Drew shifted, stirred, and her eyes slid open. Jack relaxed; even via a camera he’d been distracted by the constant rise and fall of her chest. He keyed the microphone on the table in front of him. “Midnight, could you slip that uniform blouse on and come in here please?”

  She sat up, the blankets falling away, and swore. Behind him, he heard Walker choke off a curse. “She’s looked like that since the meteor?”

  “Yeah. Since the Rain of Fire.”

  “How does she not start a…”

  “Goddamit! Why does this shit keep happening to me?” On the screen, Midnight shrugged out of the remains of her leather jacket and pulled on Jack’s camouflaged uniform blouse. She pulled the web belt he’d left around her waist, and with that minimal covering stalked down the hallway.

  “I swear, I’m gonna find that asshole Oscar and tear him a new one. I liked those leathers.”

  As she reached for the handle, Jack stepped out of the security alcove and pushed the door open. “Can’t let you do that, but you and I do need to get some answers out of him.”

  Behind him, he heard Captain Walker shift, and Midnight’s gaze snapped to the astronaut. “Oscar?”

  “No, this is Captain Walker.”

  Her frown never wavered, but she stuck out a hand. “Good to meet you. Glad to see you’re out of your cage.”

  “Glad to be out, ma’am.”

  Before the conversation went any further, Doc Merilyn’s voice sounded over the speaker on the desk. “Jack, I need you down here. Is Midnight awake?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Bring her down as well. “

  Now it was Jack’s turn to frown at someone he couldn’t see. “We were going to conduct the interrogation on Oscar.”

  “That can wait. I think you guys should see this. Now.”

  Jack led the other two down a set of steps then past the heavily armored cell he and Angela had found Walker in. At the end of the concrete hallway a simple elevator stood open, waiting for them. They stepped in, and Jack hit the button to go down to the lower level.

  “Please present your right eye for retina scan.” A small panel slid open, and an ocular extended from the hidden compartment. The cell phone hanging in front of it lit up.

  “Retina scan this,” Widget’s phone chirped. The doors slid shut, and the elevator started down.

  “So, what do you do?”

  Walker paused half a moment, shrugged, and then answered. “I can survive in space. I can’t be poisoned. I can fly, although it’s sort of exhausting in atmosphere.”

  “Huh. Sorta useful for a astronaut. Better than this anyhow.”

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  Nearly a minute later, the elevator stopped.

  “If they were keeping him,” Midnight nodded to Walker, “under one layer of concrete, who the hell are they keeping down here?”

  The door slid open, and screams filled the tiny elevator car. Before Jack could move, Midnight was out of the car, dashing down another concrete hallway. Her hands scrabbled a moment for guns and identification. The moment before she went through the door at the end of the hallway, her whole posture changed; she slid through the door sideways, her hands clenched into claws.

  Jack exhaled, working himself into the mental state he’d been in the last time he’d been able to get airborne. A moment later he slid into the hallway, six inches separating him from the ground. In this case he wasn’t worried about the floor collapsing, but the massive mantrap on the floor above had him nervous. Midnight hadn’t set anything off, but she’d barely touched the ground.

  “Weird.”

  Jack could barely hear Walker’s comment above the ongoing scream. He turned, and saw Walker gliding along behind him, moving backward to keep eyes behind them. Glad he had a teammate who knew to watch their six, he turned about and kept moving forward.

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s easier to fly here. I shouldn’t be able to get my wings open, but I’m getting a better grip on the dirt around me than I do in air.”

  “That kinda makes sense. Dirt is denser than air.”

  “Huh. I guess I’ve got too much pilot in me.”

  Jack got to the end of the hall. The screams were almost forming into coherent words now. “How’s that work?”

  “Pilots aren’t generally encouraged to fly underground.”

  Jack chuckled, despite the horrible, protracted screaming echoing down the hall. He passed through the door, entering into a simple sound studio. Through the glass, in the recording booth proper, Angela and Widget stood over a hospital bed. A young man, a soldier by his hair cut and fatigue tee shirt, lay in the bed. His back arched, his eyes closed, and his mouth worked in an endless howl.

  After a moment looking, Jack found the master volume control. When he slid it near the bottom, he could finally make out words in the scream.

  “She comes! She comes! She comes!” Over and over, the young man screamed out his fear of whoever was incoming.

  With the volume low, he heard Midnight and Widget as well.

  “Can you sedate this poor bastard?”

  Widget just rolled her eyes. “He’s already under sedation. They’re pumping enough into him to kill a horse, and he’s still like this. Do you want to be in here when I turn it off?”

  Jack leaned over and pressed the intercom. “How do I shut it off?”

  Midnight glanced over at him, and then turned back to Widget. “Get out of here. Take a look at the recordings. Jack, get back upstairs and find out what you can about this guy from Oscar. Captain Walker, you’re familiar with electronics?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Help Widget out.”

  Again Walker hesitated, but then replied with a simple, “Yes, ma’am.”

  Jack simply turned and hovered back to the elevator.

  ***

  Jack slipped into the room and closed the door behind himself. Oscar stood and puffed out his chest.

  “I’m not afraid of you, alien. I am a sovereign citizen of the United States of America, and you have no power over me!”

  Jack shook his head. “Son, I don’t know who’s been filling your head with crap, but the closest I’ve been to space is when I was stationed at that launch site in Russia as a guard.” Before Oscar could say anything, he interrupted himself, “Well, I wasn’t really a guard. But the guy I was pretending to be on that op was stationed there.”

  Oscar stopped halfway through opening his mouth, as if stunned at the admission. “You’re some kind of alien spy?”

  “No. I was a mercenary for a while. I’m originally from Wilkes Barre, though.” Again, right before Oscar could speak, Jack interrupted him, glancing back at his watch. “I need you to hurry up with this. It’s almost time for dinner, and Midnight gets real cranky if she misses a meal.”

  Oscar’s eyes went wide, and then he fell back onto this bunk. “Yer too late, alien. Way too late.”

  Before Jack could reply, Walker ghosted straight through the floor up into the room.

  “Gah! How the hell did you do that?”

  Walker shrugged. “Your comment about flying through dirt struck me. The metal reinforcement was tough, but the concrete? Not so much. Not important right now though.”

  “What would be…”

  Oscar interrupted, cackling as he spoke. “You’re too late! The Sovereign Citizen’s Militia will take New York City, and there’s nothing you can do to stop us!”