The Night The Dreams Died
Time To Talk
Chapter 21
XXI
Rahn had been jerked back through the window into the kitchen of the CrashDown, and the window had been slammed shut, momentarily preventing his escape. Jeff held the strange bird up by the tail and stared at it. It looked like any other roadrunner, he thought, and Lord knows, roadrunners are common enough in Roswell in the summer months… in fact, they’re common most of the year. But this bird was something different. Jeff knew this for a fact. What he had just seen could not happen… but it had, and he was going to know what it all meant. Deep in his mind, Jeff suspected, even without realizing that he was thinking it, that somehow this bird held the key to a lot of the mysteries in Roswell recently… graduation, Judge Lewis, the army, Max, Michael, Maria, and Isabel’s deaths and the disappearances of their bodies… and maybe even what had happened to Liz and Alex. The answers to everything somehow lay in this common-looking little bird with a long tail… Now Jeff was going to have his answers… and nothing but nothing was going to deny him that.
Dangling from Jeff’s hand by his foot-long tail, Rahn was at first in shock. Then he began to think of escape. He could turn into a giant python… or a rampaging bull… No… These were not people whom he wished to harm… even inadvertently. He would have to think of something else.
“Alright,” Jeff said, dropping the bird onto his counter and standing over it threateningly, “now you’re going to tell me what you are. Then you’re going to tell me what you were really doing here… in my window.” Jeff felt a twinge of embarrassment at talking to a bird as though it could talk back to him… much less understand him. But he had seen what he had seen…
“Okay, that might be one solution,” Rahn admitted to himself. It was certainly not the one he had expected or wished for, but… he could simply confess everything. The question was… could these people handle the answers? Nancy was still standing speechless right where she had been standing when Jeff had grabbed Rahn by the tail and pulled him into the CrashDown’s kitchen. But Jeff… Jeff seemed very determined. Rahn suspected that Jeff was afraid, too, deep down inside. Who wouldn’t be, coming face to face with something that was totally alien to them so unexpectedly. But if Jeff was afraid, he wasn’t showing it. In fact, Rahn had to admit that the determination in Jeff’s face… and the meat cleaver in his hand… intimidated HIM more than a little. Briefly, he considered turning into a mouse and running away, but as he looked at the meat cleaver in Jeff’s hand again, he decided that turning into something even smaller might be a very bad idea.
Jeff took a step back involuntarily, as the bird began to stretch and expand, then its feathers began to disappear. Its legs grew longer and began to look… human. Arms replaced its wings, and the head began to change. Realizing what was happening, Jeff grabbed a kitchen towel and threw it over Rahn’s lap, but in the end, he needn’t have. As he watched, the legs, arms, and body seemed to “grow” clothes… clothes that fit perfectly and looked just like Jeff’s own clothing. The creature and its clothes seemed, in fact, to be made of the same… well… whatever this creature was made of. It was somehow simply growing… a new skin.
“Who are you,” Jeff asked hesitantly, not really sure that he was going to like the answer.
“Wha- what are you,” Nancy asked, finally finding her own voice, which was still a bit shaky.
“My name is Rahn.”
The man-bird spoke! It spoke in perfect English!
Rahn looked at Nancy. “As for ‘what’ I am, I’m not sure that you would understand. I am sorry that we have had to meet this way. It is not what I would have wished.”
“You’re not human,” Jeff said. He wasn’t sure if he was stating a fact or asking a question. No… No… of course it’s not human. It can’t be human.
“What are you? Answer the question… Rahn.”
Rahn looked Jeff in the eyes then looked at Nancy. “I am a member of another civilization… one that does not… come from earth.”
“You’re an alien…?”
Again, Jeff wasn’t sure if he was asking a question or stating the obvious. It’s just that the “obvious” was so… unlikely. An alien… in Roswell! The very thought seemed somehow ludicrous. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe because the residents themselves had fostered that “myth.” Aliens were supposed to be here in Roswell. A lot of Roswell’s citizens capitalized on their presence here. Even Jeff’s own business, the “CrashDown” capitalized on the alien theme. But real aliens? Jeff shook his head. There weren’t supposed to be real aliens. Not any more… if there ever were. Whatever had crashed here back in 1947 had been taken away by the army many years before. Everything else was just theory and supposition. It gave conspiracy buffs and sci-fi geeks a reason to come here and spend their money and the residents a way to get their money. There weren’t any real live aliens living in Roswell.
But then… what was Rahn?
Rahn slid off of the counter and stood on the floor facing Jeff. He was about the same height as Jeff. He was about the same build as Jeff. Rahn did have lighter hair and a slightly lighter complexion. His face… did not look threatening. It looked somehow kind and reassuring.
“Okay… Rahn…” Jeff said. “Let’s start from the beginning… wherever that is. Why are you here? What were you doing in my window? I’m inclined to believe that your being here was not an accident.”
Rahn swallowed and tried to consider the consequences of giving away any information. Rahn was no coward. If someone else had been asking, he would have been quite capable of telling them nothing. The army had tortured him for decades, and he had given them nothing. But… this man was a friend. He just didn’t know it yet. Rahn considered… and then made his decision.
“Zan sent me.”
Jeff’s face registered no emotion. Obviously this name meant nothing to him.
“I think… I think you know him as… Max… Evans.”
Nancy gasped and her hand went instinctively to her mouth. This name did mean something to them. Jeff had flushed, and his mouth was open now.
“Max Evans? Max Evans sent you? Where is he? When did you see Max?”
“I left him about an hour ago. I can’t tell you where he is. It would be dangerous for you to know… and for him if you knew.”
“But… Max is alive?”
“He is alive,” Rahn said. “He wishes to find Liz, and he wishes to know if his parents and her parents… that is you… are… okay.”
Jeff nodded but then shook his head. “No! No, we’re not okay! How can we be okay after what they did to Liz?”
“I heard you talking,” Rahn said… “about her… and about Alex. He was her friend?”
Jeff nodded. “Alex was a friend of Max’s, too.”
“Then… they are both…”
“Dead,” Jeff said. “I’ll say it. Judge Lewis killed them.”
“Doesn’t your society have laws against… killing?”
Jeff sneered. “Judge Lewis doesn’t care about laws. He is the law. He gets what he wants.”
“I think I understand,” Rahn said.
“No, you don’t.” Jeff shook his head. “Oh, Judge Lewis didn’t pull the trigger, but he had Liz and Alex sent off to that… insane asylum, and he banned us and the sheriff from having any contact with them. He fixed it so someone else could kill them, Rahn, and I want to know why! I think you can tell me that. Why did Judge Lewis want Liz dead? And why did those guys from the army shoot her and those other kids at graduation? Tell me that if you can!”
Rahn looked uncomfortable, but he answered Jeff’s question. “For the same reason they wanted me dead.”
Jeff stood silently for a moment, digesting this information. Then he shook his head slowly…
“Wait… okay, you’re an alien… Maybe they thought they were protecting the earth from some kind of… alien invasion or something. I could understand that, even if they’re a bunch of knee-jerk idiots… but Liz was no alien… Max was no alien…”
“Zan is only half of this earth,” Rahn replied. “He is also half Antarian. He is the true king… of our planet.”
Jeff began to laugh, and Rahn, finding his reaction odd, appeared confused.
“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! MAX? MAXWELL EVANS? …is the king… on your planet?”
“He was the true king. He was deposed by a tyrant named Kivar.”
“Oh, your planet has those, too?”
Jeff looked at Rahn, and, slowly, he realized that Rahn was being truthful. Rahn did not appear to be enjoying this or trying to put anything over.
“So… Uh uh! No! I can’t… He’s just a kid! He just graduated from high school. How could he be a king… of anywhere? And if Max was… what… half alien? Wouldn’t the army be…?”
Jeff stopped suddenly, having answered his own question. His face flushed again.
“Max is half… alien? Why… why didn’t anybody know?”
“Somebody knew,” Rath said quietly.
Jeff’s mouth dropped again… “Liz?”
Rahn nodded. “Liz… yes.”
“Liz knew everything? She… she knew… Did she know that the army would come after him?”
“She knew… everything… after the shooting.”
“Graduation? But she was shot herself at graduation!”
Rahn shook his head. “Not graduation. The other shooting… Here.”
“In the CrashDown?”
Suddenly it all came back to Jeff, and his knees started to buckle. Rahn reached out to keep Jeff from falling, but he regained his balance on his own. Then he sat down.
“Liz was shot! When those two guys were fighting in the CrashDown a few years ago… she was shot! My God. I always thought… but I put it out of my mind. She seemed like she was okay, so I thought… she couldn’t have been shot. It had to just be ketchup like she said. We all believed that. Max was hovering over her. Then the sheriff got very interested in Liz for a while. He followed her around… asking questions about the shooting… lots of questions. Eventually, it all died down. He asked a lot of questions about Max Evans, too. What did Max do to her, Rahn? What did he do to Liz?”
“He brought her back to life,” Rahn said.
There was a small thud, as Nancy collapsed on the floor. Jeff rushed to help her.
“I’m okay,” Nancy said, her voice shaking, as she regained consciousness. “I’m okay.”
“Can you stand up,” Jeff asked.
“Just let me lie here for a while, Dear. I… I’d rather not stand up right now.”
Jeff looked back up at Rahn. “Liz was… dead then?” Jeff asked again, as though he still thought he might have heard wrong.
“Not dead by Antarian standards,” Rahn explained. “only by your standards on earth. Max can heal… but not after one is… gone.”
“So he healed Liz… then he told her who he was?”
“My understanding is that she figured it out.”
Jeff nodded. “Liz would. She’s smart. She… was… smart…” Jeff choked for a moment. “She would have pursued him until he told her the truth. I know that.”
Jeff thought for several moments. “Rahn… why did Max send you? Why didn’t he come himself?”
Rahn started to answer, but Jeff answered his own question for him.
“It’s the army, isn’t it? They’re after him.”
Rahn nodded. “He escaped from the base. I was with him. We found our way to freedom. For now, we must remain where we are.”
“I understand. Was it just… the two of you?”
Rahn was silent for several moments, then he shook his head. “There were five of us.”
“Who?” Jeff asked. “Who else was with you? More aliens… from your planet?”
Rahn wasn’t sure how to answer this for a moment. “More… prisoners… from the base,” he said finally.
“Okay. Was one of them Michael Guerin?”
Rahn nodded.
“Was one of them… Isabel Evans?”
Rahn nodded.
“Was one of them… Maria… Maria DeLuca?”
Rahn nodded, and Nancy, who was still lying on the floor, let out a small but audible gasp.
“My God, Rahn, Amy has to know! She has to! She risked her life to try to find Maria, and everyone thought she was… well, deluded. If Maria is still alive, she has to know!”
“The more people know,” Rahn warned, “the more danger she will be in… and the more danger the others will be in.”
“Well, I understand that,” Jeff said, “but her mother!”
“She will know the truth soon,” Rahn said. “It is important that no one else know these things for now. I hope I have not made a mistake telling you.”
“I’ll… We’ll keep the secret,” Jeff said. “But not forever, Rahn. Max must do whatever it is he has to do so that they can be safe. Amy will have to be told… soon.”
Rahn nodded again. “I must go back to Zan and tell him the one thing that will kill him… that his chosen one has died. I do not wish to do this.”
Jeff’s face softened, as he looked at Rahn’s anguish. Perhaps for the first time, he saw something else in this “man-bird,” something which he did recognize… humanity. Jeff put his arm around Rahn’s shoulder, and his own eyes teared up. “She was my daughter, Rahn. I loved her, too.”
***********
On the Mesaliko Indian Reservation, darkness had come. The sun had gone down three hours before. Outside, the crickets were chirping, tree frogs were singing, and the stars were shining brightly in the sky. Inside the house, there was silence. No one spoke. There was little to say. Maria tried to sleep, but she tossed and turned and flipped her pillow over repeatedly, trying to find the driest wet side, as the tears fell silently on it. Isabel lay on her bed looking at the ceiling in silence. Sleep escaped her. Michael and Rahn were sitting on their beds, thinking.
Max slipped on his pants and shirt and headed for the door.
“Where are you going,” Michael asked.
“Out… for some air. No one will see me. I can’t stay in here any longer.”
“I’ll go with you,” Michael said.
Max shook his head. “No. You stay here. I need to be alone.”
Max cracked the door and peeked outside. No one was out, so he edged out the door and quickly walked across the dirt road then down the path toward the river. He didn’t have to go far. The river was only a short distance away. Five minutes later, Max stood on the river bank, tears rolling down his cheeks.
For a time, Max stood silently, reflecting on his life with Liz, occasionally looking up at the stars then down at the deep darkness of the river’s waters below. Then he sat down beside a large rock and took off his shoes and shirt, placing them neatly beside the rock. He took one final look up at the stars and took a deep breath then stood up. As he did, a faint noise attracted his attention. It was almost inaudible, but Max’s hearing was excellent.
Fearful that if he made any noise himself, whoever might be coming would find out about them staying in Gray Hawk’s house, Max decided to sit back down behind the rock until he knew if it was a person or an animal… or just the wind blowing in the leaves. He waited… The noise, though soft, grew steadily louder. It didn’t sound like footsteps. It was more like something being dragged stealthily down the path. It was much closer now. From the sound of it, it could be a bear, he thought… or someone dragging a dead body to throw in the river. Max huddled out of sight behind the rock.
The noise stopped just on the other side of the rock. Whatever it was, it had decided to rest there. Just his luck! Max waited silently. Five minutes passed… then ten. He wondered when the bear would leave. He figured it wasn’t someone dragging a dead body… They would have thrown it in the river by now and left. But there was still the small chance that it could be someone dragging a canoe or something. He waited. Max looked up at the stars above. They were shining so brightly… they seemed to pop out of the sky. He almost felt like if he just reached up… What was it that Angie Lee had said to him… “When the stars are so bright…” yes, he did feel closer to Liz now. It was a strange feeling… a tingle that ran through him from head to toe. “And if you reach up and take a star from the sky, you will soon be with the one you love.” Max reached up toward the sky, framing a star inside his cupped hand…
“Ah-choo…”
Max stopped and listened intently. That was a pretty small sneeze for a bear.
“Excuse me,” someone behind the rock added quietly, probably out of habit.
“Excuse me?” When did bears… Max felt a tingle surge over his whole body. He’d know that voice anywhere! Max jumped up and rushed to the other side of the rock, almost tripping over his own feet in his haste.
Sitting on the other side, in a wheelchair, was Liz, with her back to him. She was looking up at the stars, lost in her thoughts. Liz reached one hand up… toward a particularly bright star, and as she did, a hand took hers and closed it around the star.
Even in the starlight, Liz recognized Max’s hand… its feel… the tingle it gave her. She spun around in her chair, almost overturning it, and Max scooped her up into his arms.
“Max! Omigod, Max! Omigod!” Liz cried over and over, wrapping her own arms tightly around Max and smothering him with kisses. “I’ve missed you so much! I knew you were alive! I knew it! I always knew it! But I thought I might never see you again.”
Max hugged Liz to himself and kissed her face, her hair, her neck, her hands… as tears of pure joy ran down his cheeks.
“I knew you were alive, too, Liz,” he said breathlessly. “I felt you. I always have! I was told that you were dead… and for a while, I thought maybe I was feeling you, because… because I couldn’t let you go. But deep inside, I knew it was you I was feeling, not just a memory. I came down here to be closer to you… to try to be near you. And I thought I’d take a swim to relax… maybe help me to sleep. It’s been kind of a… a rough day.”
Liz pressed her lips to Max’s and kissed him with all the passion that had been pent up inside her for so long. After several minutes, she pulled back and smiled, running her hands lovingly over his face. “Did that help any, Max?”
“A lot! But I think I’m gonna need intensive therapy tonight… all night.”
Liz smiled. “I can handle that.”
Max thought that the smile on Liz’s face rivaled the stars in lighting up the night.
“Liz, where in the world did you come from? What are you doing here… on the reservation?”
“I’m staying in River Dog’s house… with Alex. You remember River Dog. Sheriff Valenti arranged it… It’s kind of a long story.”
“I know what happened to you,” Max said. “I heard already.”
“Max… where did you come from? I can’t believe you actually found me here!”
“I’m staying in Gray Hawk’s house… with Michael, Isabel, Rahn… and Maria.”
Liz gasped, and her smile grew even larger if that was possible.
“Omigod, I knew she was alive! I saw her! And Michael and Isabel are okay, too! But who’s Rahn?”
“You’ll meet him. You think maybe we could swap him for you tonight?”
Liz smiled. “Why don’t you send Isabel over to stay with Alex… and I’ll come over to where you’re staying.”
Max smiled. “I guess I’ll have to fill Gray Hawk in… and River Dog. Gray Hawk said something about River Dog having his curtains all drawn. He was suspicious, but he thought it was just because of the heat.”
“Can you walk, Liz?”
“No.” Liz shook her head. “I haven’t been able to move my legs since… graduation night.”
Max ran his hand up and down Liz’s back, while still supporting her in his arms. “When we get back to the house, I’ll see what I can do. It’s more than I can handle out here.”
“Would you push me back, Max?”
Max smiled. “I’ve got a better idea.” He picked Liz up in his arms. “I’ll send Rahn back for the chair later. He can slip out of the house without being noticed.”
Liz put her arms around Max’s neck, and her body relaxed in his arms. She looked at his face… God! How much she had missed it! And she looked at the stars. They were bright tonight… very bright… and oh so beautiful.
tbc
Coming Up: Rahn gets to deliver good news… to Jeff and Nancy Parker… and to Jim and Amy.
The Night The Dreams Died (CC,M/L,TEEN) -Complete-
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The Night The Dreams Died
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The Night The Dreams Died
The Night The Dreams Died
Starry Nights & Apache Justice
Chapter 22
XXII
Max tapped lightly on Gray Hawk’s front door with his right foot. A moment later, the door opened a crack, and Michael looked out. Seeing Max’s face, he quickly opened the door wide enough for Max to come in.
“I hope you weren’t seen, Max. What’s that?” Michael pointed to the object in Max’s arms. It was wrapped in an Indian blanket. Liz had had it over her shoulders while she sat by the river watching the stars. But it only took one good look for Michael to realize that what Max had in his arms was far more than just an “object.” Michael’s jaw dropped, and his eyes opened wide.
“Omigod, Max! You found her… She’s alive,” Michael stammered, in an excited whisper. “Where… How did you… Where did you… Don’t move! Maria’s got to…” Michael didn’t finish his sentence, as he rushed toward Maria and Isabel’s room and knocked quietly but excitedly on their bedroom door.
The door opened a crack, and Isabel looked out.
“Michael? We’re trying to sleep in here. You may have just woke Maria back up, and it took me hours to get her to sleep. What’s so important that it couldn’t wait for tomorrow?”
Michael turned around and saw Max walking up behind him with Liz in his arms.
“Is this important enough,” Michael asked, moving a portion of the blanket that had blocked Liz’s face. Isabel let out a loud gasp, and Maria, behind her, rolled over in her bed.
“Is something wrong, Iz? Was that you?”
Isabel tried to say something, but at first, no words would come out.
“Isabel?” Maria asked again, the concern in her voice rising.
“No… Uh… No,” Isabel stammered, finally finding her voice again. “Nothing’s wrong, Maria.”
“Okay.”
“Uh… Maria?”
“Yeah?”
“I think… I think you should really come here a minute… You need to see something… NOW…”
“Are you sure you’re alright,” Maria asked, coming awake completely now and rolling off the bed. Something in the urgency in Isabel’s voice alarmed her. It wasn’t like Isabel. Even in the tunnels, when Isabel had been dying, she had never requested Maria’s presence quite so urgently. Maria walked quickly to the door. Isabel opened it, and Max stepped forward with Liz in his arms.
“I would run and hug you,” Liz said, tears rolling down her cheeks even as a huge smile covered her face, “but I’m afraid I can’t walk anymore, Maria.”
Maria gasped, her eyes shot open wider than saucers, and her mouth dropped. In fact, it’s unlikely that her jaw could have fallen any further if she had had Rahn’s amazing stretching talents. Before anyone could react, Maria had her arms around both Liz and Max together, and the tears were rolling down her cheeks again… for only the hundredth time tonight.
“Omigod, Liz! You’re alive! You’re really, really, really, really ALIVE! And here! How did you get here? Let me look at you!” Maria looked at Liz and moved a tress of hair off of her face, then a huge smile came over her own face, and she hugged Liz and Max again, almost crushing Max’s ribs in her joy.
“Omigod, Liz! I don’t believe this! Where did you come from? …Max?”
“I found her down by the river. I made a wish and… there she was.”
Maria looked at Max for a moment silently but then turned her attention back to Liz.
“Liz… you’ve got to stay here with us. You’ve got to! I want to have you here where we can be together now… at least for a while! We’ve got to talk! The rest of us can’t go back home until it’s safe. The army thought we were all aliens or something, and they locked us in these dreadful rooms way down inside some huge tunnels where they were going to keep us until…” Maria waved her hands around in the air… “I don’t know what… maybe forever, I think. Rahn helped us escape from them by going deeper into the tunnels then into a cave. Then we found Angie Lee in the cave, and she led us here…”
Liz smiled. “I think we really do need to talk, Maria. Sounds like you’ve got a lot to tell me.”
“Me!? Oh… No! No! Not me… What about you, Liz? I want to hear about you since we were together. Since… Since…”
“Graduation, yeah,” Liz said, holding onto Max, who was still holding her in his arms. “That would be when we saw each other last. I woke up a couple of months later… completely paralyzed. But I can move again now! All but my legs…”
Maria’s eyes misted up, and she hugged Liz again.
“I’m so sorry, Liz. Hey, maybe Max can make you walk again! He healed Iz and me, and we were dead!”
“Yeah… he’s gonna see if he can,” Liz said. “It’s alright, Maria… Really! Hey! Tell me what happened to you?”
“I don’t remember everything before Max healed us… just some of it. Max said I was dead… me and Isabel… and Michael almost. The rest is just… a long story. I’ll tell you everything I can remember later… after I’ve heard all about you!”
“Good! I want to hear it all,” Liz said.
Max set Liz down on Maria’s bed and gave her a kiss, which Liz returned with a passion that was still unfulfilled after having been apart for so long… and given the heartaches that both had endured while on the run. After a couple of minutes, they separated, somewhat reluctantly, and Max stood back up and breathed a deep, refreshing breath, one of the first he had taken in a long time.
“I’ll have to tell Gray Hawk,” Max said… “I’ll see if I can get him to let you stay here, Liz.”
“Uh, you may not have to,” Michael said, pointing behind Max. Max turned around. The old Mesaliko Apache was standing right behind him, with a very stern look on his face. Max momentarily flushed and found that he had to moisten his lips and swallow before he could speak again, but then he steeled his resolve. He was determined that he was not going to be separated from Liz again… not now. Not after all that they had been through to find each other. It was Gray Hawk, however, who spoke first. He held up one hand, as though requesting their undivided attention… and he got it.
Gray Hawk looked at each person in the room, then he spoke slowly… deliberately. “I heard. It would seem that A’in ji Lii was correct. You do need my help. So I will allow it. There will be no more talk about the matter. But you…” He looked sternly into Liz’s eyes. “You must sleep in this room… and you…” He looked at Max. “You must sleep with the bird-man.”
Max just nodded and swallowed. “Thank you. That… that would be great…”
“UM! …Good! It is settled then. I will speak with my brother, River Dog, in the morning. He will understand. What is justice for one is justice for all. It is the way of our people.”
“Thank you,” Max managed to say again.
“Gray Hawk…” Liz whispered hesitantly.
The old Indian turned around and looked at Liz again but did not speak. Liz understood that he was waiting for her to say what was on her mind.
“Thank you… for me, too.”
“Um.”
Liz’s uneasy gaze remained on Gray Hawk, and she bit her lip.
“Is there something else,” Gray Hawk asked, seeing in Liz’s face that there was.
Liz breathed deeply. “Well… somebody will have to tell Alex that I’m here… tonight. He’s at River Dog’s house, and he’ll be really worried if I don’t return tonight.”
Gray Hawk looked at Liz, as he thought about what she had said, but this time, it was Max who spoke first.
“Liz had an idea that was pretty good earlier.”
Gray Hawk looked at Max.
“Isabel could deliver the message to Alex that Liz is okay… then Isabel could stay there tonight… It would balance things out again… where everybody would sleep and all… There would still be two sleeping at River Dog’s house… and Liz could sleep in Isabel’s bed here.”
Gray Hawk nodded silently. “I know my brother. He would make the same arrangements that I would make. It is acceptable. But it will be her decision.”
Isabel looked at Max then quickly back to Gray Hawk, as the full force of what this all meant suddenly hit her.
“Alex is alive… and he’s only three houses away! I want to see him! When can I go?”
Gray Hawk reached for a blanket from the chest at the foot of the bed.
“Take mine,” Liz said. “It belongs to River Dog anyway… and Alex will be expecting to see it.”
Max turned to Rahn, who had been listening silently.
“Rahn, Liz left her wheelchair down by the river. Could you bring it back here for her?”
“Yes, I can do that,” Rahn answered, happy to finally have something to contribute to this conversation.
“Um! There are several wheelchairs on the reservation,” Gray Hawk said, thinking. “No one would think much about it if they saw you in the chair… if you had the blanket over you.”
Several minutes later, the front door of Gray Hawk’s house opened just a bit, and a small brown bat flew out headed towards the river. Fifteen minutes later, an old Indian in a wheelchair rolled up to Gray Hawk’s house, and Gray Hawk let him in. Once inside, the old Indian began to change into a young man again… though perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he assumed the “appearance” of a young man again, because Rahn was actually older than either Gray Hawk or River Dog even though he appeared to be in his twenties and had the physique of a twenty-year-old. Physically, he was a twenty year old, but Rahn had been born some 127 earth years before and was not long out of adolescence for his kind.
Isabel sat down in the chair, and Max put Liz’s blanket over her shoulders and head, covering her hair and clothes. Then he nodded.
“You’re all set. Whenever you’re ready…”
“Third house?” Isabel asked. “The one with the spear in the ground beside the front door?”
“That is my brother’s house, yes,” Gray Hawk confirmed.
“Push me out, Max.”
Gray Hawk opened the door, and Max pushed Isabel to the door. She took the wheels in her hands and rolled the chair the rest of the way to the street, then taking one quick look back, Isabel headed quickly to the third house, where Alex was waiting for Liz to return.
***********
The door opened slightly, and Alex peeked out at the girl in the chair. Her head and shoulders were draped in River Dog’s Indian blanket.
“Come in… quick. God, Liz! I was getting worried! Do you know how long you’ve been gone? I was about to go look for you myself!” Alex pulled the chair into the house then turned around to make sure they were still alone.
“I’m not mad at you, Liz. I’m just concerned about you. You said you’d only be gone for a little while.”
Alex turned back around to face Liz, and Isabel removed the blanket that had been covering her head and shoulders. It was probably a good thing that Alex was young. The surprise could have been too much for a weaker heart.
Alex stumbled backwards a step then looked at Isabel as though he were seeing a ghost. His voice somehow got lost in his throat.
“Well? Aren’t you glad to see me, Alex?”
“Isabel?” Alex managed to whisper, finally finding his voice. “Omigod! Yeah! Yeah… sure, I’m… I’m ecstatic! Of course, I’m glad! Omigod, Isabel! What are you doing here? Where’s Liz?”
“Liz? You mean the girl you’ve been living here with?”
“Yeah, that would be the one, Iz. Where is she? You didn’t leave her down by the river did you?”
“Alex! No, of course not! Liz is fine. She’s at Gray Hawk’s house.”
“Who’s Gray Hawk?”
“River Dog’s brother.”
”River Dog’s got a brother?”
“Several of them… sisters, too.”
“I didn’t know.” Alex looked at Isabel again, and a huge smile came over his face.
“You came here… to be with me?”
“Well, I don’t see any other handsome, zany guys around here anywhere, Alex… so… yeah! I guess I did.” Isabel smiled. “Are you happy that I came?”
“Happy? I’m… I’m overjoyed!”
“Well, are you going to do something about it or are you just going to stand there and be overjoyed?”
Alex started to lift Isabel up out of the wheelchair, but then he hesitated.
“You’re… uh… I mean… You’re okay then? I won’t hurt you?”
Isabel smiled and stood up. “The chair is Liz’s, Alex. I’m fine. She just let me take it to come over here. Max is at Gray Hawk’s house. Max is taking care of her now.”
Finally realizing that Liz really was okay and that Isabel really was standing in front of him… in the flesh… alive… and not just another cruel dream… Alex grabbed Isabel, lifted her off her feet, and swung her around and around in circles. Then he kissed her. Then they both stopped spinning as they concentrated on each other and on all the time they had to make up for. If their bodies were no longer spinning, though, the same cannot truly be said of their heads or their hearts, which were certifiably higher, at this moment, than the stars on this starry, starry night.
**********
Jeff Parker was sitting in his apartment upstairs over the CrashDown, taking a much-needed break from the grill -at Nancy’s insistence- when something attracted his attention at the window. It was the roadrunner. It could have been another roadrunner, of course, but Jeff knew that it was not. Roadrunners were common enough, but seeing one sitting in a window, especially upstairs, was not common. Seeing one racing along the street in the desert was common. Roadrunners can and do fly, but they prefer to run, and their flight is somewhat limited by the shortness of their wings. Rahn had made his wings slightly longer than the average roadrunner’s in order to sustain his flight longer and more easily. This roadrunner was not common. It had a name, and Jeff knew it…
“Rahn!”
The bird hopped out of the window into Jeff’s apartment over the CrashDown and quickly morphed into its human appearance.
“You looking for more information for Max,” Jeff asked.
“No. This time I’m bringing information,” Rahn said.
Jeff put his newspaper down. He didn’t know why, but something told him that this was important. He guessed it was because Rahn had risked this trip to bring this information.
“I’m listening, Rahn. What do you have to tell me?”
“Your daughter is not dead,” Rahn said straight out. “Liz is alive.”
For a moment, Jeff wasn’t sure that he had heard right, but deep inside he knew that he had, and his pulse began to race even as the blood drained from his face, leaving him paler than Rahn on Rahn’s palest day.
“Liz… is alive? Are you… Are you sure, Rahn? Sheriff Valenti said…”
“I saw her and spoke with her myself. She is well… She is with Max. He’s taking care of her until they can return home and be safe again. The sheriff hid her and her friend, Alex. Unfortunately, it was necessary for everyone to believe that they were dead, even you, in order to make those who are trying to harm them believe that they were dead, too. That was the only way to give the sheriff time to plan what must be done to save them. Liz said to tell you that the sheriff is doing everything to try to help her, and that he saved her life. She said to tell you that you should not be angry with him.”
“No… I’m not. Well… I am… kind of… I don’t know. Why couldn’t he tell me? Where are they, Rahn? I have to know where Liz is!”
“Would you want to put her in the same danger that she was in before all over again? Because if you know where she is, she will be in danger… and so will you… and your wife. There are people who will use every means to force you to talk. I know, Jeff Parker. I have seen their methods personally. I don’t think a human could survive it for long. Some of my own people did not. I was fortunate to be young and healthy.”
Jeff put his hand over his eyes, and his eyes misted up, but then he realized that the fact that he could not see Liz right now was only the bad news… and the least news. The real news was the good news… Liz was alive! A smile began to grow across Jeff’s face, and the blood returned.
“Liz is alive? Liz is alive! Oh, geez! Liz is alive! NANCY!”
Nancy came running into the living room and found Jeff hugging Rahn. For a moment, she stood watching, not sure what was going on. Then Jeff turned to her with tears in his eyes.
“Liz is alive, Nancy… Our Lizzie’s alive!”
Nancy gasped, and her hand went automatically to her mouth. Rahn guessed that this habit was one of practicality, as it kept anything from flying into one’s mouth when it was wide open, as humans’ mouths so often tended to be.
“Liz is still alive?” Nancy repeated. “Where is she? I want to see her!”
“We can’t see her right now,” Jeff said. “She’s hiding, with the sheriff’s help, and everybody’s supposed to think she’s dead… but just until Jim can fix things… right Rahn?”
“That is what he hopes. That is what we all hope,” Rahn said. “Liz said that the sheriff is working very hard on it. I must go now and tell him that Max and the others are alive.”
“Amy will want to know about Maria,” Nancy said. “She really should know.”
Rahn nodded. “Zan… I mean, Max… and Liz agree with you. They believe that you and Jeff will keep their secret, and Amy already has kept Liz and Alex’s secret, so they believe it will be best to tell her and Sheriff Jim about Maria and the others, too. It might make it easier for him to coordinate a plan to help them all.”
“That’s good thinking, Rahn,” Jeff said. “Jim will do everything he can to help all of them… but he can’t if he doesn’t even know they’re all alive or where the rest of them are. I would tell him.”
Rahn smiled. “At least this time I am delivering good news. I did not enjoy delivering bad news before, Jeff Parker.”
“Most people don’t, Rahn,” Jeff said. “Most good people don’t.”
Nancy hugged Rahn, and Jeff put his hand on his shoulder. “Thank you, Rahn! Thank you so, so much! You don’t know it, but you gave me my life back today.” Jeff wiped the corner of his eye and handed Nancy a napkin to wipe her eyes with.
“Go tell Jim and Amy the good news, Rahn. They deserve some.”
Moments later, a brownish bird with a long tail flew out of the upstairs window of Jeff’s apartment in the direction of the Sheriff’s office. Sitting in a car not far away, just out of sight, another figure watched the bird fly away.
“Now what is Jeff Parker up to?”
Judge Lewis scratched his head. “Has he gone into breeding roadrunners? Maybe he’s serving them on the menu… as alien chicken or something.” A brief smile flickered over the judge’s face at this thought, but it was quickly gone again. “Or maybe… he’s using them like carrier pigeons… to fly messages to those kids. I wonder if roadrunners could be trained to… Naw! …or can they? I wonder.”
Judge Lewis cranked his car and drove off in the direction the bird had flown. He didn’t see the bird again, but he did pass Sheriff Valenti’s office, and he decided that that was reason enough to park for a while and see what the sheriff might be up to today. Finding a nice shady spot in the shadows of a nearby building, Judge Lewis parked his car and waited. He really didn’t know if he would see anything unusual or not. Most days he saw nothing worthy of his interest. But it was the one day that he might see something that kept Judge Lewis coming back. Perseverance. It was the one thing the judge had in spades. He could be like a pit bull hanging on to the seat of someone’s pants… and even more annoying… though he preferred to think of himself as a mighty super hero… or super villain, he really didn’t care much which… who never gave up.
Twenty-five minutes passed uneventfully, and Judge Lewis stretched and looked at his watch. Just then the upstairs window of the Sheriff’s office opened and something flew out.
“Another roadrunner? What is Jim up to? Something that involves Jeff Parker obviously.”
Judge Lewis cranked his car quickly and spun it around, determined to follow this bird and see where it was going. He knew that he would probably lose it, but he hoped to follow it long enough to see where it might be going. The bird headed in the direction of the desert, and Judge Lewis followed as fast as he could. The roadrunner had a fair lead, but he could still just see it far up ahead… and he saw something else, too… something circling high in the sky, well above the furiously flapping little roadrunner… a much larger redtail hawk.
“Well, Valenti, if you’re sending messages by roadrunner courier, this is one that’s not going to get there,” Judge Lewis gloated.
Like one predator judging another, Judge Lewis was not off the mark about the hawk’s intent. Almost as soon as he thought it, the hawk went into a dive. Judge Lewis wasn’t sure if he should be happy that the message would not arrive or disappointed that he would not get to see where the bird was going now. He wasn’t sure if the smaller bird ever saw it coming or not. The hawk hit the roadrunner with all its fury, its claws extended, knocking the smaller bird into an uncontrolled death spiral toward the ground; then, as the roadrunner dropped, the hawk swooped in for the kill. Judge Lewis couldn’t see either bird now, because his line of vision was blocked by nearby trees, but that was about to end. He was coming up on open desert. Maybe the hawk would leave a leg or something for him… If he was lucky, he might find the message Jim had been sending. Then he would have him!
A couple of minutes later, the judge arrived at the area where he had seen the hawk kill Jim’s roadrunner, but he didn’t immediately see either bird, so he drove around the area several times, tightening his loops each time. If anything was there… if the hawk left him anything…
Then he saw it. Feathers… lots of them… all over the ground.
“Jim, Jim, Jim…” Judge Lewis sneered, smiling in spite of his probable loss of any message. “Big ole’ bad hawk made a mess of your little roadrunner. I’m afraid there’s not much left!”
Judge Lewis put his car in park and got out. Maybe the message might still be here among the feathers and carnage. He leaned over and picked up some of the feathers.
“These are mighty large feathers for a roadrunner.” Judge Lewis picked up some more feathers… then some more. All of them appeared to have come from the hawk. Judge Lewis scratched his head and looked further, still intent on finding the message he was sure Jim had sent. Then he saw a different kind of feather and picked it up.
“Aha! So you did not escape after all, did you, little roadrunner?”
As he held the feather in his hand, it suddenly seemed to melt and fuse together. Surprised, Judge Lewis dropped it. Then he squatted down and looked at the small, still-writhing oddity on the ground. It no longer looked like a feather at all. It looked more like… skin. Hesitantly, Judge Lewis picked it up again, but then he dropped it again as something red oozed out onto his hand.
“Blood! What the hell is going on here!?”
Judge Lewis took a small rag out of his car and picked the piece of skin up with it then wrapped it several times in the rag.
“I don’t know what happened to the message or the hawk… but I’ll bet this will turn some heads when those asshole agents see it! They’ll be groveling at my feet and apologizing to me now for not believing me before.”
Judge Lewis got back into his car, put the rag on the seat beside him, and turned the key. Nothing happened. He turned it again, and again, nothing. Huffing, he got out of his car. Then he reached back in and popped the hood. Working up a bad mood now, he walked to the front and lifted the hood. His eyes grew suddenly wide, and he tried to shut the hood back quickly, but it was already too late.
The huge snake uncoiled like a sling shot, wrapping itself around the judge numerous times before he could react. Soon, Judge Lewis found his ribs aching and his diaphragm unable to move enough air into his lungs to keep him conscious. He cursed his luck and the snake, even as he gasped his last conscious breath and reluctantly watched the daylight fade into darkness… and inescapable unconsciousness.
tbc
Coming up: Rahn returns to the reservation. Amy and Jim celebrate the news Rahn brought them and plan a way for themselves and the Parkers to see their children on the reservation. A disheveled and half-hallucinating Judge Lewis walks out of the desert with a story that no one will believe… until he shows them something that can’t be explained.
Starry Nights & Apache Justice
Chapter 22
XXII
Max tapped lightly on Gray Hawk’s front door with his right foot. A moment later, the door opened a crack, and Michael looked out. Seeing Max’s face, he quickly opened the door wide enough for Max to come in.
“I hope you weren’t seen, Max. What’s that?” Michael pointed to the object in Max’s arms. It was wrapped in an Indian blanket. Liz had had it over her shoulders while she sat by the river watching the stars. But it only took one good look for Michael to realize that what Max had in his arms was far more than just an “object.” Michael’s jaw dropped, and his eyes opened wide.
“Omigod, Max! You found her… She’s alive,” Michael stammered, in an excited whisper. “Where… How did you… Where did you… Don’t move! Maria’s got to…” Michael didn’t finish his sentence, as he rushed toward Maria and Isabel’s room and knocked quietly but excitedly on their bedroom door.
The door opened a crack, and Isabel looked out.
“Michael? We’re trying to sleep in here. You may have just woke Maria back up, and it took me hours to get her to sleep. What’s so important that it couldn’t wait for tomorrow?”
Michael turned around and saw Max walking up behind him with Liz in his arms.
“Is this important enough,” Michael asked, moving a portion of the blanket that had blocked Liz’s face. Isabel let out a loud gasp, and Maria, behind her, rolled over in her bed.
“Is something wrong, Iz? Was that you?”
Isabel tried to say something, but at first, no words would come out.
“Isabel?” Maria asked again, the concern in her voice rising.
“No… Uh… No,” Isabel stammered, finally finding her voice again. “Nothing’s wrong, Maria.”
“Okay.”
“Uh… Maria?”
“Yeah?”
“I think… I think you should really come here a minute… You need to see something… NOW…”
“Are you sure you’re alright,” Maria asked, coming awake completely now and rolling off the bed. Something in the urgency in Isabel’s voice alarmed her. It wasn’t like Isabel. Even in the tunnels, when Isabel had been dying, she had never requested Maria’s presence quite so urgently. Maria walked quickly to the door. Isabel opened it, and Max stepped forward with Liz in his arms.
“I would run and hug you,” Liz said, tears rolling down her cheeks even as a huge smile covered her face, “but I’m afraid I can’t walk anymore, Maria.”
Maria gasped, her eyes shot open wider than saucers, and her mouth dropped. In fact, it’s unlikely that her jaw could have fallen any further if she had had Rahn’s amazing stretching talents. Before anyone could react, Maria had her arms around both Liz and Max together, and the tears were rolling down her cheeks again… for only the hundredth time tonight.
“Omigod, Liz! You’re alive! You’re really, really, really, really ALIVE! And here! How did you get here? Let me look at you!” Maria looked at Liz and moved a tress of hair off of her face, then a huge smile came over her own face, and she hugged Liz and Max again, almost crushing Max’s ribs in her joy.
“Omigod, Liz! I don’t believe this! Where did you come from? …Max?”
“I found her down by the river. I made a wish and… there she was.”
Maria looked at Max for a moment silently but then turned her attention back to Liz.
“Liz… you’ve got to stay here with us. You’ve got to! I want to have you here where we can be together now… at least for a while! We’ve got to talk! The rest of us can’t go back home until it’s safe. The army thought we were all aliens or something, and they locked us in these dreadful rooms way down inside some huge tunnels where they were going to keep us until…” Maria waved her hands around in the air… “I don’t know what… maybe forever, I think. Rahn helped us escape from them by going deeper into the tunnels then into a cave. Then we found Angie Lee in the cave, and she led us here…”
Liz smiled. “I think we really do need to talk, Maria. Sounds like you’ve got a lot to tell me.”
“Me!? Oh… No! No! Not me… What about you, Liz? I want to hear about you since we were together. Since… Since…”
“Graduation, yeah,” Liz said, holding onto Max, who was still holding her in his arms. “That would be when we saw each other last. I woke up a couple of months later… completely paralyzed. But I can move again now! All but my legs…”
Maria’s eyes misted up, and she hugged Liz again.
“I’m so sorry, Liz. Hey, maybe Max can make you walk again! He healed Iz and me, and we were dead!”
“Yeah… he’s gonna see if he can,” Liz said. “It’s alright, Maria… Really! Hey! Tell me what happened to you?”
“I don’t remember everything before Max healed us… just some of it. Max said I was dead… me and Isabel… and Michael almost. The rest is just… a long story. I’ll tell you everything I can remember later… after I’ve heard all about you!”
“Good! I want to hear it all,” Liz said.
Max set Liz down on Maria’s bed and gave her a kiss, which Liz returned with a passion that was still unfulfilled after having been apart for so long… and given the heartaches that both had endured while on the run. After a couple of minutes, they separated, somewhat reluctantly, and Max stood back up and breathed a deep, refreshing breath, one of the first he had taken in a long time.
“I’ll have to tell Gray Hawk,” Max said… “I’ll see if I can get him to let you stay here, Liz.”
“Uh, you may not have to,” Michael said, pointing behind Max. Max turned around. The old Mesaliko Apache was standing right behind him, with a very stern look on his face. Max momentarily flushed and found that he had to moisten his lips and swallow before he could speak again, but then he steeled his resolve. He was determined that he was not going to be separated from Liz again… not now. Not after all that they had been through to find each other. It was Gray Hawk, however, who spoke first. He held up one hand, as though requesting their undivided attention… and he got it.
Gray Hawk looked at each person in the room, then he spoke slowly… deliberately. “I heard. It would seem that A’in ji Lii was correct. You do need my help. So I will allow it. There will be no more talk about the matter. But you…” He looked sternly into Liz’s eyes. “You must sleep in this room… and you…” He looked at Max. “You must sleep with the bird-man.”
Max just nodded and swallowed. “Thank you. That… that would be great…”
“UM! …Good! It is settled then. I will speak with my brother, River Dog, in the morning. He will understand. What is justice for one is justice for all. It is the way of our people.”
“Thank you,” Max managed to say again.
“Gray Hawk…” Liz whispered hesitantly.
The old Indian turned around and looked at Liz again but did not speak. Liz understood that he was waiting for her to say what was on her mind.
“Thank you… for me, too.”
“Um.”
Liz’s uneasy gaze remained on Gray Hawk, and she bit her lip.
“Is there something else,” Gray Hawk asked, seeing in Liz’s face that there was.
Liz breathed deeply. “Well… somebody will have to tell Alex that I’m here… tonight. He’s at River Dog’s house, and he’ll be really worried if I don’t return tonight.”
Gray Hawk looked at Liz, as he thought about what she had said, but this time, it was Max who spoke first.
“Liz had an idea that was pretty good earlier.”
Gray Hawk looked at Max.
“Isabel could deliver the message to Alex that Liz is okay… then Isabel could stay there tonight… It would balance things out again… where everybody would sleep and all… There would still be two sleeping at River Dog’s house… and Liz could sleep in Isabel’s bed here.”
Gray Hawk nodded silently. “I know my brother. He would make the same arrangements that I would make. It is acceptable. But it will be her decision.”
Isabel looked at Max then quickly back to Gray Hawk, as the full force of what this all meant suddenly hit her.
“Alex is alive… and he’s only three houses away! I want to see him! When can I go?”
Gray Hawk reached for a blanket from the chest at the foot of the bed.
“Take mine,” Liz said. “It belongs to River Dog anyway… and Alex will be expecting to see it.”
Max turned to Rahn, who had been listening silently.
“Rahn, Liz left her wheelchair down by the river. Could you bring it back here for her?”
“Yes, I can do that,” Rahn answered, happy to finally have something to contribute to this conversation.
“Um! There are several wheelchairs on the reservation,” Gray Hawk said, thinking. “No one would think much about it if they saw you in the chair… if you had the blanket over you.”
Several minutes later, the front door of Gray Hawk’s house opened just a bit, and a small brown bat flew out headed towards the river. Fifteen minutes later, an old Indian in a wheelchair rolled up to Gray Hawk’s house, and Gray Hawk let him in. Once inside, the old Indian began to change into a young man again… though perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he assumed the “appearance” of a young man again, because Rahn was actually older than either Gray Hawk or River Dog even though he appeared to be in his twenties and had the physique of a twenty-year-old. Physically, he was a twenty year old, but Rahn had been born some 127 earth years before and was not long out of adolescence for his kind.
Isabel sat down in the chair, and Max put Liz’s blanket over her shoulders and head, covering her hair and clothes. Then he nodded.
“You’re all set. Whenever you’re ready…”
“Third house?” Isabel asked. “The one with the spear in the ground beside the front door?”
“That is my brother’s house, yes,” Gray Hawk confirmed.
“Push me out, Max.”
Gray Hawk opened the door, and Max pushed Isabel to the door. She took the wheels in her hands and rolled the chair the rest of the way to the street, then taking one quick look back, Isabel headed quickly to the third house, where Alex was waiting for Liz to return.
***********
The door opened slightly, and Alex peeked out at the girl in the chair. Her head and shoulders were draped in River Dog’s Indian blanket.
“Come in… quick. God, Liz! I was getting worried! Do you know how long you’ve been gone? I was about to go look for you myself!” Alex pulled the chair into the house then turned around to make sure they were still alone.
“I’m not mad at you, Liz. I’m just concerned about you. You said you’d only be gone for a little while.”
Alex turned back around to face Liz, and Isabel removed the blanket that had been covering her head and shoulders. It was probably a good thing that Alex was young. The surprise could have been too much for a weaker heart.
Alex stumbled backwards a step then looked at Isabel as though he were seeing a ghost. His voice somehow got lost in his throat.
“Well? Aren’t you glad to see me, Alex?”
“Isabel?” Alex managed to whisper, finally finding his voice. “Omigod! Yeah! Yeah… sure, I’m… I’m ecstatic! Of course, I’m glad! Omigod, Isabel! What are you doing here? Where’s Liz?”
“Liz? You mean the girl you’ve been living here with?”
“Yeah, that would be the one, Iz. Where is she? You didn’t leave her down by the river did you?”
“Alex! No, of course not! Liz is fine. She’s at Gray Hawk’s house.”
“Who’s Gray Hawk?”
“River Dog’s brother.”
”River Dog’s got a brother?”
“Several of them… sisters, too.”
“I didn’t know.” Alex looked at Isabel again, and a huge smile came over his face.
“You came here… to be with me?”
“Well, I don’t see any other handsome, zany guys around here anywhere, Alex… so… yeah! I guess I did.” Isabel smiled. “Are you happy that I came?”
“Happy? I’m… I’m overjoyed!”
“Well, are you going to do something about it or are you just going to stand there and be overjoyed?”
Alex started to lift Isabel up out of the wheelchair, but then he hesitated.
“You’re… uh… I mean… You’re okay then? I won’t hurt you?”
Isabel smiled and stood up. “The chair is Liz’s, Alex. I’m fine. She just let me take it to come over here. Max is at Gray Hawk’s house. Max is taking care of her now.”
Finally realizing that Liz really was okay and that Isabel really was standing in front of him… in the flesh… alive… and not just another cruel dream… Alex grabbed Isabel, lifted her off her feet, and swung her around and around in circles. Then he kissed her. Then they both stopped spinning as they concentrated on each other and on all the time they had to make up for. If their bodies were no longer spinning, though, the same cannot truly be said of their heads or their hearts, which were certifiably higher, at this moment, than the stars on this starry, starry night.
**********
Jeff Parker was sitting in his apartment upstairs over the CrashDown, taking a much-needed break from the grill -at Nancy’s insistence- when something attracted his attention at the window. It was the roadrunner. It could have been another roadrunner, of course, but Jeff knew that it was not. Roadrunners were common enough, but seeing one sitting in a window, especially upstairs, was not common. Seeing one racing along the street in the desert was common. Roadrunners can and do fly, but they prefer to run, and their flight is somewhat limited by the shortness of their wings. Rahn had made his wings slightly longer than the average roadrunner’s in order to sustain his flight longer and more easily. This roadrunner was not common. It had a name, and Jeff knew it…
“Rahn!”
The bird hopped out of the window into Jeff’s apartment over the CrashDown and quickly morphed into its human appearance.
“You looking for more information for Max,” Jeff asked.
“No. This time I’m bringing information,” Rahn said.
Jeff put his newspaper down. He didn’t know why, but something told him that this was important. He guessed it was because Rahn had risked this trip to bring this information.
“I’m listening, Rahn. What do you have to tell me?”
“Your daughter is not dead,” Rahn said straight out. “Liz is alive.”
For a moment, Jeff wasn’t sure that he had heard right, but deep inside he knew that he had, and his pulse began to race even as the blood drained from his face, leaving him paler than Rahn on Rahn’s palest day.
“Liz… is alive? Are you… Are you sure, Rahn? Sheriff Valenti said…”
“I saw her and spoke with her myself. She is well… She is with Max. He’s taking care of her until they can return home and be safe again. The sheriff hid her and her friend, Alex. Unfortunately, it was necessary for everyone to believe that they were dead, even you, in order to make those who are trying to harm them believe that they were dead, too. That was the only way to give the sheriff time to plan what must be done to save them. Liz said to tell you that the sheriff is doing everything to try to help her, and that he saved her life. She said to tell you that you should not be angry with him.”
“No… I’m not. Well… I am… kind of… I don’t know. Why couldn’t he tell me? Where are they, Rahn? I have to know where Liz is!”
“Would you want to put her in the same danger that she was in before all over again? Because if you know where she is, she will be in danger… and so will you… and your wife. There are people who will use every means to force you to talk. I know, Jeff Parker. I have seen their methods personally. I don’t think a human could survive it for long. Some of my own people did not. I was fortunate to be young and healthy.”
Jeff put his hand over his eyes, and his eyes misted up, but then he realized that the fact that he could not see Liz right now was only the bad news… and the least news. The real news was the good news… Liz was alive! A smile began to grow across Jeff’s face, and the blood returned.
“Liz is alive? Liz is alive! Oh, geez! Liz is alive! NANCY!”
Nancy came running into the living room and found Jeff hugging Rahn. For a moment, she stood watching, not sure what was going on. Then Jeff turned to her with tears in his eyes.
“Liz is alive, Nancy… Our Lizzie’s alive!”
Nancy gasped, and her hand went automatically to her mouth. Rahn guessed that this habit was one of practicality, as it kept anything from flying into one’s mouth when it was wide open, as humans’ mouths so often tended to be.
“Liz is still alive?” Nancy repeated. “Where is she? I want to see her!”
“We can’t see her right now,” Jeff said. “She’s hiding, with the sheriff’s help, and everybody’s supposed to think she’s dead… but just until Jim can fix things… right Rahn?”
“That is what he hopes. That is what we all hope,” Rahn said. “Liz said that the sheriff is working very hard on it. I must go now and tell him that Max and the others are alive.”
“Amy will want to know about Maria,” Nancy said. “She really should know.”
Rahn nodded. “Zan… I mean, Max… and Liz agree with you. They believe that you and Jeff will keep their secret, and Amy already has kept Liz and Alex’s secret, so they believe it will be best to tell her and Sheriff Jim about Maria and the others, too. It might make it easier for him to coordinate a plan to help them all.”
“That’s good thinking, Rahn,” Jeff said. “Jim will do everything he can to help all of them… but he can’t if he doesn’t even know they’re all alive or where the rest of them are. I would tell him.”
Rahn smiled. “At least this time I am delivering good news. I did not enjoy delivering bad news before, Jeff Parker.”
“Most people don’t, Rahn,” Jeff said. “Most good people don’t.”
Nancy hugged Rahn, and Jeff put his hand on his shoulder. “Thank you, Rahn! Thank you so, so much! You don’t know it, but you gave me my life back today.” Jeff wiped the corner of his eye and handed Nancy a napkin to wipe her eyes with.
“Go tell Jim and Amy the good news, Rahn. They deserve some.”
Moments later, a brownish bird with a long tail flew out of the upstairs window of Jeff’s apartment in the direction of the Sheriff’s office. Sitting in a car not far away, just out of sight, another figure watched the bird fly away.
“Now what is Jeff Parker up to?”
Judge Lewis scratched his head. “Has he gone into breeding roadrunners? Maybe he’s serving them on the menu… as alien chicken or something.” A brief smile flickered over the judge’s face at this thought, but it was quickly gone again. “Or maybe… he’s using them like carrier pigeons… to fly messages to those kids. I wonder if roadrunners could be trained to… Naw! …or can they? I wonder.”
Judge Lewis cranked his car and drove off in the direction the bird had flown. He didn’t see the bird again, but he did pass Sheriff Valenti’s office, and he decided that that was reason enough to park for a while and see what the sheriff might be up to today. Finding a nice shady spot in the shadows of a nearby building, Judge Lewis parked his car and waited. He really didn’t know if he would see anything unusual or not. Most days he saw nothing worthy of his interest. But it was the one day that he might see something that kept Judge Lewis coming back. Perseverance. It was the one thing the judge had in spades. He could be like a pit bull hanging on to the seat of someone’s pants… and even more annoying… though he preferred to think of himself as a mighty super hero… or super villain, he really didn’t care much which… who never gave up.
Twenty-five minutes passed uneventfully, and Judge Lewis stretched and looked at his watch. Just then the upstairs window of the Sheriff’s office opened and something flew out.
“Another roadrunner? What is Jim up to? Something that involves Jeff Parker obviously.”
Judge Lewis cranked his car quickly and spun it around, determined to follow this bird and see where it was going. He knew that he would probably lose it, but he hoped to follow it long enough to see where it might be going. The bird headed in the direction of the desert, and Judge Lewis followed as fast as he could. The roadrunner had a fair lead, but he could still just see it far up ahead… and he saw something else, too… something circling high in the sky, well above the furiously flapping little roadrunner… a much larger redtail hawk.
“Well, Valenti, if you’re sending messages by roadrunner courier, this is one that’s not going to get there,” Judge Lewis gloated.
Like one predator judging another, Judge Lewis was not off the mark about the hawk’s intent. Almost as soon as he thought it, the hawk went into a dive. Judge Lewis wasn’t sure if he should be happy that the message would not arrive or disappointed that he would not get to see where the bird was going now. He wasn’t sure if the smaller bird ever saw it coming or not. The hawk hit the roadrunner with all its fury, its claws extended, knocking the smaller bird into an uncontrolled death spiral toward the ground; then, as the roadrunner dropped, the hawk swooped in for the kill. Judge Lewis couldn’t see either bird now, because his line of vision was blocked by nearby trees, but that was about to end. He was coming up on open desert. Maybe the hawk would leave a leg or something for him… If he was lucky, he might find the message Jim had been sending. Then he would have him!
A couple of minutes later, the judge arrived at the area where he had seen the hawk kill Jim’s roadrunner, but he didn’t immediately see either bird, so he drove around the area several times, tightening his loops each time. If anything was there… if the hawk left him anything…
Then he saw it. Feathers… lots of them… all over the ground.
“Jim, Jim, Jim…” Judge Lewis sneered, smiling in spite of his probable loss of any message. “Big ole’ bad hawk made a mess of your little roadrunner. I’m afraid there’s not much left!”
Judge Lewis put his car in park and got out. Maybe the message might still be here among the feathers and carnage. He leaned over and picked up some of the feathers.
“These are mighty large feathers for a roadrunner.” Judge Lewis picked up some more feathers… then some more. All of them appeared to have come from the hawk. Judge Lewis scratched his head and looked further, still intent on finding the message he was sure Jim had sent. Then he saw a different kind of feather and picked it up.
“Aha! So you did not escape after all, did you, little roadrunner?”
As he held the feather in his hand, it suddenly seemed to melt and fuse together. Surprised, Judge Lewis dropped it. Then he squatted down and looked at the small, still-writhing oddity on the ground. It no longer looked like a feather at all. It looked more like… skin. Hesitantly, Judge Lewis picked it up again, but then he dropped it again as something red oozed out onto his hand.
“Blood! What the hell is going on here!?”
Judge Lewis took a small rag out of his car and picked the piece of skin up with it then wrapped it several times in the rag.
“I don’t know what happened to the message or the hawk… but I’ll bet this will turn some heads when those asshole agents see it! They’ll be groveling at my feet and apologizing to me now for not believing me before.”
Judge Lewis got back into his car, put the rag on the seat beside him, and turned the key. Nothing happened. He turned it again, and again, nothing. Huffing, he got out of his car. Then he reached back in and popped the hood. Working up a bad mood now, he walked to the front and lifted the hood. His eyes grew suddenly wide, and he tried to shut the hood back quickly, but it was already too late.
The huge snake uncoiled like a sling shot, wrapping itself around the judge numerous times before he could react. Soon, Judge Lewis found his ribs aching and his diaphragm unable to move enough air into his lungs to keep him conscious. He cursed his luck and the snake, even as he gasped his last conscious breath and reluctantly watched the daylight fade into darkness… and inescapable unconsciousness.
tbc
Coming up: Rahn returns to the reservation. Amy and Jim celebrate the news Rahn brought them and plan a way for themselves and the Parkers to see their children on the reservation. A disheveled and half-hallucinating Judge Lewis walks out of the desert with a story that no one will believe… until he shows them something that can’t be explained.
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Island Breeze
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The Night The Dreams Died
A Feather Of Doubt
Chapter 23
XXIII
Upstairs over the sheriff’s office, safely locked away from prying eyes, Jim and Amy hugged each other. Then Amy bounced, pirouetted, and danced around the gym, wanting to scream for joy but trying not to make so much noise that anyone else might hear and wonder what was going on up there. Unable to scream, Amy let out her feelings by leaping and dancing all over the room. Then she literally leapt into Jim’s arms.
With a huge grin on his own face, Jim stared at the coffee cup Amy had been drinking out of only a few minutes earlier.
“I’m really gonna have to add some water to that coffee pot downstairs one of these days. I knew it was getting to be pretty strong stuff, but this is bordering on illegal! I wouldn’t want Hansen doing flips and pirouettes around the office… and if he jumps into my arms, that’s it! He’s goin’ in the tank till the caffeine wears off!”
Amy ran her hand over the side of Jim’s face and up through his hair then smiled at him.
“Go ahead and arrest me, Sheriff! I surrender!”
Jim just smiled.
“Jim… can we see her,” Amy asked, suddenly turning more serious again, though still smiling from ear to ear. “We could go out to the reservation… You could make up some excuse or something for going out there, couldn’t you?”
“What about Jeff and Nancy… and Diane and Phillip… or the Whitmans? They’ll want to see their children, too.”
“Well… yeah… I know. Maybe we could take them with us!”
Jim gave Amy a skeptical look, but then he seemed to consider it.
“I could think on it, Amy… maybe… I don’t know. I’ll see if I can come up with something believable. But don’t put too much hope into it. Their safety is the most important thing right now. It comes first.”
“Of course it does,” Amy agreed. “I wouldn’t do anything to hurt Maria. She’s my daughter. I just need to see her… you know… for myself… to know that she’s really okay. You understand? I… I thought she was dead for so long, Jim…”
In spite of the smile on her face, Amy’s eyes began to mist up.
Jim nodded and swallowed. He knew he was up against a force that no law officer had ever been trained to deal with. And besides… he kind of relished the idea of seeing everyone alive, well, and together again himself. Jim sighed a half-resigned sigh and looked at Amy…
“I understand how everyone feels. I just don’t know if I can do anything about it.”
He looked at Amy’s pleading face.
“But I’ll try. I promise. I’ll see what I can do.”
Amy smiled again. “I know you’ll come up with something, Jim. You’re the smartest man I know.”
“Ah! Watch it!” Jim said, turning back around. “That’s bribery! Keep that up and I may HAVE to arrest you.”
“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time,” Amy said.
“No… No, it wouldn’t,” Jim agreed.
“Anyway… I’m already serving a life sentence,” Amy added. “What else can you do to me?”
“A life sentence? Is that what it is?”
Amy grinned. “Oh, I hope so!”
Jim nodded. “Well… with good behavior… and continued bribes like that to the sheriff… yeah… you can count on it being life. Besides, I can’t let you go… I threw the key away.”
“How convenient. Do you think you’ll ever regret it, Jim?”
Jim shook his head. “Not for a moment.”
Amy smiled. “Me either.”
**********
~ three days later, on the Mesaliko Indian Reservation ~
Angie Lee sat in the living room of Gray Hawk’s house talking with Maria and Liz. Though she was officially on summer break now, she had spent the last four days in Las Cruces taking care of some unfinished college work and other business. Max and Michael sat at the table nearby discussing plans with Alex and Isabel, who somehow had managed to convince River Dog to sneak them over to Gray Hawk’s house for the day to be with the others… as they had every day for the past three days. It was Angie Lee who first noticed the faint sound, like something flopping around outside the door. She looked at Maria for a moment then at Max, then she ran to the door and opened it. A roadrunner limped into the living room and flopped over with its wings outstretched on the floor… heaving from exhaustion. Its head sank slowly to the floor, then it didn’t move. Its eyes were closed.
“Max!” Angie Lee cried, but Max was already there.
“Rahn? My God! We were afraid something bad like this had happened when you didn’t return! Can you change back?”
The bird just lay there, its wings outstretched, its eyes closed, and its head on the floor. Max reached down and carefully picked the little roadrunner up. He looked it over, then his hands began to glow with a soft green glow. After a short time, the bird pulled its wings in next to its sides… then, moments later, it tried to stand up. Max set it back down on the floor gently.
The roadrunner did look a hundred percent better, all things considered. It was still missing a few feathers, including one of its long tail feathers. But it was breathing more normally, and its eyes were open. It was also able to stand on its own feet now and hold its head up.
“Can you change back,” Max asked again.
Little by little, the bird began to stretch and expand, its feathers began to disappear, and Rahn began to assume his “human” form. As he did, the extent of his injuries became more obvious. Everywhere that a feather had been missing, there was a deep gouge or abrasion on Rahn’s body… including one that must have been very painful across his hips and up to the tailbone, where the tail feather had been. A sizeable patch of skin was missing there, and there was a deep gouge, probably from one of the hawk’s talons. There was another deep gouge on his back and upper left side just below the shoulders.
As Rahn morphed back into his human form, he automatically replaced a thinner outer skin that mimicked human clothing, but in his present injured condition, he was unable to create new skin or “clothing” over the injured areas. Because of this, he looked like he had been in a fight with a tiger and was wearing clothes that were all ripped up. Max placed his hand over one of the wounds, and his hand glowed for about twenty seconds. As it did, the wound began to close… then skin covered it… then the “rip” in Rahn’s biological “clothes” closed up. Max repeated this until he had healed all but the one remaining wound, the large one across Rahn’s derriere. Max looked at Michael and at the girls.
“What?” Michael asked, grinning in spite of his best efforts to feign nonchalance. “You want me not to look? It’s Rahn’s butt! He’s the one exposed, not you.”
“Come on,” Angie Lee said to Michael. “Let’s go in the other room.”
“I don’t see what he’s being so prudish about,” Michael said. “He’s not the one lying there exposed. I mean, if Rahn’s okay with it…”
Angie Lee pushed Michael into the other room, and Maria and the others all followed.
Max placed both his hands on top of the large wounds on Rahn’s hips, and there was a glow from his hands for almost a minute. He had to repeat the process several times on different parts of Rahn’s wounded rear. Then he repeated the procedure on his tailbone. Finally, he removed his hands. The skin had grown back, and the biological “clothes” were starting to fill in.
“You’re all fixed, Rahn.”
“Thank you,” Rahn said, but he looked somewhat puzzled. “Was that hard for you? You seemed… concerned.”
Max shook his head. “No. No, it wasn’t hard. You’re wounds were relatively superficial… except for a couple that were deep… and the one on your… uh, your butt. There are just… well… some things that… well… I wouldn’t do for just anybody, Rahn.”
“I don’t understand.”
Max looked unsettled, as he tried to think of some way to explain.
“It’s just that Michael knows about this now.”
Max could tell that this information hadn’t enlightened Rahn at all. If anything, Rahn simply looked more puzzled than ever.
“Never mind,” Max said. “Michael and I are kind of… competitive. He won’t let this opportunity go by. You can count on it.”
“Is that bad?”
Max sighed. Clearly, he was going to have to explain a bit more appropriately for Rahn to understand.
“Michael and I… we sometimes kid each other about stuff… you know, just because we’re friends and we’re close and all… Touching someone in certain places sends kind of a sexual message…”
“Oh,” Rahn said, seeming to understand. “So when you healed me… but don’t your doctors touch people if they need to to heal them?”
“Yes, of course they do,” Max admitted. “There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just, well… it’s… Never mind, Rahn. It’s just childish.”
Max heard muted laughter coming from the other room.
“You hear that, Michael? Childish!” Max said, raising his voice in the direction of the room the others had gone into. “You can come out now. It’s all over.”
The door opened and Michael and the others came back into the living room. Michael was grinning, but he didn’t say anything.
“Rahn’s as good as new,” Max said, waving his hand in Rahn’s direction.
“I’m very pleased to see that you’re back to normal,” Michael said politely to Rahn.
“Thank you. I am a bit pleased myself,” Rahn admitted.
Michael grinned.
“Go ahead, Michael,” Max said. “You know you want to say it! Say what you want to say! Get it over with.”
“What?” Michael asked, acting offended. “Make fun of you for healing someone? That would be childish, Max. What do you take me for?”
Max looked at Maria. She shrugged.
“Okay,” Max said quietly, still not sure if he really believed it. “Maybe I was wrong.”
“I’m hurt, Maxwell! I think you owe me an apology.”
Max looked at Michael’s pleading face for a moment then sighed.
“Okay. I’m sorry.”
“That you would even think I would be so crass,” Michael continued.
“Michael! Don’t push it! I said I’m sorry.”
“Well, I’m very grateful to you,” Rahn said, interrupting Max and Michael’s exchange. “Zan… I mean, Max… you are a wonderful healer.”
“Thank you,” Max said, some of the smile returning to his face.
“I was afraid I would not be able to sit down again after that hawk slashed my tail,” Rahn said.
“Did Max make it feel all better,” Michael asked, with innocence painted all over his face.
“Oh yes! Very much better!”
“Really? I expect he ran his hands all over the, uh, injured area afterward to check for healing anomalies… you know, unevenness, unusual coloration, odd misalignments… silver handprints…”
“No… I don’t think so… Should he have?”
Michael smiled. “Naw… It’s nothing to worry about.”
“It’s nothing to worry about?” Rahn asked, sounding concerned.
“Well, it’s just that the last guy Max touched there, his butt turned silver and was all uneven afterwards, and then it started to grow and grow. Now the poor guy has to be rolled everywhere he goes.”
Angie Lee put one hand over her mouth and eyes but then broke down and giggled in spite of herself. Maria gave Michael a “Shame on you” look.
Max nodded. “I knew it! I knew you had to do it! I know you too well, Michael.”
“Michael is playing a joke,” Rahn said, seeming to understand what was going on.
“Yeah, I’m just pulling your leg, Rahn,” Michael said. “But Max has been known to leave silver handprints. Did you check that out, Max?”
“No, and I’m not going to,” Max said. “It’ll wear off soon enough… if there is one.”
Michael snickered. Alex shook his head but smiled, too.
“Well, Rahn,” Liz said, “From where I’m sitting, you don’t have any silver handprints on you anywhere, so don’t worry about it.”
“I’m not worried,” Rahn said.
“Maybe his body doesn’t get silver handprints from being healed by an alien,” Alex mused.
“Or maybe they’re under his clothes or whatever that is that he wears when he turns back into one of us again,” Michael suggested.
“Well, either way, it is no problem for me,” Rahn said. “I am very happy to be all well again with no injuries. That is all that I care about. Max pleased me very much.”
Michael snorted, and Max ran his hand over his face.
“We understand, Rahn,” Liz said.
“Don’t pay any attention to Michael,” Max added. “His hormones got all out of whack being away from Maria for so long.”
“Maybe it was something they did to him in the army lab,” Rahn said seriously.
Max shook his head. “No, I don’t think so.”
Max started to turn away but then seemed to stop and think for a moment…
“Then again, though… you could be right, Rahn. I probably ought to check that out.”
Max turned around and took a step toward Michael.
“Uh, Max… what are you planning to do here,” Michael asked warily, backing up then dodging to the other side of the room.
“Well, if you’re still you, Michael, and they didn’t change you, your butt will hold a silver handprint nicely.”
“No! Uh, uh! No way! You stay away from me, Max! I like my butt untattooed, thank you very much!”
Max leapt, and Michael dodged back to the other side of the room again, keeping Alex and the others between them. Max feigned a dash to the left but then cut to the right instead, closing in on Michael. Seeing his escape path blocked, Michael sat his butt down the only place he saw available… on Maria’s lap. By now the entire room was in tears from laughter.
Maria smiled and put her arms around him. “I’ll protect your butt, Michael.”
Alex couldn’t help letting out a little, “Awwwwww,” which didn’t go unnoticed by Michael.
“Watch it, Alex! You can’t make silver handprints on my butt! You’re vulnerable!”
“Naw,” Alex said, shaking his head. “I’ve got Isabel to protect me.”
Michael knew that Alex was poking fun at his seeking refuge in Maria’s lap, but he also knew that there was more than a little bit of truth to what Alex had said. Getting Alex back would be a challenge with Isabel around. Michael wasn’t sure he wanted to risk it.
At that moment, the front door opened, and Gray Hawk came in. Gray Hawk looked around the room as though taking inventory of who was there, then he motioned to someone behind him. As he moved out of the way, Jim Valenti walked in with Amy, and right behind them were Jeff and Nancy Parker, the Whitmans, and Diane and Phillip Evans. Compared to the scene that erupted next, everything that had gone before seemed as solemn as a church service. Amy dashed straight to Maria, who jumped up, forgetting that Michael was on her lap, and ran to her mother. Michael grinned sheepishly and stood back up, brushing himself off.
Jeff looked at Liz for a moment and smiled, as tears came into his eyes, and Nancy dropped down onto her knees and hugged Liz in her chair.
Phillip and Diane Evans looked at Max and Isabel for several moments, unable to speak. Then Diane pulled Isabel into her arms and reached over to touch Max, as Phillip reached his own hand out to Max.
The Whitmans had Alex in an embrace that would have held a struggling bull down, but Alex wasn’t complaining. In fact, he was smiling.
Gray Hawk stood by his front door, which he had closed again so no one would see. This was going to take a lot of peyote dust blown into the air later… but he felt that somehow it was worth it.
Everybody was talking at once, asking questions, convincing themselves that this was really happening.
After hugging Liz for several minutes, Jeff walked over to Max and looked at him. Then he smiled. “Max, it’s good to see you again.”
“You, too, Mr. Parker.”
“I, uh, I take it you couldn’t heal Liz? The sheriff thought you might try to… you know…”
Max’s smile disappeared, and sadness seemed to come over him momentarily.
“I tried, Mr. Parker. But what’s wrong with Liz is something… that I can’t fix… something beyond my powers. I’ll keep trying, though. I won’t give up on Liz.”
Jeff nodded. “I know…”
“Mr. Parker?”
“Yes?”
“If Liz doesn’t… walk again… I just want you to know… It won’t make any difference. I love her. That’s not going to change.”
Jeff smiled. “I know that, too, Max. I don’t know whether that comforts me more or scares me more. I guess I’ll get used to it, though… eventually. It’s kind of hard, you know, knowing that there’s another man in my little girl’s life now. If you’re going to be my son-in-law, Max, you’re going to have to settle down and take care of Liz.”
Max blushed slightly. “We haven’t actually got that far yet, Mr. Parker. I don’t even know if Liz will want me… I mean, forever, you know.”
“Don’t you?” Jeff asked with a smile. “Then you’re the only person who still doesn’t know it, Max.”
Jeff turned and went back to Liz and Nancy, leaving Max to think about what he had said.
It was hard to tell who was asking a question and who was answering one, Amy or Maria. Both were alternately hugging, crying, kissing, and talking at the same time. But, somehow, they seemed to understand each other perfectly. And along with the never-ending words, enough tears were falling to fill a rain barrel.
Phillip and Diane Evans were hanging on to Isabel and Max’s every word now. They had dragged Michael over to where they were sitting and were acting as though he were their other long lost son. Michael, who was at first somewhat embarrassed by all the unexpected attention, had to admit to himself that it gave him a warm, good feeling inside; and before he realized what was happening, he found himself falling into the part of the second son as though he had grown up in their home.
Jeff and Nancy were both huddled around Liz, as Liz told them what had happened to her and Alex in the asylum and about finding Max by the river and all about their time in River Dog and Gray Hawk’s homes. Nancy was alternately gasping, hugging Liz, crying, and asking more questions, as Jeff stood by her side, a smile on his face that Liz guessed would take a month of Sundays to wipe away.
It was Mrs. Whitman who first seemed to notice that there were other people in the house. She already knew who Gray Hawk was, because Jim had introduced them all briefly before they had come to the reservation, but she knew that she had never met the blonde headed girl with the green eyes or the handsome young, light-skinned man with blondish hair, who stood nearby watching everything going on with smiles on their faces.
“Alex?” Mrs. Whitman nodded toward the young couple.
“Oh! Yeah! Mom… Dad, this is Angie Lee… and Rahn.”
Everyone else turned to look at Angie Lee and Rahn, too, as Alex introduced them.
“Angie Lee lives with Gray Hawk. She’s his adopted daughter. And Rahn is… is… well… a friend of Max and Michael.”
“We’ve met,” Jeff said, holding his hand out to Rahn. “It’s good to see you again, Rahn.”
Then Jeff turned to the girl. “I don’t think we’ve met, though, Angie Lee… I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in town.”
“I don’t go into town ever… well, not much,” Angie Lee said. “When I do, I kind of… uh… disguise myself. It’s better if no one knows about me living here. I would like it if you kept my secret for me.”
Jeff shrugged. “Sure… if that’s what you want… but you’re welcome in the CrashDown… or in our home… any time. I want you to know that.”
“Thank you,” Angie Lee said, smiling politely. “I’ll remember that.”
“Well, here’s to everyone being together again,” Mr. Whitman said, and everyone in the room nodded and voiced their agreement. “I never thought this day would come. I thought we had lost Alex forever. I can only imagine how some of you must have felt after so much time… not seeing your children since… that terrible day… at graduation… thinking they were dead. But we’re all back together now, all of us, for good!”
Jim looked around somewhat uncomfortably. “Well, you know that they’ll have to stay here for a while… I still don’t know how long that will be… and nobody else can know that they’re here.”
“We understood that,” Mr. Whitman said. “We can live with that to get our son back alive and safe.”
Jim smiled.
“I am very happy to see all of you together, too,” Rahn said. “But there is a saying where I come from… ‘It is of no use to inventory the glahkies while the boryx is still nearby.’ I don’t want to worry anyone, but it is a wise lesson to remember.
Jim nodded. “I guess that would be like saying, ‘Don’t count your chickens while the fox is still in the coop.’”
“Well, these animals are somewhat smaller,” Rahn said. “A boryx is something like your weasel, but it is a big one, as big as one of your bears… and glahkies are… kind of like small sheep. But what you said is a good analogy,” Rahn agreed. “It has the same meaning.”
“You mean… Judge Lewis,” Jeff Parker said.
Rahn nodded. “Yes… and the special unit agents. There are still dangers for you to beware of. I remind you of this… because you are my friends.”
Everyone nodded. They understood. But neither that nor anything else now or ever could spoil this day. For this moment in time, all the boryxes, all the foxes, and all the Judge Lewises and special unit agents in the world didn’t exist. There was only them and their children… and they were finally, finally together again.
**********
In the desert, about a mile outside of Roswell, a passing car stopped, and the driver looked at the short, pudgy, profusely sweating, older man plodding away under the hot sun.
“Can I give you a ride? It’s got to be awful hot out there in the desert. Where’s your car?”
The man didn’t answer immediately. He just climbed into the car beside the driver.
“My car broke down a few miles back.”
“Oh yeah? I didn’t see it.”
“It’s off the road. You wouldn’t see it from the road.”
“What you got there?” the driver asked, noticing that his passenger was carrying something in his hand.
Judge Lewis held up his hand and the dirty folded rag in it and smiled for the first time.
“My proof. I win.”
tbc
Coming up: A weasel by any other name
A Feather Of Doubt
Chapter 23
XXIII
Upstairs over the sheriff’s office, safely locked away from prying eyes, Jim and Amy hugged each other. Then Amy bounced, pirouetted, and danced around the gym, wanting to scream for joy but trying not to make so much noise that anyone else might hear and wonder what was going on up there. Unable to scream, Amy let out her feelings by leaping and dancing all over the room. Then she literally leapt into Jim’s arms.
With a huge grin on his own face, Jim stared at the coffee cup Amy had been drinking out of only a few minutes earlier.
“I’m really gonna have to add some water to that coffee pot downstairs one of these days. I knew it was getting to be pretty strong stuff, but this is bordering on illegal! I wouldn’t want Hansen doing flips and pirouettes around the office… and if he jumps into my arms, that’s it! He’s goin’ in the tank till the caffeine wears off!”
Amy ran her hand over the side of Jim’s face and up through his hair then smiled at him.
“Go ahead and arrest me, Sheriff! I surrender!”
Jim just smiled.
“Jim… can we see her,” Amy asked, suddenly turning more serious again, though still smiling from ear to ear. “We could go out to the reservation… You could make up some excuse or something for going out there, couldn’t you?”
“What about Jeff and Nancy… and Diane and Phillip… or the Whitmans? They’ll want to see their children, too.”
“Well… yeah… I know. Maybe we could take them with us!”
Jim gave Amy a skeptical look, but then he seemed to consider it.
“I could think on it, Amy… maybe… I don’t know. I’ll see if I can come up with something believable. But don’t put too much hope into it. Their safety is the most important thing right now. It comes first.”
“Of course it does,” Amy agreed. “I wouldn’t do anything to hurt Maria. She’s my daughter. I just need to see her… you know… for myself… to know that she’s really okay. You understand? I… I thought she was dead for so long, Jim…”
In spite of the smile on her face, Amy’s eyes began to mist up.
Jim nodded and swallowed. He knew he was up against a force that no law officer had ever been trained to deal with. And besides… he kind of relished the idea of seeing everyone alive, well, and together again himself. Jim sighed a half-resigned sigh and looked at Amy…
“I understand how everyone feels. I just don’t know if I can do anything about it.”
He looked at Amy’s pleading face.
“But I’ll try. I promise. I’ll see what I can do.”
Amy smiled again. “I know you’ll come up with something, Jim. You’re the smartest man I know.”
“Ah! Watch it!” Jim said, turning back around. “That’s bribery! Keep that up and I may HAVE to arrest you.”
“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time,” Amy said.
“No… No, it wouldn’t,” Jim agreed.
“Anyway… I’m already serving a life sentence,” Amy added. “What else can you do to me?”
“A life sentence? Is that what it is?”
Amy grinned. “Oh, I hope so!”
Jim nodded. “Well… with good behavior… and continued bribes like that to the sheriff… yeah… you can count on it being life. Besides, I can’t let you go… I threw the key away.”
“How convenient. Do you think you’ll ever regret it, Jim?”
Jim shook his head. “Not for a moment.”
Amy smiled. “Me either.”
**********
~ three days later, on the Mesaliko Indian Reservation ~
Angie Lee sat in the living room of Gray Hawk’s house talking with Maria and Liz. Though she was officially on summer break now, she had spent the last four days in Las Cruces taking care of some unfinished college work and other business. Max and Michael sat at the table nearby discussing plans with Alex and Isabel, who somehow had managed to convince River Dog to sneak them over to Gray Hawk’s house for the day to be with the others… as they had every day for the past three days. It was Angie Lee who first noticed the faint sound, like something flopping around outside the door. She looked at Maria for a moment then at Max, then she ran to the door and opened it. A roadrunner limped into the living room and flopped over with its wings outstretched on the floor… heaving from exhaustion. Its head sank slowly to the floor, then it didn’t move. Its eyes were closed.
“Max!” Angie Lee cried, but Max was already there.
“Rahn? My God! We were afraid something bad like this had happened when you didn’t return! Can you change back?”
The bird just lay there, its wings outstretched, its eyes closed, and its head on the floor. Max reached down and carefully picked the little roadrunner up. He looked it over, then his hands began to glow with a soft green glow. After a short time, the bird pulled its wings in next to its sides… then, moments later, it tried to stand up. Max set it back down on the floor gently.
The roadrunner did look a hundred percent better, all things considered. It was still missing a few feathers, including one of its long tail feathers. But it was breathing more normally, and its eyes were open. It was also able to stand on its own feet now and hold its head up.
“Can you change back,” Max asked again.
Little by little, the bird began to stretch and expand, its feathers began to disappear, and Rahn began to assume his “human” form. As he did, the extent of his injuries became more obvious. Everywhere that a feather had been missing, there was a deep gouge or abrasion on Rahn’s body… including one that must have been very painful across his hips and up to the tailbone, where the tail feather had been. A sizeable patch of skin was missing there, and there was a deep gouge, probably from one of the hawk’s talons. There was another deep gouge on his back and upper left side just below the shoulders.
As Rahn morphed back into his human form, he automatically replaced a thinner outer skin that mimicked human clothing, but in his present injured condition, he was unable to create new skin or “clothing” over the injured areas. Because of this, he looked like he had been in a fight with a tiger and was wearing clothes that were all ripped up. Max placed his hand over one of the wounds, and his hand glowed for about twenty seconds. As it did, the wound began to close… then skin covered it… then the “rip” in Rahn’s biological “clothes” closed up. Max repeated this until he had healed all but the one remaining wound, the large one across Rahn’s derriere. Max looked at Michael and at the girls.
“What?” Michael asked, grinning in spite of his best efforts to feign nonchalance. “You want me not to look? It’s Rahn’s butt! He’s the one exposed, not you.”
“Come on,” Angie Lee said to Michael. “Let’s go in the other room.”
“I don’t see what he’s being so prudish about,” Michael said. “He’s not the one lying there exposed. I mean, if Rahn’s okay with it…”
Angie Lee pushed Michael into the other room, and Maria and the others all followed.
Max placed both his hands on top of the large wounds on Rahn’s hips, and there was a glow from his hands for almost a minute. He had to repeat the process several times on different parts of Rahn’s wounded rear. Then he repeated the procedure on his tailbone. Finally, he removed his hands. The skin had grown back, and the biological “clothes” were starting to fill in.
“You’re all fixed, Rahn.”
“Thank you,” Rahn said, but he looked somewhat puzzled. “Was that hard for you? You seemed… concerned.”
Max shook his head. “No. No, it wasn’t hard. You’re wounds were relatively superficial… except for a couple that were deep… and the one on your… uh, your butt. There are just… well… some things that… well… I wouldn’t do for just anybody, Rahn.”
“I don’t understand.”
Max looked unsettled, as he tried to think of some way to explain.
“It’s just that Michael knows about this now.”
Max could tell that this information hadn’t enlightened Rahn at all. If anything, Rahn simply looked more puzzled than ever.
“Never mind,” Max said. “Michael and I are kind of… competitive. He won’t let this opportunity go by. You can count on it.”
“Is that bad?”
Max sighed. Clearly, he was going to have to explain a bit more appropriately for Rahn to understand.
“Michael and I… we sometimes kid each other about stuff… you know, just because we’re friends and we’re close and all… Touching someone in certain places sends kind of a sexual message…”
“Oh,” Rahn said, seeming to understand. “So when you healed me… but don’t your doctors touch people if they need to to heal them?”
“Yes, of course they do,” Max admitted. “There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just, well… it’s… Never mind, Rahn. It’s just childish.”
Max heard muted laughter coming from the other room.
“You hear that, Michael? Childish!” Max said, raising his voice in the direction of the room the others had gone into. “You can come out now. It’s all over.”
The door opened and Michael and the others came back into the living room. Michael was grinning, but he didn’t say anything.
“Rahn’s as good as new,” Max said, waving his hand in Rahn’s direction.
“I’m very pleased to see that you’re back to normal,” Michael said politely to Rahn.
“Thank you. I am a bit pleased myself,” Rahn admitted.
Michael grinned.
“Go ahead, Michael,” Max said. “You know you want to say it! Say what you want to say! Get it over with.”
“What?” Michael asked, acting offended. “Make fun of you for healing someone? That would be childish, Max. What do you take me for?”
Max looked at Maria. She shrugged.
“Okay,” Max said quietly, still not sure if he really believed it. “Maybe I was wrong.”
“I’m hurt, Maxwell! I think you owe me an apology.”
Max looked at Michael’s pleading face for a moment then sighed.
“Okay. I’m sorry.”
“That you would even think I would be so crass,” Michael continued.
“Michael! Don’t push it! I said I’m sorry.”
“Well, I’m very grateful to you,” Rahn said, interrupting Max and Michael’s exchange. “Zan… I mean, Max… you are a wonderful healer.”
“Thank you,” Max said, some of the smile returning to his face.
“I was afraid I would not be able to sit down again after that hawk slashed my tail,” Rahn said.
“Did Max make it feel all better,” Michael asked, with innocence painted all over his face.
“Oh yes! Very much better!”
“Really? I expect he ran his hands all over the, uh, injured area afterward to check for healing anomalies… you know, unevenness, unusual coloration, odd misalignments… silver handprints…”
“No… I don’t think so… Should he have?”
Michael smiled. “Naw… It’s nothing to worry about.”
“It’s nothing to worry about?” Rahn asked, sounding concerned.
“Well, it’s just that the last guy Max touched there, his butt turned silver and was all uneven afterwards, and then it started to grow and grow. Now the poor guy has to be rolled everywhere he goes.”
Angie Lee put one hand over her mouth and eyes but then broke down and giggled in spite of herself. Maria gave Michael a “Shame on you” look.
Max nodded. “I knew it! I knew you had to do it! I know you too well, Michael.”
“Michael is playing a joke,” Rahn said, seeming to understand what was going on.
“Yeah, I’m just pulling your leg, Rahn,” Michael said. “But Max has been known to leave silver handprints. Did you check that out, Max?”
“No, and I’m not going to,” Max said. “It’ll wear off soon enough… if there is one.”
Michael snickered. Alex shook his head but smiled, too.
“Well, Rahn,” Liz said, “From where I’m sitting, you don’t have any silver handprints on you anywhere, so don’t worry about it.”
“I’m not worried,” Rahn said.
“Maybe his body doesn’t get silver handprints from being healed by an alien,” Alex mused.
“Or maybe they’re under his clothes or whatever that is that he wears when he turns back into one of us again,” Michael suggested.
“Well, either way, it is no problem for me,” Rahn said. “I am very happy to be all well again with no injuries. That is all that I care about. Max pleased me very much.”
Michael snorted, and Max ran his hand over his face.
“We understand, Rahn,” Liz said.
“Don’t pay any attention to Michael,” Max added. “His hormones got all out of whack being away from Maria for so long.”
“Maybe it was something they did to him in the army lab,” Rahn said seriously.
Max shook his head. “No, I don’t think so.”
Max started to turn away but then seemed to stop and think for a moment…
“Then again, though… you could be right, Rahn. I probably ought to check that out.”
Max turned around and took a step toward Michael.
“Uh, Max… what are you planning to do here,” Michael asked warily, backing up then dodging to the other side of the room.
“Well, if you’re still you, Michael, and they didn’t change you, your butt will hold a silver handprint nicely.”
“No! Uh, uh! No way! You stay away from me, Max! I like my butt untattooed, thank you very much!”
Max leapt, and Michael dodged back to the other side of the room again, keeping Alex and the others between them. Max feigned a dash to the left but then cut to the right instead, closing in on Michael. Seeing his escape path blocked, Michael sat his butt down the only place he saw available… on Maria’s lap. By now the entire room was in tears from laughter.
Maria smiled and put her arms around him. “I’ll protect your butt, Michael.”
Alex couldn’t help letting out a little, “Awwwwww,” which didn’t go unnoticed by Michael.
“Watch it, Alex! You can’t make silver handprints on my butt! You’re vulnerable!”
“Naw,” Alex said, shaking his head. “I’ve got Isabel to protect me.”
Michael knew that Alex was poking fun at his seeking refuge in Maria’s lap, but he also knew that there was more than a little bit of truth to what Alex had said. Getting Alex back would be a challenge with Isabel around. Michael wasn’t sure he wanted to risk it.
At that moment, the front door opened, and Gray Hawk came in. Gray Hawk looked around the room as though taking inventory of who was there, then he motioned to someone behind him. As he moved out of the way, Jim Valenti walked in with Amy, and right behind them were Jeff and Nancy Parker, the Whitmans, and Diane and Phillip Evans. Compared to the scene that erupted next, everything that had gone before seemed as solemn as a church service. Amy dashed straight to Maria, who jumped up, forgetting that Michael was on her lap, and ran to her mother. Michael grinned sheepishly and stood back up, brushing himself off.
Jeff looked at Liz for a moment and smiled, as tears came into his eyes, and Nancy dropped down onto her knees and hugged Liz in her chair.
Phillip and Diane Evans looked at Max and Isabel for several moments, unable to speak. Then Diane pulled Isabel into her arms and reached over to touch Max, as Phillip reached his own hand out to Max.
The Whitmans had Alex in an embrace that would have held a struggling bull down, but Alex wasn’t complaining. In fact, he was smiling.
Gray Hawk stood by his front door, which he had closed again so no one would see. This was going to take a lot of peyote dust blown into the air later… but he felt that somehow it was worth it.
Everybody was talking at once, asking questions, convincing themselves that this was really happening.
After hugging Liz for several minutes, Jeff walked over to Max and looked at him. Then he smiled. “Max, it’s good to see you again.”
“You, too, Mr. Parker.”
“I, uh, I take it you couldn’t heal Liz? The sheriff thought you might try to… you know…”
Max’s smile disappeared, and sadness seemed to come over him momentarily.
“I tried, Mr. Parker. But what’s wrong with Liz is something… that I can’t fix… something beyond my powers. I’ll keep trying, though. I won’t give up on Liz.”
Jeff nodded. “I know…”
“Mr. Parker?”
“Yes?”
“If Liz doesn’t… walk again… I just want you to know… It won’t make any difference. I love her. That’s not going to change.”
Jeff smiled. “I know that, too, Max. I don’t know whether that comforts me more or scares me more. I guess I’ll get used to it, though… eventually. It’s kind of hard, you know, knowing that there’s another man in my little girl’s life now. If you’re going to be my son-in-law, Max, you’re going to have to settle down and take care of Liz.”
Max blushed slightly. “We haven’t actually got that far yet, Mr. Parker. I don’t even know if Liz will want me… I mean, forever, you know.”
“Don’t you?” Jeff asked with a smile. “Then you’re the only person who still doesn’t know it, Max.”
Jeff turned and went back to Liz and Nancy, leaving Max to think about what he had said.
It was hard to tell who was asking a question and who was answering one, Amy or Maria. Both were alternately hugging, crying, kissing, and talking at the same time. But, somehow, they seemed to understand each other perfectly. And along with the never-ending words, enough tears were falling to fill a rain barrel.
Phillip and Diane Evans were hanging on to Isabel and Max’s every word now. They had dragged Michael over to where they were sitting and were acting as though he were their other long lost son. Michael, who was at first somewhat embarrassed by all the unexpected attention, had to admit to himself that it gave him a warm, good feeling inside; and before he realized what was happening, he found himself falling into the part of the second son as though he had grown up in their home.
Jeff and Nancy were both huddled around Liz, as Liz told them what had happened to her and Alex in the asylum and about finding Max by the river and all about their time in River Dog and Gray Hawk’s homes. Nancy was alternately gasping, hugging Liz, crying, and asking more questions, as Jeff stood by her side, a smile on his face that Liz guessed would take a month of Sundays to wipe away.
It was Mrs. Whitman who first seemed to notice that there were other people in the house. She already knew who Gray Hawk was, because Jim had introduced them all briefly before they had come to the reservation, but she knew that she had never met the blonde headed girl with the green eyes or the handsome young, light-skinned man with blondish hair, who stood nearby watching everything going on with smiles on their faces.
“Alex?” Mrs. Whitman nodded toward the young couple.
“Oh! Yeah! Mom… Dad, this is Angie Lee… and Rahn.”
Everyone else turned to look at Angie Lee and Rahn, too, as Alex introduced them.
“Angie Lee lives with Gray Hawk. She’s his adopted daughter. And Rahn is… is… well… a friend of Max and Michael.”
“We’ve met,” Jeff said, holding his hand out to Rahn. “It’s good to see you again, Rahn.”
Then Jeff turned to the girl. “I don’t think we’ve met, though, Angie Lee… I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in town.”
“I don’t go into town ever… well, not much,” Angie Lee said. “When I do, I kind of… uh… disguise myself. It’s better if no one knows about me living here. I would like it if you kept my secret for me.”
Jeff shrugged. “Sure… if that’s what you want… but you’re welcome in the CrashDown… or in our home… any time. I want you to know that.”
“Thank you,” Angie Lee said, smiling politely. “I’ll remember that.”
“Well, here’s to everyone being together again,” Mr. Whitman said, and everyone in the room nodded and voiced their agreement. “I never thought this day would come. I thought we had lost Alex forever. I can only imagine how some of you must have felt after so much time… not seeing your children since… that terrible day… at graduation… thinking they were dead. But we’re all back together now, all of us, for good!”
Jim looked around somewhat uncomfortably. “Well, you know that they’ll have to stay here for a while… I still don’t know how long that will be… and nobody else can know that they’re here.”
“We understood that,” Mr. Whitman said. “We can live with that to get our son back alive and safe.”
Jim smiled.
“I am very happy to see all of you together, too,” Rahn said. “But there is a saying where I come from… ‘It is of no use to inventory the glahkies while the boryx is still nearby.’ I don’t want to worry anyone, but it is a wise lesson to remember.
Jim nodded. “I guess that would be like saying, ‘Don’t count your chickens while the fox is still in the coop.’”
“Well, these animals are somewhat smaller,” Rahn said. “A boryx is something like your weasel, but it is a big one, as big as one of your bears… and glahkies are… kind of like small sheep. But what you said is a good analogy,” Rahn agreed. “It has the same meaning.”
“You mean… Judge Lewis,” Jeff Parker said.
Rahn nodded. “Yes… and the special unit agents. There are still dangers for you to beware of. I remind you of this… because you are my friends.”
Everyone nodded. They understood. But neither that nor anything else now or ever could spoil this day. For this moment in time, all the boryxes, all the foxes, and all the Judge Lewises and special unit agents in the world didn’t exist. There was only them and their children… and they were finally, finally together again.
**********
In the desert, about a mile outside of Roswell, a passing car stopped, and the driver looked at the short, pudgy, profusely sweating, older man plodding away under the hot sun.
“Can I give you a ride? It’s got to be awful hot out there in the desert. Where’s your car?”
The man didn’t answer immediately. He just climbed into the car beside the driver.
“My car broke down a few miles back.”
“Oh yeah? I didn’t see it.”
“It’s off the road. You wouldn’t see it from the road.”
“What you got there?” the driver asked, noticing that his passenger was carrying something in his hand.
Judge Lewis held up his hand and the dirty folded rag in it and smiled for the first time.
“My proof. I win.”
tbc
Coming up: A weasel by any other name
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Island Breeze
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The Night The Dreams Died
The Night The Dreams Died
Party Till The Sun Goes Down
Chapter 24
XXIV
It was a very good day… a beautiful day… a wonderful day. At 9:22 on this morning, three families had been reunited… their children brought back from the dead, some of them more literally than anyone cared to think about, after unimaginable heartache. There were no strangers or outsiders in Gray Hawk’s house this day. There was only one big family… and every single person there was a part of this big family. Michael… and now Angie Lee as well… had been practically adopted by the Evanses. Jeff Parker was treating Rahn as though Rahn were Liz’s older brother and his eldest son, which might have been stretching credibility if Rahn had actually looked his true age of 127 earth years… but after all, he was barely out of adolescence for his species. Even Gray Hawk, for all anyone would have been able to tell, might have been the beloved Grandfather that they had all known and loved all their lives.
“Mom,” Maria said, motioning with her eyes in the direction of Jim Valenti, who stood watching everyone else’s reactions with a huge satisfied smile on his own face. “Sheriff Valenti helped all of us, but he seems to be kind of alone over there. Maybe we should go over and talk to him… you know… let him know we appreciate him.”
Amy looked at Maria and smiled. “Why Maria! I think that’s a great idea! You’re such a sweetheart!”
“Well, Mom, he is kind of a nice guy, actually… I mean, once you get to know him and all… and he did put everything on the line for all of us. We kind of owe him that… I think we should be nice to him.”
Amy nodded. “You are so right. I’m going to go over and take care of that right now.”
Amy walked over to Jim with a big smile on her face and put her arms around Jim’s neck. Jim smiled and put one arm around Amy, pulling her close, and Amy planted a long and passionate kiss on Jim’s lips, as Maria watched, her mouth falling further and further open in disbelief the longer the kiss went on.
“Well, Sheriff Valenti looks pretty happy,” Liz said, rolling her chair up beside Maria.
“Mom doesn’t need much coaxing, does she?” Maria stammered, shaking her head.
Liz smiled.
“I just meant she should talk to him… maybe a hug… you know… to show him that somebody appreciated him.”
“I think your Mom delivered that message pretty well,” Liz said with a giggle.
“Honey, come over here,” Amy called, motioning to Maria.
Maria walked toward Jim and her mother, trying to hide the surprise she knew must be showing on her face with a smile.
“Hi, Sheriff! I guess you noticed Mom’s here. Well, I mean, of course you noticed she’s HERE… You brought her here. But… I mean, here, you know… like… in this room… here.”
Jim nodded and grinned. “Yeah, I noticed. If she was in the room, I wouldn’t miss her.”
“Sorry,” Maria said, wincing. “I guess that sounded kind of lame, didn’t it?”
“Naw. Not really… I didn’t think so.”
“You’re just trying to be nice,” Maria said, still smiling, and trying not to blush uncharacteristically.
“Well, I reckon I should be nice to my daughter,” Jim said. “Don’t you think?”
Maria looked at Jim then at her mother. It was something on her mother’s face that told her everything she needed to know even without a word being spoken.
Maria pulled back, and her mouth dropped open. “You… you got married?!”
It was more of an exclamation of surprise than a question really. Maria saw it in Amy’s face. She knew. There could be no doubt. Disbelief… yes. Doubt… none.
“Jim promised we could have a proper wedding when you were home again, Honey,” Amy said. “But, yeah… we did it. We tied the knot! Can you believe it?”
“Omigod…” Maria stammered. “How did this happen… Where… When… Why?”
“All the important ‘W’ words,” Jim said, laughing. “Well, okay… WHERE was in your Mom’s gardens, WHEN was July 15th, at her wake, right after she returned from the base, and WHY… Well, that one’s easy… I love her.”
“Mom?”
“All the same answers,” Amy said.
“Well, I know that, Mom… but… what wake? Isn’t a wake like for dead people?”
“Yeah… usually, I think so,” Amy said. “Don’t worry, Dear… It was all a mistake.”
“Mom, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do!”
Amy and Jim both laughed.
“I thought that was the parents’ line,” Jim said.
“I just want to know everything, Mom. You got married in the gardens? You must have looked beautiful!”
Amy snorted. “Only if having desert dust and sweat caked in my hair, all over my face, and in every imaginable place on my body is beautiful.”
“Well, I thought she was beautiful,” Jim said.
Amy smiled and kissed him. “Just keep saying that kind of stuff, Jim. You’re getting better at fibbing all the time. And I’ll take it any way I can get it!”
Amy looked back at Maria. “I guess I do have a lot of ‘explaining’ to do, Honey. It might take some time, though.”
“I’ve got time, Ma.”
Jim looked at his watch. It was almost 11:00 AM.
“We don’t have to go yet, do we,” Amy pleaded.
Jim shook his head. “It’s not that. I was expecting one more person to make it here this morning. I was just wondering what happened to him.”
As though just waiting for that introduction, at that very moment, there was a knock on the door. Gray Hawk peeked out the curtains then went to the door and opened it.
Liz turned around in her chair, and a smile lit up her face…
“Kyle? Omigod, Kyle! How did you get here? How did you know?”
“I tortured my Dad till he talked.”
Liz looked at Jim, and he was nodding. “Do you know how persistent this boy can be? He figured out that you and Alex were still alive and that I must have hid you somewhere, and he wouldn’t give me a moment’s peace till I told him where you were.”
“Well, that’s not exactly the way it was,” Kyle said. “Dad pretended he didn’t know what I was talking about, like, forever. It wasn’t until he decided to make this trip that I got him to let me in on the secret.”
“Don’t ever let this boy work for the secret service… He’ll be impossible! Promise me!”
Liz laughed. “Kyle, I’m sooooo glad to see you again! You don’t know how much I want to tell you about everything that’s happened!”
“And I want to hear it all, too, Liz. I heard you’ve been through a lot since I saw you right after you woke up from the… you know… the coma.”
“Alex has, too,” Liz said. “…been through a lot with me, I mean.”
“Yeah, I heard. I thought you guys had ‘bought the farm’ like everybody else did for a while there. It was devastating.”
“Aw, Kyle! You do care,” Liz said, smiling at Kyle and touching his face.
“Well, yeah! You’ve still got my Sense Field CD.”
Kyle’s serious expression slowly gave way to a smile. “Yeah… I care, Liz…” he said, his voice becoming almost emotional. “You know I do. I care a lot about you. You and I had something together once… Well, I thought we did, anyway… until you went and got alien-abducted.” Kyle smiled, as though to show he was willing to accept reality now, even if somewhere deep inside him, he still carried a small flame for Liz.
“Only my heart was abducted by the alien,” Liz said. “But I don’t think I put up much of a fight.”
Kyle shook his head. “No… You didn’t.”
“You’ll find your true love, too, Kyle… someday. But you’ll always be special to me. Don’t ever forget about me… no matter what… okay?”
“Shhh! Like that could happen,” Kyle exclaimed. “No worry there, Liz. You’re very special to me… even if you did let yourself go and get abducted by that vile alien king!”
Liz laughed.
“Did I hear someone talking about me,” Max asked, walking up behind Kyle.
“Oh, No! It’s the vile alien king!” Kyle exclaimed, standing up and turning around to face Max. Kyle looked at Max for what seemed like a long time, then he grinned.
“You know, Max… I think I’m actually glad to see you… I don’t know why. You stole my girl, and I don’t think I ever even loaned you any of my CD’s…” Kyle smiled. “Oh, yeah! Maybe it’s ‘cause I liked you… kind of. That must be it. You were alright… I mean, for a vile alien king… you know what I mean?”
Max nodded.
“We thought you, Michael, Isabel, and Maria were all dead after graduation night. I’m glad that was wrong. I’ve got to tell you, it was a bit of a shock, though, to find out that you were still alive. Liz tried to tell me that she could feel you, but…”
“I hear you helped prove I wasn’t dead,” Max said. “Your Dad said that I had you to thank for making that coffin fall and break open after the judge showed up with the order to keep him from opening it.”
“Yeah… I guess I did. When the judge and Dad were arguing, I kind of pulled on the ropes, and, oops!”
Max smiled. “So Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“Oh, and Kyle,” Max said, turning around to face Kyle again before walking back to his parents, “That may be the only time you’ll ever get to drop me on my head and get away with it.”
Kyle grinned. “Hey, I had to do it, Max. Opportunities like that only come once in a lifetime… even if you weren’t actually in it.”
Max smiled and nodded.
“Kyle,” Liz said, as Max walked away, “How did you get here? You didn’t come with the others.”
“Nobody came together,” Kyle said. “Dad had everyone meet at the lake near here, then he brought them all onto the reservation. Everyone drove separate vehicles to the lake, though… just in case Judge Lewis has any spies in town. I was out of town this morning when Dad left… so I got a ride to the lake later then rented a kayak and got here on the river. The judge is out of town, too. Several people saw him heading across the desert in his car three days ago, and he hasn’t come back yet. Even if he left at daybreak this morning from the nearest town across the desert, he couldn’t get back to Roswell before nightfall, and we’ll all be gone before that, so we’ve pretty much got the day to ourselves, you know what I mean? While the alley cat’s got its head in the trashcan, the mice can paaar-ty! Dad’s already got another plan for us to come back again another time… if you’re here very long.”
“That would be great, Kyle! That’ll give us something to look forward to… if we have to stay here very long.” Liz paused then looked suddenly thoughtful… “Kyle, do you think Judge Lewis actually has spies in town?”
“No… probably not. Dad says the judge likes to do his own spying. And besides, the judge doesn’t trust anyone else… probably with pretty good reason… He’s not very popular. Dad was just playing it safe by having everyone drive to the lake in separate vehicles. He doesn’t like surprises.”
“Yeah, I know.” Liz smiled. “I thought he was going to freak out when the judge showed up at the hospital with state troopers and took Alex and me away. I thought the countdown to an atomic blast had just begun.”
Kyle laughed. “Yeah. He was up all night that night making plans, reading all the bios of his deputies, drinking tons of black coffee… I don’t think he really slept for several days… until he knew Deputy Cotter was in there watching you guys. Then he started making plans to hide you, and he came up here to the reservation and talked to River Dog…”
“Did your Dad plan that part where the agent was supposed to shoot us… I mean… did your Dad plan that to make it look like we were dead?”
Kyle shook his head. “No. Dad still doesn’t understand that either. He and Deputy Cotter just took advantage of the unexpected opportunity and got you guys out of there. But it’s not normal for a trained special agent like that to miss… TWICE.”
“He didn’t,” Liz said.
Kyle’s eyes opened wider. “Did you… get hit?”
“No. He hit his target. It just wasn’t me and Alex, it was the bed. I think maybe he intended to shoot us when he first let himself into the room, but he kept looking into my eyes, like he thought he knew me almost… It felt weird. I think it was freaking him out, too. He just looked at both of us like forever, then a voice on his walkie-talkie wanted to know what was keeping him, and that seemed to wake him up. He looked like he was going to shoot us then, but instead, he shot two bullets into the bed and left. He did it on purpose… I don’t know why.”
“Maybe he thought you were too pretty to shoot.”
Liz snorted. “Get real, Kyle! I looked like a rag doll! Besides, Judge Lewis would gladly dance on my grave.”
“Well, what does Judge Lewis know? He doesn’t like women.”
“He’s gay?”
“No. He’s in love with himself. Besides, there’s no one in Roswell who’d have him. He hasn’t met his Lulu Belle yet.”
“Lulu Belle?”
“Yeah, you know… Boss Hogg had his Lulu Belle… Okay, you had to watch old reruns on TNN to know that… or be older. Dukes of Hazzard.”
“Oh, yeah… I think I saw them once or twice.”
“Never mind,” Kyle said. “Compared to Judge Lewis, Boss Hogg was just a cute little choir boy anyway.”
Liz laughed. “Well, he does seem to have his own agenda… and he’s not very social.”
“I just wish we knew what that agenda was,” Kyle said. “It would help Dad figure out how to help you guys get home again.”
Kyle looked at Alex and the others enjoying themselves. "Come on, Liz, let's join the party!"
Liz smiled, and the sparkle in her eyes told Kyle that she already was enjoying herself very much indeed.
**********
~ 8:58 PM ~
As the last rays of the sun were disappearing, a car rolled into Roswell covered with dust accumulated from a trip across the desert.
“Hey! Hey, guy! You’re here. You’re in Roswell. Wake up!”
“Huh?” Judge Lewis sat up a bit and looked around. He didn’t realize he had dozed off in the air conditioning, but he was exhausted and overheated from his walk in the desert; he just couldn’t admit it… most of all to himself. Judge Lewis was no masochist, and in different times, he would have been only too happy to look for an open bar or a masseuse and sauna after what he had been through. Nobody loved the pursuit of pleasures more than the judge. But obsession played a bigger role in his life than even the pursuit of idle leisure and debauchery. For now, proving what he thought he knew was an obsession, and nothing… nothing at all… could trump that in his mind.
“Where do you live, man? I’ll drop you off at your house.”
“Huh? Oh, no, that’s all right, just drop me off in front of my office. It’s straight ahead about a mile.”
“You sure? It’s after work hours already, and you look like you need a drink, man, at least.”
“Yeah… I’ll be fine. I’ve got something I’ve gotta do first.”
“All right, man, have it your way. Let me know when we get there ‘kay?”
“Yeah, okay.”
Judge Lewis glanced at the rag in his hand. It was a gamble. If he couldn’t convince them that this was something important, he would lose face… and worse. He’d lose his connections… and a great deal of untaxed income. But if he could make them see that this little piece of skin was somehow important, he would strengthen his hand and his connections. It was worth the gamble. It was all in the way he presented it. He would have to get agent Culpepper out here to look at what he had. He guessed that the less information he gave Culpepper on the phone the better his chances would be of getting him here. Too much information and Culpepper might just write him off as a kook and not come… especially if he started talking about giant snakes or strange super birds before he had Culpepper in his office to show him what he had found. But the right information… just the right information… and nothing more… might pique Culpepper’s interest and get him here. And Judge Lewis knew just how he was going to handle it.
tbc
Coming Up: Judge Lewis presents his evidence.
Party Till The Sun Goes Down
Chapter 24
XXIV
It was a very good day… a beautiful day… a wonderful day. At 9:22 on this morning, three families had been reunited… their children brought back from the dead, some of them more literally than anyone cared to think about, after unimaginable heartache. There were no strangers or outsiders in Gray Hawk’s house this day. There was only one big family… and every single person there was a part of this big family. Michael… and now Angie Lee as well… had been practically adopted by the Evanses. Jeff Parker was treating Rahn as though Rahn were Liz’s older brother and his eldest son, which might have been stretching credibility if Rahn had actually looked his true age of 127 earth years… but after all, he was barely out of adolescence for his species. Even Gray Hawk, for all anyone would have been able to tell, might have been the beloved Grandfather that they had all known and loved all their lives.
“Mom,” Maria said, motioning with her eyes in the direction of Jim Valenti, who stood watching everyone else’s reactions with a huge satisfied smile on his own face. “Sheriff Valenti helped all of us, but he seems to be kind of alone over there. Maybe we should go over and talk to him… you know… let him know we appreciate him.”
Amy looked at Maria and smiled. “Why Maria! I think that’s a great idea! You’re such a sweetheart!”
“Well, Mom, he is kind of a nice guy, actually… I mean, once you get to know him and all… and he did put everything on the line for all of us. We kind of owe him that… I think we should be nice to him.”
Amy nodded. “You are so right. I’m going to go over and take care of that right now.”
Amy walked over to Jim with a big smile on her face and put her arms around Jim’s neck. Jim smiled and put one arm around Amy, pulling her close, and Amy planted a long and passionate kiss on Jim’s lips, as Maria watched, her mouth falling further and further open in disbelief the longer the kiss went on.
“Well, Sheriff Valenti looks pretty happy,” Liz said, rolling her chair up beside Maria.
“Mom doesn’t need much coaxing, does she?” Maria stammered, shaking her head.
Liz smiled.
“I just meant she should talk to him… maybe a hug… you know… to show him that somebody appreciated him.”
“I think your Mom delivered that message pretty well,” Liz said with a giggle.
“Honey, come over here,” Amy called, motioning to Maria.
Maria walked toward Jim and her mother, trying to hide the surprise she knew must be showing on her face with a smile.
“Hi, Sheriff! I guess you noticed Mom’s here. Well, I mean, of course you noticed she’s HERE… You brought her here. But… I mean, here, you know… like… in this room… here.”
Jim nodded and grinned. “Yeah, I noticed. If she was in the room, I wouldn’t miss her.”
“Sorry,” Maria said, wincing. “I guess that sounded kind of lame, didn’t it?”
“Naw. Not really… I didn’t think so.”
“You’re just trying to be nice,” Maria said, still smiling, and trying not to blush uncharacteristically.
“Well, I reckon I should be nice to my daughter,” Jim said. “Don’t you think?”
Maria looked at Jim then at her mother. It was something on her mother’s face that told her everything she needed to know even without a word being spoken.
Maria pulled back, and her mouth dropped open. “You… you got married?!”
It was more of an exclamation of surprise than a question really. Maria saw it in Amy’s face. She knew. There could be no doubt. Disbelief… yes. Doubt… none.
“Jim promised we could have a proper wedding when you were home again, Honey,” Amy said. “But, yeah… we did it. We tied the knot! Can you believe it?”
“Omigod…” Maria stammered. “How did this happen… Where… When… Why?”
“All the important ‘W’ words,” Jim said, laughing. “Well, okay… WHERE was in your Mom’s gardens, WHEN was July 15th, at her wake, right after she returned from the base, and WHY… Well, that one’s easy… I love her.”
“Mom?”
“All the same answers,” Amy said.
“Well, I know that, Mom… but… what wake? Isn’t a wake like for dead people?”
“Yeah… usually, I think so,” Amy said. “Don’t worry, Dear… It was all a mistake.”
“Mom, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do!”
Amy and Jim both laughed.
“I thought that was the parents’ line,” Jim said.
“I just want to know everything, Mom. You got married in the gardens? You must have looked beautiful!”
Amy snorted. “Only if having desert dust and sweat caked in my hair, all over my face, and in every imaginable place on my body is beautiful.”
“Well, I thought she was beautiful,” Jim said.
Amy smiled and kissed him. “Just keep saying that kind of stuff, Jim. You’re getting better at fibbing all the time. And I’ll take it any way I can get it!”
Amy looked back at Maria. “I guess I do have a lot of ‘explaining’ to do, Honey. It might take some time, though.”
“I’ve got time, Ma.”
Jim looked at his watch. It was almost 11:00 AM.
“We don’t have to go yet, do we,” Amy pleaded.
Jim shook his head. “It’s not that. I was expecting one more person to make it here this morning. I was just wondering what happened to him.”
As though just waiting for that introduction, at that very moment, there was a knock on the door. Gray Hawk peeked out the curtains then went to the door and opened it.
Liz turned around in her chair, and a smile lit up her face…
“Kyle? Omigod, Kyle! How did you get here? How did you know?”
“I tortured my Dad till he talked.”
Liz looked at Jim, and he was nodding. “Do you know how persistent this boy can be? He figured out that you and Alex were still alive and that I must have hid you somewhere, and he wouldn’t give me a moment’s peace till I told him where you were.”
“Well, that’s not exactly the way it was,” Kyle said. “Dad pretended he didn’t know what I was talking about, like, forever. It wasn’t until he decided to make this trip that I got him to let me in on the secret.”
“Don’t ever let this boy work for the secret service… He’ll be impossible! Promise me!”
Liz laughed. “Kyle, I’m sooooo glad to see you again! You don’t know how much I want to tell you about everything that’s happened!”
“And I want to hear it all, too, Liz. I heard you’ve been through a lot since I saw you right after you woke up from the… you know… the coma.”
“Alex has, too,” Liz said. “…been through a lot with me, I mean.”
“Yeah, I heard. I thought you guys had ‘bought the farm’ like everybody else did for a while there. It was devastating.”
“Aw, Kyle! You do care,” Liz said, smiling at Kyle and touching his face.
“Well, yeah! You’ve still got my Sense Field CD.”
Kyle’s serious expression slowly gave way to a smile. “Yeah… I care, Liz…” he said, his voice becoming almost emotional. “You know I do. I care a lot about you. You and I had something together once… Well, I thought we did, anyway… until you went and got alien-abducted.” Kyle smiled, as though to show he was willing to accept reality now, even if somewhere deep inside him, he still carried a small flame for Liz.
“Only my heart was abducted by the alien,” Liz said. “But I don’t think I put up much of a fight.”
Kyle shook his head. “No… You didn’t.”
“You’ll find your true love, too, Kyle… someday. But you’ll always be special to me. Don’t ever forget about me… no matter what… okay?”
“Shhh! Like that could happen,” Kyle exclaimed. “No worry there, Liz. You’re very special to me… even if you did let yourself go and get abducted by that vile alien king!”
Liz laughed.
“Did I hear someone talking about me,” Max asked, walking up behind Kyle.
“Oh, No! It’s the vile alien king!” Kyle exclaimed, standing up and turning around to face Max. Kyle looked at Max for what seemed like a long time, then he grinned.
“You know, Max… I think I’m actually glad to see you… I don’t know why. You stole my girl, and I don’t think I ever even loaned you any of my CD’s…” Kyle smiled. “Oh, yeah! Maybe it’s ‘cause I liked you… kind of. That must be it. You were alright… I mean, for a vile alien king… you know what I mean?”
Max nodded.
“We thought you, Michael, Isabel, and Maria were all dead after graduation night. I’m glad that was wrong. I’ve got to tell you, it was a bit of a shock, though, to find out that you were still alive. Liz tried to tell me that she could feel you, but…”
“I hear you helped prove I wasn’t dead,” Max said. “Your Dad said that I had you to thank for making that coffin fall and break open after the judge showed up with the order to keep him from opening it.”
“Yeah… I guess I did. When the judge and Dad were arguing, I kind of pulled on the ropes, and, oops!”
Max smiled. “So Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“Oh, and Kyle,” Max said, turning around to face Kyle again before walking back to his parents, “That may be the only time you’ll ever get to drop me on my head and get away with it.”
Kyle grinned. “Hey, I had to do it, Max. Opportunities like that only come once in a lifetime… even if you weren’t actually in it.”
Max smiled and nodded.
“Kyle,” Liz said, as Max walked away, “How did you get here? You didn’t come with the others.”
“Nobody came together,” Kyle said. “Dad had everyone meet at the lake near here, then he brought them all onto the reservation. Everyone drove separate vehicles to the lake, though… just in case Judge Lewis has any spies in town. I was out of town this morning when Dad left… so I got a ride to the lake later then rented a kayak and got here on the river. The judge is out of town, too. Several people saw him heading across the desert in his car three days ago, and he hasn’t come back yet. Even if he left at daybreak this morning from the nearest town across the desert, he couldn’t get back to Roswell before nightfall, and we’ll all be gone before that, so we’ve pretty much got the day to ourselves, you know what I mean? While the alley cat’s got its head in the trashcan, the mice can paaar-ty! Dad’s already got another plan for us to come back again another time… if you’re here very long.”
“That would be great, Kyle! That’ll give us something to look forward to… if we have to stay here very long.” Liz paused then looked suddenly thoughtful… “Kyle, do you think Judge Lewis actually has spies in town?”
“No… probably not. Dad says the judge likes to do his own spying. And besides, the judge doesn’t trust anyone else… probably with pretty good reason… He’s not very popular. Dad was just playing it safe by having everyone drive to the lake in separate vehicles. He doesn’t like surprises.”
“Yeah, I know.” Liz smiled. “I thought he was going to freak out when the judge showed up at the hospital with state troopers and took Alex and me away. I thought the countdown to an atomic blast had just begun.”
Kyle laughed. “Yeah. He was up all night that night making plans, reading all the bios of his deputies, drinking tons of black coffee… I don’t think he really slept for several days… until he knew Deputy Cotter was in there watching you guys. Then he started making plans to hide you, and he came up here to the reservation and talked to River Dog…”
“Did your Dad plan that part where the agent was supposed to shoot us… I mean… did your Dad plan that to make it look like we were dead?”
Kyle shook his head. “No. Dad still doesn’t understand that either. He and Deputy Cotter just took advantage of the unexpected opportunity and got you guys out of there. But it’s not normal for a trained special agent like that to miss… TWICE.”
“He didn’t,” Liz said.
Kyle’s eyes opened wider. “Did you… get hit?”
“No. He hit his target. It just wasn’t me and Alex, it was the bed. I think maybe he intended to shoot us when he first let himself into the room, but he kept looking into my eyes, like he thought he knew me almost… It felt weird. I think it was freaking him out, too. He just looked at both of us like forever, then a voice on his walkie-talkie wanted to know what was keeping him, and that seemed to wake him up. He looked like he was going to shoot us then, but instead, he shot two bullets into the bed and left. He did it on purpose… I don’t know why.”
“Maybe he thought you were too pretty to shoot.”
Liz snorted. “Get real, Kyle! I looked like a rag doll! Besides, Judge Lewis would gladly dance on my grave.”
“Well, what does Judge Lewis know? He doesn’t like women.”
“He’s gay?”
“No. He’s in love with himself. Besides, there’s no one in Roswell who’d have him. He hasn’t met his Lulu Belle yet.”
“Lulu Belle?”
“Yeah, you know… Boss Hogg had his Lulu Belle… Okay, you had to watch old reruns on TNN to know that… or be older. Dukes of Hazzard.”
“Oh, yeah… I think I saw them once or twice.”
“Never mind,” Kyle said. “Compared to Judge Lewis, Boss Hogg was just a cute little choir boy anyway.”
Liz laughed. “Well, he does seem to have his own agenda… and he’s not very social.”
“I just wish we knew what that agenda was,” Kyle said. “It would help Dad figure out how to help you guys get home again.”
Kyle looked at Alex and the others enjoying themselves. "Come on, Liz, let's join the party!"
Liz smiled, and the sparkle in her eyes told Kyle that she already was enjoying herself very much indeed.
**********
~ 8:58 PM ~
As the last rays of the sun were disappearing, a car rolled into Roswell covered with dust accumulated from a trip across the desert.
“Hey! Hey, guy! You’re here. You’re in Roswell. Wake up!”
“Huh?” Judge Lewis sat up a bit and looked around. He didn’t realize he had dozed off in the air conditioning, but he was exhausted and overheated from his walk in the desert; he just couldn’t admit it… most of all to himself. Judge Lewis was no masochist, and in different times, he would have been only too happy to look for an open bar or a masseuse and sauna after what he had been through. Nobody loved the pursuit of pleasures more than the judge. But obsession played a bigger role in his life than even the pursuit of idle leisure and debauchery. For now, proving what he thought he knew was an obsession, and nothing… nothing at all… could trump that in his mind.
“Where do you live, man? I’ll drop you off at your house.”
“Huh? Oh, no, that’s all right, just drop me off in front of my office. It’s straight ahead about a mile.”
“You sure? It’s after work hours already, and you look like you need a drink, man, at least.”
“Yeah… I’ll be fine. I’ve got something I’ve gotta do first.”
“All right, man, have it your way. Let me know when we get there ‘kay?”
“Yeah, okay.”
Judge Lewis glanced at the rag in his hand. It was a gamble. If he couldn’t convince them that this was something important, he would lose face… and worse. He’d lose his connections… and a great deal of untaxed income. But if he could make them see that this little piece of skin was somehow important, he would strengthen his hand and his connections. It was worth the gamble. It was all in the way he presented it. He would have to get agent Culpepper out here to look at what he had. He guessed that the less information he gave Culpepper on the phone the better his chances would be of getting him here. Too much information and Culpepper might just write him off as a kook and not come… especially if he started talking about giant snakes or strange super birds before he had Culpepper in his office to show him what he had found. But the right information… just the right information… and nothing more… might pique Culpepper’s interest and get him here. And Judge Lewis knew just how he was going to handle it.
tbc
Coming Up: Judge Lewis presents his evidence.
Last edited by Island Breeze on Sun Feb 22, 2004 5:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Island Breeze
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The Night The Dreams Died
The Night The Dreams Died
The Claws Of The Boryx
Chapter 25
XXV
~ 9:12 PM ~
Judge Lewis jumped out of the car, forgetting, in his haste, to even thank the driver who had rescued him from the desert. After regaining consciousness, he had spent two days in his disabled car with the doors mysteriously jammed and another night and part of a day walking in the sun. He still wasn’t sure how he got back inside his car after being attacked by the snake; he simply woke up there. In spite of this, Judge Lewis ran straight into his office and immediately dialed the number he had for the agent he knew only as “Culpepper.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s me,” Judge Lewis said, trying to talk and quench his thirst at the same time with water from a paper cup that he had just filled from the cooler beside his desk.
“Yeah, Judge, I recognize your voice. What do you want?”
“It’s not what I want, Culpepper, it’s what you want.”
“Okay, the agent sighed. “So what do I want?”
“Something you’re missing. Do I need to say more?”
There was a brief pause on the line. “I’ll be there.”
Thirty-eight minutes later, three agents let themselves into Judge Lewis’ office. Judge Lewis had not bothered to lock his door. It never did any good anyway. And besides, this time, he wanted them here.
“Have you guys lost a bird?”
Culpepper looked at the other two agents, and they returned the look with blank stares. Then he looked back at Judge Lewis in disbelief.
“I thought you had information about some missing, uh, prisoners that escaped from the base recently, Judge. Is this some kind of joke?” Culpepper leaned over Judge Lewis’ desk and put his face close to the judge’s face in a deliberate attempt to intimidate him. “If you’ll look closely at my face, it’s not smiling.”
Judge Lewis backed up involuntarily.
“It’s no joke, Colonel. Have you lost your bird?”
There was a pause, and the agent’s face reddened noticeably, as he collected his thoughts.
“I’m sorry I referred you to that urologist, Judge. You don’t need a urologist, you need a psychiatrist!”
“I don’t think so,” Judge Lewis retorted. “You guys are doing something secretive out there, and I think I’ve seen something that you would very much like to get back.”
“You haven’t started believin’ in all that UFO hogwash, have you, Judge?”
“UFO’s? Come on, Colonel! What do you take me for? A kook?”
“Hey! Now there’s something I hadn’t thought of!” Culpepper said sarcastically.”
Judge Lewis paid the sarcasm no attention. “You guys are doing some kind of research out there. I’ve heard about the special planes and stuff, but I think you’re doing biological research, too. You’ve managed to produce a very special bird… something that looks like a roadrunner but can kill a hawk… It’s like a roadrunner on amphetamines… and it’s feathers turn into some kind of… something that looks like skin when they get knocked off. How am I doing? Huh? Not laughing now, are you? God knows what else this bird of yours is capable of!”
There was a long pause, as the agent thought about what Judge Lewis had said. His first inclination was to simply write the judge off and report that he had flipped out and would be of no further use to them, but he felt in his bones that there was more to this than he could see. The missing alien kept coming to his mind… and he wasn’t sure why. He couldn’t imagine what the alien had to do with Judge Lewis’ bird. But the rumor among some who knew on the base was that, years ago, when the alien was first captured, it had suffered extensive wounds and had somehow healed itself by altering it’s wounds. Several times over the years, the Army had tried to force the alien to give them a “demonstration” in the lab, but to no avail. The alien had been uncooperative, even under extreme duress. Yet, somehow… Culpepper still had a feeling that the missing alien had something to do with Judge Lewis’ bird. If he thought it, though, he wasn’t about to admit it…
“You’re crazy, Judge.”
“I don’t think so.” Judge Lewis reached into his desk and pulled out the dirty rag. He unrolled it, exposing the piece of skin, which measured about two inches by two and a half inches. It was still bleeding. In fact, it seemed to be producing more blood. Culpepper and the other two agents looked at the piece of skin, obviously interested.
“Where did you see this… uh, ‘Mothra’ bird?”
“Ah! Ah ha! You want to know, don’t you? Well, it’ll cost you… for saying I needed a psychiatrist.”
“Which way did it fly?”
“How much is it worth?”
“What do you think you saw?”
“When can I expect a ‘thank you?’”
“The agent sighed deeply. “I’ll have it delivered… the usual way… the usual amount.”
“Double,” Judge Lewis said.
“You’re getting greedy, Horace.
“I’ve got something you really want… bad,” Judge Lewis countered, feeling sure of himself now. There was a short pause.
“Okay… double. Where did you see the bird?”
“In town… then in the desert. I don’t know where it went after that. It disappeared after the run-in with the hawk.”
“Maybe the hawk ate it,” Culpepper sneered.
“You didn’t see all the hawk feathers I saw in the desert, Colonel. Looked to me more like the roadrunner ate the hawk.”
“Roadrunners aren’t exactly Olympic flyers, Judge. They tire out quickly. Most of the time they’d rather run than fly.”
“Not this one.”
“Okay… Which way was it flying?”
“Straight out across the desert.”
“That’s not worth anything to us, Judge. What towns lie in the direction the bird was flying?”
Judge Lewis thought a moment. “No towns… that I know of… just some trees… then the river… the Mesaliko Reservation… and a lot of desert.”
“The Mesaliko Indian Reservation?”
“Yeah.”
There was another pause.
Culpepper reached into his inside coat pocket and took out two large stacks of hundred dollar bills, which he plopped down on Judge Lewis’ desk. Then he picked up the rag and the piece of skin in it and put them into his coat pocket.
“Don’t bother counting it, Judge. It’s all there.”
**********
~ 11:45 PM ~ on the Mesaliko Indian Reservation
The agent put the night view binoculars back up to his eyes and scanned the scattered rows of Indian homes again… for perhaps the hundredth time tonight… and for the hundredth time tonight, he saw nothing unusual. Most of the Indians on the reservation had retired early, as was the habit of the older ones in particular, and had their curtains drawn, though a few of the younger ones were in town at the only pool hall that was still open. In any case, absolutely nothing was happening on the reservation.
“This is getting nowhere, Barker. Nothing’s moving out there.”
“Keep watching Terrier… and use my code name.”
“Terrier” looked at Barker and rolled his eyes. “There’s no one out here on this hillside but us and a bunch of blood-sucking mosquitoes… Sir!”
“I don’t care. It’s still Culpepper. Follow protocol, Terrier.”
Terrier nodded and looked through the binoculars again. For the hundred and first time, he saw nothing out of the ordinary and nothing moving at all. He rolled over and handed Barker the binoculars.
Barker looked up and down the distant lowland at the scattered houses. Every house was quiet. Every house had its curtains drawn. And every house was totally normal-looking in every respect. Nothing was amiss. If anything was hiding here, it didn’t look like they were going to find it lying on this hillside being unwilling blood donors for a happy fleet of mosquitoes.
“Damn!” Terrier mumbled, swatting his face again.
“You should have used the skin-so-soft, Terrier. I’m telling you, it works.”
“I’d rather be carried back to the base with all my blood drained out, Sir.”
“That may happen.”
“I won’t use that sissy stuff… Sir. That’s Avon. It’s for women.”
“Suit yourself, Terrier. Rub some more on me then.”
“Sir!”
“That’s an order!”
Terrier groaned but took the lotion and began rubbing it on the backs of Barker’s arms and legs. Both men’s bodies were adequately covered with thick camouflage clothing, but somehow, the mosquitoes seemed to be able to get through to the face and extremities anyway.
“Sir,” Terrier asked, “Do you really think the bird the judge saw had something to do with the escaped alien?”
“You saw that piece of skin the judge had. It wasn’t human.”
“You think it came from a bird, Sir?”
“I think it came from our alien… wherever he is. It looks like other samples of his skin I’ve seen. Maybe he was out there in the desert and the judge was just hallucinating that he saw a bird… the hot sun, you know. Or maybe our alien disguised himself by wearing Indian feathers or something… I don’t know. Hell, maybe he can turn into a bird.”
“Like a mutant, Sir?” the agent asked. Barker rolled his eyes and ignored the question. The fact is, he never had believed that there had even been a bird. He was convinced, however, that the judge had seen something and that that something was their escaped alien, most likely wearing a disguise and hiding out either in the desert nearby or on the reservation.
“Terrier,” Barker said, as he rolled back over and looked through the binoculars again… “If you were an alien hiding out here… Where would you hide?”
“How would I know, Sir?”
“Well, think about it.”
“I don’t know… Maybe I’d take over the body of a young, good-looking brave and marry a pretty Indian girl.”
“They don’t do that body-snatching stuff, Terrier. That’s just Hollywood movie crap.”
“Well, you asked, Sir. Besides, how do you know real aliens don’t do that?”
There was no answer from Barker.
“Maybe someone on the reservation is hiding him,” Terrier suggested.
“Why would they do that?”
“Maybe they like him better than they like us.”
“No one likes us, Terrier! They’re not supposed to! It’s not part of our job descriptions to be popular. We do what has to be done, and we ask for no glory. We’re not contestants in a damned beauty contest!”
“Well, I know that, Sir. I just meant that it could be a reason why someone might hide him from us.”
Barker groaned. “We’re not going to find anything out here tonight. Let’s get back to the lab and see what that piece of skin… or whatever it was… turned out to be. If there’s anything unusual about it, we can come back and raid this place… with proper backup.”
“Raid a reservation?” Terrier asked, surprised.
“You got a problem with that?” Barker asked.
“Well… no… but the Indians might. And for that matter, a lot of bleeding hearts out there might, too. The media would just have a picnic with it.”
“So we come up with a good excuse,” Barker said. “If that piece of skin is from our alien, I’ll take this reservation apart house by house myself if I need to. And I’ll have all the support I need. It just takes the right words.”
**********
~ 6:05 AM ~ Roswell
Before the sun began to show its first morning rays over Roswell, Jim Valenti was already up and having breakfast with Amy and Kyle, preparing to start his day as Roswell’s sheriff. It was something on the television in the living room that caught his attention. He hadn’t been paying any attention to the news, but the words “Army” and “Mesaliko Reservation” brought him to attention. He ran to the TV to turn it up.
Sources report that at 5 o’clock this morning the Army began moving tanks and other war vehicles into position around the Mesaliko Indian Reservation near Roswell. We have no independent confirmation of this report as yet, but a KUVA news team is on the way to Roswell now, and we will let you know anything further as soon as we find out ourselves. More on the news at seven. This is Bob Harwood with KUVA News in Santa Fe reporting.
Amy turned to hand Jim his hat, but he was already out the door. She looked back at Kyle.
“Go on. It’s okay. I’ll be fine. I always stay here by myself.”
It didn’t take any further encouragement. Amy was out the door, and as Jim started his vehicle up, Amy hopped into the seat beside him. Jim knew better than to argue.
“You better buckle up, Amy.”
Amy did.
As Jim tore out of his driveway, his home phone began to ring, and Kyle answered it.
“Oh, hello Mr. Evans… Yeah, we heard… Yeah, Dad’s checking it out now. It’s news to us, too… We don’t know what’s going on. Dad’ll handle it, and he’ll keep you informed… No, I don’t think he would want a lot of people out there putting themselves in danger… Well, yeah… I know it’s Max and Isabel, but… Dad will… Mr. Evans?”
The phone clicked.
“Yeah. That’s what I figured you’d do, anyway,” Kyle mumbled to himself, throwing a shirt on over his T-shirt and locking the front door as he left the house.
In another Roswell home, another phone began to ring. Mrs. Whitman rolled over in her bed and picked it up.
“Hello?”
She listened for a few moments then sat up quickly in her bed.
“What? When?”
“5 o’clock this morning… heard it on the early news… Sheriff… checking it out…”
“Okay… Thanks, Diane. I appreciate you letting us know.”
Mrs. Whitman woke her husband up and told him about the call, then she jumped out of the bed and started to get dressed as he threw on his clothes and grabbed his car keys. Within ten minutes, they were in their car heading towards the Mesaliko Reservation.
**********
~ 7:00 AM ~
Jim stopped his vehicle at the entrance to the reservation and looked over at Amy.
“Why are we stopping, Jim?”
“Well, if the Army is watching and we rush straight in, we’ll be leading them right to the kids. We need to find out what’s going on here without jeopardizing the kids.”
Amy nodded. “Maybe we could create a little disinformation at the same time,” she suggested.
“I’m open to suggestions,” Jim agreed.
As they sat there, Phillip and Diane Evans drove up. Seeing Jim and Amy, they paused and rolled down their window.
“What’s going on, Sheriff,” Phillip asked. “Have you found out anything?”
“Not yet,” Jim yelled back. “But Phillip, you can’t just go charging in there… you’ll lead them right to the kids… if that’s who they’re looking for.”
Phillip looked at Diane then back at Jim. In their haste, they hadn’t thought of this, but both of them knew instantly that Jim was right. If they just rushed right in they might as well paint a big arrow to Gray Hawk’s house and put a sign on it saying, “They’re here!”
“What can we do, Sheriff?”
“Well, I’d say go home, Phillip… and wait till I find something out… but I doubt you’re going to do that, so see if you can come up with any suggestions to help me out here. I’m open to anything at the moment.”
“I called the Whitman’s from my cell phone on the way,” Diane said. “They’ll probably be showing up soon, too.”
“Great,” Jim sighed. “Just what we needed… more people. Okay, move your car a little closer to mine. That way, when they get here, they’ll have to stop. I don’t want them rushing in.”
Phillip nodded and moved his car towards Jim’s a bit. Seconds later, another vehicle drove up, but this one wasn’t the Whitmans. It was a news crew in a news van. The van slowed to a stop, and the driver looked at the words “Sheriff’s Dept.” on the side of Jim’s vehicle, which was blocking the way. Then he held out their credentials for Jim to see. “Sheriff! Can we pass?”
Jim thought for a moment. “What do you plan to do while you’re in there?”
“We’re gonna give a live, on-the-scene report from the Reservation,” the driver said. “If we can find out anything, we’ll report it. What can you tell us, Sheriff? What are they looking for?”
Jim looked at Amy, and Amy winked. Jim nodded.
“Well, I’m not at liberty to release this information, understand. But the, uh, ‘object’ they’re looking for was seen about thirty miles east of here about an hour ago, and according to my sources, it’s on its way through Texas now. I guess the Army hasn’t figured that out yet. Don’t quote me on that, though! This is strictly off the record. If you report that I said this, I’ll deny it.”
“I understand,” the driver said, looking back at one of his news anchors… “You got that, Kitty?”
“Got it.”
“All right,” Jim said to the driver. “I’ll move out of your way. I’ll watch your report from here. Stay away from the residents’ houses, and don’t make pests of yourselves. The Reservation is private land, and it has its own laws. Stay out of trouble.”
“Thanks, we’ll keep that in mind,” the driver said, as Jim moved his vehicle.
Jim nodded then turned to Amy. “Do you still have that little TV back there?”
“The one that plugs into the cigarette lighter?”
“That’s the one.”
“Yeah, it’s here.”
Jim moved his vehicle back into place… just in time to catch the Whitman’s, who were arriving at a fast clip. Diane Evans filled them in on what Jim had told them.
Amy already had the little TV plugged in and had located station KUVA. Jim, Amy, Phillip, Diane, and the Whitmans crowded together to watch.
**********
~ 7:43 AM ~
“Is the mike on? How do I look? Okay, let’s do it… on One! Three… Two… One…
Good morning! This is Kitty Kashizzle reporting for KUVA Sante Fe from the Mesaliko Indian Reservation in Roswell, New Mexico. At 5 o’clock this morning, sources notified this station that the U.S.Army was mobilizing several battalions around the Mesaliko Indian Reservation. As we speak, it appears that they are indeed planning to attack the Reservation with military force. If you will look out there…” The newsgirl pointed off in the distance, and the cameras panned over the hills, zooming in on a large number of Bradley Vehicles, tanks, and other war machines that had gathered already just out of easy eye sight… but not out of view of the camera’s high-powered lenses.
“Over those hills, you will see dozens… no… make that hundreds… of tanks, Bradley Vehicles, Humvees… and other military equipment, all manned with heavily-armed soldiers, all poised to swoop down on this apparently peaceful little Reservation, the residents of which appear to be blissfully unaware of the danger that lies ahead for them.
Efforts to find out exactly what the Army expects to accomplish from this highly-questionable raid have produced no good answers… either from the Army’s headquarters or from calls to higher-up military sources… but a confidential source has informed us that the object of the Army’s search may never have been here at all and may, in fact, no longer even be in New Mexico. This source tells us that as recently as two hours ago, the object of the search was seen 30 miles east of here and that it is now in Texas.
We will stay on top of this, here on the Reservation, and report all the news for you as it happens, so stay tuned to KUVA Santa Fe for all the news that’s news. This is Kitty Kashizzle reporting for KUVA Santa Fe.”
The newsgirl looked at the cameraman, and he nodded. “Great job, Kitty! You’re a real pro!”
“Thanks, Jake. I wish Rogers would realize that. On the other hand, though, maybe a pro’s not what he wants. Maybe a barroom girl would be more to his liking.”
The cameraman laughed. “You’re probably right, Kitty. Give the old man what he wants. Keep your job. You’re too good to lose just because old Rogers can’t see past the peaks.”
“Well, one of these days I’m gonna get there, Jake… climb out of this little circus… and he’s gonna find those ‘peaks’ a bit dangerous when I do.”
As they spoke, a man no one had noticed approaching walked up to Kitty and offered her his hand.
“Kitty Kashizzle?”
The newsgirl looked around. “Yeah, that would be me. There’s no one else here by that name, I’m afraid. Do I know you?”
“No… not really. I’m the one who called in the anonymous report this morning… the source.”
The girl’s mouth fell open. “You’re our source? Oh, good! Good! Maybe you can clear up some things. How did you know this operation was going to happen? It was hardly even underway when you called.”
“I have inside connections.”
“What’s your name? I can’t keep calling you ‘source’ all the time.”
“Dan. Just Dan… for now. I can’t be seen or named on the news, though. It would jeopardize a lot of things… my life included.”
“Okay. What is the Army looking to find here… Dan?”
“Escapees… one in particular.”
“Like… convicts?”
“No. Convicts were ‘convicted.’ That’s why they’re called ‘convicts.’ These prisoners are more like… victims.”
“Victims?”
Dan nodded.
“Victims… of the Army?”
“Victims of a few higher-up Army personnel and a special unit that was legally disbanded by Congress several years ago but is still operating under the radar.”
“All right… All right,” the newsgirl said excitedly, looking for her pen and notepad. “That was good! Victims of a few higher-ups and a special unit disbanded by Congress several years back but still operating in secret. What unit was that?”
“The alien task force.”
The newsgirl looked at the man for several moments. “Are you saying that… the Army… all those tanks and men out there… are looking for… an alien?”
Dan nodded.
Slowly the girl began to smile. “You’re putting me on, right… because this is Roswell and all…?”
Dan shook his head.
“All right… Okay… How do you know this… I mean, assuming that it’s true.”
“Because I’m a member of the alien task force.”
“The disbanded… alien task force…” the newsgirl clarified.
Dan nodded.
The newsgirl turned to her assistant. “Carole, check something out for me. Run a query on Congress’ disbanding of an ‘alien task force…’” She turned to Dan… “When was this?”
“Two years ago… October 9th.”
“Run that for me, will you, Carole? See what comes up.”
The assistant rushed into the back of the van and sat down to type in the query on her keyboard. A couple of minutes later, she reappeared and handed the newsgirl the printout. The girl read it quietly then looked at Dan again… with a new look on her face.
“Dan… if this is true… I can’t tell you how important this would be… to the world… and to me personally.”
“Why would it be important to you, Kitty?”
The girl laughed. “I’ve always been kind of a UFO freak, Dan. People say I belong out there in the stars. Maybe that’s why I’m such a flop here on earth.”
“A flop? Kitty Kashizzle?”
“Oh please! Kitty Kashizzle! I want to puke every time I have to say that on the air. It’s not my real name, you know. My producer thought I needed more sizzle… something to attract a larger male audience. I tried to tell him I’m a newswoman not a frikkin’ stripper, but he’s got his head stuck so far up his ass that every time he farts, he sneezes.”
Dan smiled.
“You think that’s funny?”
“I was just picturing it. Besides, I know what it’s like to have an idiot boss on the loose.”
Kitty smiled and nodded. “Yeah. You always feel like you need to dress them in neon just in case they decide to go out and play in the traffic.”
“We just put a spiked collar on mine and tie him to a tree. Keeps him from chasing the traffic and biting the car tires.”
Kitty laughed.
“So what’s your real name, Kitty?”
“Diane.”
“Diane… That’s nice. I’ll bet your last name’s not Kashizzle either.”
The girl laughed. “No way! Dan… uh…”
“Klein.”
The girl held out her hand. “Hi, Dan Klein, I’m Diane Casey. Glad to meet you.”
Dan shook the newsgirl’s hand. “I like that. Your boss really is an idiot, isn’t he?”
Diane smiled and laughed. “Yeah… he is. And your boss?”
“He’s the one who called this raid.”
Diane nodded. “Well, Dan, let’s see if we can shake things up a little, okay? Maybe help some ‘victims.’”
“That’s kind of what I hoped,” Dan said.
tbc
Coming up: The beginning of the end
The Claws Of The Boryx
Chapter 25
XXV
~ 9:12 PM ~
Judge Lewis jumped out of the car, forgetting, in his haste, to even thank the driver who had rescued him from the desert. After regaining consciousness, he had spent two days in his disabled car with the doors mysteriously jammed and another night and part of a day walking in the sun. He still wasn’t sure how he got back inside his car after being attacked by the snake; he simply woke up there. In spite of this, Judge Lewis ran straight into his office and immediately dialed the number he had for the agent he knew only as “Culpepper.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s me,” Judge Lewis said, trying to talk and quench his thirst at the same time with water from a paper cup that he had just filled from the cooler beside his desk.
“Yeah, Judge, I recognize your voice. What do you want?”
“It’s not what I want, Culpepper, it’s what you want.”
“Okay, the agent sighed. “So what do I want?”
“Something you’re missing. Do I need to say more?”
There was a brief pause on the line. “I’ll be there.”
Thirty-eight minutes later, three agents let themselves into Judge Lewis’ office. Judge Lewis had not bothered to lock his door. It never did any good anyway. And besides, this time, he wanted them here.
“Have you guys lost a bird?”
Culpepper looked at the other two agents, and they returned the look with blank stares. Then he looked back at Judge Lewis in disbelief.
“I thought you had information about some missing, uh, prisoners that escaped from the base recently, Judge. Is this some kind of joke?” Culpepper leaned over Judge Lewis’ desk and put his face close to the judge’s face in a deliberate attempt to intimidate him. “If you’ll look closely at my face, it’s not smiling.”
Judge Lewis backed up involuntarily.
“It’s no joke, Colonel. Have you lost your bird?”
There was a pause, and the agent’s face reddened noticeably, as he collected his thoughts.
“I’m sorry I referred you to that urologist, Judge. You don’t need a urologist, you need a psychiatrist!”
“I don’t think so,” Judge Lewis retorted. “You guys are doing something secretive out there, and I think I’ve seen something that you would very much like to get back.”
“You haven’t started believin’ in all that UFO hogwash, have you, Judge?”
“UFO’s? Come on, Colonel! What do you take me for? A kook?”
“Hey! Now there’s something I hadn’t thought of!” Culpepper said sarcastically.”
Judge Lewis paid the sarcasm no attention. “You guys are doing some kind of research out there. I’ve heard about the special planes and stuff, but I think you’re doing biological research, too. You’ve managed to produce a very special bird… something that looks like a roadrunner but can kill a hawk… It’s like a roadrunner on amphetamines… and it’s feathers turn into some kind of… something that looks like skin when they get knocked off. How am I doing? Huh? Not laughing now, are you? God knows what else this bird of yours is capable of!”
There was a long pause, as the agent thought about what Judge Lewis had said. His first inclination was to simply write the judge off and report that he had flipped out and would be of no further use to them, but he felt in his bones that there was more to this than he could see. The missing alien kept coming to his mind… and he wasn’t sure why. He couldn’t imagine what the alien had to do with Judge Lewis’ bird. But the rumor among some who knew on the base was that, years ago, when the alien was first captured, it had suffered extensive wounds and had somehow healed itself by altering it’s wounds. Several times over the years, the Army had tried to force the alien to give them a “demonstration” in the lab, but to no avail. The alien had been uncooperative, even under extreme duress. Yet, somehow… Culpepper still had a feeling that the missing alien had something to do with Judge Lewis’ bird. If he thought it, though, he wasn’t about to admit it…
“You’re crazy, Judge.”
“I don’t think so.” Judge Lewis reached into his desk and pulled out the dirty rag. He unrolled it, exposing the piece of skin, which measured about two inches by two and a half inches. It was still bleeding. In fact, it seemed to be producing more blood. Culpepper and the other two agents looked at the piece of skin, obviously interested.
“Where did you see this… uh, ‘Mothra’ bird?”
“Ah! Ah ha! You want to know, don’t you? Well, it’ll cost you… for saying I needed a psychiatrist.”
“Which way did it fly?”
“How much is it worth?”
“What do you think you saw?”
“When can I expect a ‘thank you?’”
“The agent sighed deeply. “I’ll have it delivered… the usual way… the usual amount.”
“Double,” Judge Lewis said.
“You’re getting greedy, Horace.
“I’ve got something you really want… bad,” Judge Lewis countered, feeling sure of himself now. There was a short pause.
“Okay… double. Where did you see the bird?”
“In town… then in the desert. I don’t know where it went after that. It disappeared after the run-in with the hawk.”
“Maybe the hawk ate it,” Culpepper sneered.
“You didn’t see all the hawk feathers I saw in the desert, Colonel. Looked to me more like the roadrunner ate the hawk.”
“Roadrunners aren’t exactly Olympic flyers, Judge. They tire out quickly. Most of the time they’d rather run than fly.”
“Not this one.”
“Okay… Which way was it flying?”
“Straight out across the desert.”
“That’s not worth anything to us, Judge. What towns lie in the direction the bird was flying?”
Judge Lewis thought a moment. “No towns… that I know of… just some trees… then the river… the Mesaliko Reservation… and a lot of desert.”
“The Mesaliko Indian Reservation?”
“Yeah.”
There was another pause.
Culpepper reached into his inside coat pocket and took out two large stacks of hundred dollar bills, which he plopped down on Judge Lewis’ desk. Then he picked up the rag and the piece of skin in it and put them into his coat pocket.
“Don’t bother counting it, Judge. It’s all there.”
**********
~ 11:45 PM ~ on the Mesaliko Indian Reservation
The agent put the night view binoculars back up to his eyes and scanned the scattered rows of Indian homes again… for perhaps the hundredth time tonight… and for the hundredth time tonight, he saw nothing unusual. Most of the Indians on the reservation had retired early, as was the habit of the older ones in particular, and had their curtains drawn, though a few of the younger ones were in town at the only pool hall that was still open. In any case, absolutely nothing was happening on the reservation.
“This is getting nowhere, Barker. Nothing’s moving out there.”
“Keep watching Terrier… and use my code name.”
“Terrier” looked at Barker and rolled his eyes. “There’s no one out here on this hillside but us and a bunch of blood-sucking mosquitoes… Sir!”
“I don’t care. It’s still Culpepper. Follow protocol, Terrier.”
Terrier nodded and looked through the binoculars again. For the hundred and first time, he saw nothing out of the ordinary and nothing moving at all. He rolled over and handed Barker the binoculars.
Barker looked up and down the distant lowland at the scattered houses. Every house was quiet. Every house had its curtains drawn. And every house was totally normal-looking in every respect. Nothing was amiss. If anything was hiding here, it didn’t look like they were going to find it lying on this hillside being unwilling blood donors for a happy fleet of mosquitoes.
“Damn!” Terrier mumbled, swatting his face again.
“You should have used the skin-so-soft, Terrier. I’m telling you, it works.”
“I’d rather be carried back to the base with all my blood drained out, Sir.”
“That may happen.”
“I won’t use that sissy stuff… Sir. That’s Avon. It’s for women.”
“Suit yourself, Terrier. Rub some more on me then.”
“Sir!”
“That’s an order!”
Terrier groaned but took the lotion and began rubbing it on the backs of Barker’s arms and legs. Both men’s bodies were adequately covered with thick camouflage clothing, but somehow, the mosquitoes seemed to be able to get through to the face and extremities anyway.
“Sir,” Terrier asked, “Do you really think the bird the judge saw had something to do with the escaped alien?”
“You saw that piece of skin the judge had. It wasn’t human.”
“You think it came from a bird, Sir?”
“I think it came from our alien… wherever he is. It looks like other samples of his skin I’ve seen. Maybe he was out there in the desert and the judge was just hallucinating that he saw a bird… the hot sun, you know. Or maybe our alien disguised himself by wearing Indian feathers or something… I don’t know. Hell, maybe he can turn into a bird.”
“Like a mutant, Sir?” the agent asked. Barker rolled his eyes and ignored the question. The fact is, he never had believed that there had even been a bird. He was convinced, however, that the judge had seen something and that that something was their escaped alien, most likely wearing a disguise and hiding out either in the desert nearby or on the reservation.
“Terrier,” Barker said, as he rolled back over and looked through the binoculars again… “If you were an alien hiding out here… Where would you hide?”
“How would I know, Sir?”
“Well, think about it.”
“I don’t know… Maybe I’d take over the body of a young, good-looking brave and marry a pretty Indian girl.”
“They don’t do that body-snatching stuff, Terrier. That’s just Hollywood movie crap.”
“Well, you asked, Sir. Besides, how do you know real aliens don’t do that?”
There was no answer from Barker.
“Maybe someone on the reservation is hiding him,” Terrier suggested.
“Why would they do that?”
“Maybe they like him better than they like us.”
“No one likes us, Terrier! They’re not supposed to! It’s not part of our job descriptions to be popular. We do what has to be done, and we ask for no glory. We’re not contestants in a damned beauty contest!”
“Well, I know that, Sir. I just meant that it could be a reason why someone might hide him from us.”
Barker groaned. “We’re not going to find anything out here tonight. Let’s get back to the lab and see what that piece of skin… or whatever it was… turned out to be. If there’s anything unusual about it, we can come back and raid this place… with proper backup.”
“Raid a reservation?” Terrier asked, surprised.
“You got a problem with that?” Barker asked.
“Well… no… but the Indians might. And for that matter, a lot of bleeding hearts out there might, too. The media would just have a picnic with it.”
“So we come up with a good excuse,” Barker said. “If that piece of skin is from our alien, I’ll take this reservation apart house by house myself if I need to. And I’ll have all the support I need. It just takes the right words.”
**********
~ 6:05 AM ~ Roswell
Before the sun began to show its first morning rays over Roswell, Jim Valenti was already up and having breakfast with Amy and Kyle, preparing to start his day as Roswell’s sheriff. It was something on the television in the living room that caught his attention. He hadn’t been paying any attention to the news, but the words “Army” and “Mesaliko Reservation” brought him to attention. He ran to the TV to turn it up.
Sources report that at 5 o’clock this morning the Army began moving tanks and other war vehicles into position around the Mesaliko Indian Reservation near Roswell. We have no independent confirmation of this report as yet, but a KUVA news team is on the way to Roswell now, and we will let you know anything further as soon as we find out ourselves. More on the news at seven. This is Bob Harwood with KUVA News in Santa Fe reporting.
Amy turned to hand Jim his hat, but he was already out the door. She looked back at Kyle.
“Go on. It’s okay. I’ll be fine. I always stay here by myself.”
It didn’t take any further encouragement. Amy was out the door, and as Jim started his vehicle up, Amy hopped into the seat beside him. Jim knew better than to argue.
“You better buckle up, Amy.”
Amy did.
As Jim tore out of his driveway, his home phone began to ring, and Kyle answered it.
“Oh, hello Mr. Evans… Yeah, we heard… Yeah, Dad’s checking it out now. It’s news to us, too… We don’t know what’s going on. Dad’ll handle it, and he’ll keep you informed… No, I don’t think he would want a lot of people out there putting themselves in danger… Well, yeah… I know it’s Max and Isabel, but… Dad will… Mr. Evans?”
The phone clicked.
“Yeah. That’s what I figured you’d do, anyway,” Kyle mumbled to himself, throwing a shirt on over his T-shirt and locking the front door as he left the house.
In another Roswell home, another phone began to ring. Mrs. Whitman rolled over in her bed and picked it up.
“Hello?”
She listened for a few moments then sat up quickly in her bed.
“What? When?”
“5 o’clock this morning… heard it on the early news… Sheriff… checking it out…”
“Okay… Thanks, Diane. I appreciate you letting us know.”
Mrs. Whitman woke her husband up and told him about the call, then she jumped out of the bed and started to get dressed as he threw on his clothes and grabbed his car keys. Within ten minutes, they were in their car heading towards the Mesaliko Reservation.
**********
~ 7:00 AM ~
Jim stopped his vehicle at the entrance to the reservation and looked over at Amy.
“Why are we stopping, Jim?”
“Well, if the Army is watching and we rush straight in, we’ll be leading them right to the kids. We need to find out what’s going on here without jeopardizing the kids.”
Amy nodded. “Maybe we could create a little disinformation at the same time,” she suggested.
“I’m open to suggestions,” Jim agreed.
As they sat there, Phillip and Diane Evans drove up. Seeing Jim and Amy, they paused and rolled down their window.
“What’s going on, Sheriff,” Phillip asked. “Have you found out anything?”
“Not yet,” Jim yelled back. “But Phillip, you can’t just go charging in there… you’ll lead them right to the kids… if that’s who they’re looking for.”
Phillip looked at Diane then back at Jim. In their haste, they hadn’t thought of this, but both of them knew instantly that Jim was right. If they just rushed right in they might as well paint a big arrow to Gray Hawk’s house and put a sign on it saying, “They’re here!”
“What can we do, Sheriff?”
“Well, I’d say go home, Phillip… and wait till I find something out… but I doubt you’re going to do that, so see if you can come up with any suggestions to help me out here. I’m open to anything at the moment.”
“I called the Whitman’s from my cell phone on the way,” Diane said. “They’ll probably be showing up soon, too.”
“Great,” Jim sighed. “Just what we needed… more people. Okay, move your car a little closer to mine. That way, when they get here, they’ll have to stop. I don’t want them rushing in.”
Phillip nodded and moved his car towards Jim’s a bit. Seconds later, another vehicle drove up, but this one wasn’t the Whitmans. It was a news crew in a news van. The van slowed to a stop, and the driver looked at the words “Sheriff’s Dept.” on the side of Jim’s vehicle, which was blocking the way. Then he held out their credentials for Jim to see. “Sheriff! Can we pass?”
Jim thought for a moment. “What do you plan to do while you’re in there?”
“We’re gonna give a live, on-the-scene report from the Reservation,” the driver said. “If we can find out anything, we’ll report it. What can you tell us, Sheriff? What are they looking for?”
Jim looked at Amy, and Amy winked. Jim nodded.
“Well, I’m not at liberty to release this information, understand. But the, uh, ‘object’ they’re looking for was seen about thirty miles east of here about an hour ago, and according to my sources, it’s on its way through Texas now. I guess the Army hasn’t figured that out yet. Don’t quote me on that, though! This is strictly off the record. If you report that I said this, I’ll deny it.”
“I understand,” the driver said, looking back at one of his news anchors… “You got that, Kitty?”
“Got it.”
“All right,” Jim said to the driver. “I’ll move out of your way. I’ll watch your report from here. Stay away from the residents’ houses, and don’t make pests of yourselves. The Reservation is private land, and it has its own laws. Stay out of trouble.”
“Thanks, we’ll keep that in mind,” the driver said, as Jim moved his vehicle.
Jim nodded then turned to Amy. “Do you still have that little TV back there?”
“The one that plugs into the cigarette lighter?”
“That’s the one.”
“Yeah, it’s here.”
Jim moved his vehicle back into place… just in time to catch the Whitman’s, who were arriving at a fast clip. Diane Evans filled them in on what Jim had told them.
Amy already had the little TV plugged in and had located station KUVA. Jim, Amy, Phillip, Diane, and the Whitmans crowded together to watch.
**********
~ 7:43 AM ~
“Is the mike on? How do I look? Okay, let’s do it… on One! Three… Two… One…
Good morning! This is Kitty Kashizzle reporting for KUVA Sante Fe from the Mesaliko Indian Reservation in Roswell, New Mexico. At 5 o’clock this morning, sources notified this station that the U.S.Army was mobilizing several battalions around the Mesaliko Indian Reservation. As we speak, it appears that they are indeed planning to attack the Reservation with military force. If you will look out there…” The newsgirl pointed off in the distance, and the cameras panned over the hills, zooming in on a large number of Bradley Vehicles, tanks, and other war machines that had gathered already just out of easy eye sight… but not out of view of the camera’s high-powered lenses.
“Over those hills, you will see dozens… no… make that hundreds… of tanks, Bradley Vehicles, Humvees… and other military equipment, all manned with heavily-armed soldiers, all poised to swoop down on this apparently peaceful little Reservation, the residents of which appear to be blissfully unaware of the danger that lies ahead for them.
Efforts to find out exactly what the Army expects to accomplish from this highly-questionable raid have produced no good answers… either from the Army’s headquarters or from calls to higher-up military sources… but a confidential source has informed us that the object of the Army’s search may never have been here at all and may, in fact, no longer even be in New Mexico. This source tells us that as recently as two hours ago, the object of the search was seen 30 miles east of here and that it is now in Texas.
We will stay on top of this, here on the Reservation, and report all the news for you as it happens, so stay tuned to KUVA Santa Fe for all the news that’s news. This is Kitty Kashizzle reporting for KUVA Santa Fe.”
The newsgirl looked at the cameraman, and he nodded. “Great job, Kitty! You’re a real pro!”
“Thanks, Jake. I wish Rogers would realize that. On the other hand, though, maybe a pro’s not what he wants. Maybe a barroom girl would be more to his liking.”
The cameraman laughed. “You’re probably right, Kitty. Give the old man what he wants. Keep your job. You’re too good to lose just because old Rogers can’t see past the peaks.”
“Well, one of these days I’m gonna get there, Jake… climb out of this little circus… and he’s gonna find those ‘peaks’ a bit dangerous when I do.”
As they spoke, a man no one had noticed approaching walked up to Kitty and offered her his hand.
“Kitty Kashizzle?”
The newsgirl looked around. “Yeah, that would be me. There’s no one else here by that name, I’m afraid. Do I know you?”
“No… not really. I’m the one who called in the anonymous report this morning… the source.”
The girl’s mouth fell open. “You’re our source? Oh, good! Good! Maybe you can clear up some things. How did you know this operation was going to happen? It was hardly even underway when you called.”
“I have inside connections.”
“What’s your name? I can’t keep calling you ‘source’ all the time.”
“Dan. Just Dan… for now. I can’t be seen or named on the news, though. It would jeopardize a lot of things… my life included.”
“Okay. What is the Army looking to find here… Dan?”
“Escapees… one in particular.”
“Like… convicts?”
“No. Convicts were ‘convicted.’ That’s why they’re called ‘convicts.’ These prisoners are more like… victims.”
“Victims?”
Dan nodded.
“Victims… of the Army?”
“Victims of a few higher-up Army personnel and a special unit that was legally disbanded by Congress several years ago but is still operating under the radar.”
“All right… All right,” the newsgirl said excitedly, looking for her pen and notepad. “That was good! Victims of a few higher-ups and a special unit disbanded by Congress several years back but still operating in secret. What unit was that?”
“The alien task force.”
The newsgirl looked at the man for several moments. “Are you saying that… the Army… all those tanks and men out there… are looking for… an alien?”
Dan nodded.
Slowly the girl began to smile. “You’re putting me on, right… because this is Roswell and all…?”
Dan shook his head.
“All right… Okay… How do you know this… I mean, assuming that it’s true.”
“Because I’m a member of the alien task force.”
“The disbanded… alien task force…” the newsgirl clarified.
Dan nodded.
The newsgirl turned to her assistant. “Carole, check something out for me. Run a query on Congress’ disbanding of an ‘alien task force…’” She turned to Dan… “When was this?”
“Two years ago… October 9th.”
“Run that for me, will you, Carole? See what comes up.”
The assistant rushed into the back of the van and sat down to type in the query on her keyboard. A couple of minutes later, she reappeared and handed the newsgirl the printout. The girl read it quietly then looked at Dan again… with a new look on her face.
“Dan… if this is true… I can’t tell you how important this would be… to the world… and to me personally.”
“Why would it be important to you, Kitty?”
The girl laughed. “I’ve always been kind of a UFO freak, Dan. People say I belong out there in the stars. Maybe that’s why I’m such a flop here on earth.”
“A flop? Kitty Kashizzle?”
“Oh please! Kitty Kashizzle! I want to puke every time I have to say that on the air. It’s not my real name, you know. My producer thought I needed more sizzle… something to attract a larger male audience. I tried to tell him I’m a newswoman not a frikkin’ stripper, but he’s got his head stuck so far up his ass that every time he farts, he sneezes.”
Dan smiled.
“You think that’s funny?”
“I was just picturing it. Besides, I know what it’s like to have an idiot boss on the loose.”
Kitty smiled and nodded. “Yeah. You always feel like you need to dress them in neon just in case they decide to go out and play in the traffic.”
“We just put a spiked collar on mine and tie him to a tree. Keeps him from chasing the traffic and biting the car tires.”
Kitty laughed.
“So what’s your real name, Kitty?”
“Diane.”
“Diane… That’s nice. I’ll bet your last name’s not Kashizzle either.”
The girl laughed. “No way! Dan… uh…”
“Klein.”
The girl held out her hand. “Hi, Dan Klein, I’m Diane Casey. Glad to meet you.”
Dan shook the newsgirl’s hand. “I like that. Your boss really is an idiot, isn’t he?”
Diane smiled and laughed. “Yeah… he is. And your boss?”
“He’s the one who called this raid.”
Diane nodded. “Well, Dan, let’s see if we can shake things up a little, okay? Maybe help some ‘victims.’”
“That’s kind of what I hoped,” Dan said.
tbc
Coming up: The beginning of the end
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Island Breeze
- Forum Moderator
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The Night The Dreams Died
The Night The Dreams Died
Hour Of Doom
Chapter 26
XXVI
~ 8:05 AM ~
Inside Gray Hawk’s house on the Mesaliko reservation, the former “guests of the Army” were having breakfast as members of a new élite group: “The Army’s Most Wanted.” No one had turned on the TV, and no one was yet aware of any of what was going on outside. It was Maria who first had a premonition of impending trouble, suddenly shivering without warning.
“What was that?” Max asked with a look of concern on his face.
Maria shook her head. “Nothing. I just had a cold chill for a moment.”
“It’s not cold in here,” Michael said matter-of-factly, looking at Maria for some sign that she might be coming down with something. Maybe you were remembering something… something scary.”
“Well, I was… I think… but I wasn’t really. A chill just ran up my spine like a… like a… I don’t know… kind of a premonition… or a warning or something.”
“About what,” Max and Michael both asked at the same time.
“I don’t know. It was just a sort of feeling of doom… like I used to get when I was a little girl and I did something bad then hid from Mama then she found me and I knew I was gonna be in big, big trouble.”
Michael smiled. “You been a bad girl, Maria?”
Maria scrunched her nose up slightly but then grinned. “If I had, you’d know, Michael. You’re my biggest corrupter.”
Isabel snickered and nodded.
“Well, I’m glad I’m good at something anyway,” Michael said.
“I’ve been having that feeling all morning,” Liz said.
“That Michael’s a great corrupter?” Isabel asked, grinning.
“No… that something’s about to happen. I just can’t stop thinking it.”
Max got up from the table and walked to the window, moving the curtain just a bit to take a look outside. At first he saw nothing unusual, but he knew that Liz’s premonitions, even when they were vague and unclear, almost always came to something.
“Has anybody seen Gray Hawk this morning,” Isabel asked.
Maria shook her head.
“He was here earlier,” Liz said. “He went out about five o’clock this morning… before the sun came up… said he had some important business. I haven’t seen him since then.”
Maria shivered again. Max looked worried then walked over and looked out the window again. This time he scanned the hillsides and road from one end to the other. Then he slowly pulled the curtain back tightly over the window.
“What is it,” Michael asked, standing up and walking over to look out the window, too.
“Don’t let yourself be seen,” Max said.
Michael gazed out through a narrow opening at the edge of the curtain.
“Damn!”
“What do you think,” Max asked.
Michael frowned. “Those sun glints up in the hills… metallic… maybe guns… or even tanks… hard to tell.”
“Could be hunters,” Alex said, hopefully.
“Yeah,” Michael agreed. “Could be. What worries me is what they’re hunting here on the reservation. And that’s one helluva lot of hunters…”
Liz rolled her chair over to Max, and Max bent over and kissed her then hugged her.
“It’s happening,” Liz whispered.
Max sighed deeply. He really wanted to say that the sun glints could be nothing… but what came out was,
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” Michael said, suddenly taking over as though he had always been expected to lead them in just such a situation, “Max, bolt the doors and block them. Make sure all the windows are locked. Leave us a way to get out fast, though, if we have to. Isabel and Angie Lee… look around the house. Find out where the best place to hide would be if anyone tries to get in. Alex & Maria, see if there’s anything we can use to defend ourselves…”
“Weapons?” Alex asked.
Michael nodded. “For you and… whoever needs them. Max and I won’t need them. Rahn…”
“Yes?”
Michael thought a minute. “I need you to sneak out there and scout around… you know, see just what we’re up against.”
Rahn smiled. “I’ll turn into a small bird. No one will pay attention to a small bird.”
Michael nodded and looked over at Max, more as a formality than for his permission. Michael had already gone into full “take charge / protect” mode, but Max was still his king, even if it was in another life, a life that neither of them quite remembered. Max nodded his agreement.
Michael cracked the door, and a small bird about the size of a sparrow streaked out, headed for the hills. Then Michael closed and locked the door again. Twenty minutes later, Rahn returned. Finding the house locked up tight, he flew around for a few moments then flew up onto the roof. There, he perched on the edge of a smoke vent that served as a sort of chimney for Gray Hawk’s fireplace. He took one last look back then teetered forward and tumbled down through the smoke vent, rolling out of the fireplace into the house in front of everyone.
“Did you see anything,” Max asked, as Rahn stretched his limbs back to their normal size. His head seemed to grow eerily from sparrow-sized to human-sized. Finally, he stood in front of them again as a presentable humanoid.
“Tanks… lots of soldiers… and army vehicles.”
“Damn,” Michael said once again. “I knew it. I just knew it.”
“There’s also a news vehicle on the reservation,” Rahn added. “And a news crew.”
“Great,” Michael said. “Catch it on the news at six! Special agents, backed up by army tanks, kill alien invaders trying to take over Mesaliko Reservation. The world is safe again!”
“Maybe people will see what’s really happening,” Liz said. “Maybe they’ll be on our side.”
Michael looked at Liz sympathetically and shook his head. “Don’t count on it. People aren’t like that. They want to see blood and guts. They want drama. They don’t want fuzzy cuddly stuff.”
“Some people do,” Liz insisted.
“Well, maybe in your world, Liz… not in mine,” Michael replied seriously. “I’m just telling you what to expect.”
“Michael’s right,” Max interjected. “We can’t expect help from the media or from anyone else who might see what’s happening. They won’t know the real story. What they hear will be what the Army wants them to hear… what the Army tells them. I have to agree with Michael. We can’t expect them to be on our side.”
“I just think we should consider the possibility of them being on our side,” Liz insisted… “At least consider the possibility that we could turn them to our side.”
“Yeah… if we had the chance,” Michael said. “But I don’t see the Army giving us that chance. As soon as one of us goes out there, it’s all over. Those Special Unit and FBI guys need us dead. Dead aliens don’t talk and give stories to the press –or to Congress- stories that might be embarrassing.”
Liz swallowed. She knew that what Michael was saying wasn’t just paranoia. He did have a very valid point. Their safety depended on their making no mistakes. If this was a mistake, it would very likely be a deadly and final one. Liz nodded.
“So what are we supposed to do,” Isabel asked. “Just sit here and wait for them to come get us?”
“They don’t know where we are,” Max said. “If they did, they’d already be here. They’re looking.”
“Well, they must know we’re on the reservation,” Isabel replied. “Because they’re out there.”
“Yeah,” Michael agreed. “I wonder how they found out.”
“I’ll bet that somehow Judge Lewis could answer that question,” Maria said.
Max nodded somberly.
“Well, we’re safer right now staying right where we are and keeping a low profile,” Michael said. “Maybe if we’re lucky that TV crew being out there will make them think twice about attacking Indian homes… but I kind of doubt it.”
“So do I,” Max agreed. “But I’ll bet that TV crew out there is the only reason they haven’t attacked yet. They’re probably figuring out what story they’re going to feed to the media when it happens.”
Michael nodded. “We need a plan, Max. We’re on borrowed time here.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Angie Lee tapped Max on the shoulder, and Max looked at her.
“This might help you, Max. It’s the reason I went back to the university a few days ago. I still don’t know what all of it says.”
She handed Max a very old-looking book bound in something that looked like brown leather.
“What is it,” Max asked.
“Look inside.”
Max opened the book. Inside was writing that looked very much like the limited amount of Antarian writing he had seen… but a little different.
“Is this another romance novel, Angie?”
“No… not this one. This one’s an instruction manual,” Angie Lee said. “And look…” She turned the pages. On one of the pages, there were hand-drawn pictures of several people… people who just happened to look very much like Max… Michael… Isabel… and Angie Lee. And below that were smaller pictures of four more individuals. These looked much less identifiable, individually… but seen together, they made Max catch his breath.
Michael looked at the book, then the others looked at it.
Liz ran her hand carefully over the raised characters and pictures, especially the one that looked like her. She looked up at Angie Lee.
“What is this book?”
“It’s an operational manual of some kind,” Angie Lee said. “I figured that much out. But I don’t know what it’s for.”
“The granolith?” Michael asked Max.
Max nodded. “It must be.”
“But that looks like me,” Liz said, “…and Maria… and Alex… and Kyle. I mean, if I saw just one of those pictures by itself, I’d probably be like, hey, you know, that looks kinda like me… or Maria… or whoever; but all four of us together?”
“It’s us,” Maria said. “But how? How did we get in an alien book?”
“The real question,” Angie Lee said, “is how did any of us get in an alien book that was written over sixty years ago.”
“No…” Maria shook her head. “I don’t believe that.”
Angie Lee shrugged. “It’s true. Sixty years ago.”
“May I see the book,” Rahn asked politely.
Everyone had forgotten that it was Rahn who told them that the other book, the one they found in the cave, was a romance novel. Rahn could read it. Max handed Rahn the book, and Rahn read it carefully page by page. After several minutes, he handed the book back to Angie Lee.
“It’s an operational manual… for my space craft. I wasn’t the pilot. I never saw this book, but that’s what it is.”
“The UFO that they’ve got in area 51?” Maria asked.
Rahn nodded. “I know they have it… I don’t know where it is, though.”
“I do,” Maria said. “I saw it.”
“But what am I doing in this book,” Alex asked. “I wasn’t on your ship.”
Rahn sat down and looked at Alex. “The book is more than just an operational manual. It is also a biological manual for the care of the specific cargo that the ship was carrying.”
“Us,” Michael said.
Rahn nodded. “Twenty-four small sacs… Sacs that would grow into the pods from which you would one day emerge.”
“Twenty-four?” Max asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Twenty-four. There were six of each of you.”
“Then… what happened to the other five sets,” Isabel asked.
Rahn frowned. “The Army took them. I assumed they were all dissected… destroyed… like the fourth sac from your set was.”
“Our dupes in New York,” Michael said. “They must have been one of the sets from those sacs, too, then. Nicholas said that you dumped them in the sewers because they were defective.”
Rahn shook his head. “That would be ridiculous. Nicholas is fond of such disinformation. But it is not true. I have no idea how they got to New York, but we did not put them there. If they were defective, it was because of how they grew up… without the proper growth care that was outlined in the book.”
Max shook his head. “But Michael, Isabel, and I didn’t get that care, either.”
“Actually, you did… in the early stages,” Rahn explained. “We managed to save your three pods and hide them in the desert. They were cared for by a guardian for a time. All the others were found and taken by the Army.”
Michael shook his head slowly. “So Max and Isabel and I were the only survivors… that you knew about… but those guys in New York… they must have survived, too, somehow. Who dumped them there… the Army? And what’s with Maria and Liz’s pictures… and Alex and Kyle’s pictures… in this book?”
“The instructions in the book said that if you did not receive the programming boosts during your formative and adolescent years… or if your programming failed… you should all be assisted in finding mates that would appeal to you. The pictures show what type of looks would most likely appeal to each one of you if your DNA was not adjusted. It wasn’t supposed to be like that, but I guess the ones who engineered you realized that if the programming failed, getting a happy king back would be better than getting an unhappy king who couldn’t stand his mate. It’s why the programming needed to be reinforced. If it had been, you would have chosen your former queen, and Rath would have chosen his former betrothed… and all of you would have been happy. Unfortunately, that plan was ruined from the start, though, when the pod with your former queen was taken by the Army, Zan.”
“So the fourth pod… was not Angie Lee?” Michael asked.
Rahn shook his head.
“But it looks just like her,” Isabel said.
“I saw the soldiers take the pod containing the queen. It… I saw it…” Rahn’s voice trailed off.
“Dissected?” Maria asked.
Rahn nodded. “It was destroyed… completely… irrevocably. Only the three of you were saved… out of your set.”
“But you said that there were originally six sets,” Michael said.
Rahn nodded. “That’s true… but they were all taken by the Army… We could not get close enough to save them without getting caught… as I did…”
“You got caught while trying to save the rest of the pods?” Maria asked.
Rahn nodded. “I failed. And because of that, the pods were all destroyed… except the three that we were able to hide in time before the Army found us.”
“Then what about those guys in New York?” Michael asked.
Rahn shook his head. “I can’t explain them.”
“And the other pictures in the book?” Michael asked.
“Those pictures weren’t supposed to be Liz or Maria… or Alex or Kyle… not necessarily…”
“Yes they were,” Michael said emphatically. “That is Maria!”
Rahn smiled. “Maria just looks like the picture. You were bioengineered to fall in love with your original mates, you with Isabel… Max with his former queen… but the fourth pod was destroyed, and then we were unable to continue giving the rest of you the care that was required… The book said that your engineering would fail if you were not given follow-up adjustments at critical points in your development, especially during adolescence. You were not supposed to grow up alone… without guardians to care for you and reinforce your programming.”
“So then… the queen was supposed to fall in love with someone who looks like that guy who was here the other day…” Angie Lee said… “like Kyle… if she didn’t fall in love with the king, I mean?”
“She was supposed to fall in love with Zan… Max… the king,” Rahn said, but she… her pod… was destroyed, and his programming was never completed. Because of that, they would not have fallen in love with each other even if she had survived. The book says that without the necessary DNA and psychological adjustments in childhood, and especially in adolescence, he would more likely choose a mate who looked something like Liz… and the queen would prefer one who looked something like the one you call Kyle… if she had survived.”
“The picture really does look like him,” Angie Lee said, “and he was awful cute.”
“Well, he’s available,” Isabel said. “The queen’s pod was destroyed, so… no queen.”
“Oh,” Angie Lee muttered, smiling as she studied the picture that resembled Kyle.”
“Omigod!” Maria exclaimed.
“What?” Isabel asked, turning around quickly.
“I just realized… Kyle’s my half-brother now.”
Isabel laughed, then the others began to laugh, too. No one knew it at the time, but that would be the last laugh any of them would share for a while…
Suddenly, with no warning, a huge blast knocked everyone to the floor and turned Liz’s chair over. Scrambling back to his feet, Michael hurried to check their surroundings, as Max helped Liz back into her chair. The house still appeared to be intact. Whatever had blown them off their feet had not hit the house directly. Max peered out the window carefully, and Michael peered out over his shoulder. Tanks were rolling onto the reservation now in front of the houses. One of them had fired off a round. Behind the tanks, a vast army of humvees, Bradley fighting vehicles, and heavily-armed soldiers was pouring out of the hills and onto the reservation.
Outside the house, not far away, a shocked news crew stood dumbfounded, watching and filming the incursion…
“You have just seen it here on KUVA, the only station on the scene,” the newsgirl, Diane Casey, screamed, almost losing her voice in the emotional moment. “The Army has just rolled a battalion of tanks onto the Mesaliko Reservation, and shots HAVE BEEN fired! The Army is firing on Indian homes! We do not yet know the reasons for this incursion, but it cannot be worth the lives of all these innocent people. So far, we have seen none of the Mesaliko at all. Apparently, they are staying in their homes… which now that I think about it, is probably a very intelligent idea. These homes will be no match for tanks, though, if the Army decides to blow them apart or simply drive over them. The Indians here have no defense against this attack, which appears to this observer to be utterly unprovoked.
As Diane spoke, another salvo was fired from the turret of one of the nearer tanks, and this time, it was a direct hit… with devastating results. The targeted home exploded in a hellacious fireball from which no one could have escaped or survived. Timbers and splinters of timbers flew hundreds of feet into the sky, raining down in a fiery holocaust all over the reservation. Diane almost couldn’t find her voice, as she described what she was seeing for the viewers, peppering her comments with a few words that might have been bleeped if the censor at the station had not himself been so absorbed in what was happening that he missed the words altogether.
Moments after the first home was destroyed, a second home went up in flames in another fiery holocaust of flying timbers and splinters. Max and Michael watched out the corner of their window, unable to even speak owing to their inability to believe what was happening. But their period of inaction was brief. Michael rushed to look around the house for a place… any place… where they might be safe from such an attack. There was none.
“We have to leave here NOW,” Michael said emphatically, leaving no room at all for dissent. “We leave now… or we get blown up.”
No one spoke. At the moment, every face in the house was whiter than Gray Hawk’s feather. And Gray Hawk was still nowhere to be found, having never returned to the house after leaving at 5 A.M. It occurred to Max that Gray Hawk might have been captured… or even killed… trying to return to his home to protect it… and them.
Max suddenly seemed to take over. “Everyone out the back. Stay together… but not too close together. Run for the river. If we can make it to the river unseen, we may have a chance.”
“What about the Mesaliko people?” Liz asked. “They’ll be slaughtered, Max. We can’t just let them die.”
“If we don’t run,” Isabel said, the frustration obvious in her voice, “we’ll die, too. We can’t help them. I want to… I just don’t know how we can, Liz!”
“Well, we have to do something,” Alex said. “This is happening to them because of us.”
Max nodded somberly. “We can’t help them by getting killed ourselves. We have to escape and then figure out how to fight back to save them.”
Michael nodded his agreement, but clearly nobody there was happy with this option, though it was the only reasonable option available to them.
“Is everyone ready to run,” Max asked. “Where’s Rahn?”
Everyone looked around. Rahn did not seem to be there.
“The back door…” Liz said, pointing. “It’s cracked.”
“He wouldn’t have abandoned us,” Maria insisted. “Not Rahn.”
“Well, he did,” Michael said flatly. “He flew away… saved himself. He’s not here.”
“I just can’t believe Rahn would do that,” Maria said again. “Rahn’s no coward…”
Angie Lee started to agree with Maria, but as they stood there, another house suddenly exploded in an inferno of fire and flying wood. The friends watched from the back door of Gray Hawk’s house as the fiery splinters fell everywhere around them.
“Let’s go! Now! All together! While there’s a distraction!” Max yelled. Max threw open the back door, and everyone ran out, cutting around the far side of the house then running in the direction of the river. They crossed the small road quickly and ran along the path towards the river, staying behind the trees as much as possible. Max was carrying Liz in his arms. As they reached the river, everyone came together again.
“Where do we go now, Max?” Isabel asked.
“Is there anyone who can’t swim?” Max asked.
No one replied.
“Good. Then we all go into the river. The current will carry us downstream… and out of the reservation.”
Max pulled his shoes off, but as he prepared to jump into the river, a boat appeared around the bend. Max hesitated and backed up into the trees again. They watched as the boat approached. It was a small boat with an outboard motor, and there appeared to be only one person in it. The boat pulled up to the shore where Max and the others had been, and a pudgy little man got out and lumbered onto the shore. Liz caught her breath.
“Judge Lewis! What’s he doing here?”
“I’m telling you,” Maria whispered. “He had to have tipped them off somehow. He had to have found out we were here and told the FBI or the Army. That’s the only answer. He’s probably coming to enjoy the show.”
Alex stepped further back under the trees, and as he did, he stepped on an unbalanced rock. The rock tilted, sending him to the ground. Judge Lewis immediately looked in their direction. Spotting them, he jumped into his boat and shoved it back into the water as quickly as he could. Alex ran down the bank and leapt into the water in an effort to catch the boat, but it was too late. Judge Lewis pulled out an air horn and began blaring it.
“He was looking for us,” Michael said, realizing the truth. “He was cruising around out there just to see if he could catch us trying to escape in the river. He’s signaling them where we are.”
“Alex!” Max yelled. “Get out of the water! We’ve got to run!”
“Just get out of the way,” Michael yelled. Alex did.
Michael raised his hand, and a fireball hit the small boat, sending it up in flames and sinking it immediately. Judge Lewis fell through the bottom of his sinking boat into the water, a fact that turned out to be fortunate for him in the end, since it extinguished his burning clothes before he suffered any injury. He was, however, now at the mercy of the river and the current, which quickly swept him away downstream.
“Do you think he can swim,” Maria asked.
“Do I care,” Michael asked. “I hope he can’t.”
No one was quite sure if Michael meant that or not… but more interestingly, every one of them realized that they had thought it at the same time, and it was an oddly uncomfortable feeling.
“Okay,” Max said. “Stay in the trees. We’ll make our way along the shore staying inside the woods.”
Max picked Liz back up, and they started to move. They had gone about a hundred yards when the first helicopter appeared over the river, headed in their direction. Then they noticed two more helicopters… then several more. They were Cobras, each one armed with an impressive battery of missiles and machine guns.
“Get down!” Michael screamed. “Everyone lie low! Get out of sight!”
Everyone hit the ground, sliding into the underbrush as best they could behind the trees, as the helicopters approached from over the water. Slowly, the helicopters combed the banks and nearby wooded areas, looking for their targets. No one on the ground dared to even breathe, as the helicopters flew over… then flew back over again, missing the hiding subjects who were well concealed beneath the brush. They did find a floundering, half-drowned Judge Lewis about a half mile downstream, however, hanging onto a tiny splinter of wood that might have been from one of the homes on the reservation or from his boat; and after a short debate, they dropped him a life jacket. Then the helicopters all turned and headed in the direction of the reservation homes.
As the chop chop chop of the helicopter blades grew faint in the distance, Max finally rolled over and looked, brushing off the leaves and small branches, some of which had been thrown over them by the backwash of the helicopters’ blades. Nearby, others began to emerge from beneath the brush, also.
“Max,” Liz said imploringly. “They’ll slaughter the Mesalikos. There won’t be anyone left alive there. We have to help them.”
Max swallowed… then nodded.
Michael looked at Max and pressed his lips together. But he didn’t argue. Everyone knew what that meant. They were going back.
As the small group of friends reached the edge of the wooded area, they saw the Cobras circling overhead. On the ground, the homes of the Mesalikos were surrounded by tanks. At least five of the homes had been destroyed… possibly more. Max doubted that anyone inside any of them had had any chance at all to escape or survive. It made him sick to his stomach. A quick look at Michael told him that Michael felt the same way. There was no need to even wonder what Liz was thinking… or Angie Lee, who had grown up here on this reservation, protected by the Mesaliko people.
“I say we blast every one of those helicopters out of the sky,” Michael said. “Then we deal with the tanks and those special agent guys that started this.”
Max clearly didn’t like this idea, but he didn’t see any other alternative. It was them or a lot of innocent Mesalikos. Max nodded, and he and Michael both held their hands up in the direction of one of the helicopters that was, at that moment, taking aim on another home with a missile. Two powerful jolts sent the Cobra spinning, it’s tail almost separated from its body. As soon as it happened, the other Cobras all turned toward Max and Michael.
Max kissed Liz, then Michael and Maria sealed their good-byes with a kiss, then they sent Liz and Maria, who went unwillingly, with Alex, Isabel, and Angie Lee back into the woods. They knew that they could take out some more of the attackers, but they also knew that they would never get them all. Both Max and Michael let go with another jolt of power, and two more Cobras ploughed into the ground, their rotors blasted off. It seemed, though, that twenty more Cobras were just as suddenly there to replace the three downed ones. What had been like swatting at a few bees had become a full-scale attack by the whole hive. Max and Michael raised their hands again and prepared for their final stand. But as they did, the helicopters suddenly veered off and flew away.
“What happened?” Michael asked. “They had us.”
“I don’t know,” Max said, shaking his head. “Do you hear something?”
Both of them listened and looked around. Other than for the crackle of the burning homes, nothing seemed to be happening. Even the tanks had turned around and were facing away from the homes now; they appeared to be aiming back out at the hills.
“Maybe they’re leaving,” Michael said optimistically.
“I don’t think so,” Max said. “They’re expecting something… from the other side of those hills.”
Max and Michael watched. Moments later, the cause of the about face became evident, as several pickup trucks and an SUV rolled over the hills in the distance. The tanks all aimed their turrets at the advancing vehicles, but a moment later, an entire army of off-road-capable vehicles began rolling over the hills. The helicopters were returning now to their original positions over the Indian homes, but they remained facing the small oncoming army, which seemed to be rapidly growing larger and larger.
Max looked at Michael, and Michael shrugged.
One of the Cobras fired a missile, striking one of the advancing pickups, but as the smoke cleared, they saw that the pickup had not been destroyed… in fact, it seemed to just keep coming. Two tanks then fired at the same time, scoring direct hits on two more pickups, and these, too, continued to advance, apparently unharmed. At this point, the Cobra pilots in particular seemed to become unnerved, firing barrages of missiles, all of which exploded on their targets… which merely continued to advance as though they were immune to missiles and tank barrages.
“What’s going on here,” Michael asked.
Max looked back into the woods. He could see Isabel, Alex, Maria, and Liz from where he was, but at first he didn’t see Angie Lee. Then he spotted her. She was leaning on a tree, and she seemed to be deep in concentration. Max smiled.
“We’ve got a little help.” Max pointed at Angie Lee.
Michael nodded and smiled, too, then he looked back at the oncoming vehicles.
“But what happens when they get here and they see they’re not real, Max?”
“I don’t know,” Max said. “But she’s giving us some time. Let’s take advantage of it.”
Max and Michael fired two power surges at one of the more aggressive tanks, blowing its treads off and bending its turret into a right angle. Without waiting for the other tanks to recover, they took aim at another tank, with similar results. By this time, several of the Cobra helicopters had turned back around to face Max and Michael, but what the Cobra pilots saw were several dozen Maxes and Michaels. Two of the Cobras fired, scoring direct hits on two of the Maxes. But like the pickup trucks coming over the hill, the Maxes hit by the missiles were unhurt.
“They missed?” Michael said, dumbfounded. He looked over at Max and suddenly saw all the other Maxes. Looking to the other side, he then saw his own doubles. Michael smiled and saluted, and several of his doubles smiled back and returned the gesture.
“Cool! Now let’s just hope they don’t accidentally hit the real us, Max,” Michael said. “Somehow I don’t think we’re as durable as our doubles out there seem to be.”
The word seemed to be getting around among the tank commanders and Cobra pilots that their attackers might only be smokescreens meant to distract them from their mission. However, there was the eerie problem of the tanks with bent turrets and the treads blown off. The commander decided that this could have been done remotely by “alien powers unknown and persons not immediately present, probably someone who was still inside one of the homes,” and he ordered the pilots and tanks to concentrate on the homes again and ignore the apparitions. This was a mistake.
The pickup trucks, other vehicles, and SUV charged onto the reservation en masse in a scene that must have looked like Custer’s last stand, and Max and Michael could now see that each vehicle was packed with Mesaliko Indians. Apparently, not all of the vehicles had been merely apparitions. The intent of the “invaders” quickly became obvious, as everything from rifles to bows and arrows, spears, and rocks rained down on the tanks, causing some damage, but not significantly. It did, however, distract the tanks and Cobras from the homes once more, and they turned once again to fire at the oncoming vehicles.
There was a problem now, however. Previously, the Mesaliko vehicles had been far away, and it had been a simple matter to fire on them. But now they were all over the place in among the tanks. Any shot fired by a tank would very likely take out another tank beside it, even if it also destroyed the Mesalikos’ vehicle.
The tanks spun their turrets around and around continuously but futilely, following the circling Mesaliko vehicles but never able to fire on them. The Cobra pilots, too, were frustrated, finding their hands tied as long as the Mesalikos had their vehicles in among the tanks. The damage being done to the tanks by the Mesalikos was minimal, but with each new pass, it added up. After a short time, several of the tanks had been disabled, mostly due to having their treads damaged or jammed or their turrets jammed. In one spectacular instance, a Mesaliko managed to throw a well-aimed bottle of Jack Daniels with a lighted rag stuck in it down the barrel of a tank turret, and the resulting explosion split the barrel apart like an opening rose bud.
The SUV pulled up alongside Max and Michael, and the window rolled down.
“Could you guys use a ride?”
“Sheriff? …Kyle? What the…” Max looked inside and noticed that Amy was there, too, as well as two or three Mesalikos. One of them was Gray Hawk.
Max motioned for Alex and the others to come, and he ran to get Liz himself, setting her in the vehicle beside Amy. Maria jumped in on the other side of Amy and put her arms around her mother.
“You always did know when it was time for me to come home, Mom.”
Amy smiled and kissed Maria, nodding… “And don’t you forget it!”
Max turned to Gray Hawk. “We thought you had been captured or killed trying to get back to your house.”
“Mmm… I would have been… maybe,” Gray Hawk said. “But Kyle found me and warned me. Together, we warned some of the other Mesalikos in town, and they warned their families and others on the reservation. So everyone was able to escape before the trouble started… except you. I am sorry that you were not warned. They did not know that you were in my home. I wanted to come back, but I was unable to get in… so Kyle suggested this instead.”
“Kyle suggested an attack on army tanks?”
Kyle smiled slightly and slid down a bit in his seat.
Max laughed. “Kyle! What about Buddha?”
Everyone laughed.
“It’s okay, Kyle,” Michael said, “We won’t tell.”
“Gray Hawk!” Kyle said sheepishly, “Next time you’re spreading that peyote dust around so the ancestors won’t see…”
“Shhhhh…” Gray Hawk put one finger to his lips.
“Save a little for me, too, okay? I think I’m going to need it… with these two loud mouths around.”
Max and Michael both snickered.
Jim turned the SUV around and headed back towards the gate, just outside of which the Evanses and Whitmans were still waiting, having been convinced by Jim that it would be dangerous for everyone involved if they came in, too, at this time. However, the SUV didn’t make it far. As they started for the road to the gate, a missile from one of the Cobras exploded about thirty feet in front of them. Fortunately, the Cobra had not scored a direct hit, but even so, the resulting damage to the vehicle was catastrophic. The hood was peeled back, and a number of engine components were heat fused together. The SUV was clearly at the end of its road.
The Mesalikos, including Gray Hawk, jumped out and immediately began to fire on the Cobra with their old rifles. The Cobra, in turn, opened fire with its machine guns, strafing Gray Hawk and one of the other Mesalikos across the chest with machine gun fire. Both men fell to the ground, fatally wounded. Max and Michael jumped out of the vehicle on opposite sides, and two power bolts surged from their hands in the direction of the Cobra. It was a good hit. The rotor blades peeled upward, and the tail broke off. The helicopter hit the ground hard, knocking both the pilot and his gunner unconscious.
Max rushed to Gray Hawk. He wasn’t breathing. Max quickly stripped off Gray Hawk’s shirt and held one hand over his chest. A greenish glow appeared under Max’s hand, and slowly, the bullet wounds in Gray Hawk’s chest began to disappear. Gray Hawk opened his eyes. Max then moved to the other wounded Mesaliko and took care of his wounds the same way.
Not far away, the news truck was still filming. It had recorded the missile strike that had disabled the SUV, and now it was recording a moving, human moment, as Max bent over the second Mesaliko…
“Move in closer… closer…” Diane implored the cameraman. “Focus on his hands. A little closer… That’s it! Yes! Yes! That’s it… Omigod!”
There was a pause, as Diane caught her breath and watched.
“They’re… His wounds are disappearing. He’s healing him. That man was dead… or at the very edge of death… and now he’s… He’s getting back up again… Does anyone have any idea at all what this could mean… for all of us… for the world?” Diane turned and faced the camera, her voice shaking with emotion, yet in spite of this, still appearing every bit the consummate professional. “People, I’m telling you, you can live your lives with your heads stuck in the ground… and die like that… or you can open your minds to the real possibilities of a much, much brighter world for all of us. But we’ll never see it if the idiots attacking this reservation today… and whoever is leading them… have their way. Do something… whatever you can do. Call your Congressman. Call your Representatives. Flood Washington with emails and faxes. But do it now! Insist on change that will end this stupid, stupid paranoia… before it is all too late. I beg you! There is so much that we can learn from these people… whoever they are… You could be the ones who will decide whether or not we ever get that chance. Call now! Don’t wait another minute! Make sure your Congressman or Congresswoman is watching this. There may never be such an opportunity in our lifetimes again. Don’t let it slip away. Insist on an immediate stop to the terrible travesty that you’re seeing here today.”
As Diane implored her viewers to act, Max and Michael were searching for any possible way for the passengers of the SUV and himself to escape now that they once again had no transportation and were faced with imminent attack from the Cobras. It appeared to be the end of the road. There were at least thirty Cobras in the area now, and every one of them was paying total attention to Max and his small group. Max thought briefly of knocking out a few more. He and Michael could have done it. But the end result would have been all too predictable. Everyone in the SUV… including Liz… would have died. That was totally unalterable.
Max made his decision. “It’s us they want, Michael. I’m giving myself up. Maybe I can save Liz and the others.”
“Max, No!” Liz yelled, but Max knew what he had to do. Michael put his hand down, and the glow in his palm subsided slowly. He walked over beside Max. “We’re in this together, Max… to the end.”
Both of them put their hands over their heads and walked out into the open, as far away from the vehicle as possible, to draw the attention of the Cobra pilots away from the others. It was mere moments before a team of commandoes was on the scene. They pushed Max and Michael to the ground and, with a booted foot on each one of their backs, tied and handcuffed them. It wouldn’t have mattered. Had they wanted to, Max and Michael could have made short work of these commandoes, even tied up as they were… but then everyone would have died. They could not avoid all the missiles of thirty Cobra helicopters. This was the only way.
Max knew what would become of him and Michael. He felt a lot of regret for Michael, but Michael had made the choice to join him. Max just hoped that now that they had him and Michael, maybe… maybe… they would lose interest in Liz and the others. He might have been too optimistic. But the question never had to be answered, because once again, the helicopters all mysteriously turned away and flew off toward the hills. The leader of the commandoes spent a few moments on his walkie talkie with someone, then all but two of the commandoes hastily jumped back into their humvees and left without any explanation.
Michael looked over at Max, as they lay there on the ground, still tied up and now guarded by only two young commandoes and no helicopters.
“I’m starting to get a rejection complex, Max,” Michael said, as he spit dirt out of his mouth and tried to wipe the sweat off his brow with his shoulder. “I wonder what’s giving them all wedgies now?”
“I couldn’t even guess,” Max said, turning his head wearily back toward Michael and spitting out the dirt that had accumulated in his own mouth when his face had been stomped into the ground. “And I was just starting to look forward to a vacation at Club Med 51.” Max chuckled a bit at his own sarcasm, then he touched a small wound at the edge of his forehead, healing it and stopping the bleeding. “Something must have scared them more than us. That’s all I can think.”
“Got to be,” Michael agreed, eyeing the two young commandoes, who seemed to be paying much too much attention to something unseen just over the hill and not enough to their prisoners. The young commandoes realized their mistake too late; before they knew what had happened, Michael and Max had the ropes and handcuffs off of themselves and on the commandoes, who found themselves lying on the ground on their stomachs at the mercy of their former “prisoners.”
Jim and Amy, together with Kyle and Gray Hawk, were quickly at Max and Michael’s side and worked feverishly to help them tie up their former guards. They did a very thorough job. Unlike Max and Michael, it appeared almost certain that the commandos would not be escaping on their own. Unguarded now, and with no other commandoes or helicopters in sight, Max and Michael gathered everyone together and began a fast-paced hike in the direction of the reservation entrance, with Max carrying Liz in his arms.
But as they reached the old dirt road that led out of the Reservation, a spray of machinegun fire crisscrossed the path in front of them, and, suddenly, they were surrounded by a group of heavily armed soldiers who had been hiding in the brush on either side of the road. The soldiers had been placed there to prevent any more vehicles, especially ones of the news variety, from getting onto the Reservation while the “operation” was in progress. Max looked at the soldiers around him cautiously then at Michael. Both of them realized immediately that if they defended themselves, someone with them was going to die. Max still had Liz in his arms, and twenty AK-47’s were aimed at both of their hearts. Max swallowed and stood there. Michael’s hands were literally glowing with a low energy, but he didn’t raise them or allow it to show. Instead, he looked at Max for advice, something he was not accustomed to doing. Max breathed deeply. There was nothing to be said… at the moment. If these guys were as careless as the two who had been guarding them before, they might have a chance to escape… later. Max only hoped that that would be the case.
One of the soldiers was already on his walkie talkie, and within minutes, a Humvee drove up with two special agents and three more armed soldiers in it. Max and Michael both recognized the agents in the Humvee. They didn’t know their names, but they had seen them both with Judge Lewis.
“Well, well, well, well, well…” the agent in the front seat, who was obviously in charge, said, stepping out of the Humvee and keeping his eyes glued on Max and Michael in particular in case either one decided to do something rash.
“You two have given me quite a lot of grief.” He looked at Isabel then at Maria. “You two have, too. I guess you’re looking forward to going back to your old quarters in Area 51.”
“Not really,” Isabel said, defiantly. “To tell you the truth, the guest amenities sucked.”
“Aw… now what kind of gratitude is that, Miss Isabel Evans,” Culpepper quipped. “Free room and board at government expense… free medical care…”
Isabel snorted. “Medical care? We’d have been dead because of you before anything else…”
“That’s no way to talk to your former benefactors, Miss Evans.”
“I’ll pass on your beneficence, thank you,” Isabel said. “And you can keep your little time share apartment in Area 51.
“Me, too… I pass, too,” Maria said, agreeing with Isabel.
Michael looked at Max then shrugged at the agent. “Hey, I guess it’s unanimous. Sorry, man. Better luck selling it to the next group.”
Culpepper smiled sullenly, but behind the smile he seemed to seethe with a deep and angry resentment.
“Well, actually, guys, that’s alright. You see… ‘cause none of you are going to be going back.”
Max and Michael looked at each other. Both of them recognized the ominous nature of that statement. Culpepper was not likely to have had a religious conversion overnight and decided to be a nice guy and release them. If he said they would not be going back…
“You can’t just shoot us out here,” Alex said, obviously understanding, too. “There’s a news crew filming this… and airing it live… right down the road there.”
Culpepper looked at the news team down the road. They were indeed filming what was going on as they spoke. He smiled.
“Haven’t you even wondered why I haven’t kicked that news crew off the Reservation yet? Hasn’t anyone wondered? You think I’m just letting this go out over the air?” Culpepper laughed. “You’re more stupid than I thought. Nothing they’re filming is going anywhere. We’ve been blocking their signal since the very beginning. Trust me. No one knows. No one is going to know.”
“They know,” Isabel said, indicating the news team.
“And who’ll believe them?” Culpepper smirked. “This was all just an unfortunate training accident. Some guy punched the wrong coordinates into his GPS device. Besides, I haven’t decided yet whether that crew is going to be a co-statistic or not. Accidents happen, Miss Evans, when you’re not where you should be.”
Isabel swallowed.
“Don’t worry, Miss Isabel, I’m not going to shoot you… as enjoyable as that prospect might be to me. You’re all going to be one of the unfortunate statistics I was referring to.”
“What do you mean,” Maria asked.
“He means we’re going to appear to have been killed accidentally,” Jim said, watching Culpepper carefully for any opportunity to change their situation. At the moment, that was clearly impossible.
“Very good,” Culpepper said with a touch of sarcasm in his voice. “All of you are going back to where you were hiding before. Then the house is going to be hit by an errant missile.”
“Maybe we weren’t ever in one of these houses,” Alex said.
“Does it matter?” Culpepper asked. He motioned to the soldiers, and they started to grab each of the friends by the arms. As they did, several of the soldiers looked past Culpepper, gasped, and jumped back. Culpepper turned around to see what had startled his soldiers. Behind him stood a small army of about fifty soldiers with their weapons aimed at him and his squadron. Culpepper stared at the new soldiers for several moments. Neither side spoke. Then Culpepper turned back around and looked at the group of friends. Angie Lee had her eyes closed and appeared to be concentrating. Culpepper took out a pistol, aimed it, and fired one shot. Angie Lee fell, and the new soldiers all vanished. As Angie Lee went down, Gray Hawk let out a howl more like that of an animal in pain than a human.
“Problem solved,” Culpepper said coldly to his own soldiers. “Now take them to one of the houses… I don’t care which house… tie them up, and lock them in. Make sure they can’t get out.”
Maria broke away and ran to Angie Lee, who lay on the ground bleeding from the center of her chest. As she held Angie Lee’s head in her arms, Angie Lee closed her eyes and stopped breathing.
“Bastard!” Isabel said, spitting the word out venomously. “I hope you die a terrible death.”
“You won’t live to see it, Miss Evans. She should have given her soldiers the proper operational pins on their lapels. She gave them the same pins my soldiers have… and I knew they weren’t my soldiers.”
“You’re inhuman,” Isabel said. “Were you born without a conscience or did you work on it all your life?”
“Let’s just say I’ve perfected it, Miss Evans.”
Isabel nodded. “That’s the first thing you’ve said that I have absolutely no argument with.”
Several soldiers kept their AK-47’s aimed at Max and Michael’s hearts… and at Liz, who was still in Max’s arms… as the others attempted to restrain the rest of the group. They seemed to realize that the greatest danger to them would come from Max and Michael, and they took great care to prevent any effort Max or Michael might make to defend themselves or the group. But the attempts to restrain the others did not turn out to be a piece of cake either. Jim flattened the first one that came close to him, and Gray Hawk, for all his seventy plus years, sent another one flying backwards against a rock, knocking him out. The two younger Mesalikos with them fought bravely, but several bullets fired into their legs stopped their struggling. The soldiers rolled them over and handcuffed them. Gray Hawk knocked out two more soldiers before he, too, was shot in the leg. But even down on the ground, he continued to fight, almost tearing off the leg of one soldier who got too near him before he was completely restrained. After Angie Lee was shot, Gray Hawk seemed to lose whatever self-control he had once had. He fought as though it were the end of the world and he had nothing left to lose. Kyle and Alex both managed to cause some serious damage to those who were attempting to restrain them, and Amy probably would have escaped or been shot if she hadn’t eventually reluctantly given herself up in the hopes of preventing more harm to the others. None of the soldiers really wanted to take her on after they saw what happened to the first one. In the end, the battered soldiers did manage to restrain everyone, with their AK-47’s, and the prisoners were loaded into waiting Humvees and driven to one of the empty Mesaliko homes.
“What do you want us to do with her,” one of the soldiers asked, motioning toward Angie Lee’s body, which still lay on the side of the road. Culpepper looked at it and thought for a moment.
“Leave it there. She got shot. Accidents happen. She got caught in the middle of a training operation.”
“What about the news crew,” the second agent asked.
Culpepper winced slightly then nodded. “They could be a problem. Round them up. Put them in the house with the others. They were getting their last interview when the house got blown up.”
The second agent grinned.
“Get one of the Cobras back over here,” Culpepper said to the commander of his group of soldiers. “Tell them we have one more house to blow up.”
“I think all the Cobras were called away,” the commander said.
“I know that,” Culpepper said dryly. “But we’re taking care of that other matter already… the fighter jets are on it. Call one of the Cobras back here. Take care of our little matter now. One less Cobra over there isn’t going to matter.”
“Yes, sir.”
**********
Twenty-eight miles away, two squadrons of fighter jets, hastily scrambled from the base minutes before, were headed in the direction of the Mesaliko Reservation. The reservation, however, was not their target. The fighter pilots had a beautiful day to fly. The day was warm and clear, and the sky was blue, with only a few wispy white clouds, except for the smoke from the burning Mesaliko homes in the distance. Visibility was optimal, especially up in the sky. The pilots scanned the horizon and checked their radars…
“I’ve got him!” one of the pilots yelled excitedly. “He’s due south… turning now a bit to the east.”
“Roger that, Blackbird,” a second pilot shouted. “I see him, too. Let’s go get him!”
Several miles ahead of the fighter jets, Rahn turned his spacecraft in the direction of the Reservation. Rahn’s craft was not armed, but numerous systems onboard could be used as weapons by a resourceful alien… and Rahn was nothing if he was not resourceful.
After Maria told Rahn where she had seen his spaceship, he had sneaked out of the house. No one had paid any attention to the tiny bird flying over the base… in fact, no one had even noticed as it flew into the tunnels or as it perched under the ship. They certainly paid a lot of attention, though, when the ship suddenly came to life and began to rise then emitted a magnetic shock wave that shattered the ceiling of the tunnel, allowing it to escape into the bright blue sky above. Alarms had gone off all over the base, phone calls had been hastily made, the Cobras had been recalled, and the tanks –those that could still move after the Mesalikos’ attack- had been ordered repositioned in the hills. Every effort was now on recapturing or destroying the escaped ship. The “alien suspects” at the Reservation were all but forgotten for the moment except by Culpepper and his group.
From his altitude, Rahn could now make out the Reservation up ahead. He had skirted around the hills, successfully avoiding all the tanks. The helicopters had been ordered to allow the jets to go ahead of them, which made sense, since the jets were considerably faster. The helicopters were to form a second wave of attack. Rahn’s ship was considerably faster than either the fighter jets or the helicopters, but he would not be able to take advantage of that speed if he stopped to help his friends at the Reservation… and that was his intent.
“Gaining on target now,” the first jet pilot said. “He’s slowing down. Twenty seconds… eighteen… fifteen… ten… eight… five… two… one…” Two missiles streaked into the blue sky headed toward the spaceship. At the last moment, Rahn turned his ship up on its side, and the missiles streaked by on either side of the ship, missing it by a scant few feet. Rahn flipped the ship back level again and reversed its direction suddenly, a maneuver that would have been impossible for a jet or even a helicopter. It took the jet pilots by surprise, and they streaked by the spaceship right behind their missiles. By the time the jet fighters came about, the spaceship was nowhere to be seen. Rahn had taken it straight up about a thousand feet, just out of their range of vision. For several minutes, no one knew what had become of the craft. Then a pilot from Delta Squadron spotted it just above the wispy white clouds.
“Uh, Alpha Squadron… target is in sight. Suggest you look up.”
“Who is that?” Blackbird asked.
“Condor here. I’m three hundred meters above you, Blackbird… with Delta Squadron behind me. Target is in sight. I’m on him.”
The pilot locked onto the ship, then two more missiles streaked through the clouds. Rahn was still watching the jets below him and had not yet noticed the higher-flying squadron above. He noticed it just in time to flip his ship on its side again. The first missile flew by the belly of the ship, missing it by about two feet. The second missile cleared the top of the ship by mere inches.
“What does that guy have… eyes in the back of his head,” Condor mused… in a decidedly unamused tone.
Rahn leveled his ship off again and dropped a thousand feet straight down.
“Where did he go?” Condor asked. “Do you see him now, Blackbird?”
“No,” Blackbird responded. “I’m behind you now. I think he’s down on the deck again. He’s toying with us.”
“He’s good,” Condor said. “I’ll give him that. Why do you think he’s hanging around? He could be gone in that thing in the wink of an eye.”
“Maybe he wants to rescue his friends down there,” Blackbird said.
“On the Reservation?”
“Yeah. He’s got a crew down there or something.”
There was silence for several moments.
“I think we need to position him where we want him, Blackbird… stop letting him lead us.”
“What you got in mind?”
“I’m going to fire a missile into one of those houses down there… You think that’ll get his attention?”
Blackbird smiled. “I’ll be there to take him out.”
“Roger that, Blackbird. You read my mind. I’m heading down.”
Condor rolled his plane over and streaked toward the Reservation with the rest of Delta squadron following close behind him. Meanwhile, Blackbird, with Alpha Squadron, circled around to take Rahn by surprise when he came down to defend the Reservation and his friends.
A missile streaked from Condor’s jet, and one of the remaining Mesaliko homes went up in a brilliant fireball of splinters and flames. Rahn could not help but notice. He quickly rolled his ship onto its side and dropped down to the level of the attacking planes. Blackbird came up behind Rahn and locked a missile onto the spacecraft, but Rahn was expecting him. A sudden surge of anti-gravity from the spaceship caught the missile and its sender in its field, and both the missile and the plane flamed out. The missile fell to the ground and exploded in the desert outside the reservation, and Blackbird bailed out of his disabled plane just before it crashed, as Condor watched, swearing under his breath.
Before Condor realized what had happened, Rahn had disappeared again and reappeared behind him. Condor realized it too late. A brief burst of anti-gravity disabled Condor’s fighter jet, and another parachute floated down, as another jet dove into the ground.
Beneath this dogfight, a lone Cobra helicopter approached the Mesaliko Reservation. The pilot was in communication with Agent Culpepper as he approached.
“Which house is it? I just saw one go up. Was that the one?”
“Negative, Cobra Nine. It’s the one just to the east… next door to the one the jet just blew up… I want this one to go up big… very big… understand?”
“Big is my specialty, sir. The day I can’t put on a better show than one of those jet boys… Hey, you can count on me!”
“I am,” Culpepper said, hanging up the mike and smiling. “Believe me, I am.”
The Cobra leveled off and took aim at the house that Max and the others were in, arming four of its missiles for maximum effect. Rahn, meanwhile, was taking his ship back up higher, passing through several layers of wispy, white clouds. As he emerged above the clouds, something that he had not seen coming struck his ship hard, sending it into an uncontrollable spin. It began to tumble… then to fall apart. The number two pilot of Delta Squadron, hanging out above the clouds, had got a lucky break.
“I got him! I got him! Wingman One here! I got him! Look at that son of a bitch tumble end over end! He’s going down hard! …Geez! That saucer’s gotta be two hundred feet across. I wouldn’t want to be under that thing when it hits the ground! It’s gonna make one hell of an explosion and bonfire!”
“I see him!” another pilot yelled excitedly. “He’s falling past us now! His ship’s disintegrating… Half of it’s gone already! It’s on fire!”
“Woo hoo! Look at him go down,” a third pilot yelled, joining in the excitement. But just as suddenly as it had started, the merriment ended. There was a brief moment of silence. Then Wingman One came back…
“What happened? He stopped falling. He’s leveling off again. The fire’s gone out.”
“I see it,” the second pilot, who was at the lower altitude, said, “but I don’t believe it. There’s no way that thing could fly. Half of it’s gone! It’s not airworthy… even for a damned UFO!”
“Well, it’s doing it,” Wingman One said. “He’s rising again.” There was a brief pause. “Uh, was the sky supposed to get overcast today, Delta Three?”
“No,” the second pilot responded. “S’posed to be sunny and clear all day.”
“Well, it’s getting damned dark up here. Either the sky’s getting overcast or we’re havin’ a frikkin’ unreported eclipse… som… bu… s…”
Wingman One’s communications began to break up.
“What’s going on up there, Wingman One?”
“Sssss… Big… Oh, ssss crap…” Wingman One’s radio went to static.
The last thing Delta Three was able to make out in Wingman One’s communication before it broke off completely was, “My God!”
tbc
Coming Next: Just Dropping in
(To See What Condition Your Condition Was In)
Hour Of Doom
Chapter 26
XXVI
~ 8:05 AM ~
Inside Gray Hawk’s house on the Mesaliko reservation, the former “guests of the Army” were having breakfast as members of a new élite group: “The Army’s Most Wanted.” No one had turned on the TV, and no one was yet aware of any of what was going on outside. It was Maria who first had a premonition of impending trouble, suddenly shivering without warning.
“What was that?” Max asked with a look of concern on his face.
Maria shook her head. “Nothing. I just had a cold chill for a moment.”
“It’s not cold in here,” Michael said matter-of-factly, looking at Maria for some sign that she might be coming down with something. Maybe you were remembering something… something scary.”
“Well, I was… I think… but I wasn’t really. A chill just ran up my spine like a… like a… I don’t know… kind of a premonition… or a warning or something.”
“About what,” Max and Michael both asked at the same time.
“I don’t know. It was just a sort of feeling of doom… like I used to get when I was a little girl and I did something bad then hid from Mama then she found me and I knew I was gonna be in big, big trouble.”
Michael smiled. “You been a bad girl, Maria?”
Maria scrunched her nose up slightly but then grinned. “If I had, you’d know, Michael. You’re my biggest corrupter.”
Isabel snickered and nodded.
“Well, I’m glad I’m good at something anyway,” Michael said.
“I’ve been having that feeling all morning,” Liz said.
“That Michael’s a great corrupter?” Isabel asked, grinning.
“No… that something’s about to happen. I just can’t stop thinking it.”
Max got up from the table and walked to the window, moving the curtain just a bit to take a look outside. At first he saw nothing unusual, but he knew that Liz’s premonitions, even when they were vague and unclear, almost always came to something.
“Has anybody seen Gray Hawk this morning,” Isabel asked.
Maria shook her head.
“He was here earlier,” Liz said. “He went out about five o’clock this morning… before the sun came up… said he had some important business. I haven’t seen him since then.”
Maria shivered again. Max looked worried then walked over and looked out the window again. This time he scanned the hillsides and road from one end to the other. Then he slowly pulled the curtain back tightly over the window.
“What is it,” Michael asked, standing up and walking over to look out the window, too.
“Don’t let yourself be seen,” Max said.
Michael gazed out through a narrow opening at the edge of the curtain.
“Damn!”
“What do you think,” Max asked.
Michael frowned. “Those sun glints up in the hills… metallic… maybe guns… or even tanks… hard to tell.”
“Could be hunters,” Alex said, hopefully.
“Yeah,” Michael agreed. “Could be. What worries me is what they’re hunting here on the reservation. And that’s one helluva lot of hunters…”
Liz rolled her chair over to Max, and Max bent over and kissed her then hugged her.
“It’s happening,” Liz whispered.
Max sighed deeply. He really wanted to say that the sun glints could be nothing… but what came out was,
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” Michael said, suddenly taking over as though he had always been expected to lead them in just such a situation, “Max, bolt the doors and block them. Make sure all the windows are locked. Leave us a way to get out fast, though, if we have to. Isabel and Angie Lee… look around the house. Find out where the best place to hide would be if anyone tries to get in. Alex & Maria, see if there’s anything we can use to defend ourselves…”
“Weapons?” Alex asked.
Michael nodded. “For you and… whoever needs them. Max and I won’t need them. Rahn…”
“Yes?”
Michael thought a minute. “I need you to sneak out there and scout around… you know, see just what we’re up against.”
Rahn smiled. “I’ll turn into a small bird. No one will pay attention to a small bird.”
Michael nodded and looked over at Max, more as a formality than for his permission. Michael had already gone into full “take charge / protect” mode, but Max was still his king, even if it was in another life, a life that neither of them quite remembered. Max nodded his agreement.
Michael cracked the door, and a small bird about the size of a sparrow streaked out, headed for the hills. Then Michael closed and locked the door again. Twenty minutes later, Rahn returned. Finding the house locked up tight, he flew around for a few moments then flew up onto the roof. There, he perched on the edge of a smoke vent that served as a sort of chimney for Gray Hawk’s fireplace. He took one last look back then teetered forward and tumbled down through the smoke vent, rolling out of the fireplace into the house in front of everyone.
“Did you see anything,” Max asked, as Rahn stretched his limbs back to their normal size. His head seemed to grow eerily from sparrow-sized to human-sized. Finally, he stood in front of them again as a presentable humanoid.
“Tanks… lots of soldiers… and army vehicles.”
“Damn,” Michael said once again. “I knew it. I just knew it.”
“There’s also a news vehicle on the reservation,” Rahn added. “And a news crew.”
“Great,” Michael said. “Catch it on the news at six! Special agents, backed up by army tanks, kill alien invaders trying to take over Mesaliko Reservation. The world is safe again!”
“Maybe people will see what’s really happening,” Liz said. “Maybe they’ll be on our side.”
Michael looked at Liz sympathetically and shook his head. “Don’t count on it. People aren’t like that. They want to see blood and guts. They want drama. They don’t want fuzzy cuddly stuff.”
“Some people do,” Liz insisted.
“Well, maybe in your world, Liz… not in mine,” Michael replied seriously. “I’m just telling you what to expect.”
“Michael’s right,” Max interjected. “We can’t expect help from the media or from anyone else who might see what’s happening. They won’t know the real story. What they hear will be what the Army wants them to hear… what the Army tells them. I have to agree with Michael. We can’t expect them to be on our side.”
“I just think we should consider the possibility of them being on our side,” Liz insisted… “At least consider the possibility that we could turn them to our side.”
“Yeah… if we had the chance,” Michael said. “But I don’t see the Army giving us that chance. As soon as one of us goes out there, it’s all over. Those Special Unit and FBI guys need us dead. Dead aliens don’t talk and give stories to the press –or to Congress- stories that might be embarrassing.”
Liz swallowed. She knew that what Michael was saying wasn’t just paranoia. He did have a very valid point. Their safety depended on their making no mistakes. If this was a mistake, it would very likely be a deadly and final one. Liz nodded.
“So what are we supposed to do,” Isabel asked. “Just sit here and wait for them to come get us?”
“They don’t know where we are,” Max said. “If they did, they’d already be here. They’re looking.”
“Well, they must know we’re on the reservation,” Isabel replied. “Because they’re out there.”
“Yeah,” Michael agreed. “I wonder how they found out.”
“I’ll bet that somehow Judge Lewis could answer that question,” Maria said.
Max nodded somberly.
“Well, we’re safer right now staying right where we are and keeping a low profile,” Michael said. “Maybe if we’re lucky that TV crew being out there will make them think twice about attacking Indian homes… but I kind of doubt it.”
“So do I,” Max agreed. “But I’ll bet that TV crew out there is the only reason they haven’t attacked yet. They’re probably figuring out what story they’re going to feed to the media when it happens.”
Michael nodded. “We need a plan, Max. We’re on borrowed time here.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Angie Lee tapped Max on the shoulder, and Max looked at her.
“This might help you, Max. It’s the reason I went back to the university a few days ago. I still don’t know what all of it says.”
She handed Max a very old-looking book bound in something that looked like brown leather.
“What is it,” Max asked.
“Look inside.”
Max opened the book. Inside was writing that looked very much like the limited amount of Antarian writing he had seen… but a little different.
“Is this another romance novel, Angie?”
“No… not this one. This one’s an instruction manual,” Angie Lee said. “And look…” She turned the pages. On one of the pages, there were hand-drawn pictures of several people… people who just happened to look very much like Max… Michael… Isabel… and Angie Lee. And below that were smaller pictures of four more individuals. These looked much less identifiable, individually… but seen together, they made Max catch his breath.
Michael looked at the book, then the others looked at it.
Liz ran her hand carefully over the raised characters and pictures, especially the one that looked like her. She looked up at Angie Lee.
“What is this book?”
“It’s an operational manual of some kind,” Angie Lee said. “I figured that much out. But I don’t know what it’s for.”
“The granolith?” Michael asked Max.
Max nodded. “It must be.”
“But that looks like me,” Liz said, “…and Maria… and Alex… and Kyle. I mean, if I saw just one of those pictures by itself, I’d probably be like, hey, you know, that looks kinda like me… or Maria… or whoever; but all four of us together?”
“It’s us,” Maria said. “But how? How did we get in an alien book?”
“The real question,” Angie Lee said, “is how did any of us get in an alien book that was written over sixty years ago.”
“No…” Maria shook her head. “I don’t believe that.”
Angie Lee shrugged. “It’s true. Sixty years ago.”
“May I see the book,” Rahn asked politely.
Everyone had forgotten that it was Rahn who told them that the other book, the one they found in the cave, was a romance novel. Rahn could read it. Max handed Rahn the book, and Rahn read it carefully page by page. After several minutes, he handed the book back to Angie Lee.
“It’s an operational manual… for my space craft. I wasn’t the pilot. I never saw this book, but that’s what it is.”
“The UFO that they’ve got in area 51?” Maria asked.
Rahn nodded. “I know they have it… I don’t know where it is, though.”
“I do,” Maria said. “I saw it.”
“But what am I doing in this book,” Alex asked. “I wasn’t on your ship.”
Rahn sat down and looked at Alex. “The book is more than just an operational manual. It is also a biological manual for the care of the specific cargo that the ship was carrying.”
“Us,” Michael said.
Rahn nodded. “Twenty-four small sacs… Sacs that would grow into the pods from which you would one day emerge.”
“Twenty-four?” Max asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Twenty-four. There were six of each of you.”
“Then… what happened to the other five sets,” Isabel asked.
Rahn frowned. “The Army took them. I assumed they were all dissected… destroyed… like the fourth sac from your set was.”
“Our dupes in New York,” Michael said. “They must have been one of the sets from those sacs, too, then. Nicholas said that you dumped them in the sewers because they were defective.”
Rahn shook his head. “That would be ridiculous. Nicholas is fond of such disinformation. But it is not true. I have no idea how they got to New York, but we did not put them there. If they were defective, it was because of how they grew up… without the proper growth care that was outlined in the book.”
Max shook his head. “But Michael, Isabel, and I didn’t get that care, either.”
“Actually, you did… in the early stages,” Rahn explained. “We managed to save your three pods and hide them in the desert. They were cared for by a guardian for a time. All the others were found and taken by the Army.”
Michael shook his head slowly. “So Max and Isabel and I were the only survivors… that you knew about… but those guys in New York… they must have survived, too, somehow. Who dumped them there… the Army? And what’s with Maria and Liz’s pictures… and Alex and Kyle’s pictures… in this book?”
“The instructions in the book said that if you did not receive the programming boosts during your formative and adolescent years… or if your programming failed… you should all be assisted in finding mates that would appeal to you. The pictures show what type of looks would most likely appeal to each one of you if your DNA was not adjusted. It wasn’t supposed to be like that, but I guess the ones who engineered you realized that if the programming failed, getting a happy king back would be better than getting an unhappy king who couldn’t stand his mate. It’s why the programming needed to be reinforced. If it had been, you would have chosen your former queen, and Rath would have chosen his former betrothed… and all of you would have been happy. Unfortunately, that plan was ruined from the start, though, when the pod with your former queen was taken by the Army, Zan.”
“So the fourth pod… was not Angie Lee?” Michael asked.
Rahn shook his head.
“But it looks just like her,” Isabel said.
“I saw the soldiers take the pod containing the queen. It… I saw it…” Rahn’s voice trailed off.
“Dissected?” Maria asked.
Rahn nodded. “It was destroyed… completely… irrevocably. Only the three of you were saved… out of your set.”
“But you said that there were originally six sets,” Michael said.
Rahn nodded. “That’s true… but they were all taken by the Army… We could not get close enough to save them without getting caught… as I did…”
“You got caught while trying to save the rest of the pods?” Maria asked.
Rahn nodded. “I failed. And because of that, the pods were all destroyed… except the three that we were able to hide in time before the Army found us.”
“Then what about those guys in New York?” Michael asked.
Rahn shook his head. “I can’t explain them.”
“And the other pictures in the book?” Michael asked.
“Those pictures weren’t supposed to be Liz or Maria… or Alex or Kyle… not necessarily…”
“Yes they were,” Michael said emphatically. “That is Maria!”
Rahn smiled. “Maria just looks like the picture. You were bioengineered to fall in love with your original mates, you with Isabel… Max with his former queen… but the fourth pod was destroyed, and then we were unable to continue giving the rest of you the care that was required… The book said that your engineering would fail if you were not given follow-up adjustments at critical points in your development, especially during adolescence. You were not supposed to grow up alone… without guardians to care for you and reinforce your programming.”
“So then… the queen was supposed to fall in love with someone who looks like that guy who was here the other day…” Angie Lee said… “like Kyle… if she didn’t fall in love with the king, I mean?”
“She was supposed to fall in love with Zan… Max… the king,” Rahn said, but she… her pod… was destroyed, and his programming was never completed. Because of that, they would not have fallen in love with each other even if she had survived. The book says that without the necessary DNA and psychological adjustments in childhood, and especially in adolescence, he would more likely choose a mate who looked something like Liz… and the queen would prefer one who looked something like the one you call Kyle… if she had survived.”
“The picture really does look like him,” Angie Lee said, “and he was awful cute.”
“Well, he’s available,” Isabel said. “The queen’s pod was destroyed, so… no queen.”
“Oh,” Angie Lee muttered, smiling as she studied the picture that resembled Kyle.”
“Omigod!” Maria exclaimed.
“What?” Isabel asked, turning around quickly.
“I just realized… Kyle’s my half-brother now.”
Isabel laughed, then the others began to laugh, too. No one knew it at the time, but that would be the last laugh any of them would share for a while…
Suddenly, with no warning, a huge blast knocked everyone to the floor and turned Liz’s chair over. Scrambling back to his feet, Michael hurried to check their surroundings, as Max helped Liz back into her chair. The house still appeared to be intact. Whatever had blown them off their feet had not hit the house directly. Max peered out the window carefully, and Michael peered out over his shoulder. Tanks were rolling onto the reservation now in front of the houses. One of them had fired off a round. Behind the tanks, a vast army of humvees, Bradley fighting vehicles, and heavily-armed soldiers was pouring out of the hills and onto the reservation.
Outside the house, not far away, a shocked news crew stood dumbfounded, watching and filming the incursion…
“You have just seen it here on KUVA, the only station on the scene,” the newsgirl, Diane Casey, screamed, almost losing her voice in the emotional moment. “The Army has just rolled a battalion of tanks onto the Mesaliko Reservation, and shots HAVE BEEN fired! The Army is firing on Indian homes! We do not yet know the reasons for this incursion, but it cannot be worth the lives of all these innocent people. So far, we have seen none of the Mesaliko at all. Apparently, they are staying in their homes… which now that I think about it, is probably a very intelligent idea. These homes will be no match for tanks, though, if the Army decides to blow them apart or simply drive over them. The Indians here have no defense against this attack, which appears to this observer to be utterly unprovoked.
As Diane spoke, another salvo was fired from the turret of one of the nearer tanks, and this time, it was a direct hit… with devastating results. The targeted home exploded in a hellacious fireball from which no one could have escaped or survived. Timbers and splinters of timbers flew hundreds of feet into the sky, raining down in a fiery holocaust all over the reservation. Diane almost couldn’t find her voice, as she described what she was seeing for the viewers, peppering her comments with a few words that might have been bleeped if the censor at the station had not himself been so absorbed in what was happening that he missed the words altogether.
Moments after the first home was destroyed, a second home went up in flames in another fiery holocaust of flying timbers and splinters. Max and Michael watched out the corner of their window, unable to even speak owing to their inability to believe what was happening. But their period of inaction was brief. Michael rushed to look around the house for a place… any place… where they might be safe from such an attack. There was none.
“We have to leave here NOW,” Michael said emphatically, leaving no room at all for dissent. “We leave now… or we get blown up.”
No one spoke. At the moment, every face in the house was whiter than Gray Hawk’s feather. And Gray Hawk was still nowhere to be found, having never returned to the house after leaving at 5 A.M. It occurred to Max that Gray Hawk might have been captured… or even killed… trying to return to his home to protect it… and them.
Max suddenly seemed to take over. “Everyone out the back. Stay together… but not too close together. Run for the river. If we can make it to the river unseen, we may have a chance.”
“What about the Mesaliko people?” Liz asked. “They’ll be slaughtered, Max. We can’t just let them die.”
“If we don’t run,” Isabel said, the frustration obvious in her voice, “we’ll die, too. We can’t help them. I want to… I just don’t know how we can, Liz!”
“Well, we have to do something,” Alex said. “This is happening to them because of us.”
Max nodded somberly. “We can’t help them by getting killed ourselves. We have to escape and then figure out how to fight back to save them.”
Michael nodded his agreement, but clearly nobody there was happy with this option, though it was the only reasonable option available to them.
“Is everyone ready to run,” Max asked. “Where’s Rahn?”
Everyone looked around. Rahn did not seem to be there.
“The back door…” Liz said, pointing. “It’s cracked.”
“He wouldn’t have abandoned us,” Maria insisted. “Not Rahn.”
“Well, he did,” Michael said flatly. “He flew away… saved himself. He’s not here.”
“I just can’t believe Rahn would do that,” Maria said again. “Rahn’s no coward…”
Angie Lee started to agree with Maria, but as they stood there, another house suddenly exploded in an inferno of fire and flying wood. The friends watched from the back door of Gray Hawk’s house as the fiery splinters fell everywhere around them.
“Let’s go! Now! All together! While there’s a distraction!” Max yelled. Max threw open the back door, and everyone ran out, cutting around the far side of the house then running in the direction of the river. They crossed the small road quickly and ran along the path towards the river, staying behind the trees as much as possible. Max was carrying Liz in his arms. As they reached the river, everyone came together again.
“Where do we go now, Max?” Isabel asked.
“Is there anyone who can’t swim?” Max asked.
No one replied.
“Good. Then we all go into the river. The current will carry us downstream… and out of the reservation.”
Max pulled his shoes off, but as he prepared to jump into the river, a boat appeared around the bend. Max hesitated and backed up into the trees again. They watched as the boat approached. It was a small boat with an outboard motor, and there appeared to be only one person in it. The boat pulled up to the shore where Max and the others had been, and a pudgy little man got out and lumbered onto the shore. Liz caught her breath.
“Judge Lewis! What’s he doing here?”
“I’m telling you,” Maria whispered. “He had to have tipped them off somehow. He had to have found out we were here and told the FBI or the Army. That’s the only answer. He’s probably coming to enjoy the show.”
Alex stepped further back under the trees, and as he did, he stepped on an unbalanced rock. The rock tilted, sending him to the ground. Judge Lewis immediately looked in their direction. Spotting them, he jumped into his boat and shoved it back into the water as quickly as he could. Alex ran down the bank and leapt into the water in an effort to catch the boat, but it was too late. Judge Lewis pulled out an air horn and began blaring it.
“He was looking for us,” Michael said, realizing the truth. “He was cruising around out there just to see if he could catch us trying to escape in the river. He’s signaling them where we are.”
“Alex!” Max yelled. “Get out of the water! We’ve got to run!”
“Just get out of the way,” Michael yelled. Alex did.
Michael raised his hand, and a fireball hit the small boat, sending it up in flames and sinking it immediately. Judge Lewis fell through the bottom of his sinking boat into the water, a fact that turned out to be fortunate for him in the end, since it extinguished his burning clothes before he suffered any injury. He was, however, now at the mercy of the river and the current, which quickly swept him away downstream.
“Do you think he can swim,” Maria asked.
“Do I care,” Michael asked. “I hope he can’t.”
No one was quite sure if Michael meant that or not… but more interestingly, every one of them realized that they had thought it at the same time, and it was an oddly uncomfortable feeling.
“Okay,” Max said. “Stay in the trees. We’ll make our way along the shore staying inside the woods.”
Max picked Liz back up, and they started to move. They had gone about a hundred yards when the first helicopter appeared over the river, headed in their direction. Then they noticed two more helicopters… then several more. They were Cobras, each one armed with an impressive battery of missiles and machine guns.
“Get down!” Michael screamed. “Everyone lie low! Get out of sight!”
Everyone hit the ground, sliding into the underbrush as best they could behind the trees, as the helicopters approached from over the water. Slowly, the helicopters combed the banks and nearby wooded areas, looking for their targets. No one on the ground dared to even breathe, as the helicopters flew over… then flew back over again, missing the hiding subjects who were well concealed beneath the brush. They did find a floundering, half-drowned Judge Lewis about a half mile downstream, however, hanging onto a tiny splinter of wood that might have been from one of the homes on the reservation or from his boat; and after a short debate, they dropped him a life jacket. Then the helicopters all turned and headed in the direction of the reservation homes.
As the chop chop chop of the helicopter blades grew faint in the distance, Max finally rolled over and looked, brushing off the leaves and small branches, some of which had been thrown over them by the backwash of the helicopters’ blades. Nearby, others began to emerge from beneath the brush, also.
“Max,” Liz said imploringly. “They’ll slaughter the Mesalikos. There won’t be anyone left alive there. We have to help them.”
Max swallowed… then nodded.
Michael looked at Max and pressed his lips together. But he didn’t argue. Everyone knew what that meant. They were going back.
As the small group of friends reached the edge of the wooded area, they saw the Cobras circling overhead. On the ground, the homes of the Mesalikos were surrounded by tanks. At least five of the homes had been destroyed… possibly more. Max doubted that anyone inside any of them had had any chance at all to escape or survive. It made him sick to his stomach. A quick look at Michael told him that Michael felt the same way. There was no need to even wonder what Liz was thinking… or Angie Lee, who had grown up here on this reservation, protected by the Mesaliko people.
“I say we blast every one of those helicopters out of the sky,” Michael said. “Then we deal with the tanks and those special agent guys that started this.”
Max clearly didn’t like this idea, but he didn’t see any other alternative. It was them or a lot of innocent Mesalikos. Max nodded, and he and Michael both held their hands up in the direction of one of the helicopters that was, at that moment, taking aim on another home with a missile. Two powerful jolts sent the Cobra spinning, it’s tail almost separated from its body. As soon as it happened, the other Cobras all turned toward Max and Michael.
Max kissed Liz, then Michael and Maria sealed their good-byes with a kiss, then they sent Liz and Maria, who went unwillingly, with Alex, Isabel, and Angie Lee back into the woods. They knew that they could take out some more of the attackers, but they also knew that they would never get them all. Both Max and Michael let go with another jolt of power, and two more Cobras ploughed into the ground, their rotors blasted off. It seemed, though, that twenty more Cobras were just as suddenly there to replace the three downed ones. What had been like swatting at a few bees had become a full-scale attack by the whole hive. Max and Michael raised their hands again and prepared for their final stand. But as they did, the helicopters suddenly veered off and flew away.
“What happened?” Michael asked. “They had us.”
“I don’t know,” Max said, shaking his head. “Do you hear something?”
Both of them listened and looked around. Other than for the crackle of the burning homes, nothing seemed to be happening. Even the tanks had turned around and were facing away from the homes now; they appeared to be aiming back out at the hills.
“Maybe they’re leaving,” Michael said optimistically.
“I don’t think so,” Max said. “They’re expecting something… from the other side of those hills.”
Max and Michael watched. Moments later, the cause of the about face became evident, as several pickup trucks and an SUV rolled over the hills in the distance. The tanks all aimed their turrets at the advancing vehicles, but a moment later, an entire army of off-road-capable vehicles began rolling over the hills. The helicopters were returning now to their original positions over the Indian homes, but they remained facing the small oncoming army, which seemed to be rapidly growing larger and larger.
Max looked at Michael, and Michael shrugged.
One of the Cobras fired a missile, striking one of the advancing pickups, but as the smoke cleared, they saw that the pickup had not been destroyed… in fact, it seemed to just keep coming. Two tanks then fired at the same time, scoring direct hits on two more pickups, and these, too, continued to advance, apparently unharmed. At this point, the Cobra pilots in particular seemed to become unnerved, firing barrages of missiles, all of which exploded on their targets… which merely continued to advance as though they were immune to missiles and tank barrages.
“What’s going on here,” Michael asked.
Max looked back into the woods. He could see Isabel, Alex, Maria, and Liz from where he was, but at first he didn’t see Angie Lee. Then he spotted her. She was leaning on a tree, and she seemed to be deep in concentration. Max smiled.
“We’ve got a little help.” Max pointed at Angie Lee.
Michael nodded and smiled, too, then he looked back at the oncoming vehicles.
“But what happens when they get here and they see they’re not real, Max?”
“I don’t know,” Max said. “But she’s giving us some time. Let’s take advantage of it.”
Max and Michael fired two power surges at one of the more aggressive tanks, blowing its treads off and bending its turret into a right angle. Without waiting for the other tanks to recover, they took aim at another tank, with similar results. By this time, several of the Cobra helicopters had turned back around to face Max and Michael, but what the Cobra pilots saw were several dozen Maxes and Michaels. Two of the Cobras fired, scoring direct hits on two of the Maxes. But like the pickup trucks coming over the hill, the Maxes hit by the missiles were unhurt.
“They missed?” Michael said, dumbfounded. He looked over at Max and suddenly saw all the other Maxes. Looking to the other side, he then saw his own doubles. Michael smiled and saluted, and several of his doubles smiled back and returned the gesture.
“Cool! Now let’s just hope they don’t accidentally hit the real us, Max,” Michael said. “Somehow I don’t think we’re as durable as our doubles out there seem to be.”
The word seemed to be getting around among the tank commanders and Cobra pilots that their attackers might only be smokescreens meant to distract them from their mission. However, there was the eerie problem of the tanks with bent turrets and the treads blown off. The commander decided that this could have been done remotely by “alien powers unknown and persons not immediately present, probably someone who was still inside one of the homes,” and he ordered the pilots and tanks to concentrate on the homes again and ignore the apparitions. This was a mistake.
The pickup trucks, other vehicles, and SUV charged onto the reservation en masse in a scene that must have looked like Custer’s last stand, and Max and Michael could now see that each vehicle was packed with Mesaliko Indians. Apparently, not all of the vehicles had been merely apparitions. The intent of the “invaders” quickly became obvious, as everything from rifles to bows and arrows, spears, and rocks rained down on the tanks, causing some damage, but not significantly. It did, however, distract the tanks and Cobras from the homes once more, and they turned once again to fire at the oncoming vehicles.
There was a problem now, however. Previously, the Mesaliko vehicles had been far away, and it had been a simple matter to fire on them. But now they were all over the place in among the tanks. Any shot fired by a tank would very likely take out another tank beside it, even if it also destroyed the Mesalikos’ vehicle.
The tanks spun their turrets around and around continuously but futilely, following the circling Mesaliko vehicles but never able to fire on them. The Cobra pilots, too, were frustrated, finding their hands tied as long as the Mesalikos had their vehicles in among the tanks. The damage being done to the tanks by the Mesalikos was minimal, but with each new pass, it added up. After a short time, several of the tanks had been disabled, mostly due to having their treads damaged or jammed or their turrets jammed. In one spectacular instance, a Mesaliko managed to throw a well-aimed bottle of Jack Daniels with a lighted rag stuck in it down the barrel of a tank turret, and the resulting explosion split the barrel apart like an opening rose bud.
The SUV pulled up alongside Max and Michael, and the window rolled down.
“Could you guys use a ride?”
“Sheriff? …Kyle? What the…” Max looked inside and noticed that Amy was there, too, as well as two or three Mesalikos. One of them was Gray Hawk.
Max motioned for Alex and the others to come, and he ran to get Liz himself, setting her in the vehicle beside Amy. Maria jumped in on the other side of Amy and put her arms around her mother.
“You always did know when it was time for me to come home, Mom.”
Amy smiled and kissed Maria, nodding… “And don’t you forget it!”
Max turned to Gray Hawk. “We thought you had been captured or killed trying to get back to your house.”
“Mmm… I would have been… maybe,” Gray Hawk said. “But Kyle found me and warned me. Together, we warned some of the other Mesalikos in town, and they warned their families and others on the reservation. So everyone was able to escape before the trouble started… except you. I am sorry that you were not warned. They did not know that you were in my home. I wanted to come back, but I was unable to get in… so Kyle suggested this instead.”
“Kyle suggested an attack on army tanks?”
Kyle smiled slightly and slid down a bit in his seat.
Max laughed. “Kyle! What about Buddha?”
Everyone laughed.
“It’s okay, Kyle,” Michael said, “We won’t tell.”
“Gray Hawk!” Kyle said sheepishly, “Next time you’re spreading that peyote dust around so the ancestors won’t see…”
“Shhhhh…” Gray Hawk put one finger to his lips.
“Save a little for me, too, okay? I think I’m going to need it… with these two loud mouths around.”
Max and Michael both snickered.
Jim turned the SUV around and headed back towards the gate, just outside of which the Evanses and Whitmans were still waiting, having been convinced by Jim that it would be dangerous for everyone involved if they came in, too, at this time. However, the SUV didn’t make it far. As they started for the road to the gate, a missile from one of the Cobras exploded about thirty feet in front of them. Fortunately, the Cobra had not scored a direct hit, but even so, the resulting damage to the vehicle was catastrophic. The hood was peeled back, and a number of engine components were heat fused together. The SUV was clearly at the end of its road.
The Mesalikos, including Gray Hawk, jumped out and immediately began to fire on the Cobra with their old rifles. The Cobra, in turn, opened fire with its machine guns, strafing Gray Hawk and one of the other Mesalikos across the chest with machine gun fire. Both men fell to the ground, fatally wounded. Max and Michael jumped out of the vehicle on opposite sides, and two power bolts surged from their hands in the direction of the Cobra. It was a good hit. The rotor blades peeled upward, and the tail broke off. The helicopter hit the ground hard, knocking both the pilot and his gunner unconscious.
Max rushed to Gray Hawk. He wasn’t breathing. Max quickly stripped off Gray Hawk’s shirt and held one hand over his chest. A greenish glow appeared under Max’s hand, and slowly, the bullet wounds in Gray Hawk’s chest began to disappear. Gray Hawk opened his eyes. Max then moved to the other wounded Mesaliko and took care of his wounds the same way.
Not far away, the news truck was still filming. It had recorded the missile strike that had disabled the SUV, and now it was recording a moving, human moment, as Max bent over the second Mesaliko…
“Move in closer… closer…” Diane implored the cameraman. “Focus on his hands. A little closer… That’s it! Yes! Yes! That’s it… Omigod!”
There was a pause, as Diane caught her breath and watched.
“They’re… His wounds are disappearing. He’s healing him. That man was dead… or at the very edge of death… and now he’s… He’s getting back up again… Does anyone have any idea at all what this could mean… for all of us… for the world?” Diane turned and faced the camera, her voice shaking with emotion, yet in spite of this, still appearing every bit the consummate professional. “People, I’m telling you, you can live your lives with your heads stuck in the ground… and die like that… or you can open your minds to the real possibilities of a much, much brighter world for all of us. But we’ll never see it if the idiots attacking this reservation today… and whoever is leading them… have their way. Do something… whatever you can do. Call your Congressman. Call your Representatives. Flood Washington with emails and faxes. But do it now! Insist on change that will end this stupid, stupid paranoia… before it is all too late. I beg you! There is so much that we can learn from these people… whoever they are… You could be the ones who will decide whether or not we ever get that chance. Call now! Don’t wait another minute! Make sure your Congressman or Congresswoman is watching this. There may never be such an opportunity in our lifetimes again. Don’t let it slip away. Insist on an immediate stop to the terrible travesty that you’re seeing here today.”
As Diane implored her viewers to act, Max and Michael were searching for any possible way for the passengers of the SUV and himself to escape now that they once again had no transportation and were faced with imminent attack from the Cobras. It appeared to be the end of the road. There were at least thirty Cobras in the area now, and every one of them was paying total attention to Max and his small group. Max thought briefly of knocking out a few more. He and Michael could have done it. But the end result would have been all too predictable. Everyone in the SUV… including Liz… would have died. That was totally unalterable.
Max made his decision. “It’s us they want, Michael. I’m giving myself up. Maybe I can save Liz and the others.”
“Max, No!” Liz yelled, but Max knew what he had to do. Michael put his hand down, and the glow in his palm subsided slowly. He walked over beside Max. “We’re in this together, Max… to the end.”
Both of them put their hands over their heads and walked out into the open, as far away from the vehicle as possible, to draw the attention of the Cobra pilots away from the others. It was mere moments before a team of commandoes was on the scene. They pushed Max and Michael to the ground and, with a booted foot on each one of their backs, tied and handcuffed them. It wouldn’t have mattered. Had they wanted to, Max and Michael could have made short work of these commandoes, even tied up as they were… but then everyone would have died. They could not avoid all the missiles of thirty Cobra helicopters. This was the only way.
Max knew what would become of him and Michael. He felt a lot of regret for Michael, but Michael had made the choice to join him. Max just hoped that now that they had him and Michael, maybe… maybe… they would lose interest in Liz and the others. He might have been too optimistic. But the question never had to be answered, because once again, the helicopters all mysteriously turned away and flew off toward the hills. The leader of the commandoes spent a few moments on his walkie talkie with someone, then all but two of the commandoes hastily jumped back into their humvees and left without any explanation.
Michael looked over at Max, as they lay there on the ground, still tied up and now guarded by only two young commandoes and no helicopters.
“I’m starting to get a rejection complex, Max,” Michael said, as he spit dirt out of his mouth and tried to wipe the sweat off his brow with his shoulder. “I wonder what’s giving them all wedgies now?”
“I couldn’t even guess,” Max said, turning his head wearily back toward Michael and spitting out the dirt that had accumulated in his own mouth when his face had been stomped into the ground. “And I was just starting to look forward to a vacation at Club Med 51.” Max chuckled a bit at his own sarcasm, then he touched a small wound at the edge of his forehead, healing it and stopping the bleeding. “Something must have scared them more than us. That’s all I can think.”
“Got to be,” Michael agreed, eyeing the two young commandoes, who seemed to be paying much too much attention to something unseen just over the hill and not enough to their prisoners. The young commandoes realized their mistake too late; before they knew what had happened, Michael and Max had the ropes and handcuffs off of themselves and on the commandoes, who found themselves lying on the ground on their stomachs at the mercy of their former “prisoners.”
Jim and Amy, together with Kyle and Gray Hawk, were quickly at Max and Michael’s side and worked feverishly to help them tie up their former guards. They did a very thorough job. Unlike Max and Michael, it appeared almost certain that the commandos would not be escaping on their own. Unguarded now, and with no other commandoes or helicopters in sight, Max and Michael gathered everyone together and began a fast-paced hike in the direction of the reservation entrance, with Max carrying Liz in his arms.
But as they reached the old dirt road that led out of the Reservation, a spray of machinegun fire crisscrossed the path in front of them, and, suddenly, they were surrounded by a group of heavily armed soldiers who had been hiding in the brush on either side of the road. The soldiers had been placed there to prevent any more vehicles, especially ones of the news variety, from getting onto the Reservation while the “operation” was in progress. Max looked at the soldiers around him cautiously then at Michael. Both of them realized immediately that if they defended themselves, someone with them was going to die. Max still had Liz in his arms, and twenty AK-47’s were aimed at both of their hearts. Max swallowed and stood there. Michael’s hands were literally glowing with a low energy, but he didn’t raise them or allow it to show. Instead, he looked at Max for advice, something he was not accustomed to doing. Max breathed deeply. There was nothing to be said… at the moment. If these guys were as careless as the two who had been guarding them before, they might have a chance to escape… later. Max only hoped that that would be the case.
One of the soldiers was already on his walkie talkie, and within minutes, a Humvee drove up with two special agents and three more armed soldiers in it. Max and Michael both recognized the agents in the Humvee. They didn’t know their names, but they had seen them both with Judge Lewis.
“Well, well, well, well, well…” the agent in the front seat, who was obviously in charge, said, stepping out of the Humvee and keeping his eyes glued on Max and Michael in particular in case either one decided to do something rash.
“You two have given me quite a lot of grief.” He looked at Isabel then at Maria. “You two have, too. I guess you’re looking forward to going back to your old quarters in Area 51.”
“Not really,” Isabel said, defiantly. “To tell you the truth, the guest amenities sucked.”
“Aw… now what kind of gratitude is that, Miss Isabel Evans,” Culpepper quipped. “Free room and board at government expense… free medical care…”
Isabel snorted. “Medical care? We’d have been dead because of you before anything else…”
“That’s no way to talk to your former benefactors, Miss Evans.”
“I’ll pass on your beneficence, thank you,” Isabel said. “And you can keep your little time share apartment in Area 51.
“Me, too… I pass, too,” Maria said, agreeing with Isabel.
Michael looked at Max then shrugged at the agent. “Hey, I guess it’s unanimous. Sorry, man. Better luck selling it to the next group.”
Culpepper smiled sullenly, but behind the smile he seemed to seethe with a deep and angry resentment.
“Well, actually, guys, that’s alright. You see… ‘cause none of you are going to be going back.”
Max and Michael looked at each other. Both of them recognized the ominous nature of that statement. Culpepper was not likely to have had a religious conversion overnight and decided to be a nice guy and release them. If he said they would not be going back…
“You can’t just shoot us out here,” Alex said, obviously understanding, too. “There’s a news crew filming this… and airing it live… right down the road there.”
Culpepper looked at the news team down the road. They were indeed filming what was going on as they spoke. He smiled.
“Haven’t you even wondered why I haven’t kicked that news crew off the Reservation yet? Hasn’t anyone wondered? You think I’m just letting this go out over the air?” Culpepper laughed. “You’re more stupid than I thought. Nothing they’re filming is going anywhere. We’ve been blocking their signal since the very beginning. Trust me. No one knows. No one is going to know.”
“They know,” Isabel said, indicating the news team.
“And who’ll believe them?” Culpepper smirked. “This was all just an unfortunate training accident. Some guy punched the wrong coordinates into his GPS device. Besides, I haven’t decided yet whether that crew is going to be a co-statistic or not. Accidents happen, Miss Evans, when you’re not where you should be.”
Isabel swallowed.
“Don’t worry, Miss Isabel, I’m not going to shoot you… as enjoyable as that prospect might be to me. You’re all going to be one of the unfortunate statistics I was referring to.”
“What do you mean,” Maria asked.
“He means we’re going to appear to have been killed accidentally,” Jim said, watching Culpepper carefully for any opportunity to change their situation. At the moment, that was clearly impossible.
“Very good,” Culpepper said with a touch of sarcasm in his voice. “All of you are going back to where you were hiding before. Then the house is going to be hit by an errant missile.”
“Maybe we weren’t ever in one of these houses,” Alex said.
“Does it matter?” Culpepper asked. He motioned to the soldiers, and they started to grab each of the friends by the arms. As they did, several of the soldiers looked past Culpepper, gasped, and jumped back. Culpepper turned around to see what had startled his soldiers. Behind him stood a small army of about fifty soldiers with their weapons aimed at him and his squadron. Culpepper stared at the new soldiers for several moments. Neither side spoke. Then Culpepper turned back around and looked at the group of friends. Angie Lee had her eyes closed and appeared to be concentrating. Culpepper took out a pistol, aimed it, and fired one shot. Angie Lee fell, and the new soldiers all vanished. As Angie Lee went down, Gray Hawk let out a howl more like that of an animal in pain than a human.
“Problem solved,” Culpepper said coldly to his own soldiers. “Now take them to one of the houses… I don’t care which house… tie them up, and lock them in. Make sure they can’t get out.”
Maria broke away and ran to Angie Lee, who lay on the ground bleeding from the center of her chest. As she held Angie Lee’s head in her arms, Angie Lee closed her eyes and stopped breathing.
“Bastard!” Isabel said, spitting the word out venomously. “I hope you die a terrible death.”
“You won’t live to see it, Miss Evans. She should have given her soldiers the proper operational pins on their lapels. She gave them the same pins my soldiers have… and I knew they weren’t my soldiers.”
“You’re inhuman,” Isabel said. “Were you born without a conscience or did you work on it all your life?”
“Let’s just say I’ve perfected it, Miss Evans.”
Isabel nodded. “That’s the first thing you’ve said that I have absolutely no argument with.”
Several soldiers kept their AK-47’s aimed at Max and Michael’s hearts… and at Liz, who was still in Max’s arms… as the others attempted to restrain the rest of the group. They seemed to realize that the greatest danger to them would come from Max and Michael, and they took great care to prevent any effort Max or Michael might make to defend themselves or the group. But the attempts to restrain the others did not turn out to be a piece of cake either. Jim flattened the first one that came close to him, and Gray Hawk, for all his seventy plus years, sent another one flying backwards against a rock, knocking him out. The two younger Mesalikos with them fought bravely, but several bullets fired into their legs stopped their struggling. The soldiers rolled them over and handcuffed them. Gray Hawk knocked out two more soldiers before he, too, was shot in the leg. But even down on the ground, he continued to fight, almost tearing off the leg of one soldier who got too near him before he was completely restrained. After Angie Lee was shot, Gray Hawk seemed to lose whatever self-control he had once had. He fought as though it were the end of the world and he had nothing left to lose. Kyle and Alex both managed to cause some serious damage to those who were attempting to restrain them, and Amy probably would have escaped or been shot if she hadn’t eventually reluctantly given herself up in the hopes of preventing more harm to the others. None of the soldiers really wanted to take her on after they saw what happened to the first one. In the end, the battered soldiers did manage to restrain everyone, with their AK-47’s, and the prisoners were loaded into waiting Humvees and driven to one of the empty Mesaliko homes.
“What do you want us to do with her,” one of the soldiers asked, motioning toward Angie Lee’s body, which still lay on the side of the road. Culpepper looked at it and thought for a moment.
“Leave it there. She got shot. Accidents happen. She got caught in the middle of a training operation.”
“What about the news crew,” the second agent asked.
Culpepper winced slightly then nodded. “They could be a problem. Round them up. Put them in the house with the others. They were getting their last interview when the house got blown up.”
The second agent grinned.
“Get one of the Cobras back over here,” Culpepper said to the commander of his group of soldiers. “Tell them we have one more house to blow up.”
“I think all the Cobras were called away,” the commander said.
“I know that,” Culpepper said dryly. “But we’re taking care of that other matter already… the fighter jets are on it. Call one of the Cobras back here. Take care of our little matter now. One less Cobra over there isn’t going to matter.”
“Yes, sir.”
**********
Twenty-eight miles away, two squadrons of fighter jets, hastily scrambled from the base minutes before, were headed in the direction of the Mesaliko Reservation. The reservation, however, was not their target. The fighter pilots had a beautiful day to fly. The day was warm and clear, and the sky was blue, with only a few wispy white clouds, except for the smoke from the burning Mesaliko homes in the distance. Visibility was optimal, especially up in the sky. The pilots scanned the horizon and checked their radars…
“I’ve got him!” one of the pilots yelled excitedly. “He’s due south… turning now a bit to the east.”
“Roger that, Blackbird,” a second pilot shouted. “I see him, too. Let’s go get him!”
Several miles ahead of the fighter jets, Rahn turned his spacecraft in the direction of the Reservation. Rahn’s craft was not armed, but numerous systems onboard could be used as weapons by a resourceful alien… and Rahn was nothing if he was not resourceful.
After Maria told Rahn where she had seen his spaceship, he had sneaked out of the house. No one had paid any attention to the tiny bird flying over the base… in fact, no one had even noticed as it flew into the tunnels or as it perched under the ship. They certainly paid a lot of attention, though, when the ship suddenly came to life and began to rise then emitted a magnetic shock wave that shattered the ceiling of the tunnel, allowing it to escape into the bright blue sky above. Alarms had gone off all over the base, phone calls had been hastily made, the Cobras had been recalled, and the tanks –those that could still move after the Mesalikos’ attack- had been ordered repositioned in the hills. Every effort was now on recapturing or destroying the escaped ship. The “alien suspects” at the Reservation were all but forgotten for the moment except by Culpepper and his group.
From his altitude, Rahn could now make out the Reservation up ahead. He had skirted around the hills, successfully avoiding all the tanks. The helicopters had been ordered to allow the jets to go ahead of them, which made sense, since the jets were considerably faster. The helicopters were to form a second wave of attack. Rahn’s ship was considerably faster than either the fighter jets or the helicopters, but he would not be able to take advantage of that speed if he stopped to help his friends at the Reservation… and that was his intent.
“Gaining on target now,” the first jet pilot said. “He’s slowing down. Twenty seconds… eighteen… fifteen… ten… eight… five… two… one…” Two missiles streaked into the blue sky headed toward the spaceship. At the last moment, Rahn turned his ship up on its side, and the missiles streaked by on either side of the ship, missing it by a scant few feet. Rahn flipped the ship back level again and reversed its direction suddenly, a maneuver that would have been impossible for a jet or even a helicopter. It took the jet pilots by surprise, and they streaked by the spaceship right behind their missiles. By the time the jet fighters came about, the spaceship was nowhere to be seen. Rahn had taken it straight up about a thousand feet, just out of their range of vision. For several minutes, no one knew what had become of the craft. Then a pilot from Delta Squadron spotted it just above the wispy white clouds.
“Uh, Alpha Squadron… target is in sight. Suggest you look up.”
“Who is that?” Blackbird asked.
“Condor here. I’m three hundred meters above you, Blackbird… with Delta Squadron behind me. Target is in sight. I’m on him.”
The pilot locked onto the ship, then two more missiles streaked through the clouds. Rahn was still watching the jets below him and had not yet noticed the higher-flying squadron above. He noticed it just in time to flip his ship on its side again. The first missile flew by the belly of the ship, missing it by about two feet. The second missile cleared the top of the ship by mere inches.
“What does that guy have… eyes in the back of his head,” Condor mused… in a decidedly unamused tone.
Rahn leveled his ship off again and dropped a thousand feet straight down.
“Where did he go?” Condor asked. “Do you see him now, Blackbird?”
“No,” Blackbird responded. “I’m behind you now. I think he’s down on the deck again. He’s toying with us.”
“He’s good,” Condor said. “I’ll give him that. Why do you think he’s hanging around? He could be gone in that thing in the wink of an eye.”
“Maybe he wants to rescue his friends down there,” Blackbird said.
“On the Reservation?”
“Yeah. He’s got a crew down there or something.”
There was silence for several moments.
“I think we need to position him where we want him, Blackbird… stop letting him lead us.”
“What you got in mind?”
“I’m going to fire a missile into one of those houses down there… You think that’ll get his attention?”
Blackbird smiled. “I’ll be there to take him out.”
“Roger that, Blackbird. You read my mind. I’m heading down.”
Condor rolled his plane over and streaked toward the Reservation with the rest of Delta squadron following close behind him. Meanwhile, Blackbird, with Alpha Squadron, circled around to take Rahn by surprise when he came down to defend the Reservation and his friends.
A missile streaked from Condor’s jet, and one of the remaining Mesaliko homes went up in a brilliant fireball of splinters and flames. Rahn could not help but notice. He quickly rolled his ship onto its side and dropped down to the level of the attacking planes. Blackbird came up behind Rahn and locked a missile onto the spacecraft, but Rahn was expecting him. A sudden surge of anti-gravity from the spaceship caught the missile and its sender in its field, and both the missile and the plane flamed out. The missile fell to the ground and exploded in the desert outside the reservation, and Blackbird bailed out of his disabled plane just before it crashed, as Condor watched, swearing under his breath.
Before Condor realized what had happened, Rahn had disappeared again and reappeared behind him. Condor realized it too late. A brief burst of anti-gravity disabled Condor’s fighter jet, and another parachute floated down, as another jet dove into the ground.
Beneath this dogfight, a lone Cobra helicopter approached the Mesaliko Reservation. The pilot was in communication with Agent Culpepper as he approached.
“Which house is it? I just saw one go up. Was that the one?”
“Negative, Cobra Nine. It’s the one just to the east… next door to the one the jet just blew up… I want this one to go up big… very big… understand?”
“Big is my specialty, sir. The day I can’t put on a better show than one of those jet boys… Hey, you can count on me!”
“I am,” Culpepper said, hanging up the mike and smiling. “Believe me, I am.”
The Cobra leveled off and took aim at the house that Max and the others were in, arming four of its missiles for maximum effect. Rahn, meanwhile, was taking his ship back up higher, passing through several layers of wispy, white clouds. As he emerged above the clouds, something that he had not seen coming struck his ship hard, sending it into an uncontrollable spin. It began to tumble… then to fall apart. The number two pilot of Delta Squadron, hanging out above the clouds, had got a lucky break.
“I got him! I got him! Wingman One here! I got him! Look at that son of a bitch tumble end over end! He’s going down hard! …Geez! That saucer’s gotta be two hundred feet across. I wouldn’t want to be under that thing when it hits the ground! It’s gonna make one hell of an explosion and bonfire!”
“I see him!” another pilot yelled excitedly. “He’s falling past us now! His ship’s disintegrating… Half of it’s gone already! It’s on fire!”
“Woo hoo! Look at him go down,” a third pilot yelled, joining in the excitement. But just as suddenly as it had started, the merriment ended. There was a brief moment of silence. Then Wingman One came back…
“What happened? He stopped falling. He’s leveling off again. The fire’s gone out.”
“I see it,” the second pilot, who was at the lower altitude, said, “but I don’t believe it. There’s no way that thing could fly. Half of it’s gone! It’s not airworthy… even for a damned UFO!”
“Well, it’s doing it,” Wingman One said. “He’s rising again.” There was a brief pause. “Uh, was the sky supposed to get overcast today, Delta Three?”
“No,” the second pilot responded. “S’posed to be sunny and clear all day.”
“Well, it’s getting damned dark up here. Either the sky’s getting overcast or we’re havin’ a frikkin’ unreported eclipse… som… bu… s…”
Wingman One’s communications began to break up.
“What’s going on up there, Wingman One?”
“Sssss… Big… Oh, ssss crap…” Wingman One’s radio went to static.
The last thing Delta Three was able to make out in Wingman One’s communication before it broke off completely was, “My God!”
tbc
Coming Next: Just Dropping in
(To See What Condition Your Condition Was In)
-
Island Breeze
- Forum Moderator
- Posts: 270
- Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2002 10:01 pm
Dream Walker - Ah! Answers coming up! I love it when I can provide answers right away! 
RoswellChic4Ever - You're right, Holli. Tess was the queen whose pod was destroyed. Now as to who Angie Lee is, well, I think most of you have probably guessed it, but I'll wait to let Gray Hawk tell that story later.
Roswelluver - More coming right up!
Mareli - Awwww! Well, maybe this chapter will help. But don't trust appearances at the end of the chapter. There's more to come (Of course!)
Snowdove30 - Answers coming. I enjoy it when readers find answers or hints in little phrases like you do. You're very observative!
Mlover25 - Yep! A really big something!
Creative Nickname - I'll bet you're right!
Okay, a recommendation... Read chapter 63 of "The Four Faces Of Rath" to find out how the jah-ee got here (or didn't). You'll see what I mean. It's basically the latest chapter of TNTDD from the pov of the Antarian group, with a little other stuff thrown in.
[/b]
RoswellChic4Ever - You're right, Holli. Tess was the queen whose pod was destroyed. Now as to who Angie Lee is, well, I think most of you have probably guessed it, but I'll wait to let Gray Hawk tell that story later.
Roswelluver - More coming right up!
Mareli - Awwww! Well, maybe this chapter will help. But don't trust appearances at the end of the chapter. There's more to come (Of course!)
Snowdove30 - Answers coming. I enjoy it when readers find answers or hints in little phrases like you do. You're very observative!
Mlover25 - Yep! A really big something!
Creative Nickname - I'll bet you're right!
Okay, a recommendation... Read chapter 63 of "The Four Faces Of Rath" to find out how the jah-ee got here (or didn't). You'll see what I mean. It's basically the latest chapter of TNTDD from the pov of the Antarian group, with a little other stuff thrown in.
[/b]
-
Island Breeze
- Forum Moderator
- Posts: 270
- Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2002 10:01 pm
The Night The Dreams Died
The Night The Dreams Died
And Then There Is Bigger
Chapter 27
XXVII
“Wingman One! Wingman One! What’s going on up there? Come in, Wingman One. Delta Three… Over.” The pilot of the lower flying fighter jet, flying at an altitude of just under 1,000 feet, looked out his windshield, scanning the sky above for any sign of the missing pilot, but the only thing he saw was an increasingly darkening sky. Although he had no idea whether Wingman One was actually hearing him now or not, he continued to talk as though he could. “Uh… It looks like you were right, Wingman One. I’m starting to see that darkening sky you were talking about down here now, too. Guess the weather guys got it wrong when they said sunny and clear all day today, huh? Imagine that!”
There was no answer on the radio… only static.
Much higher up, at an altitude of 32,000 feet, Wingman One was having his own problems. His communications had gone totally to static. On top of that, he was flying directly beneath a descending dark cloud that looked increasingly un-cloudlike the lower it came. He had been too totally absorbed with watching the falling space ship after he shot it down, and he had no idea where this huge cloud had come from so suddenly.
Wingman One watched as the spacecraft he thought he had shot down rose back up through the wispy white clouds below him. Not one to give up easily, he armed another missile. Lining up the already half-destroyed craft in his cross-hairs, he flipped the switch that would fire missile number two. Nothing happened. Wingman One flipped the switch several more times. Still nothing. The missile systems were dead… just like his radio… and his compass… and most of his other systems. Only the radar and his engines still seemed to be functioning.
Wingman One watched, with a feeling of helplessness, as the spacecraft continued to rise upward and upward, approaching the darkening cloud mass above. What happened next, Wingman One was totally unprepared for. The bottom of the dark cloud opened up. There was light inside, and the damaged spacecraft was pulled inside with the light.
For a moment, Wingman One’s mouth hung open inside his helmet, as the truth dawned on him. It was no cloud that was descending on him… It was a ship… an unbelievably huge ship… a mothership… probably come to rescue the smaller craft and its people… from him. Wingman One looked around the sky. The huge ship between him and the sun seemed to extend on and on. The jet’s radar registered a solid mass extending for some 4,000 meters -over two miles- in front of him. Wingman One wondered how much of the craft extended behind his jet. A quick check gave him his answer. One thousand meters… plus a few… almost a mile. The object coming down directly on top of him was approximately three miles across… and very solid!
Wingman One rolled over and dived, taking his jet streaking downward through the wispy white clouds, hoping to get out from under what he knew now to be a huge spaceship… before it literally descended on top of him. But as fate would have it, his path took him directly into the attractor beam that had pulled the smaller craft into the larger ship. Wingman One’s jet suddenly seemed to flounder and slow. It wobbled momentarily from side to side then began to fly around and around in small circles like a small toy going down the drain… except that it was going up, not down. It was all very dizzying. The fighter pilot wasn’t quite sure if the feeling in the pit of his stomach was due to the “ride” or what he expected probably lay ahead.
Making a last-ditch effort to break free, Wingman One fired his engines to total power. It made no difference. He rolled his jet over in both directions and attempted to dive. There was no response. The jet hung in the air, still rising, like a toy on a string. Finally resigned to the inevitable, Wingman One closed his eyes, then he relinquished his controls. They were useless now anyway. Nothing he did made any difference. His jet… with him in it… was firmly in the grip of the descending mothership. Wingman One prepared himself for the end.
**********
On the Mesaliko Reservation below, no one was yet aware of the arriving ship. Though the sun appeared to have momentarily gone behind a cloud, the day was still relatively bright… except for the smoke rising from a number of burning homes.
Inside one home that was not yet burning, fifteen people who definitely did not want to be there at this moment were struggling to get free of the bonds that tightly bound them. They had awakened minutes before on the floor of the home, their hands and feet securely bound, after having been knocked out by some kind of gas Culpepper had used on them. Max and Michael’s hands had been wrapped with numerous layers of tape in addition to being tied up. This had been very effective, so far, at keeping them from using their powers to free themselves.
Michael had managed to chew through some of the fiberglass tape on his hands, but it had taken time… too much time… and there was a long way to go before he would have enough of it off to use his powers again. Meanwhile, Amy was memorizing and reciting a list of all the things she planned to do to Culpepper when she saw him again… none of them very pleasant. It never crossed her mind that she might never have that opportunity… or if it did, she refused to allow that possibility to have any place in her conscious mind. To Amy’s mind, justice was just a matter of “when,” not “if.”
Had Max or the others been able to see outside, they might have seen the approaching Cobra helicopter that Culpepper had called to finish the job. Max had already noticed the sound of the whirring blades in the distance, but he said nothing. If anyone else noticed, no one else said anything either. There was nothing to be said. They just worked all the harder to get free. If they could manage that, they might, just might, have a chance… maybe not a good one… but a chance nevertheless.
On a nearby hilltop, Culpepper’s walkie talkie suddenly came alive…
“This is Cobra Nine. Missile 1 is ready. Waiting for your orders, sir.”
“Fire, Cobra Nine! Just do it!”
“Roger that, Culpepper. Cobra Nine Out.”
After a moment, the Cobra pilot’s voice came back… “Firing 1…” There was a distinct pause, as Cobra Nine hesitated, rubbed his eyes and shook his head, then looked out his windshield again.
“Uh… Cobra Nine here… Hold on a minute… There’s a… WHAT THE…!”
The Cobra pilot shook his head as though to clear it. Surely he had not seen what he thought he had seen. A huge bird had appeared out of nowhere, flying straight at his helicopter on a collision course. Cobra Nine jerked his stick to the right, taking the helicopter into a corkscrew loop. Then he straightened out again…
“What’s happening, Cobra Nine,” Culpepper asked, disturbed that he had not yet seen the explosion he desired and curious about Cobra Nine’s unexplained aerobatics.
“Something almost flew into me,” Cobra Nine said after a minute.
“You’re the only chopper in the area, Cobra Nine. And I don’t see any jets near you.”
“Negative.” Cobra Nine’s voice said, sounding strangely quaky.
“Well, what was it then?”
Cobra Nine decided to keep what he THOUGHT he had seen to himself… at least for now. In his experience, pilots who had reported unusual sightings had often been grounded and sent to the base psychologist for extensive testing. Most had come back saying that they hadn’t actually seen anything unusual after all and it had just been sun spots. Those who persisted in the belief that it had been anything else never flew again.
“Sun spots,” Cobra Nine said after a few moments. “It was just sun spots.”
“Sun spots?” Culpepper asked, somewhat doubtful. “The sun seems to have gone behind a big cloud, Cobra Nine.”
“Well, up here, there are sun spots, sir,” the pilot insisted.
“Never mind, Cobra Nine. Just blow that house blown up… NOW! Carry out orders!”
“Yes, sir!”
Cobra Nine circled around and headed back toward the home. Once he had lined up his target again, he flipped a switch and spoke into his helmet mike…
“Missile 1 is armed… Firing!” Cobra Nine reached up to flip a second switch that would fire the first of the four missiles, but just as suddenly, the huge bird reappeared in front of him. Cobra Nine closed his eyes and opened them again. It was still there… and heading right at him. In a near panic, he took his helicopter over into a sharp dive to avoid colliding with the giant raptor, which had an almost unbelievable wingspan. Cobra Nine guessed it to be 65 feet from wingtip to wingtip. He was not off by much.
Leveling off after his hastily executed rollover and dive, Cobra Nine looked out his windshield, searching the sky in every direction for the impossible bird. Then he spotted it. Out of nowhere, it dived at his helicopter, its huge claws extended in his direction. Cobra Nine instantly knew that this giant, eagle-like raptor, with its giant talons, could easily tear his helicopter apart or grab and hold onto it… and it might even be able to carry it away. If he allowed this bird to get its talons on his helicopter, the outcome would clearly be devastating.
Already flying too low, Cobra Nine rolled over and tried to dive again, this time plowing his helicopter right into the ground. The pre-armed missile flew off, traveling along the ground toward the house. Clipping a tree along the way, the missile went into a spin then headed back toward the helicopter. The pilot of Cobra One, seeing the missile coming, bailed out of his downed helicopter and ran, trying to put as much distance between himself and the helicopter as he could. Ultimately, the missile missed the helicopter, streaked through the underbrush and trees and ended up in the nearby river. Moments later, there was a tremendous explosion beneath the water of the river. When the dust had finally cleared and the rain of fish, pieces of fish, and river water had all ceased to fall, the Cobra lay on its side, all its rotors bent or broken and its body severely damaged. It would not likely be taking off again any time soon, if ever.
Culpepper had watched Cobra Nine dive and level off then dive again and crash in a cloud of dust. He wanted to curse the pilot of the downed helicopter, but at the moment he was too stunned. Culpepper had not seen the jah-ee. Only the pilot of Cobra One had been able to see the huge Antarian bird. But the crash absolutely baffled Culpepper. The pilot of Cobra One was one of the best they had… and yet… he was flying as though he had lost his mind. It was inexplicable and utterly baffling.
Culpepper would soon understand, though.
Maybe it was a flicker perceived from the corner of his eye… Maybe it was just a feeling… but something made Culpepper look up again at that moment. He saw the huge bird descending toward him, its talons extended, and the blood all rushed out of his face. Falling to the ground, Culpepper rolled down the hill, stopping only when he rolled into a large prickly bush about half way down. The thorns hurt, but Culpepper barely noticed. Crawling as far under the bush as he could get, he scanned the sky for the huge bird of prey. It seemed to have disappeared. Culpepper looked for his two-way radio/walkie-talkie. He had dropped it during his roll down the hill. He would have to come out from under the bush to retrieve it. The thought of coming out made him shiver involuntarily, but after several minutes without seeing the huge eagle-like bird again, Culpepper cautiously extracted himself from beneath the bush. Still seeing no bird, he ran quickly up the hill to where his two-way radio lay and hastily made a call…
“Culpepper here… Come in Cobra Leader.”
“This is Cobra Leader. What’s happening there, Culpepper? Did Cobra Nine give you the fireworks you wanted?”
“Negative,” Culpepper said simply, not expounding on the reasons or causes.
“Negative?”
“That’s what I said… Negative! I need another pilot.”
There was a short pause. “Where is Cobra Nine?”
“Crashed.”
There was another pause. “Do you need emergency vehicles?”
“Negative,” Culpepper responded again. “Cobra Nine is okay…” (“For now,” he mumbled under his breath, beginning to blame Cobra Nine for not disposing of the huge bird before it had had a chance to attack him.)
“All right,” Cobra Leader replied hesitantly. “I’ll send Cobra Two. ETA in seven minutes.”
“Roger that,” Culpepper responded. “Put a rush on it.”
There was no answer.
Culpepper breathed a deep sigh and scanned the sky again… looking for the jah-ee. He realized that he was still shivering somewhat.
Inside the house, meanwhile, Max and Michael were making the most of their reprieve. Michael had managed to chew through the fiberglass tape that his hands were wrapped in and had helped Max to finish getting the tape off of his hands. Then the two of them had untied themselves and the others.
Liz hugged Max. “Max, what are we going to do? We need to get out of here, but if we try to run, they’ll see us… and they’ll shoot us on sight… especially with you having to carry me.”
Max swallowed. Liz was right. They were free of their ropes and tape, and still, tied up or not, there was nowhere they could escape to. Yet as long as they were in that house, they were still condemned prisoners… merely waiting for their execution to take place.
“We need to make a run for it,” Michael said, preferring to die fighting than to sit there and perish without a fight. “We can hold some of them off for a while.”
“But we’ll still all die, right?” Alex asked.
Michael nodded solemnly.
“Okay… just checking,” Alex said.
“There’s got to be something we can do,” Amy said hopefully. “It can’t just end like this.”
Jim put his arm around her. “Sorry Amy. I didn’t mean to get you into this mess.”
“Oh stow it, Jim!” Amy shot back, perhaps a little more feistily than even she had meant to. “You didn’t get me into anything. I’ve been in this from the beginning. I’m not letting any two-bit tyrant or his army hurt my daughter! Not after I just got her back!”
Jim grinned and nodded. Amy wiped her eye and took a deep breath, then she gave Jim a peck on the cheek. “I didn’t mean that like it sounded, Jim.”
“Sure you did,” Jim said. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way. If we had a dozen or so of you, we could probably take that army out there.”
Amy laughed.
“That could be arranged,” a voice from the back door said.
Jim spun around and looked to see who had spoken, but he already knew by the voice. His mind just refused to believe it.
“A’in Ji Lii!” Gray Hawk cried out, running to the girl to check her out, as Kyle, Isabel, and the others crowded around her to convince themselves that she was actually there. “Are you… are you…”
“Alive? Yeah…” Angie Lee replied with a smile, hugging Gray Hawk. Then she walked over to Maria and hugged her. “I don’t know what kind of power you’ve got there, Maria, but thanks.”
“Thank Max… I think…” Maria said. “He’s the one who has the power. I just seem to be able to draw on it somehow when someone… someone… I care about is hurt bad enough.”
Angie Lee looked at Max, and Max shrugged. “I think Rahn called it sourcing or something like that. The human mind has the same abilities the Antarian mind has… Humans just haven’t learned to use but a small percentage of theirs.”
“Did you know about this,” Kyle asked Max.
“You mean did I know that Maria healed Angie Lee? I felt her drawing on my powers. I hoped… I couldn’t do anything myself without them knowing what was happening, but Maria could. I had to hope that it would be enough.”
“Did you know she was alive,” Kyle asked, turning to Maria. “Why the hell didn’t you tell us? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wasn’t sure,” Maria said. “I saw the wound close up and the bleeding stop, but she still looked dead.”
“That was a mind trick,” Angie Lee said. “I didn’t want to get shot again, so I made it look like I was dead.” Angie Lee turned to Max… “Is that common… on Antar?”
“Sourcing?” Max shook his head. “No. It’s a rare ability, even on Antar, according to Rahn. We don’t know why Maria is able to do it.”
Angie Lee smiled again. “Well… thank you… both of you. Now let’s see what we can do about getting you… us… out of here before that helicopter comes with more missiles.”
“How did you get in here, Angie Lee,” Isabel asked.
“I just made them not see me… I walked right in.”
“Can you make us all invisible,” Alex asked.
“I’m not sure how long I can hold it… completely,” Angie Lee said hesitantly. “But I’m going to try.”
“That’s good enough for me,” Michael said. “Unless anybody’s got a better idea, let’s get out of this house… quick! Like she said… time is short. Move, people!”
Angie Lee concentrated, and everyone began to disappear.
“Couldn’t you still let us see each other,” Alex asked, grasping for Isabel to make sure she was still there and safe.
“Sorry.” Angie Lee shook her head, though no one could see this by now. “It’s a blanket mind warp. It will affect them and us until I remove it. It’s the best I can do. Hold on to each other.”
Angie Lee reached out for a hand. She couldn’t see whose hand she was holding, but she knew… and she smiled.
As the group ran for the door, a missile streaked across the Reservation…
It took a scant three seconds to reach the house. Splinters, pieces of wood, and flames rose high into the sky above. In the intense light of the explosion, Max and Michael saw each other. Then, for a split second, everyone became visible again. Max thought to himself, “This must be what being in a nuclear explosion is like.” For the briefest of moments, they felt the heat… intense heat… and intense light… then nothing at all…
The destruction was total. Seconds after the first missile hit, a second missile slammed into what little was left of the foundation, and that missile was followed closely by two more missiles. There was little additional damage the three extra missiles could do. The small wood home, as well as three homes on either side of it, had been completely and totally destroyed by the first missile. But the four missiles together did provide an amazing display… a display that lit up the sky for easily fifty miles around. Smoke rose high into the sky, and pieces of the houses fell as far away as five miles outside the Reservation. Culpepper could not have been more delighted.
tbc
Coming up: Follow The Phoenix
And Then There Is Bigger
Chapter 27
XXVII
“Wingman One! Wingman One! What’s going on up there? Come in, Wingman One. Delta Three… Over.” The pilot of the lower flying fighter jet, flying at an altitude of just under 1,000 feet, looked out his windshield, scanning the sky above for any sign of the missing pilot, but the only thing he saw was an increasingly darkening sky. Although he had no idea whether Wingman One was actually hearing him now or not, he continued to talk as though he could. “Uh… It looks like you were right, Wingman One. I’m starting to see that darkening sky you were talking about down here now, too. Guess the weather guys got it wrong when they said sunny and clear all day today, huh? Imagine that!”
There was no answer on the radio… only static.
Much higher up, at an altitude of 32,000 feet, Wingman One was having his own problems. His communications had gone totally to static. On top of that, he was flying directly beneath a descending dark cloud that looked increasingly un-cloudlike the lower it came. He had been too totally absorbed with watching the falling space ship after he shot it down, and he had no idea where this huge cloud had come from so suddenly.
Wingman One watched as the spacecraft he thought he had shot down rose back up through the wispy white clouds below him. Not one to give up easily, he armed another missile. Lining up the already half-destroyed craft in his cross-hairs, he flipped the switch that would fire missile number two. Nothing happened. Wingman One flipped the switch several more times. Still nothing. The missile systems were dead… just like his radio… and his compass… and most of his other systems. Only the radar and his engines still seemed to be functioning.
Wingman One watched, with a feeling of helplessness, as the spacecraft continued to rise upward and upward, approaching the darkening cloud mass above. What happened next, Wingman One was totally unprepared for. The bottom of the dark cloud opened up. There was light inside, and the damaged spacecraft was pulled inside with the light.
For a moment, Wingman One’s mouth hung open inside his helmet, as the truth dawned on him. It was no cloud that was descending on him… It was a ship… an unbelievably huge ship… a mothership… probably come to rescue the smaller craft and its people… from him. Wingman One looked around the sky. The huge ship between him and the sun seemed to extend on and on. The jet’s radar registered a solid mass extending for some 4,000 meters -over two miles- in front of him. Wingman One wondered how much of the craft extended behind his jet. A quick check gave him his answer. One thousand meters… plus a few… almost a mile. The object coming down directly on top of him was approximately three miles across… and very solid!
Wingman One rolled over and dived, taking his jet streaking downward through the wispy white clouds, hoping to get out from under what he knew now to be a huge spaceship… before it literally descended on top of him. But as fate would have it, his path took him directly into the attractor beam that had pulled the smaller craft into the larger ship. Wingman One’s jet suddenly seemed to flounder and slow. It wobbled momentarily from side to side then began to fly around and around in small circles like a small toy going down the drain… except that it was going up, not down. It was all very dizzying. The fighter pilot wasn’t quite sure if the feeling in the pit of his stomach was due to the “ride” or what he expected probably lay ahead.
Making a last-ditch effort to break free, Wingman One fired his engines to total power. It made no difference. He rolled his jet over in both directions and attempted to dive. There was no response. The jet hung in the air, still rising, like a toy on a string. Finally resigned to the inevitable, Wingman One closed his eyes, then he relinquished his controls. They were useless now anyway. Nothing he did made any difference. His jet… with him in it… was firmly in the grip of the descending mothership. Wingman One prepared himself for the end.
**********
On the Mesaliko Reservation below, no one was yet aware of the arriving ship. Though the sun appeared to have momentarily gone behind a cloud, the day was still relatively bright… except for the smoke rising from a number of burning homes.
Inside one home that was not yet burning, fifteen people who definitely did not want to be there at this moment were struggling to get free of the bonds that tightly bound them. They had awakened minutes before on the floor of the home, their hands and feet securely bound, after having been knocked out by some kind of gas Culpepper had used on them. Max and Michael’s hands had been wrapped with numerous layers of tape in addition to being tied up. This had been very effective, so far, at keeping them from using their powers to free themselves.
Michael had managed to chew through some of the fiberglass tape on his hands, but it had taken time… too much time… and there was a long way to go before he would have enough of it off to use his powers again. Meanwhile, Amy was memorizing and reciting a list of all the things she planned to do to Culpepper when she saw him again… none of them very pleasant. It never crossed her mind that she might never have that opportunity… or if it did, she refused to allow that possibility to have any place in her conscious mind. To Amy’s mind, justice was just a matter of “when,” not “if.”
Had Max or the others been able to see outside, they might have seen the approaching Cobra helicopter that Culpepper had called to finish the job. Max had already noticed the sound of the whirring blades in the distance, but he said nothing. If anyone else noticed, no one else said anything either. There was nothing to be said. They just worked all the harder to get free. If they could manage that, they might, just might, have a chance… maybe not a good one… but a chance nevertheless.
On a nearby hilltop, Culpepper’s walkie talkie suddenly came alive…
“This is Cobra Nine. Missile 1 is ready. Waiting for your orders, sir.”
“Fire, Cobra Nine! Just do it!”
“Roger that, Culpepper. Cobra Nine Out.”
After a moment, the Cobra pilot’s voice came back… “Firing 1…” There was a distinct pause, as Cobra Nine hesitated, rubbed his eyes and shook his head, then looked out his windshield again.
“Uh… Cobra Nine here… Hold on a minute… There’s a… WHAT THE…!”
The Cobra pilot shook his head as though to clear it. Surely he had not seen what he thought he had seen. A huge bird had appeared out of nowhere, flying straight at his helicopter on a collision course. Cobra Nine jerked his stick to the right, taking the helicopter into a corkscrew loop. Then he straightened out again…
“What’s happening, Cobra Nine,” Culpepper asked, disturbed that he had not yet seen the explosion he desired and curious about Cobra Nine’s unexplained aerobatics.
“Something almost flew into me,” Cobra Nine said after a minute.
“You’re the only chopper in the area, Cobra Nine. And I don’t see any jets near you.”
“Negative.” Cobra Nine’s voice said, sounding strangely quaky.
“Well, what was it then?”
Cobra Nine decided to keep what he THOUGHT he had seen to himself… at least for now. In his experience, pilots who had reported unusual sightings had often been grounded and sent to the base psychologist for extensive testing. Most had come back saying that they hadn’t actually seen anything unusual after all and it had just been sun spots. Those who persisted in the belief that it had been anything else never flew again.
“Sun spots,” Cobra Nine said after a few moments. “It was just sun spots.”
“Sun spots?” Culpepper asked, somewhat doubtful. “The sun seems to have gone behind a big cloud, Cobra Nine.”
“Well, up here, there are sun spots, sir,” the pilot insisted.
“Never mind, Cobra Nine. Just blow that house blown up… NOW! Carry out orders!”
“Yes, sir!”
Cobra Nine circled around and headed back toward the home. Once he had lined up his target again, he flipped a switch and spoke into his helmet mike…
“Missile 1 is armed… Firing!” Cobra Nine reached up to flip a second switch that would fire the first of the four missiles, but just as suddenly, the huge bird reappeared in front of him. Cobra Nine closed his eyes and opened them again. It was still there… and heading right at him. In a near panic, he took his helicopter over into a sharp dive to avoid colliding with the giant raptor, which had an almost unbelievable wingspan. Cobra Nine guessed it to be 65 feet from wingtip to wingtip. He was not off by much.
Leveling off after his hastily executed rollover and dive, Cobra Nine looked out his windshield, searching the sky in every direction for the impossible bird. Then he spotted it. Out of nowhere, it dived at his helicopter, its huge claws extended in his direction. Cobra Nine instantly knew that this giant, eagle-like raptor, with its giant talons, could easily tear his helicopter apart or grab and hold onto it… and it might even be able to carry it away. If he allowed this bird to get its talons on his helicopter, the outcome would clearly be devastating.
Already flying too low, Cobra Nine rolled over and tried to dive again, this time plowing his helicopter right into the ground. The pre-armed missile flew off, traveling along the ground toward the house. Clipping a tree along the way, the missile went into a spin then headed back toward the helicopter. The pilot of Cobra One, seeing the missile coming, bailed out of his downed helicopter and ran, trying to put as much distance between himself and the helicopter as he could. Ultimately, the missile missed the helicopter, streaked through the underbrush and trees and ended up in the nearby river. Moments later, there was a tremendous explosion beneath the water of the river. When the dust had finally cleared and the rain of fish, pieces of fish, and river water had all ceased to fall, the Cobra lay on its side, all its rotors bent or broken and its body severely damaged. It would not likely be taking off again any time soon, if ever.
Culpepper had watched Cobra Nine dive and level off then dive again and crash in a cloud of dust. He wanted to curse the pilot of the downed helicopter, but at the moment he was too stunned. Culpepper had not seen the jah-ee. Only the pilot of Cobra One had been able to see the huge Antarian bird. But the crash absolutely baffled Culpepper. The pilot of Cobra One was one of the best they had… and yet… he was flying as though he had lost his mind. It was inexplicable and utterly baffling.
Culpepper would soon understand, though.
Maybe it was a flicker perceived from the corner of his eye… Maybe it was just a feeling… but something made Culpepper look up again at that moment. He saw the huge bird descending toward him, its talons extended, and the blood all rushed out of his face. Falling to the ground, Culpepper rolled down the hill, stopping only when he rolled into a large prickly bush about half way down. The thorns hurt, but Culpepper barely noticed. Crawling as far under the bush as he could get, he scanned the sky for the huge bird of prey. It seemed to have disappeared. Culpepper looked for his two-way radio/walkie-talkie. He had dropped it during his roll down the hill. He would have to come out from under the bush to retrieve it. The thought of coming out made him shiver involuntarily, but after several minutes without seeing the huge eagle-like bird again, Culpepper cautiously extracted himself from beneath the bush. Still seeing no bird, he ran quickly up the hill to where his two-way radio lay and hastily made a call…
“Culpepper here… Come in Cobra Leader.”
“This is Cobra Leader. What’s happening there, Culpepper? Did Cobra Nine give you the fireworks you wanted?”
“Negative,” Culpepper said simply, not expounding on the reasons or causes.
“Negative?”
“That’s what I said… Negative! I need another pilot.”
There was a short pause. “Where is Cobra Nine?”
“Crashed.”
There was another pause. “Do you need emergency vehicles?”
“Negative,” Culpepper responded again. “Cobra Nine is okay…” (“For now,” he mumbled under his breath, beginning to blame Cobra Nine for not disposing of the huge bird before it had had a chance to attack him.)
“All right,” Cobra Leader replied hesitantly. “I’ll send Cobra Two. ETA in seven minutes.”
“Roger that,” Culpepper responded. “Put a rush on it.”
There was no answer.
Culpepper breathed a deep sigh and scanned the sky again… looking for the jah-ee. He realized that he was still shivering somewhat.
Inside the house, meanwhile, Max and Michael were making the most of their reprieve. Michael had managed to chew through the fiberglass tape that his hands were wrapped in and had helped Max to finish getting the tape off of his hands. Then the two of them had untied themselves and the others.
Liz hugged Max. “Max, what are we going to do? We need to get out of here, but if we try to run, they’ll see us… and they’ll shoot us on sight… especially with you having to carry me.”
Max swallowed. Liz was right. They were free of their ropes and tape, and still, tied up or not, there was nowhere they could escape to. Yet as long as they were in that house, they were still condemned prisoners… merely waiting for their execution to take place.
“We need to make a run for it,” Michael said, preferring to die fighting than to sit there and perish without a fight. “We can hold some of them off for a while.”
“But we’ll still all die, right?” Alex asked.
Michael nodded solemnly.
“Okay… just checking,” Alex said.
“There’s got to be something we can do,” Amy said hopefully. “It can’t just end like this.”
Jim put his arm around her. “Sorry Amy. I didn’t mean to get you into this mess.”
“Oh stow it, Jim!” Amy shot back, perhaps a little more feistily than even she had meant to. “You didn’t get me into anything. I’ve been in this from the beginning. I’m not letting any two-bit tyrant or his army hurt my daughter! Not after I just got her back!”
Jim grinned and nodded. Amy wiped her eye and took a deep breath, then she gave Jim a peck on the cheek. “I didn’t mean that like it sounded, Jim.”
“Sure you did,” Jim said. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way. If we had a dozen or so of you, we could probably take that army out there.”
Amy laughed.
“That could be arranged,” a voice from the back door said.
Jim spun around and looked to see who had spoken, but he already knew by the voice. His mind just refused to believe it.
“A’in Ji Lii!” Gray Hawk cried out, running to the girl to check her out, as Kyle, Isabel, and the others crowded around her to convince themselves that she was actually there. “Are you… are you…”
“Alive? Yeah…” Angie Lee replied with a smile, hugging Gray Hawk. Then she walked over to Maria and hugged her. “I don’t know what kind of power you’ve got there, Maria, but thanks.”
“Thank Max… I think…” Maria said. “He’s the one who has the power. I just seem to be able to draw on it somehow when someone… someone… I care about is hurt bad enough.”
Angie Lee looked at Max, and Max shrugged. “I think Rahn called it sourcing or something like that. The human mind has the same abilities the Antarian mind has… Humans just haven’t learned to use but a small percentage of theirs.”
“Did you know about this,” Kyle asked Max.
“You mean did I know that Maria healed Angie Lee? I felt her drawing on my powers. I hoped… I couldn’t do anything myself without them knowing what was happening, but Maria could. I had to hope that it would be enough.”
“Did you know she was alive,” Kyle asked, turning to Maria. “Why the hell didn’t you tell us? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wasn’t sure,” Maria said. “I saw the wound close up and the bleeding stop, but she still looked dead.”
“That was a mind trick,” Angie Lee said. “I didn’t want to get shot again, so I made it look like I was dead.” Angie Lee turned to Max… “Is that common… on Antar?”
“Sourcing?” Max shook his head. “No. It’s a rare ability, even on Antar, according to Rahn. We don’t know why Maria is able to do it.”
Angie Lee smiled again. “Well… thank you… both of you. Now let’s see what we can do about getting you… us… out of here before that helicopter comes with more missiles.”
“How did you get in here, Angie Lee,” Isabel asked.
“I just made them not see me… I walked right in.”
“Can you make us all invisible,” Alex asked.
“I’m not sure how long I can hold it… completely,” Angie Lee said hesitantly. “But I’m going to try.”
“That’s good enough for me,” Michael said. “Unless anybody’s got a better idea, let’s get out of this house… quick! Like she said… time is short. Move, people!”
Angie Lee concentrated, and everyone began to disappear.
“Couldn’t you still let us see each other,” Alex asked, grasping for Isabel to make sure she was still there and safe.
“Sorry.” Angie Lee shook her head, though no one could see this by now. “It’s a blanket mind warp. It will affect them and us until I remove it. It’s the best I can do. Hold on to each other.”
Angie Lee reached out for a hand. She couldn’t see whose hand she was holding, but she knew… and she smiled.
As the group ran for the door, a missile streaked across the Reservation…
It took a scant three seconds to reach the house. Splinters, pieces of wood, and flames rose high into the sky above. In the intense light of the explosion, Max and Michael saw each other. Then, for a split second, everyone became visible again. Max thought to himself, “This must be what being in a nuclear explosion is like.” For the briefest of moments, they felt the heat… intense heat… and intense light… then nothing at all…
The destruction was total. Seconds after the first missile hit, a second missile slammed into what little was left of the foundation, and that missile was followed closely by two more missiles. There was little additional damage the three extra missiles could do. The small wood home, as well as three homes on either side of it, had been completely and totally destroyed by the first missile. But the four missiles together did provide an amazing display… a display that lit up the sky for easily fifty miles around. Smoke rose high into the sky, and pieces of the houses fell as far away as five miles outside the Reservation. Culpepper could not have been more delighted.
tbc
Coming up: Follow The Phoenix
-
Island Breeze
- Forum Moderator
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The Night The Dreams Died
The Night The Dreams Died
Follow The Phoenix
Chapter 28
XXVIII
As smoke, flames, and the fires of hell rose all around them, fifteen people stood silently, trying to comprehend the enormity of what had just happened, and wondering whether or not they were still alive.
“Max?”
“Yeah?”
“Are we… are we still…” Liz stammered. “I can’t see you.”
“I’ve still got you in my arms, Liz.”
“I know. But… what just happened to us?”
“I don’t know.”
Max looked around. He could see the bombed out, fiery remains of the house behind and all around him. He could see the flames that reached up to the sky. But he couldn’t see any of the other members of their group.
“Michael! Are you there?”
“I’m right here, Max. I’ve got Maria. She’s still with me.”
“Iz? Isabel?”
“Yeah! I’m here, Max.”
“Is Alex with you?”
“That depends,” Alex said. “Did we all just die or am I asleep in my bed and dreaming all of this?”
“You’re dreaming it,” Kyle said. “Go back to sleep.”
“What are you doing in my dream, Kyle?”
“Sorry, Alex. I couldn’t see who you were. I was looking for Cindy’s dreams.”
“Who’s Cindy?”
“October Playmate. Ow! … Who did that?” Kyle looked around, but everyone was still invisible. He knew that he was holding someone by the hand, but he wasn’t really sure who it was.
No one answered.
“Someone whacked me… on the butt!”
There was a giggle.
“Angie Lee?”
“You wandered into my dream, Kyle. Sorry about that. Cindy’s not here.”
Something in Angie Lee’s voice made Kyle smile. And now that he knew whose hand he was holding, he noticed that he liked the warm feeling her hand in his gave him, too.
“Oh… well, that’s okay. Cindy isn’t really so hot, anyway. She’s probably all plastic. You know… looks good in the package, but when you get it home…”
Angie Lee giggled.
“I guess you’ll have to keep dream-hopping, Kyle… till you find the dream… or the dreamer… that you like.”
Kyle was silent for a moment. “Or… I could just hang out here for a while… in your dream with you.”
“Okay… but you’ll have to promise to leave when Mel gets here.”
“Mel?”
“Gibson.”
“I’ll give him Cindy.”
Angie Lee giggled again. “Mel with your October playmate? Odd couple!”
“Maybe… who knows… or maybe not,” Kyle said. “Anyway, you know what they say… Opposites attract.”
“Am I your opposite, Kyle?”
“Yeah. You’re a girl… I’m a guy.”
“Janet Reno’s a girl, too…”
“That’s blurring the line a bit, Angie Lee! She can out tackle me!”
“Is that bad?”
“Hell, yeah! I’m the tackle! I need a tacklee.”
“So if I decided to tackle you sometime then…” Angie Lee said suggestively.
Kyle grinned. “I guess I could make an exception to the rule… What’s life without exceptions?”
“And Janet Reno?”
“Too exceptional!”
Angie Lee giggled again.
“Hey! Hey, guys!” Alex said sharply. “This was my dream… remember? I’m the one who’s home sleeping! Kyle, go find a girl in your own dream!”
“I hate to bring you guys back to the real world here when you’re obviously having so much fun in the middle of this WAR,” Michael said, somewhat testily, “but we need to figure out what’s going on here and where we’re going. Angie Lee?”
“I’m right here, Michael.”
“I’m assuming you’re still the reason we can’t see each other.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay… and no one else can see us either?”
“Right.”
“How did we just survive that… you know… thing… just now? Did you do something?”
Angie Lee looked at the scene around her. It looked more like the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust than anything she recognized.
“I didn’t do anything… except cover us with a mind warp shield to keep anyone from seeing us.”
“Could your mind warp shield have protected us?”
“I… I don’t know. I don’t think so. I know I wouldn’t have counted on it… or expected it to.”
“What was that bright light right before the explosions,” Diane Casey asked. “I saw a bright light.”
“Yeah, she’s right,” Alex agreed. “I saw it, too. I just thought it was part of the explosion, but since she mentioned it, I do remember seeing the bright light right before the explosions.”
“I don’t think it had anything to do with my mind warp,” Angie Lee said. “It was like something from outside… maybe it protected us.”
“Then let’s take advantage of it and get out of here,” Michael said. “I don’t care what it was… a mind warp or divine intervention… I’ll take it!”
“I’ll second that,” Alex said. Then he looked up at the sky… “and Kyle didn’t really mean what he said about hooking Mel up with Cindy.”
“Yes I did,” Kyle retorted.
“Let Mel take care of his own love life,” Michael said. “He’s not the one they’re dropping missiles on. Besides, I’m pretty sure he’s married. Now if we can get down to our own situation here, guys, I need to make sure everyone’s here… and we need to make a plan so we don’t get separated. Maria… hold onto Max’s arm with your other hand. Max has to carry Liz. Alex, you hold onto Max’s other arm and hold onto Isabel… and Isabel, hold onto Kyle and Angie Lee…”
“Jim? Are you there?”
“Yeah.”
“Stay in touch with Kyle and Angie Lee. Amy?”
“I’m with Jim.
“Gray Hawk?”
“I don’t think there’s enough peyote in all of New Mexico to hide this,” Gray Hawk said, surveying the bombed out houses.
“Little Fox?”
“Yo.”
“White Feather?”
“Still with you, man.”
“Okay, you guys all keep in touch with each other and with Jim. Diane?”
“I’m okay… Glenna and Jeff, my assistant and cameraman are with me, too. We’re all here.”
“Good,” Michael said. “Let’s go then. Max and I will lead. The rest of you… just hold on till we get there… wherever there is.”
Michael and Max began walking away from what had been, only moments before, a nice –even if small by some standards- Mesaliko home. Now it was nothing but a pile of cinders and broken dreams that still crackled with the flames of destruction that rose high into the sky. Several other houses around the target house had also been destroyed, collaterally, in the explosions. Michael had the odd feeling, as he walked along the street, that he was in a scene from a doomsday movie in which he was the only survivor of some nuclear holocaust. It had that eeriness to it. He squeezed Maria’s hand… convincing himself again that she was there.
“What was that for, Michael?”
“Just… just making sure.”
The group walked on… occasionally passing a still-standing home then more destroyed homes. They had lost count of the number of destroyed homes they had passed, but even the standing homes had considerable collateral damage, so the real figure, Michael considered, was one hundred percent total destruction. The Mesaliko Reservation no longer existed… certainly not as the place of quaint and peaceful little homes that it had once been. It was now a charred and destroyed battleground. Michael wondered how in the name of all that was holy the perpetrators of this desecration would explain this to the country… to the people… to their superiors… TO THE PRESIDENT! Did even the president know about it? Michael wondered. How high did this go? Would it even matter? If no one was left to testify against the perpetrators of this massacre… they could make up any lies that seemed convenient to them… and they would undoubtedly be exonerated of any and all wrongdoing. Michael steeled his resolve. He was determined that he would survive to tell the world what had happened here… even if it killed him.
**********
Unknown to Michael or the others, 1,649 miles away, in Washington DC, the Mesaliko Reservation was indeed, at that very moment, the topic of a discussion… a very serious and hastily called, very high-level discussion…
“Who did you say was responsible for this raid… and who approved it?”
“Special Agent Erwin Barker called the raid, sir. He goes by the code name, ‘Culpepper.’ General Hawkins approved the raid for him and gave him the muscle. Agent Culpepper also has a spy –of sorts- in Roswell who has been assisting him for favors… a judge by the name of Lewis… Horace, I believe.”
“I’m having a hard time getting my mind to accept this footage that was aired before the cameras stopped rolling, Mister Klein. I mean of course I believe it… I’m seeing it! But it’s just so… so incredible.”
“Yes, sir. I understand. Aliens have been living among us for years… grew up here… went to school here…”
“Oh, I can see that, too, Mister Klein. But I can’t believe that General Hawkins would actually think he could get away with this… this… heinous act against a reservation… against all those innocent people! General Hawkins must know that if the truth of this ever got out his butt would be the next target for one of his hellfire missiles. He could never run fast enough or far enough to escape. He must believe that he has all his angles covered. Does he even know about this footage?”
“Uh, no, sir. You see, sir, Barker… that’s Culpepper… had an elaborate radar system set up to intercept and jam these transmissions. That’s why he allowed the news team to keep filming as long as he did. The jamming was supposed to block their transmissions without them knowing it.”
“But it didn’t. Why not?”
“I, uh… I sabotaged the jamming radar… sir.”
“You destroyed it?”
“No, sir… I just recalibrated the signal. Culpepper was unaware that I did it. I was supposed to be on his team, so he didn’t suspect me.”
“I see… I’m going to handle this, Mister Klein. I need to make a couple of calls. I’m putting you in charge of the Special Unit to replace Agent Barker’s Unit supervisor… temporarily. That could become permanent if you are amenable to the position and want the job.”
Klein nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Good. There’s a general down in Texas who’s very loyal to me and would love to take over General Hawkins’ position in Roswell I’m sure. I’m getting him on the line now. I’ll have him coordinate a counter… rescue… attack… whatever it is we need to do down there. We’ll get Hawkins and Barker out of there… and Culpepper’s Unit supervisor, too.”
“Just like that, sir?”
“Just like that. I can relieve them of duty immediately under the emergency statutes act… pending further review. They’ll all get a fair trial, of course. I just hope it’s not too late for your friends… and for the Indians down there in Roswell.”
“So do I, Mister President. Thank you, sir. I promise you I won’t forget this.”
“I know, Mister Klein. You’re a good man. I can see that. I hope you’re as good a director as you’ve shown yourself to be at getting in here to see me and making your case. If you are, the Unit will be in good hands.”
“I’ll do my best, sir.”
**********
On the Mesaliko Reservation… or what little was left of it… Max and Michael had already led the group back to the main road that would take them out of the reservation and back toward town. They were passing the last of the Mesaliko homes when Max stopped suddenly, without warning.
“Why are we stopping,” Isabel asked.
“shhhh… Listen.”
Isabel listened. Everyone else listened, too.
“Someone’s talking,” Isabel said quietly. “Where are they?”
“In front of the house,” Max said… “behind that Humvee over there.”
Max moved the group forward to get a better look, then he instinctively caught his breath.
“Judge Lewis,” Alex and Liz both whispered at the same time.
“And he’s talking to Culpepper,” Kyle added. “That can’t be any good.”
“Just keep walking,” Max said. “They can’t see us. Nobody talk or make any noise till we’re well past them.”
Max led the group on past the two men. The invisibility warp seemed to be working even better than hoped. Judge Lewis and Agent Culpepper continued talking, and it was obvious that neither one suspected that the group had been there. After several minutes, Max and his group had put a fair distance between themselves and their nemeses.
“That was almost too easy,” Alex said after they were out of ear shot once more. “ I kept expecting one of them to turn around and see us or something.”
“Can I breathe again?” Maria asked, trying not to wheeze.
“Me, too,” someone else said, letting out a gasping wheeze and filling their lungs again with a much-needed breath of fresh air. It was Glenna, Diane’s assistant.
“You can all breathe again,” Michael said. “I think we made it.”
“Good! I was about to pass out,” Glenna gasped. “I don’t think I could have held my breath any longer.”
“Well, we didn’t mean you actually had to stop breathing,” Michael said. “We just meant be very quiet.”
“I know,” Glenna said… “I was trying to breath… I just couldn’t.”
Michael smiled to himself and nodded. “Then you have some idea what it’s like to be us… That’s our lives… 24/7. Welcome to our world.”
“It’s not our world,” Max interjected dryly. “That’s the problem. It never will be.”
“It’s our world, too,” Isabel countered insistently. “Mom and Dad are here. They were born here. And we grew up here. We belong here now just as much as those… as much as those…”
“Say it, Iz!” Alex coaxed. “We all know what they are!”
“Good,” Isabel sighed. “Then you know what I’m thinking.”
“Yeah,” Alex nodded with a grin… “But I’d like to hear you say it anyway.”
“You just want me to talk dirty to you, Alex,” Isabel said teasingly.
Michael chuckled.
Alex shook his head. “No, I just want to hear someone else call those assholes what they really are.”
“You just did it for me,” Isabel said.
“Besides, Iz… you belong here more than they do. They’re the ones that the world would be better off without, not you.”
“Convince the world of that,” Max said glumly. “Then maybe we’ll all be able to stop running, getting shot during our graduation, and being held in cells waiting to be dissected… or worse…”
“I can help,” Diane said quietly.
“How can you help us,” Max asked.
“I can do a special report on your lives… what you have to go through every day… what you’ve been through already… as young as you still are…”
Max was silent.
“It might work,” Michael said. “It probably couldn’t hurt… now that the whole world is going to know about us anyway… I guess.”
“We’d have to get away from Lewis and Culpepper first,” Max reminded Michael. “Then we’d have to hide out until… well, until things changed.”
“We’ll have to hide out anyway, Max,” Michael said. “We can’t just show up in the CrashDown tomorrow as though nothing ever happened. We’re marked to be killed now… all of us. Count on it.”
“Diane may be, too,” Max reminded Michael. “She’s a threat to them now more than ever. I don’t think they’ll just let her do a TV special that exposes everything they’ve been doing. I don’t even think she can go back to work again at all… ever… not and be safe.”
“So what do you suggest,” Michael asked.
“I’m thinking.”
“Well… I think it would be worth the risk,” Diane said. “Nothing good ever came without a risk. Besides, it’s my story, too, now. I have to do it if I’m ever going to be free again.”
“You may find that these guys think ‘dying to be free’ should be a literal expression in our cases,” Max said. “You need to consider what you’re up against here.”
“I know what I’m up against,” Diane said. “It’s a risk I’m willing to take. I just have to keep a really low profile until the story airs. Once they’ve been outed… it’s all over. It would be pointless for them to kill me then.”
“Ever heard of revenge,” Max asked.
“I’ll risk it,” Diane said again. “Like I said, it’s my story, too, now. I refuse to live like a coward because of some low-life, lower-than-slime, vegetated pieces of rats-ass sewer scum!”
Max smiled. “I knew there was some reason I liked you, Diane. You’re a poet!”
“Hey, Max, listen,” Michael said, interrupting the conversation. “Do you hear something?”
Max listened. “Sounds like a car coming. We’d better get off the road.”
Max led the group off the road and onto a grassy shoulder. Then they stopped and watched. Within moments, a vehicle appeared. It was the Humvee.
“Everyone stay quiet,” Max cautioned. “They still can’t see us, so there’s no need to panic. Just stay still and be quiet till they’re past.”
The group watched in silence as the Humvee approached. It was going much slower than they would have expected, barely more than walking speed. As the Humvee approached the place where the group had left the road, it slowed more… then it stopped. Judge Lewis jumped out and looked at the ground excitedly.
“See! I told you those were shoe prints! And I told you they were new! They go off into the grass right here.”
Culpepper got out of the Humvee and looked closely at the slight traces of shoe prints on the hard dirt road. They weren’t very obvious. It might even have been debatable whether or not they were really shoe prints at all. But they did seem to turn off into the grass in this area.
“What’s your point, Judge? You think there are more aliens?”
“Maybe…” Judge Lewis said skeptically… “But I’m more inclined to think it’s the ones we already know.”
Culpepper laughed. “Only if they’re ghosts! I assure you that’s the only way they’re ever coming back, Judge!”
“Laugh if you want, Culpepper. I know these kids better than you do. I know enough not to believe anything before I see bodies.”
“There weren’t any bodies left to see, Judge. They’re dead! They were burned up! Take my word for it. You don’t get hit with four hellfire missiles and just walk away! Maybe you’re seeing ghosts.” Culpepper laughed. “Corporal, get the Judge the number for Ghostbusters. He wants to call ‘em.”
The driver and Culpepper both enjoyed the joke, but Judge Lewis wasn’t paying attention to their ribbing. He stepped onto the grass and looked around. Max and all those with him stood totally still, not ten feet away from Judge Lewis. If they ran, he would see the movement in the grass… but if they stayed and he came any closer he might actually find them. For a moment, Max was unsure. Maybe Judge Lewis would not want to venture too far from the road.
Judge Lewis stepped forward, taking several more steps into the grass. Somehow Isabel managed to stand totally still, though Judge Lewis was now standing right in her face. She could even smell his breath. She closed her eyes momentarily and hoped she wouldn’t sneeze.
As fate or bad luck would have it, Judge Lewis decided to take one more step, and Isabel was forced to back up to keep him from running into her. As she stepped back, Judge Lewis’ eyes grew large, and he pointed at the grass…
“They’re here! They’re here! I saw the grass move!”
He turned around quickly to look for Culpepper, but instead of Culpepper, he saw something he had not expected to see… Amy… standing between him and Culpepper. It took Judge Lewis a mere split second to notice that Amy wasn’t really standing, though… Her feet appeared to be floating just above the ground. Momentarily shocked, Judge Lewis’ first impulse was to scream at Culpepper and the Corporal who was driving the Humvee to shoot her… and the Corporal, who was even more shocked than the judge by what he was seeing, did, without hesitation.
It had no effect. Either Amy was capable of taking a bullet in the chest now and not even flinching or she really was… a ghost.
For a moment, Judge Lewis seemed to turn pale. Then he looked at Culpepper again. Culpepper was still staring at Amy’s feet, which weren’t touching the ground. Judge Lewis turned back around and came face to face with Liz standing behind him. Her feet, too, seemed to be floating just above the ground. Whirling around, he saw Max and Michael… then the others… all staring… silently… accusingly… at the three men… all with their feet floating just above the ground.
Culpepper stood paralyzed as though in a trance, and no words seemed to come out of his mouth. The excitable Corporal, however, decided to empty his pistol into the apparitions… with predictable results… no effect.
Judge Lewis turned around to face Amy… then turned back to face the others. The more he looked at the “ghosts,” the more he began to think. He waved his hand at Amy, but it went right through her. Culpepper almost fainted, and the Corporal gasped loudly, turning even paler than he had been before.
“No… No… This isn’t right,” Judge Lewis said, swiping at the apparition again. “This isn’t right I tell you! Ghosts don’t leave footprints. Ghosts don’t make the grass lay down under their feet. Suddenly and without warning, Judge Lewis reached out in the direction of the place where the grass had moved before and made contact with something. He held on tight. It was an arm.
“Ow! You’re hurting me!” Maria cried out, as Judge Lewis twisted her arm. “Let go!”
“Not on your life,” Judge Lewis growled back. “You’re gonna be my ticket.”
“She said let her go,” a new voice said behind the judge. Judge Lewis whirled back around to look. It was Jim who had spoken… and beside him was Amy… again.
“Oh! So the ‘ghosts’ can talk, too!” Judge Lewis sneered, looking over at Culpepper as though expecting an apology from the agent to be forthcoming, and in the process, twisting Maria’s arm even further. That was a mistake. The moment he turned his eyes away, Amy leveled a crashing fist on his head that sent the judge sprawling to the ground. By now, Angie Lee had dropped the invisibility shield… as well as the special effects. The fake ghosts had all disappeared, and the people were real.
Culpepper started to go for his gun, but Jim got there quicker. The Corporal got to his own gun and tried to fire it, but he had already emptied his clip on the fake ghosts that Angie Lee had conjured up. With Culpepper’s gun now in Jim’s hand, the two men could do nothing but watch.
Judge Lewis had lost his grip on Maria’s arm as soon as Amy’s fist had come crashing down on his head sending him sprawling to the ground. Now she was on top of him, and everything that had been pent up inside her finally came flowing out like the waters behind a burst dam. If Judge Lewis had actually been the BIG DOG that he always claimed to be, his fur would have been flying right now in all directions. What actually was flying was pieces of his clothes and probably skin. Since Amy had the judge down on the ground behind the Humvee, Culpepper and the corporal could not actually see what was happening to the him anymore, but his shrill, terrified howls and the rapidly flying pieces of cloth -and what appeared to be skin- made them wince more than once.
“Shouldn’t you lend some help there?” Culpepper asked Jim pointedly.”
“She doesn’t look to me like she needs any help,” Jim replied matter-of-factly.
“I meant HIM, Culpepper barked with a tone of exasperation. “You are the sheriff after all.”
“NOW you remember that,” Jim said. “Well, you must also know then that I have no authority on the Reservation. I’m not the sheriff here. Gray Hawk’s people have their own laws.”
“Well, then, shouldn’t YOU stop her,” Culpepper said to Gray Hawk.
“I will do what I can,” Gray Hawk said slowly. “I will have to convene a Council first, of course.” Gray Hawk looked around at the burned out homes and sighed dramatically… “There do not seem to be enough Mesaliko present now on the reservation for a Council. When there are, I will bring this matter up… if it is still important at that time.”
Culpepper winced again.
“I didn’t realize you were really fond of the judge,” Jim said.
Culpepper looked at the Corporal and both of them shrugged.
“Yeah, well… you’ve got a point. Besides… it’s him, not me,” Culpepper said.
“Your sympathy is touching,” Alex snipped sarcastically. “I think I may cry.”
A couple of minutes after it had started, another Humvee approached the group. In it were several soldiers armed with AK-47’s, a lieutenant, and a higher ranking officer, the second-in-command to General Hawkins. The higher ranking officer looked at what was happening, as the Humvee came to a stop, then he stepped out of the vehicle. Jim still had Culpepper’s pistol in his hand, aimed at Culpepper and the Corporal, but he knew it would be no match for four soldiers with AK-47’s. He waited to see what would happen, but he didn’t lower the gun in his hand.
“What’s going on here, Barker,” the higher-ranking officer asked, calling Culpepper by his real name.
“Well, if you’d just open your eyes and look,” Culpepper snapped back testily, with frustration and more than a little bit of fear obvious in his voice, “we’re being attacked by our prisoners. Now that you’re here, I’m sure you’ll want to do something about it other than just WATCH!”
The General’s second-in-command seemed to smile slightly. “You seem to have a problem, Barker.”
“Are you just gonna talk about it or are you gonna do something,” Culpepper snapped gruffly.
“I’m thinking,” the officer answered. Culpepper’s mouth seemed to drop open.
The officer motioned toward the soldiers in the Humvee, and they pointed their rifles at Jim, Max, and the others.
“Give me the gun,” the officer said to Jim. Jim hesitated… then handed the officer the pistol.
“This looks like your gun, Barker.”
“It IS my gun, Edmonds! You KNOW it is! Give it back to me.”
“Do you just let all your prisoners hold your gun, Barker… or do they have to ask nicely?”
“Just give me my gun, Edmonds… or I’ll have the General relieve you of command for insubordination.”
“Insubordination… to you, Barker?” The General’s second-in-command raised his eyebrows. “You’re just a special agent. You’re not even an officer!”
“With special connections,” Culpepper reminded him.
“Maybe not anymore… We’ll see,” the officer said matter-of-factly. Then he motioned to Jim and the others.
“All of you… down on the ground… hands behind your backs.” He looked at one of the soldiers holding an AK-47. “Do we have enough handcuffs?”
“If we don’t, there’s some rope in the back,” the soldier said.
The officer nodded. “Handcuff ‘em.” Then he handed Culpepper back his gun.
Culpepper promptly aimed it at Angie Lee on the ground. The moment he did, Gray Hawk hit him from the side, sending him reeling into one of the soldiers. Culpepper hadn’t even seen Gray Hawk get up. He simply seemed to rise off the ground and strike all in one swift motion. A second soldier hit Gray Hawk on the head with the butt of his gun, and Gray Hawk went down, momentarily addled but not unconscious. The soldier hurried to get the handcuffs on him before he could recover enough to fight again.
Culpepper walked back over to Angie Lee and pointed the gun at her again. “I killed you once… or I thought I did. Maybe the second time will be a charm.”
The General’s second-in-command grabbed Culpepper’s hand and pushed it away.
“What do you think you’re doing, Barker?”
“She’s dangerous, Edmonds! She’ll have you seeing things that aren’t there when you don’t expect it.”
“That’s my problem, Barker… and the General’s. He may want to find out what makes her tick… if what you say is true.”
“If? What do you mean, IF, Edmonds? Of course it’s true. You’ll live to regret it if you don’t kill her now.”
“And you WON’T live to regret it if you DO kill her now against my orders, Culpepper,” Edmonds threatened. Culpepper begrudgingly lowered his gun.
“What do we do about this one…” the soldier asked, motioning toward Amy, who had still not been pulled off of the pitifully howling, battered, and now mostly naked Judge Lewis. Out of sight as they were behind the first Humvee, and with Judge Lewis howling continuously like a tomcat being pulled through a knot hole by its tail, Amy hadn’t even been aware of the arrival of the additional soldiers.
“Handcuff her, too.”
The soldiers looked at each other, silently wondering which one was going to do it.
“What about him,” the soldier asked, motioning toward the judge.
“Take him to the base medic. He looks like he’s gonna need it.”
The soldiers carefully handcuffed Amy, who used her last free arm movement to remove most of what was left of Judge Lewis’ hair from his left armpit.
“All right… There are a couple more Humvees on the way,” the officer said. “When they get here, you guys are getting in and we’re all going back to the base.”
Michael groaned. “Sorry, Max… I let you down.”
“You did all you could,” Max replied. “I don’t want to hear any self-recrimination. I’m as much to blame as anyone… More, actually… because I’m the one leading.”
“Give it a rest, you two,” Gray Hawk said with an ever-present air of authority in his voice. You’re both to blame.”
Max looked at Michael and raised his eyebrows slightly. “Nice to have someone who can put it all into perspective for us.”
Michael nodded.
“Weren’t you a little hard on them, Grandfather,” Angie Lee asked.
“No. If I said nothing, each one would continue to blame only himself, and we would have to listen to that forever. Now they will have to put it behind them, because neither will want to blame the other.”
Angie Lee kissed Gray Hawk on the cheek. “You always were a peacemaker, Grandfather. What do you think they’ll do with us?”
“I do not know… I will not allow them to hurt you, A’in Ji Lii.”
“I know,” Angie Lee said. “I know. That’s what worries me.”
Moments later, three more Humvees pulled up on the scene. Each had a driver and two armed soldiers in it. The fifteen handcuffed prisoners and Judge Lewis were stuffed into the five Humvees that were now present, including the one Culpepper and the judge had arrived in originally. Then Culpepper’s driver was ordered by the General’s second-in-command, against Culpepper’s wishes, to follow the convoy and return to the base with the prisoners in his vehicle. Still fuming, Culpepper, who had to stay behind, dropped his objections for the moment, but he never planned to allow any of the prisoners to return to the base… even knowing that they would “disappear” once they got there. Culpepper didn’t want these prisoners to merely “disappear.” “Disappeared” prisoners could still talk… and sometimes they escaped, as he had seen some of these do once already. He wanted them dead… and he had an idea how that might still be accomplished. Unfortunately, it might mean sacrificing “a few” soldiers… and the General’s second-in-command. Culpepper smiled.
The Humvees drove off through the reservation, heading over the hills rather than out the official entrance, and as they drove away, Culpepper made a two-way radio call…
“Cobra Leader, this is Culpepper. Come in.”
“Cobra Leader here.”
“There’s a convoy of five Humvees leaving the Reservation… It’s heading over the hills from the Reservation bearing south-southeast. The vehicles were commandeered by the terrorists that were holed up on the reservation. They’ve killed the drivers. The intended target of the terrorists is Area 51. They intend to use our official vehicles to gain entrance and sabotage sensitive areas of national security. I’ve been ordered to stop this convoy before it reaches the base…”
“They’ll never get there,” Cobra Leader replied resolutely. “Trust me.”
“The whole nation is counting on you, Cobra Leader. Don’t fail us! Culpepper out.”
Culpepper pressed the button turning off his two-way radio. Then he looked at the Humvees disappearing in the distance over the hill… and he smiled. Three minutes later, as the Humvees headed out across the desert, the General’s second-in-command spotted something far ahead of the convoy but approaching fast.
“What do you make those out to be,” the officer asked the driver.
“I don’t know, sir. I believe they’re helicopters… looks like maybe some of our Cobras.”
“Why would more Cobras be coming out here now?” the officer asked, more to himself than to the driver, who obviously wouldn’t know.
“I don’t know, sir… but they’re headed directly towards us.”
“Yes… they are, aren’t they,” the General’s second-in-command said slowly, beginning to have a bad feeling, as he started to put the pieces together. “Driver, stop the vehicle! Get out! Everybody get out! NOW!”
No one in the Humvees had time to react to the officer’s order. As they started to move, the air itself seemed to open up in front of them between the Humvees and the approaching helicopters. There was a tremendous BOOM, blowing out all the windows in the Humvees, as something shot out of a rift and the rift closed back up again. The object headed straight for the convoy. It looked like… but the officer’s mind refused to believe it… a rider on a motorbike… coming right out of a hole in the sky.
tbc
Coming up: Michael times Two
Follow The Phoenix
Chapter 28
XXVIII
As smoke, flames, and the fires of hell rose all around them, fifteen people stood silently, trying to comprehend the enormity of what had just happened, and wondering whether or not they were still alive.
“Max?”
“Yeah?”
“Are we… are we still…” Liz stammered. “I can’t see you.”
“I’ve still got you in my arms, Liz.”
“I know. But… what just happened to us?”
“I don’t know.”
Max looked around. He could see the bombed out, fiery remains of the house behind and all around him. He could see the flames that reached up to the sky. But he couldn’t see any of the other members of their group.
“Michael! Are you there?”
“I’m right here, Max. I’ve got Maria. She’s still with me.”
“Iz? Isabel?”
“Yeah! I’m here, Max.”
“Is Alex with you?”
“That depends,” Alex said. “Did we all just die or am I asleep in my bed and dreaming all of this?”
“You’re dreaming it,” Kyle said. “Go back to sleep.”
“What are you doing in my dream, Kyle?”
“Sorry, Alex. I couldn’t see who you were. I was looking for Cindy’s dreams.”
“Who’s Cindy?”
“October Playmate. Ow! … Who did that?” Kyle looked around, but everyone was still invisible. He knew that he was holding someone by the hand, but he wasn’t really sure who it was.
No one answered.
“Someone whacked me… on the butt!”
There was a giggle.
“Angie Lee?”
“You wandered into my dream, Kyle. Sorry about that. Cindy’s not here.”
Something in Angie Lee’s voice made Kyle smile. And now that he knew whose hand he was holding, he noticed that he liked the warm feeling her hand in his gave him, too.
“Oh… well, that’s okay. Cindy isn’t really so hot, anyway. She’s probably all plastic. You know… looks good in the package, but when you get it home…”
Angie Lee giggled.
“I guess you’ll have to keep dream-hopping, Kyle… till you find the dream… or the dreamer… that you like.”
Kyle was silent for a moment. “Or… I could just hang out here for a while… in your dream with you.”
“Okay… but you’ll have to promise to leave when Mel gets here.”
“Mel?”
“Gibson.”
“I’ll give him Cindy.”
Angie Lee giggled again. “Mel with your October playmate? Odd couple!”
“Maybe… who knows… or maybe not,” Kyle said. “Anyway, you know what they say… Opposites attract.”
“Am I your opposite, Kyle?”
“Yeah. You’re a girl… I’m a guy.”
“Janet Reno’s a girl, too…”
“That’s blurring the line a bit, Angie Lee! She can out tackle me!”
“Is that bad?”
“Hell, yeah! I’m the tackle! I need a tacklee.”
“So if I decided to tackle you sometime then…” Angie Lee said suggestively.
Kyle grinned. “I guess I could make an exception to the rule… What’s life without exceptions?”
“And Janet Reno?”
“Too exceptional!”
Angie Lee giggled again.
“Hey! Hey, guys!” Alex said sharply. “This was my dream… remember? I’m the one who’s home sleeping! Kyle, go find a girl in your own dream!”
“I hate to bring you guys back to the real world here when you’re obviously having so much fun in the middle of this WAR,” Michael said, somewhat testily, “but we need to figure out what’s going on here and where we’re going. Angie Lee?”
“I’m right here, Michael.”
“I’m assuming you’re still the reason we can’t see each other.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay… and no one else can see us either?”
“Right.”
“How did we just survive that… you know… thing… just now? Did you do something?”
Angie Lee looked at the scene around her. It looked more like the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust than anything she recognized.
“I didn’t do anything… except cover us with a mind warp shield to keep anyone from seeing us.”
“Could your mind warp shield have protected us?”
“I… I don’t know. I don’t think so. I know I wouldn’t have counted on it… or expected it to.”
“What was that bright light right before the explosions,” Diane Casey asked. “I saw a bright light.”
“Yeah, she’s right,” Alex agreed. “I saw it, too. I just thought it was part of the explosion, but since she mentioned it, I do remember seeing the bright light right before the explosions.”
“I don’t think it had anything to do with my mind warp,” Angie Lee said. “It was like something from outside… maybe it protected us.”
“Then let’s take advantage of it and get out of here,” Michael said. “I don’t care what it was… a mind warp or divine intervention… I’ll take it!”
“I’ll second that,” Alex said. Then he looked up at the sky… “and Kyle didn’t really mean what he said about hooking Mel up with Cindy.”
“Yes I did,” Kyle retorted.
“Let Mel take care of his own love life,” Michael said. “He’s not the one they’re dropping missiles on. Besides, I’m pretty sure he’s married. Now if we can get down to our own situation here, guys, I need to make sure everyone’s here… and we need to make a plan so we don’t get separated. Maria… hold onto Max’s arm with your other hand. Max has to carry Liz. Alex, you hold onto Max’s other arm and hold onto Isabel… and Isabel, hold onto Kyle and Angie Lee…”
“Jim? Are you there?”
“Yeah.”
“Stay in touch with Kyle and Angie Lee. Amy?”
“I’m with Jim.
“Gray Hawk?”
“I don’t think there’s enough peyote in all of New Mexico to hide this,” Gray Hawk said, surveying the bombed out houses.
“Little Fox?”
“Yo.”
“White Feather?”
“Still with you, man.”
“Okay, you guys all keep in touch with each other and with Jim. Diane?”
“I’m okay… Glenna and Jeff, my assistant and cameraman are with me, too. We’re all here.”
“Good,” Michael said. “Let’s go then. Max and I will lead. The rest of you… just hold on till we get there… wherever there is.”
Michael and Max began walking away from what had been, only moments before, a nice –even if small by some standards- Mesaliko home. Now it was nothing but a pile of cinders and broken dreams that still crackled with the flames of destruction that rose high into the sky. Several other houses around the target house had also been destroyed, collaterally, in the explosions. Michael had the odd feeling, as he walked along the street, that he was in a scene from a doomsday movie in which he was the only survivor of some nuclear holocaust. It had that eeriness to it. He squeezed Maria’s hand… convincing himself again that she was there.
“What was that for, Michael?”
“Just… just making sure.”
The group walked on… occasionally passing a still-standing home then more destroyed homes. They had lost count of the number of destroyed homes they had passed, but even the standing homes had considerable collateral damage, so the real figure, Michael considered, was one hundred percent total destruction. The Mesaliko Reservation no longer existed… certainly not as the place of quaint and peaceful little homes that it had once been. It was now a charred and destroyed battleground. Michael wondered how in the name of all that was holy the perpetrators of this desecration would explain this to the country… to the people… to their superiors… TO THE PRESIDENT! Did even the president know about it? Michael wondered. How high did this go? Would it even matter? If no one was left to testify against the perpetrators of this massacre… they could make up any lies that seemed convenient to them… and they would undoubtedly be exonerated of any and all wrongdoing. Michael steeled his resolve. He was determined that he would survive to tell the world what had happened here… even if it killed him.
**********
Unknown to Michael or the others, 1,649 miles away, in Washington DC, the Mesaliko Reservation was indeed, at that very moment, the topic of a discussion… a very serious and hastily called, very high-level discussion…
“Who did you say was responsible for this raid… and who approved it?”
“Special Agent Erwin Barker called the raid, sir. He goes by the code name, ‘Culpepper.’ General Hawkins approved the raid for him and gave him the muscle. Agent Culpepper also has a spy –of sorts- in Roswell who has been assisting him for favors… a judge by the name of Lewis… Horace, I believe.”
“I’m having a hard time getting my mind to accept this footage that was aired before the cameras stopped rolling, Mister Klein. I mean of course I believe it… I’m seeing it! But it’s just so… so incredible.”
“Yes, sir. I understand. Aliens have been living among us for years… grew up here… went to school here…”
“Oh, I can see that, too, Mister Klein. But I can’t believe that General Hawkins would actually think he could get away with this… this… heinous act against a reservation… against all those innocent people! General Hawkins must know that if the truth of this ever got out his butt would be the next target for one of his hellfire missiles. He could never run fast enough or far enough to escape. He must believe that he has all his angles covered. Does he even know about this footage?”
“Uh, no, sir. You see, sir, Barker… that’s Culpepper… had an elaborate radar system set up to intercept and jam these transmissions. That’s why he allowed the news team to keep filming as long as he did. The jamming was supposed to block their transmissions without them knowing it.”
“But it didn’t. Why not?”
“I, uh… I sabotaged the jamming radar… sir.”
“You destroyed it?”
“No, sir… I just recalibrated the signal. Culpepper was unaware that I did it. I was supposed to be on his team, so he didn’t suspect me.”
“I see… I’m going to handle this, Mister Klein. I need to make a couple of calls. I’m putting you in charge of the Special Unit to replace Agent Barker’s Unit supervisor… temporarily. That could become permanent if you are amenable to the position and want the job.”
Klein nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Good. There’s a general down in Texas who’s very loyal to me and would love to take over General Hawkins’ position in Roswell I’m sure. I’m getting him on the line now. I’ll have him coordinate a counter… rescue… attack… whatever it is we need to do down there. We’ll get Hawkins and Barker out of there… and Culpepper’s Unit supervisor, too.”
“Just like that, sir?”
“Just like that. I can relieve them of duty immediately under the emergency statutes act… pending further review. They’ll all get a fair trial, of course. I just hope it’s not too late for your friends… and for the Indians down there in Roswell.”
“So do I, Mister President. Thank you, sir. I promise you I won’t forget this.”
“I know, Mister Klein. You’re a good man. I can see that. I hope you’re as good a director as you’ve shown yourself to be at getting in here to see me and making your case. If you are, the Unit will be in good hands.”
“I’ll do my best, sir.”
**********
On the Mesaliko Reservation… or what little was left of it… Max and Michael had already led the group back to the main road that would take them out of the reservation and back toward town. They were passing the last of the Mesaliko homes when Max stopped suddenly, without warning.
“Why are we stopping,” Isabel asked.
“shhhh… Listen.”
Isabel listened. Everyone else listened, too.
“Someone’s talking,” Isabel said quietly. “Where are they?”
“In front of the house,” Max said… “behind that Humvee over there.”
Max moved the group forward to get a better look, then he instinctively caught his breath.
“Judge Lewis,” Alex and Liz both whispered at the same time.
“And he’s talking to Culpepper,” Kyle added. “That can’t be any good.”
“Just keep walking,” Max said. “They can’t see us. Nobody talk or make any noise till we’re well past them.”
Max led the group on past the two men. The invisibility warp seemed to be working even better than hoped. Judge Lewis and Agent Culpepper continued talking, and it was obvious that neither one suspected that the group had been there. After several minutes, Max and his group had put a fair distance between themselves and their nemeses.
“That was almost too easy,” Alex said after they were out of ear shot once more. “ I kept expecting one of them to turn around and see us or something.”
“Can I breathe again?” Maria asked, trying not to wheeze.
“Me, too,” someone else said, letting out a gasping wheeze and filling their lungs again with a much-needed breath of fresh air. It was Glenna, Diane’s assistant.
“You can all breathe again,” Michael said. “I think we made it.”
“Good! I was about to pass out,” Glenna gasped. “I don’t think I could have held my breath any longer.”
“Well, we didn’t mean you actually had to stop breathing,” Michael said. “We just meant be very quiet.”
“I know,” Glenna said… “I was trying to breath… I just couldn’t.”
Michael smiled to himself and nodded. “Then you have some idea what it’s like to be us… That’s our lives… 24/7. Welcome to our world.”
“It’s not our world,” Max interjected dryly. “That’s the problem. It never will be.”
“It’s our world, too,” Isabel countered insistently. “Mom and Dad are here. They were born here. And we grew up here. We belong here now just as much as those… as much as those…”
“Say it, Iz!” Alex coaxed. “We all know what they are!”
“Good,” Isabel sighed. “Then you know what I’m thinking.”
“Yeah,” Alex nodded with a grin… “But I’d like to hear you say it anyway.”
“You just want me to talk dirty to you, Alex,” Isabel said teasingly.
Michael chuckled.
Alex shook his head. “No, I just want to hear someone else call those assholes what they really are.”
“You just did it for me,” Isabel said.
“Besides, Iz… you belong here more than they do. They’re the ones that the world would be better off without, not you.”
“Convince the world of that,” Max said glumly. “Then maybe we’ll all be able to stop running, getting shot during our graduation, and being held in cells waiting to be dissected… or worse…”
“I can help,” Diane said quietly.
“How can you help us,” Max asked.
“I can do a special report on your lives… what you have to go through every day… what you’ve been through already… as young as you still are…”
Max was silent.
“It might work,” Michael said. “It probably couldn’t hurt… now that the whole world is going to know about us anyway… I guess.”
“We’d have to get away from Lewis and Culpepper first,” Max reminded Michael. “Then we’d have to hide out until… well, until things changed.”
“We’ll have to hide out anyway, Max,” Michael said. “We can’t just show up in the CrashDown tomorrow as though nothing ever happened. We’re marked to be killed now… all of us. Count on it.”
“Diane may be, too,” Max reminded Michael. “She’s a threat to them now more than ever. I don’t think they’ll just let her do a TV special that exposes everything they’ve been doing. I don’t even think she can go back to work again at all… ever… not and be safe.”
“So what do you suggest,” Michael asked.
“I’m thinking.”
“Well… I think it would be worth the risk,” Diane said. “Nothing good ever came without a risk. Besides, it’s my story, too, now. I have to do it if I’m ever going to be free again.”
“You may find that these guys think ‘dying to be free’ should be a literal expression in our cases,” Max said. “You need to consider what you’re up against here.”
“I know what I’m up against,” Diane said. “It’s a risk I’m willing to take. I just have to keep a really low profile until the story airs. Once they’ve been outed… it’s all over. It would be pointless for them to kill me then.”
“Ever heard of revenge,” Max asked.
“I’ll risk it,” Diane said again. “Like I said, it’s my story, too, now. I refuse to live like a coward because of some low-life, lower-than-slime, vegetated pieces of rats-ass sewer scum!”
Max smiled. “I knew there was some reason I liked you, Diane. You’re a poet!”
“Hey, Max, listen,” Michael said, interrupting the conversation. “Do you hear something?”
Max listened. “Sounds like a car coming. We’d better get off the road.”
Max led the group off the road and onto a grassy shoulder. Then they stopped and watched. Within moments, a vehicle appeared. It was the Humvee.
“Everyone stay quiet,” Max cautioned. “They still can’t see us, so there’s no need to panic. Just stay still and be quiet till they’re past.”
The group watched in silence as the Humvee approached. It was going much slower than they would have expected, barely more than walking speed. As the Humvee approached the place where the group had left the road, it slowed more… then it stopped. Judge Lewis jumped out and looked at the ground excitedly.
“See! I told you those were shoe prints! And I told you they were new! They go off into the grass right here.”
Culpepper got out of the Humvee and looked closely at the slight traces of shoe prints on the hard dirt road. They weren’t very obvious. It might even have been debatable whether or not they were really shoe prints at all. But they did seem to turn off into the grass in this area.
“What’s your point, Judge? You think there are more aliens?”
“Maybe…” Judge Lewis said skeptically… “But I’m more inclined to think it’s the ones we already know.”
Culpepper laughed. “Only if they’re ghosts! I assure you that’s the only way they’re ever coming back, Judge!”
“Laugh if you want, Culpepper. I know these kids better than you do. I know enough not to believe anything before I see bodies.”
“There weren’t any bodies left to see, Judge. They’re dead! They were burned up! Take my word for it. You don’t get hit with four hellfire missiles and just walk away! Maybe you’re seeing ghosts.” Culpepper laughed. “Corporal, get the Judge the number for Ghostbusters. He wants to call ‘em.”
The driver and Culpepper both enjoyed the joke, but Judge Lewis wasn’t paying attention to their ribbing. He stepped onto the grass and looked around. Max and all those with him stood totally still, not ten feet away from Judge Lewis. If they ran, he would see the movement in the grass… but if they stayed and he came any closer he might actually find them. For a moment, Max was unsure. Maybe Judge Lewis would not want to venture too far from the road.
Judge Lewis stepped forward, taking several more steps into the grass. Somehow Isabel managed to stand totally still, though Judge Lewis was now standing right in her face. She could even smell his breath. She closed her eyes momentarily and hoped she wouldn’t sneeze.
As fate or bad luck would have it, Judge Lewis decided to take one more step, and Isabel was forced to back up to keep him from running into her. As she stepped back, Judge Lewis’ eyes grew large, and he pointed at the grass…
“They’re here! They’re here! I saw the grass move!”
He turned around quickly to look for Culpepper, but instead of Culpepper, he saw something he had not expected to see… Amy… standing between him and Culpepper. It took Judge Lewis a mere split second to notice that Amy wasn’t really standing, though… Her feet appeared to be floating just above the ground. Momentarily shocked, Judge Lewis’ first impulse was to scream at Culpepper and the Corporal who was driving the Humvee to shoot her… and the Corporal, who was even more shocked than the judge by what he was seeing, did, without hesitation.
It had no effect. Either Amy was capable of taking a bullet in the chest now and not even flinching or she really was… a ghost.
For a moment, Judge Lewis seemed to turn pale. Then he looked at Culpepper again. Culpepper was still staring at Amy’s feet, which weren’t touching the ground. Judge Lewis turned back around and came face to face with Liz standing behind him. Her feet, too, seemed to be floating just above the ground. Whirling around, he saw Max and Michael… then the others… all staring… silently… accusingly… at the three men… all with their feet floating just above the ground.
Culpepper stood paralyzed as though in a trance, and no words seemed to come out of his mouth. The excitable Corporal, however, decided to empty his pistol into the apparitions… with predictable results… no effect.
Judge Lewis turned around to face Amy… then turned back to face the others. The more he looked at the “ghosts,” the more he began to think. He waved his hand at Amy, but it went right through her. Culpepper almost fainted, and the Corporal gasped loudly, turning even paler than he had been before.
“No… No… This isn’t right,” Judge Lewis said, swiping at the apparition again. “This isn’t right I tell you! Ghosts don’t leave footprints. Ghosts don’t make the grass lay down under their feet. Suddenly and without warning, Judge Lewis reached out in the direction of the place where the grass had moved before and made contact with something. He held on tight. It was an arm.
“Ow! You’re hurting me!” Maria cried out, as Judge Lewis twisted her arm. “Let go!”
“Not on your life,” Judge Lewis growled back. “You’re gonna be my ticket.”
“She said let her go,” a new voice said behind the judge. Judge Lewis whirled back around to look. It was Jim who had spoken… and beside him was Amy… again.
“Oh! So the ‘ghosts’ can talk, too!” Judge Lewis sneered, looking over at Culpepper as though expecting an apology from the agent to be forthcoming, and in the process, twisting Maria’s arm even further. That was a mistake. The moment he turned his eyes away, Amy leveled a crashing fist on his head that sent the judge sprawling to the ground. By now, Angie Lee had dropped the invisibility shield… as well as the special effects. The fake ghosts had all disappeared, and the people were real.
Culpepper started to go for his gun, but Jim got there quicker. The Corporal got to his own gun and tried to fire it, but he had already emptied his clip on the fake ghosts that Angie Lee had conjured up. With Culpepper’s gun now in Jim’s hand, the two men could do nothing but watch.
Judge Lewis had lost his grip on Maria’s arm as soon as Amy’s fist had come crashing down on his head sending him sprawling to the ground. Now she was on top of him, and everything that had been pent up inside her finally came flowing out like the waters behind a burst dam. If Judge Lewis had actually been the BIG DOG that he always claimed to be, his fur would have been flying right now in all directions. What actually was flying was pieces of his clothes and probably skin. Since Amy had the judge down on the ground behind the Humvee, Culpepper and the corporal could not actually see what was happening to the him anymore, but his shrill, terrified howls and the rapidly flying pieces of cloth -and what appeared to be skin- made them wince more than once.
“Shouldn’t you lend some help there?” Culpepper asked Jim pointedly.”
“She doesn’t look to me like she needs any help,” Jim replied matter-of-factly.
“I meant HIM, Culpepper barked with a tone of exasperation. “You are the sheriff after all.”
“NOW you remember that,” Jim said. “Well, you must also know then that I have no authority on the Reservation. I’m not the sheriff here. Gray Hawk’s people have their own laws.”
“Well, then, shouldn’t YOU stop her,” Culpepper said to Gray Hawk.
“I will do what I can,” Gray Hawk said slowly. “I will have to convene a Council first, of course.” Gray Hawk looked around at the burned out homes and sighed dramatically… “There do not seem to be enough Mesaliko present now on the reservation for a Council. When there are, I will bring this matter up… if it is still important at that time.”
Culpepper winced again.
“I didn’t realize you were really fond of the judge,” Jim said.
Culpepper looked at the Corporal and both of them shrugged.
“Yeah, well… you’ve got a point. Besides… it’s him, not me,” Culpepper said.
“Your sympathy is touching,” Alex snipped sarcastically. “I think I may cry.”
A couple of minutes after it had started, another Humvee approached the group. In it were several soldiers armed with AK-47’s, a lieutenant, and a higher ranking officer, the second-in-command to General Hawkins. The higher ranking officer looked at what was happening, as the Humvee came to a stop, then he stepped out of the vehicle. Jim still had Culpepper’s pistol in his hand, aimed at Culpepper and the Corporal, but he knew it would be no match for four soldiers with AK-47’s. He waited to see what would happen, but he didn’t lower the gun in his hand.
“What’s going on here, Barker,” the higher-ranking officer asked, calling Culpepper by his real name.
“Well, if you’d just open your eyes and look,” Culpepper snapped back testily, with frustration and more than a little bit of fear obvious in his voice, “we’re being attacked by our prisoners. Now that you’re here, I’m sure you’ll want to do something about it other than just WATCH!”
The General’s second-in-command seemed to smile slightly. “You seem to have a problem, Barker.”
“Are you just gonna talk about it or are you gonna do something,” Culpepper snapped gruffly.
“I’m thinking,” the officer answered. Culpepper’s mouth seemed to drop open.
The officer motioned toward the soldiers in the Humvee, and they pointed their rifles at Jim, Max, and the others.
“Give me the gun,” the officer said to Jim. Jim hesitated… then handed the officer the pistol.
“This looks like your gun, Barker.”
“It IS my gun, Edmonds! You KNOW it is! Give it back to me.”
“Do you just let all your prisoners hold your gun, Barker… or do they have to ask nicely?”
“Just give me my gun, Edmonds… or I’ll have the General relieve you of command for insubordination.”
“Insubordination… to you, Barker?” The General’s second-in-command raised his eyebrows. “You’re just a special agent. You’re not even an officer!”
“With special connections,” Culpepper reminded him.
“Maybe not anymore… We’ll see,” the officer said matter-of-factly. Then he motioned to Jim and the others.
“All of you… down on the ground… hands behind your backs.” He looked at one of the soldiers holding an AK-47. “Do we have enough handcuffs?”
“If we don’t, there’s some rope in the back,” the soldier said.
The officer nodded. “Handcuff ‘em.” Then he handed Culpepper back his gun.
Culpepper promptly aimed it at Angie Lee on the ground. The moment he did, Gray Hawk hit him from the side, sending him reeling into one of the soldiers. Culpepper hadn’t even seen Gray Hawk get up. He simply seemed to rise off the ground and strike all in one swift motion. A second soldier hit Gray Hawk on the head with the butt of his gun, and Gray Hawk went down, momentarily addled but not unconscious. The soldier hurried to get the handcuffs on him before he could recover enough to fight again.
Culpepper walked back over to Angie Lee and pointed the gun at her again. “I killed you once… or I thought I did. Maybe the second time will be a charm.”
The General’s second-in-command grabbed Culpepper’s hand and pushed it away.
“What do you think you’re doing, Barker?”
“She’s dangerous, Edmonds! She’ll have you seeing things that aren’t there when you don’t expect it.”
“That’s my problem, Barker… and the General’s. He may want to find out what makes her tick… if what you say is true.”
“If? What do you mean, IF, Edmonds? Of course it’s true. You’ll live to regret it if you don’t kill her now.”
“And you WON’T live to regret it if you DO kill her now against my orders, Culpepper,” Edmonds threatened. Culpepper begrudgingly lowered his gun.
“What do we do about this one…” the soldier asked, motioning toward Amy, who had still not been pulled off of the pitifully howling, battered, and now mostly naked Judge Lewis. Out of sight as they were behind the first Humvee, and with Judge Lewis howling continuously like a tomcat being pulled through a knot hole by its tail, Amy hadn’t even been aware of the arrival of the additional soldiers.
“Handcuff her, too.”
The soldiers looked at each other, silently wondering which one was going to do it.
“What about him,” the soldier asked, motioning toward the judge.
“Take him to the base medic. He looks like he’s gonna need it.”
The soldiers carefully handcuffed Amy, who used her last free arm movement to remove most of what was left of Judge Lewis’ hair from his left armpit.
“All right… There are a couple more Humvees on the way,” the officer said. “When they get here, you guys are getting in and we’re all going back to the base.”
Michael groaned. “Sorry, Max… I let you down.”
“You did all you could,” Max replied. “I don’t want to hear any self-recrimination. I’m as much to blame as anyone… More, actually… because I’m the one leading.”
“Give it a rest, you two,” Gray Hawk said with an ever-present air of authority in his voice. You’re both to blame.”
Max looked at Michael and raised his eyebrows slightly. “Nice to have someone who can put it all into perspective for us.”
Michael nodded.
“Weren’t you a little hard on them, Grandfather,” Angie Lee asked.
“No. If I said nothing, each one would continue to blame only himself, and we would have to listen to that forever. Now they will have to put it behind them, because neither will want to blame the other.”
Angie Lee kissed Gray Hawk on the cheek. “You always were a peacemaker, Grandfather. What do you think they’ll do with us?”
“I do not know… I will not allow them to hurt you, A’in Ji Lii.”
“I know,” Angie Lee said. “I know. That’s what worries me.”
Moments later, three more Humvees pulled up on the scene. Each had a driver and two armed soldiers in it. The fifteen handcuffed prisoners and Judge Lewis were stuffed into the five Humvees that were now present, including the one Culpepper and the judge had arrived in originally. Then Culpepper’s driver was ordered by the General’s second-in-command, against Culpepper’s wishes, to follow the convoy and return to the base with the prisoners in his vehicle. Still fuming, Culpepper, who had to stay behind, dropped his objections for the moment, but he never planned to allow any of the prisoners to return to the base… even knowing that they would “disappear” once they got there. Culpepper didn’t want these prisoners to merely “disappear.” “Disappeared” prisoners could still talk… and sometimes they escaped, as he had seen some of these do once already. He wanted them dead… and he had an idea how that might still be accomplished. Unfortunately, it might mean sacrificing “a few” soldiers… and the General’s second-in-command. Culpepper smiled.
The Humvees drove off through the reservation, heading over the hills rather than out the official entrance, and as they drove away, Culpepper made a two-way radio call…
“Cobra Leader, this is Culpepper. Come in.”
“Cobra Leader here.”
“There’s a convoy of five Humvees leaving the Reservation… It’s heading over the hills from the Reservation bearing south-southeast. The vehicles were commandeered by the terrorists that were holed up on the reservation. They’ve killed the drivers. The intended target of the terrorists is Area 51. They intend to use our official vehicles to gain entrance and sabotage sensitive areas of national security. I’ve been ordered to stop this convoy before it reaches the base…”
“They’ll never get there,” Cobra Leader replied resolutely. “Trust me.”
“The whole nation is counting on you, Cobra Leader. Don’t fail us! Culpepper out.”
Culpepper pressed the button turning off his two-way radio. Then he looked at the Humvees disappearing in the distance over the hill… and he smiled. Three minutes later, as the Humvees headed out across the desert, the General’s second-in-command spotted something far ahead of the convoy but approaching fast.
“What do you make those out to be,” the officer asked the driver.
“I don’t know, sir. I believe they’re helicopters… looks like maybe some of our Cobras.”
“Why would more Cobras be coming out here now?” the officer asked, more to himself than to the driver, who obviously wouldn’t know.
“I don’t know, sir… but they’re headed directly towards us.”
“Yes… they are, aren’t they,” the General’s second-in-command said slowly, beginning to have a bad feeling, as he started to put the pieces together. “Driver, stop the vehicle! Get out! Everybody get out! NOW!”
No one in the Humvees had time to react to the officer’s order. As they started to move, the air itself seemed to open up in front of them between the Humvees and the approaching helicopters. There was a tremendous BOOM, blowing out all the windows in the Humvees, as something shot out of a rift and the rift closed back up again. The object headed straight for the convoy. It looked like… but the officer’s mind refused to believe it… a rider on a motorbike… coming right out of a hole in the sky.
tbc
Coming up: Michael times Two
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Island Breeze
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The Night The Dreams Died
The Night The Dreams Died
Michael Times Two & Other Miracles
Chapter 29
XXIX
Edmonds realized that the Cobra helicopters heading toward them almost certainly were Agent Culpepper’s doing… and that meant danger… serious danger. It might have been debatable whose death would have pleased Culpepper more… the prisoners’… because they could talk and implicate him… or Edmonds’. The General’s second-in-command had always been a needle in Agent Culpepper’s side. Culpepper certainly considered the expected “loss” of Edmonds in the attack to be icing on his cake. The fact that a dozen soldiers would also die with Edmonds and the prisoners meant nothing to him. He had nothing against them… but collateral losses were, Culpepper figured, to be expected in any operation. He didn’t expect to lose any sleep over it. In fact, he was sure that he would sleep quite well knowing that his “problems” had been taken care of “permanently.”
The moment Edmonds realized the danger, he very correctly ordered the vehicles abandoned. Edmonds knew that the target of the Cobras’ missiles would be the Humvees, which with their ample gas tanks, would be incinerated… along with anyone in them. Heeding the order to evacuate, everyone scrambled to get out quickly. By rights, they should have made it, because the Cobras were not yet in range to fire their missiles. But then something totally unexpected happened. The sky in front of the convoy opened up, and a hole… or rift… appeared in the air. An object that looked oddly like a motorbike shot out of the rift at a blurring speed, then the rift immediately reclosed with a thunderous BOOM so loud that it blew all the windows out of the Humvees and threw several of the drivers and soldiers out onto the grassy hillside. The convoy came to an immediate stop. When everyone had managed to get back onto their feet or climb back into a sitting position again, they saw that the helicopters had disappeared… all of them.
The object that had shot out of the rift in the sky touched down on the ground in a puff of smoke and flying grass, and within mere seconds, it had closed the gap and pulled up beside the convoy. Everyone could see now that it was a motorbike… but… what kind of motorbike comes out of the sky… or makes a sonic boom? Certainly nothing that anyone present had ever seen. It was sleek and aerodynamic, and though it lacked wings, it almost looked like it could fly… in fact, it appeared that it just had.
The mysterious helmeted rider, dressed in a sleek black fabric that might have been some kind of leather, dismounted and looked at the Humvees. Since most of the soldiers had dropped their weapons when the boom had thrown them out of their vehicles, the newcomer seemed to enjoy a certain advantage at the moment. Apparently just realizing this, several of the soldiers scrambled for their weapons, and as they did, the newcomer started to raise one hand. The soldiers hesitated… Was he surrendering?
“OH! OW! DAMN!”
The soldiers began dropping their guns like hot potatoes. The barrels of the guns started to melt and closed up like straws that had had the air suddenly sucked out of them. Then the stranger’s hand began to glow brighter and brighter. Sensing immediate danger, the soldiers nearest to the closest Humvee scattered, putting distance between themselves and the vehicle’s gas tanks, but the stranger did not target the vehicle. Instead, he released a blast from the palm of his hand that left a ten-foot-wide, five-foot-deep crater in front of the scattering soldiers. It appeared to have been done as a sign… some kind of demonstration of his powers… a warning that he was not to be trifled with or challenged. It worked.
After surveying the scene, the rider calmly removed his helmet. As he did, two gasps came from inside the second Humvee.
“It’s you,” Max said, looking at Michael then back at the stranger again.
“Can’t be,” Michael replied, shaking his head. “It’s got to be a trick!”
Max jumped out of the Humvee, and Michael followed him. Alex, who had been riding in the third Humvee, behind the one Max and Michael were in, was already out and heading toward the newcomer, too. Inexplicably, both Alex and Liz, who because of her legs could not leave the vehicle she was in on her own, were smiling broadly.
“Don’t they even know when they should be afraid,” Michael wondered to himself, turning back and looking at the newcomer again. Michael walked up to the strange sky rider, and the two of them stood there, face to face. They were the same height. They had the same hair, the same eyes, the same build… though the newcomer might have been a few years older.
The newcomer smiled… then nodded slightly, with a look of satisfaction and relief on his face…
“I thought you guys looked like you needed some help down here.
“Yeah,” Michael said, nodding in return but still a bit suspicious. “You thought right. I guess I owe you.”
The newcomer shrugged. “It was nothing that you wouldn’t have done yourself.”
“How would you know…” Michael started to ask reflexively, but he had already guessed the answer.
“Michael,” Alex said, strolling confidently up to the newcomer with a huge smile on his face. “Meet our Michael.”
“I just did,” the newcomer said, smiling.
Alex turned to Max and Michael of his group… “Remember when Liz and I were in the hospital and they thought we were in a coma…? Oh, wait… you wouldn’t know about that, would you!” Alex suddenly remembered that Max and Michael had still been missing and were presumed to be dead when that had happened.
“Well, I remember it,” Kyle said, walking up and looking at the newcomer. So do Dad… and Mom.”
Jim smiled and put his arm on Kyle’s shoulder. Standing beside Jim, Amy was smiling, too. Kyle had called her the “M” word… “Mom.” And it sounded somehow so very right.
Within seconds, the newcomer was surrounded by the other members of the group and having to hold his hands up to stop them from asking any more questions… for the moment. In time, he would answer all their questions.
“There were some helicopters headed this way,” Edmonds said, finally screwing up enough courage to approach the newcomer, too. “What happened to them?”
The newcomer shrugged. “If they were near the rift when I came out of hyperspace they probably either crashed or had to set down or return to base for repairs… The bike makes a pretty big bang when it comes out of hyperspace. It would have caused a lot of damage to any helicopters that were too close.”
Max smiled. “I can attest to the power of your sonic boom… or whatever it was. It broke all the windows out of the Humvees… and I think it blew the clothes off of a couple of soldiers, too.
The newcomer Michael laughed. “Like the shebbles.”
Max looked puzzled, and Michael began to explain…
“The first time I rode this bike, I came out of hyperspace in the hills of the Chanesio region on our planet, Antar. That region is famous for its shebble herding. Shebbles look kind of like a cross between a yak and a buffalo or something, and their abundant hair is harvested by the shebble herders in the region. It comes off pretty easily I found out. When I came out of hyperspace on my bike, a whole field full of shebbles were suddenly left as bald and pink as a newborn baby’s butt by the sonic blast… and shebble hair floated down out of the sky for most of the rest of that day. I thought it was pretty funny at the time… but the royal treasury had to reimburse the shebble herders for all their losses.” The newcomer smiled at the memory. “You know… it WAS pretty funny, though! Maybe not as funny as Max’s hat with the big feather, but…”
“Sounds funny to me,” Alex agreed. “I wish I could have seen it.”
“I wish you could have, too,” the newcomer Michael said. “You’d have appreciated it. It wasn’t a total loss, though. The shebble manure market had really good profits that week.”
Alex grinned. “There’s somebody else over there who’d like to say hello to you.” He motioned toward Liz in the third Humvee. The newcomer smiled and walked over to the Humvee.
“Hello again, Liz.”
“Hi!”
“I’m glad to see you and Alex made it back safely and you’re both okay.”
Liz nodded. “Except that my legs don’t work again… not like they did on Antar… when we were in those perfect new prefab bodies.”
“Yeah, I remember you said that you were paralyzed. Couldn’t Max help you?”
Max looked somewhat uncomfortable, and he shook his head. “I couldn’t. I tried. Her spine had a gap in it where the bullet went through. I closed the gap up, so at least she isn’t risking instant death now every time she moves… but it didn’t give her the use of her legs back, Michael. Uh… can I call you that?”
“Yeah. It’s my name.”
“Well, it’s just kind of weird, you know, having two of you here at the same time.”
“There’s another Max here, too,” the newcomer said. “He’s up there… in the ship.” Michael motioned upward. “Maybe he can heal Liz… or maybe both of you can together…”
Max’s face suddenly brightened noticeably, and his eyes sparkled… partly with new hope… and partly from the tears that began to well up in them without warning. He nodded emphatically… “It’s worth a try! I think we ought to do it! Yeah… Let’s do it!”
“You’ll get the chance,” the newcomer said, pulling out a small device and pushing a button. A second later, everyone had disappeared except the newcomer. He smiled and looked around at the empty Humvees with their broken windows. There was nothing but the breeze around him now. It was kind of nice. Michael got back onto his bike and twisted the throttle. The bike shot forward instantly, building speed at an incredible rate. In just under six seconds, the air in front of him split apart and opened, and the bike and its rider rushed into the rift. Then the rift reclosed with a thunderous BOOM, blowing the Humvees through the air like paper toys. On the hill, there was no longer anyone around to care.
**********
The fifteen friends and their former captors saw only a bright light. Then the world they had known disappeared from beneath their feet. It was an odd yet somehow strangely calming and peaceful experience. They were entirely and totally at the mercy of whatever this was, yet somehow, it seemed almost impossible to fear it. Whatever lay ahead, they all knew instinctively that none of them could change or alter it now. The experience in the light lasted no more than three or four seconds, but it made a lasting and deep impression… especially on the soldiers and the General’s second-in-command, Edmonds.
As the light began to diminish and their surroundings became visible again, the twenty-eight people noticed that they were in a very large white room now. Looking around, at first, no one saw anything but the distant white walls of the huge room, but then there was movement. Something small… smaller than an average human… climbed -or seemed to glide actually- down a makeshift ramp to the floor. The alien creature had on an all-white robe. The soldiers looked at Edmonds, and Edmonds shrugged and looked at Max and Michael. Max and Michael appeared to be as surprised as the others.
The small alien glided up to the group and stopped. Then it spoke… in English…
“Someone will be here to escort you momentarily. In the meantime, I will try to answer any questions you might have.”
That was probably a mistake. The helpful little “alien” could not have foreseen the barrage of questions he was about to receive, and Diane, with her instinctive nose for news, was right at the front, but one of the soldiers managed to ask the first question…
“Which way did I go?”
The little alien appeared puzzled by the question.
“Did I go up or down,” the soldier asked, hoping to clarify his question.
“You went up,” the little alien replied.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” the soldier mumbled.
“Where are we,” Diane asked.
The small alien turned and faced Diane. “You are on the Antarian mothership… the New Granolith.”
“A spaceship!” Diane turned and smiled at the soldier, who looked embarrassed.
“Are you… Antarian?” Diane asked.
“I am,” the small alien confirmed… but I am not biological.”
“What is your species then?” one of the soldiers asked.
“Species?” The small alien seemed puzzled by the word when it was applied to him.
“Yeah, you know… your people… What are they?”
“I am a droid… or a robot if you prefer… though perhaps more advanced than any you may be familiar with.”
“A robot,” Diane repeated, already thinking of a hundred more questions she wanted to ask the small creature. “Are your people… robots then?”
“No. I am a robot… a droid. My usual function is to prepare and serve the meals on the ship for the biological beings who must be fueled and lubricated in that manner.”
Diane smiled and nodded, seeming to understand… “You prepare the food. Were you sent here to meet us?”
“No. I was already here. The walls of this bay needed to be painted, and it is my turn to paint.” The little droid held up a mechanical arm-like device with a white roller on the end of it. I was painting when you arrived. I don’t usually wear this frock, but it would not be good if I were to become painted due to an accident. My systems might require extensive cleaning.”
“You have to cook and then paint, too?” Little Fox asked, seeming surprised.
“I am not required to paint,” the little droid replied. My function is only to prepare and serve the meals. I traded places with one of the painter droids… just for a few hours… to see what it would be like to do something different. It was his turn to paint… so I am here to take his place… and he is preparing lunch right now. The little droid actually seemed to sigh. “Actually, this frock is no different really than the apron I wear when I prepare food for the dining room. It just covers more of me.”
“So… everyone on your planet doesn’t wear white robes then…” the soldier asked. “And all the rooms aren’t white?”
“No, of course they are not,” the little droid replied. “There are many colors on Antar… and on this ship, too… a lot of colors.”
The soldier smiled and swallowed. “Okay. That’s kind of good to know… I think.”
Several others started to ask questions, but at that moment, a section of the wall moved to one side, and three people walked in. One was Max. It seemed that everyone in the room turned to look at the Max who was with them then back at the new Max who had just entered. The second one to enter was Michael, whom they had met below on earth. The third was different… a little bit. His eyes were ever so slightly larger, his skin was ever so slightly lighter than might be expected, and he exuded an “alien” air about him in some way that no one there could precisely explain… probably no more so in reality than many humans, and certainly less than some… Carrot top and Dennis Rodman came to Diane’s mind. This third man could be human… He was certainly very good-looking… but there was that air… He just seemed different somehow.
“Gentlemen,” the new Max said, addressing the newcomers. “Michael has already filled me in about you.” He looked at Edmonds directly. “I take it we can expect this meeting and the time you are here on our ship to be peaceful.”
“Would we gain anything if it were not,” Edmonds asked.
Max shook his head. “No.”
“That’s what I thought,” Edmonds said. “We will not resist. We have no weapons. We’re your prisoners.”
Max nodded. “In a manner of speaking, we could say that, yes.” Then he turned to the third man who had entered the room, the one with the strangely alien air but rugged good looks…
“This is Varec. Varec is Antar’s brightest and most revered scientist. He’s also one of the most eminent scientists in the whole of the known universe. This ship is his design… and he helped build it. He’s part of our crew… and our friend… and our science expert… along with my wife, Liz.”
The younger Max, holding Liz in his arms, looked stunned.
“Does that surprise you,” the Max from Antar asked.
His younger double shook his head thoughtfully. In his arms, Liz smiled.
The Max from Antar walked over to his younger self and held out his arms. The younger Max hesitated… but then he put Liz into Max of Antar’s arms.
“Come on,” Max said to his younger self. “You and I have business to attend to. Let’s go somewhere more private. Varec, you come with us. Michael will take care of finding a proper place for each of our… visitors.”
Max walked out of the room carrying Liz, and the younger Max followed along on his heels, not letting his Antarian counterpart out of his sight while he had Liz… even if this person was… well… him. Max from Antar stepped into the glass ascension chamber with Liz, and his younger self and Varec stepped in with him. The chamber began to rise smoothly upward. After several brief moments, it stopped, and the doors opened. Max stepped out, followed by the others, and walked toward the bridge, where Liz and Maria from Antar were waiting…
“You found them! They’re okay then?” Maria exclaimed excitedly.
“Just like Michael said,” Max replied. “They’re all okay and they’re all onboard.”
“That’s wonderful,” Liz said. “I’m so glad!”
“I am, too,” another voice said from nearby. The younger Max and Liz turned around to look.
“Rahn!” they both exclaimed at the same time.
“Omigod,” Liz said, “We thought something had happened to you!”
“It kind of did,” Rahn said. “I went back and found my old ship on the base where Maria said it was… and I flew it to the reservation to rescue you… my friends… but I was shot down.”
“You crashed?” the younger Max asked.
“I would have, but the people on this ship saw my ship going down and retrieved it with a magnetic wave beam. I’ve been here, working with them to save you… but we thought you were killed when the missiles hit the house. How did you escape?”
“Angie Lee covered us with a mind warp shield so we couldn’t be seen,” Liz said. “We were leaving when a bright light suddenly engulfed us then the missiles hit. We thought we were dead for sure, but something protected us. We aren’t sure what.”
“The mind warp shield,” Varec said.
“So that really was what saved us then?” Max asked.
“Not by itself,” Varec replied. “I believe the beam we sent to try to retrieve you may have interacted with the mind warp shield in a way that may have protected you from the explosions… but the combined protection also caused the beam to lose you. So we thought that you had all been killed in the explosion.”
“Well, I’m happy to report that that rumor is not accurate,” Max said.
“I am happy, too,” Varec said.
“Me, too,” Rahn added.
“That goes for us all,” Max from Antar said. “Let’s see what we can do for Liz.”
Max laid the younger Liz down on the sofa at the back of the room and motioned to his younger self.
“It will take both of us to do this. And even then…”
“It’ll work,” the younger Max said positively. “It’s got to! It’s just got to.”
Max from Antar placed his hands over Liz’s lower spine, where the bullet had injured it, and the younger Max placed his hands on top of those of his double. The glow over Liz’s back almost doubled when the younger Max added his hands to those of his Antarian counterpart. For almost a minute and a half, they continued, then the glow began to ebb.
“I feel better,” Liz said. “I feel stronger.”
“Can you move your legs,” Max from Antar asked.
Liz looked at her legs and tried to move them. As she did, her face seemed to go from joyous to unsure… then to despair. “I can’t. I still can’t feel them.”
“Let’s try again,” the younger Max said to his double. “I know we can do it!”
Max from Antar seemed less sure than his younger self, but he nodded. Both of them placed their hands directly on Liz’s back, and their hands glowed with a strong, powerful force for over two minutes. Liz felt it from her back to her head and down to her toes. It was a warm, comfortable, healing feeling.
“Try to move your legs now,” Max said again.
Liz tried… then she tried again. Then the tears started to run down her face. The younger Max turned away to hide his own tears and smacked his fist into the wall.
“Max.” It was Liz who had spoken… “You love me anyway, don’t you?”
Max bent over Liz and held her tightly in his arms, as the tears ran down his face onto hers.
“You know I’ll always love you, Liz. I’ll love you no matter what. I just wanted you to be able to live your life again like… like…”
“Like what, Max?”
“Like you could have if you’d never met me.”
Liz closed her eyes and hugged Max tightly. “I’d give up my legs for you all over again, Max. It wouldn’t matter. I made my choice. I chose you. That’s what I want. If that means I’ll never walk again, it’ll still be my choice. And, Max… it’s worth it… to me.”
Max cried.
For a while, no one in the room spoke. It was Rahn who finally broke the silence.
“Well, there could be one other… possible… solution.”
Max looked up.
“I don’t want to give you any false hope. Keep in mind that it may not work,” Rahn said.
“It won’t matter,” Max replied. “Nothing I do can help Liz.”
Liz kissed him. “Your being here with me already has helped me, Max. It’s the life I chose. It’s the life I want. Understand that… please!” Max sniffed and turned back to Rahn.
“What can be done that I haven’t tried already, Rahn?”
“Among my people, there is a… small procedure that is done at birth or very soon after birth that prepares us to be able to change our form. You would not be expected to be able to change your forms, because you have not had the millions of years of evolving that we have had as shapeshifters… but…”
“But what?”
“But… it is possible that if I did this procedure to Liz… maybe… she might be able to learn… one day… to walk again by… I guess you could say, rebuilding her spine… changing its form… changing it inside the bone where the nerve is. It would be shapeshifting… but merely in a very small way. Your bodies would not be capable of any more than that. I’m not really sure that they’re capable of even that… but it would be worth trying.”
“What would you have to do to Liz,” the younger Max asked. His Antarian counterpart nodded, on the verge of asking the same question.
“It is not invasive. They do it to babies in our culture. Someone who knows what part of the brain to activate has to use their power to activate that part of the baby’s brain… or in this case, Liz’s brain. Humans have similar brains to ours. I am almost certain that you have that potential… it has just not evolved. And humans do not know how to activate it. It does not activate automatically even in all of our people… only in a very few. That is why we have to do the procedure to activate and prepare newborns.”
“And it won’t hurt Liz?” Max asked.
“It cannot hurt her,” Rahn said.
“How come I have never heard of this procedure before,” Max of Antar asked.
Rahn looked momentarily uncomfortable. “It is one of our greatest secrets. We do not tell others.”
“Show me,” the younger Max said. “Do it.” He looked at Liz, and Liz nodded.
Rahn put his thumb on a point just behind Liz’s right temple and his second and third fingers on points behind her right ear. Then he concentrated for several moments… Then he removed his hand.
“That’s it?” both Max’s asked at the same time.
“Yes. It does not teach one to change… it only prepares a small area of the brain to be receptive to learning how to change. Liz may never learn to walk again. You will forgive me if she does not, won’t you, Max?”
“Rahn…” Max shook his head. “Even if Liz never walks again, you tried to help her. I’ll never forget that. I’ll owe you for that as long as I live.” He turned back to Liz…
“Do you feel any different, Liz?”
Liz shook her head. “I still feel the warmth from what you did before, Max. It made me feel good all over… like a really deep massage. But I don’t feel my legs.”
Max nodded and looked back at Rahn. “You said it might take some time before she learns to walk, right?”
“If she learns,” Rahn said. “She may not. It was just something I had to try.”
“Thank you,” Max said. He turned back and smiled at Liz. Liz hugged him then kissed him… and Max felt her leg move slightly.
Max jumped back, shocked. “You… you moved!”
“I did?” Liz seemed to be unaware of it. “I didn’t feel anything.”
“Try again,” Max coaxed. Liz concentrated… and her leg moved again.”
“How did you do that,” Max asked, excitedly. “Can you do it again?”
“I was just picturing what the spinal cord should look like inside the spinal segments and the discs… and I pictured my spine… in my mind… being like that.”
“Well, it’s working,” Max said, almost jumping up and down with excitement.
“Amazing,” Rahn said. “It is incredible that she would be able to do that so soon. It’s a very good sign.”
Liz smiled and concentrated again, “imagining” her spine whole and as it should be in its entirety. At first, the effort was somewhat taxing, but then it began to be easier. The “image” seemed to be retained in her brain for later recall… probably in that part of the brain that Rahn had activated. Liz “recalled” the image again. It was really not so hard to do now. The image was right there… just waiting to be put into use.
Using all the effort she had to remember what it had been like to walk, Liz pushed her hand down on the sofa and pushed her body up into a sitting position. This in itself was not really new. Liz had been able to do this for a long time now. But what happened next was unexpected. Liz set both feet on the ground, rocked forward, testing her weight on them like a fledgling bird testing the wind under its wings before flying, then stood up.
tbc
Coming Next: The Tide Turns
Michael Times Two & Other Miracles
Chapter 29
XXIX
Edmonds realized that the Cobra helicopters heading toward them almost certainly were Agent Culpepper’s doing… and that meant danger… serious danger. It might have been debatable whose death would have pleased Culpepper more… the prisoners’… because they could talk and implicate him… or Edmonds’. The General’s second-in-command had always been a needle in Agent Culpepper’s side. Culpepper certainly considered the expected “loss” of Edmonds in the attack to be icing on his cake. The fact that a dozen soldiers would also die with Edmonds and the prisoners meant nothing to him. He had nothing against them… but collateral losses were, Culpepper figured, to be expected in any operation. He didn’t expect to lose any sleep over it. In fact, he was sure that he would sleep quite well knowing that his “problems” had been taken care of “permanently.”
The moment Edmonds realized the danger, he very correctly ordered the vehicles abandoned. Edmonds knew that the target of the Cobras’ missiles would be the Humvees, which with their ample gas tanks, would be incinerated… along with anyone in them. Heeding the order to evacuate, everyone scrambled to get out quickly. By rights, they should have made it, because the Cobras were not yet in range to fire their missiles. But then something totally unexpected happened. The sky in front of the convoy opened up, and a hole… or rift… appeared in the air. An object that looked oddly like a motorbike shot out of the rift at a blurring speed, then the rift immediately reclosed with a thunderous BOOM so loud that it blew all the windows out of the Humvees and threw several of the drivers and soldiers out onto the grassy hillside. The convoy came to an immediate stop. When everyone had managed to get back onto their feet or climb back into a sitting position again, they saw that the helicopters had disappeared… all of them.
The object that had shot out of the rift in the sky touched down on the ground in a puff of smoke and flying grass, and within mere seconds, it had closed the gap and pulled up beside the convoy. Everyone could see now that it was a motorbike… but… what kind of motorbike comes out of the sky… or makes a sonic boom? Certainly nothing that anyone present had ever seen. It was sleek and aerodynamic, and though it lacked wings, it almost looked like it could fly… in fact, it appeared that it just had.
The mysterious helmeted rider, dressed in a sleek black fabric that might have been some kind of leather, dismounted and looked at the Humvees. Since most of the soldiers had dropped their weapons when the boom had thrown them out of their vehicles, the newcomer seemed to enjoy a certain advantage at the moment. Apparently just realizing this, several of the soldiers scrambled for their weapons, and as they did, the newcomer started to raise one hand. The soldiers hesitated… Was he surrendering?
“OH! OW! DAMN!”
The soldiers began dropping their guns like hot potatoes. The barrels of the guns started to melt and closed up like straws that had had the air suddenly sucked out of them. Then the stranger’s hand began to glow brighter and brighter. Sensing immediate danger, the soldiers nearest to the closest Humvee scattered, putting distance between themselves and the vehicle’s gas tanks, but the stranger did not target the vehicle. Instead, he released a blast from the palm of his hand that left a ten-foot-wide, five-foot-deep crater in front of the scattering soldiers. It appeared to have been done as a sign… some kind of demonstration of his powers… a warning that he was not to be trifled with or challenged. It worked.
After surveying the scene, the rider calmly removed his helmet. As he did, two gasps came from inside the second Humvee.
“It’s you,” Max said, looking at Michael then back at the stranger again.
“Can’t be,” Michael replied, shaking his head. “It’s got to be a trick!”
Max jumped out of the Humvee, and Michael followed him. Alex, who had been riding in the third Humvee, behind the one Max and Michael were in, was already out and heading toward the newcomer, too. Inexplicably, both Alex and Liz, who because of her legs could not leave the vehicle she was in on her own, were smiling broadly.
“Don’t they even know when they should be afraid,” Michael wondered to himself, turning back and looking at the newcomer again. Michael walked up to the strange sky rider, and the two of them stood there, face to face. They were the same height. They had the same hair, the same eyes, the same build… though the newcomer might have been a few years older.
The newcomer smiled… then nodded slightly, with a look of satisfaction and relief on his face…
“I thought you guys looked like you needed some help down here.
“Yeah,” Michael said, nodding in return but still a bit suspicious. “You thought right. I guess I owe you.”
The newcomer shrugged. “It was nothing that you wouldn’t have done yourself.”
“How would you know…” Michael started to ask reflexively, but he had already guessed the answer.
“Michael,” Alex said, strolling confidently up to the newcomer with a huge smile on his face. “Meet our Michael.”
“I just did,” the newcomer said, smiling.
Alex turned to Max and Michael of his group… “Remember when Liz and I were in the hospital and they thought we were in a coma…? Oh, wait… you wouldn’t know about that, would you!” Alex suddenly remembered that Max and Michael had still been missing and were presumed to be dead when that had happened.
“Well, I remember it,” Kyle said, walking up and looking at the newcomer. So do Dad… and Mom.”
Jim smiled and put his arm on Kyle’s shoulder. Standing beside Jim, Amy was smiling, too. Kyle had called her the “M” word… “Mom.” And it sounded somehow so very right.
Within seconds, the newcomer was surrounded by the other members of the group and having to hold his hands up to stop them from asking any more questions… for the moment. In time, he would answer all their questions.
“There were some helicopters headed this way,” Edmonds said, finally screwing up enough courage to approach the newcomer, too. “What happened to them?”
The newcomer shrugged. “If they were near the rift when I came out of hyperspace they probably either crashed or had to set down or return to base for repairs… The bike makes a pretty big bang when it comes out of hyperspace. It would have caused a lot of damage to any helicopters that were too close.”
Max smiled. “I can attest to the power of your sonic boom… or whatever it was. It broke all the windows out of the Humvees… and I think it blew the clothes off of a couple of soldiers, too.
The newcomer Michael laughed. “Like the shebbles.”
Max looked puzzled, and Michael began to explain…
“The first time I rode this bike, I came out of hyperspace in the hills of the Chanesio region on our planet, Antar. That region is famous for its shebble herding. Shebbles look kind of like a cross between a yak and a buffalo or something, and their abundant hair is harvested by the shebble herders in the region. It comes off pretty easily I found out. When I came out of hyperspace on my bike, a whole field full of shebbles were suddenly left as bald and pink as a newborn baby’s butt by the sonic blast… and shebble hair floated down out of the sky for most of the rest of that day. I thought it was pretty funny at the time… but the royal treasury had to reimburse the shebble herders for all their losses.” The newcomer smiled at the memory. “You know… it WAS pretty funny, though! Maybe not as funny as Max’s hat with the big feather, but…”
“Sounds funny to me,” Alex agreed. “I wish I could have seen it.”
“I wish you could have, too,” the newcomer Michael said. “You’d have appreciated it. It wasn’t a total loss, though. The shebble manure market had really good profits that week.”
Alex grinned. “There’s somebody else over there who’d like to say hello to you.” He motioned toward Liz in the third Humvee. The newcomer smiled and walked over to the Humvee.
“Hello again, Liz.”
“Hi!”
“I’m glad to see you and Alex made it back safely and you’re both okay.”
Liz nodded. “Except that my legs don’t work again… not like they did on Antar… when we were in those perfect new prefab bodies.”
“Yeah, I remember you said that you were paralyzed. Couldn’t Max help you?”
Max looked somewhat uncomfortable, and he shook his head. “I couldn’t. I tried. Her spine had a gap in it where the bullet went through. I closed the gap up, so at least she isn’t risking instant death now every time she moves… but it didn’t give her the use of her legs back, Michael. Uh… can I call you that?”
“Yeah. It’s my name.”
“Well, it’s just kind of weird, you know, having two of you here at the same time.”
“There’s another Max here, too,” the newcomer said. “He’s up there… in the ship.” Michael motioned upward. “Maybe he can heal Liz… or maybe both of you can together…”
Max’s face suddenly brightened noticeably, and his eyes sparkled… partly with new hope… and partly from the tears that began to well up in them without warning. He nodded emphatically… “It’s worth a try! I think we ought to do it! Yeah… Let’s do it!”
“You’ll get the chance,” the newcomer said, pulling out a small device and pushing a button. A second later, everyone had disappeared except the newcomer. He smiled and looked around at the empty Humvees with their broken windows. There was nothing but the breeze around him now. It was kind of nice. Michael got back onto his bike and twisted the throttle. The bike shot forward instantly, building speed at an incredible rate. In just under six seconds, the air in front of him split apart and opened, and the bike and its rider rushed into the rift. Then the rift reclosed with a thunderous BOOM, blowing the Humvees through the air like paper toys. On the hill, there was no longer anyone around to care.
**********
The fifteen friends and their former captors saw only a bright light. Then the world they had known disappeared from beneath their feet. It was an odd yet somehow strangely calming and peaceful experience. They were entirely and totally at the mercy of whatever this was, yet somehow, it seemed almost impossible to fear it. Whatever lay ahead, they all knew instinctively that none of them could change or alter it now. The experience in the light lasted no more than three or four seconds, but it made a lasting and deep impression… especially on the soldiers and the General’s second-in-command, Edmonds.
As the light began to diminish and their surroundings became visible again, the twenty-eight people noticed that they were in a very large white room now. Looking around, at first, no one saw anything but the distant white walls of the huge room, but then there was movement. Something small… smaller than an average human… climbed -or seemed to glide actually- down a makeshift ramp to the floor. The alien creature had on an all-white robe. The soldiers looked at Edmonds, and Edmonds shrugged and looked at Max and Michael. Max and Michael appeared to be as surprised as the others.
The small alien glided up to the group and stopped. Then it spoke… in English…
“Someone will be here to escort you momentarily. In the meantime, I will try to answer any questions you might have.”
That was probably a mistake. The helpful little “alien” could not have foreseen the barrage of questions he was about to receive, and Diane, with her instinctive nose for news, was right at the front, but one of the soldiers managed to ask the first question…
“Which way did I go?”
The little alien appeared puzzled by the question.
“Did I go up or down,” the soldier asked, hoping to clarify his question.
“You went up,” the little alien replied.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” the soldier mumbled.
“Where are we,” Diane asked.
The small alien turned and faced Diane. “You are on the Antarian mothership… the New Granolith.”
“A spaceship!” Diane turned and smiled at the soldier, who looked embarrassed.
“Are you… Antarian?” Diane asked.
“I am,” the small alien confirmed… but I am not biological.”
“What is your species then?” one of the soldiers asked.
“Species?” The small alien seemed puzzled by the word when it was applied to him.
“Yeah, you know… your people… What are they?”
“I am a droid… or a robot if you prefer… though perhaps more advanced than any you may be familiar with.”
“A robot,” Diane repeated, already thinking of a hundred more questions she wanted to ask the small creature. “Are your people… robots then?”
“No. I am a robot… a droid. My usual function is to prepare and serve the meals on the ship for the biological beings who must be fueled and lubricated in that manner.”
Diane smiled and nodded, seeming to understand… “You prepare the food. Were you sent here to meet us?”
“No. I was already here. The walls of this bay needed to be painted, and it is my turn to paint.” The little droid held up a mechanical arm-like device with a white roller on the end of it. I was painting when you arrived. I don’t usually wear this frock, but it would not be good if I were to become painted due to an accident. My systems might require extensive cleaning.”
“You have to cook and then paint, too?” Little Fox asked, seeming surprised.
“I am not required to paint,” the little droid replied. My function is only to prepare and serve the meals. I traded places with one of the painter droids… just for a few hours… to see what it would be like to do something different. It was his turn to paint… so I am here to take his place… and he is preparing lunch right now. The little droid actually seemed to sigh. “Actually, this frock is no different really than the apron I wear when I prepare food for the dining room. It just covers more of me.”
“So… everyone on your planet doesn’t wear white robes then…” the soldier asked. “And all the rooms aren’t white?”
“No, of course they are not,” the little droid replied. “There are many colors on Antar… and on this ship, too… a lot of colors.”
The soldier smiled and swallowed. “Okay. That’s kind of good to know… I think.”
Several others started to ask questions, but at that moment, a section of the wall moved to one side, and three people walked in. One was Max. It seemed that everyone in the room turned to look at the Max who was with them then back at the new Max who had just entered. The second one to enter was Michael, whom they had met below on earth. The third was different… a little bit. His eyes were ever so slightly larger, his skin was ever so slightly lighter than might be expected, and he exuded an “alien” air about him in some way that no one there could precisely explain… probably no more so in reality than many humans, and certainly less than some… Carrot top and Dennis Rodman came to Diane’s mind. This third man could be human… He was certainly very good-looking… but there was that air… He just seemed different somehow.
“Gentlemen,” the new Max said, addressing the newcomers. “Michael has already filled me in about you.” He looked at Edmonds directly. “I take it we can expect this meeting and the time you are here on our ship to be peaceful.”
“Would we gain anything if it were not,” Edmonds asked.
Max shook his head. “No.”
“That’s what I thought,” Edmonds said. “We will not resist. We have no weapons. We’re your prisoners.”
Max nodded. “In a manner of speaking, we could say that, yes.” Then he turned to the third man who had entered the room, the one with the strangely alien air but rugged good looks…
“This is Varec. Varec is Antar’s brightest and most revered scientist. He’s also one of the most eminent scientists in the whole of the known universe. This ship is his design… and he helped build it. He’s part of our crew… and our friend… and our science expert… along with my wife, Liz.”
The younger Max, holding Liz in his arms, looked stunned.
“Does that surprise you,” the Max from Antar asked.
His younger double shook his head thoughtfully. In his arms, Liz smiled.
The Max from Antar walked over to his younger self and held out his arms. The younger Max hesitated… but then he put Liz into Max of Antar’s arms.
“Come on,” Max said to his younger self. “You and I have business to attend to. Let’s go somewhere more private. Varec, you come with us. Michael will take care of finding a proper place for each of our… visitors.”
Max walked out of the room carrying Liz, and the younger Max followed along on his heels, not letting his Antarian counterpart out of his sight while he had Liz… even if this person was… well… him. Max from Antar stepped into the glass ascension chamber with Liz, and his younger self and Varec stepped in with him. The chamber began to rise smoothly upward. After several brief moments, it stopped, and the doors opened. Max stepped out, followed by the others, and walked toward the bridge, where Liz and Maria from Antar were waiting…
“You found them! They’re okay then?” Maria exclaimed excitedly.
“Just like Michael said,” Max replied. “They’re all okay and they’re all onboard.”
“That’s wonderful,” Liz said. “I’m so glad!”
“I am, too,” another voice said from nearby. The younger Max and Liz turned around to look.
“Rahn!” they both exclaimed at the same time.
“Omigod,” Liz said, “We thought something had happened to you!”
“It kind of did,” Rahn said. “I went back and found my old ship on the base where Maria said it was… and I flew it to the reservation to rescue you… my friends… but I was shot down.”
“You crashed?” the younger Max asked.
“I would have, but the people on this ship saw my ship going down and retrieved it with a magnetic wave beam. I’ve been here, working with them to save you… but we thought you were killed when the missiles hit the house. How did you escape?”
“Angie Lee covered us with a mind warp shield so we couldn’t be seen,” Liz said. “We were leaving when a bright light suddenly engulfed us then the missiles hit. We thought we were dead for sure, but something protected us. We aren’t sure what.”
“The mind warp shield,” Varec said.
“So that really was what saved us then?” Max asked.
“Not by itself,” Varec replied. “I believe the beam we sent to try to retrieve you may have interacted with the mind warp shield in a way that may have protected you from the explosions… but the combined protection also caused the beam to lose you. So we thought that you had all been killed in the explosion.”
“Well, I’m happy to report that that rumor is not accurate,” Max said.
“I am happy, too,” Varec said.
“Me, too,” Rahn added.
“That goes for us all,” Max from Antar said. “Let’s see what we can do for Liz.”
Max laid the younger Liz down on the sofa at the back of the room and motioned to his younger self.
“It will take both of us to do this. And even then…”
“It’ll work,” the younger Max said positively. “It’s got to! It’s just got to.”
Max from Antar placed his hands over Liz’s lower spine, where the bullet had injured it, and the younger Max placed his hands on top of those of his double. The glow over Liz’s back almost doubled when the younger Max added his hands to those of his Antarian counterpart. For almost a minute and a half, they continued, then the glow began to ebb.
“I feel better,” Liz said. “I feel stronger.”
“Can you move your legs,” Max from Antar asked.
Liz looked at her legs and tried to move them. As she did, her face seemed to go from joyous to unsure… then to despair. “I can’t. I still can’t feel them.”
“Let’s try again,” the younger Max said to his double. “I know we can do it!”
Max from Antar seemed less sure than his younger self, but he nodded. Both of them placed their hands directly on Liz’s back, and their hands glowed with a strong, powerful force for over two minutes. Liz felt it from her back to her head and down to her toes. It was a warm, comfortable, healing feeling.
“Try to move your legs now,” Max said again.
Liz tried… then she tried again. Then the tears started to run down her face. The younger Max turned away to hide his own tears and smacked his fist into the wall.
“Max.” It was Liz who had spoken… “You love me anyway, don’t you?”
Max bent over Liz and held her tightly in his arms, as the tears ran down his face onto hers.
“You know I’ll always love you, Liz. I’ll love you no matter what. I just wanted you to be able to live your life again like… like…”
“Like what, Max?”
“Like you could have if you’d never met me.”
Liz closed her eyes and hugged Max tightly. “I’d give up my legs for you all over again, Max. It wouldn’t matter. I made my choice. I chose you. That’s what I want. If that means I’ll never walk again, it’ll still be my choice. And, Max… it’s worth it… to me.”
Max cried.
For a while, no one in the room spoke. It was Rahn who finally broke the silence.
“Well, there could be one other… possible… solution.”
Max looked up.
“I don’t want to give you any false hope. Keep in mind that it may not work,” Rahn said.
“It won’t matter,” Max replied. “Nothing I do can help Liz.”
Liz kissed him. “Your being here with me already has helped me, Max. It’s the life I chose. It’s the life I want. Understand that… please!” Max sniffed and turned back to Rahn.
“What can be done that I haven’t tried already, Rahn?”
“Among my people, there is a… small procedure that is done at birth or very soon after birth that prepares us to be able to change our form. You would not be expected to be able to change your forms, because you have not had the millions of years of evolving that we have had as shapeshifters… but…”
“But what?”
“But… it is possible that if I did this procedure to Liz… maybe… she might be able to learn… one day… to walk again by… I guess you could say, rebuilding her spine… changing its form… changing it inside the bone where the nerve is. It would be shapeshifting… but merely in a very small way. Your bodies would not be capable of any more than that. I’m not really sure that they’re capable of even that… but it would be worth trying.”
“What would you have to do to Liz,” the younger Max asked. His Antarian counterpart nodded, on the verge of asking the same question.
“It is not invasive. They do it to babies in our culture. Someone who knows what part of the brain to activate has to use their power to activate that part of the baby’s brain… or in this case, Liz’s brain. Humans have similar brains to ours. I am almost certain that you have that potential… it has just not evolved. And humans do not know how to activate it. It does not activate automatically even in all of our people… only in a very few. That is why we have to do the procedure to activate and prepare newborns.”
“And it won’t hurt Liz?” Max asked.
“It cannot hurt her,” Rahn said.
“How come I have never heard of this procedure before,” Max of Antar asked.
Rahn looked momentarily uncomfortable. “It is one of our greatest secrets. We do not tell others.”
“Show me,” the younger Max said. “Do it.” He looked at Liz, and Liz nodded.
Rahn put his thumb on a point just behind Liz’s right temple and his second and third fingers on points behind her right ear. Then he concentrated for several moments… Then he removed his hand.
“That’s it?” both Max’s asked at the same time.
“Yes. It does not teach one to change… it only prepares a small area of the brain to be receptive to learning how to change. Liz may never learn to walk again. You will forgive me if she does not, won’t you, Max?”
“Rahn…” Max shook his head. “Even if Liz never walks again, you tried to help her. I’ll never forget that. I’ll owe you for that as long as I live.” He turned back to Liz…
“Do you feel any different, Liz?”
Liz shook her head. “I still feel the warmth from what you did before, Max. It made me feel good all over… like a really deep massage. But I don’t feel my legs.”
Max nodded and looked back at Rahn. “You said it might take some time before she learns to walk, right?”
“If she learns,” Rahn said. “She may not. It was just something I had to try.”
“Thank you,” Max said. He turned back and smiled at Liz. Liz hugged him then kissed him… and Max felt her leg move slightly.
Max jumped back, shocked. “You… you moved!”
“I did?” Liz seemed to be unaware of it. “I didn’t feel anything.”
“Try again,” Max coaxed. Liz concentrated… and her leg moved again.”
“How did you do that,” Max asked, excitedly. “Can you do it again?”
“I was just picturing what the spinal cord should look like inside the spinal segments and the discs… and I pictured my spine… in my mind… being like that.”
“Well, it’s working,” Max said, almost jumping up and down with excitement.
“Amazing,” Rahn said. “It is incredible that she would be able to do that so soon. It’s a very good sign.”
Liz smiled and concentrated again, “imagining” her spine whole and as it should be in its entirety. At first, the effort was somewhat taxing, but then it began to be easier. The “image” seemed to be retained in her brain for later recall… probably in that part of the brain that Rahn had activated. Liz “recalled” the image again. It was really not so hard to do now. The image was right there… just waiting to be put into use.
Using all the effort she had to remember what it had been like to walk, Liz pushed her hand down on the sofa and pushed her body up into a sitting position. This in itself was not really new. Liz had been able to do this for a long time now. But what happened next was unexpected. Liz set both feet on the ground, rocked forward, testing her weight on them like a fledgling bird testing the wind under its wings before flying, then stood up.
tbc
Coming Next: The Tide Turns