by Terry James
The fluorescent lights beneath the expansive plastic panels on the ceiling dimmed while the clock rang out. Jenkins’ surroundings became barely visible. He stiffened in the chair behind the big desk.
The figures appeared to materialize, to emerge from the very air, while they stepped into the almost totally dark shadows 10 feet in front of the desk. His eyes strained to frame them. Three of them. Tall, exceptionally lean man-like forms that stepped forward and stood side by side, looking to be human triplets, yet more than human. Beyond human. Beyond earthly…
They wore black suits. Black, with white shirts, and black ties. Thick, white hair covered the heads above the albino–like skin. Dark-lensed glasses set in black frames covered the eyes he had never been allowed to see.
The one in the middle spoke, the mouth a gash-like line that parted the pasty-white skin. The black split moved unnaturally between lips that were almost indiscernible, so thin and pale like the surrounding facial skin were they. The being made no other perceptible movement. Like the other times, Jenkins felt somehow invaded –his individuality usurped, siphoned by the creatures.
The words, he could tell, were of a different language, alien from the English into which they were somehow translated in the space and time it took them to leave the hideous mouth and invade his ears.
“The Afghani is on his way with the promised technology. It is time to now accomplish the Imperative agreed to by our covenant.”
The words hissed while they entered George Jenkins’ ears. They became incendiary at the center of his brain.
“Yes. We begin the process of bringing the subjects together tomorrow,” he said.
Chapter 10
Jeddy nuzzled Morgan’s underarm with his nose, then sat up to an alert position on the carpet beside her bed, satisfied he had awakened his mistress.
Morgan stirred, then strained her arms and legs to a position of maximum stiffness, feeling the pleasure of the first stretch of the new day. She rolled onto her left side, and the rottweiler moved to nudge her with his nose again, then sank his teeth into the covers she had pulled up around her neck. He pulled on them, and they yanked from her grip.
“Peenie…please,” she muttered. “Gimme a break.”
The dog stood with his front paws on the edge of the bed and barked his demand that she wake up.
“Okay, okay. I’m awake, I’m awake!”
Morgan moved to a position on her right elbow and tried to fend off Jeddy’s affectionate licking.
“You have doggie breath,” she said, then hugged him. The response caused him to back off the edge of the bed, where he waited for his mistress to come to full consciousness.
Morgan smiled, her first cogent thought going to the face of Blake Robbins. They would use the day to become familiar with the complex and its surroundings, he had promised. No work, just getting to know the place.
She sat on the edge of the bed, then stood and stretched her body again, ending the exercise with a yawn.
Her second thought was of the thing on the pathway night before last. But, the day would not be dampened by that frightening memory. They had dealt with it. She must now think only of the day just ahead. Blake’s face obliterated all other thoughts, and she smiled inwardly. She bent, then, to give Jeddy another hug.
“Mommy’s going to be gone for a while today. Not too long, though. I won’t put you in your crate. So, you’ll have the run of the place. I’ll be back before you know it. Okay?”
The rottweiler growled, his way of acknowledging that he recognized she was talking directly to him.
“He really is wonderful. Isn’t he, Peenie?”
She whirled around with movement befitting her years of gymnastic and ballet training, then broke into light calisthenics by touching her toes and stretching.
“Wonder what he has planned?”
Her voice was light, causing the canine to cock his head to try to comprehend whether the matter about which she spoke involved him.
Her cell phone’s ring interrupted a pirouette she had begun.
“Mom!”
Morgan smiled and sat on the edge of the bed.
“We haven’t heard from you, girl. Daddy and I were beginning to worry,” Lori Lansing said from Pasadena.
“Oh, I’m great, just terrific!”
Lori heard the exultation in her daughter’s voice, and said with a hint of amusement, “Where are you, sweetheart? You sound like you just won the lottery.”
“Now, Mom. You know gambling is a sin,” Morgan teased, standing again, and bending from side to side from the waist up.
“Don’t sass me, Morgan Lansing.”
“Oh, Mom. Things just couldn’t be better,” Morgan said, twirling in place, then falling onto her elbows upon the bed.
“Tell me about it. Where are you? Or is it still a secret?”
“Colorado. Somewhere in the mountains. I’m really not exactly sure where.”
“Colorado?! What on earth are you doing there?”
“Just hangin’ with the best-looking guy on the planet,” Morgan said, lying on her back and raising her legs straight out, then twirling them one over the other, continuing the impromptu workout.
“What guy?”
“His name is Blake Robbins. And he is some fine dude…”
“Well, I’m not so sure your dad will like that,” Lori said, trying to keep from snickering. “Now who is this…dude?”
“Actually, he’s an executive of a company that is a client of ours. I’ve been assigned to handle PR for them.”
“PR?”
“Public Relations. I’ve been given the PR part of the account. It’s a very hush- hush cooperative thing between Blake’s company and a government combine. That’s all I can tell you. Mainly, because that’s all I know right now,” Lori’s daughter said, sitting again on the edge of the bed.
She held out her hand to Jeddy, and the rottweiler moved happily to her, accepting her petting affection.
“How long will you be there?”
“I don’t know, but, I’ll let you know more when I find out. That is, I’ll tell you all I’m allowed to tell you.”
“Well, is it really that secretive?”
“It seems to be,” Morgan said, hugging the dog, then standing from the bed.
“Have you talked to your brother?” Lori’s tone became one of concern.
“Why? You sound worried.”
“Have you heard from him?”
“No. I’ve tried several times but get the old ‘Your call has been forwarded.’ I’ve left him a couple of voice mails, but he hasn’t gotten back,” Morgan said. She stopped the calisthenics and sat in a chair near the little desk in one corner of the room.
“Well, I guess he will get in touch when he gets a minute from his work,” Morgan’s mother said.
“Yeah. I’ll keep trying to get him, too.”
“Now, about this fine-looking dude--you be careful there, Sissie, okay?”
“You know I will, Mom.”
There was silence between them for the moment, then Lori spoke.
“Sweetheart, have you…had anymore of the…dreams?”
Morgan said nothing, and the silence disturbed her mother.
“Morgan, have you?”
“Not really, Mom. Just very brief dreams here and there. Not like they used to be…”
Lori knew the hesitation in her daughter’s voice meant she was holding back.
“Come on, Morgie. Tell me about it. You’re not telling me something.”
“It’s not the dreams, Mom. I saw something here night before last. Something on a walking trail within this complex while Peanut and I were on our walk.”
“What? What did you see?”
“They told me it was an orangutan. A huge…thing, all covered with reddish-brown hair. They said it was their male orangutan they use in their experiments that had gotten loose. But, Mom, it was no ape. The thing was hideous--a man-like creature, a giant. It looked like some of
the things in the dreams.”
“They’ve got the section shut down for today,” April said. “You were scheduled to be given a tour of the new antiballistic MPW measures facility. But that’s on hold until tomorrow.”
“Why the shut down?” Clark asked.
April spoke from deep within the recess of the huge, surrounding hood of the parka, its thick, luxuriant fur blowing with the gusts that assaulted the complex from the peaks to the north.
“Well, do I have to stand out here and explain it?” she inquired with an air of incredulity in her tone.
“Sorry. Come in.”
April came into the cabin and knocked the hood from her head with her mittened hands. “Bottom line is, they have to recalibrate some things, and it’s going to take most of the day. Maybe you can get a look tonight. I really don’t know at this point,” she said.
“Okay. I have some work I can catch up on, I guess…”
“No!” Her blurted interruption surprised even her, and she, for the first time, he thought, seemed almost shy, unsure of herself.
“I--I mean, I was hoping…” She was grasping for her explanation, and her demeanor changed to one of little girl-like innocence. She was, he considered, never prettier than in this uncharacteristic look of uncertainty.
He said nothing but waited for her fumbling to end.
“I was hoping, I mean, that you would be willing to…to go snowmobiling with me. Look over some of this beautiful area with all this new snow.”
April’s wide-eyed look of pleading in the silence that ensued melted him, and all thoughts of work drained away. Without thinking about it, he pulled her to himself, their lips coming together in the passion-stirred moment that engulfed them.
When they parted, she let the words escape with a whisper, her face reddened, her eyes gleaming emeralds of approval.
“I take that as a ‘Yes’…”
Mark Lansing had no sooner hung up from talking with his former Delta co-pilot and began the long walk down the hallway when the phone rang, causing him to reverse course and again enter his study.
“Mom! What’s going on in SA?”
His brows narrowed, his forehead wrinkling when he heard his mother-in-law skip the amenities to get straight to the point. Her voice betrayed her anxiety.
“I’m worried, Mark. I’ve dreamed about Morgan again. The nightmare last night was the worst yet. Have you heard from her?”
“As a matter of fact, Lori spoke to her this morning. She’s fine. Just fine, Mom.”
“I…I guess I’m going crazy. The dreams are getting worse, Mark…”
“What are they, still the ones about the things chasing the kids?”
He sat behind the computer desk and tried to remember where his wife had told him she was going to be shopping for the morning.
“Yes, like when the children were small. The cloud beings, black and hideous. I’ve just got to talk to Morgan, Mark. Where is she?”
“Colorado, in the mountains. I didn’t talk to her, but that’s where she is working on this new job with her agency. Some sort of public relations job that’s just come up.”
“Colorado? Did she say where, exactly?”
“No. Said she didn’t know for sure. And, it involves some sort of government project, so didn’t know if she will even be able to tell us more about it later.”
“Clark is in Colorado,” Laura said, as if thinking out loud.
“He is? How do you know?”
“I talked with him yesterday afternoon. He’s in the mountains of Colorado, he wasn’t forthcoming, either,” she said.
“That’s funny. Both of them in the mountains… In Colorado. And, neither of them can tell us much more than that?”
“When did Lori talk to Morgie?”
Mark thought about the question, remembering that the conversation took place just before Lori left on the shopping trip early in the morning.
“It was quite early. About five or so here, I think.”
It was Laura’s turn to figure the time in the silence of her worry. “I talked with Clark yesterday afternoon. Six thirty, I think. About 5:30 Colorado time,” she said finally, again falling silent, trying to make sense of the problem she instinctively knew was there.
“Clark told me he didn’t know where his sister was,” she said, finally framing the concern.
“Morgan told her mother that she hadn’t talked to Clark,” Mark said, now, himself, thinking out loud.
“Something is wrong, Mark. I don’t want to worry you, but something is terribly wrong. They’re both in Colorado, apparently working on things they can’t tell us about… And, neither knows the other is there?”
The only thing Mark could think about was the thing, the ape-like beast that wasn’t a beast. The human-looking animal Morgan told her mother the dog had attacked on the pathway. He calmed his rising anxiety with the knowledge Morgan had seemed okay as the conversation concluded –according to Lori. He didn’t want to further disturb Laura and said nothing of the reported encounter.
“Yeah. I see what you mean. What do you think? What should we do?”
“Call those kids. That’s what! I’ll call Morgan, when we hang up. You call Clark.”
April Warmath tried the door when her patience ran short.
“Clark? You here?” she asked, poking her hooded head through the door opening and looking around the cabin room.
“Yoo-hoo! You here?”
Clark came from a door opening against one wall.
“Yeah. I was just looking for my cell phone. I don’t know where it could be. Just vanished…”
April joined him in the search, getting on both knees to look under the bed.
“Don’t see it. When did you have it last?” She stood and searched behind the nightstand near the headboard. Not finding it, she pulled the rumpled covers back and forth in a jostling motion, trying to dislodge the instrument if it happened to be hidden in the folds.
“Just great! That phone is my lifeline to my work. Where is the stupid thing?!” His frustration spilled over into his temper, and he cursed the situation while he, like April, continued to search the room.
“It will turn up. Housekeeping will find it and put it on the nightstand.”
Her words did little to console him. He swore again, then pulled the heavy parka from the closet to the left of the bathroom door. April searched the bathroom and the closet while he put on the bulky garment.
“I’ll call them, and tell…” April said, picking up her own cell and punching in some numbers.
“Housekeeping--is this Janice? Oh, hi, Jan. Listen, my friend, Clark Lansing, has lost his cell phone somewhere in his cabin--number 330. Can you make sure they make a special effort to look for it when they clean?”
She smiled, looked at Clark, and said, “Good, thanks a lot!”
Less than 10 minutes later, Clark thought the yellow-and-red striped snowmobile was remarkably quiet, while they traversed the 50 yards from the front of his cabin upon pristine snow that stretched in the distance as far as he could see. But, visibility wasn’t all that good, because the blowing snow was so profuse that it challenged the windshield wipers to keep up. Within another five minutes, they had left the complex, which was now shrouded by the snowfall that continually painted an opaque curtain of white behind them.
The vehicle’s cockpit was warm enough for the pair to pull the parkas’ hoods from their heads. April was never prettier, he thought, seeing the ivory skin of her face reddened by the cold at the cheeks. She cut her eyes at him.
“This is one of my favorite things to do. I’m a winter, you know?”
“A winter? You, personally, are a winter?”
She laughed, alternating her glances from his direction, then to the snow fields that rushed at them in the distance.
“That’s my color. Fair skin. I’m a winter. My skin tone goes with certain shades of colors, and those colors mark me as a ‘winter’.”
“Oh…”
<
br /> “Yes, well, I didn’t expect you to be up on cosmetics and so forth. I’m also a winter because I love the wintertime.”
“Yeah, well, I’m from California. That makes me more of a summer, I guess,” he said, reaching to hold on to a handle protruding from the dashboard when the big sled ran across a few unforeseen snow-buffered bumps. Clark examined the inside of the snowmobile, turning to see the cabin behind them that was as large or larger than the cockpit.
“This is some snowmobile. When you said ‘snowmobile,’ I thought you meant an open-type motorized thing like I’ve seen them use on expeditions to the Antarctic, or someplace.”
“Oh, no. The government provides only the best. I have a friend in transportation who was happy to let me sign one of these babies out. Luke is a good friend…”
“Luke?”
“Luke Bledsoe. He can’t resist my charm,” she said, looking over at Clark and batting her eyelids in her best, feigned-sexy look.
“Bet he can’t. I know I couldn’t,” he said, returning her banter in a more serious tone than hers.
“Whatever,” she said giggling, then becoming wide-eyed and letting out a yelp when she hit a larger than usual snow mound. The machine ramped several feet in the air before landing with relative ease upon the downside of a long, gently declining hill.
“Woman driver,” Clark said solemnly when the ride again smoothed. She hit him playfully on his arm with her fisted right hand, her mouth open in mock astonishment.
“That was masterfully done,” April said, then broke into laughter.
“Hope there aren’t any ravines you don’t know about,” he said, only half-joking.
“No. I’ve been all over these areas. We’re okay.”
Snow blew in greater profusion the further they proceeded northeastward toward mountains that could no longer be seen. April braked the big snowmobile in another 10 minutes to assess their exact whereabouts.
