Free Alien Invasion 04 Annihilation by Sean Platt & Johnny B. Truant Page B

wouldn’t move on until their fieldwork for any given round was done.”  
    “You’re saying that Earth is an ant farm.”  
    “Maybe. And if so, they’d want to communicate their findings. They’d need to call home , if they didn’t want to wait until the planet was cleaned up before working on what they’d found. But it was only a beacon. A repeating signal. They’d only need to send a real signal after they had enough information.” Charlie’s eyebrows twitched. “Once they were done with us.”
    Nathan looked back at the ship. Charlie’s theory fit in with his and Coffey’s discussion. Charlie was a scientist. Neither Nathan nor Jeanine had been before the Astrals turned them all into astronomers. But he knew how to fight, and how he’d proceed were he in the aliens’ shoes.  
    “When was this?” Nathan asked. “When you noticed the ‘beacon’?”  
    “Before the net was censored. But after they began building the Apex in Vail. And, presumably, around the world.”
    “I heard Benjamin theorize that the Apex was like an antenna,” Nathan said.
    “There are nine capitals, each with an Apex pyramid. So no, it’s not just an antenna. It’s an array.”  
    “If your guess is right,” Nathan said, “what would that ‘array’ need before it could send a data-rich signal through space — once they had reason to relay information for real?”
    Charlie nodded toward the ship, apparently gathering a charge from the underground pit. “Power.”  
    Nathan’s head turned as well. In the corner of his eye, something seemed to move. But it was just a trick of light. The hardpan between their position and the ranch’s remains was empty.  
    “Let’s head to Vail regardless,” Nathan said. “Whether Cameron is right about Thor’s Hammer or not.”  
    “I don’t want to go at all.” Charlie bit his lip. “But I will.”  

CHAPTER 16

    By the time Christopher arrived at the police station, the sun was halfway down and the Veil’s north-south streets were rich with shadow. Reptar patrols surprised him no fewer than five times, and Christopher found himself staring down the blue-glowing maw of one of the beasts, hearing its gut-deep purr. Each time, he pointed to his uniform, implying his right to be exactly where he was unless the Astrals planned to drop the facade and take over for real. And each time, the thing let him pass — leaving the distinct impression that a clock, inside Heaven’s Veil, was ticking on the human/Astral alliance.  
    The station had begun preparations for nightfall. The lights, once away from the viceroy mansion, were entirely out. Generators could be heard running behind several of the businesses, giving the air a vague tang of gasoline. Where lights ran, they were too bright and scattered — positioned like shop bulbs, meant more for utility than decorum.  
    Christopher fought his way through workmen in blue who were setting up large tripods with big lights up top, like something on a back lot. He stepped through a snake’s nest of black cables, minding his footwork. In the middle, surrounded by milling Titans whose presence was clearly unwelcome, was the big form of Malcolm Jons.  
    “Christopher,” he said, less authoritatively than Chris had come to expect from the big man, who was usually shouting. He beckoned with a frying pan-sized hand. “Get over here. I don’t know that I’ve ever been more glad to see someone in my life, except my family or my god.”  
    Christopher resisted the urge to ask if Jons had actually seen God. Stranger things had happened.  
    The big hand settled on Christopher’s shoulder. Jons looked up a short set of stone steps into the HVPD station. Inside were more Titans — a stray Reptar purred as it scuttled behind on insect legs. That was something Christopher never thought he’d see. But then again, he never thought he’d see Reptars in the viceroy’s mansion, either.  
    Jons’s face twisted in disgust as he