Striker (The Alien Wars Book 2) (24 page)

Sure, things had
been so busy and hectic that he hadn’t had time to think about his past. It
took all of him to stay alive in the present. Maybe that’s all it took to keep
the nightmares at bay. Still, alone with his thoughts, he forced himself to
dream back to that fateful day.

He should have
seen the other car approach. It was his responsibility. He should have died,
not his friends. It wasn’t their fault. Their deaths were all because of his
lapse in judgment. For one minute, he had wanted to believe that there was
still some decency in
Syria
, that not all the young men were bad.

But he had been
wrong. It was his mistake—one which only he should have paid for with his life.
Instead, the men in his squad had been forced to make the ultimate sacrifice.
And for that he’d sworn to never forgive himself.

Lately, though,
with the Seods invading Earth, Lucy being kidnapped by the mob boss, and one
insane disaster after another, he’d had to deal with the present. If he didn’t,
those who were close to him and still alive would also be forced to make the
ultimate sacrifice.

Some rustling nearby
kicked him out of his dark musings. He opened his eyes and saw Kumi approach.
He gave a half smile to the young Japanese woman. “Hey.”

“Hello.” Kumi
perched herself on the blanket beside him and put a comforting arm around his
shoulders. “Are you all right?”

“Why wouldn’t I
be?”
Logan
muttered sarcastically. “My girlfriend is in a coma, aliens have
invaded Earth, Quinn wants me to go on an impossible mission, and you all think
I’m a liar.”

“I don’t,” Kumi
stated firmly.

“Really?”
Logan
questioned,
gazing deep into Kumi’s brown eyes.

“No, I don’t,”
Kumi replied without hesitation. “There’s something about you that makes you
seem honest and good. Actually, you remind me of my brother.”

“Well, in case
you haven’t noticed, I’m not Japanese,”
Logan
joked.

Kumi laughed a
gentle comforting laugh. “I know that. It’s just a feeling I get when I hear
you speak. You seem honest and trustworthy, just like my brother. And, unlike
Quinn and Hugo, I believe your story about Lucy. I don’t know why she is the
way she is, but I don’t see any reasonable explanation for you to make that
story up. Just be careful with Hugo. And don’t turn your back on him if you can
help it.”

“Don’t you trust
him?”
Logan
questioned.

“Don’t tell
anyone I said this, but a week or so
ago,
when I
couldn’t sleep, I wandered around aimlessly and ended up in a tunnel that leads
off from the main cave. There was a light coming from one of the tunnels that
has been closed off since I’ve been here, so curiosity got the better of me.”

“Was Hugo down
there?”
Logan
asked.

Kumi gulped.
“Yeah.
The tunnel came out into a small cave filled with all
this electronic equipment. Hugo was at a desk, talking quietly into some kind
of speaker.”

“Could you hear
him?”
Logan
asked.

“Unfortunately
not,” Kumi replied. “I didn’t dare stay long, for I knew that whatever was
going on wasn’t something that I, or anyone else for that matter, was supposed
to know about.”

Logan
raised an
eyebrow. “Why do you say that?”

“Well, because
one of the reasons that Quinn gave us for staying put is because the military
doesn’t know where we are and that we have no way to communicate with them,”
Kumi replied. “That communication system I saw looked very powerful and sure
seemed to be working fine to me, so why wouldn’t he have mentioned it?”

“Maybe Quinn
doesn’t know about it,”
Logan
said.

Kumi guffawed.
“No, Quinn knows everything that happens around here. It’s creepy how much he
knows. It’s almost like he has cameras everywhere. One time someone tried to
steal some food so they could leave the place. They were caught within minutes
of their escape.”

“What happened to
them?”
Logan
asked.

“No one knows.”
Kumi glanced around the cave, and as she saw Quinn approaching them, she smiled
at
Logan
. “Just be careful.”

~*~*~

 
“I’m
going for a little walk,” Molly stated. “My legs need a stretch after sitting
down for so long.”

As the girl stood
up, Derek did the same. “I’ll join you.”

“Stay with each
and don’t go near the farmhouse,” Kenneth ordered.
 
“Oh, better leave the dog with me. You don’t
want to be chasing after rabbits.”

“No, we don’t.”
After patting the animal, Molly put the lead on the dog before handing the
other end to Kenneth. Then, waving goodbye, she led the way down the hill. They
were soon near the farmhouse. However, just as they reached it, she turned away
in the opposite direction.

Derek grabbed his
sister’s arm. “Wait! Let’s go closer and see if we can see anyone.”

“But Kenneth told
us—” Molly said.

“I know what
Kenneth said,” Derek interrupted. “But he’s not the boss of us.
Besides, how are we going to know if the Seods are gone if we don’t
go near?”

“Well, I’m sure
Kenneth would check the out the farmhouse later when it’s closer to
Logan
coming back,”
Molly stated.

“But what if
Logan
comes back
early?” Derek questioned. “He could already be on his way right now. And
imagine what would happen if he landed while the Seods were still here.”

“You do make a
good point,” Molly admitted. “Okay, let’s get a bit closer. But we can’t go
into the farmhouse.”

Derek hurried
away in the direction of the farmhouse, his sister on his heels.

~*~*~

With a rucksack
on his back and a Glock in his pocket,
Logan
followed Hugo
through the woods. “So, how well do you know Quinn?”

“Why do you ask?”
Hugo asked.

“I just thought
you two seemed to get along a bit better than anyone else did,”
Logan
replied.

“If you’re asking
me if I met Quinn before the invasion happened, the answer is yes,” Hugo said.

“How did you meet
him?”

Hugo stopped
walking for a moment as he turned toward
Logan
. “The only
reason I’m here with you right now is because of Dahlia. She means the world to
Quinn and it’s only because he asked that I’m here with you. If I had my choice
of partners, you wouldn’t be here.”

“If you dislike
me so much, why not
do this rescue
mission yourself?”

“Because one of us needs to provide a distraction while the other
rescues Dahlia.
And, since Quinn believes you’ve
got the resourcefulness and skill within you to rescue his woman, I’m willing
to abide by his way. Now, if we’re quite done talking, let’s move off, we still
have a fair way to go until we reach the place.”

“So what exactly
is this place?
A cabin?
A farmhouse?
Quinn hardly told me anything, just handed me this rucksack and wished me
luck.”

“You’ll get all
the answers once we reach the place.”

Logan
fell silent
as he followed Hugo through the woods. It was clear that he wasn’t going to get
a solid answer about the mission quite yet. He would just have to wait and see
what happened once he got there.

His thoughts
turned to Kenneth and the teenagers. If Quinn had welcomed him with open arms,
Logan
would have
told him about the others, but since this group of people weren’t exactly
friendly, he didn’t want to tell them anything more than he had to. At least
Saco
was friendly. And she
seemed willing to let her guard down when she talked to him, something which
Hugo obviously hadn’t.

He didn’t know
for how long it would take Kenneth to realize that he wasn’t flying back to
meet them at the farmhouse, all he could hope for was that when he did come to
the realization that something had gone wrong, that he would head for
Stinson
Beach
. With
any luck, the four of them, along with Lucy, would all be together at the lodge
within a matter of days from now.

As the terrain
becoming increasingly more difficult,
Logan
had to focus
all his attention on keeping up with Hugo, who was obviously an experienced
hiker.

It took a while,
but finally Hugo slowed down and glanced behind him. “We’re here.”

Excited to see
what their objective was at last,
Logan
hurried up to his companion who was resting against a pine tree
which grew quite close to a cliff.

Logan
came to a
stop by the side of the cliff and peered over. In the valley below, nestled
next to the cliff was a large wooden house. There was no road leading to or from
the structure, but there was a clearing just in front of the house and that was
where a small plane sat. “Is Dahlia in the house?”

“Yes.”

“How many guards
are there?”

“Depends.
Last time there was five,
the time before that there was three.”

Logan
frowned. “How
many times have you attempted to rescue this woman?”

“Enough to know
that the only way down is for you to rappel down the cliff.” Hugo took off his
backpack and rustled deep in its pockets. A moment later he pulled out a chunk
of rope and started tying one end around the trunk of a pine tree. “I’ll keep
guard up here while—”

“Wait! Is that
the big plan?
For me to go down there while you stay up
here?”
Logan
shook his head. “That is a dumb plan. Why don’t we—”

“Do you want to
help Lucy or not?” Hugo interrupted.
“If so, you follow my
orders.”

“But I don’t even
know what Dahlia looks like,”
Logan
muttered. “I mean, I know she has black hair, but that’s all. What
if—”

“There’ll only be
one woman in the house,” Hugo stated. “But if you are unsure, have a look at
her hands. She only has four fingers on her left hand. Now, do you have enough
bullets for that Glock?”

Logan
nodded. “Yes,
as long as there’s not an army down there.”

“When you get
Dahlia, bring her over by the rope,” Hugo ordered. “I’ll pull her up while you
keep the guards busy. Once she’s up, I’ll do the same with you. And remember,
Quinn won’t be happy until Dahlia is by his side, so don’t slack off at any
point in this mission, understand?”

“I’ll do my
best.”
Logan
took off his rucksack and, after grabbing two smoke bombs, which he
placed in his pockets, he prepared to rappel down the cliff.

A few minutes
later, once everything was in position, he held onto the rope with both hands
and started rappelling down the cliff.

Molly gazed at
the farmhouse. “It looks like they’ve gone.”

Derek nodded.
“Yes, so let’s go closer.”

“But Kenneth told
us not to,” Molly argued.

“Yes, but …”
Derek frowned. “Hey! Is that smoke?”

“Yes, it is!”
Molly exclaimed, seeing the billowing of smoke exiting the kitchen window.

Derek rushed
forward, Molly close on his heels. “I wonder what could have caused it.”

“Maybe the Seods
ransacked the place and, in doing so, accidentally started the fire,” Molly
suggested.

“Possibly.”
Derek pushed open the
back door into the kitchen. He saw with surprise that the fire was small,
really small in fact. There were hardly any flames at all, mainly smoke.

He rushed over to
the kitchen sink and, after grabbing a bowl and filling it with water, tossed
the liquid onto the bundle of fire which was
smoldering
on the kitchen floor. With Molly helping him, it didn’t take long before the
flames and smoke had stopped completely.

Molly wiped a
hand across her brow. “I don’t understand it. Why would someone do something
like this?”

“It wasn’t just
anyone,” Derek muttered. “It was the Seods.”

“But why?
It doesn’t make any
… ”
Amy froze with fear. “You’re not thinking what I’m
thinking, are you?”

Derek slowly
nodded as he cautiously glanced around. “It’s a trap.”

The teenagers
darted to the back door without another word but skidded to a stop as it was
open from the other side and a Seod emerged.