The Omega Project

by Ernest Dempsey

  The conversation had been brief, questions about what Andrew was doing, how immoral it was, and how he would have to face an inquiry about the whole scenario. The standoff, however, was much longer.

  Andrew’s men had re-aimed their weapons at Wyatt and were ready to take him down, though Wyatt had been clear that he would get his shot off first and take out Andrew before any of his men could flinch.

  None of them knew who Sean Wyatt was before that day. Now there was no forgetting him.

  Andrew had returned home in disgrace. Thanks to his connections and essentially bottomless pockets, he’d been able to influence the outcome of the court martial to the point where he was honorably discharged. His career in the military, however, was done.

  It was the only thing that had ever given him a sense of purpose, some semblance of meaning in his life. Sean Wyatt had ripped that away from him, storming in with his self-righteous bravado.

  Andrew had done all he could over the years to track down Wyatt. His original plan had been simply to kill the man while he slept, or perhaps wake him up to a muzzle in his face just before it flashed and fired a bullet through his brain.

  That was too easy, though, Andrew thought. Wyatt had tried to tear away the brotherhood Andrew had forged, the life that he’d made for himself away from the mansion and the billionaire lifestyle. Andrew was doing good in the world. He was a leader.

  Now all he had left was his money and his influence.

  His parents had stopped speaking to him, although that was more because he’d joined the army against their wishes and less about what happened while he was enlisted. He wondered if they’d even heard about the court martial. Part of him didn’t care.

  His focus was elsewhere. It was time for Sean Wyatt to lose everything he held dear.

  6

  Atlanta, Georgia

  Sean and Tommy had returned to Atlanta the day before, hours after their harrowing experience with the girl on the cliff. They’d gone to their homes—Sean to his place near Buckhead, Tommy to his house in Virginia Highlands—and enjoyed a quiet night with their wives.

  Tommy’s wife, June Holiday, had taken a position with Emily Starks, heading up a new unit within Axis.

  Adriana had resumed her life of investigation into lost art from World War II but was content, it seemed, to plant her roots in Atlanta—at least for now.

  The next morning, Sean woke up early to head over to the IAA building. His curiosity had kept him up most of the night, and he wanted to see what this strange parcel was and why he’d received it.

  Not surprisingly, he found Tara and Alex there in the lab before he arrived. The two practically lived there, perpetually wrapped up in the work they loved so much. They studied and analyzed ancient artifacts, checked their authenticity, and even had the technology to date items just as precisely as some of the top research facilities in the world.

  Sean stood in the underground laboratory, arms crossed as he looked down at the package. It was the only thing on the desk, the surface cleared off to accommodate the box. He couldn’t decide whether he wanted to open it, especially considering the mysterious and suspicious return address.

  “Maybe it’s a secret admirer,” Tara offered. She sat in a rolling chair a few feet away from the workstation, eyeing the box for what must have been the hundredth time in the last ten minutes.

  “I doubt that,” Sean said. “And I hope not. I’ve never seen Adriana jealous, but I have a feeling that would be a very bad thing to behold.”

  Tara and Alex laughed.

  Beyond that, they had other capabilities and talents that had proved useful through the years. One such talent was with computers and cutting-edge technologies.

  “All the scans check out,” Alex said, staring at the box. “There’s nothing harmful in there like snakes or something explosive.”

  Sean turned his head, eyebrows knitting together into a scowl. “Snakes or explosives?”

  “Yeah,” Alex said, head bobbing. “You know, dangerous stuff.”

  “Two very different ends of the spectrum,” Sean said with a sigh and turned back to the package. “Fine. Screw it.”

  He picked up a knife and sliced through the tape on both ends and then across the top. He set the blade back in its place and pried open the flaps. There were foam packing peanuts inside to protect the contents.

  Sean sifted through the packing and discovered something smooth and hard in the center of the box. He brushed away some more of the foam and leaned over the package. The other two crowded around and looked in with him.

  Inside was a shiny wooden box. It was two colors, one a darker brown finish, the other a light tan. There was an emblem on the top, made from the lighter-colored wood and set into the darker. The object was turned on its side, with a thin rectangular block sticking out of each side.

  “What is that?” Alex asked, his face scrunching into a befuddled frown.

  Sean blinked for a moment and then put both hands into the box and lifted the strange object. “We’ll come back to that,” he said. Sean set the object on the table next to the cardboard container and inspected each side. One side featured a series of mountains with sharp-angled peaks and slopes. Another side featured a cliff next to an ocean. Coniferous trees dotted the edge near the drop-off.

  Sean spun the box around and looked at the third side. It showed a river winding through rolling hills with the sun on the far horizon. The final side displayed a ship. The boat was old, something from the early ages of exploration. Sean recognized the style as a Japanese vessel. It featured a single, tall mast in the center with thin sails much like the paper curtains that could be found in Japanese homes or wrapped around lanterns. The boat’s draft was shallow, and the living quarters for the sailors were fixed to the aft section like a small cabin atop the back deck.

  “Why would someone send you this?” Tara asked. “Seems like a strange gift.”

  “It’s not a gift,” Sean said, leaning closer to the object. “It’s a Japanese puzzle box.”

  “A puzzle box?” Alex asked.

  “Yes. See all these lines? Those are seams. It takes a skilled craftsman to make one of these and have everything fit together so perfectly. Run your finger along the surface. You won’t feel any breaks in the wood; that’s how minuscule they are.”

  Alex did as told and rubbed one side of the box. “You’re right. I can’t feel any of the seams.”

  Sean nodded. “Whoever made this particular box was extremely talented…and very careful. They wanted it to be perfect.”

  “It looks old,” Tara added.

  “Indeed. Very old.” Sean inspected the object’s surface all the way around for a second time and then stood up straight. “This one…it’s several hundred years old at the very least.”

  The eyes of the other two went wide with surprise, admiration, and a touch of concern.

  “Perhaps we should put this in a safe place then?” Tara asked.

  Sean wasn’t ready for that just yet. He tilted the box and heard something move inside.

  “There’s something in there,” Alex stated the obvious.

  “Whoever sent this wanted me to open it, I guess.” Sean set the box down on the table and stuffed his hand back into the packing foam.

  “Aren’t you going to open it?” Tara asked.

  “In a second,” Sean answered. “I want to make sure there’s nothing else in here.”

  His hand rifled through the foam peanuts until his fingers brushed across something smooth on the bottom. It wasn’t the cardboard. He found an edge and pulled the item out.

  It was a sheet of paper; a photocopy, to be precise. The writing on it was faded almost to the point of being illegible. Sean held it up to get a closer look and found that the letter had been written in elegant cursive, much like it would have been done prior to the twentieth century. Based on the fading, he estimated the writing to be at least one hundred and fifty years old, but it was difficult to tell since it was a copy o
f the original.

  His eyes quickly darted to the bottom of the page, skipping over the contents that filled the paper.

  The name at the bottom was one he’d seen before, the autograph as familiar to him as his own. He knew immediately that this letter was more than one hundred and fifty years old. It had been written by one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

  “What is that?” Tara asked.

  Sean swallowed and stared blankly at the page, contemplating what he was holding. “It’s…” he faltered. “It’s a copy of a letter written by James Madison, former president of the United States, the father of the Constitution.”

  You could have heard a feather drop in the room.

  The kids said nothing for a long moment, until Alex broke the quiet.

  “Where…um, where is the original?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe whatever’s in this box can answer that.”

  “What are you guys looking at?” Tommy asked as he entered the lab. He wore a goofy smile, a Fleetwood Mac T-shirt, and jeans with frayed pockets.

  The look mimicked Sean’s, though he was wearing a gray Spider-Man shirt.

  “Something I got in the mail,” Sean said without looking away from the paper. He gently set it down next to the package and picked up the wooden box again.

  “Ooooh, is that a Japanese puzzle box?”

  “Sure is.” Sean held it up and then pushed on one end. One of the pieces slid free. He stuck his finger in and dragged the next in the opposite direction. He took his time, careful not to damage the relic as he removed each piece until they could see inside.

  Everyone huddled around, each holding their breath to learn what mysterious secret the puzzle box contained.

  The group frowned collectively. Every single one of them was expecting to find something ancient—a jewel, perhaps, maybe a ring or a necklace—but not what was resting in the bottom of the box.

  “That’s odd,” Alex commented. “Right?”

  “Yeah,” Sean said with a bewildered sigh.

  Inside the antique container was a modern device, something they all used on an almost daily basis.

  The thumb drive was silver with a black plastic tip on one end. There were no identifying marks, not even a brand name.

  Sean picked up the box, turned it over, and let the flash drive fall out into his palm. He pinched it between a finger and thumb and held it up to the light as if that would give him a better idea of who sent it or what it contained.

  “What do you think’s on there?” Tara asked, cocking her head to the side to further inspect the device.

  “There’s only one way to find out.”

  “Yeah, but that thing could have a virus,” Tommy said. “We plug it in our computers, and the entire system goes down.”

  Sean had already thought of that, too. The last thing they needed was their entire operation shut down or hacked because they had been careless.

  “Who did you say sent that?”

  “A cryptic name,” Sean answered. “A. Colleague.”

  “Right. And the address is likely a fake as well.”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  Alex raised his hand like a schoolboy trying to answer one of the teacher’s questions. “We do have a few old computers in here that we don’t use much anymore. We keep them around mostly for parts or to run simple tests.” He pointed to a corner in the back of the room where three monitors were propped up on a workstation next to three PC towers. The units had keyboards and a mouse beside each one. The computers were definitely old, at least four or five years as far as Sean could tell. In an industry where technology aged within hours of being released, those computers might as well have been from the Stone Age. Still, if they were offline, using one of those would be the perfect way to safely check out what was on the thumb drive.

  The four made their way through the maze of artifacts, robots, wires, beakers, and all the other gadgets that were haphazardly arranged on the tables and display cases on the lab floor.

  Alex arrived at the workstation first and pressed a button on top of one of the PCs. Red lights came to life on the front in a V shape.

  “It’s an old gaming PC,” Alex defended as he noted the speculative looks on Sean’s and Tommy’s faces.

  The screen bloomed to life and displayed the word Lenovo for a moment. Then it went black and the image changed to a flaming background with a torch on the right.

  Sean reached over and plugged the thumb drive into one of the USB ports. Tara took the initiative and slid into the chair, cupped the mouse with one hand, and waited for the new drive to appear on the desktop.

  When the white folder appeared, she double-clicked it, and a new box appeared on the screen. There was only one item in the folder, a movie file.

  “It’s not connected to the network, right?” Tommy double-checked.

  “No,” Alex said. “We keep these offline at all times, specifically for running stuff like this.”

  “Okay,” Tommy said with a nod. “Play it.”

  Tara clicked the video. There was a momentary lag, and then a new black box appeared on the screen. She clicked the white arrow in the center of it and waited.

  The timer on the bottom left of the box started ticking forward: one second, two, three. At the seven-second mark, every person at the desk wondered if there was something wrong.

  Then a light clicked on. It was coming from the corner to the right, behind the camera so that it shone at an angle on the subject. In the middle of the screen was a person sitting at a wooden table, tied to a matching chair. It looked to be a man, though who it was, how old they were, and any other meaningful details were impossible to discern due to the black pillowcase over his head.

  “Hello, Sean,” a voice said. It was a man’s, but it was running through a modulator so there was no chance of recognizing the speaker.

  Tommy cast a sidelong glance at his friend. Alex did, too. Tara and Sean kept their eyes locked on the screen.

  “You probably wouldn’t remember me, but just in case you do I hope you don’t mind me changing the sound of my voice for now.”

  Sean’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t like this, not one bit. A bad feeling crept into his gut and sat there like a meal of too much fried chicken.

  “Since you’re watching this, it means you were able to figure out how to open the puzzle box. I hope you liked it. I think it’s…appropriate for what you’re about to do. Oh, and please, do check the bottom of the box. None of this will make any sense if you didn’t get the letter out of there.”

  Sean glanced over at the sheet of laminated paper but said nothing.

  Tommy’s eyes wandered to the letter as well, wondering where this person was going with his little video.

  “So, here we are, Sean. Together again. Again, you might not remember me, but I remember you. Oh yes, I remember you very well.”

  “I take it you don’t remember this guy,” Tommy whispered.

  Sean said nothing but shook his head.

  “You ruined my life, Sean. And now, it’s time for a little payback.”

  “Ruined his life?” Tommy snorted. “That doesn’t exactly narrow it down, does it? I mean, that could be any of a million people. Not a short list.”

  “I get it, Schultzie,” Sean said, finally tired of his friend’s ribbing.

  “Loooong wait,” Tommy added for good measure.

  The man on the video spoke again. Sean almost felt grateful.

  “I’m going to give you a chance, though, Sean. It’s a chance you never gave me before you destroyed everything I had and everything I’d worked for. Do you see the man sitting at the table? Do you?” The voice was taunting, made more so by the distorted sound the modulator applied. “This man is a friend of yours. Not only a friend of yours, but he’s very special to someone close to you.”

  Sean really didn’t like where this was going now. Had this sicko kidnapped his father? Or had they taken Tommy’s dad? Sean felt the knot in his stomach turn
over.

  “Getting to him wasn’t easy. Then again, we are professionals.”

  First clue. He said the word we. He also said they were professionals. That meant probably former military. Sean kept his thoughts to himself for the moment, taking in every detail he could.

  “I’m going to give you the chance to free your friend here, Sean. All you have to do is a few simple things. I’m sure you and your buddy will be able to handle it. After all, it’s kind of what you guys do, right, figuring out clues to ancient treasures and all that?”

  Sean got the overwhelming feeling that whoever this guy was, he could see them, as if it wasn’t a recording but a live feed. He knew that wasn’t the case, of course, but there was something about this man that hit close to home. Sean strained to detect any sort of familiarity in the tone that slipped through the modulator, but it was a vain effort.

  “You see, Sean, you took everything away from me, everything I cared about. And now it’s time for you to give it all back. I figure a few hundred million in treasure will do the trick, and I have just the treasure for you to find for me.”

  The sickening feeling in Sean’s belly got worse. He reached into his pocket and looked at the screen. Adriana. Where was Adriana? She’d been kidnapped before, a mistake by the man who’d done it. He was dead now, pieces of him floating in the ocean somewhere, or long ago consumed by sea life. Sean didn’t want to think about it. He couldn’t lose her. Not again.

  The nauseating thoughts quickly faded as he remembered he’d just received a text from her in the last hour. This package had been sent the day before. That meant she was safe. Then who was behind the hood, tied to the chair?

  “You boys are historians,” the narrator continued, “you looooove history.” He smacked his hands together, mocking the viewers. Tommy and Sean glanced at each other quizzically then looked back at the screen. “Well, have I got a mystery for you. But first, I’d like to show you your prize, should you be successful.”

  A dark figure appeared behind the man in the chair. The newcomer’s face was covered by a mask. He gave away no identifying features; his skin was covered from head to toe, even wearing gloves for this little ruse.