H2O

by Belateche, Irving

Miloff told Benny that it was now up to him to fire up the Line. If he couldn’t pull it off, Town Councilmen would come in to work and be told that the Line had been down all morning. That had never happened before and there’d be panic in every Town Hall. We had to avoid that.

  Dawn rose blue and purple, and the sun started to burn off the mist lingering on the road. We were closing in on Santa Barbara. The towering White Firs of the Los Padres National Forest were protecting us on the last leg of our trip, and I congratulated Miloff on mapping a safe route.

  He said that we weren’t home free.

  Benny and Uli had fallen asleep, so I took the opportunity to ask Miloff a question I’d wanted to ask him the entire trip. “How many people knew about the back-up plan?”

  “I didn’t,” he said, as if he were insulted that he hadn’t been told. “I’m sure your father told Sanders and Crater. That was probably it. They were his closest advisers.”

  “Why didn’t he tell everyone?”

  “My guess is, he didn’t want anyone to lose faith in the main plan.”

  I wanted to ask Miloff why my father hadn’t told me, as if he’d know the answer. I couldn’t help but think my dad had done it again. At nine, he didn’t tell me he was leaving for good and, last night, he didn’t tell me he might end up on a suicide mission. But I realized exhaustion was fueling my thoughts, and I focused on another question before anger took over.

  How was it possible for Crow to disarm the explosives before they detonated? That was the real cause of my dad’s death. If we’d succeeded, my father, Will Xere, would’ve never had to go in. Crow couldn’t have had enough time to crawl through that ventilation shaft and that meant he must’ve known how to open that sleek metal door. And that meant he must’ve had access to that restricted area and knew about the bronze monoliths. He must’ve seen them before. Of course that didn’t mean he would’ve jumped to the conclusion that they were linked to aliens. So what did he think they were?

  Our caravan of three cars entered Santa Barbara, a dead town, then headed west, toward the university campus. The new Line was located in Harold Frank Hall, a building that once housed the University’s Computer Engineering Department.

  Ten minutes later, after driving through empty streets, we entered the University campus. Gunfire erupted from every direction. We’d driven right into an ambush.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  As shots rained down on us, Miloff sped up, roared off the campus road, and onto a dirt lawn. Bullets pummeled the car and the windshield exploded, spraying us with glass. We ducked, but it was too late. Blood seeped from tiny cuts on our arms and faces.

  Miloff drove the car across walkways and more dirt lawns. He knew the campus layout as well as he knew the Territory and he ended up under a covered walkway that ran between buildings. Bullets thudded off the walkway’s roof.

  “Grab the guns and follow me,” he yelled.

  Uli collected the guns and we all scrambled out and raced with Miloff toward one of the buildings. I heard a massive explosion and seconds later flaming debris cascaded down around us – metal and plastic – and I realized one of the cars had been obliterated. I hoped it wasn’t Lily’s.

  We reached the end of the covered walkway, raced into the building, and down a decrepit hallway. Miloff led us down a staircase, but Uli yelled, “We’ll be trapped down here!”

  “There’s a tunnel system connecting the buildings.” Again, Miloff knew where he was going.

  In the basement, we ran down a cinderblock hallway and into the building’s mechanical room. We moved past a heat pump, toward the back wall and an iron door. Miloff lifted the wooden beam that served as a latch, opened the door, and we all followed him into the tunnel.

  Inside, the dark wasn’t like the dark of night. It felt oppressive. Miloff led, feeling his way forward using the pipes overhead.

  A few minutes later, we exited the tunnel into the basement of another building. Then we made our way to the top floor. The building was ten stories high and we hoped to get a view of the campus and of the Fib positions. If we were lucky, we might also be able to see Frank Hall.

  I didn’t like the view from the roof. Two of our cars had been blown to pieces and thick black smoke billowed from their burning shells. Dead bodies lay nearby. I couldn’t tell who’d been killed and didn’t want to study the bodies to find out.

  Miloff counted them. Three marauders were unaccounted for. But that didn’t mean they’d survived the ambush. I held out hope for Lily.

  Frank Hall was visible and we saw Fibs stationed out front. “The Fibs aren’t going to destroy the new Line,” I said to Miloff. “They want it up and running, like nothing happened in Palo Alto.”

  Benny added, “And you can bet they brought their Line guys and they’re in there trying to fire it up right now.”

  Miloff asked us if we wanted to retreat, regroup, and let the Fibs have the Line. Maybe Crow would see right away that without alien control, everything on the Line had changed. Or we could storm in there right now, get it up and running ourselves, and tell the truth for as long as possible. We were outnumbered by the Fibs so we knew we’d only be able to control the Line for just a few minutes, if we were lucky.

  But there was no debate. We all wanted to complete our mission. Go for the Line and get the truth out to the Territory. By now, every town knew that the Line was down and their Town Councilmen were panicking, wondering if the Passim Virus had swept through the Territory with a renewed vengeance.

  We headed back to the basement. The underground tunnels would deliver us right into Frank Hall, bypassing the Fibs out front. We’d end up about a hundred feet from the Line.

  We snaked through the tunnel and emerged in Frank Hall’s mechanical room. Miloff told us that if we had to fire shots to take over the Line, we had to make sure we didn’t damage the hardware. Then he went to the door and listened, to find out if Fibs were in the hallway. He didn’t hear any movement or voices and after a couple of minutes of silence, he cracked the door and peered out.

  No Fibs. At least, none between us and the door to the Line, about seventy-five feet down the hallway. Miloff couldn’t see in the other direction, but we’d have to live with that blind spot.

  The plan was for Miloff and Uli to head to the Line with Benny and me in tow. They’d check inside the room for Fibs and, if clear, we’d all barricade ourselves in. But if Fibs were there, Miloff and Uli would storm the room and try to capture them without damaging the equipment. Then Benny would prep the Line for transmission. This wasn’t the greatest plan, but it did have one good element. Surprise. The Fibs thought we were wounded, scared, and on the run, literally headed for the hills.

  Miloff stepped out into the hallway, checked the blind spot and nodded to Uli. Clear. He started down the hallway and the rest of us followed. At the doorway to the Line, Miloff stopped and signaled to Uli – He made a fist and opened it, meaning the door was open. Then Miloff listened and it took no more than a second for him to point to his mouth. He’d heard voices and that meant Fibs were inside the room.

  Miloff and Uli lifted their weapons, ready to storm the room. Miloff could’ve first peered in to see the Fibs’ position, but if a Fib spotted him, the plan’s only good element, surprise, would be lost.

  They rushed the room and I expected to hear gunfire. Instead I heard Miloff shouting out orders to the Fibs, then he shouted for Benny and me to get in there.

  We ran into the room. Miloff and Uli had their guns jammed into the heads of two Fibs who were flat on the floor, face down. Surprise had worked.

  Benny immediately sat down in front of a bank of monitors and started tapping away on one of the keyboards. I slammed the door shut, but there was no way to lock it.

  We all stared at Benny, waiting for him to give us a status report. I could see the Line was powered up. The Fibs had made it that far. The question was whether they’d sent out any transmissions.

  “Nothing’s gone out,” Benny said.
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br />   Miloff looked pleased.

  “But it’s not ready to transmit,” he said. “I gotta figure that out.”

  Benny typed furiously on the keyboard, and just as I was thinking we might have a little time before other Fibs checked in, I heard sounds from upstairs.

  Benny looked up, nervous.

  “Don’t worry about them,” Miloff said. “Just get the Line ready.” Then he motioned over to me. “Take my position.”

  I stepped over to the Fib on the floor and trained my gun on him. Miloff looked at me and said, “When the Line’s ready, tell the Territory what’s going on. Straight up. It might be the only time they get to hear the truth.”

  He headed out, shutting the door behind him, hoping to battle the Fibs as far away from the Line as possible, to give us as much time as possible.

  Benny typed into the keyboard. The sound of each tap was magnified by its significance. Then gunfire suddenly erupted from somewhere in the building and I heard crashing and heavy thuds.

  “How much longer, Benny?” Uli said.

  “Almost got it,” Benny said.

  Uli looked at me. “We can’t let the Fibs get in here. We’ve got to go out there and keep them away, like Miloff did.”

  He was right. As soon as the Fibs stormed this room, it’d all be over. I motioned to the two Fibs on the floor. “What about them?” I said. We couldn’t leave them in the room with Benny, and there wasn’t enough time to tie them up.

  Uli was silent. He didn’t want to say it, but I knew what he expected. We’d have to execute them.

  “We’re ready!” Benny said, and pointed to a mic next to one of the keyboards. “Right here.”

  I stepped forward.

  The door burst open.

  Fibs poured in.

  Uli shot at them and went down in a hail of gunfire. But the Fibs didn’t shoot at Benny or me. We were lucky. We were in front of the precious hardware and they knew they couldn’t damage it. They rushed us, pushed us to the ground, then jammed their guns into the backs of our heads.

  Crow marched in behind them and stepped up to the monitors. He looked the monitors over, then glanced at us and said, “You made some progress. Thanks for your help.”

  The Fibs who were originally at the monitors sat back in their seats.

  “Can you run it or do you need some pointers from our prisoners?” Crow asked them.

  “Give me a minute,” one of them said, and started typing into the keyboard.

  Crow moved over to us. “Pray that they need some pointers, so you get to live a little longer.”

  But I wasn’t praying that they needed pointers. I was looking for a way to escape. Benny had the Line ready to go and, at any second, the Fibs would realize that, and Crow would bark out orders to kill us. From my prone position, I scanned the room but my vision was blocked by Crow standing over me. I looked up at him and saw that he was focused on the Line. Then I noticed his belt buckle once again and, right then, everything I’d seen over the last few days suddenly made sense. I saw how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. I saw how the aliens could run their mining operation so smoothly in full view of the Territory. I saw how Crow had been able to access the heart of the Line in Palo Alto so swiftly.

  “I’m ready to transmit, sir,” one of the Fibs said.

  “Kill them,” Crow said.

  I launched myself at Crow’s legs, sending him crashing down to the floor, then grabbed his side weapon, swung myself over him, and put the gun to his head.

  “I know,” I said, but I needed proof. I needed proof for the Fibs to stand down. Their weapons were all trained on me.

  “You shoot me and you die, too,” Crow said.

  I wasn’t going to shoot him. If I did, nothing would change. I’d be killed and so would Benny and then any marauders who’d survived the ambush. Then someone would take Crow’s place, and everything would go on just the way it had since the Virus. And the years I’d spend without my father would’ve meant nothing. And the last two days I’d spend with him would’ve meant nothing.

  “I know why you go along with it,” I said to Crow, and I ripped the silver belt buckle off. It popped off with a sickening snap, like a human artery rupturing. Except that it wasn’t an artery that had ruptured. It was a silver tube that ran from the back of the buckle into Crow’s abdomen. A tube that transferred whatever was stored in the buckle into Crow’s alien body so he could survive on Earth. The buckle was a machine as sleek and elegant as the alien storage facility, but unlike the facility, it was hiding in plain view.

  Crow’s body fell still and his eyes dulled. The skin on his face stiffened and started to pale, changing from a tannish pink, a human hue, to gray.

  The Fibs lowered their weapons, stunned at what they were witnessing.

  Crow spoke slowly, “I didn’t want this job,” he said. “Who wants to be light years away from home and alone? But I couldn’t complain too much. I got a mining colony that was easy to manipulate. None of you wants to know anything. You like being stupid.” His gray skin was turning white. “We’ll set it up again.”

  “But this time we’ll know,” I said. “It won’t be so easy.”

  “It’ll always be easy,” he said, “You can’t change what you are.” His mouth stopped moving and his face was now a lifeless mask, the color of white plaster. Whatever was inside his human shell, died.

  An hour later, Benny sat at the controls for the Line, his leg jittering, and I sat next to him. Lily was standing behind me. We were the only marauders who’d survived the Palo Alto assault.

  Half a dozen Fibs were with us and one of them, who’d seen Crow’s transformation, had taken charge. He’d told the others to stand down and I was grateful for that. The Fibs weren’t going to make a move until a move needed to be made. Right now we were all on the same page. Get the Line up and running, get the truth out there, and prepare for the aliens’ next move.

  “Okay, go ahead,” Benny said.

  I leaned into the mic and I told everyone the secret that my dad had wanted to tell me long ago. The secret about the water.

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