The War of Pawns (The Human Chronicles -- Book Three) (14 page)

Adam’s heart was beating so hard that he felt as if his chest was about to explode. He knew his face was red and his eyes wild with anger. He scanned the faces around the table. Almost to the man, they all stared at him with unabashed hatred and disgust.

“Everything Adam is saying is true!” Sherri cried out. “We did not lead the Juireans here. Why do you believe this alien over us?”

“Because this
alien
has provided an invaluable service to this planet, including the offer of defending us against the Juirean threat,” the SecDef began, “while all you and your cohorts have apparently done is lead this danger to our very doorstep.”

 
“The Klin
do
have forces here – they
can
stop the Juireans if they want to,” Sherri countered, desperation in her voice.

“Unfortunately, Ms. Valentine, that is simply not the case,” the Klin said. “We have fewer than 20 ships in the entire system, and many of them are not warcraft. Our scouts have indicated that the Juireans are coming with a fleet of over 500 warships, plus hundreds of other support vessels. We are no match for them.”

“What are we to do?” Phyllis Conrad pleaded to the Klin.

“Madam Secretary, all I can say is that we are hastening our fleet to the region, but we will not be able to stop the initial attack. With the weapons the Juireans possess, your defenses will be inadequate. The Juireans will be coming to annihilate your race. Since your military forces will be of no threat to them, they will instead concentrate first on your major population centers, as well as your more obvious military installations. As they did to my race so many thousands of years ago, their goal will be to kill as many of your kind as possible.”

“Should we evacuate the cities? Will that spare a large part of our population and give your forces enough time to get here?”

“We estimate the Juireans will be arriving within six days.” There was an explosion of voices once more throughout the room; some people even rose from their seats and ran for the doors.

“Secure all exits!” St. Claire ordered, and the MP’s, with Beretta M9’s drawn, blocked the doors.

“We have to warn the people!” one of the men at the door called back to St. Claire.

“That would only cause more panic. And we cannot evacuate all the major population centers in six days. Where would they all go?”

“If I may,” the Klin said, raising his voice through the microphone to get everyone’s attention. “I would suggest you secure your leaders, scientists and select business people. Just as in the case of the Juirean attack upon Klinmon, my homeworld, they will not be able to kill all of you with their initial strikes. Our forces will eventually arrive. There must be enough leadership left to rebuild your society.”

“This is all bullshit!” Adam said, pointing at the Klin. “We’re being set up!”

“MP’s! Remove these three and lock them away!” St. Claire ordered, as he stood, pointing at Adam. “You, Mr. Cain, as well as Ms. Valentine and Mr. Tarazi, are the most despicable creatures of them all. This is
your
planet and
your
people that you are destroying.”

“We didn’t do it!” The MP’s rushed forward; Adam tried to fight back, but four of them managed to grab his arms and press him down against the table. His arms were forced behind him, and he felt handcuffs being clamped around his wrists. Sherri and Riyad stood silently, as three more MP’s leveled their weapons at them. And then the three of them were quickly hustled out of the chamber.

Chapter Fourteen

Once they were gone, the Secretary of State, Jonas Lofton, raised his voice above the commotion. “We must try to negotiate with the Juireans!”

The statement brought an almost immediate quieting to the room. He continued. “We must send a delegation to meet with the Juireans before they attack, and tell them that we are of no threat to them.” There were dozens of nods throughout the room.

Matthew St. Claire turned to the Klin Ambassador. “Will that work? Will the Juireans speak with us?”

Every eye was on the pale alien as he cocked his head in thought. “It may, but there are no guarantees. It’s impossible to tell what damage Mr. Cain and his comrades have done to Juirean-Human relations, even if he isn’t working actively with them. I will make arrangements for a vessel to take a delegation into space.”

“Should you accompany us as well? After all, your kind has much more experience dealing with the Juireans.”

“That would not be advisable. The Juireans have an instinctive fear of us. If they knew how actively our two races have been interacting, they may not trust your intentions for peace.”

“Yet the delegation will be in a Klin spaceship?” said General Daniels. “How will that look?”

“We have spaceships which the Juireans have never seen. They will not be able to identify the configuration.”

“Then it’s decided,” Secretary St. Claire announced to the room, a tense enthusiasm spreading among the occupants. “We will appoint a peace delegation to meet with the Juireans. With the help of our Klin allies, we will determine the best location for this meeting, somewhere far enough from Earth so the Juireans will have time to call off their attack. I believe the delegation should be comprised of the Secretary of State, a senior military official, the national science advisor, and of course, I volunteer to be part of the delegation as well. Jonas, are you okay with this?”

The Secretary of State looked at St. Claire. He was pale and sweating slightly. He said nothing, but instead nodded feebly.

Then St. Claire looked down the table at Jerrod Llewellyn, the President’s science advisor. “I assume you have no problem with going?”

“I believe I am the only one in this room who has had the privilege of traveling aboard a Klin spaceship. I would welcome the opportunity again.” Even though his words sounded enthusiastic, his voice still trembled when he spoke. This would not be a pleasure cruise.

“Good. I’ll let General Daniels appoint the military delegate; I do not believe he should go—”

“Mr. Secretary! You couldn’t keep me off that ship with an army of your own!”

“But if our efforts are not successful, you will be needed here.”

“I have dozens of competent replacements, Matt. Besides, if we fail, there’s not much our military can do against the Juireans, according to Ambassador Lumonsee. I need to go where I can do the most good.”

“Very well, Damien. Let’s get going. Thanks to Mr. Cain, we don’t have much time.”

Chapter Fifteen

Adam was surprised to learn that there was a fairly decent-size jail facility in the Pentagon, but since the building was so huge, he had no idea where it was or how they got there. All he knew was that once again the three of them were being placed in a cell together for something they didn’t do.

“That didn’t go exactly as you had planned, did it?” Riyad commented with a wry smile from where he sat on one of the two benches in the cell.

“We’ve been played, and for how long, I don’t know,” was Adam’s angry comeback.

“That doesn’t change the fact that no one believes us, and now
we’re
the bad guys,” Sherri threw in her two cents as she sat down on the other bench, her eyes weeping from both fear and anger.

For his part, Adam was too angry to sit, so he paced the center of the cell like a restless tiger. “And all I wanted to do was get home to my family.”

After about 10 minutes, Sherri broke the awkward silence. “Do you think they’ll let us make a phone call? I really want to let my parents know that I’m okay.”

“You can forget about that,” Adam said, a little too harshly. “There’s no way the military will let us talk to anyone outside of the circle of those who already know about us. They can’t risk us spilling the beans about the coming attack…”

The sobering thought hit all three of them at the same time: The Earth
was
going to be attacked, and the Klin weren’t going to do anything to stop it.

“But why would they want the Earth to suffer so much? It seems like a lot of effort just to kill off a bunch of Humans,” Sherri asked.

Adam turned from the small slit of a window in the cell’s door that he had been looking though, and leaned against the door. “They won’t let us be completely destroyed. They’re probably just lurking out there right now, waiting for us to get our noses bloodied enough so that when they do swoop in and save us, the whole planet will be eternally grateful.”

“In the meantime, millions of people will die—” Sherri had her comment cut short by a sudden knock on the cell door. Adam jumped further into the room, startled. Then a bolt slid away and the door opened.

Lt. Andy Tobias stepped in. Adam approached him quickly. “LT, you have to believe me, we didn’t lead the Juireans here!”

Two armed guards stood at the door, their eyes locked on Adam, watching his every move. Tobias turned to the guards. “It’s all right. I just need a minute with them before we go,” he said, closing the door. Then he turned to Adam.

“I don’t know what kind of fucking bullshit you’ve got yourself into, Cain, but you sure have stirred up a hornet’s nest! When I got the call this afternoon that you had been found – and alive – I was hootin’ and hollerin’ all over the place. One of my men was comin’ home! It’s bad enough when we lose a SEAL, but when we can’t bring home the body, that’s way worse. And then I come to find out you’ve been out gallivanting around the galaxy all this time, and consorting with all kinds of nasty alien critters. What am I to make of all this?”

“Sir?”

Tobias looked at the other two people in the cell and said, “They’re moving all you to a holding facility at Little Creek. The other people who were on the spacecraft are headin’ there, too. You’re to stay there until the government can figure out what to do with y’all. I’m to accompany you there and make sure you don’t do nuthin’ stupid.”

“But, sir, we came here to warn people of the Juirean attack, and instead we’re being blamed for it.”

“I’m sure everyone in that room is just acting out of fear. Once they all calm down, I’m sure they’ll take a second look at your testimony. Besides, I can’t blame ’em. I almost lost my load, too, when I saw that alien guy. This may be old news to you, but I was freakin’ the fuck out.”