Contact (39 page)

Lila pushed past him. She wanted to get away, without being seen. Her mother and Trevor really
could
come out any second, and Lila didn’t want her mother to know she was onto her. They’d acted casual when they’d realized they’d had the same visions but different ideas of what to do. Lila knew that they had to destroy whatever was below her father’s “spiritual place.” But Heather, who claimed to be in communication with Dad (in dreams; how crazy was that?), said that his order was to
protect
the Axis, not harm it.

Protect it like the
aliens
want to protect it?
Lila had said, keeping her voice calm, hiding her emotion.

Protect it like your
father
wants it protected
, her mother corrected.
 

“Where are you going?” Christopher whisper-demanded, following Lila, at least catching on and keeping his voice low.
 

“To my room!”
 

“
My
room is over there.”
 

Lila rolled her eyes, knowing he wouldn’t see.
 

Christopher suddenly caught her arm, turned Lila around, and kissed her. It would have been a sweet kiss if it had come at an appropriate time, if she weren’t scared shitless, and if his affections hadn’t evoked both “lustfully desired” and “desperately unwanted” in Lila for a while now.
 

She pushed him away. He looked wounded.
 

“What?”
 

“You asshole. Are you really this dense?” Again, Lila pointed toward the closed generator room door. “Do you know what they’re doing in there? They’re conspiring. Planning against us. It was bad enough when it was just her. Just my mom. But now she has
Trevor
, too!”
 

“I can talk to Trevor.” Christopher shrugged.

She paused. That was true. Trevor and Christopher were tight. It was usually infuriating because that gave Lila one less person (her brother) to confide in. But it could be an asset.

“That’s a good idea.”

Lila dragged Christopher into her room and closed the door most of the way — just ajar enough to peek through. If she saw them coming, she could still rush Christopher through the bathroom. He’d need to sneak by Terrence to get through to the living room, but that was better than being caught.
 

Christopher looked excited. She’d have to walk a fine line. If he came at her, Lila doubted she’d be able to resist — for about a dozen reasons, tinged with a dozen emotions.
 

“Talk to Trevor. Tell him that whatever my mom told him, it’s wrong.”
 

“What did he tell her?”
 

Lila waved it away. Time was limited, and that was another day’s discussion. “Tell him that you agree with me.”
 

“About what?”
 

“Chris,” she said. “Have you seen anything around here? Heard anything?”
 

“Like what?”
 

“Have you had dreams?”
 

He reached for her. “
Dirty
dreams.”
 

“Not like that. Dreams of a … a pit. Something below us.” Lila inhaled, held it, exhaled. Christopher followed her like a puppy when he thought she might be willing to pay him attention then grew frosty and even slightly frightening when she turned a cold shoulder. If she could keep things friendly, he’d at least listen to anything.
 

“Dreams that there’s something here,” she continued carefully, now taking Christopher’s hands, “that the aliens want to keep safe.” Lila sighed again, steeling her courage to convey the latest impression she’d been funneled from whatever psychic well was out there to be sampled by the life inside her. “Something that they left behind the last time they were here. Something I think they need to plug into, as the next phase of their plan.”
 

“The
aliens?
”
 

“Yes, Chris.” Rolling her thumbs softly over the backs of his strong hands.
 

“How could you possibly know their plans?”
 

“I just do.”
 

He watched her for a long moment. Lila kept her eyes on his, feigning vague affection, hoping with all her heart that her mother and brother wouldn’t choose this time to emerge, to approach the bedroom and break this vital moment.
 

“Okay,” he said. “I trust you.”
 

“Do you think if we talked to Terrence, and carefully explained things, with you being your charming and convincing best, that he might be willing to help us?”
 

“I guess that depends on what we’re trying to convince him to help us do.”
 

Us
. He’d said
us
and
we
. Lila exhaled a little; the ball was halfway there.

“But we’ll try.”
 

“Of course. Whatever you think is best.” Christopher’s hand went to her belly and rubbed it softly through her shirt. Lila leapt at his touch and felt the baby leap. “Whatever’s best for
us.
”
 

“Good.”
 

“What do we need to do?”
 

Lila told him.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

“Cameron.”
 

Cameron took his time looking up. It had been late when he’d spoken with Benjamin and Charlie the first time, and was later now. He hadn’t cared for Charlie’s declaration about humanity’s record with extraterrestrials according to historical evidence, so he’d spent an hour after the conversation browsing the lab’s records, spooling out one theory after another. It was just as crazy as he remembered it being as a kid, with plenty of fresh insanity added to the databanks since.
 

The evidence made him feel worse. They’d been here before, all right. They’d left people behind as prophets maybe. They’d
certainly
left trinkets — power cells at the bottom of money pits like the one at Moab and bigger, more dangerous trinkets in other money pits elsewhere, like maybe at Vail. Nobody knew exactly what had happened thousands and thousands of years ago, of course. But the ships were above now, and ashes were there in the historical record. It would be hard to sleep tonight, even with Piper by his side.
 

He finally heeded the voice and looked up, expecting to see his father. But the strangely quiet summons had come from Charlie instead.
 

“I thought you were Benjamin.”
 

“I’m Charlie.”

He gestured at a chair. “Have a seat.”
 

Charlie sat, looking uncomfortable as usual.
 

“What’s up?”
 

“Piper.”
 

Cameron felt a moment of alarm. But nothing could be wrong; Benjamin, Charlie, and Cameron had been the only three people in the lab since dusk, and maybe just he and Charlie were here now. Charlie had been working on his enzyme reactions on the platform, not out checking on possible problems with Piper. If bad news had come over the short-range radio, Cameron would have heard it.
 

“What about her?”
 

Charlie said, “You came in to tell me something earlier, but your father got distracted. You know how he is.”
 

Cameron laughed quietly. That had been Charlie’s version of a joke. Benjamin Bannister had been born with diarrhea mouth. It was what got him into so many places he should’ve been barred from, but it also meant he seldom reached any point without following numerous rabbit trails first.
 

“Yeah. I do.”
 

“That’s why he asked if Piper was here when we came in.”
 

Cameron waited, but apparently, a response was required before Charlie would move to the next thing. Like interfacing with a robot.

“Okay.”
 

“But I don’t think he wanted to tell you anyway. Which is maybe why he didn’t.”
 

“Sure.”
 

“But you need to know.”
 

“Okay. Thanks. What?” Cameron didn’t care for this preamble. It was giving him time to grow nervous.
 

“Piper loves Meyer.”
 

“Of … of course she does.”
 

“So when her psychic connection strengthens, she’ll want to hear what he says.”
 

“Sure. That makes sense.”
 

“But that means you can’t trust her, Cameron.”
 

Cameron blinked. “Why not?”
 

“You saw the network of magnetized stones. You can see it’s basically complete. The aliens aren’t like us. They don’t want to just barge in because they know how humans are. They can’t make contact with us until they know what cards we’re holding.”
 

“You mean until they know what we’re thinking.”

Charlie nodded. “It’s a lot easier to play poker when you know what you’re facing. Their ships are impervious, and they’re in no hurry. Nowhere in the records can we see what looks like a rush. We see planning, plotting, logical thought. They come, they stake their positions, they lay their monoliths. This, with the rows, is the most developed monolithic configuration we’ve ever seen. In the past, they made a few points to gather what they needed to know, but humanity was simpler then. They could descend from the sky in their chariots and be seen as gods. We’re not as naive now. We know what we’re facing. We don’t think fire is magic. They know we can fight, and they know our nature demands that we will, no matter how they might try to begin discourse. So they can’t just open the window and shout hellos. They have to put their hands around our throats first then demand our attention.”
 

Cameron nodded. This was the most he’d ever heard Charlie speak. Charlie was brilliant but socially retarded. It was almost hypnotic to hear him in his true element.
 

“To me, these networks seem finished. The complexity is daunting. It means they’re serious this time. They intend to act more seriously than they have in the past, and to speak to us — such as they speak, which may well be telepathic — in harsher words. But now that the network is complete, I would assume there is very little keeping this mothership overhead.” He glanced upward.
 

“Where will it go?”
 

“Vail.”
 

“Why Vail?”
 

“Because Vail is a brain. Like the other eight spots appear to be brains. If we understand the network at all, the brains will be where thoughts, as an average, presumably, are collected and visible to them. We can already tell something is changing. My spores are germinating. Your psychic phenomena are reawakening. And Piper can hear Meyer.”
 

“And that’s bad?”
 

“Your father and I are of like minds about many things, but we can only make guesses, and about some guesses we are divided. He has always been forgiving, believing that in spite of the aliens’ past, this time it will be different. This time, we will make meaningful contact and share information. But I feel different. And for that reason, I believe that contact must be disrupted.”
 

“Disrupted?”
 

“Piper seems to be forming a connection to Meyer. She will want to trust him, but he can’t be trusted. Under different circumstances, The Nine might have been seen as gods. I would guess that instead, they will be seen as the modern
version
of gods.”
 

“What’s the modern version of gods?”
 

“Celebrities,” Charlie said.
 

Cameron laughed hard at that, and the sound was too loud in the otherwise quiet lab. But Charlie’s face hadn’t changed or broken into a smile.
 

“You’re serious.”
 

Charlie nodded shortly. “They will need human corroborators. When those nine people return, which I believe they logically need to, they will be very popular with the media — the modern version of stone tablets brought down from high mountains, perhaps. But they won’t be the people they once were, all of whom were already known, trusted, and liked by the population. When they return, they will be alien mouthpieces. Piper will, as I said, want to believe him, support him, just have him back. Because although we all know she’s with you, she
loves
him.”
 

Cameron considered denying, but what was the point? Everyone
did
know. They were barely even trying to keep a secret, and even slept in the same home, away from the others.
 

“What’s this all about?” Cameron asked.
 

“You need to stay with her,” Charlie said. “Very, very close. You probably won’t be able to convince her of what I’m saying, but you can still be a counterbalance. Keep this in mind at all times, as you stick to her side like glue: for six months, humanity had cared only about finding the missing. But it is perhaps more appropriate to fear the found.”