Aliens Are Real: Part 2 (19 page)

S
he
looked up into his eyes.
Her
logical mind tried to process
it all
.
She
couldn’t grasp his meaning
.

Sweet oblivion took
her
as
she
felt
her
body lifted.
Her
ribs fell silent.
Her
left arm quieted its protest.
Her
eyes and ears shut off like a radio.

She
slept.

Honorio lifted Jasmine’s limp body
.
“Joseph
, you and Tyrone get the target.
”

Tyrone hesitated.
“But
, aren’t you coming?”

Honorio ran to the exit. He knew their window was closing fast.
He could hear Joseph and Tyrone running behind him.

No
.
Honorio
communicated his plan.
I will take Jasmine to the car.

We need you
, Tyrone insisted.

You don’t need me.
Do everything Joseph says and does.

Just great
,
we are going to be captured and
...
Malika’s voice cut out of their thoughts.

Thank you,
Honorio thought to Yumi.

Her part is done,
Yumi simply replied.

Honorio
looked into Tyrone’s eyes
.
“You can do this.”

Honorio glanced at Joseph
,
and nodded then turned
to run
to the safe zone.

***

Joseph watched Honorio run into the darkness with the crazy human in his arms. His dramatic increase in speed when near her fascinated him.
He yearned to test it further
,
but instead turned to Tyrone
.
Follow me.
Stay close
.

Joseph turned
,
and
bolted
.
Running felt good after the tension of rescuing Jasmine.
His mind cleared as he pumped his legs quickly, but not
so
fast that he out
paced Tyrone by too great a distance.
Joseph ducked behind a building to make sure Tyrone followed suit. His teammate’s eyes were wide open, his panic showing.
Even though he looked like he was about to wet himself, Tyrone copied Joseph’s movements exactly.

Joseph checked to make sure no one was coming then darted to another building, staying in the shadows as much as possible. He led the way to the building
Jasmine’s dad
had
called temporary
-t
he building that
had
set off his watch’s alarm and where guards
had dra
w
n
their guns on him.

Joseph peered around a corner at the large structure that housed his target. Only one guard remained outside the building. He didn’t move from his post at the door. Joseph heard a lot of commotion across the base where they
had blo
w
n up
the empty building.
Well, the almost empty building.
What
had
Jasmine
been
doing there?

Joseph
concentrated
on the building ahead of him.
He
ran a few buildings away from the target
,
and cut around behind, looking for a way in.
On the side, he spotted a second entry.
He not
iced a keypad
.

He gestured to Tyrone to look.
Tyrone studied the
area
for a moment before sliding his backpack off his
shoulders
to rummage
though
it.
He pulled out a device
,
and nodded to Joseph.

Joseph scanned the area again for movement.
After feeling confident that no one was coming, he ran to the door with Tyrone behind him.

They arrived at the door
,
and Tyron
e
held his device up to the keypad.
He pressed a button
,
and the machine clamped onto the pad. After a few seconds of soft clicking and whirring, a small light by the door turned green.
Joseph grabbed the handle, slowly opened the door
that
led
to a dark, empty hallway.
They
slipped in
,
and shut the door quietly behind them.

Alarm bells rang in Joseph’s head.
There should be a back
up generator in the building if it held a commodity as valuable and rare as their target.
Why weren’t the lights on?
Where was everyone?

After looking both ways, Joseph nodded h
is head toward
the left.
Both boys c
rouched down and hurried toward
the end of the hall.
Joseph’s watch flashed in
the
dark hall, its pulse accelerating as they neared their destination.

The hall ended with a door in front of them and a turn to the right.
After looking down the hall for movemen
t, Joseph held his watch toward
the door.
He then moved
his arm down the hallway toward
the right.
The pulse quickened.

Joseph and Tyrone made eye-contact
before
both turned the corner
and
cre
pt
down the hall.
The end of the second hall
had
heavy plastic
draped
from the
ceiling
to the
floor, blocking the view further into the building
.

They slowly approached the plastic sheets, listening for sounds
,
and straining their eyes to catch a hint of movement.
Once there, Joseph
li
ft
ed the
edge of the barrier
,
and pulled it back enough to peer into the next room.
He saw a light bobbing in an apparently immense room.
He hear
d the voice of Jasmine’s father, Col. John Smith.

He was
shouting orders.
“
I understand that
a
building
has been
destroyed
,
but I need men here
,
now
,
to get this
generator working.
”

Joseph silently thanked all that was kinetic
for the failure of the back
up generator.
He
pulled his head back
,
and motioned for Tyrone to follow him.
With
out making sure he did, Joseph slipped through the plastic on his hands and knees
,
and put something
large between himself and the c
olonel.

Colonel Smith was yelling into his phone.
“I
know it’s Thanksgiving weekend
...
I don’t care!
Get more men on base
, stat!
Rescind all leave ...
Just do it, you
moron.
C
an’t you tell
this is an emergency
?
!
We’ve been attacked!
Criminy, now
I know how Admiral Kimmel felt
at
Pearl Harbor
and this isn’t even my base
!
” Joseph looked at his watch as he swung it in front of himself.
The flashing quicke
ned when he held his arm toward
the end of the building
.
Jasmine’s dad
continued to
yell at some
incompetent
soldier on the phone.

Tyrone, we have to head towards Jasmine’s dad.
He i
s distracted
,
but keep quiet.
We do no
t want him to know we were here
.

Ok, I will do my best, but I canno
t see
.

Feel with your hands.
Stay on your knees.
Watch
out for the light the colonel i
s holding.
Try to k
eep something between you and him
at all times
.

Alright
.

Joseph worried about Tyrone.

He could hear his partner
breathing loudly
,
the
tremble in his thoughts.
Relax.
We wil
l be in and out
quickly
.
I a
m moving now.
Try to keep up.
Keep the light from my watch in sight at all times.

Got it.

Joseph crawled forward.
As he did, he lifted his hand regularly to make sure he didn’t crash into furniture.
As he crawled, he got the feeling that he
was strolling
along a bank of desks
by the feel of
the solid surfaces to his right and nothing in front of him.
Are you d
oing alright back there?

Yes
.
I have your watch in sight.
Tyrone confirmed.

I do no
t know how humans do black op
s
.
Without telepathy I’m sure they make all sorts of noises.
If we wanted to enslave the
m, I’m sure it would be easy.

Let’s get home first, then we c
an talk about taking over Earth.
Tyrone snapped.

Joseph had to smother a chuckle. Tyrone was so uptight!
Joseph rejoiced in the adrenalin
e
rush in his human body.
He luxuriated in the hands that gripped and feet that
could
push off various surfaces,
although he could see how legs would be somewhat useless in space without artificial gravity.
His midnight free-
running through parts of
Omaha
had
felt like soaring along a brick skyline.
He wanted to go home
,
but he knew he would miss his human form.
He secretly planned on taking as many compatible samples with him when they left.
He would hide them
,
and don this form in secret on his planet when he needed to escape.

Only if they could escape the current planet first.

That thought brought him back to the task at hand.
He watched the flashing on his watch
,
and realized they were close to their target.
Unfortunatel
y, they were also close to the c
olonel.

The c
olonel had stopped talking on the telephone
. He
paced the floor,
his light sweeping uncomfortably
close to where Joseph watched
from
behind a fil
e
cabinet.
In flashes of light, Joseph spotted a table in the middle of the floor holding several items.

He recognized scraps of shr
apnel from his people’s ships and
a few mechanisms he didn’t recognize.
Tyrone, switch places with me and look into the middle of the room.
Do you see what you need?

They switched places
, and on the colonel’s path back toward
the front entrance, Tyrone peered from behind the desk.

He scanned the table of items.
I see
a lot of electronics.
I wish I had many
of the
se.
Human circuit boards do not cut it for many of my projects. Oh, a proper modulator,
how I would love to
...
ah
, there it is.
I see it.

Good.
You wi
ll need to secure it.

How?
Colonel Smith
is right there.

Th
at is
why
I a
m
here
.
I wi
ll draw him away
,
and you grab what you need
.

Wait, is that safe?

Of course not.
See his gun? He could pull it
,
and fire.
This is totally dangerous. But that is what makes it
exhila
rating
.