Alice had known that a tiny alien-human hybrid female could not simply walk across the city without drawing unwanted attention. She’d been forced to use the skills of her father’s people to the best of her abilities. When she could, she walked through walls, traveling unseen in dark hallways and empty rooms. Though it took concentration and energy, it was much easier going than when she’d had to escort the human children. When circumstances forced her to cross open space, she boosted her vibrations and slipped a band, walking unseen a half step above the physical. This was more difficult, and she was not sure she had been entirely successful. More than one dog, out for its morning walk, had noticed her and barked. And one woman ran from her, as if she’d seen a ghost. Alice regretted such things, but accepted what was so. It was the best she could do.
Now here she was, more weary than she had anticipated and facing the most difficult part of her journey. It could not be helped. The wrongness from below was increasing. Mork was calling. She did not know why. Alice looked around to make sure she had not been seen. Satisfied, she closed her eyes and sank down through the concrete walkway.
18.7
“It’s nice to see you again, Mary,” said Linda. “Please, sit down.”
Mary glanced at Rice, who’d already taken his seat closest to the door, then at Obie, who greeted her with a cautious nod. She stepped to the left and sat next to Cole, smiling at him warmly, as if she already knew him. She had so much to say, but didn’t know where to start. What was going on? And where was Alice? Mary placed her cuffed hands on the table. The nylon restraints had rubbed her wrists red. “It’s good to see you too, Mrs. President,” said Mary, with a smile that looked more like a grimace. Her heart pounded, to see Linda again.
“Not what you expected, I take it?”
Mary shook her head, trying to clear her growing anxiety. The air in the room was filled with a pressure, a scream, a pain she could not comprehend. “I … no. I didn’t know what to expect. I haven’t been here…”
“Mary released herself on her own recognizance,” Rice explained to Linda. He turned to Mary. “Had a change of heart, dear?” he asked. “Seen the error of your ways and all that?”
“No,” said Mary, shaking her head in confusion. “I was looking—” She turned to Linda. “They had decided to kill you,” she said, pleading. “I couldn’t stay.” She looked quickly to Cole. “I’ve got your kids,” she said. “They’re in my hotel room. The Blankenship, on 5th.”
Linda gave Mary a warm smile. “Thank you,” she said.
Mary looked at her hands and blushed.
Cole hung his head in thanksgiving.
“We were just pondering the whereabouts of the good President’s mislaid mother, Mary,” said Rice. “You have any idea where she got shelved?”
Mary looked up at Linda. “I’m sorry. No. The General–”
“Yes, that’s what I told them,” cut in Rice. He turned to the President. “Pity. If I knew, I could give her to you as a sign of good faith. We’ll have to query the General later and track her down. For now, shall we proceed?”
Linda sat and scowled for a moment, clearly unhappy with the situation. Cole squeezed her hand. She flashed him a quick smile but kept her attention on Rice, who was sitting smugly across the table from her. He was the key here. Sina had said that the age of separation was over. The words had gone into her and stuck, filling her with some new vision she’d never before seen. Though she barely knew what they meant, she knew that those words must guide her now.
“You said something about an apology,” prompted Rice.
Linda nodded. “You were right, Mr. Rice. There was way too much that I did not understand. I panicked and ran, and that has helped to create the mess we now find ourselves in. I made judgments based on assumptions that have proven to be false.” The President stopped. She would only give so much.
Rice grinned. “This is fun,” he said brightly. He looked around the room. Cole and Obie scowled the same scowl. Mary looked confused. Rice winked at Linda. “Keep going, girlfriend,” he said.
Linda sighed. “Here’s the situation as I see it. Right now, you continue to wield a great deal of power, even though that won’t last for long. Your inner circle has been decimated. The alive ones have withdrawn their support. On your own, your organization becomes irrelevant.”
“Oh, I don’t know, Linda,” laughed Rice. “The United States Government has been irrelevant for decades now and it seems to be doing fine. Besides, we’re hardly powerless. We hold key positions in every department, from governance to intelligence to the military, the press, and the corporations. One word from me could get you committed to an asylum for the rest of your life. I could set you up as a figurehead. I could bury you in scandal. Or I could have you murdered. Accidents happen all of the time, Mrs. P. Surely you know this?”
Linda nodded. “This is all true. It’s why Obie didn’t put a bullet in your brains as soon as you walked in the door. It’s why we’re here, negotiating a deal. Your death would create a power vacuum I’d really rather avoid right now. Much better to forge a working relationship while you turn the organization over to me.”
Rice smiled. “To you?”
“Yes. As of right now, I am the new Director of Operations for the People.”
“Farm-girl goes to the big city and makes good, eh?” Rice laughed. “You forget I have friends in high places, Prez. We’ve managed to get along without you so far, though only the good Lord knows how. Why should I hand you the keys?”
Linda pointed toward the sky. “They’re not coming back, Rice,” she said, shaking her head.
“Really?” said Rice, a tinge of uncertainty in his voice. “I didn’t get that memo.”
“You got it, fucko, you just didn’t read it,” said Cole.
Rice picked up his coffee cup and hurled it at Cole, barely missing his head. The cup hit the cement block wall behind Cole and shattered. One shard hit Mary on the face and she pulled back with a cry. The cup’s handle bounced back onto the table, coming to rest in front of Linda.
The President picked the handle up and examined it thoughtfully, then looked at Rice. “Cole is very angry with you,” she said. She turned to Cole. “I need you to trust me,” she said gently. She looked at Mary. “Are you okay?” Mary nodded, rubbing at her face.
Rice laughed. “Well, they say that coffee’s bad for you. Maybe you should send Ziggy here out for some cuff cutters. Give him something useful to do.” He nodded toward Cole. “Then Mary will be able to defend herself.”
Nobody responded. Rice’s smile eventually faded away. “So what makes you so sure, Prez?” he said, clearing his throat. “Been sleeping with the Spud-meister? They say once you try gray you never go gay.” He turned and winked theatrically at Mary. Mary glowered, glanced nervously at Linda, then looked down at her lap.
Linda tossed the broken handle on the floor. “They’re not coming back because I will not allow them to,” she said, her voice low and full of power.
“Really? So you’ll be taking over a human-alien organization with no aliens. That should prove interesting.” He squirmed a bit in his chair. “You got plans after that, Linda? Repealing the law of gravity, perhaps? A guest gig on Dancing With the Heads of State? Relocating the White House to the far side of the moon?”
“I know why you’ve done what you’ve done, Rice,” said Linda. “The aliens showed themselves and you didn’t have any way to think about them except for the beliefs and expectations of your time. They were a threat to the American project, it seemed. A threat to the whole planet. How could you know? But there was a part of you that knew that you needed them. The atomic bomb scared the hell out of you. You knew you were out of control, even then. You knew you needed help.”
“‘You’re preparing your crew psychology report, aren’t you Prez?’” Rice grinned. He loved it when he could work in a good movie quote. He frowned, looking around the room. Nobody else seemed to get it.
“As time we
nt on,” continued Linda, “you found that these aliens could be worked with. They had magical technologies that would allow you to remain in the delusion of control. All it would cost you was some sharing of our planet one day, and the promise of secrecy, which seemed to align with your own purposes in any event. What you failed to notice was that it was all a lie, a ruse. You could not understand that your conception of the alive ones was simply a projection of your own mind, as shaped by the world in which you’d been born and raised. The world was spiraling ever more out of control. The climate was warming, even then. The ecosphere degrading. The oil would run out one day, and with it the economy. You’ve known this for decades, though you are barely able to admit it to yourself. You needed a magical fix and the aliens promised you one. No wonder you could not see the lie. No wonder you could not feel their disgust for you and your organization. Ironic, since you share that disgust with them.”
Linda looked over at Obie to see him smiling at her. “You’re doing fine, Mrs. President,” said Obie. “Keep going.”
“So you’re right, Mr. Rice,” said Linda, turning back to him. She smiled. His grin was gone. She allowed herself to hope that maybe she could get through to him. “The world is in trouble. The climate, the oil, the environment, the economy, it’s all going to unravel. You thought that if you stayed in control you could forge some better way. You thought your Plan was the answer. In your own way, you love these people whom you call cattle.”
“You’re bringing tears to my eyes, Prez,” said Rice. But there was no smile on his face.
“You wanted to help, didn’t you Mr. Rice?”
Rice looked around the room with suspicion, as if he was being set up. He returned his gaze to Linda and nodded, almost imperceptibly. “They have the technology to save us,” he said.
“Perhaps they do,” replied Linda. “Perhaps one day they’ll use it. But I think we will all be surprised by how things play out. I think their goals stretch far beyond saving our human world. We have forgotten, at our own peril, that we are not the only ones here. In any event, we cannot control them. What we can do is find, on our own, a sane and more grown-up response to this situation of our own making. The ball is now in our court, Mr. Rice. You wanted the alive ones to be the wise parents you wish you’d had, the parents who will step in and fix things for us. Instead they are proving to be the wise parents we most need, allowing us to stumble and fall and learn what we need to learn. We are going through our initiation into adulthood, Mr. Rice. We may not make it. And the alive ones may one day intervene, to stop us before we destroy everything. But it’s possible we may prove ourselves worthy of survival, after all. If we do, it will come from our own efforts. The alive ones have withdrawn support from your strategy. Now it’s time to find another.”
Linda stopped. She’d said what she could.
Rice sighed deeply, running his fingers through his hair. He closed his eyes tightly, as if shutting off the outside world. For the longest time he just sat, silent. Then he opened his eyes and smiled at Linda. “So what do you propose, Mrs. President?”
18.8
Alice floated down from the ceiling, perplexed by what had just happened and thankful to be alive. Halfway down, at the moment of her greatest exhaustion, the small human girl she’d seen briefly in the Confusion had appeared at her side and wrapped her arms around Alice’s heart, giving her strength and comfort and adding to her power. “Don’t worry,” she had said, “We can help you.” The girl had glanced below them and smiled. Alice looked down to see a skinny little dog leading the way. She focused on her vibrations and continued her descent until she slid into the safety of air.
The girl and her dog departed without a word. Alice sent them her deepest gratitude. She might otherwise have been trapped in the rock forever, her own molecules fused with those of the granite, quartz and sandstone through which she’d transversed.
Alice knelt in the lightless cell. Before her sat the alive one the humans called Mork. The whole Lodge was filled with this alive one’s silent alarm. Now able to perceive it clearly, Alice understood what it meant.
YOU IMPERIL YOURSELF, said Mork.
I CAME TO YOUR CALL, answered Alice.
MY CALL WAS ONE OF WARNING, LITTLE SOUL. YOU ENDANGER THE NEW PLAN.
I UNDERSTAND THAT NOW, said Alice. MUST YOU PROCEED?
I MUST, answered Mork.
MAY I WARN THE OTHERS?
EACH MUST DO AS THEY ARE CALLED TO DO, said Mork.
Alice rose and stepped forward, reaching out to pull the knife from Mork’s eye.
YOU MUST HURRY, said the alive one.
YOU WILL BE LOST, said Alice.
IT CANNOT BE HELPED.
Alice nodded, accepting the reasoning but vowing to herself to return if she could. She hurried out the door and down the corridor, making her way through the dark stone tunnels, thankful for the highly sensitive eyes her father had given her. She stopped every now and then to catch her breath. Her body was nearing its limit.
She stumbled into the central hub and circled the two scientists. “You must flee, Mr. Gellow,” she called as she hurried by. Gellow raised an eyebrow and then turned back to his console.
Alice ran up the tunnel to the human side of the facility and came to the double doors. She attempted to transverse the door but her exhaustion, and the door’s thick lead cladding, prevented success. She reached up and touched the buzzer, then slumped to the floor.
The door slid open. There stood two soldiers, stunners drawn. They looked at each other and smiled. “Here’s the little traitor,” said the soldier on the left.
“You must warn Mr. Rice,” said Alice, struggling back to her feet. Her voice was thin. “The facility will soon be extinguished.”
The soldier who had spoken grabbed Alice by the wrist. “I think first we’ll just lock your little ass up for safe keeping,” he said.
Alice called on energy she did not think she had. She passed through the soldier’s legs and was gone.
18.9
“So, you get my cooperation. What do I get?” asked Rice.
“You get to see your work mean something, Mr. Rice,” answered Linda. “The People can turn their skills and power to finding some other way through the mess we’ve created here. Power and control don’t seem to be working. There must be some way for us to live more peaceably on this planet. And I think the people will follow us down that path, if only we will lead them. The universe that the alive ones promised you is still available to us, I think. The wonder. The magic. The whole cosmic story. It’s ours, if we can grow up and take our rightful place in it. But we can’t do that if we kill ourselves off. And they won’t let us, if we do not prove ourselves capable of playing well with others. I think we can do it, Mr. Rice. You have skills and knowledge that will be useful for that. And right now you have the authority of command within this organization. I need your help.”
“I get to keep my Scooby-Doo lunchbox and my secret decoder ring?” he asked.
“You get to keep your life,” said Obie.
Rice nodded to his former protégé. “Is he gonna be involved in this new gig, Linda? Cuz if he is, I’m not sure I wanna play. He’s so serious.”
Linda nodded. “My guess is he’ll be playing a part, yes,” she said. She smiled at Obie. “He’s a good man.”
Rice sighed, bringing his hands together in front of him and resting his chin, as if deep in thought. He closed his eyes for a few moments, then smiled broadly and opened them again. “Okay,” he said. “I’m in. When do I get my company car?”
Linda took a long, slow inhale. “There’s just one more thing,” she said.
“Oh? What’s that?”
“Well… you’re a psychopath, Mr. Rice. I’m sure you must know that.”
Rice grinned. “Oh, that.” He clicked his tongue. “Yeah, it has tended to pop up on my performance reviews.”
“So you’ll understand that I will never be able to fully trust you.”
Rice nodded. “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said.
Linda nodded once. “Good. So you won’t be offended, then, if I have Obie keep that gun on you while we clean this all up.”
Rice glanced at Obie, then back at Linda. “Like you say, Linda: Carl’s a good man.” He started to laugh but then noticed Linda’s eyes go wide. He turned to see what she was staring at. There stood Alice, just inside the door.
“Alice!” cried Mary, rising.
“We must evacuate the facility,” said the tiny child, wobbling on her weary legs. “It will soon discorporate.”
Mary was able to catch her before she hit the floor.
18.10
Cole had to admit it: Rice surprised him. The man was an organizational dynamo. Linda had been right; his authority and reach were astounding. As soon as they’d ascertained the meaning of Alice’s warning, he’d gotten on the phone. Almost instantly there were helicopters on the roof and buses on the ground. There were almost two hundred souls in the Rock. They had to get moving.
The primary problem was that nobody really understood what was going on. The facility would discorporate? What did that mean? Was Mork some sort of bomb? How could that be? When would she detonate? And what would that mean for the city above? Alice could not say. The techs could measure the astounding energy flux around Mork’s body. Mary could sense the building pressure. Rice knew instinctively that the little neomorph was right to advise evacuation. But none of them really knew what to expect. Whatever was happening, it was unprecedented.
So they worked as quickly as they could and hoped it would be enough. Rice sounded a general alarm, gave the order to evacuate, and advised all personnel to assist the President and her companions in any way possible. With that machinery set in motion, Rice headed out into the facility, stalking it like a madman, rushing from office to office and lab to lab, encouraging his colleagues to hurry, making sure there were no holdouts. He scoured the cafeteria and kitchens, thinking some confused workers might try to hide there as the alarms blared. He procured some cuff cutters and freed Mary’s hands. It was as if he truly loved his people, just as the President had said. But Obie still followed him everywhere, his old Smith & Wesson hidden in the folds of his jacket.
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