"You free my brothers now and give them the passports. If I succeed then I join them in exile. If I don't make it then it won't matter, but I will be more motivated knowing that they're alive and well."

  Erkin smiled as if he had expected her to state that very condition. "The reports about you were correct. You're smarter than most. Very well, I'll get you transferred out of this place in a few hours then bring you over to a safehouse for a full briefing."

  "I'll need proof that my brothers are free though."

  "You'll have the details by tomorrow."

  "Thank you."

  "Don't thank me yet. Now the hard part begins."

  22 Castle Rock

  FOUR OF THEM SAT IN the car, watching and waiting. The town they drove into was just a few miles north of the Columbia River, in Washington State. A quiet little community, but Derek was adamant—this was the place. He could feel it.

  Ripley's plan was to wait, and they did. Now it was evening, and everybody else in the neighborhood was heading off to bed. He sat in the driver's seat, carefully observing the storage compound across the street. The secondhand Nissan Rogue they had acquired with cash and faked identities was parked along the dirt sidewalk beside an empty lot full of pine trees and wild grass; nobody seemed to notice them.

  Piper sat in the back with her brother, and she glanced towards Emma, who was napping in the front seat. A part of her wished she could be as calm and casual as Ripley's fiancée, but she was too keyed up to rest.

  Turning to her left, she could tell that Derek was awake, even though his eyes were closed. Piper kept her voice low so as not to wake Emma. "What's wrong?"

  Derek's mouth was twisted in a frown. It looked like he was in deep concentration. "I sensed something, south of us."

  "What did you see?"

  "The man you told me about. The reporter who helped you make it out of Portland. He was up in the hills."

  Ripley glanced over his shoulder, staring at the boy. "Elsner Bravy? He was somewhere near us when we were still in Oregon? Why didn't you tell us this before?"

  "I couldn't place his thoughts until now, okay," Derek said defensively, his voice getting louder. "It's not my fault."

  "Take it easy, Derek. I didn't say it was."

  Piper placed a hand on her brother's knee to calm him down. "What was he up to?"

  "I'm not sure," the boy said. "I sensed... terror at first, but then something else sort of mixed in with his mind. He spoke with an alien."

  Ripley glanced towards Emma, who had just woken up, before using the rearview mirror to lock eyes with the boy. "Did he get attacked?"

  "No, he was attacked by other humans, and the alien sort of protected him and his family."

  Emma gasped. "Are there friendly aliens out here too?"

  "Maybe there are," Derek said. "But now I can't sense where he is anymore."

  "That gives us some hope at least," Ripley said. "Good job, kid."

  Piper turned her attention towards the storage compound. "What about this place you led us to, Derek? Can you sense anything here?"

  "I... sort of," the boy said. "I could sense things clearly this morning, but now it's gotten kind of... fuzzy."

  "What do you mean fuzzy?"

  "There's a lot of psionic noise coming from somewhere."

  "From those storage buildings up ahead?" Ripley asked.

  "I... I'm not sure," Derek said. "Maybe."

  "You’ve got to be right about this," Piper said. "We're following your lead you know."

  "I know. I'm pretty sure what we need is inside one of those storage rooms."

  Figuring there was no further point in wasting any time, Ripley started up the car. "Okay, then let's get this over with."

  Keeping the Rogue's headlights off so as not to alarm anyone at the neighboring residential block, Ripley drove across the deserted road and entered the compound through the open chain-link fence. Since there were no standing lights, the whole place was shrouded in dark shadows, the only illumination coming from the distant lampposts by the intersection.

  With the outlying buildings obscuring their nocturnal activity, Ripley now turned on the compact SUV's headlights so the boy could get a bearing on what to look for. "Any storage facility in particular, Derek?"

  The boy leaned forward and pointed towards a row of doors situated at the eastern end of the compound. "Over there. I think I can sense some of the energy crystals inside."

  Ripley maneuvered the car until the headlights illuminated the designated storage block. Pulling out a crowbar from beside his seat, he looked at the other passengers. "Okay, you all stay here. Em, could you slide over to the driver's side so you can be ready just in case the cops show up and we have to make a quick getaway?"

  "Sure," Emma said.

  "I have to go with you," Derek said. "I need to touch the crystals when we find them in order to focus the energy."

  Piper opened the side passenger door and slid out. "I'm going with you guys too."

  Ripley shrugged his shoulders as he got out of the driver's side. He waited until Emma slid behind the steering wheel before leaning back in and giving her a kiss. "Keep your eyes open."

  She smiled while placing her hands on the steering wheel. "I will. You three be careful, okay?"

  Ripley blew her another kiss before moving towards the blue storage door. Derek had told them the day before that the Etherians had been moving important artifacts from their buildings in Portland and slowly transferring them towards their leader's home west of Seattle. What they needed was to find some of these alien objects and figure out a way to give them to the proper authorities to use against the enemy.

  Derek stood in front of the locked door and held his right hand up towards it. Ripley was just about to place the crowbar at the latch to pry open the deadbolt when the knob suddenly began to turn by itself. The former FBI special agent just stood there gawking as the door swung open.

  Piper had been standing beside her brother, and she gave a casual shrug towards Ripley as she followed the boy into the storage room. "Yeah, he does this all the time."

  The shallow interior was dominated by stacked crates, bearing the corporate logo of Geneticus Laboratories. Derek seemed to be in a trance as he closed his eyes and began to use his fingers like a blind person, feeling his way along the rows of boxes.

  Less than a minute later the boy opened his eyes and pointed towards an innocuous looking plastic crate with a sealed padlock. "That's the one."

  "Here—let me," Ripley said as he used both hands to pull the crate into an empty space in between the storage rows before grabbing the crowbar once more and jimmying the lid. After a few moments the padlock gave way and fell in two pieces on the concrete floor.

  Derek crouched down and flipped the top of the lid. The inside was full of gray packing foam. The boy kept digging until he managed to reach the bottom contents of the box when his fingers felt something smooth and solid.

  Piper watched with slight curiosity as her brother took out what seemed to be a chunk of smooth black crystal and held it in his hands. "It looks like the stuff we saw in the Natural History Museum when my class went on a field trip back in junior high."

  Derek placed the fist-sized glob of ebony crystal onto the ground and sat down in front of it. "I'm going to need some time, and this might attract something."

  Ripley instantly went on alert, holding the crowbar defensively with both hands while looking around. "What do you mean?"

  Derek kept gazing at the crystal while holding his hands over it. "When the energy conduit opens, the Others will know."

  Piper shook her head. "The Others? You mean the alien bad guys? Maybe this isn't such a good idea."

  "Your sister's right," Ripley said nervously. "Maybe we ought to do this in a more secure place instead of out here?"

  "No," the boy said. "It won't matter where since they'll instantly know, so let's just get started."

  Piper was about to tell him not to do it, but she instantly fell silent as the clump the boy was manipulating began to glow. Within a few seconds the whole interior of the storage bin seemed to be in full daylight as the radiance from the crystal was almost blinding.

  Ripley squinted as he moved to where Piper was and handed her the crowbar. His eyes were starting to hurt from the intense light coming from the crystalline lump.

  Piper held the crowbar with one hand while holding up her other arm to shield her eyes from the intensifying brightness. "Derek, are you alright?"

  The boy's eyes were closed as he continued to hold his hands over the pulsating crystals. "Yes. The Etherian defenses—they're pretty tough. I can sense... a sort of mind shield in their main base... it's up north... of us."

  "How do we destroy it?" Ripley asked.

  "I... can see... they have a big energy tunnel leading into... another world. If... the good guys try to attack... they're gonna fail."

  Piper closed her eyes as well. "Let me see if I can help you focus. Is there a way you could shut it off?"

  "No... too many links. Wait... I think I can overload the main energy pipeline... it ought to be enough... to take out their main defenses.... it should... expose them."

  "Do it then."

  The lightshow was too much for Ripley, and he had slowly been backing off until he stood at the edge of the open doorway. He wasn't sure whether he would keep trying to observe or just make his way back to the Nissan compact SUV when he heard the car's horn blaring.

  Turning around, he looked out to where Emma had moved the car, only to realize that a column of bluish-white radiance was beaming down from the sky directly at the entire compound, making the whole scene seem like it was under a giant spotlight.

  Ripley had just enough time to draw his Glock pistol when he saw something leap on top of the storage bin's roof. The being looked vaguely like a man, except its pale white naked body had extremely long, spindly limbs, and lacked any sort of genitalia. It seemed to resemble a rejected factory doll than a human being.

  He tried to aim his weapon at the creature, but it leapt away in a flash, quickly disappearing into the night. Only when he heard Emma's screams did Ripley comprehend what it had done.

  The creature had landed on top of the Nissan Rogue, just above the windshield. Ripley could only watch in horror as Emma tried to reverse the vehicle in a desperate attempt to shake it loose, before the creature smashed its claw-like right hand through the windshield, and the compact SUV shuddered to a stop.

  Ripley screamed as he ran closer, even though he couldn't hear himself. His shots might have hit the target, but in the end he wasn't sure. He could see bloodstains on the stricken car's broken windshield as he advanced while continuing to fire his gun.

  The being seemed to wince a few times, and Ripley was certain several rounds landed squarely in its trunk-like body, but it didn't seem to affect the creature as it made another leap, this time landing right in front of him. Ripley emptied his pistol's magazine at point blank range, but it wasn't enough as the being threw him aside with one swipe of its left arm.

  He landed on his back and felt the pain of his ribs breaking against the concrete, splinters of his own bones piercing heart and lungs. Ripley couldn't move but his eyes remained open. He saw the creature approaching the entrance to the storeroom, yet all he could think about was Emma, and how he let her down.

  Out of the corner of his eye he observed the two siblings walking out of the storeroom's interior and confronting the creature. Piper was holding on to her brother's arm while Derek merely stared calmly at their adversary, right before the monster was suddenly suspended in midair by an unseen force.

  He heard the creature's shrill screams as it was suddenly torn apart limb from limb, and the light shining above them all suddenly went out, as if a heavenly switch was thrown. Just before he closed his eyes Ripley heard Piper cry out his name and Emma's too. He had a feeling they had won a victory of sorts, and then he died.

  23 Scotland

  BEING THE ONLY CLEAN-shaven member of the group, Qyss beamed as he gave the signed registration forms back to Mrs. Milne, who stood behind the counter of the small office. "Here you go, ma'am."

  The portly old woman with curly white cotton ball hair was all smiles as she wrote out a receipt for him. "Sound, eh? We don't get to see too many Americans these days, or even tourists for that matter. This alien business is putting us all under the gun."

  "I understand."

  "You're our first customer in weeks, and we're very happy for it," she said, pointing out past the window towards her husband, who was busy explaining to the rest of Qyss's group about the rented recreational vehicle's amenities.

  "We're glad to be giving you some business."

  "Aye, I hope you'll all come back soon, otherwise we'll have to close up shop."

  "So even the locals from England don't do any more camping out here?"

  "Ever since some bowfing sassenach newspaperman from England drove up here and started reporting seeing strange lights around the lochs and moors, that's when everybody stopped coming."

  "That's not good."

  "Aye, int it? The internet says the next alien invasion will be coming through here, but what's to invade? If you ask me, they will come after the English first, and good luck to them."

  "Well, hopefully my friends and I won't be running into any aliens anytime soon."

  "We're ya planning to go? Up north?"

  Qyss had already rehearsed what he was going to say just in case any local got too nosey, and this particular old bird was sniffing around like a defective vacuum cleaner. "No, a leisurely drive west to Loch Lomond, then head to up to Corran. A few more days to see the other lochs too, I think."

  "Aye, a nice fair bit of traveling. You all seem very fit, what is it that you do?"

  "We're commercial divers; spent a lot of time doing wet welding in the Gulf of Mexico, building oil rigs. We wanted to get away from it all, so one of us thought this up."

  "Aye, I think you'll like it up here. We have a lot of professional divers living in Edinburgh and Aberdeen too, perhaps you might know some of them?"

  "I don't think so. I've only dived with other Americans so far. Divers in the Gulf tend to be distinct from North Sea divers."

  "You're right," Mrs. Milne said, before something else crossed her mental sales checklist. "If you have the time, why not spend a day here at our fair city? You know that Perth in Australia is named after this town?"

  "Is that so? I'm sorry but I think we'll probably get going once one of us gets behind the wheel. My friends can't wait to get on the road."

  "Ah, that's too bad. My sister owns a hotel near Scone Palace, and I'm sure I could get you a bargain on their rooms."

  "It's very tempting, but I would prefer we just get going today."

  "You sure? The lochs and the whisky will still be there if you wish to spend a day here."

  Qyss chuckled. "Yes. Believe it or not, I like to do some bird watching. It calms me down a lot."

  "You don't look like a bird watcher to me, but what do I know? When you head to Loch Lomond, stop by Drymen and Inversnaid—you're sure to see some good wildlife there."

  "Thanks for the tip."

  "Aye. Then you're all set. I'm sure my husband has given your group the keys to the motorhome already. Lang may yer lum reek!"

  Qyss thanked her again before leaving the small office. He made his way out to the parking lot, where his three "friends" were waiting, smiling and engaging in small talk with Mr. Milne.

  The proprietor winked at him as he opened the side doors of the recreational vehicle and gestured at them to go ahead. "Did my wife give you an earful again, laddie?"

  Qyss grinned as he got into the driver's seat. "She's a very friendly lady."

  "My apologies. When she gets worried about the business then her mouth can't stop, if you know what I mean."

  Qyss chuckled again. "It was fine, thanks. We'll be heading up west towards Loch Lomond, is everything alright over there?"

  Mr. Milne winked at him as he closed the driver's door while the others got in through the side entryway. "Don't believe what you read in the tabloids, Mr. Martin. No UFOs out here. You'll have the roads mostly to yourselves, so take the A85 motorway then go southwards along the A82, and you won't miss the loch. Have a good trip."

  Qyss waved goodbye before pulling the RV out of the parking lot and onto the deserted street. Turning onto another road, he drove the motorhome eastwards. Dundee was a mere twenty kilometers away, and they would be picking up their gear from a prepositioned contact later that day.

  David Logan leaned forward in between the front seats. A recent transfer from the US Army Green Beret's 5th Special Forces Group, he was the most gung-ho on the team. "What took you so long? For a moment we all thought that old woman in the office was giving you trouble."

  Qyss kept his eyes on the road, even though they were the only vehicle in sight. "Quit whining, she was just a motormouth. We're well within schedule."

  "Okay, you're the team leader."

  "That I am. Now sit back and shut up. We still got a lot to do in the next couple of days. Noah, anything on comms?"

  Noah Gorion was sitting lazily on one of the plush chairs inside the rear cabin. The tanned, sandy blond Israeli could imitate a Texan drawl perfectly, and it looked like he was just doing social networking on his computer pad, even though the Sayeret Matkal commando was actually up to something else. "All clear, Qyss. The RV rental owners logged your fake ID into the database, but it hasn't gone out into the police networks."

  Qyss nodded. Locals seeing us think we're just American tourists out to do some camping, and no one is raising any suspicions. So far so good, and I hope it stays that way.

  24 Washington, DC

  BY RECOMMENDATION OF the Secret Service, the curtains had been drawn shut in all the Oval Office's windows as a security measure. Despite repeated urgings that he be moved to a secure and secret location in case of an aerial attack, the president vowed he would continue to serve the people from the White House. Even the outer fence that once allowed people to see through and photograph the president's official residence had been cordoned off with ugly concrete blast walls, a telltale sign of the ongoing war.

 

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