Aliens Are Real: Part 2 (16 page)

The teenager
s parted ways with Emma at the
Welcome
C
enter
.
The group fell back into their normal behavior after
Emma
left.
Malika stayed away from
Jasmine
, Yumi walked by
her
side
,
and Honorio led the group.
Tyrone and Joseph both studied Joseph’s map as they walked side-by-side.
She
couldn’t
shake
the feeling that everyone was too interested in the base.

***

Honorio
couldn’t
believe
how easy it was to get on base. On his planet, there were many more safeguards surrounding such an important location.
He
had
expe
cted security to increase the fa
rther
into the base they
had ventured
. He didn’t spot any pole mounted lasers, no scanners and few security cameras
.
The many
shops on base startled him. It was as though the human installation wasn’t solely dedicated to defending the land. It was almost as if they provided social opportunities.

That didn’t make sense to Honorio. He
had seen houses on base. Why, on E
arth
,
were there houses so close to a military installation? Did the soldiers live in family units instead of bunkers or did humans actually let the soldiers’ families live on base with them?

Again, the strange human familial bonds confused him. What purpose could it possibly serve to have a family near to a soldier? It was a distraction.

Honorio pushed his confusion at human antics to the back of his mind
,
as he focused on the task at hand. They had
acquired
a fairly good idea where
the target was being held. T
hey
only
needed a way to watch the building
,
and find a way in.

“Joseph, head
towards the building.” H
e
had not needed
to explain which
one
.

Joseph turned the car without a question.
They drew close to the location
,
and it was just as he thought. An eating establishment
lay
just down the road. It was one of those places with delicious tasting food lacking in nutritional value
.
A sign out front said “Open 24 hours
.
”

“Pull over there.” Honorio pointed
to the restaurant.

Malika turned around from the front seat.
“Are you hungry?” She tossed a protein bar in
to
his lap.

Honorio slipped the bar into his pocket. Although slightly gritty in texture, he enjoyed the bars. His stomach would be gurgling soon so it would come in handy.

“Thank you for the bar
,
but I have something else in mind. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Honorio stepped out of
the car and walked into the restaurant.

“Would you like to value size
that?” Honorio asked the woman standing across the counter
from him
.

“
No. Wait, yes. And I want a brownie
sundae as well.”

Of course you do.
Honorio thought to himself
, as he considered the customer’s girth.

Even though he had worked at the fast food
restaurant
for two weeks, it still amazed him how much junk humans ate.

He hit a few buttons on the screen in front of him.
“That will be $8.8
2 please.”

He waited for the woman to dig thr
ough her purse
,
and pull out her wallet to give him money. She grabbed the bills
,
then rummaged in her coin wallet, trying to locate the right coins. She gave up
on the wallet,
then reached to the bottom of
her
oversized purse.

Honorio
felt his blood pressure rising. He saw that she
had more bills in her wallet
,
yet
she insisted on chasing pieces of
steel and bronze-plated zinc
at
the bottom of her
over-stuffed bag
.
Inefficient humans. How did they ever accomplish anything as a race? No wonder they weren’t interstellar travelers yet. They couldn’t even develop a process for streamlining
monetary
exchanges.

He managed to crack a thin smile as she finally handed him the exact change.
He placed the money in the drawer
,
then handed her the printed receipt.
He waited for the next person in line to step up and order. He glanced at the clock
,
and fought back a groan. He still had
fifteen
more minutes before he could leave work.

When his customer had finally com
pleted her purchase
,
a
voice behind him signaled
the anticipated hour. “Honorio, cash out.”

He did his best to fight a sneer as he promptly hit a few buttons on the screen, grabbed a print out
,
then pulled the money drawer out of the machine.
He took the drawer to the back and started counting the bills. He finished in a couple
of minutes. Not to any surprise of his, all of the
numbers add
ed
up correctly.
He placed a locking lid on top then took the drawer to his supervisor.

“All done, sir.
” Honorio placed the drawer in the
man’s hands.

The boss gazed down condescendingly.
  “Good job.”

Honorio tried not to look directly at his supervisor
,
Chris. The man had light, mid-length hair that he split down the middle
,
and allowed to hang in his face. The
unkempt appearance bothered Honorio. T
he fact that
Chris
wandered around the food without a hairnet ensured that Honorio would never eat the food cooked in that establishment.

A teenaged girl popped her head into the office. “Hey, who’s taking over Honorio’s till?”

“You can.
” Chris
had
responded with a smile that caused Honorio to be uncomfortable.

The girl nodded
with a blank expression toward
Chris.

She turned
to face Honorio
.
“Any big plans tonight?”

He shook his head.

“Well, you can swing by my friend’s place.
” The girl handed him a
slip
of paper with an address, and a phone number on it.
“
She’s having a
little
party. I’d love to
se
e you there
after I get off work
.” She
placed a hand on his arm
.

Honorio looked at the girl’s face. Her dark eyeliner surrounded her
greenish eyes, making them
appear
smaller. Her hair
was
swept back into a tight pony tail
, fading
from blonde to brown to
a reddish color.
She wore a startling shade of red lipstick that didn’t
quite
fit her face.
Although not an expert on human expressions, he knew that this girl
was looking
at him in a way a lion
gaze
d
at a gazelle. She was all predator.

“I have studying to do.
I cannot.
”

It was the truth. The semester finals were around the corner
,
and between his job and
various
distractions, there was a chance his grades would slip -especially in Family Development class.
He couldn’t concentrate with Jasmine sitting beside him.
Why did that human muddle up his brain so much?

“I’m not busy!
”
His
supervisor’s
outburst pulled
Honorio back into the present.

The girl looked at
him with a sneer. “It’s a
high
school
party. Not really a
place for a thirty-year-old.” S
he turned around and left.

“I’m only twenty-five
,
” he
murmured, once she was out of earshot.

His eyes flicked to Honorio. The man’s face turned into a sneer
,
and Honorio knew the rejection would be taken out on him
... a
gain.

“I have a special proje
ct for you before you clock out.
”

Honorio didn’t react to the man’s words even though he wanted to reach out and shake the guy. It wasn’t Honorio’s fault that women were attracted to him. If Chris would choose to work out, get a new hair cut
,
and look at women with respect, he wouldn’t be rejected nearly as often.
Repressing his instincts to exert his dominance, he followed Chris
and prepared to get extremely dirty.

***

Honorio wiped his hands on his pants, trying to dislodge more grease from his skin. Other employees considered cleaning out the grease
traps
to be the worst punishment that the law allowed. Honorio usually didn’t mind the task as
much as
other employees
, because they
tended to avoid
him
when
he
was scrubbing
.

That night
would have been no different
,
if Chris hadn’t stuck his foot out as Honorio
had
walked by with the fat destined for the recycling center. Ever agile,
Honorio
had not fallen
,
but part of his load
had
slos
hed onto his hands and clothing.

Honorio’s hands clenched in anger. He
had done
nothing to his supervisor, yet the man clearly despised him.
Chris wasn’t soldier stock
,
obviously.
Why do they a
llow civilians to work on base
?
It was a horrible idea
,
but Honorio used it to his advantage as he crouched in a corner
, watching
the “storage” building.

Every night after work
,
he spent time observing the area around the building. He searched for surveillance equipment, possible routes into and out of the building
,
and took note of
who entered and exited.
There were
always
two low-
ranking men standing outs
ide the building
,
twenty
-
four hours
every
day.
Honorio
had
also
been collecting surveillance from a tiny, undetectable camera
, which
Tyrone had contrived.
He
had installed it conveniently on the side of an immovable garbage can just outside the restaurant. Since Chris liked to take out his frustrations on Honorio by assigning him all the dirty work, retrieving the data from the camera was a simple task.

Honorio scanned the various items outside of the building for any changes. A backh
oe
sat
next to the building, it
s large digging claw
resting
on
the ground
like
a large metal bird
that
couldn’t hold its head up. Several long plastic pipes
lay
stacked against the building. A pallet of cement blocks
sat
on the other side of the building near the entrance.

Light from
oncoming
headlights forced Honorio to crouch back further to avoid detection.
He saw Jasmine’s dad
’s car
, pull
up
to the building
,
and park
.
Jasmine’s dad, Colonel Smith,
walked up to the men standing outside in the cold wind
,
and handed each a cup of something that trailed tendrils of
steam
in
to
the air.
A warm beverage sounded good to Honorio
,
as he tried no
t
to shiver.

From his vantage point, he could make out
bits of the conversation C
olonel Smith
was having
with the two men.

The colonel grumbled. “I wish! T
he general insists that I have everything ready to go
,
but we don’t even have funding for the project yet. Gotta love red tape, eh boys?”

All the men shared a laugh. One of the men said something Honorio couldn’t
decipher
.
             

Co
lonel Smith pointed at the door.
“Sure. Anytime you need, just duck inside.”

The soldier nodded, saluted
,
then quickly walked inside.

The other soldier and the c
olonel chatted quietly until the first soldier returned.

“Well boys, gotta go
inside
,
and fix a detail in the plans that someone above my head
went and
changed.
” He disappeared
into
the guarded building.

Ignoring the temperature, Honorio waited patiently
for the c
olonel to reappear and leave
,
hoping for a glance at anything that might help him feel more confident they had the correct target.
The setting just
didn’t convey any sense of top-
secret security
,
beyond two lowly guards.
He couldn’t detect any cameras, motion sensors, special key pads or anything else that would protect the
valuable secrets hidden inside.
Also, if it were top-
secret, would the men be allowed inside with the
c
olonel waiting outside holding the private’s drink? On the other hand, the watch Tyrone
had converted
into
an energy signature tracker
for Joseph had
designated this as the place. If he starte
d doubting Tyrone
, they might as well give up all hope of going home.

Colonel Smith reemerged from the controversial building,
and
turned to face the guards. “Keep an eye on that monstrosity for me.
” He pointed to the backhoe
beside the building.
“
The general made me sign my name for it so it’s my butt if it disappears.”

“Yes,
sir
!”
both men responded.
They stood at attention
, and saluted the c
olonel.

Without a glimps
e of anything helpful from the c
olonel’s
reappearance
, Honorio slid through the dark
,
back to his vehicle
,
parked in a residential area. It felt too easy. Were there traps inside l
ying
in wait to capture intruders? Was the outside a cleverly crafted façade
, hiding a high-
tech lab inside?
If it was, why did the soldiers seem to believe the story about the shed being used for a construction project
?
One
had gone
inside
,
and seemed to behave no differently than before
.