Invaders: The Chronowarp Page 11

  “I see,” she said. She sat, staring at the flames, with a cross look on her beautiful features.

  I watched the flames dance too. They had a strangely soothing quality. I’ve always loved watching fires. As I watched, my stomach growled. I was getting ravenous.

  I regarded Jenna, and I found I did trust her.

  “You know…” I said.

  She continued to ignore me.

  “Ah, when I stumbled through the hatch…” I said.

  She became alert.

  “The hatch closed behind me, making everything pitch black. No lights.”

  Jenna glanced at me so our eyes met. I told her about my hands-and-knees exploration on the other side of the hatch. I told her about finding an area with lights, about the rounded machine, the circuit I put on my head and the visions it gave me.

  “Was the first vision the planet of the Polarions?” she asked.

  “That’s as good a guess as any,” I said. “The two suns mean it couldn’t have been Earth.”

  “The second place sounded like the abode of the Eshom,” Jenna said. “Does it mean anything that the abode appeared to be like the biblical Hell?”

  “An Eshom could be considered a demon,” I said. “Especially how it possesses people. But I don’t know.”

  “The last vision, the one where you tumbled—the ringed stone seemed to be a transportation portal.”

  That was my guess as well. I was impressed how quickly Jenna came to that conclusion.

  “Now,” she said. “I’d like to know the parts you’ve kept to yourself.”

  “Those aren’t really germane. I do have some new…thoughts though.”

  “Thoughts or visions?” she asked.

  “Thoughts,” I said. “There are a few things I’ve done since taking off the circuit that seem…”

  “Programmed?” she asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  She picked up a twig, breaking it into tiny pieces, tossing each piece into the fire. “There isn’t much to explain. Maybe the machine did more than you think. Maybe it…programmed you to do certain things. Maybe the program is beneath your conscious radar.”

  I scowled, hating the idea. “I don’t buy that,” I said.

  “You don’t believe it could happen or you don’t want to believe?”

  “Both,” I said.

  “Certainly it’s possible. The fact that you found and learned how to drive the submarine/air-vehicle seems to prove the idea.”

  “No,” I said, stubbornly.

  Her eyes seemed to glitter as she studied me. “You don’t like the idea of someone controlling you, do you?”

  “I hate the idea.”

  She nodded. “That makes two of us. Still, do you have…I don’t know. Do you have an idea about what to do next?”

  With a shock, I realized I did. “Yeah,” I whispered.

  She waited as she watched me.

  “We need to go to Iraq,” I said.

  “Why there?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I could see by her face that she wanted to call me a liar. I really didn’t know why, although I had a suspicion. I’d seen Sumerian cuneiform marks before. Ancient Sumer had been located in the same area as modern day Iraq. Could I really have subconscious impulses because of the machine? That would imply that the Polarions were screwing with my mind without my permission. That thought infuriated me.

  The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to screw with the Polarions.

  At that point, a bigger branch broke nearby. It made a sharp crack. I shot to my feet, grabbing a hand-sized rock I’d kept near for something like this.

  Three men in camouflage gear stepped from behind a screen of branches. The fire from the alien vehicle still burned, providing plenty of illumination.

  Two of the men were big and strong-looking. Each aimed an AK-47 at me. One of the AK’s had a vicious looking bayonet on the end, the firelight bright on the polished metal. The third man looked familiar. With a shock, I realized why. It was the slender Sergei Gromyko.

  “Well, well, well,” Sergei said. “This is an interesting development.” The smile departed his high-cheek-boned, Slavic features. “Hands up,” he said, “or my men will kill you now.”

  -28-

  Jenna and I marched ahead of them. She had wrist-ties securing her hands behind her back. I wore handcuffs behind my back. We stumbled through snow and over rocks and dead branches until we were uncomfortably near the burning trees. They’d allowed us to put on our socks and boots, so that was something.

  Giant flames licked star-ward. An odd smell mingled with the burnt pine scent.

  One of the AK-47-toting soldiers spoke Ukrainian to Sergei. He answered in the same tongue.

  “I thought Sergei died in the Hummer,” I whispered to Jenna.

  She gave me a wild look as we stood side-by-side near the crackling flames. “I saw his body,” she whispered. “Sergei Gromyko did die. His neck was broken and he had lost too much blood. A jagged edge of metal had sliced his femoral artery. That cannot possibly be him over there. That has to be someone else impersonating him.”

  “I hear what you’re saying,” I whispered. “Yet, it seemed that he recognized me. When I look at him…that’s the Sergei Gromyko I spoke to in the Hummer.”

  Jenna shook her head. “This has to be a ploy. Sergei is dead. Not even alien technology can bring the dead back to life.”

  I wasn’t so certain.

  “Mr. Logan,” Sergei called. “Come up here with us, please.”

  I gave Jenna a final glance before trudging to Sergei. He wore camouflage gear like the other two. The torso garments seemed padded, maybe heated, or was that Kevlar armor? None of them looked cold, but that could have been because of the fire.

  “Over there in the flames,” Sergei said. He pointed at the glowing wreckage of the possible Polarion vehicle. “What is that?”

  “We didn’t do it,” I said. “Was that your air-vehicle?”

  Sergei smiled in a good-natured way. Belying that, he drew a wicked-looking bayonet from a scabbard attached to his belt. He leaned to the side and effortlessly cut a wrist-sized branch in half. The knife simply cut through the wood almost as if the branch had been made of air.

  “This is amazing knife, da?” Sergei asked me.

  “Is that a monofilament blade?” I remembered hearing about such a knife.

  “Yes it is,” he said, brightening. “Now, imagine if I used it on your woman. Say I lopped off a hand first. Then I lopped off her forearm at the elbow. She would bleed out exceptionally fast.”

  “True,” I said, as I watched him.

  His eyes seemed to shine strangely. For the first time, I wondered about his sanity.

  “Is this what you desire?” he asked.

  “Not really.”

  Sergei pointed at the wreckage with the monofilament blade. “Do you see what I’m pointing at?”

  “Yup.”

  “What is that?” he asked in a dangerously quiet voice.

  “I’m not sure exactly, but we flew it here.”

  “Ah,” he said, glancing at the two guards. “Now, we are getting somewhere.”

  The soldier with the bayonet nodded in agreement.

  “Where did you find such a flyer?” Sergei asked.

  I sighed. “We’ll get there eventually, so I might as well tell you. There’s an underwater alien base in the Arctic Ocean. We were down there.”

  “Indeed.”

  “CAU has a submarine—”

  “Called the Swordfish,” Sergei said. “Yes, I know. Why didn’t you come up in the Swordfish?”

  “The hominid who stole my Guard ship torpedoed it.”

  Sergei studied me.

  “This becomes more interesting by the moment,” he said. “The hominid left you in the alien base?”

  “I don’t think he knew we were there.”

  Sergei stared at me a while longer. “Some of what you say is the truth. S
ome is a lie. However, you have told me enough of the truth—for now—that your woman will not lose a hand or a forearm. Yet, she must lose something. Perhaps it is time for her to lose her virginity.”

  Something seemed off in Sergei that hadn’t been off before. He’d become cruder and crueler. Begging in any manner would not gain me his good will. I needed to go on the offensive. Since I could hardly do that physically right now, I’d have to it verbally.

  “You know what I find interesting?” I asked.

  He raised a mocking eyebrow.

  “How can you be standing here when you died in the Hummer?”

  Sergei’s eyes narrowed as he radiated greater menace.

  “Do you remember the Hellfire missile?” I asked, as if I couldn’t tell I was getting under his skin. “The missile slammed against us and destroyed the Hummer.”

  The guards watched Sergei as if they feared his reaction. None of them spoke. The crackling flames and the popping pine resin were the only sounds.

  Sergei finally opened his mouth in a silent laugh, adding, “You survived the blast. Why is it so impossible that I survived it, too?”

  “There are plenty of reasons I made it.”

  “Name them.”

  “Obviously, CAU personnel pulled me out of the wreckage. You were quite dead, though. If you hadn’t been dead, they would have put you in prison.”

  The logic seemed to irritate Sergei. He swished the alien blade around as if he were one of the Three Musketeers. He faced me, and I wondered if he was going to run the bayonet through my gut.

  He grinned, maybe sensing my unease. Finally, carefully, he sheathed the knife into what appeared to be a special scabbard.

  “The blade is a mystery, is it not?” he asked.

  I’d had better luck while on the offensive. Thus, I decided to keep playing the one card I had.

  “If you died in the Hummer, how is it you’re here?” I asked.

  Sergei shook his head. “My American friend, I am the interrogator. It is unseemly that you ask me so many questions. If you continue doing so…I will draw the blade again. Do you recall what I’ll chop off if I do?”

  I said nothing.

  “Much better,” he said. “Now—you used that craft and crashed it. Why did you crash it?”

  I told him about the incoming water having no doubt caused a short.

  He watched me closely as I spoke. Before either of us could say more, an explosion blew part of the alien vehicle clear of the fire. The flying bulkhead scarred a pine trunk in passing, making the wood smoke. Melted snow-water hissed and steamed against the red-glowing metal.

  “Come,” Sergei said. “It is time to leave. You will join us, Mr. Logan. The woman—” He turned to one of his soldiers and nodded.

  The soldier with the bayonet put the stock of the AK-47 against his shoulder as he aimed at Jenna.

  “Wait,” I said.

  Sergei spoke in Ukrainian to the soldier. The man lowered his assault rifle.

  “You should let her live,” I said.

  “Give me a reason why,” Sergei said.

  “For one thing, she belongs to the CAU.”

  Jenna must have heard that. She whirled around to glare at me. Did she think her post was a secret?

  “The CAU…” Sergei said. He regarded Jenna more closely. “Ah,” he said, as if finally recognizing her. “Are you Field Agent Jenna Jones?”

  Jenna said nothing.

  “I will kill you if you do not answer.”

  Jenna continued to say nothing as she boldly stared him in the face.

  “Very well,” Sergei said. He nodded to the soldier. The man raised his rifle again.

  “Wait,” I said.

  The soldier fired. As he did, Jenna dove into the snow. The shots peppered the pines behind her.

  “She’s Field Agent Jenna Jones,” I said.

  Sergei stared at me with something like pity before shaking his head. “This is a sad state of affairs. You broke so easily, Mr. Logan. I thought you were made of sterner stuff.”

  The soldier asked a question in Ukrainian.

  Sergei watched Jenna as she climbed to her feet, a challenge with her hands restrained. “You will live for now,” he told her. “But there is only one reason why, as leverage on my good friend Mr. Logan. Do you understand?”

  Jenna panted, and her eyes were wild again, but she did not respond.

  That seemed to irritate Sergei. He spoke sternly to his men. One of the soldiers slung his AK-47 over his shoulder. He tramped through the snow, grabbing one of Jenna’s arms. With a shove, he propelled her toward Sergei.

  The slim officer focused on me. “We are on better terms again. That pleases me, Mr. Logan. We shall catch a ride. Once we’re in the air…then you are going to answer many interesting questions. If you do not…I find this distasteful to say. If you do not answer to my satisfaction, she will die an exceedingly ugly death. As you watch.”

  -29-

  With my hands still cuffed behind me, I sat behind a guard on a snowmobile. Jenna sat behind the other. Sergei brought up the rear, no doubt keeping an eye on us.

  The machines maneuvered through the trees. It took twenty, maybe twenty-five, minutes before the snowmobiles broke into a large clearing.

  A large Learjet sat on a highway. The plane looked familiar. As we approached on the snowmobiles, I realized it was the same kind of plane the Unguls had used to take me from Nevada to Greenland six months ago.

  The soldiers stopped. We climbed off, and other soldiers hurried down the folding ladder that was part of the Learjet.

  A ramp lowered in the back part of the alien-modified plane. The two who had been with us drove the three snowmobiles up the ramp into a cargo hold. The ramp rose as Sergei approached us.

  “I believe you have traveled in one of these before,” he said.

  “I’m not sure,” I said.

  “Let me refresh your memory.” Sergei turned to the soldiers. “Take the woman to the back of the plane. I would speak to our honored guest in private.”

  I wanted to protest, but I knew it wouldn’t help. If he hadn’t been before, Sergei Gromyko was sadistic now. I tried to pretend indifference as the soldiers escorted Jenna up the ladder into the plane.

  “You like her,” Sergei told me. “Yet, I thought you already had a woman.”

  “I’m a man,” I said, as if that answered the dichotomy.

  Sergei frowned. “No. That is an ungallant answer. I do not approve. A man should only have one woman at a time. Do you love the CAU agent?”

  I smiled at Sergei as if he were simple-minded.

  He liked that even less than before. “You’d best take care, my American friend. I hold your life in my hands.”

  What was the correct way to answer a sadistic psychopath? I decided silence would probably work best.

  “Forget about the woman for now,” Sergei said in annoyance. “The plane is much more than a mere aircraft. With it, we can enter low Earth orbit. It can reach any place on the planet with astonishing speed. As I’m sure you’ve already surmised, it is of alien manufacture.”

  I kept waiting for his punchline.

  “What happened down in the alien base?” he asked.

  “I already told you. I found the air vehicle. While we were searching it, the Guard ship destroyed the Swordfish.”

  “Would you be surprised that I don’t believe all that you’ve told me?”

  “Yes.”

  Sergei seemed to have found some of his old humor. He smiled and even clapped me on the shoulder.

  “I would like to like you, my American friend. Unfortunately, you hold secrets. I don’t have to be Sergei Gromyko to know this. You have no doubt held back from me. I would expect nothing less from a man of your caliber. It is unfortunate, but I am going to have to take you to Kiev.”

  “The capital of the Ukraine?” I asked.

  “Da. In Kiev, you will face questioners more rigorous than I. Unless…” he said, holding up
a single index finger.

  I nodded, as if to encourage him to continue with the idea.

  “Tell me. Where did you plan to go next?”

  “Back to CAU headquarters,” I said.

  The smile remained on his face, but some of the psychopathic warmth drained out of it.

  “If I should ask you the whereabouts of these headquarters, I wonder if you could tell me.”

  “No,” I said, “as Jenna still hasn’t told me the location.”

  “I’ll give you another chance,” Sergei said. “If you cannot tell me the truth, we will board the plane and head to the Ukraine.”

  I debated with myself. Finally, I sighed. “You’re right. We weren’t going to CAU headquarters. We were headed to Iraq.”

  “Indeed,” he said. “Why go there?”

  “Because there’s a Sumerian ruin I want to explore.”

  “Why?” he asked.

  “The Sumerians were an ancient people, the first human civilized race, in fact.”

  “This is fascinating. You believe these Sumerians are connected to the ancient aliens?”

  “I do.”

  “Which ruin in particular were you going to see?” he asked.

  “I don’t know yet. I’m working off hints and clues in my mind.”

  “Yes, yes,” he said. “This rings true. I suspect you stumbled onto Polarion hints in the alien base. I do not profess to know as much about them as you do, yet I know they are guardians holding terrible secrets. Perhaps I should join you in this quest. We could all head to Iraq. We could all search these Sumerian ruins together.”

  I waited, unsure as to his exact tactic.

  “Into the plane with you, Mr. Logan. It is time to depart.”

  “So where are we going again?”

  “I have not yet decided,” Sergei said.

  -30-

  The Unguls had been shape-shifting aliens who had come to Earth. They had been able to disguise themselves so as to appear as relatively human, as long as one didn’t look too closely. The Unguls had worked for a Min Ve privateer in Earth orbit. They had established several bases on Earth. The base in Nevada had held Learjets like the one I presently climbed onto.