chapter 11 nov 7
Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 11:11 am
Martine thankyou so much for reading my efforts. english is my only language but my teachers always said they thought i was alien to it.
If I was a kid startin out in college there might be an excuse but at my age i can only say that i am trying to make my writing clearer. I will wrap up all the clues toward the end and hopefully you will see the story hangs together.
Chapter 11
The next morning after breakfast, Michael announced, “The aliens want me to ride ahead. They want to scout out the country and they have something they want to tell me. They can’t make sense to me yet. I will be back by nightfall.
At first, Patrick started to object. He didn’t want to be responsible for Michael getting lost or hurt if he ran into any of those involved with drugs. Then, he saw that surrounding Michael, again almost like a dust cloud, the many shadows intending to accompany him.
Back in Albuquerque everything was quiet. Alex would take the disk with him to Farmington tomorrow. The City police were satisfied that the crimes committed last night were just normal crimes and there would be no difficult reports.
Sam was permitted to clean up and reopen the museum. His only problem was explaining its closure in the first place.
Farmington had not had a quiet night. By dusk all three of the policemen had rested. Salas was again prepared to go outside on reconnaissance and Benny and Ed were taking up places for their evening activity.
Isabel had announced to the household staff that any who wanted to leave could. They would be welcomed back as soon as the hostilities were over. The staff smiled and stated that the saints would protect them and they would stay at their posts.
Ed positioned himself on the roof with provisions for the night and his sniper equipment. As soon as the staff had finished their labors for the night they retired to their wing of the house. It was seen that several shadows accompanied them. The children, along with Maria, Tess and Isabel, were all sitting in the library with Benny.
As Salas prepared to leave from a darkened part of the house, he felt a touch on his shoulder. He turned to see Isabel. She was dressed in black with a black balaclava, or ski mask, rolled up as a cap on her head. Salas frowned. Again, he was asked to be party to the safety of his captain’s wife. He saw that she was surrounded by shadows. Isabel smiled, “I will be careful, but I need to see what we are up against. The Others cannot talk to you, but they will talk to me. They need to know what is out there, also.”
Salas shrugged. He had been told over and over to expect strange things at this house. He left through the door with Isabel right behind him. Salas wondered how many of the shadows had followed as she closed the door immediately behind herself. The starlight made the reflectors Salas positioned the first night gleam in pinpoints of light showing the trails and, also, known distances along each of the trails.
Isabel put her hand on Salas’ shoulder and pulled down. Salas sank into the darkness as he tried to penetrate the gloom before him. He used his night scope on his rifle. At the far end of the trail, he saw movement. Salas clicked the squelch on his radio once. That made a slight noise for Ed to hear. Then he turned toward the house and with a tiny laser pointer, he blinked three times. That should give Ed their location and indicate there was something of interest in that direction.
Ed heard the sound in his earphone. He quickly went to the edge of the wall on the roof. The bright, dark red laser showed him where to look and with his night scope, he checked out the area. In the night scope, reflectors sowed into their clothes made Isabel and Salas stand out clearly. In front of them, about 50 yards, he saw movement. There were several distinct outlines and, then, two blurs which wouldn’t make a clear definition. Ed saw nothing of the shadows surrounding Salas, nor did he see any shadows within the group in front of them.
Isabel put her lips to Salas’s ear. Her sweet perfume almost distracted him as she whispered. “There are several men, two monsters and several shadows. Leave the shadows alone. The two monsters must be stopped. We need to capture as many of the men alive as possible.”
Salas was looking through his night scope. He could see the men and the blurs, which he took to be what Isabel was calling monsters. But of the shadows she was talking about, he could make out nothing. Again, Isabel leaned to his ear and whispered, “They are coming.”
Salas was still glued to his scope. He saw the blurs, but he couldn’t get a bead on them. He saw the men running toward himself and Isabel. There was a rifle shot and one of the blurs went off in a flash of light. Ed had scored one.
Isabel poked Salas again and handed him a magazine for his rifle. With his fingers, Salas could feel that it was one of his old magazines filled with normal bullets. Salas took this to mean that he should concentrate on the men advancing quickly. Suddenly with his eyes not at the scope, Salas saw a figure leaping towards him. He fell back by reflex when Isabel reached up and grabbed the figure. The figure was brought to ground and it struggled with her. Salas drew his pistol and one shot precipitated a flash. Salas knew the monster was no more.
In his scope, again he saw three men running toward him. Salas was aiming at legs and trying to bring them down but not to kill them. As he fell, Salas was sure one of the men was carrying a weapon. Salas was about to target him again, and this time to permanently bring him down, when he heard a rifle shot overhead. The weapon spun away and the man was left struggling with his leg wound.
Then, Salas heard or rather felt, a screaming, but he couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Isabel stood up and announced, “that is all we will have for tonight. Benny came out and, with the help of Ed, he and Salas were able to drag the wounded men into the house.
They were in the long hall where you could see the lights of Farmington on one side and the doors with the frozen doorknobs on the other. There was a lot of real noise coming from the locked doors. Salas looked at Isabel and she just shook her head. “We must not concern ourselves with what is going on in there,” she said.
They collected the three wounded men. They called the Farmington City Police Department. A van was sent. The three men were carted off under guard to the hospital and, then, to jail. The three men were clearly under the influence of drugs. They could only shake their heads and mutter, “We were supposed to be invincible. We aren’t supposed to be hurt.”
Ed retired for the night while Salas and Benny found themselves sitting over coffee in the kitchen. This time, Isabel came in and joined them. Salas just looked at her, but Benny had questions, “Begging your pardon ma’am, can you tell us anything about what is going on?”
Isabel smiled, “Yes, I can tell you. There is nothing I can do about you telling others, but I wouldn’t advise it. The shadows, you see, are aliens. They have been involved with Earth things for many years. I am what we called an engineered Alien. There are several off us here. We are all required to marry humans. We were created to carry out things the aliens or shadows, which we call the Others, can’t do.”
Benny smirked, and Isabel looked at him. “Your pardon, ma’am, it is just that Ed was asking if you had a sister. He was sure impressed with you the other night in the desert. He will sure be disappointed that there are no more like you.”
Isabel had to smile at this. “Tell Ed there are a lot more of us than he might think. There are a lot of restrictions with us also. We can only marry once and we must be sure before we mate with humans.” Isabel didn’t feel it was necessary to say that for engineered women the rules were slightly lighter than the strict enforcement they held for the men. She continued, “The monsters are the result of the aliens in some form taking the drug cocaine. That is what we are trying to stop.
The aliens are in a civil war in a galaxy far, far away. They are giving their soldiers drugs to make them into fighting machines. If we can stop the drug traffic, it may make both armies stop and force the alien governments come forth to settle the dispute.
Recently, a crucial piece of evidence was found and given to the Others. It was a recording involving the formation of the drug smuggling and other information. After tonight, we will know more about the operation. The Aliens are now interrogating their own.”
Benny and Salas looked at each other. Who would ever believe them if they told anyone.
Back in Mexico, Michael was riding his horse quickly, being led by a wisp of smoke. Toward afternoon, he was told to dismount and crawl to the top of a sloping hill. At the top, Michael saw that the hill was a sharp cliff on the far side. It was one of those seismic mesas. In the land below, Michael saw a spaceship.
This was the first time Michael had seen such a ship except for the record disk that Liz had found some many years ago.
There were men working and Michael saw several vague shapes, which he was sure were shadows as seen in the light of day. Milling around, were several humanoid shapes misshapen in their deformity from drugs.
Michael felt an agitation among the aliens behind him. He crawled back down the slope. He saw that the aliens were busy in some sort of activity. Michael could make nothing of it until one of the aliens extended his pseudopod and engulfed his head. As soon as the touching was over, Michael hurried back to his horse. He whispered something in his ear and the animal, with Michael on board, made its way quickly to back to the Patrick and the rest.
It was late in the afternoon when Michael came running in. Liz gave him a sandwich, as she correctly figured that he had forgotten lunch. As soon as he caught his breath, he told them, “Just a few miles in that direction is a mesa. At the bottom of the mesa is a ship just like on the information disks. There are many shadows surrounding it. There are, also, many men and several of the deformed creatures. They appear to be busy loading it.”
Michael turned to Patrick. “Can you arrange for an army helicopter to bring in a unit of agents? We will probably need several troopers also. They must be here just at dawn. Earlier, and we won’t be through with our raid. Later, some of the men might get away.”
Patrick nodded, went to the pack animal and took out his radio. He was several minutes on the radio arranging for the support. When he returned again, Michael was outlining what the aliens wanted. “We need to hurry. We need to hit the camp in the dark. The aliens will be taken care of by our own Others.”
Patrick looked around. He couldn’t be sure but there seemed to be many more shadows surrounding them than there had been before. Max had explained to Patrick that to the Others, quantities just didn’t have the same meaning as it did to humans. Patrick wondered if he could still call himself human. Would he become used to, as these people were, to using the term “engineered alien.”
Michael turned to Liz. “Liz, honey, you are going to have to stay with the horses.” He saw the immediate frown as the Liz of many years ago started to rise up. “Listen, we are going to need your help to mop up and understand what we have. We need you safe. We can’t chance loosing you or trying to heal you in a crucial time. As soon as it is secure, we will bring you down. In the meantime, several Others will remain with you.”
At first, Liz could feel her anger rising. Then, the Liz of today, the Liz who had been married for over 15 years to an engineered alien and who had been a mother twice, took over. She understood the wisdom in the alien’s actions. She would be important to understand what the connection to archeology this operation had and she couldn’t let personal feelings interfere with what must be done.
It was dark when they arrived at the sloping mesa. Instead of climbing to the top as Michael had done, they rode around the base of the mesa into the valley formed at its base.
Liz dismounted. She went over to a bolder, just discernable in the dim light. She sat down. Max was relieved to see that she was partially obscured by the shadows, which surrounded her.
Patrick offered Max and Michael one of his spare weapons. “No, Patrick, this must be your operation. Whatever we do, there will be no evidence left of it. It must appear that you initiated a bold strike against a group who were protecting a stash of cocaine, “ Max stated.
Patrick was leading the way. He noticed that by looking down at his feet and a few yards in front of himself, the ground ahead seemed to glow. He also saw a few rocks and tree branches that seemed to snake out of the way as the Others led them.
When they got close, several of the monsters started to look up. They seemed to be sniffing the air. Max knew that, soon, they would be detected and/or spotted. Michael went one direction and Max the other.
Patrick, with his pistol at ready, shouted, “Quietos! Arriba las manos!,” Freeze! Now up with your hands. Then he yelled, “Policía narcótico,” or narcotics police.
Of course, there were those who never listened. About that time, Michael let loose with a power blast. This startled the whole camp, including Patrick. He had been worried that these Gringos would be unarmed, but they had natural weapons any army would be proud to have.
Max was next. He let loose a blast against what, he hoped, would be a ammunition tent. He was rewarded with a secondary blast as the power he let loose caused the cased ammunition to explode.
The monsters charged. Either they had now been changed or they didn’t realize that the three men facing them were engineered aliens. Patrick shot one and, just as before, it exploded in a silent flash of light. Max caught one as it jumped before sensing what it was jumping at. He held it upside down as Patrick shot it; again, the silent flash. Michael hit one with a power blast. It went rolling, but it jumped right back up. Like an enraged or wounded animal, it just charged again.
Patrick was shooting one monster after another. Michael saw three men, all carrying rifles come running toward them. He hit them with a power blast and they were knocked out. Their weapons went sailing across the valley.
Max heard the silent screaming that he had heard when he was rescuing Liz. The Others were, again, taking care of their own. Patrick and Michael alike were holding their ears. They all saw the large ship shudder. It became a blur. Then it just disappeared with a whoosh.
The sun was just coming over the hills to the east when they heard the sound of the helicopter. Men were still in the camp and many of them still had guns. Max, Michael and Patrick quickly checked to see if there was anything left of the monsters. Of them or of the shadows, they found nothing.
The troops and the Narcotics agents quickly rounded up the men who were left. Only two had been killed as far as they could tell. They saw the ammunitions tent and Patrick just shook his head. “It must have been carelessness on their part since all we have is my pistol and a rifle I left back on the horses.” His superior was delighted that Patrick had found most of the missing stash of narcotics. It would be good to show those Gringo narcs that the Mexican narcotics department had not stolen the load of dope.
Then, the superior officer looked at the situation. Now he was mad at Patrick for letting the Americanos get so close to the danger. If one of them had been hurt, it would have been the head of every officer in the district. When he was shouting his loudest, Liz came walking up leading the five horses. “A woman! You allowed a woman to go on an expedition such as this?” He was screaming.
Liz walked up and handed the five sets of reins to a soldier and sticking out her hand, said, “Doctor Elizabeth Parker-Evans at your service Señor. I was sent by my superiors to investigate any archeological connections in the drug trade in this region.” She grabbed the hand of the director of narcotics. before he could retort, she continued. “There have been three murders of students who had all been studying in a southern district.
We have found evidence that the drug dealers have been pressuring some of our expeditions to help in the transportation of drugs. I am sure you can agree that, for the sake of academic study, it is imperative that we get to the bottom of this.”
The director had no choice but to take her hand. As his Latin nature took over, he brushed her fingers with his lips and he murmured, “The greatest pleasure to meet you, Señora. I am sure you can understand our concern if something were to happen to you.”
Liz smiled and walked to Patrick, “Señor, the officers under your command do you great service as their director. I can assure you that we were in no danger, except if that terrible product had gotten away to the States. I will mention your excellence as a director in my report.”
The director puffed himself up like a pigeon. He didn’t know who this lady was, but by her demeanor, she was a person of importance. If she thought his department did him a complement, he surly didn’t want to argue.
The Director went about his business with the prisoners and the very large stash of drugs. He had never, in his career, made as large a bust as this. Max, Michael, Patrick and Liz were on their own.
There were still several things that were worrying Liz about this situation. Where did the stone blades fit in with the killings? Why did the drug dealers try to influence the American university expeditions? Academics were notoriously not interested in politics or in drugs or anything except their own small segment of an academic field of study. Why would, all of a sudden, they be pressured into aiding drug traffic? Why had the murders centered around several scholars who probably wouldn’t even care about what drug smugglers were doing?
It took the army all day to clear the drugs the men and all the other paraphernalia that they could take. Patrick and his crew of Americanos waited until everyone left before they could start their investigation.
As far as the Mexican authorities were concerned, the investigation was over. They had the drugs. The drugs had been guarded by a group of men. They had the men. What more did they need. The ranting of the men about shadows, monsters, things called Chupacabra and what ever else were not important. They were probably the ranting of men who thought they might get an insanity plea. Insanity, yes, that was probably true. If you remain in contact with that much drug there would probably not be much left of your brain
----------------------------------
Stories by Ken
She was the first lady in the State Police of her state. She fought to be equal to the men with which she worked. On the CB citizen's band rodio she was known as Venus Smiles to her fellow officers she was officer Liz Parker, state policewoman.
What would you do if you were a homicide detective. Your have the murder of a beautiful woman who everyone said was a saint. Your only clue, was held by the very confused ghost of the victim.
If I was a kid startin out in college there might be an excuse but at my age i can only say that i am trying to make my writing clearer. I will wrap up all the clues toward the end and hopefully you will see the story hangs together.
Chapter 11
The next morning after breakfast, Michael announced, “The aliens want me to ride ahead. They want to scout out the country and they have something they want to tell me. They can’t make sense to me yet. I will be back by nightfall.
At first, Patrick started to object. He didn’t want to be responsible for Michael getting lost or hurt if he ran into any of those involved with drugs. Then, he saw that surrounding Michael, again almost like a dust cloud, the many shadows intending to accompany him.
Back in Albuquerque everything was quiet. Alex would take the disk with him to Farmington tomorrow. The City police were satisfied that the crimes committed last night were just normal crimes and there would be no difficult reports.
Sam was permitted to clean up and reopen the museum. His only problem was explaining its closure in the first place.
Farmington had not had a quiet night. By dusk all three of the policemen had rested. Salas was again prepared to go outside on reconnaissance and Benny and Ed were taking up places for their evening activity.
Isabel had announced to the household staff that any who wanted to leave could. They would be welcomed back as soon as the hostilities were over. The staff smiled and stated that the saints would protect them and they would stay at their posts.
Ed positioned himself on the roof with provisions for the night and his sniper equipment. As soon as the staff had finished their labors for the night they retired to their wing of the house. It was seen that several shadows accompanied them. The children, along with Maria, Tess and Isabel, were all sitting in the library with Benny.
As Salas prepared to leave from a darkened part of the house, he felt a touch on his shoulder. He turned to see Isabel. She was dressed in black with a black balaclava, or ski mask, rolled up as a cap on her head. Salas frowned. Again, he was asked to be party to the safety of his captain’s wife. He saw that she was surrounded by shadows. Isabel smiled, “I will be careful, but I need to see what we are up against. The Others cannot talk to you, but they will talk to me. They need to know what is out there, also.”
Salas shrugged. He had been told over and over to expect strange things at this house. He left through the door with Isabel right behind him. Salas wondered how many of the shadows had followed as she closed the door immediately behind herself. The starlight made the reflectors Salas positioned the first night gleam in pinpoints of light showing the trails and, also, known distances along each of the trails.
Isabel put her hand on Salas’ shoulder and pulled down. Salas sank into the darkness as he tried to penetrate the gloom before him. He used his night scope on his rifle. At the far end of the trail, he saw movement. Salas clicked the squelch on his radio once. That made a slight noise for Ed to hear. Then he turned toward the house and with a tiny laser pointer, he blinked three times. That should give Ed their location and indicate there was something of interest in that direction.
Ed heard the sound in his earphone. He quickly went to the edge of the wall on the roof. The bright, dark red laser showed him where to look and with his night scope, he checked out the area. In the night scope, reflectors sowed into their clothes made Isabel and Salas stand out clearly. In front of them, about 50 yards, he saw movement. There were several distinct outlines and, then, two blurs which wouldn’t make a clear definition. Ed saw nothing of the shadows surrounding Salas, nor did he see any shadows within the group in front of them.
Isabel put her lips to Salas’s ear. Her sweet perfume almost distracted him as she whispered. “There are several men, two monsters and several shadows. Leave the shadows alone. The two monsters must be stopped. We need to capture as many of the men alive as possible.”
Salas was looking through his night scope. He could see the men and the blurs, which he took to be what Isabel was calling monsters. But of the shadows she was talking about, he could make out nothing. Again, Isabel leaned to his ear and whispered, “They are coming.”
Salas was still glued to his scope. He saw the blurs, but he couldn’t get a bead on them. He saw the men running toward himself and Isabel. There was a rifle shot and one of the blurs went off in a flash of light. Ed had scored one.
Isabel poked Salas again and handed him a magazine for his rifle. With his fingers, Salas could feel that it was one of his old magazines filled with normal bullets. Salas took this to mean that he should concentrate on the men advancing quickly. Suddenly with his eyes not at the scope, Salas saw a figure leaping towards him. He fell back by reflex when Isabel reached up and grabbed the figure. The figure was brought to ground and it struggled with her. Salas drew his pistol and one shot precipitated a flash. Salas knew the monster was no more.
In his scope, again he saw three men running toward him. Salas was aiming at legs and trying to bring them down but not to kill them. As he fell, Salas was sure one of the men was carrying a weapon. Salas was about to target him again, and this time to permanently bring him down, when he heard a rifle shot overhead. The weapon spun away and the man was left struggling with his leg wound.
Then, Salas heard or rather felt, a screaming, but he couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Isabel stood up and announced, “that is all we will have for tonight. Benny came out and, with the help of Ed, he and Salas were able to drag the wounded men into the house.
They were in the long hall where you could see the lights of Farmington on one side and the doors with the frozen doorknobs on the other. There was a lot of real noise coming from the locked doors. Salas looked at Isabel and she just shook her head. “We must not concern ourselves with what is going on in there,” she said.
They collected the three wounded men. They called the Farmington City Police Department. A van was sent. The three men were carted off under guard to the hospital and, then, to jail. The three men were clearly under the influence of drugs. They could only shake their heads and mutter, “We were supposed to be invincible. We aren’t supposed to be hurt.”
Ed retired for the night while Salas and Benny found themselves sitting over coffee in the kitchen. This time, Isabel came in and joined them. Salas just looked at her, but Benny had questions, “Begging your pardon ma’am, can you tell us anything about what is going on?”
Isabel smiled, “Yes, I can tell you. There is nothing I can do about you telling others, but I wouldn’t advise it. The shadows, you see, are aliens. They have been involved with Earth things for many years. I am what we called an engineered Alien. There are several off us here. We are all required to marry humans. We were created to carry out things the aliens or shadows, which we call the Others, can’t do.”
Benny smirked, and Isabel looked at him. “Your pardon, ma’am, it is just that Ed was asking if you had a sister. He was sure impressed with you the other night in the desert. He will sure be disappointed that there are no more like you.”
Isabel had to smile at this. “Tell Ed there are a lot more of us than he might think. There are a lot of restrictions with us also. We can only marry once and we must be sure before we mate with humans.” Isabel didn’t feel it was necessary to say that for engineered women the rules were slightly lighter than the strict enforcement they held for the men. She continued, “The monsters are the result of the aliens in some form taking the drug cocaine. That is what we are trying to stop.
The aliens are in a civil war in a galaxy far, far away. They are giving their soldiers drugs to make them into fighting machines. If we can stop the drug traffic, it may make both armies stop and force the alien governments come forth to settle the dispute.
Recently, a crucial piece of evidence was found and given to the Others. It was a recording involving the formation of the drug smuggling and other information. After tonight, we will know more about the operation. The Aliens are now interrogating their own.”
Benny and Salas looked at each other. Who would ever believe them if they told anyone.
Back in Mexico, Michael was riding his horse quickly, being led by a wisp of smoke. Toward afternoon, he was told to dismount and crawl to the top of a sloping hill. At the top, Michael saw that the hill was a sharp cliff on the far side. It was one of those seismic mesas. In the land below, Michael saw a spaceship.
This was the first time Michael had seen such a ship except for the record disk that Liz had found some many years ago.
There were men working and Michael saw several vague shapes, which he was sure were shadows as seen in the light of day. Milling around, were several humanoid shapes misshapen in their deformity from drugs.
Michael felt an agitation among the aliens behind him. He crawled back down the slope. He saw that the aliens were busy in some sort of activity. Michael could make nothing of it until one of the aliens extended his pseudopod and engulfed his head. As soon as the touching was over, Michael hurried back to his horse. He whispered something in his ear and the animal, with Michael on board, made its way quickly to back to the Patrick and the rest.
It was late in the afternoon when Michael came running in. Liz gave him a sandwich, as she correctly figured that he had forgotten lunch. As soon as he caught his breath, he told them, “Just a few miles in that direction is a mesa. At the bottom of the mesa is a ship just like on the information disks. There are many shadows surrounding it. There are, also, many men and several of the deformed creatures. They appear to be busy loading it.”
Michael turned to Patrick. “Can you arrange for an army helicopter to bring in a unit of agents? We will probably need several troopers also. They must be here just at dawn. Earlier, and we won’t be through with our raid. Later, some of the men might get away.”
Patrick nodded, went to the pack animal and took out his radio. He was several minutes on the radio arranging for the support. When he returned again, Michael was outlining what the aliens wanted. “We need to hurry. We need to hit the camp in the dark. The aliens will be taken care of by our own Others.”
Patrick looked around. He couldn’t be sure but there seemed to be many more shadows surrounding them than there had been before. Max had explained to Patrick that to the Others, quantities just didn’t have the same meaning as it did to humans. Patrick wondered if he could still call himself human. Would he become used to, as these people were, to using the term “engineered alien.”
Michael turned to Liz. “Liz, honey, you are going to have to stay with the horses.” He saw the immediate frown as the Liz of many years ago started to rise up. “Listen, we are going to need your help to mop up and understand what we have. We need you safe. We can’t chance loosing you or trying to heal you in a crucial time. As soon as it is secure, we will bring you down. In the meantime, several Others will remain with you.”
At first, Liz could feel her anger rising. Then, the Liz of today, the Liz who had been married for over 15 years to an engineered alien and who had been a mother twice, took over. She understood the wisdom in the alien’s actions. She would be important to understand what the connection to archeology this operation had and she couldn’t let personal feelings interfere with what must be done.
It was dark when they arrived at the sloping mesa. Instead of climbing to the top as Michael had done, they rode around the base of the mesa into the valley formed at its base.
Liz dismounted. She went over to a bolder, just discernable in the dim light. She sat down. Max was relieved to see that she was partially obscured by the shadows, which surrounded her.
Patrick offered Max and Michael one of his spare weapons. “No, Patrick, this must be your operation. Whatever we do, there will be no evidence left of it. It must appear that you initiated a bold strike against a group who were protecting a stash of cocaine, “ Max stated.
Patrick was leading the way. He noticed that by looking down at his feet and a few yards in front of himself, the ground ahead seemed to glow. He also saw a few rocks and tree branches that seemed to snake out of the way as the Others led them.
When they got close, several of the monsters started to look up. They seemed to be sniffing the air. Max knew that, soon, they would be detected and/or spotted. Michael went one direction and Max the other.
Patrick, with his pistol at ready, shouted, “Quietos! Arriba las manos!,” Freeze! Now up with your hands. Then he yelled, “Policía narcótico,” or narcotics police.
Of course, there were those who never listened. About that time, Michael let loose with a power blast. This startled the whole camp, including Patrick. He had been worried that these Gringos would be unarmed, but they had natural weapons any army would be proud to have.
Max was next. He let loose a blast against what, he hoped, would be a ammunition tent. He was rewarded with a secondary blast as the power he let loose caused the cased ammunition to explode.
The monsters charged. Either they had now been changed or they didn’t realize that the three men facing them were engineered aliens. Patrick shot one and, just as before, it exploded in a silent flash of light. Max caught one as it jumped before sensing what it was jumping at. He held it upside down as Patrick shot it; again, the silent flash. Michael hit one with a power blast. It went rolling, but it jumped right back up. Like an enraged or wounded animal, it just charged again.
Patrick was shooting one monster after another. Michael saw three men, all carrying rifles come running toward them. He hit them with a power blast and they were knocked out. Their weapons went sailing across the valley.
Max heard the silent screaming that he had heard when he was rescuing Liz. The Others were, again, taking care of their own. Patrick and Michael alike were holding their ears. They all saw the large ship shudder. It became a blur. Then it just disappeared with a whoosh.
The sun was just coming over the hills to the east when they heard the sound of the helicopter. Men were still in the camp and many of them still had guns. Max, Michael and Patrick quickly checked to see if there was anything left of the monsters. Of them or of the shadows, they found nothing.
The troops and the Narcotics agents quickly rounded up the men who were left. Only two had been killed as far as they could tell. They saw the ammunitions tent and Patrick just shook his head. “It must have been carelessness on their part since all we have is my pistol and a rifle I left back on the horses.” His superior was delighted that Patrick had found most of the missing stash of narcotics. It would be good to show those Gringo narcs that the Mexican narcotics department had not stolen the load of dope.
Then, the superior officer looked at the situation. Now he was mad at Patrick for letting the Americanos get so close to the danger. If one of them had been hurt, it would have been the head of every officer in the district. When he was shouting his loudest, Liz came walking up leading the five horses. “A woman! You allowed a woman to go on an expedition such as this?” He was screaming.
Liz walked up and handed the five sets of reins to a soldier and sticking out her hand, said, “Doctor Elizabeth Parker-Evans at your service Señor. I was sent by my superiors to investigate any archeological connections in the drug trade in this region.” She grabbed the hand of the director of narcotics. before he could retort, she continued. “There have been three murders of students who had all been studying in a southern district.
We have found evidence that the drug dealers have been pressuring some of our expeditions to help in the transportation of drugs. I am sure you can agree that, for the sake of academic study, it is imperative that we get to the bottom of this.”
The director had no choice but to take her hand. As his Latin nature took over, he brushed her fingers with his lips and he murmured, “The greatest pleasure to meet you, Señora. I am sure you can understand our concern if something were to happen to you.”
Liz smiled and walked to Patrick, “Señor, the officers under your command do you great service as their director. I can assure you that we were in no danger, except if that terrible product had gotten away to the States. I will mention your excellence as a director in my report.”
The director puffed himself up like a pigeon. He didn’t know who this lady was, but by her demeanor, she was a person of importance. If she thought his department did him a complement, he surly didn’t want to argue.
The Director went about his business with the prisoners and the very large stash of drugs. He had never, in his career, made as large a bust as this. Max, Michael, Patrick and Liz were on their own.
There were still several things that were worrying Liz about this situation. Where did the stone blades fit in with the killings? Why did the drug dealers try to influence the American university expeditions? Academics were notoriously not interested in politics or in drugs or anything except their own small segment of an academic field of study. Why would, all of a sudden, they be pressured into aiding drug traffic? Why had the murders centered around several scholars who probably wouldn’t even care about what drug smugglers were doing?
It took the army all day to clear the drugs the men and all the other paraphernalia that they could take. Patrick and his crew of Americanos waited until everyone left before they could start their investigation.
As far as the Mexican authorities were concerned, the investigation was over. They had the drugs. The drugs had been guarded by a group of men. They had the men. What more did they need. The ranting of the men about shadows, monsters, things called Chupacabra and what ever else were not important. They were probably the ranting of men who thought they might get an insanity plea. Insanity, yes, that was probably true. If you remain in contact with that much drug there would probably not be much left of your brain
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Stories by Ken
She was the first lady in the State Police of her state. She fought to be equal to the men with which she worked. On the CB citizen's band rodio she was known as Venus Smiles to her fellow officers she was officer Liz Parker, state policewoman.
What would you do if you were a homicide detective. Your have the murder of a beautiful woman who everyone said was a saint. Your only clue, was held by the very confused ghost of the victim.