Cloud Invasion: R-D 2 (R-D #2)(60)

"You're not going without me," Ilya growled.

"Honey, I think that's a given," I said.

*

Auggie's call came at eight local time the following morning. I was barely awake and sipping coffee when my cell phone rang.

"Hi, Auggie," I said after putting the call on speaker.

"Cori."

"Yeah."

"What I called to say," he began, "I want you to take Ilya with you, mind, but I need to see what's going on inside that facility. I know he can shield you while you're in there, so remain invisible, see what's going on and report your findings to me. Take cell-phone photographs if you can."

"I can handle that," I said.

"Good. How soon can you go?"

"As soon as she has breakfast," Ilya growled over my shoulder.

"Good morning, Rafe," James called out.

"James, we've missed our adopted son," Ilya laughed. "Corinne misses cooking for you."

"Oh, man, I wish I was there," James whined.

"James," Auggie barked.

"Bye," James said, his voice sounding wistful.

"Get back to me ASAP," Auggie said. "I want anything you can get."

"We will," I promised. "After breakfast."

After Auggie hung up, I brought in sunlamps and worked and ate under them.

"Ready?" Ilya asked after I'd dressed properly and brushed my teeth.

"Yeah. I'll take care of this-if they have equipment that can sense body heat or anything, well, I can shield that and any noise we make."

"Then I'll take photographs and keep you out of trouble," he said.

"Okay." Taking his arm, I folded space between our house and the facility on Mount Pilchuck.

*

Notes-Colonel Hunter

"You're not going to like this," Matt said, dropping a folder onto my desk. He'd shown up unannounced shortly after I'd ended my conversation with Corinne and Rafe.

"What is that?"

"Information from the UFO crash," he said. "You have no idea what I had to go through to get this without alerting anybody."

"What is this?" I opened the folder and stared at mechanical drawings. It looked like a machine with many parts missing.

"I think they improved on those specs to build the weapons used in Colombia," Matt replied.

"Are you telling me that this is from our side, while the Russians may have had better information?"

"Likely a whole weapon-or mostly whole, rather than the bits and pieces we found," he nodded.

"Was any of this ever pursued here?" I asked, setting the first page aside and staring at another incomplete drawing on the second.

"I didn't dig that deep-I didn't have much time," Matt said. "It's possible, but there wasn't enough found to work with, or we'd have it already."

"How big was this-or what they found in Colombia?"

"Less than a two-inch square," he said. "That was enough to destroy that airliner and not leave much to search through."

"What sort of information did you give the Brits?" I asked.

"I told them we're still working to identify the weapon, which is basically true. And that we're still trying to separate and identify remains. Not an easy job at any time, but worse, now."

"What did you tell Madam President?"

"What I told the Brits."

"Yeah-I said the same thing about the weapon, but didn't have any information on the remains."

"I have other information," Matt said, examining his fingernails for a moment.

"What's that?"

"I have it on very good authority that Askins has lung cancer. Don't know how bad it is, yet-we're waiting on test results."

"Holy shit," I breathed. "Is that true?"

"Yeah. Chances are, though, that he'll maneuver one of his cronies into that spot if he has to step down."

"I know he stopped smoking ten or twelve years ago, but this," I shook my head in disbelief.

"It happens," Matt said. "In this case, perhaps karma intervened."

"Couldn't happen to a nicer guy," I joked.

*

Corinne

Ilya cursed in several languages at what we saw. They'd taken our facility and turned it into a lab, where they were cloning the creatures they had as quickly as they could.

I wanted to curse, too, but followed my instincts and went to the pool that had never been completely filled during our stay.

Ilya's cursing stopped then-we were both at a loss for words.

DB's clone swam happily in that huge pool, but it wouldn't contain him for long. Already he filled a third of it and was still growing.

All they needed to do this, after all, was blood from the original creature pumped into a human with the same blood type. Et voilà-another clone was made. I felt ill.

Honey, I sent, what should we do?

We must confer with Colonel Hunter. His words were accompanied by a mental sigh.

I understood that sigh all too well. I wanted to find their stash of creature blood and destroy it. I wanted to turn the mountain into dust. I wanted former President Phillips deader than a doornail.