Karo leaned forward. “And if you were going to speculate?”
“I’d think the creature used my place as a nest to grow stronger and be sheltered, but then moved on. If no one from the city had been missing before yesterday, that means it was living in my house and feeding. Now it’s migrated. I doubt it’ll risk such predictable behavior. And we have the drones activated, and Slate’s with the kids,” I said.
Magnus rubbed his forehead. “We should have parked them at my house for the day. Should we call Slate and suggest it?”
I didn’t know. My gut was telling me there was nothing to worry about, but the others seemed concerned enough for all of us. “I don’t think that’s necessary.” I tapped Reed on the shoulder. “Reed, can you send another transport to my house and have them stay until we arrive?”
Reed nodded and tapped on her console as she directed over the city.
“Where do we land?” I asked, looking out the side window to see birds we’d brought from Earth flying high over the spires of our civilization.
Leonard smiled. “City Hall. You’re going to love the view.”
We settled onto the highest building in sight, and the lander’s door hissed open. A cool breeze pushed into the cramped vessel. “My partner’s on the way to watch your house and kids.”
“Thanks, Reed. I appreciate it,” I told her, and she waited for us to exit before standing up.
I gasped as I saw the view of Terran One from here. It wasn’t often I was surprised, especially after having seen views from so many worlds, in orbit, from space, from mountaintops, and below ground, but this was spectacular. An ocean expanded in the distance on one side, and from the other, the metropolis spread out beyond the horizon.
“It’s amazing,” Karo said from his spot beside me. The wind blew his long white hair as he neared the edge of the rooftop landing pad. I joined him, holding on to the glass railing.
“That’s the symphony hall, there’s the medical research facility, and the biggest library on New Spero.” Leonard pointed out landmarks, and I realized how little I knew about our new home.
“You’ve all done such a great job bringing this to life,” I said. “I remember when we first arrived here, years after you, Magnus.” He grunted, likely remembering those years he and Natalia thought Mary and I were dead. “The roads were gravel, and we were only beginning to build three-story buildings. We went to the store and used credit to purchase supplies for our garden.” I gripped the railing tightly. So much had changed, and not only in our lives. The lives of all humanity had transformed at the same time, and being away for most of it, I was detached from New Spero.
Reed was behind us, and she set a hand on my shoulder. “Dean, this would be impossible without what you guys did for us all. I remember hearing your name whispered on Vessel Thirteen.”
I turned to her. “Wait, you were on Thirteen?” That was the vessel that Katherine Adams had saved. “Did you know Kate?”
“Kate… she was Mrs. Adams to us, and she was the only reason we made it long enough to be rescued. I volunteered to be on the police force she created. I was only nineteen.” Reed stared out at the view.
“Thank you, Reed. You did a great service,” Magnus told her.
“Nothing compared to what you all did. Wasn’t there another of you? A fifth?” she asked.
She had to mean Mae, but I shook my head, not wanting to discuss it. “We only did what we needed to, like you did.”
She nodded, her eyes hidden behind her dark lenses. Her personality snapped into place, the character of Officer Reed. “If we’re done with the sightseeing, let’s put you on the trail of this alien killer.”
Leonard took us to the elevator and set a thumb on the screen, accessing it. The elevator accommodated all of us, and Karo and I stood beside one another, watching through the glass wall as we descended from the top of City Hall to ground level.
I honestly had no need for days of the week any longer, but I saw the streets emptier than I expected. “What day is it?” I asked.
Reed answered, “Saturday. To the right, there’s a market going on. Handcrafted stuff, local produce, that kind of thing.”
I glanced over, seeing people setting up booths across the City Hall courtyard. It felt so natural, but so foreign on New Spero. A farmer’s market. I’d have to recommend Leslie and Terrance start one on Haven. It could be an intergalactic farmer’s market. It would be a great way for the different races living amongst each other to learn about foods and culture from their neighbors.
The four of us were in street clothes, Karo in tall jeans and a long-sleeved shirt to attempt to blend in. He still looked like a gray giant with a white mane, but it was better than a Gatekeeper jumpsuit or something even more conspicuous. Magnus wore a t-shirt and jeans, and I was in an old pair of jeans and a polo. Leonard had his work clothes on from the day before, but seemed comfortable enough in them to walk through the hot morning in a blazer.
“Let me take the lead here. If people see you four wandering around with weapons, they might panic,” Reed said. She was in her full New Spero police uniform, and I was suddenly grateful Slate wasn’t here. She’d remind him too much of Denise, the police officer that had stolen his heart, then betrayed us to Lom of Pleva.
“This is the alley,” Leonard said, pointing to the space between two tall structures. A café adorned the corner, and a few patrons watched us from the patio as we walked by, heading into the alleyway. I nodded at a couple, and they whispered to one another, obviously recognizing me.
It was strange to be out and about in a place where everyone knew you by your face. I wasn’t used to it, and Mary claimed it was one of the reasons I preferred to isolate us at my old childhood home on Earth, in our farmhouse here, or at the penthouse on Haven, where we were nothing but a few more humans among the plethora of alien beings.
Reed pulled her gun out, an old Earth Glock. Bullets always did the job, and that was what the police were issued. I grabbed my pulse pistol, and Magnus and Karo unslung their rifles. Leonard stayed unarmed, but he held his tablet, marking out our path.
A hundred yards into the side street, police tape was wound around two light posts, but there were no officers in sight.
It didn’t take long to see the markings left by the team. Reed pointed to a yellow plastic label on the ground. “This is where they found the blunt object, a rock.”
“Where is it now?” I asked her.
“At the forensics lab,” she said.
I didn’t bother telling her it was pointless. We knew Stan had assaulted Amy, but now we needed to see if we could find either of them. We would detain Amy and find out what was living inside her, and study Stan to see what kind of damage the parasite had done to him.
We kept going, the trail of blood dripping for fifty yards; then, suddenly, there was no sign of anything nefarious. “He couldn’t have disappeared,” Magnus said, looking around the sterile alley.
I pointed to a doorway, the only entrance to the side of this particular building. “There,” I suggested, and found the doorway unlocked. I nodded to Magnus, and he took the lead, entering first, his gun raised for a kill shot if needed.
“Nothing here,” he said, and I followed him inside. We immediately descended a small flight of stairs and saw we were in a storage facility under a residence. Rows of half-empty cages were here, built for the occupants of the above suites to keep their possessions in. It was forward thinking, because most of the people on New Spero didn’t own much, and what they did have was government-issued.
Capitalism was emerging, though, and slowly the world was returning to the greed-fueled one we’d left behind years ago after the Event. I couldn’t say I loved that, but there was no other way to change a majority mindset. It was a balancing act, and I did think the government was doing a fair job.
I scanned through the storage cages and didn’t see anything of use.
“We don’t know they came in here,” Karo said.
> “You’re right. Call it a hunch,” I said. It had been the only doorway, and I was surprised the police hadn’t looked in here. Or maybe they had, and we were wasting our time now.
Reed was halfway across the long room, dimly lit by the ceiling fixture, and she called for us. She was standing there pale as a ghost, and she pointed toward a golf cart stored beside a staircase leading up to the main floor.
“Dear God,” Leonard said, moving his left hand over his mouth.
I sniffed the air. “That smell. It’s the same one from my house. This is it.” My gun was up, the steel pressing into my bare hand as I moved toward the crawlspace under the stairs.
Pieces of clothing were torn, and we saw Stan’s stained shirt chucked to the side of the space. I expected to find his corpse, but there was no sign of it. “They’re not here,” I told the others.
“Where’s the body? If Stan came in here with Amy, and only Amy left, with her new host inside her, where’s his husk?” Magnus asked.
It was so simple. “Leonard, bring up that footage again. The one of Amy walking away last night.”
He blinked a few times, as if trying to comprehend what I was saying. “Sorry, sure.” He tapped the tablet, and seconds later, he played the video. I grabbed the device and paused it as Amy turned toward the street. I zoomed, and pointed at her stomach.
“Was Amy expecting?” I asked.
“Expecting? Was she pregnant?” Leonard asked.
“Yeah, was she pregnant?” I asked, growing impatient.
“No. She…” Leonard’s eyes widened as he stared at her image. “Look at her stomach. It’s bulging.”
“Exactly. Stan isn’t here, because he’s inside her… or whatever that is. I don’t think this monster is a parasite,” I said, and Karo nodded beside me.
“Where do we go?” Magnus asked.
I glanced at the spot under the stairs and thought about the nest that had been inside my house. “We have to find its new nest. And fast.”
Nineteen
The hunter turned his attention toward the city. His new body was fresh, limber, and stronger than it had initially appeared. Amy, as he understood her name to be, was lighter, easier to manage, and he could only imagine how freeing it would be to become the girl with the green eyes.
He’d always appreciated becoming the smaller animals, rather than the big, bulky ones. They were easier to hide with, and prey always found them less suspicious.
Her bones were still digesting inside him, and the transformation had taken longer last night than usual for some reason. Perhaps he’d fed too much lately, altered too many times for his own good, but here, with cameras and humans watching him, he didn’t want to be tracked.
It was far different than home, where he could stay one creature for extended periods of time. Here, he was an outlaw, one being searched for. He finally understood this.
The hunter moved along the forest edge as Amy, trying to keep his movements smooth and normal to any passerby. So far, only a few vehicles had driven by him, one stopping to see if the “young missus” needed any help. He’d told them that he was okay, that he was going for a walk. The man had squinted and shaken his head as he drove off.
Humans. They were a complicated animal, and a deep-rooted part of the hunter wished he were home, where life had been simpler in some ways, but desperately more difficult in others. Here, he was well-fed, and that kept his spirits up.
The roads would take him several hours to walk, but he’d eventually make it to the house with his nest once again. Maybe the girl would be there. Maybe she’d never come. He didn’t know, but he would wait and find out. He continually pictured the green eyes, and the power they promised. Amy’s legs moved faster as he considered the young girl.
As he moved, the sun beating onto his skin with ferocity, he hoped his nest was untouched. He wouldn’t be able to feed yet; his stomach was too full, too distended, and he definitely wouldn’t be able to transform for a few more days.
He kept moving toward the acreage he’d been staying at, wondering what the day held in store for him. The anticipation was killing him.
____________
“Now what? We only have the single video feed showing Amy walking away from the downtown core,” I said. We were on the main street, out of the alley, with only that small detail to go on. It didn’t help us track her, but we did understand what we were up against a little better.
“Then we follow her trajectory. She was heading north. That’s where we go,” Reed said.
Magnus nodded. “This is an animal, by all accounts.”
“How do you think?” Leonard asked.
“It came to New Spero in Soloma’s body. It didn’t look sure of itself on two legs. Ten bucks says it was used to walking on four or more, perhaps. It’s making nests where it can consume its victims, perhaps changing into them or using their bodies to move around in. I don’t have that quite figured out. The smell alone… it’s musky… like a hibernating bear’s cave,” Magnus said.
His points were all valid. “And I supposed you know what that smells like?” Leonard asked.
“Yes I do. It’s the same smell I inhale when I head into your room to wake you up in the morning,” Magnus said, cracking a grin.
Leonard shrugged, not disagreeing.
“Then we go north. It was living in my house, so chances are, it’ll head to the country, where fewer eyes are on it,” I said.
“Why did it go into the city in the first place?” Reed asked.
Karo started walking, and spoke as he took the lead. “Because it’s curious. It becomes its prey, to an extent. It feels what they’ve felt. It knows their thoughts… or memories,” he said flatly.
He could be right. My stomach dropped. “If that’s the case, it might go back to the nest.”
My pocket vibrated, and it took a second to realize what was causing it. The communicator, the same one that Mary had the other end to. She’d contacted me the day before, saying they’d arrived and were working on tracking the duo.
I flipped it out, anxious to see what she had to say. “Dean?” Mary’s voice sounded like honey.
“I’m here, Mary.” I stepped away from the others, who remained huddled into a group on the side of the alley, discussing monster theories.
“We have Da-Narp… and Bee. She’s hurt, but we’ll be able to help her.” Mary’s tone told me the woman was worse off than she was letting on.
“I’m so glad. Are you coming home?” I asked.
“It went smoothly. We found the last missing group, and we’re full of supplies. We were thinking of heading out and tracking the next duo on the list. We’ll stop and see Sarlun quickly too, since that group left from Shimmal. We’ll need to head there anyway,” Mary said quietly, as if worried how I’d respond.
I wanted to tell her to come home, that leaving again was risking too much, but I wasn’t ready to tell her about the creature living in our house, or the fact that it was on the loose. I relented and hated myself for withholding the details from her. “Go on. We’ll stay with the kids. We’re in the middle of something.”
“Are you sure? I was… I don’t know… expecting some resistance,” Mary said.
“Do you want some for old times’ sake?” I asked with a light laugh.
“No. Is everything okay? What are you in the middle of?” she asked, and I knew I had to give her some of the information.
“Do you remember Soloma? The one Leonard told us about?” I asked, walking farther from my group. The sun was bright, and I squinted against it.
“Of course,” she said.
“We think something’s taking over victims and killing. Again and again. We’ve tracked it to Terran One, and we’re on its trail now.” I waited for her to reply.
“Why are you doing this? Don’t they have police and detectives for this kind of thing?” she asked, exasperated.
“I know. Leonard asked…”
“Tell Leonard we have enough going o
n. Where’s Jules?” Mary asked, and I wished I’d kept the whole story to myself.
“She’s at home with Slate,” I said.
This seemed to calm her. “Fine. We’ll be home as soon as we can. Let Magnus know Nat’s okay. And Dean?” Here it was: she was going to lay into me. “Loweck is awesome. She’s saved our bacon a couple of times. Tell you about it when we’re home,” she said.
“Glad to hear. Mary…” I thought about telling her about the monster nesting in our house, but it would only worry her.
“Yes?”
“I love you. Come home soon,” I said, changing my mind.
“I will. Love you too.” And in the blink of an eye, the communicator’s lights dimmed as it powered off.
I headed toward the others. Magnus raised his eyebrows, searching for news in my expression. “Everyone’s fine. They found the two from the Oryan system, and they’ve decided to keep going. They’re heading for Shimmal and then to the last portal world to extract the final team.”
Magnus looked infuriated. “You let them go?”
I laughed. “Let them? Have I ever let Mary do anything? Have you let Natalia?”
He sighed and shook his head. “No, I suppose you’re right. We better deal with this before they’re home. I don’t think our wives will like it if we leave a psychopath predator wandering around our neighborhood,” he said. I wanted to add: or my living room, but kept it to myself.
“North. Let’s go,” Reed said, taking the lead.
We walked through the city, and I tried to take it all in. The blocks were neatly laid out, the streets labeled with a clear and concise number pattern that made it easy to navigate. Cars and SUVs drove in the roadways, and it was still strange to see only a couple models of vehicles. Production for all vehicles was being done out of Terran Seven these days, and they were slowly adding in different colors. For the first few years, black had been the shade of choice.
People meandered along the sidewalks, idly out for a weekend stroll, and we received a series of odd looks as our ragtag group strode through the city armed. At least we had a uniformed police officer with us; otherwise, we might have drawn even more attention.
The Gatekeepers (The Survivors Book Eight) Page 16
