Touched by an Alien (49 page)

“You sling this one over your neck,” I put my garment bag over him, “and you hold the really big rolling one.” I slung my purse over my neck to one side and the laptop bag over my neck to the other. Cosmetics bag that actually contained my personal care items hooked through the smaller bag that hooked to the medium rolling bag. “There, all set.”

“We look ridiculous.”

“Maybe so, but I just want to get my stuff out.”

“How can you even stand?”

“Practice.”

“You don’t want us to save the Coca-Cola and frozen dinners, too?”

“Yes, but you said we couldn’t go back into the kitchen.” I thought fondly of my stereo equipment and TV, but I had my iPod and all its paraphernalia with me, so my music was safe. “You ready?”

“I was ready fifteen minutes ago.”

“Fine.” I hit the alarm. “Let’s go.”

We moved at a sluggish version of hyperspeed. It was enough to get us out of the building without being seen, at least as far as I could tell, since no one seemed to know we were there. We stopped in the park and watched. The folks in my building were pouring out. Good.

Everyone was out, pets and children in tow, over at the park where Mr. Nareema was counting noses and Mrs. Nareema and their children were counting pets. Mr. Nareema announced all humans but me accounted for, and the rest of the clan shared that all the pets were present, too, when the bomb went off. It was impressive. But if the Nareemas hadn’t been totally paranoid, at least some of these people would have been killed. Innocent people.

“I want to hunt Yates down, okay?”

“Works for me. I don’t think I can get us back to the airport with all this stuff, though.”

“Can you get us back to wherever you stashed my car?”

“That I can do.”

“Okay, give me a minute.” I took the bags off and ran over to our clutch of tenants before the Nareemas could call my parents to tell them I was dead.

I shared my living status, feigned ignorance about all the whys and wherefores, and, joyous reunion over, headed back to Christopher. No one mentioned him or my luggage.

“Did you do something to their minds?”

He shrugged. “Just made them see me with your dogs, not your luggage. It’ll make it easier all the way around.”

“Do you need to manipulate any images before we go?”

“No. This wasn’t caused by a superbeing.”

“In that sense.”

“Good point.” Christopher looked around. “Nice area.”

“Yeah.”

“You can’t come back here to live, you know.”

“Picking that up. I’m sure I have options.” My parents’ house, for one. “Can I rent a room in the Science Center?”

Christopher chuckled. “Sure. Most agents don’t pay rent.”

“Oh, bonus.” This A-C gig did have its advantages.

“Let’s get out of here before someone else tries to blow you up.”

“I thought this was all in a day’s work for you.”

“Superbeings, yes. The additional action you drag along? Not so much.”

“I’m special.”

Christopher smiled. “True.”

I PUT THE LUGGAGE BACK ON
, he took my hand, and we moved at slow hyperspeed, which should have been an oxymoron but wasn’t. We were still moving too fast to be seen clearly, but I wasn’t nauseated at all. We reached a part of the desert preserve and moved toward an abandoned dam.

“We’re at another alien crash site, aren’t we?” I asked as we slowed to human speed.

“Yeah, how did you know about that?”

“One of my best friends was into this stuff.” He still was, but why share that? I might need a source they weren’t mind manipulating. “The rumor is that this dam was actually built to hide an alien burial ground or something.”

“Actually, it was built so we could have a safe location here. A lot of activity goes on in Arizona, so we needed a small base.”

“Makes sense.” We moved into what looked like a cave. “You sure this is safe and hasn’t been infiltrated?”

“Hands up.” This wasn’t a familiar voice.

We put our hands up. Christopher kept hold of mine, though. “What’s your rank?” he asked, sounding very calm.

“Amateur.”

I felt Christopher relax. “It’s me.”

A guy who was far too handsome to be human stepped out of the darkness. “Sorry, Commander, but you know the rules.”

“Just get someone to take this luggage,” Christopher said as he dumped my garment bag on the ground. “It weighs a ton.”

The guard spoke into a com attached to his shoulder, and within seconds more A-Cs appeared. They took my luggage, and then we wandered in.

“Welcome to Caliente Base,” Christopher said as we got fully inside, and I saw a mini version of the first floor I’d ever seen at the Science Center.

“You all were here when my superbeing created, weren’t you?”

“Yep. Monitoring Yates.”

“So Jeff didn’t run to a gate to get to the airport to get to me.”

“No, he ran from here. It’s farther, actually.”

“Awww, I’m touched, and I wasn’t mad, just clarifying.”

“I need to check a couple of things,” Christopher said, as he let go of my hand.

“Do I get to watch?”

“Sure. I’ll warn you if I have to talk at regular A-C speeds.” We went to a set of consoles and monitors that sat in front of some huge screens, similar to the conference table from the debriefing session, only these screens were on the walls. As there had been in the Field command center room back at the Science Center, there were images from all over the world. Unlike the Field stuff I’d seen, these all seemed random—I didn’t spot any superbeings in any of the shots. Some were news feeds, some were streaming video, some seemed to be from cell phones. A variety of the images would show up on the consoles, where some A-Cs were sitting, looking intent.

“How do you get all of this?”

“We created your satellite and cell phone technology,” Christopher replied absently. “We have a constant wiretap going.”

“I feel so Watergate.”

“We’re really only looking for parasites and superbeing activity.”

“Where’s Yates?”

“Reports place him in Saudi Arabia, visiting a Saudi prince,” one of the A-Cs nearest us replied. At least Yates wasn’t nearby this time when his goons tried to kill me. One small favor.

“Who’s the lead empath on duty?” Christopher asked.

An A-C who looked about twenty-two came over. “I am, Commander. I have some areas identified. However, the emotional signals are weak.”

He and Christopher stood next to each other, with a monitor each. The empathic A-C had a stream of images scroll through on the large screens. “Stop.” Christopher pointed to a screen that showed bombed out squalor. “There. Send that to me.”

“Commander?” one of the other A-Cs asked. “There’s nothing living there.” However, the image of nothing there showed up on the monitor in front of Christopher. He put his hands on the monitor. “Hot spot. Send a team, now.”

The lead empath put his hand over Christopher’s. “Confirmed.”

“How can you tell?” It still looked like nothing to me.

“There’s a parasite here,” Christopher answered. “You’ve seen them; they’re hard to spot.”

“I thought the parasites aimed for a mammal of some kind.”

“It has.” He pointed. An ancient Jeep rolled into view, one passenger.

“He doesn’t look angry.”

Christopher put his hand on the man in the Jeep, and the empath did the go team move as well. “He’s leading a terrorist cell. Not part of Al Dejahl, just one of many random factions out there.”

“And he’s joyously happy while filled with rage at the same time,” the empath added.

“Why didn’t the parasite aim for him?”

Christopher shrugged. “It was probably aiming for someone in this village.” He looked at me. “They were all killed about an hour ago.”

“I don’t want to know.”

“Good, because I’m sure it’s classified.”

I saw two A-Cs appear out of nowhere on the screen. “How did they get there?”

“We have floater gates, remember? Allows us to arrive anywhere.”

“How do they work? And why don’t you use them all the time instead of the stationary gates?”

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “You want the full scientific explanation?”

“Not so much, no.” I looked back at the monitor. The A-Cs were clearly searching for the parasite. One of them jerked and pulled the other out of the way of the man in the Jeep, who started shooting at them. “How did he know to do that?”

“All field teams are empath and imageer units. We try to never send an agent out alone.”

The agents weren’t shooting back. “I know you guys are pacifistic, but why aren’t they trying to protect themselves?”

“We’re here to protect humanity, not kill it.”

“Even when it tries to kill you?” The Jeep stopped, and the man got out. He was carrying a machine gun. The agents were trying to stay out of his range while still searching for the parasite. “You know, wearing black Armani suits and white shirts, complete with tie and dress shoes, while fighting parasites in far-flung, foreign locales, seems sort of . . . stupid.”

“We wear what we wear. If he lives, he won’t remember what happened.”

“But he’s intimately involved.”

Christopher sighed. “There are ways. I need to concentrate.”

“Why?” His hands hadn’t left the monitor.

“Because while you’re seeing the real thing here, I’m manipulating it for mass consumption. This is being filmed live.”

I looked up at the larger screens. It looked similar to the monitor, but there were no A-Cs visible. The guy from the Jeep was just firing at nothing. “You know, if it’s being filmed, that means someone’s working the camera, right?”

“Right. As far as I can tell, anyway. The camera operator isn’t in the picture, so I can’t touch or feel his image.”

The empath closed his eyes. “Commander, I think we have a problem.”

No sooner said than the camera jerked wildly and fell to the ground. “Um, Christopher? I think the parasite wants to explore its more artistic side.” The camera was still aimed toward the guy with the machine gun, who looked beyond terrified and also seemed to be screaming like a little girl. Something horrible and extremely nonhuman clawed at him. He was reduced to shreds in a matter of moments.

Christopher cursed. “Send another team,
now
!”

There were a few tense minutes while we watched the superbeing stomping around. The A-Cs on site were moving too fast to be seen. The main screen showed a regular citizen fighting the bad guys. Nice to see someone got to look like a hero. Finally, the action stopped, and there was nothing, just the Jeep sitting there idling. A disembodied voice came through over a speaker system. “All secured, Commander White. Footage in the camera altered.”

“Good work. Clean up, box it, bring it home. Fast. That area’s not safe.” Christopher rubbed his temples. “Anything else?” he asked the lead empath.

“Not right now, Commander. Not as far as we can tell.”

“Good work. Okay,” he said to me. “Let’s get you back to the Science Center.”

“You sure? This was kind of interesting.” And it was a refreshing change to merely watch the action. Plus, since it had been one incident and not fifty, there hadn’t been too much for me to take in.

“You can watch from the Science Center, too, on even more screens, remember? I realize you were sick to your stomach when we were handling the clustered manifestations, but it’s a larger version of this.”

I remembered, my stomach in particular. “Wow, my own multiplex of horror. It’s almost too good to be true.”

We reached the motor pool area. “Your luggage is in your trunk, the car’s gassed up, and we made a few modifications,” the A-C who handed me my keys advised. “I think you’ll be pleased with the performance.”

“It’s still painted black, right?”

“Right.”

“Then it’s all good.” Went to my car; it looked fine. We got in, and I examined the instrument panel. “Oh, yeah. Lexus does not an invisibility shield make.” It looked as though they’d installed all the alien bells and whistles. Fine with me. I never argued about a free upgrade.

“What are you doing driving a Lexus anyway?” Christopher asked as he buckled up. “These things cost a fortune.”

“This is their sporty, entry-level model, and I saved up for three years and took the bus or rode my bike instead of buying something I didn’t want, and I love this car, far more than any fish. It handles like a dream, gets good gas mileage, and is a stick shift, meaning that it’s for
real
drivers.” I meant it, I loved my car.

“You and James can drool over it together. To me, it’s just a metal box that goes slower than I can.”

“Philistine.”

“Jeff’ll love it, don’t worry.”

We drove to a gate, it was calibrated for the Science Center, and then we drove through. It was no better in my own car than it had been in the Navigator. “Do they install hyperspeed in the cars?”