Tristan splashed into the stream beside him and crouched to wash her face and arms. "You want to hike up to the bluffs?"
"For a history lesson?"
"If that's how you want to spend your time."
His eyes glittered. "Let's go."
She walked up the beach, stirring pebbles, and found the steep, switchbacked trail up to the heights. The path was exposed to the sun, but that left it open to the wind, too, and neither of them was sweating too badly by the time they reached the top. They gazed down at the valley in silence, then Tristan turned to move deeper into the jungle. Birds flitted and chirped. It occurred to her she'd never seen a snake nor any predators larger than a feral terrier or cat. Aside from poisonous plants, she wasn't certain there was anything on the island that could pose a serious threat to humans besides aliens and each other.
They reached another stream. It was shallow enough to cross without trouble, but Tristan followed its course to the edge of the bluffs, where it pooled before spilling into the ocean two hundred feet below. The wind tousled her hair into her eyes. Ke moved beside her, his arm brushing his.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" she said. "I wish I could stay a lifetime."
Ke didn't look away from the ocean. "What's stopping you?"
"The aliens. They're not as far away as they feel."
He swung around to meet her eyes. "Hasn't this taught you anything? You can't protect him from everything."
"I know that. But I can protect him from this much."
"You seriously think you'll do him more good over there than here."
She folded her arms. "Can you keep a secret?"
"Who am I going to tell?"
"The only two people I don't want hearing?"
He laughed. "I won't say a word. Swear."
"Over here, I'm like a dog at the window, barking at nothing. It turns me into a smaller person. I don't want to shrivel up like that." She gestured across the sea. "Over there, I can do good—and do what I'm good at."
"Oh yeah, getting yourself martyred. Definitely the way to become a bigger, better person."
"Do you think I have any intention of dying?"
He rolled his head to the side. "That would seem to fly in the face of the whole Terminator thing you got going."
"I'm not a helicopter mom, I'm an Apache mom," she laughed. "I don't want to feel like that anymore, Ke. This is a good place. You're here for them. It's time I pursued my own life."
He laughed ruefully. "I thought we were finally gonna have some fun."
She raised her eyebrows. "Who says we can't?"
"When are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow," she said. "This place...I don't want to get too attached."
"That's the thing, isn't it?"
She tucked her hair behind her ear. "You can have it while it's here, and deal with the pain once it's gone. Or you can choose to never have it at all."
His eyes moved between hers. He took a sharp breath, as if woken by a sudden noise, and moved toward her. She met him halfway, catching him, twisting her fingers into his hair. He gasped and laughed, then became deadly serious, kissing her, pressing against her. She stripped him down. They were both eager and it was over moments after it began.
"Sorry," he said after he'd caught his breath. They lay in the grass together, his arm around her hip. "Been thinking about it too much, you know?"
"I know the feeling," she said, half drunk on chemicals. "I give you big credit for knowing when."
"Of course!" He sat up, sweat glistening on his stomach. "I basically got one kid already. I don't need another."
Tristan stretched her legs, glad for the afternoon wind on her skin. "It's still early. Why don't we go for a walk?"
They washed in the stream and walked on. He didn't reach for her hand and she didn't reach for his. After giving him half an hour to recover, she pushed him against a tree and kissed him until he stiffened. She took what she wanted.
After, she slumped against the tree's trunk. "I'll tell them tomorrow. I don't want it to turn into a big thing."
"God forbid your little bro is informed you're leaving him." He moved to pull on his shorts.
She grabbed his wrist. "Don't. It might be a long time before I see another one of those."
Ke snorted, eyeing her, then his pride won out over his annoyance. "Knock that off or I'll stow away in your canoe."
Once they were up to it, they resumed their walk, no destination in mind. As afternoon approached the evening, they turned around and descended to the valley. The wind rushed through the taro. Alden and Robi were there, digging up roots. Robi gave her a long look, but Tristan ignored her.
That night, as the four of them slept on the floor of the home, the smallest breeze slipping through the mesh hung over the open walls, she stayed awake a long time, Ke's arm thrown over her shoulder. It wasn't worry or guilt that kept her up. She just wanted to listen to them breathe one last time.
All four of them maintained go-bags, so once dawn arrived, packing was as simple as adding some extra poi and ammunition to hers. As she checked her canoe for damage or leaks, the others assembled on the beach.
"It's true?" Alden said.
Ke lowered his eyes to the sand. "They were about to find out anyway."
"I know." She met Alden's stare. "It's true."
"I don't understand. I thought this place was perfect."
She smiled. "That's why it's time for me to go."
"To do what?"
Robi touched his arm. "To make sure they never take this place from us, too." She looked Tristan up and down. "And because this is who she is."
Tristan hugged her. "I won't bother to tell you to keep him safe."
Ke gave her a pained grin. "Just when I was starting to like you."
She snorted, then embraced him. "I find you tolerable, too."
"Don't you dare get hurt," Alden laughed, dislodging his tears. "How long will you be gone?"
"I don't know." Across the sea, Maui was a suggestion in the morning mist. "As long as it takes. But when I come back, I expect you to have built a shower for me."
They hugged then, too; she wasn't short, but she had to stand on her toes. They helped her drag the canoe into the shin-deep water.
"One last thing." She gave Alden her most maternal look. "Brush your teeth."
She skimmed through the shallows, then fought her way through the breakers, slashing her paddle to both sides. Once she was into the rolling swells, she glanced back, just once, so she would always be able to close her eyes and see the three of them standing in the pure morning sunlight: Alden and Robi's arms around each other's waists, Ke standing apart from them like a father at a wedding, the valley framing them from behind. Tristan waved and turned to face the sea.
She paddled straight to the nearest point of Maui, meaning to hit the south shore and follow the coast up to Hana. She felt confident she could wrangle a set of goggles from Sam, either on the same terms as before or as an investment in the future of Maui's security. As for convincing Sam to actively join Tristan's guerrilla campaign, she suspected the woman would be disinterested initially—but if Tristan got results, that might get her to enlist in a hurry.
All that changed when she saw the yacht anchored off the desolate shore. Empty, abandoned. She was not surprised when she found the alien tracks in the mud of the beach.
26
Ness' ears roared. Not with the engines of the jet—those were already fading—nor from screams; other than the slap and lash of the wounded alien's limbs, the room was dead silent. Instead, they roared with the hot rush of his blood.
He signed, "It launched the virus? I thought it wasn't ready."
Sebastian shook his head. "It is not ready to seed the plants and thus the earth forever. But it is ready to kill all humans it touches."
"Can we recall the jet?"
Sebastian drew himself up and loomed over the wounded Swimmer, gesturing to it. It answered without the need for further violence. Nes
s thought he detected a certain defiance in the angle of its arms and neck.
"Not possible," Sebastian signed. "It told the pilot to destroy its radio and this has been done."
"Is there another jet here? Could we overtake it and shoot it down?"
"I am not able to fly and there is no other jet. It is done." Expressing this, Sebastian stiffened with fury. He raised his laser and shot the wounded alien through its skull. The stench of scorched bone choked the room. Sebastian folded his limbs beneath him, sitting with a thump.
"All right," Ness gestured. "So what can we do?"
"Nothing. It is over. It is the end."
"Is it? Seems to me we're still alive."
"And for what? We fail. In a few hours, your people are infected. In a few days, they are dead. Perhaps it is best to join them."
"You're not thinking right, buddy."
"Contrary. See clearly; think clearly. If I think darkly, it is because I see only darkness."
Ness crouched to Sebastian's level, scowling. "Thing is, you're not thinking clearly. They're fucking around with the plant-transmission thing because they knew the trade networks they've built aren't enough to cover the whole planet. Even if the jet infects people in New York, how far is that going to spread? The city? The Northeast? I know it won't make it over the Rockies."
"Yes but the jet is not for New York alone. After, it goes to Cleveland and Chicago and Denver and Los Angeles."
"And then it comes back here?"
"Yes for more fuel."
"So we lose America. Let me clear my schedule for a week of crying. That leaves the rest of the world, doesn't it? So long as we take this place down before the jet gets back for round two."
Sebastian lifted his head a fraction of an inch. "There are too many Swimmers here."
Ness flung up his hands. "You have lost the Way, Sebastian."
The alien swung up its head. "How is this so?"
"The Way is the path of life, right? Since when does life sit in a sad little heap bitching about how it's too hard? When an organism's existence is threatened, what does it do?"
"All that it was born with or has learned to do," Sebastian gestured. "It kills or it is killed."
"So let us be inspired by its example." Ness straightened and glanced out the window overlooking the dark jungle. "We can't stop the jet. We can stop it from making a second trip—and we can stop these anuses from spreading the new virus to every fruit, vegetable, and grain on the planet. If you want, you can stay here. But I will follow the Way."
"The teacher is fortunate to learn from the student." Sebastian got his legs beneath him and stood to his full seven feet. "We will do as life tells us."
"Awesome. So what do we need to do to burn this place to the ground? Wait, can we just do that?"
"There is much to destroy. Labs. Samples. Data. All spread across the mountain. There is no way to eliminate it without first eliminating the Swimmers."
Ness' shoulders slumped. "Who are all on high alert thanks to our dead friend."
"No," Sebastian said with a snap of his claws. "The dead friend had time for nothing but the jet. The others sleep on."
"As all good predators know, that's the best time to strike."
Sebastian nodded once and began pulling up blueprints on the dead alien's pad. Ness climbed down the top of the ramp where Sprite had been camped out all the while.
"I got good news and bad," he said softly. "Bad news is what's left of the continental US is about to be wiped out by a new Panhandler. The good news is that, if we seize this place right now, we can prevent the same from happening anywhere else."
Sprite wrinkled his brow. "How are we gonna pull that off?"
"With extreme violence."
Sebastian scuttled to the top of the ramp. "There is a pod near. Eight Swimmers. Let us reduce it to zero."
Ness nodded. "Lead on."
Sebastian squeezed past, claws bearing two lasers and a stunner, along with the pad. Ness followed at what passed for the alien's heels. They reached the base of the ramp and Sebastian ran down the tunnel, slowing as he realized he was outpacing the humans. In front of an unmarked orange door, he consulted the pad, then waggled his tentacle before a small sensor beside the frame.
The door sucked inward to a round, windowless room, its walls sunken with damp alcoves. It looked and smelled disturbingly like the chamber in the sub where the Collective had spent most of its time. Ness hesitated, gun raised halfway to his waist.
Sebastian strode forward, firing both lasers into one of the nooks. Spindly legs kicked in pain. Steam and the smell of boiled mussels burst from the alcove. At the motion, two aliens expelled themselves from their resting chambers, eyes catching the blue flash of the lasers. Sprite screamed and shot one, waving the laser back and forth as it flicked on and off, smoking limbs tumbling across the floor. The other charged straight at Ness, claws opened wide, elbows retracting as the thing prepared to strike. Sebastian's tentacle whipped up and fired the stunner. The electric pulse raised the hair on Ness' arms and turned his stomach queasy.
The alien slammed to the orange floor and skidded toward him. He aimed his gun and fired. Others were struggling from their nooks, confused and terrified. The three of them cut the Swimmers down before they had the chance to get their claws on any weapons or electronics.
Sebastian queued up the next location on his pad. "A short distance. Keep attention. Not all are asleep."
They headed outside. Down the tunnel, a lone alien stopped in its tracks, then turned and ran down the curving tunnel, Sebastian's bolts sizzling the wall behind it. Sebastian raced forward, Ness trailing him, feet slapping the damp, porous flooring. Ahead, the tunnel straightened. Sebastian fired all three of his weapons down its length. The fleeing Swimmer collapsed. A square of crisp light spun from its grasp. It whacked its tentacles against the orange floor and pulled itself toward the fallen pad. Sebastian severed its outstretched arms, then drew a blue line across its thin neck. Its head rolled away.
"Bad trouble," Sebastian gestured, bent over its pad. "Our massacre is over. Now we face war."
Ness moved beside him, covering the tunnel. "It alerted the others?"
"To the highest."
"How many are we talking about?"
"Message sent to 43 others. It is not known how many message was not sent to."
"Against three of us." Ness bared his teeth. "You were right, then. It's hopeless."
Sebastian eyed him, claws twitching. "But for our advantage."
"What's that? Our suicidal stupidity?"
"They do not know where we are." He held up the pad. White points moved slowly across a web-like image that Ness recognized as a representation of the facility. Sebastian pointed a whip-thin tentacle at a cluster of four dots. "And they do not know they tell us each move they make."
"Let's hunt."
Sebastian turned without another word and hurried down the dim tunnel. Forty yards on, he made a quick check of his pad, then backtracked and opened a door into an unlit room. He raised his sense-pods and moved inside. Ness and Sprite piled in behind him.
"They come," Sebastian signed. "Stillness."
Ness nodded. Out of the corner of his mouth, he said, "Don't move an inch."
"Got it," Sprite said through his teeth.
Sebastian swung the door in until it was almost closed. Faint light fanned through the inch-wide gap. The pad glowed in Sebastian's claws. Ness glanced into the room behind them, but could only make out the outline of a few raised surfaces. From outside the door, feet rasped, drawing nearer. An alien flashed past the doorway, followed by three others. The moment the fourth was beyond them, Sebastian exploded into the hallway. Two aliens fell in the first volley. A third broke into a run and Ness and Sprite shot it down.
The fourth flung itself behind the collapsing bodies of the first two, firing as it dropped, the beam lashing into the ceiling. Sebastian launched himself to the side to get the bodies out of his line of fire and po
unded bursts into the lone survivor. It shoved itself back, body smoking, then relaxed, tentacles unfurling across the hallway. Sebastian gathered their weapons and handed Sprite and Ness a second pistol each. Ness barely had hold of it before Sebastian was on the move again.
This time, he headed to another sleeping chamber, bursting in on a trio of aliens, two of whom gestured angrily at a third installed within a computer station. All three died on the spot. Ness' whole body shook with nerves and triumph. In a matter of minutes, they'd taken down a quarter of the enemy forces. Sebastian paused to consult his pad. The white dots were still dispersed across the area in groups of two to six. Something like a third of the dots were moving down hallways in an organized fashion. Another third seemed to be retreating. The last third was holding position in the gray bubbles denoting rooms.
Sebastian loped down the hall, locating a room housing a single dot and busting inside. The occupant was unarmed. As it fell, a stray laser melted through a semi-opaque tub behind it, spilling glops of the blue-green algae the aliens ate as a staple crop. For five minutes, the three of them waited inside the pantry, then leapt out upon another pair of scouts.
As soon as those two were dead, Sebastian hurried away to another room and settled in to ambush another trio of prey. As the three Swimmers neared, however, they peeled away to meet up with a second patrol, then continued en masse toward the tower where Sebastian had killed the first alien. From that point onward, the Swimmers backed off their scattershot approach in favor of a slow, methodical sweep, with two or three dots advancing down the tunnels while another two to six covered their advance, nullifying the possibility of ambush.
Of the security teams, anyway. A slight majority of the Swimmers remained isolated in rooms or were venturing around on their own. Slow as the sweeps were, they were easy to avoid, and with the aliens lacking the manpower to lock down the many tunnels, Sebastian was able to lead them on a frantic game of hide and seek, avoiding the larger forces while preying on any Swimmer dumb enough to move solo. Over the course of an hour, they managed to bag four more of the enemy.
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