Alien Collective (28 page)

T
HE OTHERS WERE DOWN AND OUT
of their rescue harnesses, and the choppers were on the ground. The water truck was still here, too.

Because it was summer, even though the sun had started setting a few minutes ago, we still had light, probably for at least another half an hour. Realized it was really late, because sunset in the Southwest at the end of July was usually close to eight in the evening.

Was glad Mom, Dad, and especially Lucinda were with Jamie—her grandparents would ensure she got dinner, took a bath, and went to bed on time, and Lucinda wouldn’t be involved in any of the action, meetings, or planning sessions, so she could and probably would stay with Jamie in the Lair.

“Should have kept the combine in one piece,” Reader said as we all congregated back at the rocks and Tito retrieved his medical bag so he could give Mahin and Jeff both some adrenaline. Jeff got to take it in a vein instead of directly into his hearts, so I counted that in the win column. “We could use it to dig this stuff up.”

“We’re bringing in lighting and large equipment,” Jerry said. “It’ll take a while to transfer, though. Requiring a floater gate as big as the one we used right before Kitty’s wedding.”

“Should we do that?” Contemplated if now was a good time to mention Siler’s part in the combine explosion. “Dig this stuff up, I mean, not use a floater gate.” My brain nudged.

“Yes,” Mahin said, wincing as the needle went in. “I believe it will remain active if we don’t remove it all.”

The Poofs returned in their standard small sizes, and went back to their owners. Poofikins and Harlie were with Jeff, but they gave me an earful.

“What did they say?” Jeff asked while he pretended he wasn’t petting them.

“The javelinas were herded from all over. The Poofs were able to get them back to their homes. No signs of any bad guy lairs near the javelina homelands.”

“Why javelinas?” Tim asked. “Just to freak me out that much more?”

“No.” Thought about it. “Mahin says the quicksand maker needed the vibrations to help him do his thing. Maybe he needed a certain frequency in order to get his stuff to work right, and the javelinas have the right frequency.”

Chuckie nodded. “That’s a good theory.” Glad he’d mentioned this before Christopher could say I was an idiot. “Let’s check that out,” he said to Serene. “And see if their stampede frequency might have helped the creation of the floater gates our enemies used, too.”

Wanted to know why my brain was nudging about the floater gates when what I really wondered was why I was holding a flamethrower. It wasn’t needed, and hadn’t been needed. Clearly the gals had all known what to do. Sure, Mahin had been right, but she hadn’t needed fiery help, either. And though they’d said that fire could destroy this stuff, we actually wanted to save and study the special quicksand, not destroy it.

So, why had Algar given me those clues? He’d tossed out the water clue before I could flame anything, so maybe I’d just interpreted wrong. I’d gotten the fire clues after the combine had exploded but before our cavalry had arrived.

My brain nudged harder. I needed to ask something. “How would you run an illegal floater gate? What equipment would you need?”

“It would depend on the setup,” Serene said. “There are a variety of ways.”

“Radio would be the easiest,” Reader said. “But that would also be the least accurate, and most likely to have issues.”

“Oh. Wow. Um . . . Rahmi and Rhee, stay here and guard. Anyone else who’s pissed and in the mood to wreck stuff, and possibly enemies, follow me. Anyone staying here who isn’t officially on Amazon Guard Duty, check all the databases for someone reporting a John Deere combine having been stolen this evening.”

Took off, back toward the part of the mountains where I’d found this flamethrower in the first place.

I wasn’t alone, and hadn’t expected to be. “Where are we going?” Jeff asked, as he grabbed my hand.

“To the radio setup that I think our enemies are using against us,” I replied, as White grabbed my other hand. He had Chuckie, Buchanan, Tim, and Reader along as well. “Mister White, I see you’re doing the heavy lifting, so to speak.”

“I live to serve, Missus Martini.”

Reached the mountain but took the roads, rather than going up the side. At hyperspeed it would add a couple of seconds, but ensure that no one tripped on anything.

“Why here?” Christopher asked from Jeff’s other side, as we wound up the mountain.

“I found the flamethrower up here.”

“One day I’ll understand how your mind works,” Christopher said. “That day is not today.”

“Whatever. The dune buggy was here. There are satellite dishes here. There’s a storeroom, where I got this flamethrower. And there’s also a bunker with what looked like a full radio setup.”

We arrived. The dune buggy was where it had been before, but the doors to both the bunker and storeroom were closed. And I was pretty sure that I hadn’t taken the time to close them.

“We’re not alone,” Buchanan said quietly. He and Chuckie already had their guns out. Reader and Tim followed suit. Figured I could go for my Glock, but since I had a flamethrower, might as well use it. “No chatter.”

Buchanan used hand signals and indicated that he wanted the satellites, buggy, and weapons room searched. Christopher zipped off and was back momentarily. He shook his head. So, no one was there, meaning if someone was here, they were either inside the radio bunker or invisible. Wondered where Siler was, and then figured if he was here, we’d find out.

Jeff stayed with me and tried to put himself in front of me, but I indicated the flamethrower and, after a lot of eye rolling and frowny faces, he gave up and stayed next to me instead.

Once we had that figured out, looked around to see the rest of the guys giving us the “really?” look. Shrugged and looked to Buchanan. He was clearly trying not to laugh and also clearly asking himself why, yet again, he was forced to work with others.

But he soldiered on and gave hand signals for us to fan out around the building. I decided the flamethrower and I should stay near the door. Buchanan didn’t argue, and I ignored Jeff’s pantomime trying to get me to go around to the back.

Buchanan took one side of the door, Chuckie took the other. The door opened out, but that wasn’t an issue. I nudged Jeff. He nodded, went to the door, ripped it off the hinges, came back to me and pulled me out of the way, all in about a half a second.

Buchanan and Chuckie went into the room. “Clear!” Chuckie called.

The others rejoined us. “Nothing and no one,” Reader said.

“Guess you were just jumpy,” Christopher said to Buchanan. “It happens.”

“Not to Malcolm. At least two of you block the door, please, so no one can get in or out.” Turned around and pulled the nozzle into my hands. “I don’t know a lot about how to use a flamethrower,” I said in a normal tone, as I walked to the weapons storage area. “But I’m going to practice. Right now. All over this area. Starting with this weapons storage thing. And then I’m going to burn the building down. And the dune buggy. Or, you can come out now and I won’t let anyone shoot you. Possibly.”

“Who are you talking to?” Jeff asked.

A man stepped out of the weapons room. “Me.”

“G
OOD GUESS,”
Siler, who was now de-cloaked, said.

“Not a guess, really. I think you heard us coming and went in here, where you figured we wouldn’t look too hard.”

He smiled. “Yes. Oh, put the guns down, it’s just us here right now.”

“I don’t feel warm and fuzzy about putting our guns down,” Chuckie said.

Siler looked around me. “What about you?”

Checked. He was talking to Buchanan.

Who, gun still out and aimed at Siler, reached into his pocket and pulled something out. He looked at his hand. “I have no idea if this is giving me good intel or not.”

“Really.” Siler sounded bored. “You realize you can’t shoot faster than I can run, and I say that knowing you’re all trained to shoot A-Cs.” He looked back at me. “You have the right idea with that flamethrower—you need to destroy this entire setup. It’s been compromised since Home Base was infiltrated last year. And no one’s bothered to verify its security in all that time.”

Didn’t have to look at the expressions on the faces of the men with me. It was clear Siler was essentially telling them, Chuckie, Reader, and Tim especially, that they were failures.

“This isn’t part of our jurisdiction,” Jeff said, before Reader or Tim could say anything, Commander Voice on Full. “It’s part of the U.S. government’s portion of Home Base. And it’s used to ensure that test planes don’t bomb the wrong areas. The C.I.A. has no jurisdiction here, and neither does the F.B.I. This is Department of Defense territory.”

“It is. However, it’s also being used by your enemies to do a lot of really nasty things.”

“Including create floater gates?” I asked.

Siler nodded. “Yes.” He looked back to Buchanan. “You could raid it now, but if you do, you’ll lose some of them. If you’re willing to trust me, then I can send you a signal for when to show up.”

“What is this ‘it’ you’re talking about?” Tim asked.

“And why should we trust you?” Reader added. “You helped Stephanie escape.”

What was going on between Siler and Buchanan dawned on me. “No, he didn’t. He put a tracking device on her and then helped her to escape so she’d go back to ‘it,’ which is wherever the bad guys’ base of operations is. That’s why Malcolm picked something up out of the dirt—you’d dropped the homing device for him. Oh, and giving myself a duh—that’s why you mentioned ‘kindred spirit’ to me, too.”

Chuckie and Buchanan both jerked. “When did I tell you that name?” Chuckie asked.

“You didn’t. Mom did. Yes, shocking one and all, she shared classified intel with me that matters to my job and longevity. Try not to be looking too amazed, guys, you’re hashing my Figuring It Out buzz.”

Siler smiled slowly. “They’re going to be so proud of you.”

“My ‘uncles’?”

He nodded. “I’m the only one who had a shot at infiltration. I’ve met quite a number of my half-siblings in the last year, but I’ve never seen Stephanie before.”

“Meaning she reports in to a different cell,” Chuckie said. “She believed you were on her side?”

“In addition to helping her escape, he helped the sandshifter capture us, and I’m sure we were being watched, so yes.” The men with me started grumbling. I put my hand up. “He also blew up the combine that got rid of said sandshifter, Animal Man, and whoever their driver was,
and
got me out of it before it blew. So, I again am willing to think that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

“I didn’t feel him,” Jeff said.

Siler shrugged. “I was given another emotional blocker. Feel free to take it from me for study. I understand you haven’t made much progress due to the explosive fail-safes on these.”

Jeff grumbled, but Siler taking another blocker made sense. Sandy had said this was one of my strengths, that I trusted people others thought I shouldn’t. Like Siler. And Mahin. And Serene.

Which begged a question. “Nightcrawler, do you think any of your half-sibs could be turned to the side of right? I mean, Serene and Mahin are with us. Maybe if we’d found Ronaldo early he’d have been on our side, too.”

Siler shook his head. “You all really don’t understand what you’re up against, do you?”

“What do you mean?”

He sighed. “Look, one thing at a time. Are you going to destroy this area in your attempt to capture me, or are you not?”

“Oh, gotcha. You need your excuse, too. Are we getting to capture you so that you can impress everyone and escape again?”

“I’d appreciate it,” Siler said with a grin, “but it’s up to you.”

“Is there any intel we can get out of the radio room?” Chuckie asked. “Before we let Kitty burn it up, I mean.”

“Tim and I already checked while you were all chatting,” Christopher said. “More thoroughly than I checked the weapons storage,” he added, shooting Patented Glare #5 at everyone. In the dying sunlight it was quite impressive.

“We’ve got some things, but it’s pretty clean.” Tim shrugged. “It’s not their base, just where they’ve been jamming us, eavesdropping on us, and the like.” He sighed. “Jeff, Siler’s right—we screwed up.”

“No,” Jeff said calmly. “We didn’t. We didn’t check an area none of us ever used for anything related to our jobs or our community. Mistakes happen. To all of us. Christopher and I wouldn’t have checked this if we were still the Heads of Field and Imageering, and God alone knows why Kitty checked today.”

“I was looking for a weapon and figured that Home Base wasn’t going to be a wise place for me to go.” This was true enough, really. “You and I had been here a couple times, so I knew about it. If we hadn’t been attacked like we were, I’d have never come up here, or even thought about it.”

“We can spend the time recriminating and absolving ourselves later,” Reader said. “Right now, I’d like to capture the king here and burn this sucker down. You’ve been all dressed up with nothing to burn, so go to town, girlfriend.”

“Goody! Bruno, my bird, you around?”

Sure enough, my Faithful Guardian was here, thrilled to still be alive and ready for action.

“Please clear out any animals in the vicinity, would you? Kitty doesn’t want to hurt anything that isn’t involved in all the nasty conspiracies.”

Bruno squawked, we were joined by the other male Peregrines, then they all flew off. Heard some cawing and such, then Bruno returned to share that the task was accomplished and the few animals foolhardy enough to be hanging around here were relocated to somewhere a tad safer.

Buchanan showed me how to work the flamethrower, and I practiced on the satellites while the A-C men destroyed all the equipment in the radio room and the human men searched the dune buggy to verify it had nothing bad on it including bugs, took possession of all the weapons and other items in the storage shed, and transferred them into said vehicle for easy transport.

“Ready, baby,” Jeff said, after I’d lit up the last satellite. “Should I worry about how much you’re enjoying setting things on fire?”

“Nope.” I flamed the storage room, then headed for the bunker. “Only worry if I ask to do it more than once an Operation.”

“Oh, that makes me feel so much better.”

“Whatever.” Among the things that were in our possession was a small propane tank. Took it from Tim and tossed it into the bunker. “Whoever’s driving the dune buggy, take Mister White with you so he can kick butt if necessary and get going. Everyone else, I think we should all be ready to run. Really, really fast. And I’m specifically talking to Christopher on the fast part.”

“Give us a minute or two to get out of range,” Reader said, as he got into the driver’s seat and turned on the dune buggy. Happily, it didn’t explode. White got in and they took off.

Everyone left hooked up with Christopher and Jeff took hold of me. “Am I going to hate this?” he asked me.

“Probably. Or it may make you feel all vindicated and happy. Or maybe that’s just me. Malcolm, if you’d please do the honors and help out.” I flamed the bunker, paying special attention to the propane tank. After a few seconds, Buchanan shot the tank.

The explosion was impressive. And since Jeff had grabbed me around my waist and we moved so fast that he didn’t bother to flip me around as we hightailed it out of there, I got to watch it the entire way down the side of the mountain.

It didn’t make up for being stuck in creepy quicksand and all the other crap that had gone on today, but it sure felt like a nice start.