Alien Invasion 04 Annihilation (14 page)

CHAPTER 23

Raj flipped to his office camera feed.

Too much had changed in the last several hours. Raj felt beaten, humiliated — exactly the way, in fact, that he always felt around Meyer Dempsey. And was any of it fair? Of course not. Not at all. Everyone was either incompetent or deliberately subversive. Everyone except Raj, who did his job and nothing else. Raj, who’d come so close to having the big chair — but had it snatched away when the two-faced son of a bitch he’d tried to kill popped back up like a jack-in-the-box.

Meyer hadn’t mentioned it. He hadn’t even spoken. Ironically, it seemed that Raj had blown the lid on himself. Who’d taken credit when Heather quite unnecessarily began to blab. Raj killed the viceroy?
Fuck yes
, he did. The viceroy had stabbed his keepers in the back, helping Terrence and Heather, loosing that virus on the city. Anyone could see he was telling the truth. Raj didn’t lie, and he helped the Astrals at every step.
 

He’d helped them find Piper.
 

He’d helped them tighten the hatches following her escape, when the city had been in turmoil.
 

Now that the city was again in distress, Raj had been heading up repairs, not so much as leaving his post for dinner.
 

And Raj already had a rather juicy bomb, about who might be returning to the city, who knew about it in advance and was turning traitor, and how those intruders might be intercepted before they could do any more damage.
 

Yes, Raj had been an ideal soldier.
 

But did anyone believe him about Meyer? Nope. Not even after Raj had commandeered the Titans and Reptars himself, all of them catching Meyer red-handed together. Raj didn’t buy that crap about the Astrals not understanding the Internet. You could have read Meyer’s guilt right from his face.
 

But who was let free to resume his post, and who was reprimanded?
 

And now that Meyer was back, somehow miraculously unharmed despite Raj being quite sure he’d landed a fatal shot? Whom did the Astrals and Mo defer to now? Was it Raj, who’d been a hero? Or was it the traitor?
 

Well. There was only one sensible path between the fourth-floor network center and Raj’s office, and it led right by the library where Raj had spied Meyer searching for something not five minutes earlier, on a trip back from the bathroom, while other guards held their eyes on Terrence.
 

Meyer was in the library with a pair of Titans.
 

But Terrence was alone.
 

With any luck, what Raj suspected would happen was about to … and this time, he’d finally have proof.
 

Raj watched the feed from his office.
 

Waiting for the viceroy to hang himself.
 

CHAPTER 24

Nathan was on his belly, flat on the ground, binoculars to his eyes. He handed them to Coffey, who took a look.

“Just like with Bannister,” Coffey said. “There’s nobody there.”
 

“The drone showed police and peacekeepers shuffling. When Cameron went through the gates, they were all lined up waiting. It’ll be the same this time. They’ll be hiding. Waiting inside.”
 

He looked over at Coffey. Piper, Cameron, and Grace were back at the RV, hidden behind a clutch of trees past the scorched, barren apron. Preparing, supposedly. But they weren’t soldiers. That’s why true warriors had to step up.
 

“They want the key,” Nathan said. “That’s why they let us come. They’ll pin us down so they can take it without damaging it.” He corrected himself, tipping his head toward the RV. “Or rather, they’ll pin
them
down.”
 

“They know we’re here too, Nathan. It’s naive to think they haven’t seen us.”

Nathan nodded. “Of course. But we’re not going in. Not yet anyway.”
 

“Yet?”
 

“We’ll go in when we’re invited.”
 

Coffey stared at him.
 

“The drone dropped a message. It’s not reliant on the network.”
 

“Who was the message for?”
 

“The viceroy. I dropped it on the doorstep.”
 

Coffey was almost shaking her head. She probably wondered why he was only telling her now, as if he’d broken their bond of trust. The
why
was simple: Nathan had betrayed their mission. Coffey might disagree with his decision, but now it was too late to make a difference.
 

“What did it say?”
 

“It told them where we are and what we have. It offered to give them up.”
 

“Why would you do that?”
 

“Amnesty for the Republic. We helped them. We harbored Bannister’s cohorts. At the time, we didn’t know the Astrals wanted them taken in, so it was an act of betrayal: the Andreus Republic breaking our arrangement. Then we pulled Cottonwood, and that was a
definite
act of betrayal — one that kicked them in their probably dickless crotches. They hit us back, hard. So now we’re scared. Now we want a summit.”
 

Coffey narrowed her eyes.
 

“They’ll never believe that.”
 

“I think they will. Think about it. This isn’t our fight. This is Benjamin Bannister’s grudge. I’m just some asshole who built an army in the outlands. Before Bannister stuck his face into our situation with the Astrals by sending Cameron, we were copacetic with ET. We helped in exchange for information. We got burned because of it, an eye for an eye.”
 

Nathan didn’t want to elaborate, but Coffey seemed to understand. He’d helped Cameron, but the Astrals had killed his wife and nearly killed his daughter. It wasn’t an even trade, but those who commanded the planet made the rules.
 

“So you’re turning on them. That’s what your message says.”

“‘Hey, you guys — there are some rebels out here, and they have what you want,’” Nathan said, quoting his message.
 

“You said it yourself. They still need Cameron to help find Thor’s Hammer.”
 

“Maybe there was more to the message. Detailing the location of Thor’s Hammer, somewhere under the Apex.”
 

Jeanine was still studying Nathan, trying to puzzle him out.
 

“You son of a bitch.”

Nathan put the binoculars back to his eyes, now seeing Piper and Cameron enter his view from the side. Walking straight at the front gate, which began to open obligingly.
 

“They’re dead anyway,” Nathan said.
 

CHAPTER 25

Terrence walked past the library before pausing then took a few steps back. He’d only seen who was inside from the corner of his eye, but it had been enough; the Titans were flashes of white inside their cloaks, and Meyer practically radiated a presence of his own.
 

Terrence peeked. His angle showed him Meyer but not the Titans. He stopped for a second, wondering if he should try to catch the viceroy’s eye. He finally decided to risk it, walking closer, waving a hand.
 

Meyer looked up. Their eyes met, and again some unspoken message passed between them. The same sort of unspoken message that Meyer had seemed to give Terrence earlier, up in the network center. A look that said,
We should talk
.
 

Terrence moved out of view, preparing a plausible excuse. He’d just been walking by. Raj had released him for a break, even suggested he head down to his office without guards to get sustenance for the long night ahead. If the Titans emerged first, he could keep walking. If they came out together, he had good reasons for having loitered before moving on. Maybe to pay his well-wishes to Meyer after his near-miss.
 

But the viceroy emerged alone. He snatched Terrence by the sleeve and dragged him forward. His eyes searched the hall, but the mansion, in the chaos, was busy.
 

“Raj’s office,” Terrence said.
 

They crossed the hall. Went down one corridor then entered the second room on the right. Meyer closed the door. He looked at Terrence, whom he’d practically thrown into the room. Then he just stared, as if made of wood. As if he was confused despite having started this.
 

“Raj thought he killed you,” Terrence said.
 

“He didn’t.”
 

“Do they know?”
 

Meyer looked around the room, possibly for someone else. “Who?”
 

“The Astrals.”
 

“Do they know what?”
 

“That you helped us. That you tried to get away.”
 

“I don’t know,” Meyer said, a strange look on his face. “Probably. Yes.”
 

Terrence didn’t know what to make of the answer. Upstairs, when Raj had been being his asshole self, gloating while Heather and Terrence were trussed and Lila grew angry, Meyer had what Terrence thought was a spontaneous change of heart. There should be more here. More information beyond a pat yes or no. Perhaps the seeds of a plan. An explanation of what had happened when he’d been picked up, for sure.
 

But Meyer simply stood there.

“I think I was confused,” he said.
 

“Confused about what?”
 

“Why did I shoot Raj? Why did I go with Heather?” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “It must have been a mistake. Do you know?”
 

“What are you talking about?”
 

“I hate Raj. I’ve always hated that kid. Heather does, too.”
 

“Yes, but — ”

“Have you made any progress on the network issue?”
 

“The network? You grabbed me.”
 

“I talked to Heather earlier. It made sense when I did. Did she tell you about it?”
 

“You mean earlier? Before you shot Raj?”
 

“No. Just recently. She didn’t believe me.”
 

Terrence felt like the room was spinning. “What … what didn’t she believe you about? Did you find a way to get her and the others out of here?”
 

“Cameron Bannister and Piper are on their way back,” Meyer said. It came out fast, practically blurted.
 

“Okay. So how do we get to them?”
 

“You’re a prisoner. You have to fix the problem.”
 

This was exasperating. He’d understood when Meyer threw him to the wolves, sending him with the Titans and Reptars up to the mothership before being called back. When they’d been caught by Raj and stood before Mo Weir, the choices were for them all to be caught or for Terrence to take the bullet. It was a choice between bad and worse, so Terrence went willingly. But now there was no threat. The house guards — both human and Astral — were again deferring to the viceroy’s authority. If he’d been suspected, he was now in the clear. So why should Terrence fall back on the blade?

“Lila, Clara, and Heather are where they belong.”
 

“You said you were going to send them out with Cameron and Piper.”
 

“No.”
 

“Why not?”
 

Meyer blinked. He looked lost — the exact opposite of Meyer Dempsey’s usual look. “They’re going to be caught. They were double-crossed. They have something the Astrals want, and now something the aliens want to know.”
 

Terrence bolted up. “We have to help them!”
 

“They’re enemies of the state.”
 

“Piper is your wife!”
 

Meyer blinked. “Get back to work, Terrence.”

“You pulled me in here!”
 

“You waved.”
 

“Goddammit, Meyer!” Terrence wanted to grab the viceroy and shake him. “You helped before. What happened? Did they scare you? Turn you chickenshit, only thinking about your own neck?”
 

“I … I made some kind of a mistake.”
 

“When!”
It wasn’t a question. It came out of Terrence as an exasperated shout. Meyer seemed to be attempting to explain his actions to himself, and the results weren’t gelling.
 

“Maybe with Heather. Something I said. But Piper … ” Again, he pinched his nose, looking for all the world like he might collapse in the grip of a migraine.

“The guards carry walkies,” Terrence said, realizing he’d need to take charge if anything was to happen. “They’re short-range radio and won’t be affected by Canned Heat. Call them. Tell them to let Piper and Cameron through. We can get down there. You can give them a pass. Let them into the house here, anything. The humans aren’t a problem. Keep them from the Astrals. That’s all.”