Alien Research

CHAPTER 40

LET THAT SIT ON THE AIR A BIT. “Is it?” I asked finally. “And has it always been?”

“Yes,” Gower said. “There are maps on every floor, you know. Security is clearly marked.”

“Maps. Really?”

“Really,” White said, obviously trying not to laugh. “The information was in the briefing books you got when you first joined us, as well.”

“Was it?” Maybe it was. I’d finally clawed my way through those gut-busters after Operation Destruction, but since I wasn’t living at the Science Center any more, I’d skimmed the chapters on it, which had meant I could skim a good third of the reading matter. I hated being near isolation, so I rarely ventured here. Even when Jeff was in isolation, I tended to stay away—my stress levels always rose and he was powerful enough that he could feel me, even isolated, when I was that close.

“And you thought she read those?” Jeff asked.

“I did. Just not, you know, every single word.”

“I’d bet on every third word,” Christopher said. “But James is waiting for us. We should go give Kitty a tour.”

“I know where it is,” Chuckie said as Christopher headed off through the Isolation Chamber Maze and the rest of us followed him. “And I never lived here.”

“You slept over. I think.”

“I did. But not as often as you slept over.”

“Blah, blah, blah. This from the guy who had to basically lead me around our high school all freshman year?”

“Good point. Mazes aren’t your skill. Neither are floor plans.”

“I’m ignoring you. Anyway, I’d have thought Security would house higher up. What with the need to broadcast to all facilities and whatnot.” I was blithely ignoring that, yet again, I hadn’t paid attention. It hadn’t mattered until right now, anyway.

“We have our ways,” Gower said, sarcasm knob only at about a six on the scale.

“I see that. And, from what I’m seeing, they are dark and creepy ways.” Christopher was heading toward the far end of the isolation area. I’d never ventured this far—this level creeped me out too much, so I never wanted to be in it any longer than I had to.

This part of the level wasn’t well lit. In fact, it was downright dim bordering on Scary Street Corner in a Really Bad Neighborhood Dark. The far wall had an opening that you could easily miss because everything was so dark. Naturally, that was right where we were headed. The creepiest point in the creepiest level. Because it would disrupt the cosmos if we were heading to a bright, cheerful place for any reason at any time.

“Get into single file,” Christopher tossed over his shoulder. I was the only one not already moving into formation. Jeff took my shoulder and gently put me behind Chuckie, with Jeff behind me. Chuckie was behind White.

“Why?”

“Security isn’t as easily accessible as the rest of the facility,” White said as Chuckie and Jeff both heaved the Exasperation Sigh. “It’s based on full body scanning, so that someone can’t pretend to be someone else to get in.”

“Like take their hand or their eyeballs and fool the system?”

“I wouldn’t have put it quite so graphically, but that’s part of your charm, Missus Martini. And yes.”

“I can see the wisdom.”

“Can you?” Jeff asked. “I’m not sure.”

“Hilarious. And here I was, all worried that you’d been hurt.” We walked through the darker opening in the dark wall. Shockingly, the corridor was also dark. A-Cs had better vision, which I’d supposedly gotten along with regeneration, but I could barely make out anything. “Who designed this place? Wes Craven or Stephen King?”

“It’s set up this way to discourage people from coming by to chat or hang out,” Jeff shared. He kept his hand on my shoulder, which I appreciated.

“Yeah, well I can bet that works extremely well.” The corridor wasn’t all that long and then we reached another opening. It looked like there was nothing else, just blackness in front of us. “Another way to repel visitors?”

“Yeah. And it’s the entrance. It’s a special kind of gate. You walk through it, the system confirms you’re not carrying bombs, and that you’re someone authorized to enter Security Main. And before you ask, baby, yes, you are. You’ve been authorized since you joined up.”

“I’m honored. Sorta. And, is it black on both sides? As in, we can’t look in, and they can’t look out to see enemies are at the door or not?”

“Correct.”

“Wow. Are you guys trusting. And weird. But I’m already on record for the weird part. And probably the too trusting part, too.”

Chuckie walked through. It wasn’t a slow fade like with a regular gate. He was just sort of swallowed up by the blackness.

Jeff and I were the last in line. “You can’t carry me through this?”

“No. One at a time. It won’t make you sick. I promise.”

Heaved a sigh. “Fine. I’ll be a big girl.” The song on my iPod changed to “Out Go The Lights” by Aerosmith. Really wondered how much of a galaxy class jerk Algar actually was. He was enjoying his audio jokes, I knew that for certain.

Jeff kissed my cheek. “That’s my girl,” he murmured in my ear.

Reminded myself that this wasn’t a good time to stop and suggest we do the deed right here. The corridor was dark enough that we could, but it wasn’t the right time and this entire level was never going to be the right place.

Stepped into the black. Jeff was right, it didn’t make me sick. Felt a very slight, almost pleasant tingling all over, and then I was through. “Wow. And I thought the Bat Cave level was impressive.”

The room I stepped into was well lit, and loaded with a ton of monitors, switches, microphones, and other impressive-looking apparatus I couldn’t name all over the place. This looked like a much bigger version of Walter’s Mini Command Center in the Embassy, which made sense. We had over twenty people in here and it seemed remarkably uncrowded.

As with Walter’s set-up, living quarters were attached. These rooms looked just like the rest of the Science Center’s housing—a combo of really nice hotel with some Industrial Boredom touches here and there.

There were four rooms like this. One was larger than the other three, and it didn’t take genius deductive reasoning to figure that Gladys had the biggest quarters and her three right-hand folks had the others. Which explained how Gladys appeared to be awake 24/7—the others took shifts, too, and alerted her for any issues. She probably didn’t get a lot of sleep, but more than I’d thought.

“Why aren’t there video screens in here? I mean, I get it; we don’t film our own people. But someone has to keep an eye on what’s going on outside, don’t they?”

“Yes, but that’s normally taken care of at Imageering and Field Central Command, or filtered through from the top level,” Jeff said, as he joined the rest of us. “If the Heads of Field or Imageering, and now Airborne, are unavailable, U.S. military at Home Base makes most of the ‘fire or don’t fire’ decisions.”

“What about some focus on the stairwells? We use those all the time, at least during ops like this one. And we were on a floor with maintenance and medical, meaning I’d believe there has to be some Security there.”

“We use people, we don’t use cameras,” White said. “We do at the Embassy, but not really anywhere else.”

“Why not?” Adriana asked. “It seems useful and remarkably trusting, as Kitty said.”

“Until the last few years, we weren’t focused on internal threats but external ones. Frankly, until Missus Martini joined up, none of our bases had ever been infiltrated.”

“Wow, glad I brought the magic with me. I do want to point out that NASA Base was infiltrated by Club Fifty-One.”

“Oh, I’m sure that wasn’t the first time, either. But we didn’t know of any prior to your most timely arrival. However, we have a whole section of our population who can merely touch an image and know everything about the person in the image.”

“Yes, I know. Christopher and Serene as examples of the strongest.”

“Yes. And we have a larger population that doesn’t want to feel that they’re being watched, more than watched, every moment, especially by their leaders. Our empaths use blocks to keep other’s emotions away from them unless it’s necessary for them to be open to all the emotions, but knowing they’re there tends to keep others’ emotions in check.”

“Having and using aren’t the same thing.”

“Human and A-C nature would suggest that someone would use that access inappropriately. I’m sure Christopher would have when he was young, just because those are the kinds of things the young do.”

“Thanks for that, Dad,” Christopher said.

White chuckled. “When you were younger, son. Now I know you’re the picture of restraint. And yes, Missus Martini, along with your husband and everyone else, I realize camera feeds could keep us safer. However, we’re focused outward and will remain that way under normal circumstances. Something about free will and all that.”

“Huh.” Knew when White was trying to tell me to drop it. Perhaps Algar functioned as the security camera feeds as part of his Operations job. Perhaps not. Hard to guess. Memory nudged. “Gladys has expanded talents, doesn’t she? She’s a memory reader-empath combo, right?”

“Yes,” White said.

“And she’s been the Head of Security since you all got here?”

“Yes,” Gower confirmed.

“That’s why she doesn’t need the screens. She’s reading everyone’s emotions and memories if necessary.”

“Yes,” Jeff said. “So, no screens. Again, we haven’t needed them before now. And yes, before you can say it, whine about it, or badger us about it, we’ll rectify this lack and make the appropriate changes once we’re not in the middle of a major crisis. To get us back on the actual issue of the hour, James and I searched this area already. There weren’t any signs of struggle.”

“Not good,” Chuckie said.

“It gets worse,” Reader said. He was sitting in what I figured was the Command Chair, and had a set of headphones on. They were clearly the new “look” for the good guys. “On the positive side, all our people in the Science Center are back under their own mental control. We have a lot of concussions to deal with, however.”

“Do we have medical to handle that?” I asked.

“Normally,” Tito replied. “But it’s all housed here, and everything in the Science Center we didn’t bring in should be considered suspect, adrenaline and other regenerative fluids in particular.”

“We’re on that already,” Reader said. “We’re transferring all injured to Caliente Base as needed. All equipment and supplies are being searched. So far, no contaminants. But they did far worse. All computer data is confirmed wiped, at Home Base and here.”

“How are you communicating then?”

Reader shot me the cover boy grin over his shoulder. “Backup systems. Ours and some from the military, courtesy of your friend Colonel Franklin. We’re considering this a terrorist attack on both American Centaurion and the U.S.A., so we have more options than we might have.” The grin faded. “However, we have more bad news.” He turned back to the command center stuff. “Personnel in the Center have been checked and verified. Happily, most are accounted for.”

“Who are we missing?” Jeff asked.

Reader was quiet for a few long seconds. He cleared his throat. “Emily Balducci, Jennifer Barone, Jeremy Barone, Melanie Colangelo, Brian Dwyer, Abigail Gower, Gladys Gower, Michael Gower, Naomi Gower-Reynolds, and Walter Ward.”