The Deaths of Tao (44 page)

“How many Genjix are out there?” someone called out.

She shrugged. “A dozen? A hundred? Does it matter?”

Two men brought out weapon crates from the ammo locker and handed out rifles. Jill took an old Kalashnikov and examined it. The thing looked older than she was.

“Stack those weapon crates when they’re empty. Not so straight, idiot!” Paula hollered, jumping off the coffee table. “You want to make it easy for them? There’s only one way in and out of this place, so we need to capitalize on the real estate in here.”

Something about that statement didn’t ring true. Then it hit her.

“Baji, there’s a back door to this place!”

Be discreet. Do not cause a panic.
 

Jill pushed her way through the living room to the back hallway. There, in rear of the third silo, she found a rusty metal door hidden behind a shelf. Scanning the room, she saw a sad-looking ant farm. Add ant genocide to Roen’s list of sins. She reminded herself to not let Cameron bring Eva back to their home if they ever reconciled. She found the key under the ant farm and tested it on the door. It clicked open.

Jill rushed back to the dining room and pulled Paula aside. “We can all sneak out the back with the Genjix being none the wiser,” she told her.

Paula furrowed her eyebrows. “The enemy’s at our doorstep. If we all leave at once, they’ll find us and catch us out in the open. We need to engage the Genjix, lock them into the fight, and then have our people trickle out in twos and threes to avoid detection.” She put a hand on Jill’s shoulder. “I need to manage the fight at the front. I’ll leave the evacuation to you.”

“I’m sending Thompson and Wilks first,” Jill said.

“Wilks isn’t a host. I’d rather Quasing escape.”

“They’re two sitting senators!”

Paula sighed. “It doesn’t matter if they’re in Congress anymore. America’s lost. And with her goes any hope of victory. It’s over.”

Paula’s words stopped Jill dead in her tracks. She knew the situation was grim, and this recent attack on the capital was a serious setback, but she didn’t think it was the Prophus’ death knell. Only now did she realize how critical her role was in the war. Except it was too late. What minor successes she had achieved in the past few weeks were worthless. She had won the battle while the Prophus lost the war. Nothing could prevent the Genjix from assuming control of the United States government.

Suddenly, a dangerous and radical idea occurred to her. “You’re still getting reports in from the outside? How? Through Roen’s system?”

Paula nodded.

“Can we patch through to the Keeper?”

“I already had a call with her about reinforcements. Unfortunately, the bulk of our forces are in Tibet. The rest here are too occupied with the evacuation of the country.”

“I need to speak with her. Meet me in the computer room,” Jill said quickly, running out the door.

“What are you trying to do?”

“Just get me the damn Keeper now!” Jill roared. “And find Senator Thompson!” She high-stepped it to the infirmary and found Wilks lying in bed.

“Jill,” he exclaimed. “What’s that racket outside? You mind if I turn into a grumpy old man and tell them to shut the hell up?”

“No time, Senator. The enemy’s trying to break in.”

She gave him a moment to let those words sink in. He took it surprisingly well. Actually, he took it so well that it shocked her. He looked thoughtful for a second and then tried to sit up. “Well, get me a gun. A rifle, mind you. Can’t hit a chicken in a hen house with a pistol.”

“This isn’t your fight, Senator,” she said. “Listen, you need to come with me.”

“You’re not leaving me on the sidelines, counselor,” he argued. “I’ve fought through more wars than you can count.”

“I can count to two, James.” Jill wasn’t in the mood for any of this. “Come on, you need to meet someone.”

She dragged him to his feet and felt a little guilty for how rough she was being when he grimaced in pain. Then she dragged him to the computer room, where Paula and Thompson were already waiting. The Keeper’s face was on the large computer screen.

“What is he doing here?” the Keeper demanded.

Wilks squinted. “Meredith Frances?” he said, his surprise clear.

Paula looked at him curiously. “You two are acquainted?”

“She’s one of my largest campaign contributors,” he said. “Meredith, don’t tell me you’re involved in all this brouhaha.”

“I run this brouhaha, James,” the Keeper said dryly. She turned to Paula. “The National Guard has been called. The Navy is blockading Chesapeake Bay, and the Air Force is on high alert. The Genjix claim it’s a terrorist attack. By morning, the entire eastern seaboard will be under martial law. The good news is the Genjix have until dawn to take your fortified position before they need to disperse. The bad news for you is you have to hold out until dawn.”

“How do we retake control of the government?” Thompson asked.

The Keeper looked at Thompson with a deadpan expression. “We don’t. The Americas are lost.”

Thompson gasped. “If the Americas are lost and China is already gone...”

“The war is over,” the Keeper said. “We cannot sustain our fight with the Genjix with the two superpowers of this planet siding against us.”

Wilks held up his hand out. “Can someone explain to me how the United States is lost? We’re still here, governed by the people. The President...”

“You don’t understand the situation. The people you speak of haven’t been in control of your government since 1850.”

Wilks furrowed his brow and did a little mental president-counting in his head. “Zachary Taylor?”

“What do you think the Civil War was really about? Now please shut up.”

“I always knew you were a bitch, Meredith,” he shot back. “I was just nice to you because of your money. No one controls the freest country in the world!”

“You’re not campaigning right now, James.” The Keeper turned to Paula. “Get him out of here.”

“Wait!” Jill yelled over Wilks’ protests. “There’s another way.”

All eyes turned to her.

This is a dangerous proposition.
 

“Does it matter if we’ve lost the war anyway?”

Agreed. If that is so, might as well slash and burn our defeat.
 

“There’s a way,” Jill repeated. She looked the Keeper in the eye. “Tell the world. Tell them everything.” She pointed at Wilks and Thompson. “They’re senators. Give them our data. Roen has a portable Penetra scanner in his ammo locker. Have Wilks expose us.”

The room became silent. Even the Keeper’s famously stoic face betrayed her.

“You mean to end all Quasing,” the Keeper said at last. “I will not partake in our extermination.”

“Our extermination is already a forgone conclusion if the Genjix control the United States,” Jill said. “At least there’s a sliver of hope if the people fight back.”

“This could stop the Genjix from taking the country,” Paula said slowly. “Perhaps even loosen their hold on the other countries. The people won’t stand for it.”

“We’ll be hunted,” Thompson said.

“So we send the two senators with a Penetra scanner, our historical records, and let the inhabitants of this world decide,” Jill said. “Let them judge us for our actions. If what we have been doing all this time is really for the good of the planet, they will come to our side.”

“Or exterminate us,” the Keeper added.

Jill shrugged. “We’re walking dead right now anyway.”

“So, Wilks and I just walk up to the Hill and lay it all out?” Thompson said.

“Not you,” the Keeper said. “You’re a host. You will be the first one exposed. They will arrest you immediately.”

Wilks turned to Jill. “What does she mean by Thompson being a host?”

“Baji, should I tell him?”

Might as well.
 

Jill took a deep breath. “Senator, there’ve been aliens living on Earth since before humans walked the planet. They survive by living in us and have guided humanity since the dawn of time. These secret societies that I told you about, well, it’s an alien civil war. And our side is losing.”

Wilks’ face turned sheet white. He stammered for a second, looking from face to face in the room, and then at the Keeper, who only nodded.

“Get outta here!” he said.

Thompson stepped up to the screen. “Keeper, Haewon and I insist on going. We are volunteering to be exposed. Wilks will need to prove to naysayers that he is telling the truth, and I doubt that any Genjix will volunteer to be scanned, so might as well make it one of us. I am a senior Prophus. I have the authority and knowledge to negotiate with the humans. Besides, if I volunteer to be exposed, the Prophus might garner sympathy. It might give us a chance to tell our side of the story.”

“Sympathy is the last thing humanity will offer us.” The Keeper had a pained look on her face. “Very well, then. It seems we have few options here. Good luck, Haewon. We have been friends since before our time on this planet. I hope to see you again in our true form or in the Eternal Sea.”

“The honor has always been mine, Keeper.” Thompson bowed. “But let us not kid ourselves. The only way the people will believe us, Penetra scanner or not, is if they see Haewon’s true form. I am willing to make that sacrifice.”

Jill had not realized that Thompson’s Quasing was Haewon. If there was ever an important Quasing, she was it. And now, Haewon had just volunteered to sacrifice herself to the mercy of humanity. And Senator Thompson had just volunteered to die in order to expose them. This was madness!

One of Paula’s men ran into the room. “The Genjix are moving a demolition team through the tunnel,” he said.

“Get out of here!” the Keeper said. “And may you all finally rest in the Eternal Sea.”

Paula sped out of the room, barking more orders. Jill typed furiously on the computer and then pulled out the hard drive. She led Thompson and Wilks to the ammo locker and pointed at the Penetra scanner.

“Take that with you,” she said.

Wilks scratched his brow and looked puzzled. “I thought you said it was portable.”

“That
is
a portable one,” Jill replied. “Trust me, Senator, they don’t come much smaller.”

Thompson shook her head. “It’s portable but still too big to carry around.”

Wilks walked up to the scanner and picked it up. “Not too bad,” he huffed. “Lighter than it looks. I can carry it a ways, I think. Worse comes to worst, we can hide it off the side of the road and pick it up later once we find a ride.”

Jill nodded, stuffed a pile of documents and the hard drive into a backpack, and then led them to the hidden exit. “Guard this bag with your life. It will have everything you need to expose us.”

She turned to Thompson. “If our network is still active, make sure Wilks has access to the historical database. We need irrefutable evidence.”

Thompson nodded and gripped Jill’s arm. “Baji...”

The sound of heavy gunfire ricocheted across the metal walls.

“Go!” Jill screamed, pushing them through the dark tunnels. She rushed to the dining room to organize the evacuation from the silo. All the able-bodied people were fighting in the living room while the injured had been moved to the infirmary. Jill began to mix the groups, sending the healthy and injured out together at ten-minute intervals so as not to attract attention. To her surprise, many refused to leave. Representative Valkner, a host who had to be pushing eighty, with rifle in hand, actually shoved her out of the way and went back to the front line.

When he was young, Valkner was a one-man sniping army. There is a rumor, mostly perpetuated by him, that he once kept an entire Vietcong division pinned down for six hours until the reinforcing army got into position.
 

“How did he do that?”

He said he shot anyone who got within five meters of the river they were trying to cross.
 

“So the river stopped them.”

According to him, he did. The river just helped a little.
 

The sound of fighting was deafening. Gunfire, explosions, and screams filled the air. She glanced over at the barricade and saw the Prophus desperately trying to keep the Genjix from climbing over it. It was like the trench warfare of the Great War condensed into a room the size of a tennis court. The fighting ebbed and flowed and eventually bogged down into a stalemate. The Genjix were unable to utilize their superior numbers in cramped quarters, and the remaining Prophus didn’t have the numbers to push the Genjix out. What was particularly eerie was the number of Quasing that suddenly appeared in the air, having been expunged from their hosts during the chaos of battle. Jill had little doubt that the majority were Prophus. Slowly, the tide moved in the Genjix’s favor. The Prophus began to give way step by step as the casualties mounted.

Over the din of the chaos, someone screamed “RPG!” and then the entire room shook. There was a deafening screech and explosion as the barricade vanished. A column of pressurized fire blew Jill backward like a rag doll. She blacked out.

When she came to, the world felt strange. For one thing, everything was fuzzy, and she was having a hard time breathing. People were running and shouting, but there were no sounds. It was like watching a silent film. Now that she thought about it, she couldn’t hear anything at all except for a slightly unpleasant humming near the back of her head. Suddenly, she heard a pop like a balloon bursting, and then a sound like water draining in the bathtub. Then an avalanche of sound punched her in the gut.

Strange hands dragged her to one of the back rooms. She looked up, eyes glazed, as Paula sized her up, reared her hand back, and brought it down toward her cheeks.

Jill’s blocked the slap at the very last second. “That’s not necessary,” she shouted. “Really not necessary.”