But as Stella continued talking to the guard, she glanced down at Charles and nodded subtly. Charles was even more dumbfounded, but spoke urgently to Robert and Gary, "I guess miracles do happen. Let's get moving."
WILLY WAS DOING HIS BEST TO LOOK CASUAL IN THE PASSAGEWAY outside the small conference room, but he clutched as he saw Jeremy and an aide approaching. Willy hurriedly pressed a button on his watch to signal Emma and Mark, but inside the conference room Mark had finally given in to his feelings for the brave young woman and was kissing her deeply. Neither of them saw the warning that was blinking on his watch.
In the passageway, Willy sought to stall what he feared might be a catastrophic discovery. He pretended to be confused, "Um, excuse me, Commandant?"
The imperious Jeremy paused. "Yes? What's the matter?"
"I am . . . just . . ." Willy said with total perplexity.
Jeremy was completely bewildered. "You are . . . just?"
Willy beamed. "Yes, Commandant!"
Jeremy stared at him. ". . . Just what?"
In the conference room Emma emerged from the wonderful kiss and saw Mark's blinking watch. Her heart leaped. "Oh, my God! Someone's coming!"
Out in the passage Willy was still vamping, "I am just. I don't know where I am."
"You mean 'lost,' you idiot." Jeremy gestured impatiently down the hall. "Go that way, someone will direct you."
Jeremy pushed past Willy and rounded the corner toward the guard who went wide-eyed seeing the Commandant approaching the conference room hatch. He snapped to attention, nervously. "Uh, beg pardon, sir."
"Yes, what is it?" Jeremy's angry scowl was too much for the guard.
"Nothing, sir. Sorry." The guard flinched as Jeremy moved past him, opened the hatch, and came to an abrupt standstill.
Directly in front of him, Emma was lying on her back on top of the conference table. Her shapely right breast was exposed and her jersey dress was hiked up above her waist revealing all of her slender bronze legs and hips. The mayor was astride her with his pants half-down. They both looked toward the door and feigned utter shock, Mark shouting, "Oh, Jesus!"
But man-of-the-world Jeremy merely held up his hand for them not to be afraid. He enjoyed his eyeful of Emma for an extended moment, then nodded with polite humor and withdrew.
Mark looked back at Emma, astonished that they'd gotten away with it. They laughed quietly together, his forehead lowering to touch hers. Mark realized his love and loyalty to her had definitely been rekindled. Then Donovan peeked up over the wet bar where he had hidden. He shook his head at their virtuoso performance, and nodded congratulations. "Brilliant. How do I get to be mayor?"
In Shawn's chamber directly above, Ruby watched as Kayta used her device to slow the rotating rings of the security unit. "That's about the best I can do, Ruby, go ahead."
Ruby reached in and started slightly, feeling a mild electrical stinging on her leathery hand. But she persisted and gingerly lifted out the code keys. Then Ruby held up her hand to high-five Kayta, but the Zedti didn't understand. Ruby took Kayta's hand and showed her how. "Like this." The little girl lightly slapped Kayta's hand triumphantly.
AN OILY HATCH OPENED DEEP WITHIN THE BOWELS OF THE FLAGSHIP and the imitation Nathan peered through and into the thousand-foot-long vertical shaft containing pipes and cables. "This should get us to a hangar bay."
Margarita was right behind him, whispering urgently, "Hurry up! Somebody's coming!" The two of them climbed onto the precarious ladder inside and secured the hatch above them just before the people she'd heard came into view. Then they began to climb up through the dark, slick shaft.
THE REAR HATCH OF THE SMALL CONFERENCE ROOM OPENED AND Willy stuck his head in. "Quickly . . . while no one's here!" Kayta and Ruby headed for Willy's doorway, Mike was following them, but looked back at Emma and Mark.
They saw the appreciation on his face and responded in kind. "Good luck," Mark said. Mike nodded and limped away.
Emma was nervously stuffing the tiny spy camera and receiver back into her purse. "I'm just glad our part's over."
Mark put his hand lovingly on her shoulder. "I don't know, some of it was very nice."
Her green eyes shone and he kissed her gently. "Come on, let's get you off this goddamn ship."
AYDEN AND TED WERE MOUNTING THEIR AIRBIKES IN THE JUNKYARD beside the chemical factory. The young half-breed was nervous. "When will your fleet start firing?"
"In twenty-one minutes. That's all the time we have left." Ayden started his airbike. A long burst of ionized flame shot out the back, then Ayden idled it for a moment as he gave a final instruction. "You wait until I have brought down the first tanker."
"Right . . . right . . ." Ted knew the drill, but was very edgy.
Ayden saw Ted's scaly brow knitting and smoothing repeatedly. He recognized the boy's fear. "Ted"—the Zedti focused his strong, amber eyes sharply on the teenager—"you can do this."
Ted looked at the resolute warrior and tried to steel himself. He nodded firmly. Then Ayden activated the stealth mode and Ted watched Ayden and the airbike grow nearly invisible as the Zedti glided upward and away. Ted blew out a puff of anxiety, repeating his mantra, "I can do this."
MARK AND EMMA HURRIED TO A TRANSPORT TUBE, SIGNALED FOR IT, and waited restlessly by the hatch. When it opened they were surprised to see Diana with two of her aides. Upon seeing them, the Commandant's eyes lit up. "I didn't know you were aboard."
Mark stepped back to let Diana and her entourage emerge from the transporter. "Actually, we were just leaving."
"I asked Mark to show me some areas I might use in my next music vid," Emma said with a smile.
"Ah"—Diana was eyeing the lovely young woman—"so your business is concluded?"
"Yes," Mark said, nudging Emma toward the transporter.
But Diana caught her sleeve. "Then how about some pleasure? I've been wanting to talk with you, Emma."
Mark glanced at his watch. "Unfortunately today isn't great, we've got that appointment at—"
Diana spoke pleasantly, ignoring him, "Please excuse us, Mark."
Emma knew that it was not an invitation, but a command. She smiled humbly. "I'd be honored," then she looked at Mark. "They can get along without me, Mr. Mayor, but would you take this?" She handed him the vid receiver for the small spy camera, then looked at him pointedly. "And keep a very close eye on it, okay?" She held his eyes for an emphatic instant, then she turned cheerfully back to Diana, who smiled and led her away. Mark watched them go, worried for Emma. He looked down at the receiver she'd left in his hands and was a bit puzzled.
MORE THAN A MILE BELOW WHERE MARK STOOD, A YOUNG HALF-breed janitor was cleaning in the steamy, dark Flagship passage as Willy guided Kayta, Mike, and Ruby to him. Jon's crooked mouth smiled as he took out a special access card.
Mike was somewhat astounded. "A janitor can access the Flagship's mainframe?"
Jon's eyes twinkled. "If a janitor steals the card, sir."
Ruby had been checking out the teen and approved. "My kind of guy."
Jon opened the heavy hatch to a small chamber that contrasted sharply to the dark passageway. The chamber was white. Inside it was a control panel with numerous monitoring readouts and a second smaller hatch, the porthole of which was fogged from the intense cold on the other side of it. Jon showed them a diagram on one wall and described the operation. "You lie face up on a movable pallet and slide in, sir. The sockets for the five code keys are clearly marked." He glanced at Mike. "I'll go up and be waiting in Capsule Operations Control. As soon as William inserts the keys I will see five green lights indicating that the communications circuits into the capsules have been unlocked."
"And then you'll alert Lee up in Centcom to transmit our instructions in to the prisoners," Mike confirmed.
"Correct, sir. Once the prisoners have received them"—the boy's eyes flashed with enthusiastic pride—"I will activate the master control that opens the capsules throughout the entire fleet."
Kayta had been looking through the frosty porthole and was concerned. "Willy, you need no protective garment?"
The gentle Visitor shook his head. "No. My kind can withstand extreme cold."
The half-breed janitor reached out his hand to his dear friend Willy. "Good luck to you, sir"—then he looked from Kayta to Mike to Ruby—"to all of us."
Jon hurried off while Willy began opening the inner hatch. It unsealed with a hissing blast of arctic air. Ruby was startled by its frigidity. "Whoa! That's some serious cold."
They peered into the long tubular mainframe. Hundreds of glowing modules were inlaid into its circular wall and stretched into the cloudy distance. Willy was about to lie down on the sliding platform when the mayor rushed in behind them. "Wait!"
Mike looked at Mark and down the corridor behind him. "What's wrong? Where's Emma?"
"She's in with Diana! Look!" He held up the vid receiver that was showing a skewed image from the spy cam. It was peering out from Emma's purse on the back of a couch in Diana's inner sanctum. They could also hear the audio.
The sultry Commandant was saying, "I've been wanting some one-on-one time with you for quite a while . . ."
"I'm flattered," Emma said, "but a little nervous . . ."
"Whatever for?" Diana was utterly charming. "No need to be. Drink?"
Mike instantly understood. "My God, Emma's trying to set up a sting!"
"Yes," Mark agreed. He was very worried for her but knew they must take advantage of Emma's dangerous gambit. "So how do we use it?"
The two men stared at each other a moment, then Mike hit on it. "Willy, take this to Lee up in Centcom, get her to broadcast it!" He thrust the receiver into Willy's hands. "Everywhere but on this ship!" Mark cautioned.
Willy understood. "But then who'll insert the code keys?"
"Hello?" Ruby smirked. "I'm half Visitor, so I can do it."
Mike was adamant. "No way, Ruby."
Kayta spoke up, "I think I could endure the cold for just long enough. Go on, Willy."
Willy made final eye contact with all of them, then hurried away.
"Listen"—Mark was very agitated—"I'll go back near Diana's."
Mike understood. "In case Emma needs help. Good."
The mayor left quickly as Kayta crawled onto the movable plate and rolled onto her back. She took the five code keys that Ruby handed her and glided into the supercold mainframe tube. She was startled. It was like diving into icy water.
In Capsule Operations Control, two bored reptilian technicians went about their normal routine. Five red lights were burning steadily on a far corner of a status board. They had not changed color in twenty years and thus never commanded any attention. From a catwalk among the thousands of nearby capsules entwined with their pulsing, intestinelike coils, Jon entered, guiding his floating custodial unit, and set about doing his chores—while he carefully watched those five red lights.
IN THE VERTICAL SERVICE SHAFT THE PHONY NATHAN LED MARGARITA up the ladder to a hatch. He carefully opened it and looked out into the dark horizontal passageway, cautiously checking around as he spoke to her, "So listen, who are your other contacts in case I get—" He turned back to find the muzzle of her gun at his forehead.
"Busted?" she said with a sardonic smile.
"Margarita?" he sputtered. "I don't understand."
"Well, let's see"—her eyes narrowed—"how 'bout you have no scrape on your wrist and the sense of humor of a tree stump. I made you the minute you opened your mouth. So take me to the real Nathan, you asshole, or I'll blow your lizard head off."
THE MYRIAD STARS IN THE BLACKNESS OF SPACE ABOVE THE NORTH pole of the magnificent planet Jupiter suddenly seemed to ripple, as though something massive but unseen was disturbing the light coming from them. It was the fleet of gigantic Zedti warships whipping past in stealth mode and heading toward the distant Earth.
The amber-eyed Executive Officer was in her view bubble on the bridge of the organic Zedti Flagship. Data was streaming in the air near her. Other operational Zedti were at their crystalline stations in the cavernlike chamber directly behind her. She called back to her lieutenant who was at the helm, "Commence targeting their Motherships . . . Detect and double-target their Flagship."
"Commence targeting, aye," the lieutenant said as he switched to the intra-fleet channel and sent the directive to all the warships in the task force.
The Executive Officer looked back out into the darkness. She knew they would be in Earth space and within firing range in less than fifteen minutes.
31
WILLY TRIED TO APPEAR CASUAL AS HE SOUGHT OUT THE FEMALE Visitor with short black hair on the second level of the Visitor Flagship's huge, bustling Centcom. But when Lee saw him coming she could tell that the friendly expression on his face was a tight mask. As he sat beside her she whispered, "What's wrong?"
He produced the small vid receiver from his pocket, "We need to broadcast this. Through the auto-translator."
"To where?" Lee was confused.
"All channels, vid phones, everywhere—except this ship."
Lee looked curiously at the slightly skewed image of Emma in her intimate session with Diana. As Lee realized what was happening her eyes snapped up to Willy, wide with amazement.
In the eighth-grade classroom at Patrick Henry Middle School the ceiling-mounted flat screen was showing a biology vid about the pistils and stamens of plants. The lesson provoked the standard scatological snickering among some of the boys. But not Danny Stein. He was frowning about the situation within his family. Thomas Murakami glanced guiltily at Danny from across the classroom. They had not spoken since the day Thomas confirmed to Vice Principal Gabriel that Danny possessed an illegal Resistance vid. He knew that Danny had been arrested and heard that his father had been taken away. Thomas still felt terrible about what he had done, but like so many other thousands of informers, he had done it to protect his own family and himself. He missed being friends with Danny but couldn't imagine any way of repairing the damage.
Then Thomas was as startled as all the other students when the biology vid suddenly switched to the skewed image from Diana's chamber. The students didn't know that Diana had been privately emboldened by her renewed connection with the Leader, but most of them recognized that the gleam in Diana's eye was very sexual and predatory. She sinuously circled Emma, moving out of the camera's view. "Your singing at the rally was so stirring," she said as her hand came into the foreground on the classroom's vid screen, grazing Emma's shoulder and neck from behind, "I could positively feel your passion . . ."
"Thank you." Emma turned to look back toward Diana, which brought her own face into a big close-up. Emma glanced for a moment directly into the camera, hoping that others were observing the scene.
Mrs. Richmond, the dowdy classroom teacher, was confused and increasingly distressed. She instinctively sensed that this intimate, unfolding drama was something her students were not supposed to be watching. She headed to the front of the room to pick up the TV remote. But Danny had just as intuitively realized the telecast was something they all should definitely witness. He jumped up, snagged the remote before his teacher could, and he threw it out the window. The screen was too high for Mrs. Richmond to reach. She couldn't turn it off.
Emma was anxious to subtly steer the conversation in a particular direction. "Your Leader was certainly impassioned."
"Our Leader can be very fervent when she chooses to be," Diana said as she moved back into the view of the hidden camera, "and I'm most fortunate to be first in her favor. Which is a wonderful circumstance . . . for you as well."
"When she talked about that Zedti race she was particularly passionate," Emma prompted, "I heard that she'd been defeated by them once before. Is that true?" Diana nodded affirmatively. Emma pressed on, "She must be angry about that. She must want revenge."
Diana was eyeing Emma with a meaningful smile. "She desires to be dominant, yes."
One of the many police preci
ncts where the live broadcast was being seen was the Parnassas Station. The black Patrol captain and everyone else present were also watching in stunned silence as Emma and Diana continued on the station's TV.
"God," Emma exhaled, "I'd sure be relieved to hear that's why she wants to go to war against the Zedti—not because they're planning to attack Earth."
Diana moved closer to the singer, speaking softly, "Then allow me to relieve you."
A Visitor Patroller grabbed for a phone to question what was happening, but a hefty Teammate caught his hand, stopping him in no uncertain terms. Similar actions were taking place in other locations across the Earth as people everywhere were glued to their televisions and vid phones while Diana continued. "The Leader is an individual who gets what she wants. By any means necessary."
IN THE CAPSULE OPERATIONS CONTROL ONE OF THE FIVE RED STATUS lights switched from red to green indicating one of the five critical communications channels had been unlocked. Jon continued cleaning, but watched the remaining four like a hawk.
Inside the icy, cloudy mainframe, one of the code keys was indeed in place, but Kayta found herself in serious trouble from the hyper-cold. The skin on her freezing hand was cracking as she shakily managed to push the second key into its appropriate slot, but then she dropped the other three keys and began convulsing. Mike had been watching vigilantly through the view port. He jerked open the hatch, shouting, "Kayta! Kayta!"
Little Ruby scurried past him into the long tubular passage. "I'll get her!"
"Ruby! No!" Mike grabbed for her but missed. "Ruby! Come back here!"
ON WALL SCREENS AND HOME SCREENS FROM LOS ANGELES TO Berlin to Beijing to Sydney, citizens and Teammates were watching a new type of reality TV as the live drama unfolded between Emma and Diana. The striking Commandant was saying, "I'm surprised you have such an interest in warfare, Emma."
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