where the last guardian rose to its feet like Dracula rising from his coffin in a melodramatic horror movie.
Just as important, the clean-up craft approached. Dust and debris kicked into the sky. The tubes hanging from the floating wing cast their shadow over the two people and the one remaining machine.
The suction pulled off the robot's hood. She saw the blood and juices of a living brain hardwired into the circuits and metallic chassis of a humanoid robot.
Its jaw dropped open in what might have been a smile. Its gun rose.
Nina leapt forward, her sword slashing in both hands. The blade struck into its shoulder and slid across into a solid neck. Sparks burst; part of the robe caught fire.
As she jumped onto her hover bike to escape, the damaged guardian was caught in the suction of the giant eraser machine, disappearing with the rest of the junk to be crushed and sifted until nothing but dust remained.
With time running out, Nina and Gordon moved to the last remains of the Centurian facility. They found control panels and bulkheads, the nose cone of a transport, and computer equipment. But most important, they found the melted remains of bodies, little more than black goo stuck to tattered red and white body armor.
Gordon found the upper half of an armored Centurian intact, save for legs. He threw it on the back of his ride and they rocketed away. A minute later, the massive machine sucked in the final pieces of the Centurian base cleansing it from the Earth.
The two investigators stopped in the foothills beyond the cleaner's reach. There Gordon removed the dead alien's helmet, revealing big black eyes and fine green skin…fine green skin covered in red blotches. 'What do we need to find?' Gordon pulled out a hunting knife and sliced open the fried corpse. 'Those blotches are the first clue, remember? Now if we're lucky…'
The skull fell apart in Knox's hands. There amidst the decaying remains of the alien's gray matter he found what he sought: a petrified little creature-also long dead-about the size and shape of a slug.
'And there you have it, Captain.'
Nina gazed at the tiny thing, knowing that at some time in her past two such creatures had violated her body and mind; that such a creature had robbed her of a year of memories.
She said, 'I've never seen this before. I'm just saying, I never heard of them infecting one of the other aliens, only humans.'
'Me neither,' Gordon agreed as he wiped a glob of sweat from his forehead. 'But whatever way you cut it, it wasn't the Redcoats who assassinated Trevor, it was The Order.'
'What is going on?'
Knox said, 'I don't know for sure, but I've got a feeling we're running out of time.'
21. Sacrifices
Ashley raced to the glass sliding door in the kitchen that led to the rear deck in response to the roar flying overtop the house. First the sand of the beach rustled and tossed, then it turned into a maelstrom, obscuring the ocean view.
As she watched the Witiko Stingray descend to the beach, her belly fluttered anxiously. Bits and pieces- observations-from recent days tied together, such as Tucker hurrying out of ear shot to answer a radio call and a feeling of unease from the four agents guarding her family. It seemed they could not look her in the eye and as she watched the alien craft land behind her summer cottage she instinctively knew that those bits and pieces led to this, whatever ‘this’ was.
It settled to the ground on feet-like metallic landing gear. A ramp extended from the side of the black and silver ship. Two Witiko aliens wearing their shiny cosmetic and carrying rifles came out flanking a human with jet black hair whose pearly white teeth sparkled as he spoke something to his escort.
Ashley knew she needed to act. In a split second she decided that the three of them-Ashley, Jorge, and her father Benjamin-would bolt for the garage and drive off. She turned- Tucker grabbed her arm hard enough to leave a bruise.
'Just stay here. Don't move now.'
Before she could respond, a man and a woman agent hustled Jorgie toward the sliding glass door. He still wore the tan shorts and black polo she dressed him in that morning. 'Mommy? What's going on, Mommy? They said they're taking me somewhere.' Her son's voice sounded calm but his eyes darted from her to the security guards and to the ship outside. She growled to the guards, 'You're not going anywhere.' 'Yes,' Tucker corrected as he opened the sliding glass door, 'he is.'
Brad Gannon stood on the deck alongside the pair of Witiko. He put both hands on his knees and stooped to speak to JB at the boy's eye level. 'Hey there, buddy, wanna go for a ride in a spaceship? Whatdya say?' JB glared at Brad Gannon. Ashley stepped to intercept. Tucker shoved her against the wall. 'Stop!' shouted Benjamin Trump as he stormed into the kitchen wielding a golf club.
Tucker took his hand off Ashley and pulled an automatic pistol, but she grabbed at his arm, forcing the gun high where it blasted away a chunk of plaster.
However, a fat agent with a goatee hustled in behind grandpa Trump, relieving him of the club and bracing him against the kitchen counter. Tucker shoved the barrel under Ashley’s chin. 'No! No please!' JB screamed as tears burst from his eyes. 'I'll go! I'll go with you!' Tucker calmed and removed the gun from the woman's face, but kept a hand on her shoulder.
'Hey, just, easy goes it, okay? He'll be back in a few days,' Gannon delivered his lines with the same poor acting he had been known for in the old world. 'Some pretty important people want to meet you.'
'You can't get away with this,' Ashley's voice wavered as she realized the pretense had ended; they were prisoners.
'You shut up,' Tucker spoke with a previously unheard meanness. 'You're doing what I say from now on. That's right, princess, you ain't nothing anymore. I'm giving the orders.'
Brad Gannon gained custody of JB from the bodyguards.
Ashley felt a wave of fear and rage tear through her like a bomb exploding in her belly. Her teeth clenched and she rolled her hands into fists. No man, no alien would take her child.
But Tucker saw it coming. As she lunged forward he walloped her with a back hand, knocking the first lady of Trevor’s Empire to the linoleum floor, her senses spinning to the verge of unconsciousness.
She managed only enough strength to reach for the glass of the sliding door, as if trying to grab the alien ship her son boarded before it flew off over the Atlantic Ocean.
– Evan Godfrey nodded politely and smiled, doing his best to appear engaged in the conversation. It was important, he knew, for the President to appear interested in the people's problems. They were, after all, his people.
However, these particular visitors overstayed their welcome. Worse, the trio refused to see that they faced a brick wall. Evan would not break the treaty that brought peace to the United States, regardless of how impassioned the pleas. He sympathized with the Pakistani fellow, the Spanish woman, and the skinny Italian guy, all of whom had been stuck in the U.S. on business when the invasion began ten years ago.
The Pakistani explained for the sixth time that Trevor had assured that the world-not merely North American-would one day be free. The Spanish woman told for the ninth time that the trio represented hundreds of foreign nationals with family and interests beyond America's borders. The skinny Italian guy just glanced around, obviously impressed with the Red Room.
Evan understood the Italian’s feelings. The room had been furnished by the Kennedy Administration back in '62 in a style known as 'American Empire,' a style closely related to 'French Empire.' Evan appreciated the European connection and hence it served as the logical place for the doomed meeting with the three foreigners.
The furniture featured designs of dolphins, acanthus leaves, lion's heads, and sphinxes, all velvety red and atop a carpet of beige, gold and more red.
While the Italian and the Spaniard sat on a couch, Evan and the Pakistani squared off over a small table with Sharon-the first lady-in another seat. An elegant tea service sat on a nearby server. Evan watched traces of steam from the pot slip into the air and evaporate. He also saw the Doberman Pincher with the sliver collar inside the
