He removed a business card from his wallet and shoved it into my hand. A cellphone number was written on it, but nothing else, not even a name.
“This number is secure, even from them,” he added quickly. “Memorize it and destroy the card. It will give you a private line to both my phone and comm, so you can contact me at any time, day or night, and it’s tagged so I’ll know it’s you. I’ll answer immediately, no matter what I’m doing. I can arrange to have you picked up so they aren’t aware and can’t follow. I have access to tech that’s equal to theirs. UFOs of my own.”
“How in the world is that—”
“I’ve already overstayed my welcome,” interrupted the captain, as a sleek sports car arrived on the shoulder of the road fifteen feet away, right on cue, and the passenger door sprang open. “Wouldn’t do to get captured. I wish you could come with me, but we’ll all benefit from learning what Nari plans to tell you.”
“Why should I trust you more than I trust him?”
“I did just save your life.”
“So did he,” I pointed out.
“I can’t prove it in the few seconds we have left,” said the captain, his words spilling out ever faster as his desperation to leave continued to grow, “but he and the Galactic Federation don’t have humanity’s best interests at heart. Really! I’ll fill you in when we meet again. And Tessa isn’t who you think she is. That’s why I knocked her out. So we could speak in private. I’ll tell you about her next time too.”
“Tell me now!” I demanded.
Nicola moved through the trees a short distance to his ride while I followed. “Are you aware that’s she’s been infused with nanites? Microscopic robots that enhance the shit out of her?”
“I am.”
Nicola dropped into the passenger’s seat of the car. He slammed the door closed and immediately hit a button to lower the window. “You know the aliens don’t give this tech to anyone but their own, right?” he said while the window was still sliding down.
He must have no idea that I was now enhanced myself, but something in my gut told me to keep it that way. “Usually that’s true,” I replied. “But they made an exception in Tessa’s case. She’s had them on board for about five months.”
Nicola snorted. “She’s had them on board for most of her life, Jason. I’ll send you footage of a mission she was on with the Deltas in Tehran—three years ago—that will prove it. From a camera no one knew was there. I’ll put it in your cloud account, in a file labeled Nick. I’ll encrypt it so that it stays invisible to the AIs.”
“What will it show?”
“Her team was ambushed, and she was the only one to make it out alive. Watch the footage of her in action and you’ll have no doubt that she was enhanced, even then.”
“Did she know she was?” I asked. “She might have just thought she was naturally skilled.”
The captain rolled his eyes. “You’re not getting this, Jason,” he said in disbelief. “I told you, Tessa Barrett isn’t who you think she is. She works for Nari. Has her entire adult life.”
“What? Are you saying she’s an alien?”
“No. She comes from top drawer human stock. She was a hundred percent human—and special—even before Nari’s geneticists made modifications in the womb to hone her into a perfect specimen. Beauty, athleticism, intelligence—she’s got it all. You have eyes and a brain, mate. You must see how bloody extraordinary she is.”
This hit me like a dagger to the gut, and I suddenly felt dizzy. Of course I saw how bloody extraordinary she was. I had long marveled at her luck in the genetic lottery department. But maybe it wasn’t entirely luck, after all.
Suddenly, I picked up the faint sound of multiple helicopters in the sky, and so did the captain. They were far off but closing fast.
“Look, Jason, we’re truly out of time. Don’t tell Tessa and Nari about me and my organization. Tell them you paid me off and then arrange to wire money to sell the story. I’ll send transfer instructions. Tell them I tranqed Tessa so my mates would lower their guards. Let them think I’m just a clueless gun for hire like the rest. But contact me after your meeting and I’ll tell you the truth.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then you don’t. Your choice. We don’t do coercion.”
The car window began sliding closed.
“Wait,” I blurted out, “One last question about Tessa.”
The captain stopped the window halfway up. “Hurry!”
“Are you telling me that Nari’s geneticists went to Ohio and abducted her mother when she was a fetus? Engineered her? For what reason?”
“To have her at the ready when needed. And no, I’m not telling you they visited her mother in Ohio. Because her mother was off-world at the time.”
The car began rolling away as Nick Nicola shouted his last words through the partially open window. “What I’m telling you is that Tessa Barrett wasn’t born or raised on Earth.”
PART 5
28
I was so stunned I barely remember the helicopter journey back to the island. Tessa awoke within the first few minutes of the flight as she and her nanites fought off the effects of the tranquilizer, but I barely spoke to her.
She had thrown her arms around me and had shed several tears of joy that I was alive and well, but I was so numb that it was all I could do to fake the proper reaction.
If there was a limit to the density of surprises one person could endure, I had surely passed it.
I had gone on the Mark Russell Podcast to shake the trees, bait a hook with my own body, and get answers as to why our skies had become littered with UFOs. Since that time, I had gotten an avalanche of answers, beyond my wildest hopes. The only problem was I couldn’t be sure which, if any, were true. Made worse by the fact that many of the answers conflicted with each other.
The real truth seemed to be buried under more layers than an onion—or a hollowed-out asteroid. How many different parties were there? With how many different agendas?
And how could I trust any of them?