Static Mayhem

by Edward Aubry

  Finally, she spoke. "Thank you," she said. "Dad."

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Observations

  They set down in Minnesota to wait out the night, reasoning that if anyone came looking for them, they would be searching east of Chicago, not northwest. Detaching the transport from the bottom of the flier was a delicate maneuver that did not go exactly as Lt. Anderson had hoped. He had been farther off the ground than he estimated when he released the claw, and in the ensuing drop, one of the girls broke her arm.

  Calls were made to members of the backup team in New Chicago, and arrangements were made to smuggle all twenty-eight girls into the city without drawing too much attention to them. The mission of the team was still, ostensibly, secret, and they hoped not to raise too many questions by this sudden influx of teenage girl refugees. At daybreak, as Anderson took the first load of seven passengers in the flier, the unimaginable stress of the whole night began to slowly diminish. Shuttling these groups of seven took the entire day, during which most of the girls slept. It had been impossible for anyone to get any decent sleep in the cramped transport during the night, and as seats were freed up, they became beds for their grateful recipients.

  While securing the flier they now had, the resourceful lieutenant had also disabled or destroyed every other flier in the hangar, thus discouraging pursuit. It had been as simple as preprogramming flight sequences that would crash the fliers into the ground or each other. It had also been as simple, Harrison learned, as killing the three men stationed at the hangar. It horrified him that his plan, which had seemed so lovely on its face, had cost the lives of five men he did not know, and that he had not been able to foresee that. He had never thought in such terms before. He tried to replay his every word to find what he could have said, or should have said, to prevent the killing, but every time he went through it, he reached the same ugly conclusion. It was never going to be his role to make such decisions. There were people on this team who had been given professional training in how and when to end another person's life.. For better or worse, he would have to trust that when they made that call, it would be the right one. As easy as it was, intellectually, for him to reconcile that, he knew it would always feel wrong.

  Meanwhile, Alec, Louise, and Hadley were whiling away the hours debating the significance of the previous day's events. Harrison understood little more than half of what they were saying, but he sat listening to them much of the time, anyway.

  "I think the matter is settled," Hadley insisted at one point. "Yes, they have spellcasters, just as we do, but we have no reason to believe that they are human. We all saw the beasts in the throne room."

  "They were muscle," said Alec. "I saw nothing like a magic user anywhere in the castle, and more to the point, on either of the fliers."

  "And I think the two of you are focusing on minutia," said Louise. "Whether they have humans or creatures tossing spells around is beside the point. The issue is their level of organization. And their level of threat." With this last remark, she tossed a glance at Harrison, which he was unable to translate.

  "It's an easy bet their level of threat is higher now," Alec said. "We may or may not have crippled their Texas base, but I think this group could well be part of a larger organization. We also don't know how many of those fliers they may have that we didn't wreck."

  Glimmer touched down on the grass next to Harrison. Today she was wearing a white sundress covered with a pattern of tiny cherries. Still no shoes.

  "Well," Louise was saying, "here are some factors we need to consider. They found us a very long way from Texas. They wasted no time taking us back there. Does anyone here think they stumbled across us by accident?" Hadley shook his head. Louise answered her own question. "I don't think that's very likely. And speaking of unlikely …" She looked directly at Harrison. "It is my understanding that we have observed the first instance of two survivors who have history with each other."

  "Yes," Hadley said. "That's correct. No one in the entire population of New Chicago has reported encountering anyone that he or she knew before last May. We've assumed that to be probabilistic, given the relatively small number of survivors, but there's a faction in the department who have posited that this may be by design."

  Alec acknowledged Harrison's presence for the first time. "Mr. Cody, do you have any comments on this?" Actually, this was the first time any of them had openly recognized his presence, and he was not sure why Alec was suddenly putting him on the spot. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

  "Uh, no," he said. "No, I don't think so."

  Alec turned back to Hadley and Louise without acknowledging Harrison's reply. "It may be worth considering that the only such coincidence recorded thus far involved one of our telekinetics," he said. "We should not rule out the possibility that this man may also have a similar talent."

  So, thought Harrison, Alec had put him on the spot just to draw attention to his uselessness. It was a simple attempt to make him look foolish, and it succeeded. Great.

  "Coupled with the fact that his people knew exactly where to find us," Alec continued, "I'd say the potential threat is very high. That being the case, there are still some unresolved questions. If they knew where to find us, why weren't they in any way prepared for the possibility that we might attempt an escape? Obviously, these aren't the same people who were spying on Harrison during his trip from Massachusetts. If they were, they should have known what could happen."

  Louise considered this. "Still, I don't think we can safely assume that there is no connection," she said. "Someone tried to kill him, at least once. Either that incident is related to this one or not, but we should be prepared for either case." She didn't look at Harrison when she said this. The way they were able to discuss the threat on his life so calmly made him shiver.

  "I agree," said Alec. "At this point, I would say we have to assume that there is a connection. Unless we know for certain otherwise. I'm certain that they came looking for us, which supports that. The fact that this 'king' didn't recognize Cody at first I would attribute to incompetence. Our easy escape is proof of that, if nothing else. In my opinion, we are looking at a small, badly run organization with overly ambitious objectives. So far, luck has not been on their side. Still, this Scott character has an agenda. Clearly not in our interests. We will need to watch him closely. We may want to consider infiltrating his base."

  Glimmer, who had been watching, silently amused up to that point, now exclaimed, "Oh, for crying out loud!"

  "What?" asked Louise.

  The pixie stood up, and zipped to the center of their little meeting, hovering just above their eye level. Arms akimbo, she glared down at them. "Don't you people know a minion when you see one?"

  * * *

  Some time later, after Alec and Glimmer had exhausted both sides of a heated debate on the topic of analysis, Louise took Harrison aside. "I haven't had a chance to talk to you about what happened yesterday," she said.

  The field they had chosen as their temporary camp while they were shuttling the girls to Chicago was mostly grass, with a few small copses and rolling hills nearby. It was about sixty-five degrees out, with a very light breeze. The environment had been selected to be as friendly as possible to the girls to counteract the stress of the rescue. That the weather had been so cooperative was a bonus, and Harrison was allowing himself to enjoy it. He felt better than he had in a very long time.

  "Yeah," he said. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to the president, or what she wanted to talk about. Presumably, he needed to be debriefed or something, but he couldn't guess what she wanted to know that she wouldn't already have heard from someone else.

  She got straight to the point. "When you and Director Baker came down to the dungeon to free myself and Dr. Lee, you were arguing about something, and you didn't want to discuss it with me. Is that right?"

  Harrison sighed. This was going to be about his battle with Alec over whether to rescue the girls or abandon them.
As much as he despised what Alec had tried to do, he saw no benefit to anyone for the spy to be punished, and he struggled to think of a diplomatic way to describe what had happened. "The director's opinion was that our priority was for the team to escape," he said after a minute, "and that we were not responsible for the welfare of the girls in the dormitory. In my opinion, we had a moral responsibility. That's what we were arguing about." That didn't sound too bad, he thought. "He was just doing his job, and it worked out all right, so I didn't bother to bring it to your attention. Was that a mistake?"

  They walked on in silence for a few seconds as she thought about it. He was concerned that by leaving her out of the conflict, he had offended her.

  "Do you know," she said, "why you and Claudia were included in this mission?"

  This seemed like a no-brainer. After trying to think of how it might be a trick question, he gave the obvious answer, hoping he wasn't somehow digging himself in deeper. "Because of our unusual abilities?"

  "That's right. Do you know why Director Baker was included?"

  This wasn't going where he thought it would. He decided not to guess. "No, I guess not."

  This, evidently, was the wrong answer. "Well, that may shed some light on the situation," she said. "Director Baker has skills ideally suited for this type of field work, and my expectation is that he will protect the interests of the group and our objective better than anyone else I could have selected."

  Harrison digested this. It gave him a sour stomach. He stopped walking. "Hold the phone," he said. "Am I getting reprimanded for this? Is that actually happening?"

  "Harrison," she said, kindly but firmly, "you need to understand that crisis decisions are not in your purview. Regardless of how you felt yesterday, regardless of whether you were right or wrong, I cannot have you contradicting orders when you don't like them. Absent myself, Director Baker is the leader of this expedition, and I expect every member of it to treat him as such. You could have jeopardized us all with your grandstanding. We're lucky you didn't. I know you meant well, but meaning well does not justify what you did."

  Harrison had been worried about getting Alec in trouble, but Alec had already gone behind his back and tattled on him. "I-" He didn't get a chance to finish the sentence. Louise held up her hand to cut him off. She was looking over his shoulder. He turned and saw Claudia strolling toward them. She walked up to them and stood silently between them, making eye contact with neither of them. Then she leaned into Harrison, looped her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek against his chest. She held him like that for a little while, then pulled back, her hands lingering for a moment on his sides.

  "I still think you're full of yourself," she said, "but it works sometimes."

  Then she hugged Louise.

  "I'm sorry," she whispered in Louise's ear, but loudly enough for Harrison to hear. Then she pulled back again, and walked away.

  They stood in silence for some time. Finally, Louise said, "That's all." She meant it as a dismissal, but it came across as a resignation.

  "I guess it is at that," said Harrison, and he stood still as she walked away.

  * * *

  By the time Harrison decided to go back to the buggy, there were only seven of the refugees left, most of whom were sleeping. Sgt. Smith was sitting in the driver's seat, presumably on baby-sitting duty. He nodded to Harrison as he climbed in, and Harrison nodded back. Smith did not smile much, and Harrison had a tough time interacting with him. He was not sure how much of his joyless behavior was a character trait, and how much was a put-on, but in either case, he found the man just intimidating enough that he did not risk small talk.

  One of the girls who was awake smiled shyly at him as he entered. When he gave a little wave in response, she turned away. He wanted to take a nap himself, but suddenly he felt awkward, so he made a show of pretending to look at something on the control panel instead of taking a seat. But that made him feel stupid, and he looked up to find Sgt. Smith smirking at him. Clearly, he looked as stupid as he felt. He left the transport, and set out across the field to find a place to be alone. He settled in one of the small clusters of trees that were scattered throughout the field. Forest was starting to feel like home to him, and surrounding himself with trees, even only a few, relaxed him.

  "Can we talk?" asked Glimmer.

  "Gah!" He looked up to see her perched on a branch. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

  "No," she said.

  He waited a beat for a follow-up joke. It didn't come. "Have you been here the whole time?" he asked.

  She shook her head. "I followed you here."

  "It's been a while since you stalked me. What's on your mind?"

  "Well," she said, climbing down to a lower branch, closer to his eye level. "I've been thinking about something you said the other day."

  Looking for red flags, Harrison tried to replay everything he had said over the last few days. "Okay. What?" he asked.

  "You and me dating," she said.

  "Um," he said. "Uh," he added. He thought he had already addressed this. "We're … uh … we're not."

  "Yes, I remember," she said. "I just wanted to know if you might, maybe, you know, want to. You never answered when I asked you earlier."

  "Yes, I did."

  "No, you didn't."

  This puzzled him. "Are you sure? I thought we did this already."

  "Nope," she said. "You changed the subject."

  He thought about it. "No," he assured her. "I know I answered that one."

  "What did you say, then?" she asked.

  He tried to remember. "I don't remember."

  "Well then," her patience was apparently boundless, "what would you say if I asked you now?"

  "Um," he said.

  "You said that already."

  "Yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Listen. Glimmer …" He felt completely unprepared for this discussion and wished he could go back to making life and death decisions for the whole team. Then it occurred to him to wonder how long this has been coming, and whether he had been ignoring signs. "What you and I have? I really like it. I just … That's not where I want it to go."

  "Oh," she said. It sounded so final, he thought, that they might actually be done talking about it. "Are you sure?" she asked.

  He nodded. "Yeah," he said. "I'm sorry." The apology sounded lame even to him.

  "I can do stuff," she said.

  That statement seemed like a non sequitur. "What do you …," he began, then he caught himself. He paled. "Oh, God, please don't go there."

  "I'm just saying," she said. "If it's a sex thing."

  "La-la-la!" he sang with his fingers in his ears. "I'm not listening! I don't want to know this!"

  "Dipshit! I'm tweaking your eardrums with magic. Your fingers can't stop it."

  He stopped singing. "Oh. Right." He looked at her. She was angry. He wondered if it was a woman-scorned kind of angry, and then he wondered if a pixie scorned might not be worse.

  "Listen," she said, "if you don't want to, you don't want to. I'm not going to make a big deal out of it. All I'm saying is, you brought it up, and I thought you might be curious."

  "I-" He stopped. He was going to say that he wasn't curious, but now that she was talking about it, how could he not be? Every time he thought he had her figured out, she turned around and opened some new door into her nature that he hadn't known was there before. "Sometimes …," he started again, and stopped again. He wished she could understand the constant struggle she put him through. He wished that he could understand her as well as he kept thinking he did. He wished that they both could make sense out of their relationship, which he had come to know was the most important and meaningful relationship he had ever had. He wished he could explain these feelings to her. He meant to express all of this, and he thought he was going to, but what came out instead, what he heard himself say before he could stop himself, was, "I wish you were human."

  She stared at him for longer than he would
have expected. He looked for understanding in her eyes, or even anger, but he found something much worse, and it took him too long to identify it. It was pity.

  "Sometimes I wish you were, too," she said, and then she drifted away, up into the leaves, until he couldn't see her anymore.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Scramble Zone

  After the last batch of refugees had been flown into the city, Lt. Anderson returned with the captured flier. The team spent the night at their field camp, and early the next morning, loaded into the flier, picked up the buggy, and made straight for New York. They had lost two days to their Texas hosts, but the flier was able to make the trip from Minnesota to New York in a matter of hours, so they ended up a week ahead of their projected schedule. By early afternoon they had arrived at Manhattan. They began circling over the city to see what they would find.

  What they found was a crater.

  The hole stretched almost the entire width of the island. All around it were the smashed remains of urban development. Buildings remained on the northernmost and southernmost ends of the island, but none looked intact. Most were peppered with holes. The closer these structures were to the actual crater, the shorter they were, their tops having been sheared off by whatever blast had created it. The very edge of the crater was surrounded by a spotty ring of debris. Some smaller objects, even from the air, were easily recognizable as fire hydrants, street signs, pieces of buildings, similar artifacts.

  Inside the hole there was nothing.

  They circled the island several times, visually scanning the crater, but it was devoid of ruins, rubble, or any other sign of what had been destroyed there. "It's like a nuclear bomb went off down there," Claudia finally said.