Tarizon: Desert Swarm Read online

  Chapter 49

  Melee

  Mo drove into Independence and rented a room at the Best Western Motel. He needed a quiet and secure place to make his call to the President. Before he made the call he thought about what he was going to say. He hadn’t talked to the President before and he was a little nervous, particularly since he would be the bearer of bad news. After he had formulated his thoughts and mustered his courage he made the call.

  “Mr. President. This is Mo.”

  “Yes. I hope you have good news for me.”

  Mo took a deep breath. “Yes and no, Mr. President. For the moment we are in communication with all the Nanomites and they are listening to us.”

  “Excellent. You found the alien then?”

  “Yes. He was with Jack Carpenter. They are both cooperating with us now.”

  “Good. So, when will you have them all back to Bat Mountain.”

  “Well, soon, hopefully, but there have been a few complications.”

  Mo briefed the President on all that had happened. “So, with a little luck, maybe in a couple days we will have the situation contained,” Mo assured him.

  “I’m a little concerned about Jack Carpenter,” the President said. “He doesn’t work for us and you are telling me now that he can communicate with the Nanomites?”

  “Yes. They can exchange images between their minds.”

  “That’s scary. How could that be possible?”

  “I don’t know but Linkh and Jack are getting pretty close and they were talking about Jack going to the ship to learn Tari.”

  “Keep a close eye on him. He’s a loose cannon. I’m not sure we can trust him.”

  “I will, but I don’t think you have anything to worry about. He doesn’t seem to have any ulterior motives other than learning more about the aliens and the Nanomites.”

  “Yes, but at some point he’s going to get the urge to write a book or go to the press to tell his story. We can’t afford that to happen.”

  “Right. He’s been advised this is a top secret project and he’s agreed to keep his mouth shut, but I’ll keep an eye on him just in case.”

  “You do that. I’m holding you responsible for him.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Now, I want you to start thinking about how we are going to handle the Nanomites once we get them back home. So far we’ve completely botched their resettlement and damn near started a war against an invisible enemy that I’m not sure we would even know how to fight.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll discuss that with Jack and Linkh. I’m sure they’ll have some ideas.”

  “Alright, call me in a couple days with some good news.”

  “I’ll do my best, Sir,” Mo said and hung up.

  After hanging up the phone he sat there a moment unable to move. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten anything and he knew he hadn’t slept in forty-eight hours. Although he could barely keep his eyes open he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep very long with the hunger pains he was feeling, so he grabbed the telephone book, found the number for the local pizza parlor and ordered a pepperoni pizza. Twenty minutes later he was sitting in front of the TV enjoying his meal when the TV news came on.

  “This is Jill Collins with the five o’clock news. Just when we thought the Bat Mountain Uplift scandal was over a new cathedral has been spotted near Independence. A recreational pilot spotted the new uplift five miles south of Independence in a new industrial park scheduled to begin development later this year. We have a crew on our way out to the sight, but the pilot claims the cathedral is larger and more beautiful than the Bat Mountain site.

  “When I contacted Colonel Talmadge at the Bat Mountain site, he said he was unaware of the new uplift but would check into it. Reverend Little, however, when we contacted him at the county jail where is awaiting trial for three counts of murder, insisted it was just another sign from the Lord of the imminent Second Coming of Christ.

  “Check back with us at eleven for further updates on this story,” Jill concluded.

  Mo ate his last bite of pizza, got his coat and headed back to the Independence site. When he got there he told Agent Sanders about the news report and suggested she get a road block set up to stop unwanted spectators, but before she could get on the radio three trucks rolled up and parked across the road from the cathedral.

  “Shit!” Agent Sanders said as she rushed over to where a dozen gleeful teenagers were climbing eagerly out of the pickups. “Hold it!” she said. “This is a protected area. You can’t be here.”

  But the teenagers ignored her and began hiking over to the cathedral. Infuriated, Sanders pulled out her gun and was about to fire it in the air to get the kids’ attention but was interrupted by the sound of more cars pulling up. Five more vehicles parked and the occupants climbed out pointing to the magnificent cathedral that lay just a hundred yards away.

  “Stop! This is a restricted area,” Sanders said urgently. “Stop or I’ll arrest you for trespass.”

  Mo came over to offer support and a couple of the spectators stopped briefly, but when they saw the others continuing on, they turned away and started to run. Agent Sanders thought about chasing them but quickly realized it would do no good without reinforcements, so she ran over to her car and called for backup.

  “This is Sanders at the Independence site. What happened to my roadblock at 395 and Industrial Parkway? We’ve got cars flooding in here.

  “All was quiet so they took a dinner break.”

  “Shit! Wasn’t anyone monitoring the local news. Someone spotted the cathedral. Half the city is on their way out here to see it. I need immediate backup. Bring them in by chopper if you have to, but get them here quick.”

  “Roger. They are on their way.”

  As she put the microphone down she noticed several teenagers were climbing up the side of the cathedral and Mo was trying to pull one of them down. “Oh, no,” she moaned and began running.

  Jack and Dolly were in the construction trailer when Mo arrived, so he hadn’t seen all the cars roll up. Sanders’ scream, however, had got his attention and he and Dolly came out to help. Jack picked up a shotgun as he went out the door. Unfortunately, six more vehicles pulled up just as they got to the road. As the eager spectators got out of their cars, Jack fired the shotgun into the air.

  “Get back in your cars. This is private property. You’re trespassing.”

  Several people got back in their cars, but one man laughed. “You’re not going to shoot us. Give me a break,” he said and started jogging toward the cathedral.

  “You all need to stay back!” Jack yelled to no avail. “The cathedral is dangerous. You’re going to get hurt.”

  Jack was aghast when he noticed several of the teenagers had made it the top of the cathedral which was now over thirty-five feet tall. They were yelling and waving excitedly to their friends on the ground and didn’t notice that thin strands of rock were gradually wrapping themselves around their ankles. When one of them tried to reposition himself on the rocks and couldn’t move his leg he looked down in surprise. When he pulled his leg hard to free it and it wouldn’t budge, he screamed. The scream was so loud and filled with such terror that it got everyone’s attention. Then others discovered they couldn’t move as well and general panic ensued.

  Jack closed his eyes and tried to make contact with the Nanomites. Images began flooding into his mind of large skyscrapers imploding as the ground beneath them gave way. He thought it must be images from the Nanomite War on Tarizon and were being sent to him as a warning because the Nanomites thought they were under attack. Jack knew he had to come up with an image quickly to explain to the Nanomites that this wasn’t an attack, but merely curious spectators. He cursed the fact that he couldn’t speak Tari and simply tell them. What image would get his message across. Then he thought of a picture he’d once seen of a little girl looking curiously at a butterfly that had landed on her arm. He concentrated on that image trying to ignore the scream
s of terror that were coming from the mountain. Finally, the screams stopped and he heard a stampede of feet coming at him. He opened his eyes and saw that everyone had climbed off the cathedral and were fleeing in panic.

  Dolly looked over at him. “What did you do?” She asked.

  “I explained to the Nanomites as best I could that this wasn’t an attack, just curiosity.”

  “Well, you’re getting pretty good at this,” she said smiling broadly.

  Jack shrugged. “Yeah, but I’ve got to learn the language. It would be so much simpler.”

  The sound of a helicopter could be heard in the distance and then a siren. Ten minutes later the site was crawling with FBI agents and military police. Mo got with their commander and arranged for the area to be sealed off so that no one could get closer than a mile from the cathedral. Then he returned to where Agent Sanders, Jack and Dolly were talking to Deputy Curt Lawson.

  Jack looked at Mo as he approached. “Deputy Lawson has been telling us that some of the spectators who fled the scene claimed to have been attacked by the cathedral.”

  Mo frowned. “Come again?”

  “He says people are claiming the cathedral grabbed their legs and wouldn’t let them move.”

  Mo laughed. “That’s ridiculous. What I think happened was one of the teenagers got his foot caught between a couple of the rocks and just panicked. His panic spread like panic does.”

  Deputy Lawson nodded. “Right. That’s what I thought.”

  “It may have been my fault,” Jack said. “I told them the cathedral was unstable and dangerous. Perhaps they misunderstood my meaning.”

  “Right. Okay. Then that’s what I’ll put in my report,” Lawson said. “Boy, I hope this is the last uplift we get around here. Who would have ever thought a geological formation would cause such a ruckus.”

  “Yeah. Ain’t that the truth,” Dolly agreed.

  After Deputy Lawson had left Agent Sanders said, “You know. This may be the solution to our problem.”

  “How so?” Mo asked.

  She explained her idea to them.