Mute (45 page)

“I wish you a speedy recovery,” Carter said. “Now
let’s get back to work.”

 
“This
officer nearly lost her life in the line of duty,” Sneed said. Sheriff Brandt
actually showed some spine by nodding in agreement. Yet, he didn’t vocalize his
feelings so the federal officers could hear them. “You should…”

“I can defend myself, thank you sir,” Skillings
said. “But I won’t waste your time arguing whether I’m worthy of being on this
phone with you. I saw what’s going on in the lagoon. If I hadn’t been struck by
that damn pelican, I would have cut this mess off.”

“And how would you have done that?” Colon asked.

“That girl, Mariella, is the key to everything.
She’s the sparkplug that makes it run. Right before the car chase, I got in a
heated argument with Officer Williams about the girl. She got real defensive—almost
to the point of shooting me. Remember how the girl drew a picture of a beheaded
dog and the dog of her classmates got killed the same way? That wasn’t the only
time Mariella has predicted a murder, or ordered one. She drew the marina fire
that killed the teenager.”

“I appreciate your concerns officer, but that’s not
a likely scenario,” Colon said.

“It explains everything,” Skillings countered. “How
come an animal didn’t attack Moni before she caught the Lagoon Watcher, but a
pelican saved him from me? He didn’t send that bird. The girl did. She knew I
would have blown her cover so she had me taken out of the picture. She should
have known that no stink’n bird could put me down for the count.”

Her story fit perfectly with what the Lagoon
Watcher had said. Those little cyborgs had taken control of the girl. Skillings
must still sell the story to Sheriff Brandt, who raked his fingers over his
sweaty scalp before addressing her. “Officer Skillings, as much as I admire
your bravery in the line of duty, we’ve got a lot of concerns that must…”

“She has it right. That’s what we’ve been missing,”
interjected Sneed. “Officer Williams has been uncooperative ever since she took
our key witness as a foster child. Everywhere that so-called child went, all
kinds of deformed varmints followed. Moni played it up like they were victims.
That’s bullshit. They were in on it the whole time.”

“Are you telling me that an eight-year-old girl has
been calling the shots on the worst attack on American soil since 9/11?” Carter
asked.

“This is not some little girl,” Sneed said. “After
we caught the Lagoon Watcher, he told us about these things he found in the
infected animals. They were like miniature robots mixed with living cells. He
called them borgs or cyborgs. Anyway, they are what possessed the animals. I
reckon they did the same deal with Mariella. Lord knows why Officer Williams is
protecting the foul creature.”

“If that’s the case, why don’t you have a warrant
out of their arrests?” Sheriff Brandt asked. “And why didn’t I see anything
about cyborgs in your report on Trainer?”

“This information would have been helpful yesterday—before
they detonated our bombs,” Colon said. “Why did you withhold his statement?”

“Cause I thought he was insane! I didn’t believe it
until I saw the footage…” Sneed gestured to the TV screen, which showed a pier
that had been tossed ashore as easily as a box of matches. The car underneath
it had an old woman’s head lodged in the front window. “Will you quit blaming
me and not the woman who abetted the murderer? Just because it’s not
politically correct to accuse a black woman, that ain’t my fault.”

The other people on the call were silent for nearly
a minute before Colon chimed in. “I wouldn’t have believed the Watcher before
today either.”

“Looking back won’t help us now. There will be
plenty of time for internal reviews of conduct later,” Carter said. “What’s
clear is that we have a new facet to our mission. We must apprehend your
Officer Williams and the girl.”

“Leave that to me,” Sneed said. “I’ve got GPS
tracking on her vehicle and on her phone every time she makes a call. Last I
heard she was on the beachside. No coincidence there, I’m sure.”

“What about Professor Swartzman?” Sheriff Brandt
asked. “Didn’t you assign him to investigate the Lagoon Watcher’s claims?”

 
“That was
the first thing I did,” Sneed said in an irritated tone. “Let me get him on the
line.”

Sneed opened a new line and dialed Swartman’s cell
phone number. It went straight to voicemail without a ring.

Where
is that cocksucker when I need him?

He checked his cell phone to look up the number for
the professor’s lab. Sneed discovered that Swartzman had sent him six photos
about 25 minutes ago. When he opened the first one, Sneed saw a postcard from
hell.

Chapter 44

Aaron ducked inside a flimsy trailer along the foot
of the bridge he had taken from Merritt Island to the beachside. Letting out a
grateful breath as he saw the phone, he hurried over and started dialing Moni’s
number. Before he finished, Aaron heard a thunderous explosion that shook the
phone from his hand. When he gazed out the window, he saw a 30-foot yacht tumbling
through the air like a football in mid-kickoff. The massive yellow bubble that
sprang out of the lagoon had provided the boot. Several palm trees snapped when
the yacht hurtled through them. It grinded to a stop in the marina’s parking
lot as a heap of shattered fiberglass and bent steel.

Most other boats were swallowed inside the bubble.
They deteriorated into leaky, bare-metal skeletons as if 10,000 years had
passed before Aaron’s eyes in under a minute.

Putting off breaking the news to Moni for just a
few minutes so he could save his life, Aaron called his father. His parents
lived five minutes away. He figured his dad couldn’t have anything more
exciting going on during a Saturday morning.

“Hi dad. The world’s going to hell. I need a lift.”

His dad grumbled about Aaron not using his damn
car, until he saw the pillars of black smoke rising from the lagoon. He hung up
and sped over. Aaron limped down from the trailer—treading gingerly on his
burned heel—and climbed into his father’s Mercedes.

“Jesus, do you have to smear my leather seats with
your stinky wetsuit?” his dad asked.

“Good to see you too, dad. Don’t worry about the
acid burns on my foot or the ten near death experiences I’ve had today. I won’t
stain your totally righteous car.”

“You were in the lagoon?” His eyebrows arched as he
saw the overturned yacht. Having never seen anything so astonishing behind his
desk in the corner office, he gunned his most cherished possession out of
there. “Thank God you’re alive. Was anyone with you?”

Aaron lowered his head and turned away so his
father couldn’t see the shame in his eyes, or his tears. “Professor Swartzman…”
Those words, which had once rolled so casually off his tongue, stung him worse
than the acid that had nearly consumed his foot. “He was with me. I… I couldn’t
save him. I lost him.”

 
Instead of
offering consoling words, Aaron’s father shot him a stern look. It drilled down
his point that Aaron should have listened to him and picked a normal profession—one
where he wouldn’t kill people with his ineptitude.

 
He offered
no excuses this time. If Swartzman had taken another student with him, his
professor might have made it out of the lagoon alive. Aaron could never change
that, but he knew one person he could help.

“Let me borrow this for a sec,” Aaron said as he
snatched his dad’s cell phone from his hip case and dialed up Moni.

Moni answered with a hollow, “Hello.” She sounded
more distant than earlier that morning. But as long as she could talk, that
meant the microscopic invaders hadn’t conquered her.

“Did you see what’s going on in the lagoon?” Aaron
asked.

“I’m sorry,” Moni said. She paused. He dreaded the
reason why she felt she owed him an apology over this. “I didn’t think it would
happen this way. So many people got hurt. Even now they’re resisting instead of
accepting it.”

Moni had known. Maybe she didn’t have the whole
story, but Mariella must have told her they would take the lagoon. Moni would
never allow that, even at Mariella’s request, Aaron thought. They must have
brainwashed her.

“Is Mariella with you?”

“She’s right here. I won’t let them hurt my baby.
I’m gonna make a break for it and take her home.”

If Moni went anywhere near the lagoon with the
possessed girl, Aaron knew he would never see her again.

“Moni, that’s a totally bogus idea. We discovered
what’s controlling the lagoon. They are these little creatures—part robot and
part microorganism. They built this huge colony in the lagoon with their
victims’ heads on it. That’s what Mariella has inside her. I’m sorry Moni, but
she’s not human. Not anymore. You’ve gotta let her go and come with me.” He
waited for her gasps of shock or outraged denials. It got so quiet that he
checked the phone to make sure it hadn’t dropped the call. “Professor Swartzman
died today for this information. They killed him! You gotta believe me.”

“I do,” Moni said way too calmly for having just
learned that the child she loved wasn’t human. She must have already figured it
out, but it hadn’t changed her feelings for Mariella. What is the destruction
of bridges and the murder of hundreds in the face of love? “There are pieces of
this story you wouldn’t understand. Mariella and her kind aren’t evil. They’re
just lost.”

“Her kind? What kind are they?”

“They’re the ambassadors from an alien species that
went extinct on their home world. The lagoon is being prepared for their
rebirth. That’s all they want.”

“Uh, okay then.”

Aaron first considered shipping Moni off to the
nearest mental hospital. Then he thought about everything he had seen. The
technology, from the miniature cyborgs seizing control of animals to the gene
splicing that created the mutants, was way beyond anything on earth. The
environment in the lagoon wouldn’t support any native life besides the
thiobacillus. Perhaps on another planet, organisms like these formed the base
of the evolutionary tree that sprouted all other life, including the
intelligent beings that planned on rising from extinction.

That’s why they wanted the Indian River Lagoon,
Aaron realized. The expansive body of water had been converted into a massive
tank for some extremely exotic fish. Aaron had the feeling these guys wouldn’t
consider themselves mankind’s pets. By the way they were treating Moni, they
viewed the situation as the reverse.

“I’m on the beachside. Where are you?” Aaron asked.
“I’ll meet you as soon as I can.”

“I’m here too.” Moni didn’t sound the least bit
worried about being trapped on the narrow strip of land with hostile aliens
cutting her off from the rest of the country. “You should leave here, Aaron. Mariella
will be fine. I’m taking care of her.”

“What about you, Moni? Who do you think killed her
teacher? I found her head at the bottom of the lagoon. That’s what this poser
does to people who supposedly care about her.”

“Stop lying to me! Mariella may not be human, but
she’s still a child. The only hope she has of growing up with her family is in
this new home. Even if a few people get hurt, doesn’t she deserve that right?”

“Who’s talking now? Is it Moni or the alien
Mariella?”

“Aaron! You know the girl can’t…”

“You don’t sound like the woman I met who loves
helping kids, and I mean real kids. Mariella and those aliens are in your head.
She’s influencing you, Moni. If you don’t leave her, she’ll take your head
too.”

“Mariella loves me. Those people were cruel to
her.”

“What about Mariella’s parents? Do you think they
were cruel before the aliens possessed their daughter and murdered them?”

“You don’t know how it happened. You weren’t
there.”

“Mariella was. Why don’t you finally ask her? There
are no secrets between you two now, right?”

“Stay away from me, Aaron. You stay away from us.”

“I can’t do that. If you don’t leave her, she’ll
take you into the lagoon with them. I’ve seen what that acid does to people.
They plug heads into their colony like light bulbs. Is that what you want?”

He waited for an answer and got only silence. He
thought he had made her stop and think until he finally checked the phone line.
She had hung up.

Aaron’s father threw him a sideways glance. Once
again, his son had met his expectations by pissing somebody off.

“Aliens huh?” His father rested a condescending
hand on his knee. “Son, I know a real good rehab center in West Palm Beach that
could get you off that junk.”

“I’m totally straight, dad.” Aaron jerked his leg
away.

“Uh huh. You sure you don’t want me to lend you my
Terminator to kill those aliens?”

“Cut it out. I’m fine. Let me make one more call.”

Determined to make Swartzman’s final mission count
for something, Aaron dialed the sheriff’s office and got connected to Detective
Sneed. “Where’s the scientist?” asked Sneed, who didn’t deem the student worthy
of that job title.