Tree of Liberty (Book 3 of The Humanity Unlimited Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  Maybe not by name, but the US government understood there was an organization of some kind associated with her. They’d almost certainly underestimated her people’s numbers and reach, even after everything she’d told them.

  If these men were descendants of the heavy-worlders that had been present in this system a thousand years ago, they’d fully integrated into society. Most likely in China, based on where the clues were pointing and their own appearances.

  The Families had never been active in China. Not until recently and their reach was still very limited there.

  Until a hundred years ago, the damned place had been closed off from the outside world in every way that mattered. Brenda wondered how much of that had been the doing of these people and their ancestors.

  Now that she had eyes on them, she wanted to be absolutely certain they didn’t realize they’d been made. They still thought they were operating in complete secrecy. Even the information she’d passed on to Secretary of State Queen didn’t mention them, since she hadn’t known what she was facing at the time.

  She wondered whether or not she should tell the man about them and their ancestry, but decided against it. He was smart enough to figure that out on his own. Her speaking slowly and clearly as if to a five-year-old wouldn’t be helpful, though it might be satisfying.

  The sight of the four men on the monitor mesmerized Victor. With the number of heavy-worlders being limited inside the Families, he’d probably thought he’d known every one of them on the planet. This had to be a great shock.

  “What are you thinking?” she asked him.

  He shrugged. “I’m not sure what to think. These people are like bogeymen from the past. If they’re the descendants of heavy-worlder fighters that never converted to supporting humanity, they’re probably enemies. That’s a whole new level of screwed up.”

  She clapped the young man on the shoulder, feeling his tense, thick muscles under the skin. It was like slapping a brick wall. “At least you’ll have somebody to arm wrestle with now.”

  He laughed. “I suggest you keep the day job. Comedy isn’t in your future.”

  The phone Jessica Cook had given her rang. She stared at it for a long moment, certain that this couldn’t be good. Then she answered it.

  “Talk to me.”

  “I’d like to see you in person,” Harry Rogers said. “Events are in progress that you need to be aware of and I’ve got some interesting people for you to meet.”

  His idea of ‘interesting’ was probably a lot different than hers. Still, based on everything she’d seen, it wouldn’t be boring.

  “Give me ten minutes to get down to the gate room and power it up.”

  She disconnected the call and pocketed the phone. “Victor, keep an eye on those guys and let me know if anything changes. If they lead you back to their hiding place, I want to know about it before you make a move.”

  “You got it, Boss.”

  Brenda sauntered out into the lobby and waited for the elevator to be clear. Once she could get into it alone, she hit the button for the basement.

  The button blinked three times and she knew it was reading her fingerprint. That was a security measure to keep any of the curious residents from going to take a peek for themselves. Anyone not cleared for the knowledge would just think the button was broken.

  Once she made it to the makeshift gate room, she gestured for the man at the table to power it on. They’d started keeping the power cube disconnected so that no one could open a connection without letting them know ahead of time.

  Not that she expected Rogers to betray them. It was just common sense. That’s also why she had four heavily armed men on duty here at all times.

  A few minutes later, the wormhole formed and Harry Rogers walked through with two of the most outlandishly dressed people Brenda had ever seen at his side.

  The woman to his right was dressed like someone out of an Errol Flynn movie. Or maybe Pirates of the Caribbean. All that was missing was a gold hoop earring and a parrot.

  The distinguished gentleman on the other side of her ally had seemingly stepped out of the painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware. In fact, he bore a striking resemblance to the first president.

  Brenda spent a moment assessing everyone before she focused her attention on Harry Rogers. “When you say interesting, you mean it. Who are your friends?”

  “Brenda Cabot, meet Susanna Adorno and General Norbert Norris. I found them on the planet my father recently visited. He’s safely home, by the way. I thought you might be interested in how they made their way off Earth. They left from our side of the pond either before or during the Revolutionary War.”

  That surprised her. Her people hadn’t had access to a power supply for the gate they’d had until recently. While she knew that Harry Rogers and his people had located several bases on Earth, the Families hadn’t been aware of them and none had been in the United States.

  “You have my attention now,” Brenda said. “Miss Adorno, General Norris, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  She extended her hand to the woman first. Rogers had introduced her before the general, so she was making the assumption the woman was the man’s superior.

  Susanna Adorno’s grip was firm. “Miss Cabot. Mister Rogers has spoken very highly of you. The allies of my allies are my own as well.”

  The woman’s accent sounded like what Brenda imagined most people thought someone from the Caribbean sounded like.

  General Norris shook Brenda’s hand a little less forcefully, for which she was grateful. It was never a good thing when a man wanted to get into a hand-crushing contest to show how big his balls were. As an FBI agent, she’d met all too many men who wanted to do that.

  “Ms. Norris,” the supposed military officer said.

  “General. If I might say so, you look rather like paintings I’ve seen of George Washington.”

  The man nodded. “I’ve been told my family and his are connected in some way. It’s a great honor to be a distant cousin of the Great General, of course. I’ve never seen a painting of him. If the opportunity presents, I would be deeply appreciative of the chance to do so.”

  “I’ll see what I can do. Perhaps the three of you would care for something to drink while Harry fills me in on what’s going on.”

  Ten minutes later, they were seated around the table in her small kitchen. The homey room made the two people from off planet seem even more out of place, if that was possible.

  She’d brewed them all some tea. As she might’ve expected, the strangers wanted theirs hot while Rogers and she took theirs iced.

  After taking a sip, Brenda focused her attention on Susanna. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather let you tell me your story in your own words without asking questions. There’s plenty of time for me to do so when you’re finished.”

  “A sensible plan,” the other woman said.

  Brenda listened to what she’d have considered a tall tale under other circumstances. Yet the woman’s very existence argued it was true. There had once been a gate in the Caribbean, just outside of the infamous Port Royale.

  More amazingly, it had been under the control of humans that both knew how to use it and were unknown to the Families. That was shocking, really. Who had these people been? Why hadn’t they sought out others here on Earth?

  The mysteries just kept rolling in.

  The general’s story about the Volunteers was even more interesting. A gate hidden deep in a cave somewhere in Virginia. How the hell had it gotten there and why? Who’d activated it and sent them through to this other world?

  Since her instructors at the Academy had beaten the concept of coincidence out of her, she was certain they must be the same people. Why else send both groups to the same location?

  The fact that the two events had taken place almost a century apart argued that these individuals were still present on Earth today. No, the Families hadn’t seen or heard of them in the intervening centuries, but she couldn
’t take the chance that they’d just vanished somewhere.

  Odds were now good there was another player in the games afoot. One that none of them had considered before and one with aims that no one could guess at. Still, she’d best make sure before the assumed that these newcomers hadn’t met the Chinese players.

  “Tell me, do the old stories of your journey indicate the people running these gates were from the Orient?” Orient wasn’t commonly used today, but she hoped it was recognizable to these folks.

  “No,” Adorno said. “The tales don’t mention someone of exotic appearance. My assumption is that the men in the Caribbean look like everyone else around them. I have always seen them as dark-skinned in my mind.”

  General Norris seemingly agreed with her thoughts. “The volunteers believed the people running the gate were very much like themselves. There were many colonists with dark skin—some brought unwillingly, to my personal distaste—but the people of the stories were of the same skin tone as myself, I believe.”

  Very interesting. Somehow, Brenda suspected the people running the two gates hadn’t looked like one another. The ones in the Caribbean had probably been much darker than the ones in Virginia. That spoke of a somewhat larger organization, since she refused to believe there were two using the same destination code.

  “By any chance, do you happen to know in which part of Virginia this cave is located?” she asked the man.

  “That’s actually what we’re hoping you can assist us with,” Roger said. “If we can locate this base or gate, if it’s just stashed somewhere deep inside a cave, it would give my people a way to access locations here in the United States that doesn’t rely on traipsing through your hidden base.”

  Brenda shook her head firmly. “If there’s a base inside the United States, my people want it. You already have more than enough. We can provide you with the portable gate in exchange, but if there’s a permanent facility, we deserve it. So long as it’s in good shape.”

  The man smiled. “Somehow I suspected you’d say something like that. I’m willing to be reasonable. I don’t particularly care how this works out. If we find a fully operational base—or anything close to it—that you can take over, you’re welcome to it in trade for your portable gate.”

  She nodded decisively and extended her hand to him. “Then you’ve provisionally got a deal.”

  If they could locate an old base like he’d already found, the amount of equipment inside could be a game changer. The Families had been operating without the kind of technology their ancestors had once had. They’d be willing to deal if they could regain it.

  Assuming the previous owners weren’t still in charge of it, but that was an entirely different situation.

  “Let me bring up some maps on my tablet and we’ll see if we can narrow down the location,” she said. “I can also show you a picture of General Washington. Actually, I should say President Washington. I’m not sure you know, but he was elected the first leader of our country. This is the United States of America, by the way.”

  General Norris smiled. “I did not know that, but it cheers my heart. I’ve heard the name of our parent country before, but we were still fighting for it when the Volunteers left this world. There is so much history that my people do not know about this nation. What a wonderful time in which to live.”

  Brenda couldn’t argue with that. She retrieved her tablet and began searching for maps from the Revolutionary War. Those would look more familiar to the man, she suspected. With any luck, they might be able to put a search party in motion tonight. Things were starting to look up.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Nathan was getting tired of listening to his mother and the stranger jabber on in the alien language. He wanted to know what the hell they were saying to one another. Yet he could hardly complain about the muscular bastard not being able to speak English.

  Which did absolutely nothing to improve his mood.

  The group was arriving in a large village on the far edge of the wilderness zone inside the ruined city. The wilds seemed to stretch out in a radial fashion from the center where the space elevator building was located. Perhaps there were others like it spaced out through the damned thing.

  They’d passed through several other villages, but this one seemed larger than the rest. Not any better constructed than the previous ones, but this one had more people living inside it. And there was a building that seemed more important than the rest. Or perhaps more self-important.

  This one was at least four stories tall—two more than the buildings around it—and covered with what appeared to be religious carvings. Something related to the aliens, he believed. The beings shown in bas-relief were as tall and willowy as the ones they’d heard about in relation to the aliens.

  Ugly bastards. Why anyone would want to show any reverence at all for them made him shake his head.

  A number of men dressed differently than the ones who’d captured them came out of the building. They weren’t dressed for doing everyday tasks in those long, obstructive robes. Just considering how unwieldy their hats were, this had to be some type of ceremonial regalia.

  These had to be priests or something. Great. Religion never improved a bad situation. It just made things worse. With his luck, human sacrifice was next on the schedule.

  The leader of the group who’d captured them led his mother up the wide steps to stand before this group of self-important bastards. He spoke in that same indecipherable language that he and Nathan’s mother had been using.

  The man standing in the center of the group at the top of the stairs—the one with the tallest, stupidest looking hat—stared down haughtily and responded sharply.

  That didn’t seem to disturb the man who’d brought them here, but he bowed slightly from the waist and took two steps back. That left Nathan’s mother standing alone.

  Nathan took the opportunity to head up the stairs and stand beside his mother.

  It almost made him laugh when they both shot him mirrored looks of irritation. It seemed he could offend family and aliens at the same time. It was a gift.

  The Grand Pooh Bah said something to Nathan. When he shrugged back, the man repeated the words more slowly and in a louder tone. Yeah, that was going to make him understand an alien language more easily. Idiot.

  Nathan made a show of smirking at the man and then shrugged elaborately. “Sorry, asshole. I don’t speak your idiotic language.”

  “God dammit, Nathan!” his mother said sharply. “Shut your stupid mouth.”

  “Why? It’s not as if the fool can understand me. I can say anything I want, like how retarded his hat looks. Like a giant penis on his head. Maybe I should call him the Grand Dick Head. That’s perfect!”

  Apparently, comprehension wasn’t strictly required to determine when someone was being insulting. The man in front of Nathan grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off his feet with one hand.

  Nathan kicked him while he used his hands to beat at the man’s arm, but it was like hitting a concrete wall and a steel bar. None of Nathan’s efforts even made the man wince. This wasn’t good.

  His mother said something in the alien language using an imploring tone.

  The man stared into Nathan’s eyes coldly for a long moment and then tossed him to the men standing nearest the entrance to the building.

  Even as Nathan sucked in great drafts of air, these other men gripped his arms and legs roughly and carried him inside.

  He’d been kidding about the human sacrifice part. Seriously.

  Nathan shouted for his mother to stop them, but she didn’t answer. She was leaving him to his fate. Bitch.

  If anything, the inside of the building was even more garishly decorated than the outside. Certain sections of it were well lit, highlighting works of what looked like precious metals and sculptured stone.

  His captors’ rough handling prevented Nathan from seeing anything clearly, but he thought many of the objects were shaped like the aliens. That w
as just fucked up.

  The men quickly carried him to a room in the rear of the building and down some narrow steps. Unlike the rest of the building, the room at the bottom had advanced equipment in it. Just based on the layout and shape of the consoles and machines, this was Asharim technology.

  There was a wide chair sitting in the middle of the room with an extensive headset perched above it. The men slammed him into the chair and held his arms and legs in place while others secured thick straps around them. No amount of struggle did him the least bit of good.

  Someone strapped a band around his forehead, brutally yanking his neck back as he tightened it. When they were done, Nathan couldn’t move at all. Then they lowered the complex-looking headset down over his head.

  No, this wasn’t menacing at all.

  The Grand Dick Head walked slowly down the stairs and into the room. He set his giant penis hat on a handy console and said something low and menacing to Nathan.

  He’d have shot him the finger, but part of him was afraid the bastard would chop his hand off. There were limits to his insolence after all.

  Another man ran down the steps with a book of some kind in his hand. It was large, with gold inlay on the dark leather cover.

  He held it up so that the Grand Dick Head could flip to a specific page and see it clearly without having to bend over.

  After consulting the displayed page for a few moments, the man walked to one of the consoles and brought it to life. The book carrier followed him faithfully.

  The man manipulated the display and then stared at him. With a cold, toothy grin, he pressed something and intense agony shot through Nathan’s skull.

  He heard someone screaming and only belatedly realized that it had to be himself. He wanted the pain to stop, but there was nothing he could do about it. He was completely within their power.

  It might have lasted five minutes or five hundred for all he knew, but the pain eventually ceased.

  Nathan sagged, panting hoarsely. Based on the stench, he’d soiled himself. Oh, the bastard was going to pay for that.