Stars Rain Down (36 page)

"He says to take you inside. Welcome to the Ark, Mr. Hernandez."

Without another word, the soldier turned and walked down the tunnel, and Jack and Kai followed.

After fifty meters, they were in a whole new world. The inside of the Ark was oddly warm, and after its cavernous loading dock, not-so-oddly cramped. Tunnels meandered off in every direction, marked by multi-colored stripes on the walls that led to different sections and departments.

The soldier escorted them down one tunnel, up an elevator, then through another several tunnels only to ride a second elevator down, and finally through one last tunnel that opened into a huge staging area. Mobs of soldiers there were handling stacks of steel cargo containers, while more soldiers in the distance performed tasks Jack couldn't make out.

The Slavic soldier told Jack and Kai to wait near the entrance, then turned and disappeared the way he came.

"It's safe to say something's going on here," Kai said as he looked around.

"Something big," Jack agreed.

They stood there doing nothing for ten minutes, and then someone called Jack's name. It was Colonel Galili, who came marching across the crowded floor with a look of utter disbelief on his face. "It's really you under that beard?"

"Not a lot of razors in alien prisons."

Galili walked right up to Jack, grabbed both of his shoulders and shook him as if to test that he was real. "I thought the guards were pulling a joke on me, but no... Here you are, Mr. Hernandez. There truly isn't anything in this universe that can kill you orange jumpsuits."

"Nothing yet," Jack said, wondering how many times he'd heard that same exchange. "Listen Colonel, I'd love to catch up and all, but I've got some pressing news. There's a big damn force stomping this way, and we need to evacuate."

"We already know, and... let's just say that preparations are under way." The colonel's tone hinted at something he wasn't prepared to share.

"I don't think you understand, sir. I'm talking about the kind of attack that nothing could survive. Enough firepower to level mountains."

"We have the matter well in hand," Galili said. "That's all I can say for the time being. You'll just have to trust me, Jack. Come, walk with me. I have a thousand questions. Your friend... he's trustworthy?"

The three started walking, and Jack wasn't completely sure how to answer the colonel's question. Trust was a slippery issue. "Yeah," he said after a spell, "he's the one that broke me out. Colonel Galili, this is Kai... Makinen."

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Makinen. That's a very interesting uniform."

"Finnish Covert Ops," Kai said. "Very covert."

"Very covert indeed, to have slipped in and retrieved our man here without a scratch." The colonel had a look in his eyes like he'd just been shortchanged at the market. "I can't thank you enough," he said.

Kai ducked his head and said, "It was the least I could do, sir." There was a strange look in his eyes as well, but Jack couldn't quite put a finger on it.

"Now then, Mr. Hernandez... the higher ups will want to debrief you in full, but I was hoping you could fill in some details for me first. There were parts of your team's report that could use a little clarification."

Jack had a sneaking suspicion smouldering in his head, but he jammed it down and instructed it to shut its mouth. "However I can help, Colonel."

"When you were in the generator room, how did the enemy detect your presence?"

"I'm not sure. One moment we were standing there, and then the situation went all pear shaped. Red lights and sirens all over the city."

"Why not plant the explosives then? It would've taken another thirty seconds at most."

Jack's people had left things out, and he had no way of knowing what story they'd concocted. He was in a very sticky position all of a sudden, and he decided to tie his hitch to the truth. He said, "I don't know what you've been told, Colonel, but I had already decided to abort the mission before the alarm was sounded."

"As I feared," the colonel said, voice heavy with disappointment. "Do you understand how far back you set us? That bombing could have turned the entire war around."

"I've got a bad feeling about this,"
Kai said quietly in Mirresh.

"But you weren't strong enough to do what needed to be done. After what those bastards did to our world, you didn't have the intestinal fortitude to finish the job. You turned your back on your own species. Crippled our ability to strike at them."

"Jack..."

"And now you come here and tell me to run? To turn tail and flee like a fucking coward? How dare you!"

"There were women and children. Innocents, Colonel. I won't have that kind of guilt on my head."

The colonel moved with such speed that Jack hardly saw it coming. The fist connected with his jaw, rocking his head back, and he stumbled and fell to the concrete floor. He climbed back to his feet with the tang of blood in his mouth, and said "We have to find some kind of peace, Colonel. The future depends on it."

"You idiot. They're godless monsters. A blight on the universe, and I won't rest until I see every last one punished. Cowards like you made our world an easy target... and I won't
allow
you to sacrifice anyone else to your fucking ideals."

It was around then Jack realized he was surrounded. Armed soldiers had moved in and closed a circle around him, leaving no avenue of escape.

"You're a traitor, Hernandez. Not just to our cause or our people, but to the whole world. I believed in you, and you pissed on us all for what? For them?"

Galili spat in Jack's face. "Go rot in a cell until I'm ready to choke you to death," he said.

Rough hands grabbed his arms and pinned them behind his back. Someone kicked the back of his legs and he fell to his knees.

Kai already had his hands behind his head.
"I can kill them all,"
he said in the alien language.

"Escape, but kill no one,"
Jack replied... more or less.

"What about you?"

"This is how it has to be," he replied in English.

A guard reached out to grab Kai and the alien reacted, his movements fast and fluid as a dancing flame. He grabbed the arm, twisted it and threw the guard into the others. With his other hand, he pulled his mask from inside his jacket and slid it over his face, then disappeared.

It was like someone painted the world on the skin of his uniform, a Wile E. Coyote version of a cloaking device that was never-the-less effective.

"What in hell?" the colonel shouted. "Open fire!"

Before anyone could let loose a single round, Kai leapt high into the air, bounced off the ceiling, and was gone.

"Lock down the Ark. No one enters or leaves until I have that fucker's head on a stake!"

Jack spat blood onto the floor. "You'll never catch him."

"We'll see about that," Colonel Galili said. He drew his handgun and pistol-whipped Jack, returning him to that sweet darkness where there was no war at all.

Jack didn't mind prison so much this time, all things considered. Maybe it was the human-prepared food, which he hadn't had the pleasure of in five months. Maybe it was because there were other prisoners in shouting distance, or moaning distance in many of their cases. Maybe it was the simple fact that he wasn't pinned to the ceiling like a defective light fixture, nor was he being tortured for information he didn't have. Maybe he'd simply grown fond of enclosed spaces.

Regardless of the reason, Jack considered his situation just peachy, and he resigned himself to sit back and wait for the Ark to be annihilated. His only wish was to see a pretty fireworks show before Galili choked the life out of him.

There was a commotion at the end of the cell block, and two people in hooded ponchos came rushing down the aisle. "Which cell?" one of them asked.

"Sixty-seven," the other said hurriedly.

Pounding feet echoed through the empty halls, and came to a screeching halt in front of Jack's cell. "Is that him?"

"I dunno... There's an awful lot of beard."

"Is this a jail break or improv night at the Chuckle Hut?" Jack asked.

Charlie lowered his hood, and then the five-foot hoodlum beside him lowered hers as well, revealing Lisa Albright's glittering smile.

Charlie spoke while he attached a small explosive to the cell door. "Good to see you, bro. Thought for sure you were a goner."

"I didn't," Lisa said, and added, "You're gonna want to get down."

She and Charlie both ducked to the side while Jack ignored her advise, and blithely sat on his small bunk with his hands behind his head. The charge blew seconds later, the pinpoint blast producing little more than a few stray sparks and a puff of smoke.

Charlie pulled the gate and it rumbled across the floor, while Lisa stood in the opening, waving for Jack to follow. "Come on, hero. Time's a-wastin'."

He pushed himself up, stepped into the opening, took Lisa in his arms and kissed her deep. When he pulled away, she had a sour sort of smile on her face. "You could use some mouth wash," she said.

"Sorry," he said. "Been in prison. Second in so many months. Oral hygiene hasn't been a top priority."

"Regardless," she said, nuzzling against his chest for a moment, "I'm glad to see you, too."

"Come on, love birds," Charlie chided. "We need to get a move on before someone notices you're missing."

"Like I've never done this before," Jack said while waving the others on, then the three took off at a swift pace.

Charlie knew the inside of the rat maze, and he led the way. He ducked in and out of shady corners and paused before every guard station, until they were clear of the detention block. Then they threw caution to the wind and ran at break-neck pace all the way back to the loading docks, where Nikitin and Chase were waiting in a running four-wheeler.

"I'll be damned," Nikitin said. "I will almost surely be damned."

Chase revved the engine and said, "You're a sight for sore eyes, boss."

Jack smiled. He'd been sure he would never see those smiling faces again, yet there they all were. And they were more than friends after all they'd been through together. They his family now. Even Charlie.

Jack and his accomplices jumped into the jeep, and Chase hit the gas. The wheels squealed, the vehicle lurched forward and it flew through the tunnel leading outside.

To Jack's surprise, the armored doors were gaping wide open. "The man I was with," he said, "did they capture him?"

"Nope," Charlie replied. "He made it out before they even got the doors closed, and they canceled the lockdown. Must be real fast, that one... left two dozen dislocated shoulders behind him."

"Pretty fast," Jack said, but his words were lost in the wind.

The jeep raced out of the Ark and into the open night air, then slowed and trundled along the lightless roads.

"So, where to?" Chase asked after a half-klick.

"South," was all Jack said, and Chase took them southward until the village thinned and disappeared behind them. After another half-hour across the open steppe, the copse where Jack left Felix and the others came into view.

Jack tapped Chase on the shoulder and said, "Slow down when we get near that group of trees. Listen... I know you all have heard some rumors about me turning traitor, and throwing my hat in with the aliens."

"No worries," Charlie said. "We wouldn't have busted you out if we believed a word of it, bro."

Nikitin said, "You've saved my ass enough times to earn a little blind trust."

"Yeah, about that..." Jack said and paused to look for the right words. "I need to cash that trust in. I didn't exactly come back alone."

"We gathered as much." Charlie gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Managed to spring a couple other prisoners on your way out no doubt."

"No," Jack said and took a deep breath. "I... came back with the jailer and three of his ET buddies."

Silence fell over the passengers, so brittle that Jack thought it might shatter.

"Your partner. The guy that made it out of the Ark?" Nikitin asked.

"The jailer," Jack said. He could smell the confusion.

"So... there are humans working with the aliens?" Charlie asked.

"He just looks like us. It's a disguise."

Nikitin was the first to speak. "Hey... I don't think I'm alone in saying that you're actually shaking my faith a little bit here."

"I know, but I promise I'm no traitor. I'm trying to..."

"To stop the war," Lisa said. "What else? You're the same man you've always been. Still standing up for what we all used to believe in. Still trying to save lives, no matter the cost."

"Any which way I can," Jack said.

"You're a real stubborn son of a bitch," Charlie said. "You always took after dad, that way."

"It's the only virtue I've got. That's a virtue, right?"

Lisa shook her head. "Not one of the classical ones, no."

Jack was looking at the stand of trees, and he sighed. "Well," he said, "bottom line is that a storm is about to blow through here and tear this place to shreds. Millions are going to die unless we do something about it."

"What kind of something?" Charlie asked.

Nikitin twisted in his seat and looked Jack in the eyes. "Does your plan, by any chance, involve something dangerous or stupid?"

"I'm not sure yet, but probably both."

Nikitin laughed. "Good. Count me in."

"Why not," Charlie said, "I don't much like the colonel's battle plan anyway, and I've never been too attached to breathing."

"You know what he's up to?" Jack asked.

"Mostly. There's something super secret brewing that I couldn't get in on, but I know the major moves. I've also heard that they jury-rigged the nuclear reactor into some kind of doomsday weapon in case things go south. Command has a real no surrender mentality, and frankly, these aren't my kind of tactics."

"Me neither," Jack said. "How about you, Chase?"

"You know me, boss. I don't ask too many questions. Just point me in a direction and I'll drive."

"And Lisa?" he asked.