by Greg Logan
She looked at him curiously. “And from where are they?”
“Not from where, my dear Cassandra.” He snapped the watch shut. “The question is from when? Come on, let’s head back to the tavern.”
TWELVE
2034
Jeff, Quentin and Rick sat on the roof of the bank, overlooking the remains of the city below. Scattered clouds were drifting about in the night sky and one of them was now covering the moon, burying the city below in blackness. Jeff couldn’t be sure if the Darkness was even still on the roof with them. As Jeff understood things, the Darkness could zip along throughout the night, moving practically at the speed of thought. He could leave the roof and suddenly be on the other side of the city or across the harbor at the airport.
Jeff was discussing strategy with Rick and Quentin. What to do now that there was an apparent traitor among them.
Quentin said, “I think for now we should keep this among us only. Not tell anyone back at the airport.”
Jeff nodded. “I’ll tell Sara not to say anything until we can be sure.”
“I don’t know, man,” Rick said. “I don’t think you should even tell her.”
“What do you mean? Sara and I have no secrets from each other. It’s gonna come out sooner or later and she’ll think I didn’t trust her.”
“Look, I know it’s hard. And I don’t think it’s her. I really don’t. I mean, you two are, like, one of the last great couples. What you guys share is what the rest of us hope to someday find. Even back in the days before, most of us never found the kind of love you two have. I’m sure you know her well enough to know she’s not the traitor. But you don’t know who she might talk to. Or who might overhear you. Keep in mind, some of the aliens are shape-shifters.”
Jeff nodded. Rick was right. The alien empire was actually made up of many different races from various planets. And some of them were shape-shifters. In fact, the aliens in the very first advance party to scout the Earth had been shape-shifters. Their natural shape was sort of cylindrical and with lots of tentacles. Jeff had referred to them off-handedly once as squids and the name stuck.
“All right,” he said. “as much as I don’t like it, I’ll go along with you. I won’t tell Sara. For now.”
Quentin said, “So what’s our plan of action? To covertly scout about and try to catch someone in our group using a communication device?”
The familiar baritone came to life among them. “It might be too late.”
Jeff said, “I was wondering if you were still here.”
Quentin said, “What do you mean, it might be too late? That’s rather cryptic, even for you.”
“What I mean,” the Darkness said, “is a battalion is on its way to Boston. The attack is being launched now, even as we speak.”
This was the second time tonight for Jeff’s mouth to drop open.
Quentin said, “A battalion? What does it consist of?”
“Robot drones. I was just at their fortification outside Roanoke, Virginia, moments ago. They have launched. They will be here within two hours. Perhaps less.”
“Robot drones,” Jeff said, getting to his feet. “That means we don’t have to be careful taking them out, because they’re automated. No one there to kill.”
Quentin said, “It means something else. It means for them to suddenly launch an attack at us, they must be aware of our plans to locate the central computer core. Which means...”
Jeff finished it for him. “...the traitor is someone who was at our little meeting tonight.”
They returned to the airport. Jeff pulled Quentin through the strands of time again and Rick simply ran the distance, moving so quickly he was able to run actually across the water. He arrived only shortly after Jeff and Quentin. And Jeff wasn’t surprised to find the Darkness already standing on the roof when he and Quentin arrived.
Quentin said to Rick, “Rouse everyone. Get the non-combatants to the basement of the airport. There is really no time to get them safely away from here and somewhere into the city. Jeff and I will have to speak to Mother, Sammy and Sara.
“Reluctantly, and extremely regrettably, one of them is the traitor. We need to find out before the attack. I will have to probe their minds.”
The Darkness said, “Mother is not the traitor.”
“Fine,” Quentin said. “I appreciate your feelings. But I have to know.”
The Darkness hesitated a moment, then said, “Very well.”
“It’s not Sara,” Jeff said.
Quentin said, “And if it’s not Mother or Sara, then who’s left? Sammy?”
“I find that hard to believe. I can’t imagine anything that would turn him.”
Rick said, “Maybe they could find some way to alter his programming. They tied into our central computer at the old mountain complex. Reprogrammed it from a distance.”
Jeff shook his head. “Sammy is such an advanced system, more so than any other computer ever created. Probably even more so than anything the aliens have.”
“All right,” Quentin said. “But it’s obvious someone is the traitor. Come, let’s get it over with. After all, we have a battle to prepare for.”
They met with Mother, Sara and Sammy, back in the waiting area of the old Delta gate. The eastern sky was now coming alive with dawn and the room was filled with a grayish light.
Quentin explained the situation to them.
Sara and Mother exchanged glances. Sara said, “You really think one of us is the traitor?”
“Logic would seem to dictate it, yes,” Quentin said.
Mother said, with her usual reserve, “I must admit, I find that hard to believe.”
“As do I,” Sammy said.
Sara was looking at Jeff with shock. “How can you say that about me? How can you even suspect it? For God’s sake, Jeff.”
“I don’t,” Jeff said. “I really don’t. But I can’t see how it’d be Sammy or Mother, either.”
Mother looked to Quentin. “You need to probe our minds.”
Quentin nodded. “It’s the only way. It won’t take long. And though Sammy’s mind is not human, I can probe enough to access his memory, at least to some extent.”
Jeff began powering-up. Whichever of them was the traitor, he or she would need to be restrained. And if it was Sammy, then Jeff was the only one capable of doing it.
Quentin reached out to Mother’s mind. She retained her calm reserve. The peace she seemed to have about her was ever present.
“No,” Quentin said. “It’s not her.”
“Thank you,” Mother said.
Quentin then looked to Sara.
“No,” she said. “It’s not me. You can’t do this.”
Mother said, “It’s painless. Just relax and let him touch your mind.”
Sara took a step back, and suddenly one arm began and growing into a long tentacle.
Jeff stared with disbelief. Sara was a goddam squid? How? How as this possible? He staggered back a step.
Sara lashed out, much faster than Jeff would have thought, and the tentacle wrapped itself around Quentin’s neck. Sammy grabbed the tentacle with both hands, but even though he was much stronger than the average human, he found he couldn’t make it disengage from Quentin. If he yanked it too hard, he could inadvertently break Quentin’s neck.
Mother brought her hands to her mouth and stared wide-eyed. Jeff stood, staring. This didn’t feel real.
“Jeff!” Sammy called out.
Jeff was stunned. He felt empty. He felt nothing. He felt everything. He thought he might scream. He thought he might pass out. Sara was a squid! How? How was this even remotely possible? My God!
Sara’s face was distorting. Growing longer. Her eyes becoming black. Her skin was taking on a gray shade.
“Jeff!” Sammy called out again.
Jeff awoke from his trance and sprang into action. He grabbed the tentacle, not pulling at it but simply squeezing with vice-like force. He had stopped powering-up with the shock of seeing S
ara begin to transform, but he had powered-up enough that he was seriously strong. The tentacle felt rubbery to his touch, and parts of it began to squish between his fingers. The squid—Sara—released its grip on Quentin.
Quentin dropped to his knees, grabbing his throat, choking and gasping for air.
The alien said, using Sara’s voice, “Jeff!” As though she were calling to him for help.
Jeff stood and stared at it. The alien pulled its tentacle from his grip and continued to transform.
Quentin, still on his knees, sent a bolt of psionic energy toward the alien and sent it sprawling, sliding along the tiled floor. Sammy grabbed Mother and pulled her to her feet as though she were nothing but a rag doll, and hurried her back and away from the squid.
The alien got to its feet and continued to transform, becoming taller. Its face and head were transforming into roughly a thick cylindrical shape. The head seemed to blend into the torso, with no neck in between. The blonde hair was gone. Jeff hadn’t seen it disappear. It was just gone. Both arms were now fully formed into tentacles, and two more were sprouting from the lower torso.
Its legs were short and stubby but it moved with surprising speed, charging at Jeff. One tentacle whipped at him and wrapped around his neck.
He was continuing to power-up as he struggled with it. He pulled the tentacle from his neck, then drove a fist into the squid’s face. The squid made a squealing noise—it no longer even sounded human—its legs gave out and it fell to the floor.
Jeff leaped on top of it, pinning it to the floor. It thrashed about with its tentacles, but Quentin, Mother and Sammy were now out of its reach.
“Where’s Sara?” Jeff said, raising his fist. Powered-up as he now was, he could have driven his fist through the concrete floor without even bruising his knuckles. “What have you done with her? Tell me or I’ll splatter you all over the floor!”
The alien spoke, its voice sounding raspy, hoarse. Not specifically male or female. “You human fool. There is no Sara.”
“What? How..?”
“There never was a human Sara. I, and others like me, were planted among your race years before the invasion began.”
“But..,” Jeff felt dizzy. Disconnected. “But, her older sister Ashley..,”
“You pathetic human. There never was an Ashley.”
Ashley had been a squid, too. Ashley had been Chloe’s roommate at college for two years, and Chloe had never known.
Jeff was momentarily distracted by the shock of it all. The alien took advantage of this and pushed him away and then rolled to its feet.
The tank top it had been wearing in human form now ripped away as its torso continued to widen. Another set of tentacles was sprouting from it. It was sort of a bipedal octopus, Jeff thought, though the term was a little contradictory. Jeff was too disoriented to care.
It was then Jeff realized the room was quickly growing darker. The alien glanced about, its eyes now simply black orbs, its lids gone. “What’s happening?”
Mother said, her voice barely a whisper, “My son is here.”
A voice, deeply baritone, came from the growing darkness, speaking with a sort of detached emotionlessness. Like it always did. “Time for this to end.”
Suddenly, the alien became motionless, staring into nothingness. Then, it let out a squealing scream. Jeff could only think of a pig in extreme pain. Then it fell face forward to the floor, its tentacles twitching.
“What happened?” Mother said.
The Darkness, now standing before her, said, “I caused its mind to go dark. Empty and cold. No human I have met can withstand that and apparently neither can they.”
Jeff took an involuntary step backward, his eyes fixed on the alien corpse. He felt numb all over. He heard his heart pounding in his ears.
“How is this possible?” His voice was a whisper. “How?”
Mother said, “It had to be lying. Saying there never was a Sara. They must have infiltrated us, somehow, and captured Sara. We have to find her.”
“No,” Quentin said, staring with horror at the squid, his voice barely a whisper. “I touched its mind. As alien a mind as it was. It was hard to get a good fix on it, but I think it was telling the truth.”
His horror stricken eyes turned to Jeff. Quentin said, “I am so sorry.”
Jeff knelt by the motionless corpse. It was not dead, but its mind was now blank. Or gone dark, as Mother’s son always put it. Jeff wasn’t sure if it was the same thing and he never wanted to find out. He reached a hand out to the squid, but then stopped before actually touching it.
He had so many questions. And yet words wouldn’t come. He hadn’t just lost Sara. That would have been hard enough. But he had never had her in the first place. The woman he had been in love with, for so many years, had never been anything but a masquerade.
He wanted to cry, but tears wouldn’t come. He remained where he was, kneeling by the squid and staring at what his Sara had actually been.
The Darkness said, “I understand the heavy distress of the situation, and forgive me for seeming callous, but we have to move now. The enemy is almost upon us. They will be establishing a nullifying field before they fully begin their assault, and it will nullify your zeta energy. If you are to be effective against them, you have to move now.”
Jeff rose numbly to his feet. He looked to Mother, who only looked at him with tears streaming down her face.
She said, “I am so sorry.”
“Those son of a bitches,” Jeff said. His shock and sense of disconnection was now quickly turning to rage.
“Jeff?” Quentin said. He had reached out to Jeff’s mind gently, and was trying not to be intrusive about it, but there was a major battle to be fought within the next few minutes and he had to make sure Jeff was ready to fight. “What are you doing? You’re powering down.”
Jeff nodded. “I’m not going to wait for them to bring the battle to us. I’m bringing it to them. I want you ready. This is going to get aggressive and messy, and it’s going to get that way fast. Mother,” he turned to her, “I want you to get with the others, right now. Take them down to the basement level. Don’t come out until one of us comes to get you. And send Henry out here.”
Henry had asked to join them. He couldn’t move any faster than a non-powered human, but he could move all day. He never felt muscular exhaustion or oxygen starvation, no matter how far he pushed himself. And he was a hell of a shot with an ion pistol.
Jeff said, “Let’s get to the roof. We’re going to need room to move.”
THIRTEEN
2017
Cosmo sat in an alley, using an empty crate as a chair. He had found an old candle and pushed it into an empty whiskey bottle, and then with but a thought brought a small flame to life at the end of the candle wick. It didn’t provide much light. But it was enough for what he was doing, which was counting his nightly haul. He was now wearing a brand new Red Sox hat.
From a paper bag, he pulled a bunch of cash. One pack of one’s after another. And some loose cash. One’s, five’s, twenty’s.
He had hit three more stores tonight. His third night of his new business. A liquor store, a small Mom and Pops variety store, and a news stand. He had left with the buildings dancing in flames, and in the midst of all the confusion, he had just walked away.
A man spoke from the shadows at one end of the alley, with a gentle British accent. “Cosmo, are you out of your mind?”
Cosmo jumped, dropping the bag. Some of the cash spilled out onto the pavement of the alley. “Jesus, Quentin, you scared the shit out of me.”
Quentin walked up. He wore his long, black coat. His black hair fell to his shoulders. “Cosmo, what have you been doing?”
“What do you think I’ve been doing? I’ve decided to see if I could buy me some of your lightness of heart. I don’t see why you gotta be poor to be happy. Them people driving by in their Lexuses and Acuras look pretty happy to me. Why do we have to live like rats, when we’re the ones wit
h the real power?”
Quentin stopped a few feet from him. “You’re going to burn down half the city.”
Cosmo shook his head with a smile. “No I won’t. I know what I’m doing. Fire—it’s like a part of me. I know how to start a fire and I know how to control it. I’m careful to make sure which way the wind’s blowing. I make sure no sparks land on any rooftops. No one’s been hurt. So a few fire insurance companies have to pay out some cash. Won’t hurt ‘em none.”
“No one has been hurt, yet. But what do you think will happen when that Darkness fellow decides to step in.”
“I ain’t afraid of him.”
“You know what he can do to a man. He can make his mind go dark.”
Cosmo looked away with disbelief. “Do you know what that even means? He makes a big talk, but do you really even know what that means?.”
A voice spoke from behind him. Low. Gravely. “I know what it means. I’ve seen him do it.”
Cosmo looked over to see Snake standing there. A long trench coat. A slouch hat pulled low. His face was cast into shadows, but the way he stood, the slope of his shoulder, Cosmo would have known it was Snake anywhere.
Cosmo said, “What’re you doin’? Surroundin’ me?”
Snake said, “I’ve seen a man after the Darkness got done with him. Left him just staring. His mind wiped clean. The Darkness said if he had wanted to, he could have wiped away enough of his mind so the man wouldn’t even know how to breathe.”
“I ain’t afraid of him. You guys ain’t even seen half of what I can do. I can make a fireball big enough to roast a man in seconds, if I want to. Let’s see this Darkness guy be all scary and spooky while he’s bursting into flames.”
Quentin said. “I don’t think you would be able to burn him.”
“Yeah? And why’s that?”
“Because I don’t think there is anything there to catch on fire.”
Cosmo shook his head. “You’re both just like a couple kids. Scared of the boogie man. He can catch on fire. And if he challenges me, he’s gonna find someone who ain’t gonna tuck tail and run.”