Earth Shout: Book 3 in the Earth Song Series

by Nick Cook

  Mike shook his head. ‘It doesn’t work that way, Ruby. Whilst we’re in E8, everything in this waveform version of our reality, including your weapons and ammo, won’t work in the particle world.’

  ‘Huh, can you give me that in some version of English I can actually understand?’

  ‘What Mike is trying to say is that in the twilight zone everything behaves like the ghost version of itself,’ I explained. ‘Our bullets would have no impact on anyone in our physical world unless we drop back into our particle-based reality.’

  Ruby’s mouth twisted. ‘OK, I get that. But we would still have the element of surprise on our side. I could drop at least three of them in the time it takes you to flutter your eyelashes, boss.’

  I cast a frown her way as a spike of irritation rose through me. So much for feeling that we’d actually been on the same page for a moment. ‘What exactly is that meant to mean?’

  ‘Just I’m highly trained for this. And, with all due respect, you’re an amateur, although admittedly a highly experienced one.’

  That was it. I’d had enough of her attitude. I needed to slap her down. ‘Listen, you, I’m the one in charge of this mission. Trying to spring an ambush when we’re so heavily outnumbered would almost certainly end up with us losing people. Not to mention that a stray round could finish off that Grey. It’s too risky a strategy, so just drop it. Are you hearing me?’

  ‘Oh, touchy,’ Ruby replied, pursuing her lips at me.

  Ruby didn’t know that she was picking at a raw nerve. I’d often questioned my own ability for this role. But before I could really lay into her, Jack jumped in.

  ‘Ruby, I know this is your first mission with us. But you need to trust Lauren. She is the real deal when it comes to working in the field.’

  Ruby tipped her chin up as she chewed her gum. ‘I’m not easily impressed, but we’ll see. Anyway, I’ve got a suggestion – and a good leader listens to their team, am I right, boss?’

  I tried to keep the uncertainty she was triggering out of my voice. ‘OK, what?’

  ‘If you’re going to try to save the Grey, you really need to make the most of my skills as a sniper.’ She gestured along the lake towards the Tic Tac as Alvarez and his soldiers headed towards it. ‘I can scope out a few sniping spots that I can move between. And from there I’ll have a clear line of sight to the crash site, which is obviously where they’re taking the Grey. It’s over three hundred yards across the lake, so they won’t be able to spot the muzzle flash with a suppressor fitted. What with that and in my ghillie suit, they’ll have a hard time locating me. And I have some armour-piercing 7.62 rounds to punch through the body armour those soldiers are wearing. It means I can give you some useful backup in the event of a firefight during the rescue.’

  Ruby might have been annoying, but she was also making sense. This was exactly her area of expertise. And if we needed to make a fast exit, she could lay down suppressing fire if we needed it.

  ‘OK, sounds good – do it,’ I said. ‘But only shoot on my orders, or if you absolutely have to. Also, once you get to anything over a hundred metres away from me, you’ll be dropped out of the twilight zone and will become visible again.’

  ‘Understood, boss.’ Ruby veered away towards a tall group of conifers on the lake shore. As she moved rapidly away and drew out of range of the Empyrean Key, she shifted back into the particle world with a barely stifled gasp. Thankfully, the soldiers had their backs to her and no one noticed a woman just magically appearing before she disappeared away into the treeline.

  ‘I have to say, I’m liking this new, more cautious version of Lauren who thinks before charging in,’ Mike said.

  ‘I’ve learnt from my mistakes,’ I said without glancing at Jack. His lecture to me during our last mission in Peru about listening to others had left a lasting impression. I was determined to apply that lesson in situations like this. But I was also grateful for the blurring cover of the twilight zone so no one spotted my lack of confidence in myself, which would have been written all over my particle face in the real world.

  Alvarez and his soldiers were now just a few hundred metres from the crash site. There, large clusters of soldiers were gathered, along with around twenty military vehicles.

  The alien let out an awful keening sound. The distress was so raw and so fearful that it twisted my heart. Once again it felt as if I’d made the noise myself; the sense of pain and confusion radiated through me. Whatever the Grey had done to be able to communicate with me, there seemed to still be some sort of lingering mental connection between the two of us. Why he had chosen me was a question for another time. Despite his discomfort washing over me, the real question was whether he could hold out much longer. And if he died, what then? It would be hard for me not to seek some form of vengeance on Alvarez and his people.

  ‘Jack, if we manage to pull this rescue attempt off, do you think you could operate on that Grey?’ I asked.

  ‘Lauren, I’ve honestly no idea. Its alien physiology could be completely different to our own.’

  ‘Damn, I hadn’t thought of that. We need more information about the Grey if we’re going to have a chance of saving its life. Lucy, are you listening in?’

  ‘Always.’

  ‘Good. Have you got any information on the Grey’s physiology in your databases that could help Jack?’

  ‘Unfortunately not,’ Lucy replied. ‘I’m afraid it’d be down to Jack’s ability to wing it. I could help in another way, though. If you brought the Grey over to E8, I could conjure up a state-of-the-art operating theatre for Jack to use – as we did when you were injured.’

  ‘Even so, maybe we should let Alvarez’s people operate on the Grey first,’ Jack said. ‘It would be much better for us to try and snatch the Grey from them once it’s stable.’

  I nodded. ‘That’s a good point. But even if they do manage to save him, that alien’s life will be a living hell – full of interrogation and torture if Alvarez has anything to do with it.’

  ‘So you’re saying that if it comes to it we should put a bullet in its head to save it from suffering?’ Jack asked.

  Mike looked between us. ‘But we can’t.’

  ‘As much as it breaks my heart, we may have no choice,’ I said. ‘Could you really live with yourself if you let the alien suffer under Alvarez’s hands?’

  Mike groaned. ‘No, no, I couldn’t.’

  I sighed. ‘I don’t think any of us could, so let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.’

  Despite my words, I really wasn’t sure I could cross that line if it came to it.

  Alvarez’s squad reached the open lawns that sloped down from the shattered house towards the lake.

  The Grey’s head lolled to one side and Alvarez immediately placed his finger on the alien’s neck. ‘It’s lost consciousness. We need help now!’

  A group in hazmat suits appeared out of a green field tent pushing a gurney and rushed towards Alvarez.

  ‘Do whatever it takes to save that thing’s life!’ Alvarez shouted as the soldiers transferred the Grey on to the gurney.

  ‘We’ll do our best, Colonel, but we’re going to need specialist equipment that’s back at base,’ a bald-headed doctor replied.

  ‘In that case I’ll call in Delta squadron to airlift the subject out. Do what you can to stabilise it and prep the alien for transport.’

  ‘The it is a he, Colonel.’

  ‘I have no idea how you can tell.’

  ‘Experience,’ said the doctor as he and his team headed away with the Grey.

  Alvarez thinned his lips at the man’s departing back as they wheeled the alien into the tent. ‘If you say so.’ He walked over towards the soldiers surrounding the downed Tic Tac.

  ‘It doesn’t sound as if we’re going to have much of a window of opportunity here,’ Jack said.

  ‘That’s what I’m worried about,’ I replied.

  Through the flickering rain I saw Alvarez arrive at the alien craft illuminated by
the banks of floodlights. Dozens of military vehicles, including a crane and some Humvees with mounted machine guns, surrounded the craft. At least thirty soldiers stood guard. A group of people wearing green coveralls were connecting a large harness with thick steel cables round the crashed alien craft.

  I turned to face the others. ‘OK, now the clock is well and truly ticking. This Delta squadron could turn up at any minute. Do you guys have any suggestions?’

  ‘Let’s get into that tent and monitor how their surgical team is getting on,’ Jack replied. ‘Then we’ll know exactly when to make our move.’

  Mike’s face pinched as he gazed at the tent. ‘If we’re going to do that, can I ask one favour first?’

  ‘Go ahead,’ I said.

  ‘If we need to deal with the medical team, please let me use my dart gun. After all, we’re not talking combat soldiers here.’

  I traded a look with Jack. This was Mike all over, but his moral compass was something I needed to pay attention to at times like this. Previously, I’d found it maybe a little bit too easy to shoot first and think later about the consequences for my soul. This was a real chance to do things right.

  ‘Agreed,’ I finally said. ‘Ruby, are you in position yet?’

  ‘Absolutely, boss,’ she replied through my earbud. ‘I’ve got a clear line of sight from here. But I can’t see you, since you’re all still shifted.’

  ‘Damn, I didn’t think of that,’ I said.

  ‘Relax, boss, no one can think of everything. But if you need me to give you covering fire, just tell me where you are first so I don’t shoot you by mistake.’

  ‘You can’t anyway, Ruby – your bullets won’t affect anyone in the twilight zone,’ Mike said.

  ‘Oh yeah, good point!’

  I could hear the smile in her voice. ‘OK, Ruby, we’ll be in contact when we need to.’ I gazed back up towards the top of the ridge. ‘Lucy, you’ll need to be ready for a fast extraction. This could get messy as soon as we try to grab that Grey.’

  ‘Just say the word and I’ll be there for you,’ Lucy replied.

  ‘Great.’ I turned to Mike and Jack. ‘Right, guys, time to cross everything and hope another seat-of-my-pants plan works out.’

  ‘I adore your seat-of-the-pants plans,’ Jack said.

  ‘At least someone does.’ Mike caught my eye and held up his hands. ‘And that was a joke, boss.’

  I hitched an eyebrow at Mike that made him grin.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Mike, Jack and I set off across the lawn that had been chewed up into rain-filled ruts by the military vehicles, the puddles acting as hundreds of mirrors reflecting the blinding arc lights around the Tic Tac. As we passed the house, my gaze was drawn to it again.

  Up close, the damage was even more shocking. The front had been ripped away, like a giant version of an opened doll’s house, revealing its interior. What would have been a modern open-plan living room had partly been buried under the collapsed floor from above. Wires and twisted pipes poked out from the shattered walls and the smell of sewage filled the air with a sickly stench.

  Next to the house was a large double garage that looked relatively unscathed apart from a few missing tiles and the doors, which had blown in and twisted off their hinges. Among all the destruction it was the sight of a basketball hoop that brought a lump to my throat.

  In my mind’s eye I could see the parents shooting hoops with their children, a girl and a boy. Then, just to really twist the knife, my imagination threw in a small dog circling round them and barking as if they were auditioning for The Famous Five. Real lives had been destroyed by what had happened here. I swallowed hard as we approached the tent and tried to push the image away.

  A tannoy mounted on a pole that swayed in the strengthening wind burst into life with a woman’s voice. ‘All personnel, be aware that Delta squadron will be arriving in five minutes. Ready alien craft for immediate recovery.’

  At once the activity around the Tic Tac became frantic as a team in coveralls raised a large ring on the crane. The driver swung it over the alien ship and other teams began to connect the top of the harness to the loop.

  ‘We need to get a shake on before that squadron gets here,’ I said.

  The others nodded and we started running through the now hammering rain towards the tent. Two burly soldiers with carbines stood guard.

  ‘We might be invisible, but we still can’t walk through them,’ Mike said.

  ‘Then let’s try to slip under the tent round the back,’ I suggested.

  We skirted past the guards and soon the three of us were squeezing under the canvas. In the twilight zone the material left a trickle of static on my skin as the fabric slightly merged into my body. It was the strangest feeling, the physical boundaries of my own body no longer quite there.

  My gaze swept over the tent’s interior. We were standing in a curtained-off area at one end. From the other side of the curtain came a soft murmur of voices. Silhouettes were thrown up on to the material – a shadow theatre of people in hazmat suits working round the Grey.

  ‘Oh god,’ Mike said.

  I turned to see him and Jack looking at gurneys carrying body bags. The zipper of the nearest one hadn’t been fully drawn up. The face of Jerry, the guy who’d been hunting the Grey, was staring lifelessly out of it.

  Mike breathed through his nose, shaking his head. ‘I guess that’s what getting greedy gets you.’

  But I barely heard him as I took in the other four body bags. Two of them were much smaller than the others. It had to be the family I’d imagined. All that was missing was the small dog.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting back sudden tears. I felt a hand on my shoulder, my skin tingling as it merged with it. I opened my eyes to see Jack gazing at me. His eyes were like anchors in this upside-down world and I felt something inside me steady.

  ‘They were probably killed outright by the impact,’ he said.

  I shook my head. ‘But what if they weren’t? We know that Alvarez is entirely capable of killing them to avoid any loose ends.’

  Jack grimaced as we turned back towards the curtain.

  ‘So how are we going to play this, Lauren?’ Mike asked, doing his best to look anywhere but at the body bags.

  ‘We see how they’re getting on with the Grey, then come up with a plan.’

  We slipped round the edge of the partition, feeling the same tickling sensation of canvas briefly fusing with my body, into what turned out to be a temporary operating theatre on the other side.

  The doctors were still wearing hazmat suits as they worked on the Grey under a bank of intense lights. I recognised the bald guy we’d seen speaking to Alvarez outside. He was injecting some sort of transparent fluid into the bullet hole in the alien’s chest. The wound had been cleaned of blood to reveal a large patch of darkened skin. At least the Grey wasn’t in a body bag yet.

  Next to the operating table was a large metal sarcophagus. A network of fine pipes encircled it and gas cylinders with pressure gauges had been mounted on its sides.

  The bald-headed surgeon turned to a woman next to him. ‘Is the barometric chamber ready for the patient?’

  She nodded. ‘It’s ready to be pressurised the moment you transfer the patient into it.’

  Mike turned to Jack and me. ‘Barometric chamber…isn’t that what they use for divers who get the bends?’

  Jack nodded. ‘Maybe the Grey’s home world has a different atmosphere to our own?’

  ‘But that doesn’t make sense,’ I said. ‘We’ve seen that alien running around.’

  ‘Maybe he can tolerate our atmosphere for a short period, but can’t cope with prolonged exposure, especially when he’s injured,’ Jack suggested. ‘Whatever the reason, these doctors will be putting him into it for a very good reason.’

  ‘It sounds as if they’ve got him stabilised, which is great, but how the hell are we going to move him when he’s in that thing? It looks as if it weighs a good ton at
least.’

  Mike pointed towards the base of the sarcophagus. ‘The same way they’re going to, Lauren.’

  For the first time I noticed the same sort of circular antigravity plates that we’d seen the Overseers use back in Peru. The Overseers had used these to easily carry a micro mind that had weighed a good couple of tons, with little effort.

  ‘OK, that’s definitely going to make things easier.’

  A hiss came from a robotic arm and our attention returned to the operation as it swung out over the Grey. With a flicker of red light a projected target appeared on the alien’s forehead. A drill began to whir up to speed with a disconcerting dentist-like buzzing and descended towards the Grey. I couldn’t help but wince as the drill connected and the sickening sound of metal chewing into bone began.

  ‘Jesus, they’re going to kill it,’ Mike said, his face paling.

  Jack shook his head. ‘Actually, they’re not. I’m pretty sure that this has everything to do with when he fell and cracked the side of his head on that rock. It may have passed out due to a brain swell. By trepanning into the skull like this the surgeons are attempting to relieve the cranial pressure from the brain bleed. That will reduce the chance of any permanent damage. It’s exactly what I’d do with a patient who had experienced a cranial injury such as this.’

  A spray of black blood suddenly erupted from the drill’s tip. It whirred to a stop before the robotic arm withdrew.

  ‘See, I told you,’ Jack said. He dipped his chin towards the medical team working round the Grey. ‘This is like a home from home for me.’

  Mike nodded, the colour returning to his face. ‘Well, if we succeed in getting the little guy out of here, you’ll be up next to look after him.’

  ‘I do still have serious reservations about that,’ Jack said.

  ‘All you can do is your best, but make no mistake that, whatever the outcome, this Grey will be better off under your care than the Overseers,’ I said.

  ‘Yes, you may have a point.’

  A woman’s voice boomed out again from the tannoy outside the tent. ‘Three minutes until Delta squadron arrive.’