Battle of Earth

by Chloe Garner

  “Unless they’ve got…” he started, then stooped, his face going lax.

  “Sir?” she asked. He shook his head.

  “Get a flight,” he said.

  “What?”

  “Get a flight,” he said. “Right now.”

  “Who is on board and to where?” she asked.

  “You and me, Andrews,” he said. She stood, starting for the door, pausing with her hand on the doorknob.

  “I’ll do what you need me to do, and I’ll follow you anywhere, sir, but I have to ask. Unless they’ve got what?”

  “A couple of foreign terrestrials and some genius-level gear,” he said, getting the papers together that he needed to finish today, just to have his hands busy.

  “You think the Secret Service is working with unidentified foreign terrestrials?” she asked. He straightened and looked at her.

  “No,” he said. “I think they’re every bit identified.”

  *********

  Jesse looked out the window at the cars surrounding the plane.

  They could have used a point-to-point transfer to get here. Even with trackers in Cassie’s blood, they’d have had some element of surprise. She’d used her military ID to buy her ticket. Everyone who knew anything of any importance knew she was here on this plane. She’d made threats against Lumps who were embedded in some structure of power, somewhere.

  She was the bait.

  He wondered if she was the hook, too, or if that was going to end up being him.

  He glanced over at her as she rested with her head tipped back, the fake air teasing at the bits of hair that frizzed above her forehead.

  “No better way to find the people who know how to hide a general than to have them come try to hide you,” she said.

  “You know they’re using Violet’s tech,” he murmured. People were beginning to talk to each other, voices rising, anxious.

  “I know I beat it once,” she answered.

  “You used her own loophole,” he said.

  She looked at him.

  “Exactly,” she said. “I beat them, using her tech.”

  The look in her eye made him shudder.

  “Stay alive,” she said to him, and he frowned.

  “You’re the one they care about,” he answered. She nodded.

  “Yes. I’m an unidentified threat. You’re an identified threat. They have no more information to get from you. The right tactical move is to just execute you.”

  He looked out the window again as men in suits carrying handguns scattered into formations around the plane. People were beginning to shout.

  “That’s my cue,” she said, looking at him once more. “I mean it. Stay alive.”

  He nodded slowly.

  This might have been the first time he could think of that his life had actually been endangered, while he’d been with her. Hers had been, multiple times, as a human, but never his.

  “You, too,” he said softly as she stood.

  *********

  The plane took off thirty minutes after Bridgette left his office. They landed at the air force base where Air Force One hangared and caught a helicopter from there to the White House. Senator Greene was waiting for them, there, standing next to the Secretary of Defense, Alan Langer. Troy helped Bridgette down from the helicopter then went and stood in front of Secretary Langer and Senator Greene, holding his hat and covering his head with his arm as the helicopter took off again. When it was far enough overhead that they could hear each other again, Troy put his hat on and saluted. The Secretary answered him, and then held out an arm.

  “We have a conference room booked at the White House,” he said. “Senator Greene seemed to think this was urgent enough that we should talk immediately.”

  “No, sir,” Troy answered. “All due respect, sir, we need to go after Lieutenant du Charme immediately.”

  Langer narrowed his eyes at Troy.

  “You think she’s just going to disappear? They arrested her for questioning concerning a house bombing in Brazil.”

  “Two men already have disappeared, sir,” Troy said. “She’s easier than either of them, because if she disappears, all they have to do is say she ran off, and everyone would believe them.”

  “This isn’t some grand conspiracy, young man,” Langer said.

  “Begging your pardon, sir, but I believe it is,” Troy answered. Langer looked over at Senator Greene.

  “If Kate hadn’t vouched for you, you wouldn’t have made it this far,” he said. “But I don’t have time…”

  “You will make time,” Senator Greene said. “Major Rutger hasn’t put a foot wrong since I met him, and if he thinks there’s something going on that we haven’t seen, yet, then you need to listen to him, and then you need to give him anything he asks for.”

  “I said I’d listen to him, Kate,” Langer said, annoyed and Troy tipped his head back a fraction, trying to control his temper. They were getting away with Cassie. They’d met her plane on the tarmac and put her into the back of a car more than an hour ago. It was all over the internet. Jesse had been with her. And while Troy pitied the guy responsible for keeping them there, they knew who they were dealing with, and they would have come prepared.

  “Sir, I believe there are as many as three foreign terrestrials at large in Washington D.C. who are currently involved in an attempt to cover up what was going on at Greene Air Force Base.”

  The Secretary of Defense turned to look at him, and Troy’s throat seized. Reality hadn’t yet sunk in, who he was talking to.

  Who was presently annoyed with him.

  “Aliens?” Langer asked. “Really? You’re here to tell me that you think aliens have taken over the United States government?”

  “Hold it,” Senator Greene said. “You are looking at the world’s foremost expert on foreign terrestrial behavior on this planet and any other. There isn’t a human alive who knows more about them. You don’t just laugh him off.”

  “Sir,” Troy said, swallowing hard. “Two men with Secret Service badges took a man off of my base by force. They killed a cadet on their way out and wounded another. I’ve been asking about what happened to General Donovan for weeks, and no one can seem to tell me. Donovan was bringing across unauthorized…”

  “Not out here,” Secretary Langer said. “Once we’re in a secure room, you can lay out your case.” He held up a finger at the senator. “And I will give you a fair hearing. But if you are wasting my time, I will bust you back to Captain.”

  “Sir, I was happier as a Captain,” Troy said, regretting it the instant the words were out of his mouth, but not missing Bridgette’s tiny snort.

  “Indeed,” the Secretary said without looking back.

  He badged them past two Secret Service agents at a door into the White House, leading the way through hallways buzzing with guards and civilians, turning down quieter hallway and going into a room. He put a code into a keypad, then nodded at Troy.

  “All right. Go.”

  “Sir,” Troy said as Bridgette and Senator Greene sat. “General Donovan was bringing across unauthorized foreign terrestrials for months. Best we can tell, it was for profit - they were buying their way here.”

  “I’ve read this brief,” Secretary Langer said. “Get to the new information.”

  “Three of them are missing,” Troy said. “They left a trap on their room on base that I unwittingly tripped…”

  “What happened?” Senator Greene asked. Troy shook his head.

  “I don’t have a clear explanation for it because I don’t understand. It split me into two… pieces, one of which stayed on base and continued to work and the other… Easiest to just say that Cassie… Lieutenant du Charme tracked me down and brought me back. Put the two pieces back together.”

  “When was this?” Senator Greene asked.

  “You know when,” Bridgette said, and Greene nodded.

  “I thought so. Not like you to be AWOL.”

  Troy pressed his mouth and nodded to her.
/>
  “I’m sorry, ma’am. I didn’t realize what was going to happen until it did. It’s my understanding that I suffered cardiac arrest a number of times during the process.”

  Senator Greene’s eyebrows went up, and Troy turned to address the Secretary again.

  “Sir, I asked Jesse, the Jalnian foreign terrestrial, to track the missing foreign terrestrials from the unauthorized program, and he hasn’t checked in with me since. The videos from online are first time I’ve seen him since he started that search, which is one reason that I believe that the missing foreign terrestrials are here. That Lieutenant du Charme is with him just reinforces that belief. If she knew that he was closing in on the missing foreign terrestrials, I believe there’s little chance that she’d let him go after them on his own.”

  “That’s it?” Langer asked. “Two people on an airplane mean that we’ve been overthrown?”

  Troy shook his head.

  “No, sir. That the Secret Service met them at the plane. The same Secret Service who made my Major disappear, and the same ones who presumably arrested the General. Where they show up, people disappear, and where Jesse and his search for missing foreign terrestrials intersects with an agency that appears to be hell-bent on covering up missing foreign terrestrials? It’s hardly a court case, but it’s enough that we need to go get both Jesse and Lieutenant du Charme to guarantee their safety until we get a better explanation.”

  “Is that all you’ve got, Major?” Secretary Langer asked.

  “I’d say that’s quite a lot,” Senator Greene said, and Langer held up a hand.

  “I didn’t say I didn’t believe him. I asked if there was anything else.”

  “Yes, sir,” Troy said.

  “And if I can produce General Donovan, does that prove that there is no conspiracy?”

  Troy frowned, considering this.

  “It does reduce how compelling a case I have,” he said, “but I still believe that Jesse and du Charme are in danger.”

  “Well, let’s wait and see what you think after you talk to the General,” Secretary Langer said. “He’s in an interview room at the Pentagon right now.”

  Troy straightened.

  Had he rushed in before he actually knew what was going on?

  Was he in the wrong, here?

  “Sir, is there any way I could speak with Lieutenant du Charme, first?” he asked.

  “Secret Service has her,” Langer answered. “They have the right to arrest her and question her, and I don’t get a say.”

  “But she’s Air Force, and my subordinate,” Troy said. “That should allow for a courtesy conversation.”

  Langer pursed his lips, giving Senator Greene a dark look.

  “I try to keep out of the nonsense that goes on, over at Greene,” he said. “Takes up too much time for everyone involved, and if you ask me, this planet’s got enough problems without us taking all of our energy bringing new problems home from other planets. But I have heard rumors about a contract that’s special between you and that woman, and I think whoever agreed to that needs to be taken out back and shot. She is a US service member, and she doesn’t get special treatment beyond that warranted by battlefield injuries and special skills. And I don’t care how neat-o her new DNA is, it isn’t a special skill that lifts her outside of the chain of command the way you people let her do it.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Senator Greene warned, but Langer didn’t look over at her. He held Troy’s eye.

  “You’re a good soldier. Everyone says so, and I believe in the people who are telling me that. You hide in her skirts again, we’re going to have a problem.”

  “I don’t have a CO,” Troy said. “Are you authorizing me to contact you directly? Sir?”

  “You can always contact me directly,” Langer answered, turning for the door. “I’m just not saying I’m going to answer.”

  “But I will,” Senator Greene said, standing. Troy glanced at Bridgette, but her face was still, just watching. “And I don’t care how much you prefer your giant budget-swallowing aircraft carriers and destroyers. The portal program is the future, and if you don’t see it, it’s because you’re an old dog who’s ready to retire. We’re getting Mitch through the approval process as fast as we can, and then you can wash your hands of this whole thing, but if Major Rutger turns out to have been right about this, and you didn’t offer him any bit of support that he asks for, I’m going to expect your resignation. Otherwise, when this blows open, and it will, if there are foreign terrestrials at high levels in the government and we fail to contain it right damn now, I’m going to hang the whole thing around your neck.”

  “The president doesn’t see it that way,” Langer said. Greene shrugged.

  “Presidents come and go,” she said. “People around here know who the power institutions are.”

  “You and your damned cabal,” Langer said. “Lee is going to flip, and then what are you going to do?”

  Senator Greene snorted.

  “We’ve been playing this game since before you got your first commission, Langer,” she said. “Now. Are we going to go interview General Donovan? I have some questions I’ve been wanting to get answered, myself.”

  Secretary Langer straightened, turning and going out the door. Senator Greene gave him a smug look, victory points, and followed, and Bridgette uncoiled herself from her chair.

  “Not bad, Major,” she murmured as Troy held the door for her. “He’s a potential ally, believe it or not,” she continued as they followed the Senator and the Secretary back down the hallway. “He wants more control over the portal program, whether or not he’s willing to say it in front of Greene. Sec. Air Force has pretty much autonomous control over it, because it’s not a part of a unified military strategy, but if Langer could get in with the next commander, he’d have more visibility, and visibility is the first step to control.”

  “Do we want him to have control?” Troy asked wryly. “Besides, I’m not the next commander.”

  Bridgette nodded slowly, watching the way the two ahead of them were walking. They had their heads tilted in toward each other like old friends. Old enemies, at least.

  He realized it was the same way he was walking with Bridgette.

  “You’re going to have a lot of power, when they approve the new general,” she said. “The whole base is going to be looking at you as the authority touchstone. Without being outright rebellious, they can resist any order he gives that you don’t think is in the base’s best interest. So long as you walk the tightrope here right and manage to win the engagement. But I’m assuming that. You take out foreign terrestrials lodged in the US government not once, but twice? You’re gold. You get to pick your own team, Rutger.”

  He licked his lips.

  “I just want to go back to my lab,” he said.

  “And to see the stars with Cassie,” she said. “I hear you. But you can’t just walk away from this much power dumped in your lap. Not for you. For the base. It’s still the gemstone of anyone’s power portfolio, and it does have to end up somewhere. If you get to pick, you have a responsibility to do it right. Don’t let them do it.”

  He sighed.

  She was right.

  “So would you want him on your team?” he asked.

  “Langer?” Bridgette asked. She shrugged. “Anyone who sits down with the President once a week is worth having on speed dial. You’d have a lot of freedom to define the program any way you wanted to, so long as Greene is willing to go along with it, in Congress.”

  Troy shook his head.

  “I’m not going to get any time to think about this,” he said, and she shook her head.

  “Nope. You’ve got to save the world at the same time. Go with your instincts. Just see the decisions you’re making and do it on purpose.”

  He nodded.

  “After the confirmation’s through, you won’t stay, will you?” Troy asked. She shook her head.

  “General Ellsworth needs
me,” she said. “It’s been an honor.”

  “I couldn’t have done it without you,” Troy said. “You haven’t just saved the base. You’ve saved lives.”

  “Tell me that after we win this thing,” she said, and Troy grinned.

  “I might not get a chance,” he said. “Saying it now.”

  She nodded.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  He smiled, then sighed.

  “I’m still worried about Cassie.”

  “Again, you know her better than I do, but all of her records indicate that she’s quite capable and insightful. I know she’d appreciate that you’re trying to help her, but I suspect that she’d do exactly the same thing whether or not you’re successful in helping.”

  He glanced over.

  “You aren’t just a student of human nature,” he said. “You’re good with people.”

  She smiled.

  “Coming from the pre-eminent global expert on people, I take that as a real compliment.”

  They went through a door into bright sunlight, where a car was waiting for them.

  “Where’s Malcolm?” Troy asked as he got into the back seat with Senator Greene.

  “Your problems aren’t the only ones I’m juggling today,” she said with a smile that wasn’t unkind, but it didn’t lack an edge, either. “He’s trying to keep everything else going. You’d best be right, Rutger. You’re staking your career on this.”

  “It’s an awful lot more than my career, ma’am,” he answered, shifting over for Bridgette.

  “You need an assistant to keep you from getting lost, Major?” the Secretary asked as he sat.

  “That’s a mistake, Langer,” Senator Greene said. “Bridgette is headed for chief of staff, one of these days.”

  He looked over at her, but Bridgette was reading something on her phone, seemingly unaware of him. Troy smiled and put on his seatbelt.

  “How long has the General been in DoD custody?” Troy asked.

  “He’s ours to punish,” Secretary Langer said, still looking at Bridgette. “There won’t be a trial, obviously, but he’s never going to breathe free air again.”

  “That wasn’t his question,” Senator Greene said.

  “Thank you, ma’am,” Troy said. “I’m interested in how long anyone else might have had with him, before this.”