Amalfi Echo Read online

  “Now the interesting thing,” Digby said, “is that that little beauty is not human. It’s called an Amalfi Echo, a gift from a species called the Amalfi.”

  “Oh, shit,” Tessa said. “Have I got one of those too?” Although she had a nasty feeling she already knew the answer.

  “Actually,” Digby said casually, “I’m a bona fide member of the human species, although from another branch with a much longer evolutionary line, but still human. The irony of this, is that it’s not me who is the alien here.”

  “Oh, crap,” Tessa said. Marion was unable to speak, staring open-mouthed.

  “Of course,” Digby hastened to assure them, “you’re still mostly human, only a little bit alien.”

  “Why have we got that inside us?” Marion said, finally finding her voice.

  “It’s not inside you. Don’t think, bursting out of your chest or anything like that. It’s a tiny addition to your life force. Or to your soul, even, and is something to be immensely treasured. The Amalfi must’ve been here, on this planet, and an ancestor of each of you helped the Amalfi in some small way, probably not even knowing that they had done so. It is Amalfi custom that, when this happens, they give a little gift of themselves in return and this is passed down through the generations. The Amalfi skills at leadership and things military are legendary and it is these traits which are contained in their gift.” Digby turned to Tessa. “Your mother would have made an exceptional President.”

  “Yeah, that’s what everyone said. We were totally high fliers. Until the accident. And the cover up. Then Washington dumped me. And I don’t want to talk about it.” Tessa spun around and headed for an empty corner, dropping to the floor to sit with her back to the rest of the passengers. Marion raced after her and the two sat huddled, shutting out the others.

  Digby went back to the screens. Everyone else settled down again, wondering what would happen next.

  In the corner, Tessa said to Marion, “Do you believe all that stuff about the alien heart thing?”

  “I don’t know. Could be all smoke and mirrors for who knows what reason. Until we get some better evidence, I’m going to put it all on hold.”

  “Yeah. It’s a mind screw,” Tessa agreed.

  Marion sought out Digby at the screens. “I get the feeling you’re waiting on Tessa and me,” Marion said.

  “I’m in no hurry,” Digby said. “If you need the space…”

  “We’re done,” Marion said. “Is it time to go yet?”

  “As you so intuitively discern, we are good to go.”

  “So what happens next?”

  “I bring a shuttle down from the ship. Those,” Digby gestured at the Trifids on the screen, “lay down suppressing fire and we go on our merry way.”

  “Ship?”

  “Given the train of events, you’d have to think that there is a spaceship lurking about somewhere. Don’t you watch the movies?”

  “I’d like to go to D.C.”

  “Because?”

  “It was our destination before we were hijacked. Probably that’s where the passengers will want to go, although I’ll check with them.”

  “And you?”

  “Now we’re getting to it,” Marion said. “Are you planning to hang onto Tessa and me?”

  “I said you were free to go about your business and that’s still the deal. Before you go, I would appreciate some time alone with the two of you after the other passengers disembark. I have some information I believe you will find interesting, indeed, vital for your future survival.”

  “So you want time to make a pitch,” Marion said. “You want us to go with you. Is that what this is all about, Digby?” Leaving that, she said quietly, “I worry about Tessa. I don’t want her going back into that situation but legally there’s nothing I can do about it. She’s tough and I don’t know if she really would…hurt herself, but I’d never forgive myself if I found out that she had.”

  “When we talk later, I have some options for you and I wouldn’t worry about Tessa. Go and get the passengers ready.” Before she left, Digby halted her with a hand on her arm. “The passenger who has been giving you a hard time, his name is Harvey. I’d leave him behind. The world would be a better place.”

  “We don’t do that. Remember how you claim to be human?”

  “I’d leave him behind.”

  “Would you really?”

  “In a heartbeat.”

  “Well, it’s good that I’m looking after them and not you,” Marion said. “He gets a spot in the shuttle as well. That decision is final.” Marion stalked away to the passengers.

  Predictably, Harvey kicked up a fuss, wanting to be taken directly to his ultimate destination, Miami. Fortunately, there were other passengers who also did not like Harvey and shut him up. There was hardly any reaction to the rather strange way that they were going to escape. If escaping death at the hands of terrorists meant hitching a lift with a bunch of aliens, it was clearly the lesser of two evils. It was not lost on Marion that the passengers had now lumped Tessa and her in with the enigmatic and quite scary Digby which seemed unfair to Marion because none of them had any evidence whatsoever of the truth of the Amalfi Echo.

  It was not lost on Joanne Fleischer either. “Tessa is leaving with me. You’d better get that straight. You don’t screw a Federal Officer and get away with it.”

  Maybe Joanne didn’t watch the movies either, Marion thought. Or she would have figured out that there was an alien spaceship lurking about and no one would thank her for putting the United States into direct conflict with it.

  The shuttle, when it arrived, proved to be a featureless black sphere maybe 50 metres across. It floated, hovering, over the ruined courtyard fronting the portico openings of the hall. It was big and impressive and perhaps even Joanne was now wondering what else might be waiting in the wings, judging by the tremendous uncertainty now on her face. If any of the passengers were apprehensive about departing under fire these proved to be groundless as the sphere poked a curved section of itself through the ceiling and columns and balustrades of the courtyard wall of the hall without, apparently, damaging the fortress structure. An opening manifested itself in the curved face. A soft light flooded out of the sphere. A ramp extruded to touch the floor.

  “Time to embark, everyone,” Marion said, unnecessarily. Bravely she walked up the ramp into the shuttle. Reluctantly everyone followed her. Digby was the last in, folding the screens away into nothing. The ramp winked out of existence and the opening closed.

  Inside the shuttle was nothing very much except a flat floor extending in all directions to the curved wall of the shuttle.

  Tessa collared Digby. “Can I please, please sit up front in the cockpit?”

  “There isn’t one,” Digby said. “The shuttle is controlled by the ship.”

  “Oh,” Tessa said, deflated. “That sucks.”

  Many of the passengers were looking around for seats or seatbelts or even something to hold on to.

  “Digby?” Marion said. “I don’t want anyone to be hurt…”

  “We have already arrived in Washington, D.C.,” Digby said.

  An opening appeared again, together with a ramp down to the tarmac at Washington Dulles International Airport. Cold air flooded into the shuttle, bringing a damp chill. It was night-time, the airport terminals garishly lit. Nearby, airport ground staff, hardened to strangeness, had already the presence of mind to whip out their phones and get pictures. Several security vehicles arrived, although, once they had exited their vehicles, the security personnel simply milled about arguing, lacking, no doubt, the requisite protocols for such a situation. Hesitantly, the passengers disembarked and stood, looking around, bewildered by the abrupt transition to an airport at night. Harvey complained about losing his luggage. Last to leave was Joanne Fleischer. She stood in the opening, a picture of resignation, looking back into the interior of the shuttle at Tessa.

  Tessa gave a little wave. “Bye now. Have a good life.”
/>   Joanne made a final appeal to Marion. “This is kidnapping of a child. You do time for that.”

  Marion had no idea what to say, the crazy tumble of events finally catching up with her and possibly the lozenge had now worn off. Shrugging, Joanne Fleischer walked down the ramp. By now, the rest of the passengers had moved off towards a doorway at ground level between two of the embarkation tunnels poking out from the terminal. Airport officials and police hurried out through the door towards them. Several jet fighters roared through overhead. In the distance the heavy beat of military helicopters began to grow.

  Back in the shuttle Marion said, “Maybe we should have this chat somewhere else.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Digby said. The ramp and doorway flickered like a shutter closing and opening again. Harsh sunlight flooded in. The air was dry and crackling. An endless sea of spindly gum trees spread out towards a low range of red hills. The light was painfully intense. Digby did his usual trick of producing things from nowhere and offered a set of sunglasses and a hat for each of them.

  Unfazed, Tessa put them on and demanded a mirror. “I have to look right for my fans.”

  Marion looked out at the trees. “Don’t bother. It doesn’t look like there’s anyone for miles.”

  “Which will suit our purposes nicely, I think,” Digby said. “We are in outback Australia, a few kilometres north of Cloncurry in Queensland. It’s the middle of the afternoon and on the warmish side.”

  “Yeah,” Marion said slowly. “You’ve got that right.” She sagged down at the top of the ramp gazing at nothing.

  Tessa dragged her up. “C’mon, let’s explore.”

  Digby followed them out and waited until Tessa very quickly got bored with the dust and the heat and the sheer lack of anything to do. He led them through the trees to a muddy pond, fringed with weed and somewhat shaded by a thicket of trees and scrub.

  “Dam for the cattle,” Digby explained. They made themselves comfortable in the shade. At least until the flies and mosquitoes arrived. Luckily Digby had a remedy for this and they relaxed again.

  “Are you going to give with this vital information I’m probably going to spend the rest of my life in prison for?” Marion said.

  “Yes,” Digby replied. “But I’d like to show you something first.”

  A burst of light, like a shooting star, came down from the sky and skidded to a halt beside them, to rest itself gently on the ground in front. The light transformed to a silver grey metallic case which split into two lengthwise, the top half raising as a lid. As soon as Marion and Tessa saw what was inside they both tried to speak, Marion with concern and Tessa with excitement but Digby silenced both of them. “First, let me tell you what I see.” He described four stone-like objects with smoothly rounded edges and whose colours oscillated through the spectrum. Two of them were half the size of the other two.

  “No way,” said Tessa.

  “Is this a twisted attempt at humour, Digby?”

  “If you like, we could take these objects into Cloncurry and get people there to describe what they see. It will be no different to what I’ve just described to you. We will do this, if necessary.”

  “What will that prove?” Marion said. “You can make anything vanish or appear whenever you want.”

  “To hell with that,” Tessa said. “Gimme. I want to play.”

  “Yes, there is a certain amount of truth in that,” Digby conceded, in answer to Marion. “And you would have no way of telling. I’m going to suggest to you that at some point you will have to take things on faith otherwise you’ll never get a handle on this whole business.”

  “Okay. Might as well keep on going,” Marion said. “I sure wonder where this is all going to end though.”

  “Tessa, what are these objects?” Digby said.

  “Can I pick one up?” Tessa said. At Digby’s negative reply she groaned but said, “Okay, okay. The smaller ones are like pistols only the handles are really strange. I don’t know how you would hold it and there doesn’t seem to be any trigger. The bigger ones are like a military assault rifle but same again about the stock and the trigger.”

  “Do you really not see that?” Marion said to Digby. Then the light began to dawn. “Is this something to do with the Amalfi Echo?”

  “Very good,” Digby said approvingly. “All I see are four pretty coloured stones or jewels but then I am entirely human. There is no one on this planet, other than you two, who can see what they really are. Before we go any further, is there a little brown oval button about where you’d expect to find the trigger on each weapon?”

  “Yes,” Marion and Tessa said together.

  “That’s good,” Digby said, relieved. “From what I understand of Amalfi weapons that means that none of them are armed otherwise the buttons would be coloured purple or a colour like purple.”

  “Oh I’m so glad the weapons are not armed,” Marion said. “That makes everything just peachy keen.” She moved away to the edge of the pond and trailed her hand in the water. “I want absolutely nothing to do with them. And Tessa is not having anything to do with them either.”

  “Tell her,” Digby said to Tessa who responded by spreading her hands in a question mark. “Tell her about the gun clubs and the career you were headed for.”

  Tessa’s face closed up. “Do I have to talk about it?”

  “You have to deal with it some time,” Digby said.

  “You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to, Tessa,” Marion said. To Digby she said, “Don’t try to be a counsellor. It’s not a good fit.”

  “I want to,” Tessa said but then hesitated. “No, I don’t really want to but I’m going to. I need you to understand why I want the weapons.” She fiddled with the hem on her T-shirt before continuing. “My Mom was a shooter. I had been going with Mom to gun clubs ever since I could walk, first in Oregon where we are from and then, when we moved to D.C., we were members of a private gun club. I fired my first gun, a 22, when I was eight years old. I can handle many different rifles and pistols, including military-style weapons. I am a very good shot but not as good as my Mom. She was a marksman and she won many medals and trophies although I have won a few myself.” Her voice became tinged with bitterness. “I was headed for the Academy. Fly jet fighters. Yeah, that ain’t ever going to happen now.” Tessa looked at Marion and there were tears now in her eyes. She indicated the Amalfi weapons. “I need this.”

  “You’re 16 years old, Tessa,” Marion said. “This is all wrong.”

  “My Mom would have understood.”

  “I’m not your Mom.”

  “Yeah, tell me about it,” Tessa said.

  Marion looked away as though she had been slapped. Tessa went over to Marion and hugged her. “I’m sorry.”

  “I never will be your Mom,” Marion said.

  “No,” Tessa said. “But I still need you. I don’t feel so alone now.” She went back to the Amalfi case and looked interrogatively at Digby.

  “Maybe the pistol first,” Digby said. “That seems a good place to start.”

  “So do I have to, like, pass a course on the pistol first or what?”

  “I don’t know,” Digby said. “These are Amalfi weapons. I can’t even see them. What happens from here is strictly between you and the weapons.”

  Tessa smiled for the first time, in a very long while. “So they come with instructions too.”

  “Oh, that’s great,” Marion interjected. “You don’t even know anything about the weapons and you’re giving them to a child.”

  “What I know,” Digby said, “is that things Amalfi belong together. That’s all I need to know. They’ll work it out between them.”

  Tessa picked up one of the pistols. Instantly her fingers and her hand bent into impossible, horrible looking angles, twisting back on themselves in excruciating ways. Tessa was unruffled. “Did you know that would happen?”

  “I did guess,” Digby said. “I scanned your hands. Did you amaze and amuse everyon
e when you were younger?”

  “Jesus,” Marion said. She looked at her own hands.

  “Yours are the same,” Digby said, “but then I think you already knew that you had rather strange hands.”

  “I stopped giving demos. It freaked people out,” Marion said.

  “Same,” Tessa said. She raised her pistol hand, pointing directly upwards into the sky. “The weapon is speaking to me.” Her hand began to inscribe arcs across the sky. “It’s finding out about me. How my body moves.” A few exercises later she said, “This little pistol could probably take out a tank or a small building. I’d love to know what the rifle can do.”

  Digby shrugged. “Not up to me.”

  Tessa reached out her other hand and touched the rifle, snatching her hand away as though stung. “It won’t let me near it until I’m qualified on the pistol.” She went back to doing exercises with the pistol. “This little pistol will do me fine just now.” Eventually she said, “Enough already. I’m starving.” She slapped the pistol to her hip where it stuck all by itself, although to Digby, and certainly every other person on the planet except Marion, the bit that they could see looked like nothing more than a small ornament.

  “Have you checked the safety…lever or whatever it’s called?” Marion said.

  Tessa rubbed the pistol lovingly, a snaky look in her eyes. “Relax, kiddo. It won’t arm itself until it’s satisfied I can do all the drills and I’m proficient at targeting. And by the way, Digby, the little brown button is not a button and the colour it changes to is nothing like purple although I have to say that I couldn’t tell you what colour it really is.”

  Now Marion realised that she too was ravenous. “Maybe you can magic up some food for us,” she said to Digby. “Do we get a menu or how does it work?”

  “What am I, the hired help?” Digby said. “Go find a burger bar.”

  Tessa went up to Digby and fluttered her eyes at him. “Please Digby. I’m ever so hungry.”

  “Tessa!” Marion said.