With a heavy sigh, Colon shook his head. He had expected this news, but he dreaded telling the poor woman up there about the brutality inflicted upon her teenage daughter and the love of her life.
“Take a break and regain your energy, then return there with a recovery team,” Colon said. “Take pictures. Catalog everything. Bring whatever you can salvage of the bodies back here.”
“I’ll go with you,” the Lagoon Watcher said. “I need to see this first hand. Besides, anywhere I can go that Ho won’t be on my ass, sounds great right about now.”
The NASA scientist rolled his eyes. “I didn’t know you can scuba dive. I thought you wouldn’t be able to stop talking for more than one minute.”
“Diving is a great way to collect single-celled amoebas. You know, like your parents.”
“What’s up with these two?” Pierre asked. Colon shrugged his shoulders. “Anyway, there’s something else I saw down there. It only shows up in night vision. Have a look.”
Pierre handed Colon the scuba mask with the night vision scope attached to it. He fastened it on and Pierre showed him where to duck his head underwater. Draping his head over the edge of the raft, Colon hesitated. Sticking his head into a gator’s jaws would be less risky. The mutant hadn’t harmed the SEAL so why would it attack him? Unless it followed the diver, waiting for him to report back to his superior officer.
Just a quick dip in the pool, that’s all it is. A few seconds in, and out.
Colon wrapped his arm around the rope running on the outside of the raft, clinging to the false hope that would save him if razor sharp claws pierced his skull. He dunked his head beneath the water. He saw it instantly – an arrow glowing in infrared. It pointed toward a dark tunnel.
He hoisted his head out of the water as fast as possible and removed the mask. Did the monster leave that, daring them to follow, or was it creeping along a trail left for it by its devious creators?
“What? What did you see?” the Lagoon Watch asked excitedly.
Realizing that his expression couldn’t hide his shock, Colon tossed the mask to the offbeat scientist.
“Don’t drop it or you better go down there and retrieve it for me,” Pierre said with a grin a moment before the Watcher submerged his head.
“Is that the direction you found the bodies?” Colon asked.
“No. That’s another tunnel. I didn’t go that way yet. Maybe it’s not such a good idea to travel there alone. Do we have a few spear guns?”
If he had been at Patrick when these things attacked, he’d know that a spear gun wouldn’t do much good, Colon thought.
His phone beeped with an urgent message, a Mission Impossible ringtone he assigned to the Department of Defense. Colon unwrapped the phone from the zip lock and viewed the message directly from Secretary Stronge. They had confirmed Aaron Hughes’s presence in New Mexico and, although Moni Williams hadn’t been spotted there yet, the FBI believed it likely she accompanied him. Stronge ordered that his team shift to El Paso and be prepared for immediate engagement.
“Shit,” Colon muttered. Pierre gave him a quizzical look. He dare not voice his concern. Insubordination spreads like a disease.
My career has always been about fighting in faraway places, just never when there’s danger at home. That carnivorous monster could lurk beneath any house in Florida for all we know. Even if I stayed with them, how could I protect my wife and son when the floor gives way?
25
Aaron sat alone with his thoughts of Moni as he waited for her in the car. The billboard concealed the Prius from the occasional traffic on Interstate 10, but not the brutal sunlight beaming through the windows. With the air on full blast, he scanned the desert. Rocks and dirt stretched on forever.
He’d already waited 45 minutes past the meeting time he’d set with Moni four days ago. Aaron wondered whether she ever intended on returning. She had that determined look in her eyes when she marched into the wasteland. The lingering fear of spreading the infection gave her plenty of reason to avoid everyone, including him.
A flame of doubt burned Aaron’s heart. That could never be. Moni wouldn’t leave him. They both felt the sparks every time they exchanged thoughts, an interaction more intimate than any touch. If Moni could pick up his mental signal, she’d come running.
Aaron’s stomach clenched as he considered the alternative to that “if.” What if the desert had overwhelmed Moni? She had ventured into the unforgiving land with scant preparation for the elements and little understanding of how the alien metamorphosis had altered her body. Such ill preparation could leave her a dried out corpse. Or worse, what if the alien nanotech had penetrated her brain? They’d erase Moni’s will, her very soul. Yet they’d retain her memories, including of their meeting plans.
Aaron cradled his head in his hands. It didn’t matter. No matter what happened to Moni, he wouldn’t leave this spot. Without her in this world, there would be no reason to move.
“Aaron.”
He jerked upright at the sound of her mental voice. Gazing out the window through the blowing dust, he saw her. Moni stood only 20 feet away. He didn’t understand how she came upon him without him spotting her in the largely flat desert. So much for his cat-like senses. He bounded out of the car. The moment Aaron got a good look at her, he halted in his tracks. Then he recoiled backwards.
Aaron couldn’t believe what four days had done to her. Moni’s hair hung in clumps around her head instead of well organized braids. The sun had given her skin a rich dark sheen. It looked leathery, not like from old age, but like a seal. Sand clung to her neck and cheeks, without her attempting to brush it off. Her clothes were ripped, with her jacket half open from a jagged tear. Claw marks had shredded her pants around her upper thighs, with purple stains around them. Her purple blood, Aaron realized. Moni’s thighs weren’t merely firm and toned like before, but muscular. She even filled out the shoulders of her large shirt. No amount of pumping iron, or even hardcore steroids, could get results like that in four days.
What disturbed him most were her untamed eyes. Moni didn’t so much look at him as she looked through him. He studied them, hoping he’d find no flakes of purple among the familiar brown.
If the aliens had erased her brain and possessed her, how could he tell?
Moni shot forward. Aaron backpedaled, but not fast enough. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders. In that instant, he knew. Her embrace felt warm, perhaps too warm as she maintained a body temperature that would put a normal person in heat stroke. She didn’t feel like Moni. She smelled more like a sand pit than the sweet woman he had held before. Deeper than her skin, Aaron bathed in the rose-scented pool of her mind.
With their physical contact creating a two-way connection, he sought out her memories of the last four days. She immediately peeled him off and stepped back. Unplugging from her mind made his world spin for a second.
“It’s been a while. Don’t forget the rules, young buck.”
“Sorry. I guess I’m a little eager.” He staggered as her eyes focused on him. They carried hunger, not the human kind craving a burger, but an animal instinct to gorge. “You look like, uh, like you’ve got the munchies. I brought something for you. You still like unleaded, right?”
He circled the car and popped the trunk. Before he got a hand on the gasoline jug, Moni lunged in front of him and snatched it. She ripped off the cap, threw her head back and poured the fuming gasoline down her throat. No longer gagging and retching like the first time, she reminded him of a skinny hyena that caught an antelope. When she finally dropped the quarter-empty two-gallon container, her breath nearly made him faint. He rubbed the stinging gasoline fumes out of his eyes only to find Moni with her head in the trunk literally sniffing around.
“Hey, what are you doing? If you’re still hungry, I got some iron supplements up front.”
She turned around and faced him with the metal tire jack in her mouth. It smoldered as she sucked on it. “I prefer it straight from the so
urce.” He would have protested, but they had stolen the car anyway, and he had a feeling she had the strength to lift the car without a jack. By the time she spit it out, the metal looked like it had been bathed in acid. In fact, it had.
Aaron cringed as he watched the mouth he’d once kissed smolder like a foundry.
“Holy crap, would you like some iron fries with that?”
“If you can find them. I know it sounds insane, but that was so good. You have no idea how I feel after wandering through the wasteland. I thought there would be abandoned mines or oil wells out there, something.”
Her eyes now full of vigor, she scraped the sand off her face and took a deep breath. “How do I look?”
“You’re the hottest desert vagabond I’ve ever seen.”
She gave him a wiseass smirk.
“Come on. Let’s get out of here before someone gets suspicious of me being parked here all day.” He closed the trunk and opened the passenger door for her.
Moni didn’t budge. She eyed him with her sculpted arms crossed.
“Don’t worry. I know you can’t live with me. We’ll pick up some supplies, and then I’ll take you back.”
“I knew that. I can read thoughts, remember?” She rounded the car, her still gorgeous face passing tantalizingly close to his, and slipped into the seat. “If you had intended otherwise, I never would have shown up. The other things you’re dreaming about doing with me, you can drop them.”
With a heavy sigh, Aaron closed her door. He waited until the road was clear and merged back onto the interstate, heading east toward Las Cruces. Silence hung between them. He’d spent days in this car beside Moni, but the inches between them now felt so far. She’d grown apart from humanity, a transformation that accelerated during their time apart. He hoped she hadn’t gone so far that she couldn’t return. The more they changed her, the more implausible it became.
“It’s not that I don’t want you to stay with me. I’d love it,” Aaron said. “You were right, though. It’s too dangerous having you around people, at least until we can get your, uh, changes under control.” By the way she looked, that clearly hadn’t happened.
Conscious of his thoughts, she stared at herself in the rearview mirror. “You know when you come back from a day at the beach and can’t believe how tan you got? Well, times 1,000.”
“It’s okay. I got you some new clothes. You may want to bathe first so you don’t get purple blood all over them.”
“Take a bath? Are you kidding me? You know what’ll happen if the aliens in my body get loose and down the drain into the water system.” She flinched, as if some invisible force had stung her neck.
Aaron shook his head in discouragement. She couldn’t contain her body’s unwanted inhabitants. That might be a losing battle for her, but not for him.
“I’ve looked at the government research on the infection and there is a safe way for you to bathe. We’ll put a stopper in the tub so none of the water drains. After you get out, I’ll dump in several buckets of ice and pour in bleach. The alien bacteria love heat and acid, so a cold base liquid should eradicate it.”
“Why can’t I be in the tub at the same time as the cold bleach?”
“Because it might kill you. I don’t know if your body can survive without the bacteria. Anyway, ingesting that much bleach would be toxic for a…” he stopped himself before saying normal. “Non-infected human being. The government testing records I reviewed in the lab showed this method effectively kills the bacteria in water and about 60 percent of the time immobilizes infected hosts.”
“A lab? Looks like you’ve got a job. Trying to cure me.”
It wasn’t a question. Narrowing her eyes and tightening her lips, a conflicted look crossed her face. For a moment she smiled at him, then shook it off and stared out the window.
“You do want to be rid of them, right? I’ll do everything to make it happen.”
“It’s not that simple.”
That’s all he got from her. Aaron considered grabbing her wrist and listening to her mind. That might land his face on the pavement at 70 miles per hour. He didn’t dare ask her what happened out in the wilderness. He assumed that if the infection had escaped, she’d tell him.
Her bath lasted so long that Aaron nearly finished watching the hour-long documentary on rare cave animals when she finally beckoned.
“Won’t you join me?”
From atop the hotel mattress, Aaron peered over at the bathroom door, which opened a sliver, letting the steamy air and scent of rosemary body lotion into the tiny room. As he approached the bathroom, he imagined her awaiting him in the tub wearing nothing but bubbles. Before he got too aroused, he reminded himself that any water she inhabited would be highly toxic. Touching her in the wrong way would prove fatal for him, as much as he would love the first few seconds.
“I hope you’re not having naughty thoughts.”
“Are you kidding? This is just part of the job.” Aaron hauled the ice cooler over. “Like the bathroom attendant.”
He nudged the door fully open and nearly dropped the heavy cooler on his feet. Moni stood there with a towel draped over her moist body. Water droplets clung to her brown mocha skin, from the curves of her half concealed breasts to the well defined muscles of her thighs and calves. He couldn’t breathe.
“No slacking on the job.” She reached out and pinched his cheek. Then she skirted around him and made for the second bed, where he had laid out her clothes.
He nearly sprained his neck whirling it around for a look at her as she sauntered away.
“Be careful. I know what you’re thinking. You don’t want to burn off your tongue, or something else.”
He shuddered at the thought. Aaron examined the bath water, a boggy mix of black and purple. He could literally see the dirt and grime, but the most dangerous elements were microscopic. After dumping in the ice, doing it slowly so it didn’t overflow, Aaron emptied three liters of bleach into the tub. For a test, he dropped in a plastic spoon. It would have dissolved within seconds in acid. Here, it floated safely.
“I did it,” Aaron said. “Do you detect any of the nanotech or bacteria in here?”
“I felt them dying. Their bitching gave me a headache.” Moni reentered the bathroom wearing a tight pink baby-t and low-cut jeans. Not having expected that she’d gain several sizes so quickly, he caught a glimpse of her flat midriff. “What am I, a college chick? I liked my old clothes better.”
“Too late. I burned them.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time my clothes have been torched. I’ve had a few explosive ex-boyfriends.”
Aaron chuckled, until he remembered his brief encounter with her last ex, and the gun he had shoved in his face.
“You need to blend in where we’re headed. There’s a horse track and casino west of El Paso. With your new talents, we could win enough money to buy all the supplies you need. The cash I got from my mom is just enough to spring for a hotel and meals until my first paycheck.”
Moni shook her head. “Nice idea, but you’re forgetting that my face is all over the news. Few places have more cameras than a casino. I’ll be spotted.”
“Not with this on.”
She followed him to the closet. He pulled out a pair of large black sunglasses and a short black wig.
“Are you joking? That disguise couldn’t fool a man with two glass eyes. ”
Aaron shrugged. “Have any other suggestions?”
“How about this?” Moni gazed into the mirror above the dresser and grabbed both sides of her jaw. She pulled and worked her fingers, molding it like ceramic pottery. When she finished, she had a wider jaw line.
“That was insane.” Aaron could barely speak over his gasping breaths. The mutants from the lagoon had altered their bone structure as well. “I prefer your old face.”
“Don’t worry. I can put it back.” She bit her lip. “I think.”
26
The wind blew salty
spray from the waters of Tampa Bay against his face as Brigadier General Alonso Colon stood along the runway. As he watched the ground crew fuel up the C-17, with its 170-foot wingspan and four massive engines, he couldn’t help but remember how his air field on the opposite side of Florida once buzzed like this. The soldiers at MacDill Air Force Base looked confident, resilient in the face of an alien threat that their naïve bravado told them they would smash. He had overhead the remarks about how they’d blow the hell out of the sea turtles, dolphins and other seafood that overran Patrick.
They hadn’t seen the terror in the eyes of Colon’s men and women as they fell, powerless to shield their families on base from the lagoon’s frenzied spawn. Patrick’s runway now sat fallow, nearly deserted.
And here he stood, preparing all 220 soldiers in his Tactical Extraterrestrial Response Unit (TERU) for a flight to El Paso before he could declare his home safe. Under the secretary’s orders not a one of them would remain in Florida.
The government had declined to warn the public of what stalked them in the aquifers and lakes. Colon couldn’t even tell his wife and son. He couldn’t tell them goodbye and leave them undefended either.
He reached Secretary of Defense Arnold Stronge through his assistant quickly. “You’re not in the air yet, Brigadier General? We need TERU out west before things get nasty. The FBI isn’t equipped to handle this.”
“I agree, Mr. Secretary. My team is fully briefed and geared up. The transport is on the runway, departure set in 30. It’s just that...” He paused for a deep breath.
“What’s the matter? Somebody need a vegan in flight meal?” Stronge said. “Pussies. When my SEALs rolled out, we went days without real food. We ate bark right off the damn trees.”
Good to know he could be reasoned with, Colon thought.
“That’s not it, sir. As you said, the main threat is in New Mexico. And while that is true, I recommend that we leave some TERU specialists in Florida. You’ve seen our reports on the mutant in the underwater caves. NASA believes it’s molded in the shape of an alien. It’s killed at least four people and it’s showing no signs of slowing down.”
Silence the Living (Mute Book 2) Page 13