Ben’s hope was well and truly gone now.
“I don’t see how this is a good option,” Ben said. “How do you even know they’ll just take me in and not throw me in with the livestock?”
“That’s a good question,” Denver said as he took a piece of root from his camo jacket’s pocket and chewed on the end. “At least you’re thinking now. You’ll have one thing that Gregor wants almost as badly as his career trajectory.”
“What’s that?”
“You’ll go to him with information on my dad. That’ll buy you almost anything you want. You can have a comfortable life there. There’s others with Gregor. You’ll likely make friends, find a purpose, and do some good along the way.”
“Farming our species is not my idea of good.”
“But you see,” Denver said, leaning in, his face shining in the moonlight, smiling conspiratorial beneath his straggly beard. “Once you’re in, you can feed information—both ways. You could bargain for things in return for what you’ve learned about us: where our shelters are, how many people we have on our side, what our plans are. And in return, you’ll gain their trust and feed us information. If we can take out Gregor and free the people he’s using as livestock, we can start to take down other farms, freeing those people, until we… you get the picture.”
“So you want me to be a double agent of sorts?” Ben said, remembering a James Bond film he’d watched.
“Something like that.”
Ben looked down at Pip. The dog was snoozing now, her breath making a quiet rumbling on his foot. It was the first time he’d ever really understood man’s fascination with animals.
During his orientation training, they were shown a number of films produced to show them what they would be doing when they got to Kepler B, their so-called colony planet. They were told that along with humans in stasis, there was a Noah’s ark of animals too. Dogs were among the most prized for their loyalty and their uses in colonization.
“Man’s best friend,” Ben said, reciting one of the lines from the film’s narrator.
“Pardon?”
“Oh, nothing, just something I heard once about dogs.”
“Pip’s the best friend I’ll ever have aside from my old man,” Denver said.
“I can see why.”
Ben sighed and leaned forward onto his knees, clutching his head in his palms. He felt stuck, unable to truly make a decision between a life on the run, living in the dirt, or go back to some kind of civilization, although brutal and unfamiliar.
There was a risk too that this Gregor might not even accept him into the fold. What if his information wasn’t good enough? Ben turned to Denver who just stared out across the river, a stern expression on his face. It wasn’t right that a man so young should be so jaded. Ethan would likely be the same too.
Of course, that was another consideration. Could he really leave Maria and Ethan behind? Would they go with him? If they did, he’d be responsible for them like he was supposed to be responsible for them on the harvester. And that didn’t end well for anyone.
If only I didn’t go to the stasis, he thought. If only we just stayed where we were and waited it out. We’d have been fine. They would have fixed the harvester and they would have never been exposed to the truth.
“If I did go,” Ben said, “what information exactly can you give me that will guarantee my life? It seems to me, I’m the one taking all the risk here.”
“We’ll give you a map to one of our main shelters. We’ve got dozens between here and New York, but one in particular not ten miles from here will be of interest to Gregor. We’ve got weapons and supplies stashed there. If he were to find that and take it, he’d think he would be impacting our ability to survive a great deal. And there’s one other thing that’ll seal it completely.”
“What’s that?”
A hand grabbed Ben’s shoulder making him yelp with surprise. Pip woofed as she moved away from his sudden movement to lie at Denver’s feet.
“This,” Charlie said looking down at Ben from behind him.
Ben held out his hand as Charlie dropped his blue-bead necklace into his palm.
“Consider it a trophy. Gregor knows what it is, what it means, what it represents. Behind Den, it’s my most precious thing.”
It was warm in Ben’s palm where it had been around Charlie’s neck just moments ago. The bead was just like the one that Charlie had cut out of Ben’s collar. Only this was wrapped in a cocoon of semi-transparent material.
“It’s what started all this in motion,” Charlie said. “The very first find, and the item that was the catalyst for the invasion. It was also the item that I kept to remind me of my beloved, Pippa.”
“I can’t,” Ben said. “It means so much to you.”
“Which is why it’s perfect. Gregor knows this. If you turn up with it, he’ll know you stole it, as he’d never believe I’d give it away. It’s your way in, and your ticket to safety. I’ll be honest with you, Ben. You seem like a good lad, but you’re not cut out for this life out here. What you’ve experienced so far is easy street. It only gets harder from here on out. You won’t survive. I know that, you know that.”
Ben closed his hand around the bead and looked up at Charlie and Denver. They were right. He wasn’t cut out for their life. He needed security, a job, someone to guide him. And if going to the farm meant he could help these people then at least he’d be doing something good.
“Okay, you’re right. I’ll go. But how will I get information out to you?”
“By radio of sorts. Here.” Charlie handed him a metallic object resembling a coin. The surface was dark grey and rough to the touch. “I took this from a croatoan helmet, it’s what they use to communicate. They’ve been paired so they share a frequency. Don’t worry, they’re secure. Den and I have been using them for a while. As long as we keep things short, you’ll be okay. To work them you just activate the transceiver by pressing those two notches on the side there.”
Ben did as he instructed and spoke into the transceiver. He heard his voice come out via the other one. “Okay, I got it.”
“Keep it to a minimum though, and make sure you don’t let it out of your sight,” Denver said. “If it’s found, just plead ignorance. It’s unlikely they’d suspect you of being able to take it from a croatoan.”
“One week from now,” Charlie said, “you’ll contact us, tell us what you’ve learned about the shipments to and from the mother ship. We want to know if there’s a schedule, how it’s handled, who oversees the packing.”
“So what exactly is your plan?”
“Better you don’t know, son,” Charlie said. “If you don’t know, they can’t extract that from you. But it won’t come to that. Just do as you’re told, be a good worker and you’ll have no problem. When the time comes, we’ll get you out of here as there’ll be no more croatoans left.”
Chapter 17
THE HOWL of a croatoan fighter craft flying a low circuit over the camp kept Layla awake for most of the night. She punched her pillow and checked her watch after being awoken from the latest pass, probably an hour’s sleep if that, not much chance of any more.
At first the sound evoked memories of the battle of Britain. Flashbacks to shortly after the vessels appeared from the sinkholes, stuffed with ground troops who spread from the freezing smoke like locusts. The fighters appeared almost immediately in support, taking everything out of the sky in short order, firing powerful weapons at targets on the ground. They left almost as quickly as they appeared after annihilating the global population. That’s when she first met Augustus, after the overhead howling stopped, before the mini ice age took hold.