Harvey sauntered out to the front yard where Mercman's rented, white SUV was parked. He searched it thoroughly, and was gratified when he found the briefcase containing the cash down payment that he had given the mercenaries. He counted the cash and was pleased to discover they had only spent a small portion of the one hundred thousand dollars. It had taken his life savings and every penny that he had embezzled from CronLab over the years to finance his plan, but it had worked flawlessly. Now, since he would be presumed dead in the CronLab blast, he intended to assume a new identity and take his rightful place among the powerful and the wealthy. He patted the gem, safe in his sweater pocket and went to fetch the carpet cleaner.
His mood was buoyant as he shampooed the living room carpet. As he scrubbed and extracted the body fluids from the rug, he sang a song he had made up on the spot. The words coming out of his mouth made no sense, but his euphoria was plainly expressed in the exuberant, disjointed melody. His celebratory mood wasn't diminished in the slightest even after he realized that he needed to shampoo the entire carpet, as the areas he had cleaned only served to point out how dirty the rest of it was.
"Got plenty of time, live on the dime, make it a crime," he sang to himself. He wasn't in a hurry as there wasn't much of anything else that he needed to attend to until after the sun went down. Then, he would recreate a scene or two from the movie "Fargo". Harvey Matthews chortled with happiness. He was truly having a five-star day.
CHAPTER TEN
Intersection
"YOU CAN'T SLEEP here!”
The sharp rap on the driver side window woke JB immediately. He opened his eyes and saw the security guard glaring at him through the glass.
"You can't sleep here," repeated the guard gruffly.
JB waved him off, but the man rapped on the glass again and motioned for JB to roll down his window. After what had happened earlier on the road, his brain was wired differently. Whether he was aware of it or not, JB had instantly deduced that the security guard was human… Otherwise, he’d already be dead. Still he was wary, and slowly lowered his window only enough to have a conversation. He looked over to LuAnne, who unsurprisingly, was also awake before he turned back to address the guard.
"Awww, man," he protested in a voice that sounded far groggier than he actually was. At this moment, his Sawbonites had taken charge of his endocrine system and were pouring carefully calibrated amounts of hormones into his bloodstream to ensure he was fully alert.
The guard was a large, black man in his late fifties with short, curly, black hair streaked with grey. He wore a weary expression on his face that plainly said he wasn’t looking for trouble, but intended to enforce the rules. However, JB needed to press the issue. He had his own reasons as to why he didn't want to be back on the road just yet.
"Com' on… let us stay please, I'm too drunk too drive," he pleaded as sincerely as he could, making sure to slur his words. "My sister n' me just need a couple hours to sleep it off."
The security guard shook his head and replied tersely, "I'm sorry sir, but you're gonna have to leave. Campers and RVs only can overnight here."
JB nodded drunkenly, and fumbled with the keys in the ignition. "Okay, I jus' didn' want Mama to see baby sister drunk and all."
LuAnne, taking the cue, let her head loll loosely to one side. She shot the guard a crooked leer.
"Uh, you know, hold on…hold on," said the security man, who had just begun to consider what would happen if JB didn’t make it out of the parking lot without running into something. Any incident on his watch and he would surely get the blame. He had heard that was what happened to the guy who had the job before him.
At his age, he considered himself lucky to be working, and he certainly wasn't going to risk his job for a couple of drunks. After all, he knew it was a bullshit rule. Probably made up by some entitled guy in management who thought that folks who slept in their cars wouldn't spend much money in the store. Typical, he thought.
After taking a deep sigh the guard relented. "Okay, but just this once, understand? You can stay until you sleep it off, but then I want you gone."
"Yes sir! Thank you sir!" JB slurred contritely and turned off the engine. He rolled the window back up as the guard walked away, shaking his head and muttering something about idiots. There were still several hours until dawn and JB planned to take advantage of them. Sleep seemed to be as important to his Sawbonites as it was to him. He looked over at LuAnne who wasn't looking sleepy in the slightest.
"Why did you want us to stay here?" she asked.
"Because, it's a good bet that by now everybody is on the lookout for us, an' by everybody, I mean, troopers, killers in white SUVs, and aliens. As far as that goes, I think we'll be safer once the sun comes up. In the morning, we'll be less conspicuous, they'll be more traffic and lots of other pickups on the road. An' also, aliens seem to prefer strikin' at night. At sunrise we'll get over an' see about this Harvey fella." He closed his eyes, hoping for a few more hours of rest. He was sure he was going to need it.
Meanwhile, the security guard returned to his rounds satisfied that at the very least, he had kept that moron and his sister from plowing into somebody with their truck tonight. He was happy with himself about how he had handled the situation. It was way better for all concerned to just let them sleep it off in the parking lot. In every other regard, aside from the drunks in the blue pickup, it had so far been a routine night. Unfortunately, he was to learn otherwise.
When he walked back to the tiny shack that served as his office, he didn't see the alien in the darkness that was targeting him with its weapon. Neither did he feel anything when he was instantly incinerated by the intense, blue-white blast.
The alien rechecked the other item it held in its tentacles. The instrument's interface emitted pheromones corresponding to the precise location of the faint signals broadcast from the target's medical protocols. It indicated the quarry, known to it as the Abomination, was very near.
The alien was astonished that the primitive had been able to survive with the technology it had stolen, by all accounts, it should have died instantly. Instead, it not only had lived, but flourished, creating an even greater disaster. It was an unthinkable situation, some of the best scientific minds in the universe had taken great pains to prevent any of their technology from being let loose in the wild, yet it had happened. If that wasn't bad enough, somehow a primitive organism had been able to pervert a simple and commonplace tech into something completely unimaginable.
Before it had been sent on this mission, it had been warned not to underestimate the Abomination, as other attempts to destroy it had all ended in failure. Regardless, the alien had resolved to succeed where others had not. However, now there had been a wholesale change in tactics before it had been deployed. Kill the primitive, yes, but obliterate it, no.
The instructions it received were to bring back as much organic material as possible, at any cost. It appeared that while some of its superiors were terrified of this thing, there were others who wanted to replicate what it had been able to accomplish. Although the idea of weaponizing medical tech held ominous implications, that was none of its concern at the moment.
The alien referred to its instrument once again and instantly located JB, unmoving in his truck. It intended to get as close as possible for a clean shot. It had been warned that the Abomination would be difficult to kill because its medical tech was remarkably efficient. It had also know, that earlier in the planet's rotation, another member of the Har, disguised as a primitive, had failed spectacularly. It had hoped to preserve a large amount of organic material by killing it with a crude, indigenous, projectile weapon. That had been a big mistake and one that it had no intention of repeating.
It had been equipped with an advanced, close range weapon with a range of settings. The highest settings, like the plasma pulse it had just fired, were designed to obliterate, and the lower settings, depending on the life form, would simply kill. However, it had decided not t
o take any chances, and re-adjusted the pulse strength midway between the lowest and the highest settings. Its foremost concern was to kill the Abomination and return alive. It guessed that there might be some organic material left to retrieve, but that was something to worry about later. Silently, it crept closer to the truck, keeping low to the ground in the darkness and training its weapon directly ahead.
"JB, there's something out there," LuAnne whispered, as she shook him by his arm.
Instantly alert, he peered ahead through the windshield into the darkness and saw nothing. Then, both of his eyes bulged out several inches and his optic nerves readjusted for maximum infrared sensitivity as he swept the parking lot.
"I don't think I could ever get used to seein' that," LuAnne said, as she watched him perform the modification.
JB didn't reply, he was concentrating on the movement he spotted between two RV’s parked twenty yards ahead of them.
Skulking in the shadows of the large vehicles, the alien consulted the device in its tentacles. It indicated that the target was dead ahead, but before it advanced, it hesitated as it reconsidered the power setting on its weapon. It decided to adjust it upwards, towards the maximum setting. Better to return with a smaller sample, than not to return at all.
Cautiously, it drew closer to the machine where its target had taken refuge. It had already analyzed the primitive mechanism holding the truck door closed. Delicately, one of its tentacles snaked up and grasped the handle. Suddenly, JB forcefully kicked the driver’s side door open, striking the alien squarely in the center of its triangular head. Surprised and stunned, the alien staggered back, losing its weapon in the process. Without waiting, JB leapt on top of it, wrapping his arms around the thing’s oval torso, scrambling to pin down its writhing tentacles and prevent it from regaining its weapon.
The alien, despite its smaller size, was surprisingly strong and quick. While wrestling an alien was something that JB had never contemplated, he was completely unprepared for the discoveries that followed. It wasn’t just that the alien was so much heavier than it appeared, but even more alarmingly, it was impossible to hold onto… Much like trying to wrestle with a half-full water balloon. The alien was able to redistribute its body mass and weight under pressure, easily freeing itself from JB’s grasp. Unfettered, its mass of tentacles lunged at him in a single motion, encircling his body with unbelievable speed and deftness. In the blink of an eye, their positions had reversed.
Now it was JB that was trapped, held fast by the thick coil of tentacles that pinned his arms and legs against his sides. He watched helplessly as one of the alien's appendages groped for the weapon lying close by on the ground. Deciding that there was no time to break free, JB suddenly wrenched his body and shifted his weight hard over to one side. JB’s move caused the two of them to roll over on top of each other. He had hoped his momentum would carry them away from the weapon. But the alien, caught off guard by JB’s unexpected action, countered by leveraging its redistributed weight and mass. This resulted in not only stopping their forward roll, but instantly reversed it. The change in the alien’s center of gravity powerfully spun them both back in the direction of where the weapon lay.
The alien extended another, long tentacle and seized the pistol-like device. The tentacle readjusted its grip on the weapon and then, the boneless appendage began to bend backwards, angling it towards JB’s head.
JB felt the rush of adrenaline as his Sawbonites pumped him up for what he knew was a do or die moment. A heartbeat before the alien finished bringing the weapon into position, JB thrust his elbows out and apart with every ounce of his Sawbonite enhanced strength. He burst free from the alien's grasp, tearing the tentacles that were wrapped around his body apart as if they were string cheese. He reached for and grabbed the single remaining tentacle that still held the weapon. In a desperate move, he redirected the appendage just as the alien activated the energy pulse. The burst of blue-white heat neatly evaporated the off-worlder’s head from its bulbous body in a spurt of sizzling flesh and a plume of nasty smelling smoke.
JB rolled off the corpse and got to his feet. His shirt was covered with ash from the incinerated alien. Brushing it off, he caught LuAnne’s concerned look through the trucks windshield and gave her an “I’m all right” wave, followed by a “stay there” upraised hand. He redeployed his night vision mod and resumed his scan of the parking lot until he was satisfied that there were no more immediate threats.
The life-death struggle had been nearly noiseless, but even so, JB confirmed that the windows of the nearby RVs remained dark, their curtains drawn and undisturbed. He then returned his attention to his would be assassin. The medical protocols escaping from the dead alien's carcass had already consolidated into a single iridescent cloud.
At it engulfed him, he stood quietly, allowing the legions of the alien’s Sawbonites to be absorbed into his body. As he watched the alien remains dissolve away, an odd thought occurred to him. However, he put it aside for the time being while he retrieved the alien hardware it had left behind.
As he expected, all of the devices were completely inoperative. While he recognized the weapon for what it was, he had no idea what the other items did, and frankly, he didn’t care. Not bothering to examine them any further, he threw them into Ol’ Blue’s toolbox with the rest of his "space junk" collection.
However, his odd thought returned to him as climbed back into the truck. He looked directly at LuAnne for a long moment. Then he asked, “How'd y'all see that critter sneakin’ up on us?”
She gave a little shrug. "Couldn't sleep, an' I saw a glint of something out there."
"Good thing y'all did… Or we'd be dead."
"Just lucky, that's all," she replied.
JB studied her neutral expression. His Sawbonites hadn’t alerted him of the danger, and he was beginning to think that maybe more than luck was involved, although he didn’t share that with her. He only said, “Let’s hope y’all stay lucky…" He stretched and managed a yawn. "But, I wouldn't need so much luck if I could figure how they keep finding me so damn easy."
"What about your Sawbonites?" she asked, "Think they're phonin' home?"
JB raised his eyebrows and said, "I'm not sure how them little critters could do that, but it sure would explain things. What made y'all think of it?"
"I dunno, just came to me."
Even if that turned out to be the case, it was yet another puzzle for him to solve, and like all of the others, it would have to wait. Yet, that was a provocative theory; that somehow his little critters could give him away. He said, "Problem is, I don't know what I can do about it. Certain things I can get my Sawbonites to do by just thinkin' about things, but other stuff happens by all itself. Sometimes I think the damn things are smarter than I am."
“Could be… Or, maybe you just don’t know how to ask ‘em,” LuAnne replied.
JB's laugh was short and dismissive. "Maybe I need to say, "please"."
"Maybe so."
He drove off of the lot without replying and got back onto the highway. When the sun came up an hour later they had driven within a few miles of their destination. It was then that the battery power on the cell phone ran out before the navigation app could complete the route guidance. They stopped at a gas station supermarket just long enough to buy a phone charger and a bag of fried chicken.
JB didn't wait until he got back into the truck before he took a bite out of a drumstick. It was way over salted, but it still hit the spot. He slid back onto the driver's seat and handed the charger to LuAnne who gave him a look that implied that she didn't know what to do with it. JB figured she was just tired, and probably needed to eat. He took the charger back and tried to hand her a piece of chicken.
"Are you kidding me?" she said refusing the chicken. "I don't think I could ever bring myself to eat that!”
"Y'all gotta eat. Keep ya strength up."
"I'll be fine," LuAnne retorted. "In fact, I'll be much better off with just some water."
"Suit yourself," he replied, tearing into the chicken wing LuAnne had refused. He plugged the charger into the cigarette lighter on the dash and handed her the end of the phone cord.
LuAnne gave him the same blank look. ”It's not my phone… I don't know where this goes," she said, handing the phone back to JB.
Keeping the piece of chicken between his clenched teeth, he wiped his hands on his jeans and plugged in the charging cord.
"Okay," he said eyeing the display as the navigation app reappeared. "We're in business again."
Watchful for any signs of law enforcement or CronLab presence they followed the directions until they emerged into the rural valley where Harvey Matthews made his home.
It was still early in the day when the guidance system announced they had reached Matthews’ address, or actually the rural mailbox that marked the junction of his driveway with the main road. JB slowly drove past, noting the long stretch of dirt road that served as the driveway. It cut through the trees in a straight shot, providing him an unobstructed view of the house.
What he saw galvanized him into stopping the truck. He used his binocular mod and extended both of his eyes to take a closer look. A second look confirmed his suspicions. Parked in front of the house was a white, late-model SUV. He was absolutely sure it was the one that he had seen fleeing the CronLab explosion.
He looked carefully at the house for further signs of life, but the curtains in the front window were drawn closed and there was no movement anywhere that he could see.
"Well, that there pretty much sums it up," JB mused out loud, retracting his eye mods.
"What? What did you see?" LuAnne asked.
"Enough to tell me that we've likely found the head of the snake."
JB put Ol' Blue back in gear and kept on driving, searching for somewhere he could pull off the road and park among the trees, preferably out of sight from the house. A short distance ahead he rounded a bend in the road and found a spot that offered some cover. He parked the truck, but only after maneuvering it nose out as a precaution in case they needed to make a quick getaway. It made no difference whether his prudence was a result of many close calls, or a self-preserving quirk that his Sawbonites had rewired into his brain. He realized that single precaution still didn’t make up for the fact that he had no “plan B”. In fact, he was going in totally unprepared. He had no idea what he would find; let alone what he would do about it.
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