by Clyde Key
* * *
As soon as she returned to AABC headquarters, Arlene Sisk called a meeting of top administrators, and their highest-ranking assistants. They were ordered to assemble at once in person if they were in the northeast sector of the country, and by videoscreen if they were in any other sector. Within minutes, Arlene Sisk had five representatives from the northeast sitting in the conference room of the AABC Washington office building, and some eleven other officials were on the screens facing across the table from the live participants.
Robin Wylie represented Ed Halloran’s district. Wylie had been transferred from Shreveport upon the disappearance of Halloran, Sharp, and Lane. He was a lower ranking bureaucrat at Shreveport, but his superiors promoted him when they learned someone would have to move to the Flagstaff office. He was smart enough to recognize that his superiors were motivated more by fear of the situation in the southwestern sector than by an appreciation for his ability and limited experience.
When the council was accounted for, Sisk began. “I have just conferred with the President, and apprised her of the gravity of our situation. I’m glad to report to you that we have her complete confidence and that we have all the latitude we need to act, when it’s time to act. It is still our duty to make contact with The Visitors, even though they have not yet acted in a predictable manner and have not contacted us.
“The President has asked me to keep her completely informed and to report on a regular basis on our plans as well as our progress. So I will need each of you to be diligent in keeping me informed of developments, and to help in formulating plans. Are there any questions?”
“Yes, Ms. Sisk,” said Wylie. “I have a question. I’ve just been moved to Flagstaff and there’s not anybody else here except for a couple of clerks. It’s my understanding that Halloran was captured by the aliens first, and then a few hours later, Sharp and Lane were captured. I don’t want to sound stupid, but what am I supposed to do here?”
“For the moment, nothing,” said Sisk. That is, you have no assignment yet except in an intelligence capacity. You should keep alert for any new activity or information that will affect our plans.”
“That’s all?” asked Wylie. “Aren’t you going to send anybody else here? I mean, this is the only sector where they are, and I’m here all alone!”
“I told the president moments ago that we have agents converging on your sector from all across the country, and that is just what we’re going to do.”
There was a murmur that welled up among the other participants, including both the ones who were there in person and the ones who were onscreen. The older man who sat nearest to Arlene Sisk said, “You should have told us that before now, Ms. Sisk. We can’t spare anybody from northeast. We have the heaviest population concentration in the country, so our resources are already strained. Besides, we’ve always been told our main function would be education since The Visitors were unlikely to land here.”
Sisk glared at him. “Mr. Tilson, education should be essentially complete by now, and different challenges face us. I’ve always considered you a team player but now I’m not so sure. I had in mind for you to go to Flagstaff and take over until we have either Everett or Halloran back, since you’re the most senior administrator, and your sector here is farthest from where The Visitors have landed. If you don’t wish to cooperate, we can get somebody else to run your sector.”
Tilson leaned back in his chair and stared morosely at the table. “That’s not fair. I have less than three months until retirement and you make me choose between getting fired or eaten by space aliens!”
“Mr. Tilson! You could be dismissed for just such prejudiced raving! There is absolutely no evidence that any agent has been eaten and I will not have any AABC administrator spreading such dangerous nonsense! Do you want to cause full-scale panic?”
“I couldn’t cause any more panic than there already is. The only thing that could make it worse is if the news agencies start reporting that they’re moving this way.”
“Nevertheless,” said Sisk, “I expect you to report at Flagstaff today. And I expect you to make only positive statements to the media. Am I understood?”
“Yes. Quite,” said Tilson. “I’ll be there this afternoon, but I expect some help.”
“And you will have it. Tess Williams is going to report to you at Flagstaff, and as soon as this meeting is dismissed, both of you will help me prepare a list of agents to move to the southwest sector. I don’t intend to do it at this meeting because I don’t want to hear the grumbling.”
Tess Williams was visibly angry. “I’m with Tilson. I don’t think this whole thing is fair either! We’re supposed to risk our lives while the rest of the government is hiding!”
“They’re not hiding,” said Sisk. “They’re merely taking some prudent security precautions.”
“Not hiding! What do you think the president is doing at Camp David in the underground quarters?”
“Nobody is supposed to know where the president is! Who told you that?”
“It came out on the newsscreen this morning. Anyway, where else would she hide except in some old nuclear shelter?”
After Tilson and Williams left for Flagstaff, Sisk looked over the list of interaction agents who were newly assigned to the Flagstaff office. Only Tilson and Williams were senior personnel. Almost without exception, the youngest agents from across the country had been sent to the southwest. So much inexperience wasn’t a favorable circumstance for Marilee Sharp, Lane Everett, and Ed Halloran. That last thought bothered Arlene very much because, despite everything that had transpired over the years, she still had a soft spot in her heart for Ed. Except she was quite sure the soft spot was in her head.
10
April 29, 2112
Ed trudged over the charred sand, now devoid of vegetation, that had begun to drift into dunes. As he limped along, he noticed that the streaks of lighter colored soil that had been uncovered by the wind contrasted strikingly with the darkened surface that was the desert only hours earlier. Ed started his trek from the ravine fairly early in the morning, and gave wide clearance to the rockets and the globes, but he was still surprised that it took him until about noon to reach Needles City Park.
Ed was not at all surprised there were no campers in the park. Camp gear and sporting equipment still littered the paved expanse, and spoiling food left on the tables buzzed with flies. Then he noticed rats gnawing at some of the refuse and he found that sight strangely comforting. The flies might have drifted here on the wind from many miles away, but the rats wouldn’t have been here if the toxic cloud had rolled through.
There was a comphone in the guard building at the park’s entrance, but it didn’t work. Ed mopped sweat from his brow and started walking toward town until he saw the first wrecked floater that had left the highway. The door was up on the driver’s side so he checked it for a mobile comphone, which it had, and the comphone gave him its familiar tone when he picked it up. At last—some luck!
Ed punched the code for the Emergency Service Department and the comphone beeped. After six beeps, a machine recording came on. “Emergency personnel are all busy at the moment. Please state your name and pertinent information. Your call will be answered momentarily, so please hold.” Ed held the phone for a couple of minutes, and then the message was repeated. When the message came the third time, he resigned himself to the truth, that there was nobody at Emergency. And that meant there was nobody in Needles. He tried calling the number at AABC’s office at Flagstaff, but the call wouldn’t go through which meant that some of the repeater stations weren’t working along the way.
There was nothing to do except walk the rest of the way into Needles. Of course nobody would be there but he would find food. And there would also be soap and water, he thought, as he rubbed again at the horrid caked mucus that splotched his arms and face.
Half an hour’s journey brought him to the first houses at the edge of the City of Needles. The first two houses were l
ocked quite securely, but the third had been left open when its occupants left in haste. Ed went inside and went to the bathroom first, where found some soap and towels. He was relieved to find that hot and cold water ran from the taps. Stripping quickly out of his reeking clothes, he stepped into the shower and began scrubbing the filth from his skin.
When he was out of the shower, Ed walked in front of a mirror and was startled to see that his skin was now splotched with red and green stains where the mucus had covered it. And then he noticed his skin was quite tender in those spots. Gripped by this sudden discovery, Ed stood and stared at himself in the mirror for several minutes. Then he became thankful that none of the stains were on his face, although a large green stain extended onto his neck where it would be visible above his collar.
At least one man who had lived in the house was about Ed’s size, because he found clean clothes that fit fairly well. When he had dressed, he picked up his old clothes on the end of a coat hanger and carried them out to a trash bin at the back of the house. He was so anxious to get rid of the clothes that he almost forgot to retrieve his wallet from the pants. Then when he got the wallet, he discovered it smelled almost as bad as the clothes so he went back into the house where he found a plastic bag in which he wrapped the wallet tightly before he put it in his pocket.
Then Ed tried the comphone in the house. Again, he couldn’t reach Flagstaff. There was a directory screen next to the phone, so Ed turned it on and began to call the local numbers randomly. He didn’t get any answers at any except the Emergency Services number, which gave him more recorded messages. Well, he thought, there’s nothing to do now except to try to get back to Flagstaff any way possible.
There was a floater in the garage. Its gauges indicated it had been recently fueled and it looked very new, though it wasn’t one of the high level models. That didn’t matter anyway since there wouldn’t be any traffic on the highway most of the way to Flagstaff. But he couldn’t find a key to it anywhere in the house.
As Ed went out, he closed the door carefully behind him so that it didn’t lock and he set out to search the neighborhood for a floater for which he could also find the keys. The sixth house had a floater and the key hanging beside the door fit the vehicle. When he checked it, Ed found that this one didn’t have nearly as much fuel, but it still had enough for at least 300 kilometers left in it, and that would be sufficient to get back to his office. Ed backed this floater out of the garage and started on his way to Flagstaff.
He saw no one until he got to Kingman. Where the highway passed nearest the city, he detected some movement on one of the side roads, so he took the next exit and went back to investigate. He found another floater, a very old model that had gone off the road and was stuck on a rough place where its suspension didn’t work. It was bumping up and down as its driver tried to get it going again. Ed stopped nearby and put his floater on autohover and opened the door so he could get a good look at the other floater. Soon the driver of the other floater noticed Ed and stopped trying to get it unstuck. Ed waved and the driver’s door opened so that Ed could see the driver was very young, a teen-age boy
Ed stepped out on the ground. “You’ve got a little problem, I see.”
“That’s right,” said the youth. “These roads around here don’t have ditch repellers, so I got a little too far over.”
“You look young. Have you ever driven one of these before?”
“Yeah. A little. But I don’t have a permit yet. You aren’t going to turn me in, are you?”
“Nah. But I do want to know what you’re doing out here. I didn’t expect to see anybody between Needles and Flagstaff.”
“It’s my brother, Denny—I’m going to look for him. He left early this morning and said he was going to try to get a look at The Visitors, but he hasn’t come back. Mama doesn’t know where he is, but she does know he has her floater.”
“I just came from Needles. I didn’t see him, or anybody else for that matter. There was absolutely nobody around the town or the rockets either.”
The boy’s chin began to quiver. “Is... is it true what they’re saying, that the aliens eat people?”
“Eat people! Who’s saying that?”
“It’s what everybody is saying. It came on some news reports this morning that people are getting eaten up in Afghania and Arubistan where the aliens landed.”
“Has anybody actually seen it happen?” asked Ed. “And has anybody seen any of these aliens?”
“No. But they said they found skeletons—lots of them. That’s why I have to go find Denny.”
“I’m going to tell you something,” said Ed, as he unhooked the top button of his shirt and pulled his collar back to display the green stain on his skin. “I haven’t seen the aliens eat anybody, but they had me captured for a while and they’re definitely dangerous. This is what they did to me. I have these splotches all over.”
The boy stared at the stains.
“Now, you need to come with me. I’m going to get some help when I get back to Flagstaff. My assistant, Marilee Sharp, is very good. She’ll take care of you and your Mama while I get some more agents to go back to Needles with me.”
“Did you say Marilee Sharp? That’s one of the agents who are missing now. The news reporters say she may have been eaten, and some other old guy, too.”
Ed was shaken by that revelation. “Come on,” he said quietly. “You’re going to Flagstaff with me.”
The boy offered no argument. He turned off the floater and let it drop to the ground with a little thud. Then he slid into the floater that Ed had commandeered.
When they were on their way, Ed asked, “What’s your name, kid?”
“Freddy. Freddy Burris.”
“Glad to meet you. I’m Ed Halloran, and I work for the government. I’m supposed to interact with the aliens, as soon as I figure out how.”
Freddy nodded, and sat silently.
“Where do you live, Freddy?” asked Ed.
“Kingman. Or at least that’s where we lived until these things came. Mama says she’s afraid to go back there, so she wants to move back to New Mexico, to Tucumcari.”
They talked only in brief spurts as they sped along the highway, but Ed learned a few more things about Freddy and his family. Freddy’s mother had recently moved the family to Kingman from Tucumcari, so they could make a fresh start for Denny who had a record of conflict with the authorities since before he was a teen. Denny was now sixteen years old and Freddy was only thirteen, although Freddy was certainly the more responsible of the two brothers. Their mother was a widow whose only income was a small retirement fund that had been left by the father when he died five years earlier.
Denny had taken his mother’s floater and sneaked away in the morning before the rest of the family was up. Before he left, though, he told Freddy he was going to see the aliens and now Freddy felt responsible because he hadn’t told anyone that Denny was going.
