Hour Of Doom
Chapter 26
XXVI
~ 8:05 AM ~
Inside Gray Hawk's house on the Mesaliko reservation, the former "guests of the Army" were having breakfast as members of a new élite group: "The Army's Most Wanted." No one had turned on the TV, and no one was yet aware of any of what was going on outside. It was Maria who first had a premonition of impending trouble, suddenly shivering without warning.
"What was that?" Max asked with a look of concern on his face.
Maria shook her head. "Nothing. I just had a cold chill for a moment."
"It's not cold in here," Michael said matter-of-factly, looking at Maria for some sign that she might be coming down with something. Maybe you were remembering something… something scary."
"Well, I was… I think… but I wasn't really. A chill just ran up my spine like a… like a… I don't know… kind of a premonition… or a warning or something."
"About what," Max and Michael both asked at the same time.
"I don't know. It was just a sort of feeling of doom… like I used to get when I was a little girl and I did something bad then hid from Mama then she found me and I knew I was gonna be in big, big trouble."
Michael smiled. "You been a bad girl, Maria?"
Maria scrunched her nose up slightly but then grinned. "If I had, you'd know, Michael. You're my biggest corrupter."
Isabel snickered and nodded.
"Well, I'm glad I'm good at something anyway," Michael said.
"I've been having that feeling all morning," Liz said.
"That Michael's a great corrupter?" Isabel asked, grinning.
"No… that something's about to happen. I just can't stop thinking it."
Max got up from the table and walked to the window, moving the curtain just a bit to take a look outside. At first he saw nothing unusual, but he knew that Liz's premonitions, even when they were vague and unclear, almost always came to something.
"Has anybody seen Gray Hawk this morning," Isabel asked.
Maria shook her head.
"He was here earlier," Liz said. "He went out about five o'clock this morning… before the sun came up… said he had some important business. I haven't seen him since then."
Maria shivered again. Max looked worried then walked over and looked out the window again. This time he scanned the hillsides and road from one end to the other. Then he slowly pulled the curtain back tightly over the window.
"What is it," Michael asked, standing up and walking over to look out the window, too.
"Don't let yourself be seen," Max said.
Michael gazed out through a narrow opening at the edge of the curtain.
"Damn!"
"What do you think," Max asked.
Michael frowned. "Those sun glints up in the hills… metallic… maybe guns… or even tanks… hard to tell."
"Could be hunters," Alex said, hopefully.
"Yeah," Michael agreed. "Could be. What worries me is what they're hunting here on the reservation. And that's one helluva lot of hunters…"
Liz rolled her chair over to Max, and Max bent over and kissed her then hugged her.
"It's happening," Liz whispered.
Max sighed deeply. He really wanted to say that the sun glints could be nothing… but what came out was,
"Yeah."
"Okay," Michael said, suddenly
taking over as though he had always been expected to lead them in just such a
situation, "Max, bolt the doors and block them. Make sure all the windows are
locked. Leave us a way to get out fast, though, if we have to. Isabel and Angie
Lee… look around the house. Find out where the best place to hide would be if
anyone tries to get in. Alex & Maria, see if there's anything we can use to
defend ourselves…"
"Weapons?" Alex asked.
Michael nodded. "For you and… whoever needs them. Max and I won't need them. Rahn…"
"Yes?"
Michael thought a minute. "I need you to sneak out there and scout around… you know, see just what we're up against."
Rahn smiled. "I'll turn into a small bird. No one will pay attention to a small bird."
Michael nodded and looked over at Max, more as a formality than for his permission. Michael had already gone into full "take charge / protect" mode, but Max was still his king, even if it was in another life, a life that neither of them quite remembered. Max nodded his agreement.
Michael cracked the door, and a small bird about the size of a sparrow streaked out, headed for the hills. Then Michael closed and locked the door again. Twenty minutes later, Rahn returned. Finding the house locked up tight, he flew around for a few moments then flew up onto the roof. There, he perched on the edge of a smoke vent that served as a sort of chimney for Gray Hawk's fireplace. He took one last look back then teetered forward and tumbled down through the smoke vent, rolling out of the fireplace into the house in front of everyone.
"Did you see anything," Max asked, as Rahn stretched his limbs back to their normal size. His head seemed to grow eerily from sparrow-sized to human-sized. Finally, he stood in front of them again as a presentable humanoid.
"Tanks… lots of soldiers… and army vehicles."
"Damn," Michael said once again. "I knew it. I just knew it."
"There's also a news vehicle on the reservation," Rahn added. "And a news crew."
"Great," Michael said. "Catch it on the news at six! Special agents, backed up by army tanks, kill alien invaders trying to take over Mesaliko Reservation. The world is safe again!"
"Maybe people will see what's really happening," Liz said. "Maybe they'll be on our side."
Michael looked at Liz sympathetically and shook his head. "Don't count on it. People aren't like that. They want to see blood and guts. They want drama. They don't want fuzzy cuddly stuff."
"Some people do," Liz insisted.
"Well, maybe in your world, Liz… not in mine," Michael replied seriously. "I'm just telling you what to expect."
"Michael's right," Max interjected. "We can't expect help from the media or from anyone else who might see what's happening. They won't know the real story. What they hear will be what the Army wants them to hear… what the Army tells them. I have to agree with Michael. We can't expect them to be on our side."
"I just think we should consider the possibility of them being on our side," Liz insisted… "At least consider the possibility that we could turn them to our side."
"Yeah… if we had the chance," Michael said. "But I don't see the Army giving us that chance. As soon as one of us goes out there, it's all over. Those Special Unit and FBI guys need us dead. Dead aliens don't talk and give stories to the press –or to Congress- stories that might be embarrassing."
Liz swallowed. She knew that what Michael was saying wasn't just paranoia. He did have a very valid point. Their safety depended on their making no mistakes. If this was a mistake, it would very likely be a deadly and final one. Liz nodded.
"So what are we supposed to do," Isabel asked. "Just sit here and wait for them to come get us?"
"They don't know where we are," Max said. "If they did, they'd already be here. They're looking."
"Well, they must know we're on the reservation," Isabel replied. "Because they're out there."
"Yeah," Michael agreed. "I wonder how they found out."
"I'll bet that somehow Judge Lewis could answer that question," Maria said.
Max nodded somberly.
"Well, we're safer right now staying right where we are and keeping a low profile," Michael said. "Maybe if we're lucky that TV crew being out there will make them think twice about attacking Indian homes… but I kind of doubt it."
"So do I," Max agreed. "But I'll bet that TV crew out there is the only reason they haven't attacked yet. They're probably figuring out what story they're going to feed to the media when it happens."
Michael nodded. "We need a plan, Max. We're on borrowed time here."
"Yeah, I know."
Angie Lee tapped Max on the shoulder, and Max looked at her.
"This might help you, Max. It's the reason I went back to the university a few days ago. I still don't know what all of it says."
She handed Max a very old-looking book bound in something that looked like brown leather.
"What is it," Max asked.
"Look inside."
Max opened the book. Inside was writing that looked very much like the limited amount of Antarian writing he had seen… but a little different.
"Is this another romance novel, Angie?"
"No… not this one. This one's an instruction manual," Angie Lee said. "And look…" She turned the pages. On one of the pages, there were hand-drawn pictures of several people… people who just happened to look very much like Max… Michael… Isabel… and Angie Lee. And below that were smaller pictures of four more individuals. These looked much less identifiable, individually… but seen together, they made Max catch his breath.
Michael looked at the book, then the others looked at it.
Liz ran her hand carefully over the raised characters and pictures, especially the one that looked like her. She looked up at Angie Lee.
"What is this book?"
"It's an operational manual of some kind," Angie Lee said. "I figured that much out. But I don't know what it's for."
"The granolith?" Michael asked Max.
Max nodded. "It must be."
"But that looks like me," Liz said, "…and Maria… and Alex… and Kyle. I mean, if I saw just one of those pictures by itself, I'd probably be like, hey, you know, that looks kinda like me… or Maria… or whoever; but all four of us together?"
"It's us," Maria said. "But how? How did we get in an alien book?"
"The real question," Angie Lee said, "is how did any of us get in an alien book that was written over sixty years ago."
"No…" Maria shook her head. "I don't believe that."
Angie Lee shrugged. "It's true. Sixty years ago."
"May I see the book," Rahn asked politely.
Everyone had forgotten that it was Rahn who told them that the other book, the one they found in the cave, was a romance novel. Rahn could read it. Max handed Rahn the book, and Rahn read it carefully page by page. After several minutes, he handed the book back to Angie Lee.
"It's an operational manual… for my space craft. I wasn't the pilot. I never saw this book, but that's what it is."
"The UFO that they've got in area 51?" Maria asked.
Rahn nodded. "I know they have it… I don't know where it is, though."
"I do," Maria said. "I saw it."
"But what am I doing in this book," Alex asked. "I wasn't on your ship."
Rahn sat down and looked at Alex. "The book is more than just an operational manual. It is also a biological manual for the care of the specific cargo that the ship was carrying."
"Us," Michael said.
Rahn nodded. "Twenty-four small sacs… Sacs that would grow into the pods from which you would one day emerge."
"Twenty-four?" Max asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Twenty-four. There were six of each of you."
"Then… what happened to the other five sets," Isabel asked.
Rahn frowned. "The Army took them. I assumed they were all dissected… destroyed… like the fourth sac from your set was."
"Our dupes in New York," Michael said. "They must have been one of the sets from those sacs, too, then. Nicholas said that you dumped them in the sewers because they were defective."
Rahn shook his head. "That would be ridiculous. Nicholas is fond of such disinformation. But it is not true. I have no idea how they got to New York, but we did not put them there. If they were defective, it was because of how they grew up… without the proper growth care that was outlined in the book."
Max shook his head. "But Michael, Isabel, and I didn't get that care, either."
"Actually, you did… in the early stages," Rahn explained. "We managed to save your three pods and hide them in the desert. They were cared for by a guardian for a time. All the others were found and taken by the Army."
Michael shook his head slowly. "So Max and Isabel and I were the only survivors… that you knew about… but those guys in New York… they must have survived, too, somehow. Who dumped them there… the Army? And what's with Maria and Liz's pictures… and Alex and Kyle's pictures… in this book?"
"The instructions in the book said that if you did not receive the programming boosts during your formative and adolescent years… or if your programming failed… you should all be assisted in finding mates that would appeal to you. The pictures show what type of looks would most likely appeal to each one of you if your DNA was not adjusted. It wasn't supposed to be like that, but I guess the ones who engineered you realized that if the programming failed, getting a happy king back would be better than getting an unhappy king who couldn't stand his mate. It's why the programming needed to be reinforced. If it had been, you would have chosen your former queen, and Rath would have chosen his former betrothed… and all of you would have been happy. Unfortunately, that plan was ruined from the start, though, when the pod with your former queen was taken by the Army, Zan."
"So the fourth pod… was not Angie Lee?" Michael asked.
Rahn shook his head.
"But it looks just like her," Isabel said.
"I saw the soldiers take the pod containing the queen. It… I saw it…" Rahn's voice trailed off.
"Dissected?" Maria asked.
Rahn nodded. "It was destroyed… completely… irrevocably. Only the three of you were saved… out of your set."
"But you said that there were originally six sets," Michael said.
Rahn nodded. "That's true… but they were all taken by the Army… We could not get close enough to save them without getting caught… as I did…"
"You got caught while trying to save the rest of the pods?" Maria asked.
Rahn nodded. "I failed. And because of that, the pods were all destroyed… except the three that we were able to hide in time before the Army found us."
"Then what about those guys in New York?" Michael asked.
Rahn shook his head. "I can't explain them."
"And the other pictures in the book?" Michael asked.
"Those pictures weren't supposed to be Liz or Maria… or Alex or Kyle… not necessarily…"
"Yes they were," Michael said emphatically. "That is Maria!"
Rahn smiled. "Maria just looks like the picture. You were bioengineered to fall in love with your original mates, you with Isabel… Max with his former queen… but the fourth pod was destroyed, and then we were unable to continue giving the rest of you the care that was required… The book said that your engineering would fail if you were not given follow-up adjustments at critical points in your development, especially during adolescence. You were not supposed to grow up alone… without guardians to care for you and reinforce your programming."
"So then… the queen was supposed to fall in love with someone who looks like that guy who was here the other day…" Angie Lee said… "like Kyle… if she didn't fall in love with the king, I mean?"
"She was supposed to fall in love with Zan… Max… the king," Rahn said, but she… her pod… was destroyed, and his programming was never completed. Because of that, they would not have fallen in love with each other even if she had survived. The book says that without the necessary DNA and psychological adjustments in childhood, and especially in adolescence, he would more likely choose a mate who looked something like Liz… and the queen would prefer one who looked something like the one you call Kyle… if she had survived."
"The picture really does look like him," Angie Lee said, "and he was awful cute."
"Well, he's available," Isabel said. "The queen's pod was destroyed, so… no queen."
"Oh," Angie Lee muttered, smiling as she studied the picture that resembled Kyle."
"Omigod!" Maria exclaimed.
"What?" Isabel asked, turning around quickly.
"I just realized… Kyle's my half-brother now."
Isabel laughed, then the others began to laugh, too. No one knew it at the time, but that would be the last laugh any of them would share for a while…
Suddenly, with no warning, a huge blast knocked everyone to the floor and turned Liz's chair over. Scrambling back to his feet, Michael hurried to check their surroundings, as Max helped Liz back into her chair. The house still appeared to be intact. Whatever had blown them off their feet had not hit the house directly. Max peered out the window carefully, and Michael peered out over his shoulder. Tanks were rolling onto the reservation now in front of the houses. One of them had fired off a round. Behind the tanks, a vast army of humvees, Bradley fighting vehicles, and heavily-armed soldiers was pouring out of the hills and onto the reservation.
Outside the house, not far away, a shocked news crew stood dumbfounded, watching and filming the incursion…
"You have just seen it here on KUVA, the only station on the scene," the newsgirl, Diane Casey, screamed, almost losing her voice in the emotional moment. "The Army has just rolled a battalion of tanks onto the Mesaliko Reservation, and shots HAVE BEEN fired! The Army is firing on Indian homes! We do not yet know the reasons for this incursion, but it cannot be worth the lives of all these innocent people. So far, we have seen none of the Mesaliko at all. Apparently, they are staying in their homes… which now that I think about it, is probably a very intelligent idea. These homes will be no match for tanks, though, if the Army decides to blow them apart or simply drive over them. The Indians here have no defense against this attack, which appears to this observer to be utterly unprovoked.
As Diane spoke, another salvo was fired from the turret of one of the nearer tanks, and this time, it was a direct hit… with devastating results. The targeted home exploded in a hellacious fireball from which no one could have escaped or survived. Timbers and splinters of timbers flew hundreds of feet into the sky, raining down in a fiery holocaust all over the reservation. Diane almost couldn't find her voice, as she described what she was seeing for the viewers, peppering her comments with a few words that might have been bleeped if the censor at the station had not himself been so absorbed in what was happening that he missed the words altogether.
Moments after the first home was destroyed, a second home went up in flames in another fiery holocaust of flying timbers and splinters. Max and Michael watched out the corner of their window, unable to even speak owing to their inability to believe what was happening. But their period of inaction was brief. Michael rushed to look around the house for a place… any place… where they might be safe from such an attack. There was none.
"We have to leave here NOW," Michael said emphatically, leaving no room at all for dissent. "We leave now… or we get blown up."
No one spoke. At the moment, every face in the house was whiter than Gray Hawk's feather. And Gray Hawk was still nowhere to be found, having never returned to the house after leaving at 5 A.M. It occurred to Max that Gray Hawk might have been captured… or even killed… trying to return to his home to protect it… and them.
Max suddenly seemed to take over. "Everyone out the back. Stay together… but not too close together. Run for the river. If we can make it to the river unseen, we may have a chance."
"What about the Mesaliko people?" Liz asked. "They'll be slaughtered, Max. We can't just let them die."
"If we don't run," Isabel said, the frustration obvious in her voice, "we'll die, too. We can't help them. I want to… I just don't know how we can, Liz!"
"Well, we have to do
something," Alex said. "This is happening to them because of us."
Max nodded somberly. "We can't help them by getting killed ourselves. We have to escape and then figure out how to fight back to save them."
Michael nodded his agreement, but clearly nobody there was happy with this option, though it was the only reasonable option available to them.
"Is everyone ready to run," Max asked. "Where's Rahn?"
Everyone looked around. Rahn did not seem to be there.
"The back door…" Liz said, pointing. "It's cracked."
"He wouldn't have abandoned us," Maria insisted. "Not Rahn."
"Well, he did," Michael said flatly. "He flew away… saved himself. He's not here."
"I just can't believe Rahn would do that," Maria said again. "Rahn's no coward…"
Angie Lee started to agree with Maria, but as they stood there, another house suddenly exploded in an inferno of fire and flying wood. The friends watched from the back door of Gray Hawk's house as the fiery splinters fell everywhere around them.
"Let's go! Now! All together! While there's a distraction!" Max yelled. Max threw open the back door, and everyone ran out, cutting around the far side of the house then running in the direction of the river. They crossed the small road quickly and ran along the path towards the river, staying behind the trees as much as possible. Max was carrying Liz in his arms. As they reached the river, everyone came together again.
"Where do we go now, Max?" Isabel asked.
"Is there anyone who can't swim?" Max asked.
No one replied.
"Good. Then we all go into the river. The current will carry us downstream… and out of the reservation."
Max pulled his shoes off, but as he prepared to jump into the river, a boat appeared around the bend. Max hesitated and backed up into the trees again. They watched as the boat approached. It was a small boat with an outboard motor, and there appeared to be only one person in it. The boat pulled up to the shore where Max and the others had been, and a pudgy little man got out and lumbered onto the shore. Liz caught her breath.
"Judge Lewis! What's he doing here?"
"I'm telling you," Maria whispered. "He had to have tipped them off somehow. He had to have found out we were here and told the FBI or the Army. That's the only answer. He's probably coming to enjoy the show."
Alex stepped further back under the trees, and as he did, he stepped on an unbalanced rock. The rock tilted, sending him to the ground. Judge Lewis immediately looked in their direction. Spotting them, he jumped into his boat and shoved it back into the water as quickly as he could. Alex ran down the bank and leapt into the water in an effort to catch the boat, but it was too late. Judge Lewis pulled out an air horn and began blaring it.
"He was looking for us," Michael said, realizing the truth. "He was cruising around out there just to see if he could catch us trying to escape in the river. He's signaling them where we are."
"Alex!" Max yelled. "Get out of the water! We've got to run!"
"Just get out of the way," Michael yelled. Alex did.
Michael raised his hand, and a fireball hit the small boat, sending it up in flames and sinking it immediately. Judge Lewis fell through the bottom of his sinking boat into the water, a fact that turned out to be fortunate for him in the end, since it extinguished his burning clothes before he suffered any injury. He was, however, now at the mercy of the river and the current, which quickly swept him away downstream.
"Do you think he can swim," Maria asked.
"Do I care," Michael asked. "I hope he can't."
No one was quite sure if Michael meant that or not… but more interestingly, every one of them realized that they had thought it at the same time, and it was an oddly uncomfortable feeling.
"Okay," Max said. "Stay in the trees. We'll make our way along the shore staying inside the woods."
Max picked Liz back up, and they started to move. They had gone about a hundred yards when the first helicopter appeared over the river, headed in their direction. Then they noticed two more helicopters… then several more. They were Cobras, each one armed with an impressive battery of missiles and machine guns.
"Get down!" Michael screamed. "Everyone lie low! Get out of sight!"
Everyone hit the ground, sliding into the underbrush as best they could behind the trees, as the helicopters approached from over the water. Slowly, the helicopters combed the banks and nearby wooded areas, looking for their targets. No one on the ground dared to even breathe, as the helicopters flew over… then flew back over again, missing the hiding subjects who were well concealed beneath the brush. They did find a floundering, half-drowned Judge Lewis about a half mile downstream, however, hanging onto a tiny splinter of wood that might have been from one of the homes on the reservation or from his boat; and after a short debate, they dropped him a life jacket. Then the helicopters all turned and headed in the direction of the reservation homes.
As the chop chop chop of the helicopter blades grew faint in the distance, Max finally rolled over and looked, brushing off the leaves and small branches, some of which had been thrown over them by the backwash of the helicopters' blades. Nearby, others began to emerge from beneath the brush, also.
"Max," Liz said imploringly. "They'll slaughter the Mesalikos. There won't be anyone left alive there. We have to help them."
Max swallowed… then nodded.
Michael looked at Max and pressed his lips together. But he didn't argue. Everyone knew what that meant. They were going back.
As the small group of friends reached the edge of the wooded area, they saw the Cobras circling overhead. On the ground, the homes of the Mesalikos were surrounded by tanks. At least five of the homes had been destroyed… possibly more. Max doubted that anyone inside any of them had had any chance at all to escape or survive. It made him sick to his stomach. A quick look at Michael told him that Michael felt the same way. There was no need to even wonder what Liz was thinking… or Angie Lee, who had grown up here on this reservation, protected by the Mesaliko people.
"I say we blast every one of those helicopters out of the sky," Michael said. "Then we deal with the tanks and those special agent guys that started this."
Max clearly didn't like this idea, but he didn't see any other alternative. It was them or a lot of innocent Mesalikos. Max nodded, and he and Michael both held their hands up in the direction of one of the helicopters that was, at that moment, taking aim on another home with a missile. Two powerful jolts sent the Cobra spinning, it's tail almost separated from its body. As soon as it happened, the other Cobras all turned toward Max and Michael.
Max kissed Liz, then Michael and Maria sealed their good-byes with a kiss, then they sent Liz and Maria, who went unwillingly, with Alex, Isabel, and Angie Lee back into the woods. They knew that they could take out some more of the attackers, but they also knew that they would never get them all. Both Max and Michael let go with another jolt of power, and two more Cobras ploughed into the ground, their rotors blasted off. It seemed, though, that twenty more Cobras were just as suddenly there to replace the three downed ones. What had been like swatting at a few bees had become a full-scale attack by the whole hive. Max and Michael raised their hands again and prepared for their final stand. But as they did, the helicopters suddenly veered off and flew away.
"What happened?" Michael asked. "They had us."
"I don't know," Max said, shaking his head. "Do you hear something?"
Both of them listened and looked around. Other than for the crackle of the burning homes, nothing seemed to be happening. Even the tanks had turned around and were facing away from the homes now; they appeared to be aiming back out at the hills.
"Maybe they're leaving," Michael said optimistically.
"I don't think so," Max said. "They're expecting something… from the other side of those hills."
Max and Michael watched. Moments later, the cause of the about face became evident, as several pickup trucks and an SUV rolled over the hills in the distance. The tanks all aimed their turrets at the advancing vehicles, but a moment later, an entire army of off-road-capable vehicles began rolling over the hills. The helicopters were returning now to their original positions over the Indian homes, but they remained facing the small oncoming army, which seemed to be rapidly growing larger and larger.
Max looked at Michael, and Michael shrugged.
One of the Cobras fired a missile, striking one of the advancing pickups, but as the smoke cleared, they saw that the pickup had not been destroyed… in fact, it seemed to just keep coming. Two tanks then fired at the same time, scoring direct hits on two more pickups, and these, too, continued to advance, apparently unharmed. At this point, the Cobra pilots in particular seemed to become unnerved, firing barrages of missiles, all of which exploded on their targets… which merely continued to advance as though they were immune to missiles and tank barrages.
"What's going on here," Michael asked.
Max looked back into the woods. He could see Isabel, Alex, Maria, and Liz from where he was, but at first he didn't see Angie Lee. Then he spotted her. She was leaning on a tree, and she seemed to be deep in concentration. Max smiled.
"We've got a little help." Max pointed at Angie Lee.
Michael nodded and smiled, too, then he looked back at the oncoming vehicles.
"But what happens when they get here and they see they're not real, Max?"
"I don't know," Max said. "But she's giving us some time. Let's take advantage of it."
Max and Michael fired two power surges at one of the more aggressive tanks, blowing its treads off and bending its turret into a right angle. Without waiting for the other tanks to recover, they took aim at another tank, with similar results. By this time, several of the Cobra helicopters had turned back around to face Max and Michael, but what the Cobra pilots saw were several dozen Maxes and Michaels. Two of the Cobras fired, scoring direct hits on two of the Maxes. But like the pickup trucks coming over the hill, the Maxes hit by the missiles were unhurt.
"They missed?" Michael said, dumbfounded. He looked over at Max and suddenly saw all the other Maxes. Looking to the other side, he then saw his own doubles. Michael smiled and saluted, and several of his doubles smiled back and returned the gesture.
"Cool! Now let's just hope they don't accidentally hit the real us, Max," Michael said. "Somehow I don't think we're as durable as our doubles out there seem to be."
The word seemed to be getting around among the tank commanders and Cobra pilots that their attackers might only be smokescreens meant to distract them from their mission. However, there was the eerie problem of the tanks with bent turrets and the treads blown off. The commander decided that this could have been done remotely by "alien powers unknown and persons not immediately present, probably someone who was still inside one of the homes," and he ordered the pilots and tanks to concentrate on the homes again and ignore the apparitions. This was a mistake.
The pickup trucks, other vehicles, and SUV charged onto the reservation en masse in a scene that must have looked like Custer's last stand, and Max and Michael could now see that each vehicle was packed with Mesaliko Indians. Apparently, not all of the vehicles had been merely apparitions. The intent of the "invaders" quickly became obvious, as everything from rifles to bows and arrows, spears, and rocks rained down on the tanks, causing some damage, but not significantly. It did, however, distract the tanks and Cobras from the homes once more, and they turned once again to fire at the oncoming vehicles.
There was a problem now, however. Previously, the Mesaliko vehicles had been far away, and it had been a simple matter to fire on them. But now they were all over the place in among the tanks. Any shot fired by a tank would very likely take out another tank beside it, even if it also destroyed the Mesalikos' vehicle.
The tanks spun their turrets around and around continuously but futilely, following the circling Mesaliko vehicles but never able to fire on them. The Cobra pilots, too, were frustrated, finding their hands tied as long as the Mesalikos had their vehicles in among the tanks. The damage being done to the tanks by the Mesalikos was minimal, but with each new pass, it added up. After a short time, several of the tanks had been disabled, mostly due to having their treads damaged or jammed or their turrets jammed. In one spectacular instance, a Mesaliko managed to throw a well-aimed bottle of Jack Daniels with a lighted rag stuck in it down the barrel of a tank turret, and the resulting explosion split the barrel apart like an opening rose bud.
The SUV pulled up alongside Max and Michael, and the window rolled down.
"Could you guys use a ride?"
"Sheriff? …Kyle? What the…" Max looked inside and noticed that Amy was there, too, as well as two or three Mesalikos. One of them was Gray Hawk.
Max motioned for Alex and the others to come, and he ran to get Liz himself, setting her in the vehicle beside Amy. Maria jumped in on the other side of Amy and put her arms around her mother.
"You always did know when it was time for me to come home, Mom."
Amy smiled and kissed Maria, nodding… "And don't you forget it!"
Max turned to Gray Hawk. "We thought you had been captured or killed trying to get back to your house."
"Mmm… I would have been… maybe," Gray Hawk said. "But Kyle found me and warned me. Together, we warned some of the other Mesalikos in town, and they warned their families and others on the reservation. So everyone was able to escape before the trouble started… except you. I am sorry that you were not warned. They did not know that you were in my home. I wanted to come back, but I was unable to get in… so Kyle suggested this instead."
"Kyle suggested an attack on army tanks?"
Kyle smiled slightly and slid down a bit in his seat.
Max laughed. "Kyle! What about Buddha?"
Everyone laughed.
"It's okay, Kyle," Michael said, "We won't tell."
"Gray Hawk!" Kyle said sheepishly, "Next time you're spreading that peyote dust around so the ancestors won't see…"
"Shhhhh…" Gray Hawk put one finger to his lips.
"Save a little for me, too, okay? I think I'm going to need it… with these two loud mouths around."
Max and Michael both snickered.
Jim turned the SUV around and headed back towards the gate, just outside of which the Evanses and Whitmans were still waiting, having been convinced by Jim that it would be dangerous for everyone involved if they came in, too, at this time. However, the SUV didn't make it far. As they started for the road to the gate, a missile from one of the Cobras exploded about thirty feet in front of them. Fortunately, the Cobra had not scored a direct hit, but even so, the resulting damage to the vehicle was catastrophic. The hood was peeled back, and a number of engine components were heat fused together. The SUV was clearly at the end of its road.
The Mesalikos, including Gray Hawk, jumped out and immediately began to fire on the Cobra with their old rifles. The Cobra, in turn, opened fire with its machine guns, strafing Gray Hawk and one of the other Mesalikos across the chest with machine gun fire. Both men fell to the ground, fatally wounded. Max and Michael jumped out of the vehicle on opposite sides, and two power bolts surged from their hands in the direction of the Cobra. It was a good hit. The rotor blades peeled upward, and the tail broke off. The helicopter hit the ground hard, knocking both the pilot and his gunner unconscious.
Max rushed to Gray Hawk. He wasn't breathing. Max quickly stripped off Gray Hawk's shirt and held one hand over his chest. A greenish glow appeared under Max's hand, and slowly, the bullet wounds in Gray Hawk's chest began to disappear. Gray Hawk opened his eyes. Max then moved to the other wounded Mesaliko and took care of his wounds the same way.
Not far away, the news truck was still filming. It had recorded the missile strike that had disabled the SUV, and now it was recording a moving, human moment, as Max bent over the second Mesaliko…
"Move in closer… closer…" Diane implored the cameraman. "Focus on his hands. A little closer… That's it! Yes! Yes! That's it… Omigod!"
There was a pause, as Diane caught her breath and watched.
"They're… His wounds are disappearing. He's healing him. That man was dead… or at the very edge of death… and now he's… He's getting back up again… Does anyone have any idea at all what this could mean… for all of us… for the world?" Diane turned and faced the camera, her voice shaking with emotion, yet in spite of this, still appearing every bit the consummate professional. "People, I'm telling you, you can live your lives with your heads stuck in the ground… and die like that… or you can open your minds to the real possibilities of a much, much brighter world for all of us. But we'll never see it if the idiots attacking this reservation today… and whoever is leading them… have their way. Do something… whatever you can do. Call your Congressman. Call your Representatives. Flood Washington with emails and faxes. But do it now! Insist on change that will end this stupid, stupid paranoia… before it is all too late. I beg you! There is so much that we can learn from these people… whoever they are… You could be the ones who will decide whether or not we ever get that chance. Call now! Don't wait another minute! Make sure your Congressman or Congresswoman is watching this. There may never be such an opportunity in our lifetimes again. Don't let it slip away. Insist on an immediate stop to the terrible travesty that you're seeing here today."
As Diane implored her viewers to act, Max and Michael were searching for any possible way for the passengers of the SUV and himself to escape now that they once again had no transportation and were faced with imminent attack from the Cobras. It appeared to be the end of the road. There were at least thirty Cobras in the area now, and every one of them was paying total attention to Max and his small group. Max thought briefly of knocking out a few more. He and Michael could have done it. But the end result would have been all too predictable. Everyone in the SUV… including Liz… would have died. That was totally unalterable.
Max made his decision. "It's us they want, Michael. I'm giving myself up. Maybe I can save Liz and the others."
"Max, No!" Liz yelled, but Max knew what he had to do. Michael put his hand down, and the glow in his palm subsided slowly. He walked over beside Max. "We're in this together, Max… to the end."
Both of them put their hands over their heads and walked out into the open, as far away from the vehicle as possible, to draw the attention of the Cobra pilots away from the others. It was mere moments before a team of commandoes was on the scene. They pushed Max and Michael to the ground and, with a booted foot on each one of their backs, tied and handcuffed them. It wouldn't have mattered. Had they wanted to, Max and Michael could have made short work of these commandoes, even tied up as they were… but then everyone would have died. They could not avoid all the missiles of thirty Cobra helicopters. This was the only way.
Max knew what would become of him and Michael. He felt a lot of regret for Michael, but Michael had made the choice to join him. Max just hoped that now that they had him and Michael, maybe… maybe… they would lose interest in Liz and the others. He might have been too optimistic. But the question never had to be answered, because once again, the helicopters all mysteriously turned away and flew off toward the hills. The leader of the commandoes spent a few moments on his walkie talkie with someone, then all but two of the commandoes hastily jumped back into their humvees and left without any explanation.
Michael looked over at Max, as they lay there on the ground, still tied up and now guarded by only two young commandoes and no helicopters.
"I'm starting to get a rejection complex, Max," Michael said, as he spit dirt out of his mouth and tried to wipe the sweat off his brow with his shoulder. "I wonder what's giving them all wedgies now?"
"I couldn't even guess," Max said, turning his head wearily back toward Michael and spitting out the dirt that had accumulated in his own mouth when his face had been stomped into the ground. "And I was just starting to look forward to a vacation at Club Med 51." Max chuckled a bit at his own sarcasm, then he touched a small wound at the edge of his forehead, healing it and stopping the bleeding. "Something must have scared them more than us. That's all I can think."
"Got to be," Michael agreed, eyeing the two young commandoes, who seemed to be paying much too much attention to something unseen just over the hill and not enough to their prisoners. The young commandoes realized their mistake too late; before they knew what had happened, Michael and Max had the ropes and handcuffs off of themselves and on the commandoes, who found themselves lying on the ground on their stomachs at the mercy of their former "prisoners."
Jim and Amy, together with Kyle and Gray Hawk, were quickly at Max and Michael's side and worked feverishly to help them tie up their former guards. They did a very thorough job. Unlike Max and Michael, it appeared almost certain that the commandos would not be escaping on their own. Unguarded now, and with no other commandoes or helicopters in sight, Max and Michael gathered everyone together and began a fast-paced hike in the direction of the reservation entrance, with Max carrying Liz in his arms.
But as they reached the old dirt road that led out of the Reservation, a spray of machinegun fire crisscrossed the path in front of them, and, suddenly, they were surrounded by a group of heavily armed soldiers who had been hiding in the brush on either side of the road. The soldiers had been placed there to prevent any more vehicles, especially ones of the news variety, from getting onto the Reservation while the "operation" was in progress. Max looked at the soldiers around him cautiously then at Michael. Both of them realized immediately that if they defended themselves, someone with them was going to die. Max still had Liz in his arms, and twenty AK-47's were aimed at both of their hearts. Max swallowed and stood there. Michael's hands were literally glowing with a low energy, but he didn't raise them or allow it to show. Instead, he looked at Max for advice, something he was not accustomed to doing. Max breathed deeply. There was nothing to be said… at the moment. If these guys were as careless as the two who had been guarding them before, they might have a chance to escape… later. Max only hoped that that would be the case.
One of the soldiers was already on his walkie talkie, and within minutes, a Humvee drove up with two special agents and three more armed soldiers in it. Max and Michael both recognized the agents in the Humvee. They didn't know their names, but they had seen them both with Judge Lewis.
"Well, well, well, well, well…" the agent in the front seat, who was obviously in charge, said, stepping out of the Humvee and keeping his eyes glued on Max and Michael in particular in case either one decided to do something rash.
"You two have given me quite a lot of grief." He looked at Isabel then at Maria. "You two have, too. I guess you're looking forward to going back to your old quarters in Area 51."
"Not really," Isabel said, defiantly. "To tell you the truth, the guest amenities sucked."
"Aw… now what kind of gratitude is that, Miss Isabel Evans," Culpepper quipped. "Free room and board at government expense… free medical care…"
Isabel snorted. "Medical care? We'd have been dead because of you before anything else…"
"That's no way to talk to your former benefactors, Miss Evans."
"I'll pass on your beneficence, thank you," Isabel said. "And you can keep your little time share apartment in Area 51.
"Me, too… I pass, too," Maria said, agreeing with Isabel.
Michael looked at Max then shrugged at the agent. "Hey, I guess it's unanimous. Sorry, man. Better luck selling it to the next group."
Culpepper smiled sullenly, but behind the smile he seemed to seethe with a deep and angry resentment.
"Well, actually, guys, that's alright. You see… 'cause none of you are going to be going back."
Max and Michael looked at each other. Both of them recognized the ominous nature of that statement. Culpepper was not likely to have had a religious conversion overnight and decided to be a nice guy and release them. If he said they would not be going back…
"You can't just shoot us out here," Alex said, obviously understanding, too. "There's a news crew filming this… and airing it live… right down the road there."
Culpepper looked at the news team down the road. They were indeed filming what was going on as they spoke. He smiled.
"Haven't you even wondered why I haven't kicked that news crew off the Reservation yet? Hasn't anyone wondered? You think I'm just letting this go out over the air?" Culpepper laughed. "You're more stupid than I thought. Nothing they're filming is going anywhere. We've been blocking their signal since the very beginning. Trust me. No one knows. No one is going to know."
"They know," Isabel said, indicating the news team.
"And who'll believe them?" Culpepper smirked. "This was all just an unfortunate training accident. Some guy punched the wrong coordinates into his GPS device. Besides, I haven't decided yet whether that crew is going to be a co-statistic or not. Accidents happen, Miss Evans, when you're not where you should be."
Isabel swallowed.
"Don't worry, Miss Isabel, I'm not going to shoot you… as enjoyable as that prospect might be to me. You're all going to be one of the unfortunate statistics I was referring to."
"What do you mean," Maria asked.
"He means we're going to appear to have been killed accidentally," Jim said, watching Culpepper carefully for any opportunity to change their situation. At the moment, that was clearly impossible.
"Very good," Culpepper said with a touch of sarcasm in his voice. "All of you are going back to where you were hiding before. Then the house is going to be hit by an errant missile."
"Maybe we weren't ever in one of these houses," Alex said.
"Does it matter?" Culpepper asked. He motioned to the soldiers, and they started to grab each of the friends by the arms. As they did, several of the soldiers looked past Culpepper, gasped, and jumped back. Culpepper turned around to see what had startled his soldiers. Behind him stood a small army of about fifty soldiers with their weapons aimed at him and his squadron. Culpepper stared at the new soldiers for several moments. Neither side spoke. Then Culpepper turned back around and looked at the group of friends. Angie Lee had her eyes closed and appeared to be concentrating. Culpepper took out a pistol, aimed it, and fired one shot. Angie Lee fell, and the new soldiers all vanished. As Angie Lee went down, Gray Hawk let out a howl more like that of an animal in pain than a human.
"Problem solved," Culpepper said coldly to his own soldiers. "Now take them to one of the houses… I don't care which house… tie them up, and lock them in. Make sure they can't get out."
Maria broke away and ran to Angie Lee, who lay on the ground bleeding from the center of her chest. As she held Angie Lee's head in her arms, Angie Lee closed her eyes and stopped breathing.
"Bastard!" Isabel said, spitting the word out venomously. "I hope you die a terrible death."
"You won't live to see it, Miss Evans. She should have given her soldiers the proper operational pins on their lapels. She gave them the same pins my soldiers have… and I knew they weren't my soldiers."
"You're inhuman," Isabel said. "Were you born without a conscience or did you work on it all your life?"
"Let's just say I've perfected it, Miss Evans."
Isabel nodded. "That's the first thing you've said that I have absolutely no argument with."
Several soldiers kept their AK-47's aimed at Max and Michael's hearts… and at Liz, who was still in Max's arms… as the others attempted to restrain the rest of the group. They seemed to realize that the greatest danger to them would come from Max and Michael, and they took great care to prevent any effort Max or Michael might make to defend themselves or the group. But the attempts to restrain the others did not turn out to be a piece of cake either. Jim flattened the first one that came close to him, and Gray Hawk, for all his seventy plus years, sent another one flying backwards against a rock, knocking him out. The two younger Mesalikos with them fought bravely, but several bullets fired into their legs stopped their struggling. The soldiers rolled them over and handcuffed them. Gray Hawk knocked out two more soldiers before he, too, was shot in the leg. But even down on the ground, he continued to fight, almost tearing off the leg of one soldier who got too near him before he was completely restrained. After Angie Lee was shot, Gray Hawk seemed to lose whatever self-control he had once had. He fought as though it were the end of the world and he had nothing left to lose. Kyle and Alex both managed to cause some serious damage to those who were attempting to restrain them, and Amy probably would have escaped or been shot if she hadn't eventually reluctantly given herself up in the hopes of preventing more harm to the others. None of the soldiers really wanted to take her on after they saw what happened to the first one. In the end, the battered soldiers did manage to restrain everyone, with their AK-47's, and the prisoners were loaded into waiting Humvees and driven to one of the empty Mesaliko homes.
"What do you want us to do with her," one of the soldiers asked, motioning toward Angie Lee's body, which still lay on the side of the road. Culpepper looked at it and thought for a moment.
"Leave it there. She got shot. Accidents happen. She got caught in the middle of a training operation."
"What about the news crew," the second agent asked.
Culpepper winced slightly then nodded. "They could be a problem. Round them up. Put them in the house with the others. They were getting their last interview when the house got blown up."
The second agent grinned.
"Get one of the Cobras back over here," Culpepper said to the commander of his group of soldiers. "Tell them we have one more house to blow up."
"I think all the Cobras were called away," the commander said.
"I know that," Culpepper said dryly. "But we're taking care of that other matter already… the fighter jets are on it. Call one of the Cobras back here. Take care of our little matter now. One less Cobra over there isn't going to matter."
"Yes, sir."
**********
Twenty-eight miles away, two squadrons of fighter jets, hastily scrambled from the base minutes before, were headed in the direction of the Mesaliko Reservation. The reservation, however, was not their target. The fighter pilots had a beautiful day to fly. The day was warm and clear, and the sky was blue, with only a few wispy white clouds, except for the smoke from the burning Mesaliko homes in the distance. Visibility was optimal, especially up in the sky. The pilots scanned the horizon and checked their radars…
"I've got him!" one of the pilots yelled excitedly. "He's due south… turning now a bit to the east."
"Roger that, Blackbird," a second pilot shouted. "I see him, too. Let's go get him!"
Several miles ahead of the fighter jets, Rahn turned his spacecraft in the direction of the Reservation. Rahn's craft was not armed, but numerous systems onboard could be used as weapons by a resourceful alien… and Rahn was nothing if he was not resourceful.
After Maria told Rahn where she had seen his spaceship, he had sneaked out of the house. No one had paid any attention to the tiny bird flying over the base… in fact, no one had even noticed as it flew into the tunnels or as it perched under the ship. They certainly paid a lot of attention, though, when the ship suddenly came to life and began to rise then emitted a magnetic shock wave that shattered the ceiling of the tunnel, allowing it to escape into the bright blue sky above. Alarms had gone off all over the base, phone calls had been hastily made, the Cobras had been recalled, and the tanks –those that could still move after the Mesalikos' attack- had been ordered repositioned in the hills. Every effort was now on recapturing or destroying the escaped ship. The "alien suspects" at the Reservation were all but forgotten for the moment except by Culpepper and his group.
From his altitude, Rahn could now make out the Reservation up ahead. He had skirted around the hills, successfully avoiding all the tanks. The helicopters had been ordered to allow the jets to go ahead of them, which made sense, since the jets were considerably faster. The helicopters were to form a second wave of attack. Rahn's ship was considerably faster than either the fighter jets or the helicopters, but he would not be able to take advantage of that speed if he stopped to help his friends at the Reservation… and that was his intent.
"Gaining on target now," the first jet pilot said. "He's slowing down. Twenty seconds… eighteen… fifteen… ten… eight… five… two… one…" Two missiles streaked into the blue sky headed toward the spaceship. At the last moment, Rahn turned his ship up on its side, and the missiles streaked by on either side of the ship, missing it by a scant few feet. Rahn flipped the ship back level again and reversed its direction suddenly, a maneuver that would have been impossible for a jet or even a helicopter. It took the jet pilots by surprise, and they streaked by the spaceship right behind their missiles. By the time the jet fighters came about, the spaceship was nowhere to be seen. Rahn had taken it straight up about a thousand feet, just out of their range of vision. For several minutes, no one knew what had become of the craft. Then a pilot from Delta Squadron spotted it just above the wispy white clouds.
"Uh, Alpha Squadron… target is in sight. Suggest you look up."
"Who is that?" Blackbird asked.
"Condor here. I'm three hundred meters above you, Blackbird… with Delta Squadron behind me. Target is in sight. I'm on him."
The pilot locked onto the ship, then two more missiles streaked through the clouds. Rahn was still watching the jets below him and had not yet noticed the higher-flying squadron above. He noticed it just in time to flip his ship on its side again. The first missile flew by the belly of the ship, missing it by about two feet. The second missile cleared the top of the ship by mere inches.
"What does that guy have… eyes in the back of his head," Condor mused… in a decidedly unamused tone.
Rahn leveled his ship off again and dropped a thousand feet straight down.
"Where did he go?" Condor asked. "Do you see him now, Blackbird?"
"No," Blackbird responded. "I'm behind you now. I think he's down on the deck again. He's toying with us."
"He's good," Condor said. "I'll give him that. Why do you think he's hanging around? He could be gone in that thing in the wink of an eye."
"Maybe he wants to rescue his friends down there," Blackbird said.
"On the Reservation?"
"Yeah. He's got a crew down there or something."
There was silence for several moments.
"I think we need to position him where we want him, Blackbird… stop letting him lead us."
"What you got in mind?"
"I'm going to fire a missile into one of those houses down there… You think that'll get his attention?"
Blackbird smiled. "I'll be there to take him out."
"Roger that, Blackbird. You read my mind. I'm heading down."
Condor rolled his plane over and streaked toward the Reservation with the rest of Delta squadron following close behind him. Meanwhile, Blackbird, with Alpha Squadron, circled around to take Rahn by surprise when he came down to defend the Reservation and his friends.
A missile streaked from Condor's jet, and one of the remaining Mesaliko homes went up in a brilliant fireball of splinters and flames. Rahn could not help but notice. He quickly rolled his ship onto its side and dropped down to the level of the attacking planes. Blackbird came up behind Rahn and locked a missile onto the spacecraft, but Rahn was expecting him. A sudden surge of anti-gravity from the spaceship caught the missile and its sender in its field, and both the missile and the plane flamed out. The missile fell to the ground and exploded in the desert outside the reservation, and Blackbird bailed out of his disabled plane just before it crashed, as Condor watched, swearing under his breath.
Before Condor realized what had happened, Rahn had disappeared again and reappeared behind him. Condor realized it too late. A brief burst of anti-gravity disabled Condor's fighter jet, and another parachute floated down, as another jet dove into the ground.
Beneath this dogfight, a lone Cobra helicopter approached the Mesaliko Reservation. The pilot was in communication with Agent Culpepper as he approached.
"Which house is it? I just saw one go up. Was that the one?"
"Negative, Cobra Nine. It's the one just to the east… next door to the one the jet just blew up… I want this one to go up big… very big… understand?"
"Big is my specialty, sir. The day I can't put on a better show than one of those jet boys… Hey, you can count on me!"
"I am," Culpepper said, hanging up the mike and smiling. "Believe me, I am."
The Cobra leveled off and took aim at the house that Max and the others were in, arming four of its missiles for maximum effect. Rahn, meanwhile, was taking his ship back up higher, passing through several layers of wispy, white clouds. As he emerged above the clouds, something that he had not seen coming struck his ship hard, sending it into an uncontrollable spin. It began to tumble… then to fall apart. The number two pilot of Delta Squadron, hanging out above the clouds, had got a lucky break.
"I got him! I got him! Wingman One here! I got him! Look at that son of a bitch tumble end over end! He's going down hard! …Geez! That saucer's gotta be two hundred feet across. I wouldn't want to be under that thing when it hits the ground! It's gonna make one hell of an explosion and bonfire!"
"I see him!" another pilot yelled excitedly. "He's falling past us now! His ship's disintegrating… Half of it's gone already! It's on fire!"
"Woo hoo! Look at him go down," a third pilot yelled, joining in the excitement. But just as suddenly as it had started, the merriment ended. There was a brief moment of silence. Then Wingman One came back…
"What happened? He stopped falling. He's leveling off again. The fire's gone out."
"I see it," the second pilot, who was at the lower altitude, said, "but I don't believe it. There's no way that thing could fly. Half of it's gone! It's not airworthy… even for a damned UFO!"
"Well, it's doing it," Wingman One said. "He's rising again." There was a brief pause. "Uh, was the sky supposed to get overcast today, Delta Three?"
"No," the second pilot responded. "S'posed to be sunny and clear all day."
"Well, it's getting damned dark up here. Either the sky's getting overcast or we're havin' a frikkin' unreported eclipse… som… bu… s…"
Wingman One's communications began to break up.
"What's going on up there, Wingman One?"
"Sssss… Big… Oh, ssss crap…" Wingman One's radio went to static.
The last thing Delta Three was able to make out in Wingman One's communication before it broke off completely was, "My God!"
tbc
Coming Next: Just Dropping in
(To See What Condition Your Condition Was In)