“Bad aim.”
“I don’t think so. You dove...Franklin...why?”
“Couldn’t let him shoot you.”
“But...you could let him shoot you instead?”
“Yeah...didn’t think much...just seemed like the thing to do. I...don’t want nothing...happen to you.”
He raised one hand and with a great effort tried to brush the tears off her cheek.
“Don’t cry girl...don’t hurt too much now...you gonna go back...save the world?”
“There are others. I want to stay here with you.”
“You got a job to do.”
“I’m not the only one. You could have died. Why?”
“I...already told you...just seemed like the thing to do...I...kinda like you...well...maybe more...think...love you.”
“W w what did you say?”
No response. She looked down at him and his eyes were closed, his breathing shallow. She wiped the tears from her eyes, bent down, and gently kissed him, then pulled up a chair next to the bed and sat, crying softly until she nodded off.
Walter opened his eyes and massaged his temples.
“Lord, feels like the worst hangover. I get zapped again?”
“Yeah, but you’re awake now,” Mixon said, “I was hoping you could help me with something.”
“How long you been awake...and why are so cooperative all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know. Folks attacking my planet? Not so hard to take sides on that one, is it?”
“You got a point. What about when this is all over? What then?”
“I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. You want to help me with something or not?”
“Depends on what I’m helping you with.”
“Well, a lot happened while you were napping. Look over there in the corner.”
Walter looked over and saw Mike tied up, still out.
“Whoa, how did that happen?”
“Some guy showed up here looking for Christy, just happened to walk in the door over there right behind him, and whacked him with his leg.”
“Come again?”
“Took his fake leg off and knocked him out with it. That was after he shot the black kid.”
“Franklin? He shot Franklin?”
“That’s what I hear, that he was aiming for the girl and he just jumped in front and took it for her. I woke up right after. He’s at the hospital and she went to see him. Anyway, we got one of them tied up and the other one is still loose, but I think I know where he is. I think we should go grab him.”
“How does that help us?”
“We get both of them and we make ‘em talk, make ‘em tell us how to stop their troops. Or we just keep ‘em both tied up so they can’t get in our way and we figure out how to end this.”
“Where do you think the other guy is?”
“At my place. They’ve been spending a lot of time there. They were there earlier today.”
“And you have a grand plan for grabbing him?”
“Not really. After Mike knocked out Mike—“
“Huh?”
“Yeah, the guy who knocked Mike out is also Mike, but I figure that’s his real name, unlike bad Mike. Anyway, if a regular guy could knock him out with a fake leg, you could probably nail Jack just as easy, especially if distract him. I just fly in and get him talking, and you come up behind and give him a love tap. Easy peasy.”
“Things rarely go that easy.”
“If he’s there, I don’t see why it won’t. Just don’t hit him too hard and kill him.”
“Well then, what are we waiting for?”
As it turned out, things didn’t go exactly as planned, but easy enough. When they got close, they could hear a conversation between Jack and Salazar, getting more heated by the moment.
“I told you, I have no idea where she went,” Salazar said.
“I saw on one of my video feeds that several soldiers were taken out, that she was hit by a gunship, but now she is nowhere to be seen. Did you know that’s where she was going.”
“Honest, she didn’t tell me anything.”
“Well, if you don’t know anything, you’re no further use to me,” Jack said, raising a pistol and aiming it at Salazar. He was about to pull the trigger when Walter administered his love tap to his temple, knocking him out cold.
“Oh man, am I gad to see you. He was about to—“
“Stuff it,” Walter said, “You’re welcome.”
A couple minutes later they were back at the house in Seaman, and a few minutes after that, Jack was tied up and dumped in the corner opposite Mike. Walter walked over and looked over Fiona’s shoulder at the computer monitors showing views of the mechanized troops and gunships circling various cities.
“Is this what Kendra was monitoring?” Walter asked.
“Yeah, it shows all of their units. Occasionally you’ll see a fighter jet zoom in and get shot down. They can’t seem to touch those gunships. The missiles just bounce off the shields.”
“The jets had some luck against their smaller fighters when they used guns instead of missiles, but you’re saying they haven’t managed anything against these larger ones?”
“No luck at all. These ones on this screen have managed a few hits with their guns, but I don’t think they’ve taken one out yet.”
Walter looked at the screen she was pointing at and cracked a smile.
“A-10s. Gotta love the Warthog. Man, if those things had the shields the alien ships have, they’d be more than a match.”
“I think it could be done,” Patrick Morrison said.
“What could be done?” Walter asked.
“Put those shields on a fighter jet. I’ve been looking at the specs on the other computer. The detail is amazing. There’s no way you could put the engines on a fighter because the power plant is something that’s so far beyond our tech, but the shields appear to have an independent power source and the thing that generates the shields isn’t that big. I’ve been in the hangar looking at some of the transport ships that are down there. They’re fitted with shields, but it looks like they’re designed to be removed and fitted out on other ships if needed.”
“Do you think it could be done, take one of those shields off an alien ship and put it on a fighter jet?”
“Only one way to
