Waiting (22 page)

'Pull over,'
said Salamandra.

'What! And get
wiped out?' said Bridget.

'That would
have happened already if that's what they wanted. Stop.'

Another flash
of red laser power just missed the front of the vehicle and Bridget
stopped and turned off the engine. They sat holding their breath,
expecting a bolt of laser fire to end their lives at any second.
They dared to breathe when that didn't happen.

'Where are
they?' Staples said, checking out the buildings on either side
especially the rooftops. A moving shape down a side-street had him
aiming his rifle. The thin looking dog didn't look their way, but
carried her prize of a dead rat dangling from her mouth as she
vanished into the shadows.

From an
abandoned building a drone hovered towards them. Drones could have
many purposes, including carrying explosive devices. It was a tense
two minutes as it paused at each window, its camera sending back
images to the controller.

'I don't see
anything to kill us,' said Willis, as the camera lens stared at his
face.

A voice from a
speaker said just two words. 'Get out.'

'Best not
argue,' said Gunther, knowing any number of weapons could be
pointing at them from any hideout.

'No weapons,'
said Salamandra, stepping out. 'Hands in the air.'

They stood
unarmed, close together, the drone circling them like a mechanical
bird of prey. The controller, satisfied they carried no weapons,
recalled the drone. A minute later, a solitary man appeared, a
laser rifle in his hands. He was wearing the patchwork patterned
brown and green one piece uniform Salamandra's military people
wore.

Salamandra
said, 'My name is...'

'Silence.
Follow me.'

'Do you not
recognise me?'

'I said
silence. This way.'

With the rifle
at their backs they picked their way through the litter strewn
street then into a commercial building. A brazier burned in the
middle of a large storeroom, five men, none older than twenty-five,
standing around it, four armed. The unarmed man approached ignoring
all but Salamandra.

'This situation
intrigues me. You do not belong with these people. Explain.'

'I am
Salamandra.' This caused a buzz of excitement from the others, but
they didn't put down their weapons.

'Salamandra is
dead.'

Salamandra
laughed. 'Sorry. I never got that memo. But as you can see from my
battered face they were trying to kill me slowly.'

'You
escaped?'

'With the help
of these people. They are all considered traitors now because of
it. We go back, we all die.'

'My name is
Kahrish.' He waved at his men and they relaxed and put down their
rifles. 'Coffee?'

The sharing of
coffee was as much about acceptance as it was hospitality so
everyone drank coffee from chipped and battered mugs. They sat on
ripped and tattered furniture around the fire. Salamandra told them
what had been happening.

'And where from
here?' Kahrish asked.

'Changah,' said
Salamandra.

It was
Kahrish's turn to laugh. 'Changah the ghost. You know yourself he
can never be found.'

'You have a
map?'

One of
Kahrish's men quickly responded and placed the map on a tea-chest
and pressed the tip. A three-dimensional holographic plan spread
out from the device.

Kahrish said,
'Sadly, not updated. Much of this area here and here are levelled
and deserted.'

'Where is
Changah's last known hiding place?'

'Hmm. I
think...here. About two weeks ago.'

Salamandra
said, 'He'll have moved. Hmm. This area is a possibility. We need
to go there.'

'You will need
an escort to get there safely. Ready to go?'

'Take me to
your leader.'

Chapter 69

He could not
resist the temptation. But this was not just for himself. What he
experienced, the thousands of others he carried inside would also
experience. This was true of everything he did until such time as
the others had their own host and he was alone in his host. He
walked at a steady pace along the corridors then took the elevator
up three floors then along another corridor to the incubation
section. He was alone, save for the two thousand embryos in their
individual life-support chambers. It was a heart-warming sight even
though the heart was that of a human being.

Walking between
row upon row of chambers, he glanced down at many of them, taking
his time for the benefit of those he carried. He felt an excited
tingling inside him, as his kind viewed the embryos through his
eyes and his mind. It was almost as if they were selecting which
embryo would become their host, even though they looked almost
identical.

'Soon the
waiting will be over. Be patient.'

'Sam?'

He turned
around to find Sandy Beech walking towards him. He smiled his
friendliest human smile.

'Sandy. I'm
just checking everything is working as it should be.'

'I would have
called you or Mel Torville were it not.'

Clifton said,
'I know.' He leaned forwards to whisper even though they were
alone, at least when it came to the adults. 'I'll let you into a
secret. I get a warm fuzzy feeling whenever I come in here. Two
thousand babies. Well, soon to be babies. Does that sound
strange?'

Beech smiled
back and said, 'Not at all. I feel like I'm their surrogate mother.
Mind you, I'm glad we'll all be responsible for bringing them
up.'

'I'm sure
they'll still be a handful. In less than a year their growth will
be accelerated to normal and they will develop into healthy
babies.'

Beech looked
into Clifton's eyes. 'Is it you?'

Although she
said no more than that, it was enough to make Clifton react and she
knew she had guessed correctly.

'Is it me what,
Sandy?'

By way of an
answer, Beech said, 'We need to trust each other. We need each
other.'

He asked, 'And
it is you?'

Beech said,
'Go. You spending too much time in here will be suspicious. From
now on, I will call you in here only if we experience technical
problems.'

'Then you will
be our eyes and ears in here. I'll go now.' Clifton crossed the
incubation section and paused at the door. 'We must trust each
other.'

'Then do as I
say.'

The door slid
open and Clifton walked away.

Chapter 70

'I thought she
was making a recovery,' said President Sol Maxim.

Doctor Erika
Stein, headquarters head of the hospital facility had summoned
Maxim to her medical unit.

'Commander
General Loretti has succumbed to an infection. The antibiotics were
ineffective.'

'No hope for
her?' Maxim asked.

'Minuscule at
best. Highly unlikely, but miracles have been known to happen.
She's thinking her time has come, which is why she called for
you.'

'Is she still
conscious?'

'Yes. She
drifts in and out but she's lucid at the moment. Go on in.'

Maxim entered
the single recovery room. Loretti was hooked up to the machines and
a drip, but she looked a pale effigy of her normal feisty self. He
went to her side and she looked up at him. He sat and held her
hand.

'You're a
fighter, Trish. This is just one more fight.'

'No, Sol. Not
this time. I've no fight left in me. Don't worry. You are not here
to hear my confession. I'd need to live to a very old age to
confess everything.'

Sol said, 'You
just wanted somebody you knew by your side at this time. I'm here
now.'

'I'm dying. I
don't care if I'm alone or not when that happens. I called you here
to tell you something important, something I held back from you for
my own political ambitions. I now pass that information on to
you.'

Sol said, 'I
always knew you wished to usurp me one day. To be fair, you would
have always made a great leader. You are much stronger than I ever
could be.'

'I'll not
disagree. I was poised to take over, but not in the way you think.
The mission is...'

'The
Goliath?'

Loretti said,
'Yes. Sometime ago, during the peace, I was at the Base making sure
that Gunther was doing his job correctly. Like most men he is
barely able to look after himself, let alone something as important
as the mission.'

'Most of us are
pretty useless,' agreed Maxim. 'Go on.'

'While I was
there, we were getting radio signals from space on the Goliath's
frequency. As you know, that frequency is specifically for
communication between Earth and the Goliath. It was designed so
that it could not be intercepted by our enemy. At that time we
humoured them by having a token amount of their technicians in the
Base working alongside us. Naturally we didn't let them loose on
anything of a sensitive nature. Of course they questioned the
ability of the unit to keep out anyone else from listening in,
suspicious as to why we designed it that way.'

'What did you
tell them?'

Loretti said,
'Just some technical crap. I doubted they believed it. Anyway.
These signals were dismissed as old radio signals from our own
space exploration days bouncing around which had somehow interfered
with the main Earth Goliath signals. Efforts were made to filter
them out with only partial success. Everyone ignored them.'

'But not you.
You discovered something?'

'Yes,' said
Loretti. 'Everyone ignored those signals and concentrated on the
signals to and from the ship. I did the opposite and concentrated
on the interference when I could do so alone. I discovered
something I couldn't at first believe. They were not from any human
ship in the past.'

Maxim was
stunned. 'Are you saying those strange radio signals were from
people from another planet?'

'I'm saying
exactly that, Sol.'

'Perhaps I
should have your morphine drip checked out.'

'That will not
be necessary. Am I rambling? Am I coherent?'

Maxim admitted
she was still lucid. 'Ok. Continue.'

'I have limited
knowledge of radio technology, but eventually I made contact. These
people are at least our intellectual equals if not actually
superior. They are nothing like humans and can only exist by taking
over the body of another species. Any body they take over they
control their mind, leaving it with some reasoning ability, but
totally subservient. One affect their taking over has on the host
is to render it infertile. That is a constant. The bodies they were
in were getting old and dying.'

'They were
seeking replacements.'

'Yes. They had
intercepted the communications between Earth and the Goliath the
intended settling on Spero.'

Maxim sighed
and nodded. 'All their birthdays had come at once. Tell me. Why did
they reveal all this to you, a human? Didn't they think there was
at least a possibility you would warn the Goliath, not to mention
me?'

'They made me
an offer I couldn't refuse. They realised that their human hosts on
Spero would die of old age eventually and they would need to find
new hosts. Earth was their next logical choice.'

'So they cut
you a deal. You let them come here and take us all over, you would
be left as you are to be ruler of Earth?'

'Yes. Sol. If I
had refused, they would have come here anyway. This way I could
salvage something for myself.'

'I notice you
said salvage something for you, not the human race. So now those on
the Goliath will be taken over when they land?'

'Already done,
Sol. I found that out while I was in the Base. One of the crew of
the Goliath now carries their kind until they are ready to take
over the embryos. If you cooperate with them, you can perhaps make
the same deal for yourself as I did for me.'

So many
thoughts spun around Maxim's mind he felt dizzy. He was every bit
as ambitious as Loretti and the idea of being in charge of Earth
sharing control with these aliens had plenty of appeal.

'What should I
do?'

Loretti was
growing weaker and hardly had the strength to talk. 'You must
contact the Goliath from the Base. Incubation Technician Sandy
Beech is my agent on the ship so to talk to her first. She has the
same deal I have to not be taken over as a reward for helping them.
Contacting her is the only way.'

'Gunther and
the others have escaped. The Base is empty now.'

'Escaped?
Bridget?'

Maxim said,
'The report said she was alive when she escaped with Gunther and
Salamandra.'

'Salamandra? Of
course. Something you must know. Salamandra knows about the
aliens.'

'Impossible!
How the hell would he know?'

Loretti said,
'Because I told him. If he had joined me with the aliens, it would
have ensured the wars would end forever. He refused. You may need
to eliminate him.'

'My
pleasure.'

Plans and plots
were forming in Maxim's mind. He needed to get to the Base.
Urgently.

'Trish. You
should rest now. Trish? Trish?'

As he held her
hand, she had slipped away.

Chapter 71

It was a huge
responsibility to shoulder alone. Jacobs found Cormack alone in her
room.

Cormack said,
'Feeling in the mood for some tender loving care?'

Jacobs stepped
inside and kissed Cormack and told her, 'I am. But not quite the
way you are thinking.'

Cormack poured
them both a precious glass of red wine and they sat together.
'Anything I can help with?'

Jacobs savoured
the wine, letting it roll around his tongue. 'You know me to
be...sane. Medically speaking.'

'Like everyone
else. A little borderline. You are inclined to self-confidence
issues, not being comfortable in the leadership position, but other
than that you're probably the sanest one I know.'