Four flutters—H.
Pause.
One flutter—E.
Pause.
Flutter, flick, flutter, flutter—L.
“P-H-E-L?” Beck said, grabbing the lock.
“H-E-L-P,” Adi said.
“Help, right.” Beck input the letters. When he pulled the lock, it opened.
Carter followed the others through the door and—
They were plunged into darkness.
“Dammit,” said Sierra.
Their blackout minute had begun.
“Bet this is exciting for the viewers at home,” Beck joked.
“They’ll use night vision cameras,” said Carter, cautiously moving forward until she bumped into something. “Oof !”
“Are you okay?” Beck asked.
“Yeah . . . I think I ran into a table.”
Her teammates shuffled around in the dark, occasionally with grunts andows. She edged her way along the large round table, feeling for anything that might be a clue, but it was useless. Nothing but a wide, smooth surface, and a clock ticking, ticking, ticking . . .
Finally, light erupted across the room. Carter blinked in the brightness. Her gaze instinctively went to the digital clock high on the wall, frozen at the time they’d come into the room. Thirteen minutes, eleven seconds. Way too long.
“Epic,” Beck murmured as they took it in.
Three walls of the room displayed a giant world map, covered with tiny blinking lights of various colors. Though the outlines of each continent and island were obvious, everything was labeled in the alien language.
In the middle of the room was the huge circular table Carter had run into. Stuck across the entire surface was another world map. More than a dozen countries had been marked with yellowXs.
The wall not covered with a map was lined with shelves, each one scattered with military gear and MREs, plus a bunch of random objects. A pitcher of water, a rainbow bath bomb, a makeup palette, some sort of springy contraption, a houseplant, a steel pointer, an old radio, a glass bottle, bug spray, a bag of sand, and dozens of other knickknacks that didn’t have anything in common.
“Jesus,” said Beck.
Carter spun around. “What now?”
“No—literally, Jesus.” He pointed at a dashboard where a screen showed an enormous statue of Jesus Christ with outstretched arms, overlooking a coastal city. Carter only caught a glimpse of it before the screen switched to the Pyramids of Giza, then the Eiffel Tower. Each landmark was being attacked in some way, by lightning, fire, earthquakes, and other disasters. Very apocalyptic.
“We’re trying to stop an invasion,” Sierra reminded them. “With as few cities destroyed as possible.”
Adi held up the book of alien language. “The script on the map is the same as this.”
Sierra marched over to him. “Let me take a look.”
“Have at it,” he said, handing it over, then joining Beck at the screen.
Carter grabbed the radio on one of the shelves and switched it on. Through the speaker came the sound of crackling voices—some crying for help, some giving coordinates, some issuing military orders.
