It was a new angle, he had to admit. Over the years, he’d heard of different ways of dealing with them, but an alliance of equals was a new one. Maybe there was more to these humans than met the eye. Or less. They were either very smart or very stupid.
He was sure that he didn’t like the General, who was far too rough for a scientist and intellectual such as Thead. Still, for the sake of science, you do what you must do, he thought. No sacrifice is too great.
He hoped he wouldn’t have too much direct contact with the Nefilim, who had a habit, he’d heard, of not distinguishing between their friends and their enemies. Whatever. Science and scholarship, they were the main things… he had responsibilities to truth and knowledge. He was above politics.
‘You may well be above politics…’
The words leapt from nowhere into Thead’s mind. He started, his heart jumping. He looked around and saw the glowing eyes of one of the Nefilim mocking him. Thead felt disconsolate at the thought that he didn’t know how long he had been the object of the creature’s attention.
‘
But I shouldn’t worry,’
the voice in his head continued.
‘Someone will find a job for you.’
Thead said nothing and looked away.
* * *
BELOW GROUND, they had arrived at the area where the Nefilim had appeared. Sahrin stayed near the entrance to the chamber, keeping watch in case anyone came down the tunnels.
The floor was carpeted with shards of broken rock. Whatever substance had covered the arrays of controls had peeled off the walls like paint blistering in heat, and slumped onto the floor in pools of slime.
The room was empty. The Nefilim had gone, as were the corpses of Kali and the sergeant. There were marks in the dust, left by their heels as they had been dragged away. The trails disappeared into the darkness, into which Sahrin looked uncertainly.
In the chamber, the control panels, still alive, flickered coldly. There was no movement and no sign of life.
“What’s all this about?” Reina asked, looking in wonder at the hieroglyphs and lights.
“This room contains the mechanisms with which the Nefilim control their energy system,” Bark answered. “As for why they would want to do that, we definitely don’t have time to go into that, except to say that it’s in their nature. There’s no sign of Thead here. He was here with one of your soldiers and some of the Nefilim when we left. I’d guess that he’s most likely with them now.”
“They’re not
our
soldiers. Who are the Nefilim?” Bryce asked.
“Can we do this later?” Bark had become impatient. “Or am I alone here in having an appreciation of the immediate danger of our present situation?”
Having satisfied themselves that Thead was nowhere in the chamber, they went back to the breached entrance where they had left Sahrin.
She was gone. Her footprints led off into the darkness, in the same direction as the scuff marks left by the transport of the two bodies.
Bark swore softly. “Marvelous, this is just marvelous. We’ll have to go after her…”
* * *
Sahrin had gone in search of the source of the noise.
It was the faintest of sounds, quite distinct from the humming that was coming from somewhere in the chamber. It was muffled by the turns of the winding tunnels and walls of heavy rock, but it had still been loud enough to catch her attention.
She knew she should have called the others, but something stopped her. Whether or not that something was just stupidity would remain a point of debate for some time. She edged her way along a wall, following its turns through the darkness. Something glowed ahead of her. As the wall veered to the left, the source of the light came into view.
She was at one end of a long cavern. In row upon row of cubicles, she saw creatures, scores of them, lined up in transparent coffins, like corpses awaiting burial. She edged closer, her surroundings now visible in the pale green glow that came, she saw now, from the containers that housed the bodies.
Rows of the cubicles receded into the distance. There was movement among the ranks of sepulchered bodies.
One of the Nefilim was moving along the aisles. It was working methodically through the ranks of its immobile companions, operating controls, repeating the same movements each time. Then she saw another of the creatures, and a few seconds later a third, all engaged in the same activity.
They were moving away from her as they worked. When she thought it was safe, she moved out of the shadows, and crept towards the nearest of the bodies.
It looked like a monstrous, premature infant in its incubator. Some kind of tape had been wrapped around the torso and head, making the creature look like a half-completed mummy. The ends of the tape were attached to terminals at the foot of the sarcophagus.
They did have a certain nobility, and it wasn’t just because of their height, she thought. The creature’s head was larger than a human head, and covered with pale leathery skin stretched taut over high cheekbones and wide temples. Its eyes were shut. She looked closely, noticing the almost imperceptible rise and fall of the creature’s chest. Its breathing was slow and slight, barely happening at all.
Then she saw that the tape that was wrapped around its body was moving, almost imperceptibly, like a slow flatworm. She leaned closer. It seemed to be alive. It was using some kind of peristaltic motion, gradually inching its way around the alien’s body. Perhaps there was some symbiotic relationship at work here. A parasite/host thing.
She was standing with her face only a foot or so from the entombed creature’s head when two things happened at once.
Inside the case, the creature’s eyes snapped open without warning. It breathed out loudly, made a high-pitched squealing sound, and turned its head towards her.
At the same time, outside the sarcophagus, the Nefilim that had quietly come up behind her, seeing that the motion of its waking companion would scare her and send her running, quickly reached out and placed a heavy hand on one of her shoulders and another over her mouth.
A shriek died in her throat as she realized instantly that there was no point in alerting the other Nefilim to her presence, if that had not already been done. Besides which, the hand over her mouth was irresistibly strong.
She knew even before she was turned around that the owner of the powerful grip wasn’t human; the pressure on her shoulders was entirely alien, like needles that wanted to break her skin.
‘
Be quiet
.’
The message came into her mind softly, as though the Nefilim was trying not to alarm her. It bent forward, lowering its face towards hers.
‘You are in no danger from me. The only immediate danger to you is from the others of my kind who are here. And perhaps this one.’
The Nefilim reached behind Sahrin and did something to a control on the side of the case. She heard a brief scuffle of movement, and then silence.
“What are you going to do to me?” she whispered.
‘No harm. For now, you must trust me, even though you know nothing of me, apart from what you think you know of my race. Both of us are in danger as long as we remain here. Now please, come with me.’
The creature turned and walked into the darkness.
It had not been threatening; there might even have been a pleading tone in the words that had appeared in her head. In any event, given her present situation, she seemed to have little choice but to go along with it, for the moment at least.
She looked around, and saw no sign of the route that had brought her here. She followed the creature, stumbling through the gloom to catch up.
Once they were some distance down the tunnel that the Nefilim led her into, her eyes became accustomed to a soft gray light that seemed to come from the walls. It was a narrow passageway, and apart from the smooth and level floor, it seemed to be natural. Cave moss clung to the walls. Something brushed against her face and buzzed lazily away.
‘
I should return to my friends,’
she thought at the Nefilim’s back.
‘
That is not possible right now,’
came the reply.
She was being led deeper into the earth, down gradients that became steeper as they went, through tunnels that soon became even more rough and narrow. The artifacts that she’d seen in the tunnels above were no longer in evidence. These tunnels appeared were purely functional, only to be used if you were going somewhere.
Finally, the Nefilim stopped in front of a bare piece of wall and touched it in three different places. The surface dropped away to reveal another tunnel, bathed in the same gray light.
Secrets?
she wondered.
From who? From the locals? Or do they have secrets among themselves?
The Nefilim turned and looked at her.
‘A few.’
They entered the tunnel. Sahrin made no more attempts at conversation, vocal or otherwise.
* * *
BARK, BRYCE AND REINA had followed Sahrin’s footprints, and were gazing in silence at the rows of unconscious giants. The glow cast from the coffins bathed the whole scene in an eerie light, from which they sheltered in the same shadows that Sahrin had relied on.
Bark was whispering to the other two. “I doubt that these are corpses. They are probably asleep, and nearing the end, I suspect, of a long rest. This is probably not the only place on this planet where this is happening. We should be careful.”
The light from the coffins had grown brighter. In the distance, a group of Nefilim ascended a staircase and disappeared through a door.
They heard a sound, or felt a vibration, it was impossible to tell. It seemed to come from the walls themselves. The occupant of one of the closest cabinets stirred suddenly. The Nefilim lifted its hands to its face, and lurched over onto its side. It tried to lift itself up onto its elbows, but it seemed to lack co-ordination and fell back, its limbs moving slowly as though it was a newborn baby.
There was movement in the other chambers. Long limbs stirred slowly, then their actions became more coordinated as the inhabitants became aware of their surroundings and began to orientate themselves.
Without warning, the cabinets filled with clouds of gas.
As quickly as the gas arrived, it cleared. The top of each pod slid back, exposing the inhabitants to the air.
As the Nefilim emerged from their long sleep, the three intruders, without concurring and without hesitation, turned and disappeared back into the shadows of the tunnel they had come down. For now at least, Sahrin was out of reach, and would have to look after herself.
- - -
THE HELICOPTERS flew along the water’s edge, following the curve of the coastline. The beach below would have made an ideal holiday resort, were it not for its isolation. Although part of the North American mainland, it was guarded at its various edges by the sea, mountain ranges, and an intractable stretch of desert.
At a point halfway along the length of the undulating ribbons of white sand, the helicopters turned away from the ocean and headed inland, following the path of a stream that flowed towards the sea.
They were heading for Mount Weather. A huge complex carved out of the interior of an old volcano, it was the operational headquarters of the United Nations. Military, scientific, and communication facilities were maintained by a resident population of more than nine thousand. It was the site of the world’s real government, even though the world’s population didn’t even know it existed.
Mount Weather soon appeared among the clouds. One by one, the helicopters descended into a crevice halfway up its northern face. Along one of the rock faces that were formed by the incision in the mountain’s side, hidden under heavy brows of overhanging rock, were arranged a dozen or so landing sites, each one large enough to accommodate several of the helicopters. Arc lights illuminated the landing areas, leaving the depths of the chasm below lost in darkness.
The helicopters landed in front of a group of waiting officers and civilians. Guards surrounded the area.
An overweight, over-jowled man in a finely tailored suit was waiting among the officers. It was the Secretary-General himself.
“General,” he said warmly – half a bottle of gin’s worth of warmth – as he came across to meet the group. He was accompanied by the President of Europe, who kept glancing nervously in the direction of one of the other helicopters. The two Nefilim were crossing the landing area towards the group.
“Are they sociable, General?” asked the Secretary-General, lowering his voice. “You’ve had more exposure to them than I have… are they easy to deal with?”
“They’re…
alien
. Don’t expect it to be like talking to any human you’ve ever met. And they can read your…” The arrival of the Nefilim cut him short.
‘…mind. We can indeed. And you will find us firm, but fair, I think is a phrase that you might understand, Secretary-General.’
The creature spoke to its companion. Their speech was a thin rasping sound, with none of the resonance of their telepathic communication. It was hard to listen to.
“As you can see, Secretary-General,” the General persisted, not caring whether they heard him, “our guests appear to possess the ability to read minds, and they can communicate directly with us on that level as well.”
The Secretary-General nodded and reached up to offer his hand to the two creatures. They seemed to know what was required and offered theirs in return.
The first physical contact
, the General mused.
‘Not quite the first.’
The thought appeared in his brain, and he realized that the second Nefilim was looking at him again. He turned away. He was beginning to develop a dislike for them.
Later, in the hallway outside the offices of the Security Council, Thead was shown – as one parades a slave or a horse in front of a prospective buyer – to the Secretary-General. Thead’s red and white overalls and collection of earrings dangling from one ear combined to convince the Secretary-General that he was some sort of freak.