Mary gestured to our left, and my heart raced when we spotted the bare white truck: the missing one from the camp in Long Island. Pulling behind a large cube van, I kept my distance and turned the engine off. There was no one in the truck, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have eyes on the street. For all we knew, they saw us driving up.
The sun was still low on the horizon, and here it was blocked by large buildings between us and the rays. I hoped being in the shadows would help us.
“We don’t know what we’re up against here. They could just be hiding out, or they could be meeting more of their brainwashed humans. We have to be careful.” Mary looked at me and held my gaze for a moment longer than she normally would, emphasizing the word careful.
“I’ll go,” Mae said. “Recon, right? And if I get caught, I’ll claim I broke out too, and tracked them. I know for a fact that the one right across the hall looks just like us, and my hair is pretty much the same length.” She pulled her hair into a ponytail, and she was taking off her shirt. I averted my eyes, noticing how much she looked like my wife. I’d spent so much time with Mae that I rarely thought of her and Janine on the same wavelength any longer, but seeing her pulling her shirt over her head reminded me so much of Janny. “I borrowed some items from Donna that Leslie would recognize. I also have some of Leslie’s stuff. You know, just in case.”
I almost laughed at the ingenious planning. Don’t trust her. The words echoed in my mind and I shook them out, knowing it couldn’t be either of these women. They were as trustworthy to me as Magnus and Nat.
“Great thinking, Mae,” Mary said, smiling through an otherwise worried face.
“Just be careful, okay? Take a quick look around and come back. Take the walkie and let us know if you need us. Just hit the talk button twice, and don’t say anything if you aren’t able to speak,” I told her. Just like that, she was out the door, quietly stalking across the road, out of view of the warehouse’s windows or the truck. She hugged the neighboring building’s wall, and before we knew it, she was out of our sight.
“Mary, I got a text a couple hours ago. It just said to not trust her.”
“Trust who?” she asked.
“I don’t know. The number was blocked, and they weren’t very open about it.” I handed the cell over for her to look for herself.
“You don’t think they mean…” She left Mae’s name unsaid.
“I’m not sure. I imagine that’s who they mean, whoever they are. I don’t believe it for a second, though. It could just as easily mean Dalhousie.” I held the radio in my hand, anxious to hear from Mae. I hoped she was just going to find them sleeping in the empty warehouse, and we could go in together silently, taking them quietly and safely.
The walkie-talkie alert sounded, then another one in quick succession. Mae needed help.
We were out the door, running with our guns in hand, and I was thankful for the daily runs Mary had forced me to do over the last year. It helped me breathe and focused my nervous energy out of my body.
We’d seen Mae go to the left side of the warehouse, and scanned for her, seeing nothing but some stacked pipes and an old forklift.
“Open window over there,” Mary whispered.
Backs to the wall, we listened and could hear voices. They were getting closer, and I could make out the words after a few seconds.
“They followed you?” a woman’s voice asked.
“Yeah, I think they were right behind. I don’t know how they knew where I was going.” It was Mae’s voice, and I cringed that she had to attempt this ruse.
“And just how did you find us?” a male voice asked with an edge to it: Terrance.
“Like I said, I stole a truck right after you guys. I knew what you guys were up to, so I was watching you. I thought I could catch up, but the damned truck wouldn’t go over sixty-five,” Mae said as Donna.
“We had a guy kill the GPS,” Leslie said.
“Must be a separate circuit within the trucks to each other. I wondered how they didn’t find us. I kept looking over my shoulder, expecting sirens.” Mae was pulling off the role well.
“I’m going to check this out. Where’s the truck?” Terrance asked.
“Just out the main doors, across the street.”
“Why didn’t you just pull up beside us?” he asked.
“Because it’s Sunday, and I didn’t want to draw any attention to a closed warehouse,” Mae said with ease. I was very impressed with her quick repartee, and her ability to slide into someone else’s skin. Her cadence was even different.
“Fine. But if there’s anything at all fishy about it, it’s over,” Terrance said, and we could hear his heavy boot steps crossing the hard concrete floor of the warehouse. He was heading for the door near us. Inside, Mae spoke to Leslie in hushed tones, and I could tell she was leading her further into the warehouse. I looked at Mary, and she nodded, holding her gun firmly against her chest, ready to piston her legs up at the sight of Terrance. I mimicked her, and when the door flung open, she went high and right, and I stayed low and left.
He didn’t have time to draw his own gun, as Mary pointed hers at him and smiled. She motioned for him to set it on the ground and kick it over, which he did. His face didn’t betray his emotions for a second, and I knew I didn’t want to play poker against the guy.
In a matter of seconds, Mae was leading out a pissed-off version of herself.
“You have no idea what you’re doing, Donna. You’re really helping these humans, the same two that stopped us from doing what we were born to do? You’re as bad as her.” Leslie didn’t have to say Mae for us to all know who she meant. The look on Mae’s face must have given something away. “Wait a minute. You’re not Donna, are you? You’re that traitor!” Leslie lunged at Mae, almost connecting a shove, when Mary shot the ground behind Leslie’s feet.
“Get back!” Mary yelled. “And never call her that again. You don’t have any power anymore.”
Leslie’s resolve slipped and her shoulders slumped. Terrance’s firmly gripped fists loosened, and I hoped we were done with any altercations. Grabbing the zip ties from Mary’s pack, I went behind Terrance first and tied his hands behind his back, followed by Leslie’s. Guns were aimed at them the whole time.
“Let’s get them in the back of the truck and get on the road. We’ll call in and let them know we’ve acquired the targets,” Mae said without emotion. I figured she felt like a part of her was betraying her kind again, but I also knew she wholeheartedly disagreed with what they were doing.
“I’ll take the Jeep, if you guys don’t mind,” Mae said as we slid the back shut on the truck and padlocked it. There had been nothing back there, and we checked thoroughly for any hidden compartments where a weapon might have been stashed.
“Everything okay?” I asked her softly.
She just nodded glumly and touched my hand for a second, before heading across the street with the Jeep keys jingling along the way.
Soon we were heading back to the main highway, en route to New Mexico where, we’d been told, a location would be sent when we were within a hundred miles of the secret base. It was all a little too covert for me, but alien security was probably a good idea given the Event, and the stuff the hybrids just tried to pull off. We didn’t really know exactly what it was they were going to pull off, but we had to hope it could be stopped if the wheels were already in motion. I was happy to bring them to Dalhousie and General Heart, and let them deal with that part. I just wanted some sleep.