[All clear! Mother Goose, this is Boogeyman. We have two dead civilians in the master bedroom.]
Roger, Boogeyman. The child?
[No sir. Two adults.]
Is one of them … ?
[One Hispanic female, one black male. No sign of Captain Resnik.]
—It must be the parents. They should check the closets, under the beds. The child may be hiding.
—Boogeyman, give me a full sweep.
[Bravo-Two, I want a full sweep downstairs. We’re looking for a tiny human.]
[Roger that.]
—Lieutenant General. My Spanish is far from perfect but I believe— —Boogeyman, this is Mother Goose. Local police are on their way. ETA three minutes.
[Roger, Mother Goose. Bravo-Two, bedrooms are clean. We found a trap for the attic. Going to take a peek. Exit in two minutes.]
[Downstairs is clean.]
[Holy shit!]
[Bravo-One, everything all right?]
[All good. Just a big-ass rat. Attic is clean.]
[Mother Goose, this is Boogeyman. The house is clean. No sign of target. Requesting instructions on the bodies.]
—Is that it?
—That’s it! She’s not there. Thank you, Boogeyman. Leave them be. Return to nest.
[Roger that, Mother Goose. We’ll be home for dinner.]
Hurry up. It’s meatloaf night. Mother Goose out.
FILE NO. 1576
INTERNAL MEMO—DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
From: Commissioner, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) To: Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security
Object: El Paso
An estimated sixty thousand Mexican nationals are now gathered on or near the Paso Del Norte Bridge and more people seeking asylum in the United States are arriving daily in Ciudad Juárez. Isolated acts of violence have already been reported on the bridge and their frequency is increasing rapidly.
BORTAC units were deployed this morning at the request of the Port Director. Attempts at clearing the bridge with 37mm gas guns were unsuccessful.
It is the opinion of this office that CBP personnel, even with increased support from the National Guard and local law enforcement, are no longer able to secure the port of entry within current use-of-force parameters.
It is our recommendation that use of lethal force be authorized on a discretionary basis immediately, at all southern ports of entry.
FILE NO. 1578
INTERVIEW WITH BRIGADIER GENERAL EUGENE GOVENDER, COMMANDER, EARTH DEFENSE CORPS
Location: EDC Headquarters, New York, NY
—Goddammit! They’re gonna kill us all!
—Have all the robots released their gas?
—Yes they did, simultaneously.
—All thirteen of them?
—All but the one in Madrid. He might be waiting for his friends to catch up. We’ll know soon enough. If it’s anything like London, they’ll be done in twenty minutes.
—How are we responding?
—Responding? What the hell do you want me to do?
—I meant the countries under attack. Have any of them retaliated?
—They sent some ground troops in India.
—Through the gas?
—They wore masks. I know, stupid.
—Did the robot vaporize them?
—It didn’t have to. They died before they even got out of the transport trucks. It’s mayhem over there. Mass panic. People trampled to death, thousands, maybe tens of thousands. There are cars, trucks driving through crowds. Elephants … Human nature is ugly sometimes. The Russians and the French sent fighter planes after theirs. Nothing happened, except for a big hole half a mile wide. They tried bombing Moscow about ten minutes ago.
—To no avail, I presume.
—It’s hard to see through the fog, but we know the robot’s still there. There’s probably not much left of Moscow around it. Pretty ballsy, bombing their capital.
—What did they have to lose?
—Hmmm. They blew up the Kremlin all on their own.
—There would be no one left alive inside.
—Maybe, but there would have been something to go back to, in two hours, or two weeks, or two years. Now there’s probably a decade of construction waiting for them if they ever want to make Moscow habitable again.
—Perhaps they wanted the satisfaction of knowing the aliens will not be able to use their infrastructure when they land in masses.
—You think they’re here to colonize?
—Why else would they use a gas to get rid of the population? They have the ability to obliterate everything in an instant. The only reason I can think of is to keep the buildings intact.
—I don’t think so.
—Can you think of another reason?
—Nope. But I still don’t think so.
—Do you wish to elaborate, or is that the extent of your reasoning?
—You’ve seen where I live.
—You live in a hotel.
—I meant outside the city.
—I have, but I fail to see the point.
—If you could build these things, these robots—they can make giant structures with a more or less self-sustaining energy source, solid light that can cut through metal, and God knows what else—would you wanna move in that crappy house? I have a white picket fence and a sick crab apple tree. The plumbing is like a hundred years old, the windows are drafty. There’s a good view, but that house is shit! Why would they want to live in there? I can’t imagine downtown Moscow has a lot more to offer.