Transmission

Kevin felt as though standing up in front of people should get easier. He wasn’t doing anything, after all, that he hadn’t already done before. He’d shown them what he could do at the gates to the facility, and in a press conference before. Even so, he was nervous with so many people staring back at him.

“It will be fine,” Luna said. How did she always seem to guess when he was feeling bad? “And you can’t back out now. I want to watch you do your alien stuff.”

“Alien stuff,” Kevin repeated. “We definitely need a better name for it than that.”

Even so, he stepped out to face the crowd. There were more people here today, cramming every corner of the conference room where Kevin was due to perform for them. There were reporters, obviously, scientists, government people…

…and Ted, staring at him intently from the crowd.

“That guy’s here,” Kevin said.

“What guy?” Luna asked.

“I met him in the halls while I was looking for my mom, and he just seemed… I don’t know, out of place. He kind of seemed like he might have been one of the soldiers, but he said he wasn’t anymore. I don’t even know if he’s supposed to be here.”

“You think he’s some crazy guy?” Luna asked. “You think he’s here to kill everyone?”

“I didn’t until you said it,” Kevin said. Now that she had, Kevin found his eyes locked onto the spot where Ted stood. He wondered if he should tell someone about him.

“Time to do your stuff, Kevin,” Professor Brewster said, nudging him toward the center of the platform they’d set up. “Hello, everyone, as you can see, Kevin is fine, and some of the rumors out there are greatly exaggerated.”

“What rumors?” Kevin asked him, and then found his eyes pulled back to Ted again. “Professor Brewster, there’s this man out there…”

Professor Brewster ignored him. “Kevin is quite tired today, though, so we’ll keep this short. Kevin?”

Kevin stepped forward and put his headphones in place, figuring that it was probably best to just get on with this. The trouble was that there was still silence, nothing new to translate, no signal coming in. He stood there in silence for several seconds, feeling increasingly embarrassed. Worse, he couldn’t take his eyes off Ted, convinced that the moment he did, the man would do something.

That was when a completely different man, toward the front of the hall, started shouting. “You’re evil!” he yelled. “You’ll bring the aliens down on all of us!”

He ran forward, and even though he had a press pass, and was dressed smartly in a suit, there was something wild in his eyes. He charged at the stage, and Kevin saw him shove Luna out of the way as he went, sending her sprawling to the ground.

“Luna!” Kevin shouted, but there was no time to help her, because the man was still coming, and now Kevin could see that he had a knife. He grabbed Kevin, and the next moment, the man was behind him, the blade pressed to Kevin’s throat.

“You’re trying to bring them here. You’re trying to let them destroy us all. I have to stop you, whatever it takes.”

Kevin had never been so frightened before, but the strangest part was that most of that fear wasn’t for himself. Luna was lying still where the man had knocked her down, and now Kevin was wondering if he might have stabbed her, just because she got in the way.

“Easy there, friend.”

While Kevin had been looking at where Luna lay, Ted, of all people, had gotten up onto the stage, and he had a gun held expertly in both hands.

“If you put the weapon down, we can talk about this,” he said.

The man behind Kevin didn’t move the knife from his throat. “It’s talking that’s the problem. He’s talking to them. He’s bringing them here to kill us! No, stay back!”

He punctuated that order by pointing the knife at Ted’s advancing form. With the knife gone from his throat for a moment, Kevin did the only thing he could think off, and let himself fall to the floor.

Two shots rang out, so loud they seemed deafening. Kevin heard something metallic clatter to the stage, and something soft followed it a moment later. An instant after that, and Ted was there, pulling him to his feet.

“Don’t look around. There are things a kid shouldn’t have to see. Run to the others.”

Kevin wanted to do all of that. He wanted to run and see if Luna was all right. He wanted to run to his mother, who was, even now, pushing her way through the chaos. He wanted to do all of that, but he couldn’t, for one simple reason.

“There’s a signal coming!” he said.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Kevin could feel the next message coming, the signal starting in his headphones, the beginnings of a translation working their way up through him. This was happening now, whether he wanted it or not.

“I don’t think we have much time,” he said. “I can feel it coming.”