Colonization (Alien Invasion Book 3) (35 page)

“Something I’ve suspected, something that Nathan’s people have proved,” said Benjamin. He winked at Danika. “Titans couldn’t hurt a fly.”

C
HAPTER
54

Meyer opened his eyes to find Mo Weir standing in front of him.

He jumped; Mo clearly hadn’t expected the viceroy to snap out of his communication at the exact instant he’d been studying his face. Mo had told Meyer that he looked like a yogi when he was talking to Divinity (or rather, Meyer thought resentfully, when Divinity talked to him), and now it looked like Mo had decided to investigate his trance a bit closer. He’d looked about ready to snap his fingers in front of Meyer’s closed eyes.

“Oh … hey, Meyer.”

“Where’s Raj?”

Mo blinked, as if he were the one who’d been doing some sort of a weird, micromanaging mind-meld.

“Raj?”

“Yes, Raj.”

“You mean Christopher.”

“I mean Raj. Do you think I have some sort of weird aphasia where I confuse normal people with conniving little shits who knock up my daughter?”

Mo hesitated a second, probably trying to decide if that had been a joke. It almost had been, but right now even Meyer wasn’t sure. Back when he’d taken the drug that opened an alien window inside his mind, he’d felt like he was joining a kind of collective intelligence. Communing with Divinity on the mothership was something like that. Readjusting to the sense of renewed singularity took a while — sorting out the others’ thoughts and emotions from those that remained uniquely his own.

Mo half smiled — something that could be seen as joining in if Meyer was joking or played as cynical if he turned out to be serious. He hadn’t had proper time to be angry at Raj when he’d first found out about the pregnancy because he’d discovered the truth while still aboard the mothership. Earthly matters — even those involving whose dick went into which off-limits place — had seemed trivial compared to everything else.

“I don’t know. Want me to call around and find him?”

“Yes, Mo. Why else would I ask if I didn’t want to know?”

Mo nodded, accepting the order without insult. Meyer reminded himself to stand down. He was impatient with Mo because he wasn’t reading Meyer’s thoughts. Literally. It wasn’t the sort of thing to anger a reasonable man.

Mo spoke into his communicator then turned to Meyer. He wouldn’t speak first. He could sense the man’s mood. Mo was no more psychic than anyone other than the freaks who accidentally stumbled through the few remaining stone nerve lines, but he was intuitive as hell — especially when it came to working with Viceroy Dempsey.

“They’re on their way to Cottonwood,” Meyer said.

“Hmm. Good.”

“Trevor is with them. Piper too.”

Mo gave Meyer another one of those looks, seemingly unsure how to respond. Maybe he wasn’t as intuitive as Meyer had been thinking, if he couldn’t read him now. Or maybe Meyer, in the past, had been easier to read.

“I see,” Mo said. “I don’t suppose they told you what they’re looking for.”

Meyer wanted to reply by saying,
No, of course not, I’m just the fucking leader of North American humanity, no need to tell me more than the basics
. Instead, he said, “No.”

Mo nodded. He didn’t know all that Meyer knew, but he’d been informed of a lot. Meyer wasn’t sure if he was allowed to tell his right hand what he learned from the Astrals, but he could only be efficient when Mo knew enough to do his job. And also, fuck them if they had a problem with it.

There was a knock on the doorframe. Both men turned to see Raj awaiting acknowledgement.

“Come in,” Meyer said, indicating a chair.

Raj sat, followed by Mo, preparing to take notes on a tablet. Meyer stayed standing.

“Raj,” he said, “I’d like you to post a guard at the network center upstairs on four. Another where the stairs and the elevator come out.”

“Two separate guards for the elevator and stairs?”

“They come up ten feet apart. What do you think?”

Raj didn’t respond, clearly having no idea what the correct answer was. Meyer let it go.

“What are the doors up there. Glass?”

“Hybrid synthesized sapphire glass,” Raj clarified, seemingly happy to have an answer. “Like on a phone’s touchscreen. Unbreakable.”

Meyer suppressed his lack of enthusiasm. The Apex was made of transparent bluish glass that some thought was sapphire too, but Meyer bet that alien stuff could withstand a direct ICBM hit. And yet the Astrals weren’t sharing, even though the network center they were discussing was more important to the aliens than the Viceroy’s office.

“Obviously, keep it locked. I don’t have to tell you that, do I?”

“No. No, of course not.”

“Keycard access or what?”

“To get in? No; it’s a palm print. State of the art.”

Meyer wished Raj would keep the brochure listing of features to himself. “Who has access?”

“Just me and those above me.”

“Does that include Christopher?”

Raj’s eyebrows furrowed for a fraction of a second. On paper, he outranked Christopher, but everyone (including Raj) knew his position was honorary. Raj got to wear a uniform when he wanted and act like a big shot. No biggie. As long as Raj could keep from ordering Reptar patrols without consulting a subordinate who actually knew what the fuck they were doing, his implied power was harmless.

“No. Christopher is just a captain.”

“So he can’t access the network.”

“No.”

“What about Terrence?”

“Terrence doesn’t even have a rank.”

“Just answer my fucking question, Raj.”

“Sorry. No. When we’ve needed him in the past, he’s been given terminal access. The on-duty center supervisor lets him in.”

“Do they watch him?”

“You mean stand over his shoulder?”

“Yes.”

“No, not normally. But — ”

“When was his last access?”

“I don’t have the logs. I’d have to check.”

“You’re the supervisor’s supervisor, Raj. It’s the one job you have that you’re actually qualified for. Try not to have your head up your ass.”

Meyer almost felt sorry for Raj. Almost. He seemed to be reeling from the punches. This way of talking was cruel, but he didn’t feel like wasting time with bedside manner. He needed answers. Maybe it was wrong to experience power by belittling another, but doing so now — especially when the subject was Raj — felt impossible to resist.

“I … Okay.”

“Nobody gets access for now. Not even the supervisor. I want that door always locked, guards out front, nobody inside. Restrict access to two people: you and me. Anything goes wrong, I’ll know I didn’t do it. That knowledge will add a lot of clarity to whatever comes next.”

“Yes, sir,” Raj stammered. “Of course, sir. Can I ask a question, sir?”

Across from Raj, Mo laughed. Raj sounded ready to ask if he could lick Meyer’s leather loafers. Meyer was almost tempted to request it, just to see if the kid had a molecule of dignity.

Raj glanced over at Mo’s laugh then turned back toward Meyer, looking just as servile.

“Okay,” Meyer said.

“Is this related to what happened the other day? Are Terrence and Christopher … ”

Meyer raised his eyebrows expectantly.

“Are they … you know … ”

“I don’t.”

“When you showed up … and then afterward … when I was saying how Terrence seemed like he was with them in some capacity other than as a … you know, like not under direction but as a … ”

Meyer wanted to put his face in his palms. He couldn’t decide if Raj’s floundering was more amusing or embarrassing. He couldn’t say what he thought, even though the answer was plain as day. After the dust settled and the tank vehicle had gone, Raj hadn’t been able to shut up about Terrence (and, by extension, Christopher) playing both sides. Now, when it mattered, he couldn’t say those same words.

Meyer wanted to let him dangle until he hanged himself, but time was wasting. Still, he wished Raj would finish a question because Meyer was dying to tell him it was none of his fucking business.

“I’m short on guards,” Raj finally spat in apparent surrender.

“How is that possible?”

“Christopher has almost all of them. Out by that destroyed church.”

“The
house
guards?”

“I guess they were all he had.”

Meyer rolled his eyes. Raj had just missed a perfect opportunity to point out how poorly Christopher was doing his job. Meyer, watching Raj, wished he had a third option for his security. The choice between a traitor and an idiot was no choice at all.

“I’ll put you in touch with Capt. Jons of the police. He’ll get you some officers to act as guards. They don’t get access, though. To
any
locks, including incidental house locks. They need to go to the bathroom, you or whoever you have left lets them in.”

“Sir?”

Meyer sighed.

“Are you anticipating … trouble?”

“Maybe.” He didn’t want to tell Raj more. Right now, Meyer knew for sure that Terrence, Christopher, Lila, and Heather were either involved or knew what Terrence was planning with his communication virus. Letting Raj know any more than he already did — even the names of those he suspected — was begging for a clusterfuck.

“Then is it possible to get some …
other
guards?”

“I told you I’ll set you up with police.”

“I was thinking of … of peacekeepers.”

Meyer looked directly at Mo Weir, who just shook his head.

“You’re kidding.”

“If there might be trouble, they’re the best equipped to — ”

“I’m not having Reptars in the house.” He stopped himself from adding the codicil:
… you catastrophically stupid fucking moron
.

“But they’re supposedly highly intelligent, right? Not like animals, and — ”

“Absolutely not. Don’t ask again, or I’ll take you outside and feed you to one. Feel free to explain all sorts of things to it before the thing starts ripping you apart.”

“Then maybe some of the Titans. There are a pair outside now who could — ”

Meyer shook his head.

“All due respect, sir, if you’re expecting anything like I think you might be, I have my doubts that
any
human guards will be able to help. At the risk of stepping out of line, I think there may be something in the works that involves Astral technology, and if that’s the case, there’s no way that human guards with human weapons could possibly — ”

“I’ll get you cops.”

“But the Titans … there are a bunch of them around, doing nothing, and … ” He trailed off.

Meyer finally sat.

“I don’t suppose you ever saw an old movie called
The Dark Crystal
?”

Raj shook his head.

“You’ll see its influence in a handful of Fable’s films. It was a puppet movie, but good. There was this ancient race, and they split into two derivative races: the Skeksis and the Mystics. The Skeksis were these twisted, evil things that fought and were generally walking piles of shit. The Mystics were like old men with nothing to do other than walk around slowly and draw magic maps in the sand with canes, crap like that. They were all Zen. Peaceful.”

“Okay,” said Raj.

“The Reptars are their Skeksis.”

“Okay.”

“And the Titans are their Mystics.”

Raj gave a small nod of assent.

“You ever see a Titan fight? Ever?”

Raj seemed to think then shook his head.

“You could punch a Titan in the face, and he’d just smile at you. You try to get past a bunch of them and they’ll stop you with those giant arms, but they’ll never hurt you. You come at them with guns that might actually be able to hurt them and they’d hide or do what they could to prevent your passing, but they won’t shoot back. They’ll try to reason with you then call for Reptars to fight. Their guns are props. They’re vital to everything that happens here, but the Titans are useless as fighters because they seem to be the half of Astral consciousness that deals with peaceful discourse.”

Raj looked at Meyer for a long moment. Meyer could have counted to five slowly before Raj spoke next.

“Okay.”

“So you understand?”

“What does that have to do with puppets?” Raj asked.

Before Meyer could reply — and it was possible his response would have come in the form of a backhand slap across the face — Mo put a restraining hand on Meyer’s arm.

“I’ll get him some cops,” he said.

C
HAPTER
55

Piper was lying flat on a dusty expanse of sand and grit, somewhat behind a large rock. Nearby, the others were also horizontal, somewhat behind other boulders.

She looked at Cameron, surprised by his proximity. He must have scooted closer while she’d been focused on the expanse of concrete not far ahead. A slight decline lay before them, followed by a corresponding rise. A parking lot sprawled beyond that then a cliff of fractured gray stone. There were three semicircular tunnels in the rock, just as they’d been on the image Benjamin had shown them in Moab. There were no cars in the lot. Piper thought she knew why. If this were an Astral place staffed exclusively by the hairless white Titans, they wouldn’t arrive for work in cars.