Camp Alien (45 page)

A
BSOLUTELY NOTHING
happened, and Joe motioned for the rest of us to come inside.

We entered into a dark area, but that was because we were behind heavy curtains. Had a feeling that whoever had designed this place had helped Stephanie out with her lab as well.

Rejoiced that we were finally using the night vision part of our goggles, but it was underwhelming since I wasn't deeply into curtains.

Joe waited until we were all in, with Adriana still holding the door open just in case, then he slowly drew back a tiny bit of the curtain. He looked back at me and jerked his head. Went forward.

“Need you to take a look and tell me what you think,” he said softly.

Nodded and took that look.

It was a brightly lit space, large as far as I could tell and the goggles shared. It was also clearly a factory. There were assembly lines and similar, but it was sparkling clean, like an Intel commercial—I expected that anyone we would see in here would be dressed in the white clean room suits, complete with hoods.

Only there was no one that I could see.

The goggles were having issues, though. They were no longer telling me anything. Had no idea what that meant, but figured it meant something bad.

Went back to Christopher. “I see no one. Need you to do the Flash reconnaissance, with me, so we can see what's
going on. Be careful—the goggles aren't working past the curtain as near as I can tell.”

“Glad I'm not wearing them, then.” He grabbed my hand and took off.

On the plus side, we were going fast enough that even an A-C couldn't see us. Of course, on the negative side, the moment we stopped I was going to be retching unless I got lucky. Tito's Hyperspeed Dramamine didn't work for anyone in terms of Christopher's Flash Speed. So in addition to looking at what was going on and who might be where, I was also looking for my Vomit Target.

I was spoilt for choice.

The space was as large as I'd first thought, all bright white walls, floors, and ceiling, with industrial lighting and glass anywhere white walls were not. The place screamed Clean Room, and it was definitely a factory where delicate things were being created. Delicate, feminine things that were still going to pack quite the punch.

There were what I sincerely hoped were synthetic limbs all over the place, each in their own section along a winding assembly line. The parts were all feminine, at least based on what I saw at this blurry level. Giving me hope for synthetic, the parts looked more plastic than person.

What there weren't were any whole people, synthetic or organic.

We did a full circuit of the room, then Christopher started to really examine it. Decided not to complain, because as long as we were moving I wasn't barfing.

“Christopher, I'd like to point out that we're clearly in the Fem-Bot Factory.” Said this softly just in case.

He grunted. “Yeah, good call. I don't know how you do it.”

“I'm able to think like the crazed evil geniuses. It's such a thrilling gift, believe me. Speaking of which, I see no one here.”

“I'm going to slow to regular hyperspeed because I don't, either.”

At this speed I was still able to hold off the barfing, so that was good. In addition to the winding conveyer belt assembly line and the baskets and bins of body parts hanging or sitting at stations, depending, we were able to spot what was labeled the Art Room, which, based on a quick inspection, was where the bodies were spray-painted to look
lifelike. It was a large room and it resembled a car body and paint shop, presumably for similar reasons.

There were offices as well, lining the far walls. All their walls were made of glass, and I was certain whoever had created this place had also had the contract for Stephanie's Fixer-Upper at Forest Haven.

There were a bank of what looked like gigantic closets or similar, also all white, near to the offices that looked the most important, if I based importance on the size and sleekness of the desks and the size and apparent comfort of the executive chairs behind them, which I did. The closets or whatever they were were about eight feet tall, came out about ten feet from the wall, and were at least thirty feet wide. But those thirty feet were broken up into ten three-foot sections, at least based on the lines that seemed to indicate doors.

We headed back to the others, me grabbing a handy wastebasket along the way, and, while I barfed into that, Christopher shared our findings with the others.

Barfing done, I straightened up and shared my thoughts. “We need to search this place as fast as we can, meaning the A-Cs are going to have to do most of the detailed searching. There are a lot of offices in there—we're looking for anything that shows who's involved and what's actually going on. Anything suspicious, as well. If you're not sure, run it by me or Camilla. Christopher can show you where to start.”

“What do you want the humans, princesses, and semi-androids to be doing?” Joe asked, as the seven A-Cs headed off.

“We're going to do a general search, just in case, and examine what looked like closets near the executive offices.”

“You don't want us doing the hyperspeed search?” Rahmi asked.

“Nope. I want you two with us in case there's something bad hidden somewhere in here. Link up, it's a long way from here.” So saying, I took Joe's hand, the others linked up as requested, and we headed off toward the giant closets.

I was revved and angry and not creeped out in here, so the skills were working just fine, meaning I was able to go at the slow version of hyperspeed, mostly so the others could see what Christopher and I had seen already. Still, it didn't
take us long to find the closets. Had to say this for these giant white rooms—they were hard for me to get lost in.

“Any guess for how we open these?” Randy asked once we arrived at our destination. “I don't see any door handles or locks or anything.”

“It's definitely a room or rooms,” Adriana said. “But the goggles are telling me nothing.”

“Yeah, I care a lot more about what's behind Door Number Three here than I do about how thick the concrete around the stairs was.”

Rhee cautiously touched part of the closet. Nothing happened, so she pushed against it.

And it swung inward, just a bit. Nothing happened, other than the door swinging back quickly. So she pushed it again, harder, and it opened fully.

“Come in,” a man's voice snarled. A man's voice I recognized. “Don't just stand there gloating.”

“Malcolm?”

Went to the doorway and looked in, using my body to keep the door opened. This wasn't a closet—it was a cell. An all-white, brightly lit, but ultimately rather tiny cell. And the door was definitely trying to close itself automatically. If I hadn't been enhanced I'd have probably been pushed back.

Buchanan was sitting on a bench that was part of the back wall. He looked shocked. And like he'd been in a fight, but that wasn't a surprise. Really didn't figure the people we were coming to rescue had been taken without a struggle of some kind. He also wasn't alone. There was what looked like a bright, white Roomba in there with him.

“Missus Executive Chief?”

“In Drax Industrial's finest in body armor and weaponry.”

“Don't stand there, get the hell out of here!” Buchanan wasn't getting up. In fact, I wasn't sure if he could.

“Um, we're here to rescue you. I mean, if that's okay and all.” I took a step in.

“Don't come inside!”

“Why not? Will the walls explode or something?”

“No, the doors only open in and they're impossible to open from the inside. Believe me, I've tried. But that thing,” he pointed to the Roomba, “will shoot you if you come any closer.”

“What will it do to you?”

“It's why I look like I've just had a vacation. Prisoners get electric jolts of increasing intensity if they don't behave. These rooms are also soundproofed and they have limited air. I had no idea you were here.”

“We were stealthy.”

“Sure you were.”

“Huh. I'm choosing to ignore that.” Considered my options. “What happens if I shoot the Roomba of Evil there?”

“No idea.”

“Rhee, want you ready. Rahmi keep the door open. Rhee, when I fire, you go grab Malcolm and get him out, using your fastest version of hyperspeed.”

The princesses nodded. Rahmi locked her arm against the door. “It won't move, I promise.”

Nodded, then took another step in so that Rhee would have some room to get past me—a three-foot-wide space didn't leave a lot of room for maneuverability. As I did, the Roomba of Evil spun toward me. Didn't hesitate. Shot it, and jumped back as Rhee ran inside.

Drax made good guns and I only needed one shot. The Evil Roomba exploded as Rhee picked Buchanan up, spun, and ran out of the room. Pulled Rahmi away as soon as those two were free and got us both to the side. Some debris did come flying out before the door closed itself, but Joe blocked it from hitting anyone else. He wasn't even knocked down.

“Body armor works great,” he said. “That explosion packs a punch, though, so we need to be careful.”

Rhee nodded. “I am uninjured, but I don't know if Mister Buchanan was hit.”

“I was, but not badly.”

“Same thing all over again. Adriana and Camilla, get Malcolm out of range and patched up somehow—it's a factory but there must be med kits somewhere. And be sure the others know we've found at least some of our missing people. Randy, want you ready in case things go badly here and to handle rescued captives transport. Otherwise, princesses, Joe, let's do it again.”

Rahmi opened the next door. Looked inside to see Falk. He looked as bad as Buchanan had. “Burton Falk, nice to see you. Sit tight, we're here to rescue you.”

“Missus Martini?”

“Getting tired of those I'm here to rescue sounding shocked about it, and you're only our second of this particular foray. Everyone else I rescued after I'd been kidnapped was hella grateful.”

“Get me out of here without getting yourself hurt and I'll fall onto that side of things.”

“Will do. Team, let's rock and roll.” Stepped inside so I had a clear shot at this Roomba of Evil, took it, and we all did what we'd just done before. Rhee had Falk out and Joe blocked the rest of us from being hurt. Randy carried Falk off to find where Buchanan and the others were, even though Falk insisted he wasn't hurt.

We waited for Randy to return, which was pretty quickly. “I think I can go almost as fast as an A-C now,” he said. “Joe, you probably can, too. Want to switch jobs and test it?” Joe nodded so they traded places while Rahmi opened the next door.

Kyle was in here. “He's the biggest guy, most likely,” I said to Rhee. “Will you have any issues?”

She snorted. “We practice carrying two of our people, one over each shoulder, as battle drills. Kyle will not be an issue.”

“Kitty, be careful,” Kyle said. “That thing is evil.”

“The Roomba of Evil, I know. However, it's toast against Drax Industrial's laser blaster.” Hey, I'd taken the gun with the coolest sounding name, so sue me.

Our extraction process worked smoothly again, though Kyle was hit with some debris. Joe picked him up. “And we're definitely as strong as an A-C now, because there's no way I could have hefted Kyle before.”

“Do I want to know what happened to you?” Kyle asked, sounding worried. Rightly.

“Tell you later.” Joe ran off while Randy brushed himself off.

“Joe's right, the body armor's top-notch.”

“Good to hear, Randy. Let's get the next captive out, shall we?”

This prisoner was Len. “Kitty! I knew you'd find us!”

“Len is my favorite, I'm just sayin'.” Joe returned and nodded to me. Gave him the nod right back. “Gang, let's lock and load.”

Once again, we did our thing and once again it went smoothly. Decided not to question this. If we had a rescue that was actually going smoothly for once, I, for one, was not going to complain about it. Besides, it was only going smoothly because we'd found the helicarrier and Jerry had had the brains to tell me to weapon up.

Len was lighter than Kyle and Rhee was faster therefore, so he wasn't hit with shrapnel. However, Joe took him to the others anyway.

“This is going remarkably well,” Rahmi said.

“I cannot express how I seriously hope you haven't just jinxed us.” We opened the door. “Dammit. Girls, this is why we never mention when things are good. Because it always explodes in our faces.”

Just like the Roomba of Evil had on the prisoner in this cell.

O
N THE PLUS SIDE,
such as it was, the Roomba of Evil had literally blown up, so we didn't have to deal with it. We just had to deal with a body with its head blown off.

Fortunately, I'd already barfed my guts out a little earlier, so I could keep myself to just a little gagging. The flyboys and the princesses were all battle trained, so they handled it stoically.

The bright white room was splattered with blood and gray matter. Actively chose not to look at it. Actively chose not to look at the headless body. Therefore, actively chose to look at my gun. It was far less upsetting.

Rhee retrieved the body. “Who is it?” she asked.

“I have no idea.” The guy was in a black Armani suit, or what was left of it. Every man who'd been captured wore the Armani Fatigues because the P.T.C.U. agents who worked closely with Centaurion dressed to blend in, so it could be anyone. It could be Siler—it was his body build. It was Manfred's body build, too. Tried not to freak out, because that wasn't allowed to the leader. “Take the body to wherever the others are. We'll get everyone out then determine who this is that way, if the others don't know.”

Joe helped Rhee—he took the shoulders because he was a gentleman—and they headed off.

“What happened?” Rahmi asked softly.

“I'd assume he was trying to get out or he was trying to disarm the Roomba of Evil and hit its self-destruct switch. It's clear they're loaded to explode because they're sending out far too much shrapnel for the single shots I'm hitting them with.”

Joe and Rhee returned, looking solemn. “Falk's going through the guy's pockets. Hopefully we'll know soon enough who we lost.”

“Okay, on to the next.” Tried not to sound grim. Failed.

The next one was also not good. We had another man down. On the positive side, he had his head. On the negative side, he didn't have his middle, and the room looked even more like a scene out of a slasher film than the last one had. He wasn't someone I knew, but he looked familiar. “I think he's one of Falk's team.” Meaning one of Mom's people.

Randy helped Rhee take the body away this time. Joe patted my shoulder. “Hang in there, Commander.”

“They died because they came to save me. And because no one else did, so no one got here in time to save them.” The rage hit, and it hit harder than ever before. “Speaking as the FLOTUS, I'm glad Jeff can't feel how angry I am because it could kill him. But, speaking as the Commander, this makes me never want to forgive him or the others.”

“No, that's not what you want,” Joe said gently. “Not really. I understand why you're so angry. I'm angry, too. This is war, though, Kitty, and I know you've been through this before. The higher-ups screwed up and our forces paid the price for it. It happens all the time. It's not good and it's not right, necessarily, but it is part of how things go. You focus on who you can and did save, and try to honor who you lost.”

“What else?”

“That's it. Other than making your enemies pay for their part in it. Which you do all the time. But Jeff and the others aren't our enemies, and I know you know that, no matter how upset with them you are.”

Took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I've never been this mad at Jeff or the others before, but you're right. I don't really want to never speak to them again or anything. I want to yell at them a lot, though. I just never want anything like this to happen to anyone on my team.”

“I know you get told this all the time, but that's both your strength and your weakness. And as someone who's willingly followed you since pretty much you started, I follow you because you care and you've never not cared. But I don't want you turning to hate. I don't want you to become
like the people we despise. I want you to be angry because someone on our side or an innocent was hurt. But I don't want you to want to hurt the people who love you, even if they really screwed the pooch on this one.”

Managed a laugh. “They really did. And I really wonder why.”

“Camilla said fear. I'm sure she's right. I have to think that whatever they were told, it terrified not just Jeff, but Chuck, James, and Tim, too. So that has to be pretty bad, because those guys don't terrify easily.” Randy and Rhee returned. “So, let's keep on saving who we can, Commander, and we'll deal with the fallout once we have all of our people back, whether it's safely or to bury them with honor.”

Didn't care, hugged Joe, body armor and weapons and all. “Thanks. I really needed that little talk.” Heaved a sigh. “Let's get to the next one, folks.”

“There are only ten of these,” Rhee said as we went to the next door.

“Right, and we've done six of them, so only four more to go.”

“And only one to a cell.”

“Thank goodness—it's barely wide enough for one.”

“Yes, but we had thirteen missing, if I counted correctly.”

Did the math fast in my head. “You did count correctly. So, either we find people doubled up, or when we're done here we're not actually done. Always the way. Let's get these last four out, then, as fast as we can do it.”

The only change was that Rhee and Rahmi switched, so Rhee had the door and Rahmi had the excitement, so to speak. The next cell didn't have a dead body in it, for which I was hugely thankful. It had Manfred, who looked even worse than Buchanan had. Figured he'd tried to game the Roomba of Evil with hyperspeed and it hadn't worked. At least he was alive, for which I was even more hugely thankful.

We did what was now actually feeling a little like a routine maneuver and got him out without issue, with Randy prepped to take the shrapnel hits.

Joe took Manfred off to the others, and Christopher came back with him. “We've found things I think you're going to be interested in. Need my help here?”

“I'd say yes but if Rhee is right, and so far there's no reason to think that she isn't, we're still going to be missing
people when we're done. Need you to search around here for anything that could be a door or something we've missed. Take your dad with you—he's got the most exposure to my methods, and I can guarantee that you both need to be thinking like me and trying to spot what a sneaky person would have created to hide the rest of our team.”

“Will do.” Christopher zipped off and we got into position again.

This one was another tragic discovery. Another agent, another head blown off. Joe was right—I needed to focus my anger on the people who'd done this, not on Jeff and the others. Which I sincerely planned to, once we could figure out who they were.

Joe and Rahmi took this corpse, who again might or might not have been Siler, to the others. “It'll be okay, Kitty,” Randy said. “We'll make them pay.”

“What if one of these guys is Nightcrawler? Then Lizzie's out another parent. Of course, whoever's dead probably had family who are now going to get the lame letter that doesn't bring your loved one back.”

Randy nodded. “Just like Bill's parents did.” He hugged me. “And just like way back then, that you care about people you may not even know and are angered by their death and mourn their loss means you're still the person I'll follow to Hell and back.”

“Thanks.” Hugged him back as Joe and Rahmi returned. “Already went into Hell to get you guys. So, technically, does that make this place Purgatory?”

“No,” Joe said. “It's too clean and sterile to be either Purgatory or Hell.”

“We say that Hell is an absence of anything,” Rahmi shared. “There is nothing to do, and you will never interact with anyone ever again.”

We all agreed that sounded horrible. As we went to the ninth cell, considered that this was the fate that awaited Algar should he ever be caught by the Black Hole People's Police Force. Didn't feel he deserved it, but then again, that was because he was on my side. Something to remember—the bad guys rarely saw themselves as evil. They saw themselves as in the right and being expedient.

This cell had our first female—Colette was inside. “God am I glad to see you.”

She was sitting on the bench and looked far less beaten up than the men. “I'm glad to see you, too. Don't enter the room—”

“We know about the Roomba of Evil.”

“I have more than that.” She pointed up, so Rahmi, Rhee, and I all looked.

Colette did indeed have more going on. There was what looked like strong netting hovering at the ceiling. And it was hovering, as in staying up under its own power.

“Wow. What is that?”

“It's a stun net. If I try to get away or try to hurt myself, it'll come down and wrap around me, stunning me into unconsciousness.”

“And you know this how?”

“Our captors explained it to me. And, sadly, I saw it work. Evalyne and Phoebe didn't believe them.”

“Are they still alive?”

“As far as I know, but I have no idea if anyone other than me is alive.”

“Many are.”

“But not all.” She looked ready to cry and to kill something, both. I could relate.

“No, not all. Hang on while we confer on how to handle this.”

“I'm faster than the net, but there's nowhere to go,” Colette shared. “And the, ah, Roomba of Evil is set to block me and slow me down.”

Rahmi and I looked at each other. “I'm willing to risk it,” she said.

“I don't know.” Rhee looked into the room. “The issue isn't beating it out of the room. The issue is getting the door closed before the net can escape.”

“Good point.” Had a thought. “Did anyone happen to bring a flamethrower?”

Randy pulled a small tube out of his back pocket. “I did. At least, that's what I think it is.”

The tube was marked as Personal Flamethrower. “Only one way to find out.” Pointed it away from everyone and anything and hit the red button with my thumb. A long flame shot out. “Okey dokey, Randy, great call. Rahmi, I'm going to shoot the Roomba of Evil and then flame the net. Get ready, because this one's going to be a lot harder.”

We were in position. I shot the Roomba of Evil, no issues. Rahmi ran in and grabbed Colette while I shot the flamethrower at the net.

Had to keep the button down to keep the flames going. Fire was good because it was definitely hurting the net and it also melted the shrapnel, though some of it still made it out and hit Randy and me, too, this time since I hadn't jumped back and out of the way. The guys were right—the body armor was great. Still not as good as what Alfred in Bizarro World made, but pretty damned awesome otherwise.

Fire wasn't as good, however, because even flaming the net could fly and follow its target. Which it did, just managing to slip past the closing door.

Was ready to scream and start running when someone came up behind us and blasted the net with a fire extinguisher. The net crumbled.

“Wow. Nicely done.” Turned to see Adriana grinning at me. “Got tired of playing Florence Nightingale?”

She shrugged. “Someone saw you testing your flamethrower. I just went to the logical assumption.”

“Great. Let's open our last cell and see what we've got.”

Opened the cell and felt my jaw drop. Wasn't sure who was more shocked—me or the prisoner.