The Reply

CHAPTER 39

Five hours from arrival. The six talons were no longer dancing among themselves. They had spread out, ten kilometers between craft as they approached Earth.

On the planet they neared, troubling news was beginning to seep out. Nothing official had been released, but there were rumors of attacks by foo fighters; of a nuclear weapon being detonated deep in the Pacific; that the Airlia might not indeed be coming in peace. The rumors were not enough to stem the flow of optimism that blanketed the world, but they were enough to worry those in power and those who had always questioned the coming contact. But what was there to do? was the consensus. The world would have to wait and see.

Inside the War Room of the Pentagon the President and Joint Chiefs were helpless spectators as the plan devised by Eisenhower was being enacted by STAAR. The mood, though, was getting more positive as each victory was won. Still, the main screen in the front of the room pictured the six talons as seen by the Hubble, and that deadened any euphoria as they knew the biggest battle was yet to come.

Mike Turcotte was in a rush. They had attached the sphere to the outside of the bouncer by the expedient manner of four sets of nylon cargo webbing. He’d immediately gotten back on board along with Duncan and the two STAAR personnel.

The bouncer was now racing northeast at over five thousand miles an hour. Turcotte had spent the last thirty minutes on the radio, confirming with Major Quinn that the instructions Colonel Spearson had forwarded were being followed and all would be ready when they arrived at Area 51.

He had been disturbed to hear that Kelly Reynolds wasn’t there; that she had flown to Easter Island on a bouncer. He knew her and he knew what she was trying to do. He gave her credit for trying; the only problem was that if she didn’t get her ass off that island in the next hour, she was going to be sitting on ground zero. He had to try to contact her.

“Firing TCM,” Larry Kincaid said, although the only person in the room to hear him was Coridan. Larry pressed the enter key on the console in front of him and the message was transmitted toward Mars.

Turcotte watched Area 51 approach. This was where it had all started, and it seemed appropriate to him that this was where the ending would be implemented.

The bouncer did not land outside Hangar One; instead, at Turcotte’s direction, the pilot flew around the side to Hangar Two. As they flew over Groom Mountain, Turcotte could see the gaping hole in the mountainside where the roof on Hangar Two had been destroyed.

The pilot maneuvered the bouncer down into the hangar, landing next to the side of the massive ship. Turcotte was the first one out of the hatch. Major Quinn was there waiting for him.

“Do you have everything?”

Quinn looked worried. “Yes.”

“Where’s the bouncer I asked for?” Turcotte asked, looking about.

“It’s already loaded inside,” Quinn said.

“Great.”

“Is it modified like I requested?”

“I had to get the boosters from White Sands. Flown here special on a C-5 and—” “Is it done?” Turcotte’s voice was sharp.

“Yes. But I can’t guarantee that—”

“The specials?”

Quinn swallowed hard. “They’re loaded too. I don’t know who you got to authorize that, but—”

“Load the ruby sphere into the cargo bay with the rest of the gear,” Turcotte ordered. Quinn nodded. He started to walk away, then paused. He reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a TV remote. “You’ll need this. It’s labeled.”

Turcotte took it and slid it into the breast pocket of his dirty camouflage fatigues. Quinn turned and walked away toward a waiting crew of Air Force men.

There was a surprised look on Zandra’s face. “You’re not putting the sphere in the engine where it belongs? What exactly do you have planned?” she demanded.

Turcotte turned and stared into her sunglasses while Duncan quietly watched. “I’m going to give Aspasia what he wants. He wants the mothership and he wants the ruby sphere. I’m taking them to him. That way he has no need to come here to Earth.”

Zandra was shaking her head before he was done. “That’s unacceptable. You have no guarantee that he’ll take the mothership and leave Earth alone. In fact…” She paused.

“In fact what?” Turcotte demanded.

“I can’t let you do that,” Zandra said.

“How are you going to stop me?” Turcotte asked.

“I have the President’s authorization and—”

“You have an authorization from a president who has been long dead,” Turcotte cut her off. “It’s worked quite well with all these idiots who salute and would rather follow orders than think, but it doesn’t work with me.”

Turcotte saw Oleisa, who had remained mute and in the background throughout their long journey, start to move. He smoothly drew his Browning High Power pistol. He didn’t exactly point it at the two women, but he kept it hovering in their general direction, freezing them both in place. “I don’t know who you people are. You may be who you say you are, but this is where your interference ends. I’m taking the mothership up and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Oleisa jumped forward and Turcotte fired, double-tapping as he’d been trained. Both rounds hit the woman right between her eyes, shattering the ever-present sunglasses and knocking her back onto the cavern floor. But that gave Zandra time to draw a pistol. Turcotte knew it was too late as he shifted to the new target; he could see the muzzle of Zandra’s gun, a massive black hole centered on his own forehead.

Then a small red dot appeared in the middle of Zandra’s chest and she staggered back a step, the gun wavering, then coming back up. The sound of a pistol going off again and again reverberated through the cavern as Duncan kept firing, her bullets hitting Zandra.

The fingers went limp and the gun dropped out of Zandra’s hand as she collapsed to the floor. Duncan stepped forward, her weapon at the ready as she nudged the body with the toe of her shoe.

“She’s dead,” Turcotte confirmed, seeing where several of the rounds had come out of Zandra’s back.

“Who the hell were they?” Duncan asked, looking up from the two bodies as MPs ran up, weapons ready.

“Everything’s all right!” Turcotte yelled to the MPs. He put a hand on Duncan’s shoulder. He could feel her trembling. “I don’t know who they were. That’s something we’re going to have to find out. But right now our big problem is coming from that way.” He pointed upward.

“How are you getting back, Mike?” Duncan asked.

“I’m coming back on the bouncer in the hold,” Turcotte said.

“But they don’t work that far outside the Earth’s magnetic field,” Duncan noted.

“I know that,” Turcotte said. He turned her to face him. “Trust me that I will make it back.”

Duncan nodded. “I do.”

“I have to go now,” Turcotte said.

Duncan stood on tiptoe and kissed him. “Good luck.”

Inside the chamber Kelly Reynolds’s pleadings echoed off the stone walls. Then she paused as a golden tendril coalesced above the top of the pyramid. It wavered in the air, then reached down toward her.

Kelly remained perfectly still as the translucent golden arm wrapped itself around her head. The tortured look on her face disappeared and her features relaxed, a smile even touching her lips.

The message Larry Kincaid had sent had finally made it across the gap from Earth to Surveyor, silently orbiting above the planet. The on-board computer came to life. The simple commands Kincaid had programmed were sorted through and acted on. Maneuvering thrusters fired and Surveyor’s orbit changed. It moved on a course that would bring it over Cydonia in less than an hour.

In the air and water surrounding Easter Island, Navy ships and planes circled, forming up, waiting for the final word. Smart bombs were being made dumb, their sophisticated electronic targeting turned off and the crews preparing flight paths that would allow them to drop their ordnance from a safe distance and explode on impact, all targeted toward Rano Kau. There was enough explosive being prepared that the admiral in charge of the fleet had no doubt that by the third wave of planes, the would have blasted down the chamber that held the guardian.