As the glowing red numbers above the TV rolled over from 6:59 to 7:00am, Erica Evans rose to her feet, cell phone clutched in her hand. Since arriving home and discovering her son had defied her wishes and gotten involved with the V's, had gone up to one of their ships, she had tried to contact Tyler dozens of times.
He had yet to answer or return any of her frantic messages.
Considering that she had just taken part in a strike against the V's, blown up a warehouse where the aliens had been tainting flu vaccines and was a part of the small group who knew the true, malicious intent of the V's, she was understandably worried. She cursed herself for not telling Tyler why he shouldn't with the aliens, whom he thought of as cool.
She knew she should keep her distance from the V's, for the security of the resistance, but she refused not to take action when her son was involved. Grabbing her keys and bag, she exited her house, jogging to the SUV. She wasn't exactly sure how she was going to do it, but she was going to get her son back.
As she headed into the city, muttering under her breath at the morning traffic that caused back ups, even on a Saturday, she dialed her phone again, this time to contact her friend and fellow resistance fighter, Jack Landry.
The phone rang several times before the call was picked up. "Hello?"
That was certainly not Jack. It was the voice of an older man, who sounded tired and afraid.
"I…I'm sorry," she said, puzzled. She knew this was Jack's number. It was on her speed dial. "I'm trying to reach Jack…Ah, Father Landry."
There was a pause, then sort of a strangled, choking sound. "Jack is…there was an incident last night. He's at Mercy hospital."
"No," she breathed, terrible images of the slaughtered people at the resistance meeting where she and Jack had met. Obviously, they had found him. "What happened?"
"He was attacked," the older man said. "May I ask who you are?"
"Special Agent Evans," she decided her rank would probably put the man at ease. "And you are?"
"Father Travis." Some of the tension did indeed leave his voice. "Agent, do you think this could be related to…to the other unpleasantness that happened here recently?" "I don't know." She wondered how much of a sin it was to lie to a priest. "But we'll let you know if we find anything."
Brief goodbyes were exchanged and Erica took a deep breath, staring out the windshield at the cars ahead of her. The muted sounds of the city, car horns, construction, voices, like a pulse pounding all around her. None of them knew about the danger hovering above them, any of them could be a V in disguise.
And now the one man she truly trusted was lying in a hospital bed. He's a freaking priest! I should have protected him somehow, especially after last night. Jack's not a trained agent like me, a long term paranoid like Georgie or a rebel V like Ryan. He was trusting and kind…
"Damn it!" she shouted, slamming her hand down on the steering wheel, once, twice, three times. "Damn!"
The balls she had been struggling to keep in the air seemed to be dropping, one by one, and she knew she couldn't do this alone. Someone had to go to the hospital, make sure the V's didn't finish what they started. Tyler was still on the V ship, which meant she need to go after him…and possibly lock his stupid ass in the basement until she got all this alien invasion shit sorted out.
Taking a calming breath, she picked up her phone again. Time to call Ryan and see what wisdom the resistance's resident V had to offer.