“No,” Cy whispered, staring at the dark columns.
“What is that?” Benji asked, subdued panic in his voice.
Apolonia wore a proud smile. “That is Hamech.”
Another explosion, and more smoke pillars and rumblings echoing across the sky made Tsavi touch Apolonia’s arm. “We must go,” Tsavi said. “He has found Nayara.”
The warehouse transformed from being a glowing beacon of light to a red-and-blue strobe-covered hub of activity. An alarm sounded, and soldiers rushed out to fill every Jeep. They left the property spinning their wheels.
We crouched in the grass, trying not to be seen by the passing vehicles.
Tsavi smiled at Cy, excited. “We could not have planned this any better.”
Cy’s expression couldn’t look more different. “Hamech is going to wipe out the city, Tsavi. Thousands of innocent humans will die if we don’t find a way to contact him.”
Tsavi nodded, and she, Apolonia, and Cy took off at full speed toward the warehouse. The armed guards who were walking the grounds had disappeared. They’d all probably left in the Jeeps.
It wasn’t long before the aliens were out of sight, leaving us weak, helpless humans to wait in the grass.
Squatting in the field, I spent equal amounts of time watching in horror as the sky lit up and the ground shook and watching the warehouse, waiting for Cy or one of the women to signal us. A full minute went by and nothing.
Benji reached for my hand. I looked down at his open palm. I didn’t want to be babied.
He sighed. “I just know you’re scared, that’s all.”
“I’m not scared.”
“You’re not scared for Cy?” Benji gripped his rifle, keeping his mouth tight in an attempt to conceal how it made him feel to ask that question.
I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. “I think there are more important things…”
“No. Not really. Not to me. There’s an alien parasite in front of us and an alien invasion behind us. Things are blowing up. People are dying. I’d kind of like to know.”
“What? Is it you or him? You want me to choose out here in the field?”
“No.”
“Then, what do you want me to say?”
“That you don’t want him to stay.”
“You just don’t get it,” I said, shaking my head. He didn’t know what it was like to lose someone. He had no idea how it felt to say good-bye.
“I would if you told me.”
“No.”
“Does he know? What happened to you?”
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. No matter how I explained it, Cy knowing something about me that I had refused to tell Benji more than once would be hurtful.
Benji’s eyes fell away from mine, his jaw working under the skin.
“I didn’t tell him. He just knew.”
“I guess I could have known, too, if I didn’t respect your privacy.”
“He’s leaving. You’re not. I’ve already told you if it were the other way around—”
“I see the way he looks at you. I hear the way he talks to you, the things he says. He loves the woman I love. It bothers me,” he said through his teeth.
“He doesn’t love me! I’m different from what he’s used to. I intrigue him. You see how Apolonia behaves. He got confused. But he loves her!”
“And you,” he said, not missing a beat.
“Ugh!” I growled, crossing my arms. “Even if he did, which he doesn’t, it wouldn’t matter.”
“What about that wouldn’t matter? Because he could decide at any moment to put you on a ship and take you away from here? Away from me? Probably just out of spite because he hates me. He always has. Do you have any idea how that feels? For someone else to have that kind of power…to destroy you?”
“If I left, it would destroy you?” I asked, staring at him.
His eyebrows were pulled in, and his entire face was taut with anguish and worry. He did understand, after all, how completely a good-bye could change someone. How it could change everything.
“I kind of love you,” I said.
His entire face morphed from desperation to a surprised smile. “You do?”
More explosions rattled the ground. They were getting closer.
Dr. Z touched his face with shaking hands. “They’ll be at the college soon. We have no way to warn them. I…I should take Silver back.”
I turned to him. “They can hear what’s happening. Most everyone is gone for the holiday. The rest will be evacuated before you get there. And you’ll never forgive yourself if you don’t see with your own eyes that Brahmberger isn’t in that building.”
“I’ll never forgive myself if students die because they didn’t get out in time.” The professor walked backward a few steps.
“Wait,” I said, standing up. He turned his back on me and trekked back toward his moped. “You’re going to get yourself killed. Dr. Z, I’m talking to you!” I yelled. No one from the warehouse could hear me over the alarm anyway.
“Take care of her, Benji.” He hobbled in a half-jog and half-walk, and just as he disappeared beyond the tall grass, a huge explosion, double the size of the previous ones, lit up the sky so brightly that I had to take a step back and shield my eyes with my forearm.
“Dr. Z!” I screamed. “Get your ass back here!”
A gust of wind traveled toward us, bending down the grass and revealing Dr. Z pushing his moped to the road. My hair blew back, and so did Benji’s.
“Whoa,” he said. “Think that was Kempton?”
I shook my head. “I can’t just sit here and wait. We have to do something. Try to stop Apolonia’s father. Try to help Cy. Something.”
“We can’t just wave our arms in front of Hamech’s ship, not without Cy or Apolonia.”
“I’m not sure Cy will be enough.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because it wouldn’t make my dad feel better to see you if he was looking for me.”
Benji seemed to like hearing that. “So, the warehouse?”
I took a few steps closer to the two-story concrete building ahead of us. The ground shook in reaction to the boom miles away. “If they’re being shot at, we wouldn’t hear it over the alarm,” I said.
Benji sighed. “I don’t have much ammo left, but just say the word.”
“Word.”