by David Archer
That’s a relief, he thought. I guess I killed it after all.
Something didn’t seem right, however, and he moved closer. The man wasn’t moving, he wasn’t breathing, but Swaggart had learned enough to know that hybrids were not always as they seemed. He decided he should check, and slowly knelt beside it, his entire body tense as if he was expecting the thing to attack after all. It still didn't move, so he reached out to check for a pulse, and then let out the breath he had been holding as his fingers came across nothing. It really was dead.
He tapped his radio. "Smith, this is Swaggart. The hybrid is dead."
"We're almost there," Smith told him. "The guards weren’t being very cooperative, so it took a couple minutes to get them to understand the situation. Are you sure it’s dead?"
Swaggart nodded at no one. "Yeah, I'm sure. It hasn't got a pulse, and it isn't breathing, so that’s about as dead as it can get."
He trailed off as he heard a noise, turning slightly as a shape ran by a window. A nasty thought went through his mind as he realized that there were undoubtedly more of these things somewhere in this building.
"Captain Swaggart?"
"Just a moment, Smith," he whispered. "Something else is moving around over here, and I don’t think it’s human."
* * *
Noah and the soldiers with him spread through the building quickly, and they found more than three dozen people inside, but all of them claimed to be prisoners. Most of them were in ratty clothing that smelled, leading Noah to believe they might be telling the truth.
“Where are the people who were in charge?” he asked.
One of the men stepped forward. “Sir, I’m PFC Jerry Kruger,” he said. “All I can tell you is that they put us in here and told us to wait, and then there was some big rush to gather up all the computers and everything and take off. As far as I know, they got into those shiny flying saucers and split right after that, but they left quite a few of their security guards in the building. You need to watch out for them.”
“What about the hybrids? Are there any more of those around?”
Kruger squinted, looking confused. “Hybrids? Sir?”
“Alien looking things,” Noah said. “Have you seen any of those?”
Kruger suddenly understood. “Oh, the goblins? We didn’t know what they were, and nobody gave us any answers. As far as I know, sir, they were all gathered up in one of those saucers, as well. I know I haven’t seen any running around in here.”
“Kruger,” Noah said after a moment. “You were one of the men who went missing from the recon patrols.”
“Yes, sir, that’s correct.” He turned and pointed at two other men. “This is Jenkins and Rinker, we all came out of the same squad. Everyone else is from other squads, except for those four over there,” he added, pointing at a small group that was huddled together. Two men and two women seemed completely disoriented, but Kruger went on. “They claim they were each at home in different cities, and then just woke up here.”
Noah told one of the soldiers to talk to that group, then looked at Kruger for a couple of seconds. “You were captured? We were under the impression that anyone who got too close was killed.”
“No, sir,” Kruger said. “Those things, whatever they are, they just smacked the snot out of us and then dragged us back in here. They got a lot of us, but quite a few have disappeared. I was hoping maybe they escaped, and were bringing back help.”
Noah shook his head. “I only know of one escape,” he said, “Lieutenant Belcher. Do you know him?”
Kruger shook his head and looked around at the others, who also indicated that they didn’t know who Belcher was. “Sorry, no, sir,” he said. “There were about thirty of us at one point, but now we seem to be all that’s left.”
A gun shot rang out in a distant part of the building, and Noah turned to Morton. “See if we can find out what’s going on,” he said. “Something about this just doesn’t feel right.”
He turned away from Kruger and spoke softly. “Marco? Your people finding anything?”
“A few black suited idiots, but we dealt with them. Since you guys went to the main hacienda, we went ahead and checked out the other two buildings. Same situation, a few security guards, but nothing else. You, uh, did notice that the flying saucers are gone, right?”
“Yeah, I saw that. Any casualties in your group?”
“None serious,” Marco said. “Couple of minor injuries, but nothing that needs medical attention.”
“Okay, standby,” Noah said. “Jenny? How about on your end?”
“No problems here,” she said. “You guys had all the fun before we got inside, I think. Did you at least save me one or two for interrogation?”
“We’ve actually taken a few prisoners, so just relax. Let me catch up with Swaggart, and I’ll see what I can do for you on that.”
* * *
A door banged open suddenly and Swaggart jumped to his feet to aim his weapon at the people who were coming toward him. It took him a moment to make out their faces with the light in his eyes, but he realized almost instantly that they weren't hybrids.
"Hang back, Smith," he whispered into the radio as he heard the door behind him crash open. "I may have a situation."
"We'll be there in a minute, Captain," Smith promised
"What’s going on, Swaggart?" one of the figures asked, and the captain recognized the voice instantly.
"Noah," Swaggart said, lowering his weapon. “I was just checking on this man. He surprised me out of another room and knocked me down, then took off running in here.”
Noah walked up and looked at the man laying on the floor. “Any idea who he was?” he asked.
Swaggart shook his head. “Not a clue,” he said. “I can tell you this though, he wasn’t a normal man.”
“A hybrid?” Noah asked, looking at him curiously. “He looks pretty normal to me.”
“I saw him take down two of my soldiers just by slapping their faces off,” Swaggart said. “I think maybe he just hadn’t gotten the full treatment, yet. I only shot him once, with my sidearm. After what we saw yesterday, I wouldn’t have believed that would do the job.”
“Nor would I,” Noah said. He raised his eyes from the body and looked at Swaggart again. “This place is just about deserted at the moment. We found about three dozen people who seem to have been held prisoner, most of them captured from recon patrols that were trying to investigate the compound. Other than that, all we’ve come up with is about a dozen of the security people. It’s so curious I decided to break my own rule and take a few prisoners. Shaw and his troops are rounding them up so we can take them back to the forward post for questioning.”
“I saw some of them, as well,” Swaggart said. “Now I know why people were talking about the Men In Black. They look like they were trying to fit in to some kind of movie convention or something.”
Noah nodded. They spent another twenty minutes checking through the rest of the compound, but found no other hybrids or personnel. The obvious office area had been cleaned out, and there was absolutely nothing that could tell them any more about what was going on, so Noah decided to take his prisoners and the rescued personnel back to the forward base.
He wasn’t convinced the situation was over, not by a long shot. Somebody had answers, and Noah intended to get them.
FOURTEEN
Noah had Morton call for extraction, and a pair of CH 47F helicopters arrived twenty minutes later. They brought back a total of forty-seven people alive, along with all of the military personnel that had gone on the mission, as well as the body of the apparent hybrid that Swaggart had killed.
Emergency housing was set up for the rescued, and the prisoners were put into a makeshift holding cell. Doctor Emerson had been provided with an area to use for autopsy, and had brought along some of his equipment and even convinced Jorge to follow him.
"I'm guessing your pathologist has already started on the body?" Swaggart asked Noah once everyt
hing was settled.
Noah shook his head. "We put it on ice for tonight,” he said. “Doctor Emerson will start first thing in the morning. I’ll confess I’m really interested in knowing what he finds. That man looked perfectly normal, to me."
Swaggart nodded. “I thought so too, until I saw how fast he was moving. My men fired at him, but they all missed. When he knocked those soldiers cold with the palm of his hand, I actually thought he had killed them. It was all I could do to chase him down, and when he stopped and turned to face me, I was pretty sure I was about to die.”
Noah nodded, looking at him, but didn’t say anything more. A few minutes later, he announced that he was going to get some rest and would speak with Swaggart in the morning.
Swaggart turned and went to his own quarters, a square tent that had been set up quickly for him and his team. Litchfield and the others were waiting when he got there.
“So?” Litchfield asked. “What the hell are we going to do now? I was expecting Randall and everybody to be there when we arrived, but he packed up and split. I don’t have a clue what to think, right now.”
“Just stay quiet, and don’t let on that you are that confused. Remember, we are supposed to be part of the investigation. We need to keep acting like that, for now.”
“What about the dead one we brought back? Have they been able to identify the guy yet?”
“No, but it’s probably only a matter of time. Any idea who he might have been?”
“I didn’t get a really good look,” Smith said, “but it looked a lot like Chuck Thompson. He was one of the men who went missing in the very first patrol after we arrived. I only met him a couple times, but I have to say it looked like him.”
“Well, if you recognized him, no doubt somebody else here will. Hell, for all I know, they may already know who he is. It’s probably good that I killed him; wouldn’t do for him to be talking too much about what was going on out there.”
“Yeah,” Graves said, “but what about all those people they brought back? Do you honestly think they aren’t going to interrogate those security guards? You heard Jenny Lance, she really gets off on making people talk, and the look in her eyes scares the hell out of me. That girl is into torture, pure and simple.”
“Which means they’re going to talk,” Swaggart said. He sat down on a stool and put his head in his hands. “Okay, here’s the thing. Nobody at the compound knew anything about our involvement. No matter what they tell, it won’t lead back to us, so all we can do is ride this out.” He looked up at each of them. “No matter what happens, just keep your cool. With everybody gone from the compound, this whole thing will come to an end pretty quickly. We simply have to wait and see which way the wind is blowing, then get in touch with the Coalition once we get back to the States.”
Litchfield suddenly spoke up. "It's not going to be all that easy,” he said. “And what if they decide to go ahead with the program? We could get left out of it completely."
Swaggart glared over at him. "This isn't your usual optimism, is it, Litchfield? Right now, we need to keep ourselves together, and not worry too much about what might be happening without us. We’ve been doing our jobs, we won’t get left out."
The OSTP agent glared back at him. "That’s all good for you to say," he said. "You are in tight with some of the top people, and we all know it. The rest of us, we’re just trying to make sure we are going to be getting what we were promised."
Smith sat forward. "We’ll be okay, Carl. Just..."
Swaggart was going to agree, but Litchfield cut them off. "Excuse me? We’ll be okay? Let me tell you something, kid,” he spat at Smith. “I'm a genius, do you know that? And I’m not just blowing my own horn, I’ve got the…"
"Litchfield!" Swaggart hissed, cutting him off before he could describe, in great detail, everything he had and had not accomplished. "Keep it down. Do you want to blow everything we’ve worked for?"
Swaggart checked his watch, ignoring the look shared between the other three. “It’s getting late,” he said. “There’s not going to be much to do before morning, so we better get some sleep. God only knows what’s going to happen when the sun comes up.”
* * *
Noah sat down on the bunk he was assigned and took out the satellite phone that he kept in his pocket. He dialed a number quickly and put it to his ear.
“Noah?” Sarah asked, answering. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Noah said. “The compound was almost deserted when we got there, other than a few of the security guards and some of their prisoners. We brought them out, and will start interrogation tomorrow.”
“What about,” she asked hesitantly, “those things? Were they still there?”
“No, actually,” he replied. “We ran into one as we were approaching the compound, but that was the only one we saw that was anything like the one we brought back before. There was a man who seemed to be rather enhanced, though. Swaggart killed him, so Doctor Emerson is going to perform an autopsy tomorrow.”
“Well, we have some news back here,” she said. “Neil had kept the facial recognition running on cameras in the area, looking for Lisa Branigan. Turns out she is staying in an apartment building in Buenos Aires, in the Flores district. He hacked into the company that owns the building, and there are only three women living in it that he couldn’t identify. He got the apartment numbers for those, and she has to be in one of them.”
“Really? Maybe we need to send someone out to pick her up. We still don’t know whether she’s actually part of the problem or not.”
“Well, that’s kinda why I brought it up,” Sarah said. “How would you feel about me and Renée going after her? It would be something we could do to contribute, and we both feel like we’re just sitting here doing nothing at the moment.”
Noah thought about it for a moment, then said, “I think you should ask Allison, but you can tell her that I think you can handle it. You have FBI identification, and be sure to take your weapons. If you need or want backup, ask Private Lee from the MPs to go with you.”
He could hear the smile in her voice. “I think we can handle it on our own,” she said. “It’s too late tonight, but we’ll go tomorrow morning.” She seemed more relaxed. “So,” she asked sultrily, “are you all alone?”
* * *
The following morning, right after breakfast, Sarah and Renée took the car they had been assigned and headed into Buenos Aires. Neil had tried to insist on going with them, but they convinced him to let them go alone. He gave them the address of the building the girl had been seen going into, and the GPS navigation system gave them directions.
Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina, and its largest city. With a population of roughly 14,000,000, it is one of the biggest cities in the Americas overall. It is a mixture of many cultures, including Spanish, Italian and others, but the area they were visiting was one of the most recently developed. Skyscrapers seemed to be everywhere, and the building indicated by the GPS was no exception.
The agency car came to a halt outside the tall building and in the passenger seat, Renée looked up at the structure, trying to keep her surprise from showing in her face. The building was much larger than apartment buildings back home, reaching more than fifty stories tall. Renée had seen a number of tall buildings in her life, but she rarely got so close to one that seemed to disappear into the clouds.
She turned back to find Sarah looking at her. For a moment Renée felt a bit of embarrassment at her reaction, but Sarah just cocked her head and smiled.
“Ready to go in?” Sarah asked.
Renée glanced up at the building again, then nodded. They got out of the car and started toward the entrance to the building. She looked up at it again as they approached, and the awe showed on her face.
Sarah giggled. "Not used to the big city?" she asked gently. Renée looked at her and smiled.
"I’ve been in a lot of cities," Renée said, “but this one is something else, I’ll say that.”
They walked towards the door and Sarah looked at her with some curiosity. "So, I don’t think I ever asked, but where are you from originally?" she asked.
Renée smiled. "You might not believe it,” she said. “I grew up in a dinky little town called Asa, Kentucky. Three saloons, two churches and a general store, with a population of about three hundred and twenty people. If I hadn’t gotten a scholarship, I probably would still be there, and I’d probably be working at one of those saloons.”
Sarah nodded, and her smile got a little wider. “I thought I heard a hint of the South in that accent,” she said.
They walked into the lobby, and Sarah walked straight through the lobby like she owned the place. Renée followed, sure she looked out of place, then reminded herself that any American would look out of place, here. Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do about that and so she tried to look confident.
They made it to the elevator without anyone paying attention and Sarah pressed the button for the seventh floor. The first of the apartments they wanted to check out would be there.
They found the apartment with no trouble and Sarah knocked on the door. A young woman answered with a smile, and Sarah, who spoke fluent Spanish, quickly ascertained that she was the actual occupant. Sarah apologized for getting the wrong apartment, and the two of them moved up to the nineteenth floor.
Once again, the woman inside the apartment turned out not to be Lisa Branigan. She seemed somewhat upset at being interrupted from whatever she was doing, and both of the women stifled a giggle as a man wearing nothing but a towel stepped out of the bedroom to see what was keeping her. The woman shut the door quickly, and Sarah and Renée turned back toward the elevator, but the laughter broke free as soon as the doors closed on them.
The last apartment they needed to check out was on the twenty-fifth floor, and Sarah pushed the button. The elevator stopped and dinged, announcing their arrival and they stepped out of it side-by-side as they made their way toward the apartment.