Alien Hunter: Underworld (11 page)

“Why Earth? Why even come here?”

“Criminals come here, rebels come here, not decent people.”

“Of course,” Diana said. “Just our luck.”

“We only engage with species on our own level. The crooks go for the lesser ones because they're helpless.”

“Okay, so why are the crooks here?” Flynn asked.

“Take your DNA, your stem cells. That stuff has markets all over the galaxy—a healthy, smart species like you people. Plus, Earth is a beautiful planet and it's incredibly rich. You can live here in serious comfort and luxury, and on most planets, that is not the case. Earth has a rep for being a really fun place to be. But the only legal travel here is for scientific or social engineering purposes.”

“Social engineering?”

“The ones you call the grays are increasing human intelligence by creating a question around themselves that you can neither bear nor answer. They do it with the UFO and abduction mysteries, which they will never allow to be solved. Such questions increase logical intelligence, which gets into the DNA. Two more generations of this, and your average human is going to have the intelligence of what you now consider a genius.”

“And what about grays? What sort of social engineering do you do?”

“We don't have the resources or the skill. They're very advanced.”

Now that he'd gotten her talking comfortably, he shifted to critical questions.

“The criminals here can make themselves appear human. How many are doing this?”

“No idea.”

“You're like that, aren't you? This isn't the real you.”

“This body is so nice. It's soft and it smells good and it's so sleek and curvy.” She stretched, leaned her head back, and shook out her hair. “Even your hair is wonderful. And these eyes! They're way better than ours. I've never seen the world like this before, all these colors. It's just very sweet in this thing.”

“How many others are here like you?”

“None, not legally. It's very strictly regulated.”

“But there may be criminals doing it?”

“You need to understand a little better just what you're dealing with. There is one criminal, or a gang of them, who have taken on human form. They are running the robots you are killing, and probably building them here.”

“The robots can also make themselves look human. I've seen it.”

“That's just a skin-deep disguise. Their programming doesn't change.”

“So how would I detect one?”

“Vicious, paranoid personality, judging from the way the ones your perp is deploying have been programmed.”

Light glared in the windshield. He hit the horn and swerved onto the shoulder, but it wasn't out-of-control traffic, it was something else, and the light stayed right with them.

Geri let out an unearthly wail.

The truck's engine screamed as its wheels started to leave the ground. He jammed the gas to the floor, gaining just enough traction to get out of the column of light that was trying to drag them skyward.

The vehicle bounced as its full weight dropped back onto its shocks. The next second, the light was on them again. Again, he turned out of it, then went caroming across the field he was in with the light following him. Every time it flooded the car, he spun the wheel again, but he knew that he was going to run out of luck sooner or later.

“Do you have any way of dealing with this?” he shouted to Geri above the screaming of the engine.

“We can deprogram them.”

“How?”

The light hit again, and this time he slammed on the brakes, threw it into reverse, floored it, and backed up swerving wildly at the same time.

“You need their core code, and we're not going to be able to get that.”

The light flooded the windshield. It had them now, and it wasn't going to lose them again.

He opened his window, drew his gun, and fired upward.

The wheels left the ground entirely. The engine shrieked so much, he pulled up his foot.

They were a good four feet off the ground.

He fired again, two quick shots.

The light turned blue. The truck lurched.

He fired again.

A sheet of flame enveloped the truck, which fell to the ground, hitting with a jaw-snapping crash.

Once again, he hit the gas and they lunged forward.

“Can they fix whatever I hit?”

“I don't know.”

Behind them, he saw a column of orange smoke, glowing from within. “What's that mean?”

“It's on fire, I think.”

Had he destroyed it? “Are they vulnerable to bullets?”

“Not usually. But that one's a relic. A real piece of junk. A lucky shot would probably do damage.”

“How can you tell it's junk?”

“You can hear it.”

Ahead, he saw a familiar berm. “Railroad track,” he said. He drove along beside it until he found a small trestle spanning a draw. He parked the truck under it.

“Ever hop a freight, Diana?”

“Every day.”

He got out of the truck. “Come on. Lesson one.”

He led them up onto the track. “This is a main trunk line. There's trains through here every few hours. Long trains. Slow. We'd hop 'em as kids.” He knelt down and listened to the rail. “Okay, there's something a few miles out. Don't know which direction yet. We need to walk a bit, find a place where the berm's flatter. You need to be able to sprint. Can you sprint, Geri?”

“Excuse me, but what's a train?”

“Oh, God,” Diana said.

“A big engine that pulls cars along rails.” He kicked one with a toe. “Point is, they come through here just slow enough to where you can grab a ride. I mean, the full ones. The empties, forget it. Way too fast.”

“Where will it take us?”

“Away from here. That's all we need right now.”

“No sign of the light,” Diana said, peering up into the star-flooded sky.

“Won't last. If they find us out here like this, they've got us.” He took Geri's arm and led them both back under the trestle. “This kinda crap happen at home?”

“Yes, actually, it does.”

“You mentioned rebels. Who's winning?”

She shook her head. Her lips had formed a tight, bitter line.

“So they are. Why would that be?”

She stayed quiet, so Flynn took to listening for the next train.

“We created them!” She burst into tears.

Clumsily, he tried to comfort her. He looked to Diana for help.

“Not in my job description.”

In the distance, he heard a low, familiar sound, the horn of a train sounding as it approached a grade crossing. It was moving westward, which was good on two counts. It would be running heavy and therefore slow, and it would take them where they needed to go.

“Okay, kid, button it up. We've got some traveling to do.”

Geri shook her head. “We can't escape. There's no way.”

“There's always a way.” He took her wrist, and she came along like an uneasy mare, ready to bolt at any moment. Diana followed them up onto the track.

Geri dumped her cookies between the rails. Crouching, she wept and coughed.

The train's swinging headlamp appeared far along the roadway.

“Okay, what's gonna happen is, there'll be an empty boxcar along somewhere. We spot one, we start running. I'll pull myself up, then get you guys, one after the other. It doesn't feel like it, but we're on a long upward grade, and she's gonna be doing less than five miles an hour when she passes here. That's fast, but if we sprint, we have a chance.”

At that moment, he saw light from above hit the field about half a mile away. Geri swallowed a scream. Even Diana, who was normally cool under pressure, grabbed his shoulder. She said, “Flynn, do you have any of that cyanide?”

“No time.”

“Please!”

The train was closing. So the engineer wouldn't see them, he got them crouching down on the berm. If they were spotted, the guy would radio the bulls working the consist, and that would be another complication.

The light danced through the field, working its way closer to their position.

“They're following our ruts, Flynn,” Diana moaned.

“Yep.”

The first engine roared past. There were four diesels back to back, and the train was moving at the equivalent of a flat-out sprint. He trotted along beside it, letting the cars slide on ahead, one by one.

“Stay with me!” he shouted.

A boxcar passed with its door rattling but closed. He leaped and grabbed the frame of the door, dragging it open and levering himself inside.

The light flashed down twenty feet away, then went out again.

He grabbed Geri's arm and pulled her up. Diana was running hard, both of her arms stretched out, her hands clutching air. He leaned farther out. Reached. Touched her fingers, lost them.

The light flashed down again, this time a short distance ahead of them. The next time it came, it was going to hit this car. What that would mean, he had no idea.

He got her. Fingers intertwined, he pulled her toward him, causing her feet to bounce on the roadbed. If she slipped now, she'd be lucky to lose her legs and not her life. She cried out, her eyes begging, her teeth bared with effort and terror.

She came rolling in and lay on the floor gasping. Geri had crouched against the far wall.

“You considered this fun?” Diana gasped.

“It takes a little practice.”

The car shuddered. Light poured in the door, sucking columns of dust up off the floor. Flynn and Diana joined Geri against the far wall.

The car swayed furiously, the wheels screaming on the rails. Then it was plunged into darkness. Soon the light appeared again, but this time farther behind them.

As the train rounded a long curve, Flynn could see the light far behind them, dragging at the truck, which remained stuck under the trestle. He could see it rise, slam against the ties until it made them hop, but it could not be pulled out.

Finally, the light went away, flashing downward occasionally, then flickering off into the night.

 

CHAPTER NINE

THE TRAIN
shuddered and clanged, picking up speed as it rolled into the long downgrade past the little community of Hale. Flynn knew the place well. If you wanted to jump a westbound train, you had to do it east of here and vice versa.

“I can't believe we got away,” Geri said. “I thought I'd be killed right away, like my uncle.”

“Oltisis was your uncle?” Diana asked.

“We're a police family.” She shook her head. “We actually got away.”

“We didn't,” Flynn said. “They know exactly where we are.”

Both women looked to him.

He explained further. “The light hit this car and only this car. Therefore, they know we're in here. Geri, tell me this—could that light pick up something as heavy as a boxcar?”

“Not on a small ship like that.”

“This train is going to stop in about fifteen minutes in the switching station at Hermes,” Flynn said. “When it does, they're expecting that we'll get off. The instant all three of us are on the ground, they'll strike.”

“If we don't get off?”

“They'll follow the train until we do. We're going to need to jump while it's still moving. We absolutely cannot get off when it's stopped.”

“Won't they be watching for us to come off outside the station?” Geri asked.

“I hope not.”

“I don't think I can jump off a moving train,” Diana said.

Flynn went to the middle of the car. “What you need to do is to control the way you take the hit. You do that with your shoulder and thigh, and as soon as you hit the ground, you start rolling. From twenty miles an hour, you're going to break some bones. From ten, you're going to be bruised. Less, and you walk away with a little dust in your mouth. Or, truthfully, a lot.”

“At what speed will we jump?”

“The faster, the better.” He glanced out the door. “Come on. There's no time like the present.”

The prairie was silent, the sky awash in stars. Even so, he couldn't imagine that they wouldn't be spotted immediately, but he also didn't see an alternative. He checked his guns. He'd caused the disk some damage before, so maybe he'd get lucky again.

“Okay, ladies, this is going to be extremely unpleasant. We're doing about fourteen miles an hour. The lights of the switching station are going to appear when we round the next curve, so now's the time.” He put his hands on Diana's shoulders. “Relax, remember to roll.”

She shrank back.

He shoved and she went tumbling away down the berm, disappearing in a cloud of dust.

Geri had her eyes shut tight. He pushed her out, then went himself.

It was an easy roll into a berm that consisted of small gravel. Dusting himself, he got up to see if either of the women had broken bones.

Diana was sitting up about two feet from the passing train. She had her head in her hands.

“You hurt?”

She shook her head.

He found Geri lying on her side. He leaned down. “Geri?”

An eye opened.

“Can you get up? Is anything broken?”

“What does it feel like? I've never broken one of these before.”

“Pain will radiate out from the site of the injury. There will be swelling.”

“No, nothing like that.”

The train passed, its red taillight disappearing into the blackness. Above it at an altitude of no more than fifty feet was an object, its smooth skin softly reflecting the starlight. The object followed the train around the bend and into Hermes.

He got Geri to her feet. “How many ships do they have?”

“They're not rich, or they wouldn't be here. So probably one, maybe two.”

Diana was still in tears. He put his arm around her shoulder. He didn't want to tell her that they had a twelve-mile walk through some of the most desolate country in the United States before they reached Mac's place. He didn't even want to confirm her suspicion of where they were going, out of fear she'd run off on her own.