WHEN THE KNOCK CAME AT THE DOOR, Neil’s coffee sat half-full on the desk. Mavra stirred, moaned, and rolled over, away from the sound. He picked up the cup, then opened the door.
A young airman stood outside. “General Harkins would like to see you, sir. Both of you.” He looked at his watch. “At oh-nine-hundred.”
Neil checked the airman’s nametag. “Airman Gillard, we’ve got to shower and dress first. How about nine-fifteen?”
“The General said—”
“Let him know we’ll be there at nine-fifteen. We had a late night.” Neil closed the door.
From the other side of the door, he heard the airman say, “I’ll wait here.”
Neil drank from his coffee and walked toward the shower. “Here we go,” he said, knowing things were about to get interesting. He finished quickly, getting in and out of the shower, brushing his teeth, and running a razor over his face. He often shaved and brushed his teeth at the same time, but he didn’t today. Instead he focused on each separately. All the while, he thought about what to say and how to proceed. When he came out of the bathroom, Mavra sat at the desk. “A little cold,” she said, holding up her cup of coffee, “but thanks for getting it.”
“I figured that’d be the first thing you wanted.”
She downed it. “I’ll hurry,” she said on her way past him.
Neil hummed while he dressed. It was a great way to ease the tension. He knew that allowing both sides of his brain to worry over the meeting wasn’t going to make it go any smoother. He heard the door open and looked over at Mavra, a towel wrapped around her waist.
She threw her arm across her breasts and said, “No getting side-tracked.”
He knew she was kidding. She could always tell when he was deeply in thought and wasn’t paying attention to anything else. This wasn’t necessarily one of those times, but he wasn’t thinking about sex either, and she knew it. He could tell by the sarcastic tone in her voice.
It didn’t take long and she was ready to go. Neil opened the door and Airman Gillard did an about-face. “He could have given us time for breakfast,” Neil said.
“Sorry, sir.”
“No you’re not,” Mavra said as they followed the airman down the hall and out of the building.
The sun had already burned off the first layer of chill from the night before, but hadn’t heated to boiling yet. Neil placed his arm around Mavra’s shoulder and kissed her forehead when she looked over at him. “Wonder what he wants to talk with us about?” he said for Airman Gillard’s sake.
“Maybe he just wants to know how our night in the desert went,” Mavra said.
At the admin building, Airman Gillard delivered the two of them to the front desk about ten minutes after nine.
“The General’s been waiting for you,” a young secretary wearing an Air Force uniform said. “Please go in.”
Neil opened the door and stepped inside. “General Harkins? I want to thank you for giving us those passes. We had a great time.”
Mavra slipped her arm around Neil’s waist and leaned her head into his shoulder. “We needed to get out of Dodge,” she said. “Thank you.”
General Harkins motioned for them to sit. “Yes, well, glad to help. I suppose.”
“No, it was great,” Neil said. “Really.”
The general leaned forward in his chair and placed his elbows on the desktop. “You know the aliens are missing.”
Neil laughed. “You’re shitting me.” He looked at Mavra and back at General Harkins, who stared at Mavra.
“I felt funny this morning,” she said, “but didn’t attribute it to that. What happened?”
Harkins’ eyes narrowed. “Come on. You knew about this.”
“Seriously?” Neil said. He pulled his cell phone out. “We’ve been gone most of the night.” He pulled up the first shot of the sky and held it out.
“I don’t give a shit about your proof.”
“Is someone looking for them? The aliens?” Mavra said. “They must be somewhere nearby.”
“Isn’t that what you do?” Harkins said to her. “Maybe we should employ you in finding them again.” He cocked his head. “Or will we be led on a wild goose chase?”
“Let’s try it and see,” Mavra said.
Neil didn’t like her tone, and hoped that Harkins didn’t find the same nuance of sarcasm as he did. “Ahem. We’ll do whatever you’d like,” Neil said.
“If they escaped from here, we won’t find them easily, if we ever do.” The general sat back in his chair. “One of the Army officers had their jeep broken into last night. Someone took a joyride.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Neil said. “Do you think it has anything to do with the alien escape?”
“You tell me. The only thing missing besides some gasoline was the first-aid kit.”
“That seems odd.”
Harkins stared at Neil, now. “It is odd, isn’t it?” He took a deep breath. “I’m a family man,” he said. “Those things, whatever they were, reminded me of my own kids, eleven and thirteen.” He scratched his head and looked back and forth between them. “I shouldn’t say this, but I don’t like what the doctors had planned for those two. There are other ways to observe, to test.” He took a deep breath. “I’m sending everyone home today…including you two. I just wanted to know for myself that the aliens are going to be okay, but I’m sure you can’t tell me, since you know nothing about their escape.” He cocked his head. “They weren’t discovered missing until this morning.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Neil said.
“I’m sure they’ll be okay,” Mavra said.
“Thanks for your opinion.” He waved his hand for them to go.
Neil got up first and reached for Mavra. “We hope they’re okay, too,” he said.
“Go,” the general said.
“That’s all?” Mavra asked.
“I just wanted to see your faces,” he said. “You’re clean.”
The airman wasn’t outside waiting for them. The secretary said goodbye when they walked out of the building.
“He knows,” Mavra said.
“I know. But he also knows he won’t be able to pin anything on us. He just wanted us to know that he knew. That was a warning for the next time.”
“Next time?”
“Oh, I’m sure we’ll be working with Harkins again. Breakfast?”
“I’d love to.”
Sgt. James and Bonnie weren’t at the cafeteria when Neil and Mavra showed up. Few people were there, a couple lab techs and one or two Army sergeants who were going to ship back to Montana later that day.
“Did we do the right thing?” Mavra asked.
“I don’t know.” Neil reached out and took her hand. “Did it feel okay to you? Are you worried now?”
She closed her eyes for a moment and smiled at him. “I feel pretty good about it.”
“That’s your answer,” he said, giving her hand a squeeze before going back to eating. “We have a long drive once we get back. Let’s say we stay over for a few days, make a mini-vacation of it. I’d like to see a dig or two, maybe take in a museum.” He saw a cleaning robot scuttle toward the legs of one of the far tables and pointed at it. “Those things still make me feel a little strange.”
Mavra swung her head around and laughed when she saw it. “Seems like another time.”
“It is another time. You think we’ll feel differently whenever we see the monkeys at the zoo now?”
“Don’t call them that. They were intelligent.” Mavra tapped the table with her index finger. “You know we’ll find them again one day, don’t you?”
“I look forward to it,” Neil said.
END