Earth Must BE Stopped Read online

  “Even so, I don’t want to be called a clown.”

  Duncan rolled his eyes, “Perhaps I should have kept my mouth closed about that. Please allow me to see your bracelets.” Sig and Lis held up their arms and Duncan touched his bracelet to theirs, “My bracelet can keep track of you, but your bracelets will not allow you to find me if we get separated; now you can.”

  Lis smiled, “That’s a good idea. Give us a few minutes and we’ll meet you back here.”

  “Take your time, we have all day.”

  Lis nodded, as they stood up from the table, and followed their bracelet’s instructions to their room. Duncan took a seat at their table as the waiter asked, “Do you want anything, Major?”

  “A cup of coffee will be good.” When waiter left, Duncan thought about the couple’s response to learning he could follow them wherever they went. They were surprised but not shocked. He was trained to read expressions and he’d know by the end of the day if his suspicions were real.

  Sig and Lis arrived, and Duncan had to admit that their appearance was strikingly different. Without the flamboyant clothes, they really didn’t stand out that much. Many young adults on Earth colored their hair outrageous colors and painted their nails to match their hair. He wondered why they wanted to blend in. Was this a trial run to see if they could get to the Orlando Complex without being noticed? He smiled and stood up, “If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to Fantasy Land.”

  “Major, how much is this going to cost us?” Lis asked.

  “Why do you ask?”

  “We’re on a budget and I’d appreciate your not taking us to see or do things that are expensive.”

  “You don’t need to worry about that, Ms. Lis.”

  “Oh, why not?”

  “The guests of a member of the Military are not charged for anything inside the parks. Enjoy yourselves and don’t worry about how much things cost.”

  Lis showed her surprise and then glanced at Sig. Sig tilted his head a bit toward the Major and tensely asked, “I checked our bill from the cruise ship and I noticed that you paid our bill. Why did you do that?”

  Duncan was surprised they mentioned it. He decided to put them under some stress and see how they handled it, “I’m following an investigation and I believe that you aren’t what you appear to be.”

  Sig and Lis’s heads both went back slightly at the same time. Li’s expression turned angry, “Are you saying that we’re under investigation?”

  Duncan nodded, “I believe that you are two-assassins sent here to carry out a secret mission.”

  Sig’s reaction was priceless. Lis grew angrier, but Sig smiled broadly. Duncan looked at Sig and asked, “Do you find this amusing?”

  Lis looked at Sig and saw him smiling, “Did you hear what he said, Sig!?” she asked angrily.

  “Yes, he thinks that you and I are assassins. Isn’t that a hoot?!” Duncan’s head jerked back this time, as Sig continued, “Imagine, Lis. He thinks you and I are assassins! That’s the best compliment I’ve ever been given. He thinks we’re dangerous!”

  “Sig, are you crazy?”

  “Lis, I’ve been called a nerd, a blitz, an idiot, and many things, but never anything like an assassin. This is great!”

  Lis shook her head and turned back to Duncan, “My husband is being stupid. Will you please explain to him what you do with assassins when you capture them.”

  Duncan looked at Sig, “It’s not pretty, Mr. Sig.”

  “But that’s assuming we are really assassins.” Sig turned to Lis, “He’ll find out the truth and I hope he’ll give me a note saying we were suspected of being an assassin after this is over!” He looked at Duncan, “Will you?! My friends will be so jealous.”

  Lis shook her head, “I don’t know that I want to spend a day with you watching our every move looking for some reason to arrest us, Major.”

  Duncan wasn’t getting the response he hoped for. He looked at Lis and lifted one shoulder, “It’s like your husband just said, if you’re not assassins, you have nothing to worry about.”

  “Major, if you had someone following you, watching your every move, could you relax and enjoy your day?”

  “Probably not. But look at this as an exercise in studying Earth’s history. Treat it as a work trip.”

  Lis’s expression showed her anger but Sig quickly said, “Lis, if you don’t want to go, I do. I’ve looked forward to seeing Disney most of my life. Don’t spoil it for me!”

  “I’M NOT SPOILING IT, SIG! HE IS!”

  Duncan chuckled, “Look, I’ll be your tour guide and I’ll make sure you learn more than you ever could as a regular tourist. Try to relax and enjoy the tour.”

  Lis pursed her lips as Sig pleaded, “Come on, Lis! You know he’s acting crazy and will apologize after he sees he’s wrong!”

  Lis rolled her eyes and glared at Duncan, “Lead on, Major. My little boy demands it.”

  Duncan cocked his head and raised his hand. A Disney cart pulled up and they stepped on board. They drove under the monorail and saw the long lines waiting to board it, “This is the original monorail used by the park before the nuclear war. We’re going straight to the park entrance to save some time.”

  “Can we ride it coming back?” Sig asked.

  “It will take a lot of time to do that, Mr. Sig.”

  “We have plenty of time, Major!” Duncan shrugged and agreed.

  Duncan took them to the VIP entrance and they entered the park on foot. He began telling them the history of the park and, after an hour, Lis’s frown disappeared. Sig was all smiles the entire time. They stopped for candy apples and sat down on a bench to eat them. Sig’s face was red around his mouth, as he asked, “Major, what sort of secret mission are we supposed to be on?”

  Sig took another bite of the apple as Duncan laughed at his red mouth. Lis’s frown returned when Duncan decided to tell them. “We have it on good authority that the Assassin’s Guild has issued a contract to kill a scientist here that’s supposedly working on a stardrive.”

  Sig’s smile vanished, “I hope that doesn’t happen!”

  Duncan turned to him, “Why is that Mr. Sig?”

  “You mentioned that Earth doesn’t like the colonies. If you had a stardrive, you could attack them.”

  “That’s not going to happen. Besides, we’ve also learned that the two-assassins were given a fake mission.”

  Lis’s eyes opened wider appearing to now be interested, “Fake mission?”

  Duncan looked at her, “Yes. It appears they were sent here in the hopes we would capture and kill them. The story about the scientist was a fabrication.”

  “Oh, that’s good.” Duncan looked at Sig somewhat confused. “I mean that says you’re not working on a stardrive, right?” Duncan nodded.

  Lis shook her head, “What did those assassins do that would make the guild want them dead?”

  “I honestly don’t know, Ms. Lis.”

  “Hey, what about that couple that died on an escape pod? Could they have been the assassins?” Sig asked.

  Duncan looked at Sig again and saw him expectantly leaning forward to hear his answer. “It’s possible.”

  “But you don’t believe it, do you? That’s why you’re here with us,” he pressed.

  “Something like that.”

  Sig looked around him with a smile from ear-to-ear, “Hey, we haven’t been on any of the rides! Let’s go try them out!”

  Duncan saw Lis roll her eyes and he stood up, “Let’s go do exactly that, Mr. Sig.”

  Duncan took them to four of the more entertaining rides and began to worry about Sig. He didn’t look good, but he insisted on riding repeatedly. It was the teacups that did him in. Duncan noticed that Sig was screaming to stop the ride and had the ride’s operator stop it. Sig staggered off the ride with Lis under his arm, rushed over to a trash can, where he pulled the top off, and threw it aside. He leaned over and vomited into it. Duncan winced at the sound of Sig’s gaging. It seemed to go
on forever. Lis had her arm around his back and held him up until he finally stopped. Sig went to his knees and turned with his back against the trashcan. “I TOLD YOU NOT TO EAT SO MUCH AT BREAKFAST!!” She scolded.

  Sig was shaking his head, “It was the candy apple, Lis.” Suddenly, Sig jumped up and leaned back over the trashcan. Duncan knew that many behaviors could be faked, and he was a master at recognizing them. But, there was no faking throwing up like Sig was doing. He saw Lis’s concern and love for him, as she held his hand and whispered to him trying to calm him down. He threw up one more time and a park hostess brought him a towel. He wiped his mouth and smeared the red candy apple sugar across his mouth. He laid back against the trashcan again, this time with his eyes closed.

  Duncan realized he was being stupid. He now understood why they had stayed in their cabin during the cruise. He walked up to Lis and asked, “How long has he been like this?”

  Lis glanced up at him, “About fifteen-minutes, Major.”

  “No, I mean how long has he been like this?”

  Lis rubbed Sig’s forehead and said softly, “Major, my husband is brilliant.”

  “But?” Duncan asked.

  Lis sighed, “He doesn’t do well socially.”

  “That’s why you stayed in your cabin.”

  Lis turned to Sig and nodded, “I didn’t want to see him barraged by cruel barbs and remarks from the other tourists. Sig wouldn’t have noticed or understood them…but I would.”

  Duncan raised his communicator and a cart pulled up a few minutes later. “Let’s get him in the cart.”

  Duncan helped Lis get Sig to his feet and walked him over to the cart. Sig immediately shouted, “I’m not ready to go!”

  Duncan forced a smile, “Mr. Sig, you should go back to your room and clean up. After you’ve rested, I’ll assign a hostess to continue your tour.” Lis looked at him with her eyes little more than slits. “Your husband was right, Ms. Lis. I apologize for my intrusion into your vacation and I hope you’ll forgive me. I was wrong.”

  Sig raised his head, “Will you write me a note!?”

  Lis and Duncan burst out laughing and Duncan nodded, “Indeed I will, Mr. Sig.”

  Lis lowered her eyes, “I’m sorry you wasted your funds on us, Major.”

  Duncan shrugged, “Some lessons come at a heavy price. I’m glad I could afford this one.” The cart headed back to the Floridian and Duncan asked Lis, “How have you been treated since your arrival.”

  “I’ve been surprised, Major.”

  “Why?”

  “You told us that most people on Earth hates the colonies. We’ve been treated very well, even by those that aren’t paid to do it.”

  Ms. Lis, we don’t hate you, we just don’t like how we were treated when the traders from the colonies returned to Earth.”

  “What’s the difference.”

  Duncan raised a shoulder, “We feel like we deserved how you treated us and don’t really hold it against you.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Earth abandoned the colonies before the nuclear war and left them to fend for themselves, without our help. Earth would never attack the colonies, Ms. Lis, they are part of humanity.”

  Lis smiled, “Thank you for sharing that, Major. That explains a lot.”

  Duncan smiled, “You have been booked for four-days. The hostess I assign you will take excellent care of you. Please enjoy your tour.”

  Duncan got out of the cart and Sig shouted, “DON’T FORGET THE NOTE!!”

  Duncan rolled his eyes and took a pad out of the cart’s dash. He wrote a note on it and handed it to Lis, “Take care of him.”

  “I will, Major.”

  • • •

  Duncan handed his bracelet to the porter and went to his transport. He should have seen that Sig was socially inept during their first conversation, but he missed it. He exhaled a long breath and felt his doubts start to rise again. He snarled at himself, “Forget it! Enough is enough!”

  Lis watched as he drove away. She helped Sig stand up and waved off a porter, “I can handle this.” They walked into the hotel and she said in her throat, “That was outstanding!!”

  “I wasn’t faking.”

  “What?”

  “That damn teacup ride did me in.”

  Lis started laughing and couldn’t stop herself all the way to their room.

  Chapter Ten

  That night, while they laid in bed, Lis said to Sig, “If we’re going to do this, it must be now.”

  “I agree. How are we going to make it happen?”

  “Step one is getting out of here without being tracked.” Lis replied.

  “Ok, what comes next?”

  Lis took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and furrowed her brow, as she tried to figure out their next move, “We need to get inside the military complex.”

  “Do you even know where it is?”

  “I do. There’s an area on the map of Orlando that is deemed off limits to civilian traffic.”

  Sig thought a moment, then suggested, “I’m going to have to come up sick.”

  “Why?”

  “You’ll demand to see a doctor in Orlando and we’ll take a transport from here to their office.”

  “What about the bracelets?”

  “I’m pretty sure they won’t allow us to leave the property with our bracelets.” Sig paused for a moment, “If they do, we’ll lose them at the doctor’s office.” Sig rolled over and smiled, “I’ve come up with a plan for step one, step two is your baby.”

  “Let me think about it.” After 15 minutes, Lis finally broke her silence, “What made you decide to act like that with the Major?”

  “I took your advice.”

  “What advice?”

  “To be brutally honest, I saw that I had to cover my behavior by acting…special.”

  “You did it perfectly, Sig.”

  “My father was like that, Lis. I learned it from loving him.”

  Lis fell back into deep thoughts and a few minutes later, Sig’s breathing showed he was sleeping. What an incredible man she was paired up with. She forced herself to calm down and soon fell asleep.

  • • •

  The next morning, Lis called the front desk, “My husband needs to see a Doctor.”

  “What’s the problem, Ms. Lis?”

  “He is extremely allergic to some food and I think he ate something yesterday that made him sick and cut short our tour. He needs to see a doctor that specializes in allergic diseases.”

  “We have a doctor on premises,” the clerk tried to reassure her.

  “Is he a specialist in allergic reactions?”

  “No, he isn’t. I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”

  “Please hurry,” she said urgently.

  “I will.”

  Four-minutes later, the communicator buzzed, and Lis picked it up instantly, “Please tell me you’ve found a doctor.”

  “I have, Ms. Lis. We have a rental transport waiting for you at the front entrance and you won’t need an appointment to go to his clinic.”

  “We’re on our way!”

  Lis was under Sig’s shoulder holding him up as they walked to the front, he was wheezing loudly and looked awful. They got in the transport, when a porter apologized, “I’m sorry but you must leave your bracelets here. They’ll be waiting for you when you return.”

  Lis took her bracelet off and took Sig’s off a moment later. She handed them to the porter and he said, “The guidance program has been set for the doctor’s clinic.”

  “Thank you!” Lis got in the vehicle and it pulled away from the Floridian’s entrance.

  “So, what do we do now?” Sig communicated as he straightened up and stopped wheezing.

  “We go to the Doctor’s office.” Lis raised her right hand and moved it around inside the transport. “There’s a transponder in the engine.”

  “That’s some right hand you have!”

  “I’ll share it with you when w
e get back to the colonies.”

  “So, how do you block it?”

  “We’ll arrive at the doctor’s office and I’ll shut it down after we turn off the engine. If we make it out of the complex, we’ll go back to the clinic and I’ll restart it.”

  “How do we get into the complex?”

  “I’m still working on that,” Lis replied.

  “We aren’t wearing military uniforms, Lis.”

  “Let’s worry about that when we arrive at the complex.” Sig shrugged at her answer and worried about living beyond the day.

  They arrived at the clinic and Lis pulled the transport into the back-parking lot. She immediately turned it off, raising her right hand toward the transport’s engine bay. “The transponder is disabled. We need to change our appearance.”

  Sig changed into Tal a moment before Lis became Ka. “Do you have a stretch suit under those clothes, Karen?”

  “I do. Let’s go see if we can get in.” Karen drove the car out of the parking lot and turned toward the huge military complex just outside Orlando.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “Try to fake it, Talon.” Tal shook his head and prayed she knew what she was doing. They arrived at the front gate and Karen said over the communicator, “Just follow my lead.” Tal swallowed and felt his mouth dry up.

  They drove up to the barricaded gate, where a Sargent came out of the small hut next to the gate and looked in the transport at them, “Show me your IDs.” Ka and Tal handed him their IDs and the Sargent looked at them before turning his back to them. He took a device off a hook at the door to the hut and scanned the IDs before handing them back, “Why aren’t you in uniform, Major?”

  “Sargent, my husband and I are on vacation at Disney and I was called in to assist on an electronic problem.”

  The Sargent stared at her for a very long moment and then pressed a button on a communication device next to the door. “Sir, I have a Major Albritton at the front gate that says she was ordered here to assist with an electronic issue.”

  “They told us that they couldn’t help us.” The speaker was loud enough for everyone to hear what was said.

  The Sargent looked at Karen and she smiled as she explained, “My commander requested me to come and see if there was anything I could do. He said he doubted I could but asked that I try.”