”

  “That’s the strange thing. I never once mentioned his name, but she knew he had been a patient, and insisted on taking a look at the room he had stayed in. I told her she would have to wait until I had taken a look at Officer Harrison’s broken ankle. The girl couldn’t be reasoned with. She walked right past me to Sparks’ old room. When I finally went to see what the girl was doing, she wasn’t there. She had gone out through an open window just like Mister Sparks had.”

  “Déjà friggin’ vu,” said Maclean under his breath.

  “I know where she’s gone,” said Grant.

  “Where?” asked Black.

  “The gas station.”

  “Why would she go there?”

  “Because that’s where Sparks went. Sheriff, you seem strapped for staff right now. If you don’t mind, Sergeant Maclean and I will go and see if we can find this girl and bring her back here before she disappears into the night.”

  “I’d rather send my own people, but I have no way to get in touch with them, so I can’t say no to your help right now.”

  “Hopefully, we’ll be back in a couple of minutes with this girl. I have a feeling in my gut that this girl knows more than any of us about what is going on around here.”

  Chapter 32

  “So, what are you thinking?” Maclean asked, as they jogged toward the gas station.

  “If she’s there, we’ll try and talk her into coming back to the police station with us,” replied Grant.

  “And if she doesn’t want to?”

  “Then there isn’t much we can do. She hasn’t committed any crimes that I’m aware of that we could hold her on.”

  They split apart as they got closer to the station. The lights were off, but the front door was once again wide open. Both men drew their pistols.

  Grant poked his head inside, and saw a dark figure standing next to the tarp covering the dead pit bull’s body. By the size and shape of the person, Grant could tell they had found the missing girl. In the darkness, it was hard to tell, but it looked like she had something in her hand and was pointing it around the room. Grant called out, “Hello in there. My name is David Grant, and I mean you no harm. Why don’t you come outside and we can talk?”

  The girl didn’t respond. Instead, she got down on one knee to examine the dog’s remains.

  “Cover me,” whispered Grant to his colleague, as he slipped inside the gas station. He walked slowly toward the girl, so as to not frighten her. When he was a couple of steps away from her, the girl stood up and looked at Grant. In the darkened room it was nearly impossible to see her face, but Grant felt certain she was studying him.

  In the far corner of the store, a narrow blue light appeared and moved across the room, as if it were searching for something. Before Grant could say a word, the girl dove at him and tackled him to the floor.

  For a small person, she packs quite the wallop, thought Grant, as he lay there looking up at the roof. He felt a hand on his mouth, warning him to be quiet. Grant turned his head and saw the girl reaching into a pocket on her jeans.

  All of a sudden, the light stopped right above them, and moved from side to side as it tried to find them.

  “Are you okay in there?” called out Maclean.

  In the blink of an eye, the light swung over and lit up the doorway. Maclean leaped back, as the front door began to glow brightly, before disappearing altogether a split second later.

  Like a gymnast, the girl leaped up onto one knee and aimed something that looked like a miniature pistol at the light and activated it. An orange burst of light shot from the device, noiselessly creating a red glowing hole in the wall, several meters wide, where the blue light had once been.

  Grant lay there, wide-eyed. He couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed. There weren’t any weapons on Earth that could have done that. He got up and looked down at the girl. “Thanks. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but I’d like to know who you are and what just happened.”

  The girl stood there, looking back at him.

  Grant gently placed a hand on the girl’s arm and tried to move her. She didn’t budge a millimeter. It was like trying to move a statue. “You can trust me when I say I mean you no harm. Please step outside so we can talk.”

  With a slight nod, the girl walked out onto the street.

  “What the frig was that light, and how the hell did it melt that door?” Maclean asked the girl.

  “It was a trap left for me,” said the girl, as she lashed out and kicked a rock, sending it flying across the street. Her accent sounded somewhat Russian.

  “What do you mean, it was a trap?” said Grant.

  “It’s a long story, and one I don’t think either of you will believe.”

  Grant motioned for her to take a seat on an old wooden bench. “Before we go any farther, I’d like to know your name.”

  “You can call me Nadia,” replied the girl as she took a seat. “It’s not my real name, but for now, it will do.”

  “Okay, Nadia, my name is Dave, and my friend is called Jim. I think you’ll find that we’re not as closed-minded as you may think.”

  “That’s good to hear.”

  “If you’re not from these parts,” said Maclean, “how can you speak English so well?”

  “I can’t. You’re just hearing me in your minds.”

  Maclean looked over at Grant and shook his head. “I’m not buying that explanation. I can see her lips moving when she speaks. I bet she’s nothing more than a Russian agent in possession of some very high-tech weaponry.”

  “I thought I was supposed to be the pragmatic one in our partnership,” said Grant.

  Nadia stood. “I’m not Russian, nor am I an agent. I just like the accent. And think about it for a few seconds; you both know that there are no weapons anywhere on your planet which could equal the destructive power I possess.”

  “Okay, we can discuss all of that later,” said Grant. “Nadia, can you please tell us what is going on around here?”

  She smiled. “Why not? It’s not as if anyone is going to believe a single word about what I’m going to tell you. To be succinct, gentlemen, I have been dispatched here to kill or capture a renegade general who has no authority being on your planet.”

  “Who sent you?” asked Maclean.

  “That, you don’t need to know,” replied Nadia, bluntly. “What you need to know is that you and all the people living around here are in great danger.”

  “Is this general of yours behind the sightings of strange animals roaming the woods to the north of the town?”

  “Yes. He had been secretly working on a bio-weapon that would regress an animal’s DNA to a point in the past where it was far larger and more aggressive than it is today.”

  “If I’m following you, if I were to use this weapon on a cat, it could conceivably regress into something like a saber-toothed tiger?”

  “I’m not wholly familiar with those animals, but in theory, yes, it wou
ld alter the animals’ DNA.”

  “Jesus,” muttered Maclean. “How fast does this weapon take to change a furry little kitten into a killer?”

  “Not very long at all. From the time the subject is sprayed with the vapor, it takes less than ten minutes for the animal to change. These regressed animals must eat constantly, or they will die. It’s a kind of built-in safety feature designed to prevent the animals from thinking about breeding.”

  “You seem to know a lot about this weapon,” said Grant.

  “I had to. It was my job to keep an eye on the general and report his findings to my superiors. I worked in his lab as a research assistant for close to a year before he discovered who I was and tried to kill me. I went after him, but he got away, and now I am here trying to stop this unauthorized incursion.”

  “Girlie, you don’t look old enough to have ever worked in a military laboratory,” said Maclean.

  Nadia smiled. “Trust me; looks can be deceiving.”

  “I have no doubt about that,” said Grant. “So what were you doing on the road when the sheriff drove by?”

  “I had just arrived and was disoriented from my long journey. Luckily, your sheriff came by and dropped me off at the medical clinic. That’s when my tracking device picked up the general’s scent. I foolishly followed his trail to the store behind us, where he had left a motion sensor behind to kill me or any of my kind that showed up to try and stop him. He didn’t get to be where he is by being nice to his contemporaries. I won’t be that naïve ever again.”

  “Wait a second, are you telling me little old Joe Sparks is your general?”

  Nadia’s brown eyes lit up. “Who is this man, and where can I find him?”

  “The birds and cats that Sparks was going on about when we first met him,” recalled Maclean. “He…or whoever it was…must have used this weapon on Sparks’ pets. That’s where these bloody terror birds and saber-toothed tigers are coming from.”

  Nadia nodded. “Yes, that all makes sense. You have to take me to this man, before he gets away.”

  “I’m sorry, Nadia, but you’re going to have to meet some associates of mine before we go anywhere,” said Grant.

  “You don’t understand. Time is critical here. If he can prove that his weapon works, there are people in our military who would forgive him for coming here without authority. I fear he may secretly be given carte blanche to mass-produce this weapon on an industrial scale. My culture has almost wiped itself out several times in the past. It seems we never learn from our mistakes. The last thing we need are new and more exotic weapons of mass destruction.”

  “Nadia, how can this general get back to where he came from, if his ship was destroyed when the lake it crashed in evaporated?”

  “He’ll look for my ship, and if he’s half as smart as I believe him to be, it won’t take him more than a few hours to find it.”

  Grant looked over at his friend. “What do you make of all of this?”

  Maclean chuckled, grimly. “A month ago, if someone had approached me with a story about UFOs, aliens, and a DNA super-weapon which can change household pets into killers, I would have laughed in their face. But right now, it’s the only thing that makes even the remotest bit of sense. If this young lady, or whatever she is, thinks Sparks is a threat, then we have to help her stop him.”

  “Please, we’re wasting time,” pleaded Nadia.

  “Okay, we’ll help, but we first have to warn the town’s sheriff of the threat that’s coming her way,” said Grant.

  Nadia pressed her lips tightly together and gave a curt nod.

  As they walked toward the police station, Grant looked at Nadia. “I’m glad that you trusted us enough to tell us what you’re doing here.”

  Nadia stopped and fixed Grant with a cool stare. “Dave, I need your help to locate and stop the general, and I don’t ever recall saying that I trust you or your friend. Understand this. I have a mission to accomplish, and you’re a means to an end…nothing more.”

  Overhead, jagged bolts of silver lightning lit up the night sky. Seconds later, the first drops of rain fell from the heavens. The storm had arrived.

  Chapter 33

  Tracey Tibeluk tapped her hands on the steering wheel of her Suburban while singing an old Johnny Cash tune to herself. She had rolled her window down to let the cool night air wash over her face, helping to keep her awake and alert. Tibeluk drove along with her high beams on. The last thing she wanted to do was smash headlong into a moose. She glanced down at the odometer and saw that she had driven almost sixty kilometers when, all of a sudden, her vehicle’s engine shut off. Tibeluk was plunged into complete darkness. Fear gripped her heart. She brought her vehicle to a rolling halt on the gravel road.

  “What the hell?” she said to herself, trying to restart her Suburban. After five tries, she sat back and shook her head.

  Tibeluk grabbed her flashlight and tried turning it on. Like the vehicle, it wouldn’t work. She opened her door, stepped out onto the road and looked around. The world all around her was pitch-black. A feeling of dread seeped into her chest. First, they had lost all of their communications, and now this. Tibeluk began to wonder if someone didn’t want anyone getting in or out of the area.

  An idea crossed her mind. She walked back about twenty meters from her vehicle, and tried turning on her flashlight. Nothing. Tibeluk continued walking back until she was fifty meters away, and pressed the button again. She could have jumped for joy when it lit up. Tibeluk left the light on the road as a marker, walked back to her Suburban, and shifted the vehicle in neutral, before grabbing hold of the door frame with her hands. She dug in her boot tips into the ground, and with a grunt, tried pushing her vehicle backward. At first, it didn’t move. Then, ever so slowly, the SUV began to creep backward.

  “At least it isn’t raining,” Tibeluk said in attempt to cheer herself up. As if on cue there was a brilliant flash of lightning right above her, followed a split second later by a thunderous boom. Rain began to fall. It didn’t take long for her to become soaked to the bone. She dropped her shoulders, sighed, and cursed up a streak that would have made her mother blush.

  Tibeluk looked up and smiled when she saw her flashlight growing closer. The nearer she got to the light, the safer she felt. The thought of being trapped on the side of the road all alone, in a dead vehicle in the dark didn’t thrill her at all.

  With a loud click, the Suburban’s lights switched back on, startling her. Tibeluk pumped her fist in the air, jumped into her vehicle, said a quick prayer, and turned over the ignition. With a loud roar, the engine came to life. Without bothering to pick up her flashlight, Tibeluk slammed her door closed and spun the wheel around in her hands. As soon as she was facing back toward Robertson’s Mine, she floored the gas pedal and shot off down the road.

  Before long, she had the SUV bouncing up and down as she sped over the bumpy dirt road. Whatever was going on, Tibeluk knew there would be safety in numbers. The sooner she got back to the police station and her friends, the better, as far as she was concerned.

  Chapter 34

  Grant escorted Nadia inside the police station and had her take a seat next to Elena, who smiled warmly at the teenager.

  “You look a whole lot better than when I found you on the road,” said Black, coming to stand by the girl.

  “I’m feeling better, thank you,” Nadia replied.

  “I hope some coffee is fine with you?” Grant said, walking over to Nadia with two cups in his hands.

  Nadia sniffed it before taking a small taste. She shrugged and took another sip. “I don’t think it will kill me.”

  “David, is this the young lady you were looking for?” said Elena to Grant.

  “Yes, sorry. Everyone, this is Nadia.” Grant went around the room, quickly introducing everyone to the young woman.

  “Can you recall where your parents are, my dear?” asked Black.

  “I’m alone,” replied Nadia. “I’m sorry for the deception, but I wasn
’t fully in charge of my faculties when you found me.”

  Black canted her head slightly. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. What does that mean?”

  “I cannot say,” responded Nadia. Her sharp tone made it clear she wasn’t going to divulge any more information.

  “Okay. Can you at least tell us why you left the clinic?”

  Grant raised a hand. “If I may? It’s kind of complicated. I think it’ll be easier if I take it from here. To be blunt, Nadia isn’t from around here. In fact, she’s not even from this planet. She’s on a mission, and is looking for someone she calls the general. This man is a military scientist who came here without any authority, to test a new form of weapon.”

  “What kind of weapon?” asked Hayes, sitting up straight in his chair.

  “It radically changes an animal’s DNA, allowing it to revert back hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years, in a matter of minutes.”

  “My God,” blurted out Elena. “This can’t be true.”

  “I’m afraid it is,” said Grant.

  “So is this why we’re suddenly having all of these disappearances?” asked Black.

  Grant nodded. “The problem is that these abominations have a one-track mind. They have to eat constantly in order to survive, and they’re moving south toward the town, consuming whatever they can find.”

  Maclean looked over at the town map on the wall. “If we take a brisk walking pace of five to six kilometers an hour, they’ll be on the outskirts of town by first light.”

  “Do we know how many animals we’re dealing with?” Black asked.

  Nadia shook her head. “He took enough weaponized vapor to change hundreds, perhaps thousands, of animals. The problem is getting close to the animal without them running away or attacking the person administering the spray. The domesticated ones in Mister Sparks’ home would have been a blessing to the general.”

  “We found at least a couple of dozen wrecked birdcages at Joe’s home,” said Grant. “So we have to assume that all of these birds have been changed, along with an undetermined number of cats.”