The Indestructibles (Book 4): Like A Comet (10 page)

      Rice-Bell laughed again and tucked
the card into the top drawer of his desk.

      "I appreciate the sentiment,"
he said. "But I'm still optimistic our first encounter will be a great
meeting of the minds, not War of the Worlds."

      Titus let out a near-approximation
of a laugh, playing along. They shook hands again and let Rice-Bell guide them
back to the elevator. Once outside, Titus and Kate shared a look.

      "He was lying about
everything," Kate said.

      "Absolutely," Titus
said. "Spinning so many lies his lies were lying."

      "We're coming back tonight,"
Kate said.

      "I figured," Titus said.
"You get what you needed?"

      "I spotted three gaps in
their security while looking out his window," she said. "And stole
the receptionist's security passkey when he was checking the calendar."

      "Great," Titus said. "The
sensor in the card I gave him will steal his passwords to anything he logs into
while he's in the office."

      Kate nodded approvingly, once
again unlocking the cockpit to the Indestructicar. She found herself vaguely
annoyed for thinking in Emily's terminology.

      "So where do you want to get
dinner while we wait til dark?" Titus said. "I'm starving."

Chapter
15:

This
is not Area 51

Jane and Emily landed in the desert as
the sun rode low in the sky, bathing everything in pink and gold. Jane turned
her face to the sun, almost worshipful, feeling its rays splash onto her skin,
her cells drinking it in like water on a hot day. It seemed more potent here,
and thus she felt stronger as well, her body recharging as daylight crashed
against her skin.

      Before them, an abandoned complex
spread out, washed in dust and the remnants of mankind, long forgotten in the
desert. An old, tall chain link fence had descended into disrepair, fallen in
some places, cut open in others, the barbed wire above it pointless and no
longer threatening. Low beige buildings dotted the property, windows scratched
opaque by time and the elements.

      "Okay, now that I've seen it,
this is not Area 51," Emily said. "Nothing here screams government facility
for holding alien prisoners. It looks like an old gas station."

      "You never know," Jane
said. She went to tear the gate to the facility open, but Emily beat her to it,
shoving it with her bubbles of float hard enough to snap the long-rusted padlock
and chain holding it closed.

      "I suppose we could've flown
over that," Emily said.

      Jane shrugged and walked in. No
one had been here for a long, long time, she thought. It felt like a corpse,
left to mummify in the sunshine.

      "What do you think?"
Jane said, watching Emily pull her costume goggles down over her eyes against
the setting sun. "In one of the buildings?"

      Emily made an I don't know face and
started walking toward one of the nearest prefab structures. After a few steps
she paused, looking down.

      "What," Jane said.

      Emily stomped her foot. She took
another stomping step, then another, then another, and then started jumping up
and down, kicking her feet in the sand.

      "Any particular reason you're
doing that, or have you finally completely glitched out?" Jane said.

      Emily turned back to her as she
hopped, her goggles now crusted with sand.

      "What?" she said.

      Then Emily landed with a clang
instead of a thud.

      The women looked at each other.

      "You hear that?" Emily
said.

      "Yup."

      The pair started kicking, looking
for the surface below until they found a metal hatch, bigger than a door, the
surface scratched and worn by sand and wind.

      "Oh, this looks like a
fantastic idea," Emily said.

      "Going into the hatch?"

      "It worked so well on
Lost,
"
Emily said.

      Jane gestured around her at all
the emptiness surrounding them. She squinted at Emily.

      "Signal's coming from
somewhere," she said.

      Emily sighed heavily and threw her
head back in resignation.

      "Fine. But if there's a
Scotsman down there I'm going to panic," Emily said. Again she waved her
hand and she bubble-of-floated the hatch open. She and Jane looked down into
the gloom hesitantly.

      "Age before beauty,"
Emily said.

      Jane sat down on the lip of the
hatch, feeling around for steps until she found rungs of a ladder. It occurred
to her that using a ladder was a bit ridiculous when you could fly, but for
some reason going down into a subterranean lair felt more natural if she had
her feet grounded on something, so she climbed like a regular person. Emily did
the same, though Jane could sense that Em was using her gravitational powers to
take part of her weight, as if afraid she might slip and fall.

      When they reached the bottom, they
found themselves in a low-slung tunnel system. It reminded Jane of submarines
in movies, tight and short with rounded walls. The lights were, creepily, still
on in most places, and perhaps more eerily, had burned out in enough spots to
create heavy patches of shadow. It smelled slightly rotten inside, like an old
drain pipe.

      "So I've had this nightmare
before," Emily said. "Usually there are xenomorphs in it."

      "You watch too many scary
movies," Jane said.

      "The scary movies aren't why
I'm afraid right now," she said.

      "Something tries to kill you
on a daily basis," Jane said. "I don't know why you insist on
watching horror movies all the time."

      "Schadenfreude."

      "Bless you," Jane said.

      They walked side by side down what
appeared to be the main tunnel, passing darkened corridors, areas with tipped
over chairs, restrooms, even a small kitchen area. Emily inspected the kitchen
for clues.

      "This place looks used,"
Emily said.

      "I'm sure it was," Jane
said.

      "No, I mean, it's not
spotless, like it hadn't been occupied in a long time. It's not dusty. It's a
little cluttered. I'm saying there's been activity here," Emily said.

      "How recently?" Jane
asked.

      Emily shot Jane another "I
dunno" look.

      "I mean Titus might be able
to tell by scent or something, but I couldn't tell you," she said.

      Jane tilted her head apologetically
and headed back down the main corridor. And then she saw it—a shadow, the size
of a person, moving quickly ahead of them, trying to remain in the background.

      Jane pointed to the runner,
grabbing Emily by the shoulder.

      "What!" Emily said, too
loudly. Then she saw what Jane was pointing at and started whispering. "Should
we chase it?"

      Jane was already running at top
speed down the hallway, still not comfortable with flying in the enclosed
space. She watched the humanoid take a sharp turn, nothing about its shape and
movement indicating it was a normal person. Jane took the hard right turn as
well and could hear Emily's heavy Doc Martens slapping against the concrete
floor behind her.

      The creature in front of them led
Jane and Emily into a larger area that opened up at the end of the hallway, an
airy, empty space with little light. The being scuttled further into the
shadows, and Jane let one hand burst into flames so that they could see better.

      It was just enough illumination to
make her regret doing so as they came face to face with a different creature,
twelve feet tall and hunched over, its arms long enough to drag along the floor
like an ape's. It had one massive yellow eye dominating the center of its head
above wide, fanged jaws.

      "What the carp is that!"
Emily yelled.

      Jane came to a stop, moving into a
battle-ready stance, and eyeballed the new enemy. For all its alien
strangeness, the thing that seemed oddest about it, Jane thought, was the
appendage on its chest—something seemed to be latched on there, a cross between
an octopus and a crab, segmented and still, both connected to the monster but
somehow entirely apart from it.

      Just behind the bigger creature,
the first critter they'd chased crept forward, an entirely different sort of
alien—purple-blue skinned, with too many arms, too many eyes, a mouth like a
beak. It too had something attached to its chest, a smaller version of the
crab-like thing on its enormous companion.

      Jane stepped back to bring herself
to Emily's side.

      "Em, don't let the little one
escape," Jane said.

      "And how do you propose I do
that?" Emily said.

      "If he runs, bubble of float
him," Jane said. "I'll take the—"

      "Better idea," Emily
said. "Wall of slam, dudes!"

      Emily shoved her hands forward,
knocking both creatures big and small off their feet violently. The flurry of
kicking feet and flailing arms would have been funny if not for the complete
horror of what they were looking at, Jane thought.

      "That didn't do what I
thought it would," Emily said.

      "I'm actually almost
impressed," Jane said, just as both aliens scrambled to their feet. The
smaller, purple one made the first move, trying to flee past the heroes before
they could catch him.

      "Emily!" Jane yelled,
but Emily's bubbles of float seemed to be too slow to catch the creature. Jane
jumped at him instead, not sure where she should grab, and decided to just
throw a punch at his face instead. She connected, hard, but the creature struck
right back, grabbing hold of her wrist with one of his too-many hands and
punching her right back in the jaw.

      "What the . . . ?" was
all Jane could get out before getting punched again. The creature emitted a
soft, huffing noise and she was suddenly positive the being was laughing at
her.

      "I got this!" Emily
yelled, but Jane turned back just in time to see the larger alien knock her off
her feet, sending the blue-haired girl flying into a nearby wall. The "oof"
noise she yelled sounded so painful Jane felt it in her own guts.

      "That. Is. It." Emily
said. "You one-eyed Rancor-lookin' wannabe, you have messed with the wrong
Emily!"

      But as Em raised her hands for
another wall of slam, the monster scooped her up in one massive paw and held
her tight, arms pinned.

      "Aw, come on," Emily
said as the alien lifted her toward its sharp-toothed mouth.

      "No," Jane said, and,
stealing a move from Kate's handbook, head-butted her own opponent between its
many, many eyes. The purple alien released its grasp on her and Jane kicked the
creature in the knee as hard as she could before charging to Emily's rescue.

      She leapt into the air, throwing a
haymaker at the giant monster's face, connecting with such force she could see
its thick, greenish skin ripple with the impact. The monster flung Emily away
reflexively, bouncing the poor girl off the wall a second time, as Jane
pummeled the creature's enormous face. The beast knocked her back and she could
see the appendage latched to its chest glow with a reddish light from within.
The monster swiped at her with huge, clawed hands, catching her cape and using
it to knock her from the air back to the chamber floor.

      The huge creature held its arms
out to each side and then slapped its hands together as if to clap, but caught
Jane right in the middle between its palms. The impact rattled her. Jane felt it
in her bones as the hands smashed into her from both sides. How strong is this
thing? She thought. She'd never been hit like this before, not by a living
creature. She saw the thing on its chest glowing brighter and brighter with
each attack.

      The alien moved in for another
swing, and Jane punched upward, a full body uppercut that hammered into the
monster's jaw. Broken teeth flew from the monster's mouth as it slammed shut.
The giant alien roared in pain and slapped downward at her with an open-palmed
hand. Jane caught his hand with hers, a finger in each of her hands, and she
tried to stop his attack. Her back arched when her legs pushed back, muscles on
fire under the strain.

      And then the monster was gone,
knocked off his feet, almost taking Jane with him. Emily stood up, hunched over
in pain, her hand extended and palm up, aimed at the alien.

      "Wall of slam, you filthy
animal," Emily said, before falling down onto one knee for balance.

      Jane squared off with the monster again
as it climbed back to its feet. The thing on its chest was bright red now. She
readied herself for another attack.

      "Kill it with fire!"
Emily said.

      "Now is not the time for meme
jokes, Em!" Jane said, not realizing until now she was panting from exertion.

      "No, the thing on its chest!
I think it's powering the alien!" Emily yelled.

      Jane smiled a fighter's smile and
looked at the alien's one giant yellow eye. She threw her tattered cape aside
and ran at the monster, dodging one smashing fist and then another, ducking
underneath to grab hold of the thing attached to its chest. It felt almost
plantlike under her hands, the texture of rose stems without the thorns, thick with
almost no give.

      Jane closed her eyes and poured on
the fire, letting her hands burst into flames, engulfing her arms up to the
elbow. She held on. The monster thrashed and howled, but did not let go,
burning away at the strange thing until it blackened and the alien squealed in
pain. The crab-thing hissed and popped like food cooking on a grill, and Jane
pushed on the alien's abdomen, using its own body to yank the parasitic element
away. The limbs or stalks holding tight to the alien crackled and snapped, and
suddenly Jane was holding a dead, grotesque thing, some alien parasite corpse,
and the bigger, host alien was wailing, smashing its fists into the ground,
gasping and roaring.

      Jane threw it away and looked for the
smaller, purple alien. Emily was staggering back to her feet and pointing at
the corridor toward the outside world.