Linkage: The Narrows of Time

Chapter 29

Infestation





Lucas handed Alicia’smap to Kleezebee, then followed the professor back to the elevatorand rode with him down to the surveillance room where they met upwith Bruno and Trevor.

“Sir, we confirmedthe data and their ship’s spatial coordinates,” Bruno reported,handing a report to Kleezebee.

Kleezebee looked overthe paperwork for a minute, then replied, “Nice work, gentlemen.”He gave the report back to Bruno, who passed it to Trevor.

“What’s going on,Professor?” Lucas asked.

“Our scans of therift provided us with new data. Looks like I was wrong.”

“About what?”

“It might be possibleto open the rift from this side.”

“So we’re goingafter Drew?”

Kleezebee nodded. “Butwe’ll need a plan to deal with their army.”

Bruno stepped forwardand stood at attention. “Me and my team are ready to go, sir. Justgive the order.”

“Me, too,” Lucassaid, patting Bruno on the back. “Trust me, we’ll get Drew back.”

“That would just be asuicide mission, for all of you.”

“Then so be it,”Lucas replied. “I would rather die trying than just sit herewaiting to be eaten by those things. Shit, giveus some frag grenades, and we’ll take out as many of those f*ckersas we can.”

“Look, I want to getDrew back just as much as you do, but let’s not go off halfcocked.We need to step back and think this through,” Kleezebee said,walking away with his hand stroking his gray beard.

Lucas moved tointercept his boss, but Bruno latched onto his elbow and said, “Givehim a few minutes.”

The orange tattoos onBruno’s forearms danced as his powerful grip held Lucas in place.When Bruno flexed his left arm in just the right way, Lucas suddenlyrealized the drawings weren’t just random artistry. They wereimprecise, but he reorganized the misshapen head, long stinger tail,and pair of claws. “Dude, are those tats supposed to be the bugs?”

Bruno nodded. “I wearthem as a reminder of what stranded us here. So we would never forgetwhat we’re up against.”

Lucas studied theartistry more carefully, observing something new about the creature’sphysical appearance. Their segmented bodies gave him an idea. “Dr.Kleezebee, is it all right if I make a quick trip home to Phoenix?There’s something there that might help.”

The professor turnedaround and looked at Lucas, as if he were sizing him up forsomething. Kleezebee looked at his watch, and then asked his techs,“Is the jump station still viable at the hockey arena?”

The tech typed into hiscomputer, then reported, “Confirmed, sir. The pad’s still onlineand available for transport.”

“What about groundtransportation?” Kleezebee asked Bruno.

“Our van should stillbe parked in the underground garage.”

“All right then, yougo with Lucas. But make it quick.”

* * *

Ninetyminutes later, Lucas and Bruno returned from their trip to Phoenix.Lucas put a torn, dirty cardboard box on the floor in front ofKleezebee, then blew off a cloud of dust. He’d found it in a cornerof his dad’s workshop next to a pile of old clothes ready fordonation to Goodwill.

“What the hell isthat?” Kleezebee asked.

“It’s one of mydad’s inventions,” Lucas said with a proud grin on his face. Heunfolded the box and pulled out a black device the size of acigarette pack, which was attached to a two-inch-square powertransformer. He untangled the six-foot electrical cord before handingit to Kleezebee. “Dad called it a Sonic Pad.”

Kleezebee tested thedevice’s retractable legs before wiping the dirt off its ring ofsensors lined up across its middle, directly below the miniatureantenna protruding from its top. He gave the unit to Bruno.

There was one more itemlying in the bottom of the box—a notebook containing his dad’shandwritten notes. Lucas opened the journal, fanning the pages todemonstrate its contents before giving it to Kleezebee. “Dad’shandwriting is worse than a doctor’s, but I can translate if youneed me to.”

“What’s this thingdo?” Bruno asked, holding the sonic pad away from his body as if itwere an explosive.

“It’s for pestcontrol. And it works awesome.” Lucas thought about mentioning thedevice’s one minor flaw, but decided against it. He didn’t seehow the liquefaction of a dog’s brain had any relevance to theircurrent situation. At least the device wasn’t harmful to humans.

“Pests?” Brunoasked.

“Dad networked aseries of these around our yard to kill scorpions. If one of themcrawled inside the perimeter, the motion sensors triangulated itslocation, sending a finely tuned blend of infrasonic and ultrasonicsound waves at the creature. The blast was powerful enough to shatterthe bug’s segmented body. They’d explode like popcorn.”

Kleezebee was busyskimming through the journal and remained silent.

“Dad hated scorpions.They were always wandering inside the house at night and after Momhad stepped on her third one, he decided we needed to do somethingelse. The commercial pesticides he sprayed were slow to work, if atall.”

“Damn ingenious,”Kleezebee said, pointing at one particular page in the notebook. “Thepad emits an inaudible set of specifically calibrated sonic pulsesthat attack the creature’s nervous system. It would work whetherthe scorpion was awake or asleep.”

“Do you think we canadapt it?” Lucas asked his boss.

“For what?” Brunoreplied.

“For the Krellians,”Lucas answered.

“It might work. Butwe’ll need to crank up the juice considerably.”

“We might be able touse the E-121 for the additional power,” Lucas said.

“Excellent idea. Wecan use it to power all of them.”

“All of them?”Bruno asked.

“We’ll need to armeach member of the rescue team with one of these. We certainly don’thave enough bullets to kill a hive ship full of warriors.”

“Do we have time tomake enough of them?” Lucas asked.

Kleezebee opened themed-lab’s hidden door and walked inside where Trevor was working.Lucas followed him. “Rig a power source based on E-121 and make asmany copies of this as you can,” Kleezebee told Trevor. “We’llneed it weaponized by morning.”

“Ja, will do.”

“BioTex can replicateinanimate objects?” Lucas asked the professor.

“Sure, why not?They’re much less complicated than replicating a living organism.Granted, it’s not a very efficient use of our technology, but giventhe time constraint, we don’t have a choice.”

* * *

Thefollowing morning, Lucas was ready to head to the video room to meetup with Kleezebee and his staff. The aliens were due to reappear insixty-two minutes for the exchange, but first he needed to stop atthe mess hall on the way down to fill up on caffeine—he had battleda serious case of insomnia through the night, leaving him exhausted.He couldn’t get Drew out of his mind all night long. He kept seeinghis little brother sitting in a corner of a Krellian jail cell,surrounded by the blood and guts from hundreds of men eaten rightbefore his eyes.

When he looked backover the events of the past few days, it was almost surreal. It feltlike he was in a low-budget sci-fi movie, one filled with endlesstwists and turns, almost too much for anyone to believe. Yet it wasreal and happening to him and his family. If they somehow survivedthis mess, he promised himself to write a novel about theirexperiences. Even if no one ever read his story, he felt it wasimportant to chronicle the events, to pay homage to those who hadsuffered and died.

Earlier last night, hehad spent several hours consoling his mother after explaining whathad happened to Drew. It wasn’t easy to tell her, but he managed toget through it. He took great care to relay the tragic news with apositive spin, but despite his optimistic words of rescue, his mothertook the news of Drew’s abduction extremely hard. In her eyes, heknew he only had one job to do—protect his little brother—a jobthat he had failed miserably. He worried that she might never forgivehim.

After what seemed likehalf the night, his mother finally managed to fall asleep. Lucas lefther side and snuck down to the silo’s armory. A traditional handgunwould be too loud for a stealthy assault, so he decided to grab twoof Kleezebee’s stunners instead. He flung one of the Kevlar vestsover his shoulder before returning to his own room. He sat on theedge of his bed for almost an hour, staring at Drew’s empty bunk.He sobbed quietly until his body was devoid of tears and energy, thenhe crawled into bed and shut his eyes. Other than the sound of hisheart beating, the room was dead silent. He felt like he was maroonedon an island’s beach without another soul around for hundreds ofmiles. He let out a muted chuckle when he thought about a floatingFedEx box washing ashore with a volleyball inside. All he needed wassome coconut hair and a pair of figure skates, he thought. But hedecided he would call his imaginary friend Drew, not Wilson.

In the morning, hestrapped one of stunners to his ankle and slipped the other oneinside the back of his trousers. He hid the Kevlar vest under hisshirt, readying himself for the fight. Lucas was in such a rush tojoin Kleezebee that he forgot to check on his mother, who wassleeping in the room across the hall. He was in the elevator, almostdown to the surveillance room, before he thought of her. Herationalized his absentmindedness by telling himself that she neededextra time to rest, and he shouldn’t disturb her.

When Lucas walked outof the elevator, he found Kleezebee and Trevor fitting Bruno with ajet-black vest. Five feet away from them was a four-wheeled sled witha stack of five-gallon containers filled to the brim withscarlet-colored liquid.

The vest contained aseries of bulging pockets with a set of electrical wireshop-scotching between them. All the vest needed was a few dozensticks of dynamite and Bruno would have looked like a Islamic suicidebomber ready to take out a shopping mall. Bruno was wearing streetclothes under the vest—white polo shirt, dark slacks, and brownloafers. The polo shirt fit his sagging gut much better than hisuniform top did, except it highlighted his baseball-sized bellybuttonrecess. The only part of Bruno’s outfit Lucas recognized was thepentagon-shaped watch. Overall, Bruno actually looked good in casualattire.

“What do you think?”Kleezebee asked, leaning forward on his crutches to tug at the openbelt clip hanging from the front of Bruno’s vest. “Trevor did ahell of a job integrating your father’s device.”

“It’s almostcomfortable,” Bruno said, clipping the belt to close the vestaround his midsection.

There was a second vestlying on the table next to Trevor. Since it was much too small to fitTrevor or Kleezebee, Lucas assumed the vest was for him. Either that,or it was for one of the skinny security officers to wear. He assumedthey only had time to make two vests, not the dozen Kleezebeeordered.

“We’re calling it aSonic Disrupter,” Kleezebee said.

Lucas picked up thesecond vest to inspect it. Each of the garment’s six front pocketscontained a smaller version of his father’s sonic pad. “Nicework.”

“Trevor constructedit out of interwoven layers of Kevlar fiber. Should be able towithstand one hell of a beating.”

Lucas opened the vestand looked inside. Attached along the lining were more of theelectrical wires connecting each sonic pad to an orange pouch sewninside the back of the vest. Lucas tore open the pouch’s Velcrozipper.

“That’s the E-121power unit,” Kleezebee said, holding up a push-button activatorswitch. “All you have to do is press this button.”

Lucas didn’t see anywires connecting the switch to the vest. “Wireless?”

Kleezebee nodded.

Bruno walked around theroom with the vest wrapped around his chest, though not in a normalupright posture. He was leaning slightly backward. “I don’t know.It’s a tad back-heavy.”

“That’s the E-121,”Kleezebee replied. “We could add a counterweight to the front?”

“If you make it anyheavier, I’ll be too slow to react. I think I just need to get usedto it.”

“Why are you usingmultiple sonic pads in one vest?” Lucas asked the professor.

“We tested it on thealien corpse and found that we needed to use multiple combinations ofinfrasonic and ultrasonic waves. Otherwise, it had little effect.”

“You should have seenthe mess when that thing popped,” Bruno added.

“It took longer totweak than we expected, so we only had time to make the two vests.”

“Is the other vestfor me?” Lucas asked.

“Yeah, go ahead andput it on,” Kleezebee said, testing the trigger on the activationswitch. “If something goes wrong during the exchange, I want youand the security team to do whatever is needed to bring Drew home.”

“So we’re going towait until the exchange?” Lucas asked, wondering why they weren’tgoing in ahead of schedule, in a pre-emptive assault.

“Yes. They might justreturn him without a fight.”

“You don’t reallybelieve that, do you? What about what Alicia said?”

“Her intel could bewrong. We have to try the diplomatic solution first. An all-outassault is our last resort.”

Lucas disagreed andwished he were the one making the decisions. He checked to make surethe stunner hidden inside the back of his waistband was still out ofsight. It was.

“Once we have himback, what then?” Bruno asked.

“We’ll cross thatbridge when we come to it. For now, let’s try to rescue Drew andnot get us all killed in the process.” Kleezebee turned to face histechs and said, “Once we’re back, be sure to close the riftimmediately.” The tech nodded.

Lucas slid on the vest,but initially had trouble buckling the belt’s clip. He didn’t sayanything about the snug fit, fearing they might discover theprotective vest hiding under his shirt and the stunner tucked in hispants. Having two layers of protection couldn’t hurt, assuming hecould breathe properly. He finally got the belt clipped and waitedfor Kleezebee’s orders.

“As a good faithgesture, Bruno and I will step through with a small amount of BioTex.I suspect they’ll want to test its authenticity. Once they do, I’lldemand they return Drew before we conclude the exchange.” Kleezebeetold Trevor, “Remember, don’t step through with the rest of thematerial until I call for you.” Trevor nodded.

“What do you need meto do?” Lucas asked.

“You stay here withTrevor and monitor the exchange.”

“But I’m wearingthe other vest,” Lucas replied, holding up the activation switch.“What if something goes wrong?”

“Bruno will activatehis device. Then we’ll improvise.”

Lucas wondered whyKleezebee gave him the second vest to wear if he did not intend tolet him join the fight. Maybe the professor had other plans, orpossibly Kleezebee knew it was the only way to shut him up. Eitherway, it seemed like a waste of technology, but he chose not to arguethe point. Lucas figured he could jump through the rift and use hisstunners if need be. Kleezebee wouldn’t be in a position to stophim. “Fine, what do you need me to monitor?”

Kleezebee held up apair of pendant necklaces. “The techs have built a one-wayvideo/audio transmitter into these pendants that should allow you tosee what’s going on during the exchange.” He pointed to a pair ofunmanned video monitors, just to the right of his lead technician.“We’ll pipe the signals through to those monitoring stations.”

“Will they bepowerful enough to carry the signal back here, across dimensions?”Lucas asked.

Kleezebee didn’tanswer. Instead, he looked at his lead tech.

The tech nodded. “Won’tbe a problem, sir. We’ve programmed the transmitters to scan therift and match its energy signature. We should be able to piggybackthe carrier wave, drawing additional energy from the rift to send itthrough.”

“That’s assumingthe bugs leave the rift open the entire time,” Lucas replied.

“True,” the tech answered.