H
“I see it,” said the major. He was studying a map in an atlas on the desk before him. He looked up at Ethan, Olivia, JayDee, Dave and Captain Walsh. The cut across the bridge of Dave’s nose had been cleaned, an antiseptic applied, and then a bandage. JayDee’s sprained ankle had been strengthened with a tight wrapping of gauze and the pain diminished with two Tylenol tablets. Major Fleming’s office lamp, powered like the other lights by the mall’s generators and some solar cells the troops had scavenged when they’d holed up in here after the Cyphers and Gorgons had destroyed most of Denver over a year ago, threw a pool of illumination upon Utah, but the major was far from illuminated.
He was a tall, square-shouldered man who’d been born for the United States Army. He had lost a lot of weight in the last year but the loss had just made him tougher, as it had all the men and women under his command. He was bald but meticulously shaven, had a pair of thick brown eyebrows and steel-gray eyes under his wire-rimmed glasses. He was forty-two years old, but the network of deep worry lines that cut across his face aged him by ten years.
“So you don’t know what’s there?” He directed this question to Ethan. “In fact, you don’t know if anything is there, do you?”
“No sir.” It was spoken quietly.
“What?” Ray Fleming had the habit of not liking to be spoken to quietly; he liked to hear and be heard.
“No sir, I don’t,” Ethan answered, “but I believe I have to go there. That’s all I can say.”
“You took a blood sample?” The major threw this at Dr. Hernandez, who stood in the corner.
“Yes sir. It’s normal, type A positive. His lungs are fine, his heart’s in good shape, his blood pressure is fine too. In all other ways he’s a normal fourteen- or fifteen-year-old boy.”
“Anybody fail their exam?”
“None.”
Ethan gave a soft grunt that no one else heard. At last the Gorgons had perfected their disguise. They had created artificial blood and organs that could pass for human. They had made their own lifelike Visible Man, but visible only to him. He wondered how many humans had been laid open by Gorgon surgical tools before the right chemistry was achieved.
“If I had a better lab, I could do a better job,” the doctor said, indicating maybe a persistent argument between the two. “I have to make do with—”
“What you have, yes,” Fleming finished for him. The hard and careful eyes returned to Ethan. “You say you killed a Gorgon without weapons. Exactly how?”
“I wanted it gone. It blew up into pieces.”
“Not enough. Let’s hear an explanation that makes sense.”
Dave suddenly reached over and pulled up the boy’s t-shirt to expose the four strange symbols that had emerged from the darkness of the bruise. Fleming had already seen them, but Dave wanted to drive home a point. “Does this make sense? Does any of it? Like I say, he made an earthquake happen. So…killing a Gorgon without weapons…I believe that, yeah.” He let Ethan’s shirt fall back down again, which Ethan was grateful for because he still couldn’t wrap his head around the freakishness of what was changing him. Though he was outwardly calm, a little place deep within himself was a crunched-up ball of terror.
“Do all of you believe that?” The major lifted his eyebrows and waited.
“I do,” Olivia answered. “Yes, I know I do.”
JayDee smiled thinly at the major. He leaned his weight on the rebar. “I think,” he said, “that Ethan is not a Gorgon or a Cypher, nor anything created by them. I think he used to be a boy, but he’s no longer just that. I think…what he is…what he’s becoming…is something different.”
“Explain.”
“I wish I could, sir. Ethan’s condition defied all medical sense when we found him. Now…with those symbols, which look to me like ancient runes…maybe Nordic, I don’t know…I can’t explain anything.”
“Reassuring,” said the major.
“I believe,” JayDee went on, his voice stronger, “that Ethan is being called to go to that mountain. And I believe, sir, that we ought to trust whatever is calling him.”
Again the major’s penetrating gaze speared Ethan. “Do you have any idea why you would be…” He paused, deliberating before he went on. “Compelled to go to this place?”
“I do have an idea,” Ethan replied. “I think it has something to do with stopping this war.”
“Oh…you can stop the war?” Fleming gave Captain Walsh a quick sharp glance. “A kid can stop the war between aliens fighting over—”
“The border,” said Ethan. “That’s what they’re fighting over. The border between what they believe they own. And I don’t know if I can stop the war or not…but…” The next thing was hard to say, but it had been working on him since leaving Panther Ridge, and knowing the disguised Gorgon and the human Kushman were after him. “But,” he went on, “maybe what I’m turning into can.”
Fleming said nothing for awhile. He studied the map again, took another long appraisal of the boy, and then his eyes went back to the map. “That’s a long way. Tough road up in those mountains, once you get off I-70. If there’s much left of I-70.” He balled up a fist and knocked gently at the mountain on the map, as if knocking at a secret door that only Ethan Gaines could open. “So you’re wanting to continue your trip in that school bus, is that correct?”
“Yes,” said Olivia.
“Who’s going?”
“All of us,” Dave said. “We’ve talked, and we’ve agreed.”
“You too, Doc?” Fleming’s eyes went to JayDee. “On a bad ankle?”
“Me too,” John Douglas replied. “Bad ankle or not.”
“Well,” was the major’s next comment. He took off his glasses and spent a moment polishing the lenses with a white cloth before he put them back on and spoke again. “I can’t spare you any soldiers. We have responsibilities here. Your bus has taken some damage, yes?”
“A little bit,” Dave said.
“We can fix that for you, maybe make some improvements. How are you doing for fuel? We’re down pretty low ourselves, I don’t know if I can give you any.”
“We’ll make do. Find diesel tanks at stations along the way and siphon it out.”
“Got the tools you need? The containers?”
“I could use a longer hose, say about twelve feet.”
The major nodded. “We can find one of those. Your bus is going to eat up a lot of fuel on those grades. You know that, right?”
“We know it,” Dave said. “Look…Major…I’m going to have to get some sleep. We’re all dog-tired. Can we bunk down somewhere?” They had already gone through the search procedure, and now the need for sleep was dragging Dave down. “Set us all up together?”
“We’ve got extra sleeping bags, but you ought to get some food before you crash.”
“Sleep first,” Dave said, and the others nodded agreement. Except for Ethan, who had business to tend to.
“Right. Captain Walsh, find these people a place to sack out. Mr. McKane, you don’t mind that I post a guard over this young man for the rest of the night.” It was a statement, and there was to be no argument.
“No problem.”
Ethan said nothing; it was to be expected. “All right, then. At least get yourself some water. There’s bread and soup in the food court if you change your minds.” He checked his wristwatch. “It’ll be open for about another hour. Captain, you’re in charge of them now. Find someone to stand guard duty. You’re all dismissed…except you, Carlos. Stick here a little longer.”
When Captain Walsh had escorted the group out, the major steepled his fingers and peered through the desklamp’s glow at Carlos Hernandez. “Honest answer. Am I crazy or are they?”