by R T Green
‘Yes, because you didn’t know the real me.’
I smiled for her, realising how much she’d feared showing me her true self. ‘I already knew the real you Zana, just not how you looked. Now you're even more perfect.’
She kissed me once more, laid her head back to my breast. ‘I am glad I still please you.’
‘One of the guys said you might be a shape-shifter.’
She laughed softly. ‘A shape-shifter. Not so much; unlike your science-fiction I can't become anything I want. My metabolism allows me to take on a form close to my own, but I couldn't become this sofa!’
‘Quite pleased about that.’
She didn't speak for a minute, but when she did her tone was more serious. ‘Tomorrow night my people will arrive, and I must be at Dawson's Hill. Please will you be there with me?’
‘I'm not letting you out of my sight for another minute. But I need to know what's happening.’
She nodded, knew it was time for the truth. ‘I'm going to stop them Madeline. Because of you. Because…’
She didn't get any further. The peace and tranquillity of our world was shattered.
Literally.
As Zana looked up in horror, the big glass sliding doors leading to the balcony disintegrated into a million toughened-glass shards, ripping the drapes to shreds as they blew across the room.
Instinctively I pulled her down, the back of the sofa between us and what were the doors to the balcony. The lights in the sitting room were down low, I didn’t think she’d been seen.
I could hear people in the room, the crunch of broken glass beneath their feet. I motioned Zana to roll off onto the floor. I followed her, reaching desperately for my clothes. We were both still naked.
Muffled voices, seemed to be coming from the bedroom. I remembered the weapon I'd acquired, grabbed it from the jacket pocket. Whoever it was would be back in the room any moment, find us in seconds. I whispered to Zana, ‘When I say, get behind the bar… that glass is thick enough to withstand a grenade!’
She looked scared to death but nodded. I peered around the edge of the sofa, just as the intruders came into view.
Four of them.
‘Now!’ I shouted, firing the gun at one of the men, who exploded into a mess of body parts. The other three looked stunned for a moment, not expecting retaliation. They ran for cover, one of them firing a wild shot that seared across the hallway and straight through the front door.
Zana made the shelter of the bar, I fired again as I grabbed my jacket and jeans and ran to join her. I hit a second man but didn't floor him. His arm was a bit shorter than before though. He disappeared around the corner into the kitchen area; the other two ran into the doorway of the second bedroom.
All went quiet, except for Zana who looked angrily at me. ‘What's going on, Madeline? I thought you believed me. And where the hell did you get that from?’
‘This?’ I held up the weapon. ’It was a gift from Arik. And I do trust you. This is nothing to do with me.’ I fumbled awkwardly to pull the jeans around my legs, and then remembered the DIAL phone was in my pocket. ‘I thought I trusted Coop though,’ I growled, pressing the call button.
Act 3
Ryland Cooper didn't go home after he left Madeline. The hell the poor girl was going through wasn't sitting easy with him, and it just didn't feel right him being at home in comfort while a woman he respected was living through a nightmare.
He knew she would never be able to kill Zana, exactly why he gave her a get out of jail free card. Although in truth it was more of an out of the frying pan into the fire card.
And somehow he was getting the feeling his phone would ring before he saw the first light of dawn.
So he headed for DIAL HQ, knowing he would be all but alone. Duncan Scott had sent Miles to check out a reported sighting in Warwickshire, the man himself was locked down somewhere with military top-brass and a stack of government ministers, attempting for formulate a defence strategy against an unknown threat they didn't have a hope in hell of averting. Most of the technical staff would be tucked up in bed.
He went straight to Scott's office, fired up the coffee machine and sat at the little man's big desk. After a while, staring at the walls began to seem pointless, so he took a long slow walk around the almost-silent operation's floor, had a conversation with the two techies there on night duty.
Back in Scott's office he tried to make a start on the report detailing the evening’s gruesome activities. That wasn't too successful either, because almost every sentence turned his thoughts back to Madeline and what might be going down at that moment. After two fruitless hours he gave up, and was just about to take another walk around the floor when his phone rang.
His friend didn't sound too happy, and more than a little frightened. ‘What the fuck, Coop? Thought you were on my side. Call your goons off for Christ’s sake!’
‘What? What you saying, girl?’
‘In Zana's pad… the four monkeys. Well, two and a half now… not just popped in for a nightcap, have they?’
‘Fuck. Fuck! This ain't my doing, Maddie. You know I'm with you on this.’
‘Then who the hell… oh shit.’
‘You thinking what I'm thinking?’
‘Arik.’
‘Then you is.’
‘Sure could use a hand right now, Coop.’
‘On my way,’ he said as he headed for the door.
‘Just another little problem though...’
‘Go ahead, make my day.’
‘It sounds like Far Cry Four here… any minute now this place is gonna be crawling with SWAT teams and half the cops in the met.’
‘Fuck.’
‘And Zana doesn't exactly look human anymore, just… just incredibly beautiful.’
‘Double fuck!’
I covered my head as a shot shattered the overshelf, showering us both with a rain of glass and bits of spotlight.
‘Coop says it's not our guys… they're yours, Zana.’
She gasped. ‘No, that can't be. Why?’
‘Your team leader? Wasn't exactly keen on you and me remember… and I guess it didn't help you remodelling his face. You've been betrayed.’
Another flash, from the bedroom doorway. I hung over the bar top and fired back, heard a cry. I wasn't sure how much of him I got, but as I dropped back down I could see the corner of the bar had been destroyed.
‘We can't hold out here forever Zana,’ I groaned. ‘Even if they don’t hit us it’ll be death by glass!’
She looked horrified. ‘My people wouldn't do anything this public. Unless…’
Two shots this time, one hitting the wall behind the bar, the other making the thick glass just in front of us shudder and crack. I caught sight of a shadowy figure ducking down behind the sofa.
‘I have to get to my bedroom.’
‘Are you serious?’ The door to her bedroom was a good five metres away. I fired again, through the sofa back. The man screamed, it was a safe bet he wasn't in one piece anymore.
Two down, two to go.
‘I'm stark naked, Madeline. My clothes and my communications disc are in the bedroom. I need to find out what's going on.’ She nodded to the weapon. ‘And I've got one of those too.’
Then, in the distance, the sound of wailing sirens. ‘For fu... as if things couldn't get any worse.’
‘Shoots the lights out.’
‘What?’
‘Shoot the light-switch, over there.’
‘But…’
‘Do it!’
I fired at the light-switch. The incredible power of Arik’s weapon took out the light switch. And a metre of wall surrounding it. We were in darkness.
‘I'm at a disadvantage again here, Zana!’
‘Cover me!’
‘No!’
She was gone, running barefoot across the broken glass towards the door. I fired quickly, once at the corner of the wall by the kitchen, once into the doorway of the second bedroom. I saw the fla
sh of a weapon, fired at the source. And I watched as bits of flaming body momentarily lit up the room as they fell to the ground.
Now it was better odds. One to one.
Zana was in the bedroom. The one guy left was in the kitchen area. I called out to him. ‘Just you and me now, alien. Except that in three minutes the cops will be all over the place. You want to come and get me while you still can?’
I groaned at my own words. Right then no one in the apartment, alien or human, needed a visit from the law. My adversary seemed to agree; with a kamikaze scream he began to run towards the bar, firing wildly as he went. I dove to one side as the bar finally shattered around me, aimed my weapon at the running figure as I hit the floor, but I was a fraction too late.
The man's body slumped to the floor. His head was somewhere else.
The bedroom light flicked on. Zana stood in the doorway with the smoking weapon in her hand.
‘You owe me one,’ she said simply.
The wail of the sirens sounded really close. I picked the rest of my clothes from the floor, glanced around. The apartment reminded me of a bombed-out village in Afghanistan.
‘We've got to get out of here, Zana. Cops here in one minute.’
‘I know. The cops aren't the only reason either.’
‘Meaning?’
‘I've just tracked the position of the ship. They lied to me, Madeline. We've got to get to Dawson's Hill. My people are almost here.’
‘Now you're really scaring me.’
Then I realised what she'd said. ‘Ship?’
‘Yes, Madeline. In three hours there will be a great big alien battle-cruiser parking itself over London.’
Act 4
Ryland Cooper killed Madeline's call, shoved the phone in his pocket and headed down the stairs from Scott's office.
And in his haste he made a fatal error of judgment.
Still close to the top, he lost his footing. Crashing to the floor, he swore more than once at himself as he struggled to sit up. Several bits of him hurt, but a searing pain was coming from his left ankle. He lifted his trouser leg, already it was swelling up.
He managed to get to his feet, but he could put no weight on the ankle. It felt broken. He knew instantly he'd never be able to drive the van, the clutch pedal hardly the lightest on the planet.
He pulled the phone out again, called Miles. He doubted he was back from Warwickshire, but he was running out of options. After thirty seconds a sleepy voice answered.
‘Coop?’
‘Please tell me you're back in London, Miles.’
‘Sorry mate, tucked up in bed in the Stratford-upon-Avon Hilton. Too late to travel back tonight. And it was a stupid waste of time… nothing more than 'A Comedy of Errors' if you ask me.’
‘Who are you, Shakespeare's brother?’
‘What's up, Coop?’
‘Things are spinning up here and I gotta get somewhere. Just gone ass-over-tit down the stairs and broken my ankle. Can't drive the fucking van.’
‘Heck, sorry mate. I can come now but it'll take me at least three hours.’
‘Ain't got three hours, Miles.’
‘I spoke to Carl earlier. He said he was working late, he might still be there.’
‘What, that over-excitable, under-intelligent moron?’
‘He may be all you've got.’
Coop hobbled and hopped across to the side wall of the operations floor, groaning to himself. Carl was up to speed with most of the developments, but he and Miles tried not to make too much use of him if they could avoid it. Sometimes he got a bit too over-enthusiastic.
He reached the door to his office just as it opened and the guy appeared, throwing his jacket around his shoulders. ‘Hell Coop, you been in the wars?’
‘Just fallen down the stairs and done my ankle. It's Madeline in a war right now. She needs back-up, and I need someone with two good legs. You up for it?’
Carl grinned. ‘Hell yeah!’
I could hear fast-moving vehicles screaming up the driveway.
‘We've got to go, now Zana!’
She was dressed, the red cape around her shoulders. She grabbed her bag from the bed. ‘Where's your car?’
‘Back at my apartment.’
‘Seriously?’
‘It's not far, but we'll have to get there on foot. We can't leave here by the main entrance though, the cops are here.’
‘Fire escape, at the end of the walkway.’
She began to head for what was left of the door, I pulled her back. ‘Zana, you're still… alien. Change back to human, quick.’
She dragged me roughly through the doorway and along the walkway as she spoke. ‘You got five hours to spare, Madeline?’
‘But… but you changed into yourself in ten minutes earlier.’
She thrust both hands hard against the fire escape door handle. It flew open, and the rain lashed into us as we stepped onto the metal staircase. She shouted through the wind. ‘Reverting to my natural state takes no time. Becoming human again takes a lot longer.’
My heart sank. ‘There'll be people everywhere with all this shit going on.’
‘Got a big hood,’ she grinned as she pulled it tight around her head.
As we made the bottom flight of steps, we could hear the sound of running boots. I grabbed Zana's arm, shoved her unceremoniously into a space between two blocks of garages, as three armed SWAT officers appeared. Two began to climb the steps, one stayed on the ground.
The only escape possible was backwards to the rear of the garage block. It would have to do. Quietly we side-stepped away from the guy with the gun, who didn't know it but was standing in exactly the right place to see all the way down the narrow space between the blocks, if he’d turned round to look.
I put myself between the guy and Zana; a red cape wasn't exactly the best camouflage. We turned the corner of the block, then at least we couldn't be seen. It was muddy, the ground sloping steeply up for three metres or so. It was our only way out.
Through the rain we could hear men shouting. Behind us, the flashes of a multitude of blue lights lit up the sky, diffused slightly by a slight mist that now accompanied the rain. Someone’s voice echoed through the murk, speaking through a voice-amplifier, calling to those inside to surrender their weapons and come out with their hands in the air.
I grimaced as we began to make our way up the slippery bank. Given the address the officers were attending, very soon they wouldn't be the only ones to know there was no one in the apartment.
No one alive and in one piece anyway.
Act 5
We hurried through alleyways and side-streets, Zana with her hood close around her face, both of us watching furtively for prying eyes or any signs of danger.
Close to the war zone there were plenty of people we had to avoid, but all eyes were on the action we'd left behind. Nobody was interested in two ordinary people hurrying by.
Thanks to the heavy rain, as we drew close to my apartment the streets were almost deserted. We turned a corner, and as the block came into view it brought the dread back.
‘Do you think your people know where I live?’
Frightened eyes looked back to me. ‘Nothing would surprise me with Arik.’
I swallowed hard. Just popping in to grab the car keys might prove harder than I thought.
The rain was easing, replaced by a thicker mist, rising from the dampness around us. It was starting to look spooky. We slipped into the grounds through a rear alley, hugged the walls of the building to reach the foyer. We used the stairs, deciding the elevator was too risky.
‘I hope you made him suffer,’ Zana whispered through the hood of the cape.
I knew who she meant. ‘Oh, I made sure he got a little hot under the collar before he lost his head completely.’
At the door to his apartment I hesitated, moved Zana aside a little and turned the key in the lock. A slightly-shaky finger pushed the door open a little, but I didn't enter the room. Instead an even-s
hakier arm eased around the frame and found the light-switch, flicked it down.
No lights came on.
Quickly I pulled my arm back, grabbed the weapon from my pocket and fired randomly into the apartment.
Whatever it hit, it would do a lot of damage. Hopefully to whom it was in there waiting for us. I didn't care about anything else, the apartment was no use to me anymore.
I followed my trigger-finger, moved around the doorway into the dark apartment. Someone fired at me. It missed, slammed into the wall a metre away and blasted a huge hole in it.
A hole that let in just enough light from the walkway for me to see a dark figure moving hesitantly across the living room floor. It looked like my random shot had done some damage.
I didn't hesitate, fired a second time, and the guy made even more of a mess of the carpet.
I checked he was my only guest, grabbed Zana and pulled her into the apartment. The sound of voices wasn't far away, residents of the block starting to panic with the sound of weapons firing.
Yet again, in the second apartment within the hour.
Grateful now I'd slipped the car keys out of sight into a kitchen draw, I grabbed them quickly and hauled a shell-shocked Zana roughly out of the apartment. People were gathering at the far end of the walkway, I pulled her close to me like she was hurt, flashed the badge quickly at a guy who asked in a frightened voice what was going on, and told him the cops would be here in a few minutes and they weren't in any danger.
This time we did take the lift, walked as quickly as we dare to the BMW, and drove down the driveway. As we turned onto the main street my heart sank yet again. A white Iveco van had pulled out onto the road with us.
At this rate we were going to be too late even getting to Dawson's Hill.
I watched as the white van drew closer.
‘I thought you said there were only seven of you?’ I asked Zana. ‘Seems we've got company again.’
She looked at me, her beautiful green eyes filled with fear. ‘They must have sent a shuttle on ahead… like we did when we first came.’