Alien Hunter: Underworld (14 page)

“They ain't like regular dogs,” Mac said. “Dogs is lovers. These things is haters.” He chuckled. “Mexicans who grow up in the countryside—these boys who come up here for trade and such—they do not like dogs.”

“I heard you sold your dogs to the DEA? That was a fine pack.”

“These bastards are unfriendly. The others were sweethearts. I need unfriendly.”

They were standing under the floodlight that lit the corral. Flynn wasn't sure he wanted to reveal their extreme vulnerability to Mac just yet, but he didn't want to stay outside any longer than absolutely necessary. “We allowed in the house?”

“Why, hell yes. Come on in!” Mac strode toward the low ranch house, which stood under the only grove of trees for many miles around.

Flynn knew the luxurious interior very well. There had been a few changes, though, over the past month. Mac had acquired a seventy-inch 3-D TV and a McIntosh Reference surround sound system.

“Love your new toys. Musta had a sweet deal go down.”

“Pack up your dime-a-dozen investigator techniques, Flynn. You know I'm rich as Croesus.”

“I've read your DEA file, remember.”

Mac gave him a look full of beady suspicion. Then he laughed a little. “There's Mexican food,” he said as he strolled into the dining room. “Lupe, we got guests, darlin'.” He turned back to Flynn and the others. “My
chef de cuisine
is kinda temperamental these days. Don't like cookin' for the dogs, you know. Resents doin' all that work for a bunch of dumb animals.”

Lupe came out of the kitchen. “
Buenas noches
, Mr. Flynn,” she said, smiling broadly. “I not hear your car.”

“No. You remember Diana?”

“Oh,
sí,
Miss Diana, sure. The computer lady.” Diana had commandeered some of Mac's equipment the first time she met him, at the old place. It had been a tense situation, to say the least. At the time, Flynn had thought of her as a tight and polished law enforcement officer. Only later did he come to know that she had not used her computer skills exclusively in law enforcement. She'd served time for hacking. In fact, she'd been released into this job because she was so very good with electronics, and nobody else could figure out how to work the wire. Flynn imagined Diana had seen the new digs a few times, when she and Mac were dating.

“What's the matter with her?” Geri asked.

“What?”

“She's misshapen.”

Lupe looked away, shocked and embarrassed.

“Geri, she's a bit overweight.”

“I need an explanation for that.”

Mac looked to Flynn. “What train did your new friend come in on?” Knowing what he did about Morris, Mac was obviously well aware that this woman might be something other than human.

Ever so slightly, Flynn nodded. Mac gave her a longer look, and slowly his face took on a solemn expression. Finally, he was frowning. He'd seen the resemblance to Abby, and he didn't like it any more than Flynn did. He and Flynn had been rivals for Abby in high school. In college, Eddie had joined the rivalry. Flynn won, but they had all loved her, and they all still did.

Lupe put out plates of tamales, enchiladas, and tacos and a big pitcher of iced tea. The three of them set on the food like wolves, guzzling glass after glass of tea between mouthfuls of food.

“You were out there awhile,” Mac said.

“Since last night.”

“Lucky you didn't get the water crazies.”

The water crazies were a major danger on the range. You got so thirsty, you couldn't keep anything straight. Confusion set in, you wandered aimlessly, you died. “I kept the two of them in that truck. Kept 'em still.”

Mac sucked air through his teeth. “Sorry about that. That guy played a bent game of polo.” He gave Flynn a look of such wide-eyed innocence that it was all he could do not to laugh. But you didn't want to laugh at Mac Terrell. He was not partial to it.

“In India, they used to wrap the head up in leather strapping, in case you're interested.”

“I am interested. I'm very interested in stuff like that. Tall tales. Obscure facts. Speaking of which, why did you come walking out of the night with two half-dead women in tow, Flynn? May I know?”

“I'm on a case. It's going rather poorly. I could use your help.”

“No,” Diana said.

“You gotta let him hire me before you fire me, dear. What's the case?”

“Classified,” Diana said.

“She still got her head where the sun don't shine, I see.”

Mac and Diana looked hard at each other. Flynn was pretty sure that at one point, they'd been considerably more than a passing thing.

“How's Cissy, by the way?” Diana asked. “She here?”

Cissy Greene was Governor Greene's daughter, presently about twenty-one, but when she'd been running around with Mac, barely eighteen.

“I fired her when her daddy put the needle to my brother.” His gaze, suddenly full of fire, came back to Flynn. “Thank you for that.”

“Mac, you know I had to do my duty.”

“You could've arrested the wrong man, damn you. Now I ain't got a brother. I'm alone in the world.”

“What was his infraction?” Geri asked.

“He killed some damn nuns,” Mac said. “Lookin' for a little cash in their convent, and things went south.”

“You're better off without Cissy,” Diana said. “She was no good for you.”

So Diana did indeed carry a torch for Mac. He could see in her sudden softening that she was glad Cissy was no longer in the picture. Because Cissy was so good at having fun, Diana had felt overmatched.

“All right, now, if we could get back to the business at hand.” Mac glanced toward the kitchen. “Lupe, could you crack me a beer?” He looked around the table. “Beer, anybody?”

Lupe emerged and returned to the kitchen after serving refreshments to the men. Flynn drank a beer with Mac. This man was a predator and as dangerous a human being as walked the Earth, and Flynn loved the hell out of him. On the one hand. On the other, he could go from affable country boy to murderous psychopath in half a beat.

“What we're looking at this time is a group of biological robots who are doing random killings, and the only way they can be stopped is by destroying them. Only nobody else is fast enough, so I'm having to do it alone.”

“That doesn't sound very safe.”

“It's not, and if something happens to him, we're in terrible trouble,” Diana said.

“So this alien lady is here to help you.” He shifted his gaze to Geri. “Are you wearing that body? Is it a costume, or is it you?”

“It's not a disguise.”

Mac looked to Flynn, raising his eyebrows. “What is she?”

“No idea. Could be anybody from anywhere. She claims she's here to make sure I follow procedure. It seems I've been killing too many killers.”

Geri interjected. “You've been stirring them up too much. The more you confront them, the more dangerous they become.”

“So you say.”

“How did you end up way out here in the middle of nowhere?” Mac asked Geri.

“I came through the accelerator. I came from Aeon.”

Mac considered that. He didn't ask her what the accelerator was. He wasn't curious that way. Finally, he said to Flynn, “I agree.”

“Agree about what?” Diana asked.

“That I wouldn't trust either one of you.”

Diana stood up from the table. “I think this has gone far enough,” she said. “We shouldn't be here, we've been brought here under false pretenses, a security breach has occurred, and it's time for us to leave.” She wiped her lips with a napkin and called to Lupe, “Thanks for the tamales, they were delicious.” She turned to Mac. “Can you get somebody to drive us into Marathon or Alpine?”

“You think you'll live that long?” Mac asked.

“I don't understand.”

“You got those little critters sniffin' under your tails. So do I. Difference is, I got my dogs and Snow Mountain. They don't like the dogs, and the dogs don't like them. As for Snow Mountain, they pulled him up into that thing of theirs one time. I thought, shit, I shoulda killed him and taken the damn hide like I wanted to in the first place. Next thing I know, it's rainin' little pieces a alien. Couple of minutes later, they spit him right back out. They still come around here, though—don't think they don't. If you go out on those roads at night, they are gonna be there.”

“Then tomorrow. We'll leave at first light.”

“It might be a little safer.”

Flynn had not expected to hear anything remotely like this. He'd thought that Mac was completely out of the picture. “Are you under siege here?”

“Under hostile observation.”

Flynn thought about that. As he realized just how clever the aliens had been, he smiled slightly. “Folks, I'm sorry to tell you this, but I don't think it's an accident that we're all here. I think we've been very carefully and expertly herded. They wanted us all together, so we can all be dealt with at once.”

“All the more reason to get out,” Diana said. “Before they can get organized.”

“Oh, they're organized just fine,” Mac said. “You can count on it.”

“Then what's keeping them from attacking us?”

Diana had a good question, and one that Flynn thought was likely to be answered very soon, maybe before dawn.

“We need to do what we can to get ready.” He looked to Mac. “There's a role for a good sniper in this. I've done their ship some damage with a lucky shot. Gail tells me, if you hit it in the right place, you'll blow it to bits.”

“I did not know that. I would've tried it before. But what happens if I miss?”

“You either escape or you don't, in which case, you have one very bad day.”

“What's the level of challenge?”

“You'll be firing at a seam a millimeter wide.”

“Whoa, that's a challenge, all right. Would there be any way of detecting the disk early?”

“Radar would work on a ship that old. It's not going to have any means of absorbing the pulses,” Geri said.

“I've got a little radar,” Mac muttered.

“You have five Spexer One Thousand units,” Diana said. “They're nonoptical, so they only monitor location and movement. They cover to about ten miles out in every direction, with an additional unit two miles down your road, where that little rise blocks line of sight.”

“You been sneakin' around my place.”

“I've told you many times, Mac, no matter how carefully you cut the cards, the federal government has more power than you do.”

“Good. Call in the Marines and get us out of this mess.”

Geri said, “As I have been trying to get Flynn to understand, the more you fight back, the more they'll broaden the conflict. It's programmed into them.”

“What's she sayin'?”

“Morris is manufacturing them somewhere on Earth, and the more we destroy, the more he'll make. That's what she's saying. Trying to.”

“Morris,” Mac said. “So he's built another factory.” They had destroyed the one he constructed a few years ago, which had been under an old ranch house near Austin. At the time, they hadn't understood exactly what he was doing there. They knew now.

“We can't find him,” Diana responded.

“Despite all that federal power of yours? You surprise me.”

“Even Flynn's been trying, Mac.”

“What might help me is if you folks weren't here. I was doing just fine with my dogs and the tiger.”

“Whatever hasn't worked, they won't try again,” Geri said. “So they won't go near the animals and they won't let themselves be picked up by any of your detection equipment.”

“Good, then we're safe.”

“They'll find another way.”

“There is no other way.”

“There is, and they will find it. They can test billions of scenarios a second. From second to second, they are always going to be certain of their best move.”

“Fine, we might as well just kill ourselves, then. Save 'em the trouble.”

“Look, call in your military,” Mac said to Geri.

“If our military comes, so will the rebel main body. The last thing you need is for main body elements to show up in orbit around a defenseless planet. No matter who wins, Earth dies.”

“In other words, Aeon can't protect us?”

In her sweet eyes, he saw something like terror. “No.”

Outside, the dogs erupted in a fury of barking. Mac jumped to his feet, but Flynn was already through the kitchen and out the back door.

He didn't run for the kennel. Rather, he skirted the edge of the compound, working his way through the horse corral and into the barn, where the horses stomped and whickered uneasily. He climbed up the wooden ladder to the loft.

“Flynn?”

“Get back in the house, Diana.”

“You can't take a risk like this.”

“I can, but you can't. Unless you get back in the house, you'll be dead in minutes.” He didn't add that she would probably be dead soon, no matter what—but what would be the point? She could see that for herself.

She turned and left him, and he was glad in his heart. He had come out here in the hope of drawing them off. They couldn't risk their backs to him, and they would know that. If he took enough of them, maybe they would withdraw, at least for a time.

“Flynn?”

“Hey, Mac.”

“Diana said you were in here. She wants me to convince you to come back to the house.”

“How are your dogs?”

“Shitty. They know something's up. They're spooked.”

“I want you to take Geri and Diana down to your little playroom and hole up there. Take some serious firepower. Light enough for them to handle.”

“Uzis.”

“Fine. Uzis.”