She hits ‘send’ on her message and angles the screen so I can’t see it.
“No? Maybe your BFF?” I get no response. “But that can’t be right. I don’t have a text.”
The slightest hint of a smile shows I’m getting through. “Seriously, what’s going on?”
Her phone chimes again, and like a trained monkey, I put my hand on my pants pocket, about to remove my phone. Ignoring the fact that I’m already halfway to being mind controlled by electronics, I lean forward, trying to read what’s on Alessi’s screen. But she hides it from me again. What she fails to hide is the surprise on her face.
“What is it?” I ask.
“We need to go in,” she says.
Collins shakes her head. “We’re not ready.”
And she’s right. The plan was to hit a hotel, take showers, dress like science-nerds and try to blend in with the research personnel. Easy for me, the balding white male, and Alessi, the serious Japanese woman—we fall within the stereotype. Collins on the other hand...she’d stand out and be noticed, no matter how nerdy she dressed. Her disguise was an expensive power suit, the kind someone with authority might wear—the kind that science-nerds avoid eye contact with and security guards ogle. But if we go in now, dressed in T-shirts, jeans and a lone, red beanie cap, we’ll stand out for our casualness.
“There isn’t time,” Alessi says. “And they’ll be distracted.”
“With what?” I ask, sensing an answer that’s going to make my ass pucker.
“A Tsuchi is loose,” she says. “But it’s not in the main building. It’s in Building-K.”
“Annnd what is Building-K?” I ask.
“I haven’t been told,” she says so quickly it sounds like the truth. “All I know is that it’s big.”
“How big?” I ask, puckering in progress.
Alessi looks back at me, understanding my fears, and the true nature of the question. “Big enough.”
“Great.”
“Turn here,” Alessi says to Collins, and I sit back. I don’t like this, running into the unknown, led by someone I don’t trust, who is, in turn, led by someone I want to kick in the nuts most of the time, a man whose...obsession has mirrored my own on occasion.
While Alessi gives Collins directions to the GOD facility, I put on a pair of fake glasses and remove my beanie cap. At the very least, I’ll look like a scientist rushing back to work late in the day, perhaps called in because of the emergency situation.
We pull up to the gate five minutes later. The gate house is two stories tall, with windows surrounding each of the two floors. Beyond the gate is a tall building, not quite a skyscraper, but dwarfed by what looks like a hangar for the world’s largest plane. Technically, this land is still part of the Air Force Base, which stretches along the coast to the Space Launch Complex, built in the 1950s for ballistic missile testing and later converted to a space launching facility. So something like a giant hangar would go overlooked in this area. It’s just one of many strange looking Air Force buildings. But this one contains a loose Tsuchi, and hopefully nothing else.
I turn my attention back to the guard house. Currently, there is no one standing by the security window. We stop in front of the gate. No one home.
“Should we drive through?” Collins asks.
“They’re in there,” Alessi says. “They’re distracted, but blasting through the gate will definitely get their attention, in the wrong way. Honk like you’re agitated. Like you’ve been waiting for a while.”
Collins lays on the horn, letting out one long blast, followed by a barrage of irritating shorter honks.
The man who comes to the window is wearing black fatigues, like he’s ready for action. A handgun is holstered on his hip. He’s already shaking his head as he approaches and opens the sliding window. “We’re locked down. No one gets in.”
“But—”
“You can either wait, or come back tomorrow,” the man says, indifferent to Collins’s feminine wiles.
As the guard starts closing his window, I roll mine down and fix him with a squinty-eyed stare. “Why do you think we’re here? Hmm?”
The man pauses, glancing at me. I’m not sure if it’s the words I’m saying or the annoying nasal voice I’m using, but he looks irritated already. Irritated, but listening.
“Do you think we’d come back this late in the day just for fun? For kicks? I was sitting down for dinner! What’s your name?” It’s the kind of question only people who believe they can get you in trouble will ask. It does the job.
The window slides back open. “Why, exactly, are you here...sir?”
“You and I both know that Dark Matter has gotten loose.” My knowledge of what’s going on inside along with my use of GOD slang quickly piques the man’s attention. “I was summoned to help eliminate the problem.”