They're Among Us

by M. L. WILSON

  “So, it’s kinda like a holodeck in your mind?”

  “Yes, something like that. But before you ask, it only responds to Cerelean touch. Won’t work for humans.”

  “So, you knew Phipps was one of you all along?” Bishop asks as he turns the conversation serious.

  “Yes.”

  “Why would your race create Promelians in the first place?”

  “My ancestors felt the need to have a fighting force that was capable of defending our home world.”

  Bishop smiles and shakes his head in disbelief. “You created a race, and they turned on you.”

  “Yeah, I know. Unbelievable, right?”

  Bishop doesn’t answer. He doesn’t have to, really. After a moment, Justice takes his turn to ask questions.

  “So now you know all about me, tell me about you and Brackett.”

  “I thought I told you to leave that alone.”

  “Yeah, you did,” Justice says. “Tell me anyway.”

  Bishop hesitates. Not because of the allegations against him, but because he just found out his partner is another life form.

  “Well, some money came up missing from evidence, and they like me for it.”

  “They think you stole some money?” Justice says, shocked.

  “Yep. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”

  Bishop waits a few seconds and then asks, “Aren’t you gonna ask me?”

  “Ask you what?”

  “If I took it.”

  “You kidding? I can tell by the way you dress, you don’t have two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”

  They both laugh.

  CHAPTER 105

  BISHOP REMEMBERS INVESTIGATING a homicide at this abandoned factory several years ago. The body had been there for over a week. A rotting corpse, baking in the summer heat for over a week. The smell was indescribable. Every officer at the scene lost their lunch. The victim was a homeless man a few kids decided to beat to death just for the fun of it. New York is weird like that.

  The last Bishop heard, all of them were doing life on Rikers Island. He’s surprised that there has only been one body found out here. Only one that he knows of, anyway.

  Bishop turns on his bright lights as he makes a right turn onto Assembly Road. He drives slowly down the pothole-filled road leading to the steel mill. This factory used to be booming with business. It was one of the biggest employers in the area. When the economy collapsed, the jobs collapsed with it. Jobs were lost, and the crime went up. That’s how it usually works. Nothing good lasts forever.

  Bishop and Justice have run out of theories about Saunders’ abduction and have conceded to simply not knowing what’s going on. Their attention is on whether they are heading into an ambush. It doesn’t make sense that they would be ambushed; the Promelians could have easily killed them at the hotel. But, caution is the order of the day.

  “No lights?” Justice says rhetorically.

  “This place has been abandoned for years. The only residents here are the rats and maybe a few homeless.”

  Bishop stops the car several yards away from the steel mill to look around.

  “See anything?” Bishop asks Justice.

  “Nope. Looks deserted.”

  “Okay, whoever you are, we’re here,” Bishop says as he continues to look around the area. Suddenly, his cell phone rings.

  “Turn the car off. Leave your weapons on the front seat and come inside the main entrance with your hands up.”

  Bishop and Justice are hesitant, but they do as instructed. The goal is to get Saunders back alive, not to go down in a blaze of glory. Going in with guns blazing will only get them and Saunders killed. Besides, there’s more to this conspiracy than they realized.

  As a detective, Bishop knows that information is currency. Whoever took Saunders is obviously very well financed and connected.

  Bishop pushes open the rusted metal door. The stench of the place hits him immediately. The smell of feces, urine, and dead rodents.

  Like he said, home to the homeless and the rats. It’s unusual, though, that he opened the squeaking door and he didn’t hear the scattering of homeless people running to hide. Maybe their headlights scared them off. Maybe whoever kidnapped Saunders already scared them away. Or maybe they killed whoever may have been living here.

  The room is mostly pitch black, with only the light of the moon shining through a broken window, illuminating a small corner of the room. A small corner with the silhouette of someone standing, waiting. Bishop and Justice proceed cautiously.

  “Okay, we’re here. Where’s Dr. Saunders?” Bishop shouts across the room to the silhouette.

  Before Bishop can take another step, he and Justice are blinded by flashlights shining in their eyes.

  “Keep your hands where we can see them,” a deep, scruffy voice orders.

  “All right, we’re here. Let me see Dr. Saunders.”

  “In due time, Detective. First, we must talk,” says a voice from across the room.

  “About what?” Bishop asks.

  “About the future, Detective. The future of mankind.”

  CHAPTER 106

  CARTWRIGHT IS NOT used to being in the shadows. At least not like this. He doesn’t like what he has become—a kidnapper, an endorser of murder. Martha would not be proud of the things he’s done. But he did them all for her, all for the greater good. He did it all for the continuation of the human race. A war is coming. A war that could certainly mean the extinction of the human race.

  “Who are you?” Bishop asks with frustration.

  “Who I am is not important, Detective Bishop. What I have to offer is of immeasurable importance.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “You and your team stumbled onto something that will change the course of human history. Your extermination is of the highest importance. You know secrets that were never meant to be known.”

  “So, what Agent Stafford said—”

  “Yes, Detective. Agent Stafford told you correctly. The Promelians are going to invade Earth. He wasn’t supposed to know of the Promelian plans so they killed him and blamed you.”

  “And our government—”

  “Does not know of the pending invasion. We were lied to, given technology we wanted that helped us become a super power, but we didn’t know of the Promelians’ ulterior motive. They tricked us into helping them by giving us what we wanted: power. And now—”

  “Now you have a problem you can’t handle,” Bishop says angrily.

  “You started this,” Justice says. “Why should we help you? You’re the ones that are trying to kill us.”

  “If we wanted you dead, Detective, you would already be dead. By the way, Detective Justice, are you enjoying your stay on Earth?” Justice and Bishop are surprised that Cartwright knows that Justice is Cerelean. Cartwright seems to know everything.

  “So what do you want?”

  “Why, I want you to succeed, of course. I want you to stop the invasion.”

  “Why us? Why not you? You seem to have all the connections.”

  “Because you are the wild card, Detective. I believe your fellow police officers refer to you as the ‘wack job.’ Your interference and success up to this point was not factored into their plans. In short, they are nervous. You’ve had a bigger impact than you realize, Mr. Bishop.”

  “Okay, so why should we trust you?”

  “Mr. Bishop, I could have killed the doctor as she stood at the vending machine getting her morning meal. I could have killed you as you entered and exited poor Agent Breer’s home.”

  Bishop is shocked that his host would know about his visit to Agent Breer. Shocked and ashamed.

  “We have you on video, Detective, going in and coming out of Agent Breer’s house at the time of his...disappearance. I’m sure the police would be very interested in that video. Poor Agent Breer. I doubt they will ever find his body.”

  “All right,” Bishop concedes. “Just tell me what you want.”

/>   “I want you to expose the Promelians and stop the invasion, and nothing more.”

  “Other than staying alive, what do you think we’ve been trying to do?” Justice says.

  “You don’t understand, Detective. I said I want you to stop the invasion, and nothing more. No matter what you see, no matter what you hear. Your only job is to stop the invasion and expose them. Once that is done, you are to go on with your lives. Tend to your careers and your…”

  Cartwright stops short of saying “families” because he knows about Bishop’s tragedy. His hesitance doesn’t go unnoticed by Bishop.

  Cartwright lurks in the shadows these days, but he still has a conscience. Unlike most, he can sympathize with Bishop, considering the condition his wife is in.

  Bishop is beginning to think his host isn’t like the others who have been trying to kill him. But if he’s not, then what’s his angle?

  CHAPTER 107

  THE DETECTIVE IN him makes Bishop hesitate to take the deal. He needs to know all there is to know. What detective wouldn’t? But he doesn’t have the upper hand here. He has to get Saunders out of harm’s way. He also doesn’t need that video of him at Agent Breer’s house being shown on CNN.

  “If you have the video, then why kidnap Dr. Saunders?”

  “I needed to get your attention. I needed you to know that you can never get far enough to where I cannot find you. I was never going to hurt the good doctor. I rather enjoyed her company, actually. She...reminds me of someone.”

  “All right,” Bishop says. “You got a deal. Now where is she?”

  A rusted metal door begins to squeak in the dark. Bishop’s not able to see because of the flashlight shining in his eyes, but he does hear a familiar voice getting closer to him.

  “Ken,” Saunders says.

  “We’re here, Doctor. Are you all right?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. They didn’t hurt me.”

  “All right. So, you want me to expose the Promelians,” Bishop says.

  “Simply exposing them is not enough. The invasion force must be stopped.”

  “How do I do that?”

  “You don’t really think I would tell you to do something without giving you the means to do it, do you?”

  As if on cue, the guard closest to Bishop reaches into his blazer pocket and hands Bishop what looks like a small compact disc. Bishop looks it over with a high degree skepticism. He’s used to guns and bullets solving problems.

  “You expect me to defeat an alien race that’s hell-bent on taking over the Earth with this?”

  “The bubonic plague killed nearly two hundred million people, Detective. Yet, it was completely invisible to the naked eye. Sometimes the most destructive forces come in the smallest packages. On that disc is a virus.

  “When installed on the data banks of the mother ship’s computer, it will automatically activate the ship’s self-destruct program. The virus will spread to the other ships, ordering their self-destruct programs to activate as well. Each ship will self-destruct in fifteen seconds. Once the ships are destroyed, the homing signal will be destroyed, as will their cloaking device.”

  “Wait a minute. You had this all along, but you didn’t use it?” Saunders asks. “Why?”

  “Having the Promelians here was to our mutual advantage. We developed the program as a contingency, just in case we had to defend ourselves against them. We needed the Promelians, and they needed us. The technological advances they gave us were immeasurable.”

  “And the invasion?”

  “We didn’t know about the invasion until Agent Stafford informed us.”

  “Wait a damn minute!” Saunders interrupts. “You mean to tell me that agent warned you, and you killed him for it?”

  “The Promelians hunted him down and killed him, Doctor. Not before he could inform us.”

  “But it was you that pinned his death on us. Why?”

  “Because you knew the truth as well, Detective. However, you proved to be far more elusive than even the Promelians had anticipated. We realized that we could use you.”

  “What about my friend?”

  “Sergeant Kuntz. The Promelians killed him as well.”

  Bishop steps forward to confront his guest. His path to Cartwright is immediately barred by one of Cartwright’s guards. No matter. Bishop has something on his mind. Something he didn’t realize until now.

  “How did they know where to find him? For that matter, how did they know where to find us? Was it you? Was it the government?”

  Cartwright doesn’t answer. No answer means yes to Bishop, but he wants to hear the words. He wants Cartwright to admit it.

  “You did, didn’t you?”

  “I...regret that some decisions had to be made, but they were for the greater good.”

  “The greater good, you son-of-a-bitch!” Bishop starts moving toward Cartwright, but Justice grabs him just as all of Cartwright’s bodyguards point their weapons at him.

  “No one could have known, Detective,” Cartwright says. “Decisions had to be made. We didn’t start this war. In fact, your partner is more to blame than we are. We just played the hand that we were dealt.”

  “We were just trying to survive,” Justice says. “We didn’t throw in with the Promelians, you did.”

  “I did what was in the best interest of my country. I am a patriot, Detective.”

  “I hate to interrupt this little going-nowhere debate, but since you sicced the dogs on us, can you call them off?” Saunders asks.

  “If you accomplish your mission, your deaths will no longer matter. As for you being fugitives from justice, I will make sure...others are responsible for the deaths of your friends and Agent Breer. Now, our time is short. You must move quickly. You must get on board the Promelian mother ship. It’s at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.”

  “Yeah, we know. Piece of cake,” Saunders sarcastically says as she throws up her hands. “We’ll just swim right out there. No biggie.”

  Cartwright ignores Saunders’ sarcasm.

  “The Promelians use an old steel mill on the outskirts of town as their headquarters,” Cartwright answers, as one of his aides hands Bishop a piece of paper.

  “That’s the address.”

  “What are we looking for when we get there?”

  “A transporter. Their means of getting back and forth to their ship.”

  “You expect us to just waltz right in?” Saunders says. “Just guessing here, but I’m thinking they might not like that.”

  “I will make arrangements for you to get in. Now you must go, immediately.”

  CHAPTER 108

  THE COLD RAIN is starting to come down again as Bishop, Saunders, and Justice make it back to their car. They barely notice the sting of the ice-cold rain as it hits their skin. Too many other things on their minds right now. They have to save the world. While Bishop is wondering why Cartwright didn’t want them to investigate any further, Saunders and Justice are wondering what their partner is withholding.

  “Is there something you want to tell us, Ken?” Saunders asks. Bishop knows exactly what she means, but the less they know about Breer, the better.

  “Agent Breer didn’t want to tell me what I needed to know, so I...convinced him.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “We’re at war, Doctor. These aliens are going to annihilate us. We needed answers, and I got ’em. What’s done is done. What we need to focus on now is a plan on how to get onto the Promelian ship without getting ourselves killed.”

  Bishop starts the car and turns the heater on full blast. Anyone who knows Bishop knows that he doesn’t like to be pushed for answers. He’s a detective. He’s the one who does the pushing.

  “My captor said he would provide a diversion for us,” Saunders says.

  “Is that all he said?” asks Justice. “Were you able to pick up on any conversations?”

  “Look, I’m not a detective. I was more worried about dying than eavesdropping on people’s conversat
ions.”

  “Did you see anything?” Bishop asks.

  “No! Now can we just get the hell…” Saunders stops short of venting her full frustration because she remembers something that was said.

  “Wait. I do remember hearing them talking outside of the room they were holding me in. Something about a timetable; a cure.”

  “What timetable? A cure for what?” Bishop asks.

  “Like I said, I couldn’t make out everything.”

  “Well, whatever it is, you agreed not to intervene,” Justice reminds Bishop. “Whatever they’re doing, we have to stay out. If we don’t, whatever is on that video is going to go public.”

  Bishop doesn’t comment.

  “Looks like whatever you did with Agent Breer has all of us in a bind,” Saunders says. “And your partner and I still don’t know exactly what that is.”

  No comment.

  “Whatever you did, I’ll back you. You know that,” Justice says.

  Bishop says, “Like I said, the less you know, the better.”

  “That isn’t gonna work, partner,” Justice says indignantly. “We’re all in this together.”

  “Look, Justice—”

  “No, you look! I put my ass on the line just like you. I played the dutiful student long enough. I’m your partner, and I have a right to know what’s going on.”

  Bishop knows his partner and Saunders have a right to know.

  “All right,” Bishop says as he silently takes a deep breath before delivering the bad news. “Like I told you, Breer was Cerelean. I needed answers from him, and he wouldn’t give them to me. So, I…forced him to give me the answers we needed.”

  “Forced, as in tortured?” Saunders asks with surprise.

  “Yes.”

  “That isn’t who we are, Ken,” Justice says.

  “It is now.”

  CHAPTER 109

  THE ONLY THING that matters to a Promelian soldier is his mission. That’s the way they were designed by their Cerelean creators. This is the biggest mission in Promelian history, and the Promelian leader is in charge of paving the way to their future.