might be up to.”

“You’re only concerned because you’re afraid it might throw a wrench into your plans. It might disrupt your little criminal empire.”

“You’re probably right. But I also know that there’s only one of you and you can’t be in two places at the same time. You have a moral compass. You’ll weigh everything and try to stop the greater evil. I could have a free hand.”

“You’re probably right. Look, I need to get back to civilization, or at least the more populated parts of it. You think about all this. You know what I’ll be doing, but you also know that when that threat’s over with, I’ll be coming after you and I won’t rest until you’re shut down. I don’t know how and I don’t know how long it will take, but you will pay for what you’ve done. There’s no way around that, but maybe you can do one good thing with your life before the end. Give it a thought.”

With that, Walter lifted off and flew westward as fast as he could go.

On the way back to Ohio, he took the time to stop an aircraft hijacking and snag a drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean, eventually arriving back at the house, feeling that no matter how the conversation with Mixon had gone, he had at least accomplished something. He walked in, went to the basement, and still didn’t find Franklin or Kendra. He called out and received a reply from what sounded like another level down. Walking into the hangar where the other ships were, he saw an open door on the far wall and an elevator door beyond that. He went down and came out into another hangar, much larger than the other one, and with a vast assortment of ships.

“There you are, Pops, how was your afternoon?” Franklin asked.

“Tolerable, young man.”

“Just tolerable?”

“Not too awfully eventful, It looks like you two have been having fun.”

“Christy left us so much information on the drive,” Kendra said, “It’s almost like she knew something was up.”

“Or she was just covering all her bases. I think she knew what she was up against,” Walter said.

“Man,” Franklin choked, “I’m gonna miss her. She was cool.”

“There will be time for that later. You heard what she said,” Kendra said.

“Actually, I didn’t. She was whispering in your ear.”

“She was sure Earth is the target...that the army we saw was prepared for an assault.”

“Do we have any information that can be of use?” Walter asked.

“Plenty. There are specs on those mechanized suits. They can be disabled without killing the operators. See this diagram,” Kendra said, pointing at an image on a computer screen, “There’s a hardened panel on the back. It’s apparently impervious to gunfire, but I dare say you’re strong enough to pop it and yank the chip out.”

“It’s that simple? With all their advanced tech, there’s a chip in there?” Walter asked.

“Not a chip like anything we have here. It’s quite small, but apparently it controls the functions of the suits, and even allows for remote control if they choose to go that route.”

“If they control it remotely, where is that done from?”

“From large ships in orbit.”

“I knew this whole thing seemed like a B movie or a comic book. Take out the mother ship and the whole army just drops.”

“Not that simple. They have redundancies built into the system. You’d have to take out a dozen ships to knock out the whole system, and they have backup ships that can jump in if one goes down.”

“Where are these backups?”

“That’s where it gets weird, a bit over our heads. They’re on the edge of the solar system. They’re equipped with some sort of jump drive that lets them get here in minutes.”

“Not the hyperspace drives Christy was talking about?”

“No, those are for going to other stars, but these still reach ridiculously high speeds, kind of like a warp in a way. The specs are all on this drive.”

“Okay, but what are all the ships in this hangar? They don’t look like the ones in the other level.”

“They’re fighters,” Franklin said, “There’s everything about them on the drive. Full instructions on how to fly them and use the weapons systems. We’re gonna take one up in a bit.”

“Are you sure about that?” Walter asked.

“We’re absolutely sure,” Kendra said, “They’re going to attack with those ground troops in the mechanized suits, and with their own fighters to provide support for the ground units. Here’s something else. You remember when those planes were disabled and one of them crashed? You managed to stop the other one from going down.”

“How could I forget?”

“Well, that was tech that Mixon had stolen from the government. The other guys got ahold of it and modified it for their fighters. They’ll be able to disable any equipment our military brings. Armor, planes...all of it...useless against them. These fighters are the only thing that will answer. They have shields and are hardened against any type of EMP attack.”

“There must be a dozen of those things here.”

“Twenty, to be precise,” Franklin said.

“And there are two of you. You’ll need a few more pilots.”

“I think I can find a few.”

27

Curtis Mitchell locked onto his target and waited for the scan to complete. Wanted. That will do, and a large ship to boot. Should be a good bounty for this one. He got behind it, closed to 700 meters, and opened fire. The other ship took evasive action, but it was in vain. It took Curtis less about a minute to finish off the ship. He smiled at the satisfying explosion and the bounty notification on his screen.

“Curtis,” a voice said from down the hall, “Your dad and I are heading out. We’ll be home late. Don’t forget to clean the litter box before you go to bed.”

“Okay Mom, have fun.”

He throttled up and went in search of more targets and was just lining up another victim when he heard the garage door close and the car pull out of

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