Clones vs. Aliens (15 page)

The cannons, powered by air pressure, were now completely stopped up. When the Gemini drone went to deploy the next round of cranberry ammunition, the cannons instead
backfired.
The center of the float burst open, dousing the drone in red berry sauce. The fake Principal
Teed, drenched in red, let out a frightening roar. He took two long strides and a running leap from the side of the float into the crowd.

Then he was simply gone. He had merged with the crowd of panicked onlookers instantly—maybe even shape-shifting as he went.

The thought gave Fisher the chills.

Fisher picked himself up from the ground. The crowd was still scattering, pushing and shoving to escape the cranberry barrage. The few remaining spectators were staring over Fisher’s shoulder with horrified looks on their faces.

Fisher turned to see why and nearly froze solid himself.

The Gemini had taken on a new form.

Four giant turkeys were clomping down the street, the ground trembling beneath their massive claws.

Each turkey was roughly the size of a sedan. The poultry moved together, quickly, black eyes gleaming with malice.

“It was only a matter of time,” Amanda said. “The Gemini don’t like it when their plans get messed up. We’ve made ourselves a threat, and they’re coming after us.”

“Fisher!” Alex cried. He had snatched the binoculars from Fisher’s hand and was peering through them. “The Gemini’s shuttle is completely unguarded. Now’s our chance to get close!”

“Okay,” Veronica said, taking a deep breath. “Alex, you and Amanda go get that scan done. Fisher and I will distract the turkeys.”

Alex and Amanda dashed off toward the end of the parade, leaping over splintered police barricades and ducking through the dispersing crowd, giving the massive, lumbering turkeys a wide berth.

The Gemini were going all-out now. Fisher wasn’t sure
why they were causing such havoc in the parade—what did they have to gain? But he had a feeling this was just a test. They were testing how people reacted to them. They were seeing how much they could get away with. The kids had interfered with their test, and now the Gemini were coming to get them out of the way. Alex and Amanda had escaped their notice for now, but they had Fisher and Veronica dead in their sights.

“We’re at the shuttle,” came Amanda’s voice in Fisher’s ear. “We need twenty seconds! Over!”

One turkey had zeroed in on Fisher. He sidestepped one way, then the other, before diving left, like an asteroid being yanked into a new path by Jupiter. The turkey lunged down, its beak pecking the street so hard it cracked. It missed Fisher by inches.

A scattering of applause rose up from the remaining crowd. Fisher realized that they must think this was
planned
—a kind of stage combat spectacular.

Veronica rolled under the legs of another as it swept toward her, coming up on her feet just in time to duck under a second one’s head swipe.

“Fifteen. Over,” Amanda said.

Fisher ran in circles around one mammoth bird as it aimed talon slashes at him. He jumped over one claw, hit the ground hard, and rolled underneath a second. Veronica jumped to the side as the two birds chasing her both
lunged simultaneously. Their hive mind kept them from colliding, but the complex dodge they had to execute was enough to give Veronica a moment to breathe.

“Ten,” Amanda said.

Two turkeys were bearing down on Fisher. He looked from one to the other rapidly, then made a dash and grabbed one’s leg, wrapping himself around it. It kicked hard. Fisher felt like his insides were being rearranged, but he clung as tightly as he could and the bird couldn’t dislodge him. The other one aimed a peck at him but only hit his side on the wing.

“Five,” Amanda said.

Fisher clutched the turkey’s leg for all he was worth. Veronica hit one of hers in the side of the foot, tripping it.

“Got it!” Amanda said.

“RUN!” Fisher bellowed. The turkey’s next kick hurled him through the air and straight into the “feathery” embrace of the Terence the Towering Turkey float, which was still being driven by the real, and very confused, Principal Teed. Veronica sprinted full tilt between the four mega-turkeys, turning her suit to a dull black to lose them. The Gemini turkeys, having lost their prey, trotted back toward the shuttle, disappearing behind the network of vast floats still clogging the street. Seconds later, eight girls emerged, resuming their position at the top of their shuttle as though nothing had happened.

Big cheers went up from the crowd. Everyone had loved the show. Even though he was shaking, Fisher took a little bow, forcing a smile on his face, trying to maintain the impression that this had all been planned.

The parade limped to its end, dinged, and mostly covered in cranberry sauce but still intact. The bewildered kids on the floats looked exhausted, and the marching band had long ago stopped playing. Little bits of float decorations lay scattered along the route like battlefield wreckage. Which it basically was.

Fisher took another look around to make sure the floats were all accounted for. They all were, save one. The shuttle, and the Gemini, had disappeared.

“We got a complete scan,” Alex said, sliding the device into his pack. “Let’s hope this is all we need to get the Gemini ship up and running again.”

“Let’s pray,” Fisher said, brushing a few red specks of cranberry from his sleeve. “They’ve changed their tactics. They’re not interested in sneaking around anymore. They’re causing chaos, panic. We’ve got to get them off Earth before things get any worse and they begin to cause real damage. I think the parade was them flexing their muscle a little to see if anyone caught on to what they really are. Nobody did. What few people stuck around till the end of the parade were too busy cleaning up to even notice they’d gone.”

“I agree, that was probably just a test,” Veronica said. “To see how much they can get away with. Unfortunately”—her blue eyes flashed a stormy color—“it looks like they can get away with quite a lot.”

“They’re moving to another phase of their plan,” Alex said darkly.

“We need backup,” Amanda said.

“We need Mason,” Fisher said. “I can’t believe he hasn’t shown up.”

“He didn’t answer last night,” Alex said. “And he hasn’t returned my message.”

Fisher and Alex scowled at the ground, which their basically identical appearance made sort of comical.

“That’s not like him,” Fisher said, feeling a little dejected. Agent Mason always came through for them when they were in a pinch. Didn’t he realize that they wouldn’t call unless it was an emergency? “The fate of humanity is at stake and he isn’t even in his office?”

Veronica laughed suddenly, snorting a bit. “You guys called his
office
?”

“Yeah, how come?”

Looking at Fisher and Alex as though
they
were the aliens, she sighed. “Even FBI Agents have cell phones, nimrods.”

“His
what
?” Fisher and Alex said in perfect unison, looking back up.

Veronica sighed, pulling out her phone. She looked up a number in a few seconds.

“Agent Mason?” she said after a moment. “This is Veronica Greenwich. Fisher and Alex have been trying to reach you.… Yes, that’s what I told them.… I know! For geniuses they can be so absentminded sometimes.”
She chuckled. Fisher stared dumbly at Alex and got the same dumb stare right back.

“He’s been a little busy putting down a mutant snake rebellion in Arizona,” Veronica said, hanging up. “But now that he knows we need his help, he’s on his way.”

Alex made a call to the MORONS base, asking to be picked up and taken back to the compound. A beat of silence passed as they all gloomily waited, and considered what might happen next. Fisher felt the weight of the situation settle onto his shoulders like a soaked wool blanket.

“Well, that’s some good news, at least,” Amanda said with a sigh. “Until Mason gets here, let’s get our findings back to the super-villain who’s trying to save the world.”

“Yeah,” Alex said, rolling his eyes. “And grab him a sandwich so he doesn’t destroy it by accident.”

A black SUV pulled up to the curb, and they boarded it in silence. They drove off to the NASA compound. It took some convincing, but they were able to talk the driver into making a quick stop at Fisher’s favorite sandwich shop on the way. The Reuben on a hero roll was roughly the size of a shoebox. Fisher hauled it back to the car along with a big bag of chips for everyone else. They’d need the fuel for the work ahead.

Once again, they entered through the silo into the silent elevator. This time there was no dance lock. A blue glow pulsed off the walls as they at last emerged into the
maze of walkways and stairways cutting across the artificial cavern.

“Fisher,” Veronica said, leaning over the railing to look down into the open space. “Look at this.”

The light was coming from the ship. Seven or eight panels along the length of its hull had illuminated, and the rhythmic deep blue wash was eerily hypnotic.

This time, they skipped on the laundry chute and took the spiral escalator near the center of the cavern. On the cavern floor, Dr. X was working on the ship with two other scientists and a dozen techs, who scurried back and forth with a variety of brightly polished instruments.

“Welcome back,” Dr. X said, turning to greet them with a shallow grin. “I heard all about the parade antics on the news. The story going around had something to do with rampaging puppets.”

“The Gemini have given up on staying incognito,” said Alex. “They don’t seem to care who notices. We need to get them off this planet, stat.”

“It looks like you’re making progress here, at least,” Fisher said.

“Indeed,” Dr. X said, clasping his slender hands in front of his chest. Fisher waited for him to say more, but after a moment Dr. X cleared his throat and nodded to the plastic bag Fisher was holding. Fisher sighed and removed the paper-wrapped sub from the bag, handing it over.

The evil scientist unwrapped one end of the sandwich, inhaled deeply, and took a small bite. He chewed thoughtfully as Alex crossed his arms and Amanda started tapping her foot loudly.

“Excellent,” said Dr. X, swallowing. “This will do perfectly. Now then, to the ship. Main power systems are online. We still can’t get inside, however, but I dare say it should be space worthy before too much longer. Did you manage to track down the missing component portion?”

Alex set down his bag, opened it up, and pulled out the metal scanning device. “The missing
component
is a shuttle—and all of the data should be in here.”

Dr. X picked up the scanner, turned it over in both
hands, and checked a small readout on its side. “The scanner’s memory is full,” he said. “Assuming the shuttle wasn’t shielded in ways we can’t anticipate, we should be able to learn everything we need to know about the ship’s operating system.”