They're Among Us

by M. L. WILSON

  With blood running from his mouth, Danvers lays back, closes his eyes and waits for the inevitable.

  “Finish him,” the Promelian leader orders. It’s over quickly as the agent unloads the remainder of his clip into Danvers’ head and body.

  “Now find the rest of them and kill them!”

  CHAPTER 80

  THE BASEMENT IS as well decorated as the rest of the cabin. It’s the man cave Bishop always dreamed of having one day. There’s a large pool table sitting in the middle of the room, a bar, a fifty-two-inch flat screen television on the wall and high-end leather furniture against the walls. The floor is hardwood and meticulously well maintained. Up against the far wall is a large bookshelf, with no empty space to add any more books. Obviously, someone is an avid reader. Christine already had the bookshelf pushed to one side to reveal a hidden door.

  “We gotta move,” Bishop says as he comes down the stairs.

  “Where’s Danvers?” Saunders asks.

  “Dead. He went down fighting.”

  “Hurry!” Christine interrupts as she pushes a button on the wall, opening the door. The door opens to reveal a long tunnel that leads away from the cabin. The tunnel is well lit, with electrical lighting on both sides of the walls. Bishop doubts the original owners of the cabin had this built. Escape tunnels are not standard with million-dollar cabins. The Cereleans probably dug this out in case of a day like today.

  “Through here. Hurry.” Christine ushers Bishop, Saunders, and Justice into the tunnel.

  Saunders and Justice enter and proceed down the tunnel. As Bishop enters, he looks back and notices Christine and her aides are not following.

  “What are you doing?” he asks. “Let’s go.”

  “No. Someone has to stay behind to make sure you’re not followed.”

  “We can all make it.”

  “We’re not meant to make it, Detective. Our sacrifice is for the greater good. It’s about a quarter of a mile to the exit. You’ll find a car waiting for you. Expose their secret, and you save your planet.”

  “Thank you, Christine. For everything.”

  Reluctantly, Bishop takes off running to catch up with Saunders and Justice. Someone else has sacrificed their lives so that he could live. Failure in this mission is not an option. No one must die in vain.

  Christine closes the door behind him and pulls the bookshelf back in place to hide the exit. One of her aides hands her a 9mm as the other two take aim up the stairs. They hear the entrance door to the basement open slowly.

  “My brothers, it’s been an honor,” says Christine.

  CHAPTER 81

  RIGHT NOW, THE one thing that Saunders is wishing she had done more of is exercise. Canceling her gym membership seemed like a good idea at the time. With the hours she works, she wasn’t getting much use out of it. No sense wasting the money.

  Now, halfway through the tunnel, she’s out of breath and completely exhausted. Saunders leans up against the wall to catch her breath, but knows she has to keep moving. Justice reminds her of that as he grabs her around her waist to help her.

  “Come on, we’re almost there.”

  “I really need to get in shape,” Saunders says with a mix of humor and seriousness. “Where’s Bishop?”

  “I’m here.” Bishop runs up behind them. “Keep moving. Christine said there’s a car waiting for us at the exit.”

  “Where are they?” Saunders asks as she struggles to keep up. “Is Christine behind us?”

  “No,” Bishop answers. As soon as he answers Saunders’ question, the sound of multiple gunshots echoes throughout the tunnel. The gunfire seemingly lasts for hours, but only takes minutes.

  Minutes later, the hall is quiet again. They pause for a moment, knowing that Christine and her aides are dead. No time to grieve, though.

  “There’s the exit.”

  Bishop sticks his head out of the cave entrance with his weapon pointed. The exit is near the top of a small foothill, overlooking a dirt road below. He’s happy to feel the warmth of the sun on his skin. He’s not fond of closed-in spaces. Bishop scans the area to make sure they aren’t running into a trap.

  “All clear,” he says to Justice and Saunders as he waves for them to come out. Bishop sees the car at the bottom of the hill, slightly covered with tree branches and leaves. Just enough to conceal its presence. He only hopes it will start.

  “We can’t keep running like this,” Saunders says as they reach the bottom of the hill. She leans over and rests her hands on her knees in order to catch her breath. “Eventually they’re gonna catch us, and when they do, we’re dead.”

  “I know that, Doctor,” Bishop says as he cleans the branches and leaves off the car. “Get in. I have an idea.”

  CHAPTER 82

  THE BODIES OF Christine and her aides lay on the floor, each with multiple gunshot wounds. Christine was right. Cereleans are as fragile as humans. The Promelian agents come down the stairs with guns still pointed, just in case. No need for the precaution. They’re the only ones left alive in what was once a luxurious hideaway.

  The Promelian leader comes down the stairs to make sure the bodies of Bishop and Saunders are among them. He looks around the room, but sees only the bodies of the Cereleans. Before he can voice his anger, he sees a small beam of sunlight peeking through a crack between the bookshelves.

  He steps over Christine’s body. To his surprise, Christine isn’t dead yet. She grabs hold of his pant leg in an attempt to stop him from following Bishop. A brave act, but hopeless. The agent looks down at Christine and points his weapon at her head.

  “We should have killed your race centuries ago,” the agent says. He squeezes the trigger and watches with pleasure as the round enters Christine’s forehead, leaving behind a pool of her black blood and brain matter.

  No sympathy.

  Christine’s hand falls limp to the floor. Her lifeless eyes stare up at the agent as he moves on with his mission, not even giving her a second thought. The agent pushes one of bookshelves to the side to reveal the escape door. He yanks the door open and realizes Bishop, Saunders, and Justice have escaped through the tunnel.

  “You incompetent idiots!” he yells at his agents. “You let them escape. Do you know what this means?”

  The agents do not answer. They don’t have an answer to give. Even if they did, it wouldn’t be good enough.

  “Get down that tunnel and find them! They couldn’t have gotten far.”

  As the agents scramble to get down the tunnel, he keys his handheld radio and contacts the Blackhawks.

  “They escaped. Search the area. They couldn’t have gotten far.”

  CHAPTER 83

  DRIVE CAUTSIOUSLY SO you don’t attract any attention. That’s the game plan for now. It’s hard for a dirty 1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with twigs and leaves sticking out of its grill not to get noticed, though. Fortunately, there’s no law against driving a dirty, old car.

  “Looks like we got some more people killed,” Saunders dejectedly says as she brushes off the seat, kicking up dust.

  Bishop and Justice don’t reply, but they both agree with her. Only the sound of the sputtering engine of the Cutlass and passing traffic can be heard for what seems to be an eternity. All three of them can’t help but wonder how many more will come to their aid and die.

  “I don’t see anyone following us,” Saunders says as she looks behind them and in the air to see if the Blackhawks are overhead. “So what’s this big plan of yours?”

  “We need answers,” Bishop says. “We need a way to expose them, and we need it quick before our luck runs out.”

  “I’ll go along with that. What do you have in mind?”

  “We’re pay Agent Breer a little visit and get some answers out of him.”

  “You need to know what we’re up against,” Justice says apprehensively. “Promelians are bred to be killers. Going after him isn’t going to be easy. Getting him to talk is going to be even harder.”

  �
�He didn’t strike me as a killer. In fact, he strikes me as more of a politician.”

  “That may be so, but he’s still trained. We should avoid a confrontation.”

  “Okay, so he’s a badass,” Sanders says. “I still haven’t heard a plan.”

  “Okay, partner, so what are their weaknesses?” Bishop asks.

  “Well, I—”

  Before Justice can answer, Saunders leans forward and crosses her arms across the front seat between Bishop and Justice.

  “Guys. Just because you’re a hammer doesn’t mean everything is a nail.”

  “Well, that’s real helpful. You got a better idea?” Justice asks.

  “Yes, I do, Starman. Why don’t we just bug his office? He’s bound to talk about this with his fellow aliens. We can get some intel on their plan without anybody getting hurt.”

  “Fine idea, but we don’t have the access we used to,” Justice answers.

  Saunders answers sarcastically, “This is the twenty-first century. Thanks to you aliens, we can go in any electronic store and get surveillance equipment.”

  “No,” Bishop says abruptly. “We can’t risk getting caught. I’ll...get the answers we need.”

  “How?” Justice asks.

  “Leave that to me. In the meantime, I know how we can get some intel.”

  CHAPTER 84

  THE PROMELIAN LEADER paces the floor, anxiously awaiting word on his targets. He may be the leader of the Promelian assassins, but he still has someone he has to answer to. Everyone has someone they have to answer to.

  Delivering bad news to that someone can have severe consequences, especially with the stakes this high. Delivering the same bad news over and over again is even worse. Those who have entrusted him with this mission are not going to be happy if he can’t report that Bishop, Saunders, and Justice are dead. But with every passing moment, he knows his chances of reporting mission complete are slim. They should have found them by now.

  His handheld radio beeps, incoming call.

  “Report!” he orders

  “We’re sorry, sir. There’s no sign of them,” the Blackhawks report.

  “Assault team, report!”

  “We found fresh tire tracks leading from the woods to a dirt road. Looks like they had a car waiting for them. They’re probably on the highway by now.”

  “Brilliant deduction,” the Promelian leader frustratingly answers. “Vikings. Search all roads and the highway. They couldn’t have gotten far.”

  Giving orders is the easy part. The hard part is reporting yet another failure.

  CHAPTER 85

  JUSTIN WILLIS’S FRIENDS call him “Eel” because of his unusual, fish-like facial expressions. His eyes are a little bigger and farther apart than most people’s, and he usually has an inquisitive look on his face for no reason. Justin doesn’t care for the nickname, but he’s been called that for so long, he doesn’t bother getting mad anymore. Not that getting mad ever did any good, anyway.

  He’s not much of a fighter. He was the nerd in school who got his lunch money taken away from him.

  Justin is twenty-six years old and lives in his mother’s basement. Overweight and out of shape, he spends most of his time on his computer network looking for what he calls “cool hacks.” With long, unkempt hair and a bushy, untrimmed beard, he can easily pass for one of the cavemen on the Geico commercials.

  His friends make fun of his looks, but they know he’s one of the best hackers in the business. From sunup to sundown, he sits on his couch eating chips and writing code. His mother, Beatrice, is always trying to get him to get out of the house and get a girlfriend. It’s not good for a young man to be a shut-in.

  He ignores her when she goes on one of her get a wife and raise a family tirades. She’s a fine one to talk. She walks around the house all day in an old, dirty robe, wearing house slippers and with rollers in her hair. She smokes like a chimney and spends most of the day watching Jerry Springer and soap operas. Justin can hear her coughing and wheezing clear down to the basement. She’s far from a good example.

  What man wants that in a woman?

  Beatrice just poured her second cup of coffee and is about to settle in and watch a new episode of The Young and the Restless when she is interrupted by a knock on the door. Needless to say, she is annoyed at the interruption.

  “Damn it. Who the hell is it?” she says as she waddles to the front door. Without asking again, she opens the door and greets her visitors with her usual tone.

  “What the hell do you want?” she says as she coughs.

  Bishop says, “We’re friends of Justin’s.” He usually refers to Justin as Eel like everyone else, but his mother might consider it an insult. What mother wouldn’t? No sense making any more enemies. “Is he in?”

  “You don’t look like friends of his,” Beatrice says as she looks over Bishop, Justice, and Saunders.

  Bishop smiles and says, “Well, all of us aren’t covered in tattoos and wearing earrings in our noses. Can we come in?”

  “Whatever.” She humps her shoulders and walks away. “He’s down in his cave” She points down to the basement. “Justin, you got company,” she yells.

  Can’t keep her stories waiting.

  CHAPTER 86

  THE SMELL OF cigarettes and old food hit them as soon as they step into the house. Saunders covers her nose in disgust. Fortunately, Beatrice was already walking away and doesn’t see Saunders’ attempts to mask the smell. Saunders doesn’t want to be insulting.

  Bishop has never been to Justin’s house, but he’s not surprised at its condition, considering how unkempt he always is. Justice doesn’t say anything at all. He could easily criticize how Beatrice and Justin live, but considering all that’s happened, he doesn’t want to be insulting, either. He is, after all, just a guest on this planet.

  “Interesting friends you got here,” Saunders jokingly says to Bishop. “After you.” She directs him to lead the way.

  Bishop steps over trash and food on the floor as if he is making his way through a minefield. He slowly opens the squeaking basement door and proceeds down the stairs, followed closely by Saunders and Justice.

  Each step they take causes the dry-rotted steps to squeak. The basement is dimly lit. Bishop pulls the string on the ceiling light. The light provides some lighting of the stairs, but the rest of the room is mostly dark. The only other light appears to be the glow of computer monitors.

  Justin is so into his computer that he doesn’t even hear his visitors enter the room. Three monitors sitting side by side, each showing strings of computer codes. The three of them stand behind Justin for a moment just watching what amounts to nothing more than gibberish to them before Bishop decides to get Justin’s attention.

  “EEL!!!” Bishop yells.

  Justin is startled as he jumps off of the couch. The keyboard that was resting on his lap falls to the floor. The potato chips that came to rest on his Star Trek T-shirt fall to the floor as well. He doesn’t say anything at first. His heart is beating a thousand miles an hour from being scared half to death. When he recognizes Bishop, Justin is scared for another reason—going to jail for the hack he’s currently working on.

  “Ah...ah...Bishop,” Justin says nervously. “Wh...what brings you here?” Justin looks at Justice and Saunders as he brushes off his shirt. He wonders if they are feds.

  “Coming to see you, Justin,” Bishop says as he walks around the couch and looks at the computer monitors. Bishop has no idea what he’s looking at, but Justin doesn’t know that. It’s called interrogation 101, make the subject nervous.

  It’s working.

  “Ah...just ah...you know,” Justin says as he fidgets with his hands and looks at the computer monitors. He thinks he’s caught red-handed.

  “Interesting program you’re working on,” Justice says to Bishop and Saunders’ surprise. “Python, correct?”

  Bishop is unsure if Justice knows what he’s talking about, or if he’s bluffing. If it’s a bluff, it
’s working. Justin starts sweating and fidgeting even more.

  “Yeah. Python,” Justin confesses.

  “So what are you hacking into today, Eel?” Bishop asks. “DOD? CIA?”

  “Look, Bishop. Can’t you just overlook it this time?”

  “Well, you’re looking at a lot of federal prison time, Eel.”

  Justin lowers his head in defeat.

  Hopeless. Caught. Prison.

  It’s begging time for Justin. He even considers getting on his knees and begging, not that it would do any good.

  “Tell you what I’m gonna do, Eel,” Bishop says. “You help us, and we’ll forget all about what we saw. We were never here.”

  Justin excitedly answers, “Yeah, you got it. Anything I can do. You name it.”

  CHAPTER 87

  IT’S BEEN A while since he’s been as effective an investigator as he had been in the past. In spite of all of his difficulties, Bishop is still one of the best detectives in his precinct, and he just proved it.

  Interrogation 101.

  “Sit down, Justin,” Bishop says. Justin eagerly complies. He’d stand on his head and sing Ring Around the Rosie if Bishop wanted him to. Anything to keep from going to prison for the rest of his life.

  “I need you to do something for me. I need information on a FBI agent.”

  Justin slightly smiles at Bishop’s request. He’s not sure if this is a setup. He’s not sure about any of it, but he feels like he has an angle now.

  Bishop’s in trouble. Bishop needs him to get him out of it. Justin sits back on his filthy sofa. Ignoring the crunching sound of day-old potato chips under his seat, he’s confident that things are now in his favor.

  “So, you need me to commit a crime for you? You must be in big trouble, Bishop.”