Not far away a dark shadow moved between the trees, stopping behind a thicker trunk. He could see parts of the tent in the distance, sitting quietly in the small clearing.
The figure crept closer to see more of the area. There was no longer any movement. Or sound.
Their voices had stopped. They must have detected something.
The dark figure reached behind his back and began to withdraw an object when he promptly felt the cool sensation of a gun barrel press firmly into his right cheek.
Steve Caesare’s deep voice whispered behind him, “Nice night for a walk.” When the figure began to gently turn, Caesare pressed harder. “Nope. You move again, and you’re going to need a whole new set of dentures, capisce?”
The stranger nodded.
“How many others?” Caesare asked, looking over the man’s shoulder.
“None.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Just you?”
“Yes.”
Caesare finished scanning and looked down. “Drop your hands.”
The man complied.
Caesare stepped back and pulled the gun away from his cheek, silhouetted in the moonlight. “Now raise them up on top of your head.”
When the figure complied, Caesare next instructed him to turn around slowly. Watching as the figure turned towards him, the intruder’s face became only partially visible in the shadows.
Caesare glanced behind himself and stepped back further. “Walk towards me.”
The stranger stepped forward, led by Caesare, and eventually emerged into the light.
Once he saw the man’s face, Steve Caesare’s expression changed beyond surprise to a look of shock. He shook his head in disbelief. “You have got to be kidding.”
78
Almost ten minutes later, two dark figures stepped out and into the clearing, walking one in front of the other.
Clay rose slowly as they approached with his rifle trained on both shadows. Only when Steve Caesare spoke did he relax.
“I hope you’re in the mood for some amusement.”
Clay lowered his weapon and peered intently into the darkness.
The man in front of Caesare was shorter, with a pale white face, and dressed in dark clothing. But it was in the unique shape of his face and bald head that Clay immediately recognized. He looked very much like Palin, the man he met who had not been from Earth.
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“That’s what I said.” Caesare gave a push forward, sending him stumbling to within a few steps of Clay. “And guess what. He ain’t.”
The figure flashed a brief gaze at DeeAnn as she rose from behind the bags.
“Who are you?”
His reply held only the slightest hint of defiance. “My name is Ronin.”
Clay studied the man’s clothing, then the pack he carried on his back. All the material appeared slightly reflective, resembling some kind of trace fibers or a soft alloy.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
The man turned carefully to find Caesare still behind him, and the gun still pointed directly at his back.
“I was following you.”
“No kidding,” Caesare replied sarcastically.
He didn’t answer.
“You’re one of Palin’s men,” Clay said.
The man named Ronin nodded.
“How long have you been following us?”
“Since Kigali.”
“What for?”
“To see what you find,” he answered.
Clay looked past him to Caesare, then to DeeAnn who was now on her feet. “What do you mean, what we find?”
Ronin’s expression softened a bit. “We know what you found on the other side of your planet. In your South America. Before it was destroyed.” He glanced again at Caesare behind him. “And we know what it can do.”
“The vault.”
Ronin nodded.
Clay stepped back and motioned to a nearby rock. “Have a seat.”
The smaller man approached the rock and turned before sitting. “May I remove my pack?”
“Slowly.”
He pulled one arm through and swung the load off, around his other shoulder, before easing it onto the ground. Clay and Caesare both glanced down and studied it briefly. It was a dark metallic blue. Uniform in size, the pack first appeared stiff but seemed to move slightly as it hit the ground.
Caesare stepped in next to Clay. “I hope you’re feeling talkative.”
For a moment, the man looked bemused. “My mission is not a secret.”
“Well, it sure as hell is to us.”
Ronin blinked and then placed his hands on his knees. “We need the fluid, the solution.”
“What for?”
“To save ourselves.”
Clay and Caesare looked at each other.
“You’ve been there,” Ronin continued, “to our world. You know the devastation we have suffered. You know we are struggling to survive. And how little time we have left.”
“We saw that you were rebuilding.”
“What you saw is one of our only remaining footholds. We are trying to establish others, but the situation is dire.”
The men turned when DeeAnn edged closer, and Clay looked back to check on the primates. Both were next to the tent. Dexter was no longer watching the forest.
“How dire?”
Ronin’s mannerism was calm but firm. “You might say we no longer have rope.”
Caesare frowned. “At the end of your rope.”
“Yes. At the end of our rope.” The man nodded. “I am not as good with your language. I am not an academic.”
“What does that mean?”
“Like you, we have certain classes. Those that we excel at, and are born for. Academics. Engineering. Science. Things like that.”
“And what class are you?” Clay asked.
“I am a fighter class. Like you. Of sorts.” Ronin shrugged. “It is more complicated than that.”
“I bet,” replied Caesare.
“So you’re following us to see what we find here,” Clay said.
“Yes. As I said, we know what you search for.”
“Assuming we find it, how is it supposed to save your planet?”
“We know of its attributes. Its genetic influence. It could help us restore our own environment. Before it’s too late.”
“How?”
Ronin looked back and forth between them. “I am not a scientist, so my knowledge is not as thorough. But I do know some. Most of our life forms have been destroyed or are on the brink of extinction. The event destroyed millions of species, and for years we continued losing hundreds of thousands more every year. We were unable to stop it, and they were not able to adapt quickly enough. We barely survived ourselves. We have managed to slow the loss, but our ecology is barely functional.”
“What exactly was the event?” Clay asked.
“An asteroid impact. More than eighty of your years ago. The destruction was enormous. Cities destroyed, forests wiped clean, and most of our oceans lost.”
DeeAnn stared incredulously. “How in the world could you lose your oceans?”
“The impact vaporized much of our largest ocean, but we hadn’t lost it entirely. The moisture was still in our atmosphere, completely surrounding the planet and blocking out the sun. For the first year, it rained without stop — flooding and destroying areas that were not already damaged by the first impact.”
Clay raised his eyebrows. “The first impact?”
“Yes,” Ronin paused. “Two years later a second asteroid struck. We saw the first but could not stop it in time. The second was never seen. Our defense systems were all gone. The second was smaller but traveling much faster. The impact nearly breached our planet’s crust. Its damage was far worse and destroyed most of the remaining life on our planet within days.”
“Jesus!”
Ronin looked up at Caesare, solemnly. “Billions died. Only a few cities, situated in fortunate locations, were spared. And the second blast was so powerful it ejected most of the remaining vapor up and out of our atmosphere.”