Invasion (The Alien Wars #1)

by Paul Moxham

  Baldy nodded. “Just follow me. And don’t get lost.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be right behind you.” Logan glanced around the pier one last time. There were still plenty of men with guns around, and he realized that this place was a stopping ground for numerous boats.

  A police boat was just pulling up beside the pier, and he realized that it was a pretty big operation if they had boats just patrolling. He then noticed the man that had spoken to them earlier hurrying toward them and he got an uneasy feeling. Walking to the truck, he threw open the door and climbed in.

  He drove toward the security checkpoint. Halfway there, he glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the man hurry past. He breathed a sigh of relief. The man must just have been concerned with something else.

  “Are you all right?” Xavier asked, glancing over.

  Logan smiled. “I will be once we’re back at the warehouse.” Looking forward, he slowed down as they approached the checkpoint. There was a moment’s hesitation before the man waved them through.

  ~*~*~

  Kenneth screeched to a stop beside the lake. It was half frozen over. An idea crept into his mind. It would be best if he could keep the briefcase. He would still love to know what was in it, but if that couldn’t happen, then the next best thing would be no one having it.

  He unlatched the skis and stepped on the ice. It felt pretty hard. He was considering his options, when green bolts hit the ice around him. They went right through the ice, and within seconds, he could hear the rest of the ice giving way.

  “Shoot!” Glancing back, he realized that he could only go forward, as the Seod was now so close that to step off the lake would be suicide.

  Hoping like crazy that it wouldn’t break, Kenneth ran across the ice. As he left the half-broken ice behind him, he heard it crumbling.

  More holes appeared in the ice around him and he realized that the Seod was still shooting. As the ice cracked all around him, he realized he was running out of room. One hundred feet ahead, the calm surface of the water was visible.

  With the Seod behind him and the water in front, Kenneth was trapped. If he were Logan, he might have leaped into the water and dived down, but this was not an option for him. He didn’t like water. In fact, he hated it.

  When he was younger, he and his brother had taken swimming lessons. For some reason, Logan had taken to the water like a duck, but he hadn’t. And so he quit with only two lessons under his belt.

  There had only been a few times where he had regretted not doing something, and this was one of those times. How he wished he’d been like Logan and learned to swim like a fish.

  As the water got closer, he realized that he only had a few seconds to decide on a plan.

  ~*~*~

  As the truck pulled up beside the warehouse, Peter ran out. “Did you do it?”

  Logan smiled as he climbed out. “Yes. It went like clockwork. Is Muscles back from his mission?”

  Peter nodded. “He told me to tell you that he wants to see you in his office.”

  “What about the goods?” Logan asked, walking to the back of the truck.

  “I’ll take care of them,” Peter offered.

  “Okay, thanks.” With Xavier by his side, Logan headed into the building and strode into the office.

  Muscles smiled as they walked in. “Good to see you. What’s the news?”

  Logan sat down and told him everything that had happened. “So,” he concluded, “I did what you asked me to do, so now I need to get into The View.”

  Muscles nodded. “I gave you my word that I’d help you if you proved yourselves to me, and you have. Those goods will go a long way in helping us defeat Sanchez. Now, as for your plan, do you have any thoughts about how I can help?”

  Logan leaned back in his chair and was silent for a few moments while he thought. “How many men do you have at your disposal?”

  “Well, our organization is two hundred, but my section is around fifty. So if you want to act tonight, fifty men can be at your disposal.”

  Logan smiled. “That should be enough. Basically, we need a distraction to draw the guards out of The View, leaving only essential personnel there.”

  Muscles nodded. “There’s a convoy of five trucks coming through the north side of the city this evening. If we were to hold it up, its contents should prove vital enough for men to be sent from The View. We wouldn’t normally hold up a convoy so big, but if I round up everyone, we should be able to stop it without any trouble.” He shifted through some papers until he found a map of the city. “We don’t have to leave for a couple of hours, so why don’t I make some calls with my radio and let you know what the plan is soon?”

  “Sounds good. I’ll get out of your way.” Logan stood up and left the office, followed by Xavier.

  “Do you think that distraction will be enough for us to get into The View?” Xavier asked.

  “It has to be,” Logan replied without hesitation. “There’s no alternative.”

  ~*~*~

  Kenneth had been in desperate situations before, but none like this. On a scale of one to ten, this was a twenty. He glanced back. He spotted the Seod a fair way behind. He was obviously not used to the ice and was going a lot slower than him. He had also stopped firing for the time being.

  Kenneth took out the briefcase from the backpack and threw it toward the water. As soon as it left his hands, he sprinted toward the shore as fast as he could while skidding across the slippery ice.

  He was hoping that the Seod would see the briefcase and go after it, not him. Glancing back, he spotted the Seod taking two steps toward him, but then he stopped and fired. Green bolts blasted the ice, but after firing for a few seconds, the Seod stopped and hurried toward the briefcase.

  Kenneth breathed a sigh of relief as he got closer to the edge of the lake. As he reached the safety of the snow, he collapsed onto it. Breathing heavily, he managed to look back at the lake and saw with disappointment that the briefcase had stopped five feet from the water.

  “Shoot!” He’d been so close. He stiffened as the Seod looked at him, but relaxed as it continued on its way. It was now only ten feet from the getting the suitcase.

  Kenneth heard the crack of ice and watched in wonder and astonishment as the Seod disappeared from view. He waited for the Seod to reappear, but as the seconds ticked by and nothing appeared, Kenneth fidgeted. After two minutes, he slowly plucked his way back onto the ice.

  With each step, he expected the Seod to climb out, but it didn’t. By the time he arrived at the hole, the water was calm. If the Seod had attempted to splash its way to the surface, they hadn’t lasted for long.

  Kenneth wasn’t one to gloat over someone dying. He left the hole and made his way to the briefcase.

  Slowing down, he tried tiptoeing as he got closer and closer. As the item was so close to the edge of the ice, there was a chance that he could fall through, so he had to go slow.

  A second later, he heard a crack. He quickly glanced around and spotted a small fissure five feet away. He waited but heard nothing more. He slipped off his backpack, laid it on the ice, and continued walking. As he put each foot onto the ice, he paused and waited for five seconds.

  It seemed like it took an eternity to get to the briefcase and he grinned with relief as he clutched the handle. A moment later, the ice began to crack below his feet and he realized that now wasn’t the time to go slow.

  He started to walk, then run, before sprinting across the ice. As the ice cracked behind him, he bent down as he passed the backpack, snatching it, and with both hands full, continued running.

  Fortunately, the ice near the shore was thicker, and as he got closer, the ice cracked less and less until it finally stopped.

  Gasping for air, he chucked both things down as he collapsed on the snow-covered grass. Breathing heavily, he lay down and closed his eyes as he thought about how close he had been to dying.

  Once he’d recovered, he sat up and glanced around. No one could
be seen. He placed the briefcase into the backpack and paused. Staring at the thing, he wondered what was in it. It had to be something really important. Was it some kind of weapon?

  He tried kicking it, but that didn’t do any good. Whatever was in it would have to wait another day. Maybe the military had some kind of laser that could cut through the metal.

  He slipped on the backpack and tightened the straps. Once it was comfortable, he glanced up at the sky. Clouds had continued to build since he last checked, and now they were pretty black and thick. As he watched, flakes of snow started to fall.

  He sighed. It was going to be one hell of a journey to find the teenagers. But now, with the snow, it’d be worse. He’d have to hurry before the snow covered up their tracks. He had to make his way back to where he’d left them.

  Fortunately, he’d done plenty of cross-country skiing in his time, so he was hopeful that he’d be able to get there quicker than the average person. He headed across the lake to retrieve his skis.

  By the time he arrived at the slope where he’d last seen the teenagers, he was puffing. To make matters worse, snow was now steadily falling. He would have to find the tracks fast and get a sense of direction before they completely disappeared.

  It took a minute or two to see the marks made by the sled, and once he ascertained which direction it had been going, he followed.

  As he walked, he pulled out the map from his backpack and tried to find where he was, but the map wasn’t detailed enough, and before long, he folded it up and put it back in the backpack.

  If the teenagers were going to be found, it was going to be by him. As was to be expected, the sled marks led him back to the snowmobile. Unfortunately, once he arrived at the wreck, he couldn’t see any tracks leading away from it.

  Then, suddenly, he spotted something peeking out from the snow. He walked over and bent down. It was the sled. Wrapping his coat a bit tighter and rubbing his gloves together, he tried to imagine himself as the teenagers. Where would the two of them go?

  He could think of two places. They’d either head for the cabin or to the cave on the east side of Monument Peak.

  Looking at his map once more, he saw that it was a number of miles to the cave, which, in weather like this, was tough. Deciding that the cabin was closer, he skied off in its direction.

  By the time he arrived at the structure, snow was steadily falling in large clumps. Eager to get inside to warm up, he took off the skis and opened the door.

  Glancing around, he sighed. Derek and Molly weren’t there. Spotting a pair of binoculars on the bed, he walked over, took them, and looked out the only window in the cabin. He knew where Monument Peak was, but due to the snow, it was impossible to see more than a hundred yards out.

  Looping the binoculars around his neck, he shuffled over to the bed. Thankful to have something to lie on, he took a rest. He was no star athlete, and the cross-country skiing, combined with the wind and snow, had worn him out.

  He knew that sooner or later he’d have to trek to Monument Peak, but in conditions like this, it’d be impossible to keep on track. He hoped that an hour would provide him with the rest he needed and that the storm would have also settled down by then. He stretched out on the bed and closed his eyes. Within five minutes, he fell asleep.

  Chapter 14

  Derek had been pretty optimistic that they wouldn’t get lost, but as the storm went from bad to worse, he wasn’t sure where they were.

  Stopping to rest amongst some trees, he turned to Molly. “Do you think we should head back to Tahoe Summit Village or just continue on?”

  Molly hesitated. “Well, we’re probably over halfway there. I know we haven’t seen any Seods for a while, but that might be because they’re waiting for us to return to the cabin.”

  Derek nodded. “I just wish Kenneth were here.”

  “Then all three of us would be lost,” Molly stated.

  “Sure, but at least we’d be lost together.” Derek stood up. “Look, the sun will be setting soon. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be spending the night in the snow, so the faster we find the cave, the better.”

  “Maybe Kenneth will be at the cave when we get there,” Molly beamed.

  “Hopefully.” Derek shrugged. “Anything is possible.”

  ~*~*~

  For what seemed like the tenth time, Logan stared at his watch. Zero hour was now only two minutes away. He peered around the corner. The View looked exactly the same as before.

  He glanced back at the others who were sitting on the sidewalk. Muscles needed the majority of his men, so only Peter, Baldy, and Xavier were with him. Four people weren’t a lot, but Logan was content. It wasn’t so much the number of people, but how experienced they were.

  He glanced at his watch again. The seconds ticked by. “Five, four, three, two, one, now!” Nothing happened. Logan gazed back at his watch. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing. Probably just a small problem,” Xavier said. “I’m sure we’ll hear something within the next minute.”

  “I hope so,” Logan replied.

  The group waited anxiously by the corner, each taking turns glancing at The View. When five minutes had passed and still nothing had happened, Logan started pacing back and forth. “Something’s wrong. Muscles knows the plan. He had plenty of time to set up. Something’s gone wrong. I just feel it.”

  “Reckon we ought to go back to the warehouse?” Baldy suggested.

  Logan shook his head as he glanced back at The View. “I’m not going to wait till tomorrow. I’m going in there tonight, with or without the distraction.”

  “But that’s suicide!” Baldy said. “What about those machine guns out front?”

  “Not to mention the snipers on the roofs,” Peter said.

  Logan nodded. “Don’t you think I know the risks? I struggled with leaving Lucy once, and I’m not going through that ever again. It’s now or never.” He glanced at the time. “I’ll give it another fifteen minutes. If nothing happens by then, I’m going in regardless.”

  The minutes passed painfully slowly for everyone, but especially for Logan. He sat down on the sidewalk and closed his eyes. He thought about the happier times he and Lucy had experienced together: walking along Fisherman’s Wharf in the thick fog on a gloomy summer’s day in San Francisco; enjoying fresh chocolate in Ghirardelli Square; and watching the sun set into the Pacific at Baker Beach. He cherished every moment with Lucy, because it felt so right being with her. He had once tried explaining the feeling of being in love to Kenneth, but it was hard for him to understand. He’d never fallen for a woman like his brother had.

  As he opened his eyes, his thoughts returned to the task at hand. Many things had changed, but one thing remained the same, and that was the love he had for Lucy. His separation and fear of loss had increased his feelings for her more than ever before.

  Checking his watch, he realized it was time to go. Walking over to the Humvee, he saddled himself with some weapons, taking a bolt-action rifle, a pistol, a hand grenade, and some ammo. After putting the weapons into a backpack, he slung them over his shoulder and walked back to the others.

  “I wonder what happened to Muscles and his team,” Peter said.

  “I say we return to the warehouse,” Baldy stated. “We need to regroup and assess the situation with an open mind, not go lone-wolf and try to be a hero.”

  Logan turned to Baldy. “I’m not asking you to come. I’ve learned from experience that there’s no use forcing someone to do something they don’t want to do. So go back if you want to.” He nodded at Peter and Xavier. “Does anyone want to join me?”

  Xavier raised his hand. “I’ll come.”

  Logan smiled. “Thanks. We’ll leave in a minute.” He strolled to the corner and peered around. The situation was still the same. He suddenly stiffened as he heard a noise.

  He swiftly turned around. A Humvee roared down the street toward them. He chambered a round for his weapon and gave a hand signal. T
he whole team slid back into the cover of their pre-planned ambush positions.

  ~*~*~

  Darkness was closing in as Kenneth slipped and stumbled, staying upright only by grasping at saplings and branches. Wind and snow lashed through the trees, not making the job any easier.

  From time to time he stopped and paused as he glanced around. Nothing except snow and trees could be seen. He thought that the storm had eased enough, so he’d set off an hour ago, but shortly afterwards, it returned with a vengeance.

  He had skied part of the way, but after accidentally breaking one of the poles, he decided to leave them, thinking he’d make more progress on foot. He now regretted that decision. But there was nothing he could do about it now. After waiting a few moments, he stood up and continued walking.

  Fortunately, the storm hadn’t turned into a blizzard, and he didn’t think he was lost, but as he had to take several detours due to Seods, the trek was taking ages. Only time would tell if he was on the right track.

  He continued walking. The snow got thicker and the trail got thinner as he left the ski runs and wound around the mountain. He had no idea where the cave was, and in this weather, he could walk right past it and not even notice it.

  Once he was sure that he was beside the peak, he decided to stop. It wasn’t any use going farther with the storm so bad. He sat down in the thicket of some trees and waited. For the twentieth time, he was glad that he’d taken the cold-weather clothing from the shop at Tahoe Summit Village. He would have been freezing by now if he hadn’t, for even with the extra warmth on, it was still chilly.

  The storm started to clear after about half an hour. Realizing this was the chance he’d been waiting for, Kenneth continued searching. Now, with the snow finally ceasing, he’d be able to see the cave on the mountainside. Though, with darkness not far off, he had to be fast.

  The crack of a branch made him stop and turn around. His heart lodged in his throat. No less than sixty feet away was a Seod. As soon as the creature saw he’d been spotted, he pulled out his silencer.