Raging at the Stars Read online

  “You don’t have time to stop and stare. Big Brother is watching out for us, Captain.” She drew Sofia’s attention to the earpiece hidden inside her right ear. “And he says to get the hell out of here because the fighter jets your military are sending up against the saucers are proving no match. The saucers are trying to get back to where we are. And I want out of here now.”

  Sofia climbed up the broken staircase and clambered out into the crater. She followed closely on Emory’s heels, picking over the rubble and trying not to think about what or who she could be clambering over. She’d seen combat; she recognized the terrain that was underfoot. The sound of a furiously fought battle was clearly heard in the distance.

  “Oh my God,” she whispered, desperately trying to hold back a sob as she saw the devastation wrought as she climbed higher. She scrambled up the crater’s sides, her boots slipping out from under her numerous times. She was grateful that each time she fell, Emory was reaching for her and pulling her along. Only when she crested the crater’s rim did she stop to fully take in the scene. She tried to see any familiar landmark. There was nothing left anywhere, not even the runways. She followed after Emory who surprised her by how fit she was as they ran the whole way at a breakneck speed. The wrecked earth of the base gave way to scrubby brush and greenery as they ran into the surrounding desert and Sofia finally caught sight of what Emory was directing her toward. A VW Bus was the only thing not touched in the whole vicinity. It was hard to see, as it was predominantly black with only a few white accents. Sofia couldn’t help frowning. Since when did CIA agents drive vintage Buses?

  “You’re not really CIA,” she said when she reached Emory’s side as she hurried to unlock the vehicle. Emory gave her a look and grabbed Sofia by the collar to fling her inside the van.

  “Believe me, Captain, tonight that is the least of your problems.”

  Chapter Four

  Emory gunned the engine and spun the van around as fast as she could to head back out to find a main road. The ride was anything but smooth as the van bounced and crashed over the debris that covered the field.

  “So I’m going to survive an airborne attack and instead die in this scrap pile you call a vehicle?” Sofia yelled as she clung to anything she could get a grip on.

  Emory grinned like a maniac as she put her foot down harder on the gas. “This baby has a whole heap of surprises under her hood, Captain. You just watch and learn.” She grunted as they hit a deep hole in the ground and the whole van groaned in protest. The headlights did little to help find a clear path out of the air base.

  “Christ, what a mess,” Sofia said, staring out the windshield with wide, disbelieving eyes.

  “According to my sources, the rest of the planet isn’t faring too well either. They’re attacking everywhere.” Emory swung her wheel around and got them back on a road she knew would get them out of there. It was mercifully untouched. “Tell me,” she looked at the captain’s uniform for identification, “Martinez, what the hell is Area 51 hiding because it sure as hell pissed something off. Enough to bomb the place to smithereens and then take its show on the road and make us all pay for your sins.”

  “That’s classified information.”

  “Bullshit. Look around you. Does this look classified to you now? Someone opened up the earth to expose Area 51’s secret lair and lay waste to it. This looks like someone is really determined to wipe Dreamland from the map, Martinez.”

  “That’s Captain Sofia Martinez to you, civilian,” Sofia snapped.

  Emory laughed at her. “Really? I pull your ass out of the fire and you still expect me to salute you? Pull that rank all you like, lady, but it means nothing now that we’ve got flying saucers bombing the hell out of the planet. So, I’ll ask again. What are we up against, because I’d say it’s a safe wager you know exactly what those things are.”

  Sofia pointedly ignored her and kept her eyes trained out the window.

  “I don’t think she’s going to spill her secrets just yet, Emory,” Dink said in her ear. “She’s pretty though, don’t you think? She’s got that sexy Latino thing going, all dark hair and darker eyes. Feisty too. And her name, Sofiaaaaa. Listen to how she says it with that voice of hers. God, she sounds like aged old whiskey personified with that husky tone.”

  Emory sighed inwardly at Dink’s dreamy tone. She had noticed how pretty Sofia was, even when she’d had a gun pointing at her. The gray camouflaged battle uniform she wore did nothing to disguise her feminine curves or the strength with which she held herself. Emory admired the way her dark brown hair was cut short and blunt around her face. But not even the standard camo air force peaked cap she wore could hide or tame the natural wave to her hair. Sofia’s skin tone was a shade darker than Emory’s and her eyes a deep brown. Her face was austere, trained to give no secrets away. Emory knew Sofia was beautiful, and her eyes slipped to the full lips that were pursed in annoyance as the van raced to anywhere but here. The fact she found Sofia attractive was not going to help her find the answers they desperately needed this night.

  “You’re staring at her instead of the road, Romeo. Eyes ahead, and for God’s sake, turn your lights off. You don’t want to alert anything to your presence. There are some dwellings just over the next ridge, head toward them. We need to evacuate anyone living near that damn place.”

  Emory switched the headlights off.

  “Why did you do that?” Sofia asked sharply. “The road is hardly drivable as it is.”

  “The voices in my ear say not to alert those things above,” Emory said, squinting at the road to try to see something in the light cast by the moon.

  “These voices. Heard them long, have you? What else are they saying?” Sofia was looking Emory over with a suspicious eye. Her hand was inching toward her holster.

  “Nothing much. Just that maybe I should dump you on the side of the road for being so uncooperative and let you fend for yourself against whatever is out there flying above us.”

  “Actually, I never said that,” Dink argued.

  “Why? Because I won’t spill military secrets to someone who has already proved herself to be a liar and had fraudulently worked her way onto a restricted air base? I should be arresting you. In fact, consider yourself under arrest for crimes against national security.”

  “This isn’t about me. This is about you telling us what the hell you have released above us that is now systematically bombing the planet.”

  Sofia crossed her arms firmly across her chest. “I’ll give you my name and rank. That’s all you’re going to need before I arrest you for trespassing on government property. Also, if I find out that laptop bag you squirreled away in this wreck of a vehicle does not belong to you I’ll be adding theft of military property on top of the list of charges I’m compiling against you.”

  Emory slammed on the brakes, forcing the vehicle to slide to a halt. “Fuck this. I don’t care how pretty you are.”

  Sofia lurched in her seat. She gasped out loud as the seat belt dug painfully into her chest. Emory unfastened her own seat belt and reached across Sofia to push the door open. “Get the hell out, Captain.” Shifting in her seat to literally kick Sofia out of the van, Emory spotted something and hastily slammed the door shut again to extinguish the interior light.

  They were both startled into silence by the saucers that flew over the van, heading toward the ridge Dink had just directed them to go.

  “Where did they come from?” Sofia craned her neck to watch the crafts fly by.

  “That’s the thing, Captain; they just appear out of nowhere. But I think you’re already aware of that.” Satisfied that the crafts were well ahead of them, Emory started the van back on her course.

  Sofia was shaking her head. “Those aren’t our crafts.”

  “You sure about that?” Emory didn’t believe her. “I mean, the military have suddenly revealed high-tech crafts before that they had kept hidden for years while they were tested and had proved their worth on the battlefi
eld.”

  Sofia nodded distractedly. “Area 51 houses many projects of advanced technology. Aircraft just happens to be one area among many. But I’m telling you, those things aren’t ours.”

  Emory huffed in barely restrained annoyance and crested the ridge so they could look down on where Dink had directed her to get people out of their homes.

  They were too late.

  The saucers hung above the rough dwellings that were the rare few that skirted the edges of the Area 51 lands. The white beam was sweeping over the ruins of the buildings, picking through the survivors and taking their spoils.

  Sofia’s choked gasp made Emory startle from what she was witnessing for the second time that night. Multiple human abduction by unidentified means.

  “Those aren’t ours,” Sofia said in a shaky tone, “because our crafts don’t have the capability to do that.”

  Chapter Five

  Emory and Sofia sat in stunned silence watching as the saucers finished recovering the living from the area and then sped off toward Area 51. Before Emory could open her mouth to speak, there was an almighty explosion from miles away. The force of it shook the van and the ground beneath it. Emory felt her teeth rattle as a shockwave battered them, the force of it penetrating through to her very marrow. It felt like an earthquake had hit, and they were sitting right on top of the epicenter. The noise alone was deafening, and it took a while for Emory to get her senses back.

  “What the fuck was that?” Emory twisted in her seat to look over her shoulder to where a huge plume of smoke was rising from the direction they had just fled. Lit by a raging fire, it was unmissable against the darkness of the night.

  “That was Area 51 being wiped from existence before the cameras I was viewing it on were destroyed. It’s gone, Emory. A big black ship blew it all away. Literally.” Dink’s voice sounded hollow. “We are seriously screwed if they have that kind of firepower at their disposal.”

  Emory shifted in her seat to face Sofia. “Let’s rewind to your last comment, Captain. Something along the lines of ‘our ships don’t do that.’ So, for our ships not to do that, I’m taking that to mean we have flying saucers of our own.”

  Sofia wouldn’t look at her. “No comment.”

  Emory smiled. “Too late. You’ve already let the saucer-shaped cat out of the bag. You, the military, have flying saucers. Dink, I damn well told you they did.” She slapped her hand against the console in victory. She noticed that Sofia jumped at the noise as it pulled her from her daze.

  “Yes, you did, Emory. But remember, she inferred that whoever or whatever is piloting those saucers has the same technology too.”

  Emory sighed. “Captain Martinez, just give it to me straight. Are the bastards abducting people by some means we don’t allegedly have, human or something else?”

  Sofia turned slightly to look Emory over with a considering eye. “I’m sure you’re full of theories as to what the answer is to that.”

  “Oh God, lady, don’t ask her that,” Dink said softly.

  Pointedly ignoring him, Emory smiled at her. “I’m saying human. Yes, technology has come along in leaps and bounds after the Second World War, but then the military scored some major players when it took Germany’s rocket scientists on board. I guess not all the Third Reich were considered the enemy when they had the knowledge to create rockets and bombs. Switching sides must have been a no-brainer when that information was in exchange for no prosecution for their war crimes.”

  “You know your history.” Sofia sounded surprised.

  “It’s easy enough to research, and besides, history is a bit of a blabbermouth once enough years have gone by. I also know that the government loves to mislead the masses. You’ve got spy planes and stealth craft whose specifications you wouldn’t want to fall into enemy hands. So when we see them being tested we get fed misinformation. Every time there’s something bright traveling fast, it’s got to be reported as something alien. That way, you kill two birds with one stone. Hide the truth and terrorize the population. Keeping us in fear of an invasion from outside the planet keeps us in line. It also lets you build up your weaponry without us making a peep. You’re keeping us safe.”

  “You have a vivid imagination,” Sofia said, her eyes stony. “And we need to leave here now and get to a military base. I need to report in.”

  Emory removed the keys from the ignition and palmed them. “I have a mind that’s my own, and we’re not going anywhere until you tell me who’s piloting the saucers.”

  “I have no idea. And I am ordering you to take me to the nearest base.”

  Emory snorted her derision at Sofia’s commanding tone. “You can’t order me anywhere. I’m not one of your subordinates. Besides, while the military is scrambling to fling every airplane they have at those things, nothing is working, so they exactly won’t miss one captain for the moment.”

  Sofia folded her arms over her chest and stared out the windshield. “I’m not saying another word.”

  “That’s okay, I have more than enough to say. Like how I watched the people from Area 51 be hoisted up into the beams from the saucers that ‘aren’t ours.’” Emory made air quotes around her last words. She was pleased to see how much that riled Sofia.

  “You saw the civilians escape?”

  “No, I saw them being captured by whoever or whatever was piloting those saucers that you claim to know nothing about. Something is harvesting us. It’s capturing humans in a beam of light and sucking them up into the ship. I have no idea what happens to them next. Do you, Captain?”

  Sofia shook her head.

  Emory scoffed at her. “Now why don’t I believe you? Who else got their hands on the blueprints for your crafts so they could build their own?”

  “No one could steal the plans because there were none in the first place.” Sofia sat back with a resigned sigh. “What do you want me to say? What would you like me to tell you? I don’t know who’s flying those things. Do you really want me to just guess? Because my guess, according to the rumors you probably believe in, is that the only other ones who could build those craft were found dead years ago in a wreckage back in 1947.”

  Emory could hear Dink’s excited noises in her ear. He sounded like he was in the throes of a seizure.

  “You mean Roswell?” Emory watched Sofia’s face and barely caught the shrug in reply. Dink screamed in excitement and nearly deafened her. “So much for it being a weather balloon.”

  Emory couldn’t believe what all this meant. She felt overwhelmed by something she knew so much about but had never believed. It was like being hit by a tidal wave, and while she was floundering, Dink was whooping like a five-year-old through her earpiece. He was probably doing cartwheels in his underground bunker and breaking out his victory dance. She’d seen him do it; it wasn’t pretty.

  “We really need to get to a military base. I have to report what I’ve seen.”

  “Captain, the whole world is aware of what’s happening so I think your superiors know exactly what is going on and who has come knocking to get their technology back.”

  “Aliens, Emory! We’re being invaded by aliens!” Dink sounded almost giddy with excitement. Emory shook her head at him. Even if that was the case, it didn’t exactly make the situation any better.

  “I heard, Big Brother. Now we have to figure out how to stop them.”

  “Now do you believe?” he asked.

  “You know me, I go by the facts. I haven’t seen anything yet that points conclusively to little gray aliens from Mars or wherever. But I assure you, the moment I do? I’ll be sure to eat my words.” She fit the key in the ignition and started up the van. “Captain, I know you want to be reunited with your air force buddies, but I need to get to Las Vegas first. My family is there and I need to know they’re okay.”

  “The military could help,” Sofia said.

  “I’m sure searching the rubble for my family is high on their list of must-dos for today. I need to do it. I can’t reach them on
the phone. I have to try to find them. Then I promise I’ll drive you anywhere to regroup with your squad or whatever you call them.” Emory could feel Sofia’s eyes on her.

  “We need to be careful. We can’t be seen by the saucers.”

  “Good thing I’m not night blind, isn’t it? I’ll keep the lights off, and we’ll drive by the light of the moon.”

  Sofia faced forward again. She was silent for a long while until she broke their silence. “The ones who evacuated Area 51? The civilians and the staff? You really saw them being abducted?”

  “Yes.”

  Sofia’s jaw clenched, and she brushed a hand over her eyes. “I’m going to need more weapons. I’ve only got my service revolver, and we’re going to need stronger firepower than that.”

  “After we find my brother. It will take us about three hours, a little more if the Vegas Strip is a nightmare like it usually is. Winchester is literally on the other side of the lights. Let me do this and then I’ll follow your orders.”

  Sofia laughed. Emory thought the sound was surprisingly beautiful for such a serious looking woman.

  “Why do I get the feeling you doing what I say is going to drive you crazy?” Sofia smiled just enough for Emory to catch sight of it in the moonlight.

  “Because you didn’t reach the rank you have by not being astute.”

  “I’m still arresting you for impersonating a CIA agent.”

  “Let’s see what happens first. You might find I’m of better use to you in the field than locked up behind bars.” However much safer that sounded to Emory’s ears.

  Emory’s head was whirling. All her beliefs were wavering and crumbling before her. Were all the stories of aliens true? The cave drawings that depicted star creatures, or the visitors that rode the sky on fiery dragons told in all those ancient tales? And what about the leaked stories from Roswell itself and the endless other sightings? She knew of them all, had studied them, but never fully believed. If they were true then it challenged everything she had built her world of theories on.