Then there was twenty-six-year-old Carlo Baldi. Five-ten and stocky. Completely bald now, though even as a kid his hair had been thinning. Some called him Baldy Baldi, but no one did that more than once. He’d been incarcerated a full year for the liquor store break-in. He’d also done a stint at the Horizon Juvenile Center, as a kid. He knew Elmo from there. Carlo shot at a man, and missed, during the robbery of a Pay For Less shoe store not so long ago. Fortunately, he didn’t get pinched for that job. Carlo and his younger brother, Matteo, were super close—where one went, so did the other. Carlo had taken care of his brother since he was around fourteen. Their parents were heroin addicts—to say the boys had been neglected would be an understatement. By the time Carlo was fourteen, he knew how much heroin it would take to give each of them an overdose, and he slipped them just enough, so that no one would suspect foul play at all. He did what he needed to keep himself and Matteo clothed and fed and sheltered—whatever it took.
Matteo Baldi was somehow twenty-three already. A little pudgy, and with a full head of dark black hair. Walked with his head down a lot, but if threatened, he was a scrappy fighter. He looked up to Carlo in that particular big-brother way. Anyway, Matteo was kind of sensitive. Sensitive and quiet. Matteo’d been shot a few times by now. Had a bullet hole in his left and right cheeks, a through-and-through shot. It was a joke among us: if bullets are flying, one of them is bound to find Matteo. Like his big brother and Gordo, eventually he’d joined the Elizabeth Street crew under Caputo.
If I hadn’t been forced to go into the service, I too would have undoubtedly been one of them. Just one more thug working for an unstable boss.
I stepped down from the Watcher Craft’s aft hatchway. A hatchway, I had recently learned from Hannig, was so much more than a simple portal in or out of the ship—it was a “slipstream conduit” from one quantum realm or reality into another. I crept forward into the darkness. No one heard my advance. As a Force Recon Marine, I was well-accustomed to making a silent approach. By the time I was seen by the others, I was standing right behind Caputo, and had Lori’s Glock pressed firmly into the mob boss’s lower back.
“Nice of you all to come,” I said. “Seems you’ve gone above and beyond going all clandestine here. Set things up to your own advantage. Like maybe there’s ulterior motives at play? Let me guess, this was your idea, Caputo . . . am I right?” I knew that Tito could manipulate the people in his life as though they were mere chess pieces.
His back straightened at the feel of the metal. “You pulling a gun on me, Dommy? That how you going to greet an old friend?”
“Yeah, well, you weren’t invited to this meeting. This has nothing to do with you. Nothing to do with your kind of business.”
“Some would say any kind of business around here has something to do with me.”
One of the flashlight beams rose to illuminate my face.
“Do you mind?” I said.
Matteo’s light lowered to my chest. “Sorry, man. Creeped me out, you lurking around like that.”
“Why’s he here?” I said.
“It’s not like that,” Gordo said. “He can help. Weapons, muscle, who better to—”
“Bullshit!” I said angrily. “Never thought the day would come when you’d set me up like this. My brothers taking sides against me.”
“Oh don’t be so dramatic. You sound like a jealous bitch,” Carlo said, his bald head a little more than a faint dome of pink in the dim light. “You asked for our assistance, so here we are. The boss wants to help too. We’re all here for you. To fight your aliens and all.”
Matteo laughed out loud at that, and the others followed suit. I felt Caputo’s chuckles via the muzzle of the gun I was holding. They didn’t believe me. At least not completely. Even though Gordo had seen Hannig and the ship with his own eyes on the call.
“You think this is a joke. Some kind of gag?”
“Oh come on. It’s not like you haven’t pulled this kind of shit before,” Elmo said. All I could see of him were his smudged glasses reflecting back at me. “Like that time you got us all lost in that rat-infested subway tunnel. Or when you had those fake draft notices sent to each of our homes.”
Caputo chimed back in. “Just tell us what you really want, Dommy. I promise, I’m not here to collect your debt. I pay people to do that sort of thing. Or don’t you remember that?”
It was true. Caputo didn’t need to go creeping around in the dark to collect on late-paying vigs.
“Gordo, why don’t you hit the lights?” he continued. “That’s enough of the dramatics.”
A moment later, a series of construction lamps came alive, illuminating the entire floor. I blinked against the sudden brightness. So this had been their own idea of a funny prank.
Caputo turned, smiling up at me. “Mind pointing that gun somewhere else?”
I gave him a half-smile and shoved the gun into my pocket.
“What the hell are you wearing? Is that some kind of onesie?” Matteo asked.
I looked down at my reflective silver uniform, then waited as more laughter erupted. This was not going as planned.
“So, where’s this alien? And his, uh, spaceship?” Gordo asked.
I couldn’t help laughing—seeing his freckled face and big toothy grin. “Go ahead, laugh it up. Because you’re all going to be eating shit in two minutes.”
Chapter 20
Caputo smiled again. “So really, how ya doin’ Dommy?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m doin’ okay.”
“Good. Now look, son, we all have places to be right now. Personally, I need to be with my family today. You understand. This not a safe time. People are acting crazy. So why don’t you tell me what this is about. Why we’re really here, and what you need from us.”
Caputo’s presence here had not been requested; hell, moments ago I’d contemplated shooting the man in the back. But that was beside the point. Because he was right. Things had gotten crazy here in the city, probably everywhere. For the five of them to even be here was a testament to our friendship. I looked over my shoulder and saw nothing but an open wall of two-by-four studs. I nodded and spoke loudly. “Go ahead, Hannig. Make the ship visible.”
The front half of the alien Watcher Craft materialized into full view right before our eyes. I was struck yet again by the technological marvel—it radiated a sense of both wonder and menace in equal parts. Oddly, I felt something akin to pride looking at the sleek ship hovering there before us, as if I were responsible for its existence. I guess, as far as it being there in front of them went, I was.
I turned back to the five men. Their somewhat-annoyed smiles had been replaced by uneasy expressions of disbelief. Caputo was the first to pull a gun. The four others followed suit.
I raised my hands in a symbolic gesture of peace, of surrender. “Hey hey hey . . . no need for guns here! No one’s here to hurt you! Just take a breath, okay?”
Gordo spoke first. “What is this, Dommy? What’s—who—”
Bang! Caputo fired off a shot toward the ship.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Gordo, Elmo, Carlo, and Matteo each followed suit. Smoke and the acrid smell of gunpowder lingered in the air. My ears rang from the noise. I swung around to see what damage had been done to the ship. I thought of Georgina and Lori and Hannig—had any of them been hit inside? Shit, this was all my fault. I should have better prepared these idiots for this. But how does one prepare people for an alien spaceship materializing before their eyes?
“Lower your guns!” I yelled, getting angry. “I’m right here in front of you. You could have shot me! And there’s people in that ship.”
A voice came from behind me in an even, cautious, tone. “Don’t shoot. Fucking morons . . .” It was Georgina, and she had her hands raised.
“Isn’t that your boss?” Gordo asked.
“Yes that’s my boss, ass-hat. And you just unloaded on her!”
The next to come out was Tedesco; she too had her ha
nds raised. Face flushed, she looked about as angry as I’ve ever seen anyone. “I’m a cop! Lower your damn weapons . . . fricken idiots!” She strode over to me, eyed the Glock, and rolled her eyes. She patted her own sidearm and said, “I see so much as a twitch, I’m going to shoot each of you in the head. And I guarantee you, I won’t miss.”
I had to give her credit. Considering her weapon was still holstered and theirs weren’t, she had nerve.
This time it was Carlo who spoke up. “Tedesco?”
I’d forgotten that these guys knew the young police officer, or at least knew of her—they all knew her dad, like I did.
Caputo still hadn’t lowered his weapon.
“Best you put that gun away, sir . . .” I said. “We’re all on the same side here.”
“Che cozz’?” Caputo said. Italian for “What the fuck?” He still wasn’t taking his eyes off of the ship.
Georgina walked up to the mob boss and positioned herself in front of him, right in the path of his gun. “Put. That. Away.”
Only now did he seem to notice her. He did as told. “Look lady, I don’t know you. Or why or how you just came out of that—that spaceship, but there’s aliens up there. People are rioting in the streets.”
Georgina had never been all that patient with people, and she looked to be just about at her limit with Caputo. “You need to get a grip. Because things are going to get even more weird for you. Hey! Look at me.”
Caputo brought his attention back to Georgina. He swallowed hard and then nodded.
She continued. “Inside that ship there? There is an alien man. I’m preparing you for that. Okay? You need to come to terms with that before you see him. Can you do that?” She turned her gaze to the four others. “All of you. His name is Hannig. He’s good. Non-violent, a little goofy even. And he’s here to help us. So don’t frickin’ shoot him!”
I exchanged a glance with Lori. Undoubtedly she was thinking the same thing I was—thank God for Georgina. She was a natural-born leader. And not even a New York City mob boss was going to intimidate her. Georgina looked over to me. “Okay, honey, sorry for stepping all over your presentation.”
“It’s all good, Georgina.” I took a moment to assemble my thoughts.
“So that FaceTime call—that was real, no?” Gordo asked. “That’s who’s in there? In that ship?”
“Yeah, of course that was real. You think I’m Steven Spielberg or something? Think I can fake that kind of shit on a whim?”
Gordo shrugged.
“Listen to me, those aliens up in orbit. They’re not here to make friends. They’re called the Wikk. They’re real bad and they’re here to invade Earth—well, worse than that, actually. The way I see it, we have limited options.” I gestured to the Watcher Craft. “But the alien inside that ship is from Khantam Lom. A non-violent species here to observe things. This part of space, technically, belongs to them. Though no one asked us about it and I don’t remember signing the rental papers. Long story short, humans haven’t exactly proven themselves worth saving. Worth protecting. Hannig, though, has chosen to help. For some reason, he likes Earth. He likes—us. So you’re going to be nice to him. You’re not going to shoot him. Capish?”
“You know none of what you just said sounds remotely plausible, right?” Gordo shook his head.
I didn’t respond. “Hannig, why don’t you come on out here now. No one’s going to hurt you. I promise.” I glared at each of them one after another, emphasizing my point. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lori place a hand on the butt of her holstered service weapon.
I turned to face the ship. Hannig was already stepping out from the back of the vessel. I’d grown accustomed to seeing his awkward means of movement, his oddly inverted knee and elbow joints. Surprisingly, after the hail of bullets that had been directed at his ship, the alien man looked quite calm, even excited perhaps at meeting more humans. The deep folds on his face pulled into a smile, and his eyes glistened with amusement.
“Hello. I am Hannig. I am not here to do you harm. I promise you that.” He approached us on all fours, but as he came near, he rose up onto his hind legs. Standing at my side, he placed a hand on my shoulder. “I would like to meet your friends officially, Dominic.”
“Okay. Um, this is Gordo, that’s Elmo, over there is Carlo and his brother Matteo. And over there is Tito Caputo. He’s, like, their boss.”
Hannig looked at them, making direct eye contact with each. “I would like to shake their hands. As a human would do.” Hannig looked at me, questioning. “Would that be appropriate, Dominic?”
I saw the fear in Caputo’s face, but I figured I had to get them all used to this if they were gonna be of any help. “Absolutely,” I said.
Surprisingly, before Hannig could move, Gordo tentatively offered his hand to the alien first. Eyes wide as dinner plates, Elmo, Carlo and Matteo followed suit. Reluctantly, Caputo shook Hannig’s hand, but did so quickly and let go as if he’d just touched a hot pan. Afterward, he looked proud of himself for being so brave.
“Okay, good. We’re all friends now, right?” I asked.
“Yeah. Sure,” Caputo said.
The others nodded.
“Lori, Georgina and I, with Hannig’s help, are going to pay a visit to the Wikk ship. Up there in space. Stop them or at least deter them from invading our planet. My question to you guys is: will you help us?”
“What?” Tito Caputo said. “Are you serious? You and a couple of chicks and this, um, alien, are going to attack that big ship up in space? By yourselves?”
“That’s right. And there’s no time to waste,” I said. I witnessed utter disbelief in his eyes. “Look, I have training for this type of thing. Prior experience with small teams doing the impossible . . . the taking back of a five-story building in Kabul from Afghan rebels, freeing the crew of a hijacked oil tanker in Chabahar. And in those situations, we didn’t have a stealth vessel to move around in. We’ll infiltrate one section of the ship at a time. I’ll guarantee you, these aliens? They won’t be expecting us. They don’t think there’s a chance for Earth to fight back. They won’t think that what we’re contemplating doing would even be possible.”
“That’s because it’s not! Mother of Christ, shouldn’t it be the military doing this?” Gordo interjected.
I was getting real tired of having to explain this over and over. “Look, the Wikk’s technology is far, far more advanced than Earth’s. And before you ask, no, we cannot take Hannig and this ship here to the military. Look at what your response was despite everything I’d already told and showed you. You started shooting even before you met him.”
“You say the aliens, these Wikks, are going to invade Earth. When’s that going to happen? How much time do we have?” Matteo asked.
Hannig raised a hand, signaling he’d like to take this one. “Matteo, this Wikk vessel is here to collect samples. Probably around two hundred humans. Maybe other species from your planet as well. If, while in the process, they are attacked, they will take reciprocal measures of far greater proportion. Most likely, a number of your major metropolitan areas would be eviscerated.”
“Like Manhattan?” Caputo said.
“Perhaps,” Hannig replied.
“I don’t know. The way I see it,” Caputo said, shaking his head in an overly dramatic fashion, “is that by you sticking your noses in this business, you could inadvertently trigger an attack exactly like that. I say we keep clear of any of this. And what do we know about meddling in intergalactic affairs, anyway?”
Georgina leaned in. And I’d seen that face she was making before. One didn’t want to be on the other side of that look. “Do I understand that you’re the leader of this little band here?”
“Yeah, and about three hundred others.”
We were basically lined up against each other. Like two opposing teams on a football field. Caputo’s gangsters on one side, and me Georgina, Lori and Hannig on the other. I was desperately hoping for a timeout rather than a clas
h.
“Well I’m betting it wasn’t any great feat of bravery that got you to where you are within the organization.” She took in a slow deep breath—a volcano readying to blow. “You see this guy here, Mr. Caputo?” She gestured toward me. “He’s the real deal. Came back from the war with both the Purple Heart and the Silver Star. The lone survivor in a top-secret mission. From what I’ve been told, a whole damn Afghani or Pakistani or whatever village was after him. Wounded, he still managed to kill dozens of enemy combatants, and do so while carrying one of the world’s most notorious terrorists on his back. This man is a living hero, and if he wants me to fly up to an . . . alien spacecraft to help save Earth, well, I’m in.”
I had no idea she knew about any of that. I felt my cheeks get hot feeling all of their eyes settle on me, but felt a small sense of pride as well. I’d never thought Georgina had such admiration for me.
“Me too, I’m in,” Officer Lori Tedesco said.
Hannig chimed in then, hesitant, unsure perhaps if his perspective would be of help. “This goes against everything I am supposed to do. I don’t know what fate awaits me with my own people, but I believe you, your race, is deserving of help.” His voice grew stronger as he went on. “I am risking everything to help you. Not just those of us gathered here, but the billions of humans I haven’t met. I hope—I hope you will show the same resolve to help your own people.”
Guardian Ship Page 10