The next morning, I talked to Ren and Ashley on the phone. They made it through the night without hearing any strange things. I was going to tell them that I talked to Kallen, but he already called them the night before. His explanation was that he went to visit one of his cousins in the city. There wasn’t a good phone signal there. He didn’t know about Greele.
We talked a little longer about work. Ashley said she had another premonition. About thirty minutes out of town there would be a meteor shower. These meteorites could be the clue. The contents of the meteorite may reveal what was driving the animals out of their natural habitat. Well, that and aliens.
“What if the meteorites have something to do with aliens?” Ashley said.
By the way Ren was talking he didn’t accept that Ashley had the visions. He treated her as he did with Kallen and his alien ideas. I couldn’t help to think of why Ashley linked the aliens to meteorites and why she kept discussing them. She was getting worse than Kallen was. At least he was an actual alien. So was she one too? Was she attempting to figure out if we knew about her? Did she have something to do with the first disappearance of people in Dallas?
“Hey, do y’all think the Dallas disappearance has something to do with this one in Greele?” I asked.
“I think it’s the same people,” Ren said. “They got more vicious.”
“There has to be a large group of them,” I said. “To take down that many people there had to be. So they kidnapped the people then broke into groups to hide. Don’t you think?”
“Several small groups,” Ashley said. “That would have been easiest way to attack. And then they hid after going back to a major town. They wouldn’t stay here. We would find them.”
“True,” I said.
“You’re so quiet Ren,” Ashley said.
“You two are becoming detectives,” he said.
“Well, who knows,” I said, “we could be next.”
“Thanks for reminding me to be terrified,” Ashley said.
She had to be reminded?
—-
Lalo and I spent the rest of the day watching the news and their ongoing discussion of Greele. We didn’t see any meteorites or clues in the news footage. That crime site was so disturbing that we both agreed to not investigate it.
Inside I had the urge to forget the travel ban. I had to get to the lab to compare the meteorites although I knew it was a bad move. Yes, we knew that Kallen was part responsible for the Greele attack, and he said he wouldn’t hurt me, but there had to be many others. If they found us, we would probably be dead too. It was too much—sitting, watching, and waiting for something bad to happen. Getting to the lab would at least give us some direction.
In the evening, Lalo spent his time writing down notes. He noticed me watching and told me they were plans for each method of attack. He left the notebook on the table to go to another room a few minutes later. I was so curious, I flipped through the pages. Some pages were full of lines; others had drawings of buildings and houses. Nothing else.
It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that I was stuck in that situation with no human I could trust. Lalo lied about leaving the house when I asked. He admitted to leaving at least twice. I didn’t think he had any reason to be truthful. Perhaps that’s why Ashley was reaching out to me. Did she experience a similar situation and see me in this misery? She could have been extending a hand the best way she could, without being detected, so I could talk to her. But then again she could be in the race to find Lalo.
I could count on trusting myself and no one else. And I wasn’t that extremely skillful or powerful. If only I could strengthen my connector abilities, I would have a hand in that game. Since I had no idea on how to accomplish that, I directed my attention to the TV. I put on a movie, lie back in the couch, and pretended none of it was happening.
—-
The next morning I woke up and found pieces from Lalo’s meteorite sitting on my coffee table. Lalo was still sleeping. I scanned for anything I could use as a weapon. A fork was on the kitchen table, so I grabbed it and slowly walked toward my kitchen. My house was small, so either the perpetrator was hiding behind the bar and was in my kitchen, or they were in the bathroom.
I listened for breathing sounds but heard no one. It must be an alien, I thought. I raised my fork to chest level as I made an effort to wake Lalo up, using my mind. Instead of curling around the bar, I widened my curve, ready to attack when I saw them. There was no one there.
“Marli,” Lalo said.
I screamed and dropped my fork.
“What are you doing?” he said, tousling his hair.
“Shhh, there’s someone here,” I mouthed and pointed to the meteorites. “The rocks.”
“Oh, I put those out there this morning,” he said.
I sighed. “Lalo, you can’t do this to me. I’m human. I get scared, especially with all of this stuff going on.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I took the meteorites out because I thought they could tell me something before you got to go to the lab. They certainly don’t look like they were used to build a ship. They are more like alien cherished mementos.”
“So whoever did this had to be alien?” I said. “Like Kallen told us.”
“Not necessarily,” Lalo said. “Like any other, this rock could have fallen from outer space. The reason why it was so similar to mine is because we use this kind of rock to build part of our meteorite simulating ships. But this rock couldn’t have been used. You’ll be able to see the differences microscopically if you want to know for sure. My ship will have specific patterns. This rock will contain random ones.”
“So this could be work done by humans?” I said. “That widens the list. It could be the government looking for you. The sector who knows about the aliens would be able to replicate it.”
Lalo nodded. “You know, just looking at it without the alien knowledge, the rock also appears to be a human’s token. So, to throw off humans, aliens could have used this rock. If scientists happened to find it, there would be no difference between this meteorite and the others that are found every year. There is no way to have an absolute answer unless we find the kidnapper.
“And those signs,” I said. “They could be from the aliens or humans who knew about them.”
Lalo nodded.
Frustrated with not being able to find answers, I suggested we go through our list of suspects. The ones we actually knew of. Maybe we could eliminate them or see who had a motive or alien connections.
“It’s basically everyone you know out here,” Lalo said. “Kallen, Ashley, Ren, Marcus, Shelie, Dr. Stevenson, and me.”
“I didn’t say that,” I said. “I didn’t say you.”
“Let’s be honest,” Lalo said. “You met me a few days ago. I’m an alien. The night I come the homeless disappear. Then another attack happens led by aliens of my kind. One of them is your friend. I’m supposed to be their leader. And, I have amnesia. What if I’m like Kallen? What if something causes me to transition while you are sleep and do these things? What if I staged all of this? That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“I don’t think you would,” I said, examining his eyes. I felt bad for him. I was wrong. He had been torturing himself too. “Why don’t we get to work on the other suspects. We can at least try to get their background information to see if there are any abnormalities.”
Lalo joined me as we sat in front of my computer at the kitchen table. In the middle of typing the first name I hesitated.
“What?” Lalo said.
“They could be watching,” I said. “My IP address. Why didn’t I think of this before?” I palmed my face. “We searched for Aquasa. What if we were and are being recorded? Oh no!” I popped up. “They can hear us. I know they can hack into my web camera that’s why the tape is covering it, but what if they could also reverse the auditory device to be a microphone? They already know.”
My mouth was wide open as I twisted to Lalo. “What are we going to do?”
Why are you so calm?
“That’s one of the first things I thought about,” Lalo said. “It was a good thing I didn’t forget about covering tracks. Your computer is, and has been, virtually invisible. I protected it the moment you left for work. It will take them months to untangle that code. That is if they know where to find it.”
“Good,” I said, holding back tears. Lalo rubbed my back and had a slight smirk across his face.
Lalo and I researched everyone’s name. We collected general information—birthplaces, schools they attended, degrees they had, credit history, financial information, medical history, achievements, facts about their life, criminal records, and places they had lived thanks to regular searches and Lalo’s hacking skills.
The data wasn’t out of the ordinary until we compared Kallen and Shelie’s information to the rest of the group. Similar to those two, Ashley and Ren had a gap of information. The odd thing was Ashley and Ren’s gap began when Kallen and Shelie began to exist on Earth. We defined existing as being able to see where they lived, activity on social networks, financial activity, articles in newspapers, pictures, etc. To add to the oddities, Dr. Stevenson showed up to our town two years after Kallen did, and Ashley and Ren’s whereabouts reappeared that year.
“And look at this,” Lalo said. “What do these birth places have in common: Chicago, Illinois; Las Vegas, Nevada; Austin, Texas; San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Washington, D.C., and Dallas, Texas?”
“Other than them being the places these people and I were born?” I said and shrugged.
“And I was born,” Lalo said. “I landed near Dallas.”
“Major cities,” I said. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“Latitudes,” Lalo said. “Almost all are within 10 degrees of Northern latitudes, from 30 to 39.”
Our notes, simplifying the latitudes and longitudes:
Marcus: Washington, District of Columbia 38 North, 77 West
Ashley: Las Vegas, Nevada 36 North, 115 West
Ren: Chicago, Illinois 41 North, 87 West
Dr. Stevenson: Denver, Colorado 39 North, 104 West
Kallen: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 35 North, 97 West
Shelie: San Diego, California 32 North, 117 West
Lalo: Dallas, Texas 32 North, 96 West
Marli: Austin, Texas 30 North, 97 West
How was I supposed to know that?
“Then,” he continued, “a few of us are also connected by longitudes, from 90 to 97.”
“So,” I said.
“The Masqysava make up birthplaces according to a pattern. We know Kallen and Shelie are alien. Let’s look for a pattern.”
“There’s no use,” I said. “We all are similar. Kallen, you, and I are connected by longitudes. What about Shelie? Does this mean something is wrong because she’s not in our longitude range? Is Ren excused from committing the crime because he isn’t within these pinpoints?”
Lalo was disappointed. “You’re right. And there is no other clue we can explore online. The meteorite will tell us if it is aliens, nothing more.”
“And if it’s true that the meteorite is from aliens, does it mean the meteorite was part of someone’s ship?” I said.
“Could be,” Lalo said. “They would have needed to hold onto their ship.”
“Or a part of it,” I said. “And if they came to Earth in a ‘meteor,’ wouldn’t there be a record of it? I’m sure data about the location and the year the meteors came to Earth exists.”
Lalo caught me off guard, giving me an unexpected hug. “That’s why I love you Marli!” His excitement was reignited as he studied the birthplaces and meteorite occurrences. The coincidences we found were with Shelie, Kallen, Ashley, and Dr. Stevenson’s birthplaces.
I sighed.
“What?” Lalo said.
“I thought Marcus committed the crime,” I said. “He affected me.”
“Marli, let’s review this data first. The fact that a meteor didn’t land in Marcus’ birthplace doesn’t automatically mean he isn’t alien.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
We found that a meteorite landed eight years after Shelie was “born” in her birthplace. Five years separated Kallen’s birth and his meteorite landing. Twelve years was the amount of time connected to Ashley’s birth, and one was for Dr. Stevenson. We also found that two years was the difference between Marcus’ birth and a meteor seen over Washington, D.C. that landed in Baltimore, Maryland. All meteorites were found after the births.
“Seeing a pattern?” Lalo said.
“Not really. Meteors seen or meteorites were found ten years within everyone’s birthday other than Ashley. Meaning everyone is an alien other than Ashley. If that is what you’re referring to.”
“Yes, that alone is a difference. However, the pattern that it led me to is more mathematical of a solution. Check out at the latitude position of their birthplace. All are within 10 degrees of each other up to 40. If you subtract Shelie’s birthplace, 32, from 40, it gives you eight. The pattern continues with Kallen, 35 from 40 is five. For Marcus, 38 from 40 is two. Dr. Stevenson, 39 from 40 is one. I threw Ashley out because 36 from 40 is four and not equal to 12.”
“So why is Marcus different?” I said.
“They decided they need to hide the information better,” Lalo said.
“Or he isn’t an alien at all,” I said. “I have a hard time believing that Dr. Stevenson is an alien. He did like hearing Kallen’s alien stories, yet, he dismissed them. You know we could be making up these correlations.”
“We could,” Lalo said. “But this means we need to ask Kallen.”
The doorbell rang, making me nearly jump out of my seat.