Afraid of the Dark

by Chris Hechtl

  “Really?” she asked, coming up beside him. He smiled and hugged her to his side as she looked. “A little light reading huh?”

  “I'm just checking to see if there is anything new,” he said.

  “Learn anything?” she teased.

  “As a matter of fact, I did pick up a few things I'll pass on. I think I'm going recommend all the security guards and soldiers check this out. They need to know the face of the enemy.”

  “Ah,” she said nodding.

  “One thing that troubled me though,” he said thoughtfully.

  “Oh?” she asked looking up at him. He pursed his lips.

  “I was wondering about that thing that Mateo talked about. Fat porcupine thing.”

  “Ah,” she said nodding. She reached over and typed at the tablet for a moment. “Here,” she said. He looked at it as she pushed it over to him. There was a single entry under Tribble of all things, no image and less than a paragraph there. “Alleged to have shot spines from its body?” he asked wrinkling his nose. “Who wrote this?”

  “Phillips of course,” she said demurely. “He won't take anything for granted, even with video evidence. Eye witness testimony can be misconstrued, especially in the heat of the moment he said.”

  “So that's why its here and not where people can see this?” he asked.

  “Exactly.”

  “Well, people need to know. Shoot one of those things and according to Mateo they swell up and then burst.”

  “Which we can't show. No video.”

  “I could...”

  “Don't you dare,” she growled warningly. “Don't go borrowing trouble. These things will show up eventually.”

  “Jen, people need to know.”

  “I know that,” she said.

  “And if some idiot goes up and shoots one and it blows up in their face?” he demanded. She shook her head.

  “I can't help that. Neither can you. We can't stop something like that from happening.”

  “No, but we can put this up so people can see it and at least keep it in mind.”

  “Those of us lucky enough to have access to this,” she sighed.

  “I thought it was going on the net?”

  “It is. IT has a local net up, sure. They are rewiring the DSL and FIOS lines now so we can send communications. But you put a cap on the time.”

  “Daytime only. Ten hours a day,” he said with a nod. “I remember.”

  “Why ten?” she asked.

  “Cool down. The aliens attack heat remember?” he asked. She blinked and nodded. Her eyes flickered a warning however. “I know, I know, don't remind the expert. What I'm getting at is that the electronics build up heat. Heat that they can't shed fast enough. Apparently if they do shed some of it, it gets soaked up in the ground and metal around them. So at night...”

  “They radiate enough heat for the aliens to attack,” she said with a nod.

  “Exactly. So we run them until a couple of hours before dark then shut down and hope they cool off by dark. We may have to cut that time down even further when we start hitting summer temps.”

  “Or look into liquid cooling,” Jen muttered. He glanced at her in surprise and pulled her back to his side and hugged her.

  “Did I ever tell you you're a smart lady?” he asked.

  “Every day,” she said looking up, eyes twinkling. He smiled back.

  “Good,” he said with a smile.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  He nodded to Bill as the security chief came in and spun his chair, sitting on it so the back was in front, resting his arms on the back. “Something up?”

  “Usual. Couple of domestic disputes, about four people walked off the job at the recycling center...”

  “Oh?”

  “The trash one, I know what you're thinking,” Bill said with a shrug. “I can't blame them for having a tizzy, its messy, smelly work.”

  “But its got to be done,” Shane said.

  “Yeah well, tell them that. As long as someone else gets stuck with the shitty detail they are happy. Unfortunately we've got a lot of people who didn't make the transition very well.”

  “Oh?” Shane raised an eyebrow and then sat back, toying with his coffee cup. “Let me guess, realtors, paper pushers, the like?” he asked.

  “Among others yes,” Bill smiled. “A couple of them had a sick out, but that didn't work for long when doc was sicked on them so they quit.”

  “And now they are hunting for another job.”

  “Or so say they are,” Bill grimaced. Jobs they had a plenty. Anyone could and should be working. They couldn't afford any dead weight. He was in agreement with Bob on that one.

  “Joy,” Shane sighed. “What else. Might as well give it to me straight.”

  “Oh nothing much, a couple of domestic disputes, one nasty fight, a drunk, and a couple of cases of vandalism. Oh, we caught a thief, or at least one of them.”

  “You did?”

  “Well, we didn't. The victim did. Saw a pendent up for sale in the black market. Went straight to Joy Torres who was going to shrug it off but apparently something about it set her off. She confronted the fence who gave them the thief.”

  “Great,” he sighed.

  “Oh it gets better. Asshole had friends. A girlfriend and another guy who were also doing some stuff we're not to happy about. The guy we're pretty sure is a pick pocket, he had four sets of IDs other than his own.”

  “Could be he won them gambling.”

  “Possible. Boss we need to set up pin codes to go with the ID's.”

  “Talk to Gabe and IT,” Shane said with a shrug.

  “We also had a few people um... practicing the oldest profession.”

  “Oh?” Shane asked. He blinked, puzzling that over for a moment.

  “Thought you'd heard that in your sheriff days,” Bill said.

  “Um...” Shane tossed around ideas like theft, fraud, drugs, black marketing and murder then shrugged. “Not...”

  “Prostitution,” Bill said with a grimace.

  “Really?” Shane said sitting back. “Took them what? A couple of months?”

  “At least there isn't a pimp involved. That we know of at any rate,” Bill said darkly. “Two cases, both women, both independent. One was a former housewife if you can believe it.”

  “Somehow it doesn't strike me at all odd. Takes all kinds.”

  “Usually I think of a prostitute as a wanna be model or actress who struck out.”

  Shane shrugged again. “Typical Hollywood stereotype. Women and men do it all the time. Like you said oldest profession. Some would prefer to earn their living on their backs.”

  “Yeah well, doc's in a tizzy about STDs and shit,” Bill said with a scowl. “Can't say I blame him. The women said that they prefer doing it with rubbers. One said she won't do it any other way.”

  “What's the going rate?” Shane asked, perversely curious.

  “Please tell me that's an academic question boss,” Bill said, eyebrows raised in surprise. Shane snorted. “Um, I think about two meals for a blow, and three for sex. Around the world is four.”

  “Sounds steep, but who am I to judge,” Shane said with a serendipitous smile. Bill blinked. “I'm not going to pass judgment on it Bill. I've got bigger fish to fry.”

  “Or at least aliens. So what do we do about it?”

  “If people are stupid enough or just strike out so much that they are that desperate and have the extra meals, their problem. One point I do want to make clear, doc's right. We're going to have to have them tested regularly for STDs.”

  “And unwanted pregnancies. You know some people are going to shit a brick over this boss,” Bill warned.

  “I'm not going to post an ad or anything. I'll talk to Jayne and Doc later today or shoot them an e-mail.”

  “Jayne?”

  “I want her, well, both of them to make rubbers and birth control available to those who desire it. I'd rather people prevent an unwanted pregnancy from the beginn
ing than end up trying to abort one.”

  Bill scowled again. “Boss, babies...”

  Shane raised a hand. “As far as I know we've had two, maybe three abortions. One was for medical reasons, it was an ectopic pregnancy and it threatened the life of the mother. The other...” he winced. “One was a rape,” he held up a hand, “before the invasion, unreported.”

  “Damn,” Bill grimaced. At least it didn't happen on his watch. One was enough. Two had been hell. Hell, one was far too many.

  “The other was a teenager who quite frankly didn't know what to do. Doc didn't go into detail, but he did say they used the morning after pill.” He sighed. “What I want to do, what Tamara and Jayne and some of the others want to do is set up a system of creche and foster parenting. Adoption as well. That way women can feel safe carrying a pregnancy full term and not feel that they will be burdened with a child that they don't want or don't think they can care for.”

  “Okay,” Bill said nodding. “Following.”

  “The problem is the ladies also want to give women who are preggers a free pass. Free food, free everything. Which...”

  “Opens the doors for women to get pregnant to just get out of work? Not a lot will do that boss, not with the way things are running.”

  “You'd be surprised,” Shane said despairingly. “I ran into quite a few baby factories in my time as a deputy, and hell, I almost fell for a honey trap while in the military. That's really the oldest profession now that I think about it, mother,” he said.

  “True,” Bill said with a nod.

  “We're going to have to iron out the system somehow. Both parents will have to support a pregnancy and future child. I don't know how to handle it,” he said with a shrug. “One problem at a time.”

  “Speaking of which, what do we do about the security on the 60? I'm still not happy about that. Bob's right, its a huge problem.”

  Shane thought about it carefully, mulling it over and then sighed. “I don't like it either. It is a sore spot. The Canyon Springs Plaza fort should help cover a part of that flank. Also the Home depot fort. We're going to have to get onto Kyle about making more claymores.”

  “Won’t work boss,” Bill said shaking his head.

  “Oh?”

  “Ball bearing and stuff would be shrugged off by the armor.”

  “Maybe, but we can do something about that. Angle them from the ground up so they get a face full. Has anyone found any titanium bikes or other bits?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I think we can cut them up with other sharp stuff, like oh say, diamonds.” He grinned at Bryan's stunned expression.

  “Seriously boss? You want to load a claymore with diamonds? Hell of an expensive weapon!”

  “Diamonds aren't worth spit right now,” Shane said with a head shake. “All we need them for is industry, and right now, not much of that here. They are good for bullet tips and not much else. No, we've got all those jewelry from the stores here somewhere. I'll see if Jayne can scrounge a crew together, former jewel setters and the like to pull the stones and use them.”

  “Oh, that'll be a fun thing to explain,” Bill said.

  “How is Kyle coming along with the mortars?” Shane asked.

  “Mortars? In the city? Boss tell me you're not serious!” Bill said, staring in disbelief. Shane smiled and waited. After a moment Bill's eyebrows went down and then up as the smile widened. “Shit, you are serious. You're insane you know that?” He shook his head. “Who put you up to it Kyle I suppose?”

  “Ross, believe it or not,” Shane said with a shrug. “He pointed out that artillery is the biggest killer, better than any other weapon system bar none. We can't do field pieces but we can field some mortars. We can set them up to drop in the right spots...”

  “Like say the 60?”

  “If we used an air launch system yeah, depending on the loft,” Shane said with a shrug. “Kyle was supposed to look into it and get back to me. We've got one tube in stores, an old piece from some guy's collection, but no rounds to go with it. He's supposed to look into that too,” Shane said.

  “Shit, and I thought my news was the kicker, Boss, don't ever get me to play top this with you.” He watched as Shane turned to look at a monitor and take a sip of now tepid coffee.

  “Eh?” Shane asked, turning back to Bill and then snorting. He set the cup down. “Whatever. Anything else?”

  Bill smacked his hands on the back of the chair. “Not a whole hell of a lot, usual gripes and whines, couple of people tried to get by without a pass, one guy tried to sneak into the perimeter and damn near got shot, the usual.”

  “Good. See you at the council meeting?” Shane asked. “Since you're up and about I mean.”

  “Pass, I just made my report,” Bill said stretching and heading for the door. “I'm for bed. Tomorrow is another day,” he said with a yawn. “Or at least tonight. I'm doing a double, Adrienne asked for the night off.”

  “Good. Just don't burn the candle at both ends for too long,” Shane cautioned. Bill laughed, shaking his head.

  “What's so funny?” Shane asked as Bill walked out.

  “Nothin' boss, not a damn thing. Night,” he said from the open door. Shane waved.

  “Whatever,” he said, picking up the tablet and picking through the report to try to find where he left off.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Walt nodded to Teri and the others around her as he came through the door. “This what you wanted to show me?” he asked, turning to the contraption the team had cobbled together out of recycled parts.

  It looked like they'd used a lot of tubing, most likely from the suspension system of a car to do it. The lights were bolted to the tree almost haphazardly, though they did look secure. The team had even thought of hooking up wheels to the base unit with a generator.

  “Yeah, check this,” Teri said with a grin. She nodded to Asia who blinked at her. “Care to do the honors?” she asked.

  “Oh ah... sure,” Asia said, reaching down and turning the ignition key. “Still got this for some reason, I think someone was being paranoid.”

  “No, just a sense of drama,” Teri said with a grin to Walt who shrugged. The engine rumbled to life. After a moment the Asian girl flicked a switch and the car headlights burst to life. She flipped another switch and the high beams came on.

  “Damn that's bright,” Walt said, shying away from the light and holding a hand up. He squinted and put his sunglasses back on but it didn't help much.

  “This side's better boss,” Teri said, taking hold of his arm and pulling him around to the backside of the contraption. “Better?” she asked.

  “Yeah, you could say so,” he said shaking his head. “So this is your light rig. I see you've got wheels to move it.”

  “And more,” Asia said, smiling. She reached up and unclipped a light from the rig. He blinked, the light was still on. She jerked the cord to one side. “We've rigged some with cords so we can take them off, move them around, even rig them with clamps to window sills and doors and such.”

  “Okay,” Walt said with a nod. “Good idea.”

  “We're working on a design to telescope the whole thing. You know, make it taller,” Asia said, using her free hand to pantomime something small going big.

  “I get the picture. We actually have a few of these you know folks.”

  “I know, but its cool making something of our own. All with stuff we've recycled,” Teri said with a grin. “Which we can sell to others or use ourselves. Image using this at night! We can hunt in the night too!”

  “No,” Walt drawled. “No, no way would the boss sign off on night hunts even if he wanted to. Damn aliens are smart, they'd find a way around this.”

  “Um...”

  “Teri, did you rig a cover over the lights?” he asked.

  “Um...” Slowly she looked at the lights and then shook her head. “Cover?”

  “Electric fence. Protection in case an alien tried to rip it apart.”

&nb
sp; “Oh,” she said in a small voice. She glanced at the others. “We ah, didn't think of that.”

  “I'm surprised, since we've been rigging every light in the complex and around it with electric fencing since the invasion,” Walt said dryly. “No, this is great as a trade item. Very good work. Also for our own teams. I bet we could haul this up to the side of a building and let her rip. Drive the aliens back giving our people breathing space near the front of the house. Can you rig some bots with these lights I wonder?”

  “Bots?” Asia asked uncertainly. She glanced at her nominal boss. Teri shrugged. She recognized Walt in a free think session.

  “Yeah, stick a couple of lights and a cord on a bot. Nothing too elaborate, just something big and strong enough to haul the lights. That way we can corner an alien and drive it to a containment or kill zone.”

  “Cool, we can do that,” Teri said nodding. She looked at the others on her team who nodded.

  “Not so fast. Work on the telescoping thing first, or do both if you can. Once you get that done rig cages of wire mesh over each lens. But I want the production steps ironed out and a production line set up.”

  “Oh?” Teri asked excited.

  “Yeah. We've got flood lights, so do the warehouse people. But we both want more. The flood lights are good, but they are right there on the buildings, not the walls unless you install them. This, this thing we can use at the wall to light the outer perimeter. Drive the aliens back or to cover a hole if we need to.”

  “Work lights,” a guy said softly.

  “No, well, yeah, but I for one wouldn't want to be working in the dark even with these things on. Hell, even with every grunt here playing guard around me. Gives me the heebe jeebies just thinking about it,” Walt said with a shiver. Teri and Asia gulped and nodded, eyes wide. “Would any of you?” Walt asked. The women hastily shook their heads. The rest of the team followed suit.

  “Didn't think so,” Walt said with a nod. “Okay, shut that thing off, conserve power and fuel after all. I've got an appointment to check in with the crew working on making the bio-diesel plant. Get your notes in order and I'll send someone over later today to start setting up the production line.”

  “Okay boss,” Teri said with a nod. “We've got different sizes too. One that could use a lawn mower engine. Any idea where we're building this?”