Metamorphosis (3 page)

Liam wasted no
time in loading a piece of naan from the various dishes in front of
him. The food was delicious and Liam was not so certain that his
hunger was inflating his opinion. He had been to several meetings
with local officials and they invariably served food; hospitality
was very important here. It was one of the high points of the job.
I wonder why I’ve never seen an Afghan restaurant back
home.

“So what will
you do now that you are free?” MirBacha had finished eating and was
pouring two cups of tea.

“I should be
eligible for compassionate leave,” Liam mused, thinking seriously
about the future for the first time in months. “I’ll find my son
and spend some time with him.” He suddenly imagined Thomas lying on
the ground with a bullet wound in his leg and he grimaced.
If
he’s with his uncle, he may well end up that way.
His
brother-in-law lived in a dangerous part of London.

MirBacha
handed him a cup of tea. “Compassionate leave?”

Liam nodded.
“I learned a month ago that my wife was killed in an accident. My
son is with relatives.”

“I’m very
sorry to hear that,” the young man said softly. “Surely the UN will
send you home immediately?”

“The UN?” Liam
asked, lowering his cup un-tasted.

“Well, NATO,
essentially,” the young man conceded with a grin. “But they have
been under UN command since our visitors began building on
Mars.”

“Visitors?”
Liam asked. “What visitors are you talking about?”

MirBacha’s
eyes grew wide. “Truly? You know nothing about what has happened on
Mars? Kourash and his men told you nothing of the outside
world?”

“Truly,” Liam
responded. “I have eaten your food; I would not lie to you.”

“Five months
ago, the colony on Mars was wiped out by little green men – well
nobody seems to know what color they are but the general consensus
is that they aren’t friendly.”

Liam laughed,
sure that his host would join in, but he remained serious.
He
really seems to believe that. Perhaps it’s time for me to make that
call.
“Are you telling me that aliens attacked the Mars
outpost?”

The young man
nodded with a pained expression. “I realize that’s a hard one to
believe,” he admitted. “I didn’t believe it for quite some time
myself but everyone kept talking about it. It’s the reason for the
UN taking over here.” He set his tea down. “They’re organizing the
response as well as our defenses here on Earth. When you talk to
your fellow soldiers, you will see that I am not just telling you
amusing stories.”

Intended or
not, the young man’s mention of Liam’s colleagues was a suitable
opportunity for Liam to take his leave. “Your hospitality is
matchless and I thank you for the excellent food,” Liam began, “but
I should get in contact with the nearest military unit. If I might
use your phone?”

His host stood
and waited as Liam rose. “It might be more convenient for me to
take you to the nearest unit.” He grinned.

Liam knew he
should be alarmed by the sudden change in plan but every instinct
told him that the young man intended no mischief. “There is a unit
here?”

“In the old
fort,” he waved a hand towards the courtyard. “My house was on the
way and I doubted that your mess hall would be open at the moment.”
He moved to the door. “Let’s get you home.”

Spin Buldak,
Afghanistan

May 13, 2016

“Welcome back,
Captain Kennedy!” Major Williams came out from behind his desk to
shake hands. He was a tall thin man with a shaved head. Though he
wore the blue shoulder wrap of the UN, Liam could see from his
other shoulder that he had come from the US portion of the old NATO
contingent. “So how did you get away?”

Liam shrugged.
“They got tired of me I expect. I woke up this morning and they
were all gone. A local man was kind enough to get me out of my
chains and provide me with a meal – two hundred meters away from
the gates of this base.” He smiled at how close he had been to
friendly units, not only while enjoying his recent meal but also
during the last two months of his confinement.

“Well, we
aren’t really sure what to do with you at the moment,” the major
said, glancing nervously at the tablet on his desk. “Men with your
qualifications are mostly being earmarked for training at the Mars
analogue site on Hawaii, but it may depend on what your old unit
has been doing.” MirBacha had been telling the truth, after all.
The American sighed, then looked up at Liam. “Listen, maybe you
should sit down for a moment.”

Liam had an
idea of what was in his dossier. “Sir, if it’s about my wife, I
already learned about it from my captor.” He took a deep breath to
calm his mind. Despite being confined alone with the knowledge for
the last eight weeks, it still threatened to swamp him from time to
time.

“I see.” The
major sat behind his desk with a look of relief and opened the
file. “We do have a bit of good news to report,” he looked up.
“Sergeant Rai is fully recovered and back with his unit as of last
month.” The man smiled at the look of shock on Liam’s face. “He’ll
be glad to see you, I bet! He’s currently in England with the rest
of your unit. He gave quite a glowing account of your actions
following the crash.”

I would
have thought his wounds were fatal.
He was pleased to hear of
Rai’s high opinion, but then he remembered the image of the young
girl with the limp.
If I continue to serve, it has to be for a
better reason,
he thought. It was ironic that the approval that
would have felt so gratifying only hours ago, now only served as a
reminder. Men like Rai placed their faith in him. Liam owed them
competent leadership in return. The calculation had shifted
fundamentally for him. It was no longer about gaining a pat on the
back from society; it was about accepting the responsibilities of
the life he had chosen.
“
Rai must have been rescued within
minutes of my capture,” Liam mused, glad that the man had survived.
He looked down, suddenly remembering. “This is his,” Liam said
simply, pulling the heavy knife from his belt. “He’ll be glad to
get it back.”

“Now that’s a
knife,” the major said in a bad parody of an Australian accent.

“Sir?”

“Nothing.” The
major shook his head ruefully. “Just showing my age, I
suppose.”

Liam suddenly
remembered a much more important question. “Does that say where my
son is?”

Williams
turned to his tablet and navigated through Liam’s records with a
few taps before turning it around. “He’s with a Mr. Corbin in
London. Your brother-in-law?”

Typical
bureaucracy,
 thought Liam.
Rather than send him to my
sister on Guernsey where he could also be near Kate’s family, they
send him to his unemployed uncle who lives in a run-down council
home.
Leo would be getting extra government income from having
his nephew and he was likely spending most of it on vodka
.
Of all of Liam’s responsibilities this was the most urgent.

And the most
neglected.

“Major, how
quickly can I get transport home?”

England

May 17, 2016

Liam had been
shocked at the changes in the city. London had always had a problem
with crime but the police were now almost completely overwhelmed by
unrest caused by the new economic realities. Mankind’s first
contact with an alien species hadn’t gone very well. The visitors
had destroyed the fledgling ISS habitat and set up production
facilities on the planet’s surface.  They were using the red
planet to stage an invasion of Earth and the UN was now
coordinating the construction of a fleet in orbit.

A ruinously
expensive fleet.

All the
nations of the world were contributing to the project. The amount
assessed to each nation was based on the relative strength of its
economy which spread the pain evenly around the world, or so the
theory went. Nations that had previously spent huge amounts on
their militaries were able to mothball fleets of equipment and
cancel procurement plans in an attempt to scrape together part of
their contribution to the UN-managed project.

Nations that
spent huge sums to maintain public services such as socialized
health care and living assistance – nations like Britain – also
scaled back their expenditures, but with much uglier results. It
was hard to argue against a cancelled aircraft carrier, but a
parent who could no longer obtain medical care for a sick child
made for a very angry citizen.

For decades,
politicians had channeled more and more money into the nation’s
social programs in an attempt to pacify the growing population of
urban poor. It was the modern version of Rome’s
bread and
circuses
, the oldest of political expediencies in the newest
ways. Fed and housed, the mob could sit at home where the circus
was brought to their television screens every day – scandals,
comedies and wars. All they had to do in return was give up their
own voice.

Now that the
bargain was breaking down, the voices were growing louder.

Protest
marches often materialized out of thin air. No one was certain
whether they were organized or spontaneous, but they always headed
for wealthy areas of town and they almost always ended in an orgy
of violent destruction.

Tent cities
were springing up all over the country as social-living assistance
was reduced with every new sitting of parliament. As more people
found themselves with nothing to lose, the crime rate skyrocketed.
A person with a starving family will think nothing of smashing a
shop window to grab food. People were killed for little more than
the warm clothing on their backs.

The economy
began to shift as more consumers found themselves better served by
the growing black market. The prices might be slightly higher but
there was no 20% Value-Added Tax and thriving underground markets
appeared to serve the quickly-growing demand. The service sector,
representing three quarters of the nation’s GDP, was in a
tailspin.

Britain, once
the world’s pre-eminent superpower, was on the verge of
collapse.

The police,
backed up by the military, had shut many of the markets down but it
was a losing battle. They always sprang back up in a matter of
days. Despite their haphazard layouts, they were closely controlled
by a small handful of criminal syndicates who had no compunctions
about making an example out of brash policemen who didn’t have the
sense to look the other way.

In every major
city, entire zones were cordoned off by the military in an attempt
to prevent the cancerous spread of the unregulated, untaxed
economy. They quickly became lawless sectors where no outsider
would dare to venture. The largest and most dangerous of all these
sectors was known as
Echo Lima One
, or more simply,
Sector One,
encompassing half of East London.

And that was
where Thomas was living.

Though social
assistance was crumbling, the government checks for Tommy’s care
were still being sent to his uncle. The politicians knew the votes
of the mob were a lost cause, but they didn’t dare lose the support
of the military. Dependants of service personnel were still
eligible for full social assistance. A soldier risked his life for
his nation, but would he stand against his own countrymen to
protect the government? It was a difficult question at the best of
times, but if his family were suffering, the answer would almost
certainly be ‘no’.

At the very
least, the steady income would keep Leo from turning the boy out to
fend for himself. If he was still alive.

“Lord love
you, sir,” the Scottish staff sergeant at the motor pool exclaimed.
“If yer gaun t’ breenge up t’
Echo Limey
, take the lads
along.” He shook his head in amazement at the young officer’s
foolishness. “An’ not in some paukit Land Rover neither. You come
back with yer gemmies and I’ll have something better ready for you.
I better gee it mysel – there’ll be fistycuffs. You mark m’
words.”

“Er, yes.”
Liam stood across from the counter from the huge man, looking at
the almost feral glint in his eyes. Whatever the cause, Simpson
seemed eager to come along, and he was right about the Land Rover,
if Liam understood him correctly. It would only advertise the
presence of an easy target to the more adventurous elements of
Sector One. If he went, it would have to be with overwhelming
force. Something that nobody would dare interfere with.

“Well, then…”
At the best of times, he found Simpson incomprehensible but he was
surprised to realize that he had the basic gist of his tirade this
time.
Is he going easy on me because he knows why I’m going into
Sector One?
“Thank you, Staff Sergeant. I’ll be back in a
couple of hours, then.”

“Aye.” The man
nodded his approval. “Give the little schemers an hour or two of
dark and they’ll be into the vino-collapso.” He rubbed his hands
together. “Then we turn the bogies loose!”

Liam headed
for the barracks. Most of his men were single and preferred to live
on the cheap. He frowned as he walked, surprised at his new
attitude. A few short days ago, he would never have considered his
present course of action. The man he had been last week would never
have had the nerve to walk into the barracks and ask his men to
help him with anything. He would have been too afraid that they
might refuse. Too afraid that it would erode his standing with
them.

When he had
stopped worrying about approval and started concentrating on his
responsibilities he realized that he
was
the sort of leader
that he had always wanted to be. The men had seemed to sense the
change and appeared relieved to finally have a competent officer.
Liam was reasonably sure that some of them would be willing to come
with him to rescue Tommy.
I’ve already doubled my force, now
that Simpson seems to want to come.