Desert Assassin (5 page)

“I can’t begin to argue that.”

“From what I’ve seen of Thing, I’ve become convinced it possesses intelligence. If so, I don’t think it is too much of a leap to suggest that what has become Thing was placed inside of the meteoroid by some form of intelligence. And if that is the case, I doubt whoever or whatever placed it in there limited itself to placement in just one meteoroid. This would seem to mesh with your comment about not knowing about the rest of the solar system.”

“There is no way of knowing, but right now I can’t fault your logic. One question that comes to mind is when such a placement was made – billions, millions, thousands, hundreds of years ago, or even more recently?”

“Son-of-a-bitch,” said the General.

The General, Williams and Ling went to see Thing just after dawn the morning following the meeting. Rappaport opted to work in the comm van. Thing, as expected, hadn’t moved or changed from its dome shape. Ling stayed behind to study both Thing and the meteorite, while the General and Williams returned to what was now an operation’s complex.

At Ling’s disposal was a Humvee. The lieutenant who arrived with the convoy was put in charge of supervising guard duty. Watching Thing at all times on a rotating basis was one of the four sergeants who had accompanied the General and Rappaport on the helicopter. Each was assisted by one of the soldiers who came with the convoy. When not in use, one of the four Humvees was parked one hundred feet from the meteorite.

Williams was in the house with the General when he heard the sound of an incoming helicopter. The General smiled and said, “Bill, you had better come with me to greet the chopper.”

As the two approached the helicopter, out stepped the first of two MPs. Then came Dr. Alice Fay Henderson, dressed in uniform as a second lieutenant. Williams stood speechless.

The romance between Henderson and Williams ended by mutual agreement. With little in common other than an intense physical attraction, the relationship was destined from the beginning to ultimately dissolve. Following the break-up, Henderson immersed herself in her work, while Williams moved on to Africa. They hadn’t seen or spoken to each other since parting ways in Florida.

As soon as Henderson spotted Williams, she exploded. “What the hell do you think you are doing? This is kidnapping and false imprisonment.”

Before she could continue, the General interceded, “Lieutenant Henderson, I am responsible for your being here and for your commission. Give us sixty minutes. If you then choose not to stay, you will be decommissioned, returned to your home and will receive financial compensation for the inconvenience.”

Williams said, “Alice, please come with us.”

Three minutes later, she was seated with a glass of Pinot Grigio as the video began. Standing on either side of her were the General and Williams. Both remained standing for the duration of the video.

Upon conclusion, the General said, “This is why you are here. We consider this to be a matter of national security and your country is asking for your assistance. Will you help?”

“I’m not sure how I can be of help.”

Not lost on the twice-divorced General was the fact that he was looking at a most attractive female. “Unless we are in a formal situation, please call me Tom. We have a trailer which will be used as a lab and you will be working with Major Stanley Ling.”

“Stanley Ling is here?”

“Yes,” confirmed the General. “I have already arranged for you to be granted a leave of absence from your present position. I will also see that any personal matters you need tended to will be taken care of. May I count on your assistance?”

Williams laughed to himself. He had instantly picked up on the General’s switch from saying “we” to saying “I.” It didn’t surprise him in the least in light of the General’s reputation with respect to women. “I hope the old lecher doesn’t have a heart attack,” thought Williams.

Even if the General hadn’t turned on the charm, Henderson was going to stay. The video proved to be a great persuader.

Ling returned from the field and was in the van when the General escorted Henderson to meet him. After making the introductions, the General said, “I’ll leave you two scientists to your work.”

As the General was about to leave the van, he turned to face Henderson. “Dr. Henderson, again, thank you for your kind cooperation. Whenever you need anything, please let me know. One more thing, as soon as it is convenient, please give Colonel Rappaport a list of the equipment you and Major Ling will need for the lab.”

With the closing of the van door after the General left, Ling asked, “May I call you Alice?”

“Of course.”

“Alice, let’s go and take a look at the meteorite and Thing.”

On the way out to the field, Ling mused about his luck, “First Thing and now this.” He had never seen anyone this good looking wearing a uniform.

At 5 feet 5 inches, she was three inches shorter than Ling. “Thank goodness I’m taller than she is,” he said to himself. Her wavy hair was dark brown and shoulder length. It seemed a perfect complement to her Florida tan skin and big brown eyes. Her weight seemed perfect for her height. Most of all, what captivated Ling was her smile which revealed perfectly formed, pearl white teeth surrounded by full lips. He was, of course, unaware of her past relationship with Williams.

Ling detailed to Henderson what he knew about the meteorite. He also shared his speculations and those of Williams as they looked at it.

She was surprised to hear of her ex-lover’s theory. During her Florida days with him, he rarely seemed to be interested in anything other than sex and golf. “Are you planning to bring it back to the lab?” she asked.

“Eventually, but before I do I want to make certain that Thing has no remaining connection to it.”

They walked over to as close as was permitted to the still dormant Thing.

“I would love to get a sample from it,” said Henderson. “I realize there is no possible way as of yet. However, has it excreted anything?”

“Incredibly, it doesn’t appear to have done so. It seems to be somehow incorporating into its body all that it has ingested, if ingested is the right word for what it has done to the vegetation and the assassin bug. However, if it has excreted any liquid, absorption by the sand would make it difficult to detect.”

“I wonder,” said Henderson, “if Thing will adopt the assassin bug’s need for blood, or perhaps a thirst for it.”

Ling, who normally remained undaunted in the most threatening of situations, felt a slight shiver run down his spine.

Another meeting was called for the evening. This one included Lieutenant Henderson, whose commission could only have been effected by someone with the command authority and connections of the General. With no movement by Thing, there was nothing much new to discuss other than Rappaport expecting a contingent of Army Corps of Engineers to arrive somewhere around eleven the next morning.

Following the end of the meeting, the General, Rappaport and Ling left. Henderson remained behind. Williams refilled the glass of wine she had been sipping, poured a glass of Merlot for himself and invited her to join him on the porch.

“Three years, Bill, not a phone call, not even a postcard.”

“I’m sorry. I really am, but I didn’t want to screw up your life any more than I already had.” He then gave her a brief description of his two years in the Sudan and Uganda and how he came to be living in New Mexico.

“I can’t imagine you living away from trouble.”

“I felt it was time, and it worked for a year.” He laughed briefly.

“Did you think about destroying whatever that thing is when you found it?”

“I did. I just hope I haven’t made the wrong decision by not doing it.”

“You made the right one.”

He paused and finally asked, “Have you been seeing anyone?”

“Just a casual date now and then. You know me and my work. Not much time for anything else. You?”

“Not since Africa.”

“That is hard to believe.”

The two of them had always been honest with one another during their brief time together. That made it relatively easy for Williams to respond. “I had short relationships with two women while I was there, but the genocide, the slaughter of woman and children on a scale beyond anything I had ever experienced eventually overwhelmed me. There was no way to stop it. It came from all sides. When I made it back to the States, I needed to get away from people as much as possible.”

He went on to describe his typical nights in the desert and laughed when he mentioned that his visits to Killer Two’s Diner were his weekly highlights.

The conversation switched to how he had discovered Thing. When he finished, she said, “I knew that awful music you listen to would get you in trouble sooner or later.”

She stood and indicated she was exhausted and needed to get some sleep.

“Where are you sleeping?”

“The General offered his trailer saying the two of them would use tents for the night. I told him that I would be fine with a tent. He’s actually posting a guard on it tonight and said he will have living quarters for me brought in tomorrow. He’s really a sweet man.”

Williams had all he could do not to comment on the last sentence. Instead, he offered to take the tent and have her use the house.

“No, Bill, I’m already set up in it, but I’d like to use your shower in the morning.”

They hugged briefly before she left. He realized that he hadn’t hugged a woman in a year; the last was Mary. It had been three weeks since he had called to check on her. He pulled out his cell phone and speed dialed her number.

C
HAPTER
F
IVE

T
HE
C
ORPS OF
E
NGINEERS ARRIVED SHORTLY
after ten the next morning. Rappaport greeted the lieutenant colonel in command. Twenty-six hours later, a seven-foot high steel fence with one inch openings was in place. The barrier included twelve gates and was topped with barbed wire. Thing remained motionless throughout the construction.

A small sleeper for Henderson was included with the delivery of the fencing. It was placed next to the other trailers. Among other amenities, it was stocked with wine courtesy of the General.

Ling opened the evening meeting by stating that provided there were no objections, he and Henderson planned to move the meteorite to the lab. They intended to do so if and when Thing began moving again, but only if it continued to move away from the meteorite. The General told him it was their call.

“Be careful with my retirement fortune,” laughed Williams. Changing the subject, he said, “I expect Thing to flatten either tomorrow or the next day and be on the move again. Size wise, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it stretch out close to two feet.”

The room was silent for a few moments until the newly commissioned 2nd Lieutenant spoke. “Don’t be surprised if it becomes an active predator. We should be prepared for almost anything if it does to an animal, even one as small as a desert pocket mouse, what it did to the assassin bug. This is speculation, but I suspect it might be genetically encoded to be a predator.”

“Does it possess intelligence or is it operating on instinct?” asked Rappaport.

“At this point,” replied Henderson, “probably mostly instinct. This is pure conjecture right now, but I suspect that in addition to the intelligence that it will most likely develop as it matures, it may be capable of acquiring intelligence.”

Rappaport looked startled. “How?”

“The same way it acquired the antennae. Assuming Bill is correct about Thing being nearly ready to move again, we may gain an inkling about its ability, or lack thereof, to acquire or add intelligence by changes in its behavior. If it begins to exhibit some of the assassin bug’s predatory traits, that will be an important indicator. There is often a fine line between instinct and intelligence.”

The General stood up from his chair, surveyed the group and said, “This is an order. If at any time it threatens the life of any soldier or civilian, I want it killed immediately.”

That signaled the end of meeting. Rappaport, Ling and Henderson left; the General stayed. “Any place around here where we can get a decent steak?”

Williams looked at his watch. “It’s Friday night. Diner down the road is open until ten. We have two and a half hours.”

“Any beer?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s change and take your SUV.”

They were off eight minutes later.

“Killer Two’s? What a helluva name for a diner.”

“Wait until we get inside.”

As they stepped through the door, the General took two steps and said, “Look at this!” He immediately began examining all the memorabilia. “Killer Kowalski, damn!”

He took a look at the television. “Yukon Eric against Kowalski. Unbelievable! That was great wrestling, not like today’s nonsense.”

Williams laughed to himself. “He sounds like he’s a teenager.”

With only a handful of customers in the diner, Killer Two overheard the General and raced out of the kitchen. “Bill, who’s this?”

“An old Army buddy of mine, Tom.”

Killer Two shook hands with the General. “If you’re a friend of Bill, you’re a friend of mine.”

The General pointed to the picture of Killer Two in the ring with Kowalski. “Did you get him?”

Speaking as if were talking about God, Killer Two said, “He was fifty-eight back then and could have broken me in two if he wanted.”

Williams again laughed to himself knowing that the General was fifty-eight.

“Just coming into his prime, just coming into his prime,” replied the General. “Tell me, did the claw hold really work?”

Killer Two looked in both directions and lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “It did, but in the ring it was mostly for show as the Killer didn’t want to permanently paralyze anyone. He was really a good guy and smart as they come. He knew everything about everything. You name it, he knew it.”

“So I’ve heard,” said the General.

They continued to talk for another five minutes as Williams reflected on the General’s ability to talk with almost anyone on any level. It was a gift.

Killer Two finally stopped and said, “Geez, I’m sorry. Sit down. What can I get you?”

“Two beers, your best two beers, and the two biggest steaks you’ve got. Bill is paying.”

Williams could only laugh to himself. “The cheap bastard is sticking me with the tab again.”

“Let me get right on it.”

The waitress brought out two bottles of Chicken Killer Barley Wine Ale.

“Look at this, Bill!”

“Careful, this stuff carries a kick.”

That was all the General needed to hear. He proceeded to down half the bottle in one gulp. His eyes opened wide. “Damn, you’re right.”

As he always did with any woman he was meeting for the first time, the General took a quick look at the left hand of the waitress. No ring. She was in her mid-thirties, slightly overweight and to call her plain would have been a compliment. It didn’t matter to the General. She was a woman.

A best two out of three falls match between Kowalski and Buddy Rogers held in 1963 at the Chicago Coliseum flashed onto the screen. Both men claimed the world’s heavyweight championship. It was the first meeting of the two since Kowalski reportedly broke Rogers’ left ankle a year or so earlier in a match in Montreal. It took Kowalski a little over four minutes to pin Rogers in a one-sided first fall. A match with Kowalski fighting a different opponent came up next.

“Where’s the second fall?” asked the General.

“Whatever you do, don’t ask Killer Two that.”

“Why not?”

“When I first saw this fight here in the restaurant, I asked myself the same question. Figuring there had to be a good reason, I looked up the match on
YouTube.
It turns out that Rogers won the second and third falls. I’m guessing his nephew decided it would upset Killer Two to include them in the DVD.”

“Unbelievable,” laughed the General.

Just before they left at nine-thirty, the General was talking to the waitress off to the side of the restaurant. When they returned to the complex, Williams asked the General if he wanted the key to the SUV.

“Not this time, Bill, not this time. We have a problem to take care of.”

Ling and Henderson were observing Thing when, at two in the afternoon, it began to flatten. The General, Rappaport and Williams arrived seventeen minutes later.

“Look at the size of it,” said the General.

Thing was now close to the shape of a football, which had been horizontally cut in half. It was approximately twenty-three inches in length, ten inches in width at its center and nine inches thick at its greatest height. The antennae were noticeably larger than what they had been prior to the attack on the bush. At least on the surface, it appeared that Thing had not incorporated into itself any other of the assassin bug’s exterior features.

“I’m somewhat surprised,” said Williams, “that it doesn’t show any sign of a beak.”

“Why?” asked the General.

“That’s how the assassin bug injects its poison into its victims.”

Henderson focused her field glasses on Thing which was twenty-five feet away with its antennae pointing toward the five observers. She remained motionless for two or three minutes. When she pulled the glasses away from her eyes, she passed them on to Williams. “Look between and below the antennae.”

Rappaport and Ling also had field glasses trained on Thing.

“That looks like a retractable beak,” said Williams while forcing himself to try to speak matter-of-factly.

“An alien assassin,” said Rappaport.

With those three words, the alien’s name changed from Thing to Assassin.

The General directed the group to pull slowly back. Eighty feet away from what was now to be called Assassin, the General stopped. The other four followed suit. Several feet away was the eastern section of the fence. Williams knew what was coming next. He had seen it dozens of times over the years. The General was taking full command of the situation. There would be no questioning his orders.

“No one gets any closer to it than this until further notice. We can view it day and night on the screens in the van as if it were a few feet away. One of you will be on duty watching it non-stop from the trailer. I want it to run free within the fencing. We are going to find out what this sucker can do. If it gets out of control, we’ll kill it.”

He turned to Henderson. “Lieutenant, does it have the capability to reproduce?”

The question caught Henderson, as it did everyone else, by surprise. It also introduced a new dimension to the situation.

“General, there is no way of knowing, but it is a possibility. Perhaps asexually.”

“How about with life here on Earth?”

“Extremely unlikely, but impossible to know with absolute certainty without being able to examine it in a laboratory. Again, the most likely method would be asexually. Asexual reproduction is the primary means of reproduction for single-celled organisms such as protists and bacteria. It’s rare in multi-cellular animals, but it does occur. Sea anemones, for example, can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Moreover, they are predators who carry a mixture of toxins.”

It was decided that the watch periods in the van would be approximately six hours in duration. Rappaport took the first watch. All but Williams left to go back to the complex following the watch duty agreement. He informed the two soldiers on duty of the changes and spent an hour talking with them while all three observed Assassin. The conversation came to an end when Assassin began to move due west toward the fence which was about four hundred feet away. “Here we go,” said Williams as he readied his field glasses.

Assassin traveled two feet in about ten minutes, stopped and methodically began to swivel slowly, seemingly effortlessly. It made one full turn and stopped a quarter turn later. Five minutes passed with no movement.

“It’s mimicking the assassin bug,” thought Williams. Back at the van, Rappaport reached the same conclusion. Both realized that Assassin, in addition to being able to adopt physical attributes of its prey, could apparently copy its hunting characteristics. It was now unquestionably part assassin bug.

Shortly before 9:00PM, Williams entered the van. Assassin remained in wait the entire time. No animal or insect life approached it. The colonel and the major discussed for several minutes the conclusion they had reached separately.

“I need some sleep,” said Rappaport. “The coffee is fresh. There’s plenty of food in the refrigerator.”

The General walked in at ten-thirty. “I talked with Jim earlier. He said the two of you believe Assassin is waiting for something to come near it.”

“I’m fairly certain that’s the case.”

“So it seems. Anything so far?”

“Nothing.”

“Bill, forget the bugs, what is there in the way of animal life in there?”

“The only big ones that come around here are the coyotes. If there were any inside the fencing, we would have spotted them. All the rest stay up in the hills – bears, mountain lions, wolves, bighorn sheep, mule deer, antelopes and most of the coyotes. One or two of these might be in the cage: pocket mice, desert jackrabbits, ground squirrels, kangaroo rats and possibly prairie dogs, but they would be few and far between, if any. Maybe some rattlers, sidewinders and a few other snakes. There are lizards, geckos, whiptails and hundreds of species of birds out in the desert, including elf owls and roadrunners. Plenty of bats. Right now, I think it will be easier for Assassin to nail insects and spiders. Wonder what it would take from a scorpion or black widow?”

The conversation continued for the next fifty minutes with Williams keeping a steady eye on the monitor. Suddenly, he stopped the General in mid-sentence and said, “Look,” as he pointed to the screen.

“What is it?” asked the General.

“Tough to tell in infrared, but by its movement, I’m guessing a small spider of some kind.”

The intruder made it to within an inch of Assassin’s right mid-section. In no more than a second, Assassin arched the central part of its body some three inches off the ground, slid to the right and came down on its newest victim.

Ling arrived ten minutes before three. Assassin was back in its flat shape, but showed a slight swelling on the top of its mid-section. It appeared that Assassin no longer had to roll into a sphere when capturing prey as it did with the assassin bug.

Williams described what happened and then ran a playback on a separate monitor.

“Something else out of its playbook,” said the astrophysicist. “I wonder if we will see it spinning webs in the near future?”

“Nothing it does will surprise me.” Time would prove Williams wrong.