Heads nodded around the table.
“I believe,” said Long, “that we’re facing the threat of invasion. They want our planet, and hopefully that means they don’t want it destroyed.” He rubbed his chin. “The only good news here is that they haven’t—as far as we know—seen this ship or the other defenses around Earth. We can hope they’ll base their assessment of our capabilities on the resistance they found at Mars, which was minimal. We can’t rely on that hope one hundred percent, but it’s something, and I’ll take it.”
Long stood, and the others around the table followed suit. “I have a conference call with General Adams then with representatives of the Stellar Assembly. You all know what you need to do. Make sure your people are ready. Keep them calm; keep them alert but confident. Let’s reconvene at fourteen hundred hours. If there are any new developments, we’ll go over them then.”
GENERAL WILLIAM ADAMS tapped on the screen in front of him and nodded as the face of Admiral Long appeared. “Hello, Ryan.”
“Will. Did you get the footage from Mars?”
“Yes. I’m concerned about that body armor they’re wearing. It can at least resist small-caliber solid-projectile fire. Hopefully, if the time comes, energy weapons will have better success. I’m pulling every energy weapon I can find out of the armories and having them issued.”
“Good idea.”
“We’ve also begun setting up strong points throughout the major cities. If the aliens do get on the ground, we can hopefully tie them up at these locations long enough for reinforcements to arrive. But those things on the videos… they move damned fast. And they don’t seem to act like an organized force.”
“I noticed that. They’re like animals on a rampage.”
“Shock troops.”
“Exactly.”
“Well, either way, we’ll be ready for them. All units are on active duty, patrolling the cities, the highways, the countryside. What about defenses for the colonies?”
Long frowned. “Minimal. The Izumo and the Oberon. I’m keeping all our big ships here at Earth. If this is an invasion, we need to be able to defend ourselves with everything we can muster.”
Adams sighed. “Alien invasion. I know that was a real concern shortly after hyperspace was discovered and we began spreading out to other star systems. But in all the centuries since then, we haven’t come across a single intelligent species. Where did they come from?”
“I’ve wondered that. It would have to be a long way off. A civilization like that, capable of building a ship like that, couldn’t stay hidden, and we’ve sent probes through hyperspace to all the nearby star systems we haven’t personally visited.”
Adams cleared his throat. “My brother was on Mars.”
“I’m sorry, Will. They did find a handful of….”
“No, I’ve already checked. He’s not among them.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thank you. Fortunately, this has kept me pretty busy. I haven’t had time to deal with that just yet.”
“They’re… they’re recovering the remains from Mars now. If they find him, I’ll let you know immediately so arrangements can be made.”
“I appreciate that.”
“I’ll see you at the teleconference with the Assembly. I just hope the bureaucrats aren’t planning anything that’ll interfere with our ability to defend the planet.”
“Even if they are,” said Adams, “I plan to ignore them. This is bigger than politics. If they don’t give me—and you—carte blanche to defend Earth, I’ll take it anyway.”
“Whatever you need to do, Will, I’ll back you.”
“Likewise. Good luck, Admiral.”
Long smiled. “And you, General.”
5
JEFFERSON IVES THOUGHT about Abilene quite a bit. It was on that miserable planet that he’d lost his friends John Takemitsu and Liz Wagner. He’d also been separated from another friend, Frank Allen, and while he knew that Allen had checked in on Silvanus some months later, he didn’t know what had become of him since then.
It had been difficult to bring the bodies of John and Liz home and make contact with their families. It had been even more difficult to explain to Director Blanco exactly what had happened. Bureau agents had teamed up with the man they were hunting to try and take down the warlord Orion Zednik. Not only that, Zednik had escaped, and Richard Sullivan hadn’t been apprehended either.
At the time, Ives had agreed with Allen’s decision to help Sullivan take down Zednik and rescue Kate Alexander. Sullivan had promised to turn himself in once that was done. But that had never happened. Ives had heard through Bureau channels that Frank Allen had quit the Bureau. He was also suspected of aiding and abetting Sullivan and may have even been involved in the civil war on Edaline. Ives didn’t doubt it. After Liz Wagner’s death, Allen had become detached. His behavior had grown increasingly irrational.
As Jeff Ives stood in his apartment looking down at the street below, he thought about his friends, both those who were dead and the one who was missing. Richard Sullivan was still at large. Was Frank with him? Was Frank even alive?
Ives was about to step away from the window when a surge in the crowd caught his attention. A few dozen people had rounded the corner from the cross street and were running toward his building. As they went, those who had been moving in the opposite direction turned and followed.
Ives took his handheld out of his pocket, activated the camera and zoomed in on the crowd. There was fear and panic in their eyes.
The handheld rang, and he switched off the camera to see who was calling. It was the Bureau.
“Yes? Yes, sir. I can see something happening, but I don’t know what it is yet. It looks like… are you sure, sir? Yes, sir. I’m heading down now. I’ll report as soon as I know something.”
Ives shoved his handheld into his pocket, grabbed his holster and sidearm off the table and rushed out the door. When he arrived in the lobby of his apartment building, the crowd had grown. Scores of people were running along the street.
He pushed open the doors and tried to see through the crowd, tried to see what they were running away from. A flash of movement above the crowd caught his eye. It looked like someone had leapt ten or twelve feet into the air.
Ives trained his eyes above the heads of the onrushing throng. Another figure leapt above the crowd, but a large man shouldered his way past Ives at the same instant, knocking him off balance and obstructing his view.
Ives began moving against the crowd, trying to reach the source of the panic. The crowd was beginning to thin as he made his way toward the corner. He was less than twenty meters from the cross street when he finally got a good look at who—at what—had been leaping above the crowd and causing the commotion.
Ives froze in place as a crouched creature with red and black mottled skin looked up in his direction. He couldn’t see through the reflective visor it was wearing, but Ives sensed that it had noticed him.
Ives managed to pull his attention away from the creature’s face and looked down. It was crouching over the body of a woman. Her face, neck and chest were covered in blood, and large pieces of flesh appeared to be missing.
Ives drew his sidearm. Even at twenty meters, the laser sight on his gun would ensure an accurate shot. He fired twice at the creature, hitting it once in the shoulder and once in the chest.
The thing opened its mouth in anger, revealing rows of sharp, curved teeth. It seemed mostly unaffected by the shots.
Ives adjusted his grip on the gun and fired three more rounds. The creature leapt up from its victim and bounded toward him. Ives kept firing as it advanced, but it didn’t slow.
It leapt high into the air to close the last few meters, and Ives raised his gun and fired frantically as the creature came down on top of him.
Winded and momentarily blinded by the impact of the creature, Ives could only feel the weight of the thing as it writhed above him. He felt claws puncture his shoulder and desperately pummeled
the creature with his fists, trying to drive it back before it could bring its teeth down.
Abruptly, the writhing stopped. Ives pushed the creature off of him and rolled away from it. He got to his feet and looked down. From the blood and the shattered teeth, he could see that one of his shots had struck the thing in the mouth. It had taken several more seconds for the creature to acknowledge its own death, and in that time, it could have easily killed Ives if its claws had found his face or throat rather than his shoulder.
Ives tore away his sleeve and studied the seeping wounds. There were three cuts running down from his shoulder to his bicep. They were thin but deep, and he was bleeding profusely.
He wrapped the tatters of his sleeve around the wounds and knotted it tightly.
A flash of movement caught his eye. Another of the creatures had just rounded the corner and was watching him. Ives ran across the street and ducked into the doorway of the corner pharmacy. He pulled open the door and slammed it shut as the creature ran after him. It thumped its body against the door, but its clawed hands were unable to work the handle. Ives glanced to the windows and decided that the bars over them would be able to keep the creature out. The thing hissed at him through the small square window in the door then moved away.
Ives collapsed with his back to the door and looked in at the pharmacy. A dozen other people were also inside. As he studied their faces, he pulled out his handheld.
The pharmacist rushed forward with supplies to treat his wound as Ives called the Bureau office.
“Hello, Director Blanco? Ives here. I can verify the reports. Creatures of some sort, definitely nothing I’ve seen before. I killed one, but at least one is still at large. An unknown number of casualties.”
On the other end of the line, Ives could hear Director Leo Blanco sigh. “The Army is scrambling troops, but this isn’t an isolated incident, Jeff.”
“Sir?”
“Over the past few minutes, reports have been coming in from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Washington, London, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Cairo, Tokyo…. These things are appearing everywhere.”
“Where’d they come from, sir?”
“I’ve just been briefed about the Mars incident. The military is certain that this is related.”
“So it’s an invasion.”
“It looks that way.”
“Orders, sir?”
“Can you get down to the office?”
“I don’t think so, sir, not if there are many of those things roaming around. And I’ve been injured.”
He paused as the pharmacist finished cleaning the wound. He lifted the spray can in his hand and pushed the nozzle on top. A white stream sprayed out, and as soon as it hit the wound it hardened into a flexible covering, sealing the cuts and stopping the bleeding.
“How bad is it?” asked Blanco.
“Someone’s just sprayed a liquid bandage on it, but I’m going to have to take it easy for a while.”
“Are you still near your apartment?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Can your building be secured?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, Jeff. Here’s what I’d like you to do. Get as many people as you can find into your building. I want everyone on that block in one place so if either the Bureau or the Army can get people in there, it’ll facilitate an evacuation.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Be safe, Jeff.”
“You, too, sir. I’ll be in touch.”
Ives put his handheld away and studied the bandage on his arm. “Thank you for that.” He stood and cleared his throat. “Listen up, everyone. My name is Agent Jefferson Ives of the Stellar Assembly Bureau of Investigation. We’re going to move a couple buildings down and secure that location. I need you to follow my instructions quickly and exactly.”
He turned and peeked through the window in the door. He then moved to each of the other windows as he made a visual survey. He turned back and nodded. “I’m going to open the door and check things out. Wait for my signal before following me.”
He stepped out and looked both ways down the street. At the nearest corner, he could see four bodies lying in spreading pools of blood. He looked back into the pharmacy and waved for those inside to follow him.
“Single file, hug the side of the buildings,” he said as he led them toward his apartment building. He stopped at his building’s door, waved his keycard over the electronic reader to unlock it and guided the others in. When they were all inside, he closed the door and made sure it latched securely.
“There’s a small lounge to the left where you’ll find some couches and chairs. I’m going to secure the building. I need one person at this door. If you see anyone outside, try to get their attention, but don’t open that door until they’re at it and ready to come in.”
After checking the back and side doors to make sure they were secure, Ives rode the elevator up to his apartment. He went in and kneeled down in front of a safe in his bedroom closet. He unlocked it and took out a fresh magazine for his sidearm. He also took out a small energy pistol. Last, he removed his ripped and bloodied shirt and, trying to ignore the pain in his arm, slipped on a fresh button-down.
He stepped over to his window and looked down into the street once again. Another of the strange creatures was slinking along the side of the building opposite. Ives pushed open his window and raised the energy pistol. He didn’t have to worry about recoil with the weapon; even though he was firing left-handed because of his injury, the beam of energy would hit true as long as he took the time to line up the shot.
Ives centered the red dot in the sight on the creature’s head and pulled the trigger. A flash followed, and a neat, cauterized hole was carved out of the side of the thing’s skull. The beam from the energy pistol had cleanly cut through the covering the creature was wearing over its head and torso. The standard-shot rounds from his sidearm seemed to have harmlessly bounced off of the material. Ives brought his handheld out again. He couldn’t be at the Bureau helping to fight this threat, but he could at least let them know what he had learned.
6
JEFF IVES LOOKED over at his handheld. He’d been asleep, but the high-pitched chirping had brought him around. The call was coming from an unknown location. He briefly considered ignoring it, but there was a chance it was Blanco or someone else from the Bureau trying to contact him through other channels.
“Hello?”
“Jeff Ives?”
“Yes.”
“This is Richard Sullivan.”
Ives swallowed hard. Sullivan was on Earth, or at least within the Solar System. He thought he detected a slight delay.
“Sullivan. What are you… what’s going on?”
“I was hoping you could tell me that. I’ve been monitoring the news reports, but the information is confused, scattered. Is there any safe place I can land? I really need to see you.”
“So you’re on a ship?”
“Yes.”
“How big?”
“It’s a small freighter.”
Ives got up from his bed and walked to the window. The building across from his had once been a hospital. It had been converted into apartments as part of a revitalization effort about a hundred years earlier. Ives knew he had seen private passenger ships land on the building’s roof before, but freighters were quite a bit heavier.
“I’ll send you the address of a building here in New York that has a landing pad. I’m not positive it can hold your freighter, but if you search the network you might find a weight rating for it.”
“Thank you, Jeff.”
“But you should know the city has been put on lockdown. No traffic is allowed in for the time being. It seems the creatures have only been appearing in the largest cities, so everyone’s trying to get out. Have you heard about the creatures?”
“Yes. Look, I need to get to Earth. Could you get me Bureau authorization to land?”
“Look, Sullivan, I….”
“Please, Je
ff. This is more important than you realize. I’ve encountered these things before. I have information about them. And I have information about Frank.”
“He’s not with you, then?”
“He’s… no, he’s not.”
Ives swallowed. “Okay. Give me a few minutes. I’ll try to get you an authorization code.”
SULLIVAN ENTERED THE coordinates Ives had given him, and the ship began maneuvering toward Earth. An indicator light flashed on his console. He tapped on it.
“Freighter 19434J, what is your destination?”
“New York City.”
“Negative. City is on lockdown. I’m sending you a list of authorized landing sites now.”
“I have authorization. SABI-189573.”
“Please stand by.”
Sullivan glanced out the small round window on the side of the cockpit. The escort ship began moving away.
“Acknowledged, 19434J. Authorization to land has been granted. Be careful down there.”
“Thank you.”
Cloud cover was obscuring the city as Sullivan entered the atmosphere. He monitored the approach with his instruments, but it was highly unlikely the automatic piloting system would need to be corrected.
He halted the descent a hundred meters above the rooftop of the building Ives had directed him to. The immediate area looked clear. There was no movement on the street, human or otherwise.
He resumed the landing sequence, and the freighter gently touched down on top of the building. Sullivan called Ives again. “I’ve landed.”
“I’m in the building right across the street. I’ll open the door when I see you coming. Are you armed?”
“Yes.”
“Good. See you soon.”
Sullivan rode the elevator down to the lobby of the building. As the doors opened, a police officer turned toward him. His gun was drawn, but he was holding it with the muzzle down. “No one’s allowed out, sir.”
Sullivan put his hands up, hoping the energy pistol in his coat pocket wasn’t bulging too much. “There’s a Bureau agent in the building across the street, officer. I’ve just landed on the roof per his instructions.”
Sullivan Saga 3: Sullivan's Watch Page 3