THE RED MIST TRILOGY: The Box Set

by R T Green

  We were virtually smuggled into an elevator, which zoomed up two floors. Scott didn’t want any of the technical staff setting eyes on Zana’s alien features, not until he’d brought them up to speed.

  Jane the detective looked petrified at being in an enclosed space with a Calanduran, but did her best not to show it. I got the feeling the disturbing news she was going to give us might not exactly be unconnected to her obvious fear.

  Scott shoved us all into a private meeting room, pressed a button on the desk and requested an unlimited supply of hot beverages, and then put a reassuring hand on the detective’s arm.

  ‘I realize Jane, given the circumstances, it must be a shock to you coming face to face with a Calanduran…’ He looked around at us all. ‘There was simply no time to bring her up to speed before you arrived. However…’ he looked the detective right in the eyes. ‘You are about to become one of the privileged few who know the truth. I assume I do not need to spell out what that means in terms of national security?’

  He’d turned on the voice, deliberately… the one that really should belong to a horror-movie actor, the one that spooked me out when he’d first offered me the assignment… another lifetime ago. The poor woman didn’t stand a chance. But she held her ground, go her.

  ‘I came to you, Mr. Scott, rather than going straight to my superiors with my findings. I think that alone answers your question.’

  ‘Indeed it does. And we must decide how much of this you inform them of. Widespread panic is, quite frankly, the last thing we need right now.’

  Hell, what epic news has this woman got to tell us? Suddenly, fears for my own future paled into insignificance. But there was something else Scott wanted to say first. He led detective Jane over to Zana, standing close against me looking like a little girl lost.

  ‘Jane, please meet Zana… the woman largely responsible for saving us all.’

  Zana held out a hesitant hand. Jane smiled, took it warmly, and then looked acutely embarrassed. ‘Please forgive my caution, Zana. I am afraid my presence here is because of a crime committed by someone from your planet…’ She cast her eyes to the ceiling at her own words. ‘And I can’t believe I’m actually saying that!’

  Scott smiled, again. ‘These are indeed strange times, Jane. However, let me introduce you to the other person responsible for us being able to stand here today… my agent Madeline deWinter.’

  We shook hands too. She seemed nice; soft and feminine somehow, despite what must have been a number of years having to deal with the harsh reality of London’s criminal population… easily enough to turn someone into a hard, unfeeling bitch.

  Like I used to be. Except somehow she’d managed to keep hold of a heart without a Zana to help.

  Scott finished the introductions, and my heart missed a beat as he made it clear time was short, and asked Jane to brief us.

  What she said didn’t make easy listening.

  ‘My patch includes Soho’s red light district. In the last two weeks, four prostitutes have disappeared, and up to now we’ve found no trace of any of them. That in itself is worrying; to have four go missing in such a short space of time leans towards it being the work of one person. I hesitate to use the word man. There may even be others; rough sleepers who are effectively off the grid. However, last night we discovered the body of a young girl. She… she had been facially mutilated, must have fought like hell with her attacker, but sadly could not save herself. On her body were splatters of a blue substance, and caught under a fingernail, a small piece of skin.’

  I glanced to Zana. Her head was lowered, but there was no outward sign of emotion on her face. No way to tell what she was feeling inside.

  ‘The lab confirmed my suspicions. The skin wasn’t human, and has now turned to dust. The blue substance was blood, but our annalistic equipment couldn’t recognize it. It would seem the attacker was Calanduran.’

  Duncan Scott added his bit. ‘As I explained to Coop on the phone yesterday, two escape pods were washed ashore by the Thames barrier the day before yesterday. Alien DNA was faint, but present on all eight seats. The Calanduran ship disintegrated five weeks ago, and so we have to assume that ever since then, eight aliens have somehow hidden themselves in London. What is puzzling me though, is why aliens desperate to avoid discovery are attacking vulnerable women. It makes no sense.’

  Zana spoke. A quiet, hesitant voice, the words uttered with her head still bowed.

  ‘It makes perfect sense to me.’

  Chapter 138

  I reached out for her hand, under the table so no one would see. She didn’t pull away, but didn’t grasp it either.

  Coop was frowning. ‘Tell us what you know, Zana.’

  Finally she looked up, and the desolation in her eyes brought a tear to mine. Telling us what she knew was going to be incredibly hard for her.

  Please hold my hand, Zana.

  She began to speak, a small hesitant voice, a million miles away from the ballsy, self-confident woman she was when we first met. ‘To tell you why it makes sense, I must tell you the reason we came to Earth. Madeline is the only one here who knows some of this.’

  Some of this? Oh shit.

  ‘What I have to tell you is hard for me to say, and will be harder for you to hear. But it is essential now you understand everything.’ She visibly swallowed, hard. ‘Calandura is a small, overcrowded world, and it is dying. For a reason we do not understand, each year it is being pulled closer to our sun. Our journey here took six years, and even as I speak now, already the average temperature will have risen so much, life on the surface will be impossible. If I left today to return to my world, by the time I reach Calandura it will be a barren desert, incapable of supporting any life.

  ‘Some years ago we knew the prognosis, so began building large ships to seek out new worlds. The plan was that if one of them discovered a suitable planet, a message would be sent to Calandura, telling others to follow.’

  Jane gasped. ‘So there’s more of you on the way?’

  ‘No. The ship would have maintained contact with Calandura, but since its destruction that contact will have ceased. My people will know that a race capable of destroying one of its ships would be a dangerous foe, so they will concentrate on finding safer worlds.’

  ‘Poor fuckers,’ said Coop under his breath, but just loud enough to hear.

  Zana sucked in a deep breath. ‘Sadly, you are already aware of this, but my people are evil… not all of us, but the vast majority have been raised in a warrior environment. It is all they know. And along with that comes a strong instinct to preserve the race at all costs, especially given the harsh fact of a dying world that threatens extinction.’

  I saw Duncan Scott’s face crease into a deep frown, knew his brilliant mind was putting two and two together and making several thousand. Coop’s hands were clasped tight, so much so his knuckles were turning white. Pretty impressive for a Jamaican. I think he had a good idea what was coming next. Zana took a gulp of her coffee, but it didn’t seem to help much. As she began to speak again her voice became hoarse, like she didn’t want to say the words.

  She looked at Scott. ‘Is it ok to tell Jane what my role was?’ He nodded. ‘I was one of an advance team of seven who came to Earth nine months ago, to study you and discover how we could… control you. The intention was that when the mother-ship arrived, it would erect an electronic dome over the majority of London, trapping those inside, and enabling us to turn you into willing workers.’

  Finally she wrapped her hand around mine, squeezed it tight. And I knew then the worst was still to come.

  ‘Shortly before the ship arrived, I began to question myself. Interacting with humans, I could see and feel things I’d never known before.’ I felt my hand squeezed tighter. ‘And because of experiencing love and understanding, I decided I could not allow the attack to take place. Unfortunately, my team leader’s opinions went the opposite way; he became obsessed with controlling you, to the point where he became mani
cally unstable.’

  Yes Arik, I can still smell your burnt face.

  ‘Unknown to me, together with two other team members, he was conducting certain experiments. Not content with simply controlling you, his twisted mind wanted to… use you, in a different way. One morning, two days before the ship arrived, in the lab where we worked together, he told me the experiments had been successful, and the new horror he was planning to inflict on human women. That was when I lost control, and attacked him.’

  Now it was my turn to frown. I knew about Daisy, the poor girl who resembled a Borg drone before she’d died, despite DIAL’s attempts to save her. But that experiment of Arik’s hadn’t been a success… what the hell, Zana?

  She turned to look at me, her sad desolate eyes so full of pain I couldn’t hold her gaze.

  ‘Madeline, I am so sorry, but there is something I didn’t tell you. In part, because when we destroyed the ship, I thought it would never be able to rear its ugly head. And also because… because I was too ashamed of the horrific things my people are capable of doing.’

  Chapter 139

  Her voice faltered, she wiped the mist from her eyes with trembling fingers. I had to say something to support her, and maybe defend her to the others in the room.

  ‘In truth Zana, you were only able to tell me what was happening in the last few minutes, on Dawson’s Hill. And with a thumping great alien warship about to arrive, there was hardly time for every last detail. And then… well, then it was too late.’

  She gave me a smile of gratitude, but Coop didn’t give her any time to dwell on that. ‘So what was Arik’s new project?’ he asked. I got the feeling he already had a good idea.

  ‘On Calandura, males are considered the inferior gender, and as such are more… expendable.’ She glanced at the men in the room. ‘I apologise, gentlemen. I am not of the same opinion.’

  They nodded, likely thinking that girl-power had hit a new high.

  ‘For that reason, ninety-five percent of those aboard the ship were men. Very few escape pods were installed, and I am surprised anyone at all had time to make use of them before they too were destroyed. However, it seems two of them survived. But it is highly likely all eight of the occupants were men.’

  Now I knew where this was going. And why it was getting harder and harder for Zana to speak. She emptied the last dregs of her coffee, and gave us the cold, hard truth.

  ‘Human and Calanduran physiology is very similar. Arik’s new plan to ensure his people’s continued dominance and survival was to use human men and women in different ways. The men would be converted to workers, as before. The women… the women…’

  Finally it was too much. Her head slumped onto my shoulder, and she broke her heart. I heard Jane cry out, ‘Oh my god,’ and then Miles surprised the hell out of me by leaping out of his seat, easing Zana away from me, and moving her away from the table. ‘Give us five minutes, ok people?’

  No one was going to object. We all needed five minutes.

  At least.

  Miles led Zana into a small side room, held her tight against him. She sobbed onto his shoulder, her body shaking as she let go of the guilt and remorse. He let her cry it out, then pulled out a handkerchief, helped her dry her eyes.

  ‘It’s not your fault, Zana,’ he said softly.

  She turned away from him, sniffed back the tears loudly. ‘Isn’t it? I suspected Arik was up to something. I did nothing, until it was too late.’

  ‘You whacked him,’ he grinned.

  She found a smile. ‘I should have done more.’

  ‘Like what? He was the team leader. If your pecking order is anything like ours, what exactly could you have done?’

  ‘I suppose, when you put it like that…’

  He turned her to face him again, looked her in the eyes. ‘We’re all here for you Zana, and no one is blaming you, ok?’

  She took both of his hands. ‘Thank you for being nice to me, Miles.’

  He smiled, warmly and a little ironically. ‘Oh, you don’t know the half of it. I never believed aliens existed, and then when it was rammed down my throat so bloody hard I had to accept they did, all I could see were nasty evil warriors intent on death and destruction. So do you have any idea how much it took for me to accept you as a friend?’

  She had a very good idea, from personal experience. And one important fact she knew. ‘Coop told me you carried me all the way from the beach in Tobago back to the shuttle. That tells me a lot, Miles.’

  He laughed. ‘Almost all the way. You were so damn heavy Coop had to do the last few yards.’

  ‘Thanks for the compliment,’ she smiled.

  He kissed her fingers. ‘Hey… I never thought an alien could be as beautiful as you, but then you made me see how beautiful you were inside too. So consider me a convert!’

  ‘That means a lot, Miles.’

  ‘For me too. You ready to go face the troops again?’

  She nodded. ‘I suppose I’d better go tell them the last few sordid facts.’

  ‘You mean there’s more?’

  ‘Just a little.’

  I couldn’t help but smile as Miles led Zana back to her seat. The sandy-haired very English Englishman had been on the wrong end of my fists in Scott’s office six weeks ago, when his cynical and sarcastic thoughtlessness had sent my battered mind over its limits.

  And yet the guy who struggled to even accept aliens existed had been the first to react when Zana needed someone to whip her away from the hell she was going through, even if it was just for a few minutes.

  How things change.

  But the awful truth she’d shared with us meant her ordeal wasn’t yet over. There was about to be a thousand questions fired at her. But then she began to speak, and I realized the bad news wasn’t quite done.

  ‘I am sorry, I had to take a short break. It is difficult for me to tell you these things. Sadly, there is a little more.’

  Duncan Scott looked genuinely sympathetic. And a little terrified. ‘We all understand, Zana. Just remember you are amongst friends. Please go on.’

  She seemed grateful for his words. ‘I am sure you all realize that Arik’s plan was to use human women to procreate the Calanduran race. But there is more to it than that. Our gestation period is much shorter than yours… around ten weeks. But Arik’s secret research devised a procedure to speed that up still further. According to him, the time from conception to birth would be six weeks.’

  Coop slammed his fists onto the table, making my heart miss a beat. ‘Fuck, Zana… you’s telling us we’ve got eight randy aliens running around London raping innocent women, and in a week or two they’s gonna be popping out alien babies?’

  Scott put a hand on his arm. ‘Coop…’

  He threw his hands into the air, stood up and walked around the table. ‘Sorry… sorry ladies… Zana. Just a bit hard to swallow, y’know…’

  Zana’s head dropped. ‘I am sorry my people are so evil, Coop.’

  He put a hand on the side of her face. ‘Hey, it’s ok. This ain’t your doing. You’s the good guy, and everyone around here owes their life to you and Maddie.’

  Scott had a question. ‘But you said Arik revealed his research two days before the ship arrived. Surely that research died with him and the others?’

  She shook her head, and my heart sank. Yet again. ‘He only told me to taunt me. He knew I was… wavering. So he also told me every bit of his research had been transmitted to the mother ship, weeks before I knew of it. It is likely everyone aboard the ship was briefed on the new plan, and were working on preparing to put it into action.’

  Now it was Duncan Scott’s turn to lower his eyes. ‘I see,’ he said flatly. ‘And of course, our Calanduran queen would also be fully aware of it all.’

  Zana turned her head to look at me, and her lower lip began to tremble. I knew then she hadn’t finished with the news.

  ‘There is one more thing I have to tell you. The growth accelerant Arik developed can also b
e utilized once the baby is born. The children will reach the age where they too can reproduce in a vastly quicker timescale.’

  ‘Bloody hell.’ Miles’s white face had gone whiter again. ‘The grain of rice and the chessboard fable.’

  I knew what he meant, but Jane the detective looked puzzled. Coop filled her in.

  ‘A century ago, a merchant asked a poor man to carry out a task for him. The man cleverly asked for payment of one grain of rice, placed on the first square of a chessboard, then doubled for each square… two on the second, four on the third, etcetera. The merchant laughed and agreed, not realizing what he’d done. It’s almost impossible to work out how much rice the man ended up with by the last square.’

  Jane swallowed, took a gulp of her coffee. ‘Kind of puts it in perspective.’

  And that kind of silenced the room. No one seemed to know what to say right then. Eight alien warriors intent on multiplying themselves several thousand times over didn’t exactly bode well for the human race.

  It was one of those moments when you didn’t really want to be the first to speak.

  That didn’t last long. The deathly silence was suddenly shattered.

  Literally.

  Chapter 140

  The sleek black craft flew over the seaside town of Southend, a mile above the rooftops, and headed out into the North Sea. The cloak was online, no one could see it as, two miles out to sea, it banked into a gentle one-hundred-and-eighty and began to head back towards the estuary.

  In a shallow dive, it leveled out a hundred feet above the waves. As it flew at zero altitude, the coastline on either side grew closer as the estuary narrowed. A sharp bank to the left, and the North Sea was no more, the arrow-shaped shuttle beginning to skim the gentler waves of the river Thames.

  The cloak was powered down. The pilot wanted everyone in London to see the menace about to arrive.

  Ever faster, it flashed under the Dartford Bridge, terrified drivers slewing their vehicles to a sudden stop to get a better view of the alien craft. But in seconds it was gone, the skilful helmswoman tracing every bend of the river as it headed relentlessly towards the centre of London.