Oracle

by Douglas E. Richards

  “What are you talking about?” said Perez. “I didn’t go anywhere near that case. And none of my people did either.”

  “You issued an APB on Anna Abbott,” said the colonel, “and mounted a military-style raid to get at her and Tom Vega. Is that what you consider not going anywhere near the case?” he added incredulously. “I’m going to have your job for this.”

  “Are you an imbecile?” snapped the captain. “This raid has nothing to do with the Camden case.”

  “It has everything to do with the Camden case,” said the colonel.

  Anna winced. “Let me clear this up for you, gentlemen,” she said. “What we have here is a simple misunderstanding. Colonel, the captain isn’t after me because of the double homicide at the Camden International. He has no idea that I was involved with that. He wants me for multiple murders at a high school last night.”

  “Jesus, Anna,” said Perez in dismay. “Any murders lately that you haven’t been a part of?”

  Redford’s eyes narrowed. This woman had been busy. How in the world did this all fit together? “Apologies, Captain,” he said to Perez. “I guess you did follow orders, after all. Sorry that I jumped to the wrong conclusions. But the stakes here are very high, and while I hate to pull rank, I’m afraid I’m going to have to take custody of these two and ask you to leave us.”

  “These two?” said the captain. He gestured toward Vega. “This guy isn’t even in our custody,” he added. “Anna was about to tell us how he fits in when you interrupted. Are you saying he’s involved in the Camden Hotel case?”

  “Yes,” said Redford. “So with all due respect,” he added, “I need you to step away.”

  “Why do I have a bad feeling about you, Colonel?” said Lieutenant Boyer. “I’m not going anywhere until someone I trust can convince me that Anna will be well-treated and receive her due process rights.”

  “I admire your loyalty, Lieutenant,” said Redford. “I do. But I’m not sure there is any way of reassuring you that my intentions are good, other than reassuring you that my intentions are good.”

  Boyer looked unconvinced.

  “It’s okay, Cole,” said Anna softly. “I’ll be fine. Please do as he says. You, too, Captain. I actually want to talk to him. And I no longer think additional hostiles are converging on us after all. Just be sure to interrogate the men you just captured and clear my name while I’m keeping the colonel company.”

  Captain Perez couldn’t quite let it go. “You do know, Colonel, that I don’t take orders from you, right?”

  Redford sighed. “I know that, Captain. And I really am sorry about this. I hate to come across as the overbearing asshole you think I am. But trust me, if you challenge me on this, you’ll just be getting angry calls from your superiors within the hour, telling you to do whatever I say.”

  The captain stared deep into Redford’s eyes and decided not to test this assertion. He reluctantly handed him the key to Anna’s handcuffs, and then he and Cole Boyer said their farewells to her, promising to do everything they could to absolve her of all charges.

  “Thanks,” she said to them both. “You busted your asses to get here and rescue me, and I’m grateful. And thanks for believing in me.”

  Redford waited until the police captain and lieutenant were out of earshot and opened his mouth to ask his first question, but then thought better of it. He could wait another minute or two until he was in a more private setting. “Let’s go,” he said to his two prisoners.

  “Where to?” said Anna.

  “We’re taking a helicopter to a site very near Luke Air Force Base in Arizona,” he replied. “And the three of us are going to have a nice little chat along the way.”

  36

  Vega had remained silent for some time, but was growing increasingly agitated. “Anna, we can’t get sidetracked in Arizona,” he said as if Redford wasn’t there. “Not now. As I said, it’s more urgent than ever that we get to . . . our destination.”

  “What destination?” asked Redford.

  Vega continued to ignore him. “Did you know this guy was coming?” he asked Anna.

  She frowned and shook her head. “Not even a hint. I guess my crystal ball is broken. But don’t worry, I have a good feeling about him.”

  “Do you have any idea what he wants?” said Vega.

  “Every idea,” she replied cheerfully.

  She turned to Redford, who was beginning to think he was invisible. “Look, Colonel, you’re in charge of investigating alien visitations, am I right?”

  Redford studied her for several seconds. “What makes you think that?”

  “Come on, Colonel, don’t insult my intelligence. You swooped into LA to take over a case involving two dead aliens. And you have enough juice to push around the upper echelon of civilian law enforcement like they’re your own personal playthings. Your role is obvious.”

  “How do you know the case involves aliens? Did you kill them?”

  “I did,” she admitted. “In self-defense. But I know a lot more than just that there were aliens in room 925,” she added. Anna gestured to her companion. “Tom and I can tell you things that will blow your mind ten times over. But there are conditions.” She arched an eyebrow. “Assuming you’re interested, of course.”

  Redford smiled, despite himself. “I think it’s fair to say that you’ve caught my attention.”

  “Good,” said Anna. “First condition: We’ll cooperate fully, tell you anything you want to know. But only you. At least for now.”

  “Why?”

  “Because my gut tells me I can trust you.”

  “Your gut?” repeated Redford. “You seem to be putting a lot of faith in a hunch.”

  “Are you saying that I can’t trust you?”

  “If you couldn’t, I’d lie to you and say you could. But the truth is that I’m a man of my word.”

  She smiled. “I believe you, Colonel. So, second condition: We’ll tell you everything—but not if you force us to go to Arizona. Only if you take us to Huntington, Utah, instead. And you can’t disclose our location or destination to anyone else.”

  “Why Huntington, Utah?”

  “Short answer,” said Anna, “to try to save the world. Because those demon-eyed, black-blooded bastards back at the Camden Hotel, and their entire species, are hell-bent on wiping us out. And by us, I mean the human race. And while there were only about sixty or seventy of them on Earth yesterday, over six hundred more just arrived.”

  The colonel’s stomach tightened. “Arrived from where?” he asked.

  “Take us to Utah,” said Anna. “Just the three of us. And find out. Take us to Arizona, on the other hand, and we’ll refuse to cooperate, even knowing that our species is moving closer to the brink with every passing second.”

  “So what’s in Utah that’s such a game changer?” asked Redford.

  “Who’s in Utah,” corrected Anna. “It’s a very long story, but it turns out I have certain . . . precognitive abilities. There’s a scientist in Huntington who can help strengthen them. Apparently, that will make all the difference.”

  Redford snorted. “So now there’s an alien invasion—and you’re precognitive? I was beginning to get excited by what you might tell me. But now it seems that you’re delusional. So I suppose you see yourself as some kind of savior, is that it?”

  “She doesn’t see herself that way,” said Vega, leaping to her defense. “It’s me and my species who do.”

  “Your species?” said Redford.

  “I’m not from this part of the galaxy, either,” said Vega. He removed the gauze bandage covering the wound on his forearm to reveal neon-green blood.

  Redford’s mouth dropped open and froze there. If this had happened prior to his discovery of the Traveler species, he would have been sure it was a hoax. But given the circumstances, he was equally sure it was real.

  He was speaking with a living, breathing, extraterrestrial. Incredible.

  A million questions raced through his
mind, but he deemed it important to play out the current thread before moving on. “Does that mean you’re responsible for trying to convince her that she’s precognitive?” he said.

  “Not trying,” corrected Anna. “Succeeding.”

  Redford stared deeply into her arresting blue eyes. “How do you know you can trust him?” he asked. “He’s convinced you of a coming invasion by a second alien species, and that you’re clairvoyant. But how do you know that anything he says is true?”

  “Long story,” said Anna. “My intuition tells me to believe him, and it’s almost never wrong. And these black-blooded aliens have been trying to kill us. Finally, when Tom told me I was clairvoyant, I thought he was crazy myself. But then I discovered he was right.”

  Redford blew out a long breath. “I’ve always believed in the possibility of extraterrestrials,” he said. “Which recent evidence has confirmed. But I don’t believe in the paranormal. Aliens are scientifically possible. Clairvoyance isn’t.”

  “That’s what I thought, too,” replied Anna. “But what if I can prove that I’m clairvoyant? Will you take us to Utah?”

  “Prove that you’re clairvoyant and I’ll take you anywhere you want.”

  “Good,” said Anna. “Let’s do this. Tom, what’s a good demonstration?”

  Vega sighed and turned to the colonel. “I need to point out that she’s new to this,” he said. “Her abilities are all over the place. Spotty. She can mostly see very near term, with the occasional vision, days, or even years in the future. Although she’s not even aware of these more long-range abilities yet. And her clairvoyance takes place entirely in her subconscious, with her conscious mind able to perceive just the tiniest fraction of what her subconscious is able to see.”

  “What?” said Redford, blinking in confusion.

  “Never mind,” said Anna. “Let’s get on with it.”

  “Okay, Colonel,” began the alien. “We’re going to go five rounds, since, as I’ve said, Anna’s abilities aren’t fully reliable. Think of a number. Any number. From one to a million. Anna will guess what it is. But here is the critical part. Right or wrong, you have to tell us what the number is right after she guesses. You have to say it out loud.”

  Redford considered. “I get it,” he said, his eyes sparkling with an easy intelligence. “Because she won’t be reading minds. She’ll be seeing the future. If the number is never revealed to her in the future, she has no better chance than anyone else of getting it right.”

  “Exactly,” said Vega, and in a rush Anna understood why the playing card experiment she had participated in had failed to reveal her abilities. She had never been told the right answers.

  Redford thought of a number and nodded his readiness. Anna strained for some time, but her intuition was nowhere to be found. “I have no idea,” she said finally, giving up. “Ninety-four?”

  The colonel shook his head. “Not even close,” he said. “Is there really a point of repeating this?” he said to Vega. “Or are you ready to tell me where you’re from, and what you’re doing on Earth? And what your real agenda is?”

  Vega sighed. “So you ruin the experiment,” he said, “and then blame us when it doesn’t work. You agreed that you would say the number out loud right after her guess. Does that ring a bell?”

  A smile slowly spread across the colonel’s face. “Right you are,” he said sheepishly. “Let’s go again. This time, I vow to say the number out loud even if an earthquake swallows me whole.”

  “Good,” said Vega as Redford thought of another number. Once again he nodded at Anna, indicating his readiness.

  Anna’s eyes widened. “I don’t have any vision of you saying the number in the future,” she said. “But I have this strange hunch that the number is 27,456.”

  Redford’s breath stuck in his throat. To his credit, he did remember to say the number out loud, which matched her guess exactly, something that had been obvious from his stunned reaction.

  “No need to go again,” said the colonel, still in shock. “A one-in-a-million guess is good enough for me.”

  He tried to appear steady and in charge, but inside he was reeling. Was he really in the presence of a living extraterrestrial and a clairvoyant, both? He forced himself to breathe. He finally managed to snap out of his paralyzed state and unlocked Anna Abbott’s handcuffs, dropping them to the concrete floor below.

  “Can I get my gun back?” said Anna. “Well, it’s actually Deshawn’s gun, but why split hairs?”

  “You’ll get it back when I’m sure I can trust you completely,” said Redford. “But for now, let’s get the two of you to Utah.”

  The colonel grinned. “And after you’ve saved the world, we really need to play the lottery together. The cost of the ticket is on me,” he added in amusement.

  “Very generous of you,” said Anna wryly.

  And just for an instant her mind’s eye held a picture of her sharing a passionate kiss with this man. But the image vanished so quickly, she wondered if it had just been her imagination.

  PART 4

  “It is a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.”

  —The White Queen, Alice in Wonderland

  “Do I contradict myself?

  Very well then I contradict myself,

  (I am large, I contain multitudes.)”

  —Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

  37

  Colonel Stephen Redford escorted his two guests to the helicopter, wanting to shake himself to be certain this was real. He had to be dreaming. Except that he wasn’t.

  There really were two extraterrestrial species visiting Earth. After the entire long history of the human race, absolute proof of alien visitation had finally been found, in the form of a body that had dropped onto his lap—or onto a busy street in New York City, to be more accurate—just weeks earlier.

  And now this.

  When it rained, it poured.

  And if the detective was to be believed, he was about to get hit with an information storm so epic it would make the torrential rains that had flooded Earth in the time of Noah seem like a drizzle.

  Was Anna Abbott really clairvoyant? It seemed to him that this was the only explanation for what he had witnessed. Redford decided that he would take everything she and the alien told him at face value, until it was proven otherwise. And Anna seemed confident that the alien calling himself Tom Vega could be trusted, which he found more comforting than he should.

  But if what she had said about the black-blooded aliens was true, the first proven alien visitation had turned into something out of the worst nightmares of horror writers.

  Redford found himself taken with the detective, a stronger first reaction than he had ever had to a woman. And why not? She was mysterious and possessed information he would die to know. Information he had been seeking his entire life.

  But there was more to it than just this. She was also poised, smart, and competent. Not to mention having a down-to-earth personality and an obvious sense of humor. She had stood there in a plain black sweatshirt, handcuffed, knowing that aliens and drug lords were determined to kill her, and had exuded nothing but confidence and self-assurance.

  Redford imagined her being surrounded by ten men with machine guns, and not only being unperturbed, but serenely telling them to get more men so it would be a fair contest.

  Finally, not only was she extraordinarily accomplished at twenty-eight—the youngest and most successful detective on the force—she was undeniably attractive, with flawless skin, lively blue eyes, and a face that could well be at home on a Covergirl Clean Makeup advertisement.

  Redford pulled himself from his reverie as they neared the helicopters and barked orders to his men. Moments later he and his two passengers were alone in one of the two aircraft, which could easily seat eight, waiting for takeoff. The helicopter possessed advanced stealth technology, making it completely invisible to radar and other sensors, although it still could be seen by the human eye at short distances.


  They sat in silence for several minutes while the colonel issued silent instructions to Nessie.

  Redford didn’t know the first thing about flying a helicopter, but this model was a self-piloting prototype, which also sported other advanced technologies that were truly extraordinary. Even so, only a vanishingly small number of military personnel were authorized to fly it in self-flying mode. Crash avoidance was written into the system, so the aircraft could never be commandeered and used to ram buildings or stadiums full of people. In addition, the AI pilot had no access to weapon systems, as decades of science fiction had demonstrated the stupidity of this idea.

  Redford had never flown without a pilot, but Anna’s instructions had been quite clear about the need for urgency and privacy, both.

  “Buckle up,” he told his passengers. “I’ve instructed the helicopter to take us to Huntington. You can direct me further when we get close.”

  “You’ve instructed the helicopter?” repeated Anna. “Does that mean you’re not a pilot?”

  “I’m afraid not,” said the colonel. “But the helicopter can pilot itself. So it will still be just the three of us going to Utah, as I agreed. And rest assured, no one can track us. I’ve had the transponder disabled, which only someone at a very high rank can make happen. I’m not boasting, just making it clear that I intend to live up to my part of the bargain.”

  “Thank you,” said Anna.

  “As an added insurance policy, to make sure we arrive safely, I’ve also ordered fighter aircraft to execute training drills from various bases all along our route. We’ll be in full stealth mode, so they won’t know we’re there. But a fighter jet will always be within fifty miles of us throughout our journey. On my order, these fifty miles can be closed in less than two minutes.”

  “That’s quite the protective detail,” noted Anna, impressed.

  “I trust that we won’t need it,” said the colonel. “But better to err on the side of paranoia. And speaking of paranoia,” he added, “both of you should know that I still don’t trust you entirely. Especially you, ah . . . Tom. No offense, but alien motivations are even less clear than human ones. So until I have proof of your goodwill, I don’t intend to drop my guard.”