Alien Caller (35 page)

“As such I know
I may have hurt some of you yesterday. My memories are still vague
but I remember throwing a few people aside far too roughly. And for
that I humbly apologise. It was never my intent to hurt you. Only
to get to Cyrea and then to escape.”

“If there is
anything I can do to make this up to any of you then please ask. I
will do whatever I can.” Cyrea had told him repeatedly he had no
reason to feel guilty, but he did. Especially when he looked at the
audience and knew how they had cringed with pain as they had
listened to his testimony. An apology was the least he could
give.

“There is no
need. You have committed no crime and your actions are his doing.
Please continue.” Ayn Lar spoke bluntly as he was prone to doing,
and David liked that in him. No bull, no subtle evasion or hint of
duplicity. He was a damn good officer and a fine man or Leinian. It
didn’t change his guilt, but it did refocus him on his
testimony.

“Thank you. As
I say, I may be a beast but he is evil.” He watched the doctor
shrink in shock in his chair across the room. Though in all
likelihood, it was only at being addressed in such a way by a mere
human.

“Doctor Roze
wanted knowledge. Pure and simple. To that end he was perfectly
prepared to risk murdering me, murdering humans. No matter how he
dresses it up with his fine words he believes his knowledge is more
important than my life. More important I suspect, than anyone’s
life, other than his own of course. Humans and probably Leinians as
well, are little more than research animals to him. But it goes
further than that. His knowledge was more important than Cyrea’s
happiness, and was also more important than your law.”

“It's sort of
ironic in a way. The doctor has called me a beast, trying to
bolster his own ego. But then he lost to the beast, and that’s what
truly hurts, isn’t it doctor?” The doctor shrank further in his
chair, and David knew with satisfaction that his words had hit
home.

“The doctor
also called me a beast to prejudice you against me. Because beasts
don’t have the same rights as people, therefore his crime seems
less. He uses your prejudice and your fear as his evidence.”

“But it’s a
lie.”

“What Doctor
Roze did was something that I would never do to another. It is
something no decent human being would do.” Save that he had met
other doctors in white coats who would do exactly the same thing.
Who had done far worse.

“By his insults
he implies that he is a civilized man, far above the crass beasts
of the field. A scholar in the finest traditions of science.
Intellectually superior. But what he actually is, is a criminal. He
is a psychopath, a man with no sense of empathy, no moral compass,
no regard for his victims, only what he can get from them.”

“Had I died it
would have meant nothing to him, other than perhaps the risk of
getting caught and being punished. Indeed, at the end, he tried to
kill me with the laser, not realizing that I expected something
like that from him. Then, when that failed he urged Cyrea to shoot
me, another great way to hide his crime. In that he is no different
to a common thief, or a bully. The only difference is that he uses
technology as his weapon, and that he believes himself above other
criminals.”

He turned and
stared the doctor directly in the eyes. “Bad news doctor. You’re
not.”

“To finish I
would only like to add one thing. I can forgive the doctor for what
he did to me. I’m angry, yes, and still very sore, but as he is in
the dock and Cyrea is unhurt, that’s enough for me. As such I will
gladly accept whatever judgement this court hands down.”

“But I will
neither forget nor forgive him for what he risked to Cyrea. If I
had died she would have been alone for the rest of her life. And
her last image of me would have been as a crazed lunatic, a threat
to her people, an image she would have carried to her grave, alone.
That is beyond acceptable. For risking her well-being he must pay.”
He watched the audience, fully a hundred Leinians, cringing in
their seats as they imagined life without their mates, and knew it
was another telling blow. The doctor though didn’t cringe and
instead just stared at him, perhaps wondering what he was talking
about. He didn’t understand the concept. It was just another
measure of how different he was from the rest of his people.

David thought
he was finished then, and made to stand up, but Ayn Lar shook his
head and he stayed seated. Cross examination was his only thought,
though thus far he’d seen precious little of that. Even the
defendant hadn’t been asked any questions other than to
explain.

But to his
surprise, he was asked nothing more. Instead Cyrea came out to
stand beside him, and there was a look of absolute determination in
her eyes, and a barely suppressed anger underneath. She stood
behind him, placing her hands on his shoulders, as she faced her
peers. The room went completely silent and David realised he wasn’t
the only one who was wondering what was going on.

“You have all
heard the crime and witnessed the criminal try to explain the
inexplicable. His guilt is certain, as is his inability to
understand it. But there is one thing you have not yet understood.
A single lesson you have not learned. It is time to learn it.” Her
voice was clear and certain, and unbelievable strong in that room.
David had no doubt everybody there heard every single syllable.

“This is my
mate, David Hill. He is not a second class citizen. He is not a
lesser creature who we have in our generosity accorded the rights
of a Leinian. He is most definitely not a creature we study in a
lab and dispose of when the experiment is over.”

“Rather he is a
man. A man of incredible courage and love. Of great decency and
nobility. One who offered his very life to save mine. A man I am
honoured to call my mate.”

“When you judge
Doctor Roze, I want you to remember that. His crime was not against
an alien. Not against a second class Leinian. Not against a lesser
creature of any sort. It was against a Leinian. A true Leinian, by
his very soul, by bond, and by right.”

Sensing that it
was over, and trying not to turn red, David stood up and took
Cyrea’s hand in his. Their part in this trial was over, and it was
time for them to leave. No doubt they would be advised of the
outcome in short order.

They walked
calmly out, trying to look as though they were both in control, but
really they weren’t. Cyrea was still trying to fight back the
anger, and David was simply trying to hold back the tears of pride
and joy that kept trying to come. It was a long walk back to her
cabin.

Chapter
Twelve

Four months
into the most enjoyable time of his life, David received the call
he had been dreading for six long years.

“Yeah.” The
phone had rung, typically in the middle of the night, and he
answered it still half asleep.

“Dimock escaped
at eight a.m. this morning,” a dry cool voice told him. Cold ran
down David’s spine at the mention of the name, and there was a gone
feeling in his guts.

“Shit!” He
wanted, needed to ask questions, but it was all that he could think
to say in his sudden horror. Typically, before he could even begin
to ask them, the receiver went dead in his ear with a click. He had
been told all he needed to be told. All he would be. It was
probably more than he should have been told.

David was
briefly angry at the caller. He desperately wanted to ask the most
fundamental questions like, why was he free? Had he really escaped
or had he been released again? Where had he been held? How much
stronger was he? And above all else, where was he now? He needed to
know so much more about the black hole his life had just fallen
into, but he knew he would get no more answers this day. And he
might not see the next one.

He was angry
with himself too. How could he have let this nightmare slip from
his thoughts for so long? How could he have let his normal security
precautions slip? How could he have been so lax? When Dimock was
out there, hunting him as always, how could he ever have allowed
his guard to slip, even for a second?

Then there was
the bitterness to deal with as he realized that his life of the
last three or four months was over. It had been a joy, a reward
greater than anything he had any right to expect, but it had always
been a lie. A vacation from the truth. All the while he had known
this lay in wait for him. Always. But now his paradise was gone,
perhaps, probably never to return and he was hurting.

One day he had
known Dimock would get loose and would come for him. He had always
known it. Somehow he had tried to forget it as he enjoyed his new
life. But now he knew it was something he could never forget. It
would always be there until one of them was dead.

He had no time.
He needed to get his thoughts into order. He quickly controlled his
anger and fear. Years of waiting for this single unending nightmare
told him that there was no time left for anything but to survive
and to protect Cyrea. The anger was wasted. Instead he knew he
should be grateful. It was better that this happen now when the
relationship was still new, rather than later when it could have
been much worse. When maybe he wouldn’t have had the strength to do
what he needed to do. When Cyrea, maybe wouldn’t have had the
strength to move on with her life without him.

If there was
one thing that David knew, it was that he was in serious trouble.
He was probably close to death. Dimock was loose and was coming for
him. He had already had at least eighteen hours to make his way
here. He could already be nearby. He could be at his door.

“Cyrea, wake
up.” There was no time to waste, and he quickly shook her awake,
far too roughly for his liking. Again he had no choice. He hated
being rough with her, but he knew her life as well as his could
depend on every second and he was frightened. To die was bad
enough, but to watch her die, and die the way Dimock would kill
her, that was beyond his ability to stand.

She roused
quickly, questioning him immediately about her forceful treatment
in the middle of the night, but he stalled her. He simply told her
the barest facts of the matter; that one very nasty piece of work
named Matthew Dimock was coming to kill him, and that she had to
leave immediately. The sense of danger and death in his words
brought her all the way back to consciousness and she started to
speak, to ask questions, to protest, but he stopped her dead again.
There was no time. She had to leave, and he told her so.
Bluntly.

Cyrea wanted to
object, wanted to ask questions. Above all she wanted to help, to
save him, but he knew she couldn’t. His decision was already made.
It had been made years earlier. As he told her, hating himself with
every word, she was his weakness. Alone and with careful
preparation, and luck he could take Dimock. But if Cyrea was there
he was doomed. She would be used as a hostage against him.

It was the
simple truth, but it wasn’t the whole truth. He knew it and he
suspected she did too. Deep down inside he knew he was unlikely to
survive. Very unlikely. He wasn’t afraid of death, and he could
even make it less painful and shorter than Dimock would want. But
he didn’t want to get Cyrea killed with him. That would be worse
than death.

Cyrea of course
disagreed, angrily, but it was not a choice. As he told her, if she
thought he was a nightmare in unarmed combat, Dimock made him look
like a pussy cat. He made a battalion look like a field of daisies
in front of a mower. He was faster, stronger, better prepared, and
above all, much crazier and more sadistic. He would use Cyrea
against him, and then he would kill them both. That couldn’t be
allowed.

When she kept
arguing instead of moving, David grabbed her, far too roughly,
dragged her up out of the bed and ordered her to dress. Then,
before she’d even finished, he practically threw her out of the
house, half naked, and ordered her never to come back until he came
for her. Always assuming he survived.

He told her to
get all her people ready for immediate departure, and to take as
many of the locals as they could with them. Empty the valley if
they could. It was the last thing he’d ever wanted to do. But he
had to. For their protection. They were targets for Dimock.
Possibly hostages against David but more likely just plain good fun
for him to kill. He knew she wouldn’t believe him, wouldn’t
understand the concept of a psychopath. Even other psychopaths
wouldn’t understand Dimock, and he shouted it at her a few more
times for good measure. Until she finally agreed to do as he said.
Though she clearly didn’t want to.

Perhaps she
might have gained some idea of how serious the danger was when he
broke open the secret weapon’s store in front of her, even as she
was still screaming at him and getting in the Jeep, his keys
already in her hands. The hidden trap door under the porch leading
down to a well concealed basement where he stored his most deadly
and highly illegal weapons must have come as a surprise to her.
Even in months of living with him and with the bugging of his
cabin, Cyrea clearly hadn’t known it existed and nor had her
people. Cyrea’s mouth dropped in surprise. It dropped even lower as
he started pulling out everything from rocket launchers to anti
tank weapons. One thing about being in the army, he was always
prepared.