Task Force Mars - Kevin Dockery [102]
“Get in and get ready to move,” Jackson said as the ramp was closed behind his men. “We’re going to pass that other truck when it comes out, and you had better act as normally as you can.”
The eyes of the driver automatically went to where the other Eluoi had been dumped in the brush. He wanted nothing more in the world than to please this deadly apparition that was standing in front of him. They both climbed into the front of the truck through the passenger side door, Jackson never letting the prisoner out from under the threat of his weapon. As soon as they saw the lights of the other truck move along the road, they knew it was back out of the gate.
“Move,” Jackson said as he held his weapon down below the view of anyone outside the vehicle.
As the driver started the truck forward, the lights of the oncoming vehicle grew brighter. Jackson looked around in the compartment for something with which to shield his face and picked up what looked to be a very thick tablet, an electronic clipboard. As the other vehicle approached, he lifted the tablet and tilted his head down as if he were studying something on its blank screen. His left hand never released its grip on the suppressed G15, something the driver noticed very clearly.
“They’re waving at me,” the driver said nervously.
“Then wave back if that’s what you would normally do,” Jackson growled.
The other truck passed them without any hesitation. Turning in his seat, Jackson watched it continue down the road away from the facility until it disappeared around the curve in the road. Then they were pulling up to the gate and stopping.
“Oh—by the will of the savant,” the driver prayed, “the guns are tracking us. Plug in the pass. You have to plug in the pass or they will annihilate us!”
“Pass?” Jackson said.
“The plug on the pole outside,” the driver said desperately. “We only have a few moments. Plug the wire on the pole into the pass you’re holding.”
Moving a control on the door lowered the window, and Jackson was able to reach the control box the driver seemed so terrified of. The robot guns on top of the two posts had turned and lowered to cover the truck. Whatever they fired, Jackson didn’t want to find out. He pulled in the coiled wire and stuck the unfamiliar plug into a socket in the tablet he had been holding to cover his face. The tablet chirped, and the guns turned away. That was all there was to it.
The driver moved the truck forward according to Jackson’s directions and turned to follow his normal routine. They pulled up closely to the squat power structure without incident, and Jackson ordered the driver to lower the ramp. Then he turned to the alien.
The driver looked into Jackson’s eyes, and all he saw there was death. Before the SEALS officer could say or do anything, the alien’s eyes rolled up into his head until only the whites showed, and then he slumped down into the seat.
Prepared to kill the man, Jackson looked down at the inert form as he lifted his weapon. Touching his neck, he felt a pulse, but it was pretty clear the fellow hadn’t been faking his swoon. Shrugging, and with his conscience a little relieved, the officer looked behind, through the viewing window, into the cargo space.
In the back of the vehicle, Falco and Chief Harris were moving forward. Between them, they had one of the big boxes, the top of which they had covered with a cloth they had found in the cargo compartment. The lumps under the cloth were the two SEALS’ weapons set so that they could grab them as they dropped the empty box. They had removed the contents and set the big rounds of clipped ammunition to the side in the back of the truck. Inside the case was the demolition pack holding the Mark 92 and a coil of line.
As they came up to the front of the truck, the door opened and both men expected to see a dead body and their lieutenant. What