CHAPTER 85
“KITTY, I think we can do this without risking Jeff and the others,” Christopher said. “If we can get in without them knowing, then we can get Chuck and destroy this last stronghold.”
“Which leaves that last Doomsday plan flapping in the breeze.” There was something about the name—I knew I could make the connection for what Cliff’s plan was, I just had to focus. But I didn’t feel up to focusing. I felt up to saving Chuckie and killing Cliff and the others, but not focusing.
“It might be like his world leaders plan,” Len said. “Something that requires a major event to happen, and then he’d have to do something. If he’s dead, he can’t do anything.”
“John, you were in with these people for a long time. Did Cliff ever talk about any of this?”
“He talked about taking over the world all the time. Specifics, however, not as much. Those plans were limited to LaRue. And I was never close enough to LaRue to kill her, let alone to stop her. And once the clones of her and Reid were a part of the team, it was worse.” He sighed. “If we’re going to discuss those whose missions did not work, I’m the least effective of anyone here. I might have gotten closer to Cliff after the fiasco that was Operation Epidemic, but I chose to stay with you.”
Hugged him. “And we’re all glad. Just like Siler, you did more for us than you realize while you were undercover and you’ve been the greatest since you’ve joined with us, so no more beating yourself up.”
“She just likes you because you used her name for it,” Kyle said with a laugh.
“You don’t know me.”
“Speaking of knowing, if John had no clear idea of all of Cliff’s plans, then why does Kozlow think he knows all of this?” Christopher asked. “At least supposedly.”
Wruck shrugged. “Cliff had a large organization that, as of the end of Operation Epidemic and just earlier today, was down to seven people he felt he could trust. He might have wanted to ensure that they could make his plans happen if he were incapacitated.”
“Kozlow said that Cliff had a bomb implanted in everyone’s heads that he removed after Operation Epidemic. Did you have that?”
Wruck snorted a laugh. “Oh yes, they put that in. I took it out immediately. Shifting makes the removal of an item like that simple. It wouldn’t have been easy if it had been created by my people or even the Z’porrah, but the level that humanity is at made it easy and safe. That was only for underlings, though. Stephanie, for example, had no implant.”
“Huh. Cliff might think he’s blown your head up.” Wasn’t sure how to use that information, but if I was going to, tonight was going to be the time.
“If he does, then he thinks he blew me up during Operation Epidemic. I doubt he’s given me any thought since then. Thinking about others isn’t Cliff’s strong suit.”
“So, does that mean Kozlow’s playing us?” Christopher asked.
“Jeff didn’t think so,” I reminded him. “But, trap or not, Cliff has Chuckie. We need to go in the back way or knock at the front door, but either way, we have to do something before it’s too late.”
“Therefore,” White said, “the question is—do we go with the plan that includes Jeffrey, or do we try to sneak in and take care of things without him and the others?”
My music came back to life and Jethro Tull’s “Back-Door Angels” came on. Felt it was a clear sign. “We go in the way Rahmi found. And we go right now.”
Everyone pulled their goggles back on and pulled out whatever big gun they felt they wanted for this particular raid. Stuck with my Glock—I was used to it.
Adriana turned off the light. “Mark this place and remember how to get here,” she reminded us. “If things go bad, we can get to the Burj Khalifa this way, and it may be preferable to land there than stay here.”
We headed off, Rahmi in the lead, Wruck bringing up the rear, humans teamed with A-Cs, but all of us moving at the slow hyperspeed which always sounded like an oxymoron but wasn’t. My music changed to Alice Cooper’s “Welcome To My Nightmare” and I realized I’d forgotten something. It might not be a big deal, but then again, it might.
Mossy was my trotting partner and he didn’t need me in order to keep up, so I hung back to walk with Wruck. “John, who were the Cettans and the Uglors?”
He looked at me. “How do you know those names? The races have been extinct for several centuries.”
“Someone mentioned them to me and said they were the example. But I don’t know of what.”
He heaved a sigh. “They were older races. Not as old as us, but far older than humanity. Their planets were neighbors in the same solar system, a solar system teeming with many planets, all with sentient life. The Cettans were flat beings, you’d think of them as looking like a pancake. Highly intelligent. The Uglors looked like fauns, and did not consider themselves as smart as the Cettans, but they were hearty and very strong.”
I tripped over a rock and he caught me. “Thanks. Sorry, I’m listening, not looking.”
“That’s fine.” He put his arm through mine as we started up what, for this island, was its highest hill. Not all that high, but we were definitely rising decently above sea level. “The others in the system achieved spaceflight, but these two races did not—the Cettans because they had no limbs, the Uglors because they didn’t have the brain capacity.”
“Did the other races help them?”
“To a degree, but mostly they left them alone. However, the Cettans achieved communications with the Uglors and taught the Uglors how to build a spaceship that would bring the Uglors to them. Once they met, a bonding between races took place. The Uglors wanted to learn and the Cettans wanted to teach. They both wanted to go to the stars. So, they created a matching ceremony. Uglor and Cettan would choose each other and bond. The Uglor would carry their Cettan in their arms or draped around their shoulders, and this way, both would reap the benefits of each other. Both planets became as one, with Cettans and Uglors living in harmony on both worlds. It was quite beautiful.”
“What took the beauty away?”
“The Z’porrah.” Wruck’s voice turned angry. “The Cettans and Uglors were the first to receive the Z’porrah’s ‘improved’ uplift. They would combine to become fully integrated together. Stronger, smarter, larger. Able to protect themselves and their worlds, able reproduce as a combined being, versus as individual races. The Z’porrah made it sound like a paradise.”
“So, they made the Cettans and Uglors an offer they couldn’t refuse. I’m just betting that didn’t go as planned.” I was also getting a feeling that I knew where this was going, and why Mephistopheles had told me to ask about this.
“It did not. The combination worked, but at a terrible cost. The new beings that created were not what the two races had expected.”
“So not a faun wearing a permanent pancake?”
“No, not at all. They turned into giants, into monsters. Still intelligent, still strong and hearty. But warped. Their minds were no longer bent on learning and travel but on rage and domination. And they were able to dominate. They created many things, mostly weapons. Within a generation the Superiors, which is what they named their new selves, controlled their entire solar system. They were branching out and starting to control nearby systems as well. And their rage was legendary. Their rage made them what they were, both good and bad. But mostly bad.”
My music changed to “Story of My Life” by Smash Mouth. But I didn’t need this hint.
“I think I know how this story ends. Their leader got into a murderous rage due to real and perceived slights, and threatened to blow up their sun if all the people in his solar system didn’t kowtow to his demands. They didn’t. And then that leader, Mephistopheles, followed through and destroyed their sun, and killed billions . . . including himself.”
“Yes.”
“But the Superiors’ were a created race, something not occurring naturally, and therefore their souls, their essences, somehow survived. Mephistopheles landed here or was drawn here or, knowing the Z’porrah, was sort of aimed here. He made his perfect love match with Ronald Yates. And we’ve spent two or three generations here on Earth killing them, what we call parasites, and what you, I’d guess, call Surviving Superiors.”
“Yes again. They were made to combine and they will combine with any mammal. You have not destroyed all the remaining Superiors, but I am grateful every day that you’ve destroyed all that have come here that you have found.”
That we have found. “Um, are there more in-control superbeings hanging about on the planet?”
“There may be. There were a billion or more Superiors living on the two planets when Mephistopheles destroyed their sun. A billion have not been killed on Earth. They may be landing on other planets, or may still be traveling through space, headed toward Earth or elsewhere, searching for a new host. But they aren’t all gone.”
“That’s why your religious text talks about them.”
“Yes. Unlike this planet’s religious books, we adapt ours as events in the galaxy change.”
“Wise. Far wiser than us, but then we knew that already.”
“Right now, I can’t feel that we are wiser, honestly, or more effective. We seem to have failed in warning the rest of the galaxy against the danger of the Z’porrah’s enticements.”
No wonder Mephs had wanted me to get this intel, and also no wonder he hadn’t wanted to tell me himself. “And now the Z’porrah have ruined the Aicirtap. Was there any way to reverse what they did to the Cettans and Uglors?”
“No, the combination was too well done, in that sense. As for the Aicirtap, who knows?”
“It’s a new form of uplift, isn’t it?”
“Yes, the Z’porrah are, at their cores, scientists. They are ever experimenting, ever trying new things.” He sighed. “When we were friends, they were the ones who came up with the ideas for how to help the younger races, and we were the ones who came up with how to ensure that the souls, if you will, and the hearts and minds of those younger races were protected.”
“I always knew you guys were missionaries, at your cores, I mean.”
“Yes, we are. And they are not. But, in their way, they are now the missionaries and in our way we are now scientists. And neither side is as good at it as the other.”
“Interesting and good to know.” Would have said more but our line came to a stop as my music changed to “Depending on You” by Tom Petty.
“We’re close,” Adriana, who was in front of us, said. “Silence from here on in.”
Wruck had me step in front of him as Rahmi led us through what looked like just more rubble but what, as soon as I really looked at it, was clearly a path, and a rather flat path at that. There were wide wheel marks in the dirt. Had no idea what they were wheeling in and out, but supplies seemed the obvious answer.
We reached a very old, crude elevator. Thankfully, there were stairs next to it, because not only would an elevator make noise—especially one that looked as ancient and rickety as this one—but hyperspeed meant we’d be faster in and out on the stairs, and far more quiet.
Wanted to get up near the front but it was too late now. Almost tripped again, but Wruck caught my shoulder and steadied me. Had to literally regroup because of this, too.
This put us even farther behind the others, but I was tripping far too much to go quickly. Was about to start down the stairs, but Wruck stopped me and indicated he’d go first. Wise. That way, when I tripped again, I’d hit him and he’d be ready for it and keep us both upright. My music changed to “Slow It Down” by The Goo Goo Dolls. Took the hint.
We crept down slowly, me staying close so that if I did trip, there wouldn’t be a lot of momentum to my fall. We made it almost all the way down before I heard someone speaking. It was a voice I knew. A voice that sent shivers down my spine.
“So good of you to join us.” It was Leventhal Reid, and he sounded exactly as he had when he’d been planning to rape, torture, and kill me in the Arizona desert. “We’re just about to start the fun, so come on in and prepare to die.”