The target walked as a human would, or maybe lizards. He watched the figure for a long time. It had to be her. His heart almost pounded its way out of his chest.
“You have found the lost-ling!”
“I think so.”
He spoke the words out loud. “Argentina, it’s Denver. Stop if you can hear me.”
* * * *
“What the …!” She dropped down to a squat and duck walked to cover.
Girl, you’re losing it now, she thought to herself.
* * * *
She stopped … she stopped! She can hear me.
“This should not be happening, friend Denver.”
“Maybe not, but I was counting on it.”
He spoke the words aloud. “I am here to rescue you.”
* * * *
Okay, that does it. I’ve lost it, she thought.
“No, you are not crazy. I will meet you at the edge of the med site. I am here with the Greys. We will get you out.”
So this is what insanity is like. I always wondered. Mom always said I’d go insane. “Well, Mom I hope wherever you are you’re happy,” she said aloud.
“Argie you are not crazy. I will explain everything when I meet you. Continue to the med site.”
“Well thank you insane brain. I was going to do that anyway.” She started off.
“Not only am I talking to myself, I’m answering myself. Good grief,” she said in a low voice.
* * * *
Denver fought the urge to race down the hill. Slowly he covered the region between her and the med site with IR then with night vision. Then he did the same for the med site and the region around it.
He carefully moved down the hill on the side he had climbed until he was in thicker cover. Always careful not to provide a silhouette, he moved around the hill and was soon heading for the med site.
At the edge of the med sight, he stopped again and looked around for anything unusual. Instead of walking around the camp, he walked through it.
“Whoa!” Suddenly he was jerked up off his feet and flung into the air. He had stepped into a snare and was being flung violently back and forth.
He stopped swinging suddenly. Hands were on him and swung him around. He could make out a figure in the darkness.
“Some rescue, hero.”
“Argie! Just cut me down.”
“I’m hungry; you got anything to eat?”
“Argie, cut me down.”
“Just like that? Didn’t you pay attention in survival class? If I just cut you down, it might set off an alarm or blow us up.”
“Where are your night vision glasses?”
He felt around until he found the right pouch. “Here and try not to take all night.”
“You’re in no position to be making demands hero. Now let me see. This part’s clean. Hello, what are you?”
“Hello, what means hello?” he asked.
“There is something attached to the snare, but it does not appear to be part of it. Looks stretchy; I’ll bet if I cut you down this thing will tell on us.”
“Great, just great. We have about an hour and a half before their moon is over the horizon.”
“You’re going to get romantic in an hour and a half?”
“No!”
“Hang on. I’ll see if I can find something to replace your fat, old ass.”
“I’m not fat, and I’m not old! I’m … just hanging upside down.”
“You must be hung-up on me to come back for me.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but the orders came from somewhere else.”
“From who?” she asked.
“That’s the part I’m not sure about, but it looks like our Grey friends somehow managed to send me orders through our own command channels. But that’s just a wild guess.”
Suddenly he felt nervousness and remembered his headband. “Cee, have you been listening?”
“Who are you talking to?” she asked.
“I’m in communication with the Greys.”
She came back dragging some heavy containers and rope. The rope, she flung over the metal piece holding Denver off the ground. The other end she attached to the container she found and began to pull on the rope. Once it was tight, she cut the line.
“Ouch. Man that hurt,” he said after his head impacted the ground.
“Is that all old men do, complain?”
“Funny. Let’s get away from here.”
Together they moved through the darkness. He was on night vision. “Watch your step here.”
He took her arm and she stepped down into a small, narrow gully. She jerked her arm away from him.
“You don’t think I’m that easy do you?”
“If you fall and break something, I’ll have to carry you back to the ship.”
“I’m light.”
“Not so much, you’ve been packing on some weight.”
“It’s all muscle.”
“That’s even heavier than fat.”
“Did you bring anything to eat?”
“Yeah, let’s take a breather.” He pulled a packet and some energy drink from his pack.
“Here,” he said slipping it into her hand.
While she sat down to eat, Denver took the time to step out of the gully and take a look around. Suddenly it felt as if he had done this before. Then it hit him; he had during his escape from the prison detail. Nothing on IR, better check night vision. There was some movement near the med site.
“That’s interesting.”
“What’s interesting?”
“I don’t know. Something’s moving out there. I’ve got nothing on IR, but there’s something headed for the med site.”
As it got closer, he could see it. “Oh yes, now I’m getting IR. Some sort of small wheeled vehicle.” He wondered if it was too small for a lizard to fit in.
“It’s one of their night patrols,” she said from beside him. “Let me see.”
He handed her the binocs, and she peered in the direction he indicated. “Yep, that’s one of them. I don’t know if they operate on remote control or if they are autonomous, but they shoot at anything that moves.”
“Great.”
“There’s another problem.”
“What’s that?”
“I know they got, at least, three of our people, put them in a vehicle and took off.”
“Oh boy, which way?”
She pointed in the direction of the Reptilian compound.
“Okay, finished eating?”
“Not yet.” She went back to work on the rations.
He returned to the robot rover. “Cee, we have a problem. Were you still listening?”
“No, I was embarrassed that I had listened while you were talking to your foundling mate so I broke contact.”
“Look let’s forget about the mate bit for right now.”
Confusion came back. “Forget your mate’s bit? Does she require a bit in her mouth.”
He chuckled, “Might not be a bad idea, but just don’t use the word ‘mate’ until further notice, okay.”
“There is much to be understood. You mentioned some sort of problem.”
“Argie tells me that three members of the medical company were taken prisoners. It appears they were taken to the Reptilian camp.”
“We have been supremely fortunate thus far friend Denver. I don’t know what else we can do.”
“We need a plan.”
“A plan for what?” asked Cee, confused.
“That’s what I have not been able to admit to myself yet.”
“Let us examine our options,” replied the alien.
“Okay, you go first.” The robot vehicle had reached the med site and went straight to where he had been caught. This was not
good. Probably sent to check out whatever it had caught. If one is a cold-blooded creature, no sense in going out in the cold.
He checked the temperature, 14 degrees Celsius, nippy even for warm-blooded creatures. “Cee?”
“I am discussing options with the flight crew. Is that all right?”
“It’s not military, but under the circumstances it’s their lives too?”
“No one wishes to let down friend Denver. What are we to do?”
“What have you come up with?”
“Our first option is to get out of here and report everything to our command. This has certain advantages. We got who we came for. We have satisfied what honor requires.
“However, this course has complications. I do not know how far up our chain of command this mission was authorized. If everything goes well possibly, nothing will happen to us.”
“Oh boy.”
“If not, we will be in a bad position. Even if we get out of here, we might alert the Reptilians who will at the very least strengthen their guard or they might even kill the captives.”
“Even if we get out of here,” Denver added, “we might not get permission for another mission.”
“I suspect only a major military attack will do, and they might kill the captives.”
“If we try to rescue the captives …,” he mused.
“How can we do this? We have no weapons on the ship. You only have your rifle-of-limited-use.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“Mate, he calls me your mate!” She was standing at his elbow and even in the darkness; she was beautiful and very cross.
“You can hear him?”
“Just images and feelings, occasionally words in my head when I’m standing next to you.”
“Oh boy, this just keeps getting better.”
“Friend Denver, this is not supposed to happen.”
“Come here hero.” She pulled him down to her and kissed him full on the mouth.
“Thanks for rescuing me.”
“Uh, don’t mention it.”
“Friend Denver, I just got the strangest sensation!”
“You know we’ve got to rescue them,” she continued.
“Yep, I just don’t know how.”
“Are you sure this is sanitary?” asked an astonished Cee.
In spite of their circumstance, they laughed.
“The robot device is heading back the way it came,” Denver observed. “Come on.” They started after the robot.
“You have a plan?” Argie asked.
“Not really, I’m making this up as I go along.”
“Did I mention these things shoot at anything that moves?”
“You did. Do you have any idea how close a potential target gets before it shoots?”
“It’s not particularly long range, just shoots at immediate threats.”
“I wonder if it has blind spots. How fast does it go?”
“We can outrun it, if that’s your question.”
They were getting close now, perhaps too close. The machine stopped and rotated what he took to be cameras around, but its gun kept pointing in the direction it was traveling.
Denver measured range to target, only 105 meters. As the cameras swung back around, he ducked down.
“Cee let me know when you get a picture of the base.”
“Yes.”
“One more thing, look over the pictures you have. See if you can narrow down which building the prisoners are being kept in.”
“Yes, we will do it.”
He turned to the girl. “Argentina, can you get out in front of this thing?”
“Yes, if it doesn’t shoot me. You have a plan?”
“One of us needs to distract it while the other defangs it.”
“You want me to distract it without getting shot.”
“If we can get it preoccupied with something else, I might be able to get close enough to blind it.”
“Blind it how?”
“I don’t know, throw my jacket over its cameras. It’s moving again.”
“If it finds me lying in the road face down, it might stop to investigate without shooting.”
“I’d hate to get you shot after all the trouble you’ve been.”
“I’d just hate to get shot.”
“There is that. Can you do it?”
“You see that rise?” she queried.
“Yes.”
“I’ll follow this low area and get in front of it. Just over the ridge, I’ll be lying in the road. Your approach should be covered by the crest of the rise.”
“Okay, be careful.”
“Aw hero, you going to get all sappy on me?”
“I may just let it shoot you. Take the night vision goggles. Good luck.”
“You too.” She was off, following the defilade that should keep the robot from detecting her.
Argentina was in the best shape of her life, both mentally and physically. The daughter of wealth and privilege was gone. She was a legionnaire now, just eighteen, young and strong. She easily negotiated the path she had chosen. Occasionally she would stop and look around for danger, but even then, she still easily outdistanced the lumbering robot.
Denver was closing in from behind being careful not to get too close. He had changed too. The slight pudginess was gone as well as the bald spot. The legion had taken care of that. He was now rawboned and tough. His old colleagues would probably not even recognize him.
The robot disappeared over the crest of the little rise now. He got as low as he could, duck walking to where he could see it. There was something in its path - Argie.
He stayed low and moved to where he could touch the robot. It was bigger than he had thought. He leaped aboard and moved to where the gun could not get to him. The device made no attempt to dislodge him. He slipped off his jacket and wrapped it over its camera eyes. He then found a plate at the base of the gun turret, opened it, and tripped the switches down.
The gun rose up and away from Argie. “Argie you can get up now.”
She got up and walked around the large robot vehicle. The whole thing was about five meters long and three wide. It stood about two meters tall with the cameras above the gun turret.
“Do you have an emergency blanket in your kit?” she asked.
“Better than that, I brought you a jacket.”
“Thanks, I was getting cold lying on the ground. Now, what do we do?”
“I wonder if we remove my jacket, will this thing drive itself back to base and will they just let it in? Are there guards? Does it relay what it finds back in real time and is anybody watching?”
“If somebody is watching we might get shot.”
“I just don’t know how on the ball these guys are.”
“Maybe they’re listening to us now and laughing their asses off.”
“Yeah. Cee?”
“Yes, so far your plan has worked. We are making a record of everything so that we may document your exploits. It will be much enjoyed by the People.”
“What was all that about?” she asked.
“I’m almost afraid to ask,” he replied.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
“Do you propose to remove the blind from the robot?” asked Cee.
“Yes. Have you come up with anything yet?”
“Yes, one of the buildings seems to be closely guarded.”
“Is it being guarded now?”
“Not directly. The Reptilians have moved inside, but there are robot guards outside.”
“How long before we should get something from the moon?”
“Within fifteen minutes.”
“Okay, keep a close eye on it and let me know if there is any activity.”
“Yes, friend Denver. One hes
itates to ask.”
“To ask what?”
“How do you plan to get out even if you find the prisoners?”
“I’m not sure yet. I should have something by the time we get there.”
“This does not seem to be good planning,” complained Cee.
“How would you do it?”
“It would have to be given to a committee who would bring in all available data and analyze it before making a decision to act.”
“Joy, you know we do things like that on Earth.”
“Does it work?” asked Cee.
“Depends, if government bureaucrats are doing it not much gets done. Even then it’s screwed up. How about you?” Denver asked.
“It takes a long time. Your approach of immediate action without consultation is most…” He paused, “intriguing.”
“Are we going to sit here all night, or are you going to unwrap that thing?” she asked.
“Yeah, can’t sit on the fence much longer. Hang on.” He quickly whipped the jacket off the cameras. They tilted up slightly, then back to where Argie had been laying. Then they panned left then right, and then back to the road. The robot began to roll forward.
Argie sat behind the gun turret facing the way they had come. She smiled up at him. He sat down to the right of the turret facing forward.
What to do now? Were the prisoners even alive? He was about to take a survivable situation and turn it into a complete disaster. Suddenly he got a picture of the base in his head. It was Cee.
“Can you see it?”
“Yes, clearly.”
“This too should not be happening.”
“I guess we’re just good. Where do you think they are being held?”
“Here.”
“Yes, I see it.”
“Is there some sort of facility or hangar where they keep these things?”
“One is not certain.”
“Keep an eye on the base. Let me know if there is any change in activity.”
“This I will do.”
How the devil am I going to pull this off? They might just let us in, and it will automatically go to its storage area. Maybe it will go to a terminal and download what it has seen. I just cannot believe they don’t get real time information from this thing.
Hell Fighters from Earth Page 27