Alien Nation

by Gini Koch

  “It’s being televised because Mister Joel Oliver is there with Jeff, so yes.” Serene sounded tense, which was appropriate in this case. “Everyone’s still alive.” She didn’t add “for now” but assumed she was thinking it.

  White tapped on his communicator watch. “Christopher, what have you found?” There was no answer. White tried again. Still silence.

  “Christopher’s found a trap or a bunch of enemies and is too busy to talk, is what Christopher’s found. Meaning we have to get off this deck and into the building. The issue is, do we go up or down?”

  White was tapping away on his watch. “I have no idea,” he said finally. “Because either the entire team is too busy to respond, or they’re all captured. Or worse.”

  “Serene, are you still there?”

  “Yes, but I can’t raise anyone else. Nothing shows as malfunctioning but no one is responding to Bluetooth or watch communicators.”

  Thought fast. “They’re captured, some or all of the team, and someone’s reverse engineered the tech to spot where we all are. And that means they’re tracing back to you.”

  “It’ll take them a long while to manage it,” Serene said. “I’m using Tobin’s equipment.”

  “Well and good, but turn the tech off.”

  “What, yours?”

  “Everyone’s. Turn the watches and Bluetooths and whatever else off right now. Kill them, so to speak. The four of us need to get rid of our watches and earpieces immediately.”

  “But Gustav created all this,” Serene protested. “How could they reverse engineer it so fast?”

  “LaRue’s clone would be my first guess. The Tinkerer is doing them a solid is my second guess. G-Company employs the best is my third guess. Take your pick, but we’re off the line. Will call you when we can using our regular phones. Anyone calling in on whatever your Bluetooth line is should be immediately suspect. And put up the shield for wherever you are—just in case they’ve had enough time to break Tobin’s scrambling code.”

  Took the Bluetooth out of my ear and the watch communicator off my wrist. Considered taking the music Bluetooth out, but my music changed to Billy Joel’s “Leave a Tender Moment Alone,” which seemed to indicate Algar wanted me to keep on feeling the special bond of his musical choices. Worked for me.

  Was pretty sure the shoes weren’t sturdy enough to stomp on these without hurting us. Put them on the deck and used the butt of one of the spare guns to smash them. The others handed me theirs and I did the same. Had a pile of formerly awesome junk shortly.

  Scooped it all up and indicated White should open the big purse. He did and I found a bag in it. Dumped the remains into it, folded the top of the bag up, and dumped it into the big purse.

  “Why are you taking that?” Abigail asked.

  “I’m not willing to give any of our enemies, old, new, or yet to come, an extra edge. Serene couldn’t reach anyone, either, by the way, though I’m sure you all guessed.”

  “So it’s just the four of us?” Mahin asked. She sounded more than slightly freaked out.

  “Apparently.” White didn’t sound freaked out, but he didn’t sound happy, either.

  The revolving door moved, but there was no one there. Siler shimmered into view. “The five of us.”

  CHAPTER 73

  ALL FOUR OF US JUMPED. I only managed not to scream because I’d seen the door move. “Nightcrawler, was that drama really necessary?”

  “Yes. Link up, fast.” We did. White held my upper arm so my gun hand was technically free and Siler grabbed my left hand. Felt the tingle that meant we were blending.

  Just in time, as another Darryl Lowe walked out through the revolving doors. He was carrying what looked like a stun gun, but he had a semiautomatic pistol on his hip. “They have to be here,” Lowe said as Kellogg walked through the revolving doors now, too, also carrying a stun gun but with two semis on his hips. “I saw them clearly. My ‘sister’ is with them. But I think we should kill her, too.”

  So the cloning worked like it did for Multiple Man—he could see what his clones saw. Hoped he could feel what they felt, too, but didn’t bet on it.

  “No, the boss wants them alive,” Kellogg said. “All of them. He has plans.”

  “Why hasn’t he cloned you yet?” Lowe asked as they started off at a leisurely stroll, heading for where we’d just been. We followed, walking slowly and carefully.

  “He said it’s because my talents don’t transfer the way yours do. Yours are innate, mine are learned.”

  Interesting. So they’d lost the ability to transfer their minds’ knowledge back and forth. Good and go team. Nice to know our raid during Operation Infiltration had done some lasting damage to Cliff’s side.

  “Think we’re going back to the States soon?” Lowe asked now. Apparently this was just a day at the park for them. Or it was the first time they were able to talk alone.

  Kellogg shrugged. “Don’t care. It’s better here. You ask me, the boss should stick with G-Company.”

  “He has bigger plans, you know that.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard. Look, all I know is that we’ve spent more time locked up than not following his plans. We’re finally in with a solid organization. I say we stay here, shut up, and just enjoy what G-Co had to offer.”

  “Yeah, I see your point.” Lowe shrugged. “Well, we’ll take care of the remaining problems and then worry about it tomorrow, right?”

  Kellogg laughed. “Yeah. Tomorrow’s definitely going to be another day.”

  Figured we had less than a minute before they realized we weren’t where they expected us to be. Had a choice. We could find out what Cliff’s plans were or we could kill these two right now. Figured I knew what Cliff’s plans were, the likelihood that we’d get any intel we could use out of these two was slim to none, my gun was fully loaded and in my hand, and there was literally no time like the present. My music changing to “Shoot to Thrill” by AC/DC was also something of a clue.

  Let go of Siler and pulled away from White. Moved into the position Mom had taught me—body straight, shoulders over hips, legs just a bit more than shoulder length apart. Aimed for Kellogg. Took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and shot to kill.

  Hit him three times in his torso and one in the back of the head. As he went down, Lowe spun around and aimed his stun gun at me. Would have shot him but White pulled me aside and down. He had Mahin and Abigail down already.

  Tried to get up to shoot again, but it turned out I didn’t have to. Lowe’s neck twisted around in a way human necks are not supposed to. Then Siler unblended and put three bullets into Lowe’s head. He added two more into Kellogg’s head, presumably because he believed in the double-tap. I didn’t fault this at all.

  “I wasn’t expecting you to shoot anyone in the back,” Siler said as we trotted over to him and he searched the bodies. “But well done.”

  “Yeah, that Old West honor thing sounds great, but in real life, you get better results if you choose to just kill the known, irredeemable bad guys the fastest and easiest way possible.”

  Lowe wanting to kill Mahin had been more than enough proof for me that he was a lost cause, and Kellogg was a hired killer who couldn’t wait to move up in G-Company. Felt no remorse at all. Wondered if I should and decided this was a talk I could have with Jeff and Mom later. I first needed to assure that Jeff and the others all got to have a later.

  “What happened to everyone else?” White asked.

  “No idea,” Siler said as he took their guns and handed them to me. Dropped said guns into my purse. Noted I had Poofs on Board, all snoozing. The Poofs who normally traveled with me, plus all the Poofs who belonged to everyone inside the restaurant. This boded. “I tried to reach James, got no response, and stopped trying. I was closest to you four, and on my way, I spotted these two,” he indicated the dead bodies, “coming here, cheerfully discussing h
ow much fun they were going to have hurting the four of you since they weren’t allowed to kill you.”

  “Charming. Do we think this is the real Lowe? I mean that seriously.” Filled Siler in on the Multiple Man situation.

  “Kellogg was treating him like a real person,” Siler said. “Barring both of these being clones and all of this an elaborate ruse to pass misinformation to you.”

  “Where’s your watch and Bluetooth?” Abigail asked. “Kitty had us destroy ours.”

  Siler shot me a proud smile. “Well done.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out trashed tech. White got out our Tech Trash Bag and Siler added his in. “The moment I couldn’t reach the person who was supposed to be waiting to share intel back and forth, I figured we were compromised. You stay uncompromised longer if they can’t take your teammate’s tech and track you with it.”

  “Go team. So, where to now? I mean, now we have to save even more people and I have no idea what you guys were doing while we were skeet shooting creepy clones.”

  “I’d assume that some of the team is still loose. The Turleen went into the ventilation system immediately, and he never took any of the tech in the first place.”

  “He didn’t?” Shockingly, I hadn’t paid attention to that.

  “No. Trust me, he doesn’t think he needs any of us to effect whatever rescue he’s planning.”

  “More power to him and all that. So, what about the others?”

  “James, Tim, Lorraine, Claudia, and Rahmi were going down to the floor below. Malcolm, Jeremy, Butler, and I went up to the hundred and fifty-fourth floor, which is one of the ones you identified as being partly owned by G-Company. Christopher was checking all the floors going all the way up. We lost contact with him when he was around floor one hundred and fifty-nine. Jeremy, Butler, and Malcolm went to look for him. I stayed because I’d found something.”

  “What?”

  “A diary written in English. I think it’s Goodman’s. It sounded crazy enough. There was some information that I figured we might be able to use, if we can decipher the crazy. Which I know will be your job.” He pulled a small leather notebook out of his back pocket and handed it to me. “Put this somewhere safe, just in case.”

  Looked at White, who opened the big purse. Dropped it in, he closed the big purse. We were a well-oiled team. “So, what about the others?”

  “James was supposed to advise me when they’d surveyed their floor and were ready to go down, and I was to let him know what we found up on my level. He didn’t answer when I told him Christopher had gone out of communication. That’s when I figured we were screwed.”

  “Sounds like Thursday, yeah.” Turned my iPod off. Pulled my phone out, turned my music on, and slid it into my back pocket as “The Rescue” by American Hi-Fi came on. “Richard, I’m sorry, but we need to focus on the people we came here to rescue, not the captured rescuers.”

  “I agree,” White said. “I truly trust that Christopher and the others will be fine.”

  “If not, we’ll make them suffer for it,” Siler said. “I promise you that.”

  My music changed mid-song to “Come to My Window” by Melissa Etheridge. Went to the nearest exterior window and looked around. As I did so the sun officially slipped all the way down. There were lots of lights I could see now, and the building itself was lit up. Didn’t see anything else, but looked down to check if I could still see the haboob. And saw something else.

  “Meanwhile, I have a crazy idea that just might work.”

  “What’s that?” Siler asked.

  Turned around and smiled brightly. “There’s a window washing rig one floor below us.”

  CHAPTER 74

  “NOT JUST NO, but hell no,” Mahin said.

  “How would we get into it?” Abigail asked.

  “And what will we do when we’re on it?” Siler asked. “Wave to everyone as they die?”

  “Look, we have people captured. That means the remaining Crazy Eights know we’re here. They’re going to start gassing people if they haven’t already.” Refused to let myself get scared that Jeff and Chuckie and everyone else was dead already. Focused on being angry that—at the point in history when the world was finally joining together—a crazed madman was going to ruin everything.

  “Missus Martini is right,” White said calmly. “We need to adapt, and this adaptation makes sense.”

  “I also have more of a plan than just washing the windows to make up for splattering blood and gray matter all over this observation deck. I want Mahin to take some of the dirt that Lowe so nicely has sent this way and make a small whirlwind inside the restaurant, while Abby puts a shield around the people inside.”

  “Then what?” Abigail asked. “We can hold that for a while, but not forever.”

  “Then we have Serene send a floater gate that’s on our window washing rig. We’ll move everyone through that and immediately to the Science Center where we’ll have doctors standing by and they can get treated.”

  “Serene?” Mahin asked. “The Serene we just hung up on and told to not trust any incoming calls? That Serene?”

  “One and the same! Glad you’re all with the program. Mister White, the Bag of Bigness, if you would.”

  White flipped the rolling purse down and I opened it up. All the climbing equipment was in there. Pulled it out and handed it to Siler. “I’d assume you have the most experience with this.”

  “I do, but honestly the hardest part is going to be getting over the twelve-foot walls of glass.”

  Heaved a sigh. “Well, as to that . . .” Handed him the spare guns. “Have at it.”

  White was looking in the big bag. “Just a moment. I believe we have something in here that will work more effectively.” He pulled out a glass cutter set, complete with suction cups. He also pulled out five pairs of black gloves.

  “I’m not going to ask why you have all this,” Abigail said to me. “But if you want to share . . .”

  Managed not to say that the Elves thought of everything, but only just. Also had to think fast to give a reply that wouldn’t make everyone suspicious. Well, more suspicious. “We’re burgling. It seemed wise to bring it along. I just forgot I had it. Creepy clones and losing two thirds of our team mysteriously put my focus elsewhere.”

  “I’ll take it,” Siler said. “And I’ll also take the glass cutter stuff.” We traded the glass cutter kit for the spare guns. Siler eyed everything. “We could avoid cutting the glass and go over if we get on top of that.” He nodded his head at the geometric covering thing with the slats.

  “I don’t know which would be worse, or harder,” White said. “Our people can repair the glass swiftly.”

  “I am not jumping up there and then over the side,” Mahin said. “In the dark. Or in the light, either. At all. I am not doing that at all.”

  “Wrecking the tallest building in the world, Dubai’s and the UAE’s proudest landmark, and the winner of the Best Attraction in the World award coming right up,” Siler said.

  Actually, what he did first was to secure the lines we’d be using to get down to the geometric covering. It was set up perfectly for this. Chose not to point this out, since Mahin and Abigail were barely one with the plan as it was.

  Once the lines were set and deemed safe enough, Siler cut out a two-foot diameter hole, just like they did in the movies. White had to help him pull the glass inwards, since it was very heavy. Chose not to mention that we’d tossed ten exploding dead bodies over with no concerns for who they might land on and yet were treating the glass as if it might be a problem should it fall on someone all those floors below.

  While they were doing this I called Serene using my phone. Wasn’t quite as convenient as the Bluetooth had been, but found the will to go on. She answered, we verified I was me and she was her, then I told her what we were doing and what we needed her to do. “And it’s too lat
e to tell us not to, because we’ve already cut the glass.”

  “I won’t tell you that because we’ve lost the televised feed. Kitty, you need to be prepared—they may have already released the gas.”

  “Got it. It’s likely I won’t be able to call you to tell you to send the floater.”

  “You still have the music earpiece in? It looks like you do.”

  “Yeah. I figured it was safe in terms of tracking.”

  “It is because I set it up separately from the others. I can track you using it. How long did it take them to cut the glass?”

  “Ten minutes probably. It’ll be harder on the window washing rig, I’m sure, but we’ll be able to kick the glass in so figure roughly the same time.”

  “Okay. When you’ve been stationary for ten minutes, I’ll send the gate.”

  “It’s going to need to be very precise.”

  “Walter will do it, then, we’re still coordinated. Good luck.”

  Hung up and my music started again. Olivia Newton-John’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.” This wasn’t the “Don’t Stop Believin’” I’d have expected, but Journey wasn’t what I was hearing. Clearly Algar was telling me everyone was still alive. Listened to the lyrics while we pulled on the gloves and got ready. Seemed to be Algar giving me an Atta Girl. Chose to indeed not stop believing that we’d save everyone.

  Perky ONJ song over, B.o.B.’s “Don’t Let Me Fall” on as Algar’s choice for hilarious background music, and we were ready to start down.

  “Remember,” Siler said, “we’re walking down. You’re going to lie on your stomachs and back through the hole, carefully, so you don’t get cut on the glass. It’s thick, so it should be okay, but we want to be safe.”

  Mahin snorted. “Right.”

  Siler ignored her. “The moment you’re able to bend at the waist, I want you getting the balls of your feet onto the glass as soon as possible. It’s not that far down, and I’ll be on the rig first to catch anyone, but you don’t want to go too fast. Not too slow, either,” he added, looking at Mahin. “We’re running out of time.”