by RWK Clark
“I can give you a ride. I’m not pressed for time. Where are you going?” He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She wore a calf-length brown peasant skirt and a gauzy cream top which tied at her shoulders. Her shoulders were lightly freckled, as was her nose and cheeks, like cinnamon had been sprinkled on her. Her hair was blonde and hung past the middle of her back. She took his breath away.
Her voice brought him back to reality. “I’m Kamryn Reynolds. I would love a ride, but I’m not even sure where I am going. I hitched here from Baltimore, and I’ve only been in town for a couple of hours trying to figure out what to do next.”
“Well, hop in. I’m supposed to be off work until morning, but I was going to go in just to keep myself busy. Are you hungry? We can eat.” Josh wasn’t hungry, but he would eat if it meant hanging out with this girl.
She looked at her feet, then up and around her. She finally made eye contact. “Actually, I’m starving.” She hadn’t eaten in days, as a matter of fact.
“Do you want to go someplace in particular? Name it.” He kept his eyes on her. He couldn’t help himself.
“Well, I guess if it has Wi-Fi it doesn’t matter.” She noticed how he looked at her. He seemed harmless enough. She didn’t feel that tug in her gut that usually signified trouble. As a matter of fact, she felt completely comfortable, and it surprised her.
Josh scrambled to muster a response. “Well, if you want Wi-Fi, fast food is probably the way to go.”
“Thank you. I should tell you that I don’t have any money, but…”
“No, please! I’ve got it. Not a problem.” They walked to the car and Josh got in first. He unlocked her door and she got in next to him. Right then a gunshot rang out and a plate-glass window from a jeweler’s place of business seemed to explode. A scream rang out, and a man of about fifty in a business suit ran out the door, blood covering his face. Josh put the car into gear and pressed the pedal to the floor.
As they joined the rest of the traffic he started conversation. “Why did you come to DC?” He glanced over at her. She was picking non-existent lint from her brown skirt. She was so cute.
“Um, I guess I was sick of doing nothing to help myself. I wanted to try and find out if there was anything I could do.” She didn’t want to tell him she was a hacker by trade, and she was here to steal secrets in an effort to survive.
Josh shifted gears. “What do you expect to find?”
She looked at him. “I was hoping to find out if there was anything the government wasn’t telling us that would give me a personal upper hand. I don’t know, really. Just… something. Anything.”
He looked at the road and turned this information over in his mind. How did she intend to get government information? He worked for them, and short of breaking the law the only information they gave him to work with was limited and highly classified. It suddenly occurred to him what she was doing.
“You’re hacking, aren’t you?” He asked the question with an intentional smile on his face, wanting her to be at ease. It’s not like they were going to rush in and arrest her. They had much bigger fish to fry at this point in time.
Kamryn got a panic-stricken look on her face. Then the look disappeared instantly. “Why would you think that?”
Josh chuckled. “I work at the Pentagon writing code, and I know only what they want me to know. You would have to hack in to do what you are talking about. It’s the only way. Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.”
He took a left, turning in. “Do you want to go in, or drive through?”
“Well, I wanted to set up my laptop,” she replied, letting out a breath with relief.
He pulled into a spot and turned off the car. Looking at her made it hard for him to talk, so he only glanced her way now and then. “How about if we play it safe from the criminals and looters. We can drive through, get our food, and go to my place. I have Wi-Fi you can use as long as you promise to use your golden fingers to block my IP address. I know you have tricks I know nothing about, and I’m safe. You are safer with me than you would be sitting inside there trying to do your deeds.”
Kamryn smiled at him. A safe place to be sounded incredible. “I think that’s a great idea.”
Josh pulled the vehicle out of the spot and drove around to the drive-thru window. They placed their order at the menu board and then pulled on through, paying at the first window and picking up their food at the second one. Within minutes they were driving the opposite direction on ‘C’ Street, heading toward his apartment.
Chapter 5
Josh led Kamryn into the security building which housed his apartment and after checking his mail led her to his door. He unlocked it deftly and opened it, reaching inside to the right to turn the light on. He stepped aside so she could enter first, and then he followed, closing the door behind them. He made sure things were locked up tight before he realized the food was still in the back seat of the car.
“Man, I left the food outside! Look, you can set up in here if you like. Help yourself to anything in the fridge to drink. The code to the Internet is “jnichols1”, and Nichols is spelled with a ‘c-h-o’, just so you know. I’ll be right back.” He smiled at her, and enjoying the fact that she was here, headed down to get the chicken.
Kamryn took her notebooks and laptop out of her backpack and found an outlet to plug into. Surely the battery would be dead by now, so she would take advantage of the opportunity to charge. She plugged her cell in as well, even though she didn’t expect to make or receive any calls. Better safe than sorry.
Within minutes Josh was back, locking the door and unpacking the plastic bag of food on the small oak dining table. He had to push paperwork aside to make room. He was obviously a bachelor. The apartment wasn’t dirty; it was cleaner than the one room dive where she had lived in Baltimore. This place just lacked a woman’s touch.
While Kamryn worked on the computer Josh put the food on plates. “Did you grab something to drink?” He yelled from the kitchen.
“No. I was pretty focused on getting this up and running. I really appreciate your letting me use your Wi-Fi and hang out here.” Her fingers steadily tapped away at the keys as she worked to confuse the signals to avoid detection. Internet service providers and cable companies were some of the easiest systems to hack into if you knew how.
“I have orange juice and Budweiser, and half a bottle of chardonnay my mom left from Mother’s Day. No milk. Oh, and water, of course.” He stood at the refrigerator with the door open.
She didn’t even look up. “Budweiser would be great. In a glass, please. Thanks.”
Kamryn continued to tap away, even when Josh brought the plate of food and the beer. He walked back to the kitchen for his own, and it wasn’t until he had returned and began to eat that the smell of the chicken got the best of her. Her mouth began to water as she sat there working, and soon she had to find a stopping point and surrender to her ravishing hunger.
She began to eat, taking it slowly because she didn’t know how her stomach would handle it. The most complete meal she had in years, literally, had consisted of breakfast sandwiches from the Jiffy Mart. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten anything that wasn’t on a croissant or English muffin, much less required a plate. It was hot, and it tasted heavenly. She wanted it to last, so she pushed every thought of the present out of her mind, but for the food in front of her.
Josh pretended to be as engrossed in the sustenance as she, but he was really watching her out of the corner of his eye. She was starving! Now that he had gotten a better look at her here in the apartment he could see that she was skin and bones. He supposed hackers didn’t make a regular wage. The thought gave him a humorless inner laugh.
“How is it?” Speaking to her gave him an excuse to look directly at her rather than stealing glances.
She finished her bite and wiped her mouth with a paper napkin. “Wonderful!” Her smile knocked the wind right out of him, and his heart skipped a beat.
&n
bsp; “You don’t get to eat much on a hacker’s salary, do you?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth he regretted them. ‘Hacker’ almost seemed like a dirty word suddenly. She was far too perfect for such a derogatory term.
She didn’t flinch. “No, not really. Can’t afford much of anything, really.” She bit into her chicken thigh, closing her eyes while she chewed. She was really enjoying the food.
“How did you get into that particular line of business?” He used as light a voice as possible to keep the atmosphere pleasant and build trust. She wasn’t someone his parents might want him to care to impress, but they were in Iowa, and the world was being invaded by aliens, Who cared?
She looked toward the window at the drawn blinds, seemingly staring into an outside she couldn’t see anyway. “I always had a knack for technology and computers. School bored me, and I guess you could say I didn’t have much along the lines of parental guidance. It seemed like a great career choice at the time, but after a while I found myself in a little deeper than I expected. It’s not the kind of job you can just quit when you’re sick of it, you know?”
“Yeah.” He didn’t know, but he didn’t want the conversation to end now. “So what do you have in mind as far as gathering alien info?”
It was her turn to study him. Could she trust him? Did it even matter anymore?
“Well, I’m not in the bureaucratic mix, but I’m not stupid either. I’m pretty sure Mr. Big living down at 1600 isn’t telling the general public everything. For instance, what does this ‘testing’ consist of? How far along are they on the construction of the testing facilities?” She paused. “I’m not about to just get in line and walk into a gated area and let them lock it behind me without knowing exactly what I’m doing there, and I’m certainly not going to be herded like cattle to the slaughter. What the Oppressors consider human strength may be the opposite of every quality I possess, and I will not let them take my life because they feel I don’t measure up.” She picked her chicken back up and dug in, biting into a biscuit next.
Josh smiled at the eagerness in which she tore into her food. It did his heart good. He had been starving for intelligent interpersonal communication, and it certainly didn’t hurt that Kamryn was a beautiful female specimen.
“Would you like more?” With that her eyes lit up, and she nodded vigorously.
“I can get it.” She rose with her plate and walked over to the dining room table, where she took seconds of chicken, macaroni and cheese, potatoes, and another biscuit. “Do you have another beer?”
He nodded and watched her as she disappeared into the kitchen. She was seated again, with her food and drink, in only moments.
For the next twenty minutes they ate in silence, but Josh was pondering serious thoughts the entire time. He could help her. He could make the job much easier for her. He worked at the Pentagon, and he wrote code for the United States government. He already knew some of the answers she was looking for. But what if he helped her and found himself in serious trouble? The more he thought about it the less he thought it was a real possibility. Even if he stood idly by doing nothing what were the chances he could pass the battery of tests they had outlined to the government?
Finally, he broke the silence. “Kamryn, I want to help. I mean, I think I can help.”
She looked at him and studied him closely for a moment. “How can you help me, and why would you want to?”
So he proceeded to tell her what he did for a living. He didn’t go into great detail at that point. He wanted to be sure she would listen to what he had to say, and accept it. For all he knew she would fear him, fear his position. He wanted to use his words to not only convince her, but to put her mind at ease as well.
By the time he was done with his speech her plate was on the end table next to her chair. Her glass of beer was in her hand, and she stared at him intently in the silence.
“Tell me more,” she said quietly.
Chapter 6
Andrew Mason emerged from the bathroom drying his hands on a plush white towel. His mind was all over the place. Running a country was a dirty job, he could admit it. But as the old saying goes, someone has to do it.
He re-entered the Oval Office to be greeted by the stares of a few of his best minions. The Secretary of Defense. The head of the Department of Homeland Security. The Vice President. None of whom he liked. All of whom he needed. All he was equipped to do was smile and pass or veto bills. He was a bit of zinc oxide on the acne riddled ass that was America.
Mason walked around his desk, hiked the legs of his tailored dress pants, and took a seat. “Back to our topic, I am hoping to release details of the testing to the public within the next week. Obviously our concern is that it will trigger more hysteria than we have already experienced from the people. The Oppressors are really putting the pressure on. I get the distinct impression that they consider the people’s reaction and the violent behavior they demonstrate to be ‘test’ results as it is.”
Henry Whitaker, the vice president, spoke. “I feel the same way. After all, they kill each other off and the Oppressors have less and less ‘tests’ to administer.
“These are not ‘tests’!” This came from the Homeland Security head, Miles James. “None of this has anything to do with testing. It has to do with destroying people and human morale. Let’s not piss down each other’s backs here, gentlemen. It is only us. It’s important we speak frankly if we want to come to any solid conclusions or solutions.”
Mason responded, “I would tend to agree. No need to tread lightly or sugar coat behind these doors.”
Carson Wood, the Secretary of Defense, rose to his feet and voiced his standpoint. “I think we should calm down, sit down, and review the demands from start to finish. This is not something that we can cover one time and make a firm decision on as to which way to go.
“Carson, I completely agree. Speaking from my point of view, I’d have to say that I need a bit more coverage. Final word.” Mason sat down heavily at his desk, letting out a sigh as he did so. He ran his hand through what little brown hair he had left. It really boiled down to just stroking his scalp.
The four men settled in with their files before Miles spoke up, “The very first communique from the Oppressors consisted of introduction. It seemed cordial enough, letting us know who they were, where they came from, and why they were here.”
“Resources,” said Whitaker flatly.
Miles James replied with a matter of fact, “Exactly.”
“With this in mind, and based on the fact that we have now been personally introduced, the Oppressors begin to present us with their ‘demands’. They don’t call them demands, however. ‘Stipulations’, I believe, is the best word we have for it.” James glanced down at his file, then directed his eyes back to the three men before him. “Do you want to cover the individual demands one by one?”
President Mason stared straight ahead for a moment before nodding blankly and voicing his decision. “Absolutely. The more informed, the more prepared,” he replied.
Miles took a deep breath and proceeded:
“I will relay them to you in the same manner in which they have literally been interpreted to us through our people, our interpretive officials.
“Number One: We are here to sustain the lives of the people of our race through the use of a countless number of resources located on your planet.
“Number Two: We have no interest in elimination of your species by means of force. It is our sincere interest to allow your species to procreate and continue its cycle of life, but on a limited, and controlled, basis.
“Number Three: The individuals allowed to continue species life will be determined in accordance to their strength in all aspects of the lives we have observed. This includes intelligence, moral values, reasoning, determination, and physical strength.
“Number Four: The tests which have been prepared for you are incremented in accordance with these strengths. Each strength will be tested as we see f
it to determine the most ideal individuals who exhibit the highest combinations of the strengths.
“Number Five: Those we do not deem fit, after the tests are complete, will be terminated.
“This was the second part of the communique delivered to us by the Oppressors.” Miles James kept his eyes on his manila folder, closing it, yet keeping his forefinger in the place he left off.
All men in the room paused to consider, letting the words James had just spoken sink in. This was vital to making the correct, and best, decision for the people of the United States, and essentially, the world.
After what seemed like hours, Andrew Mason raised his head. “From what we have just reviewed, from where we are now, what do you think men?”
At first there was dead silence. None of the men made eye contact with each other, and the tension in the office was tangible. Regardless of how many times they covered this information, it never seemed to get any easier to stomach.
Carson Wood cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “What can we think? Let’s just continue and discuss any new ideas when we’re finished. So far none of us has experienced a light bulb over their head which will make any kind of difference. Just continue.”
Miles went on. “The Oppressors have given us clear instructions regarding the areas which will house the testing facilities. Here in the States this includes Chicago, Nome, Alaska, Washington, DC, Seattle Washington, San Antonio, Texas, Sacramento, California, Honolulu, Hawaii, and Miami, Florida, and finally, Denver, Colorado. Nine facilities total, and each will take test participants from a preset area of which the facility serves as hub to. Initially we believed them to demand the construction of six facilities, and we made the people aware of such; however, this number was incorrect, and our interpreters made the distinction as they became more in tune with the ‘language’ spoken by the Oppressors. There are, as we know, only six enemy ships in American airspace.” He finally looked up from his clipboard, which was really useless to him. He had all but memorized these documents in recent days.