His shoes and socks are off, his feet kneading the green grass. He tosses a few pellets at the base of a nearby tree, motivating a squirrel to leap from the trunk and grab them.
Mr. Nix's wrist communicator buzzes and beeps. Colonel Kaliber appears on the small communicator screen.
"Yes, Colonel?" asks Nix.
"There is a migration, or migrations happening."
"Explain."
"Every scout has reported that the spawns they are surveilling has become active. They are converging on different regional locations. We are still trying to calculate what those destinations will be since it's estimated that many of them could be traveling hundreds of miles to specific locations. However, we can determine without question the central convergence coordinates of the migration near my location in Georgia. The skin spawns are converging on the Scherer Power Plant off Lake Juliette. I am estimating their unified ETA to be in twelve hours, around midnight."
"Are you sure that is the location?" asks Mr. Nix.
"There is nothing there but the power plant and the lake. I remember reading the file on Seventeen's mission, there was an exodus of spawns that converged on Mojave Desert for pickup by the Greys. From that report, I expected convergence on an isolated location for pickup, but the only place the trajectories could meet up other than the power plant is the middle of the lake which makes less sense."
"They could be planning an assault on the Power Plant."
"Most likely. We timed initial travel movements, and the skin spawns weren't on identical time frames. I'm guessing their instructions were to be there by a certain time, but the first on scene are to clear out any human hostiles at the power plant. The night crew and security will be minimal, and as skilled as the spawns are, a couple of them could overrun the plant before any alarms sound."
Mr. Nix ponders Colonel Kaliber's assessment, "I agree. The Greys might have plans to use the plant as a skin spawn operation center. The Greys can drop off more hybrid troops and weapons to meet up with the ones converging. Tactically, the Scherer power plant is the largest non-nuclear power plant. If they take control of such a significant source of power in the region, they could affect people's ability to defend and survive."
"Should we launch a defense force to protect the plant?"
"Not enough time to get proper resources there and mount a formidable defense. And having a battle at the plant would definitely take it offline and possibly destroy its ability to produce power, harming the residents as much as if the hybrids took the plant offline. I want you to contact any military bases and resources in the area and place them on alert, but keep the reasons confidential. We only want to deploy the military if a skin spawn or Grey assault on populated areas becomes imminent. For now, we need to handle this ourselves in case the Greys intentions are more subtle and covert. There may be a way to regain control of the plant without damaging it. Plus, local military could leak information to civilian populations that hostile actions are taking place at the power plant. Creating hysteria is undesirable if we can contain and control the situation."
"Agreed. I'll contact military command leaders with top-secret clearance as soon as we disconnect."
"I want you to contact the Committee supervisors in charge of the scout units tracking the skin spawn migrations. Tell them to determine convergence points on the other migrations as soon as possible, with the bias that they are likely planning to meet at resource or utility centers. I am assuming there is a pattern to their location selection. Order the scouts tracking the spawns near the Scherer plant to retreat to their Committee compounds, arm up, and be ready for a tactical response when we call it."
"Will do."
"The Scherer Power Plant migration might be our chance to infiltrate and get more information on what they are planning, instead of confronting them directly. You and I will meet at the Griffin-Spalding Airport northwest of the plant in six hours and thirty-seven minutes from now. I will bring Eighteen and brief him on the flight there."
"You've got a plan?"
Mr. Nix expresses a less than certain tone, "When Seventeen went on one of these migrations, he just showed up at the destination and was accepted as one of the skin spawn hybrids. Eighteen should be able to do the same. I need three vehicles: one car for Eighteen and one for us, and a motorized fishing boat on Lake Juliette. Buy or abscond one. While Eighteen goes in the front door to gather with the skin spawns, we will watch the plant from a distance out on the lake. Once we determine whether the Greys are picking up the spawns, or using the Plant as a strategic base, we can call our next course of action."
"You sure they don't plan to sabotage or destroy the plant?"
"If that was their plan, they would either meet outside the plant and come unified for an assault, or send in only a few spawns to complete the sabotage but not meet there. Bringing together so many spawns from such a broad region means the Greys' first priority is getting the spawns together. Their intentions with the power plant are secondary to that. With Eighteen on the inside, we'll find out soon enough."
"Understood. I have messages to relay, and vehicles to commandeer. See you in six and a half hours at the Griffin-Spalding Airport. Kaliber out."
The communication ends. Mr. Nix opens another line of communication on his wrist communicator.
"Lieutenant, Nix here. Contact the vehicle pool and prep a small jet for departure in thirty minutes and take Eighteen to the vehicle pool. Make sure Eighteen is wearing a black suit."
"Right away, Mr. Nix."
Mr. Nix stands, grabs his shoes and socks, and heads toward the glass wall of his office on the edge of the biodome.
Going Under
Chapter 20
Before Midnight, Road to Scherer Power Plant.
Agent Eighteen drives a mid-sized maroon sedan with tinted windows on a dark lonely road approaching the Scherer Power Plant, following the red tail lights of a car far ahead. A couple sets of headlights race in from behind him. Momentary nervousness creeps over Eighteen in a wave he hasn't felt since astronaut training years ago. He can't remember much further back than that. He knows he had a childhood, and senses that achievements permeated his young adulthood, but Eighteen's mind can't access any of those events. His memories start after being in the Air Force. However, he doesn't concern himself with that for a moment, his bloated sense of self-worth and ego take over and assure himself that someone with his gifts and talents has no reason to worry.
The wave of nervousness washes over him again, bringing to the surface again that moment during his Astronaut training. It was the first and last time he stress-puked. He dreamed his whole life of becoming an astronaut, but during training Eighteen became overwhelmed with the reality that his dream balanced on whether he passed or failed each test NASA gave him. He took it head on, and soon learned that every other obstacle in his life, including astronaut training, was another chance to succeed and excel. That thought comforts and eases Eighteen's stress.
Eighteen then recalls his briefing on the details of Seventeen's first mission. Seventeen had to escape from a military base while being hunted, hoping for skin spawns to rescue him. Eighteen's mission is easy by comparison, having to drive himself into the power plant and stand around with a bunch of skin spawns until Greys show up for a close encounter. The rest of his nervousness subsides.
"This will be a piece of cake with extra icing," says Eighteen to himself. Mr. Nix briefed Eighteen regarding his current mission on the flight over: Eighteen must remain emotionless, avoid talking with any other spawns or ask questions unless they talk to him first, don't stare or get caught watching other spawns while they wait, and if Eighteen comes face to face with another human at the plant, kill him without hesitation using bare hands. If Eighteen fails on any of these points, he will expose himself and the skin spawns will kill him.
Eighteen struggles with the possibility he might have to kill an innocent person. He outperformed Seventeen in every physical or intelligence test, but Eig
hteen was in the Air Force before becoming an astronaut. The only killing Eighteen ever did prior to being recruited by the Committee was dropping bombs and missiles from his jet fighter as he flew sorties to quell incursions in the Middle East. His kill count was high and Eighteen felt no guilt over this, but he never had to look his frags in the eye while they exhaled their last breath.
Contemplating the video recording he watched of Seventeen being dropped in a cell with two captive spawns and a human, he remembers Seventeen not only helped the spawns kill the human but also remembers the rage in Seventeen's eyes as Seventeen turned on a spawn after the killing, holding that spawn's helpless head in a crushing hold, forcing the spawn to submit or die. Seventeen's rage discovered skin spawns follow an Alpha hierarchy, making him alpha among the murderous hybrids. Outwardly, Agent Eighteen performed and behaved as if he was leaps and bounds better than Agent Seventeen, but deep inside throughout training, Eighteen was wrought with fear and inferiority. All the times Eighteen taunted and beat death, it never entailed taking a life eye to eye, embracing the anger to do so.
Unlike Seventeen's training where he participated in killing another human with spawns, Agent Eighteen didn't experience that. Mr. Nix told Eighteen it was because there weren't any humans marked for dissection from the Greys, tagged by a tracking chip placed in the person's heart that can't be removed. Eighteen reassured Mr. Nix with his usual pride and bravado that in his extensive battle kills, he never hesitated to extinguish a living obstacle and never will. He even convinced himself that was true.
Until his last test, crawling out of a half mile of dark sealed piping beating a flood of incoming water. Though his veins rushed with the adrenaline of victory, setting a record time on the test, his mind became unsettled by the knowledge there were no more tests. No more goals to achieve, or proving grounds. All he had left were missions. Alone. With no one watching. No markers. Just surviving among a bunch of mutant hybrids who will kill Eighteen just for responding incorrectly.
After that test, on the way to Dr. Black for a health analysis, his ego overcompensated to suppress his inner inadequacy. He beat Seventeen's results on every test yet still felt inferior to Seventeen. Seventeen didn't care what his time or score was; didn't even care how fast he finished. Eighteen remembers a guard telling him that Seventeen looked at and accepted his death every day in the lab. And from this, Agent Eighteen heard that Dr. Black came to respect, admire, and even become somewhat infatuated with Seventeen.
With anxiety battling its way to the surface, something inside Eighteen convinced himself that if Dr. Black became intimately attracted to him the way she was to Seventeen, that would prove he is as great as Seventeen. Eighteen's sense of pride and overcompensating ego took control. Too impatient to gain Dr. Black's authentic interest, Eighteen pushed himself upon her in an overbearing and inappropriate way. His innermost thoughts became expressed in his being. In his self-claimed greatness and superiority, he did not achieve what Seventeen had. That Eighteen's charm and confidence was less enticing than Seventeen's apathy. Eighteen's drive to win, his inability to accept second place, caused him to force his body onto Dr. Black and refuse to take 'no' as an answer. He thought she would give in and see Eighteen in all his glory.
But Dr. Black did not. She crushed Eighteen's ego like she crushed his testicles in her latex-covered hands. She laid out before him the bare facts of everything Seventeen was and Eighteen isn't. Then sent him away, to face his fear. His insane and inappropriate play to cover his anxiety with Dr. Black's approval and favor, has now exposed Eighteen to the truth he tried so hard to evade: that it is not the best who wins, but the one with nothing to lose.
The two cars behind him catch up and pass. Eighteen glances to his left, and sees two skin spawns in black suits driving an SUV, both staring forward paying no attention to Eighteen as they speed ahead. Then, the second vehicle passes him: a cable installation van with two more skin spawns in uniforms staring forward. Mimicking their behavior, Eighteen stares forward, too. He increases his speed to follow right behind the two-vehicle caravan. The cold detachment and singular focus he saw on the skin spawn faces unsettles him.
As he makes the last turn approaching the power plant, a sense of regret and remorse rushes over him. He feels emotions for past friends and lovers he can't remember. He's not sure from when or where, can't see their faces, but remembers how he treated them. Bullied and manipulated by Eighteen to keep his sense of superiority and self-worth. This realization unsettles him, wishing he apologized or acknowledged his mistreatment when they were a part of his life. Now that he is a Committee agent, he will never see or speak to them again, even if Eighteen could remember who they were and why they were so important to him. Eighteen decides when he gets back after this mission, he will apologize to Dr. Black for how he treated her, and the position he put her in. They may not be close, but at least he can make things right with one person. And make things right with himself.
The entire plant grounds are well lit with spotlights and flood lights. As he reaches the fencing surrounding the plant, Agent Eighteen sees a hodgepodge of cars parked, clogging the entrance. Each vehicle appears to have pulled up and stopped, without a thought where they were parking or who they blocked. The two vehicles in front of him do the same, and so does Eighteen.
A calmness and warmth rush over him. There is nothing Eighteen can do about what he is walking into. Surrounded by human hybrids that have the sensitivity of stones. Finally, he understands Seventeen's apathy. No one can control every situation entered, even if taking control by force. If Eighteen does everything right, he still might end up dead for something he didn't do. The only thing Eighteen can control is his acceptance that what will happen will happen, let it happen, and hope to make it out alive. The competitive feelings Eighteen had toward Seventeen disappear, and he now sees what others saw in Seventeen: a man who could accept uncontrollable fate with a calm mind.
Eighteen gets out of the sedan with a blank face and cold stare, and weaves between the cars following the skin spawns who parked in front of him as they enter the power plant grounds. He sneaks peeks left and right, trying to get a sense of the surroundings. The plant is devoid of human life. Eighteen glimpses a plant guard strewn on the ground like a twisted-up rag doll, and not a single spawn showing interest. The spawns were not content with breaking the neck of the guard, the odd bends in the arms and legs indicative of violent bone breaks or limbs tore out of their sockets.
Over a hundred skin spawns gather in an open courtyard with two massive smoke stack towers nearby. Eighteen joins the hoard and stands there, doing nothing, saying nothing, looking at nothing, just waiting. To keep himself from thinking too much or moving too much, he focuses on what Seventeen would do: relax and wait for fate to cast its dice.
A Moment Too Soon
Chapter 21
Lake Juliette, Adjacent Scherer Power Plant.
The clear night is active with shooting stars streaking the sky, falling west to east, ranging from north to south. Colonel Kaliber and Mr. Nix are on a motorized fishing boat with a small cabin compartment floating in the middle of the lake. A dim battery lantern and glow sticks illuminate the deck. There are no other boats on the silent still water. Rods hang off the side with lines cast in waiting for a tug. They are both dressed as night fishermen. On the boat is a large pair of high-powered binoculars mounted on a stand. Nix gazes through the binoculars; Kaliber is in the boat cabin, trying to get reception on a radio receiving static. Kaliber checks the GPS, but its connection with a satellite fails.
"Commander Nix, something is not right," says Kaliber in a loud whisper.
"What do you mean?"
"We lost our connections to satellites, and I can't reach base command."
Mr. Nix tries his wrist communicator, but he doesn't receive a signal.
"My communicator is out, too." Nix looks up at the starry night sky, "It's not overcast. Not a cloud in the sky. No weather. Nothing should be interf
ering."
Mr. Nix then focuses on the slew of shooting stars streaking across atmosphere's edge. Hundreds spread across the skyline. Mr. Nix whispers, "Kaliber, come out here and look up."
Colonel Kaliber peeks out and twists his head skyward, catching a glimpse of the last few stars burning out. The sky is still again.
"What was that? Meteor showers?" asks the colonel.
"With that many spread across the entire sky, the weather bureau or news should have announced such an event. Those meteors could destroy satellites and explain why we lost communication. Give the communications network time to transfer our signal to a working satellite, then try again."
Kaliber just looks around while Mr. Nix goes back to using the binoculars. With digital telescopic magnification, Mr. Nix can see a distant image of spawns between gaps in the distant power plant buildings, standing and doing nothing.
"You see any activity yet?" asks Kaliber.
"I can't get a good view, only glimpses of the spawns through the fence and between the buildings. But from what I can see, things are quiet. Shame there weren't any elevated locations for us to observe from. I haven't seen Agent Eighteen, though I can't get a clean look at the skin spawns I can see. Eighteen entered…a half hour ago. He's likely waiting as well."
"I wish we could have warned the employees or evacuated the plant," expresses Colonel Kaliber.
"The chance of Eighteen getting information on the Greys is too important to risk by saving a few people. That information can save countless human lives. Especially if we destroy another Grey colony. If we significantly reduce their population again, they might not possess the numbers to move forward with an assault against humans. Sacrificing the plant workers is a steep price to pay, but worth what we will get."
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