“Your remote, sir. Press the green button, and it will order Bubba to activate the planted device with a surge of electricity.”
General Sorinsen grunted like an old bear. “If we can even trust Bubba anymore.”
Denman smiled slyly and pointed to the other button. “That's what the red button is for. That activates FAIA and the entire grid. She can funnel the energy from the magnetosphere to any point on Earth. Bubba can only torture the wearer with an electrical charge.” He picked up the little device and rolled it between his fingers. “But FAIA can kill with nearly unlimited power. All she needs is a target.”
“And all we've picked up so far are echoes. We're no closer to finding these pariahs than Jessit. We need a body to go with that radiation signature.”
“We're close, General. Very close. We located multiple signatures in the desert and they were on the move. Something was out there, following Jessit and the girl.”
The general nodded more to himself, slapping both hands on the conference table. “Put the girl in a dress and give her to Jessit with my compliments. Then find me these gods. We need to get to them before the Alturians do.”
***
Jack Chavez waited for Denman outside Sorinsen's office. When Denman stepped out of the conference room, they didn't acknowledge each other openly. Chavez simply fell into step with him, sidling up next to him like a prowling cat. His dark hooded eyes, veiled in perpetual shadow, didn't give away much.
Denman examined his manicure, never once glancing at Chavez. “What did you find out?”
“The girl is clean, sir. No criminal record, no inconsistencies.”
Denman's eyes narrowed into thin slits. “Why is it you don't sound convinced?”
Chavez grunted, scrunching his shoulders forward as if he were shaking off a coat. “I don't know. Maybe she's too clean. It's just a hunch I have.”
Denman scanned the corridor and motioned Chavez toward his office. He locked the door behind them after they entered. “Talk to me.”
Chavez pulled out a tattered little notebook. Denman sheltered a grin. His security chief preferred paper to electronics.
“She was adopted at three days old. Her Jane Doe mother gave birth in a small town hospital then literally disappeared into thin air. One minute she was nursing her baby, the next she was gone. Every single security camera in the hospital malfunctioned at once.” He showed him a photocopy of the Sedona Express. “It made the papers.”
“Who adopted her?”
“An archeologist and his wife. Raoul and Rubia Cruz,” he said, rolling his Rs. “They're clean too.”
“You sound disappointed.”
Chavez shrugged. “A pretty girl like that…I expected to find a lot of boyfriends, maybe a little drug use. But it's like she's lived in a convent her whole life. No social life. No longtime friends. She doesn't even drink. I've got nothing suspicious.”
“Which is exactly why you are suspicious.” Denman sat down, feeling equally annoyed at Rachel's unremarkable life. “Who does she work for?”
“The University of Cairo is funding her expeditions. She's been working the Egyptian pyramids since graduate school, but when they found the cave drawings, they flew her here special.”
“The cave drawings. Jessit found them interesting too.” Denman's thoughts drifted. Did that mean something? Jessit had studied the symbols as if he could read them and ordered every inch of the petroglyph scanned and recorded.
“Get that inscription translated. I think it odd that an alien looking for gods and an archeologist from a foreign university are finding the same things worthy of note.” He rose smoothly even though it hurt. He couldn't afford to look weak. “Perhaps it's time I had a little chat with Dr. Cruz.” Denman wrinkled his brow at Chavez. “Contact me if you find anything unusual, no matter how minor.”
“Affirmative. I'm on it.”
Chavez fingered a tiny crucifix attached inconspicuously to his silver wristwatch. Catholic, Denman noted. A very special kind of Catholic. His barracuda was on a witch hunt.
Chapter 9
Jessit winced when El'asai, the Malyan's staff physician, flushed his wounds with a light acidic spray. This was the easy part. They'd put him in the hole next. Never mind that it was a clear glass tube, it always felt like a rat hole when El'asai released the slurry of ketzels. The black oily worms were champion at cleaning out necrotic flesh. He only wished they weren't quite so unpleasant.
The finger-sized parasites deposited a green slime of antiseptic in their wake, medicating open sores and delivering a powerful pain reliever directly into the blood system. Perhaps he was wrong to criticize Rachel's plant medicine. In retrospect, the ketzels were far more dreadful.
Rachel. He should have insisted that she return with him, but it was too soon. He didn't yet understand what he'd seen in that cave, but he knew it was real. And somehow Rachel was connected to it.
Everything about her baffled him. Part of him felt as if he knew her intimately yet at the same time, she was a riddle with no answer. He would gladly volunteer to solve her mystery, and that in itself perplexed him. He had never felt that way about any woman.
She'd be safe with Denman for now. It would give him time to think, and time to lie to the Americans—and to his own staff.
His aide, Senit, walked into the med bay at that moment. It reminded him that he had lied even to his best friend.
Senit grimaced as El'asai transferred an oily black mass of ketzels to a long narrow cylinder. He packed them in tight and put the cylinder in a machine that moved them to the top of Jessit's enclosure.
“Stand perfectly still, sir.” El'asai instructed.
Jessit closed his eyes and heard the glass tube seal behind him. He placed his legs shoulder-width apart and shuddered when the first few dozen worms dribbled down his head and naked body. Their larval bodies clung to Jessit with suction-like hooves, compressing and releasing while they hungrily searched for the most damaged (and delectable) tissue. Jessit hoped there were no serious wounds near his genitals. He didn't like the slurping sounds they made as they sucked each wound clean.
Their nibbling was ticklish and otherwise harmless, but it was difficult to get past all those ravenous mouths feasting on his flesh. Soon even that preoccupation would fade away, eased by a wave of pain suppressors left by their saliva. Jessit sighed inaudibly, trying to keep his mouth closed while several worms gorged themselves on a wound on his cheek. His toes squished between a layer of ketzels still working their way up his body.
He wiped the parasites off his cheek wound before opening his mouth. “How long do I have to stay here, El'asai?”
“The ketzels are efficient, but slow, my lord. I could shorten the duration but you'd have to return for numerous visits.”
Jessit grunted his displeasure. “No. Let's get this over with.” He wiped an oily beast off an eyebrow. “Senit, do you have a report?”
“It can wait, sir.”
Jessit arched a stony brow and scowled, but the effect was short lived when a ketzel dropped on his lip and tried to squirm its way in. Jessit spat it out, brushing away any other worms near his face. “Report!”
Senit froze for a moment, nodding sheepishly. “Our linguists have translated the stone glyph. It was like the other one we found, praising the sons of Anu.” Senit folded his hands in contemplation. “It appears our scientists were right. Anu and his followers did come to Earth.”
“Do we have a confirmed age on the carving?”
“Yes, sir. It's quite recent. Analysts think it's no more than two-thousand Earth-years old.”
Jessit pushed his hands against the moist walls of his glass enclosure, his breath fogging the area in front of him. “Two thousand years? Is that all? There's a good chance Anu may still be here.”
“That's what Lord Kalya says. The priest thinks we should conduct a purification ceremony on Earth, since Uash'l has already begun. He is asking you to allow a select contingent of true believers to
participate in the ceremony.”
Jessit smirked at him. “I guess that leaves you out, eh, Senit?”
Senit never broke his stride. “Heretics have their uses, my lord. You'll need me to get you home when you're all too drunk from the menze to walk upright. We wouldn't want the Terrans to see you in that condition.”
“The Terrans. They're far too accommodating for my comfort. They're as parasitic as these ketzels.”
“They've been most gracious with our requests to explore their canyons.” Senit spoke with rehearsed patience. They'd had this conversation before.
“And in return we've found a dozen tracking and listening devices on our clothes and equipment. I'm not impressed with their hospitality.”
“That's because you think like a soldier. I nursed on the teat of political maneuvering. What they're doing is harmless and ineffective. We've found all their toys. They have nothing.”
Jessit winced when several worms sucked greedily at a particularly deep wound. El'asai noticed right away and rushed to the glass wall. “Would you like to take a break, sir?”
Jessit shook his head. “No. Let the little bloodsuckers finish. I don't want to have to visit this place again.” He ground his teeth as more ketzels dug into the wound. He hoped they wouldn't make it a permanent residence. “Senit,” he said, his voice more strained than before. “Ask Terran Command if we can use the last cave we visited for a celebration of Uash'l. Tell them it's a private ceremony. And take Kalya with you. They might take the request more seriously if we send a high priest.”
“Understood.” Senit recorded an audio-mem to himself with Jessit's instructions, then turned off the recording equipment before speaking again. “A word in private, sir?” Senit turned to El'asai and tilted his head toward an exit, a silent order for him to retreat.
El'asai hesitated at first, glancing down at Jessit's stats once more. “I have to get some fresh ketzels. Excuse me for a moment.”
When the door closed behind him, Senit drew nearer to Jessit's glass cage. “We picked up new intelligence on the communication hubs dotting this continent.”
“Is it online yet?” It remained Jessit's most pressing concern.
“It appears so, but our analysts don't think the Terrans have worked out all the defects. They keep powering it down. Either they can't maintain the grid, or they're still experimenting. Either way, Tactical thinks we should proceed with extreme prejudice.”
Jessit hardened his gaze. “Do we know if it's a weapon?”
“We're not sure. It seems to have defensive capabilities. Scans indicate that it can warp the planet's magnetosphere. If that's true, it may prove a significant obstacle to us. Under a deep enough shield, neither our sensors nor our energy weapons would be able to penetrate the planet's surface.”
Jessit grew quiet while he gauged the larger ramifications. His open orders were to find the gods, but the Emperor had charged him with secret orders, as well.
Humans had not yet developed faster than light technology, but they were getting close. Such a society could be dangerous and volatile, yet priceless as an emerging economy for the Planetary Union. The Emperor wanted Earth in his pocket. And if that wasn't possible, it would be up to Jessit to take the planet by force. An armada stood by less than fifteen light-years away.
War. That was the only reason he'd been chosen to lead this delegation. On his authority alone he could plunge an entire planet into battle. Three years ago when they'd approached the American government, Earth looked ripe for the plucking. Without a single world government, the Alturians could pick and choose whom to befriend on the planet. But this global web had changed that. Even if the planet was not united under one leader, they were connected. That was an inconvenience. And a planetary shield could prove a serious threat.
“If they can warp the magnetosphere it could put a large portion of the population at risk for stellar radiation.” Jessit's foggy enclosure made everything look like ghosts in a haze. Perhaps he was the ghost. He felt like one, apart from even his own kind.
Senit steepled his fingers, his face blank of expression. “What better way to reduce an unwanted or unwilling population?”
Jessit flicked off a worm sucking its way down to his crotch. “Have we found the central computer for the array?”
“Not yet. But our analysts are pretty sure it's in the United States. We've targeted several possible locations supported by heavy security.”
Jessit folded his arms and stared into space. “If I were a secret installation with the ability to kill billions, I think I'd be in a very nondescript location, somewhere without a lot of obvious security.”
“It could be anywhere then.”
Jessit glanced down at the bundle of his shredded clothes lying on the floor. “Or it could be right in front of us. Get the permission we need to hold our ceremony, and tell Intelligence to stop looking at the high-profile compounds. Look for the ones that aren't supposed to exist. Like Lambda Core.”
He was brushing off the worms as fast as he could when El'asai tiptoed back in. “If you'll stand still, sir, I can flush them away with an alkali shower.”
Jessit heard a warning bell go off in his tube and scrunched his eyelids closed. Within moments, a heady rush of water gushed from several showerheads and washed him clean of the slimy parasites, their little bodies flushed away to waiting drains.
Jessit breathed a sigh of relief, letting the warm water splash against his body. The Terrans had upped the ante whether they realized it or not. He had to secure the planet before the grid became fully operational. They had to find the com-web's core. And he had to get Rachel off the planet surface. They'd not yet responded to his request that she be gifted to him.
He stepped out of the glass enclosure and toweled himself dry. Healed or not, he was going to make sure the Terrans granted his petition.
Rachel was coming back with him, one way or another.
Chapter 10
Rachel scraped the handcuffs along the pipe, scratching away bits of paint but little else. She wiggled her thumb and imagined the bones dissolving. It wouldn't take much to slip her hand out, not if she could lose the thumb for a few minutes.
She had nearly pulled it free when the door lock clicked open. The doorknob twisted from left to right, and all thoughts of shape-shifting fled her.
A tall gray-haired man entered the room, his gaze panning from wall to wall before settling on her. She recognized this one. He had been in the cave with Jessit and his men, subtly guiding his guests away from her team.
Like ice, she thought as she assessed him. Cold and soulless. Such men were dangerous. And she was in a poor position to protect herself.
The soldier accompanying him marched over to her, a slim key in one hand. He took off her cuffs and tucked them into a pocket. Without so much as a breath he positioned himself by the door, awaiting his next orders. Rachel jerked to her feet and massaged her sore wrist. Only two of them, and the old man wasn't armed. Her odds were improving.
The stranger had a smooth, angular face topped with a half crown of thinning hair and the most remarkable clear gray eyes she had ever seen. They looked like ice chips. It chilled her to find them studying her with such focus.
“Good morning, Dr. Cruz. I am Jacob Denman.” His voice was crisp and deep as an oboe, and when he smiled with that thin seam of a mouth, it looked like a twig pasted to his face.
She stuttered a response, ashamed that she let a mortal shake her so. “I remember you from the cave. One of my people died because you forced us out.”
He maintained his twig-smile and carried on as if they were discussing the weather. “It was a most unfortunate incident. But there was no way to foresee a flash flood. We are grateful you survived, thanks in large part to Commander Jessit.”
She had laced her fingers and now felt she couldn't pry them apart. “Is Taelen all right? He was badly hurt.”
His expression remained noncommittal. “Yes, about Commander Jessit. He is
a special guest of our government. He must be treated with the utmost respect. You understand this, yes?”
She nodded. What was he getting at?
“And you understand, we as a host nation must be sensitive to our foreign guests and their needs, even if we don't understand them.”
“I know he's an alien. I haven't started any intergalactic incidents if that's what you're worried about.”
“Of course.” His twig mouth bent upwards at one corner, but it dropped when he looked at his watch. “We will continue this conversation a little later. You have a visitor.”
Denman nodded to the guard, who came back to life in that instant. He opened the door then stood to one side, snapping to attention.
The old man smiled broadly. His hand was already extended when Jessit entered the room. “So good to see you again, Commander.”
Jessit was clean, groomed and dressed in a fresh uniform. There were still some obvious scars on his face and hands, but he seemed remarkably healed. Rachel held in her breath, anxious to touch him again.
“Mr. Denman.” Jessit proffered Denman a courteous smile. “Thank you for your indulgence.”
“Not at all.” He looked back at Rachel, the earlier tension forgotten. “I understand you wanted to call on this lady before meeting with General Sorinsen. As you can see she has recovered nicely.”
“My thanks, sir. I should have known I need not have worried for her safety while in your care.” He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, glancing at Rachel and then Denman.
Denman got the message and extricated himself with the same subtlety as when he entered. “This lieutenant will escort you to General Sorinsen in time for your meeting.” He bowed his head respectfully. “Until we speak again, sir.”
Rachel rushed toward Jessit, but he held out a hand and stopped her midstride. The door closed behind Denman, and Jessit pulled out a small device and pressed a button.
“It is safe now.”
“Safe?”
True Believers Page 9
