It took Harry about an hour to shut down the wall he had put around the second floor gate threshold, destroy the rest of the sentry gun he had set up, walked the police through what had happened. An official from the UN’s Planetary Defense Office had arrived during the briefing and asked Harry for his authentication. He admitted he had only been on the job for twenty hours and handled three gates by himself.

He had to promise to go by the local office and file his paperwork.

The rifles, equipment, and armor went into the trunk of John’s car. That had involved an explanation so that he wouldn’t get in trouble for having the weapons and using grenades on his school.

Nick assured him that a crew would be showing up in the daylight to assess the damage and work on repairing it.

When everything was moved to appointments and reports being filed, Harry got into the car and pulled out the three boxes for the homing beacons. Two of them were stable with a small degree of plus or minus. The third seemed to be moving along a grade.

“What are you staring at?,” asked John.

“The displays for the homing beacons I threw down,” said Harry. “This one seems to be moving.”

“What’s the problem?,” asked John. He pulled into the school parking lot with a shake of his head, went around in a circle, and pulled back out on the street. He turned and headed for Harry’s apartment complex.

“Should it be moving?,” asked Harry. “This third beacon looks like it’s under power.”

“The enemy does use living ships,” said Nick. “There aren’t any this close to

Earth, but contractors have destroyed them in combat.”

“So this could be a ship,” said Harry. “This could be where the third gate went to, the one I used the plasma lance to clear.”

“You might have damaged the control brain,” said Nick. “If you did, it could be

listing.”

“I left a hive onboard,” said Harry. “Do you still think it’s active?”

“Let me check,” said Nick. There was a moment while Harry waited and John

wondered why his friend was talking to himself. “There is a signal so it is still making bees and sending back data.”

“So the idiots didn’t know they should crush the hive,” said Harry. “It goes back to the door thing.”

“The door thing?,” asked John.

“The xenos that we are facing here on Earth could just be vat grown wolves,” said Harry. “We might not have seen a real xeno, just like we haven’t seen a real Bernie.”

“So their army is really clone troopers?,” asked John.

“Maybe,” said Harry. “If it is, they are born stupid.”

“Why put brains into cannon fodder?,” asked John. “They are sending them here to attack targets. Thinking is bad for the tactics they are using.”

“I think the tactics are a side effect,” said Harry. “They are just dumping them

here and telling them to eat people. If they vary from that, it’s the normal predator type variation of practices like stalking or ambush tactics.”

“So if there weren’t any people here, they would just wander around and eat the animals they found?,” said John.

“Maybe,” said Harry. “We don’t know. I hate to think there isn’t a mastermind,

but just some kind of freak evolution at work.”

“The gates?,” asked John.

“Not technology as we know it,” said Harry. “The problem is we won’t get answers from the grunts. We want someone in charge we can use a rubber hose on.”

“How do you plan to get that?,” asked John.

“I have no idea,” said Harry. “Maybe if I can throw something across to send live feeds that would be some kind of intel gathering. The bees are meant to clear their launchpoint so we can close the gates. I didn’t build them to send camera work back to me.”

“Whatever it is will have to be almost invisible, and fast, if you don’t want it to

shoot,” said John.

“I’ll think about it,” said Harry. “Chances are I won’t have to deal with another

incursion for a long time.”

“It’s bad luck that three gates opened here on the same day,” said John. “I don’t believe in luck that bad.”

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“Three times is enemy action,” said Harry. He put the beacon screens away. “I can’t lie that crossed my mind when I saw the two close gates. The launchpoints were different.”

“That doesn’t mean a thing,” said Nick. “Just because they started from two different places doesn’t mean they didn’t intend to land where they did. You just destroyed the advanced element before they could set a security screen to stop you.”

“What?,” asked John.

“Nick said the xenos could have planned to hit the school from two different

launchpoints but didn’t get enough of their guys through before we got there to stop them,” said Harry. “So the incursion could have been bigger if I hadn’t did what I did.”

“So we might have stopped a full scale invasion,” said John. “Nice.”

“I have a lot to do,” said Harry. “I’ll have to get a detailer to come by and clean

out my car, fill out paperwork, track down the survivors from Wu U. I don’t know if I should swing by and let Delmar know I’m not happy with him.”

“Here’s your place,” said John. He slowed to make the turn into the entrance. “What about your feet?”

“They’re fake,” said Harry. “Where I put the fake calves to my knees hurts a little, but I can live with it. Let me change and I’ll give your clothes back.”

“Keep them,” said John. “Don’t get too much into this, Harry. It seems easy enough to go overboard.”

“Just remember to keep your eyes open,” said Harry. “I’m not the one with guys showing up at their house. The bees will keep an eye on things so you won’t have to worry about someone trying to burn your house down with you in it.”

“I don’t need protection,” said John.

“Yes, you do,” said Harry. “At least until I can arrange some accidents and missing people.”

“Your overseer won’t like that,” said John.

“As long as I defend myself, I’m in the clear,” said Harry. “Right now, you are in more mundane trouble than I am. And I have access to an arsenal of crap I just barely scratched the surface of using.”

“Don’t nuke the city,” said John.

“In the event of warfare, some things have to be done to secure the sanctity of the commonwealth of the Earth, and the defense of all mankind,” said Harry.

“Don’t let him nuke the city, Nick,” said John. “I know you’re listening even if I

can’t hear you.”

“I won’t,” said Nick.

“He won’t,” said Harry. “Calm down. I’m responsible now.”

“What about the gear in the trunk?,” said John. “You want it back?”

“Keep it in case you need it,” said Harry. He waited for the car to pull to a stop. “You should probably put it in a safe box inside your house if you need to use it.”

“Gangbangers or xenos?,” asked John, throwing the car in park.

“Yep,” said Harry. He got out. “The mana scanner will pick up xenos if they run through the neighborhood.”

“All right,” said John. “Don’t get chewed up by monstrous aliens.”

“Don’t get shot in the face by angry school kids,” said Harry. He shut the door. He waved as he headed for his apartment on the bottom floor.

John backed up out of the slot and headed out of the complex.

Harry let himself inside his apartment. He looked around the tiny place and sighed. He supposed he spent too much time at work or at John’s and Guy’s to notice how cramped the space was.

He should move somewhere he could set up an arsenal to keep weapons instead of spending points on new things when he needed it. Maybe a battlewagon would be good so he had a mobile fort dealing with the crowds the xenos seemed to favor.

He probably did need a James Bond car for times when things needed to be on the road.

Harry walked across the room to the refrigerator pushed back in its niche. He opened the door and looked at the contents. He frowned at the sandwich meat, pickles, cheese and beer. He scratched his head. He decided that one beer would be okay. He took a can and put it on the counter before taking one more look at his sparse food.

He took the can and went to the chair in front of his computer desk and sat down. He sat down in the dark and pulled out the three beacon boxes. What did he want to do about that?

He needed a way to find those points, and clear them so they couldn’t be used as a launchpad to Earth. When he knew where they are, how did he get there? That was something he could do if he got a ship.

How did he get a ship? How did he get a crew?

Did he want to have a crew made of his bees? Could they pilot a ship through the universe? That would be a funny thing to see.

“What are you thinking?,” said Nick.

“I’m thinking that I should drink this beer and take a nap,” said Harry. “I feel like I should call in to work tomorrow. Maybe take the time to adjust to this job. I still need to track down the rest of the loose xenos in the city.”

“Are you going to try to meet other contractors?,” asked Nick. “I can put you in

contact with other agents’ people.”

“I like to work alone, just like how I drink,” said Harry. He leaned back in his chair.

“You can’t work alone all the time, savvy?,” said Nick.

“You don’t know that,” said Harry.

“I have been in the game a lot longer than you,” said Nick. “You will have to work with other contractors sooner or later. It might be better to try to talk to some of them sooner than later when the enemy is on the ground trying to eat your face.”

“I’ll think about it some day,” said Harry.

His phone rang. He checked it and frowned. Why was John calling him now?

“Hey, John,” said Harry. “What’s going on?”

“These bees, Harry,” said John. “I thought we talked about this.”

“Put the phone on speaker,” said Harry. “I’ll talk to them.”

“Go ahead,” said John.

“All right, guys,” said Harry. “Split up in three groups and each group covers John, Cat, and the house. They are to be kept safe until I can think of some way to help you out.”

“What?,” said John.

Harry cut the line and turned his phone off.

“He will be angry,” said Nick.

“He will be angry tomorrow,” said Harry. “Which is when I’ll have to deal with him.”

“Are you really worried about them, or being annoying because you can?,” asked Nick.

“Yes,” said Harry. “I need to get a nap. Wake me up in five hours. Then we have to get started.”

“All right,” said Nick. “I’ll keep an eye on reports of bodies being found. We should be looking at a rampage. I’m surprised that alerts haven’t been issued.”

“Smarter xenos?,” said Harry. He finished his beer and closed his eyes. “We’ll find out when we start hunting them.”

Nick checked his vitals before pulling back. He had a million operations going on. One new contractor was only a bit of a bit of his current responsibilities.

“Hey, Nick,” said his manager, Abaddon. “Could I talk to you for a second?”

“Sure,” said Nick. “What’s going on?”

“I want to talk to you about your new contractor,” said Abaddon. “There have been some questions.”

“Sure,” said Nick.