Fallen + Marli & Lalo (Fallen Invasion, #3) (8 page)

Memories of the man from my dream flashed across my mind.  My insides tightened.

Please do not be that guy.

The crunching of the grass began again.  I brought quivering my hands up, preparing to fight.  I saw something in the bottom of my eyesight.  A part of the monster?  No, nothing more than a cat peeked around the divider.  When it saw me, it strolled across the grass, maintaining eye contact.  A few feet further away it started trotting.

I relaxed. 
A cat.  That’s all it was.
  I hoped.

“Hurry up,” I whispered to Lalo.

He glanced around the place then headed to meet me halfway.  To get to Lalo, I began stepping on the area full of rocks.  My ankle adjusted for the uneven surface until I landed on a rock that sent a sharp, piercing sensation to my foot.  My knee jerked up.  I examined the bottom of my shoe.  There was no puncture.  Phew.

“You alright?” Lalo asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

Lalo rushed over and bent down to check my foot.  Placing it aside, he picked up one of the rocks.  He twirled the rock in his hand then moved the top layer of rocks off to the side.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I glanced down, towering over him.

He picked up a couple of small, purple spotted glass rocks.  “Here is our clue.”  He put the rocks in his pocket.

The wind blew, sending more chills through me.  I took that as a message to get out of there.  “Let’s go,” I said.

“Okay,” he said.

I pulled out my car keys and surveyed the area for any upright, standing, living things as Lalo and I trotted back to my car.

Under the hold of my windshield wiper was a flyer, flickering in the wind.  I snatched it.

Out of all places.  They always find you don’t they?

Once we were inside the safety of my car, my fingers couldn’t move faster to lock the doors and turn the key.  I wanted to slam my foot on the pedal and peel out of there, but I escaped at a moderate pace.  I noticed I had maintained a death grip on the flyer, so I put it in the drink holder.

“Look and see if anyone is back there,” I said.  That cat could have been making the noise, but someone else could have been there too, excuse me,
something
else could have been there too.

Lalo twisted around in his seat.  “I can’t see anyone.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“What about feel?  Can you sense anyone, anything?”

“No.”

“Good.”

I didn’t relax until we were on the highway again, going back to the country.

“Let’s not ever do that again,” I said.

W
hen we reached my house, I couldn’t get out of the car.  I had to sit there for a while.  Lalo held my hand.

“It’s okay to be scared,” he said and massaged my shoulder.

“It’s just...” I said. “When we were there.  The sight of that tall man flashed across my sight.  I don’t know what is happening to me.”  I met Lalo’s eyes with mine.

“Part of the process is what it is,” Lalo said.  “Marli, you aren’t exclusive to me as far as connecting.  If this is more than a made up dream, you may be connecting with another Masqysava.  We Masqysava can be good and bad like people.  We aren’t all the same.  But I would think we all have the same purpose for being on Earth.  We couldn’t do what we wanted, back at home.  Everyone had to have permission.”

Lalo paused and shifted his eyes towards Kallen’s house.  “We had to have permission... but I don’t think I did.”  He closed his eyes.  “I remember running to my ship.  I hastily got in and left.  I don’t even remember setting the course.  The next thing I saw was you running, and I crashed.”

“Is your planet controlled by rulers or a family?” I asked.

“I don’t know.  But back to you.”  He reverted his eyes to me.  “If you are connecting with someone else, what you see either happened not too long ago or at current time.  You are safe as long as they don’t know you are there.  I need to teach you to be able to block others.  In case they try to find you.

“Earlier, at least ten years ago, Masqysava found that people like you, ‘connectors,’ existed.  They were so intrigued that they requested a whole group of Masqysava to be sent to Earth to find connectors.  Those Masqysava who left for that mission never returned.”

I perked up.  “That could be why you are here— to either find people like me or find the missing Masqysava!”

“No,” Lalo said.  “From what I can perceive the reason is darker, and it won’t be that simple.”

“So ‘Masqysava,’ is that term similar to people or humans?”

“Yes,” he said.  “We’re from a different planet, similar to Earth.  I lived there all my life and can’t even remember what it’s called.”

Right as I put my hand on Lalo’s shoulder to comfort him, one of the lights in Kallen’s house flipped on.  My heart jumped.  Kallen told me not to go anywhere, especially at night.  If he saw that I was gone, he might snoop around to find out where I went later.  I couldn’t tell him about the visit to the crime site.  That was one of the things that triggered his anxiety about whatever was going on.  I definitely couldn’t tell him about Lalo yet.  He used the term “we” in the truck.  I had to find out whose side he was on.  And find out who made up the sides.

“Lalo, Kallen might be watching,” I said.

“Let him,” he said.  “I wouldn’t mind meeting him.  After all, I am your ex-boyfriend or friend right?”

A corner of my lip curled as I fought to depress a smile.  “Come on,” I said.  “Let’s get your stuff out from your shopping extravaganza.”

“I have to admit it was fun figuring out what I could get on that budget of yours.”

“What?” I said and laughed.  “Why don’t you go out there and make your own money to buy some things.”

“I could set up a company and within three months I’d be a millionaire.  Our technology is actually far more superior to yours.”

“But can you remember how to work that technology though?”

Lalo chuckled.  “Good one.”

I trailed Lalo and closed the door once we got inside the house.  Dropping the shopping bags to my side, I slid up a blind to spy on Kallen.  Less than ten seconds later the light went off.

“Crap!” I said.  “He knows.”  I abandoned the blind, pivoting to Lalo.

Lalo didn’t respond.  He was wrapped up in reading the flyer.

“Lalo,” I said.  “Aren’t you worried about Kallen knowing?  He may hunt you down.”

“No,” Lalo said.  “Like I said, I’m the ex.  We should be more worried about this.”  Lalo handed me the paper.  It was a brochure, advertising a product for car repair.

“Are you saying my car needs help?” I said, laughing.

“Open it.”

I did.  There was a handwritten note taped to the inside.

I don’t know who you are, but a woman (a. psychic) found me and told me to tell you.  I was there.  I saw them take my friends.  My friend and I were on our way back from the shelter to visit with our other friends who stayed under the bridge.  For some reason, we didn’t walk the usual way; we went behind the empty buildings.  Before we got to the corner something told me to grab my friend and tell them to be quiet.

We peaked around the corner of the building.  We saw them!  All ten or so of them!  They were people I’ve never seen.  They were dressed too well to be homeless, in random styles.  All wore hats, covering their eyes.  I searched for the homeless people I knew.  They were on the ground.  They didn’t move.  We didn’t know if they were dead or sleeping.  I hoped they were drugged.  It was better than being dead.

A muscular man spoke to another, who was also tall.  I heard him say something about carrying them (our friends) back to their town.  He also said he can’t wait until they could leave the town.  They had been there too long.  It was too small.  The towns surrounding were too small.  People found out too much information too quickly.  It wasn’t that far from Dallas anyway.  They would have been better off in Dallas, or a suburb of it.  It was easier to hide with a bunch of people.  The tall one reminded the other that they had work to do in their town.

A few minutes later, the strange people were finished loading our friends into black SUVs.  And the thing was they lifted our friends like they were a backpack.  It was too easy for them.  Then they drove away.  We saw them get on the interstate, heading east.  We didn’t tell the police this.  We couldn’t.  The psychic said they have “their people” in the force.  They would probably come and kill us.

Please, find our friends.

I lowered the letter, almost losing it to the ground.  There was nothing I could say.

“We’re east of Dallas?” Lalo said.

“Yes.”

“How many small towns are there?” Lalo said.

“Several,” I said.

“But how many people have access to this?” Lalo asked, raising a piece of the meteorite like “rock” that we found.

“Chances are I work with all of them,” I said.  “That type of meteorite is rare.  It’s a collector’s dream.  If any other person found it, I would think they would either sell it or have it cut to make jewelry.  This rock is untouched.  But what if a Masqysava landed in our area previously and someone, a human, found a rock like this?”

“Search?” Lalo said.

I retrieved my laptop.  No meteorites were found in our area within the last ten years.  Neither were there sightings of meteors that should have landed close by.  And the meteorites found were made of stone, no crystals.  The collectors lived in large cities.

“So that’s a negative,” Lalo said.

“Oh no,” I said. 
Why didn’t I think of this before?
  “Lalo.”

“What?”

I informed Lalo about Kallen’s alien interest and continued.  “I was over at Kallen’s house once.  He had this collection.  They were random things.  They were normal to me.  I thought nothing of it.  But there were a few small rocks.  He said they were meteorites.  They would be stony meteorites.”

“I told you I didn’t trust him.”

“But he didn’t have anything like that rock,” I said, pointing to our new meteorite.  “I know Kallen pretty well.  He opens up to me.  He would have showed me if he had something like that.”

“You’ve only known him for a month,” Lalo said.

“It’s not him,” I said. 
It couldn’t be him.  The Kallen I knew didn’t do that to people.  He was too worried about what went on.  He and his people had to be investigating.

“So it’s not him,” Lalo said.

“There’s something else.  Dr. Stevenson,” I said.  “One day I overheard him and Kallen talking about meteors.  Dr. Stevenson said he was lucky to find some left over from a meteorite shower when he was younger.  That event sparked his interest in science.  Now, he likes following stories about meteor sightings his spare time.”

“A shower,” Lalo said, “or a landing of an alien ship?”

“This is when he was younger,” I said.  “I doubt that he happened to find pieces from an alien ship.  Meteorite showers happen.  Meteors land on Earth every year.”

“And wouldn’t this life changing event make him want to collect meteorites?” Lalo asked.  “He does follow meteor sightings.”

“I’ve been to his house,” I said.  “He had those two pebble sized rocks in a case.  If he had something like your meteorite, it would be on display.”

“Mhum.”

How would Lalo understand?  He didn’t know these people.

“It’s hard to consider it being Dr. Stevenson,” I said.  “He’s a leader in the field.  He has been honored several times over.  What would he want with a bunch of people?”

“Don’t know, so what about your other coworkers?  Does anything stand out?”

I shook my head.  “Other than Ashley up in everyone’s business and Ren, who takes trips every once in a while to Dallas to visit his brother’s family, no.”

“It’s back to the letter then,” Lalo said.

“Wait,” I said.  “How do we really know it’s true?  How can we trust this letter?”

“It did come exactly at the time we were there,” Lalo said. “And—”

I cut him off.  “What if they, the people who did this, are setting us up?”

“They’re not.  Look at the letter again.  It doesn’t say ‘a psychic.’  It says ‘a. psychic.’  Why is there a period there?”

“A clue?” I asked.

“Yes, and it is a clue that helps me to remember.  When I was young, I used to play with another Masqysava named Naya.  She had an aunt who knew about things, more than normal things.  That aunt, whose name is Aquasa, became an aunt to me too.  She told me to keep my abilities hidden.  I didn’t listen.

“Anyway, I was ten when she told her family and me that she was leaving when the time came.  We should too.  When the voyages to Earth were open to regular Masqysava, non-scientists nor officials, she left.  She also became one who never returned from Earth.”

“So how do you know it is her?”

“It’s her handwriting.  And you can’t see this, but there is a pattern in how this is written. It should give us a number or letters.”

Swirling my finger on my laptop pad, I prepared to investigate while Lalo deciphered the message.  He came up with a combination of letters and numbers.  There was also a place.  Lalo said she always took him, and other Masqysava, there when he was young.  It had a special meaning.

With the clues, it took less than a second to find her online.  I made the call and put her on speakerphone.

“Hello,” an older woman said.

“Yes, I’m—”

“I was expecting you two,” she said.  “No names or details are necessary.”

“Is it true?” I said.  “How can we know it’s true?”

“Yes,” she said.  “You must help them.”

“Where do we begin?  Are we correct in assuming it’s someone I know?”

“Though I can see things,” she said, “I don’t see all things.  From the description I received, the captors could have been mixed company, or it could have been nothing but us ‘others.’  I had a vision of this happening.  Two people, friends of the victims, would see the crime.  I found the two and convinced them to tell their story.  They were too terrified to write it.  I did, but the vision said they had to deliver this message to you.  How did I know you would be there at that exact time my dear?  How did I know you would be able to understand the second story in the message?  Likkatta, you may not remember much now, but it will come back.  Certain medicinal beings know how to hide poisons.”