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.
Following a heavy sigh, Aaron paused until he could shake the image of the raw muscle on Swartzman’s face from his mind. “My professor didn’t make it today. His last act was sending you those photos. Did you get them?”
“Holy shit, yeah. What are they?”
Aaron explained everything, even what Moni had told him about the aliens. It shocked him how readily the detective accepted every word. When a giant, impenetrable bubble covers the lagoon, all skepticism must fly out the window.
“A fine job you did, kid,” Sneed said. Aaron felt guilty hearing the slightest praise. “We’re evacuating the beachside. Helicopters are on the way to Patrick and Hoover Junior High. You better…”
“I’m not leaving without Moni,” Aaron cut in.
“Is that so, eh? I’m not fix’n to leave without Moni, and her little friend, either. I’m set to drop in on her with a SWAT team. Meet me at Hoover and you can tag along.”
Aaron agreed. Just as his father pulled the Mercedes into his driveway, he told him about the change of plans. His dad ignored him, shut off the car and marched toward the front door.
“Dad, come on. My friend is in trouble.”
He strolled inside without glancing back. Aaron futilely yanked on the locked car door. He kicked its tire with his good leg.
A few minutes later, his father came outside and placed down a change of clothes and some tennis shoes. He tossed Aaron a set of car keys.
“Take mom’s wagon. I don’t want you getting a ding on my Mercedes with all these freaks running around. And change your cloths. If you’re trying to impress a girl, you shouldn’t look like you just crawled out of the lagoon- even if that’s what you just did.”
