Alien Invasion 04 Annihilation (7 page)

Piper jumped, breath catching in her throat.
 

“So you see it.”

Piper took a calming breath and gazed back at the ship. She let her eyes defocus. It was still there, right where Cameron had said: a shape like a large dog, an ink-black shadow with nothing to cast it. When she turned to look directly at it, the shadow was gone, but when she merely caught it sidelong, the shape was clear as day. The kind of thing that couldn’t be unseen. The kind of thing that would, she felt sure, visit her nightmares.
 

“I see it.”
 

“Is that what was inside the lab?”
 

“I think so. What is it?”
 

Cameron gave a tiny shake of his head. “I don’t know. But I think I saw it outside, when we first got near the mothership, before we went in. You saw it inside, and now it’s out here.”
 

“It’s following us.”
 

“Grace didn’t react when we mentioned it. She’s been hiding in that lab for days. If it had been there, you’d think she’d have seen it. That makes me think we brought it with us.”
 

Piper found the shape again. She didn’t like seeing the thing, so she blinked away, looking at the formation’s base directly. And of course there was nothing there.

“Is it like the BB?”
 

“Maybe. But my gut says no.”
 

“What do we do? Try tricking it like before?”
 

“You know what they say about fool me once, fool me twice,” Cameron said.
 

“I don’t think we can. I think this is something else. Not a drone. Whatever that is, it’s alive. It’s awake. And even when we forget to look, it’s paying attention.”
 

Piper’s eyes strayed to the ship. The giant sphere that had once been elsewhere before returning to Moab for reasons unknown. It must have dropped the troops that destroyed the lab, just enough to let the humans do their jobs as unwitting translators.
 

The Astrals had played the humans once, too. And just as the aliens wouldn’t be fooled twice, Piper didn’t particularly want to be played again, either.
 

“It left the lab so we’d be able to figure out where the Templars put Thor’s Hammer and how to get at it,” Cameron said.
 

“I assumed. So what do we do?”
 

“We solve the puzzle,” Cameron said. “Then lead them to it.”

CHAPTER 12

Christopher did a double take while passing the network center, on his way to check the roof’s dish. He saw a big black circle with eyes in its middle, like a black Pac-Man, then realized he was seeing Terrence’s hair, after having made peace with the idea that it was gone forever.
 

“Terrence?”
 

There were two Titans, two humans, and two Reptars watching Terrence work. The guards were arranged in a semicircle, paired like a Noah’s Ark of security personnel.
 

“Oh. Hey, Christopher.”
 

The lack of recognition was disarming. Last Christopher heard, Terrence had been sent up to the mothership on something dire enough to raise Raj’s dander. But now that Terrence was free and working on computers under the literal gun, Raj was nowhere to be seen, and Meyer’s orders meant nothing. Christopher had no idea what side he was supposed to be on, where everyone’s allegiances lay, and whether he himself was in trouble. When the bad guys became the good guys and the bad guys’ allies made the good guys work while the bad guys vanished …
 

Well, Christopher was confused enough.
 

“You’re …
here,”
he said, giving the most neutral, noncommittal answer.

“Yes.” Terrence looked at Christopher, seeming to wonder if he could trust him. “I’m here.”
 

“It’s good to see you.”
 

This was stupid. Christopher felt like a person talking on a tapped phone line. The Reptars were standing down but glaring with their yellow eyes. Meyer would shit when he saw
that
; Reptars were strictly outside-the-home security. The Titans were watching the men with bland interest, and the house guards were eyeing Christopher with a mix of respect and skepticism. Christopher was second in command only to Raj, and first in command until recently because Raj never used his authority. Still, Terrence was a prisoner, and Christopher knew him from way back. The guards might be for Christopher or against him. It was a knot with too many loose ends.
 

“Good to see you too, Chris.”
 

“Maybe you can take a break. From … ” He looked at Terrence’s position: kneeling on the network center floor, doors propped open, a cowling of some sort removed from one of the large machines, his tattooed arms up to the wrists in jumbled wires.
 

“ … from what the Commander of the Guard told me to do, of course.”
 

“Of course.”

Christopher looked at the humans. “Take five.”
 

“Sorry, Captain,” said Francis, one of the humans. “We’re under orders to stay by his side.”
 

“Francis, it’s me.”
 

“Sorry, sir.”
 

Before Christopher could protest more, a voice came from behind. Overhead lights flickered, and this time they stayed dead for a full beat. It was as if the voice, at Christopher’s rear, had turned the lights on and off to keep everyone quiet, like in kindergarten.
 

“Christopher.”
 

Christopher turned. “Raj.”
 

“Maybe it’s time you started calling me by my title.”
 

“Raj,” Christopher repeated.
 

Raj regarded Christopher, apparently wondering if the fight was worth it. It must not have been because instead of insisting, he wandered away, farther down the hallway. When he looked back, Christopher intuited he was supposed to follow. It was his turn to decide if it was a power play worth resisting.
 

It wasn’t. Not with all the thin ice.
 

“He’s fixing what he broke,” Raj said, answering Christopher’s unasked question.
 

“Can he do that? Mo says it’s everywhere. Out on the Internet, even.”

“With help, he can.”

“I came to adjust the dish. Thought that might help.”
 

Raj rolled his eyes with pure drama. Apparently, that had been the stupidest thing Christopher could have said.
 

“They don’t need the dish. Are you kidding me?”
 

“I didn’t know the Astrals were helping.”
 

“Of course they’re helping, Christopher. Contrary to what some seem to feel lately, we’re in this together.”
 

“Jons is asking for Viceroy Dempsey.”
 

“Did anyone bother to tell him that the viceroy is dead?”
 

“We didn’t have a conversation. It was a request, for the guards. I’ll tell him when I get there, but no, it didn’t seem necessary to send someone on an extra trip by foot, with the network out.”
 

“Police Captain Jons sent word through
you?”
 

“Me and Trevor. But Trevor isn’t around, so yes, through me.” Something in Raj’s face bothered Christopher. He wanted to punch it more than usual. He fought the urge to add,
Is that a problem for you?
But something in that cocky bearing made him hold it in.
 

“Okay. Run to Jons.”
 

“Not just me, Raj.” He was struck by sudden inspiration, eyes flicking to Terrence, who could use a bit of time without the asshole on his back. “He wants to talk to you, too.”
 

“Why?”
 

“You’re commander, aren’t you?”
 

“For now. You can handle it,
Captain.”
 

“There’s a grid issue. The Apex is drawing a bunch of power. With the network out, it’s sucking from the lines, like charging a phone by plugging it into a computer.”
 

“So?”
 

“I don’t know this shit …
sir
. Maybe you’d better come to explain why a glass pyramid is pulling power the city needs, now especially.”
 

“What makes this my problem? The Astrals can draw whatever power they want. This is their city.”
 

“Did you know the Apex even
uses
power?”
 

Raj looked like he was deciding whether or not he should admit to something. He glanced back at Terrence, maybe realizing that the man, who was trying to clean his own mess, must already know. It was hard to tell in the sunlight, but after getting the message, Christopher had looked at the Apex to see if he could see what Jons had reported. Sure enough, the thing was pulsing like a power indicator. It wasn’t normally lit, yet now it was alight as if struggling to get what it needed. Something wired below the city in ways no one had noticed before.
 

“Yes. I helped design the network,” Raj said. “Our part anyway.”
 

“What power does it need?”
 

“I don’t see how that’s your concern.”
 

Christopher shrugged. “I just want to know what I should tell Jons.”
 

“Tell him to mind his own fucking business.”
 

“Sure. But hey, you’re the one who said we should all work together — us and the Astrals. Jons has his geeks working from the city side. You’re on the hub here. But the Apex? If we keep treating it like an unknown … ”
 

“It’s an antenna of some sort,” Raj blurted.
 

“They told you that.”
 

“It’s obvious. It’s also the reason you adjusting dishes is pointless. You can see it in the logs and usage. They’re connected to it some other way, but it’s fed into the grid, too. With our power off, it’s probably acting as a sink.”
 

“Can we just cut it off then, if it has its own power?”
 

“I … ” He looked at Terrence. “I don’t know.”
 

“Really. Okay. I’ll tell Jons you don’t know anything.”
 

Raj’s jaw set. “I’m staying here. Tell Jons to leave the Apex connection alone until he hears otherwise. I’m watching what Terrence is doing, and he won’t try anything funny unless he wants summary execution. Until then, if the Apex is pulling power from what Jons is supervising, tough shit.”
 

“If that’s what you want.”
 

“It’s what I want.”

Christopher turned, feeling himself dismissed, and walked back toward the stairs.
 

“Oh, and Captain?” Raj said from behind him.
 

Christopher turned.
 

“I know that you and Terrence are good friends.”
 

Christopher considered denying. Instead, meeting Raj’s greedy little eyes, he nodded.
 

“If he can’t fix this, I just want you to know that I’m holding you responsible as well.”
 

Christopher felt his patience snap. “How the hell can you — ”
 

“And Captain?”

Christopher held his tongue, his internal temperature rising.
 

“I suggest you don’t stop by to see Lila on the way to Jons.”
 

Christopher bit his lip. With Meyer gone, the Astrals mum, and the city going dark, there was no way to know who’d end up as the new man on top. Raj thought it’d be him, by rook if not by right. If that happened, given what Raj seemed to have done to Meyer, Terrence’s work might as well include digging his own grave. And he’d be digging one for Christopher, too.

Instead of replying, Christopher turned and left without a word.
 

He passed the big window to the Apex on his way, stopping a moment to watch it pulse, wondering what possible signals the big blue antenna might be sending.

CHAPTER 13

The trick of seeing the shadow was like rolling a quarter across the knuckles for show. Once Piper had it figured out, she couldn’t stop trying while Cameron puzzled over their retrieved drives. The difference was that this particular trick chilled her, and distracting Cameron to point out its movements (closer, farther, circling around as if trying to get a better angle on what they were doing) felt like an awful idea. They’d come to dig into Benjamin’s research. Nathan wanted to move on now that they’d left the labs — perhaps to study the data away from the mothership’s eye — but Cameron was more practical: They didn’t know if they had the information required to find Thor’s Hammer. As long as the lab was still standing with potential evidence inside, they should keep it close. They might need to go back … but
for what
was a constant question below the group’s skin, with everyone afraid to ask.