Alien Invasion 04 Annihilation (9 page)

“Raj is an idiot, but he’s not stupid enough to let that happen,” Christopher said.
 

Raj’s fists clenched on the tablet. There was a tiny cracking sound, and he forced his hands to unclench.

“Besides, I doubt it. I’m not a tech guy, but from what Jons says, there’s a steep slope the farther you go from the mansion. There’s some power, some scant communication inside the walls. But nothing outside. It’s a dead zone out there. There was something happening out in the desert. Something Terrence knew about, something to do with Cameron’s crew. It just got cut off. Like there’s nothing there.”
 

Lila’s voice inched upward. “Cut off?”
 

“Just the communication.”
 

“Have you heard anything about Trevor?”
 

“Li. I told you, I haven’t heard anything. I’m sure he’s okay.”
 

Lila relaxed. “Jons then.”
 

“What about him?”
 

“Could he get a message out?”
 

“Not without smoke signals. What’s going on?”
 

Lila exhaled then chewed her lip.
 

“Lila,
what?”
 

“Something Clara said after I brushed her off enough about … about Dad. I think they’re coming back.”
 

“Who?”
 

“Cameron. Piper. That soldier guy.”
 

“Andreus?”
 

“Maybe.”
 

“Back where?” He sort of flinched, and Raj, watching, set the tablet down to keep from dropping it. “Not here. Not to Heaven’s Veil.”
 

“I think so.”
 

“Why? They barely escaped last time.”
 

“Maybe they want to rescue us.”
 

Christopher laughed. When Lila didn’t join him, he composed himself and said, “Lila.”
 

“What?”
 

“Why would they do that? We’re safe here, and — ”

She laughed. Raj could almost hear his name in that cynical bark, reading a thousand words in its single syllable.
Poor little Lila, kept captive by her strong, providing husband while she sucks the subordinate’s dick. Boo-fucking-hoo
.
   

“Safe
enough
,” Christopher amended. “They’re the wanted ones, by both humans and Astrals, I think. We’re in a big house with lots of protection.”
 

Protection that might turn on you soon.

“Besides, there’s no way to get in here.”
 

“Cameron got in,” Lila said.
 

“They
let
him in. They wanted the virus.”
 

“You fooled them then. We need to fool them again.”
 

“Lila, they won’t come back. This is the lion’s den. We can’t know what they’re doing because Terrence had the line outside, and now both he and the line are out of service. I’ll keep checking in with him when I can, and maybe he’ll open something back up and let me know how to use it. But I wouldn’t count on it. Not to be dramatic, but this is kind of a
save the world
situation. Whether they have a chance or not, they’ll definitely try. And coming here instead of doing what they need to do, even for you and Clara and Heather, when you’re fine where you are? That’d be stupid.”

Lila shook her head. She looked off frame — toward Clara, Raj assumed. The girl must have gone into the other room when they’d been talking because they wouldn’t be discussing her otherwise. Not that Clara, who had a way of knowing everything, would ever stay in the dark.

“She said they were coming. ‘Grandma Piper, Mr. Cameron, and their three friends.’” Again Lila sighed, her worried eyes on the tablet’s screen. “She didn’t mention Trevor.”
 

“Did you ask?”
 

“I was afraid to.”
 

“And you believe her?”
 

Lila gave him a look.
“Chris.
When has she ever been wrong?”
 

“Then Trevor is in the group that’s not doing something dumb. The group that’s doing what they all should be doing.”
 

“We need to send them a message, let them know the network is out here, too. Maybe they can sneak in. Past the usual security systems. Your monitors must be going too, right?”
 

Christopher nodded.
 

“Tell them how to find their way in. Or meet them at the gate, if they’re here for us. They need to come around. The cameras by the fences at the rear, near the church? They’ll be out. But not the guards in front.”
 

Raj had a chance to level up. To be a next-level hero, by bringing some intruders to justice.
 

“We can’t send a message. There’s just no way.” Christopher seemed to think. “But I can talk to Jons. If you really think they’re coming, maybe he’ll help make them a hole.”
 

Lila seemed uncertain. “He’s the chief of police.”
 

Christopher gave a little smile. “And he’s also one testy, irritated fucker. Let me feel him out. Jons doesn’t always play well with others.”
 

“And Trevor?” Lila asked, her eyes getting freshly wet. “You really think he’s okay?”
 

Christopher pulled her into a hug. “I’m sure,” he said.
 

Raj made notes on a pad.
 

Maybe Trevor was safe.
 

But whoever had plans to sneak up on Heaven’s Veil? They weren’t safe at all.

CHAPTER 15

Nathan found Charlie Cook’s long and lanky form around the RV’s side while the others were loading up. They were about to do something that felt — even in Nathan’s mind, now — necessary. He wasn’t convinced that Benjamin Bannister’s doomsday weapon was hidden in plain sight beneath the Apex, but he hated the thought of running or hiding. He’d always been in charge, and when someone fucked him, he fucked them back harder. The Andreus Republic, which didn’t have the same importance to the Astrals as the Moab facility, had probably been obliterated. Nathan didn’t like the idea of lying down and taking it. Heading to Vail — to die in a blaze of glory, perhaps — felt like a fitting response from a warlord scorned.
 

Charlie was standing under the far side awning, alone. He was still staring at the mothership. Now that the light had shifted, Nathan could see what the others had pointed out: the thin, perfectly straight line of light stretched, like a tether, between the ship’s belly and the stone arch.
 

“We’ve got a problem, Charlie,” Nathan said.
 

Charlie turned. Despite the world’s end, the man still looked like he belonged in an office, poring over actuarial tables. He had his glasses, his bug eyes, his short-sleeve, business-casual shirt, and his mismatched brown tie. His hair was a mess but managed to be unstylish at the same time — cut wrong in a new world where there was no such thing as
cut right
.
 

Cook didn’t reply other than to stare. So Nathan continued.
 

“I think this is the Salt Lake mothership. There’s really no way to be positive, but I’d bet my life that it’s not the one from Heaven’s Veil — the one that was here before.”
 

“And?” Charlie asked.
 

Nathan pointed. “I see an animal at a watering hole. It’s fueling up. For what?”
 

“We assume they’re powered with fusion reactors. They probably scoop hydrogen from the atmosphere.”
 

“I’m not talking about what makes them fly.”
 

Charlie looked for a second like he might argue because trying to seem superior during a dispute is what he did. “I’m not either,” he finally said.
 

“How many of these money pit things are there around the world, do you think?”
 

“There’s no way to be sure. We know of eleven. This one, the one under Dempsey’s old place in Vail, pits at the other eight capitals, and the original on Oak Island. When the Internet was up, some of the people Benjamin talked to claimed they had satellite feeds capable of seeing blooms like that one there.” He nodded toward the ship. “But we’ve only ever seen them suckling power from this one.”
 

“We saw the same,” Nathan said. “I had this theory for a while that the motherships would all visit something like that to charge up, like rubbing your feet across a rug to make static electricity. There’s not a lot to do out there, and our access, thanks to our partnership, was mostly unrestricted. So I believe what I saw. And it never happened. The motherships don’t seem to draw power from the pits below them. They’re just docked. Oak Island hasn’t, as far as I’ve seen, even been visited. It’s just this one. This one ranch, where all sorts of weird shit has happened over the years, mecca to paranormal investigators.”
 

“What’s your point?”
 

“Why is this ship here now? Why is it charging up?” He nodded toward the ship’s silver belly. “This is exactly what we were watching for.”
 

“It’s one ship.”
 

“Why now?”
 

“I don’t know.”
 

Andreus moved around Charlie then met his eye.
 

“You’re sure watching it a lot for someone who doesn’t think it’s any big deal.”
 

Charlie turned, meeting Nathan’s eye.
 

“Do you know SETI?”
 

“The people who used to spend every day listening to space for alien radio.”
 

“Correct,” said Charlie. “After Black Monday, the air went out of a lot of the world’s governments. I’d guess they’re still out there, hiding, planning ways to rattle their sabers. But programs like NASA and SETI fell apart too. Except that they didn’t. Not really. Benjamin used to talk to a group who was working rogue on some of the SETI equipment — remotely, I’m sure.”
 

“And?”
 

“Before the Astrals censored the net, near the beginning, those people told us they were finding new signals. From the moon.”
 

“So now there really
are
little green men on the moon?”
 

“These people weren’t official SETI. They didn’t understand the data at first. Turns out, they were hearing an echo. Something not
from
the moon, but
bouncing off
the moon.”

“From where?” Nathan asked.
 

“Earth.”
 

Nathan’s tongue found the corner of his cheek. He’d come out here to tell Charlie about an unpleasant itch that he knew Cameron and Piper wouldn’t be able to hear, as keyed up and jumping at literal shadows as they were. Now there was this plan to head into the throat of Heaven’s Veil, which Nathan was okay with … though for very different reasons. He respected Cameron, but since the beginning they’d never truly seen eye to eye. Now his father’s loss had damaged the kid. Made his decisions stupid and in need of a guiding hand — with rational assistance like Charlie’s, if he could get it.
 

Nathan thought he’d come out here with a warning worth heeding: After two years of dormancy, their little Cottonwood stunt seemed to have prompted the Astrals into action. But as it turned out, Charlie held the trump card.
 

“The message obviously wasn’t something we could interpret, but it seemed too unchanging to act as more than a beacon,” Charlie continued. “That bugged me. Because if the Astral fleet was already here, what was the purpose of sending a signal?”
 

“You think they were calling home.”
 

Charlie shrugged. “The archaeological records say they’ve come, taught us, then destroyed humanity. Over and over. But what’s the point? My theory at the time — and the beacon fit right into this — stated it was research of some sort. And that they wouldn’t move on until their fieldwork for any given round was done.”
 

“You’re saying that Earth is an ant farm.”
 

“Maybe. And if so, they’d want to communicate their findings. They’d
need
to
call home
, if they didn’t want to wait until the planet was cleaned up before working on what they’d found. But it was only a beacon. A repeating signal. They’d only need to send a real signal after they had enough information.” Charlie’s eyebrows twitched. “Once they were done with us.”

Nathan looked back at the ship. Charlie’s theory fit in with his and Coffey’s discussion. Charlie was a scientist. Neither Nathan nor Jeanine had been before the Astrals turned them all into astronomers. But he knew how to fight, and how he’d proceed were he in the aliens’ shoes.
 

“When was this?” Nathan asked. “When you noticed the ‘beacon’?”