Invasion (The Alien Wars #1) (13 page)

Just as Muscles finished speaking, the door opened and Baldy returned. Right behind him was Peter.

Logan
smiled. “Good to see you’re still alive.”

Peter frowned and turned to Muscles. “What did you want me for?”

Muscles pointed to Logan and Xavier. “Do you know these two?”

“Barely,” Peter answered. “Why?”

“Can they be trusted?” Muscles asked.

Peter stared at Xavier and then Logan. “I don’t think they’re working with Sanchez, but—”

“Trust me,”
Logan
interrupted, “I’m not.” He turned to Peter. “I came here because I heard that men like you, with a fighting spirit and determination, wanted to wage war against Sanchez.”

Muscles raised his hand in
defense
. “I don’t want a war. None of us do. We just want to see that things are made right. Carlos Sanchez is a cold-blooded murderer who deserves to be locked up in prison, but we can’t win the fight if we can’t trust those who we are working with.”

“How can we convince you that we want what you want?” Xavier asked.

Muscles sat down at the desk and riffled through some maps. “I think I might have just the thing for you. Ah, here it is.” He glanced at his watch. “There’s a boatload of goods due to arrive at this pier in just less than two hours.” He handed
Logan
a slip of paper that had an address written on it. “I was going to pass on it due to another mission, but if you want—”

“If we get those goods, will you help us?”
Logan
interrupted.

“If you succeed, I’ll trust you,” Muscles replied.

“I don’t need your trust,”
Logan
stated. “I just need your help.”

“With what?”
Muscles asked.

“There’s a woman by the name of Lucy Thorn being held against her will in The View,”
Logan
began. “And—”

“And you want my help getting her out of there,” Muscles interrupted.

“Yes, she’s my fiancée,”
Logan
said.

“Ah, I see.” Muscles
swiveled
around in his desk chair as he thought. “The View is fiercely guarded. A couple of my men tried to get in there but were gunned down near the entrance. I bet you didn’t know that they’ve got two machine guns set up by the front entrance.”

“No, I didn’t know that,”
Logan
admitted. “But it doesn’t matter. I’m not going to just walk away. I love Lucy, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to get her, with or without your help.”

“We’d appreciate your help though,” Xavier said. “We’re just the two of us, but you’re an army.”

“Hmm, I wouldn’t call us an army. We have forty or so good fighting men here.”

Xavier frowned. “I heard Sanchez was fighting a ton of men.”

“Oh, I just make up one section. All up, we number in the hundreds, but we’re spread out across the city in small cells, each usually operating independently without knowing a thing about the others. It’s an old, but highly effective guerrilla warfare organization system. Sanchez doesn’t know where we’re going to strike next, so he has to spend endless resources patrolling the streets. And more time spent patrolling the streets means less time pillaging the rest of the city.”

The door suddenly opened and a middle-aged man appeared. “It’s time to go, boss.”

Muscles nodded. “I’ll be there in a minute.” He turned to the others. “Get me those goods and you’ve got a deal. If you don’t, don’t bother coming back.” He glanced at Baldy. “Take a man and go with them. Help them out if you can, but don’t do anything suicidal.”

As Muscles walked out of the office, Baldy turned to Logan and Xavier. “You heard what the boss said.
So, you up for the challenge?”

Logan
nodded without hesitation. “I’ll do whatever it takes. Oh, by the way, have you spotted any Seods around here?”

Baldy shook his head. “Not for a week or so. From what my contacts told me, they’ve retreated into the mountains.”

“Good. It’s one thing going up against humans, but if I had to go up against both, I’m not sure what I’d do,”
Logan
said.

“You’re telling me.” Baldy sighed, thinking. “This city was pretty much in the thick of things as you might have been able to tell. With all the soldiers stationed at that big military base on the outskirts of the city, we had quite a fight. A good many men died, but we succeeded in driving the Seods back from the coast.”

“How’s that possible?”
Logan
asked. “I thought the
armor
that they wore was impenetrable.”

“It is, mostly. However, the military discovered a weak spot and so, under the cover of thick fog, nine to ten thousand soldiers attacked the camp they’d set up on the outskirts of the city.” Baldy hesitated for a moment as he relived the experience in his head. “The battle waged for more than two days until the Seods fled.”

“I wonder what the weak spot was,” Xavier wondered. “Hey, maybe it was the fog. Maybe that’s why they won. The Seods weren’t able to use their aircraft to shoot for fear of hitting their own people.”

Baldy nodded. “Yes, that also helped.”

“How many men survived?”
Logan
asked.

“Just over a thousand.
They headed up the coast in pursuit of the Seods and that’s when Sanchez decided to take control.”

“I see. Well, that’s good to know. Hopefully the military will come back soon,”
Logan
said.

Baldy nodded. “But in the meantime, we’ll have to fight.” He stood up. “Let’s get some weapons and a vehicle for you. Then the two of you can show me what you’re made of.”

As the Humvee tore down the snow-covered road, Kenneth decided on a plan. It was risky, but as there was a chance that the Seods could be waiting at the bottom of the mountain, as he was sure they’d have some kind of communication device, they couldn’t keep on driving. All it would take was one good shot with a green bolt and their vehicle would no longer be of any use to them. He glanced at the others. “I’m going to stop in a minute or so. Once I do, get out.”

Derek frowned. “Why?”

“If we can make the Seods follow the Humvee and not us, we’ll have a chance to hike back up the mountain to Doug’s. However, this will only work if the Seods don’t notice that the vehicle stopped.”

“What about the man?” Molly asked.

“Leave him with me.” As the teenagers puckered their lips, Kenneth concentrated on the road ahead. The turn was coming up. If the plan was to work, everyone had to be quick. Before he knew it, they had rounded the bend. He braked and yelled out, “Now!”

The teenagers threw open the door and climbed out. As soon as their bodies hit the ground, Kenneth gunned the vehicle.

Snow churned as the Humvee thundered down the road. As the next turn approached, Kenneth glanced back. The Seods were nowhere to be seen. It was now or never.

He slowed down as he approached the bend and braked hard as he rounded it. As the vehicle stopped completely, he knew that he only had a matter of seconds before the steep incline made it head down the hill by itself.

After grabbing the map, he threw open the door and climbed out. He pulled the passenger door open and dragged the man out of the vehicle.

Luckily, due to the snow, it wasn’t a hard fall, but there was nothing else Kenneth could have done differently. He grabbed the briefcase the man had been holding and shut the Humvee door as it started moving.

After dragging the man behind a bush, he sank down and waited. As the seconds passed and the Humvee started to accelerate down the hill, he hoped that the plan would work.

The seconds dragged on for years, but then, finally, he heard a scuttle as the three Seods raced by him. He was afraid that if they turned around, they’d see him, but they didn’t. Clearly they were deceived into thinking they were still in the Humvee.

Knowing that they’d eventually discover what was going on, he turned to the man. As he opened his eyes, Kenneth spoke. “Sorry for the bump back there. We had the Seods after us.”

The man hurriedly glanced around. “Where is it?”

“Where’s what?”

“The briefcase.
Where is it?”

Kenneth reached over and went to hand it to him, when he realized that it was unlike anything he had ever seen. It felt light and was about the size of a laptop. The handle, as well as the outside material, was made of something that he had never seen before. It suddenly hit him that it looked almost like the same stuff that the Seods were wearing.
Except, this was harder.
He turned to the man. “Where did you get this?”

“My men and I stumbled across an alien ship while on patrol. I managed to sneak inside and grabbed the first thing I saw. I don’t know what it is, but get it to the general.” The man stopped speaking as he coughed up blood.

“Where was the general heading?” Kenneth asked.

“Sparks.
His name is Loreto. General Loreto.” With a gasp, the man closed his eyes and his head slumped to one side.

Kenneth had seen more than one person die in front of him in the past, but that never made it any easier. He wished there was something he could’ve done. But, as he studied the man’s wounds, he realized it had only been a matter of time.

After checking the man’s pulse to confirm that he was indeed dead, Kenneth stood up. Grabbing the briefcase, he hurried up the road. As he arrived at the spot where the teenagers should have been, he glanced around. He smiled as they emerged from the trees.

“Where’s the man?” Molly asked, glancing around.

Kenneth hesitated. “Ah, he didn’t make it.”

There was silence for a moment or two before Derek finally spoke. “What are you going to do with that briefcase?”

Kenneth glanced down at the object he was clutching. “After we’ve gone to Doug’s
,
I’ll go to
Sparks
and hand this to the general. I don’t know what it contains, but it should be important.” He glanced behind him. The Seods were nowhere to be seen. “I have no idea if the Seods are still pursuing us, so keep alert.” Without waiting for a response, he turned and started walking up the road.

~*~*~

Xavier sighed and let the binoculars fall around his neck as he turned to
Logan
. “Only brute force can get us in there.”

Logan
disagreed with Xavier. “There has to be another way.”

The four of them, Logan, Peter, Baldy, and Xavier, were studying the security measures that Sanchez had implemented around the pier. It was quite substantial. As Baldy explained to Logan and Xavier on the way to the
harbor
, security had been increased due to a recent attack by Muscles and his men one week ago.

Peter looked at his watch. “The boat will be arriving in half an hour.”

“Have you tried boarding the vessel from the water?” Xavier asked.

Baldy shook his head. “No.”

“We should do that then,”
Logan
stated. “If we can surprise them—”

“It’s no use,” Peter interrupted. “We don’t have access to a boat. Besides, Sanchez’s men control the water. I doubt we’d have time to steal a boat and board theirs, but even if we did, Sanchez would have us surrounded before we could get away with the goods.”

“So what do you suggest we do?”
Logan
asked.

~*~*~