“Charlie,” Gregor said. “Call off your two pet dogs, and I’ll give you the information you need. We’ll do this together. After that, you and I will sort our differences the traditional way. Do we have a deal?”
Gregor stood up and dusted himself down. Charlie nodded toward Denver. He lowered his rifle.
Layla lowered hers. “Good. Now we can talk like civilized people. Do we have a deal?”
“There’s nothing civilized about you,” Charlie said. “But you have a deal. The overall requirements for the planet are bigger than Gregor’s ego. Then again, they always have been.”
“Replace my name with yours and the statement still makes perfect sense,” Gregor said.
“For God’s sake. Will you two knock it off?” Layla said.
She looked skywards again at the joined vessels. They’d maintained a position high above a few puffy, light orange clouds that drifted lazily past.
“How can you get me on a shuttle to the mother ship?” Charlie said.
“Easiest way is to put you in a food container,” Gregor said. “If we still have people left at the farm, it’ll work.”
“You mean processed humans?” Denver said.
“Does it matter now?” Layla said.
The last thing they needed was to keep raking up their individual choices for survival. Layla noticed Gregor’s eyes kept flicking toward Ben. He nervously edged further away until he flinched as his back hit the semi-collapsed interior wall.
“We arrange oxygen to be left behind the stacked trays,” Gregor said. “You get in before the container’s loaded onto a shuttle. Alex or Vlad can divert the croatoans elsewhere. We launch a diversionary attack on the farm. The shuttle will make an emergency take off.”
“And we get shot with the cannon on the roof of the shuttle?” Denver said.
“The croatoans are pragmatists. They don’t fire cannons toward their own buildings.”
“You sure that’ll work?” Charlie said.
“I can’t think of another way. You sure the bomb will work?” Gregor said.
Charlie walked over and stood a couple of yards in front of Gregor. “It’ll work. But don’t bet on me not coming back, my friend.”
Gregor’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t test me, Charlie. I could—”
Masonry exploded inwards.
Layla jumped back, covering her face.
A light blue beam shot through the room, passing between Ben and Charlie. It punctured a basketball-sized hole in the opposite wall.
Bricks clacked to the ground. Dust filled the air.
Gregor picked up the rifle, spun, and pointed it through the ivy. “There’s a big, ugly alien outside.”
“Is everyone all right?” Charlie said.
Gregor fired two shots; both went clean through with no damage. “What the fuck? It turned into a blur.”
Charlie crouched over Gregor and pulled leaves to one side. “We met that thing in New York.”
“Augustus sent a hunter after you.”
Layla ran across the room and knelt next to the gap that had been blasted out of the wall. She leaned around and saw a large croatoan prowling outside. It threw its weapon to one side and drew a sword from its thigh-sheath. The blade shone as though as it were made from chrome. Circular holes ran down the middle.
She squeezed the trigger. The rifle bucked against her shoulder. The croatoan shifted to its left at an unbelievable speed. Denver joined her by the hole and fired his rifle. The alien dodged again in a blur.
“It’s impossible to hit the thing if it’s facing you,” Denver said. “We need to split up.”
The alien raised its sword and moved toward the building.
“Take the bomb to the edge of camp,” Charlie said. “Get everything prepared. Gregor says this thing’s after me. I’m going to create a diversion.”
Denver nodded and ran to the back of the building. Ben stayed against the wall, shuddering. Layla decided not to argue and followed.
“Get moving now,” Charlie said.
She stopped and looked back. “Take the croatoan rifle.”
Layla threw it to Charlie. He caught it in his left hand.
Ben scrambled past her. Charlie jumped through the ivy and stood in front of the building. The alien pointed at him with its graphite gauntlet and swung its sword in a circular motion above its head. Charlie rushed to his right, back toward the forest in the opposite direction to the farm. The alien hopped after him.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Denver wiped the sweat and dirt from his eyes. The journey back from Manhattan had been long and tedious. He’d only caught a few hours of sleep as they drove back overnight. The weight of the bomb, the mines, and the other supplies in his backpack seemed heavier than his usual load. Luckily, his alien rifle helped balance things out.
Pip trotted by his side, staying close. Even she didn’t like Gregor that much, and Denver had come to learn his dog’s intuition was often worth paying attention to.
He’d noticed Gregor glancing at him and the weapon with an expression of jealousy, but then he had an automatic weapon, so he had nothing to concern himself in terms of who had the biggest penis replacement.
They walked in a tense silence through the forest, heading for the farm. Gregor and Layla led the way. Maria hung back with Denver, and Ben floated between them. Denver pitied him really. A man needed a family or at least a close circle. Ben didn’t seem to fit particularly well anywhere, but at least he’d followed the plan and hadn’t sold Charlie and him out.
And having Gregor and the others armed now seemed like great foresight considering the croatoans’ change of behavior. Denver wondered if Charlie had already foreseen that. It wouldn’t be too surprising.
One didn’t survive for as long as Charlie Jackson without noticing small changes and having the smarts to plan ahead. Though the plan hadn’t gone down as expected, the result was the same: using the farm as a way into the ship.
He thought about Charlie going up there with the bomb and not coming back. Up until now, it had felt like something that would happen in a future that wouldn’t have real consequences. A part of him perhaps thought it wouldn’t work out like this, that he’d come up with another plan. Of course, he had that bastard hunter on his tail, but Denver had full belief in his dad. Charlie knew these woods better than anyone.
By following them here overnight, the hunter had made a big mistake. He’d given himself a massive disadvantage. This was Charlie’s playground. Advanced alien species or not, he was fighting Charlie Jackson in his backyard. And this backyard was loaded with surprises.
“He’ll be okay, won’t he?” Maria said as Denver held back a thick branch to let her step through the trees into a clearing with a path worn into the compacted grass.
“Yeah,” Denver said. “He’s like a ghost in this place. Don’t worry about him. Just keep your eyes open for anything waiting for us. We don’t know if the bastards up there have sent reinforcements yet or if they even know what’s going on.”
“They won’t,” Gregor said, looking back over his shoulders. “I dealt with the guards. There’s none left to get word back. They’ll know when they don’t report in for the evening’s update, but we’ll be in position by then. Besides, Augustus thinks I’m dead.”
“How can we be so sure?” Ben said, speaking for the first time since they left the clock tower. “Wouldn’t their bike’s movements send an alarm?”
Gregor stopped and glared at Ben, clearly not liking someone questioning him. Ben flinched away when the gangster stepped closer. Denver put his hand on Ben’s shoulder and, towering over them, glared back at Gregor. “Drop this macho bullshit. We need to work together now. Just answer the question. Is there any way the ones that chased you or the ones at the farm compound could have raised an alarm?”