Chapter Twenty-Three
It was dark. We’d been driving down out of the mountains for over an hour, among bare rocks and boulders. The sun had gone down suddenly, as it does in these latitudes. Then it was night, and the car became a dark cocoon enfolding us against the blackness outside, hurtling forward, toward an elusive safety we might never reach. Maria spoke suddenly, after two hours of silence, not looking at me, but looking at the amber beams that penetrated the night ahead of us.
“If I have, as you put it, a transceiver in my brain, then they are aware of everything I tell you and you tell me. You believe I have been planted here to get information from you about who sent you.” She paused and shrugged. “And maybe you’re right. You probably are. And if you give me that information, I will probably kill you. So, it seems to me the answer is simple. Don’t give me that information. Let’s both state it very clearly for them to hear. You are not going to give me that information, and if you try, I will refuse to hear it.”
She was quiet, watching me. I was thinking hard.
After a while, I said, “If we do that, what happens?”
She didn’t answer. She said, “I’ll go further. I’ll tell you everything I know about them.”
I frowned at her. “What do you know about them?”
“I told you, Liam. I seem to have memories. Dr. Loss formed some kind of link with me. I don’t know how it works. I think she started it back in London and finished it there, at the plant. Our minds, our experiences, linked somehow. I have memories, knowledge, that belonged to her. I think she had the same with me.”
My head was reeling. Things were beginning to make sense. I said, “You didn’t answer my question. If you do this, what happens to you?”
“If I kill you, the biochip has run its program and dies. If I don’t… I’m not sure. I might have a psychotic break. It might kill me. I don’t know.”
“Are they hearing all this?”
She spread her hands. “I don’t know, Liam! But I am willing to take the chance.” She sounded exasperated.
At half ten we came to the Rabat Meknes junction. Instead of turning west toward Rabat I cut across the roundabout and kept going north, toward Tangier, Tetouan and Ceuta. She saw it and glanced at me. Neither of us spoke. We drove through Meknes then we were out among fertile, agricultural land and semi-suburban villages. The road wound among small, well-lit towns for a few miles, with silent cars parked in silent lots and clusters of male youths standing in pools of sad lamplight, likely talking about punishable dreams and hateful pleasures. Then we were back into the dark, moving north.
I said, “Okay, let’s do it. Who are these people? What are they doing? What the hell was the facility all about?” Joanna had told me, but I wanted to hear it from Maria.
She rubbed her face with both hands and sighed deeply. “She told you it was about mind control.”
“Mind control for what? By whom? To what end?”
“Shut up, Liam! Just for a minute, shut up and listen and stop attacking me.”
My skin went cold. Her voice was different. I stayed silent, driving.
She waited, drew a breath then began to speak again, but it wasn’t Maria. It was Joanna. “You believe that you are the only intelligent species inhabiting this planet. You are not. Get your head around that, because that is just the tip of the iceberg. Not only are you not the only intelligent species, there are many—many—among you whom you think are human, and they are not. Many of them don’t even know that they’re not.”
I snapped, “Come on, Maria! What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about a program of hybridization, involving millions—tens of millions—of human beings who don’t even know that they are part of the program.”
She reached forward to the glove compartment and pulled out a pack of Camels. She lit two and handed me one.
I said, “Pull out the Irish, will you? I need a drink.”
We took a slug each and drove on, punching through the night.
“Are we talking about aliens? What is this? Are you asking me to believe we are being invaded by extraterrestrials? Because that just doesn’t hold water.”
She was shaking her head before I’d finished. “No, Liam. Understand this, once and for all. You are the aliens. If anyone on this planet is an invader, an alien organism, it’s you!”
I stared at her.
She said, “Eyes on the road.”
I looked back and swerved around a bend, narrowly missing the barrier.
I said, “What?”
“Just read Professor Lovelock. Look at the way you behave in this environment. You are like a damned parasite. An alien organism ravaging and destroying, consuming everything until you kill the host. You are in constant war with this planet, talking of conquering nature…” She paused, sucked on her cigarette, then went on, “For hundreds of millions of years the environment of this planet was scorching hot. The natural CO2 levels were off the chart. It was a paradise.”
“A paradise?”
“Yes, for reptiles and Saurians, it was a paradise. They thrived and evolved on their world, and one of their species developed intellectually. They evolved mentally well beyond what humans have achieved.”
I sighed. “The Ael.”
She looked surprised. “Yes, at least, they would eventually become the Ael. A long time ago, a very long time ago, there was a catastrophic event, and the environment and the climate changed. It became much colder and the levels of CO2 fell dramatically. There was a mass extinction. Most of the Saurians were wiped out. Only a very few survived by going underground.”
“That was sixty-five million years ago!”
She was quiet for a long time. Then she said, “They don’t experience time the way we do.”
We had been climbing steadily into low sierra and now we were passing Chefchaouen. I began to see signs for Tetouan. I glanced at my watch. It was close to midnight. We were behind schedule, but still no sign of del Roble, Golika-Rinpoche or their pals.
I said, “This is bullshit, Maria. You want me to believe that all of this is somehow rooted in a meteor that fell sixty-five million years ago?”
She was quiet for a bit then said, “That was when the Saurians went underground. They continued to evolve. They bred very rarely and have lifespans that are incomprehensible to us. To humans, they are like gods. They have appeared in mythology as gods or demons. But they are not gods.”
“But they are demons?”
She ignored the question. “For a very long time, the planet evolved and developed in peace. The surviving Saurians evolved into different branches, with the Ael at the top of the evolutionary tree. Others were able to come to the surface in certain regions where it was hot and dry. But then, about a million years ago, when the current ice age was at its peak and the Saurians were in retreat underground, there was an event that was to change the destiny of this planet forever.”
I waited. She was just staring at the road ahead.
I said, “What?”
“Earth was invaded by an alien species.”
I said, “Don’t tell me, the Grays.” I couldn’t keep the irony from my voice.
She gave a humorless snort. “No, Liam. The Grays, as you call them, are not aliens. These invaders came from a neighboring planet within the solar system. They had a problem. Their planet was just a little too small and its gravitational pull was not enough to hold their atmosphere. It was, literally, draining slowly into space. They were an intelligent, aggressive species and they had developed crude technology capable of taking them off-world and to their nearest neighbors’. Technologically, they were about where you are now.”
I pulled over into a lay-by. I killed the engine and stepped out of the car. We were in the sierra, surrounded by pine trees. It was chilly and dark, and the stars above were like tiny flakes of ice. There was no moon. I went and leaned against the hood of the car. I heard the door open and close behind me. Then she was standing nex
t to me, offering me the bottle of Jameson. I took it and put it to my lips. The warmth was good inside me. She was lighting two more Camels and handed me one.
I said, “You’re talking about Mars.”
“I don’t know the whole story, Liam. I know the Saurians, under the guidance of the Ael, had been going to Mars for a long time. But as the ice age began to bite, that stopped. There was mammalian life on both planets—had been for a long time. The people of Mars knew that Earth offered them hope, a new home. To them it was a paradise…an Eden.”
I said, “It’s bullshit,” but I didn’t believe me.
“There was war. It’s in all the mythology. You won.”
“We won.” I stared at her. I couldn’t keep the resentment from my voice. “Why do you keep talking as if you were one of them?”
She closed her eyes. She looked drained. “Because this is Joanna speaking to you. Like all victors, you skewed history and mythology to reflect your version of what happened. Yahweh, the angels, the gods… They were all human. The Naga, the devils, the evil ones… They were all reptiles, snakes, dragons who lived underground in Hell. You created an empire that spanned the equator. Its hub was in the Caribbean. You took possession of the surface. Your methods were, and always have been, aggressive, intelligent, systematic—military.”
I smoked and took another drink. The chill in the air made me shudder. The sky looked vast and the woods dark. I said, “And their methods?”
She shrugged. “Subtle. Humans are pack animals. Saurians and reptiles tend to be solitary, individual. They tried reason—” She laughed. “Remember the story of Adam and Eve? Lucifer, the bringer of light… He didn’t offer Eve an apple. He offered her the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. In return, you nuked them.”
“Stop.” I said it quietly. I’d had enough.
I had another drink and finished my cigarette. Then we drove on in silence, toward Ceuta.
There was no attack. They didn’t come for us.
We reached Ceuta at two a.m. I ditched the car in a back alley and we got a room at a filthy hostel where I told the guy at reception that Maria was my whore. I paid cash—no credit cards, no passports, no ID.
* * * *
It was pitch black and there was a dead weight on my chest. I could feel my heart racing. I tried to move my arms. They were immobilized. But there was something worse. I couldn’t breathe. I was suffocating and I couldn’t shout. Something was smothering my face, pushing down. I tried to thrash and kick but I was pinned, trapped. Then I realized what was happening and I allowed myself to panic. Because I knew if I didn’t, I was going to die. I arched my body, thrashed and hurled myself sideways. There was a loud thud. The darkness thinned. I gasped then threw myself away from the direction of the sound. I was on the end of the bed. The darkness shifted. I heard wood splinter. The old chair by the window. As my eyes adjusted, I saw the pale glow of the streetlights outside on the panes. Then a black shadow loomed. There was an inhuman sound and the blackness rushed at me.
Broken wood tore at my shoulder. Nails gripped at my neck. Instinct told me the broken wood was coming for my face. I grabbed a wrist, felt the wood tearing at my arm. I lashed out with my right, connected with a body then punched again. Warm blood was running down my other arm as the wood bit deeper. I heaved with all my strength and the body fell back, screeching. I lunged for where the door should be, for the light switch. Something caught my ankle and I fell hard on the tiled floor.
I broke my fall with my hands and felt slippery blood under my left fingers. I heard movement on my left and rolled right. Wood stabbed and splintered on the floor. I was on my knees, then on my feet, kicking out with my right foot. Claws ripped at my ankles, clutched at my leg, pulled hard. I fell on a body, grappling with it, clutching at invisible hands and arms. I was thrown hard on my back by incredible strength, pinned down. I groped. Two hands held the broken wood, forcing it down toward my neck and chest. I held both wrists in my hands but the force was too much and I could feel the jagged stake inching toward my windpipe. I knew I was near the door. I knew the rucksacks were there. I twisted my neck away, gripped hard with my left and groped out with my right, searching for the bags.
Only tiles. Cold tiles. The sharp, broken teeth of the wood were brushing my skin. I was losing my strength. I couldn’t hold. Then I felt the rim of a bag with my fingertips. Too late.
I yanked the bag to me. My left arm gave. The wooden stake plunged, going deep. I gasped and moaned, went limp and stopped breathing.
There was absolute stillness. A long time seemed to pass with the black body sitting heavy on my chest. Then a voice. A whisper.
“Liam?”
I didn’t move. I made no sound.
“Liam?” a little louder. Then growing frantic, “Liam? Liam, speak to me! Liam, please, wake up! Liam!” She was on her knees next to me, slapping at my face, holding my shoulders and shaking me.
I heard her scramble to her feet and head for the light. When it snapped on, she saw me on my back, staring with sightless eyes at the ceiling, the blood-smeared chair leg sticking out of my throat at a grotesque angle, clutched in both my hands.
She thought I was dead.
And the program in her brain would die, its purpose fulfilled, as she’d explained it to me.
She sank to her knees sobbing, wailing and repeating over and over, “Oh, God… Oh, God, no… Oh, God, no…”
I gave her a couple of seconds to fully assimilate that I was ‘dead’. Then I sat up and pulled the chair leg away from my neck where it had been buried in the fabric of the rucksack. She was staring at me, her mouth twisting as she released ugly sobs and her face drenched with tears.
I said, “It’s okay. You’re okay now.”
I pushed myself across the floor till I was next to her, then I took her in my arms and held her for a long time while she sobbed and cried out by turns, clinging to me. After maybe half an hour, I settled her on the bed, wrapped her in a blanket, found a tooth mug in the bathroom and poured her a stiff whiskey. She drank it in silence, trembling, holding the plastic mug with both hands.
Finally, I crouched in front of her and made her meet my eyes. I said, “It’s over. The program ran its course. Now it’s dead. You’re free.”
She stared at me with uncomprehending eyes. Her face creased like she was going to start sobbing again, but she said, “Oh, God, Liam, I thought I’d killed you.”
“And when you thought that, so did the biochip. It had done its job and that cell died.”
Her face cleared. “So?”
“So, it’s over.”
“But, what—?”
“Now we see what happens next.”
“Why did I—?”
“They must have triggered it because of the agreement we made in the car.”
She nodded, thinking.
I went on, “Which means there was, maybe still is, something in you that transmits to them somehow.”
“Joanna?”
“Maybe.”
“So what do we do now?”
“We wait and see. We wait and see what they do next.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The Balearia ferry didn’t depart till eight in the morning. We left the hostel at first light and found a café on the dock where we had coffee laced with Spanish cognac and toast doused in olive oil. By ten past nine, we were pulling out of the port, pushing through the still waters of the Mediterranean toward the distant hulk of Gibraltar.
I got some polystyrene coffee, took Maria by the arm then led her up to the deck. The sun was hot, even at that time of the morning, and the glare off the sea was blinding. But there was a strong breeze off the starboard side. It battered our clothes and whipped her hair across her face. We found a plastic table and chairs in a sheltered nook on the port side and sat in silence awhile, looking out toward the vast, dark Atlantic. I kept asking myself if I was sitting with Maria or Joanna. I needed to know.
Finally, I said, “I think yo
u’re bullshitting me.” I turned to face her.
She kept staring at the ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules.
I kept at her. “You said you’d give me information about this organization—whatever it is—and all you did was spin me a cock-and-bull story about dinosaurs and something that happened sixty-five million years ago.”
Now she faced me and held my gaze. “You told me to stop, remember?” It was Joanna.
“We have less than an hour. Tell me something I can believe before we reach Algeciras.”
She pulled a face and shook her head. “I can’t guarantee you’ll believe it, Liam. This whole thing exists because it’s unbelievable.”
“Try me.”
She sighed and let her gaze move back to the West. “I’ll try to keep it to what you believe is relevant.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
“This Martian race, because they were better suited to the cold environment on the surface and because of their systematic, military mentality, established their dominion and created an empire that spanned the globe around the equator. This was during the height of the ice age, when the north and south of the planet were covered in vast ice sheets. The equator was a lush, temperate zone. Their principal state was in what is now the Caribbean, stretching from Belize to Martinique, bounded by Cuba and the Dominican Republic in the east, and Honduras and Nicaragua in the west.”
I rubbed my face with my palms. I was getting antsy. “You’re talking about Atlantis, Maria. You’re doing it again.”
“Just shut up and listen, Liam.” She turned to face me and looked pretty antsy herself. “Not everything in this world fits into the nice, neat boxes that have been made for you. A couple of days ago you were taking photographs of people growing on giant cannabis plants, remember? Under the surface, Liam, this is a weird, fucked-up world. Now, do you want me to tell you how it is, or do you want to tell me how it is?”
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