Invasion (The Alien Wars #1) (9 page)

Derek’s face lit up. “Someone must be down there. That’s why the door’s locked.”

“We’ll soon see about that,” Xavier muttered. “Move away,” he said to
Logan
. Once the door was clear, he tried kicking it open. It didn’t budge, so he tried again. Same result.

“Maybe we need some firepower.” Kenneth aimed his weapon at the door. Once Xavier was clear, he fired. A line of bullets swept across the door, right where he hoped the lock was.

Logan
strode forward and kicked at the door. This time it opened. Leading the way, he shone the flashlight in front of him as he went down the stairs and into the basement.

Suddenly, a mocking voice whistled out, “Hold it right there!”

Logan
froze. In the glare of his flashlight, he could see the man who had shouted and saw that he was holding a sawed-off shotgun in his hands. “Don’t shoot!”

“Quiet!” the man snapped. “What do you mean by barging in here? Speak fast, or I’m liable to get trigger happy.”

“Joseph!” Derek rushed past
Logan
and stood in front of the man.

Joseph stared at Derek. “I never thought—”

“Derek!” a voice suddenly called out from the back of the basement and a slim girl of about fourteen with curly, blonde hair rushed forward and into the glare of the flashlight.

“Molly!” Derek hugged his sister. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

“Me neither,” Molly replied.

Derek paused and glanced up at Joseph. “You can put the gun away. These men are here to rescue us.”

Logan
held out his hand.
“
Logan
Pollack.”

The man shook it. “Good to see you. I’m Joseph Fallon. So, how many men have you brought with you?”

Logan
stood to one side as the others walked forward into the light. “This is my brother, Kenneth, and a friend, Xavier.”

“Hmm,” Joseph muttered. “Well, I guess that’s better than nothing.” He looked back into the dark basement. “We have twelve here, well, eleven now. Peter disappeared early this morning …” Joseph paused at the sound of a commotion at the top of the stairs.

Footsteps pounded down them and, a moment later, a young man with a crew cut came into view. A bullet had nicked his left ear and blood was dripping down. Puffing and panting, he collapsed into a nearby chair.

Joseph stared at the man. “Where the hell have you been, Peter?”

Despite the blood on his clothes and his untidy appearance, Peter smiled. “I wanted to teach those thugs a lesson.”

“What do you mean?” Joseph asked.

“I took those explosives we found the other day and planted them at the warehouse. You should have seen the crater it left.
Epic!”
Peter spun around as if noticing the others for the first time. “Just who are you again?”

“We’re here to rescue you,” Xavier said.

“Hell no.
We don’t need rescuing. I’m going to teach those bastards a lesson. You don’t get away with killing my wife and live to tell about it,” Peter said, a fierce determination in his voice.

“How many times have I told you not to take those explosives?” Joseph said, clearly exasperated. “You went against the decision—”

“The decision?”
Peter interrupted. “It was your decision not to use them.”

A young woman stepped forward. “Stop it, Peter. You know it was a group decision. We can’t have people doing stupid stunts that will endanger the lives of everyone here.”

“I don’t mean to interrupt,”
Logan
said, “but we’d better get going.”

Peter shook his head as he walked over to the wall and grabbed a backpack. “You can go if you want, but I’m staying here. Well, not actually here. I found an old warehouse south of here. I met some of the people that live there and they’re like me. If you don’t want to take out Sanchez, then I guess I’ll have to go with them.”

Joseph tried to talk Peter out of it, but within a few minutes, Peter had left the basement, taking his backpack and a shotgun.

Logan
turned to Joseph. “Who’s Sanchez?”

Joseph sighed. “Carlos Sanchez was the head honcho of a ruthless drug cartel, and now he’s the main gang leader in
San Francisco
.”

“Does he operate out by the airport?” Kenneth said.

“He controls the heart of the city,” Joseph replied. “He doesn’t normally go as far as the airport, though. Why? Did you encounter trouble there?”

Xavier nodded. “Yes, but we got away okay.” He glanced at his watch. “We should get going. We lost our pursuers back at the airport, but they might catch up with us.”

“I understand.” Joseph turned to the group of people behind him. “You heard what the man said. Grab your stuff and head upstairs.”

Everyone hurried up the stairs. Xavier walked quickly to the window and glanced out. He saw nothing. He relaxed, but then stiffened a moment later as two army Humvees roared up the road and stopped behind the parked Land Rover. “We’ve got company.”

The others hurried over. “What do you see?” Kenneth asked.

Xavier pointed to the two Humvees as the men climbed out of the vehicles and inspected the Land Rover. “They might be on a routine patrol, but if they’re—”

“Hey, they’re army Humvees,”
Logan
interrupted. “Maybe they’re part of the US Army.”

Xavier shook his head. “Of course I thought of that, but, if you recall, those Humvees we saw at the airport looked like army
Humvees,
and those men were not dressed in army uniforms.”

Logan
nodded. “Sanchez must have raided the nearby army base.”

“If he could get those Humvees, imagine what else he could have gotten,” Kenneth said.

“Get the others together,
Logan
,” Xavier said. “We’ll go as soon as the men leave.”

As
Logan
hurried back to Joseph, Kenneth turned to Xavier. “You do realize that we’ll need transportation if we’re going to get everyone to safety?”

Xavier ran a function check on his rifle for the hundredth time. “What’s your point?”

“So why don’t we kill two birds with one stone and get rid of those men?”

“Four trained men are more than a match for us,” Xavier replied. “Good, they’re leaving.” He watched in silence as the men climbed back into their Humvees.

Suddenly, the driver of the first Humvee stopped and bent down, peering at something on the ground. He called the others over to the spot.

“What are they doing?” Kenneth asked, worried.

“I’m not sure.” As the men stood up and looked toward the house, Xavier let the curtain fall back into place. A frown was etched on his face. “I wonder.”

“Wonder what?” Kenneth asked.

Xavier hurried to the back door. Pausing, he shined his flashlight at the ground. A dark red spot was splattered on the floor. “Damn!”

Kenneth bent down and touched the substance. “Hmm, it’s blood. I didn’t know anyone was wounded.” He thought for a moment. “Only that guy that came in before, Peter.”

Xavier went to the front door and looked at the floor. There was no visible blood. “He probably left a trail all the way from the warehouse to here. At least he went out the same way that he came in, but …” He went to the window and looked out.

One of the men appeared to be on his radio, while the others were searching the road.

“We’ll have five minutes at the most before they see the trail of blood that goes to the back door,” Xavier said. “We’ll have to tell
Logan
the news.”

“Tell me what?”
Logan
asked as he approached.

Xavier let the curtain fall back into place as he quickly explained.

Logan
sat down on a nearby seat. “If they think that whoever is responsible for the explosion is here, they’ll take no chances. We’ll have to get the hell out of here before more come.”

“If I could get some explosives, I could rig something together and disable their vehicles,” Xavier said.

Logan
glanced around, stopping when he saw Joseph. “Hey, do you have more explosives left?”

“A few sticks of dynamite. If you want, I can send a man down to get them.”

“Do it. We’ll need all the firepower we can get our hands on.”
Logan
turned to Xavier. “We have to get as many people out as we can. If they surround the house, this building will become a death trap.”

Xavier nodded. “Go and check out back. If it looks okay, send the people two doors down. If you hear shooting, come and find me.”

“Will do.”
Logan
looked at Kenneth. “Come with me.” The two of them hurried to the back door and opened it. It looked quiet.
Almost too quiet.
“I’ll scout next door. Stay here and keep guard.” Quickly but quietly,
Logan
walked across the grass, past two bushes, and into the
neighbor’s
garden. All was quiet.

He hurried into the next garden and was pleased to see that it was also quiet. After spotting a shed, he walked closer and opened it. It wasn’t the nicest place to stay, but it was better than nothing. Hurrying back to Kenneth, he told him the plan. “There’s an old shed in the garden two doors down. Let them go five seconds or so apart.”

Kenneth nodded.
“Will do.”

“I’ll get them to come to the back door.”
Logan
hurried inside. He told Joseph the plan, then went to see what Xavier was doing. He found him peering out of the bedroom window.

“Are the people getting out now?” Xavier asked.

“Yes,”
Logan
replied.

Xavier watched as one of the men walked past the driveway and headed down the side path. “I’ll have to take him out—silently if I can. Open fire if the others respond.”

Xavier hurried out of the room, across the hall, and into the other bedroom. Opening the window, he spotted the man down below as he made his way to the back door. Leaving his weapon by the window, Xavier flipped out his Applegate
Fairbairn
combat folder and steadied himself.

The intruder had just enough time to raise his rifle halfway before Xavier landed on his shoulders and the gun skidded into the grass. The militiaman somehow rolled with the fall and came up on a knee, facing away. He clicked on his radio, but only managed a slight gurgle as Xavier slammed the blade into his windpipe.

The body stopped
spasming
by the time Xavier dragged it into a nearby bush. He collected his new weapon and hurried to the back door. Not even a single bird outside had squawked a warning. He tapped the door with one finger and hissed. “It’s me, Xavier.”

There was silence and then the door opened. Xavier stepped in and paused when he saw Kenneth holding a pistol. “There’s no need to use that. I got rid of him. But there may be others. Get the rest of the people out, pronto.”

Leaving Kenneth to do just that, Xavier hurried upstairs, where he found
Logan
glued to the bedroom window. Just as he approached, the men began calling out.

“So they’ve discovered he’s missing, huh?” Xavier said.

Logan
nodded. “I didn’t hear a thing, so good job. But I don’t know how long it’ll be before they track him here. If we only …” He paused as a man came close to the house and shined his flashlight around. Before he could move, the light lit up the bedroom window.
Logan
pulled back, hoping he hadn’t been seen.