“THAT WAS SAD,” she said to Neil. “Did you see how their bodies reacted? How they just gave up at the end?”
“This is sad,” Neil said about the soldiers that surrounded them. He’d been through this before, and it was never fun. He knew he had to just go with it.
“Standard procedures, sir,” a Master Sergeant said.
“What about all our stuff?” Neil placed an arm around Mavra as they walked up the sidewalk. A cool morning mist settled along some of the better-kept lawns as though they were more deserving. Soldiers patrolled up and down the street, blocking people from leaving their homes. Pulled curtains showed random faces peering out from almost every house they passed. Neil heard the hollow sound of barking dogs coming from inside several of the homes and wondered what the military told the residents, or what they were going to tell them when they showed up with all the hazmat gear—which was bound to happen.
“Keys,” the Sergeant said, holding out his hand.
“My car has some special accessories,” Neil said. “You might want to watch what buttons you push.”
“We’ll tow it, sir. And we’ll empty the hotel room while you two are in quarantine for a few days. Everything will be safe.”
“Where you taking us?” Mavra asked, her first question since they shoved the aliens inside the dog crate they were now kept in.
“Don’t know, Ma’am.”
They approached a troop carrier and were asked to climb into the back and sit down with the soldiers who had escorted them.
In her seat, Mavra raised her palms and looked at them. “Her grip was tight, but her hands were so soft and fuzzy.” She looked at Neil. “What do you think they’ll do with them?”
He shrugged. “They are going to want to test you—us really—now that you’ve touched them.”
“Quarantine. I heard. He said a few days.”
“You have other plans?” He nudged her to try and lighten up the situation. He had gone through quarantine before; it involved a lot of waiting around between blood tests, skin samples, and psychological testing. It had never been his favorite thing. He didn’t like to sit still a whole hell of a lot.
“I don’t like people touching all my stuff,” she said. “It messes with my energy.”
“They’ll take care of it. They’re professionals.” Neil glanced around at the soldiers. The carrier wasn’t made for comfort, and bounced over the road. He felt every pothole through his butt cheeks. Before long the vehicle entered the highway and picked up speed as they headed northwest. “You flying us out of here?”
“Sir?”
“We’re traveling toward Gallatin Field aren’t we? That means you’re flying us out.”
“Where are the aliens?” Mavra said.
“Where are we really going?” Neil added.
“We don’t know, sir,” the Master Sergeant said. “That goes for both questions, ma’am.”
“Shit.” Neil used his eyes independently to look around at everyone, to assess the full situation, but there was little to assess. They weren’t getting out of that carrier until they got to the airport. Each soldier had a weapon. The Master Sergeant’s name patch said Clarke. He was broad, but strong, and had short-cropped hair. He held his cap in his hands. His machine gun leaned against the inside of his leg, pointing up and out toward the rear of the vehicle. “I do, Sgt. Clarke,” he said.
“What the fuck?” one of the other soldiers said. “Did you see that?”
“Neil,” Mavra kicked his foot with hers. “Lock those things down.”
“How the hell did you do that?” the soldier asked.
“My eyes operate independently because the two hemispheres of my brain operate independently. They were severed when I was first born. Watch.” Neil let his eyes roll around in opposite directions and scanned the inside of the troop carrier again.
“Holy fuck,” the soldier said. “Sorry ma’am.” Several of the other soldiers, including Master Sgt. Clarke, stared at Neil.
“Quit showing off.” Mavra rubbed her face and ran her fingers through her hair as though she felt a headache coming on.
“Surprised they don’t know about me,” Neil said.
“Not everyone pays attention to those things.” Mavra leaned into Neil.
He noticed that the motion was making her feel a little carsick and put his arm around her. “Hey, could a few of you guys squeeze in over there so she can curl up on the bench?”
Two soldiers moved to give Mavra room to lie down.
“Thanks. She gets like this if she sits in the back seat of a car, too,” he said. “We’re going to Edwards aren’t we?”
“Could you do that again?” the soldier asked.
“Are we going to Edwards Air Force Base?” Neil asked again.
Clarke laughed. “Area 51. Yeah, that would be my guess, too.”
Neil brushed Mavra’s hair from her cheek. “This is going to be a long debriefing.”
Some of the soldiers laughed at his attitude toward the whole thing. One asked, “You’re not nervous about any of this?”
“The aliens?”
“Soldier!” The Master Sergeant yelled his disapproval.
Neil ignored Clarke. He could request that his soldiers not ask questions, but he couldn’t stop Neil from answering them. “I’m sure you guys are all sworn to secrecy.” Neil turned to the kid who asked the question. “Private Donnelly,” he said. “They were most likely planted here by a race technologically superior to where we are at the present moment, although I can see us coming to this point fairly quickly. It would just take a combination of several sciences like cloning, DNA adjustments, and implanted electronics and we…” He noticed Donnelly’s eyes glazing over and shook his head.
“Anyway, all that equipment they had back there was to send a beacon to their race…who are no longer around, probably died out, or have gone to another planet where life had already evolved. We don’t know.” He smiled at the private, and patted Mavra’s shoulder to acknowledge her input into the aliens’ situation. “Keep it to yourself.”
“How do we know their beacon didn’t get through?”
“Trust me. We have the inside scoop.” He rubbed Mavra’s shoulder again and gave it a quick pat. “Besides, I saw your geek squad leader headed for the equipment the moment the aliens were captured. They’ll know for sure in no time. Ask them. They’ll verify what I’m saying.”
“Henderson will be going with the equipment. They left before we did,” the private said.
“We shouldn’t be hearing any of this,” Master Sgt. Clarke said. “It’s all highly classified.”
“If you’re on this mission, you’re cleared, wouldn’t you think?” Neil looked directly at him. “Seriously. Anything could have happened back there. I don’t know what they’re telling those families, but had the capture not gone so smoothly, you wouldn’t have been able to stop this from being spread all over the news. I’d be surprised if there aren’t photos on the internet already. Who are we kidding?” Neil twisted his neck to the side until it cracked. He rubbed the back of his neck. “That feels better.”
“We have teams who monitor the ‘net. Nothing gets through. It’s under control,” Clarke said.
“Bully for you,” Neil said, as mockingly as he could. He knew the government could do only so much to monitor everyone in the area. In a matter of hours, rumors would spread all over the world. It didn’t matter, the sergeant wouldn’t believe it even if he saw it himself. Brainwashed. Neil focused on Mavra’s comfort for the rest of the trip, which didn’t take long.
The troop carrier entered the airport through a remote gate. A camouflaged C-5 Galaxy awaited their arrival. A captain came to the rear of the vehicle and lowered the gate. “Everyone out and into the plane.”
“All of us, sir?” one of the privates asked. Not Private Donnelly; he appeared to know the drill.
The Captain gave the young man a broad, fake smile. “You’re the lucky ones. Yep, everybody goes.”
“But my wife…”
“We’ll take care of that,” the captain said.
Neil helped Mavra sit up and brushed the hair from her face. “Feeling better?”
“Where are we?” she said.
“Airport. We’re going to get on the plane now. Let me help you.” He got up from his seat and held her hand the whole time. At the rear of the vehicle, he handed her off to the captain. “You know you’re going with us now,” Neil said. “She came in direct contact.”
“I know,” the man said as he helped Mavra down. He turned and said, “Follow me.”
The area had been locked down. Soldiers stood along the entire periphery of the area. Two other troop carriers were parked nearby. One was getting washed down already. The engines on the C-5 were running, and a slew of soldiers stood around the plane. They were ready to get out of there. His guess was that the aliens were either already on the plane or had been boarded onto an earlier jet. But why waste a trip? He followed Mavra up the stairs to the rear passenger deck.
“The seats all look to the rear,” she said.
“Yeah,” Neil said, “it’s a C-5.” Three seats about mid-way back and on the right were open. Soldiers stood just behind them. “Should be a quick flight.” He let her have the window seat. The captain sat in the seat across the aisle from Neil and quickly removed hand sanitizer and squirted it into his palms. Neil wanted to tell him that if she were contagious, it was already too late because Neil had seen him rub his eye not moments after helping her from the troop carrier. He turned from the Captain and said to Mavra, “You feeling any better?”
“Much,” she said. “I think it’s the lack of sleep or something.”
“You don’t think those things…” He let the statement stand.
Mavra shook her head. “I’m sure they tested every last thing they could in that lab room at the college. Which means this is a bit overboard.”
“Unless they found something and didn’t tell us.”
“I don’t sense a problem,” she said.
“But you’re tired.” Neil didn’t want to hand his whole understanding of the practical matters of the situation over to Mavra’s feelings about it. He reminded himself of her hit rate. No, she didn’t know for sure and neither did he. And neither did Harkins, or he wouldn’t have ordered for them to go for testing, which is what Neil was sure this was about. Precaution at the least.
“I still don’t sense anything. I’m not worried. But you’re right, I am tired. How long did they say this trip was?”
Neil shrugged. “Once airborne, about two hours, maybe less.” He patted her thigh. “That would be from about now,” he said as liftoff occurred.
“All these guys are going?”
“Yeah.”
“Will we have our own suite?” Mavra said. She kissed his cheek. “We never did get time to go back to the hotel last night. I could use a good shower first…” She nuzzled his neck with her nose.
“I love you,” he whispered.
They kissed again.
Neil unbuckled his seatbelt and got up. Several soldiers stood at the same time. “Seriously. Where am I going to go?” Neil said. No one said anything, so he explained with a shrug, “The bathroom.”
The soldiers sat down and Neil walked to the lavatory and opened the door. He noticed a curtain had been pulled across the rear area and decided to check the space out on his way out. Inside the bathroom, he took a quick pee and washed his hands. He looked tired in the mirror. His hair stuck out in all directions. He cupped some water in his hands and splashed it over his face, then ran his wet fingers through his hair to plaster it down the best he could. He didn’t mess with it long, before he dried his hands with a few paper towels and turned around to leave. He pushed the slide open and pulled on the folding door. In a smooth motion, Neil stepped, turned, and reached for the curtain. He pulled it back and lowered his head into the space.
Two soldiers were sitting on uncomfortable fold-down seats. A large container that looked like the dog kennel they had used before sat on the floor with a military issue wool blanket over the top.
“Sir?” one of the soldiers said.
“Sorry,” Neil said. He popped his head back out and went back to his seat.
“Find out what you wanted to know?” the captain asked.
“I did.” Neil rested back into his seat, snapped the seatbelt into place and closed his eyes. He slipped his arm around Mavra as she turned her back into him. The armrest was up, so she could get comfortable. “Might as well sleep,” he said.
Mavra mumbled something. She was already half way there.
***
Kek-ta shivered in the corner of the cage. There was nothing they could do and they both knew it.
Chit-Chit-ta kept quiet.
She wondered what he might be planning. She wondered where they were being taken, and for what purpose? “I’m frightened,” she whispered.
“Do you still trust the alien?”
“It wasn’t its fault,” she said. She twitched her ears. “It may not even matter anymore.” With her hands around her stomach, she grinned at Chit-Chit-ta. “I’ll do anything you ask, but please make a plan to escape. Please get us out of here.”