Colonization (Alien Invasion Book 3) (25 page)

Cameron’s first stop had been with Nathan Andreus — the despot whose minions had nearly killed him and Piper on their way to Moab. Since that meeting, he’d crossed hostile land, along open roads, without so much tree cover for most of the trip, daring their airborne foes to challenge him.

Yes, walking directly into the enemy city’s beating heart at the end of that trek was stupid beyond belief.

But now he was in the city without a hint of harassment.

He still had the canister in his pack, despite the intense interest of those strange flying balls.

He was in the lion’s den and could be killed at any second. But hadn’t that been true from the start? Wasn’t that true, even now, every day, for the Moab lab?

They could jump out with drawn guns to take him.

Peacekeepers could appear and rip him apart with their teeth.

They could simply surround him and tell him to stop walking. That would be it for his mission. An end with no pomp, circumstance, or ceremony.

But around Cameron, there was nothing. Nothing at all.

He entered the city.

Nothing rose to stop him.

C
HAPTER
36

The alien signals inside Meyer’s mind were confusing. He couldn’t ever quite make sense of his soupy thoughts; now was no exception.

The Astrals all seemed to hive-think around him. Sometimes, he could catch their moods, but even the moods, now, seemed conflicted. Normally, it took the filter of Divinity — unseen archivists who never left the mothership — to turn all that messy Astral thought into something Meyer could understand. But even without collating and parsing, he could usually get a sense for how the Astrals were feeling.

And they did have emotion, contrary to what most humans thought. Meyer should know; he was there with their mind, absorbing it all.

They felt sympathy, though it was tempered by superior knowledge — like a parent might feel sympathy for a child even in the midst of administering discipline, for his own good.

They felt anger, though it was always blunted by logic.

They felt joy …
maybe
. Meyer could sense an emotion like pleasure, but it was like something seen far beneath a pond’s rippling surface.

There were even times when Meyer suspected the Astrals felt love.

And Meyer — slightly more evolved than his fellow humans even before this all began, certainly more evolved than nearly every human now — usually found he could sort it out in the end. He caught the scents of their thoughts, enough to feel the patterns. Even without Divinity’s help, he could spot their loudest edges, though the dots between were often muddled and harder to connect.

But not now. Now, discerning the thoughts and quiet emotions surrounding this standoff was so much harder.

Emotions were noisy as Meyer stood behind the Titan guards, watching a man he believed to be Cameron Bannister disappear behind the first row of buildings.

He could sense anger in them.

He could sense their worry that everything, despite careful planning, might not go correctly.

He could detect a slight fear of chaos — of the uncertain and unknown.

There was concern for those involved in this standoff, too. That was unusual. Meyer had never sensed remorse from the aliens because remorse carried the baggage of doubtful action. As far as he’d seen, the Astrals were never doubtful. Why would they care — even in their tiny, slight alien way — about doing the wrong thing (or having done the wrong thing) now?

Most perplexing of all, though, was the emotion Meyer could sense below all the shallower surface sentiments. It felt like the left-behind stink of burned toast in a recently used kitchen. He couldn’t even begin to name it. Something to do with Cameron Bannister — a man that Meyer, for one, had never met. For some reason, the Astral collective didn’t quite trust Cameron — not as a possible rebel, but in another, harder-to-define way. They also wanted to hurt him a little — not for logic, but for spite.

But Meyer’s thoughts dissolved as Cameron vanished into the city. He’d been certain the Titans would stop him. He’d been sure the Reptars would leap out and chase the man down before he exited the valley. But no, the standoff had ended without confrontation, and now Cameron Bannister was gone.

Meyer, feeling alien emotion as if it were his own, not pausing to understand his words, turned to the closest Titan and snapped, “You’re just going to let that motherfucker go? After what he’s done?”

The Titan smiled blandly, again holding up a single silver pearl.

“Go after him! Catch him!
Don’t you know who that is? Don’t you know what he did?”

The Titan continued to smile.

With Cameron gone, a gap formed between the Titans, apparently content to let Cameron get away with everything.

Meyer forced his way through the gap.

The Titans raised silent arms, shouting inside Meyer’s head from behind. But the viceroy was already off and running, and nobody was going to stop him.

C
HAPTER
37

The house guard communicator crackled in Raj’s ear. Seconds later, the viceroy’s shouts blasted into his head. Meyer sounded out of breath and nervous. Two things Meyer Dempsey never, ever was.

“Christopher!
Christopher, do you hear me?”

There was a beep.

“Yes, sir. I hear you.”

“Where are you?”

“At the house.”

Raj, listening, made note of Christopher’s tone. An
of-course
way of speaking, as if he wanted Meyer to know he’d have no reason to leave the grounds. But Raj knew that Christopher had left; he’d seen it himself. He’d even seen Meyer talking to Christopher, and then — oh yes, now this was staring to make sense — talking to Trevor.

Trevor seemed nice enough, but thinking about it, Raj supposed Trevor had always been against him. He’d allied with Christopher, even back in the bunker days. It had been Christopher and the crew against Raj, Heather against Raj, even Lila against Raj. Trevor hung with Christopher or with Lila, and that stayed true today. Raj had thought for a while that something fishy was going on — with Trevor, with Lila, with Christopher. Some secret they were keeping. Here it was again, except now they were keeping it from the viceroy: a step too far. Raj would have to call them out — and would delight in doing so.

“Do you have your weapon?” Meyer asked Christopher.

“Of course. What’s — ?”

“Get to Junction Road and — ” A heavy pant, an intake of breath. “ — and Vine. Near the gate. You know it?”

Raj looked around.
He
knew it just fine. That intersection was a few blocks away.

“Near the gate?” Christopher asked.

“YES, NEAR THE MOTHERFUCKING GATE!”

“Okay, okay, I hear you. Is something wr — ?”

“Bannister.”
Puff. Inhale.
The swishing of fabric. “Your old buddy Cameron.”

“What about him?”

“He’s here.”

“Here in the city?”

“Yes, goddammit!”

“Where are you?”

Meyer resumed, now huffing harder, as if he was running. “Behind him. But they … fucking Titans … just let him go. Right up the … the central valley and … inside. They held me back and … now I’m going to lose him in — ”

“What about the shuttle patrols? The peacekeepers?”

“Are you listening to me?” Two heavy breaths then,
“They let him go!”

“Why?”

“Okay, okay,” Christopher said in Raj’s ear. “I’ll head out there now. But I’m on foot, and that’s a hike. You still might reach him before I do.”

Raj’s hand touched his weapon.

Junction and Vine. Not far at all.

He could be there in no time.

C
HAPTER
38

“Oh my God,” Piper said.

Trevor turned toward her, as did Terrence from her other side. Their faces were curious, waiting for her to continue.

“That was … ” Piper paused to regroup, still not believing her eyes. She finished the thought: “That was
Cameron!”

Terrence looked around. “Where?”

“Up ahead.”

Terrence looked like he wanted to tell Piper she was seeing things but couldn’t quite bring himself to say it.

“Why would Cameron be
here?”

Trevor swallowed. “Dad said someone was here. When he was talking to Mo Weir. Someone at the gate.”

“But
Cameron?”

Piper felt her feet beginning to move faster. They’d been creeping, heavy with a sense that hurry would end them. She hadn’t allowed herself to consider the monks’ deaths, but that had happened while rushing. They had to be careful, tend every step lest they be discovered.

Still, Piper’s feet shuffled beneath her, trying to glimpse what she’d seen a block ahead before her quarry got too far away.

“Slow down, Piper,” Trevor hissed.

“Why would he be here?”

“They don’t know why he’s here,” Trevor told her.

“Who doesn’t know?”

“The Astrals.”

Terrence, from behind Piper: “What are you talking about, Trevor?”

“I just heard that word came down. They knew someone was outside, but not who or why.”

“Well, he’s not outside now.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Trevor sounded baffled. “Dad said they seemed panicked. Like everyone had to rush to the gate and keep whoever was outside from coming in no matter what.”

Piper kept hustling, something pushing her toward Cameron. She desperately needed to reach him, and soon. She hadn’t seen him since Moab, and even though her memories of Cameron were tinged with guilt, he’d been in her life when she’d been more innocent, less quietly complicit in something so terrible. Back then, Piper had been hiding from the Astrals and hoping to fight them. Today, they circulated in her house like guests while her family dined on fine china. Today, her husband was in charge of sending Reptars into the streets to hunt people who refused to do as they were told.

“They let him in?” said Terrence, now almost running behind Piper.

Trevor said, “Maybe someone else was outside.”

“And Cameron just happens to be here, in the city?
Right in front of us?”

It felt like fate. Piper reached the corner and, with barely a glance for alien pursuit, turned to follow the departing man’s back. She had to reach him. She was
meant
to reach him. She’d been all over the city today; she’d hidden with insurgents; she’d seen those same short-time friends vaporized in front of her eyes. They’d barely dodged peacekeeper patrols from the church, then more peacekeepers after they’d turned toward the gate. Those near-misses had steered her group toward this inevitable reunion.

That’s what fate felt like:
inevitability
.

“Piper!” said Trevor. “Stay low!”

She barely heard him. Instead, Piper pattered behind her old lover in a dead monk’s sneakers in the deserted street, finally raising her voice to yell after him.

C
HAPTER
39

When Meyer heard Piper shout Cameron’s name, he accelerated despite his empty lungs. The Titans had held him back for too long; he was lucky to have not lost his quarry. He almost had. Piper’s shout was a fortunate beacon. A good thing, considering that Christopher wouldn’t be here for minutes, and Meyer was on his own.

He rounded one corner, then another, just in time to see Bannister turn, and for Piper to crash into his unabashed embrace.

Meyer ran harder toward them, but was almost clotheslined by a new pair of Titans who stepped out from the shadows to stop him.

He was still two blocks back. His target was ahead, mockingly visible as he clung to Meyer’s wife. They broke after too long, then Cameron embraced two others in turn: Terrence, whom Meyer knew had a history with Cameron … and, wrenchingly, Trevor. They were in the middle of the street, hugging, slapping backs and seemingly smiling (though that was hard to tell from a distance) as if they were merely reacquainting in a mall.

Didn’t Cameron know he wasn’t supposed to be here? Didn’t he know the Astrals hated him? Couldn’t he feel the atmosphere’s creeping pall of negativity? Didn’t he know that the Titans, if they could stop holding back well-intentioned viceroys, were dying to wrap their giant powder-white hands around Cameron’s neck and squeeze until something snapped?

But nobody was stopping this inappropriately joyful reunion. The four celebrants were in the middle of the goddamned street, hugging and shaking goddamned hands, smiling and practically goddamn laughing because this was all a big goddamned joke on Meyer Dempsey and the city under his command.

And the Astral guards holding him back were letting it happen.

“Let me through,” Meyer said.

The Titans smiled like courtly bouncers.

“Let me through! Don’t you see what’s happening down there? Right in the middle of the fucking street? Don’t you know who that is?
Don’t you know who I am?”