Known Afterlife (The Provider Trilogy: Volume I)

by Trey Copeland

  Chapter 14

  "I'll be at the lab in five minutes," Stalling reported. "Has Janison arrived?"

  "Yes. He's at the chapel. I’m outside it now ready to gather him." Stalling looked into the visor at that moment and made direct eye contact. Antone was confident his practiced poker face conveyed nothing. Regardless, if Stalling felt compelled to probe, he was prepared to defend the emotions he felt towards his upcoming confrontation with Janison.

  "Good," he said, appearing satisfied, looking ahead again as he walked.

  He knows not to get my hackles up. More so, he is confident neither of us will do anything to endanger the success of our mutual mission.

  "Did you take the time to be with Marlene?" Stalling asked a few seconds later.

  "Yes, I did. Thank you for the insistence, I needed to be with her more than I realized."

  Driven as he was, Antone all too often dismissed the value of being intimate with his wife. While she could stimulate his intellectual needs, raw passion filled his bucket and no one has ever fulfilled that need better than Marlene. He had not been home for more than two minutes, barely a word spoken, before they were half-undressed, making love in the hallway.

  Antone tasted the remnants of her lip-gloss and inhaled a whiff of her lingering perfume, reflecting on their parting embrace. "I wouldn't be anywhere if it weren't for you in my life," he confided, choked by an unexpected rush of emotion.

  "Now don't you go getting soft on me Antone," she said, giving him a stiff punch to the chest with her petite fist as both chuckled at the notion. "We are together for a reason but we both know our journey neither begins nor ends with the other," Marlene said, tucking her curly red bangs behind her ears. She then rested her hands gently onto his chest, doing her best to transition from her bubbly disposition to one of concern.

  Yes, being with Marlene was exactly what he needed. He was back in control. The edge was gone and his mind was clear. His purpose and role once again defined.

  "Good," Stalling said. "Jennifer informs me everything is prepared on her end. How about you, any loose ends?"

  "The last wave of personnel left the campus a few minutes ago. Outside us, my security team and Tallison, who is already in the lab assisting Jennifer, the place is deserted."

  "Understood. I will see you in a few minutes."

  "Understood," Antone said, ending their connection.

  Without pause, he opened a connection with Eitemor, the captain of his security team, and the other nine elite guards.

  "Yes sir," Eitemor said upon answering the call.

  "Is everyone in place?"

  "That’s affirmative." Antone jumped from one guard point of view to the next, double checking the parameter around the sunken lab and server farm. In the end, there was little stopping the C.O.S. from taking things by force, but at least they would have plenty of warning to escape if need be. Of course, Eitemor and his crew did not see it that way.

  He switched back to address Eitemor and inspected the man who had saved his life on more than one occasion. The Ecifrican was an imposing figure, standing six foot six inches with burly physique. Black fatigues equipped with light body armor further accentuated his prowess. That, and the array of utility belts and pockets housing an arsenal of weapons and explosives. With his right arm draped across the automatic rifle slung loosely over shoulder, Eitemor looked a man at ease with the destructive power at his disposal. To complete the menacing image he had a mane of rowdy, shoulder length, blonde hair that framed a young face with a thick, perpetual five-day-old beard.

  Hit by an unexpected wave of nostalgia, Antone took a moment to reflect on the remnants of his loyal cell. A decade ago, each one was a lethal terrorist prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, all for the sake of freedom. It took all his persuasive powers to convince them to stop the conventional fight, to end the bombings and the raids and throw their lot in with a rogue Drakarlean. In the end, they trusted Antone as their leader and if he said joining forces with Stalling would help them achieve their life long objective, then that was enough. Antone liked to believe, as he was about to ask them to put their lives on the line once again, that each had come to conclude the same thing he had about Stalling. That they chose to serve his cause on their own, not because Antone commanded.

  "Be prepared, I will update you when I can."

  "What exactly are we preparing for?"

  "The final stage of our mission will occur tonight. As you are aware, our security was breached recently. As a result, our adversary now has detailed data on most of our primary operations. What is not clear is if they are aware of the ultimate objective. If they are, my gut tells me they will resort to stopping us at all costs. You my friends are the only line between us and them."

  Eitemor considered his words for a few seconds. Antone read the struggle on his face, fighting his desire to know more while respecting his superior. Finally, he asked what had been on all their minds since the first day they arrived. "What is it exactly we are protecting? You have told us over the years that once the project was complete, the rest of the world will change forever. Is it a weapon of mass destruction?"

  Eitemor had come a long way in a short time. He was no longer the bitter nineteen-year-old recruit with nothing to lose. Antone had molded that youthful anger into a fine tuned weapon and provided the man a vengeful outlet. The rest of them, including him, came from a similar background. All understood the principles of freedom and knew the biting whip of oppression first hand. They were the few remaining descendants of an honorable race. Men and woman whom, after generations of enslavement, still clung onto the belief that all people are equal; that a person received in life the equivalent of what they put into it.

  The rest of his people submitted to their plight long ago, sadly having become the church's most devout followers. Ecifricans were a God fearing people. They blindly accepted metaphorical fantasy as facts. Worst of all, they had submitted to the belief that they must suffer for the alleged sins of their forefathers. Antone and his type learned early on that, despite his well-written and passionate manifesto, a mass revolt of his people would never happen under the current conditions. Too many generations had become willfully ignorant. The solution, he concluded, remove the power that suppressed them.

  As he had so often over the years, he reflected on the pitiful attempts made by his cell and others like them to thwart their enemy’s agendas. He shuddered to think about what would have been if his chance encounter with Stalling went the direction he had originally intended. If he had not listened to his gut and continued to let anger dictate his actions.

  He shrugged off the dark thought with the gratitude he had for the life he and his friends now shared, the life they desired for their kindred. Not a day goes by that any of them did not appreciate the human existence they now experienced. A life serving Alterian Enterprises and living in Gestrafa, a place they all proudly called home.

  But it was the entrainment technology that produced dramatic change. Each had discovered drives and passions deep within that none believed possible to discover in this lifetime. Still, despite all Eitemor had grown his ability to imagine a different world entailed violence and death. Antone became giddy in anticipation, reminded that if they succeed in the coming hours, ignorance will never hinder the soul again.

  "No, it is not a weapon, at least not in the sense you are thinking. It is an innovation in our technology designed to defeat our enemy from within. Overnight, it will destroy ignorance and in doing so, forever remove its paralysis on man's evolution."

  Eitemor nodded with enthusiasm, excited to be part of such a grand idea, but the perplexed expression told Antone he still had no clue as to 'what' he was to protect.

  Antone contemplated leaving him in the dark, paranoid he had already said too much, but the pragmatic side of him thought twice. "When we are done, there will be man with us, someone whose signature does not currently register. He is the lynchpin to our success. He must be protecte
d and kept alive at all cost. Do you understand?"

  "Aye!" they replied as one.

  "May your destiny always be your choice!"

  "So say we all!"

  Antone removed his visor and tucked it inside his coat pocket. He cracked his neck with a couple of quick jerks to each side, turned around and entered the large, wooden double doors leading into the simple chapel.