CollectiveMemory

by Tielle St Clare

  She drove around and picked up Cayl at the corner. He nodded forward and she hit the gas, easing the car down the road. The drive was mostly silent with Cayl concentrating on the invisible “traces” outside the car. He gave directions but didn’t elaborate, leading her through town to a section of abandoned buildings.

  It looked like a scene in a movie. Or an episode of Law and Order. Bad guys always ended up in abandoned warehouses. Damn, she hadn’t even known this place existed.

  “Here?”

  “Yes.” Cayl reached for the door handle before she’d stopped the car.

  “Wait.” She slapped her hand on his chest and slammed on the brakes. “Now…now you can get out.”

  Cayl looked at the hand on his chest then up to Devin’s face. The realization that he’d been ready to jump out of the moving vehicle had barely registered. He blinked to clear his vision. He’d been looking through a different color spectrum, tracking Harken’s trace elements. She had saved him from sure pain and damage to his form.

  “Thank you.”

  She smiled and he was again surprised at how much value humans placed on simple words. “Thank you” and “please” seemed to make things much easier.

  He climbed out of the car, startled when Agent Denning exited as well.

  “Where are you going?”

  “With you.”

  A foreign ache swelled in his chest translating into thoughts in his head. She couldn’t go. There might be danger. Harken was dangerous.

  Odd. There was no reason to presume that she was not as capable as he was yet he felt the unusual urge to protect her. He shook off the sensation. It wasn’t logical. And having two against Harken could only be a good thing.

  Still, as they started toward the building, he made sure she walked near him and he put himself at the entrance first.

  Harken’s trace elements were dominant here. As if Harken had walked this path many times. There was no way to tell if he was inside but Cayl wasn’t afraid. Harken was a coward at heart.

  When Cayl thought back on his interactions with the Harken being, he realized there had been signs that the being wasn’t dedicated solely to the intellectual pursuits. But as they said, “past knowledge is obvious to all.”

  He pushed open the door and stepped inside. He shifted senses once again. The human faculties blurred as he listened for Harken’s presence. Despite being in a human form, there was no way to hide his being, his spirit for lack of a better word.

  He closed his eyes to block one human sense and listened. Harken was not near.

  “He is not here.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “As I have said.” He didn’t understand the human need to question a statement.

  He walked forward. The traces of Harken’s spirit swelled toward the back of the room, behind a half constructed wall. Something important lay back there. He followed the glowing path of Harken’s elements, conscious that Agent Denning—Devin, he corrected himself—came with him.

  They moved around the wall and her gasp was only seconds behind his. He stared at the equipment. Harken had a full laboratory set up. Complete with a digitizing Bromin-Markus Manipulator and a Partial-Particle Compositer. Cayl could barely believe Harken had been able to build the sophisticated equipment. And how had he generated the correct power structure for something like this? Human electricity didn’t carry the right signal, couldn’t energize something this complex.

  “Oh my God.”

  “Yes, I believe now is the time to call on your deity. Harken is much further along than I would have imagined.”

  “We have to help her.”

  He looked up and discovered that Devin was not at his side. Instead, she had moved across the room, toward a large table. And she was not alone. There was a human on the table. A human female. Naked and strapped down, with clamps and wires attached at various points. He knew from his recent experiments with Mace and Devin that the locations of his clamps were particularly sensitive. Harken had done his research.

  “That’s how he’s done it.” He’d used the minute pulses in the human body, millions of interactions between cells, captured and collected. It would still take a huge amount of energy to operate his equipment but this human organic power would carry the right signal.

  The woman started to squirm, her hands curling up, arms fighting the ropes that held her. A slow whirring reverberated from the end of the table. The strange sound stopped Cayl in his tracks. He took a breath and felt the strange sensations moments before the energy erupted. Electricity crackled through the air and obviously traveled through the wires connected to her human body. The woman tensed. A scream vibrated around the gag that filled her mouth.

  A strangely sympathetic pain lodged in his chest as he watched. The poor woman’s body strained, her back arching, straining as the shock ripped through her. The jolt lasted only seconds and she collapsed on the table. A tear leaked from the corner of her eye.

  “We’re here to help you,” Devin announced reaching for the woman’s hands.

  The wrongness of the situation flared in both his human and original form instincts.

  “No! Don’t touch her.”

  “What? We can’t leave her like this.” Devin protested but she froze.

  “We won’t but let me look at it first. I want to make sure he hasn’t hidden any traps around her.”

  The woman moaned and fought the bonds that held her hands over her head. Her legs were tied down but her struggles were weak.

  “See if you can calm her. Tell her we will free her. I just want to…” His voice trailed away as he lost his thought. He walked around the table. Devin’s voice murmured in the background. The sound was soothing to him and it seemed to work on the woman. It only took him moments before he traced the flow of the energy.

  Harken had attached clamps and nodes to the sensitive portions of her body—nipples, clit, the space between her toes—and seemed to be sending random electrical shocks through them. The pain no doubt triggered the emotional fear response that he needed. That was the kind of intense energy that would power his equipment.

  It was quite ingenious though a bit brutal. He couldn’t imagine torturing Agent Denning’s tits in such a painful way. A woman at Switch had worn clamps on her nipples but she seemed to find pleasure in the pain. This seemed all pain with none of the pleasure.

  “Give me a moment to figure it out.” He scanned the pattern of the wires. If he were going to design such a device, he would create it to transfer the power of each anode from one to the next so if one were removed, the others would take over its position. The more clips they removed, the more energy that would flow the remaining points causing intense pain and possible permanent damage.

  “Can’t you just unplug it?” Devin asked.

  “What?”

  She pointed to the extension cord plugged into the wall and Cayl realized he’d been speaking aloud. “Oh, that might work.” He did a quick inspection to make sure there wasn’t a back up battery that would surge electricity through the woman. It looked like a simple rheostat. Five different knobs connected to the wires that controlled the energy into each clamp. No backup, no power surge feature.

  Cayl grimaced. Harken wasn’t even a credible torturer.

  The machine began to hum as if energy built inside it and the woman on the table moaned. They had to move quickly. He grabbed the extension cord and yanked it from the wall.

  The woman’s moans turned to whimpers, soothed by Devin’s words.

  “We’re going to get you free.”

  She reached up and started to untie the woman’s hands.

  “No, wait.”

  “We have to get her free. She’s terrified. And in pain.”

  “Yes, but I must also stop Harken. Undo the clamps while I think.” Cayl looked around. The woman’s hands were bound with a simple rope, the fiber leaving harsh red marks on her skin. He stepped over to the table. The woman flinched as he drew near. Cayl finally looked
at her face. She looked familiar. The waitress from the club the previous night. Jessica.

  “I will not hurt you, miss. I want only to free you.” The muscles in her arms relaxed a little. “Untie her legs first,” he commanded, moving to her left leg as Devin took her right. The knots had tightened because of Jessica’s struggles so it took them longer than he wanted to undo them.

  Once her legs were free, Cayl walked back to the head of the table. “I’m going to shift you just a little. I’m trying to make it look like you got yourself free. Do you understand?” Tears fell from her eyes but she nodded. He grabbed her wrists and pulled them up.

  With her legs free, she was able to slide the few inches he needed. He pulled the rope between her hands taut and rubbed it fast and hard against the post that held her bonds in place. If the woman had tried this herself it would have taken her days to break through, but once the rope began to shred, Cayl added his strength to it, shearing the strands.

  He continued to rub, leaving traces of shredded rope. Harken had shown a remarkable lack of caution. He clearly didn’t believe humans could break free from such a simple restraint pattern.

  The rope tore between his hands. The woman groaned, her jaw clamping down on the gag.

  “Why is she making noise? She is free.” he demanded.

  “Her arms are probably sore from being in that position for so long.”

  Devin helped Jessica sit up and removed the gag. It was shaped like a small penis. “Humans are so confusing,” he muttered.

  “Are you all right?” Devin asked, rubbing Jessica’s shoulders.

  “I-I think so. What’s happening?”

  “We’re getting you out of here.” Devin lifted her head and looked at him. “Right?”

  “Yes, we should leave.”

  Devin helped the woman to her feet and they started toward the door. She whipped off her jacket and eased Jessica’s arms through the holes. It wasn’t much but it would cover her enough to get to the car.

  Cayl glanced around to make sure that he had removed their presence and that he knew the room for his return.

  Devin wrapped her arm around the waitress and guided her out of the building. The only thing that gave her strength was the woman’s fear. Her own legs trembled. In the years she’d spent in the field she’d never faced an actual evil alien. Most of the aliens who came to earth were seeking refuge and knew better than to screw up or they’d be sent home.

  But whatever Harken was doing, it involved torture and perhaps death.

  She assisted Jessica into the car and turned to Cayl. He seemed remarkably calm which just made her want to scream.

  “What do we do now? How do we stop this bastard?”

  Cayl’s head snapped back as if he was shocked by the vehemence in her voice.

  “We will stop him. First we must get the civilian away.”

  “Should you wait here? For when he comes back?”

  Cayl shook his head. “No. He would likely sense my presence and run. I know where he is and we know he returns here at night after he has chosen his victim.”

  It took Devin’s beleaguered mind a moment to catch up. “And he’ll have to pick a new victim now that this one has escaped.”

  “Yes. We must assume he hasn’t drawn enough power yet to launch his plan. We will return this night.” Devin nodded. “As I drive, you will ask the woman what Harken did to her.”

  “Me?” A squeak came out along with the question. What was he thinking? She didn’t know how to interrogate someone, particularly not someone who had been abused by an alien. But if she didn’t do it, it would be Cayl and that would no doubt cause Jessica to panic even more.

  Still in shock, she didn’t protest when Cayl snatched the keys from her hand and went around to the driver’s side.

  “Wait.”

  He didn’t.

  He opened the car door and looked over the roof at her. “This is your first time on Earth and I know you haven’t driven since you’ve been here. How do you know how to drive?”

  “Do not worry yourself,” he said, his voice more soothing than smug. The hair on the back of Devin’s neck stood up. He’d learned that trick from Mace no doubt. “I can operate the vehicle. I will draw on our collective memory.”

  Another squeak tore from her throat but Cayl ignored it.

  “All will be fine. You will see.”

  * * * * *

  “Why did you let him drive your car in the first place?”

  Devin’s jaw ached from clenching her teeth. Mace’s question, Mace’s presence, wasn’t helping. But she’d needed a ride. After all, the tow truck would only take you so far.

  “I couldn’t let him question Jessica.” The waitress had been completely freaked out. Understandably to Devin’s way of thinking. “And he had been doing fine.” She’d climbed in the back seat and talked with Jessica, alternating between comfort and interrogation.

  Jessica had said Harken had been at one of the tables in her station toward the end of the night. She remembered him ordering his drink but not much after that until she’d woken up naked and strapped to the table. Devin didn’t push on what had happened to her after that. She knew enough. Harken was a bastard and had hurt her. That’s all Devin needed to know.

  They’d delivered Jessica to her sister’s house. Devin had pulled out her government badge—not the one for IPC but a more generic, less volatile, identification—and assured Jessica they were investigating the situation and her attacker would be brought to justice.

  Devin had also called her office and had an IPC doctor meet them to sedate Jessica, maybe blur some of her memories. Who knew how much Harken had told her? Cayl had wanted to continue, finding out every bit of Harken’s plan but Devin had rejected the idea. The more Jessica spoke of it, the more real it would become.

  Besides, they knew what Harken was planning. They knew where he hid out and they knew where he hunted.

  They’d left Jessica with her sister and driven away. That’s when Devin should have taken over the driving but she’d been thinking about Jessica and had climbed into the passenger seat.

  Cayl seemed to lose focus after that. She couldn’t tell if he was thinking about Harken or sex. The way his eyes kept drifting to her legs told her she would have been safer if she’s worn trousers. And so would her car.

  She stared at the crushed fender and wheel well and sighed. She had to count her blessings. The car wasn’t drivable but either she or Cayl had been hurt.

  Cayl’s regret was momentary, made even shorter by Mace’s arrival.

  “We should get going.”

  Devin raised her eyebrows in question.

  “I thought you needed time to change.”

  “For what?”

  “Switch. Cayl says we have to go back.”

  “What? Why?” They knew where Harken was hanging out. She spun around and glared at Cayl. He looked back at her with bland eyes. He wasn’t trying to fake innocence. He truly didn’t seem to understand why she might object. “Can’t we just go find Harken? Wait for him outside that warehouse?”

  Any other man would have shrugged. Cayl lifted his chin.

  “Would it not make more sense to collect him before he takes another woman? Would we not have to explain to another woman that she was abducted by an alien? I believed that you wished to keep this fact a secret. We know he hunts at Switch. Since we have removed his current subject, he will be looking for another. His equipment will demand more power. Jessica was able to give us a much better description. We should be able to spot him in the crowd. My logic is unassailable.”

  “Yes but…damn.” She couldn’t go through another night of being touched and kissed and licked and… Her pussy clenched and she crushed a groan. Another night and if they didn’t catch Harken, she had agreed to go to bed with both of them.

  “Come.”

  No doubt, she added in the silence of her brain.

  “We will return to your dwelling and you may put on your slutty
clothes.”

  As if that decided it, Cayl stalked toward Mace’s car.

  Devin stood for a moment, not sure what to do.

  She looked up at Mace, silently asking for some sort of support. He just smiled and shook his head.

  “Baby, if you think I’m going to pass up another chance to see you in your ‘slutty’ clothes, you don’t know men very well.”

  Chapter Nine

  Cayl cocked his head to the side and watched the couple before them with a critical eye.

  Even after just two days Mace knew that look. A question—something out of left field—was going to follow. They’d left Devin alone at their table and Mace had led Cayl through the back rooms of the club. Cayl had said he was looking for “traces” of Harken but he’d spent more time watching the various pairs and trios fuck than doing any actual searching. Not that Mace minded. He figured Cayl was insane anyway. Too bad he seemed to have convinced Devin that his insanity was real.

  “I must confess,” Cayl finally announced. “This has me confused.”

  “What?”

  Cayl lifted his chin toward the two men. The big guy in back slammed hard into the other male drawing a long, heavy groan from his throat. Mace felt his own cock twitch. He’d been in both positions and enjoyed it.

  “I was given to understand that the purpose of sex was procreation and that a female needed to be involved.”

  Mace nodded.

  “Then why are two males engaging in this behavior?”

  “Because it feels good.”

  The leather daddy pounded his cock into the young man’s ass, eliciting another shout-groan-plea.

  Cayl glanced at Mace, his eyebrows angled in.

  “Hmm.” With that clinical detachment Mace knew was only skin deep, Cayl returned his gaze to the viewing window. “Having placed my cock inside Devin, I understand the pleasure the larger man is experiencing but my knowledge of human anatomy reveals no clitoris in the male being penetrated. Why would he allow this to happen?”

  “It’s something you kind of have to experience to understand.”