THE ENEMY WITHIN

THE ENEMY WITHIN Chapter 14

14.

Aside from the light rail in Portland, Max had never been on a train before. Truth be known, he'd never been out of Oregon before. Despite the exhaustion, he didn't want to miss any of the landscape rushing by their window. Towering mountains were dotted with lush green trees and lakes that seemed unnaturally bright. If he survived, he wanted to come back here and explore Utah for a while ... although some part of him knew that time would never come.

"The stakes have changed," Vincent said. "They tried to take out the Eye. If they're willing to mount that kind of attack, it won't stop there. You see why we have to wait to announce ourselves?"

"We change the atmosphere, we're announcing ourselves pretty loudly. How do we walk away when it's done?"

Vincent remained silent.

"Look, I don't blame you for not knowing, there's no answer. If we keep going like this, we might never see sunlight again. You have to recognize that, right? But if we tell them who we are, what we are, maybe they can help us and protect us," Max said, although even as the words came out he could feel how unlikely such an event might be.

"First contact with alien life suggests they need to change the atmosphere. We'd be dead before they even began debating it. No thanks. I'll take my chances on the run. Think we both know it's the only way."

If the government tried to destroy the Eye, then reasoning with them after the fact seemed unlikely. But the writing was on the wall, run long enough and eventually you hit a dead end. "Did you know it was going to come down to this when you found me?" Max asked.

"You give me way too much credit. The Eye gives me just a fraction of what I'd like to know. I didn't even know about the city on fire."

Max looked back out on the snow-peaked hills. They seemed forever out of reach now. "Can't you ask the Eye what to do?"

"It's not an Oracle on the mountaintop. The Eye's powerful, but it's still just a computer with two functions – protect us, and itself. That's it." Vincent leaned in conspiratorially. "You're one of us. That's why I wanted you here. But why we needed you is something else. Think now's the time you knew it all." Vincent reached within his coat and pulled out a hard-shelled case, holding it out to Max.

The case was metallic black. Max opened it with a slight snap. A soft, red glow filled his eyes. Inside was a glass canister about twice as wide as a test tube filled with a viscous, red liquid. The molten-like fluid pulsed as if it had a life of its own. Instinctively he knew whatever was inside was not of this world.

"One single droplet could change the atmosphere over Arizona. This is our salvation," Vincent said like a kid showing off a prized comic book.

Something primal in Max reached out to connect with the liquid. It was powerful, visceral – and whatever was within the glass had somehow been imprinted in him before he was born. So much time squandered without having the faintest clue of what he was – now all of their lives hung in the balance because of it. Handing the case back proved difficult, he didn't want to let it go.

"It's almost magnetic, like it was meant to be in your hands," Vincent said. "Believe me, I know that feeling."

He already wanted it back. "Why didn't you show me this before?" Max asked.

Vincent watched the scenery pass. "You were overwhelmed with it all. Just didn't seem ..." Vincent let down the wall for an instant, letting the burden of responsibility show. "I don't have all the answers. Looking out for each of you, knowing every choice could be our last ... it's exhausting. I have to be right every single time for all of us. One wrong move ..." Then the moment passed and the confidence Max had come to rely on returned. "I'll get us to the end, I promise you that. Then it's your turn. I could use a break."