Halfkinds Volume 1: Contact (33 page)

With my thoughts and realizations
coming to fruition, I decided that it was time to run back and warn Commander
Trevor.  He had to know what Curtis told me.  Only problem was I didn’t have my
communicator on me, it must’ve been destroyed during the explosion.  The only
way I could inform him was if I left on foot.  I was injured, but I could still
run like the wind.  I darted in the direction of the Spades and Diamond Casino.

I didn’t have far to go.  After a
minute or two of running, I saw a familiar hovercar in the air approaching the
wrecked teleportation station.  It was Commander Trevor and Apollo.

They landed and were inspecting
what was left of the station.  I hear them talking and I barge into the
conversation.

“Lucky for you, he didn’t,” I
say.  I’m exhausted and aching, and it’s the only line I can think of at the
moment.

Both of them stand there astounded
by my appearance.  I don’t think they were expecting me to be alive.

“You found Erawan’s and Colbo’s
remains, I take it,” I say.

“Unfortunately we did,” Trevor
responds.

“So, how did you come out of this
alive?” Apollo asks me.  “From the looks of things, I thought no one survived.”

“Luck, I guess,” I respond.  “One
second I was running for my life, the next second I woke up conscious and
surprised.  When the bomb went off, there was a moment when I thought death was
certain.  It looks like someone, something, up there likes me.”

“I’m glad fate is on your side,”
Trevor says.  “It’s been a tough night, half of our team is dead.  First
Borton, now Erawan and Colbo, not sure if Apollo and I could’ve taken all of
them alone.”

“How many of them are left?” I
ask.

“By my count, six.  There’s Candy,
Ace, Alex, and Tiago Lawton, and the twins who got away.  But we’re plumb out
of leads.  The completion of this mission is in jeopardy, we don’t know where
they are at this point.”

“You didn’t hear my conversation
with Curtis Lawton?” I ask Trevor.  “I thought you were listening in.”

“No, you started breaking up
before he let off the bomb.  Why?” Trevor asks curiously.

“Because, he gave them up.  He
said Tiago Lawton and the others are hiding at the Li station.  They’re
planning to use it to get to San Francisco.  From there, the ultimate
destination is the Moon.”

“I see,” Trevor says.  “If they
get to the Moon, they could hunker down at one of the uncharted, unsettled
plots of land there.  They could live there for the rest of their lives, hell,
even build a society.  The Moon is still an undeveloped free space, they’d be
near untraceable if they wanted to.”

“Why did Curtis reveal his
brother’s location?” Apollo asks.

“I was thinking about that,” I
respond.  “When he died, he said something about being a pawn, that he was just
a part of Tiago Lawton’s schemes.  I suspect he had something to do with
Curtis’s death and your meeting with Oscar Lawton.”

“So you think Tiago is the master
planner behind all of tonight’s events?” Trevor asks.

“It seems so,” I say.  “I would
say Tiago Lawton is extremely dangerous.”

“You know what that means,” Apollo
says.

“Yes, we have to stop them at all
costs,” Trevor responds, clutching his pistol.  “Fulfilling our mission will be
the number one priority.  We must eliminate them.”

Their response intrigues me.  “You
seem to be acting different.  I thought all you wanted to do was capture them
and let the Alliance deal with them.  I thought you had the whole we ‘come in
peace’ mentality.”

Trevor looks at me.  “After our
last encounter, I’ve changed my mind.  Apollo and I have discussed things. 
We’ve been underestimating them.  They are dangerous.  They’re against the wall
and all they can do is fight back.  We either kill them, or be killed by them. 
We can’t take them lightly anymore.”

“Seems like a drastic change in
strategy after one incident.  Those twins must have really rattled you two,
huh?  You know, you kind of sound like Borton.”

“We’re different,” Apollo says,
“And we won’t be killed like Borton.  He wanted to massacre them.  His
overconfidence got him murdered.  We respect our enemy and that is why we have
to take every precaution necessary.”

I smirk off his comments.  “Sure,
whatever you say, dog.  Tomato, tomotto.  It sounds the same to me.”

I can tell he’s slightly annoyed.

“And what about you?” he says. 
“All of sudden it looks like you’re getting soft on us.  Still think this is a
walk in the park, even after Curtis almost blew you to smithereens?”

“I never thought things were going
to be a walk in the park!” I snap back.  “Wasn’t I the one who told you fools
not to underestimate them?  Wasn’t I the one who warned you of their traps? 
Well, guess who was right.”

He wants to go at it with me, but
Trevor looks different.  He kneels with one knee and wipes the grime from his
face.

“You’re right, Fenrir, you did
warn us,” he says.  “And I’m sorry that I didn’t listen to you.  I didn’t
expect much from our enemy.  If I had given them the credit you gave them, then
perhaps three of our team members would still be alive.  I bear this
responsibility and I’m not going to fail at it again.”

He takes a quick glance at Colbo’s
body and continues.

“Listen, I wanted to come in
peace, I truly did,” he says.  “I wanted to extend my hand and let these
halfkinds know that we won’t be their executioners.  The last thing I wanted
was for anyone to get hurt.  But things haven’t turned out the way I expected,
and because of this desire, this weakness, Erawan and Colbo are dead.  Perhaps
what we’re doing isn’t ethical.  I think the same thing, but the halfkind
that’s left, Tiago, we’ve seen what he’s capable of.  He’s turned on his family
members, he’s sent some to their graves.  If he’s willing to do all this, what
other lengths could he possibly go to in order to achieve his goals?  If we
don’t stop him now, we may be letting a monster loose on the world.  It’s true
that we may not know our enemy that well, maybe his motives are virtuous, but I’m
not going to take that risk.”

Commander Trevor makes some valid
points.  Whoever we’re dealing with, this Tiago Lawton, he’s done things so
ruthless and cruel it makes me wonder what else he’ll do next.  He could go
away forever, or he could come back with a vengeance.  Against us, against the High
Dog Council, against my Brotherhood.  Perhaps coming at him armed and prepared
is the only way to go if we want to prevent any of this.

“What we do going forward, what we
do at the Li teleportation station, it won’t be easy,” Trevor says, “but based
on what we’ve seen today, it will be necessary.  Decisions like these are hard
to make, but I finally feel like it’s the right one.  I’m done making the wrong
choices.  My order is to take on Tiago Lawton with full force and I need all
the team members I can get.  We three are the only ones left and I intend to
finish things that way.  Are you in?”

When I started this quest, I
wanted to do what the Brotherhood of Wolves asked me.  As the night became
darker and the task became grimmer, I started to question my objective.  Even
now, even after they have nearly killed me, I wonder if hunting these halfkinds
is the right thing to do.

But then I think about Tiago
Lawton, the architect of all this deceit and madness, and I feel compelled to
join Commander Trevor and his dog.

“Okay,” I say, “I’m in.”

“Thank you, Fenrir,” he says.

“So, what is the plan?” Apollo
asks.

“They’re at the Li station,
right?” Trevor asks me.

“Yes,” I respond.

“Apollo, find directions and an ETA,
stat,” he says.

The dog pulls out the graphical
interface hooked up his helmet and does a quick search.  “It’s about 11.7 miles
away from here.  ETA by hovercar should take ten minutes, tops.”

“Good,” he says.  “Fenrir, what
kind of defenses do you think they’ll have?  You’ve seen them in action
tonight.”

“Most likely they’ll have mines of
some sort, possibly like the garden mines that we encountered.”

“I’m not sure about that,” Apollo
says.  “Such puny arms might be good for some decoy operation, but if this is
their ticket out, I think it’ll be heavily fortified.”

“I agree,” Commander Trevor says,
“when we arrive, I want both of you equipped with scent boosters to scout the
area.  I want to know what’s in there before we make our attack.  I know wolves
don’t like relying on that tech, but I don’t want to take any chances.  Equip
your scent booster, got it, Fenrir?”

“Fine,” I say begrudgingly.

“Once we’re in, keep your
communicators on at all times,” Trevor says.  “I’ll give you commands from
there.”

“I lost mine,” I say.

Commander Trevor takes a
communicator out from his belt and hands it to me.  I’m surprised because it’s
a wolf model.

“Always be prepared,” he says.

“Thanks,” I say.  I think this is
the first time I’ve thanked him for anything all night.  Who was I turning
into?

“Stay focused and be prepared to
eliminate anything onsite,” Trevor says.  “I don’t want a moment of
hesitation.  As we’ve learned tonight, that hesitation could get you killed and
no one else is dying under my command.”

“Understood,” Apollo says.  Like a
stereotype, he’s loyal as ever to the human, it kind of makes me sick.

“Fenrir,” Trevor says to me, “are
you ready?”

I think about the moral questions
swirling in my head, about what’s right and what’s wrong.  I think about Curtis
Lawton’s last words.  And then I think about our opponent, Tiago Lawton.  He’s
not above sacrificing his own brothers and sisters.  The most dangerous types
of people are the ones who are willing to do whatever it takes.  In the end,
they think their actions are justified.

But we’re doing the same thing.

“Yes, I’m in.  Let’s go,” I say
reluctantly.

November 17, 3040
4:04 AM

We’ve made it back home, back to 1523 Chakming Drive, back to where it all started.  Dawn is approaching, rays of sunlight
stretch into the landscape.  The journey from the Li station to home was far,
so we had to scurry as fast as we could if we wanted to stay under the shade of
nightfall.  I didn’t think the walk would take so long and I was afraid that we
would get lost since we were journeying through unfamiliar territory. 
Fortunately, things looked familiar enough from all the moving we had done this
past week.

When we arrive, it’s like I barely
recognize the place.  Nothing has changed.  The walls are still dented, the
front is unkempt.  Pieces of garbage float by from the gusty Nevada winds.  The
windows are barred.  It’s always been a little grimy, a little dingy, a little
bit rough.  I can’t say it’s ever been the most welcome looking place, but it
just doesn’t feel like home.  It was where I grew up in, but that’s now a
memory.

When I step on the front porch
this time, it feels different.  When we lived under this roof, it was a place
that I found comfort and joy.  I must’ve sat on this front porch several
times.  Mother let us hang out in the front and backyard since our house was so
isolated.  Each time, I felt like I belonged here.  Now, I feel unwanted, that
I’m a stranger in a strange land.  I can already sense how deserted my home is,
how empty the rooms are inside, without setting foot in it.  I look at my house
from the outside and I see a body without a soul.  I don’t feel happy coming
here, I feel wrong.  I never thought that a homecoming could be so unwelcoming.

I step inside and things hit
closer to home.  Ace said the United Species Alliance Science Division was here
earlier.  They must have inspected and cleared out our things, because the
house is empty.  Every precious memory, every item we couldn’t take with us,
they confiscated.  I knew that the USASD was thorough, but I didn’t think they
would be that detailed.  Only a week after leaving, the vacancy of my home is
quite astonishing.

No one is here when we arrive.  I
doubt they need workers showing up at 4:00 in the morning for inspection. 
Since they already swiped every piece of evidence they could get, I’m not sure
when, or if, they will make a return visit.  I don’t see any surveillance
equipment or patrol drones.  Actually, I don’t see anything at all.  For the
time being, it seems that we are safe.

I look at Isaac and wonder how he
feels about coming back to an empty home, but something else is on his mind. 
He stands here in rage, still angry over how we were cast aside so easily by
Tiago.

“That bastard, I hope you’re
right,” he mutters under his breath.

“About what?” I ask.

“Your premonition, about how you
said they’d all perish.  I hope Tiago doesn’t set one foot on the Moon, I hope
he dies trying.”

I’m a bit flabbergasted by the
callousness of his words.  I can see they are genuine.

“Isaac,” I say softly, “don’t say such
things.  You may be upset now, but still, he’s family.  You know he cares.”

Isaac sneers at my comment.  “He
has a funny way of showing it.”

He lets out a sigh.  He knows his
words are reactive, not thoughtful.

“I’m sorry, sis,” he says to me,
“you’re right.  He is family.  But what do we do now?  We have nowhere to go.”

“We could stay here,” I say
optimistically.

Isaac makes an uncertain face. 
“I’d like to do that, Iris, I really would.  But the house is only empty now. 
I can’t guarantee it’ll stay that way.  You know someone is going to come
back.  This visit is temporary.  It’s not safe here.  This place isn’t our home
anymore.”

Before we arrived, I was hopeful
there’d be something for us here, but my eyes cannot lie, my home is a ghost of
what it used to be.