| |
Sean
––––––––
Geri is acting weird. I get that she was royally pissed at me when I left to get dressed, but she has an air of sullenness that wasn’t there before, which leads me to wonder what transpired between her and Mary while I was delayed getting to the front desk.
The emissary’s “call” was untimely—right in the middle of my cold shower—but urgent. The Saurians have accused the Pleiadians of breaking Chapter 13, Section 1, Paragraph 1 of the Milky Way Accord, which strictly prohibits unsanctioned interventions with Earth or its native population. In this case, the Saurians suspect that the Pleiadians have Lisa Hornsby, and they are calling for a formal investigation.
The whole thing smells fishy, a red herring to be exact, because the Saurians don’t care if the Pleiadians saved one measly human life. I’m in complete agreement with the emissary that they’re using Hornsby’s disappearance as a ruse to gain access to the Pleiadian spacelab so they can search it. And we think we know why—to find evidence of me and others like me. Because breeding hybrids most definitely falls under the category of unsanctioned interventions with Earth and its native population, particularly since we were bred to help humans attain space travel so they can take their place as full members of the Milky Way Accord and thereby secure this solar system as humanoid territory.
If the humanoid member-planets of the MWA knew about the program, they would probably applaud because they’re all fed up with those warmongering lizards taking over every single summit with their lobbies for another crack at Earth. The Saurians have been singing the same song ever since an asteroid obliterated their dinosaurs because, they contend, the Pleiadians had the technology to stop the asteroid (although no self-respecting Pleiadian will ever admit that’s true). I mean come on, their dinosaurs had 165 million years to evolve into intelligent beings, and it never happened. It was time to let another race take a shot at populating this planet with intelligent life.
But the Saurians never saw it that way. They think they were deliberately sabotaged, and they’ve had it in for the Pleiadians ever since the MWA voted them the next sponsors of planet Earth. And to make contentious matters worse, it wasn’t long after the Pleiadians planted their seeds that humans began to populate Earth, their intelligence advancing faster than any other biological specimens on the planet. And even though an alien presence on Earth is not allowed under the terms of the Milky Way Accord, an exception was made when humans discovered nuclear fission as a weapon of destruction. If they set off enough nukes, they could disrupt the entire solar system. So the majority of the assembly voted in favor of sending the Pleiadians in as watchdogs, with the Saurians vehemently opposing it.
So the Saurians would just love the opportunity to gain access to a Pleiadian spacelab and uncover evidence of an illegal hybrid program. If the Pleiadians are found in breach of the Accord, it could put the future of the human race in jeopardy.
I’m not about to let that happen, and the quickest way I knew how to shut down their request to gain access to the spacelab was to contact Commandant Hendersen and make an appeal to the EUC Ambassadress to sanction the Pleiadian’s intervention with Lisa Hornsby.
Hence my delay in getting to the front desk, and now I’m very curious as to what I missed between these two ladies.
“I’ll help you move your stuff to the new room,” I offer Geri.
“It’s just a suitcase, Eastman. I think I can handle it,” she says over her shoulder as she walks away from the front desk.
“The sun will be up in a few hours—you want to meet for breakfast? Finish our conversation?” I ask, feeding my innate urge to patch things up with her.
I know I should just let it go. When she leaves here, we’ll never see each other again, and that’s exactly how it should be. But it’s driving me nuts that she was ready to have a one-night stand with me. After all the years we’ve known each other, she was just going to throw our friendship away for a few hours of mindless sex. Does she really think that little of me?
“Let me know if you change your mind,” I yell up to her, because she’s already at the top of the stairs and disappearing down the hall.
I snap my attention on Mary. “Something happen between you two?”
Mary’s writing in her big book and doesn’t bother to look up at me. “Sure did. Something happen between the two of you? Because she says you busted down her door.”
I eye her suspiciously, wondering what the hell those two women could possibly have to talk about. “I asked first.”
She looks at me over the rim of her reading glasses. “You’re not seriously wondering if I gave away any secrets, are you?”
“Never even entered my mind,” I lie.
She narrows her eyes at me, looking straight into mine as though probing to see if I’m lying, although I know she’s not telepathic. She just likes to pretend. “I told her wasting time on Bigfoot hunters is right up there with wasting her time on fashion.”
I blow out a low whistle. “That’s harsh, Mary. You don’t even know her.”
She closes the big book. “I know that everyone is more interested in those hunters than they are with a missing person, and it’s not right.”
A bad feeling starts to creep over me. I look around to make sure no one is within earshot of the reception area at three o’clock in morning then turn back to Mary. “You didn’t suggest she look for Hornsby instead, did you?”
“No. I think she figured that one out for herself.”
“Mary,” I begin, keeping my voice calm and low, not wanting to aggravate the situation. “We are all better off with her focus on the hunters.”
Mary puts her hands over mine, which I hadn’t realized were splayed out on the counter because I’m leaning so close to her. “She’s not better off, Sean.”
I resist the eye roll and slip my hands out from under hers. I’ve known Mary since I was five years old, so I’m well aware that she’s prone to deep emotional journeys to stay in touch with herself and the world around her. I also know she smokes marijuana to help take her on those trips.
“Of course she’s better off not getting mixed up in all of this,” I say firmly.
“Is that why you won’t tell her you’re in love with her?” My mouth drops open, but I recover quickly and shake my head in denial, ready to set the record straight, but she holds up a hand. “Jesus boy, I’ve been watchin’ you pant after her like a lovesick Labrador since you got here, so don’t even try to deny it.”
I’m about to go ahead with my denial, but Mary’s head is tilted to the side, her eyes staring into mine, daring me to say she’s wrong. I break eye contact. “She doesn’t feel the same way about me.”
“Are you kidding? Do you have eyes in your head?”
“And even if she did,” I continue, ignoring her jabs, “I can’t give her a normal life. She deserves better than me.”
“Normal?” Mary asks with a snort. “And what’s that?”
I shrug. “A husband, some kids, a house in the ’burbs.” Mary throws her head back and laughs. “Why is that so funny?”
“Because the woman you’re describing doesn’t resemble the one I just talked to.” Mary sobers, her features softening, her voice a whisper. “My heart has always gone out to the East Men, even though I was supposed to treat you all like little experiments. Did you know it was me who came up with ‘Eastman’ as a name for all of you? And you want to know why I did?” She doesn’t wait for me to answer. “Because having a last name gives you a place in this world, a bond with others and a sense of belonging somewhere, and it broke my heart to watch a bunch of kids—that’s right, children, not experiments—raised without an anchor in life.”
“Mary, I know you mean well,” I say in a whisper. “But Geri knows too much already. She saw me jump a twenty-foot cliff at the site where Hornsby went missing, and a Saurian showed itself to her...” A light bulb goes on in my head. If Geri saw me jump the cliff, the Saurian probably did too.
“There’s a slimy lizard nosing around here, and you’re just telling me now?” Mary bursts out in a raspy whisper.
“I told Joe. I figured he’d tell you.”
Mary blows out a breath, and her lips relax into an apologetic curve. “His memory ain’t so good anymore. Your doctors think it might be early dementia setting in or more likely, Alzheimer’s.”
“What?” I’m stunned by the news. “I just had a beer with him last night. He was fine.”
Joe sick? No way. It can’t be. The Rosses and this lodge have been my home base since I was placed here at the age of five. It wasn’t the family-bonding kind of “home” that I found with the McKennas. Life at the lodge was integral to my training, and my time spent here was akin to living in residence with two firm but caring foster parents whose task it was to keep all of us foster kids on schedule.
I cover one of her hands with mine. “I’m so sorry, Mary. Are they able to do anything for him?”
She nods. “Yes. But big picture, Joe and I are getting old. Our days running this lodge are numbered, and it’s been weighing heavily on me lately.”
“I’m sure it’s weighing heavily on them too. You, Joe, and this lodge are an essential part of the program.”
She waves a hand through the air, as if dismissing all of it as trivial. “Anyway, you best get upstairs and make sure that girl doesn’t go venturing into the woods alone with a Saurian running loose.”
“I will. And I’ll fix that door in the morning. Promise.” I’m about to leave when I remember something Ken Broughton asked Geri and me. “By the way, do you know anyone with a cottage around here that runs a blog about Bigfoot living in their backyard?”
Mary laughs softly. “I started that blog years ago, hoping to educate people on how docile the Migoi are but stopped when I didn’t get any followers. No one was listening.”
I shake my head, laughing. “You’re one of kind, Mary. Don’t ever change.”
“I’m too old to change,” she mumbles as I walk away.
Just as I start up the stairs, one of the hunters appears shouldering a bulky duffel bag and begins to descend the stairs.
“Pretty early in the morning for hunting,” I say. “Bert, right?”
He nods and says with a gruff laugh, “Dem monsters don’t sleep.”
I’m eyeballing the duffel hoping it’s not what I think it is. I spent a good three hours in the woods tonight, finding their cameras and breaking them, when I would’ve preferred to spend more time over dinner with Geri instead of cutting it short. “Looks like a heavy load to be hauling.”
He pauses on the stairway to talk, breathing heavy, perspiration beading across his forehead. “Someone, or more likely some thing, broke all the cameras we had set up. They were even missing the SD cards. Never had anything like that happen before.”
I’m careful to maintain a look of astonishment. “Some thing?” I repeat. “You think it was a Bigfoot?”
Bert nods, his fleshy double chin rippling. “Oh yeah. Dem apes are smaaart, but this is the first time they’ve broke our equipment.” He shrugs the shoulder the duffel is slung over, drawing my attention to the bag. “We’re one step ahead of ’em, though. We always go on a hunt prepared for anything. We’ll have surveillance again in a few hours.”
Well, that’s just great. Just fucking great.
“Can I give you a hand lugging that heavy bag?” I offer.
“Wish I could take you up on that, friend,” Bert says. “But we’ve moved our position to another place, and Kenny gave us strict orders not to tell no one.”
“Well, the offer stands. Let me know if I can help.”
“Much obliged,” Bert says with a wave, continuing on his way.
I jog up the rest of the stairs, stopping only to listen at the door of Geri’s new room to make sure she’s there. I hear water running in the bathroom, so I quietly unlock the door to my room and go in, put on my jacket and dark toque, and slip out onto the balcony. Pausing to make sure the area is empty, I hop over the rail and make my way into the woods to follow Bert.