"Devil Lights in the Sky"
May. 22nd, 2022 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dochermes"Devil Lights In the Sky"
9/1-9/2/1994
I.
It was just getting dark when Jeremy Bane reached the top of the rise and gazed down on the Virginia hills. The town of Wilkeston was fifteen miles behind him. He had left his Mustang parked where the dirt road had turned into a mere trail and hiked the last couple of miles. On a warm September evening with no clouds and a starry sky overhead, the Dire Wolf stood and frowned as he inspected the scene with misgivings.
The sightings of mysterious red lights in the sky over the past month were not what had drawn him here. The newspapers called them "Devil Lights." His Midnight War had never touched on UFOs. It might seem funny considering all the other bizarre phenomena he did deal with, but Bane had never believed that Earth had been visited by extraterrestrials and he wasn't even sure there was life out there among the stars. He hadn't really thought much about the topic, the Midnight War was enough to hold his full attention.
What had made him drive here from New York City were the inexplicable events surrounding Carl Freer. The career criminal had broken his probation by associating with his former gang members and had fled when the police had tried to take him in. He had been pursued here. At one-thirty on the afternoon of September 2nd, the pursuing officers had last spotted him running up this path. He had paused to throw a few bullets at them, which made them hesitate enough for them to lose sight of the thug. Then blinding red lights had appeared from the sky directly overhead. The cops had felt nauseous and suffocated for a few minutes, and then had weakly resumed the chase but found no trace of the fugitive
Then, at two-forty that same afternoon, Carl Freer had been arrested for breaking into a car in Tampa, Florida. ID was positive both in Virginia, where he had been living, and in Tampa, where he was fingerprinted. He would not talk even to a court-appointed lawyer and was still being held in Florida. How he had gotten there in a little over an hour was making the authorities have conniptions. Even if he had been boarding a private jet ready for take-off when last seen, he could not have arrived in Tampa that quickly, and the fact he was last seen running up a hill in the hills of Virginia, miles from the nearest town let alone airport, made matters even worse.
In the fading light, the Dire Wolf scowled as he knelt. Any possible footprints in the soft dirt had been trampled over. He had last spotted Freer's size 13 boot marks a half mile down the path. But there was something interesting. Bane was kneeling at the crest, and a few feet ahead the hill dropped down steeply to a creekbed that was empty this time of year. Something about the grass. His night vision was kicking in, one of the benefits of the tagra tea diet he had been on Tel Shai for twenty years, and he saw a wide area of the grass was lightly scorched but only on one side of the blade. He plucked one and bent it, finding it brittle.
Bane knelt there for a long moment, trying to come up with explanations. In the Midnight War, some beings could travel across long distances instantly, either through their own gralic abilities or by using Gateway crystal. He had three of those crystals himself. But those gates did not generate heat of any sort, and this grass had been exposed to intense if brief heat. This was something new. He wasn't sure what it meant...
Brilliant red light from directly above hit him with almost physical impact, knocking him onto his back. He couldn't see clearly. As soon as he hit the ground, Bane rolled and was up again on fingers and toes, ready to move. The light made him feel dazed and sick. A deep humming noise from overhead shook his body and gave him nausea, but he managed to get up and just started running before a concussion wave of hot air struck him violently. The Dire Wolf rolled across the grass, jumping up again and trying to look up at the red light through his fingers. He could almost make something out, a dark shape at least thirty feet across. The last he knew was a thumping burst of searing heat smashing into him.
II.
When Bane revived and tried to move, he promptly vomited. This was so rare for him that it took a few seconds to sink in what was happening. The night was dark and cool and he could hear insects nearby. The Dire Wolf spat several times and managed to sit up. He judged by the stars it was around ten o'clock. He checked himself for damage and found he was stiff and sore, but otherwise intact. One side of his face stung, but not unbearably. His ears were ringing. In another minute, he got to his feet and started stretching to loosen up. As far as he could tell, no one had touched him while he was unconscious; all his weapons and gadgets were in place, and he was relieved that the matched silver daggers were still sheathed on his forearms. He would have given up everything else he owned before parting with those knives.
Starting to feel more normal as his healing factor took effect, Bane took a pencil flashlight from his jacket and examined the area. Now the grass was scorched brown for yards in all directions. A little more heat would have started fires. He touched the side of his face gingerly and decided to apply some Neosporin on the burns. What had that thing been? There was no sound of propellors, no rush of air that would have come from from jets if it had been some VTOL like a Harrier. The mystery craft had just lowered down from above, hovering over him. Maybe a fake? Something suspended from a crane? But he would have seen and heard anything like that.
Despite his stubborn resistance, Bane started to wonder if it HAD been a UFO. A vehicle from outer space. Why not? He didn't believe in them because he had never seen proof but he was pragmatic enough to accept whatever evidence led him to accept. Why had it blinded him with that red light, stunned him and then just left? Who knows? It was hard enough to figure out why human beings do the things they did.
But now he thought it was clear how Carl Freer had gotten from Virginia to Florida in an hour. Whether he had wanted to or not.
Taking some clear plastic envelopes from an inner pocket, Bane put a handful of the scorched grass in one and some soil in another. Maybe analysis would offer some clues. He didn't see what else he could learn here. Heading back down the path to where his car had been parked, he found he was moving normally. His eyesight and hearing were okay. No permanent damage seemed to have been done. The Dire Wolf reached his Mustang and got behind the wheel, started it up and then clicked on the dome light to inspect himself in the rearview mirror. The left side of his face was a hot pink and swollen, as was his left hand. His pale grey eyes glared back at him from the mirror. Angry rather than frightened as an average person might have been, he promised to himself that whoever had done to this to him would regret it. He backed the car onto a flat area and made a U-turn, then started heading back down the dirt road. The nearest town was more than ten miles away, and the Interstate was ten miles past that.
Eleven hours later, as he entered Manhattan through the Lincoln Tunnel, Bane felt Cindy's mind making light contact with his. If she exerted herself, she could reach him over great distances but when they were within a few miles of each other, her mind automatically establish a light rapport. He felt a sense of welcome and anticipation touch him and for the first time, he relaxed slightly. At 38th Street, he turned left and drove into the alley where a steel shutter slid up to allow him down a steep concrete ramp. The Subaru was still in its spot, and the garage was just big enough for both cars at the same time.
The Dire Wolf jumped out and hung the keys on a hook with a spare set already in place. With his enhanced metabolism, sitting still was an effort and driving for hours felt like torture to him. He left the garage, went down the narrow walkway between the vault and the arsenal, and trotted up concrete steps to emerge in the front hallway. She was waiting for him.
At thirty-six, Cindy Brunner had never looked better. More than a decade on the tagra diet and Kumundu training had made her as fit as any Olympic athlete and buzzing with vitality. Just over five feet tall and just under one hundred pounds, the blonde telepath was wearing sneakers, faded jeans and a blue work shirt with white trim. In one hand, she was holding a notebook.
"Hi, listen, we need to prep the CORBY right away..." Bane started to say, but she put one slim finger on his mouth to silence him.
"Whoa. Trust me. I know you. You've been running on adrenalin since yesterday morning. You go take a hot shower and change while I make some lunch, then maybe you grab a few hours sleep. Whatever crisis is going on, it can go on hold for the moment." She smiled warmly and added, "Am I right?"
Bane let out a breath and nodded. "Cin, you're almost always right."
"ALMOST...?"
"I'm going up to shower and change. Thanks. You know when to pull the reins in so I don't burn out." He kissed her lightly and then hurried up the stairs to their rooms on the third floor. The telepath grinned and went into the kitchen at the far end of the hall.
When Bane came back down in a fresh outfit of his usual black slacks, turtleneck and sport jack, his hair was still damp. He had shaved and seen the redness on one side of his face was quickly fading without seeming to leave an permanent effect. The Dire Wolf entered the warm kitchen and saw Cindy putting plates down on the table under a curtained window. She had made two giant cheeseburgers with sliced tomatoes and pickle chips for them, there was potato salad, steamed mixed vegetables and a pitcher of iced tea.
"Dig in, starving person," she said as she seated herself. For the next few minutes, they ate in silence. Then, as he shoveled some more potato salad onto his plate, Bane gave her a terse report on what had happened to him the previous night. She listened without interrupting, waiting for him to finish.
"I saw your face, of course," she said as he waited for her comments. "It looks like you got sunburned on only one side somehow. So. What do you think it was?"
Bane took a long time answering. "I just don't believe in flying saucers, Cin. It's funny, considering all the other wild things we've seen. We worked with Khang, after all. We've been in the adjacent realms, even Fanedral, we've fought Trolls and werewolves and even Dragons. But somehow, spacecraft with aliens in them... I just can't buy it for some reason."
"I think there IS life out there," she said. "The universe is so huge that there has to be. But whether any ETs have come here just to give you a sunburn, I'm not sure. I suppose I want more evidence. My guess is that you encountered something Earthly but really advanced, more advanced even than what we use."
As he stood up and picked up her plate and silverware to stack on his, Bane paused. "The Trom?"
"I don't think so," she answered thoughtfully. "They wouldn't pull something like that. Everything they do has a solid logical reason. I can't see them zapping you and sneaking around in the middle of the night like that. Maybe it's the Mandate or some other
government agency... I figure the US spy groups have weapons and tech years ahead of anything available to the public." She took another sip of iced tea. "Anyway, we have the CORBY with genuine Trom technology. I'll bet we can match anything the Mandate or whoever comes up with!"
Over by the sink, running hot water on the dishes, the Dire Wolf said, "I hope so. These 'Devil Lights' have only been seen at night, no sightings of any unexplained aircraft during the day. Tonight, we'll be in the air ourselves to see what we can find."
III.
With no lights showing, the black jetcopter CORBY was effectively invisible to any ground observers as it sped through the moonless sky. It was so nearly silent that any of those observers might have thought they only heard a breeze blowing through the night. Lowering to seven hundred feet, the CORBY slowed until it was barely moving forward over the Farris Valley.
In the pilot's seat, Jeremy Bane gazed down through the windshield with its light enhancing capability and could see clearly enough to be able to identify car models on the road. It wasn't as clear as daylight, but it worked well for his purposes. The CORBY was controlled with two sticks and foot pedals like a normal helicopter but it was much more responsive. He slowed the craft to hover and slowly turned it around on its axis. In the back of his helmet, an attached cable connected him to the craft's systems.
In the co-pilot seat, Cindy was now wearting her own field suit. Like his, it had heavy boots, tough pants and a waist-length jacket packed with concealed weapons and gadgets. Her visored helmet was clipped to the back of her seat because she felt it interfered with her powers. Looking down with narrowed eyes, the little blonde had been silent for long minutes before finally saying, "No one, Jeremy. No Human minds within immediate range. Some animals... a deer, possum, critters like that."
"I hear you," Bane answered. His eyes were constantly moving over the subdued blue and green and yellow lights within the cockpit, checking gauges and dials without ever leaving the windscreen for more than a split-second. He tapped two buttons on the panel to his left. "This CORBY II handles differently than the one we usually fly. It's a little bigger, it holds ten people and has cargo space. Steve just finished maintenance and upgrades on it two days ago. I was going to take it for a cruise to refresh on its handling anyway."
Cindy chuckled. "He hates how long these things go between tune-ups. I try to tell him that they're Trom-built and will last longer than we will, but he's too used to Air Force birds. He wants them constantly being maintained." She turned her head to one side, "Hey, I picked up a bobcat. Mean mind."
"I wish we could keep Steve on full-time duty," Bane said. "But he's working at the HCE and he only comes to New York on his downtime to clean these copters. In my book, he's still Black Angel and anytime he wants to... wait." A faint persistent beeping sounded and a green dot appeared in a screen between the seats, growing brighter.
"Something's coming," Cindy breathed. "And coming fast, right at us."
"Going up," the Dire Wolf muttered, pulling back on the stick. Faster and smoother than a regular aircraft, CORBY II shot upward two hundred feet in a second. They hardly felt the acceleration because of the intertial dampers. Both of them stared as a brilliant deep red light appeared and hurtled toward them with terrifying speed. As it passed underneath, they caught a glimpse of a gleaming metal disc as big as a Greyhound bus, red light shining from its front as it flashed by.
"The Devil Lights!" snapped Bane, swinging the CORBY II around and speeding in pursuit. As far as they knew, the mystery craft had not spotted them. The CORBY II accelerated smoothly, without any strain, and immediately had the other craft within sight.
"I'm picking up Human minds," Cindy said. "Two of them. Americans. Something is distorting their thought patterns, though... Jeremy, they're aware of us!"
As she spoke, the disc rose sharply up, going even faster, looping around to come directly at them. The red light blazed at their windscreen and would have blinded them if the Trom filters had not compensated automatically. The strange craft was apparently intent on colliding with them. Bane swung hard down and to the right, dropping rapidly as the disc whipped through the space they had occupied a second previously. The Dire Wolf swung CORBY II to keep facing the mystery craft.
Within a few second, the giant disc had swept in a wide circle to attack them again. The red light blazed up much brighter than before, and even with the filters, Bane found his eyesight compromised. With his right hand, he threw the switch that activated the weapons console. An instant later, he thumbed the red button on top of the stick and fired a long burst from the chain guns mounted on both of the CORBY's short side vanes. Three hundred 50mm shells ripped into the mystery craft almost simultaneously, then Bane brought the CORBY straight up again with a sudden rise that made their stomachs clench. Below them, the disc veered wildly, smoke gushed out and it spun end over end to crash into the trees below.
"And that's what you get for starting with me," the Dire Wolf growled. He brought the copter lower and surveyed the scene. The metal disc was lying propped up at an angle by a broken elm. Black smoke trickled from inside the craft but it didn't seem like fire was going to happen. As they dropped to barely fifty feet off the ground, they spotted a hatch opening. A man in a white flightsuit started to clamber hastily up onto the side of the ship.
"We need to have a few words with those guys," Cindy said blandly. She stared and focussed her thoughts. The pilot slowed his movements and sagged limply, still half in the opening. She kept her attention on him.
"Good. Keep them dazed, hon." Bane landed the CORBY neatly in an open space fifty yards away. As the rotors slowed, he had slid open the pressurized hatch and dropped lightly down to the forest floor. As Cindy climbed out on the other side, the Dire Wolf had already crossed the space between them and the wreck and was yanking the pilot bodily out of the hatch opening.
The pilot was a thin man in his thirties, with dark brown hair and a narrow face. His loose jumpsuit was white, with ribbed sleeves and no logos or identifying tags. As Bane seized the man, the pilot resisted feebly, trying to wriggle loose, but still confused by the conflicting signals Cindy was sending into his mind. Bane yanked the man out of the hatch and threw him roughly aside, letting him fall to the packed dirt five feet below with a thud. A second man in a white jumpsuit appeared in the opening, starting to raise an automatic in one gloved hand. Bane seized that gunhand and squeezed so hard that two of the thin bones in it broke. He wrested the gun free and tossed it aside, and hauled the man up to eye level. As the pilot yelled in pain and surprise, the Dire Wolf drove a short vicious jab to the man's jaw that snapped his head back violently.
Cindy had reached the scene. "That one's unconscious, Jeremy. You can drop him. This guy is in a stupor, but I can raise him out of it." The blonde stood over the pilot on the ground, who was feebly moving his arms and legs without purpose. As Bane came over next to her, she closed her eyes and exhaled sharply. "That's odd..."
"What's going on, Cin?"
"He's got all kind of mental blocks. I can't dig past the surface level. I think.. it wasn't done by hypnosis or behavior modification. That leaves traces." She glanced up at Bane with a worried expression. "It was telepathy. We're dealing with another telepath."
Bane lowered to kneel next to the dazed pilot. "Advanced technology and telepathy, that spells John Grim to me." He started searching the man, disarming him of a Glock in a side pocket. "No identification of any sort. He's carrying a few small tools for quick repairs. No personal items."
From inside the wreckage, a voice clearly said, "XS11, respond. What is your situation?"
Bane and Cindy looked at each other, but kept silent.
"XS11, your signals indicate damage. Are you functional? Respond immediately." Then, thirty seconds later, the calm icy voice continued, "XS11, respond immediately. Control base calling. Protocol will be executed if you do not respond."
Bane seized Cindy by the hand and snapped, "Let's move!" Tugging her almost off her feet, he raced across the forest floor back to where the CORBY stood fifty yards away. Going around on the side of the copter away from the wreckage, he began to say, "I don't like the sound of that-" just as the downed mystery ship detonated with a deep thumping boom. A wave of superheated air swept toward them, but they were shielded behind the CORBY II, as well as by their armored field suits. A second later, they peeked around to see a pillar of greasy black smoke pouring up from what was left of the craft.
"Phew, smells like burning car tires," Cindy snorted. "Nice reaction time, hon. You figured they were going to blow that flying saucer up by remote control?"
"Get aboard," he ordered, opening the hatch using the concealed keypad, helping her up none too gently. As she dropped into the co-pilot seat, Bane flashed around to the other side to climb in himself. Even as the hatches slid shut and sealed, the interior panels blinked on and he started up the rotors. The Trom engines were still running and all systems were warm. In a few seconds, he pulled back on the stick and the CORBY II rose vertically, accelerating as it went.
"You're ahead of me again," Cindy said, buckling her restraint straps and checking her own set of dash controls. "What's up?"
"Just a hunch. That voice called itself Control Base and called that saucer XS11. To me, that suggests there are more of those things nearby..." His voice abruptly got an edge to it, "and here they come!"
IV.
From the north, three of the blinding red lights were approaching fast in tight formation. As they neared, the two on the ends peeled off and distanced themselves.
"Try to contact their minds, Cin," Bane said. "If you can confuse them or slow their reactions, it'll be a big help." He kept the CORBY rising straight up, watching as the three saucers started to ascend in pursuit.
"I'm on it," she said, staring through the windscreen at the weird craft chasing them. She reached out with her mind, made contact with the nearest pilot and locked on. She could feel him react to the unexpected crawling sensation in his head. People always said being touched by a telepath was like feeling spiders crawling inside your skull. Cindy concentrated harder and sent conflicting instructions to his mind. She increased the urgency of the orders. As she watched, the saucer on the right faltered and veered away, then abruptly spun out of control. It dropped down out of sight.
"The other guy on that one is trying to get hold of the controls," she said. "Too late, there they go. Rough landing. Both are still alive but my guy is stupefied and his partner is furious." The blonde sighed and leaned back. "The other two are keeping up with us?"
"So far. They must be using Trom tech. No exhaust, no propellors. Damn that Grim." Bane swung far to one side and levelled off as the two pursuing saucers reached him. He let a burst from the chain guns rake across one, disabling it, but the other craft closed in fast and cranked up the brilliant red light until it was intolerable. Even through the filters in the windscreen, Bane could hardly see. He first two more bursts to discourage the craft from getting too close, then lowered the visor on his helmet. With the added light filters in the visor helping, Bane saw both saucers were still closing fast.
Not for the first time, he regretted not arming the CORBYs more heavily. But he had wanted them for exploration and transport, not combat. He had felt once he started adding cannons and missiles, it would be hard to stop. Bane swung the chain guns toward the nearer of the two saucers and stitched a trail of shells across its surface. The craft flipped almost upside down and dropped out of sight in freefall.
"I've almost got the last one," Cindy said, "he's fighting me. His mind has been structured by a telepath to be disciplined... he's going to hit us!"
There was no time for even Bane to react as the saucer plunged straight at them and they crashed off each other with a screech of metal tearing. It was not a direct collision, but at the speeds they were moving, even a glancing impact was devastating. The CORBY stalled and was thrown to one side, while the saucer spun wildly and blew up in mid-air.
Fighting the controls as the interior lights flickered on and off, the Dire Wolf tried one thing after another. "Hit the reserve engine module," he told Cindy. She opened a panel and punched threw buttons in a vertical row. The lights stabilized but the CORBY was still dropping.
"Rotors are dead," Bane said. "We're getting some lift from the reserve. Maybe it'll slow our fall. Hang on, we're going to hit!" The ground rushed up toward the viewscreen and the jarring impact went through their bodies like a shock wave. For an undetermined time, they were both too stunned to be aware of what was going on. The creaking of hot metal and the hiss of fluids escaping from ruptured hoses was all that was audible.
Then, Cindy lifted her head. She felt bruised and sore from the restraint straps and her head was pounding viciously. But she knew that pain meant she was alive. The blonde telepath straightened up and turned her head to see Bane starting to come out of it. He stirred, grumbled and sat up in his seat, then immediately snapped his head around to see how she was.
"Looks like all my parts are still attached," she said weakly. "Whew. We haven't done that in a long time."
Bane unbuckled his restraint straps, and shut down the engines. The lights went out in the cabin and he popped his hatch. It took him longer than usual to get outside, but he wasn't dizzy or unsteady, just cautious. On the other side of the copter, Cindy hopped out and they both circled the wrecked CORBY to take stock.
"It's totaled!" she gasped. "Worse than when I rolled my Chevy back in high school."
"Yes." Bane examined where the front of the CORBY had flattened against an oak. "I don't think it can be rebuilt. We have no way to salvage it anyway. Our use of these birds breaks so many laws we can't possibly have a crew come in to retrieve the wreckage." He placed a hand on a twisted part of the tail vanes. "Too bad. All those millions spent on this thing..."
"So now we're down to two CORBYs," she said. "The one on Hawk Island and the one in New Mexico. I guess we have to scuttle this poor bird?"
"No choice. We don't want the tech in here to fall into anyone's hands. It's bad enough John Grim has stolen some Trom secrets." He reached up into the cabin and unfastened a pale blue gem from its setting just above the pilot's seat. "This Gateway crystal comes with us. It's the only thing that can't be replaced eventually."
Cindy had opened the storage compartment and taken out two knapsacks, complete with sleeping bags curled around their tops. "We might need these," she said. Struggling into one, she dragged the other over to where Bane was standing.
He had taken off his field jacket and strapped the Gateway crystal to his back. As he put the jacket back on, he grabbed the knapsack and threw it across one shoulder. "Thanks. We have to get under cover quick." He led her to a dense stand of trees and squatted down in the underbrush. As she joined him, the Dire Wolf took out his Link and adjusted the settings. "I hate having to do this," he grumbled. He punched in a code and immediately the wrecked CORBY exploded in a white-hot fireball. The noise of the detonation echoed from the hills like thunder.
As he watched the fierce flames devour the copter, Bane said, "There she goes." He started watching the skies warily. "Whoever is behind this has lost four saucers tonight. I figure men will be sent to investigate."
"Sounds reasonable," she said as she pulled out her dart gun and inspected its mechanism. "Not just more of those flying things?"
"Maybe. But my guess is that foot soldiers will be next. They will figure something is shooting their craft down and they won't send any more without investigation. I have no idea how far away their base is. We might be in for a long wait, Cin."
"I wasn't doing anything tonight," she replied as she settled back against a red maple.
V.
Less than an hour later, Cindy was munching on a granola bar when she suddenly sat up straight. "Here they come," she said. "Four minds. Saucermen, same kind of guys as those pilots. Coming from that direction." The blonde telepath stood up and turned to face behind them. "I can see headlights."
Bane stood beside her. "I don't know if our dart guns will be effective against those baggy jumpsuits. They might just get tangled. I want you to try and get at least two of them all confused." He lowered the visor on his helmet and clicked it into place. After a second, he muttered, "Saucermen?"
"Well, we have to call them something," she said in a small voice. "Any second now..."
With the roar of a powerful engine, an olive-green all-terrain vehicle like an armored jeep with a roll bar tore through the woods and rolled past them almost within arm's reach. Four men in the white jumpsuits rode inside, the two in the back were holding AR-15s in their arms. The vehicle skidded to a quick stop neared the blackened wreckage of the CORBY, and all four started to get out.
"That's not one of ours..." The driver started to say, then swayed and almost fell.
"Pete? You okay?" another man began just as he also became unsteady on his feet, bumping up against the first man and knocking both of them down. The other two Saucermen stood with their backs together, swinging up their AR-15s as they looked around frantically. They were already too late. By the time they started to react, Jeremy Bane had closed the distance between them and smacked their heads together with a noise like rocks breaking. Both men fell straight down, still back to back and propping each other up in death.
The Dire Wolf swung toward the other two Saucermen who were being kept dazed by Cindy's conflicting signals. She was sending strong urges to move and to be stand still at the same time, and the conflict overloaded their thought processes. Bane stepped toward them, raised one by the front of the jumpsuit and blasted a short hooking punch that knocked the man unconscious. "We need one to question," he told Cindy.
The blonde telepath gave the two dead men a reproachful look. She would have prefered to use the anesthetic dart guns and leave them alive. Turning back to Bane, she told him, "That's going to be a problem. The way their minds have been restructured, I'm not sure I can drag any information out of them."
Bending over the dazed man, Bane shook him experimentally. "Hmm. Well, we do have some veritalin. Let's see if that helps." From an inside pocket of his jacket, he took out a flat metal case and snapped it open. Inside were four hypodermic needles with color-coded labels. "Here we go. Truth serum made by an Alchemist." He tugged back the man's sleeve and plunged the needle in just below the elbow.
"Did you ever wonder how much prison time we could get?" Cindy asked. "Now we're administering powerful drugs not approved by the FDA, into someone who has not given consent. Not to mention, it's not like you're a doctor."
Bane snorted. "We also flew out here in an experimental helicopter not approved by the FAA, no lights or registered flight plan, carrying military-grade weapons against all regulations. Then we had a dogfight that crashed four aircraft, killing their crews. And that's just tonight!" He propped up the Saucerman, who was beginning to stir and mumble drunkenly. "I hope his defenses are down, Cin. See what you can learn from him."
The blonde sighed and got down on her knees in front of the prisoner as Bane held him motionless. Long minutes passed. She seemed to be barely breathing, then she abruptly shook her head fiercely and fell back to a seated position. "Oh my God!" she cried out.
Bane dropped the sedated man and went over to help her up. "Are you all right? What happened?"
"Oh my God," she repeated, absently brushing dirt off her knees. "Listen. These guys ARE working for John Grim. They're mercenaries. There is a makeship hangar about twenty miles from here. No other saucers, just two more pilots and support crew. Grim himself is supposed to be arriving tonight. But that's not what is freaking me out. Jeremy! I pulled some images from his memory area. Standing in front of one of those saucers was a Grey!"
"A grey what?" he asked.
"A Grey! An alien, one of those ETs with big hairless heads and big dark eyes. The ones that abduct people. Honey, he saw a Grey!" Cindy's voice had gone up dramatically as she spoke.
The Dire Wolf seemed remarkably unimpressed as he checked to be sure the keys were still in the ATV. "That's unexpected," he said calmly. "Guess I was wrong about them existing. Okay, hon, we need to each get a white jumpsuit off these guys so we can get close to the base. This one looks like my size, but you're going to have trouble."
"I can roll the sleeves and cuffs up. Never mind that now. Jeremy, don't you realize how momentous this is? This is the biggest thing in history. Aliens from outer space, here! Now! It's all true."
Bane shrugged and started wrestling the jumpsuit off one of the corpses. "To be honest, Cin, the Midnight War has been one unbelievable thing after another. I guess I'm used to it."
VI.
Wearing the white jumpsuits and caps, an AR-15 within reach next to each of them, Bane and Cindy drove back through the woods at a reasonable speed. Cindy had an image in her head of the route to take but it wasn't as clear as she would have liked. Even with the sleeves and legs rolled up, and the belt having a new notch poked in it by her survival knife, the jumpsuit was comically huge on her.
As he drove, Bane seemed lost in thought. Finally, he said, "When did Grim come out of that coma you put in him?"
"No idea," she answered. "The last time I called the facility to check on him was two years after I blasted him. The doctors said he was regaining consciousness for short periods every day, but he seemed to be unaware of his surroundings. He dropped off again an hour or so later. They fed him with an IV and exercised his arms and legs and monitored his vitals. Brain waves showed he was dreaming the whole time." She made a disgusted noise. "I guess at some point he revived. There must have been months of physical therapy. He was released at some point, maybe his organization pulled some strings because they wanted him back."
"That hospital was supposed to notify us if John Grim came back to awareness," Bane growled. "I'll have to go there and have a word with the administration. With all the murders and major felonies he was charged with, he should have been handed over to the Department of Justice as soon as he was coherent." The Dire Wolf sped up the ATV a bit, ignoring the jostling and bouncing as they tore uphill.
"I'll be honest, Jeremy. He's the only enemy of ours that I wanted dead. My parents, my baby brother Harold... there was no need for them to die." Cindy had her arms crossed over her chest and her head down. "If I had given him a little stronger brain blast, maybe I would feel better about my family."
Bane made no comment for a long moment. Finally, he said, "You're more moral a person than I am, Cin. I can't tell you right and wrong after all the things I've done." He slowed again, coming almost to a stop. "Look up there."
At a flat surface at the base of the mountains, a temporary hangar had been constructed. Two gasoline generators powered bright white lights on metal posts twenty feet high. Aluminum piping supported a canvas canopy big enough to held several airplanes... or four saucers. Electronic equipment, tools and supplies, and several cots were arranged along the back of the hangar.
The canvas was painted in camoflauge and speckled mosquito netting hung down its sides. From the air, it would not be easily spotted. Bane and Cindy watched the scene from the distance and concluded they had not been seen as yet. Two of the men in white jumpsuits were standing off to one side, while four men in tan jumpsuits were working on a big console that had been partially dismantled. Angry voices could be heard arguing.
"What are you picking up?" Bane asked quietly.
"Hmmm, nothing unexpected. The Saucermen are tense, they're drinking coffee and on edge. The techs are having problems with some kind of diagnotic equipment, I can't follow their conversation. Too scientific for me. They're all nervous wrecks." Cindy had half stood up in her seat and now she plopped back down again.
"And here comes trouble," the Dire Wolf said. He was looking up as one of the strange discs zoomed down from high overhead, its fierce red light illuminated the hangar with a hellish glare. Its descent was silent, and it decelerated much too abruptly for any known craft. Just a foot above the ground, the gleaming disc hovered as the techs hurriedly rolled the netting up on one side of the hangar. The saucer glided smoothly inside the hangar and settled down on the tarp flooring, gently as any caress.
As the techs and pilots gathered around, the top hatch popped open and a man in a dark blue suit and tie, wearing a white lab smock over it, scrambled quickly out and jumped down onto the ground, followed by the pilot of the craft. He began making a furious speech at the staff, pointing his finger accusingly at each in turn.
"John Grim all right," whispered Bane. He glanced over at his partner.
"I'm shielding both our minds," Cindy told him. "He doesn't know we're here yet."
"He will, soon enough." The Dire Wolf started the ATV and roared up the hill toward the command center. For a few vital seconds, the Saucermen staff recognized their own vehicle and saw only a glimpse of what looked like their own men in the white jumpsuits. Then the ATV crashed directly into their midst, running over two techs as the others jumped aside. Two of the pilots yanked 9mm pistols from their pockets just as Bane cut them down with a burst from the AR-15, then swung the weapon around to nail the remaining tech just as that man had drawn his own handgun.
Standing in the ATV, Cindy Brunner aimed her own assault weapon squarely at Grim, holding it dead steady at his chest. "Don't move," she ordered in a cold calm voice.
Seeing no one else left, Bane dropped out of the driver's seat and got his first good look at Grim in ten years. "Damn. You've looked better," he said in a deadpan voice. When they had last clashed, John Grim had been a handsome, tall blond man with almost movie star good looks. Now he looked withered and thirty years older. His cheeks had sunken and his hair was thin and lank. The deepset eyes bulged unhealthily, bloodshot and staring. "I know that voice," he said wearily. "Of course. Dire Wolf. You haven't changed, have you? Still leaving piles of murdered men wherever you go."
"Like you should talk," Bane snorted. "The FBI will be glad to see you. Department 21 Black has a list of charges against you that takes up three pages." He stepped closer, aiming his own AR-15 at the telepathic mastermind. "Turn around. Hold your hands out, wrists together."
Grim turned those bulging eyes toward Cindy. "And you. The little girl who burned out half my neural connections. Yes. I can feel you interfering with my powers right now. Your screen can not stand against me long, child."
"So you say," Cindy answered. "Do as you're told. I think a few bullets would improve you immensely."
"Ah, you two still do not understand. I no longer need the Trom technology. I have made arrangements with a race much more advanced than any here on this planet." He raised a thumb to point behind him. "Look."
Despite themselves, both Bane and Cindy shifted their gaze to where Grim indicated. Standing at the rear of the disc-shaped craft was a strange being, tall and thin, with smooth dark grey skin and no clothing. The head was oversized, bulbous and hairless. Two huge dark eyes regarded them and the narrow mouth slowly smiled.
In that second they were staring, John Grim had whipped a thick-barrelled handgun from inside his suit and fired directly between his two enemies. A deep concussion exploded with a thunderous boom and a shock wave flung both Bane and Cindy off their feet to skid along the tarp. Both dropped their weapons, both were stunned and nearly unconscious.
"That alien is just an illusion," Grim chuckled. "But a wonderful distraction. Oh, and this resonance gun IS Trom technology that I stole from your own Leonard Slade." He raised the thick barrel up beside his face and laughed unsteadily.
Bane was already struggling to rise from the tarp, his long years of Kumundu training and enhanced healing helping him recover quickly from what would have killed most people. He was back on his feet, swaying but determined, and he reached for the assault weapon he had dropped. Not far away, Cindy groaned and rolled over to get on her hands and knees. She was recovering, too.
"I'm sure the rest of your KDF is on their way," Grim yelled as he climbed back up onto the saucer. "I have no intention of facing them all again. Another time, Dire Wolf. We are not done with each other yet." He ducked down and the hatch slid shut. Bane raised the assault weapon but before he could fire, the red light blinded him and a feeling of being underwater pressed him back a few steps. It was difficult to breathe and his skin stung as if being burned. The field which lifted the saucer extended far enough to oppress Bane and Cindy with its effects. They both fell down again and could not get back up as the craft slid silently past them almost within reach. Seconds later, it rose up into the night sky and was gone from sight within seconds.
It took more than half an hour before Bane could stand. His ears were ringing and his vision was blurred, even his enchanced healing had limits. Walking slowly over to Cindy, he found she had managed to sit up and was taking deep slow breaths with her head down between her knees.
"Are you going to be all right?" he asked in a softer tone than he usually managed.
"Oy. Yeah, I guess so. That was a rough experience. When that ship took off, it was like being crushed and cooked at the same time." She coughed for a few minutes and finally raised her head. "So he got away, huh?"
"Afraid so. But we broke up this operation. Four saucers destroyed, his technicians and pilots dead, his equipment ruined. If nothing else, we made sure there won't be any more Devil Lights over Virginia." Bane gingerly lowered himself to sit beside her. "Whew. I don't feel my best. Did you notice that Grim thinks the KDF is still active? He doesn't know what happened."
"Good. Just as well." She reached in her jacket and pulled out two high protein snack bars, handing him one and biting into her own. "I guess we call 21 Black to clean up this mess, huh?"
"They're good at that," Bane said. "By tomorrow night, there won't be a trace of any of this. All these bodies will disappear. Another Midnight War incident that never officially happened. We'll need a ride to the nearest city, too, with our CORBY gone. I'll rent a car and we'll drive home."
Cindy leaned up against him. "First, let's rent a nice hotel room for a day. I want a hot shower and Italian food and sleep. Lots of sleep. Hey, you know what really bothers me?"
Unfastening his helmet and tugging it off, Bane looked down at the top of her blonde head. "No. What?"
"That the Grey was only an illusion. Grim just made every one think they saw it. Now we still don't know about ETs, Grim was just messing with our minds!" She made a scoffing noise and squeezed Bane's arm. "Now I hate him more than ever."
10/4/2014
9/1-9/2/1994
I.
It was just getting dark when Jeremy Bane reached the top of the rise and gazed down on the Virginia hills. The town of Wilkeston was fifteen miles behind him. He had left his Mustang parked where the dirt road had turned into a mere trail and hiked the last couple of miles. On a warm September evening with no clouds and a starry sky overhead, the Dire Wolf stood and frowned as he inspected the scene with misgivings.
The sightings of mysterious red lights in the sky over the past month were not what had drawn him here. The newspapers called them "Devil Lights." His Midnight War had never touched on UFOs. It might seem funny considering all the other bizarre phenomena he did deal with, but Bane had never believed that Earth had been visited by extraterrestrials and he wasn't even sure there was life out there among the stars. He hadn't really thought much about the topic, the Midnight War was enough to hold his full attention.
What had made him drive here from New York City were the inexplicable events surrounding Carl Freer. The career criminal had broken his probation by associating with his former gang members and had fled when the police had tried to take him in. He had been pursued here. At one-thirty on the afternoon of September 2nd, the pursuing officers had last spotted him running up this path. He had paused to throw a few bullets at them, which made them hesitate enough for them to lose sight of the thug. Then blinding red lights had appeared from the sky directly overhead. The cops had felt nauseous and suffocated for a few minutes, and then had weakly resumed the chase but found no trace of the fugitive
Then, at two-forty that same afternoon, Carl Freer had been arrested for breaking into a car in Tampa, Florida. ID was positive both in Virginia, where he had been living, and in Tampa, where he was fingerprinted. He would not talk even to a court-appointed lawyer and was still being held in Florida. How he had gotten there in a little over an hour was making the authorities have conniptions. Even if he had been boarding a private jet ready for take-off when last seen, he could not have arrived in Tampa that quickly, and the fact he was last seen running up a hill in the hills of Virginia, miles from the nearest town let alone airport, made matters even worse.
In the fading light, the Dire Wolf scowled as he knelt. Any possible footprints in the soft dirt had been trampled over. He had last spotted Freer's size 13 boot marks a half mile down the path. But there was something interesting. Bane was kneeling at the crest, and a few feet ahead the hill dropped down steeply to a creekbed that was empty this time of year. Something about the grass. His night vision was kicking in, one of the benefits of the tagra tea diet he had been on Tel Shai for twenty years, and he saw a wide area of the grass was lightly scorched but only on one side of the blade. He plucked one and bent it, finding it brittle.
Bane knelt there for a long moment, trying to come up with explanations. In the Midnight War, some beings could travel across long distances instantly, either through their own gralic abilities or by using Gateway crystal. He had three of those crystals himself. But those gates did not generate heat of any sort, and this grass had been exposed to intense if brief heat. This was something new. He wasn't sure what it meant...
Brilliant red light from directly above hit him with almost physical impact, knocking him onto his back. He couldn't see clearly. As soon as he hit the ground, Bane rolled and was up again on fingers and toes, ready to move. The light made him feel dazed and sick. A deep humming noise from overhead shook his body and gave him nausea, but he managed to get up and just started running before a concussion wave of hot air struck him violently. The Dire Wolf rolled across the grass, jumping up again and trying to look up at the red light through his fingers. He could almost make something out, a dark shape at least thirty feet across. The last he knew was a thumping burst of searing heat smashing into him.
II.
When Bane revived and tried to move, he promptly vomited. This was so rare for him that it took a few seconds to sink in what was happening. The night was dark and cool and he could hear insects nearby. The Dire Wolf spat several times and managed to sit up. He judged by the stars it was around ten o'clock. He checked himself for damage and found he was stiff and sore, but otherwise intact. One side of his face stung, but not unbearably. His ears were ringing. In another minute, he got to his feet and started stretching to loosen up. As far as he could tell, no one had touched him while he was unconscious; all his weapons and gadgets were in place, and he was relieved that the matched silver daggers were still sheathed on his forearms. He would have given up everything else he owned before parting with those knives.
Starting to feel more normal as his healing factor took effect, Bane took a pencil flashlight from his jacket and examined the area. Now the grass was scorched brown for yards in all directions. A little more heat would have started fires. He touched the side of his face gingerly and decided to apply some Neosporin on the burns. What had that thing been? There was no sound of propellors, no rush of air that would have come from from jets if it had been some VTOL like a Harrier. The mystery craft had just lowered down from above, hovering over him. Maybe a fake? Something suspended from a crane? But he would have seen and heard anything like that.
Despite his stubborn resistance, Bane started to wonder if it HAD been a UFO. A vehicle from outer space. Why not? He didn't believe in them because he had never seen proof but he was pragmatic enough to accept whatever evidence led him to accept. Why had it blinded him with that red light, stunned him and then just left? Who knows? It was hard enough to figure out why human beings do the things they did.
But now he thought it was clear how Carl Freer had gotten from Virginia to Florida in an hour. Whether he had wanted to or not.
Taking some clear plastic envelopes from an inner pocket, Bane put a handful of the scorched grass in one and some soil in another. Maybe analysis would offer some clues. He didn't see what else he could learn here. Heading back down the path to where his car had been parked, he found he was moving normally. His eyesight and hearing were okay. No permanent damage seemed to have been done. The Dire Wolf reached his Mustang and got behind the wheel, started it up and then clicked on the dome light to inspect himself in the rearview mirror. The left side of his face was a hot pink and swollen, as was his left hand. His pale grey eyes glared back at him from the mirror. Angry rather than frightened as an average person might have been, he promised to himself that whoever had done to this to him would regret it. He backed the car onto a flat area and made a U-turn, then started heading back down the dirt road. The nearest town was more than ten miles away, and the Interstate was ten miles past that.
Eleven hours later, as he entered Manhattan through the Lincoln Tunnel, Bane felt Cindy's mind making light contact with his. If she exerted herself, she could reach him over great distances but when they were within a few miles of each other, her mind automatically establish a light rapport. He felt a sense of welcome and anticipation touch him and for the first time, he relaxed slightly. At 38th Street, he turned left and drove into the alley where a steel shutter slid up to allow him down a steep concrete ramp. The Subaru was still in its spot, and the garage was just big enough for both cars at the same time.
The Dire Wolf jumped out and hung the keys on a hook with a spare set already in place. With his enhanced metabolism, sitting still was an effort and driving for hours felt like torture to him. He left the garage, went down the narrow walkway between the vault and the arsenal, and trotted up concrete steps to emerge in the front hallway. She was waiting for him.
At thirty-six, Cindy Brunner had never looked better. More than a decade on the tagra diet and Kumundu training had made her as fit as any Olympic athlete and buzzing with vitality. Just over five feet tall and just under one hundred pounds, the blonde telepath was wearing sneakers, faded jeans and a blue work shirt with white trim. In one hand, she was holding a notebook.
"Hi, listen, we need to prep the CORBY right away..." Bane started to say, but she put one slim finger on his mouth to silence him.
"Whoa. Trust me. I know you. You've been running on adrenalin since yesterday morning. You go take a hot shower and change while I make some lunch, then maybe you grab a few hours sleep. Whatever crisis is going on, it can go on hold for the moment." She smiled warmly and added, "Am I right?"
Bane let out a breath and nodded. "Cin, you're almost always right."
"ALMOST...?"
"I'm going up to shower and change. Thanks. You know when to pull the reins in so I don't burn out." He kissed her lightly and then hurried up the stairs to their rooms on the third floor. The telepath grinned and went into the kitchen at the far end of the hall.
When Bane came back down in a fresh outfit of his usual black slacks, turtleneck and sport jack, his hair was still damp. He had shaved and seen the redness on one side of his face was quickly fading without seeming to leave an permanent effect. The Dire Wolf entered the warm kitchen and saw Cindy putting plates down on the table under a curtained window. She had made two giant cheeseburgers with sliced tomatoes and pickle chips for them, there was potato salad, steamed mixed vegetables and a pitcher of iced tea.
"Dig in, starving person," she said as she seated herself. For the next few minutes, they ate in silence. Then, as he shoveled some more potato salad onto his plate, Bane gave her a terse report on what had happened to him the previous night. She listened without interrupting, waiting for him to finish.
"I saw your face, of course," she said as he waited for her comments. "It looks like you got sunburned on only one side somehow. So. What do you think it was?"
Bane took a long time answering. "I just don't believe in flying saucers, Cin. It's funny, considering all the other wild things we've seen. We worked with Khang, after all. We've been in the adjacent realms, even Fanedral, we've fought Trolls and werewolves and even Dragons. But somehow, spacecraft with aliens in them... I just can't buy it for some reason."
"I think there IS life out there," she said. "The universe is so huge that there has to be. But whether any ETs have come here just to give you a sunburn, I'm not sure. I suppose I want more evidence. My guess is that you encountered something Earthly but really advanced, more advanced even than what we use."
As he stood up and picked up her plate and silverware to stack on his, Bane paused. "The Trom?"
"I don't think so," she answered thoughtfully. "They wouldn't pull something like that. Everything they do has a solid logical reason. I can't see them zapping you and sneaking around in the middle of the night like that. Maybe it's the Mandate or some other
government agency... I figure the US spy groups have weapons and tech years ahead of anything available to the public." She took another sip of iced tea. "Anyway, we have the CORBY with genuine Trom technology. I'll bet we can match anything the Mandate or whoever comes up with!"
Over by the sink, running hot water on the dishes, the Dire Wolf said, "I hope so. These 'Devil Lights' have only been seen at night, no sightings of any unexplained aircraft during the day. Tonight, we'll be in the air ourselves to see what we can find."
III.
With no lights showing, the black jetcopter CORBY was effectively invisible to any ground observers as it sped through the moonless sky. It was so nearly silent that any of those observers might have thought they only heard a breeze blowing through the night. Lowering to seven hundred feet, the CORBY slowed until it was barely moving forward over the Farris Valley.
In the pilot's seat, Jeremy Bane gazed down through the windshield with its light enhancing capability and could see clearly enough to be able to identify car models on the road. It wasn't as clear as daylight, but it worked well for his purposes. The CORBY was controlled with two sticks and foot pedals like a normal helicopter but it was much more responsive. He slowed the craft to hover and slowly turned it around on its axis. In the back of his helmet, an attached cable connected him to the craft's systems.
In the co-pilot seat, Cindy was now wearting her own field suit. Like his, it had heavy boots, tough pants and a waist-length jacket packed with concealed weapons and gadgets. Her visored helmet was clipped to the back of her seat because she felt it interfered with her powers. Looking down with narrowed eyes, the little blonde had been silent for long minutes before finally saying, "No one, Jeremy. No Human minds within immediate range. Some animals... a deer, possum, critters like that."
"I hear you," Bane answered. His eyes were constantly moving over the subdued blue and green and yellow lights within the cockpit, checking gauges and dials without ever leaving the windscreen for more than a split-second. He tapped two buttons on the panel to his left. "This CORBY II handles differently than the one we usually fly. It's a little bigger, it holds ten people and has cargo space. Steve just finished maintenance and upgrades on it two days ago. I was going to take it for a cruise to refresh on its handling anyway."
Cindy chuckled. "He hates how long these things go between tune-ups. I try to tell him that they're Trom-built and will last longer than we will, but he's too used to Air Force birds. He wants them constantly being maintained." She turned her head to one side, "Hey, I picked up a bobcat. Mean mind."
"I wish we could keep Steve on full-time duty," Bane said. "But he's working at the HCE and he only comes to New York on his downtime to clean these copters. In my book, he's still Black Angel and anytime he wants to... wait." A faint persistent beeping sounded and a green dot appeared in a screen between the seats, growing brighter.
"Something's coming," Cindy breathed. "And coming fast, right at us."
"Going up," the Dire Wolf muttered, pulling back on the stick. Faster and smoother than a regular aircraft, CORBY II shot upward two hundred feet in a second. They hardly felt the acceleration because of the intertial dampers. Both of them stared as a brilliant deep red light appeared and hurtled toward them with terrifying speed. As it passed underneath, they caught a glimpse of a gleaming metal disc as big as a Greyhound bus, red light shining from its front as it flashed by.
"The Devil Lights!" snapped Bane, swinging the CORBY II around and speeding in pursuit. As far as they knew, the mystery craft had not spotted them. The CORBY II accelerated smoothly, without any strain, and immediately had the other craft within sight.
"I'm picking up Human minds," Cindy said. "Two of them. Americans. Something is distorting their thought patterns, though... Jeremy, they're aware of us!"
As she spoke, the disc rose sharply up, going even faster, looping around to come directly at them. The red light blazed at their windscreen and would have blinded them if the Trom filters had not compensated automatically. The strange craft was apparently intent on colliding with them. Bane swung hard down and to the right, dropping rapidly as the disc whipped through the space they had occupied a second previously. The Dire Wolf swung CORBY II to keep facing the mystery craft.
Within a few second, the giant disc had swept in a wide circle to attack them again. The red light blazed up much brighter than before, and even with the filters, Bane found his eyesight compromised. With his right hand, he threw the switch that activated the weapons console. An instant later, he thumbed the red button on top of the stick and fired a long burst from the chain guns mounted on both of the CORBY's short side vanes. Three hundred 50mm shells ripped into the mystery craft almost simultaneously, then Bane brought the CORBY straight up again with a sudden rise that made their stomachs clench. Below them, the disc veered wildly, smoke gushed out and it spun end over end to crash into the trees below.
"And that's what you get for starting with me," the Dire Wolf growled. He brought the copter lower and surveyed the scene. The metal disc was lying propped up at an angle by a broken elm. Black smoke trickled from inside the craft but it didn't seem like fire was going to happen. As they dropped to barely fifty feet off the ground, they spotted a hatch opening. A man in a white flightsuit started to clamber hastily up onto the side of the ship.
"We need to have a few words with those guys," Cindy said blandly. She stared and focussed her thoughts. The pilot slowed his movements and sagged limply, still half in the opening. She kept her attention on him.
"Good. Keep them dazed, hon." Bane landed the CORBY neatly in an open space fifty yards away. As the rotors slowed, he had slid open the pressurized hatch and dropped lightly down to the forest floor. As Cindy climbed out on the other side, the Dire Wolf had already crossed the space between them and the wreck and was yanking the pilot bodily out of the hatch opening.
The pilot was a thin man in his thirties, with dark brown hair and a narrow face. His loose jumpsuit was white, with ribbed sleeves and no logos or identifying tags. As Bane seized the man, the pilot resisted feebly, trying to wriggle loose, but still confused by the conflicting signals Cindy was sending into his mind. Bane yanked the man out of the hatch and threw him roughly aside, letting him fall to the packed dirt five feet below with a thud. A second man in a white jumpsuit appeared in the opening, starting to raise an automatic in one gloved hand. Bane seized that gunhand and squeezed so hard that two of the thin bones in it broke. He wrested the gun free and tossed it aside, and hauled the man up to eye level. As the pilot yelled in pain and surprise, the Dire Wolf drove a short vicious jab to the man's jaw that snapped his head back violently.
Cindy had reached the scene. "That one's unconscious, Jeremy. You can drop him. This guy is in a stupor, but I can raise him out of it." The blonde stood over the pilot on the ground, who was feebly moving his arms and legs without purpose. As Bane came over next to her, she closed her eyes and exhaled sharply. "That's odd..."
"What's going on, Cin?"
"He's got all kind of mental blocks. I can't dig past the surface level. I think.. it wasn't done by hypnosis or behavior modification. That leaves traces." She glanced up at Bane with a worried expression. "It was telepathy. We're dealing with another telepath."
Bane lowered to kneel next to the dazed pilot. "Advanced technology and telepathy, that spells John Grim to me." He started searching the man, disarming him of a Glock in a side pocket. "No identification of any sort. He's carrying a few small tools for quick repairs. No personal items."
From inside the wreckage, a voice clearly said, "XS11, respond. What is your situation?"
Bane and Cindy looked at each other, but kept silent.
"XS11, your signals indicate damage. Are you functional? Respond immediately." Then, thirty seconds later, the calm icy voice continued, "XS11, respond immediately. Control base calling. Protocol will be executed if you do not respond."
Bane seized Cindy by the hand and snapped, "Let's move!" Tugging her almost off her feet, he raced across the forest floor back to where the CORBY stood fifty yards away. Going around on the side of the copter away from the wreckage, he began to say, "I don't like the sound of that-" just as the downed mystery ship detonated with a deep thumping boom. A wave of superheated air swept toward them, but they were shielded behind the CORBY II, as well as by their armored field suits. A second later, they peeked around to see a pillar of greasy black smoke pouring up from what was left of the craft.
"Phew, smells like burning car tires," Cindy snorted. "Nice reaction time, hon. You figured they were going to blow that flying saucer up by remote control?"
"Get aboard," he ordered, opening the hatch using the concealed keypad, helping her up none too gently. As she dropped into the co-pilot seat, Bane flashed around to the other side to climb in himself. Even as the hatches slid shut and sealed, the interior panels blinked on and he started up the rotors. The Trom engines were still running and all systems were warm. In a few seconds, he pulled back on the stick and the CORBY II rose vertically, accelerating as it went.
"You're ahead of me again," Cindy said, buckling her restraint straps and checking her own set of dash controls. "What's up?"
"Just a hunch. That voice called itself Control Base and called that saucer XS11. To me, that suggests there are more of those things nearby..." His voice abruptly got an edge to it, "and here they come!"
IV.
From the north, three of the blinding red lights were approaching fast in tight formation. As they neared, the two on the ends peeled off and distanced themselves.
"Try to contact their minds, Cin," Bane said. "If you can confuse them or slow their reactions, it'll be a big help." He kept the CORBY rising straight up, watching as the three saucers started to ascend in pursuit.
"I'm on it," she said, staring through the windscreen at the weird craft chasing them. She reached out with her mind, made contact with the nearest pilot and locked on. She could feel him react to the unexpected crawling sensation in his head. People always said being touched by a telepath was like feeling spiders crawling inside your skull. Cindy concentrated harder and sent conflicting instructions to his mind. She increased the urgency of the orders. As she watched, the saucer on the right faltered and veered away, then abruptly spun out of control. It dropped down out of sight.
"The other guy on that one is trying to get hold of the controls," she said. "Too late, there they go. Rough landing. Both are still alive but my guy is stupefied and his partner is furious." The blonde sighed and leaned back. "The other two are keeping up with us?"
"So far. They must be using Trom tech. No exhaust, no propellors. Damn that Grim." Bane swung far to one side and levelled off as the two pursuing saucers reached him. He let a burst from the chain guns rake across one, disabling it, but the other craft closed in fast and cranked up the brilliant red light until it was intolerable. Even through the filters in the windscreen, Bane could hardly see. He first two more bursts to discourage the craft from getting too close, then lowered the visor on his helmet. With the added light filters in the visor helping, Bane saw both saucers were still closing fast.
Not for the first time, he regretted not arming the CORBYs more heavily. But he had wanted them for exploration and transport, not combat. He had felt once he started adding cannons and missiles, it would be hard to stop. Bane swung the chain guns toward the nearer of the two saucers and stitched a trail of shells across its surface. The craft flipped almost upside down and dropped out of sight in freefall.
"I've almost got the last one," Cindy said, "he's fighting me. His mind has been structured by a telepath to be disciplined... he's going to hit us!"
There was no time for even Bane to react as the saucer plunged straight at them and they crashed off each other with a screech of metal tearing. It was not a direct collision, but at the speeds they were moving, even a glancing impact was devastating. The CORBY stalled and was thrown to one side, while the saucer spun wildly and blew up in mid-air.
Fighting the controls as the interior lights flickered on and off, the Dire Wolf tried one thing after another. "Hit the reserve engine module," he told Cindy. She opened a panel and punched threw buttons in a vertical row. The lights stabilized but the CORBY was still dropping.
"Rotors are dead," Bane said. "We're getting some lift from the reserve. Maybe it'll slow our fall. Hang on, we're going to hit!" The ground rushed up toward the viewscreen and the jarring impact went through their bodies like a shock wave. For an undetermined time, they were both too stunned to be aware of what was going on. The creaking of hot metal and the hiss of fluids escaping from ruptured hoses was all that was audible.
Then, Cindy lifted her head. She felt bruised and sore from the restraint straps and her head was pounding viciously. But she knew that pain meant she was alive. The blonde telepath straightened up and turned her head to see Bane starting to come out of it. He stirred, grumbled and sat up in his seat, then immediately snapped his head around to see how she was.
"Looks like all my parts are still attached," she said weakly. "Whew. We haven't done that in a long time."
Bane unbuckled his restraint straps, and shut down the engines. The lights went out in the cabin and he popped his hatch. It took him longer than usual to get outside, but he wasn't dizzy or unsteady, just cautious. On the other side of the copter, Cindy hopped out and they both circled the wrecked CORBY to take stock.
"It's totaled!" she gasped. "Worse than when I rolled my Chevy back in high school."
"Yes." Bane examined where the front of the CORBY had flattened against an oak. "I don't think it can be rebuilt. We have no way to salvage it anyway. Our use of these birds breaks so many laws we can't possibly have a crew come in to retrieve the wreckage." He placed a hand on a twisted part of the tail vanes. "Too bad. All those millions spent on this thing..."
"So now we're down to two CORBYs," she said. "The one on Hawk Island and the one in New Mexico. I guess we have to scuttle this poor bird?"
"No choice. We don't want the tech in here to fall into anyone's hands. It's bad enough John Grim has stolen some Trom secrets." He reached up into the cabin and unfastened a pale blue gem from its setting just above the pilot's seat. "This Gateway crystal comes with us. It's the only thing that can't be replaced eventually."
Cindy had opened the storage compartment and taken out two knapsacks, complete with sleeping bags curled around their tops. "We might need these," she said. Struggling into one, she dragged the other over to where Bane was standing.
He had taken off his field jacket and strapped the Gateway crystal to his back. As he put the jacket back on, he grabbed the knapsack and threw it across one shoulder. "Thanks. We have to get under cover quick." He led her to a dense stand of trees and squatted down in the underbrush. As she joined him, the Dire Wolf took out his Link and adjusted the settings. "I hate having to do this," he grumbled. He punched in a code and immediately the wrecked CORBY exploded in a white-hot fireball. The noise of the detonation echoed from the hills like thunder.
As he watched the fierce flames devour the copter, Bane said, "There she goes." He started watching the skies warily. "Whoever is behind this has lost four saucers tonight. I figure men will be sent to investigate."
"Sounds reasonable," she said as she pulled out her dart gun and inspected its mechanism. "Not just more of those flying things?"
"Maybe. But my guess is that foot soldiers will be next. They will figure something is shooting their craft down and they won't send any more without investigation. I have no idea how far away their base is. We might be in for a long wait, Cin."
"I wasn't doing anything tonight," she replied as she settled back against a red maple.
V.
Less than an hour later, Cindy was munching on a granola bar when she suddenly sat up straight. "Here they come," she said. "Four minds. Saucermen, same kind of guys as those pilots. Coming from that direction." The blonde telepath stood up and turned to face behind them. "I can see headlights."
Bane stood beside her. "I don't know if our dart guns will be effective against those baggy jumpsuits. They might just get tangled. I want you to try and get at least two of them all confused." He lowered the visor on his helmet and clicked it into place. After a second, he muttered, "Saucermen?"
"Well, we have to call them something," she said in a small voice. "Any second now..."
With the roar of a powerful engine, an olive-green all-terrain vehicle like an armored jeep with a roll bar tore through the woods and rolled past them almost within arm's reach. Four men in the white jumpsuits rode inside, the two in the back were holding AR-15s in their arms. The vehicle skidded to a quick stop neared the blackened wreckage of the CORBY, and all four started to get out.
"That's not one of ours..." The driver started to say, then swayed and almost fell.
"Pete? You okay?" another man began just as he also became unsteady on his feet, bumping up against the first man and knocking both of them down. The other two Saucermen stood with their backs together, swinging up their AR-15s as they looked around frantically. They were already too late. By the time they started to react, Jeremy Bane had closed the distance between them and smacked their heads together with a noise like rocks breaking. Both men fell straight down, still back to back and propping each other up in death.
The Dire Wolf swung toward the other two Saucermen who were being kept dazed by Cindy's conflicting signals. She was sending strong urges to move and to be stand still at the same time, and the conflict overloaded their thought processes. Bane stepped toward them, raised one by the front of the jumpsuit and blasted a short hooking punch that knocked the man unconscious. "We need one to question," he told Cindy.
The blonde telepath gave the two dead men a reproachful look. She would have prefered to use the anesthetic dart guns and leave them alive. Turning back to Bane, she told him, "That's going to be a problem. The way their minds have been restructured, I'm not sure I can drag any information out of them."
Bending over the dazed man, Bane shook him experimentally. "Hmm. Well, we do have some veritalin. Let's see if that helps." From an inside pocket of his jacket, he took out a flat metal case and snapped it open. Inside were four hypodermic needles with color-coded labels. "Here we go. Truth serum made by an Alchemist." He tugged back the man's sleeve and plunged the needle in just below the elbow.
"Did you ever wonder how much prison time we could get?" Cindy asked. "Now we're administering powerful drugs not approved by the FDA, into someone who has not given consent. Not to mention, it's not like you're a doctor."
Bane snorted. "We also flew out here in an experimental helicopter not approved by the FAA, no lights or registered flight plan, carrying military-grade weapons against all regulations. Then we had a dogfight that crashed four aircraft, killing their crews. And that's just tonight!" He propped up the Saucerman, who was beginning to stir and mumble drunkenly. "I hope his defenses are down, Cin. See what you can learn from him."
The blonde sighed and got down on her knees in front of the prisoner as Bane held him motionless. Long minutes passed. She seemed to be barely breathing, then she abruptly shook her head fiercely and fell back to a seated position. "Oh my God!" she cried out.
Bane dropped the sedated man and went over to help her up. "Are you all right? What happened?"
"Oh my God," she repeated, absently brushing dirt off her knees. "Listen. These guys ARE working for John Grim. They're mercenaries. There is a makeship hangar about twenty miles from here. No other saucers, just two more pilots and support crew. Grim himself is supposed to be arriving tonight. But that's not what is freaking me out. Jeremy! I pulled some images from his memory area. Standing in front of one of those saucers was a Grey!"
"A grey what?" he asked.
"A Grey! An alien, one of those ETs with big hairless heads and big dark eyes. The ones that abduct people. Honey, he saw a Grey!" Cindy's voice had gone up dramatically as she spoke.
The Dire Wolf seemed remarkably unimpressed as he checked to be sure the keys were still in the ATV. "That's unexpected," he said calmly. "Guess I was wrong about them existing. Okay, hon, we need to each get a white jumpsuit off these guys so we can get close to the base. This one looks like my size, but you're going to have trouble."
"I can roll the sleeves and cuffs up. Never mind that now. Jeremy, don't you realize how momentous this is? This is the biggest thing in history. Aliens from outer space, here! Now! It's all true."
Bane shrugged and started wrestling the jumpsuit off one of the corpses. "To be honest, Cin, the Midnight War has been one unbelievable thing after another. I guess I'm used to it."
VI.
Wearing the white jumpsuits and caps, an AR-15 within reach next to each of them, Bane and Cindy drove back through the woods at a reasonable speed. Cindy had an image in her head of the route to take but it wasn't as clear as she would have liked. Even with the sleeves and legs rolled up, and the belt having a new notch poked in it by her survival knife, the jumpsuit was comically huge on her.
As he drove, Bane seemed lost in thought. Finally, he said, "When did Grim come out of that coma you put in him?"
"No idea," she answered. "The last time I called the facility to check on him was two years after I blasted him. The doctors said he was regaining consciousness for short periods every day, but he seemed to be unaware of his surroundings. He dropped off again an hour or so later. They fed him with an IV and exercised his arms and legs and monitored his vitals. Brain waves showed he was dreaming the whole time." She made a disgusted noise. "I guess at some point he revived. There must have been months of physical therapy. He was released at some point, maybe his organization pulled some strings because they wanted him back."
"That hospital was supposed to notify us if John Grim came back to awareness," Bane growled. "I'll have to go there and have a word with the administration. With all the murders and major felonies he was charged with, he should have been handed over to the Department of Justice as soon as he was coherent." The Dire Wolf sped up the ATV a bit, ignoring the jostling and bouncing as they tore uphill.
"I'll be honest, Jeremy. He's the only enemy of ours that I wanted dead. My parents, my baby brother Harold... there was no need for them to die." Cindy had her arms crossed over her chest and her head down. "If I had given him a little stronger brain blast, maybe I would feel better about my family."
Bane made no comment for a long moment. Finally, he said, "You're more moral a person than I am, Cin. I can't tell you right and wrong after all the things I've done." He slowed again, coming almost to a stop. "Look up there."
At a flat surface at the base of the mountains, a temporary hangar had been constructed. Two gasoline generators powered bright white lights on metal posts twenty feet high. Aluminum piping supported a canvas canopy big enough to held several airplanes... or four saucers. Electronic equipment, tools and supplies, and several cots were arranged along the back of the hangar.
The canvas was painted in camoflauge and speckled mosquito netting hung down its sides. From the air, it would not be easily spotted. Bane and Cindy watched the scene from the distance and concluded they had not been seen as yet. Two of the men in white jumpsuits were standing off to one side, while four men in tan jumpsuits were working on a big console that had been partially dismantled. Angry voices could be heard arguing.
"What are you picking up?" Bane asked quietly.
"Hmmm, nothing unexpected. The Saucermen are tense, they're drinking coffee and on edge. The techs are having problems with some kind of diagnotic equipment, I can't follow their conversation. Too scientific for me. They're all nervous wrecks." Cindy had half stood up in her seat and now she plopped back down again.
"And here comes trouble," the Dire Wolf said. He was looking up as one of the strange discs zoomed down from high overhead, its fierce red light illuminated the hangar with a hellish glare. Its descent was silent, and it decelerated much too abruptly for any known craft. Just a foot above the ground, the gleaming disc hovered as the techs hurriedly rolled the netting up on one side of the hangar. The saucer glided smoothly inside the hangar and settled down on the tarp flooring, gently as any caress.
As the techs and pilots gathered around, the top hatch popped open and a man in a dark blue suit and tie, wearing a white lab smock over it, scrambled quickly out and jumped down onto the ground, followed by the pilot of the craft. He began making a furious speech at the staff, pointing his finger accusingly at each in turn.
"John Grim all right," whispered Bane. He glanced over at his partner.
"I'm shielding both our minds," Cindy told him. "He doesn't know we're here yet."
"He will, soon enough." The Dire Wolf started the ATV and roared up the hill toward the command center. For a few vital seconds, the Saucermen staff recognized their own vehicle and saw only a glimpse of what looked like their own men in the white jumpsuits. Then the ATV crashed directly into their midst, running over two techs as the others jumped aside. Two of the pilots yanked 9mm pistols from their pockets just as Bane cut them down with a burst from the AR-15, then swung the weapon around to nail the remaining tech just as that man had drawn his own handgun.
Standing in the ATV, Cindy Brunner aimed her own assault weapon squarely at Grim, holding it dead steady at his chest. "Don't move," she ordered in a cold calm voice.
Seeing no one else left, Bane dropped out of the driver's seat and got his first good look at Grim in ten years. "Damn. You've looked better," he said in a deadpan voice. When they had last clashed, John Grim had been a handsome, tall blond man with almost movie star good looks. Now he looked withered and thirty years older. His cheeks had sunken and his hair was thin and lank. The deepset eyes bulged unhealthily, bloodshot and staring. "I know that voice," he said wearily. "Of course. Dire Wolf. You haven't changed, have you? Still leaving piles of murdered men wherever you go."
"Like you should talk," Bane snorted. "The FBI will be glad to see you. Department 21 Black has a list of charges against you that takes up three pages." He stepped closer, aiming his own AR-15 at the telepathic mastermind. "Turn around. Hold your hands out, wrists together."
Grim turned those bulging eyes toward Cindy. "And you. The little girl who burned out half my neural connections. Yes. I can feel you interfering with my powers right now. Your screen can not stand against me long, child."
"So you say," Cindy answered. "Do as you're told. I think a few bullets would improve you immensely."
"Ah, you two still do not understand. I no longer need the Trom technology. I have made arrangements with a race much more advanced than any here on this planet." He raised a thumb to point behind him. "Look."
Despite themselves, both Bane and Cindy shifted their gaze to where Grim indicated. Standing at the rear of the disc-shaped craft was a strange being, tall and thin, with smooth dark grey skin and no clothing. The head was oversized, bulbous and hairless. Two huge dark eyes regarded them and the narrow mouth slowly smiled.
In that second they were staring, John Grim had whipped a thick-barrelled handgun from inside his suit and fired directly between his two enemies. A deep concussion exploded with a thunderous boom and a shock wave flung both Bane and Cindy off their feet to skid along the tarp. Both dropped their weapons, both were stunned and nearly unconscious.
"That alien is just an illusion," Grim chuckled. "But a wonderful distraction. Oh, and this resonance gun IS Trom technology that I stole from your own Leonard Slade." He raised the thick barrel up beside his face and laughed unsteadily.
Bane was already struggling to rise from the tarp, his long years of Kumundu training and enhanced healing helping him recover quickly from what would have killed most people. He was back on his feet, swaying but determined, and he reached for the assault weapon he had dropped. Not far away, Cindy groaned and rolled over to get on her hands and knees. She was recovering, too.
"I'm sure the rest of your KDF is on their way," Grim yelled as he climbed back up onto the saucer. "I have no intention of facing them all again. Another time, Dire Wolf. We are not done with each other yet." He ducked down and the hatch slid shut. Bane raised the assault weapon but before he could fire, the red light blinded him and a feeling of being underwater pressed him back a few steps. It was difficult to breathe and his skin stung as if being burned. The field which lifted the saucer extended far enough to oppress Bane and Cindy with its effects. They both fell down again and could not get back up as the craft slid silently past them almost within reach. Seconds later, it rose up into the night sky and was gone from sight within seconds.
It took more than half an hour before Bane could stand. His ears were ringing and his vision was blurred, even his enchanced healing had limits. Walking slowly over to Cindy, he found she had managed to sit up and was taking deep slow breaths with her head down between her knees.
"Are you going to be all right?" he asked in a softer tone than he usually managed.
"Oy. Yeah, I guess so. That was a rough experience. When that ship took off, it was like being crushed and cooked at the same time." She coughed for a few minutes and finally raised her head. "So he got away, huh?"
"Afraid so. But we broke up this operation. Four saucers destroyed, his technicians and pilots dead, his equipment ruined. If nothing else, we made sure there won't be any more Devil Lights over Virginia." Bane gingerly lowered himself to sit beside her. "Whew. I don't feel my best. Did you notice that Grim thinks the KDF is still active? He doesn't know what happened."
"Good. Just as well." She reached in her jacket and pulled out two high protein snack bars, handing him one and biting into her own. "I guess we call 21 Black to clean up this mess, huh?"
"They're good at that," Bane said. "By tomorrow night, there won't be a trace of any of this. All these bodies will disappear. Another Midnight War incident that never officially happened. We'll need a ride to the nearest city, too, with our CORBY gone. I'll rent a car and we'll drive home."
Cindy leaned up against him. "First, let's rent a nice hotel room for a day. I want a hot shower and Italian food and sleep. Lots of sleep. Hey, you know what really bothers me?"
Unfastening his helmet and tugging it off, Bane looked down at the top of her blonde head. "No. What?"
"That the Grey was only an illusion. Grim just made every one think they saw it. Now we still don't know about ETs, Grim was just messing with our minds!" She made a scoffing noise and squeezed Bane's arm. "Now I hate him more than ever."
10/4/2014
