Sullivan Saga 2: Sullivan's Wrath (18 page)

“On all those planets you say you live on, you’ve not encountered any aliens?”

“Not technologically advanced aliens. As far as we know, we are the only ones in our part of the universe who have mastered space travel.”

Quinn looked up at the darkening sky. “You came in a space ship, I suppose. Where is it?”

“Still up there,” Allen said, gesturing skyward. “I have a remote—a device that can call it back to us when we need it.”

“Blimey.”

“I’d show you the ship, but I don’t want to attract any unnecessary attention.”

Quinn slid down off the bed of the truck. “We’d better get back before nightfall so my men don’t shoot us.”

“Captain?” said Sullivan, putting his hand on Quinn’s shoulder. “I know this is a lot to process, but you’re handling it remarkably well. And I’m sorry you’ve had to go through all of this.”

“Well,” said Quinn, “it’s worse than fighting the Huns… but not by much.”

THE NEXT MORNING they trudged on. They were moving as quietly as possible. Sullivan had told Quinn that the closer they got to the wormhole, the more likely they were to encounter the aliens.

As they passed a handful of destroyed buildings—it looked to have been a small farming community—Quinn stopped. He gave the signal to take cover, and they all scrambled to the side of one of the buildings.

A second later, they heard footsteps approaching from around the side of the structure. Sullivan raised his energy rifle and pointed it toward the sound. A German soldier stepped into view, froze when he saw them then dived back around the side of the building.

Sullivan caught sight of movement in one of the other buildings. The Germans were taking cover inside. A moment later, gunfire erupted.

Quinn’s men scrambled to take cover. They returned fire, but the Germans were well-protected by the building.

“Use the energy rifles!” Sullivan yelled.

Half a dozen flashes of light were sent toward the German position. They struck the already damaged wall behind which the Germans were crouching. The side of the building began to give way, and the enemy soldiers scrambled out from their cover as the wooden beams holding up the second story of the building came down on them.

Quinn and several other men rushed toward them, yelling in German. Sullivan ran past them and poked through the ruins of the building to make sure no one else was inside. When he came out, the Germans were on their knees, their hands on the backs of their heads.

“I thought you said there was a truce,” he said to Quinn.

“There is. Unofficially. But some of these bastards haven’t gotten the message.”

Sullivan looked down at the Germans. “They were confused and frightened. They probably thought we were going to kill them.”

Quinn reached out to the German in front of him and took the pack of cigarettes from the soldier’s breast pocket. He lit a cigarette then put the pack in his own pocket. “They’re damned lucky none of my men were hit.”

“What do we do with them?”

“Disarm them and make sure they don’t follow us when we leave.”

“You’ll leave them unarmed, unable to defend themselves from the creatures?”

“What else can we do? None of us speak German well enough to know their intentions.”

“Hold on,” said Sullivan. He took out his tablet and tapped on it for a few seconds. “This is a translator,” he said.

“
Dies ist ein Übersetzer
,” said the tablet in a soothing female voice. The Germans looked up upon hearing their language.

Sullivan crouched down near one of the Germans. “Why did you fire at us?”

The German listened to the translation then began speaking. “We thought you were going to attack us. You came upon us so suddenly we thought you were trying to ambush us.”

“We were moving quietly because of the creatures. We didn’t want to draw their attention.”

“Yes! So were we! Please, we do not want to die. Our quarrel with you is over.”

“When did you last encounter the creatures?”

“This morning.”

“Where?”

The German pointed. It was in the direction of the wormhole.

“Are there many of them in that direction?” Sullivan asked.

“Yes. We tried heading east, back to Germany, but there are too many of them. So we came west instead.”

“Were you at the front when the creatures overran your line?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me what happened.”

The German soldier paled slightly. “They came from behind us. We never heard a thing until they were leaping into the trenches. They moved so fast. Half the men around me were dead before a single shot was fired. Then there was gunfire everywhere. Men were firing blindly. I saw several men shot down accidentally. And everyone was screaming.

“We thought the Allies had unleashed this horror upon us until the creatures, seemingly bored with hunting down the few scattered men that remained in our part of the trench, jumped back out and headed away from us, across no man’s land. We watched as they leapt into the British trenches, and we knew from the gunfire that they were being attacked, too.”

“Have you seen anything else unusual? Any other kind of creature? Anything that looks more like a soldier, only not human?”

The German shook his head.

Sullivan nodded. He pressed the hold button on the tablet and turned to Quinn. “Hopefully that means that the creatures are the only things that have come through the wormhole so far. As bad as they are, I don’t want to see what else the aliens can throw at us.” He looked back at the German soldier. “Quinn, I don’t think we have anything to fear from them.”

“You want us to give them their weapons back?”

Sullivan rubbed his chin. He turned the translator back on. “If we give you back your weapons, do you promise you’ll go your own way and leave us alone?”

The German nodded vigorously. “Please. We only want to get away from the creatures.”

“You won’t have much luck with that. But you have the right to defend yourselves.”

He got up and walked over to Quinn. “Look, I can get to the top of one of these buildings. This is pretty flat terrain here. With the telescopic sight on my rifle, I can watch them for at least two kilometers.”

Quinn began to protest, but Sullivan held up his hand. “Captain,” he said, “I understand that you want to keep your men safe. So you all go ahead with Allen. I can move faster by myself, so I’ll be able to catch up to you. That’ll put four kilometers between us and them. And I really don’t think they want to head in that direction anyway.”

“You’ll watch them as long as you can?”

“Yes.”

Captain Quinn frowned. “Very well.” He withdrew a couple of cigarettes from the pack in his pocket and handed them to the soldier he’d taken them from. “Unload their weapons,” he called to his men. He turned back to Sullivan. “Tell them to walk in two groups, fifty meters apart, for at least a kilometer. One group will have the weapons, the other group the ammunition.”

Sullivan relayed the instructions to the Germans then climbed up to the top of the most stable building. He watched Quinn send the Germans away. After they had been walking for a few minutes, he called up to Sullivan.

“You’ll be able to find us?”

“Yes,” said Sullivan. “Without difficulty.”

Allen walked up beside Quinn and waved. Sullivan waved back then turned his attention back to the Germans. They were still in their two groups.

Sullivan turned around and quickly scanned the road Quinn and Allen were walking down. It was clear. He’d watch them as far as he could, but eventually they’d be on their own. Sullivan turned back to the Germans. They had been lucky. If Sullivan had seen anything but fright and confusion in their eyes, he would have killed them himself.

Perhaps Quinn would have killed them if Sullivan hadn’t intervened. Perhaps he would have just left them bound and unarmed. That would have been as good as killing them. Either way, Quinn would have done what he thought was best for his men. But for Sullivan, killing was getting harder and harder to justify, no matter the reason.

RICK SULLIVAN STOPPED. Just beyond a rise, he could hear men moving. “Piccadilly Circus,” he called, using the code Quinn had taught him.

“Sullivan?” he heard Quinn say.

“Yes, it’s me.” He walked forward, and the group came into view. “The Germans followed our orders exactly. They’d still been in their separate groups when I lost sight of them.”

“Good,” said Quinn.

“Anything to report?”

“No, it’s been quiet. Sundown is in about two hours, but we’re thinking of stopping here for the night. We can set a lookout on that hillock. The rest of the terrain is fairly flat, so we’d hopefully see anything coming long before it reached us.”

Sullivan looked around. “Let me get up on that hill and have a look myself.”

Allen stood up. “I’ll come with you, Rick.”

Sullivan nodded. He climbed the hill and stopped at the top. He raised the sight of the gun to his eye and began scanning the surroundings. “I’ll bet this was a really beautiful area before the war.”

“Quinn said it was mostly farmland with scattered groves of trees.”

Sullivan smiled. “That reminds me of the farmland north of Agrona, back on Edaline. Fields and fields of crops. But the green belt that ran through the city extended out into the farms. It wound its way across the countryside. It was a windbreak more than anything, but from the air it looked like an emerald ribbon cutting across the yellows and browns of the fields of grain.”

“I think Edaline will be a beautiful planet again. Once it’s recovered from the war.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Rick?” Allen said quietly.

“Yeah?”

“Listen, I want to say I’m sorry. For ambushing you like that back on Edaline. For making you do all this.”

Sullivan lowered his gun and sat down on the ground. Allen sat next to him. “I accept your apology, Frank,” he said, “but it’s a hard thing to forgive. You were—you are—my best friend. I don’t understand how you could do something like that.”

Allen picked up a small stick and snapped it in half. “Neither do I. But have you noticed how Liz hasn’t been around ever since we arrived here?”

“I have.”

“I hate to admit it, Rick, but I think she… I think the entity had me brainwashed.”

“I could have told you that.”

Allen smiled. “Yeah. Well, now that she hasn’t visited me for a few days I feel my head clearing. I feel like my old self again. I’m beginning to see things more objectively.”

“And what do you see?”

“That I betrayed you. That I let my emotions, my sorrow over losing Liz, cloud my judgment. If I had handled her death better, maybe none of this would have happened. Maybe they wouldn’t have been able to get to me.”

Sullivan put his hand on Allen’s shoulder. “Frank, we only understand a fraction of what the hyperspace entities can do. If they wanted us here, they would have found a way to do it. Don’t blame yourself. But we are here now, and we have to finish this mission. But there’s more going on. I don’t think the real reason we’re here is the reason we’ve been told.”

“Then why are we here?”

“Oh, I think we’re here to fire our energy weapons into the wormhole and force the aliens to close it. But there has to be something else. And the fact that Liz hasn’t been around for a few days makes me think she’s up to something. If this was so important, why isn’t she here helping us, telling us when the creatures are nearby?”

“She did say they were doing other things to try and defeat the aliens who’ve sent these creatures here. Maybe she’s busy with that.”

Sullivan laughed. ”I’m sure she’s busy with something. I still think all this has been carefully planned and timed. Making us travel across country to get to the wormhole, for example. And that whole bit about getting the credits from Eugene Brain then going to Alvo for the weapons… I think that was just another way to stall what we were doing. They want to get the timing right, make our actions line up with something else.”

Allen sighed. “Maybe you’re right. I’m beginning to understand what you’ve been saying all along. Still, it’s been strange to not have her around. Do you know that she was visiting me almost every day when we were back on Silvanus?”

“I figured as much.”

“And I’m not proud of it, but now I really can see how she was manipulating me. I can see how she was using my feelings for Liz to get me to do what she wanted.”

“I’m glad to hear it, Frank. But what are you going to do about it?”

“Do?”

“Yes. When she comes back, what are you going to do?”

“What should I do?”

“Do you trust her, Frank? Are you convinced the entities’ intentions are what they’ve stated them to be?”

Allen picked up another stick and snapped it. “I… I don’t know.”

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes. Of course.”

Sullivan smiled. “Then you have your answer.”

Frank shook his head. “It’s simple enough for you. But what if she gets in my head again? What if she starts telling me to do things that I don’t want to do, but I can’t say no? What if she tells me to betray you again?”

“You’re strong, Frank. Stronger than anyone else I know. You must assert your will. You must tell her no. And you will.”

Allen tossed the broken bits of stick to the ground. “I’ll need you to help me. If she makes me do something I don’t want to do, I’ll need you to physically restrain me if you have to.”

“Christ, I tried that before, Frank.”

Allen laughed. “You had a gun on me, Rick. But you didn’t take the shot when you should have.”

“I didn’t want to kill you, I just wanted you to take me back to Edaline.”

“But you’ll have to, if it happens again.”

“Have to what? Kill you?”

Allen nodded. “If my actions are going to cause harm to you or anyone else, do it. I know that I don’t stand a chance against you in a fair fight, Rick. Promise me you won’t hold back. If I—if I’m not myself—do what you have to do to prevent me from doing whatever it is I shouldn’t be doing.”

“And what if what you’re doing will only hurt yourself? What if you’re trying to cross over, like Liz has promised you can? I can’t stop that by killing you.”