Striker (The Alien Wars Book 2) (11 page)

Mike shook his
head. “No, but I don’t think it would still be there now that Sanchez is dead.
I’d say that as soon as the men heard about his death, they fled, leaving
behind whatever they were here for.”

“That’s a
possibility. Let’s see if you’re right.”

Driving slowly,
they headed closer to the entrance. There
was still no lights
or sign of anyone when they arrived there, so
Logan
continued
driving.

Five minutes
later, the two concluded that they were the only ones there. After parking the
vehicle next to a hangar, they climbed out.

“Which one was
the craft in?” Mike asked.

Logan
hesitated. “I
thought I would remember once I was here, but now that I am, they all look the
same. But it could be that one.” He pointed to the hangar on the left. He
pulled a flashlight from the vehicle and strode toward the building.

The hangar doors
were closed. With Mike’s help, he opened one of the doors and shined the light into
the darkened space. He smiled with relief. In the middle of the hangar was the
Striker.
“How about that?
Now we just need to find out
if it works.”

With
Logan
holding the
flashlight, Mike walked around the aircraft, quietly checking it out. Every now
and then, he would fiddle with something.

Logan
couldn’t bear
the suspense any longer. “What do you think?”

“She’ll do fine,”
Mike said. “The engines appear to be in good condition and that’s the main
thing I was concerned about. Some of the
armor
appears to be damaged, but nothing serious.”

“Then why did it
crash?”
Logan
said.

“I’m not sure.”
Mike bent down and touched something on the bottom of the aircraft.

The door flashed
open without a sound. Mike climbed in.
Logan
followed. He
had never been in a Striker before, and he wanted to ask a lot of questions,
but he kept his mouth shut as he watched Mike fiddle with the controls.

It took a minute
for the lights to come on and the control panel to light up.
Logan
switched off
his flashlight and sat down next to Mike as he tried to start the engines.

After two minutes
of trying, Mike punched the panel. “Something’s wrong. I’ll have to examine the
engine.”

As Mike hurried
to the back of the aircraft,
Logan
glanced around. The ship wasn’t that spacious, but for two people,
it didn’t need to be. He touched the seat.
So exotic.
It wasn’t made of any material that he’d ever seen. Sitting gingerly in place,
he moaned at the comfort.
Logan
closed his eyes, and before he knew it, he had drifted off to his
first nightmare-free sleep in a long time.

Half an hour
later, the engine roared to life. Yawning,
Logan
opened his
eyes. “Sorry, I must have dozed off.”

Mike dismissed
his apology with a wave of his hand. “No worries. I didn’t need your help.”

“How did you fix
it?”
Logan
asked as the Striker lifted off the ground.

“It was quite
simple actually. A bit of metal was jammed in the middle of the rotors. It took
some work to get it out without damaging anything, but it should fly fine now.”
Mike aimed the craft toward the hangar doors. At the press of a button, red
bolts shot out of the machine. He whipped the controls from side to side. The
doors crumbled to the ground.

Grinning, Mike
maneuvered
the Striker through the newly created doorway
and onto a runway. Then, with a pull of the controls, the aircraft soared into
the air.

They encountered
no trouble getting back to the lodge, though when they reached it, they had to
decide where to land the craft. The helipad was too small, so they had to land
it on the grass between the tennis court and the swimming pool.

Logan
climbed out,
prepared to get some much-needed sleep, when he noticed that Mike hadn’t left
his chair. “What’s wrong?”

“I have to
contact some people,” Mike said. “But don’t worry. I’ll be back before dawn.”

“I’ll come too,”
Logan
said,
climbing back into the Striker.

“No, you need
your sleep,” Mike replied.

“I feel fine,”
Logan
said, sitting
down.

“I’d prefer it if
you didn’t come,” Mike curtly replied.

Logan
frowned. “Are
you going to meet with people like yourself?
Hybrids?”

“Hopefully.
We need all the help we
can get if we are to succeed in the morning.”

“But I thought
they’d refused,”
Logan
said. “Back at
Boise
, you—”

“They did, but
this forthcoming attack on
Mount Shasta
is more serious than I believed. Seeing all those military vehicles
down there, as well as talking to my contact, has led me to believe that this
is the turning point.”

“What do you
mean,
the turning point?”
Logan
asked. “Is
Mount Shasta
that important?”

Mike nodded. “You
must understand that
Mount Shasta
was one of the first bases on Earth. The place is so old that it’s
hardly vital, but symbolic value cannot be understated. So if the
Alliance
can seize
it, that
will be a much-needed success. That isn’t to say
the rest of our species will flee, but they will be forced to think twice
before attacking.”

“And what happens
if the army gets wiped out?”
Logan
asked.

“If that happens,
I can assure you that they won’t be the last to suffer a devastating defeat.
You see, my species thrives on success. So if one attack succeeds, they will go
on to the next attack and so on. So while this may only be a battle, it is
going to go a long way in determining who wins the war.”

Logan
sighed. “I
hope you get some Hybrids on your side. We’ll need all the help we can get.”

“I’ll try. Get
some rest. I’ll be back in three or so hours. Hopefully I’ll have good news
then.”

Logan
held out his
hand. “Thank you for helping us. I don’t know why you’re doing this, but
thanks.”

Mike shook
Logan
’s hand. “I’ve
learned a lot from humans, and I can see a future if we are to work together.
But if we’re divided, we’ll fall, and we can’t have that happen.” Mike lowered his
eyes and muttered to himself, “Especially not now.”

“What’s special
about now?”

Mike hesitated. “What?”

“That last bit,
about especially not now.”

Mike dismissed
Logan
’s question
with a wave of his hand. “Don’t worry about that. It’s just how I talk.”

Logan
frowned. “Are
you sure? If there’s something else that I need to know about
Mount Shasta
…”

Mike blinked. “No.
It has nothing to do with
Mount Shasta
or even the attack tomorrow.”

“Okay, well, I’ll
see you soon.”
Logan
stood up and climbed out of the vehicle. As he trudged to the
house, he glanced back just as the Striker lifted off and rose into the sky.

Dawn was not far
off as the Striker headed back to
Redding
. Unfortunately, Mike hadn’t been able to convince anyone to join
their cause, so it was just them.

Remembering the
white briefcase that he had been trying to protect from the Seods, Kenneth
thought he would ask Mike if he knew of such a thing, and if he did, what was
in it.

As Mike nodded,
everyone leaned in a little bit closer.
Logan
and Jet had
heard about the briefcase from Kenneth and were also mystified by what it could
have contained.

“Ah, yes, a white
briefcase, you say?” Mike said.

“Yes. And it was
hard, just like the clothing that—”

“Yes, of course,”
Mike interrupted. “That’s an invaluable resource. Without it, our mission here
would fail.”

“So what’s in the
briefcase?”
Logan
asked.

“A hologram of
Earth,” Mike replied.

“That’s all?” Jet
said. “What’s so special about that?”

“That hologram
pinpoints every base and mine we have on the planet.” Mike grinned at the
awestruck expressions on the faces of the others.

“Are you saying
that you have places all over Earth?”
Logan
said.

“Yes. I’m
actually surprised you’ve seen the briefcase.
There’s
only two of them in existence, and normally they’re guarded night and day.”

“How many mines
and bases are there in the
United States
?” Kenneth asked.

Mike shook his
head. “I don’t know. I’ve only heard about the hologram. I’ve never seen it for
myself.”

“So the hologram
may not even exist then,”
Logan
said.

“Oh, I’m pretty
confident that what I was told by my contact was the truth, but who knows what
the truth is these days?” Mike sighed. “If I do have to go to war with my
species, that briefcase will be an invaluable tool to have.”

“No wonder they
pursued us the way they did,” Derek said.
 

 
“If we had it, the military could go to the
mines and blow them up,” Molly said.

Mike shook his
head. “No. I couldn’t allow that to happen. While I disagree with how some of
my species are going about doing things, the one thing that we all agree on is
that we need the metal that’s underneath Earth’s surface.”

“What’s so
important about it?” Molly asked.

“I’m sorry, but
there are certain facts that I don’t want to disclose right now.” Mike pointed
his finger at the others. “As for that briefcase, don’t tell anyone else what I
said about it, okay? I wouldn’t want that information to get into the wrong
hands.”

“We won’t tell,”
Jet said.

“Promise me.”
Mike’s hawk eyes bore into each one of them in turn as he waited for their
promise. After they had, he smiled in relief. “This is a very delicate time for
both your species and mine, and I don’t want anything that I’ve said to make a
difference.”

Mike turned back
to the screen.
“Looks like we’ve reached
Redding
.”
He adjusted the
controls and the Striker slowed down. “Let’s hope my contact has made the
necessary preparations. If not, we might get attacked by the very people we
came to protect.”

A few minutes
later, the Striker landed in an empty field on the outskirts of the city. Mike
was the first to climb out, and as he did, someone holding a flashlight
appeared out of the darkness.

Logan
noticed that
the person looked relatively similar to Mike. He was roughly the same height,
had the same hair
color
, looked the same age, and had
the same weird accent Mike had.

“Everything
go
smoothly?” the man asked.

Mike nodded as he
looked toward the others. “Everyone, this is Frank, my contact. He has arranged
for us to meet with the general. He has a vehicle waiting, so let’s go.”

“Should someone
stay back?”
Logan
said.

Mike shook his
head. “Frank will see to it that it’s not disturbed, won’t you?”

“I have a man
down the road, but I only have a jeep, so I can’t fit all of you in.”

“I’ll stay here,”
Molly said.

“I’ll stay as
well,” Lucy said.

“Are you sure?”
Logan
asked,
turning to his fiancée.

Lucy kissed
Logan
good luck. “I’ll
be fine. You go and do whatever needs to be done.”

Jet and Derek
also decided to stay back. The rest of the group hurried to the road.

Mike and Frank
sat in the front of the vehicle. Kenneth and Logan took the back. Frank put the
car in gear, and with the headlights on high, the jeep roared down the road.

~*~*~

General Loreto
leaned back in his chair and gazed at Mike. “So you’re part Seod?”

Mike’s nostrils
flared. “Yes, for the tenth
time,
and I know things
that you don’t about
Mount Shasta
.”