“Are you the man who created these monsters?,” asked the man behind the desk. He lost the battle with gravity for his face, sported a thin mustache and slicked back hair to hide the onset of age. A few more years and he might be dying it a lighter shade to hide his gray. He waved his hand at the bees at rest all over the office.
“I’m Harry Jordan,” said Harry. He put his hands in his pockets. He regretted leaving the pistol and the factory bees in the car.
“I want them out of my hospital right now,” said the administrator. Harry noticed he had a nameplate on his desk identifying him as Doctor Winslow. “They put one of my doctors in the ER. They have to go.”
“No,” said Harry. “Is there anything else? I have to get back to work.”
“What do you mean no?,” said Winslow. He stood up to lean over his desk.
All of the bees in the room started buzzing, some of them lighting up their particle guns in case they needed to fire.
Winslow sat back down.
“Mrs. Stuart and her husband are under my protection until I am sure the threat has been abated,” said Harry. “Your doctor touched Mrs. Stuart in an inappropriate way. They were supposed to kill him. Letting him live is okay as long as he never approaches Mrs. Stuart again. My agent is filing charges and is advising Mrs. Stuart to sue the hospital for sexual harassment. Until I get an all clear, the bees go where she goes, she does her routine, hospital security needs to keep an eye out.”
“I don’t believe that,” said Winslow.
“All of these drones have cameras for eyes,” said Harry. “My agent can secure that footage and post it as evidence any time he wants.”
“I didn’t know that,” said Cat. “There are some violation of privacy issues there.”
“Nick is a Bernie,” said Harry. “He doesn’t care about body issues. I have to meet with the police and some other people. It was a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Winslow. Keep your doctor in the ER, then send him home. If he complains, tell him Planetary Defense will squeeze him like a vise.”
“You can’t be serious about suing the hospital,” said Winslow.
“Not my call,” said Harry. “I kill monsters. It will be up to lawyers and cops about what should be done. If I come back here, it won’t be to arrest anyone. Now I have to go.”
Harry stepped outside the office and looked around. Cat and the bodyguard bees stepped out. She squinted up at him.
“Which one of you shot the doctor?,” asked Harry.
One of the bees flew up and hovered in front of his face. He held up a fist. The bee bumped it with a foreleg.
“Good job,” said Harry.
“This is not a joke, Harry,” said Cat.
“You are safe as houses from him,” said Harry. “The guy that got lasered might be mad enough to do something. That’s why the bees stay. They aren’t a perfect defense, but they’re the best I can do at the moment without making you stick out even more like a sore thumb.”
“I think you’re being overly cautious,” said Cat.
“I’m not being cautious enough,” said Harry. “There’s a chance that the xenos are trying to make a major gate. The city is screwed if that happens. I won’t be able to protect you, John, or Guy. This hospital and everyone in it could be flattened by the aliens. So I want you to keep the bees with you, keep an eye on the exits, look outside when you can. Here’s a mana scanner.”
He handed her the summoned device.
“If this thing starts beeping,” said Harry. “That means a gate is forming close to this building. Make a note of the direction. That’s where the xenos will be coming from. Do what you can to be safe, and let the bees do the work.”
“Are you being serious?,” asked Cat. She looked down at the device.
“Deadly serious,” said Harry. “Spread the word to keep a lookout. I’m looking for anything that looks like this carved into the ground, or a nearby building. If you see anything like this sign, the bees have to wreck it.”
He showed her an image of the drawing on his phone screen. The bees crowded around to take their own look.
“I’ll let you know if I see something like this around the hospital,” said Cat. “If the xenos hit here, the bees are the only defense the building has.”
“I’ll drop a couple of hives outside before I leave,” said Harry. “It won’t be much, but they’ll be able to buy time while you light up the barricades.”
“We’ll lose a ton of patients if they get inside,” said Cat. “I’m going to have to start carrying again.”
“I have one of my small guns on me if you want it,” said Harry.
“I don’t think that will be wise,” said Cat. “I would be tempted to use it.”
“I have to go and talk to the police and PDO about my status,” said Harry. “Then I have to figure out a way to get help to comb the city. John is supposed to help me search the school.”
“I’ll talk to him about this tonight,” said Cat. “He’s probably going to want to press charges.”
“I don’t know enough about the law to say anything,” said Harry. “Nick said he talked to someone. I don’t know when they will reach you.”
“All right,” said Cat. “At least no one can kick me out of the hospital with your
platoon floating around.”
“Nick probably knows a good lawyer,” said Harry. “Let me know what you want to do. I’ll do what I can to help fix it up for you.”
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“All right,” said Cat. “Be careful.”
Harry nodded, waving his hand at the bees. They buzzed back in acknowledgment of their assigned duty.
He went out the front door and walked down to where some hedges obscured the front of the wall. He dropped two hives there to wait for enemy contact. He dropped two more further down the line. They dug into the ground with an anchor as soon as they stopped bouncing, and rolling.
He spotted the car rolling around the lot to pick him up. He could do one more thing. It would buy time for the hospital if it came under attack.
The door sprang open as the car rolled to a stop next to him. He looked inside. His factory bees still rode in the back.
“I want you guys to keep watch on this area for me,” said Harry. He waved them out of the car. “I want to protect the hospital until reinforcements come along to help out. Can do?”
The bees took to the air. They orbited around Harry as they considered their orders. They split up and flew to the roofs of the nearby buildings.
The hospital and the surrounding stores and homes would have a minimal defense until he had enough bees to take care of the problem.
“Go to police headquarters so we can check in with Detective Wozniak,” said Harry after getting behind the wheel. A small inset appeared on the corner of the window and listed the bees numbers and the all clear signal they exchanged with each other.
“Maybe we’re just panicking,” said Harry. “Just because we found a carving matching carvings before a big invasion doesn’t necessarily mean that will happen here.”
“I have already asked the other agents with contractors on the planet to put the word out,” said Nick. “I’m taking this very seriously.”
“How much damage are we talking about?,” asked Harry.
“Depends on what they can bring through,” said Nick. “A star whale for instance is as big as two of your taller buildings, impervious to most weapons from the outside, and can fly through your atmosphere. Anything it hits with its body will be destroyed. On top of that, it carries grunts inside of it, and has kinetic weapons all over its sides and back.”
“One of those dropping down over the city would be a disaster,” said Harry.
“That’s why we have to stop any incursion now more than ever since they could be trying to bring something like a star whale here to break down the planetary defenses enough for a full invasion,” said Nick. “We’re deep behind our own lines here. If Earth falls, there’s no telling where they could go from here.”
“Got it,” said Harry. “Let’s see if we can get the police in to help us. Otherwise, I am going to have to summon drones to do my searching for me. I can see where that will be a lot more intrusive than people want.”
“It’s an option that we can use,” said Nick. “The Office, the local liaisons, the
contractors, anyone else they can enlist are out there looking. If we can get recruits to help us, that will be great. Otherwise we’ll have to handle things on our own.”
“We’ll think of something,” said Harry. The car rolled in front of the police
headquarters in the middle of Downtown. He looked up at the building. He hated to ask for help from people who wanted him to stop doing what he had to do. He couldn’t not try.
He ordered the car to circle the block while he conducted his business. He walked up to the door, and walked around the metal detector with a showing of a summoned badge. He asked for directions to the detective’s rooms so he could find Wozniak and finish his business.
He didn’t want to shoot up the station because he had to escape, but he would. He wasn’t going to be arrested if he could help it.
He climbed up the stairs to the proper floor, studying the signs for directions. He walked through an open area full of people working. He asked one of the detectives for directions and was pointed to the detective hunched over his own desk.
Wozniak grimaced when his visitor settled in a guest chair by his cramped space. He leaned away from his desk. He laced his hands together as he looked at the contractor.
“I heard one of your drones shot a doctor over at Shane,” said Wozniak. “Claiming self defense on that too?”
“He shouldn’t have groped my friend,” said Harry. “He’s lucky the bee shot him. Cat might have done something to get fired that he wouldn’t be able to heal up.”
“Sexual assault?,” said Wozniak. “Is that why you are here?”
“No,” said Harry. “Cat is handling that with the hospital. Nick is getting a lawyer for her. I expect they will pay her not to press charges.”
“So why are you here?,” asked the detective.
“I found something after tracking the loose xenos down,” said Harry. “I need to ask the police force to be on the look out.”
“I don’t understand,” said Wozniak.
“I found this where I tracked the xenos,” said Harry. He pulled out Delmar’s former phone. “Did you know xenos can merge into a single thing? I didn’t.”
“How long have you been on the job?,” asked Wozniak.
“A day I think,” said Harry. He found the picture he needed. He held it up for
Wozniak to look at from across the desk. “This is what I found.”
“It doesn’t mean a thing to me,” said the detective.
“Nick thinks this is some kind of gate anchor,” said Harry. He put the phone down. “Every major battle the Bernies had with the xenos had one of these on the scene. They don’t know how it works, but they think it makes a super gate.”
“What do you mean a super gate?,” asked Wozniak. He leaned forward to pull his notebook forward to write in it.
“The two gates I closed at McGill potentially could have merged into a gate three stories tall,” said Harry. “I don’t know if they could have got a big xeno through, but I don’t have to tell you what a small army of those things would be like if they had managed to get through.”
“You’re saying they’re not playing around any more,” said Wozniak.
“Maybe,” said Harry. “I only found one of these in a deserted factory space a few blocks away from Wu U. I destroyed it as soon as I got done with the xenos. If there are more out there, I need eyes to help me look for them.”
“So all those incursions before you contracted could have been setting up for this,” said the detective. “It means they are smarter than what they represent.”
“They were at war with the Bernies for longer than our history,” said Harry.
“Someone over there has to be telling them how to handle their business.”
“I can pass the word along, but I can’t guarantee command will listen to me,” said Wozniak.
“Nick is talking to people on the Federal level,” said Harry. “I think you should try to get ready yourself. I need to talk to the SWAT guy who came out to McGill last night, then I have to go back out to the school. What’s your read on the guys who tried to shoot up John’s house?”
“They used to be a dangerous gang,” said Wozniak. “They were deep in the drug trade and some casual violence. Competition with other street gangs has been fierce. Now that they are at half-strength, they will be squeezed out by the other gangs in their area. You planning to finish the job?”
“No,” said Harry. “I thought I would ask them to work for me, and anyone else they could gather.”
“I would like to see that,” said the detective. “They would be crazy to go to work for you.”
“Sure,” said Harry. He picked up his phone. He paused when Wozniak stood up and waved the other detectives in the room to gather around his desk.
“Go ahead,” said the detective. “I think we would all like to see you recruit a bunch of scumbags to help you out.”
“All right,” said Harry. “Before I do that, I want to tell you the same thing I just told Wozniak.”
He told them everything about the gates, and the suspicion that the city was looking like a biblical explosion in the future.
“Now I’m going to call one of these guys and see if I can hire them as auxiliaries to help look for anything like this,” said Harry. “Let’s see what happens.”
He searched the contact list and pressed the button for the phone to call out. He waited for someone to answer him. He looked down at the floor.
“Who’s this?,” said someone Harry didn’t recognize. He could feel Nick locating the guy for him through the call.
“You know who it is,” said Harry. “I’m Delmar’s friend. Is he there?”
“No,” said the other end. “Why would he be?”
“I don’t know,” said Harry. “You’re his friend. Tell him to call his phone back, or
the bees is going to look for him and set his hair on fire again. Got that?”
“The bees?,” said the voice. It was shaky now.
“That’s right,” said Harry. “Tell him to call back as soon as you can, or I will be
looking for him and you, Garry.”
The line went dead.