“Wow, impressive.” Candace commented.
I glanced in the mirror to see her watching me. “I do actually know what I’m doing, right, Josh?”
“Uh-huh, you’re the greatest.” He agreed distractedly with his head still down.
I frowned. “Right, Hope?”
“Yeah, you’re like Julius Caesar.” She smiled.
“See?”
Candace laughed with her hand over her mouth. “You do realize he was stabbed to death by his own followers, right?”
I looked back at the road. “Shut up.”
We continued with nothing ahead of us with the same scenery, trees, mountains, and even more trees. A fierce yawn escaped my mouth. I wasn’t as physically tired as I would’ve been because of the virus’s effects, but the same tedious view was starting to grate on me mentally.
“Hey, want me to take over?” Josh asked, noting my fatigue.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I don’t think they’re in any condition to drive anyway.”
The trio of girls laid asleep in the backseat breathing deep and silently. Candace had her head in her lap, while Hope and Noir heads were mashed against each other. How precious.
Chapter 29 – Alaska
The rest of the drive wasn’t exciting, and Candace eventually pulled up to our destination since she had taken over for Josh a while back. Parked next to us was the minivan that held the others; the lodge was where we’d be residing during the duration of our stay. According to the station wagon’s clock, it was around midday, though I couldn’t tell what time it was with the sky in Alaska being an unyielding grey ever since we entered the snowy state.
I opened the car door from the passenger's side and stepped out on the snow-covered ground, my legs numb being in the same position for so long. When everyone was out of their vehicles, we huddled up in front of the lodge. It was a mostly wooden building with circular windows in the front and side; it didn’t look too remarkable.
I checked my phone. “I know you guys are tired, but we have to gather some info before we call it a day. Our tour is pretty early in the morning, so we don’t have much time.”
Mina glanced at me and nodded in approval.
“Can we at least get a bite to eat?” Bianca placed a hand on her stomach. “I might pass out any second.”
We’d tried to get to Gakona as fast as possible, so we hadn’t made too many stops. “Of course. We have to play the part of visiting students anyway.”
The group collected their baggage, and no sooner than we had a foot inside did the atmosphere shift, every head seeming to turn in our direction. The briefing report mentioned that the town of Gakona was wary of strangers, especially since they were a tightknit community of barely seven-hundred. The lodge was evidence of the town’s minuscule population with only about twenty people or so inside.
Some were seated at tables, although a few were dancing or sitting at the bar. Ignoring the unwavering stares, we walked up to the bar already having reserved two rooms ahead of time, so they were expecting us.
Behind there was a plump woman with a rather large mole on her cheek. “Whoa, there’s a lot of you, ain’t there?” Her eyes were slightly open.
I gave a friendly smile. “Yeah, we're here on a trip to see the HAARP facility.”
She eyed us up and down. “Ah, the USC students.”
I nodded.
She reached under the bar and handed me a gold key. “Rooms up the stairs to the right.”
I gave the single key a confused look. “Um… excuse me, ma’am?”
“Yes?”
I gestured behind me. “We reserved two separate rooms.”
“It’s occupied.” She turned around.
I stared at her back with my mouth open, then turned around and shrugged at everyone.
“Just like a slumber party.” Hope said excitedly.
“Fantastic.” Mina followed under her breath.
We took our luggage to our small room and deposited them. It was quickly evident that all anyone was thinking about was eating, but I couldn’t blame them, even my stomach was starting to growl. Downstairs again, I pulled up a stool at the dimly lit bar and sat down. We all had split up to collect as much information as we could.
“What’ll you be you having?” A brown-skinned girl who looked to be in her late twenties stood on my side holding a pen and pad; she had on a white collared shirt and black skirt like your typical waitress.
“Um… can I get a cheeseburger with extra pickles?”
The waitress gave me a strange look.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“You’re not from around here, are you?”
“Why do you say that?”
She laughed. “No one comes to the Gakona Lodge and asks for a cheeseburger.”
I smiled sheepishly. “So, what should I be asking for?”
“Fish, fish and more fish.”
I let out a small laugh. “I’ll have that then.” It made sense, the state didn’t have much in the way of an economy, so seafood was a big mainstay for them.
“Good choice.” She gave me a friendly smile and returned a short time later with a fork and glass plate that held a white fish. “Here you go, enjoy.”
“Thanks.” I started to dig in but stopped when I realized the waitress was still standing beside me.
“So, where are you from?” She leaned sideways with her elbow on the bar.
“California, ever been?” I lied.
She scoffed. “The farthest I’ve been from Gakona is this bar.”
I felt a twinge of sympathy for her. It wasn’t too long ago I was in the very same shoes.
“What about the HAARP facility?”
She nervously glanced at the plump woman who was still behind the bar cleaning glasses with a rag. “Yes…”
Maybe I can get some information out of this waitress. “I’m actually here on a trip with some classmates to check it out.” I casually took a bite of my fish, which was pretty good. “Crazy what they say about it though. Weather control, ridiculous, huh?” I watched her out of my peripheral vision for any reaction.
She stopped leaning against the bar and stood up straight. “Yeah… it is.”
“I hear they keep the facility pretty tight, too.”
She looked at the plump woman for the second time. “Well… that’s because –”
“Erika!” The plump woman suddenly spun around and yelled. “Don’t you have more customers to attend to?”
The waitress Erika jumped up from her seat. “Sorry, Martha!” Then scurried away.
The woman named Martha gave me a hard look and went back to cleaning glasses. Well, there goes that lead. I turned my attention back to my barely eaten fish and attacked it without mercy and when finished looked to my right to see Josh approaching.
He took the seat next to me. “How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“You know… talk to girls so easy.” He gestured toward the waitress who was now at a table delivering a tray of drinks.
I gave him a dismissive laugh. “I don’t know. I guess I consider them normal, breathing human beings like us.”
He cast his head down, sullen.
“Why? You have a crush on someone or something?” I asked jokingly.
He didn’t respond.
I eyed him closer. “You do, don’t you?”
He looked up to our left where Mina was engaged in a conversation with an older woman.
“Mina?” I said a little too loudly.
He flinched with wide eyes. “K-Keep it down, will you!”
“Mina…?” I repeated quieter this time. “She’s cute and all, but a little rough around the edges. Why her?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, I just do.”
I gave him a lopsided smile and put my hand on his shoulder. “I know it sounds cliché, but just be yourself. I’ve gotten to know you, and I can honestly say you’re a good guy, so if she doesn’t like y
ou, it’s her loss.”
He put a hand behind his head and grinned. “You really think so?”
“Of course, if I were a girl, I’d be all over you.”
He chuckled and stood up. “Thanks, Adin. I think I’m gonna to go talk to her.” He started in her direction but paused for a second and turned around. “If I were a girl, I’d be all over you, too.”
I laughed and waved my hand at him. “Good luck.” I wandered around the bar for a time afterward trying to find anyone that could give me a sliver of new information but didn’t have much luck, getting the cold shoulder from nearly every local. A while later, I sat back down at the bar to take a short break and was about to order a drink when I spotted a small, multicolored cube on the bar. “Oh, a Rubik’s cube.”
As a kid, I spent hours on end trying to figure the stupid thing out, but the furthest I ever got was solving three out of the four sides. Grabbing it, I began my fruitless mission to solve it once more but soon realized a short time later that it wasn’t going to happen today.
“Hey, Adin…” Noir approached from the side and noticed the toy in my hand. “Is that a Rubik’s cube?”
I turned on the barstool to face her. “Yeah, I just found it laying here, thing’s impossible.”
Her eyes continued to linger on it.
“Wanna try?” I offered it up to her.
She took it from me delicately and sat down, then started working on the cube. Within minutes, she was completely done with it.
“Holy crap, how’d you do that?” I stared at her.
She put the item down with all sides perfectly equal. “It was the only toy I was permitted as a child because of its cognitive properties.” Noir had a nostalgic smile on her face, but it looked sad at the same time.
I wondered if it had anything to do with the way Dean Dexter said she was raised. My ears pricked up at the new song playing peacefully in the background. “I love this song.”
“It’s nice.”
“Want to dance?” I expected a firm no but was surprised when she hesitated.
“I don’t know how to dance…” She glanced back at the dancefloor.
“Neither do I.” I got up from the stool and offered my hand. “We can look like idiots together.”
She laughed softly, which was totally alien to my ears; I could probably count on one hand how many times I’d heard her laugh. She carefully took it as if not to break it. “Okay.”
I led her to the middle of the floor among the fray of people who were already dancing and placed her hands on my shoulders, then gently grabbed her slender waist. At first, her movements were off rhythm and awkward, but she quickly got the hang of it. I raised her arm and twirled her around sometime in, eliciting another rare laugh. Noir and I swayed back and forth slowly, letting the melodic music guide our movements.
It didn’t even feel like anybody was on the dancefloor with us as we were transfixed in our own impenetrable bubble. Deeper into the song, Noir pressed her forehead against mine. My eyes opened at the unexpected contact, but hers were still closed. The scent of the candy she’d been eating earlier wafted into my nose. And when the song ended, her green eyes flicked open to meet my own. I didn’t move. I couldn’t.
I might as well have been a deer caught in headlights, time passing while we stared into each other’s unblinking eyes. Eventually, I came to my senses, though we were still frozen in the same position, neither of us inclined to move. Pushing away a loose strand of hair that escaped her green ribbon and dangled in her face seemed to reawaken her own brain.
“You scare me.” Noir suddenly declared in a quiet voice.
The sudden revelation left me speechless. I didn’t think she was afraid of anyone or anything, let alone me.
“Shouldn’t you two be gathering more info right about now?” Candace was staring at us with her hands placed firmly on her hips to the side.
Startled by the intrusion, I separated myself from Noir. “Ah, Candace… We were just taking a short break.” I turned to Noir already gone.
“Well, you seem to have plenty of energy left to me. Back to work, Team Leader.”
I cast a sidelong glance to where Noir had disappeared into the crowd. “Yes, ma’am.”
Chapter 30 – First Mission
Like me, the rest of Team Umbra hadn’t had much luck in learning anything new about the HAARP facility, so we called it a night and got ready for bed in our shared room. No one really talked about the mission; there wasn’t really much to say anyway. We all knew what we had to do.
“Any of you try anything, and you’re dead.” Mina was propped up on her elbows, laying down on one of the two medium-sized beds on either side of the room; we’d decided the girls would take the beds and us guys would slum it on the floor.
Everyone was soon asleep, but I was wide awake and rolled on my side to see the digital clock on the wooden dresser read around two in the morning. My insomnia was as bad as ever. I rolled on my back again and stared at the ceiling, trying to ignore George’s loud snoring to the right of me. So, this is it, the moment of truth. There was a very real possibility that I might’ve hurt someone - hell, killed someone, just as it was very possible the same thing might happen to me.
What would they tell my family? Probably that I had fallen off a cliff or something. The night crawled by while more conflicting thoughts filled my head, and soon the alarm clock buzzed out loud letting everyone know it was go time. We all quickly got ready from there and once done huddled around the small table in the corner of the room for one final mission briefing.
I pinched my index finger and thumb on the electronic pad, forcing it to zoom in on the blueprint of the HAARP facility layout. “So, once we get to the sixth floor, we have to be ready for anything.” I zoomed in on another section of the blueprint. “Sources indicate that the room holding the data should be somewhere around here, but it’s not confirmed.” I pointedly looked at all the faces around me. “There’s also strong evidence that the facility has gone rogue, so be careful for beefed up security.”
“What about the hallway here, wouldn’t that be a better route to the elevator?” Candace pointed at a section of the blueprint. “Or even here, near the staff room.” She pointed at another part.
“He’s not an infant, you know.” Noir watched Candace passively.
Candace seemed thrown off by the interruption but recovered quickly. “I know he’s not.”
“Then, why do you insist on treating him like one?”
Everyone was deathly silent watching the exchange with open curiosity.
Candace frowned. “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”
“Okay, guys, enough.” A sigh escaped my mouth. “We don’t need this right now, especially before a mission. Thanks, Noir, but I don’t need you to defend me. And Candace, this is the route we’re going with.”
They both continued to stare at each other with poorly concealed animosity for a little longer before breaking the eye contact.
“Okay, good. Now that we understand each other, let's go.”
We made our way downstairs to the parking lot without Candace since she was only an advisor, then took off for the HAARP facility. A short time later, we pulled up to a massive gate that could just be seen through; there were some cars parked outside of the gate on the right. Focusing my gaze, I could just make out the building behind the gate. It was mostly white matching the frost on the ground and stretched across the expanse of the spacious land out in front.
The gate suddenly creaked opened, and a heavy-bearded man with a black cap and security uniform approached our two vehicles. I rolled down the window when he reached us.
“ID.” He flashed his flashlight in the car even though he clearly didn’t need to with it being already light out.
“Uh… sure.” I handed him a forged driver’s license that stated I was a twenty-year-old resident from California.
He handed it back to me after studying it for a few moments. “The
USC students.”
“Yes, sir.”
He looked at the minivan behind us that held the others. “Park at the end of the cars over there, then I’ll lead you inside.”
Once parked, we all gathered in front of the security guard just outside the open gate.
“Once we enter these gates, you will be subject to a body search and X-Ray to check for any weapons or devices. Any failure in compliance of HAARP facility procedures and protocol will result in immediate dismissal from the premises. Any questions?” He made sure to look us each in the eye.
There weren’t.
“Okay, follow me.”
He led us down a stretch of about fifty yards until we reached the front of the building. He then signaled at the large double doors, and they slid open. My initial impression of inside the HAARP facility was that it was too clean, like a hospital, and there were multiple rooms throughout the area but not much other than that. There were also a few other security guards roaming about but didn’t know which our Organization plant was. And as promised, we were searched thoroughly and led through a large, metal frame which I assumed was the x-ray.
Then once all cleared, the guard led us to the middle of the floor and left us there without a word. Our team glanced around a little uneasy until we saw a long, red-haired woman in a white lab coat approach us.
“Welcome to the Gakona HAARP Institute.” She greeted with a smile.
We all greeted her back politely.
“I’m sure you’re all very excited to start the tour, so I shan’t waste too much time talking. Consider yourselves lucky, we usually don’t give student tours this time a year, but there was a special request from your university.”
She would soon find out how special. We followed her further inside the building until we reached a room that held what looked like a giant computer taking up most of the room.
“This is where we monitor the radio frequencies of the towers.” The woman began to explain.
But I wasn’t paying much attention, acutely aware of the bearded security rooted in place at the door behind us.
Sixty-Seven Salamanders Page 21
