Darkness on a Pale Blue Stone (32 page)

"What are you talking about? After all we went through? We're lucky as hell to have captured one alive. I suppose you know everything there is to know about these things and, for some inane reason, I have to respect that you can't tell us. But that doesn't mean we can't find out things for ourselves."

"You cannot torture them. I won't allow..."

"Who said anything about torture?"

"Look General, this is more complicated..."

"President Gresson, if you aren't going to help us here, I would kindly ask that you leave."

Gresson stood still, gritting his teeth. He looked over at the body on the table. It's chest rose and fell and a wheezing sound was coming from its head. He looked down at the ground and sighed. "I can't risk telling you what I know. But perhaps I can't risk stopping you from learning for yourself." He turned and left the warehouse.

"If it wasn't for that Adron guy, we wouldn't have to deal with this," Jake moaned.

"Adron?" Valdez asked.

"Never mind."

Adam and a few other council members entered the warehouse.

"Where is Gresson going?" Adam asked.

"Who knows," Lash said. "Once again, we're left to figure things out ourselves."

"Fine. First, let's see if we can get that suit off," Adam said.

Valdez and one of his marines inspected the body.

"It's weird. It feels like... I don't know... dolphin skin," the marine said.

"Dolphin skin?" Adam asked.

"Yeah. Not slimy, but soft and... rubbery."

"God only knows what it's made of," Valdez said.

"Probably something that doesn't even exist on Earth," Jake said.

Valdez took out his knife and tried cutting the suit. It didn't even leave a mark. "Damn," Valdez moaned.

The Exterminator began to move its arm.

"Oh, shit!" Lash cried.

"Here," Valdez said, grabbing a nearby chair. He and the marine lifted up the Exterminator and dropped it into the chair. They used a metal chain to tie its legs to the chair legs and its arms behind the chair's back.

"You think that'll hold?" Adam asked.

"Let's hope so," Valdez replied.

"Just in case," Lash said, holding up the butt of her shotgun.

"There has to be a way to get this thing off," Kelsey said. "Gresson told us it's a suit, right? It's not its... skin."

"Maybe the 'suit' is a part of their body? Like a shell?" a marine offered.

"If that's the case..." Taylor Black began to say, but he was interrupted as the Exterminator began to convulse in its chair. It stopped seconds later, then began to speak. Its language involved many quick syllables and sporadic pauses. It was all gibberish to those in the warehouse. As the Exterminator continued, however, Adam had a strange feeling that it was familiar.

"Here!" one of the marines yelled. He pointed to a small circle on the back of the suit's neck. Valdez looked at it closely, then prodded it with his finger. Eventually he managed to get his finger inside it as the Exterminator continued to make noise. He pulled and as he did, the hole in the suit expanded. Without warning, the suit snapped, revealing the Exterminator's head.

Everyone gasped and took a step back.

"What... the
hell
?" Jake said.

The creature sitting in front of them was a human being.

The man tied to the chair began to yell at them in his foreign tongue. He shook himself back and forth, struggling to get free. He had brown hair, blue eyes, and tan skin. Had the others standing around him not been in shock, he may have been considered attractive. Despite the violent beating the man had just taken, he appeared surprisingly intact.

Valdez pulled out a knife and held it to the man's throat. "Who are you?" he demanded to know.

The man simply continued to speak his indecipherable language.

"He must not speak English," Black said.

"Anyone... have any idea... how the hell... these are
people
?" Jake asked.

"This is what Gresson was keeping from us?" Lash breathlessly asked. "This is what he couldn't tell us?"

"Oh my god," Adam quietly said.

"What?" Lash asked.

"Adam, what do you know?" Valdez asked.

Everyone turned to Adam. The man in the chair continued to shake and yell.

"That language. We've heard it before. The fast reflexes. We've seen them before. The imperviousness to damage. We've all seen
that
before. The incredible technology. We've seen that before too."

"Where?" Valdez asked. Jake and Lash looked at each other. They were beginning to put the pieces together themselves.

"The language was used as a code at the entrance of New Salvador. It was also used as a call between different groups of Exterminators, something Gresson could understand. On multiple occasions Gresson has fired his gun faster than should be possible and survived plenty of shots himself, including his assassination. And the technology in New Salvador's bunker is far beyond anything any of us have ever seen before... Was it always this obvious?"

"What are you saying?" Valdez asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Gresson. The people at New Salvador. The Exterminators... They're all the same."

Chapter 49

New Jacksonville - December 18, 2072

Everyone in the warehouse looked back at the man they had once been convinced was an alien creature and part of a global invasion. Now with their first glimpse at their enemy, instead of more clarity, they had even less.

The man had finally stopped yelling and was now looking curiously at them.

"Where is the 'president' now?" Kelsey asked.

"He didn't say where he was going," Valdez replied.

"What do we do?" Jake wondered, hoping someone had some kind of guidance.

After a few moments of silence, Adam said, "I think it's time we gave Gresson an ultimatum. Either he tells us everything he knows, or he leaves."

"Leaves? If he knows anything, we should arrest him," Wells said.

"Arrest Gresson? You're kidding," Lash scoffed.

"Why not? Our lives are at risk."

"I'm not saying we should or shouldn't. I'm saying we
can't
because it's not possible."

"And how can you be so sure? Maybe he is one of these... people. But he's not wearing one of those suits. All we would need is a few marines and..." Black said.

"Not a chance. We've seen him in action," Jake said. "All he needs is one gun and it won't matter what we send after him."

"I'm still not convinced he's our enemy," Valdez said. "So far, all he has done is help us fight the Exterminators so we can shut down that interference signal. Maybe he hasn't told us everything, but..."

"Speaking of not telling us everything..." Adam said, looking over at Jake and Lash. They looked back unsettled. It was about to be an awkward conversation.

"What? What are you not telling me?" Valdez asked.

"It's about the signal. There are a few things you should know," Adam began.

A few minutes later, Adam finished telling everyone about the signal, its location in New Salvador, and the Exterminator ships it was supposedly preventing from destroying the world. Valdez was silent, trying to digest it. He felt betrayed. He knew the president was hiding things from him. But
this
? This was too much.

"That thing killed millions of people. How could they do this?" Kelsey furiously questioned.

"Wait. That's a good question. How could they?" Lash wondered. "If they are the same as the Exterminators, how did they set off the signal before they arrived? Or build New Salvador? And Gresson was president
years
before the Arrival."

"I don't think we have the full story," Adam said.

"If we even have any of it," Valdez said. "We need to pay Gresson a visit."

They found Gresson an hour later at his house on Holiday Street. He was sitting in the living room, holding a glass of water. He had been expecting them.

"So what did you learn?" he asked.

"Enough to know there is a lot you aren't telling us," Adam replied.

"Mr. President, is it true? Is the signal at New Salvador?" Valdez asked, somewhat hoping Gresson would deny it.

"Yes. It is."

"How could you not tell me? I thought that was the point of all this! To stop whoever destroyed our world! But... maybe this isn't
your
world. Maybe that's why you could excuse crippling the entire human race and setting us back over a century."

"I knew you could not understand. But believe me when I say, I would die for this world."

"If that's true, then tell us the truth," Adam said.

"You believe that telling the truth is a simple thing to do. It is not."

"Enough with the cryptic bullshit!" Adam snapped. "You have a choice. Either tell us what you know or go back to New Salvador. There is no other option."

Anxiety was now clear to see on Gresson's face. He slowly rose from the couch. "This is a mistake. A grave mistake. I beg you, please trust me."

"If you will not tell us what we want to know, then leave," Adam said, pointing toward the door.

Trying a different tactic, Gresson said, "I'm the President of the United..."

"That won't work this time," Adam snarled.

"Adam, if you go down this path, we might all be doomed."

"
You
chose this path, not me."

"I will not leave. I
can't
leave."

Adam pulled a handgun out from his belt and pointed it at Gresson's head. "Not too long ago, you came into my home, held a gun to my family's head
just like this
. I convinced myself that you did it to help us, to
save
us. But I don't believe that anymore. No, everything you've told us these past three months have been at best half-truths and at worst outright lies. Letting you stay here puts us all at risk and puts my family at risk. I can't accept that. I don't care about your choice anymore, I'm making it for you. Leave.
Now
!"

Gresson stared at Adam for nearly twenty seconds. No one said a word. Sweat began to bead on Adam's face. He wasn't sure if Gresson would ever move or if he would move so fast that Adam would be dead before he had a chance to pull the trigger. Either way, Adam wasn't going to back down.

With a sigh, Gresson relented. Without saying another word, he took his coat and walked out the front door.

Adam shuddered as he lowered his gun. He cringed as the front door slammed shut after Gresson stepped out.

"It was the right thing to do," Kelsey said.

Valdez groaned and ran outside. No one bothered to follow.

"Mr. President," he said, running up to Gresson. There was no reply. "Part of me is angry about the signal and... everything else, but another part of me knows that we need you. Maybe Adam's right. Maybe I'm a fool falling for a con man, but one thing I know for certain is that there are a whole lot of Exterminators out there and not enough overpasses. You and those like you at New Salvador are our only real hope."

"What would you have me do?" Gresson asked, keeping his pace.

"I don't know. I don't understand why you can't tell us anything, but try to find some way around it. Rethink the things you've taken for granted."

"General, you managed to not only kill, but to
capture
one of your enemies. Perhaps my people are right. Our involvement isn't necessary."

"We both know that's not true. What happened today was the first step to pissing them off, not mounting a global defense."

"Good luck, General." With that, Gresson walked on, leaving Valdez to stand hopelessly in the rain at the end of Holiday Street.

It was nearly midnight when Gresson crossed over one of the north bridges. He purposely bypassed the fallen overpass of I-95 before he returned to the highway. As he walked northbound in the rain, his mind raced. He was both furious and understanding of Adam and the council's actions. He was also furious and understanding of his people's prohibition on the disclosure of the truth behind the Arrival. There was no clear answer for what he should do. For now he planned to take the advice of those at New Salvador and be patient.

He was near the exit that led to New Salvador when he heard a rumbling in the distance. He first assumed it was thunder, but the sound failed to cease. Curious, Gresson hurdled the highway median barrier and crossed over to the line of trees that lined the west side of I-95. In the moonlight, Gresson scanned for the source of the noise. When he found it, his eyes widened.

Exterminators. Hundreds of them. And from their speed, they looked to be on a warpath.

The one who escaped must have told them what happened,
he thought. Their flame-throwers were at the ready and their black and red suits glistened from the rain. From Gresson's perspective, he could estimate that there were close to a thousand, an entire tenth of the crew from one spaceship. He was certain that if that many could be mobilized so quickly, a ship had to be nearby.

Gresson turned around, uncertain of his next move. He jumped as he saw a man looking back at him, standing in the middle of the highway.

"Gresson," the deep-voiced man said with a smile. He had dark hair and blazing blue eyes.

Gresson's expression turned to shock as he recognized the man. He had seen the man before, at Gimbal Systems' headquarters in New York the night of the Arrival. The man who had somehow recognized him from across the lab. The man who had only observed.

"Who... who are you?"

"I do not have a name."

"Why are you here, then?"

"To observe."

"Observe? Observe what?"

"Well, obviously you at the moment."

"I do not understand."

"You couldn't possibly."

Gresson stared at the Observer, utterly confused. He wondered if this was a trick or distraction the Exterminators had conjured, though he knew that was impossible. "How... how did you know who I was, that night at Gimbal?"

"Your disguise was clever, but it would take much more to hide from me. I know all and see all. Or at least, I used to," the Observer cryptically explained.