The Time of The Cat 42
BLIND AMBITION
I hoped that I could get all the information that I needed from the Secretary in just a few minutes. That was partly because I didn’t like her and didn’t want to speak to her longer than necessary. As I walked towards her, I could see from her face that she knew I was going to be a serious problem.
“Madam Secretary, I don’t have time to fool around with you. I need answers, and I need them now!” I snapped as I came close.
She recoiled and then snapped back, “I demand to be released. I’m the Secretary of – ”
She didn’t get any farther; I slapped her, jarring her teeth together. Normally, I’m the last person to resort to violence – yeah, I know – from my story, you wouldn’t believe me, but she had a way about her that really annoyed me. She shut up and held her hand on her cheek.
I hadn’t hit her that hard, and I knew that she was posing while she thought about how best to handle the situation.
“I’ve got evidence that you’re a traitor. You have conspired with an alien race to destroy our communications and electronic infrastructure so they can invade safely,” as I spoke, I removed the incriminating notes from my pocket and held them up so she could see that there was really something to my charges.
“I don’t know what – ” she got out.
I interrupted her, “These are plans to detonate a high-altitude nuclear EMP burst over the United States. Your name is written here as one of the conspirators. That is treason, and it carries the death penalty. The problem is that we don’t have enough time to take you to court, so I’m going to make you this offer. Either you tell me what you know – in full,” I amended, “Or I’m simply going to shoot you with this alien weapon.”
I displayed my splinter-gun and pointed it right at her stomach. She flinched and started to stutter. For sure, she knew what the gun was capable of.
“W – Wh – What happens if I tell you what you want to know? Do I have your assurance that you’ll get me out of here and let me live?” she asked.
She obviously believed me. I was using my dead-serious face, and it apparently was convincing. She was shaking now and holding one hand out to me in a pleading manner.
“I can do that. I guarantee I’ll get you out of here, and I won’t kill you, nor will anyone in my command,” I answered.
Liz interrupted, “Wait a minute, Dec! I’m minded to start by cutting off her fingers and then kill her.”
She gave every sign of meaning what she said. Her face was red with anger. To top it off, she had pulled my knife out of my back waistband and was waving it around, making vicious cutting motions.
“Don’t let that bitch get me!” the Secretary moaned.
“That ‘bitch’ as you call her, is the woman I intend to marry!” I snapped back.
Liz stopped waving the knife and looked at me as her face lit up and said, “Really? This isn’t the time or place, Dec. I’d kind of imagined that it would be on a beautiful tropical beach, but I don’t care. The answer is, ‘Yes!’”
She was looking at me in a way that I’d only dreamed of. I knew that there would be no backing out of this backhanded and clumsy proposal if we lived through the situation. Thinking it over, I decided that I didn’t care. I grinned and said, “My timing has never been very good.”
I turned back to the Secretary, whose mouth was hanging open in amazement. I guess she’d never seen true love in action before. I nodded at her and said, “I meant what I said. I can only give you three more minutes to convince me that you’ve earned your life. Now, talk!”
This is what she told us: Some people had approached her about three months ago. She initially thought they were from the Russian Embassy since their credentials checked out. They had set up a meeting for her with a private business group that turned out to be accompanied by some of the aliens.
I told her, “We call them ‘Pugs.’ That’s what they call themselves.”
She responded by telling me that they told her they were to be known to humans as ‘The Chosen Ones’, and they had conquered numerous planets in the past. They convinced her that their technology was superior to ours and told her that Earth was to be theirs next. She was told that she would have a position ruling humans after the conquest. They’d need someone to control the remains of the human race, and they had selected her.
At this, I mentally thought, “Yeah, and I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale,” but I didn’t interrupt her.
Their plan was to destroy part of our communications ability with an EMP burst. She had been trying to ‘save’ the United States by arguing that the explosion should be over Beijing, but they preferred to take out the most dominant military power first. They said that the rest of the world would give up after that.
She had actually been trying to preserve her power base in the USA; even so, it was sort of in her favor. I asked, “When and where is the missile being launched, and where will they set off the explosion?”
Her answer wasn’t very favorable. She told us that the launch was set for zero-six-hundred Eastern Standard Time tomorrow morning. The missile, which was coming out of the Urals in eastern Russia, would reach its approximate detonation point about forty-five minutes after launch. That gave us barely a little over eight hours to prepare. We were interrupted then by the sergeant, who cautioned us that the Pugs would be coming within a few minutes.
As he warned us, I glanced around the nearly vacant hangar just in time to see the last of the captives exiting through the closet door on the other side. That left only the few of us to worry about. I turned to the rest of the group and told them what I’d been thinking of as a course of action.
“The Pugs have taken a large number of people out of here in the past several days. We know that they aren’t taking them very far because they come back for a second load within minutes. I believe that we should see if we can rescue those people, also. To do that, we’ll need to kill the squad that comes through the door and then see if we can force or fool anyone left outside into taking us to wherever they’ve been carrying the missing people. Since we haven’t been able to convince any of the aliens to do anything – they just fight until they’re dead – I’m hoping that we can fool one of them into driving the truck.”
I paused and looked at the group, then continued, “Here’s what we’ll do. The Pugs will be startled that the people are gone from the hangar. Most of us will lie on the floor as if we’ve been killed along with the eighteen dead that the Pugs killed, but two of us will be against the wall beside the door. When the aliens come in, the farthest person away on the floor will make a noise, and I’m hoping that they will step forward to investigate without looking too closely at the sides. The large steel girder that supports the hanger door will provide shelter for one of our two shooters. The other shooter will have to be over there in the corner where the beams that support the roof come together.”
The secret service man asked, “What about the Secretary?”
My answer was, “The Secretary will cooperate, or she’ll be shot. She’ll be lying on the floor closest to the door. If she moves, they’ll be likely to shoot her first, and if they don’t, I’m sure Liz will.”
Liz nodded with a glare at the woman.
“Now get to your places. Sergeant, you and I will be the shooters. The rest of you get down on the floor. Scatter out! Now!”
It wasn’t any too soon. Everyone had barely reached their places when we heard a large truck pulling up outside. The door rattled, signaling that it was show time.