Finally we rumbled up to some wooden buildings, and I peered through the bus’s dusty window at the people waiting for us. No one was acting like “It’s me, I’m the alien.” Maybe I should be carrying a sign like people do when they are meeting someone they don’t know at an airport. “Secret Alien Agent” or something.
Once off the bus, we were all trooped to the smelly latrines, then to a big meeting with all the campers. Everyone sat on their luggage in a big open space around a tall flagpole. The counselors told us the camp rules and schedule and gave out cabin assignments. I was sure glad Opal was a girl and would finally have to let go of me. But she didn’t seem too happy when she learned who her cabinmates were—Melanie and blond twins, Bessy and Jessy, who looked and acted like cheerleaders. I couldn’t really blame her.
My own assignment wasn’t great. A couple of brothers from another school, Ramon and Carlos, seemed OK. But then there was Scott, the All-American Sports Hero. Oh well, I reminded myself, I wasn’t here to have a good time but to do a job.
Like all the others, our cabin was a rustic log box that looked like Abe Lincoln could have lived there. At least I managed to snag a top bunk. The brothers fought over who got the other top bunk, but Scott in his usual take-charge way settled the matter by grabbing it himself. And the brothers seemed to love him for it. They suffered from major hero-worship. Good thing all three of my cabinmates were in Sports Sprites so I wouldn’t have to deal with them much.
The only furniture besides the beds were four small cupboards for storing our stuff. We’d just started unpacking when the lunch gong sounded. Before joining the flow to the dining hall, I headed up the pinecone-lined path to the nearest latrine. It was dark inside the little wooden building and eye-wateringly smelly. Trying to hold my breath, I stepped in. I’d no sooner shut the door than I heard a scratching on the walls—the outside of the walls, fortunately, but it became louder. Bears? Could bears break through wooden planks?
Then came a harsh whisper. “Follow the path up the hill and meet me at the lone tree.”
I let out my breath. Not bears. The Cadet.
“When?” I asked.
“Whenever you can break away from the group.”
As soon as I’d finished in the latrine, I ran behind the building but couldn’t see anything. At least I’d made contact. I would try to slip away after lunch.
The dining hall was a big open-sided shed, like a huge picnic shelter with heavy log pillars holding up the roof. Long tables and benches were lined up on a concrete slab. After filing through the serving line, we sat down to eat tomato soup and greasy grilled cheese sandwiches. Then the counselors had us play get-acquainted games and sing songs.
My mind wasn’t on any of it. I kept looking around at the counselors, the cooks, and even the janitors, wondering who the alien was. A female with a harsh voice was all I knew.
After lunch, I saw Opal outside the dining hall, shyly standing alone. Before I could slip away, she latched onto me and began complaining about her cabinmates. “All they do is talk about cheerleading and becoming movie stars or dancers. I’m a klutz at all that. They don’t talk about animals or rocks or anything outdoorsy. I wish you were a girl so I could be your cabinmate.”
I silently thanked heaven that I wasn’t, said something dippy about how she’d probably get to like them once she knew them better, then slipped off in the direction of the boys’ cabins. What I’d just told her was probably good advice that I should try to apply to myself and my own cabinmates. But frankly, making friends wasn’t what I needed to be focusing on now. I had an assignment to get through.
Once most people had returned to their cabins for what was billed as “rest time,” I strolled instead toward the latrine, then passed by its stinky island, and continued up the hill. After a while, a faint path left the trees and continued through a stretch of dry grass to an ancient, gnarled pine tree. There was no one around. I sat at the base of the tree, wishing I could remember the Cadet’s name so I could call her.
The sun was warm. Leaning against the rough trunk, I looked sleepily around at the rocks poking through the thin soil. On one, a lizard sat sunning himself, unmoving except for the tiny rise and fall of his jeweled sides. Insects whirred and birds chirped.
With a start I opened my eyes, realizing I’d fallen asleep. It couldn’t have been for long. The lizard was still there.
I gasped. No way was that the same lizard! It was bigger, much bigger. I jumped up and stared. It looked like something from a dinosaur movie. A velociraptor!
It was six feet away, and I was staring right into its eyes. Yellow, beady eyes.
“Zackary Gaither,” it hissed. “Galactic Agents do not sleep on duty!”
I stared at the Hollywood horror in front of me. My legs tensed, but I forced myself to stay. This was my partner!
Swallowing, I croaked, “Fine, but I’m just the local help. You’re … what was your name again?”
“Itl Vraj Boynyo Tg.” The creature’s toothy mouth twitched in an unmistakable sneer. “Obviously that’s beyond you. Use Vraj.”
“Right. I’m Zack.” I tried not to stare at those teeth and claws. I knew I shouldn’t be surprised that some aliens would look … really alien. It’s just that most of those I’d met before, including me, looked human. No wonder this one needed some help. She certainly couldn’t pass as a native.
“So what do we do now?” I said, trying to sound like I talked to velociraptor look-alikes every day.
“What I’ve been doing for two days—looking for Duthwi eggs. And I could finish this job by myself if it weren’t for the time factor.”
“The time factor?”
With a gargling growl, she flung up her short arms. “Put in this translator. Speaking your language hurts worse than having teeth pulled.”
She reached into a shoulder bag and held up a little black thing that looked like a metal spider. Then she jammed it into my ear. I stumbled back against the tree. Talk about pain! It felt like someone had attacked my ear with a heavy-duty staple gun. But before I could scream, the pain had dropped to a low throb. Hesitantly, I poked a finger into my ear. I couldn’t feel any bump. Had the thing gone right inside?
She was talking again. “The more light that Duthwi eggs are exposed to, the sooner they hatch.” Now I could hear growly sounds underlying echoey English. I tried to concentrate on the words instead of my sore ear.
“But we don’t know when this batch was laid,” she said, “so we don’t know how long we have.”
“Where do we look?” I asked and was suddenly unsure what language I’d said that in. My throat hurt like I’d swallowed a cactus. Was I actually speaking her language? Cool. This gizmo in my ear could be a big help in my Spanish class.
In any case, she’d clearly understood me. “The smugglers dumped them in a rocky ravine on the other side of this hill.” She jabbed a clawed finger toward the north. At least that sounded close.
“So they should be pretty easy to collect,” I suggested. She snorted, and I half expected to see smoke billow from her nostrils. “You haven’t seen a Duthwi egg, have you?”
She reached into a large bag and thrust something round into my hand. It was shaped like a large potato with a rough, gray-brown surface. Basically it looked like a rock, but it felt a lot lighter than a rock that size should feel.
“What’s worse,” she said, “is that no two are exactly alike. I have a device that detects them, but it only works when I’m already close. In two days, I’ve only found seven.”
“How many were there to start with?”
“One hundred.”
Ninety-three rocklike things to find in a ravine full of rocks. I groaned. “What’s so special about these things that anyone would bother smuggling them anyway?”
Her sneer exposed an alarming number of teeth. I hoped Cadets weren’t allowed to eat their partners. “You certainly are ignorant. Duthwi are among the most prized hunting prey in the galaxy. They are fast and
challenging to hit. And they are absolutely delicious to eat.”
She grinned. Don’t look at her teeth, I told myself. Look at her … skin. A pebbly, yellow-green, it looked slick and hard as china—not that anyone would want a china figurine anything like Vraj.
Snatching the egg back, she continued. “They’re an endangered species because so many other species hunt them. Those Gnairt were taking them to an illegal hunting reserve somewhere in this sector. Once we round up the eggs, the Patrol will send a ship to return them to their home world. They’re too dangerous to leave here.”
How dangerous? I added that to the list of questions I didn’t have time to ask. I needed to get back. “OK, I’ll help you tonight. It’s hard for me to get away during the day, and you shouldn’t risk being out in the daylight in case anyone sees you.”
She growled. “Yes. A young native saw me yesterday and made an unimaginable fuss.”
I could imagine. Good thing kids from that last session had already left. Luckily, no one would believe a kid saying they’d seen a dinosaur anyway. “I’ll meet you by this tree once everyone’s asleep.”
“Don’t dawdle. Your schedule is slowing my mission enough.”
What a charmer, I thought as I headed back to the cabin. Was this one a particular jerk, or was her whole species like her? I sighed. At the rate Vraj had been collecting eggs, it would take every night this session to find them all. Lots of sleep was obviously not in my future.
As I trudged past the outhouse, something leapt at me. I stifled a yelp. “Opal! What are you doing here?”
“And what are you doing chatting with monsters? What was that thing?”
Trouble. I’d been warned that one of my main duties was to keep the existence of aliens an absolute secret. I had to think fast.
“What do you think it was?”
“Well, it looked like a dinosaur, but I’m not that stupid.”
“Oh, but it is a dinosaur.” I looked around theatrically. “This is a really big secret. You can’t tell anyone.”
Her eyes were enormous. “I promise. A real dinosaur? But how… ”
“My dad’s a scientist. He learned that not all dinosaurs became extinct. Some evolved into intelligent creatures, but they hide from humans so that we don’t put them in zoos. This one needs our help, that’s all.”
“Cool! Can I help too?”
I tried not to groan. A lot of good it would do to say no. She’d just tag along anyway. “OK. I’ll meet you here after lights-out. If we think we can trust you, you can help.”
“Oh yes, you can trust me!”
I looked her in the eye. “I hope so, because even evolved dinosaurs aren’t always friendly—especially ones with big teeth.”
Opal went pale as a marshmallow but quavered, “Got it. Absolute secret.”
“Good. Now let’s get back before we’re both in trouble.”
I caught some trouble anyway when I entered my cabin. “Didn’t you hear the rules?” Scott snapped. “At rest time we’re supposed to be in our cabins.”
“Well, I am now,” I said, climbing to my bunk. “I had to cheer up a younger camper who was majorly homesick.” The other three made snide comments but went back to reading their sports magazines. I laid on my bunk, worrying about a supposedly simple assignment that had turned out to be full of camouflaged eggs, an alien dinosaur, and a really inconvenient witness. Finally, a gong called us all to our units.
Nature Nuts House was a small log building next to an open-sided shelter like a smaller version of the dining hall. A half-dozen tables and benches filled the open space. I sat at one randomly then glanced up to see Opal sliding onto the bench across from me, looking like she would burst with our secret. She’d never make a spy.
Muskrat, the chief Nature Nuts counselor, began talking about the wonders of nature we’d discover: animals, trees, insects, birds, wild-flowers, and weather. And we’d all do an individual project.
I wasn’t paying much attention until Opal leaned forward and whispered loudly, “I’ll do my project on dinosaurs!”
“A lovely idea,” Muskrat said, overhearing, “but let’s confine our projects to parts of nature we can actually see.”
At that Opal giggled and kicked me under the table. I glowered menacingly at her, wishing I had Vraj’s teeth to back it up.
The afternoon was spent in a meadow south of camp looking at wildflowers. Thrilling, I’m sure, but I kept my eyes open for Duthwi eggs. All of the rocks I picked up were heavy like real rocks. Muskrat noticed my rock fixation.
“Maybe you’d like your special project to be about rocks, Zack,” she said brightly.
I nodded glumly. I had enough special projects already.
The rest of the day went by in a blur. More nature stuff, dinner, a campfire with songs and marshmallows. Mostly my mind was on how to make my non-extinct dinosaur story more convincing for Opal while not ticking off Vraj that I’d involved a clueless native.
Back in our cabin, Ramon, Carlos, and Scott all started chattering about the endurance course they were going to run. I slipped under my covers, hoping nobody noticed I was fully dressed, and pretended to fall asleep. Eventually the others did for real, and I lay there thinking about how to get down from my bunk without shaking the creaky bed and waking someone up.
I could always say I had to go to the latrine, but if I did that every night they might get suspicious. But suspicious of what? That I was a recovering bed wetter? That I was really a vampire who slipped out at night to suck blood? No, a vampire could just turn into a bat and fly off without creaking anything. OK, so not a vampire. An alien.
I smiled a little at that. There were those alien powers I’d discovered earlier. Since then I’d tried not to think about them, because they freaked me out. Actually the climbing hadn’t been too scary, but what freaked me out was that it didn’t scare me. It came perfectly naturally. Not for the first time, I wondered what my real species was like. I shrugged the thought away. Basically I was human—with just a few odd additions.
Quietly, I slipped to the foot of my bunk where it butted against a wall. Trying to keep my mind blank, I grabbed the rough logs and scrambled down like Lizardman.
I left the cabin with everyone still asleep, then hurried toward the latrine. Smell hung around the place like a cloud, but Opal wasn’t there yet. I hoped maybe she’d forgotten, but soon I heard her crunching up the path. Definitely not spy material.
She jumped when I stepped out of the shadows, but she recovered quickly and said, “OK, Zack, tell me what your friend needs help with.”
I had my story ready. “Like I said, these evolved dinosaurs stay away from humans, except for people they trust, like my dad and me. This one was in charge of moving a nursery of dinosaur eggs away from where people were building new houses. But there was an accident, and the eggs spilled over a mountainside near here. So my friend needs help collecting them.
“Wow!” Opal was silent a moment. “You can talk with her?”
I nodded. My ear still hurt from the translator. “Dad taught me their language. I’ll have to translate for you.” At least Opal wouldn’t be able to hear what that nasty-tempered alien was really saying.
“Come on,” I said as I headed off through the dark and rather spooky forest. Shadows moved jaggedly in the wind, and the only sounds were creaking branches and hissing pine needles. “Maybe she’s there already,” I said, trying to hurry Opal along. “Dinosaurs are short tempered. They don’t like to be kept waiting.” The same could be said for grouchy aliens, but I kept that to myself.
But Vraj wasn’t there. We were alone on the open hillside except for the big tree, rustling night creatures, and a whole lot of stars overhead.
“Look, there’s Andromeda!” Opal said.
My head swiveled around. Not another camper! Then I noticed Opal was pointing into the sky.
“You hardly ever get to see her in a city. Too much light. And there’s Pegasus above her, that big square.”
Constellations. Actually, I kind of wished I knew something about them, since I apparently came from out there somewhere. Maybe Opal could …
My thoughts were snapped back to earth by a cracking twig. Vraj bounded up to us, scales glinting in the starlight. Opal shrank back against me.
“What’s this?” the alien growled in her language.
“Opal saw you, Vraj,” I said in English, using what I hoped was a calm, soothing voice. “And she wants to help. I explained how you are an evolved dinosaur hiding from humans and that you lost a bunch of dinosaur eggs and need help finding them.”
Vraj’s face crinkled into an expression I was glad I couldn’t read. “This infant thinks I’m an extinct primitive reptile?” Her snarl was untranslatable. “Well, what’s done is done. But she’d better keep quiet about this.”
“Opal’s promised not to say a word,” I said loudly.
“Right,” Opal quavered timidly from behind me. I was glad she was only getting my end of the conversation. “I can keep secrets.”
Vraj growled at me. “She’d better. Remember, neither of us can afford to have this mission fail.”
Though I still didn’t know exactly what the danger was, Sorn had made it clear these Duthwi were a threat to Earth. Was Vraj so uptight about the mission because she was a Cadet trying to prove herself? Maybe this was her first mission. If she was just a kid, I’d hate to meet her parents.
Vraj held out an egg. “All right. This is what we’re looking for. Not easy on a rocky hillside in the dark.”
I looked at the egg clutched in her claw. “But it helps that it glows.”
“Glows?” Vraj growled.
Mistake. I could see the glow, but apparently Vraj’s kind of alien couldn’t. I didn’t want Opal to catch on that I had special alien powers. “Eh … maybe it’s just reflecting starlight.”
“No, it’s glowing all right,” Opal chirped. “These should be as easy to find as giant glowworms.”
Camp Alien Page 2