by Black, Chuck
“Hey … you’re the one who got me into this mess to start with. I’m just telling it like it is. I thought you were all gung-ho on this alien stuff.”
Ben rubbed his forehead with his fingertips. “I know … I know. It’s what I’ve always suspected and more. It’s like the Autobots and the Decepticons … Neo and Agent Smith … Obi-Wan and Darth Vader … It’s like every epic fantasy or science fiction story ever imagined … but it’s actually happening. I can’t get my mind around it. It’s like—”
Drew finished for him. “Like subconsciously we know something is happening but can’t quite put our finger on it, so we replicate it in our stories.”
Ben pointed at Drew. “Yes! Yes, that’s it! We know, don’t we? Mankind knows!”
“Yes, I think so. But not enough to change it.”
Ben’s eyes were wild. “What about spaceships or portal terminals or other alien technology? Have you seen anything like that?”
Drew shook his head. “No … nothing. I’ve only seen them run … or rather fly across the ground. They move so fast it’s hard to tell.”
“How did they get here?”
Drew shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe they’ve been here for thousands of years … maybe they’re marooned here … who could know?”
Ben’s eyes saddened. “Do you think we’re the only humans in the entire world who know what’s happening?”
Drew took a deep breath and considered. “How could anyone know without the LASOK?”
Ben looked out across the peaceful lake, toward shore. “Maybe, but what if there’s an underground group of people who … somehow know. What if we could find them?”
That thought had never occurred to Drew, and now it was his turn to ponder this new perspective. “How could we even look for such a group, if they even existed, without sounding or looking mad? There are a lot of wackos out there.”
“What about the CIA or the FBI or some secret government organization with letters we’ve never heard of?”
Drew nodded. “Yeah … it would have to be someone with access to some serious technology. Maybe there’s a way to detect the aliens without actually seeing them …” Drew looked away.
“What is it, Drew? What aren’t you telling me?”
“The FBI … they’re looking for me.”
“What?” Ben whisper-shouted. “The FBI?”
Drew nodded. He told his friend about the incident at Drayle University, and Ben listened in stunned silence.
Drew shook his head. “It’s hard to watch all this destruction without trying to do something about it.”
“I can only imagine. But what can you do anyway?”
Drew looked sideways at Ben, not sure if he wanted to tell him about his other special abilities, but he could see that Ben was already waiting for something more. “There were some side effects that came with the accident.”
“Like?” Ben looked impatient.
“Like I can see, hear, feel, and smell things in our dimension that I never could before. And I can move quicker. Everything seems to be … accelerated … improved.”
Ben laughed. “So you’re like some superhero or something?”
“Hardly. I don’t know what I am, but I don’t want it. I wish I could just be normal and ignore all of this. My whole life has been cursed!”
“Hey … I’ve been hiding out in the dark, waiting for them to get me at any moment. You want to talk about cursed? I think I was starting to go crazy!”
Drew stared at his friend and realized just how true that was. He was even now questioning if Ben had stepped off the ledge a bit. Unlike Ben, at least he had a way of fighting back.
“There are times when I think the invaders suspect me. At least one of them does.” Drew shivered as he thought of Kurgan.
“Why swords? You did say swords, right?” Ben asked out of the blue.
“Yeah … but they can use anything that’s in our world too. Knives, axes, clubs, guns … although nothing big, for some reason.”
“So they can use guns, but they use swords? I don’t get it. Why don’t they use guns all the time? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“I wondered that too until I realized that they are fast enough to dodge bullets … at least usually. There’s only one handgun that seems to give them trouble, the FN Five-Seven.”
“I have no idea what that is.”
“It’s a handgun used by the Secret Service. The muzzle velocity is over two thousand feet per second. That’s probably why they have a hard time dodging those bullets. Maybe that’s the limit of their speed. It doesn’t matter though. Once the bullet leaves the gun, the shooter has no control over it, but the tip of a sword is always under an invader’s control. Invaders are so fast that I think the tips of their swords fly faster than our bullets … even an FN Five-Seven.”
“Yeah, but what about longer range, when a sword won’t do? Why not use guns?”
“They do occasionally, but the longer the range, the more time they have to dodge the bullet. They seem able to see every little detail, including a bullet in flight. I’ve seen a light invader dodge and deflect bullets with his sword until he cut the attacker down from three feet. This is a battle like our world has never seen.”
Ben let out a low whistle. “I’ve imagined a lot, but never anything like that.”
Drew and Ben both fell silent as they considered all that had been said. Drew scanned again, then looked at Ben. His face said it all. He looked worried, tired, and afraid.
“Hey, we’re not alone anymore, Ben. We may be the only two in seven billion people who know what’s going on, but we have each other now, and we need a plan,” Drew said with conviction. “A plan that will give us purpose and direction.”
This helped Ben a little. “Agreed.”
“The way I see it, we need help, and to get help, we need people to believe us, and to get people to believe us, we need evidence.”
“What kind of evidence?”
“The same kind that made us believers.” Drew looked straight at Ben.
His friend’s lips turned upward. “I know where you’re going with this, and I’ve given it a lot of thought, Drew.” Excitement spilled from his eyes. “It’s one of the reasons I chose Chicago: availability of resources and technology. I think I could do it. I knew Dr. Waseem’s work better than anybody, even the grad students. I’ve been studying and have re-created many of the notes and schematics.” Ben’s countenance lowered. “But it would take space, time, and a lot of money.”
Drew’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, it would, and it would have to all be done in secret.”
Ben nodded.
“Time, we have, even if it takes ten years. You start looking for the space, and I’ll see what I can do about the money. I haven’t explored all the benefits of seeing interdimensionally just yet. Perhaps there’s a way to leverage some funds.”
It seemed impossible, and yet, hope revived them. Drew could see the wheels turning in Ben’s mind once again. He smiled …
Ben was back.
25
THE PLAN
Drew started to paddle the canoe.
“Hey, I’m not done. I have a million questions. We can’t go back yet,” Ben said.
“I know. We might look a little funny just sitting still in the middle of the water. Ben, we need an MO.”
“A what?”
“A method of operation—rules that we operate under and never break.”
“Like what? Stay away from cars?”
“No. Like rule number one: when we aren’t here, we can never talk about the invaders. Don’t think you can fool them; they are extremely intelligent. I’m certain they can’t read minds, but if they can spy on someone without them knowing it, they wouldn’t need to.”
“Okay. Agreed. What else?”
“Rule number two: from this moment on, you can never go back to any place in Chicago that you’ve already been.”
“What? Why? Why me and not you?”
> “First, I can see them and you can’t. Second, you’ve been targeted, Ben. That close call this morning at the intersection? That was them.”
Ben’s face went white. “I knew it! Stuff like that has been happening for the last week. I knew they were onto me, but I couldn’t do anything about it. So you were there? You saw it?”
“Yes. Two invaders were manipulating people to try to kill you. I had to find a way to get you away from them without suspecting me.”
Ben swallowed hard. “If it hadn’t been for that guy behind me I wouldn’t be here right now.”
Chills went up and down Drew’s spine. The eyes of the cabby—that’s where Drew had seen them before. It was the same guy! Was he human? Was he part of some secret group that knew what was happening, trying to protect Ben too? Possibilities flew through his mind.
“What about my job? My apartment?”
“You can never go back, Ben. You have to change everything. They know what’s important to you, and they’ll be waiting.”
Ben put his head in his hands. “I have to have my notebooks and computers. Without them, it can’t be done.”
“Can’t be done? You said you were re-creating the doc’s work. Can’t you just do it again?”
Ben frowned at Drew. “One of the hard drives on my server is a complete backup of Dr. Waseem’s work. He asked me to do it as a secondary backup. The university didn’t know I had it, and when it looked like there was foul play, I kept it a secret. My notes and schematics are derived from the information on that hard drive. Without that data, we don’t have a chance.”
“It’s going to be dangerous, Ben. The risk is great.”
Ben thought for a moment and then shook his head. “I have to have them if we are going to pull this off.”
Drew took a deep breath. “I’ll think about it and see what we can do. Maybe we can stage a theft or something.”
Ben seemed satisfied with that, at least for now. “Rule number three?”
“No one else knows until we have positive proof.”
Ben gazed out toward the shore. “Yeah … we definitely need proof.”
Drew laughed. “Your previous boss didn’t buy it, huh?”
Ben just stared back. “Anything else?”
“Not now. We may need to modify our MO as we proceed, but that should keep us safe for now. You, we can make completely disappear. For me, I think I can use Sydney’s ID for what I’m going to do to raise funds. If not, how are you at forging fake IDs?”
“How do you think I became Chider Anderson? Wait … did I hear you say Sydney … your Sydney?”
Drew nodded.
“Oh man! Drew, what are you thinking? What about rule number three, huh?”
“She doesn’t know about the invaders. She thinks this is all about a conspiracy to keep Dr. Waseem’s research under wraps and that the FBI might be involved. She knows they’re looking for me and thinks they’re the only ones we’re hiding from. It’s a good cover.”
“Not good, Drew. Not good.”
“Listen, she came to me, and quite frankly if she hadn’t, you’d probably be dead right now. She’s the one that found the lead that led me to you.”
Ben’s eyes widened. “Really? She helped you find me?”
“Yes. Without her it would have taken me months longer to find you. From the way those invaders were coming after you, I don’t think you would have made it.”
Ben bit his lower lip. “Okay, so I owe her my life … I got it.”
“My biggest concern about Sydney is making her a target. At least you knew they were after you. She doesn’t have a clue what’s happening and who to be afraid of.”
Ben nodded. “We’ll have to be careful.” He got really quiet. “The next time you see her, tell her thanks, okay?”
“Sure.”
“Hey, what about my bank account and my money?”
“We’re going to have to leave it. It’s the first place they’ll look for you, and if they can cloak themselves, I’m sure they’re smart enough to trace bank wires. When we get you hooked back up online with your computers, you’re going to have to be careful to the extreme. Can you remain electronically anonymous for your research?”
Ben nodded. “Yeah, I can.”
Both of them fell silent, and Drew just let the canoe drift for a few minutes. What lay before them seemed impossible. It felt like they were fighting every evil villain that ever existed and as if they were going up against the FBI, CIA, KGB, and the Mossad, all at the same time.
“So where should I go?” Ben broke their solemn silence. “Do we leave Chicago?”
“I’d like to. These invaders seem to have certain regions of responsibility. I was being tracked in Kansas until I broke loose and disappeared in Chicago. However, there is one invader I’ve seen both in Kansas and in Chicago.” Drew paused. “I don’t want to cross paths with him again … I think he’s one of the commanders. The other invaders all fear him.”
“Where to then?”
“The problem is, Sydney’s my connection with the grid, and she’s got a perfect alibi for being here. She’s going to UIC and doing mission work at a church in the ghetto. Right now she doesn’t suspect the invaders, and the invaders don’t suspect her. The hitch with Sydney is that the FBI may be watching her.”
“Oh … well, if it’s only the FBI,” Ben said in his old dry humor.
Drew smiled. “If I can avoid the invaders, I can avoid the FBI. We need Sydney, and therefore we are going to have to stay near Chicago. Let’s put you up way out in the burbs … preferably near water. How much space will you need to re-create Dr. Waseem’s work?”
“Fifteen hundred square feet minimum, with a ten-foot ceiling. Stable power and the fastest broadband we can find. Oh … and a bed.”
“You want to sleep in the lab?”
“We want this to happen as fast as possible, don’t we?”
Drew nodded. “You got it.”
“So where are we going to get the money for all this?”
“Do you remember the mock investments I played with in high school and my freshman year at Drayle?”
Ben smiled. “You did well, but we’re talking millions, Drew. I just can’t see it happening.”
Drew looked at the inside of their aluminum canoe.
“Ben, do you see these rivets around the rim of our canoe?”
“Yeah.”
“Count them.”
“What? Why?”
“Just count them. Go.”
Drew focused and swept his eyes around the entire rim. “Stop. How far did you get?”
“Twenty-three. What does this have to do with anything?”
“There are four hundred and sixteen rivets.”
Ben stared at him. “How did you do that?”
“I can see things and evaluate them in seconds. I don’t know how I can do it, I just can.” He smiled. “And the Chicago Mercantile Exchange is sitting right under our noses.”
Ben thought for moment, then squinted. “Do you think you can do it for real?”
“We’re going to find out. How much money is it going to take?”
“Dr. Waseem had six million in grants.”
Drew shook his head. “Even on my best investments I didn’t get close to that, and we’ll be using most of the earnings to buy equipment instead of reinvesting. Give me a number that’s realistic.”
“Well, a lot of the money was used up in his initial research. I won’t have to repeat that. And I think I can find used equipment that will do just as well as what he bought.” Ben squinted as he did some quick calculations. “Some of that equipment is way expensive, Drew. I’d need two million … one point five at the very least.”
Drew nodded. “That’s going to take some time, but we can build as we go.”
“How come you haven’t hit the exchange already?”
“It’s too exposed. I couldn’t risk it while I was looking for you, but now I don’t see that we have any other choice.
”
The two men looked at each other across the canoe.
“You ready for this?” Drew asked.
Ben clenched his jaw. “I can’t wait!”
Drew smiled.
“Thanks for finding me, Drew.”
“Hey, we stand by each other, remember? No matter what happens.”
Drew didn’t know what the future held. Didn’t know if they’d succeed. But he did know one thing that gave him hope …
He was no longer alone in his mission.
Drew and Ben found an apartment north of Chicago, not far from the resort lake where they had devised the plan. Drew left Ben with some cash and a promise to return with his notebooks and computers, although he wasn’t quite sure how to pull that off without blowing his cover. It might be the one string in the web that, if tripped, would bring the spiders after them in full force.
THE NEXT MORNING, Drew drove to Ben’s old apartment and conducted surveillance from a safe distance. The monotonous task was interrupted frequently by dark invaders who were doing more than just passing by. They were looking and waiting. Drew aborted any thoughts of recovering Ben’s work, for at least a few days—until the invader activity around the building diminished.
Drew’s next stop was the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. His delivery shift at Mr. Lee’s didn’t start until ten, so when trading commenced at eight thirty, he watched the trading floor come alive. Although he observed from the fourth-floor viewing area, he felt the pulse of the exchange as if it were a living creature. The ticker screens streamed instantaneous stock information that Drew absorbed as he scanned the pit. The open outcry trades escalated the excitement that Drew felt as he became lost in a world few understood. His mind raced as he analyzed thousands of potential buys and sells. Any experienced trader would consider him a fool to try to jump into the heart of such a beast, but Drew was not dissuaded, for they could not see what he saw. Two hours passed before Drew could detach himself from the hypnotizing throb of the pit.
“You late, Mr. Ryan!” Mr. Lee’s gaze was fierce. He stuck his finger into Drew’s chest. “First you not show up, now you late. You fired!”