“Don’t turn your mother into a saint!” Her father kicked the walkway railing. Moni jerked her head back-even from miles away. “Oh, she pampered you when you cried like a bitch, at every little bump and bruise. She looked the other way when you flunked. There were no consequences with her. The way I was raised, if you screw up, you get the wood laid to you. My way got the job done. Hell, I wish you were a real cop and not on the Sesame Street beat, but at least you’re working.”
“Oh, that’s right. I work so I can earn enough money to repay you for all the kind things you’ve done for me,” Moni said with more than a hint of sarcasm.
“Damn straight. Now, if only you meant it. I toughened you up for the real world, Moni. The lessons I taught you saved you from the Lagoon Watcher. You can’t deny that.”
Unbelievable, thought Moni. The yelling and the hitting that tormented her every day of her life had become her father’s fond memories of his strong parenting.
Now Moni could return the favor. She could take pride in ridding the world of him. They could do that for her, and more, but only if she agreed.
Peering at her father through binoculars, she saw an old man alone on a walkway to nowhere. He had lost his family and all but the most insensitive of his friends. He had paid a price. Yet, that was for abusing Moni’s friend once-not for hurting her and her mother dozens of times.
What punishment would serve as retribution for me and my mother?
Moni knew the answer. She also knew that she wasn’t the kind of person who did such a thing. As Mariella squeezed her hand, the memories returned more potent than ever. She had lost her first baby tooth when her father slapped her in the face. He had twisted her fingers until they swelled and she couldn’t hold a pencil straight. If she let him go again, he’d find another vulnerable child. She wouldn’t cower in the closet any longer.
“Dad, you’ve caused me nothing but pain. I’ve accomplished all of this, despite what you did to me. I owe you something, but it’s not gratitude.”
“Yeah, I figured you’d say as much, you spoiled runt.” Her father peered underneath the walkway for his daughter’s hiding place. “You wanna pay up? Come out and greet me face-to-face. I got somethin’ for ya.”
Moni lowered her binoculars. She couldn’t stand seeing him again, even from over a mile away. Mariella tightened her grip on her hand. She felt her soul flutter in and out of her body. They were listening to her. They wanted to know: Was she ready for it?
“And while you’re at it, bring that girl along. I’ve got something for her too.”
With her mouth to the phone and her mind to an instrument much more complex, Moni answered both of them at once.
“The only thing I’m giving you is a trip to the grave. Say goodbye, daddy.”
She didn’t need binoculars this time. Bursts of fire erupted from the lagoon on both sides of the causeway. One blast rocketed from directly beneath where her father stood. The simultaneous explosions ignited the hydrogen that the sulfuric acid in the lagoon had been spewing into the air. The massive columns of the causeway cracked and toppled into each other like trees bursting in a wildfire. Gray smoke smeared the sky. Moni couldn’t see her father amid the cloud of black smoke rising from the detonation site, but she saw that he wouldn’t die alone. The bridge tilted. A van swerved into the guardrail and plummeted over the side. It splashed into the water like a giant cannon ball. The passengers couldn’t even get the doors open before it sank amid the bubbling acid and flames.
“What’s going on here?” Moni asked. No thoughts answered her this time. “You didn’t tell me this would happen. You…”
It had begun. She had sworn that she would give Mariella her home. They had promised they would rid her of the men who harmed her. Their pact would soon be sealed.
As she tried to wrap her mind around what she had agreed to, she saw a physical seal rising from the edges of the lagoon. A yellow surface that resembled blurry glass emerged from the water. She didn’t see any holes in it, yet it passed through the water as if it wasn’t there. It oozed around the wrecked bridge. When it rose underneath the cars marooned atop the bridge, the barrier solidified and hoisted them up. The glass formed a dome nearly as tall as the hotel. The cars and trucks slid down like raindrops off an elephant’s hide. Moni saw the drivers frantically waving their arms. Some dove out as their vehicles smashed ashore. The vehicles ripped through homes and restaurants. The people splattered. In seconds, nothing remained of the cars besides rising smoke and smoldering fires.
Now free of vehicles, the causeway aged and crumbled before her eyes. Soon it resembled ancient ruins. Within a few minutes, the massive hulk of concrete and steel beams collapsed into the lagoon, spawning enormous waves. The walls of water barreled for land. Before reaching shore, they sloshed harmlessly up the side of the yellow bubble. When they cleared, she saw the entire bridge lying on its side half-submerged in the acidic lagoon.
Moni gazed up and down the devastated waterway. The bubble had completely enclosed the lagoon as far as she could see, although it had formed a narrow crease to spare the southern tip of Merritt Island. The barrier thickened until she couldn’t see through it. Four columns of rising smoke, two to the north and two to the south, caught her eye. They were right on top of where the Melbourne Causeway and the Pineda Causeway should have been. She couldn’t see them underneath the bubble, but she knew. Everything in the lagoon had been claimed for the annexed alien territory, even the oblivious people who had been on the bridges.
“Those people weren’t supposed to die,” Moni said. “That’s not what I meant. I didn’t know…”
They had told her about small sacrifices-relative to her planet’s population. Mariella’s people didn’t deserve to die but they were exterminated on their home world. Sure that she would meet them soon, Moni knew that she would love them all as much as she loved Mariella.
Chapter 43
Detective Sneed sat on the edge of his chair, re-watching the deposition video of that meandering Lagoon Watcher when his door flew open and slammed into the wall.
“What the hell are…” He bit his tongue when he saw Sheriff Brandt in his doorway with his face as red as a mule pulling the plow. “Excuse me, sir. I didn’t realize you had stopped by. I was fix’n to see you soon anyways. I found a ton of inconsistencies in the Lagoon Watcher’s statements that we can use…”
“Forget the Lagoon Watcher.” The sheriff often interrupted rookies, but never senior officers like Sneed. “Those scientists were right. This is bigger than one man. It’s bigger than all of humanity.” Sneed raised his eyebrows as he waited for the sarcastic punch line that would discredit those geeks. It never came. “For God’s sake, turn on your TV.”
Sneed usually left his desktop TV off; he didn’t need any distractions. Yet, he had a feeling the sheriff didn’t mean to watch a daytime soap opera with him. When he turned on a local station, he saw a flashing breaking news logo underneath a round yellow blob. At first, he thought it was some nasty clump of the bacteria that had floated ashore. Then, the helicopter camera panned out and he saw that the blob covered the lagoon from shore to shore. It shifted over to where the Melbourne Causeway should have been. There was nothing besides two black smokestacks and a plume of gray ashes-like the debris after the World Trade Center collapsed. Wrecked cars and smashed buildings lined the edge of the bubble. One homeowner strolled across his backyard and pelted his unwelcome new fence with shotgun shells. Even though the bullets didn’t make a dent in the bubble, Sneed thought that he would have done the same in the man’s shoes.