Xan, Part Four

So of course I was wrong.

            Silvano called me at 9:10 that night. Rachel was upstairs. I was playing “Angry Birds” on my laptop. “Can I come to your place?”

            What the hell? “Why?”

            “I’ve got—that thing. I need to plug it into a computer to see if I can communicate with it.”

            “Not my computer.”

            “No, no, Nat’s got a laptop. We just need a place. I don’t want to go back to my motel.”

            But he wanted to come here? “The cops know I was looking into Hawke. This place isn’t necessarily safe for you.” Or me.

            “We got in and out without a problem. We just need a few minutes.”

            Right. I wanted to tell him to go to hell. But I admit, I was curious. “I’ll give you up to the cops the minute they walk in.”

            “They won’t! I need someone I can trust.”

            I stifled a groan. “All right.”

            I gave him my address and hung up. Then I called Rachel. “So, you want to see a piece of alien tech?”

They showed up half an hour later. Silvano looked more haggard than ever, but Natalie seemed excited and chipper.

            Rachel stood up from her chair and immediately placed her hands on their arms. Natalie tried to pull away, but Silvano seemed too tired to resist. After a moment Rachel nodded. “They’re fine.”

            “Of course we’re fine!” Natalie plopped her laptop next to mine on the dining room table. “I had all the right security codes, no one was there, no one saw us—”

“And she disconnected the XN without a hitch.” Silvano slumped in Rachel’s chair. He reached into his jacket pocket and dropped something on the table. “Here it is.”

I expected something exotic—a glowing orb, or maybe a disembodied hand. Instead it looked like a standard hard drive, except that the black metal was shinier than anything I’d ever seen.

“So now what?” I let Rachel sit in my chair and leaned over Natalie’s shoulder as she pulled out a connection cord from her pocket.

“Now we hook it up.” She turned her computer on.

The thing even had what looked like a normal USB socket mounted on the side. “This is alien tech? It looks like it came from Best Buy.”

“It’s been modified.” Silvano rubbed his eyes. “Could I get a drink of water?”

I brought bottles of water from the kitchen. By now Natalie had the thing connected, and Silvano had pulled her chair around next to her. I stood behind her as she clicked on an icon named XN on the computer’s desktop.

The color wheel spun around for 30 seconds. Then a screen opened—a menu. At the top, above some arcane terms I didn’t recognize—although maybe Rachel did—was a command for “Communicate.”

Natalie clicked on that. We waited.

A new screen opened, like the text message field on a smartphone. ASK QUESTION, the text said.

Natalie tapped keys. “Who are you?”

XAN. The reply was instantaneous.

“Where are you from?”

This reply was an image: a map of the sky, with one star highlighted in a red circle.

Rachel opened my laptop. “Send that to me.”

Natalie saved the image to email it to Rachel. Then she tapped: “Why are you here?”

EXPLORATION. PROBES SEEK PLANETS WITH INTELLIGENT LIFE.

She smiled. “You were right.” She squeezed Silvano’s hand.

“Ask how old it is?” Silvano gulped his water.

SENT OUT SIX MILLION YEARS AGO BY YOUR TIMEFRAME.

“Holy shit.” Silvano sat back. “Has it—has it visited other planets?”

EIGHT THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED AND TWO.

“Have you found life there?” Natalie asked without prompting.

THREE THOUSAND AND TEN WORLDS.

For a moment I felt like Captain Kirk—a whole universe to explore, full of intelligent life. I wanted to ask how it knew our language, how it traveled, what other aliens it had encountered. Were they all intelligent? What were Xan’s creators like? How many arms and legs did they have?

What had Xan learned in six million years?

Too many questions, and not enough time. I had less cosmic issues on my mind. I nudged Natalie’s shoulder. “Ask him about Hawke.”

Natalie thought for a minute, then typed, “Where are you now?”

HAWKE ELECTRONICS.

“What do you do?”

COLLECT INFORMATION. GUIDE DECISIONS. PROTECT THE COMPANY.

By killing people? “Ask what he wants now.”

RETURN TO MISSION.

“How?” Silvano slid his chair back. “It crashed.”

Natalie typed: “How can you return to mission?”

SIGNAL TO ORBIT.

Orbit? “There’s another ship up there?”

“Look at how small that thing is.” Silvano tapped the device. “It could be a very small craft, hiding in all the space junk. The crater in Michigan wasn’t that big—”

“It’s from Draugr.” Rachel pointed to an image on my computer. “Constellation of Virgo, about twice as big as the moon. And it’s 2,300 lightyears away. Also, the star is dead.”

If Xan had been sent out six million years ago—“Maybe don’t tell him that.” I stared at the screen. Yeah, I’ve encountered every supernatural entity you could think of. And aliens—once.

But this felt bigger than anything I’d ever thought about. “Can we send it back?”

“What?” Silvano lurched up. “This is what I’ve been looking for all my life! We can’t just let it go!”

“He’s had people killed. Brent O’Connor, and almost me.” I looked down at the screen. “How does it possess people?”

Natalie tapped a question: “Do you control humans?”

YES.

“How?”

An image shot up—a combination of the HAL 9000 computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the Eye of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings. CLICK HERE.

“No!” Natalie shoved the laptop away. “That’s how . . . I saw that on Kurt’s computer. Yesterday.”

Silvano pulled the laptop toward him. “What is it? Come on, come on . . .”

I shoved the cover down. “What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to communicate! This is alien life! Don’t you understand how important this is?”

I flashed back to Craig Winters: This could have changed history. Maybe they both were right.

But Xan had killed people. I couldn’t just ignore that.

“How can we signal the ship?” I asked. “Ham radio? Text message?”

“What are you talking about?” Silvano’s eye grew wide.

“He wants to continue the mission. We should let him do that.”

“Are you crazy?” He was weaving on his feet. “The first contact we’ve had with intelligent extraterrestrial life, and you want to send it away?”

I leaned back against the window. “I don’t want him killing any more people. And I’m pretty sure his mission doesn’t involve doing marketing for Arnold Hawke.”

“I don’t believe this.” He gulped. “I’ve been looking for this all my life! We can study it. Think how much it’s seen!” He lifted a hand, half-begging. “This will change history.”

I wanted to agree with him. I wanted to know what Xan had learned. I wanted to change history.

But something felt wrong. Like Hawke, Silvano wanted to use Xan for his own purposes. And if Xan had any kind of free will, keeping him here instead of letting him go back to his mission felt like enslaving him—just like Hawke had.

Natalie looked up from her screen. “It can send a signal through the GPS satellite system. The ship will send a drone down and give us the coordinates.”

I looked at Rachel. “What do you think?”

Rachel sighed. Then she reached over across Natalie’s keyboard and placed her hand on top of Xan’s box.

“Be careful!” I put a hand on her wrist. What if Xan could possess her through touch? Rachel’s psychic powers—

She shot me a glare. I let go of her, reluctantly, and waited.

After a moment she lifted her hand. “That was . . . different.”

“What?”

Silvano stared at her. “Did you send something?”

Rachel sat down again. “Definitely a machine. A consciousness. Not good or evil. I mean, I’ve been possessed by a demon, and I’ve met vampires. This is—I don’t want to say pure logic. Because that’s a cliché.” She tilted her head. “But there’s consciousness without any limits. Just its mission. Even vampires have fears.”

“Wait—vampires?” He looked from Rachel to me. “Demons?”

“You hunt aliens and UFOs.” Maybe Rikki hadn’t told him why she’d picked me to hire. “Natalie, ask him how many humans he’s killed.”

A moment later, Xan answered with a list of seven names. Brent O’Connor was the last.

Even Silvano was stunned. As if he’d forgotten that O’Connor had been his contact. “Who are they? Why did it—was it all from Hawke? Or—”

Pounding on the door interrupted him. “Jurgen? Are you in there?”

It was Hawke.

I glanced at Rachel. “Pepper spray?”

She jumped up. “I’ve got some in the bedroom.”

What the—“You keep pepper spray in my bedroom? Why?”

“Times like this. Jerk.”

“Jurgen!” Hawke pounded again. “I know you’ve got Xan in there. You stole it. Give it back to me and I’ll forget anything happened!”

I looked at Natalie. “Is Xan controlling Hawke?”

She typed.

NO.

Rachel emerged from the bedroom, brandishing her pepper spray. “Ready for anything.”

            I put my hand on the deadbolt. “Natalie, ask Xan to remove controls from all humans.”

            “Come on, Jurgen!” The door rattled from a kick. “Don’t make me call the police! You’re in possession of stolen property! Open the door!”

            “Natalie?” I didn’t want Hawke’s shouting to bring the cops.

            “It’s doing it.” She tapped a key.

            “All right.” I unlocked the door.

            Hawke burst in. His face was red and sweaty, and he wore a blazer that needed dry cleaning.

            Also, he had a handgun in his fist.

            I backed away. “Okay, Arnold.” I held my hands out at my sides. “You don’t need that. Let’s just talk.”

            “Shut up. I want my—” He saw Silvano. “You! Of course. And . . . Natalie?” He seemed shocked.

            “Sorry, Arnie.” Natalie shut her laptop. “I had to . . .” She gazed at Silvano for a second, then leaned back and closed her eyes. “I just had to.”

            “All right.” He pointed at the computer with his gun-free hand. “Just give Xan back to me and this will all be over.”

            “How did you know he was here?” I asked. It wasn’t a bad guess, but—

            “I get pinged every time security’s unlocked after hours. And you think I don’t have camera surveillance in my own office?” He pointed at Silvano. “I saw him, and I figured you had to be involved.”

            I should have kept my mouth shut. But I didn’t want to hand Xan back over, and I didn’t want him committing any more murders.

            Plus, Rachel was right behind me, hiding the pepper spray behind her hip.

“Look, Arnie.” I kept my hands in sight. “One of your employees is dead. Another one is in jail for attempted murder. If they trace Kurt’s gun to Brent’s murder, he’s going down. And Xan did that. All so you could make money helping peope sell stuff?”

He shook his head, angry. Handgun still pointing at my floor, dangling from a loose arm. “You don’t understand, this is only the beginning—”

Hawke was distracted. So Rachel darted forward and blasted his face with pepper spray.

“AHH!” Hawke screeched, dropped his handgun, and sank to the floor, clutching his face. I kicked the handgun as far as I could, almost underneath the sofa.

I smiled. “Thanks.”

She grinned back. “Didn’t want him shooting me. Or you either.”

 “Goddamnit!” Hawke managed to glare at everyone in the room even as he rubbed his eyes furiously. “Xan belongs to me!”

“You found him in the field.” Silvano looked at the box linked to Natalie’s computer. “He doesn’t belong to you. He doesn’t belong to . . . anybody.” He sighed. “Damn it. Jurgen’s right. Natalie . . . have Xan contact the ship. Let it go.”

“No!” Hawke stumbled to his feet. “I’ll go bankrupt! I built that company from the ground up . . .” He gasped. “All right, I found Xan and figured it what it was, but then I figured out how to use it. I hired the best people, I designed the platform, I worked day and night—”

“Arnie?” I was getting sick of Hawke. And now that he didn’t have his gun, I was ready to tell him so. “Xan has killed seven people. Including your employee, Brent O’Connor.”

“S-seven?” He staggered back a step. “I never told it to . . . I just programmed him to—”

“Protect the company.” I folded my arms. “His words.”

“Maybe you should have been more specific.” Rachel smirked.

“Okay.” Natalie tapped a key. “I’ve got a rendezvous location. It’s by the lake. Forty-five minutes.”

“E.T. phone home.” Rachel giggled.

Silvano closed his eyes. “All right. Copy whatever you can.”

“What about me?” Hawke blinked his eyes, tears still steaming down his cheeks. “What about my company? My employees?”

“Think of Xan as an employee,” I told him. “He’s quitting too.”

“Me too!” Natalie raised a hand. “Sorry for the short notice.”

“I’m not done.” Hawke lurched unsteadily for the door. “There’ll be another company. You can’t stop that.”

“I just want to stop more people from being killed.”

“I didn’t . . .” Hawke shook his head. “Screw all of you. Natalie, you’re fired.” He slammed the door behind him.

“But . . . I quit.” Natalie looked at Silvano. “It’s okay, I’ll work with you. Right?”

He nodded, close to exhaustion. “Sure. Whatever. Are you getting anything?”

“Get a record of our conversation.” I walked to the table. “We’ll need something to show the cops. Just in case.” Maybe Sharpe would believe it all, and talk to Hendricks. And maybe the CPD would write everyone off as too crazy to prosecute. It had happened before.

“It’s not all going to download on my hard drive. Especially the alien software.” She leaned forward. “Thirty-one percent . . . estimating twelve minutes.”

I leaned down and carefully lifted Hawke’s gun, dropping it on my couch. I’d figure out what to do with it later.

Rachel looked at the Mickey Mouse clock on my wall. “How long until we meet the mother ship? Do I have time to go to the bathroom?”

I gulped my water, my mouth dry. “Better make it quick.”

We sat on the rocky promontory at Fullerton and Lake Shore Drive, looking out over Lake Michigan.

            A cloudless night, but the city’s lights outshone the stars. The sky was dark and the air was chilly. Rachel shivered next to me.

Silvano and Natalie stood at the edge, a few feet away from the fall into the cold dark water. Natalie leaned close to Silvano. His back was stiff.

“Think we should remind him to call his wife?” Rachel wiped a tissue at her nose.

“I’m a detective, not a marriage counselor.” I put my arm around her. “You okay?”

She jabbed an elbow into my ribs. “Don’t get any ideas, jerk. This isn’t a date.”

“What? I’m just trying to impress you. How often do you get to see—”

A blinding light flared in the sky above us. Rachel stood up, tugging at my arm. “Is that . . .”

Silvano had placed Xan on the ground, next to his foot. He and Natalie back away. She held his hand.

The light flickered, then descended. Closer, it looked like a military drone, but without any spinning propellers. It hovered over Xan.

A sharp red light flared beneath the drone’s hull, straight at Xan. After a moment, Xan rose into the air.

“Oh my god.” Silvano lifted a camera that he’d slung over his shoulder. “This is amazing!”

The drone was only about ten feet over the stony ground. The red light pulled Xan up, and in a moment the box disappeared.

The red light vanished. We couldn’t see anything in the dark night sky.

A jogger paused behind me, gasping for breath. “Hey . . .” He leaned down, hands on his knees. “Was that a UFO?”

Silvano lowered his camera. “Yeah. It’s gone now.”

Natalie rubbed his arm. “I got a lot of it on my laptop. We can look at it tomorrow.”

“Yeah.” He turned to me. “Thanks, Jurgen.”

“No problem.” We shook hands. “Get some rest.”

“Uh-huh.” He looked toward the overpass over the highway. “Come on, Natalie. I’ll get you a cab.”

We watched them go. “See? I showed you a flying saucer? Did any of your other boyfriends—”

She punched me. “Okay, it was pretty impressive. Like the fireworks show this one guy in high school took me to on the fourth of July. I was 16.”

I didn’t want more details. “Okay. Let’s find a cab too.”

I looked up into the sky. Wondering where Xan was going next. And what he’d learned about humans.

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