Manipulate (Book 1, Alien Cadets)

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Sam stepped into the hot sun outside Mann’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood Ave. He felt more nervous than usual. As the first press event he’d planned from start to finish, he really wanted it to work. This casual event could go a long way towards humanizing the cadets.

The concrete and asphalt of downtown Hollywood radiated heat, much like the desert on Spo. There were quite a few tourists, maybe sixty people, though he’d heard that was nothing compared to the tourists that would have been here on a Saturday before the spook invasion. Beyond the tourists were the homeless. Lining the sidewalks were cardboard boxes and filthy tarps suspended for shade. The homeless huddled under these makeshift shelters, though a few lay full length in the sun. There was a faint smell in the air, dirty humans and urine. It smelled foul to Sam, accustomed to the bleach-like smell of the Spo.

This was one of the worst places Sam had seen in LA, though he knew many places in the city were far more crowded and filthy. After the Hadron explosion, many people along the coasts were displaced by rising water. The Midwest turned into a dustbowl to rival the 1930’s, and people fled to the cities. Then the Spo had come, with their energy sources and eco-scrubbers, and although they’d mostly stabilized the weather systems, they’d put a lot of people out of work.

The rest of the cadets disembarked from the chartered buses, and people started gathering around. There were a lot of Asian school kids, and a few white families. Quite a few teenage girls seemed to be trying out the latest fashions. Sam saw lots of deep V-neck shirts and big jewelry. No yin yangs though. Some of the homeless gathered in behind the tourists, who flinched and moved away.

All the people were gawking at the cadets now, whispering to each other.  Their new security team began circulating through the crowd. They were tough, most of them former Special Services. Since the Spo executed the president and most of the upper echelon of government when they invaded, a lot of special forces guys needed jobs. They weren’t thrilled to be working for the Spo, but nobody could afford to turn down work. And the last few days more than proved the cadets needed protection.

Greg got off the bus last, climbing awkwardly down the high bus steps, and swinging himself out onto the curb. Ripples of awe ran through the crowd, and they edged backward, the people closest trying to put space between themselves and the spook. Thousands of spooks lived on Earth, but lots of people still hadn’t seen one up close.

Greg stretched his limbs in the sun, as if showing off for the humans. He probably just enjoyed the warmth. The average temperature on Spo was 105 degrees.

Sam waited for the security guys to rope off the staging area. A huge gate opened from the sidewalk into the courtyard of the theater. The gate was grey and orange stone, in the ancient Chinese fashion, apparently. The courtyard inside was covered with concrete tiles commemorating actors and directors of the last hundred years. He could see people squatting down to place their hands in the hand prints of their favorite actors. The sidewalk where he stood was called the Walk of Fame. Each block had a star with the name of a performer, but he didn’t know most of the names. Celine Dion, Alex Trebek?

Sam had been here once before. When he was seven years old his family came to Los Angeles on vacation. They’d done Disney World and then Hollywood.  Sam could picture his sister Claudia running into the courtyard. She climbed on the back of one of the stone lions by the door for Mom to take her picture. Sam’s dad took pictures of John Travolta and Buster Keaton’s squares, between business calls.

Sam stumbled, disoriented for a moment, his vision doubled between the past and the present. He took a half step, to lean against a parking meter.  He hadn’t pictured his family so clearly in years. His vision cleared slowly, but he still felt light headed. His feelings for his family were complicated, and none of them matched the feelings for humanity that he’d learned from Greg. Not that Greg hated humans. He didn’t. Sam shook his head to clear it. He had a press conference to deal with.