The Leader (7 page)

“
So Alex was just a number
to you?” She couldn’t keep the anger out of her voice.

“
They have to be just a
number. It’s the only way to cope with what’s going on,” he softly
admitted.

“
Well, I got news for you.
Alex isn’t just a number. He was my sister’s fiancé. He was
supposed to be my brother-in-law, and he’s my friend. He’s
suffering because of what you and your colleagues did to him. The
demon masquerading as an alien won’t leave him alone. It even tried
to strangle him while he was sleeping.”

Devon winced. “That wasn’t part of the
plan.”

“
Then what was part of the
plan? What did you do to him?”

“
His genes are ideal for
offspring. We extracted his sperm to make a baby. What the other
people did to him, I don’t know. Then I was to tag him with an
implant so we can keep track of him.”

“
What?” She shook her head
as she battled the mixture of rage and shock that coursed through
her. “A baby?”

“
A super soldier.” He
glanced at his watch again. “Look, that baby is humanity’s best
hope. My work at Area 51 isn’t as nebulous as you think, but I
can’t get into all of that now. I really have to go. If you want, I
can explain more to you when I get back in two days. If I don’t
make my flight, there will be questions, and those questions can
lead them to you. You don’t want that.”

He took his device off the dashboard
and slipped it into his pocket. Then he opened the car door. “I’ll
find you at work.” He shut the door and ran to his car.

Too stunned to do anything, she stared
at the spot where the angels and demons had been moments ago. Super
soldiers? What in the world were super soldiers? And what did that
have to do with angels and demons or the great
deception?

More questions. It seemed to her that
the further ahead she got, the more she didn’t understand. She
released her breath and grabbed her purse to find a cigarette. If
this was the end of the world, she saw no reason to quit smoking.
Right now, it was the only thing that kept her hanging on. She lit
up her cigarette and finished smoking half of it before she felt
calm enough to drive home.

Chapter Nine

Alex looked at the bottle
of pills in his hand. Just the thought of taking more of them made
his heart race with dread. He didn’t care what the list of side
effects said. These pills made him hear voices. He’d skipped taking
them that morning to see if the voices would stop and they had.
Most of it was garbled, except for the random occurrences where he
was told to kill someone. A female. It was always
whispering,
Kill her.
He had no idea who “her” was, nor did he want to find
out.

He put the bottle back in the medicine
cabinet and slowly stepped back from it. He didn’t have to take the
pills. Everything was in his mind. He was sure of it. The alien
didn’t always appear when he didn’t take them. Maybe he imagined
it. Maybe there was no alien hovering by him. Like Dr. Reyes said,
he’d had no marks to leave physical evidence to prove an alien
tried to strangle him. That alone was enough to know it was all in
his mind.

Mind over matter.
He could beat this thing. He could. It was all a
matter of getting control of his thoughts and fears instead of the
thoughts and fears controlling him.

The door to the medicine cabinet
closed, and Alex saw his reflection in the mirror. He breathed a
sigh of relief. No alien. It was just him. There. That proved it.
He hadn’t taken a single pill since he woke up, and the voices
stopped and the alien hadn’t returned. Closing his eyes, he took
deep breaths to slow his heart. Tentatively, he opened his eyes. No
alien. With a grateful laugh, he turned and saw no alien hanging
out in his bedroom either. Good. Finally, things were beginning to
feel normal. He was getting control of his sanity again.

Turning off the bathroom light, he
retired to his bed.

***

“
Flight 876 going to
Minneapolis/St. Paul is now boarding passengers in rows 10 through
15.”

Devon grabbed his eReader and stood to
wait in line. On the TV monitor by the chairs where several people
watched in shock, he saw images of Israel attacking Iran and Iran’s
retaliation. The aliens would jump in and save the day. Then people
would beg for the one world government to come in and save them
from annihilation. The aliens would be the heroes and people would
gladly submit to them, and by the time they woke up and realized
who they submitted to, it would be too late. The position of power
and control would be firmly in place. Those who dissented would be
removed, and when that happened, Devon would make use out of his
cabin.

He glanced at the eReader in his hand.
The book he’d been reading would soon be banned. He was surprised
it hadn’t been already. That book taught that man had a right to
freedom. It spoke of redemption. It spoke of man inheriting the
Earth. It had the message the aliens wouldn’t want people
promoting. But then, why should he be surprised? The Bible was the
most controversial book ever written.

Devon walked up to the woman at the
gate and showed her his ticket. She nodded, smiled, and directed
him to the doorway that led to his plane.

***

Autumn picked up the phone on the
third ring. “Alicia?”

“
Girl, where have you been?
I’ve been calling you all night.”

“
Yeah, well, I had to meet
someone and then get something to eat. Do you know they aren’t
taking cash anywhere now? It’s a good thing I got a debit
card.”

“
Haven’t you been listening
to the radio?”

Realizing her friend sounded scared,
she dropped her purse and coat to the floor and went over to the TV
so she could turn it on. “No. What’s wrong? Did Israel strike
Iran?”

“
Yes. No one expected it. I
mean, they were supposed to have talks tomorrow, you
know?”

Autumn’s mouth went dry when she saw
the breaking news on the TV screen. It was eerily reminiscent of
the day her sister vanished, only this time, there was a war raging
in the Middle East. She gripped the phone in her hands. “Iran is
going to set off a nuclear bomb?”

“
Yeah, and to think they
weren’t building those, huh? The Russians are telling Israel to
stop attacking Iran, but Israel won’t back off until Iran does. Why
aren’t the aliens stopping this? I thought they came to help us
reach our potential,” she said as she choked back a sob.

Autumn watched as the camera settled
on the white house in Washington DC. The alien craft that settled
above it seemed to be glowing. She squinted. Had it done that
before?

The reporter spoke into his microphone
and glanced at the camera, looking as alarmed as Autumn felt. “The
president and vice president have already evacuated for safety.
Other leaders of the world are heading for their respective places
as well.”

“
Why would the leaders be
hiding if the aliens were going to stop this?” Alicia cried into
the phone.

“
I…I don’t know.” Autumn
scanned her apartment, wondering if the angel would appear but she
was alone. “I don’t know what’s going on. I was told there would be
no nukes.”

“
Really? By who?” Alicia
asked with hope in her voice.

“
Uh…”

Autumn’s eyes caught sight
of Tehran. It was day in Iran, so it was hard to make out the faint
glow from the craft, but she was sure she saw it.
They’re not supposed to glow. They never glowed
before.
This couldn’t be good. The bad
feeling in her gut told her that this couldn’t be good, even if the
reporters were wondering if the aliens were going to intervene to
stop Israel and Iran from sending out their nukes.

“
Maybe they’re going to
save us after all,” Alicia said.

Amy swallowed the nervous
lump in her throat.
Someone or something
better intervene…and fast.

***

Alex heard the sirens just as he saw
the report on the Internet that Israel and Iran set off their
nuclear weapons. The Russians who had vowed to come to Iran’s
defense were getting ready to launch theirs as well. And just as he
saw another incoming report that the alien craft had obliterated
the capital of Iran, a hand wrapped around his throat and squeezed
so tightly, it caught off his air supply.

Alex reached up to pry the hand off of
him, but the thing hurled him across the wall. Pain vibrated
through his body as he landed in a heap on the floor. Struggling to
get to his feet, the electricity went out so he could only catch a
glimpse of his attacker, but there was no doubt that it was the
alien.

The alien was real. And it was
back.

***

Devon gripped the arms of his airline
seat as the plane dove forward. People around him screamed as their
drinks fell off the trays in front of them and rolled onto the
floor. The plane steadied and Devon gasped, unable to process just
what, exactly, was happening.

One of the flight attendants ran down
the aisle. She caught up to the other attendant who’d tripped and
landed on the aisle floor. She picked her up and cried, “The
capitol is gone.”

That wasn’t supposed to happen. Devon
leaned forward and grabbed the woman’s arm. “Who attacked
DC?”

“
The aliens,” she hurriedly
answered before she and her co-worker hurried down the
aisle.

The plane dove forward again, and
Devon forgot about his other questions. The lights flickered on and
off, and the oxygen masks fell from overhead. Without thinking, he
grabbed his mask and slipped it on, making sure to secure his
oxygen flow. Then he turned to the woman sobbing hysterically as
she tried to get the mask on her terrified child and did the task
for her before helping her with her own mask.

What’s happening? Why
would the aliens attack DC? They were supposed to save the world,
not attack it.

But the aliens weren’t really aliens.
Hadn’t he just learned that tonight?

You have to make your
choice, Devon. Whose side are you on?

The immediacy of death and
the great unknown loomed before him like a dark chasm. The time for
putting off the decision was at an end. The nose of the plane rose
again and then dipped back down. Devon gritted his teeth and braced
himself for the end.
God, save
me!

***

Autumn waited in the dark. The
electricity was out, and the phone had been cut off. She didn’t
fully understand what was happening, except the aliens were in the
process of bombing the capitol of every country in the world. But
why? All the leaders were hiding, weren’t they?

She put the phone down and walked over
to her window. North Dakota was a far cry from Washington DC, and
all she saw was absolute blackness. Everyone lost their power. The
stars and moon shining in the sky gave the misleading notion that
everything was peaceful. She took the cell phone out of her pocket
and tried to turn it on, but it was dead. What was going on? And
more importantly, why?

***

Alex darted for his front door, but
the alien jumped on him and they landed onto the floor. The alien
pressed its hands up to Alex’s head and forced Alex to make eye
contact with it.

Kill her.

“
Who?” Alex
yelled.

It stared at him, and Alex
had the sensation of his mind splitting in half. He screamed and
tried to shove the thing off of him, but its grip remained
secure.
Kill her.

Alex knew he was losing the battle so
he went limp, giving up the will to live.

***

The power came back on, and Autumn
jerked. The cell phone in her hand lit up as well. She looked back
out the window and saw the rest of Bismarck lighting up, as if
waking up from a deep sleep. And then the sky lit up with a bright
blue light. Amazed at the brilliance of it, she opened the window
so she could poke her head out and get a better view of
it.

On the TV, shots from all over the
world revealed that everywhere on the planet, it was as dark as
night. The sun had been eclipsed and the only light in the sky was
the same blue light she saw now. Perhaps more astonishing was the
obliteration of the alien spacecrafts that had been hovering over
all the major cities of the world since May. The nukes that had
been launched were also destroyed.

She peered back out the window. From
the blue light emerged a silver metallic disc. A quick glance at
the TV showed her that all around the world, everyone was seeing
the same thing. And following the one disc were more
discs.

***

Devon didn’t notice the leveling of
the plane and ascension right away. His eyes were squeezed tight,
and his hands still gripped the armrests. A bright light lit up the
interior of the plane, and for a moment, he thought this was it: he
was dead and had passed onto the next life. But others around him
gasped and the child next to him asked his mother what was flying
next to them.