by Don Drewniak
Assassin traveled two feet in about ten minutes, stopped and methodically began to swivel slowly, seemingly effortlessly. It made one full turn and stopped a quarter turn later. Five minutes passed with no movement.
“It’s mimicking the assassin bug,” thought Williams. Back at the van, Rappaport reached the same conclusion. Both realized that Assassin, in addition to being able to adopt physical attributes of its prey, could apparently copy its hunting characteristics. It was now unquestionably part assassin bug.
Shortly before 9:00PM, Williams entered the van. Assassin remained in wait the entire time. No animal or insect life approached it. The colonel and the major discussed for several minutes the conclusion they had reached separately.
“I need some sleep,” said Rappaport. “The coffee is fresh. There’s plenty of food in the refrigerator.”
The General walked in at ten-thirty. “I talked with Jim earlier. He said the two of you believe Assassin is waiting for something to come near it.”
“I’m fairly certain that’s the case.”
“So it seems. Anything so far?”
“Nothing.”
“Bill, forget the bugs, what is there in the way of animal life in there?”
“The only big ones that come around here are the coyotes. If there were any inside the fencing, we would have spotted them. All the rest stay up in the hills – bears, mountain lions, wolves, bighorn sheep, mule deer, antelopes and most of the coyotes. One or two of these might be in the cage: pocket mice, desert jackrabbits, ground squirrels, kangaroo rats and possibly prairie dogs, but they would be few and far between, if any. Maybe some rattlers, sidewinders and a few other snakes. There are lizards, geckos, whiptails and hundreds of species of birds out in the desert, including elf owls and roadrunners. Plenty of bats. Right now, I think it will be easier for Assassin to nail insects and spiders. Wonder what it would take from a scorpion or black widow?”
The conversation continued for the next fifty minutes with Williams keeping a steady eye on the monitor. Suddenly, he stopped the General in mid-sentence and said, “Look,” as he pointed to the screen.
“What is it?” asked the General.
“Tough to tell in infrared, but by its movement, I’m guessing a small spider of some kind.”
The intruder made it to within an inch of Assassin’s right mid-section. In no more than a second, Assassin arched the central part of its body some three inches off the ground, slid to the right and came down on its newest victim.
Ling arrived ten minutes before three. Assassin was back in its flat shape, but showed a slight swelling on the top of its mid-section. It appeared that Assassin no longer had to roll into a sphere when capturing prey as it did with the assassin bug.
Williams described what happened and then ran a playback on a separate monitor.
“Something else out of its playbook,” said the astrophysicist. “I wonder if we will see it spinning webs in the near future?”
“Nothing it does will surprise me.” Time would prove Williams wrong.
Assassin remained motionless for the next four hours. Henderson joined Ling two hours ahead of schedule. “I couldn’t sleep wondering if anything has happened,” she said.
“I wish I was the reason she couldn’t sleep,” thought the major. “Come on, Stanley,” he said to himself, “don’t be stupid.”
He had the playback of the attack ready. “Alice, look at this.”
She remained silent during the attack. “Impressive,” she said once the attack ended. Looking at the live surveillance on the main monitor, she noted that the swelling had disappeared. “It would seem that it has dramatically decreased the time it needs to process its prey.”
She stared at the monitor for another minute. “Something else, Stanley, look at its coloration. It’s lighter than it was yesterday.”
“Damn if it isn’t.”
“Just a guess, but I wonder if it is trying to take on the color of the sand?”
“A chameleon assassin. That seems to be the only change.”
“That is visible,” said Henderson.
Ling stayed an extra hour past the end of his watch. Shortly thereafter, Assassin started moving slowly toward a nearby clump of grass.
The General, Rappaport and Williams headed out to see the show. “Alice is right,” said Rappaport, “the dark red color is fading. Another weapon.”
While it was approaching the grass, Assassin’s beak extended no more than a quarter-inch from its body. Despite the beak and the antennae, Assassin did not possess what could be identified as a head. As soon as it made contact with the grass, the beak telescoped outward close to an inch and a half. Shortly after blades of the grass began to disappear into its newly acquired beak, the upper mid-section of Assassin began to swell. Assassin finished its brunch, retracted the beak and appeared to go into its waiting mode.
Following his watch and with clearance from the General, Ling climbed into his dedicated Humvee and signaled two soldiers to join him. The meteorite was in the lab forty minutes later. Part way through his first viewing of Williams’ video, Ling had no doubt the object was indeed a meteorite. He had confirmed this with a series of field tests beginning with the magnet. He was now interested in only one thing; finding out if anything connected to Assassin remained inside the crack.
While the exposed part of the meteorite was roughly spherical, the part which had been buried in the sand was slightly flattened. It wouldn’t have been difficult to split open the meteorite, but he felt there was no need to do so. In addition, he understood it was the property of Williams.
Using a thin piece of wire, Ling found the greatest depth of the crack to be a fraction greater than seven inches. He spent approximately ninety minutes probing the interior with the wire and a surgical camera. There was no trace of any substance that might have been related to Assassin. He knew this would disappoint Alice.
CHAPTER SIX
TWO DAYS PASSED. Assassin then began to peck away at nearby grass and devoured two grasshoppers. It seemed to be ingesting small amounts of grass which didn’t require it to go into protracted dormant states. There were only two visible physical changes – its length increased by approximately two inches and its coloration was very close to being a perfect match of the desert sand.
Henderson was on van duty when it happened. A kangaroo rat, apparently foraging for seeds and also unaware of the presence of the perfectly still Assassin, came with a few inches of Assassin’s rear left side. Assassin quickly swiveled to its left, extended its beak and stabbed its prey in the neck. The kangaroo rat collapsed, either paralyzed or dead.
Sliding over its latest victim, Assassin began to swell. The swelling stopped fifteen minutes later with Assassin looking like the upper half of a two foot, tan beach ball. Stillness ensued.
Henderson notified the others. Four minutes later, all five were watching a playback of the encounter. Ling then used one of the computers to call up information about kangaroo rats. Finding what he wanted, he read what he believed to be the most important point, “Their large hind legs enable them to jump up to nine feet in a single jump in order to escape predators.”
“If it could do that, it could clear the barbed wire,” said Rappaport.
“The kangaroo rat only weighs a few ounces. I suspect Assassin will be somewhere in the vicinity of twenty-five pounds when this latest change is completed. If it does replicate the rat’s legs, they would have to be incredibly huge in order for it to clear the fence,” added Williams.
“From what we’ve seen, I wouldn’t dismiss the possibility,” replied Rappaport.
“At this stage in its development,” continued Williams, “it couldn’t have captured better prey for desert existence. In addition to the legs, kangaroo rats don’t need to drink water as they can survive indefinitely on the moisture in the desert grass seeds and mesquite beans which make up most of their diet. A few will also eat a limited number of insects and green vegetation. They also have s
uperb hearing.”
“Where is this coming from?” thought Henderson.
All five contributed to what proved to be a lengthy discussion. The General had the final words, “If it attempts to clear the barrier, shoot to kill.”
Thirty-six hours passed with no movement or changes by Assassin. Williams was on duty when the swelling started to recede and Assassin began to slowly, almost imperceptibly, transform itself. It was a process that took an additional twenty hours. When it was completed, the results were beyond anything that could have been imagined. Thirty inches in length, exclusive of a long whip-like tail, Assassin closely resembled a giant kangaroo rat. Gone were the antennae and the beak. Added was a discernible head which included a mouth, nose, two eyes and two ears, all of which were perfectly proportioned in size to its much smaller victim. Its fur was indistinguishable in color from the surrounding sand. Most striking were the hind legs which were long, thick and powerful looking.
Williams reasoned that the long period of processing time, as he thought of it, for the kangaroo rat compared to that of the spider was due to more than just the size of its latest victim. It was the result of what Assassin had incorporated into itself.
All five team members were in the van shortly after eight in the morning when Assassin turned and faced the two duty soldiers who were stationed the ordered distance away from it.
Rappaport quickly radioed them, “If it approaches, shoot to kill.”
“God almighty,” exclaimed the General.
Assassin turned away from the soldiers as if it was not concerned about their presence and began rapidly consuming nearby vegetation using its newly formed mouth.
“We’ve witnessed something that transcends anything that has ever happened during the entire evolutionary process on Earth,” said an obviously incredulous Henderson.
“Stanley, Alice, please stay on duty until further notice. Jim, Bill, let’s go to the house.”
As they walked through the door, the General held up three fingers. Williams walked into the kitchen, grabbed three glasses and a bottle of scotch and joined the other two on the rear porch.
“What the hell is next?” tossed out the General.
“This baby isn’t done,” replied Williams. “It’s going to look for anything that will add to its capabilities.”
“If we kill it, do you think we could find out how it is able to do this?” asked the General.
There was no answer. The conversation continued for fifteen minutes before the General stood up. “Gentlemen, assuming it will capture another animal before any escape attempt, it will in all probability need to go dormant afterward as it just did with the kangaroo rat. We better be ready for anything that may happen after that.”
Meanwhile, Assassin spent the day eating and jumping around, never jumping higher than two feet.
The General and Williams were in the van shortly after nine that night when a message came through on the General’s radio. “Sir, incoming choppers, no lights, v-formation.”
“Do not engage,” ordered the General. He looked up at the ceiling and said, “Goddamn son-of-a-bitch.”
He paused for a few seconds. “Bill, I’ll contact Ling and Henderson and tell them to stay in their quarters. Jim will be here as soon as he hears the helicopters. Go back to the house. Hide your camcorder, any DVDs you’ve made and anything else you’ve got about the Assassin. Secure them as best you can where they can’t be found, then come back here. When you do, no matter how you are provoked, do not react. Also, if the bastard tries to recruit you, resist it, but only to a point. You might be our ace in the hole.”
Rappaport entered the van as Williams raced out.
Williams was back in the van with the General and Rappaport when a figure clad in a black uniform with no markings on it entered through the open door. He was just under six feet, late forties or early fifties, with a weather-beaten face, a pronounced jaw and heavily muscled. Williams recognized him immediately. He didn’t know his name or who he was, but he remembered him from the site of a massacre in Uganda.
“Thomas, James,” he said without a trace of emotion. He then looked at Williams. “Williams, Major Williams?” he asked while emphasizing major.
Williams said nothing.
“Jesse,” said the General, “I’m sure you are aware that this is an operation authorized by the Secretary.”
“Not any more.”
Jesse was Jesse Morgan, a shadowy figure who seemingly had near unlimited power.
Morgan looked at the largest monitor which showed a resting Assassin. Looking around the van, he asked, “Where’s the meteor?”
“In the lab,” replied the General.
Morgan turned and looked at Williams, “It is now property of the United States.”
Williams showed no emotion as he looked directly into Morgan’s eyes. “Well done,” thought the General.
A half minute passed with neither man so much as blinking before Morgan said, “You will be compensated.”
Williams remained stone faced.
Turning back to the General, Morgan said, “Show me everything you’ve got.”
The General looked at a computer located near the main monitor.
“What else?”
The General said nothing.
Ling and Henderson had spent time each day editing the electronic surveillance monitoring of Assassin going back to when it was first put into place. The result was a ninety-three minute highlight video.
Morgan sat in front of the monitor watching it from start to finish without saying a word. When it was done, he stood up, looked at the General said, “At seven hundred hours, I want the gates opened.”
“I won’t do that,” said the General.
“I will. You and your men are free to go or free to stay.”
He turned to Williams, “Major, I would like to meet with you in your house. Your call.”
The General nodded his approval.
CHAPTER SEVEN
AS THEY ENTERED THE HOUSE, Morgan asked if there was anything to drink. Williams brought out the scotch.
They sat on the rear porch. “What else do you know, Major?”
“You are making a mistake.”
“I’ll be the judge of that. You are a long way from Uganda.”
Williams said nothing.
“I understand you are following the General’s orders, but working with me will be to your advantage.”
“I am under the command of the General.”
“If you refuse, I will ‘recruit’ Lieutenant Henderson.”
At that moment, Williams considered attempting to kill Morgan then and there, but thought better of it.
“What do you want?”
“You can remain under the command of the General, but I want you with me as we follow the creature. Now, what can you add?”
“Leave Henderson and Ling alone.”
“The General can send them out of here immediately. If they stay, they will be left alone to do anything they want. No one will interfere. You have my word.”
“I have no idea what your word is worth.”
“As much as the General despises me, he will confirm that I keep my word. I rarely give it, but when I do, I honor it. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be where I am.”
Williams shared enough to believe he satisfied Morgan. One thing he kept to himself was the theory that the Assassin might be able to reproduce asexually. Following a series of questions from Morgan related to what Williams thought the Assassin’s ultimate capabilities could become, he held up an empty glass. Williams refilled it.
Morgan took a small sip. “In addition to the helicopter I have here, I have six more outside the fence, each with six men – my best. Anything we will need can be brought in immediately. Two supply vehicles are being readied. The entire air space from here to the mountains is restricted.
“Does the restriction include the General?”
“No, he can use his chopper and bring along anyone he
wants. He will have full access to our supplies. You will fly with me. I’m going back to my camp along with the men who came with me. None will be back here unless the alien heads this way. I will see you at six hundred hours. You will have all the weaponry you need. One final thing; I know you have to report back to the General. Tell him whatever you want.”
Ten minutes later, Morgan was airborne.
As soon as Williams entered the van, the General summoned Ling and Henderson. All four remained silent as Williams shared his conversation with Morgan. When he finished, the General said, “Nicely done, Bill. Thank you.” He turned to Ling and asked, “Stay or leave?”
“Stay.”
“Lieutenant, stay or leave?”
“Stay.”
“Jim and four soldiers will go with me. The two of you will remain here.” Looking at Ling, he said, “Major, Lieutenant Henderson will man the van overnight. I want you to find Lieutenant Martin immediately. Have him pull his soldiers from the barrier and get them back here. Get whatever weapons you want from him. Keep this area secured. You are in full command in my absence.”
During his time in the Air Force, Ling had free reign to pursue his life’s work – astrophysics. His military career was a secondary consideration. The General’s last sentence changed that. At that moment, Ling became first and foremost an Air Force officer.
First Lieutenant Martin was standing with four soldiers in the tent area. All were trying to make sense of the landing of the helicopters. Ling approached the group. Salutes exchanged, Ling dismissed the soldiers. He instructed Martin to order the two soldiers on duty within the barrier to return immediately and to make securing the complex the top priority. Finally, he listed the weapons he wanted delivered to the van.