I felt like I was missing a few days. Portugal was gorgeous in the morning light, and the grass here was coated in a fine dew. Hunter’s house was perched on a hill, with the drive over the last ten minutes a constant but patient climb. Once we drove up to it, I could see the valley beyond, and it took my breath away. Endless rows of vineyard spread out. The ground was terraced across the hillside, giving it an even more distinct appeal. Beyond the hills sat a calm lake, and I swore there were swans swimming in it.
The home itself was magnificent. Classic Portuguese styling gave it a two-story colonial appearance, the top floor with eight windows facing the driveway. I imagined the rear of the house would showcase views for miles.
“This is cool,” Carson said, dashing from the van. Fred followed the kids as he hauled their luggage in two hands.
“Don’t go too far!” Beverly called, but neither of her children listened.
“Sorry about all this, sis,” I told her.
“It’s not really your fault, is it?” She stuck her arm through mine, helping me walk the incline toward the front doors.
A woman opened them, her smile friendly and welcoming. She rolled a suitcase out and handed Tripp a set of keys.
“Thank you,” Tripp said, but she didn’t reply, just walked away, not making eye contact. She’d likely been paid to leave when Tripp sent the message, using Hunter’s firm instructions. The woman walked to a red hatchback and drove off.
We had the estate to ourselves.
Veronica and Marcus parked as close as they could to the front steps, and my sidekick hopped out, his computer bag slung over his shoulder. “This again? I know we’re in some sticky situations, but at least we get to chill in style.”
We filed into the home, and I instantly saw the view through the house. The layout allowed for a straight sight line to the vineyard in the valley, and I plodded across the terrazzo tile directly to the deck. The home was built into the top of the hill, and the patio was braced on the decline, making it seem like you were floating above the vale.
And the words echoed in my mind. Seek a star’s flight on a cloudy night. I knew what it meant. With a renewed sense of urgency, I stared at the land. Hunter had purchased this vineyard, a piece of property that must have cost ten million dollars, not including the upkeep, just to be close to the Bridge’s portal. He’d wanted to see the Bridge so badly, and my father had cut him out. Hardy also wanted to go, but in the end, it had only been Clayton Belvedere and Dirk Walker to make the trek across the stars.
I turned and watched the rest of the team inside. Veronica grinned as she talked to Marcus and Tripp. The tough guy’s chin was once again covered in rough stubble, and he frowned as she spoke. I’d watched him dispatch a few Believers so far, and he’d done it with such casual regard. I still hadn’t truly let myself come to terms with the two men I’d murdered. I’d built a barrier, a brick wall around my emotions, to carry on. The cultists were wrong, at least from my perspective. From their depiction, they were doing what they were taught was necessary to hail the salvation from the Unknowns.
Regardless of who was evil or just, I was alive, and it was thanks to Tripp. The Believers shouldn’t have been aware of this home, and it gave me a sliver of hope and peace. We had the Tokens, the Case, and hopefully soon, the location of the cavern.
Estrelas. The stars. We were so close.
I heard the kids laughing from another room and looked down the hallway. The living room was furnished nicely, with expensive hand-crafted wooden-framed couches and ornate coffee tables. The entire floor was the same tile, and I noticed a huge fireplace with a thick mantel across the space.
“We should get moving, check the location you marked first,” I told Marcus, and my hand tried to rest on the couch top. I was woozy, and it missed, sending me sprawling ahead. Veronica half-caught me as I struck the ground.
“After you rest, Rex,” Tripp said. My stomach throbbed, and my mind spun as they directed me toward a first-floor bedroom. I tried to argue with them, but the words wouldn’t come with clarity. In the end, I stopped fighting and lay on the bed, fully clothed.
Marcus returned a minute later with a vial of pills and a glass of water. “Sorry, Rex, but you have to heal up first. We’ll wait as long as we have to, right, guys?” he asked the others.
I closed my eyes after swallowing the pill, letting the soft pillow cradle my head. They muttered their agreement, and I was out, sleeping like a baby.
____________
The music was familiar, a song from my childhood, and I let the words wash over me. I opened my eyes and almost expected my mother to be at my bedside. The light was on, but dim on the nightstand, and she kept singing. Only this wasn’t me at six with the chicken pox, and that wasn’t my mom; it was my sister.
“Rex, are you feeling better?” she asked. It was obvious she’d been crying, her eyes red and swollen.
I sat up, noticing an improvement. My brain didn’t feel like it was being squished in a vise, and my stomach pain was just a dull ache. “Yes, thanks. How long was I sleeping?”
“It’s evening. Six hours or so,” she said, and I tried getting up.
“Six hours! Couldn’t someone have woken me?” I was furious we’d wasted a whole day already.
“Rex, calm down. It’s not all up to you, okay?”
“Where are they?” I asked, slowly swinging my legs from the bed. Bev watched me with sadness on her face.
“They went out and haven’t returned. Tripp gave Fred a gun,” she said.
Fred with a gun. Something that I had a hard time picturing, but at least he was willing to protect his family. He was twice the father mine had ever been. He worked hard, ran a business, and came home every night, eating dinner with his children. He was a real father.
I didn’t know where the pent-up anger at my dad stemmed from. Usually, it didn’t bother me so much, especially knowing what I did now about the Bridge and the Believers. But where had he ended up? Why hadn’t he let Hunter and Hardy go instead? Both Clayton and Dirk left families behind.
I walked to the bedroom exit and heard a television playing.
“You’re not going to leave us too, are you?” The question was so simple, yet years of torment were layered into it.
“What?” I asked, facing Beverly. She sat on an uncomfortable chair, a bunched-up tissue in her hand.
“You won’t take off like Dad, will you? What are we supposed to do if you vanish like he did? Do we just live out our days in this vineyard?” she asked.
“I… I don’t know.” Was that even an option? “What do you want me to do?”
“Can’t we just give them this box thing?” Bev stood, crossing the room in a few quick steps. “Hand it over and make a deal? We have nothing to do with these people, they have nothing to do with us.” She slapped her palms together, like she was dusting them off.
“It’s not that simple.” Could I do that? I had a feeling the Believers would entertain that deal. I could leave with everyone, return home to Boston, and pretend this hadn’t happened. I wouldn’t have to worry about being killed in a shootout, or dying as I attempted to cross into the Bridge.
Hunter and Hardy would reprimand me for even considering this as an option, but look where their participation in this adventure had gotten them. Hunter in a shallow grave at the South Pole, and Hardy engulfed in flames.
I didn’t want to end up like them, but even if I knew how to contact the Believers, how would I be able to trust they’d stick to their side of the bargain? They’d probably take the Case and Tokens and kill us without a second thought. No loose ends.
“Rex, tell me you’re contemplating what I’m suggesting.”
The door opened from down the hall, and I heard the voices of my friends as they entered the home. “I better check on them.” Bev appeared crestfallen, and I hugged her, careful not to press my stomach anywhere near her. She let out a drastic sob and melted into my shoulder.
“I know you won�
��t stop until you find this Bridge, but just be careful. Dad is gone. Mom is dead. And I can’t stand the thought of losing you too,” she said softly.
I didn’t reply as I walked away, moving for the sound of Marcus’ voice. He paused while taking his jacket off, and he wore a black t-shirt again, with the outline of a wine bottle on it. “Rex. You’re up. Feeling okay?”
“Some minor improvements. Where have you guys been?” I saw the bags of groceries, and some from a clothing store, and relaxed. They’d been shopping.
“What did you get?” Edith asked, running up to Veronica.
Veronica reached for a bag and dumped the contents on the coffee table in the living room. “A few outfits for you.” Edith squealed in delight, but Carson looked less than pleased at being given new jeans and a sweatshirt.
Tripp brought the last of the groceries in, setting the brown paper bags on the kitchen counters, and I was almost pleased to see Hunter had kept the place practically original. The appliances were from the eighties but remained in pristine condition.
“Would you like to help make dinner?” Tripp asked me, and I laughed, trying to picture the tough guy wearing an apron and taste-testing a bisque.
I put some vegetables into the fridge crisper. “You’ve been gone a while.”
“Okay, Rex. We didn’t wait for you, but we’ve managed to count three of the five locations on Marcus’ map out of the running,” Tripp admitted.
Part of me was furious they’d proceeded without me, but I was also relieved. I would have done the same thing in their shoes. “You didn’t bring the Case, did you?” I asked.
“No. Marcus put that under your bed.”
I glanced at my bedroom door. “Good. What’s the plan?”
“The plan? We have dinner, then we check out the last two locations. Marcus had an idea, so we bought something in town, along with flashlights and various supplies,” Tripp said.
Tonight. We were going to try to track our final destination after dinner. My stomach growled at the thought of eating, but it also flopped nervously at the idea of finishing this mission. “What are we making?”
He shrugged and laughed. “The same thing I always eat before rushing into the enemy’s lair. Spaghetti.”
“It’s also probably the only thing you know how to make,” Marcus shouted from the living room. He was playing with the remote control, and I heard a newscaster speaking in English. A British news program was on, and I walked toward the TV as they mentioned the Objects.
“Turn it up.” Veronica stood near the fireplace, which Fred was feeding logs to, and we all gawked at the image on the screen.
The Objects were coming.
“This image is the clearest we have yet, and many are speculating that they are indeed spacecraft. See the way the lines are rounded, not jagged? Some claim they are too smooth to be natural, and from what we can discern, they’re each the same length.” The woman spoke slowly, her accent heavy. “There are three of them, but the center one is wider. This suggests there may be more than three, and as many as five separate Objects. We received the images an hour ago, and watch parties are forming around the world. US representatives are questioning China, wondering if this was a secret project returning from the depths of our solar system. As of now, there has been no reply from China on the queries.”
I stared at the Objects. The picture wasn’t very clear, the edges blurred, but the shapes were distinctive.
“This is definitely aliens,” Marcus said quietly.
“We don’t know that,” Fred responded.
“Sure we do. I mean, what the hell else is riding in like this? It’s all true. We have to stop them.” Marcus sighed.
“And you think playing with a Rubik’s Cube in a cave is going to do that? What do you expect to find in there?” Fred asked. So far, he hadn’t been overly vocal about what we were doing, but he was growing a voice after spending time with us.
“We aren’t positive, but Hunter was confident there was something on the other side to help us, or someone. Traveling through the Bridge is the only solution.” We still had Hardy’s journal, but Hunter hadn’t gotten far enough in his translation.
“And the Believers want these aliens in the Objects to return? Then what?” Fred crossed his arms.
“Your guess is as good as mine. They think the Unknowns are coming home, and that people will be irrelevant to them. The aliens will scourge us from the planet, making room for themselves,” I said, repeating what Hunter had told us. “But for some reason, the cult thinks the beings will connect to them. Attune.”
“You don’t think it’s possible?” Bev joined the conversation. The kids stared at the TV with wide eyes, Carson looking uneasy about the whole scenario.
“We can’t be certain until we activate the Bridge. It’s the one thing I can control. And the fact that the Believers are willing to kill for it means that it’s important.” The screen changed, showing a protest in London, with thousands of people walking across Tower Bridge.
“What do you think they look like?” Veronica had stayed quiet beside me, and her voice was small and distant. I recalled she’d had something to tell me back in Antarctica but still hadn’t shared it with me.
“Who?” Tripp asked.
“The Unknowns. If they really are from Earth and were here before us, what do they look like?”
“Who the hell cares? I hope we don’t ever see them.” Tripp grabbed the remote from Marcus and turned the blaring speakers down. “Let’s focus on our task. Which, at this moment, is making dinner. We can worry about the rest of it when we’re full. Deal?”
Veronica sat in a chair, placing her elbows on her knees as she watched the TV with Marcus and my family. I followed Tripp into the kitchen as he turned on a gas burner on the stove. “Why do you care about this?”
It was a simple question, and he stopped what he was doing. “Hunter did pay me up front, if that’s what you’re wondering. He also left a pile of cash for us to use, so we have some serious funding to carry us forward.” He grabbed a saucepan and set it on the flame. “But I’ve never abandoned a mission worth winning, and I’m not about to start today. Plus, someone has to watch out for you three, and your sister’s family.”
I smiled, patting him on the back. “Thanks for sticking around.” We got to work; something so mundane as cooking a meal with my new friend was just what I needed to ease the dread at what we were about to attempt later that night.
5
The clouds had rolled in late in the afternoon, according to Veronica, and tonight they covered the entire region. A light drizzle fell against the van’s windshield as we drove up the steep incline toward our destination. I had the Case in my lap in the front passenger seat, unwilling to set the last Token in its proper position until we were in the appropriate cavern. Hunter had spoken of a podium, a stone dais directly beneath an opening in the cavity, and I pictured myself placing the metal box onto it before pressing the final hexagon into the cube.
“This is it,” Tripp said, pulling over. “Road ends where the streams intersect, and there’s a pathway leading into the mountains.”
They weren’t really mountains, at least not compared to the great ranges like the Himalayas, Rockies, or Andes, but they were tall, rising high into the sky. The clouds were low, creating a dense fog. It was chilly, and I zipped my navy-blue jacket up. I was glad I hadn’t shaved in some time, and I scratched at the beard.
Marcus tossed a backpack at me, and I caught it, depositing the Case inside. I closed the bag and slung it over my shoulders, not wanting to carry any more weight than this. My stomach felt okay, but it was a far cry from healed.
“Where the water flows, the pathway glows.” Veronica gripped a flashlight, and she passed one to me too. “Let’s see what we can find.”
Insects chirped their nightly songs, and I heard a few birds call out as we walked along the stream. The trees were lush and green, giving off a fragrant scent. It was full of life here,
as good a location as any to hide the Bridge.
Even if someone happened across the entrance to the cavern, they would think nothing of the strange setup, not ever imagining it might hold the entrance to another world inside, because you needed the Case and Tokens to access it.
“My father and Clayton walked this very path thirty-five years ago. With this exact cube in their hands.”
“If this is the right spot,” Veronica chimed in.
Her comment was astute. Nothing here shouted “alien world entrance” to me.
The path wasn’t wide, and Marcus ran ahead, pulling an item from his bag. He turned it on, and the trail lit up in a blue glow.
“You bought a black light?” I thought it was a good idea.
“I figured Hunter might have marked it off with something only a black light would pick up.” Marcus aimed it at the ground for a few steps, then at the tree trunks along the trail’s edge. So far, nothing was out of the ordinary.
The stream ran away from the top of the hill, and the fog grew thicker with each passing minute. My side burned with effort, and I peeked behind us, but Tripp was out of sight. He carried a handgun, and I really hoped we didn’t run into any tourists out for a late-night hike. We’d look like quite the quartet.
The path narrowed again, and we walked in single file toward the cliffside. The sound of the stream grew more distant as we moved away from it. This didn’t feel right. I couldn’t explain it, but as soon as we broke from the forest into a clearing near the fog-covered peaks, I knew it.
“Hunter said Seek a star’s flight on a cloudy night. It’s cloudy. It’s night.” I peered up, but there was no sign of the sky through the pea soup. “No stars. We’re in the wrong spot.”
The echo of an engine carried through the valley up to my ears, and I looked around. Tripp finally caught up, and he seemed worried. “Is that what it sounds like?”
“That’s a helicopter. I don’t think any moonlight tours were planned. Especially in this fog,” Veronica said.
Lost Contact (The Bridge Sequence Book One) Page 29
