Transmission

Sure enough, a helicopter came up over the trees, looking angular and spiked with weapons. Kevin found himself thinking of the phone call Ted had put in earlier. He’d expected this to happen, or at least something like this. He looked up at it, then around at all the men with guns pointed at one another. Another few seconds, and there might be bullets flying everywhere.

So Kevin did the only thing he could do, and stepped between Ted and the general.

“Get out of the way, Kevin,” Ted said.

“You should move,” General Marquez agreed.

Kevin shook his head. “No.”

“Kevin!” his mother yelled from further back, but a couple of the researchers caught her arms as she started forward. “Get away from there!”

Kevin didn’t move. He looked from Ted to the Colombian general, staying between the two of them while above, the helicopter hovered in a constant threat.

“You’re both being idiots,” Kevin said. It wasn’t how you were supposed to speak to adults, certainly not ones who were that heavily armed, but as far as Kevin could see, it was only the truth.

“You don’t understand what’s going on here, Kevin,” Ted said.

“He is right,” General Marquez agreed. “You do not understand the implications of this.”

Why did adults always think that they were the only ones who understood things? Why did they think that kids like Kevin were stupid?

“You don’t want a bunch of people from outside Colombia coming in to take what’s yours, or to tell you what to do,” Kevin said, “because you think it’s like them saying that they’re better than you. And Ted doesn’t want to give up the capsule partly because he thinks that we’ve done most of the work of finding it, partly because he thinks it will make us look weak if we let it go, and partly because he has orders and he’s the kind of person who will follow them no matter what. It’s all stupid.”

Ted cocked his head to one side. “Kevin’s not entirely wrong. I do have orders.”

“And I don’t want to see Colombia insulted by having this artifact taken by the Americans,” General Marquez said. “You have already interfered in our country too much.”

“So you’re both just being stubborn,” Kevin said. It felt wrong, talking to the two adults like this, but it was just the truth, and anyway, if he didn’t, they were probably all going to be shot. It seemed like a good reason to keep going, so he gestured to the scientists. “Look at all the different countries here working together. If they can do it, why don’t you?”

“What do you suggest?” General Marquez asked.

Kevin had an answer for that, at least. “We were going to take the capsule to some UN place…”

“The WHO center there,” Ted supplied.

“So why not do that?” Kevin asked. “It would look as though it was all happening because you allowed it, and you could be there when we opened it up. Everyone would see it.”

“Including the cameras,” Ted said. He lowered his weapon. “I hear you’re thinking of making a move into politics, General.”

The general was quiet for several seconds while he considered it, and Kevin thought he understood some of it now.

“It wouldn’t make you look weak,” he said. “It would make it look as though you were responsible for giving this to the world. This was sent to Earth, not to one specific country. It’s for everyone. It’s not something that anyone can own.”

General Marquez thought a little more, and then nodded. “Very well.” He called out to his men in Spanish, and they lowered their weapons. “We will accompany you to the UN compound, and we will watch this artifact opened up there. You have been very brave, young man.”

Kevin felt a flush of pride at that, although one glance back at his mother’s face told him just how much trouble he was in for putting himself in harm’s way. Ted put an arm around his shoulders, leading him back toward the Jeep.

“Well done,” he said, “but don’t ever do anything that stupid again. We could have all been killed.”

They could have, but they weren’t. Better than that, as the trucks started to roll on again in their convoy, they were going toward a place where they might finally find out what it was that the aliens had sent to Earth from their world.

“We’re going to get to open the capsule,” Kevin said. He couldn’t keep the excitement out of his voice.

“We are,” Ted agreed, and for once he sounded almost as excited as Kevin. “We’re going to see what the aliens sent us.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Kevin kept his eyes on the truck that held the capsule all the way back to Bogota. He felt almost like, if he took his eyes off it for a moment, one of the different groups that had spent so much time arguing over it would try to take it.

“It’s not going to disappear,” Ted said. “You did a good job convincing everyone to work together on this, Kevin.”