Martine thankyou so much for reading my efforts. english is my only language but my teachers always said they thought i was alien to it.
If I was a kid startin out in college there might be an excuse but at my age i can only say that i am trying to make my writing clearer. I will wrap up all the clues toward the end and hopefully you will see the story hangs together.
Chapter 11
The next morning after breakfast, Michael announced, “The aliens want me to ride ahead. They want to scout out the country and they have something they want to tell me. They can’t make sense to me yet. I will be back by nightfall.
At first, Patrick started to object. He didn’t want to be responsible for Michael getting lost or hurt if he ran into any of those involved with drugs. Then, he saw that surrounding Michael, again almost like a dust cloud, the many shadows intending to accompany him.
Back in Albuquerque everything was quiet. Alex would take the disk with him to Farmington tomorrow. The City police were satisfied that the crimes committed last night were just normal crimes and there would be no difficult reports.
Sam was permitted to clean up and reopen the museum. His only problem was explaining its closure in the first place.
Farmington had not had a quiet night. By dusk all three of the policemen had rested. Salas was again prepared to go outside on reconnaissance and Benny and Ed were taking up places for their evening activity.
Isabel had announced to the household staff that any who wanted to leave could. They would be welcomed back as soon as the hostilities were over. The staff smiled and stated that the saints would protect them and they would stay at their posts.
Ed positioned himself on the roof with provisions for the night and his sniper equipment. As soon as the staff had finished their labors for the night they retired to their wing of the house. It was seen that several shadows accompanied them. The children, along with Maria, Tess and Isabel, were all sitting in the library with Benny.
As Salas prepared to leave from a darkened part of the house, he felt a touch on his shoulder. He turned to see Isabel. She was dressed in black with a black balaclava, or ski mask, rolled up as a cap on her head. Salas frowned. Again, he was asked to be party to the safety of his captain’s wife. He saw that she was surrounded by shadows. Isabel smiled, “I will be careful, but I need to see what we are up against. The Others cannot talk to you, but they will talk to me. They need to know what is out there, also.”
Salas shrugged. He had been told over and over to expect strange things at this house. He left through the door with Isabel right behind him. Salas wondered how many of the shadows had followed as she closed the door immediately behind herself. The starlight made the reflectors Salas positioned the first night gleam in pinpoints of light showing the trails and, also, known distances along each of the trails.
Isabel put her hand on Salas’ shoulder and pulled down. Salas sank into the darkness as he tried to penetrate the gloom before him. He used his night scope on his rifle. At the far end of the trail, he saw movement. Salas clicked the squelch on his radio once. That made a slight noise for Ed to hear. Then he turned toward the house and with a tiny laser pointer, he blinked three times. That should give Ed their location and indicate there was something of interest in that direction.
Ed heard the sound in his earphone. He quickly went to the edge of the wall on the roof. The bright, dark red laser showed him where to look and with his night scope, he checked out the area. In the night scope, reflectors sowed into their clothes made Isabel and Salas stand out clearly. In front of them, about 50 yards, he saw movement. There were several distinct outlines and, then, two blurs which wouldn’t make a clear definition. Ed saw nothing of the shadows surrounding Salas, nor did he see any shadows within the group in front of them.
Isabel put her lips to Salas’s ear. Her sweet perfume almost distracted him as she whispered. “There are several men, two monsters and several shadows. Leave the shadows alone. The two monsters must be stopped. We need to capture as many of the men alive as possible.”
Salas was looking through his night scope. He could see the men and the blurs, which he took to be what Isabel was calling monsters. But of the shadows she was talking about, he could make out nothing. Again, Isabel leaned to his ear and whispered, “They are coming.”
Salas was still glued to his scope. He saw the blurs, but he couldn’t get a bead on them. He saw the men running toward himself and Isabel. There was a rifle shot and one of the blurs went off in a flash of light. Ed had scored one.
Isabel poked Salas again and handed him a magazine for his rifle. With his fingers, Salas could feel that it was one of his old magazines filled with normal bullets. Salas took this to mean that he should concentrate on the men advancing quickly. Suddenly with his eyes not at the scope, Salas saw a figure leaping towards him. He fell back by reflex when Isabel reached up and grabbed the figure. The figure was brought to ground and it struggled with her. Salas drew his pistol and one shot precipitated a flash. Salas knew the monster was no more.
In his scope, again he saw three men running toward him. Salas was aiming at legs and trying to bring them down but not to kill them. As he fell, Salas was sure one of the men was carrying a weapon. Salas was about to target him again, and this time to permanently bring him down, when he heard a rifle shot overhead. The weapon spun away and the man was left struggling with his leg wound.
Then, Salas heard or rather felt, a screaming, but he couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Isabel stood up and announced, “that is all we will have for tonight. Benny came out and, with the help of Ed, he and Salas were able to drag the wounded men into the house.
They were in the long hall where you could see the lights of Farmington on one side and the doors with the frozen doorknobs on the other. There was a lot of real noise coming from the locked doors. Salas looked at Isabel and she just shook her head. “We must not concern ourselves with what is going on in there,” she said.
They collected the three wounded men. They called the Farmington City Police Department. A van was sent. The three men were carted off under guard to the hospital and, then, to jail. The three men were clearly under the influence of drugs. They could only shake their heads and mutter, “We were supposed to be invincible. We aren’t supposed to be hurt.”
Ed retired for the night while Salas and Benny found themselves sitting over coffee in the kitchen. This time, Isabel came in and joined them. Salas just looked at her, but Benny had questions, “Begging your pardon ma’am, can you tell us anything about what is going on?”
Isabel smiled, “Yes, I can tell you. There is nothing I can do about you telling others, but I wouldn’t advise it. The shadows, you see, are aliens. They have been involved with Earth things for many years. I am what we called an engineered Alien. There are several off us here. We are all required to marry humans. We were created to carry out things the aliens or shadows, which we call the Others, can’t do.”
Benny smirked, and Isabel looked at him. “Your pardon, ma’am, it is just that Ed was asking if you had a sister. He was sure impressed with you the other night in the desert. He will sure be disappointed that there are no more like you.”
Isabel had to smile at this. “Tell Ed there are a lot more of us than he might think. There are a lot of restrictions with us also. We can only marry once and we must be sure before we mate with humans.” Isabel didn’t feel it was necessary to say that for engineered women the rules were slightly lighter than the strict enforcement they held for the men. She continued, “The monsters are the result of the aliens in some form taking the drug cocaine. That is what we are trying to stop.
The aliens are in a civil war in a galaxy far, far away. They are giving their soldiers drugs to make them into fighting machines. If we can stop the drug traffic, it may make both armies stop and force the alien governments come forth to settle the dispute.
Recently, a crucial piece of evidence was found and given to the Others. It was a recording involving the formation of the drug smuggling and other information. After tonight, we will know more about the operation. The Aliens are now interrogating their own.”
Benny and Salas looked at each other. Who would ever believe them if they told anyone.
Back in Mexico, Michael was riding his horse quickly, being led by a wisp of smoke. Toward afternoon, he was told to dismount and crawl to the top of a sloping hill. At the top, Michael saw that the hill was a sharp cliff on the far side. It was one of those seismic mesas. In the land below, Michael saw a spaceship.
This was the first time Michael had seen such a ship except for the record disk that Liz had found some many years ago.
There were men working and Michael saw several vague shapes, which he was sure were shadows as seen in the light of day. Milling around, were several humanoid shapes misshapen in their deformity from drugs.
Michael felt an agitation among the aliens behind him. He crawled back down the slope. He saw that the aliens were busy in some sort of activity. Michael could make nothing of it until one of the aliens extended his pseudopod and engulfed his head. As soon as the touching was over, Michael hurried back to his horse. He whispered something in his ear and the animal, with Michael on board, made its way quickly to back to the Patrick and the rest.
It was late in the afternoon when Michael came running in. Liz gave him a sandwich, as she correctly figured that he had forgotten lunch. As soon as he caught his breath, he told them, “Just a few miles in that direction is a mesa. At the bottom of the mesa is a ship just like on the information disks. There are many shadows surrounding it. There are, also, many men and several of the deformed creatures. They appear to be busy loading it.”
Michael turned to Patrick. “Can you arrange for an army helicopter to bring in a unit of agents? We will probably need several troopers also. They must be here just at dawn. Earlier, and we won’t be through with our raid. Later, some of the men might get away.”
Patrick nodded, went to the pack animal and took out his radio. He was several minutes on the radio arranging for the support. When he returned again, Michael was outlining what the aliens wanted. “We need to hurry. We need to hit the camp in the dark. The aliens will be taken care of by our own Others.”
Patrick looked around. He couldn’t be sure but there seemed to be many more shadows surrounding them than there had been before. Max had explained to Patrick that to the Others, quantities just didn’t have the same meaning as it did to humans. Patrick wondered if he could still call himself human. Would he become used to, as these people were, to using the term “engineered alien.”
Michael turned to Liz. “Liz, honey, you are going to have to stay with the horses.” He saw the immediate frown as the Liz of many years ago started to rise up. “Listen, we are going to need your help to mop up and understand what we have. We need you safe. We can’t chance loosing you or trying to heal you in a crucial time. As soon as it is secure, we will bring you down. In the meantime, several Others will remain with you.”
At first, Liz could feel her anger rising. Then, the Liz of today, the Liz who had been married for over 15 years to an engineered alien and who had been a mother twice, took over. She understood the wisdom in the alien’s actions. She would be important to understand what the connection to archeology this operation had and she couldn’t let personal feelings interfere with what must be done.
It was dark when they arrived at the sloping mesa. Instead of climbing to the top as Michael had done, they rode around the base of the mesa into the valley formed at its base.
Liz dismounted. She went over to a bolder, just discernable in the dim light. She sat down. Max was relieved to see that she was partially obscured by the shadows, which surrounded her.
Patrick offered Max and Michael one of his spare weapons. “No, Patrick, this must be your operation. Whatever we do, there will be no evidence left of it. It must appear that you initiated a bold strike against a group who were protecting a stash of cocaine, “ Max stated.
Patrick was leading the way. He noticed that by looking down at his feet and a few yards in front of himself, the ground ahead seemed to glow. He also saw a few rocks and tree branches that seemed to snake out of the way as the Others led them.
When they got close, several of the monsters started to look up. They seemed to be sniffing the air. Max knew that, soon, they would be detected and/or spotted. Michael went one direction and Max the other.
Patrick, with his pistol at ready, shouted, “Quietos! Arriba las manos!,” Freeze! Now up with your hands. Then he yelled, “Policía narcótico,” or narcotics police.
Of course, there were those who never listened. About that time, Michael let loose with a power blast. This startled the whole camp, including Patrick. He had been worried that these Gringos would be unarmed, but they had natural weapons any army would be proud to have.
Max was next. He let loose a blast against what, he hoped, would be a ammunition tent. He was rewarded with a secondary blast as the power he let loose caused the cased ammunition to explode.
The monsters charged. Either they had now been changed or they didn’t realize that the three men facing them were engineered aliens. Patrick shot one and, just as before, it exploded in a silent flash of light. Max caught one as it jumped before sensing what it was jumping at. He held it upside down as Patrick shot it; again, the silent flash. Michael hit one with a power blast. It went rolling, but it jumped right back up. Like an enraged or wounded animal, it just charged again.
Patrick was shooting one monster after another. Michael saw three men, all carrying rifles come running toward them. He hit them with a power blast and they were knocked out. Their weapons went sailing across the valley.
Max heard the silent screaming that he had heard when he was rescuing Liz. The Others were, again, taking care of their own. Patrick and Michael alike were holding their ears. They all saw the large ship shudder. It became a blur. Then it just disappeared with a whoosh.
The sun was just coming over the hills to the east when they heard the sound of the helicopter. Men were still in the camp and many of them still had guns. Max, Michael and Patrick quickly checked to see if there was anything left of the monsters. Of them or of the shadows, they found nothing.
The troops and the Narcotics agents quickly rounded up the men who were left. Only two had been killed as far as they could tell. They saw the ammunitions tent and Patrick just shook his head. “It must have been carelessness on their part since all we have is my pistol and a rifle I left back on the horses.” His superior was delighted that Patrick had found most of the missing stash of narcotics. It would be good to show those Gringo narcs that the Mexican narcotics department had not stolen the load of dope.
Then, the superior officer looked at the situation. Now he was mad at Patrick for letting the Americanos get so close to the danger. If one of them had been hurt, it would have been the head of every officer in the district. When he was shouting his loudest, Liz came walking up leading the five horses. “A woman! You allowed a woman to go on an expedition such as this?” He was screaming.
Liz walked up and handed the five sets of reins to a soldier and sticking out her hand, said, “Doctor Elizabeth Parker-Evans at your service Señor. I was sent by my superiors to investigate any archeological connections in the drug trade in this region.” She grabbed the hand of the director of narcotics. before he could retort, she continued. “There have been three murders of students who had all been studying in a southern district.
We have found evidence that the drug dealers have been pressuring some of our expeditions to help in the transportation of drugs. I am sure you can agree that, for the sake of academic study, it is imperative that we get to the bottom of this.”
The director had no choice but to take her hand. As his Latin nature took over, he brushed her fingers with his lips and he murmured, “The greatest pleasure to meet you, Señora. I am sure you can understand our concern if something were to happen to you.”
Liz smiled and walked to Patrick, “Señor, the officers under your command do you great service as their director. I can assure you that we were in no danger, except if that terrible product had gotten away to the States. I will mention your excellence as a director in my report.”
The director puffed himself up like a pigeon. He didn’t know who this lady was, but by her demeanor, she was a person of importance. If she thought his department did him a complement, he surly didn’t want to argue.
The Director went about his business with the prisoners and the very large stash of drugs. He had never, in his career, made as large a bust as this. Max, Michael, Patrick and Liz were on their own.
There were still several things that were worrying Liz about this situation. Where did the stone blades fit in with the killings? Why did the drug dealers try to influence the American university expeditions? Academics were notoriously not interested in politics or in drugs or anything except their own small segment of an academic field of study. Why would, all of a sudden, they be pressured into aiding drug traffic? Why had the murders centered around several scholars who probably wouldn’t even care about what drug smugglers were doing?
It took the army all day to clear the drugs the men and all the other paraphernalia that they could take. Patrick and his crew of Americanos waited until everyone left before they could start their investigation.
As far as the Mexican authorities were concerned, the investigation was over. They had the drugs. The drugs had been guarded by a group of men. They had the men. What more did they need. The ranting of the men about shadows, monsters, things called Chupacabra and what ever else were not important. They were probably the ranting of men who thought they might get an insanity plea. Insanity, yes, that was probably true. If you remain in contact with that much drug there would probably not be much left of your brain
----------------------------------
Stories by Ken
She was the first lady in the State Police of her state. She fought to be equal to the men with which she worked. On the CB citizen's band rodio she was known as Venus Smiles to her fellow officers she was officer Liz Parker, state policewoman.
What would you do if you were a homicide detective. Your have the murder of a beautiful woman who everyone said was a saint. Your only clue, was held by the very confused ghost of the victim.
Smugglers of Antar (ml,mm,ai,kt adult) COMPLETE
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chapter 11 nov 7
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.
Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
chapter 11 nov 7
Martine thankyou so much for reading my efforts. english is my only language but my teachers always said they thought i was alien to it.
If I was a kid startin out in college there might be an excuse but at my age i can only say that i am trying to make my writing clearer. I will wrap up all the clues toward the end and hopefully you will see the story hangs together.
Chapter 11
The next morning after breakfast, Michael announced, “The aliens want me to ride ahead. They want to scout out the country and they have something they want to tell me. They can’t make sense to me yet. I will be back by nightfall.
At first, Patrick started to object. He didn’t want to be responsible for Michael getting lost or hurt if he ran into any of those involved with drugs. Then, he saw that surrounding Michael, again almost like a dust cloud, the many shadows intending to accompany him.
Back in Albuquerque everything was quiet. Alex would take the disk with him to Farmington tomorrow. The City police were satisfied that the crimes committed last night were just normal crimes and there would be no difficult reports.
Sam was permitted to clean up and reopen the museum. His only problem was explaining its closure in the first place.
Farmington had not had a quiet night. By dusk all three of the policemen had rested. Salas was again prepared to go outside on reconnaissance and Benny and Ed were taking up places for their evening activity.
Isabel had announced to the household staff that any who wanted to leave could. They would be welcomed back as soon as the hostilities were over. The staff smiled and stated that the saints would protect them and they would stay at their posts.
Ed positioned himself on the roof with provisions for the night and his sniper equipment. As soon as the staff had finished their labors for the night they retired to their wing of the house. It was seen that several shadows accompanied them. The children, along with Maria, Tess and Isabel, were all sitting in the library with Benny.
As Salas prepared to leave from a darkened part of the house, he felt a touch on his shoulder. He turned to see Isabel. She was dressed in black with a black balaclava, or ski mask, rolled up as a cap on her head. Salas frowned. Again, he was asked to be party to the safety of his captain’s wife. He saw that she was surrounded by shadows. Isabel smiled, “I will be careful, but I need to see what we are up against. The Others cannot talk to you, but they will talk to me. They need to know what is out there, also.”
Salas shrugged. He had been told over and over to expect strange things at this house. He left through the door with Isabel right behind him. Salas wondered how many of the shadows had followed as she closed the door immediately behind herself. The starlight made the reflectors Salas positioned the first night gleam in pinpoints of light showing the trails and, also, known distances along each of the trails.
Isabel put her hand on Salas’ shoulder and pulled down. Salas sank into the darkness as he tried to penetrate the gloom before him. He used his night scope on his rifle. At the far end of the trail, he saw movement. Salas clicked the squelch on his radio once. That made a slight noise for Ed to hear. Then he turned toward the house and with a tiny laser pointer, he blinked three times. That should give Ed their location and indicate there was something of interest in that direction.
Ed heard the sound in his earphone. He quickly went to the edge of the wall on the roof. The bright, dark red laser showed him where to look and with his night scope, he checked out the area. In the night scope, reflectors sowed into their clothes made Isabel and Salas stand out clearly. In front of them, about 50 yards, he saw movement. There were several distinct outlines and, then, two blurs which wouldn’t make a clear definition. Ed saw nothing of the shadows surrounding Salas, nor did he see any shadows within the group in front of them.
Isabel put her lips to Salas’s ear. Her sweet perfume almost distracted him as she whispered. “There are several men, two monsters and several shadows. Leave the shadows alone. The two monsters must be stopped. We need to capture as many of the men alive as possible.”
Salas was looking through his night scope. He could see the men and the blurs, which he took to be what Isabel was calling monsters. But of the shadows she was talking about, he could make out nothing. Again, Isabel leaned to his ear and whispered, “They are coming.”
Salas was still glued to his scope. He saw the blurs, but he couldn’t get a bead on them. He saw the men running toward himself and Isabel. There was a rifle shot and one of the blurs went off in a flash of light. Ed had scored one.
Isabel poked Salas again and handed him a magazine for his rifle. With his fingers, Salas could feel that it was one of his old magazines filled with normal bullets. Salas took this to mean that he should concentrate on the men advancing quickly. Suddenly with his eyes not at the scope, Salas saw a figure leaping towards him. He fell back by reflex when Isabel reached up and grabbed the figure. The figure was brought to ground and it struggled with her. Salas drew his pistol and one shot precipitated a flash. Salas knew the monster was no more.
In his scope, again he saw three men running toward him. Salas was aiming at legs and trying to bring them down but not to kill them. As he fell, Salas was sure one of the men was carrying a weapon. Salas was about to target him again, and this time to permanently bring him down, when he heard a rifle shot overhead. The weapon spun away and the man was left struggling with his leg wound.
Then, Salas heard or rather felt, a screaming, but he couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Isabel stood up and announced, “that is all we will have for tonight. Benny came out and, with the help of Ed, he and Salas were able to drag the wounded men into the house.
They were in the long hall where you could see the lights of Farmington on one side and the doors with the frozen doorknobs on the other. There was a lot of real noise coming from the locked doors. Salas looked at Isabel and she just shook her head. “We must not concern ourselves with what is going on in there,” she said.
They collected the three wounded men. They called the Farmington City Police Department. A van was sent. The three men were carted off under guard to the hospital and, then, to jail. The three men were clearly under the influence of drugs. They could only shake their heads and mutter, “We were supposed to be invincible. We aren’t supposed to be hurt.”
Ed retired for the night while Salas and Benny found themselves sitting over coffee in the kitchen. This time, Isabel came in and joined them. Salas just looked at her, but Benny had questions, “Begging your pardon ma’am, can you tell us anything about what is going on?”
Isabel smiled, “Yes, I can tell you. There is nothing I can do about you telling others, but I wouldn’t advise it. The shadows, you see, are aliens. They have been involved with Earth things for many years. I am what we called an engineered Alien. There are several off us here. We are all required to marry humans. We were created to carry out things the aliens or shadows, which we call the Others, can’t do.”
Benny smirked, and Isabel looked at him. “Your pardon, ma’am, it is just that Ed was asking if you had a sister. He was sure impressed with you the other night in the desert. He will sure be disappointed that there are no more like you.”
Isabel had to smile at this. “Tell Ed there are a lot more of us than he might think. There are a lot of restrictions with us also. We can only marry once and we must be sure before we mate with humans.” Isabel didn’t feel it was necessary to say that for engineered women the rules were slightly lighter than the strict enforcement they held for the men. She continued, “The monsters are the result of the aliens in some form taking the drug cocaine. That is what we are trying to stop.
The aliens are in a civil war in a galaxy far, far away. They are giving their soldiers drugs to make them into fighting machines. If we can stop the drug traffic, it may make both armies stop and force the alien governments come forth to settle the dispute.
Recently, a crucial piece of evidence was found and given to the Others. It was a recording involving the formation of the drug smuggling and other information. After tonight, we will know more about the operation. The Aliens are now interrogating their own.”
Benny and Salas looked at each other. Who would ever believe them if they told anyone.
Back in Mexico, Michael was riding his horse quickly, being led by a wisp of smoke. Toward afternoon, he was told to dismount and crawl to the top of a sloping hill. At the top, Michael saw that the hill was a sharp cliff on the far side. It was one of those seismic mesas. In the land below, Michael saw a spaceship.
This was the first time Michael had seen such a ship except for the record disk that Liz had found some many years ago.
There were men working and Michael saw several vague shapes, which he was sure were shadows as seen in the light of day. Milling around, were several humanoid shapes misshapen in their deformity from drugs.
Michael felt an agitation among the aliens behind him. He crawled back down the slope. He saw that the aliens were busy in some sort of activity. Michael could make nothing of it until one of the aliens extended his pseudopod and engulfed his head. As soon as the touching was over, Michael hurried back to his horse. He whispered something in his ear and the animal, with Michael on board, made its way quickly to back to the Patrick and the rest.
It was late in the afternoon when Michael came running in. Liz gave him a sandwich, as she correctly figured that he had forgotten lunch. As soon as he caught his breath, he told them, “Just a few miles in that direction is a mesa. At the bottom of the mesa is a ship just like on the information disks. There are many shadows surrounding it. There are, also, many men and several of the deformed creatures. They appear to be busy loading it.”
Michael turned to Patrick. “Can you arrange for an army helicopter to bring in a unit of agents? We will probably need several troopers also. They must be here just at dawn. Earlier, and we won’t be through with our raid. Later, some of the men might get away.”
Patrick nodded, went to the pack animal and took out his radio. He was several minutes on the radio arranging for the support. When he returned again, Michael was outlining what the aliens wanted. “We need to hurry. We need to hit the camp in the dark. The aliens will be taken care of by our own Others.”
Patrick looked around. He couldn’t be sure but there seemed to be many more shadows surrounding them than there had been before. Max had explained to Patrick that to the Others, quantities just didn’t have the same meaning as it did to humans. Patrick wondered if he could still call himself human. Would he become used to, as these people were, to using the term “engineered alien.”
Michael turned to Liz. “Liz, honey, you are going to have to stay with the horses.” He saw the immediate frown as the Liz of many years ago started to rise up. “Listen, we are going to need your help to mop up and understand what we have. We need you safe. We can’t chance loosing you or trying to heal you in a crucial time. As soon as it is secure, we will bring you down. In the meantime, several Others will remain with you.”
At first, Liz could feel her anger rising. Then, the Liz of today, the Liz who had been married for over 15 years to an engineered alien and who had been a mother twice, took over. She understood the wisdom in the alien’s actions. She would be important to understand what the connection to archeology this operation had and she couldn’t let personal feelings interfere with what must be done.
It was dark when they arrived at the sloping mesa. Instead of climbing to the top as Michael had done, they rode around the base of the mesa into the valley formed at its base.
Liz dismounted. She went over to a bolder, just discernable in the dim light. She sat down. Max was relieved to see that she was partially obscured by the shadows, which surrounded her.
Patrick offered Max and Michael one of his spare weapons. “No, Patrick, this must be your operation. Whatever we do, there will be no evidence left of it. It must appear that you initiated a bold strike against a group who were protecting a stash of cocaine, “ Max stated.
Patrick was leading the way. He noticed that by looking down at his feet and a few yards in front of himself, the ground ahead seemed to glow. He also saw a few rocks and tree branches that seemed to snake out of the way as the Others led them.
When they got close, several of the monsters started to look up. They seemed to be sniffing the air. Max knew that, soon, they would be detected and/or spotted. Michael went one direction and Max the other.
Patrick, with his pistol at ready, shouted, “Quietos! Arriba las manos!,” Freeze! Now up with your hands. Then he yelled, “Policía narcótico,” or narcotics police.
Of course, there were those who never listened. About that time, Michael let loose with a power blast. This startled the whole camp, including Patrick. He had been worried that these Gringos would be unarmed, but they had natural weapons any army would be proud to have.
Max was next. He let loose a blast against what, he hoped, would be a ammunition tent. He was rewarded with a secondary blast as the power he let loose caused the cased ammunition to explode.
The monsters charged. Either they had now been changed or they didn’t realize that the three men facing them were engineered aliens. Patrick shot one and, just as before, it exploded in a silent flash of light. Max caught one as it jumped before sensing what it was jumping at. He held it upside down as Patrick shot it; again, the silent flash. Michael hit one with a power blast. It went rolling, but it jumped right back up. Like an enraged or wounded animal, it just charged again.
Patrick was shooting one monster after another. Michael saw three men, all carrying rifles come running toward them. He hit them with a power blast and they were knocked out. Their weapons went sailing across the valley.
Max heard the silent screaming that he had heard when he was rescuing Liz. The Others were, again, taking care of their own. Patrick and Michael alike were holding their ears. They all saw the large ship shudder. It became a blur. Then it just disappeared with a whoosh.
The sun was just coming over the hills to the east when they heard the sound of the helicopter. Men were still in the camp and many of them still had guns. Max, Michael and Patrick quickly checked to see if there was anything left of the monsters. Of them or of the shadows, they found nothing.
The troops and the Narcotics agents quickly rounded up the men who were left. Only two had been killed as far as they could tell. They saw the ammunitions tent and Patrick just shook his head. “It must have been carelessness on their part since all we have is my pistol and a rifle I left back on the horses.” His superior was delighted that Patrick had found most of the missing stash of narcotics. It would be good to show those Gringo narcs that the Mexican narcotics department had not stolen the load of dope.
Then, the superior officer looked at the situation. Now he was mad at Patrick for letting the Americanos get so close to the danger. If one of them had been hurt, it would have been the head of every officer in the district. When he was shouting his loudest, Liz came walking up leading the five horses. “A woman! You allowed a woman to go on an expedition such as this?” He was screaming.
Liz walked up and handed the five sets of reins to a soldier and sticking out her hand, said, “Doctor Elizabeth Parker-Evans at your service Señor. I was sent by my superiors to investigate any archeological connections in the drug trade in this region.” She grabbed the hand of the director of narcotics. before he could retort, she continued. “There have been three murders of students who had all been studying in a southern district.
We have found evidence that the drug dealers have been pressuring some of our expeditions to help in the transportation of drugs. I am sure you can agree that, for the sake of academic study, it is imperative that we get to the bottom of this.”
The director had no choice but to take her hand. As his Latin nature took over, he brushed her fingers with his lips and he murmured, “The greatest pleasure to meet you, Señora. I am sure you can understand our concern if something were to happen to you.”
Liz smiled and walked to Patrick, “Señor, the officers under your command do you great service as their director. I can assure you that we were in no danger, except if that terrible product had gotten away to the States. I will mention your excellence as a director in my report.”
The director puffed himself up like a pigeon. He didn’t know who this lady was, but by her demeanor, she was a person of importance. If she thought his department did him a complement, he surly didn’t want to argue.
The Director went about his business with the prisoners and the very large stash of drugs. He had never, in his career, made as large a bust as this. Max, Michael, Patrick and Liz were on their own.
There were still several things that were worrying Liz about this situation. Where did the stone blades fit in with the killings? Why did the drug dealers try to influence the American university expeditions? Academics were notoriously not interested in politics or in drugs or anything except their own small segment of an academic field of study. Why would, all of a sudden, they be pressured into aiding drug traffic? Why had the murders centered around several scholars who probably wouldn’t even care about what drug smugglers were doing?
It took the army all day to clear the drugs the men and all the other paraphernalia that they could take. Patrick and his crew of Americanos waited until everyone left before they could start their investigation.
As far as the Mexican authorities were concerned, the investigation was over. They had the drugs. The drugs had been guarded by a group of men. They had the men. What more did they need. The ranting of the men about shadows, monsters, things called Chupacabra and what ever else were not important. They were probably the ranting of men who thought they might get an insanity plea. Insanity, yes, that was probably true. If you remain in contact with that much drug there would probably not be much left of your brain
----------------------------------
Stories by Ken
She was the first lady in the State Police of her state. She fought to be equal to the men with which she worked. On the CB citizen's band rodio she was known as Venus Smiles to her fellow officers she was officer Liz Parker, state policewoman.
What would you do if you were a homicide detective. Your have the murder of a beautiful woman who everyone said was a saint. Your only clue, was held by the very confused ghost of the victim.
If I was a kid startin out in college there might be an excuse but at my age i can only say that i am trying to make my writing clearer. I will wrap up all the clues toward the end and hopefully you will see the story hangs together.
Chapter 11
The next morning after breakfast, Michael announced, “The aliens want me to ride ahead. They want to scout out the country and they have something they want to tell me. They can’t make sense to me yet. I will be back by nightfall.
At first, Patrick started to object. He didn’t want to be responsible for Michael getting lost or hurt if he ran into any of those involved with drugs. Then, he saw that surrounding Michael, again almost like a dust cloud, the many shadows intending to accompany him.
Back in Albuquerque everything was quiet. Alex would take the disk with him to Farmington tomorrow. The City police were satisfied that the crimes committed last night were just normal crimes and there would be no difficult reports.
Sam was permitted to clean up and reopen the museum. His only problem was explaining its closure in the first place.
Farmington had not had a quiet night. By dusk all three of the policemen had rested. Salas was again prepared to go outside on reconnaissance and Benny and Ed were taking up places for their evening activity.
Isabel had announced to the household staff that any who wanted to leave could. They would be welcomed back as soon as the hostilities were over. The staff smiled and stated that the saints would protect them and they would stay at their posts.
Ed positioned himself on the roof with provisions for the night and his sniper equipment. As soon as the staff had finished their labors for the night they retired to their wing of the house. It was seen that several shadows accompanied them. The children, along with Maria, Tess and Isabel, were all sitting in the library with Benny.
As Salas prepared to leave from a darkened part of the house, he felt a touch on his shoulder. He turned to see Isabel. She was dressed in black with a black balaclava, or ski mask, rolled up as a cap on her head. Salas frowned. Again, he was asked to be party to the safety of his captain’s wife. He saw that she was surrounded by shadows. Isabel smiled, “I will be careful, but I need to see what we are up against. The Others cannot talk to you, but they will talk to me. They need to know what is out there, also.”
Salas shrugged. He had been told over and over to expect strange things at this house. He left through the door with Isabel right behind him. Salas wondered how many of the shadows had followed as she closed the door immediately behind herself. The starlight made the reflectors Salas positioned the first night gleam in pinpoints of light showing the trails and, also, known distances along each of the trails.
Isabel put her hand on Salas’ shoulder and pulled down. Salas sank into the darkness as he tried to penetrate the gloom before him. He used his night scope on his rifle. At the far end of the trail, he saw movement. Salas clicked the squelch on his radio once. That made a slight noise for Ed to hear. Then he turned toward the house and with a tiny laser pointer, he blinked three times. That should give Ed their location and indicate there was something of interest in that direction.
Ed heard the sound in his earphone. He quickly went to the edge of the wall on the roof. The bright, dark red laser showed him where to look and with his night scope, he checked out the area. In the night scope, reflectors sowed into their clothes made Isabel and Salas stand out clearly. In front of them, about 50 yards, he saw movement. There were several distinct outlines and, then, two blurs which wouldn’t make a clear definition. Ed saw nothing of the shadows surrounding Salas, nor did he see any shadows within the group in front of them.
Isabel put her lips to Salas’s ear. Her sweet perfume almost distracted him as she whispered. “There are several men, two monsters and several shadows. Leave the shadows alone. The two monsters must be stopped. We need to capture as many of the men alive as possible.”
Salas was looking through his night scope. He could see the men and the blurs, which he took to be what Isabel was calling monsters. But of the shadows she was talking about, he could make out nothing. Again, Isabel leaned to his ear and whispered, “They are coming.”
Salas was still glued to his scope. He saw the blurs, but he couldn’t get a bead on them. He saw the men running toward himself and Isabel. There was a rifle shot and one of the blurs went off in a flash of light. Ed had scored one.
Isabel poked Salas again and handed him a magazine for his rifle. With his fingers, Salas could feel that it was one of his old magazines filled with normal bullets. Salas took this to mean that he should concentrate on the men advancing quickly. Suddenly with his eyes not at the scope, Salas saw a figure leaping towards him. He fell back by reflex when Isabel reached up and grabbed the figure. The figure was brought to ground and it struggled with her. Salas drew his pistol and one shot precipitated a flash. Salas knew the monster was no more.
In his scope, again he saw three men running toward him. Salas was aiming at legs and trying to bring them down but not to kill them. As he fell, Salas was sure one of the men was carrying a weapon. Salas was about to target him again, and this time to permanently bring him down, when he heard a rifle shot overhead. The weapon spun away and the man was left struggling with his leg wound.
Then, Salas heard or rather felt, a screaming, but he couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Isabel stood up and announced, “that is all we will have for tonight. Benny came out and, with the help of Ed, he and Salas were able to drag the wounded men into the house.
They were in the long hall where you could see the lights of Farmington on one side and the doors with the frozen doorknobs on the other. There was a lot of real noise coming from the locked doors. Salas looked at Isabel and she just shook her head. “We must not concern ourselves with what is going on in there,” she said.
They collected the three wounded men. They called the Farmington City Police Department. A van was sent. The three men were carted off under guard to the hospital and, then, to jail. The three men were clearly under the influence of drugs. They could only shake their heads and mutter, “We were supposed to be invincible. We aren’t supposed to be hurt.”
Ed retired for the night while Salas and Benny found themselves sitting over coffee in the kitchen. This time, Isabel came in and joined them. Salas just looked at her, but Benny had questions, “Begging your pardon ma’am, can you tell us anything about what is going on?”
Isabel smiled, “Yes, I can tell you. There is nothing I can do about you telling others, but I wouldn’t advise it. The shadows, you see, are aliens. They have been involved with Earth things for many years. I am what we called an engineered Alien. There are several off us here. We are all required to marry humans. We were created to carry out things the aliens or shadows, which we call the Others, can’t do.”
Benny smirked, and Isabel looked at him. “Your pardon, ma’am, it is just that Ed was asking if you had a sister. He was sure impressed with you the other night in the desert. He will sure be disappointed that there are no more like you.”
Isabel had to smile at this. “Tell Ed there are a lot more of us than he might think. There are a lot of restrictions with us also. We can only marry once and we must be sure before we mate with humans.” Isabel didn’t feel it was necessary to say that for engineered women the rules were slightly lighter than the strict enforcement they held for the men. She continued, “The monsters are the result of the aliens in some form taking the drug cocaine. That is what we are trying to stop.
The aliens are in a civil war in a galaxy far, far away. They are giving their soldiers drugs to make them into fighting machines. If we can stop the drug traffic, it may make both armies stop and force the alien governments come forth to settle the dispute.
Recently, a crucial piece of evidence was found and given to the Others. It was a recording involving the formation of the drug smuggling and other information. After tonight, we will know more about the operation. The Aliens are now interrogating their own.”
Benny and Salas looked at each other. Who would ever believe them if they told anyone.
Back in Mexico, Michael was riding his horse quickly, being led by a wisp of smoke. Toward afternoon, he was told to dismount and crawl to the top of a sloping hill. At the top, Michael saw that the hill was a sharp cliff on the far side. It was one of those seismic mesas. In the land below, Michael saw a spaceship.
This was the first time Michael had seen such a ship except for the record disk that Liz had found some many years ago.
There were men working and Michael saw several vague shapes, which he was sure were shadows as seen in the light of day. Milling around, were several humanoid shapes misshapen in their deformity from drugs.
Michael felt an agitation among the aliens behind him. He crawled back down the slope. He saw that the aliens were busy in some sort of activity. Michael could make nothing of it until one of the aliens extended his pseudopod and engulfed his head. As soon as the touching was over, Michael hurried back to his horse. He whispered something in his ear and the animal, with Michael on board, made its way quickly to back to the Patrick and the rest.
It was late in the afternoon when Michael came running in. Liz gave him a sandwich, as she correctly figured that he had forgotten lunch. As soon as he caught his breath, he told them, “Just a few miles in that direction is a mesa. At the bottom of the mesa is a ship just like on the information disks. There are many shadows surrounding it. There are, also, many men and several of the deformed creatures. They appear to be busy loading it.”
Michael turned to Patrick. “Can you arrange for an army helicopter to bring in a unit of agents? We will probably need several troopers also. They must be here just at dawn. Earlier, and we won’t be through with our raid. Later, some of the men might get away.”
Patrick nodded, went to the pack animal and took out his radio. He was several minutes on the radio arranging for the support. When he returned again, Michael was outlining what the aliens wanted. “We need to hurry. We need to hit the camp in the dark. The aliens will be taken care of by our own Others.”
Patrick looked around. He couldn’t be sure but there seemed to be many more shadows surrounding them than there had been before. Max had explained to Patrick that to the Others, quantities just didn’t have the same meaning as it did to humans. Patrick wondered if he could still call himself human. Would he become used to, as these people were, to using the term “engineered alien.”
Michael turned to Liz. “Liz, honey, you are going to have to stay with the horses.” He saw the immediate frown as the Liz of many years ago started to rise up. “Listen, we are going to need your help to mop up and understand what we have. We need you safe. We can’t chance loosing you or trying to heal you in a crucial time. As soon as it is secure, we will bring you down. In the meantime, several Others will remain with you.”
At first, Liz could feel her anger rising. Then, the Liz of today, the Liz who had been married for over 15 years to an engineered alien and who had been a mother twice, took over. She understood the wisdom in the alien’s actions. She would be important to understand what the connection to archeology this operation had and she couldn’t let personal feelings interfere with what must be done.
It was dark when they arrived at the sloping mesa. Instead of climbing to the top as Michael had done, they rode around the base of the mesa into the valley formed at its base.
Liz dismounted. She went over to a bolder, just discernable in the dim light. She sat down. Max was relieved to see that she was partially obscured by the shadows, which surrounded her.
Patrick offered Max and Michael one of his spare weapons. “No, Patrick, this must be your operation. Whatever we do, there will be no evidence left of it. It must appear that you initiated a bold strike against a group who were protecting a stash of cocaine, “ Max stated.
Patrick was leading the way. He noticed that by looking down at his feet and a few yards in front of himself, the ground ahead seemed to glow. He also saw a few rocks and tree branches that seemed to snake out of the way as the Others led them.
When they got close, several of the monsters started to look up. They seemed to be sniffing the air. Max knew that, soon, they would be detected and/or spotted. Michael went one direction and Max the other.
Patrick, with his pistol at ready, shouted, “Quietos! Arriba las manos!,” Freeze! Now up with your hands. Then he yelled, “Policía narcótico,” or narcotics police.
Of course, there were those who never listened. About that time, Michael let loose with a power blast. This startled the whole camp, including Patrick. He had been worried that these Gringos would be unarmed, but they had natural weapons any army would be proud to have.
Max was next. He let loose a blast against what, he hoped, would be a ammunition tent. He was rewarded with a secondary blast as the power he let loose caused the cased ammunition to explode.
The monsters charged. Either they had now been changed or they didn’t realize that the three men facing them were engineered aliens. Patrick shot one and, just as before, it exploded in a silent flash of light. Max caught one as it jumped before sensing what it was jumping at. He held it upside down as Patrick shot it; again, the silent flash. Michael hit one with a power blast. It went rolling, but it jumped right back up. Like an enraged or wounded animal, it just charged again.
Patrick was shooting one monster after another. Michael saw three men, all carrying rifles come running toward them. He hit them with a power blast and they were knocked out. Their weapons went sailing across the valley.
Max heard the silent screaming that he had heard when he was rescuing Liz. The Others were, again, taking care of their own. Patrick and Michael alike were holding their ears. They all saw the large ship shudder. It became a blur. Then it just disappeared with a whoosh.
The sun was just coming over the hills to the east when they heard the sound of the helicopter. Men were still in the camp and many of them still had guns. Max, Michael and Patrick quickly checked to see if there was anything left of the monsters. Of them or of the shadows, they found nothing.
The troops and the Narcotics agents quickly rounded up the men who were left. Only two had been killed as far as they could tell. They saw the ammunitions tent and Patrick just shook his head. “It must have been carelessness on their part since all we have is my pistol and a rifle I left back on the horses.” His superior was delighted that Patrick had found most of the missing stash of narcotics. It would be good to show those Gringo narcs that the Mexican narcotics department had not stolen the load of dope.
Then, the superior officer looked at the situation. Now he was mad at Patrick for letting the Americanos get so close to the danger. If one of them had been hurt, it would have been the head of every officer in the district. When he was shouting his loudest, Liz came walking up leading the five horses. “A woman! You allowed a woman to go on an expedition such as this?” He was screaming.
Liz walked up and handed the five sets of reins to a soldier and sticking out her hand, said, “Doctor Elizabeth Parker-Evans at your service Señor. I was sent by my superiors to investigate any archeological connections in the drug trade in this region.” She grabbed the hand of the director of narcotics. before he could retort, she continued. “There have been three murders of students who had all been studying in a southern district.
We have found evidence that the drug dealers have been pressuring some of our expeditions to help in the transportation of drugs. I am sure you can agree that, for the sake of academic study, it is imperative that we get to the bottom of this.”
The director had no choice but to take her hand. As his Latin nature took over, he brushed her fingers with his lips and he murmured, “The greatest pleasure to meet you, Señora. I am sure you can understand our concern if something were to happen to you.”
Liz smiled and walked to Patrick, “Señor, the officers under your command do you great service as their director. I can assure you that we were in no danger, except if that terrible product had gotten away to the States. I will mention your excellence as a director in my report.”
The director puffed himself up like a pigeon. He didn’t know who this lady was, but by her demeanor, she was a person of importance. If she thought his department did him a complement, he surly didn’t want to argue.
The Director went about his business with the prisoners and the very large stash of drugs. He had never, in his career, made as large a bust as this. Max, Michael, Patrick and Liz were on their own.
There were still several things that were worrying Liz about this situation. Where did the stone blades fit in with the killings? Why did the drug dealers try to influence the American university expeditions? Academics were notoriously not interested in politics or in drugs or anything except their own small segment of an academic field of study. Why would, all of a sudden, they be pressured into aiding drug traffic? Why had the murders centered around several scholars who probably wouldn’t even care about what drug smugglers were doing?
It took the army all day to clear the drugs the men and all the other paraphernalia that they could take. Patrick and his crew of Americanos waited until everyone left before they could start their investigation.
As far as the Mexican authorities were concerned, the investigation was over. They had the drugs. The drugs had been guarded by a group of men. They had the men. What more did they need. The ranting of the men about shadows, monsters, things called Chupacabra and what ever else were not important. They were probably the ranting of men who thought they might get an insanity plea. Insanity, yes, that was probably true. If you remain in contact with that much drug there would probably not be much left of your brain
----------------------------------
Stories by Ken
She was the first lady in the State Police of her state. She fought to be equal to the men with which she worked. On the CB citizen's band rodio she was known as Venus Smiles to her fellow officers she was officer Liz Parker, state policewoman.
What would you do if you were a homicide detective. Your have the murder of a beautiful woman who everyone said was a saint. Your only clue, was held by the very confused ghost of the victim.
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.
Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
chapter 12 nov 19
Martine Latin culture is known for being “Macho.” This has made it difficult for women to get equality in these cultures. It is interesting that they are surprised at how well Liz does. Michael’s part may be from his history with Liz. In the first book all the engineered ones were worried about Max picking Liz for his mate. She was head strong and she got her self in trouble many times. In this story and the next one following it is remarked that Liz had matured. She no longer has to prove herself. Liz is very valuable to the group because she knows the most about cultures and artifacts. She does not now put herself in the front of danger as she might have done in the past. I can’t now think of the word, a man who is self important. The superior officer falls for the flattery that Liz gives to him and she is able to control his anger.
Razz214 I would hope that you might enjoy this story. It is part two of so far a three part series. Liz of the Desert is the first part. Sometimes I fear I am not doing justice to the story I am telling. But here it is.
Chapter 12
Liz thought there must be more to whatever was going on. They camped near the sight of the drug storage that night. Patrick noticed that there seemed to be fewer shadows, but they were so hard to keep track of that he just wasn’t sure. Max was relaying the latest information from the Others. “The ship has been taken and the others who were involved were captured and processed.”
“What does processed mean?” Patrick asked.
Max shook his head, “I asked, but they were having trouble with the concept. It is not as if they were killed, but a lot of pain must be involved. It is as if they were consumed into the group we know. All of their knowledge is now part of the Others. Or at least, the Others we know.
The areas near Oaxaca, that had been mentioned in Rodney’s journals, have already checked the Others . The area shows there was something there but it is gone now. They also checked the area where your cousin lived. There is no sign of anything like the Chupacabra. They told us not to worry about the bronze plates, so I assume, they have them in possession somehow. The Others insist that the answers we are looking for are somewhere near here.
They had not had time to finish off their frozen meat. So tonight, after everyone else left, the four of them had a feast of vegetable stew with chunks of roast beef. In fact, as soon as the army left, Liz and Michael started cooking it. By 7:00 that evening, it was ready. Tomorrow would be the fourth day. They had one extra day of rations. If they stayed and searched the area tomorrow and it would take them two days to get back to the rancho, they would be short one day of food stuff.
Liz was adamant. There were answers some where near and she would never have another chance to get them. Patrick shrugged. He sure wasn’t going to look weak, in the eyes of the small lady whom he was growing to admire, by worrying about having enough food to get back.
That night Patrick was talking to Max, “Your wife is a very capable woman. She handled the director like an expert.”
Max smiled, “Yes, in her younger years, she was a barrel racer on the rodeo circuit. Then, she decided that it was interfering with her college. At that time she was going to be a biochemist. In fact, her bachelors degree is in biochemistry. Later, she got interested in anthropology and archeology especially. She got her master’s and doctorate degrees in Archeology. For a while she was doing surveys in country much like this. At that time, her only company was a German Shepard dog and a Glock pistol. Don’t ever let her get you on the wrong side of her Glock. She is very good with it.”
Patrick mused, “My wife is a strong woman, also. She has managed to make sure our children are prepared for their schooling. I have a son and daughter in college and another daughter in what you would call high school. The one in college has stated that she wants to study in the United States this next year. We will probably find a way for her to do so.”
Max thought out loud, “As engineered aliens, we tend to seek strong mates. And we remain very faithful to them.”
Patrick nodded. He was finding that the engineered aliens were admirable beings. He was growing to be proud of his heritage.
The next morning, the aliens were, again, just a blur in the air. They approached Max and he, in turn, led the four people toward the distant cliffs. The sandstone cliffs were very shear with a large amount of rubble at the bottom. They were typical of the cliffs that Liz remembered from Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. They were continually eroding and crumbling to deposit debris on the valley floor. That was one of the dangers of living at the great pueblos which were built at their base. Huge boulders would break loose and come rolling down, destroying everything in their path.
The Others were everywhere. But in the bright day light, they were just wisps of dust-colored smoke. It was Patrick who first found something strange. He called the rest of the group. There in the sand was a print clearly made by an American army surplus boot. The Others gathered and conversed with Max.
“We are warned to be careful. This is the mark of someone important and very dangerous, “ Max warned everyone.
While Liz was crawling beneath the boulders, she who found the entrance to the cave. Once inside the cave, their electric torches clearly showed plenty of prints. Patrick drew his weapon. He, Max and Michael took the lead. Liz was left to bring up the rear.
Michael smiled because this showed how much she had matured. There was a time, armed or not, that Liz would have insisted on always being the first one into strange places. They followed a trail for a time. Ahead, they saw a glow. They all turned off their light and proceeded carefully. Patrick noticed that the trail in front of him glowed slightly. He could just make out shadows going before him marking the trail.
As they entered a large room in the cave they saw a figure hunched over something. Patrick announced as he had before, “Quietos! Arriba las manos!” Then he added in English, “Get your hands over your head and don’t move!”
The figure jumped because he had no idea that he had been found. He was a man somewhere in his sixties or so. He was dressed in khaki pants and shirt. He was wearing army surplus boots. His straw hat had seen better days long ago. His hair was a shock of silver-white. He had almost shaggy eyebrows. His glasses were gold rimmed from a time gone by. In one hand, he had a trowel and in the other, he had a shelf of notes.
Liz stepped forward, careful not to get in the way of Patrick’s line of fire. “Doctor Whitherspoon! You haven’t been seen for ages. What are you doing here?” she asked. Liz was facing the legendary man who wrote the book on Lithic construction and dating. He was the one man in the world who could duplicate the delicate knapping needed to form the ancient stone artifacts. He was the person who had made the clovis point so well that Liz couldn’t tell it from an original.
“Doctor Parker, I might have known that it was you causing all that commotion yesterday,” the old man growled.
Michael came forward and roughly patted the old man down over very verbal protest. Michael took his trowel away from him and pushed him into a seated position on a boulder. Michael, then, stepped back and Patrick holstered his weapon. Both Michael and Max were watching the man intently. Patrick felt that with any false move on his part, Michael and/or Max would settle him for sure.
Liz surveyed the cave. It was filled with artifacts. Some were Spanish, some Aztec and some were foreign to anything she knew. In one corner, she saw several examples of stone tools. She walked over to look at them. She saw that several were almost like the Clovis blades that had been used to kill the many victims they had been finding. On closer inspection of the whole collection, they were similar to the Clovis blades that she knew, but there were slight differences. She hadn’t noticed that when she was looking at the one taken into evidence.
Liz saw a small stack of bronze disks, which were instantly covered by the shadows following her. They couldn’t pack them out, but Liz was sure they wanted her to take charge of them. She surveyed the amount and verity of the artifacts. Turning to the huddled doctor she asked, “What does all of this mean?”
Fire burned in his eyes. “You don’t see either! It means that the theories of what happened to early man in the southwest are all wrong. They didn’t just appear and evolve these skills of tool making. They were led. When their time was over, they were led back to these cliffs. The shadows who so closely surround you, have been meddling in human affairs for centuries. Ask them what their intention is. They are the real danger.” Doctor Witherspoon was clearly crazy.
Several shadows moved to him. Over his protest, they put their pseudopods into his head. They drew back and seemed to gather in a group to one side.
Patrick turned to Liz for explanation. “I am not sure yet. Doctor Witherspoon believes that the several groups of people in the southwest and, in this case, it would also include Mexico, were being controlled by aliens. The linguistic patterns of the area were just to confuse those who came later. If what he says is true, the Spanish didn’t conquer the Aztecs. Rather they were allowed to take over and the Aztec culture moved further north. This is the place where it died out. The stone tools, which we have used for identifying and dating since the time of modern archeology, are not evidence of evolution, but rather, skills given to different people by aliens.”
The huddled doctor was glaring at Liz. He should have known that the reputation of the almost legendary Doctor Parker’s ability would figure out his theory and probably, now, take it for her own.
Liz glared at him. “Why are you involved in drug trafficing? No research in the world is worth that?”
“The shadows gave me information. They, also, led me to places where artifacts were hidden. All I had to do was show them how to meet those involved in the drug trade. It was a cheap trade off for what they were giving me.”
Liz was incensed. “What about the murders of the students and professors?” she cried, stamping her feet.
The professor looked up at her with an almost feral expression. “The aliens were giving me information that could upset the whole archeological world in the Southwest. There is no payment too great for that kind of knowledge,” Doctor Witherspoon declared. “Those foolish students trying to steal information that the shadows willingly gave to me.
Dr. Parker, you, also, are foolish. The shadows have your name. They are seeking you. You will soon cease to exist and that will leave me the greatest Archeologist in the southwest. Your blood, Dr. Parker, will be spilt just as the blood of those who opposed the Aztecs. You, Dr. Parker, will be a sacrifice to my greatness!”
“The drugs were used in creating armies on another planet to fight a civil war. Doctor Witherspoon, you have to have responsibility for what your actions cause,” Liz stated.
“They were proving all of my theories. What do I care about the beings on another world? What do I care about beings on this world who oppose me? They were finding artifacts that would make me the greatest scientist in the southwest.” Then, Witherspoon growled, “What would the great Doctor Parker know about seeking fame? She has always been a legend. Everywhere I have gone, I read monographs of her work in the Navajo lands. Everything she has done, except for that which she did with the shadows. Yes, Doctor Parker, I know about the bronze plates you received from Thomas Ciel and, also, the diaries you transcribed from David Lock. You never turned over all the in formation you discovered. You withheld the most important items of all history, The fact that man has always been in contact with aliens and that many people have the alien’s genes. Now, I have knowledge that the aliens have been guiding the people of the southwest for centuries.”
Liz stamped her small foot at that statement. “First of all, the information they gave you is now suspect. Don’t you think they are capable of lying to get what they wanted? Don’t you realize that they are just using you?”
“Oh, listen to her cry. You are just jealous that these shadows chose me instead of you to carry their knowledge! You are angry at being chosen as a sacrifice for my theories.” The raving of Whitherspoon showed clearly that he had been totally mad for a long time.
The Others that were with Max and company came over to Liz. They respectfully asked to talk to her directly. It was rare that they would do this to a human, but they needed information. Their normal methods and skills of language didn’t allow this.
Liz was a little fearful. She saw the haze that was the alien. The Haze came closer and closer. It seemed that her vision was in a fog. Then it was as if she had never seen as clearly before in her life. She understood that the closeness that had formed between herself and the Others had made this possible. Then, she understood the sadness the Others had for the condition of Witherspoon. They were asking if it had been their fault that he was in this condition. Liz had to explain that the man had been consumed with ambition. His ambition had led him to sacrifice his credibility to those who seemed to offer him quick knowledge.
Somehow, the aliens opened Witherspoon’s mind to Liz. They couldn’t completely understand it, but they allowed Liz to see. She saw that Witherspoon had hated her for years because of her fame. He saw the drive in the little archeologist as the nemesis who drove him to seek other ways to gain knowledge.
Witherspoon hated Rodney because he saw another Liz emerging from the academic crowds. Rodney wanted to exceed bedyond the activities of Dr. Parker. Thus, he would take her place. This would be just another who would stand between Witherspoon and his true greatness.
The Others, then, had a question for Liz. Why was Dr. Witherspoon making the clovis points that he did with so much skill. Why was he having the monsters using these items to kill? The Others were not sure that they accepted the killing of those in Albuquerque as just removing those who had too much knowledge. There was something about Farmington that was worrying the Others. This knowledge had already been given to those remaining in Farmington, but neither these Others, nor those left back at home, if they could be called a different group of aliens, understood what it meant.
The aliens pulled out of Liz’s head. It was the reverse process as before. The clarity disappeared. Then, the haze-like fog engulfed her again. When the haze cleared, Liz could see her surroundings as before. She started to collapse. This angered Liz. Dr. Elizabeth Parker-Evans didn’t faint or collapse. But, her body knew different. Max caught her in his arms and gently cradled her until her eyes fluttered and, again, opened.
“Liz, what happened with the aliens? You were in that shadow for over an hour,” Max told her as he kissed her.
Liz fought to sit up, “An hour? It felt like just a few minutes.” She turned to Max. “We are not nearly through. There is more that the aliens do not understand. They say that those in Farmington are in danger. It isn’t only about drugs. There is more than they understand, or maybe be willing to divulge to us.” Liz said this last as a second thought. She didn’t know why she said it, but at least one of those in her head, had given her a warning.
Patrick called in his people from the narcotics police. It was a little tricky, but he managed to get them to promise to send a helicopter to pick up their new prisoner, the three Americanos and himself. Then he had them bring a wrangler to return the horses back to Señor Sanchez.
Dr. Witherspoon was surrounded by the haze. He couldn’t see out and the rest of the people present could see in. No one could see what the aliens were doing to him, but they hadn’t asked permission like they had done to Liz and to Patrick. Max said he thought they were sifting through his brain to get all the information he had.
It was while they were gathering Dr. Witherspoon’s things that they made one more discovery. This was a discovery that the Mexican narcotics police needed to find. Wrapped up in a blanket, they found the body of Joe Matussi, the New Mexico State Police narc. He had been killed. like so many others, by a rugged cutting implement. This time, the implement was left in the wound. Liz was careful about touching the blade. There was a very good chance that the blade carried evidence against Dr. D.H.L. Witherspoon himself.
This was clearly something bothering the aliens. Usually, they were very polite to humans. This followed the impression that Liz had received. This was more than drugs, no matter how serious that offense was.
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Stories by Ken
Razz214 I would hope that you might enjoy this story. It is part two of so far a three part series. Liz of the Desert is the first part. Sometimes I fear I am not doing justice to the story I am telling. But here it is.
Chapter 12
Liz thought there must be more to whatever was going on. They camped near the sight of the drug storage that night. Patrick noticed that there seemed to be fewer shadows, but they were so hard to keep track of that he just wasn’t sure. Max was relaying the latest information from the Others. “The ship has been taken and the others who were involved were captured and processed.”
“What does processed mean?” Patrick asked.
Max shook his head, “I asked, but they were having trouble with the concept. It is not as if they were killed, but a lot of pain must be involved. It is as if they were consumed into the group we know. All of their knowledge is now part of the Others. Or at least, the Others we know.
The areas near Oaxaca, that had been mentioned in Rodney’s journals, have already checked the Others . The area shows there was something there but it is gone now. They also checked the area where your cousin lived. There is no sign of anything like the Chupacabra. They told us not to worry about the bronze plates, so I assume, they have them in possession somehow. The Others insist that the answers we are looking for are somewhere near here.
They had not had time to finish off their frozen meat. So tonight, after everyone else left, the four of them had a feast of vegetable stew with chunks of roast beef. In fact, as soon as the army left, Liz and Michael started cooking it. By 7:00 that evening, it was ready. Tomorrow would be the fourth day. They had one extra day of rations. If they stayed and searched the area tomorrow and it would take them two days to get back to the rancho, they would be short one day of food stuff.
Liz was adamant. There were answers some where near and she would never have another chance to get them. Patrick shrugged. He sure wasn’t going to look weak, in the eyes of the small lady whom he was growing to admire, by worrying about having enough food to get back.
That night Patrick was talking to Max, “Your wife is a very capable woman. She handled the director like an expert.”
Max smiled, “Yes, in her younger years, she was a barrel racer on the rodeo circuit. Then, she decided that it was interfering with her college. At that time she was going to be a biochemist. In fact, her bachelors degree is in biochemistry. Later, she got interested in anthropology and archeology especially. She got her master’s and doctorate degrees in Archeology. For a while she was doing surveys in country much like this. At that time, her only company was a German Shepard dog and a Glock pistol. Don’t ever let her get you on the wrong side of her Glock. She is very good with it.”
Patrick mused, “My wife is a strong woman, also. She has managed to make sure our children are prepared for their schooling. I have a son and daughter in college and another daughter in what you would call high school. The one in college has stated that she wants to study in the United States this next year. We will probably find a way for her to do so.”
Max thought out loud, “As engineered aliens, we tend to seek strong mates. And we remain very faithful to them.”
Patrick nodded. He was finding that the engineered aliens were admirable beings. He was growing to be proud of his heritage.
The next morning, the aliens were, again, just a blur in the air. They approached Max and he, in turn, led the four people toward the distant cliffs. The sandstone cliffs were very shear with a large amount of rubble at the bottom. They were typical of the cliffs that Liz remembered from Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. They were continually eroding and crumbling to deposit debris on the valley floor. That was one of the dangers of living at the great pueblos which were built at their base. Huge boulders would break loose and come rolling down, destroying everything in their path.
The Others were everywhere. But in the bright day light, they were just wisps of dust-colored smoke. It was Patrick who first found something strange. He called the rest of the group. There in the sand was a print clearly made by an American army surplus boot. The Others gathered and conversed with Max.
“We are warned to be careful. This is the mark of someone important and very dangerous, “ Max warned everyone.
While Liz was crawling beneath the boulders, she who found the entrance to the cave. Once inside the cave, their electric torches clearly showed plenty of prints. Patrick drew his weapon. He, Max and Michael took the lead. Liz was left to bring up the rear.
Michael smiled because this showed how much she had matured. There was a time, armed or not, that Liz would have insisted on always being the first one into strange places. They followed a trail for a time. Ahead, they saw a glow. They all turned off their light and proceeded carefully. Patrick noticed that the trail in front of him glowed slightly. He could just make out shadows going before him marking the trail.
As they entered a large room in the cave they saw a figure hunched over something. Patrick announced as he had before, “Quietos! Arriba las manos!” Then he added in English, “Get your hands over your head and don’t move!”
The figure jumped because he had no idea that he had been found. He was a man somewhere in his sixties or so. He was dressed in khaki pants and shirt. He was wearing army surplus boots. His straw hat had seen better days long ago. His hair was a shock of silver-white. He had almost shaggy eyebrows. His glasses were gold rimmed from a time gone by. In one hand, he had a trowel and in the other, he had a shelf of notes.
Liz stepped forward, careful not to get in the way of Patrick’s line of fire. “Doctor Whitherspoon! You haven’t been seen for ages. What are you doing here?” she asked. Liz was facing the legendary man who wrote the book on Lithic construction and dating. He was the one man in the world who could duplicate the delicate knapping needed to form the ancient stone artifacts. He was the person who had made the clovis point so well that Liz couldn’t tell it from an original.
“Doctor Parker, I might have known that it was you causing all that commotion yesterday,” the old man growled.
Michael came forward and roughly patted the old man down over very verbal protest. Michael took his trowel away from him and pushed him into a seated position on a boulder. Michael, then, stepped back and Patrick holstered his weapon. Both Michael and Max were watching the man intently. Patrick felt that with any false move on his part, Michael and/or Max would settle him for sure.
Liz surveyed the cave. It was filled with artifacts. Some were Spanish, some Aztec and some were foreign to anything she knew. In one corner, she saw several examples of stone tools. She walked over to look at them. She saw that several were almost like the Clovis blades that had been used to kill the many victims they had been finding. On closer inspection of the whole collection, they were similar to the Clovis blades that she knew, but there were slight differences. She hadn’t noticed that when she was looking at the one taken into evidence.
Liz saw a small stack of bronze disks, which were instantly covered by the shadows following her. They couldn’t pack them out, but Liz was sure they wanted her to take charge of them. She surveyed the amount and verity of the artifacts. Turning to the huddled doctor she asked, “What does all of this mean?”
Fire burned in his eyes. “You don’t see either! It means that the theories of what happened to early man in the southwest are all wrong. They didn’t just appear and evolve these skills of tool making. They were led. When their time was over, they were led back to these cliffs. The shadows who so closely surround you, have been meddling in human affairs for centuries. Ask them what their intention is. They are the real danger.” Doctor Witherspoon was clearly crazy.
Several shadows moved to him. Over his protest, they put their pseudopods into his head. They drew back and seemed to gather in a group to one side.
Patrick turned to Liz for explanation. “I am not sure yet. Doctor Witherspoon believes that the several groups of people in the southwest and, in this case, it would also include Mexico, were being controlled by aliens. The linguistic patterns of the area were just to confuse those who came later. If what he says is true, the Spanish didn’t conquer the Aztecs. Rather they were allowed to take over and the Aztec culture moved further north. This is the place where it died out. The stone tools, which we have used for identifying and dating since the time of modern archeology, are not evidence of evolution, but rather, skills given to different people by aliens.”
The huddled doctor was glaring at Liz. He should have known that the reputation of the almost legendary Doctor Parker’s ability would figure out his theory and probably, now, take it for her own.
Liz glared at him. “Why are you involved in drug trafficing? No research in the world is worth that?”
“The shadows gave me information. They, also, led me to places where artifacts were hidden. All I had to do was show them how to meet those involved in the drug trade. It was a cheap trade off for what they were giving me.”
Liz was incensed. “What about the murders of the students and professors?” she cried, stamping her feet.
The professor looked up at her with an almost feral expression. “The aliens were giving me information that could upset the whole archeological world in the Southwest. There is no payment too great for that kind of knowledge,” Doctor Witherspoon declared. “Those foolish students trying to steal information that the shadows willingly gave to me.
Dr. Parker, you, also, are foolish. The shadows have your name. They are seeking you. You will soon cease to exist and that will leave me the greatest Archeologist in the southwest. Your blood, Dr. Parker, will be spilt just as the blood of those who opposed the Aztecs. You, Dr. Parker, will be a sacrifice to my greatness!”
“The drugs were used in creating armies on another planet to fight a civil war. Doctor Witherspoon, you have to have responsibility for what your actions cause,” Liz stated.
“They were proving all of my theories. What do I care about the beings on another world? What do I care about beings on this world who oppose me? They were finding artifacts that would make me the greatest scientist in the southwest.” Then, Witherspoon growled, “What would the great Doctor Parker know about seeking fame? She has always been a legend. Everywhere I have gone, I read monographs of her work in the Navajo lands. Everything she has done, except for that which she did with the shadows. Yes, Doctor Parker, I know about the bronze plates you received from Thomas Ciel and, also, the diaries you transcribed from David Lock. You never turned over all the in formation you discovered. You withheld the most important items of all history, The fact that man has always been in contact with aliens and that many people have the alien’s genes. Now, I have knowledge that the aliens have been guiding the people of the southwest for centuries.”
Liz stamped her small foot at that statement. “First of all, the information they gave you is now suspect. Don’t you think they are capable of lying to get what they wanted? Don’t you realize that they are just using you?”
“Oh, listen to her cry. You are just jealous that these shadows chose me instead of you to carry their knowledge! You are angry at being chosen as a sacrifice for my theories.” The raving of Whitherspoon showed clearly that he had been totally mad for a long time.
The Others that were with Max and company came over to Liz. They respectfully asked to talk to her directly. It was rare that they would do this to a human, but they needed information. Their normal methods and skills of language didn’t allow this.
Liz was a little fearful. She saw the haze that was the alien. The Haze came closer and closer. It seemed that her vision was in a fog. Then it was as if she had never seen as clearly before in her life. She understood that the closeness that had formed between herself and the Others had made this possible. Then, she understood the sadness the Others had for the condition of Witherspoon. They were asking if it had been their fault that he was in this condition. Liz had to explain that the man had been consumed with ambition. His ambition had led him to sacrifice his credibility to those who seemed to offer him quick knowledge.
Somehow, the aliens opened Witherspoon’s mind to Liz. They couldn’t completely understand it, but they allowed Liz to see. She saw that Witherspoon had hated her for years because of her fame. He saw the drive in the little archeologist as the nemesis who drove him to seek other ways to gain knowledge.
Witherspoon hated Rodney because he saw another Liz emerging from the academic crowds. Rodney wanted to exceed bedyond the activities of Dr. Parker. Thus, he would take her place. This would be just another who would stand between Witherspoon and his true greatness.
The Others, then, had a question for Liz. Why was Dr. Witherspoon making the clovis points that he did with so much skill. Why was he having the monsters using these items to kill? The Others were not sure that they accepted the killing of those in Albuquerque as just removing those who had too much knowledge. There was something about Farmington that was worrying the Others. This knowledge had already been given to those remaining in Farmington, but neither these Others, nor those left back at home, if they could be called a different group of aliens, understood what it meant.
The aliens pulled out of Liz’s head. It was the reverse process as before. The clarity disappeared. Then, the haze-like fog engulfed her again. When the haze cleared, Liz could see her surroundings as before. She started to collapse. This angered Liz. Dr. Elizabeth Parker-Evans didn’t faint or collapse. But, her body knew different. Max caught her in his arms and gently cradled her until her eyes fluttered and, again, opened.
“Liz, what happened with the aliens? You were in that shadow for over an hour,” Max told her as he kissed her.
Liz fought to sit up, “An hour? It felt like just a few minutes.” She turned to Max. “We are not nearly through. There is more that the aliens do not understand. They say that those in Farmington are in danger. It isn’t only about drugs. There is more than they understand, or maybe be willing to divulge to us.” Liz said this last as a second thought. She didn’t know why she said it, but at least one of those in her head, had given her a warning.
Patrick called in his people from the narcotics police. It was a little tricky, but he managed to get them to promise to send a helicopter to pick up their new prisoner, the three Americanos and himself. Then he had them bring a wrangler to return the horses back to Señor Sanchez.
Dr. Witherspoon was surrounded by the haze. He couldn’t see out and the rest of the people present could see in. No one could see what the aliens were doing to him, but they hadn’t asked permission like they had done to Liz and to Patrick. Max said he thought they were sifting through his brain to get all the information he had.
It was while they were gathering Dr. Witherspoon’s things that they made one more discovery. This was a discovery that the Mexican narcotics police needed to find. Wrapped up in a blanket, they found the body of Joe Matussi, the New Mexico State Police narc. He had been killed. like so many others, by a rugged cutting implement. This time, the implement was left in the wound. Liz was careful about touching the blade. There was a very good chance that the blade carried evidence against Dr. D.H.L. Witherspoon himself.
This was clearly something bothering the aliens. Usually, they were very polite to humans. This followed the impression that Liz had received. This was more than drugs, no matter how serious that offense was.
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Stories by Ken
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.
Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
chapter 13 nov 28
Martine there were two reasons for me to write this story. the first was to show Maturity of Dr. Parker-Evans. In the first story she was young and ambitious and volatile. In this story it Max who brought peace to her using analogies of southwestern rodeo. Dr. Evans who had a love life that was in shambles was guided by Max the mysterious man from the stars that her grandmother prophesied about. Max taught her to accept help and to realize that she couldn’t do everything alone. In this story she learns to listen to the others and in turn they all respect her knowledge. She now meets a man, who could just as easily be her, in her old age, who is consumed with jealously, at her academic standing. This is a man, who sells his soul to the bad aliens, for knowledge, which Liz tells him maybe even be false. In the next story she finds her true power in working and helping others.
Oh the second reason. I wanted to see how hard it was to write a mystery. I wrote the story and then went back and put clues through the story. It is hard to do believe me. Since then I have written 4 other mysteries but I wasn’t as good putting clues in the narrative as i was here.
Razz214 it would be a pleasure to have you with me if you find the first story interesting. There are some paragraphing mistakes which I haven’t corrected yet
Chapter 13
The chopper landed. The five humans and no one knew how many aliens boarded. The wrangler was packing up the camp kit and he would arrange to be picked up at the Rancho de Sanchez after he returned the horses. Alone, he had plenty of food to get back to the rancho. This time, Max, Michael and Liz, again along with an untold number of aliens, took a plane back to the states. They landed at El Paso airport where they picked up Michael’s plane and he flew them back to Farmington.
The third night in Farmington, things had gotten hectic. Ed Andrews was again on the roof. This time when the house was rushed, strange blasts of power were fired. They seemed to be fired in a pattern and not specifically aimed. Ed waited until the blast hit the wall right above him. then he raised up and when the next blast came, Ed laid down a string of full automatic fire using the alien bullets Isabel had given him. There was a horrible scream, but it was not out loud. It was in his head. Ed knew he had hit something big time.
There were still humans advancing in the dark. Ed couldn’t understand why they were doing that except that they didn’t understand night scopes. Salas was out in front. He had signaled so Ed knew where he was and Ed was sure to keep his fire further out from the house. Salas had two weapons. He had his regular M-16, but he, also, had his shotgun. The shotgun also had the alien blessed shells.
When a group of monsters all ran up at one time heading for the house, Salas just racked the shotgun as fast as he could. There were many satisfying flashes and they fell back.
Isabel knew that those outside wanted to get to Mary Greer, but they had lost many of the deformed ones and several men. By the scream, a true alien had been hurt badly. How many were they willing to commit to get at Mary or was there more? The women were sitting in the library. The noise was upsetting. The children were playing on the floor or reading, sitting on the couches. They were trusting with the same innocence that the household staff had.
Mary was getting used to the shadows that were drifting in the room. They seemed to be multiplying as the night wore on. When Mary had stuck her head outside the library, she saw many dark shadows in the hall. She had been talking to the housekeepers. They just smiled and said the saints would protect everyone. Mary accepted the help of the saints, but she also believed in that good looking state policeman, Salas.
A very dark shadow came into the library and went straight to Isabel. The shadow engulfed her head and for several minutes, it just remained that way. When it left, Isabel was exhausted. After she sat for a minute, she quickly scurried away. There were several shadows who kept up right beside her.
Isabel went to the roof. She made a small noise so Ed would know she was up near him. Isabel was bending very close to the roof. She quickly made her way to where Ed was sitting. All around him, were spent magazines. Ed hadn’t been in this much of a firefight since he left Afghanistan. They had repelled each of the efforts to storm the house. Salas, down below, had accounted for he didn’t know how many of the enemy.
That was funny, Ed was even thinking like he did back in the high desert. He was thinking military, not police. The police never had such a clear cut division as to identify that there was an enemy. Well, there were times when it was difficult to tell those in the desert, which were friend and which were foe.
Now, Isabel now sat with her back to the firewall of the roof. “We just got information from Mexico. There is something more they want than just killing Mary. Those in Mexico, think there is more than just drugs involved. There is no criminal group that is this vindictive. We are advised to consider this a terrorist movement and act accordingly. Alex will be here tomorrow morning. Until then, you are advised to take whatever precautions you feel are necessary.”
Ed gave a strained smile, which of course, couldn’t be seen in the dark. “Ma’am, we are going to need some more of that magic ammo. They are sending more strange monsters each time. They don’t seem to care how many we kill.
About that time, the power blasts started again. Now Ed had Isabel to worry about. He pushed her down, but it was a needless gesture. Isabel knew when to keep low. Ed tried the same trick he used last time. When the power blast went past him, he raised up and sprayed the place where the blast seemed to originate. Nothing immediately happened, so he fired several shots to the right and then to the left. The last burst of fire gave, again, that silent scream. Ed frowned. They were learning. It was as if these creatures had never known military tactics, or at least Earth military tactics. But, they were just quick on the uptake.
Ed was on the roof now with Isabel. Salas was somewhere down below. From time to time, he would flash his small red laser at the roof so Ed would know his approximate location. Benny had not been heard from for several hours. Benny, as senior officer, was nominally in charge. His method of leadership was to trust in good officers and not to interfere. “Do you have any idea where Martinez has got off to?” Ed asked.
Isabel could only shake her head. She knew that her husband had chosen these men to protect her, the house and Mary Greer. Alex would have only picked the best, most capable men he could find.
All of a sudden, there were several flashes of light. It was so bright that it was almost like day, except that the flashes were almost instantaneous, Then, the night settled back to darkness, even darker than before, because of the brief light. A green laser was blinked once from way out in front. Ed relaxed. “That was Benny. The grounds are clear except for the wounded. It is time to call in Farmington City Police to get prisoners,” Ed said as he relaxed.
They all were gathered in the library. The children had been sent to bed. They were enjoying an enforced holiday, except that they liked school and they were worried about getting behind. The house was still haunted by the many shadows of the Others.
Salas had just come back from a quick patrol. Farmington City Police had brought in a paddy wagon/ambulance. They had, again, under heavy guard, taken several wounded men to the hospital and, then, to jail. There had been calls about the noise from the mansion in the hills, but the operators were able to explain that there had been a situation which was now resolved.
Every one looked at Officer Benny Martinez. “I was patrolling the ground floor, going around to see that all the doors were locked and the alarms set. One of those funny things came over to me and, I swear, that it took me by the hand. It led me to a box. The box was full of funny round things. It took only a few minutes to realize that these were grenades of some sort. The funny dark thing put its paw, or what ever, into my head. Yes, it put it into my head like my head was just a soap bubble. When it did, I saw how to use the grenades and where I was to take them. I put as many as I could in my shirt and we, yes again, I say, we went out a side door. A door, which was locked and had a set alarm on it. We went out silently. I don’t even remember opening the door.
They led me to a place behind those who were attacking. The, whatever they are, told me to throw as many of the balls as I could at the movement in front of me. I didn’t pull any pins or anything. When the balls got near anyone, it would just silently go off. If the some ne was a monster or whatever, it went off with a bright flash.
Benny took a deep breath. He had related some things that he did not, yet, believe to the rest of his colleagues. That veteran officer told him that he would see some strange things, but that he should do his job and keep his mouth shut. The captain truly knew what he was doing.
Salas just continued to break down his weapons as he cleaned them. He checked the batteries in his night scope and dried off all the ammo as he replaced it. He was, also, filling up magazines, as was Ed.
Alex arrived early that morning. He woke up his wife and she relayed the events of the last few days and nights. Farmington City Police wanted Alex to come down to headquarters and help in the interrogation. They had several men taken from the grounds of the house. Alex knew that the three from Mexico would be back in a day or two.
At Farmington police head quarters, they had several of the wounded men each sitting in a room alone. They had some very good interrogators talking to them. Sgt. Begay was talking to Alex. “All we are getting so far is that they were given drugs and money to attack your house. They are vague about who paid them. They, also, are afraid of some of the people they were working for. They keep talking about monsters.”
Alex just nodded, “If they were that drugged, no telling what or who they were seeing.”
It didn’t look like he was going to get any more useful information. He stayed for two more cups of coffee and a doughnut. Then, he bid Farmington P.D. good bye.
When he returned home, he got the reports from his men. Martinez told of using the flash grenades and the fact that it was what brought the attack to a close.
Zamora reported that he was going to need more ammunition. He stated that they seemed to be like suicide troops.
Andrews said the same thing as Zamora. “Captain, they are much like some I fought against in Afghanistan. They don’t value their troops and seem singled minded as to their objective.”
Alex went to his wife. He had never asked this before, but he needed to talk to the aliens. When was the earliest they could be prepared for him? He reminded her that since Liz wasn’t here, yet, that they had to speak in a manner that he could understand.
It was late in the afternoon when Alex got his answer. The Others would have an interview with both Alex and Isabel at the same time. Alex had heard that Max and Liz had had this kind of an interview, but he hadn’t. When they entered, even though Alex was a big tough State Policeman, he was holding his wife’s hand and felt kind of nervous.
As usual, the room was dark and when they entered, they were surrounded. They both sat down on the strange stuff. Alex caught himself wondering what would happen if they remained sitting after they had been dismissed. The strange stuff seemed to disappear when the interviews were over. The strange pseudopods went into Isabel’s head. That, in itself, made Alex anxious. When they had been that way for some time, ideas began to form in his mind.
“The false ones want the drugs for the war, but they, also, want more than that. They want the bodies of the King and Queen to be taken back to Antar. They want the DNA from them to return to Antar. You must warn the king and queen as soon as they return. We will strengthen you, but we can only protect you from the false ones, those you call monsters and the men you must defeat. The one you call Martinez is brave. He did what we asked without question. We think the others of your choice will serve as well.”
Alex asked in plain language, “Can you get us more supplies? We need enough to make it through tonight if they attack again.”
The pseudopods entered Isabel’s head again and Alex heard in his mind. “We will give you what he have, but it takes a lot of time to manufacture what you really need.”
The Others pulled back and the lights went up. Alex and Isabel stood. Alex did remember to turn and see that the couch they were sitting on was melting into the floor. They proceeded to the door and met Tess who was waiting for them.
Kyle called. He is on his way to Mexico to bring back a prisoner. There is something strange about the prisoner because they are sneaking him into the country with a group of illegal farm workers. They aren’t going through proper channels. I am told that Max and Liz are back on our plane and heading for Farmington. They should be here soon.
By noon the plane arrived at The Farmington airport. None of the engineered ones wanted to leave the house at this time, remembering what happened to Liz in Albuquerque. The Farmington City Police were asked by Alex to pick up the three at the airport and bring them home. This request was made by Alex. Alex had cooperated so many times with the Farmington PD, that was the only reason they would comply.
Max, Michael and Liz were waiting when two burly officers from the city police department came in. They paged, “Will Dr. Elizabeth Parker-Evans, Mr. Michael Guerin and Mr. Max Evans please meet their ride at the front desk.”
The City men did not know what to expect, but the three people dressed in work clothes and holding only carry-on baggage was not it. The group crowded into the back of the city unit. The first officer, Mike Garcia remarked that the squad car didn’t seem to have much pickup. It seemed to be lugging like it was pulling a heavy trailer. Michael shrugged and wondered how many aliens had climbed on for the ride home.
Alex met the city unit at the door and thanked them. They knew that he would return the favor sometime. Max, Michael and Liz went into the house to shower and change. They, all eight, were sitting in Max’s study talking about what was happening. The three state officers were told by Alex to catch as must rest as they could. There was plenty of power to protect the house right now.
“And, so there seems to be a vast galactic war going on. There is someone known as Kivar who is, at least, on one side. He has made it clear that he wants Max and Liz dead and their bodies preserved to transport to this place Antar, whereever,” Isabel stated. “This whole campaign is both to get drugs and, also, to capture you two.” Isabel was pointing out Max and Liz.
Liz really frowned. Everything had finally fallen into place. “They picked Dr. Witherspoon because of his hatred for me. They used the stone weapons because they knew that Alex would call on the closest person he knew to examine the artifact. They already knew that Max would be close to me. They just had to set things up so they could get us.
That day in Albuquerque, they expected for Max to be there. They intended that day to get us both. They hadn’t counted on how deadly I was with my Glock, and since Max wasn’t captured, that he and Isabel would be able to find me.”
Max related what had happened in Mexico. Isabel smiled when they told of Patrick Gutierrez. She saw what she always wanted, a growing family. When all of this was over, she thought they should have a big party somewhere with the Lock family, Thomas Ciel, his wife and children and, then, the Gutierrez family. They all had something in common. They should embrace it and celebrate it. Those descending from engineered aliens should all get to know each other.
Of course, Alex was upset hearing of the loss of his agent, Matussi. They didn’t have any idea what Kyle was doing. It sounded slightly illegal. That wasn’t anything unusual for a narcotics agent. Of course, what really upset them was the fact that the shadows, which is what they they had started calling the different aliens, were trying to kill Max and Liz.
Oh the second reason. I wanted to see how hard it was to write a mystery. I wrote the story and then went back and put clues through the story. It is hard to do believe me. Since then I have written 4 other mysteries but I wasn’t as good putting clues in the narrative as i was here.
Razz214 it would be a pleasure to have you with me if you find the first story interesting. There are some paragraphing mistakes which I haven’t corrected yet
Chapter 13
The chopper landed. The five humans and no one knew how many aliens boarded. The wrangler was packing up the camp kit and he would arrange to be picked up at the Rancho de Sanchez after he returned the horses. Alone, he had plenty of food to get back to the rancho. This time, Max, Michael and Liz, again along with an untold number of aliens, took a plane back to the states. They landed at El Paso airport where they picked up Michael’s plane and he flew them back to Farmington.
The third night in Farmington, things had gotten hectic. Ed Andrews was again on the roof. This time when the house was rushed, strange blasts of power were fired. They seemed to be fired in a pattern and not specifically aimed. Ed waited until the blast hit the wall right above him. then he raised up and when the next blast came, Ed laid down a string of full automatic fire using the alien bullets Isabel had given him. There was a horrible scream, but it was not out loud. It was in his head. Ed knew he had hit something big time.
There were still humans advancing in the dark. Ed couldn’t understand why they were doing that except that they didn’t understand night scopes. Salas was out in front. He had signaled so Ed knew where he was and Ed was sure to keep his fire further out from the house. Salas had two weapons. He had his regular M-16, but he, also, had his shotgun. The shotgun also had the alien blessed shells.
When a group of monsters all ran up at one time heading for the house, Salas just racked the shotgun as fast as he could. There were many satisfying flashes and they fell back.
Isabel knew that those outside wanted to get to Mary Greer, but they had lost many of the deformed ones and several men. By the scream, a true alien had been hurt badly. How many were they willing to commit to get at Mary or was there more? The women were sitting in the library. The noise was upsetting. The children were playing on the floor or reading, sitting on the couches. They were trusting with the same innocence that the household staff had.
Mary was getting used to the shadows that were drifting in the room. They seemed to be multiplying as the night wore on. When Mary had stuck her head outside the library, she saw many dark shadows in the hall. She had been talking to the housekeepers. They just smiled and said the saints would protect everyone. Mary accepted the help of the saints, but she also believed in that good looking state policeman, Salas.
A very dark shadow came into the library and went straight to Isabel. The shadow engulfed her head and for several minutes, it just remained that way. When it left, Isabel was exhausted. After she sat for a minute, she quickly scurried away. There were several shadows who kept up right beside her.
Isabel went to the roof. She made a small noise so Ed would know she was up near him. Isabel was bending very close to the roof. She quickly made her way to where Ed was sitting. All around him, were spent magazines. Ed hadn’t been in this much of a firefight since he left Afghanistan. They had repelled each of the efforts to storm the house. Salas, down below, had accounted for he didn’t know how many of the enemy.
That was funny, Ed was even thinking like he did back in the high desert. He was thinking military, not police. The police never had such a clear cut division as to identify that there was an enemy. Well, there were times when it was difficult to tell those in the desert, which were friend and which were foe.
Now, Isabel now sat with her back to the firewall of the roof. “We just got information from Mexico. There is something more they want than just killing Mary. Those in Mexico, think there is more than just drugs involved. There is no criminal group that is this vindictive. We are advised to consider this a terrorist movement and act accordingly. Alex will be here tomorrow morning. Until then, you are advised to take whatever precautions you feel are necessary.”
Ed gave a strained smile, which of course, couldn’t be seen in the dark. “Ma’am, we are going to need some more of that magic ammo. They are sending more strange monsters each time. They don’t seem to care how many we kill.
About that time, the power blasts started again. Now Ed had Isabel to worry about. He pushed her down, but it was a needless gesture. Isabel knew when to keep low. Ed tried the same trick he used last time. When the power blast went past him, he raised up and sprayed the place where the blast seemed to originate. Nothing immediately happened, so he fired several shots to the right and then to the left. The last burst of fire gave, again, that silent scream. Ed frowned. They were learning. It was as if these creatures had never known military tactics, or at least Earth military tactics. But, they were just quick on the uptake.
Ed was on the roof now with Isabel. Salas was somewhere down below. From time to time, he would flash his small red laser at the roof so Ed would know his approximate location. Benny had not been heard from for several hours. Benny, as senior officer, was nominally in charge. His method of leadership was to trust in good officers and not to interfere. “Do you have any idea where Martinez has got off to?” Ed asked.
Isabel could only shake her head. She knew that her husband had chosen these men to protect her, the house and Mary Greer. Alex would have only picked the best, most capable men he could find.
All of a sudden, there were several flashes of light. It was so bright that it was almost like day, except that the flashes were almost instantaneous, Then, the night settled back to darkness, even darker than before, because of the brief light. A green laser was blinked once from way out in front. Ed relaxed. “That was Benny. The grounds are clear except for the wounded. It is time to call in Farmington City Police to get prisoners,” Ed said as he relaxed.
They all were gathered in the library. The children had been sent to bed. They were enjoying an enforced holiday, except that they liked school and they were worried about getting behind. The house was still haunted by the many shadows of the Others.
Salas had just come back from a quick patrol. Farmington City Police had brought in a paddy wagon/ambulance. They had, again, under heavy guard, taken several wounded men to the hospital and, then, to jail. There had been calls about the noise from the mansion in the hills, but the operators were able to explain that there had been a situation which was now resolved.
Every one looked at Officer Benny Martinez. “I was patrolling the ground floor, going around to see that all the doors were locked and the alarms set. One of those funny things came over to me and, I swear, that it took me by the hand. It led me to a box. The box was full of funny round things. It took only a few minutes to realize that these were grenades of some sort. The funny dark thing put its paw, or what ever, into my head. Yes, it put it into my head like my head was just a soap bubble. When it did, I saw how to use the grenades and where I was to take them. I put as many as I could in my shirt and we, yes again, I say, we went out a side door. A door, which was locked and had a set alarm on it. We went out silently. I don’t even remember opening the door.
They led me to a place behind those who were attacking. The, whatever they are, told me to throw as many of the balls as I could at the movement in front of me. I didn’t pull any pins or anything. When the balls got near anyone, it would just silently go off. If the some ne was a monster or whatever, it went off with a bright flash.
Benny took a deep breath. He had related some things that he did not, yet, believe to the rest of his colleagues. That veteran officer told him that he would see some strange things, but that he should do his job and keep his mouth shut. The captain truly knew what he was doing.
Salas just continued to break down his weapons as he cleaned them. He checked the batteries in his night scope and dried off all the ammo as he replaced it. He was, also, filling up magazines, as was Ed.
Alex arrived early that morning. He woke up his wife and she relayed the events of the last few days and nights. Farmington City Police wanted Alex to come down to headquarters and help in the interrogation. They had several men taken from the grounds of the house. Alex knew that the three from Mexico would be back in a day or two.
At Farmington police head quarters, they had several of the wounded men each sitting in a room alone. They had some very good interrogators talking to them. Sgt. Begay was talking to Alex. “All we are getting so far is that they were given drugs and money to attack your house. They are vague about who paid them. They, also, are afraid of some of the people they were working for. They keep talking about monsters.”
Alex just nodded, “If they were that drugged, no telling what or who they were seeing.”
It didn’t look like he was going to get any more useful information. He stayed for two more cups of coffee and a doughnut. Then, he bid Farmington P.D. good bye.
When he returned home, he got the reports from his men. Martinez told of using the flash grenades and the fact that it was what brought the attack to a close.
Zamora reported that he was going to need more ammunition. He stated that they seemed to be like suicide troops.
Andrews said the same thing as Zamora. “Captain, they are much like some I fought against in Afghanistan. They don’t value their troops and seem singled minded as to their objective.”
Alex went to his wife. He had never asked this before, but he needed to talk to the aliens. When was the earliest they could be prepared for him? He reminded her that since Liz wasn’t here, yet, that they had to speak in a manner that he could understand.
It was late in the afternoon when Alex got his answer. The Others would have an interview with both Alex and Isabel at the same time. Alex had heard that Max and Liz had had this kind of an interview, but he hadn’t. When they entered, even though Alex was a big tough State Policeman, he was holding his wife’s hand and felt kind of nervous.
As usual, the room was dark and when they entered, they were surrounded. They both sat down on the strange stuff. Alex caught himself wondering what would happen if they remained sitting after they had been dismissed. The strange stuff seemed to disappear when the interviews were over. The strange pseudopods went into Isabel’s head. That, in itself, made Alex anxious. When they had been that way for some time, ideas began to form in his mind.
“The false ones want the drugs for the war, but they, also, want more than that. They want the bodies of the King and Queen to be taken back to Antar. They want the DNA from them to return to Antar. You must warn the king and queen as soon as they return. We will strengthen you, but we can only protect you from the false ones, those you call monsters and the men you must defeat. The one you call Martinez is brave. He did what we asked without question. We think the others of your choice will serve as well.”
Alex asked in plain language, “Can you get us more supplies? We need enough to make it through tonight if they attack again.”
The pseudopods entered Isabel’s head again and Alex heard in his mind. “We will give you what he have, but it takes a lot of time to manufacture what you really need.”
The Others pulled back and the lights went up. Alex and Isabel stood. Alex did remember to turn and see that the couch they were sitting on was melting into the floor. They proceeded to the door and met Tess who was waiting for them.
Kyle called. He is on his way to Mexico to bring back a prisoner. There is something strange about the prisoner because they are sneaking him into the country with a group of illegal farm workers. They aren’t going through proper channels. I am told that Max and Liz are back on our plane and heading for Farmington. They should be here soon.
By noon the plane arrived at The Farmington airport. None of the engineered ones wanted to leave the house at this time, remembering what happened to Liz in Albuquerque. The Farmington City Police were asked by Alex to pick up the three at the airport and bring them home. This request was made by Alex. Alex had cooperated so many times with the Farmington PD, that was the only reason they would comply.
Max, Michael and Liz were waiting when two burly officers from the city police department came in. They paged, “Will Dr. Elizabeth Parker-Evans, Mr. Michael Guerin and Mr. Max Evans please meet their ride at the front desk.”
The City men did not know what to expect, but the three people dressed in work clothes and holding only carry-on baggage was not it. The group crowded into the back of the city unit. The first officer, Mike Garcia remarked that the squad car didn’t seem to have much pickup. It seemed to be lugging like it was pulling a heavy trailer. Michael shrugged and wondered how many aliens had climbed on for the ride home.
Alex met the city unit at the door and thanked them. They knew that he would return the favor sometime. Max, Michael and Liz went into the house to shower and change. They, all eight, were sitting in Max’s study talking about what was happening. The three state officers were told by Alex to catch as must rest as they could. There was plenty of power to protect the house right now.
“And, so there seems to be a vast galactic war going on. There is someone known as Kivar who is, at least, on one side. He has made it clear that he wants Max and Liz dead and their bodies preserved to transport to this place Antar, whereever,” Isabel stated. “This whole campaign is both to get drugs and, also, to capture you two.” Isabel was pointing out Max and Liz.
Liz really frowned. Everything had finally fallen into place. “They picked Dr. Witherspoon because of his hatred for me. They used the stone weapons because they knew that Alex would call on the closest person he knew to examine the artifact. They already knew that Max would be close to me. They just had to set things up so they could get us.
That day in Albuquerque, they expected for Max to be there. They intended that day to get us both. They hadn’t counted on how deadly I was with my Glock, and since Max wasn’t captured, that he and Isabel would be able to find me.”
Max related what had happened in Mexico. Isabel smiled when they told of Patrick Gutierrez. She saw what she always wanted, a growing family. When all of this was over, she thought they should have a big party somewhere with the Lock family, Thomas Ciel, his wife and children and, then, the Gutierrez family. They all had something in common. They should embrace it and celebrate it. Those descending from engineered aliens should all get to know each other.
Of course, Alex was upset hearing of the loss of his agent, Matussi. They didn’t have any idea what Kyle was doing. It sounded slightly illegal. That wasn’t anything unusual for a narcotics agent. Of course, what really upset them was the fact that the shadows, which is what they they had started calling the different aliens, were trying to kill Max and Liz.
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.
Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
chapter 14 dec 13
Martine I understand completely when RL catches up with you. i always appreciate when you do have time to read my work. as always please take care.
Chapter 14
None of them knew anything about Kivar. Max made it a point to remember that this was going to be an important question when he met with the Others next time. They needed an extra galactic history lesson soon. They were sure there would be another assault. This time, Tess Isabel and Michael would be needed. The Others had delivered some alien ammunition, but it wasn’t enough. Benny was given some more grenades, but not very many. The noise from within the locked doors off the hall on the ground floor was loud and a lot of it was in the head, not through the ears.
Isabel, Tess and Michael had, by silent assent, decided that they would all try to protect Liz and Max. Isabel and Alex had a meeting with the State Officers. “We expect a strong effort tonight. Mary Greer is not the only person they are after. Those returning from Mexico found that these creatures are also after Max and Liz. They want them dead and they want the bodies.” Alex stated.
Benny stood up, “Begging your pardon, Captain. Shouldn’t we consider getting the military involved?”
Ed was neutral, but Salas frowned. During the years he was underground for the state police, he also was listening to dangers the dissidents saw in the federal government. He was beginning to see that these aliens in Farmington would be in danger, if the federal government got involved. He, also, saw that the power of the aliens was great. If they were arrayed against the world governments, would we be in a galactic war?
For Benny, this was a question that was not satisfactorily answered.
Later that afternoon, an old pickup drove up. It was hard to say what make it was. The engine had a sound that was pure Chevy. The fenders were old Ford fenders, each side from a different year of truck. The bed of the pickup had a camper shell on it that had darkly tinted windows. There were three men in the cab. There was no way to see how many were crowded into the shell. They were dressed in the manner of Mexican “Braceros” or farm workers. The driver stopped some distance from the front door. He saw the three state police cruisers parked out in front. The man, riding shotgun, handed him another $100 and he reluctantly drove the rest of the way. The two passengers got out and with an, “¡Adiós!, amigos.” The driver quickly left.
One man was sick or, maybe, just drunk. The other man put the drunk’s arm over his shoulder and helped him to the door. Kyle knocked on the door even though there was a perfectly good door bell. The household staff opened the front door. Kyle was helping the old man in the door when his sombrero fell to the floor disclosing a shock of white hair. It was difficult to maneuver the old man into the house and tap on the door where the Others stayed. The door with the frozen door knob opened and Kyle deposited him on one of those funny couches which came out of no where.
Tess walked in. She wrinkled up her nose. Kyle smelled to high heaven. He smelled of sweat, booze and a general lack of hygiene. Kyle hadn’t bathed or had a proper bathroom since he arrived in Mexico.
Kyle showered and prepared to change. He was detoured by Tess waiting for him just outside the shower door. She threw her arms around him and they stumbled across the hall into their bedroom and flopped onto the bed.
One of the household staff discretely closed the door. She smiled. The Santos were still protecting all of them and Mr. Valenti was back to tend to the needs of his wife. The maid, Elena, was so lucky to find this job. Everything was fine now. She conspiratorly smiled again. If that young Hispanic boy would just notice that Gringo lady from Albuquerque. Elena had seen Mary looking at Salas when she thought no one was watching.
Kyle knew there were important things that had to be discussed, but the immediate focus was the little blonde lying naked in his arms as she expressed how glad she was that he had made it through one more assignment. They kissed and loved, loved and kissed. It was an hour before Kyle was able to go to the study where the rest of them were talking.
“It was Patrick’s idea. Our tickets were the most expensive I have ever paid to get back home. It was $3000 each, plus the promise that the Border Patrol would pull back from a certain check point for eight hours. We, essentially, paid a Coyote to bring us across the border illegally.”
Liz was listening carefully. She knew that a Coyote was the slang for a man who would bring illegal human aliens across the border. Kyle had had himself and Dr. Witherspoon smuggled into the country along with others who wanted to find work in the United States.
The Mexican authorities didn’t want to bother with Dr. Witherspoon. His crime was against an American and he was confusing a simple drug bust that Patrick had carried out with the help of Liz, Michael and Max. Patrick, as he attempted to interrogate Witherspoon, found that he was bringing up things that could be embarrassing to both the United States and Mexico, not to mention the aliens with whom Patrick had just recently become aligned. This way, it would be up to Kyle and the Others to decide how Witherspoon was handled.
Liz frowned. “I don’t want any part in killing him in cold blood. I have enough on my conscious after I killed the man attacking me in Albuquerque.”
Max put his arm around his wife. He drew her close. He would back her no matter what she felt.
Alex frowned. Also, what was he going to do with a drug smuggler and murderer who was here, but the crimes were down in Mexico?
There was a hush. One of the Others whisked itself into the room. It put its pseudopod into Liz’s head almost without any consideration. They remained that way for almost a quarter of an hour. When it left, Max caught his wife as she slumped in her chair. When Liz was back in charge of her body, she said, “That was One. They were worried about me. One says that the one killed in Albuquerque was a very bad person. If he had lived, he probably would have killed me. He had orders to do that. Killing him confused the rest of them. One says also not to worry. They will care of the Doctor. He says that Witherspoon will be returned to us refreshed; what ever that means.”
Kyle shrugged. He just hoped that what ever happened, he would remain in the clear. Many times, he had felt that he had to bend the law to uphold it. This was a belief held by many in his business.
While the eight were all talking about what was happening in their lives, Salas Zamora was sitting in the main library reading. Right beside, him were his two principal weapons. They had both been cleaned along with his pistol. His kit bag was also near at hand. He heard a voice, “Am I disturbing you?”
Salas looked up. The editor was standing in front of him. Salas almost embarrassed moved his kit bag and pushed his weapons onto the other side of him. “No, I am just trying to relax. Dr Parker-Evans has a wonderful library here. I was an ethnology major in college. She has so many current and old works of noted authors. I could return over and over and never be satisfied.”
Mary smiled, “An Ethnologist, in the state police?”
“Yes, Ma’am. I figure I deal with primitives every day. At least many are primitive in thought,” Salas replied.
“I was a literature major and, then, I took up journalism. I am… or maybe, was, an editor to pay my way through school. I usually worked for the Anthropology department. I always found the writings of the professors and students so interesting. I never thought of my work as dangerous and look at me now. All night, I have listened to gunfire and worried that some strange things want to kill me.” She was becoming almost hysterical.
Salas couldn’t help it. He put his hand on her shoulder, “I am truly sorry, ma’am. I am responsible for a lot of that gunfire. The household staff says we all are perfectly safe in the house. They really believe in the saints.”
“Oh no, don’t be sorry. I know that the gun fire is from those of you who are trying to protect me and the others in the house. I wish I had the confidence that the household staff does,” Mary quickly replied. Then, she looked at Salas. “What are these things that are attacking us? And what are these things the staff calls the Saints? I feel like I am in the middle of some weird science fiction novel.
Salas chuckled, “You might be right, ma’am. This is New Mexico. Roswell is the home of the alien crash. Farmington seems to be the home of the aliens themselves.”
“But, Doctor Parker is one of the most renowned archeologist. She is famous world over. What does she have to do with aliens?” Mary asked.
“Don’t rightly know, Ma’am. It seems that her husband, Mr. Evans, is an alien or something like that. They are very close, I see. Every time they are alone, I see the way they look into each other’s eyes. Those kids, Helen and John, I was helping them with their homework the other night. They catch on faster than anyone I ever knew. Captain Whitman’s daughter, Sabra, just won an award for representing the whole state of New Mexico in an essay contest. I guess she will follow her mother and uncle, Mr. Evans, into writing. These people are all part of strong families. There is nothing alien about that. I just wish there were more people in the world like them.” Salas was clearly impressed with the families at the Farmington household.
“I know and they seem so willing to protect me. I heard that when they were bringing me to Farmington, Dr. Parker was kidnapped. Someone even said that someone was threatening to kill her.” Mary stated.
“Yes, and the Captain’s wife and Dr. Parker’s husband rescued her. I have been listening to stories about the Captain’s wife. She came with me two nights when we were under fire. She doesn’t seem to have any fear. She can do many things that I do not understand, but the captain loves her very much!” These people all could do many things he didn’t understand, but their attitudes were the ones that Salas was brought up with.
The two people stayed in the library for the rest of the afternoon talking. They didn’t notice when Elena brought them ice water and put the frosted glasses on the table before them.
Benny and Ed were sitting in the hall looking out the windows over looking the town of Farmington. They heard a lot of shuffling behind the doors on the other side of the hall. They knew that Kyle had brought someone back, but they had no idea of who or what he was or what he had done. There was a soft knock at the the window near them. One of the household ladies had made two sachels out of a pair of old levies. She had put a strap on each of the bags. They were just perfect to hold the grenades the strange little guy had given Benny. Benny filled the bags with grenades. Now, he could carry them easier to where ever he was going. Alex hadn’t talked to him yet, so he didn’t know what to expect for tonight.
Ed still couldn’t get over the Captain’s wife. She had no fear. Someone had said she wasn’t all human. That was all right with Ed. He just wished he knew from where she came. Ed would sure like to find more women like her, or at least one.
Benny was married with two kids. He was missing them. These special assignments were exciting, but he didn’t like to be away from home for very long. Many state policemen carried two folded fifty dollar bills in their wallets at all times. They would receive per-diem, tax-free pay, for being away from home, but that was money returned after the fact. At least in this job, they didn’t have any personal expenses so the per-deim would all be his. “What do you make of who we are fighting? Why do you suppose the captain is reluctant to call in the military?” These were two questions that were bothering Benny.
Like many policemen, Benny had done a term in the military. In fact he had been in the security police in the Air Force. The training he had gotten there, convinced him he liked police work. Even though he had a reputation for being friendly to those he knew, he was not a very gregarious fellow so he felt the state police would be a more congenial group in which to work. In New Mexico the state police usually worked alone with only the occasional local or tourist to talk to. Ed had been his rookie five years ago. He found that Ed was even more standoffish than he. They became friends and, from time to time, such as when they worked the New Mexico State Fair together or when they were in a swat team call out together, they renewed their friendship. Benny knew that Ed wanted to find a girl and get married. He also knew that Ed was very shy around women.
The four engineered aliens and their mates were still in Max’s study. There was a knock on the door and one of the maids entered. She was carrying a white gown. She approached Liz. “The saints have asked me to make this for you. They ask that you wear it tonight.” She handed the gown to Liz. The material was very light weight. The hems of the dress seemed a little stiff. Liz held it out. The old Liz began to surface. She intended to break out her Glock and be right in the heat of the fight. She knew that all eight of them were going to support the state policemen to night. This dress was beautiful. It was, in fact, fit for a queen. The gown weighed almost nothing. Except for the thick hems, it was a very sexy dress. This was not something she could fight in.
Max had stepped out of the study when the maid brought the dress. He, in fact, had been in touch with one of the Others. When he returned, he heard his wife decrying the fact that she was intending to fight for their home. Max went to Liz. He took the dress and held it up against her. Of course with the influence of the aliens, it would fit perfectly.
“Liz, I was just talking with the Others. There are many ways of fighting. Tonight, they need you to fight their way. The dress is special. It sets up a field so nothing can get through it. It also projects the person wearing it. You will be seen on a hundred planets. This is not just a bunch of radicals trying to get to an informant. Nor is it a terrorist plot to kill two people and steal their bodies. It is about deposing an established government and using monsters created from their own people to fight this war,” Max paused.
“You are a symbol. You don’t know it, but off planet, you are famous. I was created to do a service. You chose to do this service and that makes you special. When they show that the enemy is trying to kill you, then it is hoped that the civil war will fail. Once it is shown that the industry that creates soldiers is making such monsters, it is hoped that both military leaders will loose face and cease their efforts. You might be the key to settling this war forever.” Max pulled Liz close and kissed her.
Liz petulantly nodded her head. “All right, but I am going to carry my Glock, also!”
Max smiled, “Yes, Liz, you will be seen as a warrior queen. I think the aliens can accept that.”
Isabel couldn’t help from chuckling. She had wondered at Max’s choice so many years ago when Liz was being stubborn about committing to any one person. She worried when it might appear that after Max had given his heart to Liz, he might have to die alone. Once an engineered alien gave his heart to one woman, he was incapable of loving another. Now, it appeared when the aliens need her, and she meant aliens both the ones locally and the others through out the galaxy, Elizabeth Parker-Evans Ph.D. would be a strong symbol.
Alex, Isabel, Max and Liz were summoned to the conference room of the Others. This was obviously a hurry up meeting. They went to the room and one of the Others put its pseudopod inTO Max’s head. It was a very brief encounter. Max turned to those with him. “We are to all go in together. We are to hold hands with our mates and they will show us where to sit. This is something really scary. The Others are extremely agitated. They say that many questions will be answered.”
Liz looked up and she saw that the Other who had talked to Max had disappeared. She and Max led the way. Once inside, they were gently guided to a couch made of that funny stuff. She saw that Alex and Isabel were guided to a couch facing them. The two couples were about six feet apart. In the background, she saw the form of Dr. Witherspoon surrounded by shadows.
An Other stood forth. “I am One. I will speak,” it said. The war we are seeing has been raging for years. On one side is the lord Kivar who leads the rebels. He wants to rule the universe and, to do that, first, he must rule Antar. On the other side is King Zan. DNA from him was partially used to make up Max. I, also, contributed DNA to the matrix that is now Max. You, Isabel, were made up as an advisor to Max. You were made from DNA of Zan’s sister, Vilandra. She was a powerful woman of our world. She was a dividing force in the war. At one time or the other, she favored both sides. She was killed because of her indecision. She was at a battle and she found herself in the middle. We are glad that you, Isabel, have loyalties to Max and your chosen mate, the mighty warrior of your world. Alex Whitman has used the skills of being a caretaker of the community and is a worthy consort for the mighty DNA of Vilandra.
Then, One, turned to Liz. You, my queen, are the one that won the heart of our king. He will never have to rule, being on Earth, but you, Dr. Elizabeth Parker-Evans, will be seen around the galaxy. It is you who we have deferred to in our dealings with Earth creatures. When our king met you, you were a power unto your self. Now, you have grown to be a power in your profession and to all of us. That is one of the things which precipitated this encounter. The human you call Dr. Witherspoon was a flawed man. He had skills, but instead of celebrating these skills he was jealous. He never saw the difficulties you over came to reach the position you have in your field. But rather, he wanted your glory without working for it. There were others who were jealous of you, but the jealousy in Rodney Aiken just spurred him on to work harder. His acolyte, Eric Rand, likewise was spurred on to work harder, That is what they were supposed to do. Dr. Witherspoon found dissidents of our race. They challenged him to attack you. With the belief that he could defeat you he led them to the people who sold the drugs. They kept him with them by feeding him evidence to prove his theory.
Liz asked, “Then did aliens have any thing to do with the development of culture in the southwest?”
One was silent and Liz was afraid that he was going to refuse to answer. “Yes, my queen, sometimes we did. Not always, but sometimes we needed culture to develop for our own purposes. We, then, interfered. We never intended for you to discover this. Those who Supported Dr. Witherspoon broke many rules.” One was sad, as he gave her this revelation. It was a signature of his culture, not caring for humans, but manipulating them. One had learned to love the humans and engineered ones, and he felt sad that others of his race didn’t.
One went on,
‘Witherspoon had them commit murders, some for their cause and some for his own benefit. He killed the prostitute himself to see if the wound would be distinct enough to arouse your attention. The police only noticed the prostitute when you called their attention to it. Dr. Witherspoon had to have murders that would be attributed to archeology. He killed Rodney Aiken when Rodney was getting close to figuring out that aliens were involved down in Mexico. Eric Rand was just someone who the shadows, as you have been calling them, thought would be the same as Rodney. Susan LaRue knew a little of her heritage. She was figuring out that aliens must be involved in what she was seeing in Mexico. She talked to Sean Gutierrez and, also, figured out that he was alien related. She was going to publish her thoughts and her findings.
Up to this point, Kivar was only concerned about the drugs. When he learned more about you and Max from Dr. Witherspoon, he also learned that Max was made from the DNA of his enemy. You, being Max’s queen, would also be a symbol to the Antarian people. If Kivar could clone the both of you, he could field armies who were children of Zan himself. Our people feel very close to their clones. This army would have defeated the spirit of King Zan if nothing else.
The killing of your agent, Alex, was just an act of sadism. Dr. Witherspoon now likes to kill.”
Alex looked up, “How did they excape us that night in the university library?”
There were several seconds that One just stood there as if waiting for something. “The killing of doctor Aiken, as I said, was to draw the attention of Doctor Parker. It was done by an engineered alien and one of the monsters. They were in the elevator shaft riding up and down on top of the elevator car with you. When everything quieted down, they just left.”
Liz looked at One. “I have two questions. First why are you talking so clearlyto us tonight. Usually, you either talk in puzzles only for brief time. Second, what is to happening to Dr. Witherspoon?”
The visage of One wavered a bit. “Second question first. We are going to cleanse Dr. Witherspoon. He was defective. We will not kill him, but we can’t allow him to exist as he is. We hope you will undertake his care and habilitation.”
One seemed to stop for several seconds like it had done for the question of Alex. “This is considered an emergency. One hundred million souls are processing for me this conversation. We do not know how many will survive this ordeal. We feel that you should understand what is at stake when you appear tonight. We all felt this was worth the cost in lives and resources.” With that, One seemed to dim. The lights came up and They all left the room.
Chapter 14
None of them knew anything about Kivar. Max made it a point to remember that this was going to be an important question when he met with the Others next time. They needed an extra galactic history lesson soon. They were sure there would be another assault. This time, Tess Isabel and Michael would be needed. The Others had delivered some alien ammunition, but it wasn’t enough. Benny was given some more grenades, but not very many. The noise from within the locked doors off the hall on the ground floor was loud and a lot of it was in the head, not through the ears.
Isabel, Tess and Michael had, by silent assent, decided that they would all try to protect Liz and Max. Isabel and Alex had a meeting with the State Officers. “We expect a strong effort tonight. Mary Greer is not the only person they are after. Those returning from Mexico found that these creatures are also after Max and Liz. They want them dead and they want the bodies.” Alex stated.
Benny stood up, “Begging your pardon, Captain. Shouldn’t we consider getting the military involved?”
Ed was neutral, but Salas frowned. During the years he was underground for the state police, he also was listening to dangers the dissidents saw in the federal government. He was beginning to see that these aliens in Farmington would be in danger, if the federal government got involved. He, also, saw that the power of the aliens was great. If they were arrayed against the world governments, would we be in a galactic war?
For Benny, this was a question that was not satisfactorily answered.
Later that afternoon, an old pickup drove up. It was hard to say what make it was. The engine had a sound that was pure Chevy. The fenders were old Ford fenders, each side from a different year of truck. The bed of the pickup had a camper shell on it that had darkly tinted windows. There were three men in the cab. There was no way to see how many were crowded into the shell. They were dressed in the manner of Mexican “Braceros” or farm workers. The driver stopped some distance from the front door. He saw the three state police cruisers parked out in front. The man, riding shotgun, handed him another $100 and he reluctantly drove the rest of the way. The two passengers got out and with an, “¡Adiós!, amigos.” The driver quickly left.
One man was sick or, maybe, just drunk. The other man put the drunk’s arm over his shoulder and helped him to the door. Kyle knocked on the door even though there was a perfectly good door bell. The household staff opened the front door. Kyle was helping the old man in the door when his sombrero fell to the floor disclosing a shock of white hair. It was difficult to maneuver the old man into the house and tap on the door where the Others stayed. The door with the frozen door knob opened and Kyle deposited him on one of those funny couches which came out of no where.
Tess walked in. She wrinkled up her nose. Kyle smelled to high heaven. He smelled of sweat, booze and a general lack of hygiene. Kyle hadn’t bathed or had a proper bathroom since he arrived in Mexico.
Kyle showered and prepared to change. He was detoured by Tess waiting for him just outside the shower door. She threw her arms around him and they stumbled across the hall into their bedroom and flopped onto the bed.
One of the household staff discretely closed the door. She smiled. The Santos were still protecting all of them and Mr. Valenti was back to tend to the needs of his wife. The maid, Elena, was so lucky to find this job. Everything was fine now. She conspiratorly smiled again. If that young Hispanic boy would just notice that Gringo lady from Albuquerque. Elena had seen Mary looking at Salas when she thought no one was watching.
Kyle knew there were important things that had to be discussed, but the immediate focus was the little blonde lying naked in his arms as she expressed how glad she was that he had made it through one more assignment. They kissed and loved, loved and kissed. It was an hour before Kyle was able to go to the study where the rest of them were talking.
“It was Patrick’s idea. Our tickets were the most expensive I have ever paid to get back home. It was $3000 each, plus the promise that the Border Patrol would pull back from a certain check point for eight hours. We, essentially, paid a Coyote to bring us across the border illegally.”
Liz was listening carefully. She knew that a Coyote was the slang for a man who would bring illegal human aliens across the border. Kyle had had himself and Dr. Witherspoon smuggled into the country along with others who wanted to find work in the United States.
The Mexican authorities didn’t want to bother with Dr. Witherspoon. His crime was against an American and he was confusing a simple drug bust that Patrick had carried out with the help of Liz, Michael and Max. Patrick, as he attempted to interrogate Witherspoon, found that he was bringing up things that could be embarrassing to both the United States and Mexico, not to mention the aliens with whom Patrick had just recently become aligned. This way, it would be up to Kyle and the Others to decide how Witherspoon was handled.
Liz frowned. “I don’t want any part in killing him in cold blood. I have enough on my conscious after I killed the man attacking me in Albuquerque.”
Max put his arm around his wife. He drew her close. He would back her no matter what she felt.
Alex frowned. Also, what was he going to do with a drug smuggler and murderer who was here, but the crimes were down in Mexico?
There was a hush. One of the Others whisked itself into the room. It put its pseudopod into Liz’s head almost without any consideration. They remained that way for almost a quarter of an hour. When it left, Max caught his wife as she slumped in her chair. When Liz was back in charge of her body, she said, “That was One. They were worried about me. One says that the one killed in Albuquerque was a very bad person. If he had lived, he probably would have killed me. He had orders to do that. Killing him confused the rest of them. One says also not to worry. They will care of the Doctor. He says that Witherspoon will be returned to us refreshed; what ever that means.”
Kyle shrugged. He just hoped that what ever happened, he would remain in the clear. Many times, he had felt that he had to bend the law to uphold it. This was a belief held by many in his business.
While the eight were all talking about what was happening in their lives, Salas Zamora was sitting in the main library reading. Right beside, him were his two principal weapons. They had both been cleaned along with his pistol. His kit bag was also near at hand. He heard a voice, “Am I disturbing you?”
Salas looked up. The editor was standing in front of him. Salas almost embarrassed moved his kit bag and pushed his weapons onto the other side of him. “No, I am just trying to relax. Dr Parker-Evans has a wonderful library here. I was an ethnology major in college. She has so many current and old works of noted authors. I could return over and over and never be satisfied.”
Mary smiled, “An Ethnologist, in the state police?”
“Yes, Ma’am. I figure I deal with primitives every day. At least many are primitive in thought,” Salas replied.
“I was a literature major and, then, I took up journalism. I am… or maybe, was, an editor to pay my way through school. I usually worked for the Anthropology department. I always found the writings of the professors and students so interesting. I never thought of my work as dangerous and look at me now. All night, I have listened to gunfire and worried that some strange things want to kill me.” She was becoming almost hysterical.
Salas couldn’t help it. He put his hand on her shoulder, “I am truly sorry, ma’am. I am responsible for a lot of that gunfire. The household staff says we all are perfectly safe in the house. They really believe in the saints.”
“Oh no, don’t be sorry. I know that the gun fire is from those of you who are trying to protect me and the others in the house. I wish I had the confidence that the household staff does,” Mary quickly replied. Then, she looked at Salas. “What are these things that are attacking us? And what are these things the staff calls the Saints? I feel like I am in the middle of some weird science fiction novel.
Salas chuckled, “You might be right, ma’am. This is New Mexico. Roswell is the home of the alien crash. Farmington seems to be the home of the aliens themselves.”
“But, Doctor Parker is one of the most renowned archeologist. She is famous world over. What does she have to do with aliens?” Mary asked.
“Don’t rightly know, Ma’am. It seems that her husband, Mr. Evans, is an alien or something like that. They are very close, I see. Every time they are alone, I see the way they look into each other’s eyes. Those kids, Helen and John, I was helping them with their homework the other night. They catch on faster than anyone I ever knew. Captain Whitman’s daughter, Sabra, just won an award for representing the whole state of New Mexico in an essay contest. I guess she will follow her mother and uncle, Mr. Evans, into writing. These people are all part of strong families. There is nothing alien about that. I just wish there were more people in the world like them.” Salas was clearly impressed with the families at the Farmington household.
“I know and they seem so willing to protect me. I heard that when they were bringing me to Farmington, Dr. Parker was kidnapped. Someone even said that someone was threatening to kill her.” Mary stated.
“Yes, and the Captain’s wife and Dr. Parker’s husband rescued her. I have been listening to stories about the Captain’s wife. She came with me two nights when we were under fire. She doesn’t seem to have any fear. She can do many things that I do not understand, but the captain loves her very much!” These people all could do many things he didn’t understand, but their attitudes were the ones that Salas was brought up with.
The two people stayed in the library for the rest of the afternoon talking. They didn’t notice when Elena brought them ice water and put the frosted glasses on the table before them.
Benny and Ed were sitting in the hall looking out the windows over looking the town of Farmington. They heard a lot of shuffling behind the doors on the other side of the hall. They knew that Kyle had brought someone back, but they had no idea of who or what he was or what he had done. There was a soft knock at the the window near them. One of the household ladies had made two sachels out of a pair of old levies. She had put a strap on each of the bags. They were just perfect to hold the grenades the strange little guy had given Benny. Benny filled the bags with grenades. Now, he could carry them easier to where ever he was going. Alex hadn’t talked to him yet, so he didn’t know what to expect for tonight.
Ed still couldn’t get over the Captain’s wife. She had no fear. Someone had said she wasn’t all human. That was all right with Ed. He just wished he knew from where she came. Ed would sure like to find more women like her, or at least one.
Benny was married with two kids. He was missing them. These special assignments were exciting, but he didn’t like to be away from home for very long. Many state policemen carried two folded fifty dollar bills in their wallets at all times. They would receive per-diem, tax-free pay, for being away from home, but that was money returned after the fact. At least in this job, they didn’t have any personal expenses so the per-deim would all be his. “What do you make of who we are fighting? Why do you suppose the captain is reluctant to call in the military?” These were two questions that were bothering Benny.
Like many policemen, Benny had done a term in the military. In fact he had been in the security police in the Air Force. The training he had gotten there, convinced him he liked police work. Even though he had a reputation for being friendly to those he knew, he was not a very gregarious fellow so he felt the state police would be a more congenial group in which to work. In New Mexico the state police usually worked alone with only the occasional local or tourist to talk to. Ed had been his rookie five years ago. He found that Ed was even more standoffish than he. They became friends and, from time to time, such as when they worked the New Mexico State Fair together or when they were in a swat team call out together, they renewed their friendship. Benny knew that Ed wanted to find a girl and get married. He also knew that Ed was very shy around women.
The four engineered aliens and their mates were still in Max’s study. There was a knock on the door and one of the maids entered. She was carrying a white gown. She approached Liz. “The saints have asked me to make this for you. They ask that you wear it tonight.” She handed the gown to Liz. The material was very light weight. The hems of the dress seemed a little stiff. Liz held it out. The old Liz began to surface. She intended to break out her Glock and be right in the heat of the fight. She knew that all eight of them were going to support the state policemen to night. This dress was beautiful. It was, in fact, fit for a queen. The gown weighed almost nothing. Except for the thick hems, it was a very sexy dress. This was not something she could fight in.
Max had stepped out of the study when the maid brought the dress. He, in fact, had been in touch with one of the Others. When he returned, he heard his wife decrying the fact that she was intending to fight for their home. Max went to Liz. He took the dress and held it up against her. Of course with the influence of the aliens, it would fit perfectly.
“Liz, I was just talking with the Others. There are many ways of fighting. Tonight, they need you to fight their way. The dress is special. It sets up a field so nothing can get through it. It also projects the person wearing it. You will be seen on a hundred planets. This is not just a bunch of radicals trying to get to an informant. Nor is it a terrorist plot to kill two people and steal their bodies. It is about deposing an established government and using monsters created from their own people to fight this war,” Max paused.
“You are a symbol. You don’t know it, but off planet, you are famous. I was created to do a service. You chose to do this service and that makes you special. When they show that the enemy is trying to kill you, then it is hoped that the civil war will fail. Once it is shown that the industry that creates soldiers is making such monsters, it is hoped that both military leaders will loose face and cease their efforts. You might be the key to settling this war forever.” Max pulled Liz close and kissed her.
Liz petulantly nodded her head. “All right, but I am going to carry my Glock, also!”
Max smiled, “Yes, Liz, you will be seen as a warrior queen. I think the aliens can accept that.”
Isabel couldn’t help from chuckling. She had wondered at Max’s choice so many years ago when Liz was being stubborn about committing to any one person. She worried when it might appear that after Max had given his heart to Liz, he might have to die alone. Once an engineered alien gave his heart to one woman, he was incapable of loving another. Now, it appeared when the aliens need her, and she meant aliens both the ones locally and the others through out the galaxy, Elizabeth Parker-Evans Ph.D. would be a strong symbol.
Alex, Isabel, Max and Liz were summoned to the conference room of the Others. This was obviously a hurry up meeting. They went to the room and one of the Others put its pseudopod inTO Max’s head. It was a very brief encounter. Max turned to those with him. “We are to all go in together. We are to hold hands with our mates and they will show us where to sit. This is something really scary. The Others are extremely agitated. They say that many questions will be answered.”
Liz looked up and she saw that the Other who had talked to Max had disappeared. She and Max led the way. Once inside, they were gently guided to a couch made of that funny stuff. She saw that Alex and Isabel were guided to a couch facing them. The two couples were about six feet apart. In the background, she saw the form of Dr. Witherspoon surrounded by shadows.
An Other stood forth. “I am One. I will speak,” it said. The war we are seeing has been raging for years. On one side is the lord Kivar who leads the rebels. He wants to rule the universe and, to do that, first, he must rule Antar. On the other side is King Zan. DNA from him was partially used to make up Max. I, also, contributed DNA to the matrix that is now Max. You, Isabel, were made up as an advisor to Max. You were made from DNA of Zan’s sister, Vilandra. She was a powerful woman of our world. She was a dividing force in the war. At one time or the other, she favored both sides. She was killed because of her indecision. She was at a battle and she found herself in the middle. We are glad that you, Isabel, have loyalties to Max and your chosen mate, the mighty warrior of your world. Alex Whitman has used the skills of being a caretaker of the community and is a worthy consort for the mighty DNA of Vilandra.
Then, One, turned to Liz. You, my queen, are the one that won the heart of our king. He will never have to rule, being on Earth, but you, Dr. Elizabeth Parker-Evans, will be seen around the galaxy. It is you who we have deferred to in our dealings with Earth creatures. When our king met you, you were a power unto your self. Now, you have grown to be a power in your profession and to all of us. That is one of the things which precipitated this encounter. The human you call Dr. Witherspoon was a flawed man. He had skills, but instead of celebrating these skills he was jealous. He never saw the difficulties you over came to reach the position you have in your field. But rather, he wanted your glory without working for it. There were others who were jealous of you, but the jealousy in Rodney Aiken just spurred him on to work harder. His acolyte, Eric Rand, likewise was spurred on to work harder, That is what they were supposed to do. Dr. Witherspoon found dissidents of our race. They challenged him to attack you. With the belief that he could defeat you he led them to the people who sold the drugs. They kept him with them by feeding him evidence to prove his theory.
Liz asked, “Then did aliens have any thing to do with the development of culture in the southwest?”
One was silent and Liz was afraid that he was going to refuse to answer. “Yes, my queen, sometimes we did. Not always, but sometimes we needed culture to develop for our own purposes. We, then, interfered. We never intended for you to discover this. Those who Supported Dr. Witherspoon broke many rules.” One was sad, as he gave her this revelation. It was a signature of his culture, not caring for humans, but manipulating them. One had learned to love the humans and engineered ones, and he felt sad that others of his race didn’t.
One went on,
‘Witherspoon had them commit murders, some for their cause and some for his own benefit. He killed the prostitute himself to see if the wound would be distinct enough to arouse your attention. The police only noticed the prostitute when you called their attention to it. Dr. Witherspoon had to have murders that would be attributed to archeology. He killed Rodney Aiken when Rodney was getting close to figuring out that aliens were involved down in Mexico. Eric Rand was just someone who the shadows, as you have been calling them, thought would be the same as Rodney. Susan LaRue knew a little of her heritage. She was figuring out that aliens must be involved in what she was seeing in Mexico. She talked to Sean Gutierrez and, also, figured out that he was alien related. She was going to publish her thoughts and her findings.
Up to this point, Kivar was only concerned about the drugs. When he learned more about you and Max from Dr. Witherspoon, he also learned that Max was made from the DNA of his enemy. You, being Max’s queen, would also be a symbol to the Antarian people. If Kivar could clone the both of you, he could field armies who were children of Zan himself. Our people feel very close to their clones. This army would have defeated the spirit of King Zan if nothing else.
The killing of your agent, Alex, was just an act of sadism. Dr. Witherspoon now likes to kill.”
Alex looked up, “How did they excape us that night in the university library?”
There were several seconds that One just stood there as if waiting for something. “The killing of doctor Aiken, as I said, was to draw the attention of Doctor Parker. It was done by an engineered alien and one of the monsters. They were in the elevator shaft riding up and down on top of the elevator car with you. When everything quieted down, they just left.”
Liz looked at One. “I have two questions. First why are you talking so clearlyto us tonight. Usually, you either talk in puzzles only for brief time. Second, what is to happening to Dr. Witherspoon?”
The visage of One wavered a bit. “Second question first. We are going to cleanse Dr. Witherspoon. He was defective. We will not kill him, but we can’t allow him to exist as he is. We hope you will undertake his care and habilitation.”
One seemed to stop for several seconds like it had done for the question of Alex. “This is considered an emergency. One hundred million souls are processing for me this conversation. We do not know how many will survive this ordeal. We feel that you should understand what is at stake when you appear tonight. We all felt this was worth the cost in lives and resources.” With that, One seemed to dim. The lights came up and They all left the room.
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.
Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
chapter 15 dec 28
Martine I am right with you on this one Martine. I have always halfway believed in Aliens and their intentions I judge by anthropology and studies of cultures colliding. Looking at the conquest several times of the Southwest of the United States makes me wonder the intentions of the aliens. Here though they have installed a human, Liz to be their queen. She is human, not engineered or alien in anyway. It is Liz who has the final say in their actions. Here she had held fast that she didn’t want any one else killed. The aliens do not seem to be consulting her about what they do to their own. We just do not know.
I think that any race that acts as one has fascist tendencies. We do know what the aliens are. They make so many different appearances to the Engineered ones and to the humans that it is difficult to understand or explain them. Liz or someone once said that maybe they weren’t completely individuals at all. Then the statement that DNA from individuals was mixed with human DNA to make the engineered ones. We must ask where did they get the human DNA?
In writing this series I never decided if the aliens were good or bad. They are just alien.
I think someday I will go back and look at all I have written about Liz of the Desert and redo it as a single story. Thanks for your patience both with my story and my writing I have been trying to improve the way I write.
Chapter 15
Liz went to her bedroom, which she, of course, shared with Max. He was off doing something. She was resting and thinking. There was a soft knock at her door. “Come in,” she invited.
Maria was standing at the door. In her hands, was a green gown. It was similar to the one Liz had been given. Maria’s face was a study. She didn’t know whether to cry or scream. “The maid gave me this gown. She says the Saints want me to wear it and stand with you tonight. Liz, you fight with a pistol and used to own a big dog. You lived through kidnappings and snake bites. Liz, you are brave. I get scared of a hangnail. I don’t want to be a heroine.”
Liz went over to her long time friend. Maria wasn’t a coward, but she sometimes let her imagination run away. Maria had gone to the engineered aliens almost a year before Liz consented to. Maria ran a recording company and a music publishing company. She wasn’t afraid of business. She could out shout any executive and, usually, proved herself to be right.
Maria was a good friend. “Maria, the dress is fixed so it will give us more protection. It will broadcast us to many planets of the galaxy. Michael and Max will be right in front of us. The state police who work with Alex are the best in New Mexico. The Others want to honor you. We hope to end this war tonight. They want you to be part of it. Maybe you can even sing one of your songs.”
It was still daylight. There was a knock at the front door. “My name is Antoin. These are my helpers. We have been commissioned to prepare a Dr. Parker-Evans and a Maria Guerin for their debut tonight. Maria almost fell over. Antoin was a nationally renown hairdresser and makeup artist. They went to their rooms and the men were banished from the second story. Mary Greer was called and asked to come to the second floor to talk to Liz. She, likewise, disappeared for the rest of the late afternoon.
Tess and Isabel were in one of the first floor bedrooms. They were, also, preparing for tonight. Black balaclavas, sweaters and tights, were all laid out. They had rested as much as they could. Tess was a little worried. She had been a CEO for so many years she only hoped she could function in the field.
Michael and Max were lounging in the library with the three state policemen and their captain, Alex. Benny had his satchels that the maid had fixed for him. Ed had his ammo bag and his sniper gear. Salas was lounging and, as always, his ammo bag was near the two cases of his rifle and shotgun. Neither Max nor Michael would be using mechanical weapons.
Alex had a small black case by his chair. No one had seen it yet, but it was a German sub machine gun known as an H&K mp5. It was standard issue for police and SWAT (special weapons and tactics) groups. It had only regular ammunition because the Others didn’t have time to make the special 9mm ammo for it. They had ammunition for the M-16 of Ed Andrews and Salas Zamora. They also had 45 ammunition for their hand weapons and the 12 gauge shotgun of Salas. That took most of their resources. Alex intended to be the last defense for any humans who got by.
The household staff thought that the house was full of saints before. Now, there were so many, that, if they had been corporeal, you wouldn’t be able to walk through the halls. As it was, the humans just walked though the mist and smoke as if it wasn’t there.
As the sun went down, Ed Andrews went up on the roof. He had all his equipment. He kept low so those below wouldn’t see him, although he was sure they knew where he was. Salas and Benny would go out on the grounds as soon as it was really dark. Ed had just settled down when the door to the roof opened and the household staff started bringing up equipment. They erected a stage. Then, they set up steps to the stage.
Ed didn’t know what was going on, but he just kept to his little corner and waited. The night scope said there was movement. The red laser blink showed that Salas was on the grounds. He saw nothing of Benny and didn’t expect to. The strange creatures would want Benny and his grenades to sneak behind the insurgents. Insurgents, there was that word again sneaking like this was a military operation.
Salas had been listening to Ed this afternoon. Ed considered this just like his tour of Afghanistan. Salas had been undercover working for the state police when the other officers were overseas in the military. Sometimes, he regretted his decision to go to college instead of, maybe, being in the military. He shrugged. He had learned a lot working undercover.
The night was quiet. Quiet meant that the night noises weren’t present. The calls of the doves looking for roosts for the night, the por’wils or nighthawks calling as they flew looking for flying insects, coyotes calling to others of their kind, letting them know that they were alive and well and on the prowl, were all absent. There was nothing. Nature sensed that this was a time for higher beings. Nature was going to let these beings destroy each other.
Five miles down the road a pickup load of punks turned to head up toward the house. Like flies drawn to a picnic, they had heard the story that the house on the hill would be wasted tonight. One hundred yards up that road, they were pulled over. One of the punks made a remark and the Farmington police arrested them carrying them all back to the city jail.
There were four cowboys in the tank for drunk and disorderly. The punks were complaining about their rights. There was a slight noise and the jail went back to sleep. The punks got the bits of blanket out of their mouths in a few minutes. Maybe, they had learned a lesson.
There was movement in the bushes. Ed clicked the squelch button on his radio twice, transmitting just the background noise. Salas had already seen the movement. He turned and blinked his laser pointed toward Ed twice also. Salas watched in the night as he saw shapes coming toward him. They were men, so he put one of his usual magazines in his rifle. He lay down a line of full automatic fire. They screamed and fell as they were all hit low. Salas saw some vague shapes. He knew that the monsters were hard to see through Ed’s scope, so he picked them off one at a time. Ed also fired. There were satisfying flashes of light as they were hit. He had been able to make some of them out.
Ed was trying to see what was going on below. He saw Salas lay down his automatic fire. The saw the flashes as Salas got two monsters. Ed saw some vague shapes so he took his best shots. They were hits. Ed felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Michael. Michael put his finger to his lips and Ed could barely see him in the starlight and the shine from the city.
Ed heard sounds behind him. Michael just shook his head. Ed understood that he should just pay attention to what was below him. He let the people of the Farmington house take care of whatever they were to do. Soon Alex squatted near by. The H&K machinegun was cradled in his arms.
Salas heard movement ahead of him. It sounded like a lot of some things. He took a deep breath. He placed an alien magazine in his rifle and slung in on his shoulder. Picking up his shotgun, he prepared for the charge. He could see shadows now. They were going to storm the house. Salas hoped Benny was near. This was going to call for the grenades.
Salas heard a noise from the house. He hunkered down lower in his cover. He looked back at the house. He couldn’t believe it. There, suspended above the house, was the figure of Dr. Parker-Evans. She was glowing bright white. There was a green haze surrounding her. From the bushes, a few shots were fired at her. When the bullets got to the green haze, they just glowed and disappeared like embers of a fire. Some entity sent a power blast at the beautiful queen. As the power blast got to the haze, the haze just got stronger, adding the power blast to its own strength. There was a voice. It wasn’t really sound, but rather in one’s head. There was someone singing the “Star Spangled Banner.” It was a woman’s voice. I must be Maria DeLuca’s.
When she got to “the rockets red glare” more light came on and Maria was standing beside Liz in her green gown. It was glowing so brightly that you couldn’t look at it. Salas looked back at the brush. The light was bright, but it wasn’t shinning on anything in front of it. “The bombs bursting in air” and another figure began to glow. The figure was another woman in a blue dress. Salas couldn’t believe his eyes. The third woman was Mary Greer.
When whoever was in the bushes, saw Mary, they sent power blast after power blast at her. That was all Salas needed. He changed to an alien magazine and sprayed the place where the power blast had originated. No one was going to try to hurt the little editor while Salas was here.
All the blasts only served to make the shield stronger. The three women were all standing together in their magnificent gowns. Salas had no way of knowing it, but this was the same vision that was portrayed across the galaxy to millions of entities.
As Maria finished the song, more light came on. Now, Max was standing just ahead of Liz one step lower. Michael was also standing there, both of them at ready. They let loose a power blast at the bushes and there was screaming.
He saw two figures in black but they were glowing somehow. Salas was wondering how you could make black glow, but it was. The blond hair of each figure made them look like the Valkyries of legend. In their hands, they were each holding balls of fire.
In unison, they threw these balls at those before them. The balls didn’t just explode, they flamed like stars gone nova. They consumed all in font of them. There was screaming as those below were consumed by flame.
When the flame went out, there was no evidence of heat or any fire. Several men were lying on the ground. They were unhurt as far as could be seen, but they were moaning.
Those on the roof were getting brighter and brighter. Max and Michael both were building a power blast together. When it was done, they flung it. It soared high into the air. When it went off, it illuminated all before it. Salas also saw that it did not illuminate him hiding beside some bushes. The humans in the groups were beginning to fall back. No matter how high they were on drugs or how much they were being paid, they couldn’t understand these things.
The monsters were looking for direction. They didn’t have enough initiative to know what to do. There was a wailing that was sound but it wasn’t sound in the air. It was deep in their heads. It was the crying of something in great pain. The enemy aliens, or shadows as they were being called at Farmington, were sensing failure. It was failure throughout the galaxy.
Neither Kivar nor the military leaders on the other side could fight the fact that, the King and Queen and their court had been seen by all those having any link to Antar. It was clear to citizens of many worlds that the war on Antar was hurting the home of the King and Queen.
Though Max and Liz would never be called upon to rule anything more than their own passions, they were a symbol of many governments. The doings on Antar were now seen as affecting everyone. The war on Antar had just taken an extremely unpopular turn.
There were a few grenades thrown as those assaulting the house in Farmington were pulling out. The Farmington police stopped several cars and made several arrests. Those arrested were usually under the influence of something. They were all arrested for disturbing the peace and driving under the influence of narcotics.
While the monsters were milling around, not knowing what to do, Benny was directed to throw his grenades. There was nothing that could be done for the deformed ones, so this was the most merciful solution. The shadows were being surrounded and absorbed by the Others known to Max. Max had said, many times, that the aliens didn’t have the same time, space sense that men did. That screaming in the head was giving every one a head ache.
Max, later, found out that the screaming had occured across the galaxy. People on a hundred worlds were fed up with the creation of monsters to make an invincible army. Commanders on both sides were condemned in public opinion. Kivar, himself, was rapidly trying to find a haven to save himself. If he tried now to attack or kill Max or Liz, he would become the most hated person in the universe. It was a time when King Zan could again become strong and force a peace on the warring peoples.
I think that any race that acts as one has fascist tendencies. We do know what the aliens are. They make so many different appearances to the Engineered ones and to the humans that it is difficult to understand or explain them. Liz or someone once said that maybe they weren’t completely individuals at all. Then the statement that DNA from individuals was mixed with human DNA to make the engineered ones. We must ask where did they get the human DNA?
In writing this series I never decided if the aliens were good or bad. They are just alien.
I think someday I will go back and look at all I have written about Liz of the Desert and redo it as a single story. Thanks for your patience both with my story and my writing I have been trying to improve the way I write.
Chapter 15
Liz went to her bedroom, which she, of course, shared with Max. He was off doing something. She was resting and thinking. There was a soft knock at her door. “Come in,” she invited.
Maria was standing at the door. In her hands, was a green gown. It was similar to the one Liz had been given. Maria’s face was a study. She didn’t know whether to cry or scream. “The maid gave me this gown. She says the Saints want me to wear it and stand with you tonight. Liz, you fight with a pistol and used to own a big dog. You lived through kidnappings and snake bites. Liz, you are brave. I get scared of a hangnail. I don’t want to be a heroine.”
Liz went over to her long time friend. Maria wasn’t a coward, but she sometimes let her imagination run away. Maria had gone to the engineered aliens almost a year before Liz consented to. Maria ran a recording company and a music publishing company. She wasn’t afraid of business. She could out shout any executive and, usually, proved herself to be right.
Maria was a good friend. “Maria, the dress is fixed so it will give us more protection. It will broadcast us to many planets of the galaxy. Michael and Max will be right in front of us. The state police who work with Alex are the best in New Mexico. The Others want to honor you. We hope to end this war tonight. They want you to be part of it. Maybe you can even sing one of your songs.”
It was still daylight. There was a knock at the front door. “My name is Antoin. These are my helpers. We have been commissioned to prepare a Dr. Parker-Evans and a Maria Guerin for their debut tonight. Maria almost fell over. Antoin was a nationally renown hairdresser and makeup artist. They went to their rooms and the men were banished from the second story. Mary Greer was called and asked to come to the second floor to talk to Liz. She, likewise, disappeared for the rest of the late afternoon.
Tess and Isabel were in one of the first floor bedrooms. They were, also, preparing for tonight. Black balaclavas, sweaters and tights, were all laid out. They had rested as much as they could. Tess was a little worried. She had been a CEO for so many years she only hoped she could function in the field.
Michael and Max were lounging in the library with the three state policemen and their captain, Alex. Benny had his satchels that the maid had fixed for him. Ed had his ammo bag and his sniper gear. Salas was lounging and, as always, his ammo bag was near the two cases of his rifle and shotgun. Neither Max nor Michael would be using mechanical weapons.
Alex had a small black case by his chair. No one had seen it yet, but it was a German sub machine gun known as an H&K mp5. It was standard issue for police and SWAT (special weapons and tactics) groups. It had only regular ammunition because the Others didn’t have time to make the special 9mm ammo for it. They had ammunition for the M-16 of Ed Andrews and Salas Zamora. They also had 45 ammunition for their hand weapons and the 12 gauge shotgun of Salas. That took most of their resources. Alex intended to be the last defense for any humans who got by.
The household staff thought that the house was full of saints before. Now, there were so many, that, if they had been corporeal, you wouldn’t be able to walk through the halls. As it was, the humans just walked though the mist and smoke as if it wasn’t there.
As the sun went down, Ed Andrews went up on the roof. He had all his equipment. He kept low so those below wouldn’t see him, although he was sure they knew where he was. Salas and Benny would go out on the grounds as soon as it was really dark. Ed had just settled down when the door to the roof opened and the household staff started bringing up equipment. They erected a stage. Then, they set up steps to the stage.
Ed didn’t know what was going on, but he just kept to his little corner and waited. The night scope said there was movement. The red laser blink showed that Salas was on the grounds. He saw nothing of Benny and didn’t expect to. The strange creatures would want Benny and his grenades to sneak behind the insurgents. Insurgents, there was that word again sneaking like this was a military operation.
Salas had been listening to Ed this afternoon. Ed considered this just like his tour of Afghanistan. Salas had been undercover working for the state police when the other officers were overseas in the military. Sometimes, he regretted his decision to go to college instead of, maybe, being in the military. He shrugged. He had learned a lot working undercover.
The night was quiet. Quiet meant that the night noises weren’t present. The calls of the doves looking for roosts for the night, the por’wils or nighthawks calling as they flew looking for flying insects, coyotes calling to others of their kind, letting them know that they were alive and well and on the prowl, were all absent. There was nothing. Nature sensed that this was a time for higher beings. Nature was going to let these beings destroy each other.
Five miles down the road a pickup load of punks turned to head up toward the house. Like flies drawn to a picnic, they had heard the story that the house on the hill would be wasted tonight. One hundred yards up that road, they were pulled over. One of the punks made a remark and the Farmington police arrested them carrying them all back to the city jail.
There were four cowboys in the tank for drunk and disorderly. The punks were complaining about their rights. There was a slight noise and the jail went back to sleep. The punks got the bits of blanket out of their mouths in a few minutes. Maybe, they had learned a lesson.
There was movement in the bushes. Ed clicked the squelch button on his radio twice, transmitting just the background noise. Salas had already seen the movement. He turned and blinked his laser pointed toward Ed twice also. Salas watched in the night as he saw shapes coming toward him. They were men, so he put one of his usual magazines in his rifle. He lay down a line of full automatic fire. They screamed and fell as they were all hit low. Salas saw some vague shapes. He knew that the monsters were hard to see through Ed’s scope, so he picked them off one at a time. Ed also fired. There were satisfying flashes of light as they were hit. He had been able to make some of them out.
Ed was trying to see what was going on below. He saw Salas lay down his automatic fire. The saw the flashes as Salas got two monsters. Ed saw some vague shapes so he took his best shots. They were hits. Ed felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Michael. Michael put his finger to his lips and Ed could barely see him in the starlight and the shine from the city.
Ed heard sounds behind him. Michael just shook his head. Ed understood that he should just pay attention to what was below him. He let the people of the Farmington house take care of whatever they were to do. Soon Alex squatted near by. The H&K machinegun was cradled in his arms.
Salas heard movement ahead of him. It sounded like a lot of some things. He took a deep breath. He placed an alien magazine in his rifle and slung in on his shoulder. Picking up his shotgun, he prepared for the charge. He could see shadows now. They were going to storm the house. Salas hoped Benny was near. This was going to call for the grenades.
Salas heard a noise from the house. He hunkered down lower in his cover. He looked back at the house. He couldn’t believe it. There, suspended above the house, was the figure of Dr. Parker-Evans. She was glowing bright white. There was a green haze surrounding her. From the bushes, a few shots were fired at her. When the bullets got to the green haze, they just glowed and disappeared like embers of a fire. Some entity sent a power blast at the beautiful queen. As the power blast got to the haze, the haze just got stronger, adding the power blast to its own strength. There was a voice. It wasn’t really sound, but rather in one’s head. There was someone singing the “Star Spangled Banner.” It was a woman’s voice. I must be Maria DeLuca’s.
When she got to “the rockets red glare” more light came on and Maria was standing beside Liz in her green gown. It was glowing so brightly that you couldn’t look at it. Salas looked back at the brush. The light was bright, but it wasn’t shinning on anything in front of it. “The bombs bursting in air” and another figure began to glow. The figure was another woman in a blue dress. Salas couldn’t believe his eyes. The third woman was Mary Greer.
When whoever was in the bushes, saw Mary, they sent power blast after power blast at her. That was all Salas needed. He changed to an alien magazine and sprayed the place where the power blast had originated. No one was going to try to hurt the little editor while Salas was here.
All the blasts only served to make the shield stronger. The three women were all standing together in their magnificent gowns. Salas had no way of knowing it, but this was the same vision that was portrayed across the galaxy to millions of entities.
As Maria finished the song, more light came on. Now, Max was standing just ahead of Liz one step lower. Michael was also standing there, both of them at ready. They let loose a power blast at the bushes and there was screaming.
He saw two figures in black but they were glowing somehow. Salas was wondering how you could make black glow, but it was. The blond hair of each figure made them look like the Valkyries of legend. In their hands, they were each holding balls of fire.
In unison, they threw these balls at those before them. The balls didn’t just explode, they flamed like stars gone nova. They consumed all in font of them. There was screaming as those below were consumed by flame.
When the flame went out, there was no evidence of heat or any fire. Several men were lying on the ground. They were unhurt as far as could be seen, but they were moaning.
Those on the roof were getting brighter and brighter. Max and Michael both were building a power blast together. When it was done, they flung it. It soared high into the air. When it went off, it illuminated all before it. Salas also saw that it did not illuminate him hiding beside some bushes. The humans in the groups were beginning to fall back. No matter how high they were on drugs or how much they were being paid, they couldn’t understand these things.
The monsters were looking for direction. They didn’t have enough initiative to know what to do. There was a wailing that was sound but it wasn’t sound in the air. It was deep in their heads. It was the crying of something in great pain. The enemy aliens, or shadows as they were being called at Farmington, were sensing failure. It was failure throughout the galaxy.
Neither Kivar nor the military leaders on the other side could fight the fact that, the King and Queen and their court had been seen by all those having any link to Antar. It was clear to citizens of many worlds that the war on Antar was hurting the home of the King and Queen.
Though Max and Liz would never be called upon to rule anything more than their own passions, they were a symbol of many governments. The doings on Antar were now seen as affecting everyone. The war on Antar had just taken an extremely unpopular turn.
There were a few grenades thrown as those assaulting the house in Farmington were pulling out. The Farmington police stopped several cars and made several arrests. Those arrested were usually under the influence of something. They were all arrested for disturbing the peace and driving under the influence of narcotics.
While the monsters were milling around, not knowing what to do, Benny was directed to throw his grenades. There was nothing that could be done for the deformed ones, so this was the most merciful solution. The shadows were being surrounded and absorbed by the Others known to Max. Max had said, many times, that the aliens didn’t have the same time, space sense that men did. That screaming in the head was giving every one a head ache.
Max, later, found out that the screaming had occured across the galaxy. People on a hundred worlds were fed up with the creation of monsters to make an invincible army. Commanders on both sides were condemned in public opinion. Kivar, himself, was rapidly trying to find a haven to save himself. If he tried now to attack or kill Max or Liz, he would become the most hated person in the universe. It was a time when King Zan could again become strong and force a peace on the warring peoples.
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.
Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
chapter 15 dec 28
Martine I am right with you on this one Martine. I have always halfway believed in Aliens and their intentions I judge by anthropology and studies of cultures colliding. Looking at the conquest several times of the Southwest of the United States makes me wonder the intentions of the aliens. Here though they have installed a human, Liz to be their queen. She is human, not engineered or alien in anyway. It is Liz who has the final say in their actions. Here she had held fast that she didn’t want any one else killed. The aliens do not seem to be consulting her about what they do to their own. We just do not know.
I think that any race that acts as one has fascist tendencies. We do know what the aliens are. They make so many different appearances to the Engineered ones and to the humans that it is difficult to understand or explain them. Liz or someone once said that maybe they weren’t completely individuals at all. Then the statement that DNA from individuals was mixed with human DNA to make the engineered ones. We must ask where did they get the human DNA?
In writing this series I never decided if the aliens were good or bad. They are just alien.
I think someday I will go back and look at all I have written about Liz of the Desert and redo it as a single story. Thanks for your patience both with my story and my writing I have been trying to improve the way I write.
Chapter 15
Liz went to her bedroom, which she, of course, shared with Max. He was off doing something. She was resting and thinking. There was a soft knock at her door. “Come in,” she invited.
Maria was standing at the door. In her hands, was a green gown. It was similar to the one Liz had been given. Maria’s face was a study. She didn’t know whether to cry or scream. “The maid gave me this gown. She says the Saints want me to wear it and stand with you tonight. Liz, you fight with a pistol and used to own a big dog. You lived through kidnappings and snake bites. Liz, you are brave. I get scared of a hangnail. I don’t want to be a heroine.”
Liz went over to her long time friend. Maria wasn’t a coward, but she sometimes let her imagination run away. Maria had gone to the engineered aliens almost a year before Liz consented to. Maria ran a recording company and a music publishing company. She wasn’t afraid of business. She could out shout any executive and, usually, proved herself to be right.
Maria was a good friend. “Maria, the dress is fixed so it will give us more protection. It will broadcast us to many planets of the galaxy. Michael and Max will be right in front of us. The state police who work with Alex are the best in New Mexico. The Others want to honor you. We hope to end this war tonight. They want you to be part of it. Maybe you can even sing one of your songs.”
It was still daylight. There was a knock at the front door. “My name is Antoin. These are my helpers. We have been commissioned to prepare a Dr. Parker-Evans and a Maria Guerin for their debut tonight. Maria almost fell over. Antoin was a nationally renown hairdresser and makeup artist. They went to their rooms and the men were banished from the second story. Mary Greer was called and asked to come to the second floor to talk to Liz. She, likewise, disappeared for the rest of the late afternoon.
Tess and Isabel were in one of the first floor bedrooms. They were, also, preparing for tonight. Black balaclavas, sweaters and tights, were all laid out. They had rested as much as they could. Tess was a little worried. She had been a CEO for so many years she only hoped she could function in the field.
Michael and Max were lounging in the library with the three state policemen and their captain, Alex. Benny had his satchels that the maid had fixed for him. Ed had his ammo bag and his sniper gear. Salas was lounging and, as always, his ammo bag was near the two cases of his rifle and shotgun. Neither Max nor Michael would be using mechanical weapons.
Alex had a small black case by his chair. No one had seen it yet, but it was a German sub machine gun known as an H&K mp5. It was standard issue for police and SWAT (special weapons and tactics) groups. It had only regular ammunition because the Others didn’t have time to make the special 9mm ammo for it. They had ammunition for the M-16 of Ed Andrews and Salas Zamora. They also had 45 ammunition for their hand weapons and the 12 gauge shotgun of Salas. That took most of their resources. Alex intended to be the last defense for any humans who got by.
The household staff thought that the house was full of saints before. Now, there were so many, that, if they had been corporeal, you wouldn’t be able to walk through the halls. As it was, the humans just walked though the mist and smoke as if it wasn’t there.
As the sun went down, Ed Andrews went up on the roof. He had all his equipment. He kept low so those below wouldn’t see him, although he was sure they knew where he was. Salas and Benny would go out on the grounds as soon as it was really dark. Ed had just settled down when the door to the roof opened and the household staff started bringing up equipment. They erected a stage. Then, they set up steps to the stage.
Ed didn’t know what was going on, but he just kept to his little corner and waited. The night scope said there was movement. The red laser blink showed that Salas was on the grounds. He saw nothing of Benny and didn’t expect to. The strange creatures would want Benny and his grenades to sneak behind the insurgents. Insurgents, there was that word again sneaking like this was a military operation.
Salas had been listening to Ed this afternoon. Ed considered this just like his tour of Afghanistan. Salas had been undercover working for the state police when the other officers were overseas in the military. Sometimes, he regretted his decision to go to college instead of, maybe, being in the military. He shrugged. He had learned a lot working undercover.
The night was quiet. Quiet meant that the night noises weren’t present. The calls of the doves looking for roosts for the night, the por’wils or nighthawks calling as they flew looking for flying insects, coyotes calling to others of their kind, letting them know that they were alive and well and on the prowl, were all absent. There was nothing. Nature sensed that this was a time for higher beings. Nature was going to let these beings destroy each other.
Five miles down the road a pickup load of punks turned to head up toward the house. Like flies drawn to a picnic, they had heard the story that the house on the hill would be wasted tonight. One hundred yards up that road, they were pulled over. One of the punks made a remark and the Farmington police arrested them carrying them all back to the city jail.
There were four cowboys in the tank for drunk and disorderly. The punks were complaining about their rights. There was a slight noise and the jail went back to sleep. The punks got the bits of blanket out of their mouths in a few minutes. Maybe, they had learned a lesson.
There was movement in the bushes. Ed clicked the squelch button on his radio twice, transmitting just the background noise. Salas had already seen the movement. He turned and blinked his laser pointed toward Ed twice also. Salas watched in the night as he saw shapes coming toward him. They were men, so he put one of his usual magazines in his rifle. He lay down a line of full automatic fire. They screamed and fell as they were all hit low. Salas saw some vague shapes. He knew that the monsters were hard to see through Ed’s scope, so he picked them off one at a time. Ed also fired. There were satisfying flashes of light as they were hit. He had been able to make some of them out.
Ed was trying to see what was going on below. He saw Salas lay down his automatic fire. The saw the flashes as Salas got two monsters. Ed saw some vague shapes so he took his best shots. They were hits. Ed felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Michael. Michael put his finger to his lips and Ed could barely see him in the starlight and the shine from the city.
Ed heard sounds behind him. Michael just shook his head. Ed understood that he should just pay attention to what was below him. He let the people of the Farmington house take care of whatever they were to do. Soon Alex squatted near by. The H&K machinegun was cradled in his arms.
Salas heard movement ahead of him. It sounded like a lot of some things. He took a deep breath. He placed an alien magazine in his rifle and slung in on his shoulder. Picking up his shotgun, he prepared for the charge. He could see shadows now. They were going to storm the house. Salas hoped Benny was near. This was going to call for the grenades.
Salas heard a noise from the house. He hunkered down lower in his cover. He looked back at the house. He couldn’t believe it. There, suspended above the house, was the figure of Dr. Parker-Evans. She was glowing bright white. There was a green haze surrounding her. From the bushes, a few shots were fired at her. When the bullets got to the green haze, they just glowed and disappeared like embers of a fire. Some entity sent a power blast at the beautiful queen. As the power blast got to the haze, the haze just got stronger, adding the power blast to its own strength. There was a voice. It wasn’t really sound, but rather in one’s head. There was someone singing the “Star Spangled Banner.” It was a woman’s voice. I must be Maria DeLuca’s.
When she got to “the rockets red glare” more light came on and Maria was standing beside Liz in her green gown. It was glowing so brightly that you couldn’t look at it. Salas looked back at the brush. The light was bright, but it wasn’t shinning on anything in front of it. “The bombs bursting in air” and another figure began to glow. The figure was another woman in a blue dress. Salas couldn’t believe his eyes. The third woman was Mary Greer.
When whoever was in the bushes, saw Mary, they sent power blast after power blast at her. That was all Salas needed. He changed to an alien magazine and sprayed the place where the power blast had originated. No one was going to try to hurt the little editor while Salas was here.
All the blasts only served to make the shield stronger. The three women were all standing together in their magnificent gowns. Salas had no way of knowing it, but this was the same vision that was portrayed across the galaxy to millions of entities.
As Maria finished the song, more light came on. Now, Max was standing just ahead of Liz one step lower. Michael was also standing there, both of them at ready. They let loose a power blast at the bushes and there was screaming.
He saw two figures in black but they were glowing somehow. Salas was wondering how you could make black glow, but it was. The blond hair of each figure made them look like the Valkyries of legend. In their hands, they were each holding balls of fire.
In unison, they threw these balls at those before them. The balls didn’t just explode, they flamed like stars gone nova. They consumed all in font of them. There was screaming as those below were consumed by flame.
When the flame went out, there was no evidence of heat or any fire. Several men were lying on the ground. They were unhurt as far as could be seen, but they were moaning.
Those on the roof were getting brighter and brighter. Max and Michael both were building a power blast together. When it was done, they flung it. It soared high into the air. When it went off, it illuminated all before it. Salas also saw that it did not illuminate him hiding beside some bushes. The humans in the groups were beginning to fall back. No matter how high they were on drugs or how much they were being paid, they couldn’t understand these things.
The monsters were looking for direction. They didn’t have enough initiative to know what to do. There was a wailing that was sound but it wasn’t sound in the air. It was deep in their heads. It was the crying of something in great pain. The enemy aliens, or shadows as they were being called at Farmington, were sensing failure. It was failure throughout the galaxy.
Neither Kivar nor the military leaders on the other side could fight the fact that, the King and Queen and their court had been seen by all those having any link to Antar. It was clear to citizens of many worlds that the war on Antar was hurting the home of the King and Queen.
Though Max and Liz would never be called upon to rule anything more than their own passions, they were a symbol of many governments. The doings on Antar were now seen as affecting everyone. The war on Antar had just taken an extremely unpopular turn.
There were a few grenades thrown as those assaulting the house in Farmington were pulling out. The Farmington police stopped several cars and made several arrests. Those arrested were usually under the influence of something. They were all arrested for disturbing the peace and driving under the influence of narcotics.
While the monsters were milling around, not knowing what to do, Benny was directed to throw his grenades. There was nothing that could be done for the deformed ones, so this was the most merciful solution. The shadows were being surrounded and absorbed by the Others known to Max. Max had said, many times, that the aliens didn’t have the same time, space sense that men did. That screaming in the head was giving every one a head ache.
Max, later, found out that the screaming had occured across the galaxy. People on a hundred worlds were fed up with the creation of monsters to make an invincible army. Commanders on both sides were condemned in public opinion. Kivar, himself, was rapidly trying to find a haven to save himself. If he tried now to attack or kill Max or Liz, he would become the most hated person in the universe. It was a time when King Zan could again become strong and force a peace on the warring peoples.
I think that any race that acts as one has fascist tendencies. We do know what the aliens are. They make so many different appearances to the Engineered ones and to the humans that it is difficult to understand or explain them. Liz or someone once said that maybe they weren’t completely individuals at all. Then the statement that DNA from individuals was mixed with human DNA to make the engineered ones. We must ask where did they get the human DNA?
In writing this series I never decided if the aliens were good or bad. They are just alien.
I think someday I will go back and look at all I have written about Liz of the Desert and redo it as a single story. Thanks for your patience both with my story and my writing I have been trying to improve the way I write.
Chapter 15
Liz went to her bedroom, which she, of course, shared with Max. He was off doing something. She was resting and thinking. There was a soft knock at her door. “Come in,” she invited.
Maria was standing at the door. In her hands, was a green gown. It was similar to the one Liz had been given. Maria’s face was a study. She didn’t know whether to cry or scream. “The maid gave me this gown. She says the Saints want me to wear it and stand with you tonight. Liz, you fight with a pistol and used to own a big dog. You lived through kidnappings and snake bites. Liz, you are brave. I get scared of a hangnail. I don’t want to be a heroine.”
Liz went over to her long time friend. Maria wasn’t a coward, but she sometimes let her imagination run away. Maria had gone to the engineered aliens almost a year before Liz consented to. Maria ran a recording company and a music publishing company. She wasn’t afraid of business. She could out shout any executive and, usually, proved herself to be right.
Maria was a good friend. “Maria, the dress is fixed so it will give us more protection. It will broadcast us to many planets of the galaxy. Michael and Max will be right in front of us. The state police who work with Alex are the best in New Mexico. The Others want to honor you. We hope to end this war tonight. They want you to be part of it. Maybe you can even sing one of your songs.”
It was still daylight. There was a knock at the front door. “My name is Antoin. These are my helpers. We have been commissioned to prepare a Dr. Parker-Evans and a Maria Guerin for their debut tonight. Maria almost fell over. Antoin was a nationally renown hairdresser and makeup artist. They went to their rooms and the men were banished from the second story. Mary Greer was called and asked to come to the second floor to talk to Liz. She, likewise, disappeared for the rest of the late afternoon.
Tess and Isabel were in one of the first floor bedrooms. They were, also, preparing for tonight. Black balaclavas, sweaters and tights, were all laid out. They had rested as much as they could. Tess was a little worried. She had been a CEO for so many years she only hoped she could function in the field.
Michael and Max were lounging in the library with the three state policemen and their captain, Alex. Benny had his satchels that the maid had fixed for him. Ed had his ammo bag and his sniper gear. Salas was lounging and, as always, his ammo bag was near the two cases of his rifle and shotgun. Neither Max nor Michael would be using mechanical weapons.
Alex had a small black case by his chair. No one had seen it yet, but it was a German sub machine gun known as an H&K mp5. It was standard issue for police and SWAT (special weapons and tactics) groups. It had only regular ammunition because the Others didn’t have time to make the special 9mm ammo for it. They had ammunition for the M-16 of Ed Andrews and Salas Zamora. They also had 45 ammunition for their hand weapons and the 12 gauge shotgun of Salas. That took most of their resources. Alex intended to be the last defense for any humans who got by.
The household staff thought that the house was full of saints before. Now, there were so many, that, if they had been corporeal, you wouldn’t be able to walk through the halls. As it was, the humans just walked though the mist and smoke as if it wasn’t there.
As the sun went down, Ed Andrews went up on the roof. He had all his equipment. He kept low so those below wouldn’t see him, although he was sure they knew where he was. Salas and Benny would go out on the grounds as soon as it was really dark. Ed had just settled down when the door to the roof opened and the household staff started bringing up equipment. They erected a stage. Then, they set up steps to the stage.
Ed didn’t know what was going on, but he just kept to his little corner and waited. The night scope said there was movement. The red laser blink showed that Salas was on the grounds. He saw nothing of Benny and didn’t expect to. The strange creatures would want Benny and his grenades to sneak behind the insurgents. Insurgents, there was that word again sneaking like this was a military operation.
Salas had been listening to Ed this afternoon. Ed considered this just like his tour of Afghanistan. Salas had been undercover working for the state police when the other officers were overseas in the military. Sometimes, he regretted his decision to go to college instead of, maybe, being in the military. He shrugged. He had learned a lot working undercover.
The night was quiet. Quiet meant that the night noises weren’t present. The calls of the doves looking for roosts for the night, the por’wils or nighthawks calling as they flew looking for flying insects, coyotes calling to others of their kind, letting them know that they were alive and well and on the prowl, were all absent. There was nothing. Nature sensed that this was a time for higher beings. Nature was going to let these beings destroy each other.
Five miles down the road a pickup load of punks turned to head up toward the house. Like flies drawn to a picnic, they had heard the story that the house on the hill would be wasted tonight. One hundred yards up that road, they were pulled over. One of the punks made a remark and the Farmington police arrested them carrying them all back to the city jail.
There were four cowboys in the tank for drunk and disorderly. The punks were complaining about their rights. There was a slight noise and the jail went back to sleep. The punks got the bits of blanket out of their mouths in a few minutes. Maybe, they had learned a lesson.
There was movement in the bushes. Ed clicked the squelch button on his radio twice, transmitting just the background noise. Salas had already seen the movement. He turned and blinked his laser pointed toward Ed twice also. Salas watched in the night as he saw shapes coming toward him. They were men, so he put one of his usual magazines in his rifle. He lay down a line of full automatic fire. They screamed and fell as they were all hit low. Salas saw some vague shapes. He knew that the monsters were hard to see through Ed’s scope, so he picked them off one at a time. Ed also fired. There were satisfying flashes of light as they were hit. He had been able to make some of them out.
Ed was trying to see what was going on below. He saw Salas lay down his automatic fire. The saw the flashes as Salas got two monsters. Ed saw some vague shapes so he took his best shots. They were hits. Ed felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Michael. Michael put his finger to his lips and Ed could barely see him in the starlight and the shine from the city.
Ed heard sounds behind him. Michael just shook his head. Ed understood that he should just pay attention to what was below him. He let the people of the Farmington house take care of whatever they were to do. Soon Alex squatted near by. The H&K machinegun was cradled in his arms.
Salas heard movement ahead of him. It sounded like a lot of some things. He took a deep breath. He placed an alien magazine in his rifle and slung in on his shoulder. Picking up his shotgun, he prepared for the charge. He could see shadows now. They were going to storm the house. Salas hoped Benny was near. This was going to call for the grenades.
Salas heard a noise from the house. He hunkered down lower in his cover. He looked back at the house. He couldn’t believe it. There, suspended above the house, was the figure of Dr. Parker-Evans. She was glowing bright white. There was a green haze surrounding her. From the bushes, a few shots were fired at her. When the bullets got to the green haze, they just glowed and disappeared like embers of a fire. Some entity sent a power blast at the beautiful queen. As the power blast got to the haze, the haze just got stronger, adding the power blast to its own strength. There was a voice. It wasn’t really sound, but rather in one’s head. There was someone singing the “Star Spangled Banner.” It was a woman’s voice. I must be Maria DeLuca’s.
When she got to “the rockets red glare” more light came on and Maria was standing beside Liz in her green gown. It was glowing so brightly that you couldn’t look at it. Salas looked back at the brush. The light was bright, but it wasn’t shinning on anything in front of it. “The bombs bursting in air” and another figure began to glow. The figure was another woman in a blue dress. Salas couldn’t believe his eyes. The third woman was Mary Greer.
When whoever was in the bushes, saw Mary, they sent power blast after power blast at her. That was all Salas needed. He changed to an alien magazine and sprayed the place where the power blast had originated. No one was going to try to hurt the little editor while Salas was here.
All the blasts only served to make the shield stronger. The three women were all standing together in their magnificent gowns. Salas had no way of knowing it, but this was the same vision that was portrayed across the galaxy to millions of entities.
As Maria finished the song, more light came on. Now, Max was standing just ahead of Liz one step lower. Michael was also standing there, both of them at ready. They let loose a power blast at the bushes and there was screaming.
He saw two figures in black but they were glowing somehow. Salas was wondering how you could make black glow, but it was. The blond hair of each figure made them look like the Valkyries of legend. In their hands, they were each holding balls of fire.
In unison, they threw these balls at those before them. The balls didn’t just explode, they flamed like stars gone nova. They consumed all in font of them. There was screaming as those below were consumed by flame.
When the flame went out, there was no evidence of heat or any fire. Several men were lying on the ground. They were unhurt as far as could be seen, but they were moaning.
Those on the roof were getting brighter and brighter. Max and Michael both were building a power blast together. When it was done, they flung it. It soared high into the air. When it went off, it illuminated all before it. Salas also saw that it did not illuminate him hiding beside some bushes. The humans in the groups were beginning to fall back. No matter how high they were on drugs or how much they were being paid, they couldn’t understand these things.
The monsters were looking for direction. They didn’t have enough initiative to know what to do. There was a wailing that was sound but it wasn’t sound in the air. It was deep in their heads. It was the crying of something in great pain. The enemy aliens, or shadows as they were being called at Farmington, were sensing failure. It was failure throughout the galaxy.
Neither Kivar nor the military leaders on the other side could fight the fact that, the King and Queen and their court had been seen by all those having any link to Antar. It was clear to citizens of many worlds that the war on Antar was hurting the home of the King and Queen.
Though Max and Liz would never be called upon to rule anything more than their own passions, they were a symbol of many governments. The doings on Antar were now seen as affecting everyone. The war on Antar had just taken an extremely unpopular turn.
There were a few grenades thrown as those assaulting the house in Farmington were pulling out. The Farmington police stopped several cars and made several arrests. Those arrested were usually under the influence of something. They were all arrested for disturbing the peace and driving under the influence of narcotics.
While the monsters were milling around, not knowing what to do, Benny was directed to throw his grenades. There was nothing that could be done for the deformed ones, so this was the most merciful solution. The shadows were being surrounded and absorbed by the Others known to Max. Max had said, many times, that the aliens didn’t have the same time, space sense that men did. That screaming in the head was giving every one a head ache.
Max, later, found out that the screaming had occured across the galaxy. People on a hundred worlds were fed up with the creation of monsters to make an invincible army. Commanders on both sides were condemned in public opinion. Kivar, himself, was rapidly trying to find a haven to save himself. If he tried now to attack or kill Max or Liz, he would become the most hated person in the universe. It was a time when King Zan could again become strong and force a peace on the warring peoples.
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.
Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
Re: Smugglers of Antar ml,mm,ai,kt adult p4 ch16 1l7
Martine it is so nice when read my story. Battles are like that they are fast and furious.
Chapter 16
The next morning, Alex and the Farmington Police had a double job to do. First, they had the jails full of prisoners. Second, Ira Begay had his hands full as he assigned officers to each prisoner in turn. Then he accepted their reports when they were through.
Not much could be learned from the men. They all told of being given a potion that was to die for, and many of them had. They told of strange people, but that was all placed on the effect of the drugs. Monsters were, again, hallucinations of those who had chosen to leave the normal world. Most of the men would be fined and a few were charged with disturbing the peace. The men that had been taken to the hospital were charged with assault. They had been shot while charging the house.
The Public Relations section of the Farmington Police department held a press conference. It seemed that a west coast gang had tried to gain a foothold in Farmington. Many of the local bad boys had objected and they had gotten into a terrible gang fight in the hills. There was a lot of shooting and there were some fatalities. Most of the members had just been wounded in the ruckus.
Alex left, giving Ira his thanks. The sooner this all blew over, the better. He could close his case on the happenings at the University library by saying, truthfully, that the murders were caused by drug smugglers. The deaths had been perpetrated because the two men, Doctor Aiken and graduate student Eric Ryand, refused to aid the smugglers. That precipitated the University and many other institutions to develop guide lines for students and faculty in how to deal with situations like this while on expeditions.
Alex had the sad duty of informing the family of Joe Matucci that he had been killed while on a drug investigation. Alex felt that they had gotten the ones who killed him, but with so many taken into custody, both in the United states and also Mexico, it was impossible to tell. Alex hated lying.
Susan LaRue’s family received an unannounced caller, Doctor Elizabeth Parker-Evans. They were active in academics, so they well knew of her reputation. Liz told them of their daughters exploits. She explained that Susan had left a lot of knowledge that would be published in her name. Liz didn’t tell them that this knowledge would undergo an editing to remove any mention of aliens. Liz sensed that the mother of Susan, a Maryanne LaRue, had some alien feel. As she was showing Doctor Parker to the door, Liz leaned forward and whispered that there are many things Maryanne might like to learn about her family and, if so, she should contact Liz.
Mary Greer, received a position while working on her doctorate to teach at the Farmington extension of the University of New Mexico. When she was in Farmington, she usually stayed at the house she knew there. There was a second reward for teaching and being in Farmington part-time. Salas, when off or on the day shift, would come by and they now were dating.
Benny was promoted and, thus, transferred to the southern district. He had many stories that he couldn’t tell. The University settled down. Liz managed to acquire several items of Aztec origin from the University of Mexico. The University of Mexico had several new archeology sites to process especially in the cliffs near Camargo. Sam was delighted, as usual, about the exploits of his little archeologist, but he did wish she would take less chances.
Ed went back to his regular patrol. After the excitement of the past few weeks, patrol was very boring. He received an invitation to attend a get-together at the house in Farmington. He was surprised that this all happened when he had some comp time, that is, time where he would be given vacation time because of working long hours.
It was a gala affair. Isabel had gone all out. All of the people here would know of their alien origin. There would total freedom to talk about it with others, maybe, even the Others. The household staff were pleased that ‘los Niños de los Santos’ (the children of the saints) were all finding each other. Isabel had contacted people descended from engineered aliens from all over New Mexico, as well as the new ones Max and Liz had met living in Mexico.
Ed arranged his comp time and accepted the invitation, mainly because he wanted to see Isabel again. “Thou shall not lust after your captain’s wife,” but he had to admit she was the type of girl he wanted. The house at Farmington was very large, especially if the Others confined their space to one room. That allowed several downstairs rooms available for guest.
The first party to accept the invitation was Thomas Ciel and his family. His children wanted to learn more about their heritage, even though it wasn’t as if on heritage day at school, they could bring a model of a flying saucer. Their, sort of, Uncle wasn’t an alien, but it was through him that Liz and Max had located Thomas Ciel. Augie Lock was getting up there in years, but he could still drive a little. He was going to come with the Ciel family. Since he was not of the alien side of the Lock family he hadn’t seen any need to inform either of his grown children about their cousins.
The most gracious acceptance was from the Gutierrez family. Patrick would come along with his wife, his son and his two daughters. It seems that one of the girls, the one who wanted to come to the United States for college, had run across some papers written by Doctor Parker. When her father told her that he knew Doctor Parker, she was thrilled. She was so looking forward to meeting the good doctor, and talking about going to the University of New Mexico and getting an advanced anthropology degree.
The non-alien couple was Mary Greer and her escort, Officer Salas Zamora. They invited Mary because, officially by galactic standards, she was part of the court of the Queen. It was rumored that a spring wedding was in the making.
Salas had gotten together with Benny and Ed a few times for a quiet coffee chat. They never discussed the special operation they were on with any other officers. If asked, they were just protecting Mary Greer, a witness to a series of murders.
Ed kept a collection of souvenirs, one each of 45, 223 and 12 gauge shotgun shells. All of these were alien blessed. Ed never explained, but they were put in a frame he hung on his wall at his apartment. In truth, if it were known, these shells would be more valuable than the whole rest of his collection.
There were a lot of strange things. Patrick’s wife Carlotta, was asked if she would consent to an alien interview. At first, she was frightened of the wispy figures roaming through the halls. They were too much like evil spirits. Carlotta was educated, but actually being in the presence of creatures that so resembled beings of her childhood folklore, was unnerving. Elena, the maid, heard that the saints wanted to talk to Carlotta. She made a special trip to see her.
Carlotta and Elena talked in Spanish for some time. Elena might not be as educated as Carlotta, but she told of the many things she had seen since she started working here. Carlotta finally consented. First, Patrick went in. Then he came out and Carlotta entered. She was in about an hour. When she came out, she was clearly fatigued and Patrick led her to their room. “What did they do to you, dearest one.”
For some reason, Patrick always spoke English when he was being tender. Carlotta knew that Patrick, unlike so many Latin men, was shy with women, even one who he had been married to for over 25 years. The phrases in English didn’t seem to embarrass him as much as saying the same thing in Spanish. Carlotta began to cry. She sensed that Patrick was getting angry at the Others if they had upset her so much.
“Oh no, Patrick, it is just that the strange ones told me how important you were. They said you had a major part in stopping a war where millions of souls were being killed. They told me that they were so fortunate that you had married me. They said I had always been so strong to support you. These are all things I have always known, but the way they said it, it was so beautiful Patrick. I do and always will love you, even without the strange ones affirmation.”
What could he say. Patrick just kissed her. Yes, everything the Others, as the Gringos called them, said was true. They both knew it, but to hear this from beings from so vast a world that he couldn’t understand it, just strengthened, if possible, their mutual love.
Mary Greer was asked to come to an interview. She frowned, but so many strange things had happened to her, she consented. When she entered, the lights were dim. She was led to a place, which rose up to make a chair for her. She was seated and, just like with the consorts of the manufactured ones, Mary was introduced by the numbers. She had just enough college math to follow what they were saying. She understood the part about One. She understood him to be the leader. Two was just a bit less than One and so forth. Naught was nowhere to be seen. He had returned to whatever mysterious duties he normally held.
One stood before her, at least she thought it was One. He seemed to be an entity of importance. “Mary Greer, our queen is completely human. The other woman of her court was a life long friend who is now married to one of our children. You were chosen to fill out the court. Your bravery helped with the war. We would like to consider you one of our children. If you marry the man Zamora, he would, also, be so considered. We have very strong feeling about commitment. Only accept this if you are committed to him and to us.” With that, the room, again, brightened and the aliens or as they were called, the Others, disappeared.
In the plans of the massive get together, Isabel had left a lot of time unstructured. Patrick’s son, Estaban, found that he enjoyed the stories of Salas. Salas told him about being undercover during college. He told the stories that every policeman has about adventures he’d had fighting crime. Salas spoke with an accent and structure of the northern New Mexico people.
Estaban was a sociology major at a university in Mexico. He found the stories about people Salas had met interesting. They talked in both Spanish and English. In some ways ,talking about the people of the north, that Salas had grown up with, was a study in itself.
Patrick’s two daughters, at first, were bored. Alicia, the younger one, finally met the daughter of Thomas Ciel. They hit it off and spent most of the rest of their time at Farmington together.
Bernadette, the oldest daughter who wanted to talk to Liz, was left alone. Liz had taken her to see her library. She was impressed with the books and the collections Liz had on display. Like Salas before her, she browsed through the shelves of books. She was in the room reading when a man walked in. “I am sorry, I didn’t know anyone was here. I will leave if you want.”
“Oh no, I am going to the University in Albuquerque next year and Doctor Parker was just showing me many of her books. My name, by the way, is Bernadette Gutierrez.”
“Oh, the narcotics man from Mexico must be your father. My name is Ed Andrews. I work for the New Mexico State Police.” Ed stated.
Bernadette smiled, “What is your connection to the aliens? I am guessing that every one here has some connection. They told me I could speak freely here.” Bernadette was coming to terms with her heritage.
“I was one of the policemen defending the house,” Ed replied.
Bernadette’s eyes got wide, “I heard that it was very dangerous!”
“Well, it was interesting. At the end, when Doctor Parker was on some sort of broadcast view across the galaxy, the bad aliens were defeated. It felt pretty good to be part of something that big,” Ed sighed. “You say you are going to come to the University of New Mexico. What do you intend to major in?”
“I have been reading articles in a journal, written by Dr. Parker, so I am thinking of general anthropology, sociology or, maybe, even archeology. She is such an interesting person!” Bernadette was clearly a fan or Elizabeth Parker-Evans.
“I did not get to meet her very much, but I understand that she is a very strong person. It was she who led the expedition to Mexico to help your father end the narcotics smuggling by the aliens,” Ed informed Bernadette.
“Did you go to college?” she inquired. After she asked it, the crest-fallen look that she saw in Ed made her wish she could have taken back the question.
“No ma’am, I was under ten inches of sand stopping opium smugglers from using a certain pass into Pakistan. There were thousands of other ways they could get the opium out of Afghanistan, but I kept them from using the pass I was guarding. Sometimes, after I look back, I wonder if I would have done better to have stayed and attended college. But, then, I think that what I learned in the desert was what I used to defend this house. I like being a state policeman so I do not know. I am not someone schooled like Salas Zamora. He is a good warrior and he has a degree.” The conversation had turned to something that worried Ed a lot.
“My father has a degree in law, but he says that knowledge comes many ways. He just learned recently that we are related to aliens. So, he says, we learn all the time, not just in school,” Bernadette stated.
Ed sat down. The young lady was at least five years younger than he but he enjoyed talking to her. That was strange because Ed was shy around
most women. For some reason, he thought of holding the arm of Mrs. Whitman that night. He remembered leading her through the sage and forcing her down while he took his shots. He remembered her getting up and dusting herself off when the fight was over. He wondered if this lady could be like Isabel. Ed found himself talking about the people of Afghanistan.
Bernie was very interested in cultures that she had never known. His tales were intriguing. They would have missed the call to dinner except for Elena. She knew that they were in the library and made it a point to remind them that everyone else was downstairs and dinner would be waiting.
When Ed Andrews and Bernadette Gutierrez came to dinner together, Carlotta just looked at her husband, Patrick, and raised her eyebrows. Patrick shrugged. Bernadette would be socializing with the strangers of the north soon enough. Patrick and Carlotta had given her the best values they could. They couldn’t hold her at home forever.
Patrick knew of the stories about Ed in the fighting at Farmington from talking with Kyle. Kyle had also related the actions of Ed while in the service. Patrick was coming to the realization that the Others had a lot of influence about what went on in their house. Neither Ed nor Bernadette had been called to an interview, so the Others were doing the same as Patrick and Carlotta, just waiting to see.
There was one other person at the table that day. He was a frail man with a shock of white hair. He had been cataloging a series of potsherds found at a Mexican site. He was quiet except when talked to. Then, he would shyly explain what he was doing and inquire a bit about what was going on in the world. Dr. Witherspoon was a Permanent resident at the Farmington house. He was performing several jobs for the University. They were just happy that they could find things for him to do after his breakdown in Mexico.
Salas Zamora stood up. Everyone quieted down. They all did, or at least thought they did, know what he was going to say. “Mary Greer and I want to announce that we intend to get married this spring. It will be a small wedding and, of course, you are all invited. Only half of northern New Mexico will be there.” Salas waited until the laughter died down. His allusion was to the fact that he had so many relatives in the north part of the state. He continued, “Mary’s only close relative is her father who is a judge in Chicago. I think that Mary considers all of you as part of her family and, I guess, I do to. We have been through some strange things this past year. I am sure there will be stranger things in the future. I would like to ask Captain Whitman and Mrs. Whitman to be the godparents of our wedding.” Salas turned to Alex and Isabel, “Captain, we would consider it an honor if you and your wife would consent to be Patrino and Madrina of our wedding. We met in your house and hope to live with the guidance of the Others who live here.”
Of course, Alex and Isabel consented. Next to finding more descendants of engineered aliens, Isabel enjoyed being a part of weddings. She would get with Mary the first chance she could and start the plans.
Elena really liked her job. She was sure that as soon as the party was over, she and Isabel would be hard at work with the wedding. She was watching and saw the looks that had passed between Carlotta and Patrick. There would probably be another wedding in a year or so. That damned gringo, Ed, was so shy that Elena was thinking of what she could do to help him along.
Later, Ed managed to spend more time with Bernadette. He knew how volatile Kyle was and how sometime he pushed the law to achieve his ends. Ed could just imagine Bernadette’s father. He was so much like Kyle. Ed would have to be really careful to try to earn her father’s respect before he approached him about taking away his daughter. Ed could imagine him saying, “harm my hija, my niña (daughter, child). They will find your remains somewhere on the Sonoran desert waiting for the zepolotes or vultures.”
The party had long been over. Guests had gone home. Isabel and Elena were busy at work immersed in wedding plans. Finally, Max and Liz felt that they would have time for themselves. Love after children, after you have become comfortable with each other, can be different. There is not the anxiety or the impatience of youth, but there is just as much passion.
Liz appeared in the doorway. She was sure that nothing could interfere with their evening. Max was in bed dressed in sleeping shorts. He had been reading. When she entered dressed in a gown, he placed his book on the end table. She was still his Liz of the desert. As he turned out the light, his mind went back to that morning when he was looking trough his telescope. He had been searching for landmarks, which would lead to the very thing they, now, had discovered. The artifacts that showed that aliens had long been in the southwest, which needed at that time to be found and hidden. No one knew about them except for the few engineered ones.
Max saw, not the landmarks described in the journal, but rather, the pickup driven by a slight woman. She had a big German Shepard dog. When he scanned by her camp, she had just stripped off her clothes and was standing in a tub. Max watched, disbelieving what he was seeing, as she stood naked in the tub and poured warm water over her body.
As he watched, she washed her hair, rinsed her body and walked to a nearby sandstone formation to dry in the sun. That was the start of his life. Now, this same woman who had given him two children was entering his bed room, crawling into his bed, Max was blessed to have her as his wife. Liz of the desert had come home.
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Venus Smiles is the first state police female officer learn of her trials and adventures.
Haunted Memories What would you do if you were a homicide detective? Your have the murder of a beautiful woman who everyone said was a saint. Your only clue, was held by the very confused ghost of the victim
Chapter 16
The next morning, Alex and the Farmington Police had a double job to do. First, they had the jails full of prisoners. Second, Ira Begay had his hands full as he assigned officers to each prisoner in turn. Then he accepted their reports when they were through.
Not much could be learned from the men. They all told of being given a potion that was to die for, and many of them had. They told of strange people, but that was all placed on the effect of the drugs. Monsters were, again, hallucinations of those who had chosen to leave the normal world. Most of the men would be fined and a few were charged with disturbing the peace. The men that had been taken to the hospital were charged with assault. They had been shot while charging the house.
The Public Relations section of the Farmington Police department held a press conference. It seemed that a west coast gang had tried to gain a foothold in Farmington. Many of the local bad boys had objected and they had gotten into a terrible gang fight in the hills. There was a lot of shooting and there were some fatalities. Most of the members had just been wounded in the ruckus.
Alex left, giving Ira his thanks. The sooner this all blew over, the better. He could close his case on the happenings at the University library by saying, truthfully, that the murders were caused by drug smugglers. The deaths had been perpetrated because the two men, Doctor Aiken and graduate student Eric Ryand, refused to aid the smugglers. That precipitated the University and many other institutions to develop guide lines for students and faculty in how to deal with situations like this while on expeditions.
Alex had the sad duty of informing the family of Joe Matucci that he had been killed while on a drug investigation. Alex felt that they had gotten the ones who killed him, but with so many taken into custody, both in the United states and also Mexico, it was impossible to tell. Alex hated lying.
Susan LaRue’s family received an unannounced caller, Doctor Elizabeth Parker-Evans. They were active in academics, so they well knew of her reputation. Liz told them of their daughters exploits. She explained that Susan had left a lot of knowledge that would be published in her name. Liz didn’t tell them that this knowledge would undergo an editing to remove any mention of aliens. Liz sensed that the mother of Susan, a Maryanne LaRue, had some alien feel. As she was showing Doctor Parker to the door, Liz leaned forward and whispered that there are many things Maryanne might like to learn about her family and, if so, she should contact Liz.
Mary Greer, received a position while working on her doctorate to teach at the Farmington extension of the University of New Mexico. When she was in Farmington, she usually stayed at the house she knew there. There was a second reward for teaching and being in Farmington part-time. Salas, when off or on the day shift, would come by and they now were dating.
Benny was promoted and, thus, transferred to the southern district. He had many stories that he couldn’t tell. The University settled down. Liz managed to acquire several items of Aztec origin from the University of Mexico. The University of Mexico had several new archeology sites to process especially in the cliffs near Camargo. Sam was delighted, as usual, about the exploits of his little archeologist, but he did wish she would take less chances.
Ed went back to his regular patrol. After the excitement of the past few weeks, patrol was very boring. He received an invitation to attend a get-together at the house in Farmington. He was surprised that this all happened when he had some comp time, that is, time where he would be given vacation time because of working long hours.
It was a gala affair. Isabel had gone all out. All of the people here would know of their alien origin. There would total freedom to talk about it with others, maybe, even the Others. The household staff were pleased that ‘los Niños de los Santos’ (the children of the saints) were all finding each other. Isabel had contacted people descended from engineered aliens from all over New Mexico, as well as the new ones Max and Liz had met living in Mexico.
Ed arranged his comp time and accepted the invitation, mainly because he wanted to see Isabel again. “Thou shall not lust after your captain’s wife,” but he had to admit she was the type of girl he wanted. The house at Farmington was very large, especially if the Others confined their space to one room. That allowed several downstairs rooms available for guest.
The first party to accept the invitation was Thomas Ciel and his family. His children wanted to learn more about their heritage, even though it wasn’t as if on heritage day at school, they could bring a model of a flying saucer. Their, sort of, Uncle wasn’t an alien, but it was through him that Liz and Max had located Thomas Ciel. Augie Lock was getting up there in years, but he could still drive a little. He was going to come with the Ciel family. Since he was not of the alien side of the Lock family he hadn’t seen any need to inform either of his grown children about their cousins.
The most gracious acceptance was from the Gutierrez family. Patrick would come along with his wife, his son and his two daughters. It seems that one of the girls, the one who wanted to come to the United States for college, had run across some papers written by Doctor Parker. When her father told her that he knew Doctor Parker, she was thrilled. She was so looking forward to meeting the good doctor, and talking about going to the University of New Mexico and getting an advanced anthropology degree.
The non-alien couple was Mary Greer and her escort, Officer Salas Zamora. They invited Mary because, officially by galactic standards, she was part of the court of the Queen. It was rumored that a spring wedding was in the making.
Salas had gotten together with Benny and Ed a few times for a quiet coffee chat. They never discussed the special operation they were on with any other officers. If asked, they were just protecting Mary Greer, a witness to a series of murders.
Ed kept a collection of souvenirs, one each of 45, 223 and 12 gauge shotgun shells. All of these were alien blessed. Ed never explained, but they were put in a frame he hung on his wall at his apartment. In truth, if it were known, these shells would be more valuable than the whole rest of his collection.
There were a lot of strange things. Patrick’s wife Carlotta, was asked if she would consent to an alien interview. At first, she was frightened of the wispy figures roaming through the halls. They were too much like evil spirits. Carlotta was educated, but actually being in the presence of creatures that so resembled beings of her childhood folklore, was unnerving. Elena, the maid, heard that the saints wanted to talk to Carlotta. She made a special trip to see her.
Carlotta and Elena talked in Spanish for some time. Elena might not be as educated as Carlotta, but she told of the many things she had seen since she started working here. Carlotta finally consented. First, Patrick went in. Then he came out and Carlotta entered. She was in about an hour. When she came out, she was clearly fatigued and Patrick led her to their room. “What did they do to you, dearest one.”
For some reason, Patrick always spoke English when he was being tender. Carlotta knew that Patrick, unlike so many Latin men, was shy with women, even one who he had been married to for over 25 years. The phrases in English didn’t seem to embarrass him as much as saying the same thing in Spanish. Carlotta began to cry. She sensed that Patrick was getting angry at the Others if they had upset her so much.
“Oh no, Patrick, it is just that the strange ones told me how important you were. They said you had a major part in stopping a war where millions of souls were being killed. They told me that they were so fortunate that you had married me. They said I had always been so strong to support you. These are all things I have always known, but the way they said it, it was so beautiful Patrick. I do and always will love you, even without the strange ones affirmation.”
What could he say. Patrick just kissed her. Yes, everything the Others, as the Gringos called them, said was true. They both knew it, but to hear this from beings from so vast a world that he couldn’t understand it, just strengthened, if possible, their mutual love.
Mary Greer was asked to come to an interview. She frowned, but so many strange things had happened to her, she consented. When she entered, the lights were dim. She was led to a place, which rose up to make a chair for her. She was seated and, just like with the consorts of the manufactured ones, Mary was introduced by the numbers. She had just enough college math to follow what they were saying. She understood the part about One. She understood him to be the leader. Two was just a bit less than One and so forth. Naught was nowhere to be seen. He had returned to whatever mysterious duties he normally held.
One stood before her, at least she thought it was One. He seemed to be an entity of importance. “Mary Greer, our queen is completely human. The other woman of her court was a life long friend who is now married to one of our children. You were chosen to fill out the court. Your bravery helped with the war. We would like to consider you one of our children. If you marry the man Zamora, he would, also, be so considered. We have very strong feeling about commitment. Only accept this if you are committed to him and to us.” With that, the room, again, brightened and the aliens or as they were called, the Others, disappeared.
In the plans of the massive get together, Isabel had left a lot of time unstructured. Patrick’s son, Estaban, found that he enjoyed the stories of Salas. Salas told him about being undercover during college. He told the stories that every policeman has about adventures he’d had fighting crime. Salas spoke with an accent and structure of the northern New Mexico people.
Estaban was a sociology major at a university in Mexico. He found the stories about people Salas had met interesting. They talked in both Spanish and English. In some ways ,talking about the people of the north, that Salas had grown up with, was a study in itself.
Patrick’s two daughters, at first, were bored. Alicia, the younger one, finally met the daughter of Thomas Ciel. They hit it off and spent most of the rest of their time at Farmington together.
Bernadette, the oldest daughter who wanted to talk to Liz, was left alone. Liz had taken her to see her library. She was impressed with the books and the collections Liz had on display. Like Salas before her, she browsed through the shelves of books. She was in the room reading when a man walked in. “I am sorry, I didn’t know anyone was here. I will leave if you want.”
“Oh no, I am going to the University in Albuquerque next year and Doctor Parker was just showing me many of her books. My name, by the way, is Bernadette Gutierrez.”
“Oh, the narcotics man from Mexico must be your father. My name is Ed Andrews. I work for the New Mexico State Police.” Ed stated.
Bernadette smiled, “What is your connection to the aliens? I am guessing that every one here has some connection. They told me I could speak freely here.” Bernadette was coming to terms with her heritage.
“I was one of the policemen defending the house,” Ed replied.
Bernadette’s eyes got wide, “I heard that it was very dangerous!”
“Well, it was interesting. At the end, when Doctor Parker was on some sort of broadcast view across the galaxy, the bad aliens were defeated. It felt pretty good to be part of something that big,” Ed sighed. “You say you are going to come to the University of New Mexico. What do you intend to major in?”
“I have been reading articles in a journal, written by Dr. Parker, so I am thinking of general anthropology, sociology or, maybe, even archeology. She is such an interesting person!” Bernadette was clearly a fan or Elizabeth Parker-Evans.
“I did not get to meet her very much, but I understand that she is a very strong person. It was she who led the expedition to Mexico to help your father end the narcotics smuggling by the aliens,” Ed informed Bernadette.
“Did you go to college?” she inquired. After she asked it, the crest-fallen look that she saw in Ed made her wish she could have taken back the question.
“No ma’am, I was under ten inches of sand stopping opium smugglers from using a certain pass into Pakistan. There were thousands of other ways they could get the opium out of Afghanistan, but I kept them from using the pass I was guarding. Sometimes, after I look back, I wonder if I would have done better to have stayed and attended college. But, then, I think that what I learned in the desert was what I used to defend this house. I like being a state policeman so I do not know. I am not someone schooled like Salas Zamora. He is a good warrior and he has a degree.” The conversation had turned to something that worried Ed a lot.
“My father has a degree in law, but he says that knowledge comes many ways. He just learned recently that we are related to aliens. So, he says, we learn all the time, not just in school,” Bernadette stated.
Ed sat down. The young lady was at least five years younger than he but he enjoyed talking to her. That was strange because Ed was shy around
most women. For some reason, he thought of holding the arm of Mrs. Whitman that night. He remembered leading her through the sage and forcing her down while he took his shots. He remembered her getting up and dusting herself off when the fight was over. He wondered if this lady could be like Isabel. Ed found himself talking about the people of Afghanistan.
Bernie was very interested in cultures that she had never known. His tales were intriguing. They would have missed the call to dinner except for Elena. She knew that they were in the library and made it a point to remind them that everyone else was downstairs and dinner would be waiting.
When Ed Andrews and Bernadette Gutierrez came to dinner together, Carlotta just looked at her husband, Patrick, and raised her eyebrows. Patrick shrugged. Bernadette would be socializing with the strangers of the north soon enough. Patrick and Carlotta had given her the best values they could. They couldn’t hold her at home forever.
Patrick knew of the stories about Ed in the fighting at Farmington from talking with Kyle. Kyle had also related the actions of Ed while in the service. Patrick was coming to the realization that the Others had a lot of influence about what went on in their house. Neither Ed nor Bernadette had been called to an interview, so the Others were doing the same as Patrick and Carlotta, just waiting to see.
There was one other person at the table that day. He was a frail man with a shock of white hair. He had been cataloging a series of potsherds found at a Mexican site. He was quiet except when talked to. Then, he would shyly explain what he was doing and inquire a bit about what was going on in the world. Dr. Witherspoon was a Permanent resident at the Farmington house. He was performing several jobs for the University. They were just happy that they could find things for him to do after his breakdown in Mexico.
Salas Zamora stood up. Everyone quieted down. They all did, or at least thought they did, know what he was going to say. “Mary Greer and I want to announce that we intend to get married this spring. It will be a small wedding and, of course, you are all invited. Only half of northern New Mexico will be there.” Salas waited until the laughter died down. His allusion was to the fact that he had so many relatives in the north part of the state. He continued, “Mary’s only close relative is her father who is a judge in Chicago. I think that Mary considers all of you as part of her family and, I guess, I do to. We have been through some strange things this past year. I am sure there will be stranger things in the future. I would like to ask Captain Whitman and Mrs. Whitman to be the godparents of our wedding.” Salas turned to Alex and Isabel, “Captain, we would consider it an honor if you and your wife would consent to be Patrino and Madrina of our wedding. We met in your house and hope to live with the guidance of the Others who live here.”
Of course, Alex and Isabel consented. Next to finding more descendants of engineered aliens, Isabel enjoyed being a part of weddings. She would get with Mary the first chance she could and start the plans.
Elena really liked her job. She was sure that as soon as the party was over, she and Isabel would be hard at work with the wedding. She was watching and saw the looks that had passed between Carlotta and Patrick. There would probably be another wedding in a year or so. That damned gringo, Ed, was so shy that Elena was thinking of what she could do to help him along.
Later, Ed managed to spend more time with Bernadette. He knew how volatile Kyle was and how sometime he pushed the law to achieve his ends. Ed could just imagine Bernadette’s father. He was so much like Kyle. Ed would have to be really careful to try to earn her father’s respect before he approached him about taking away his daughter. Ed could imagine him saying, “harm my hija, my niña (daughter, child). They will find your remains somewhere on the Sonoran desert waiting for the zepolotes or vultures.”
The party had long been over. Guests had gone home. Isabel and Elena were busy at work immersed in wedding plans. Finally, Max and Liz felt that they would have time for themselves. Love after children, after you have become comfortable with each other, can be different. There is not the anxiety or the impatience of youth, but there is just as much passion.
Liz appeared in the doorway. She was sure that nothing could interfere with their evening. Max was in bed dressed in sleeping shorts. He had been reading. When she entered dressed in a gown, he placed his book on the end table. She was still his Liz of the desert. As he turned out the light, his mind went back to that morning when he was looking trough his telescope. He had been searching for landmarks, which would lead to the very thing they, now, had discovered. The artifacts that showed that aliens had long been in the southwest, which needed at that time to be found and hidden. No one knew about them except for the few engineered ones.
Max saw, not the landmarks described in the journal, but rather, the pickup driven by a slight woman. She had a big German Shepard dog. When he scanned by her camp, she had just stripped off her clothes and was standing in a tub. Max watched, disbelieving what he was seeing, as she stood naked in the tub and poured warm water over her body.
As he watched, she washed her hair, rinsed her body and walked to a nearby sandstone formation to dry in the sun. That was the start of his life. Now, this same woman who had given him two children was entering his bed room, crawling into his bed, Max was blessed to have her as his wife. Liz of the desert had come home.
----------------------------------------------------------
Venus Smiles is the first state police female officer learn of her trials and adventures.
Haunted Memories What would you do if you were a homicide detective? Your have the murder of a beautiful woman who everyone said was a saint. Your only clue, was held by the very confused ghost of the victim
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.
Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-