"You want to get some coffee?"
Maja blinked and nodded. Together they went to the café that was further down the corridor. Maja sat down at a table while Tommy picked up two coffees from the machine. He put the hot drink in front of her.
"So there, black as the night."
Maja enjoyed the familiar scent and smiled.
"Thank you."
She looked out through the large windows overlooking the smaller accelerator ring.
"I haven't talked to Dagmar for ages, but I recognized her voice at once when she started talking.”
Tommy sat quietly and sipped on the coffee. Maja continued.
"She wants to meet. She wants me to come to the apartment in the morning. "
Tommy sat down the coffee cup and blew thoughtfully on his fingers.
"How do you feel about that?"
"I don't really know if I should to be honest. If we were to meet, it would have been nice if we could do it on a somewhat neutral ground. "
"Right, that would make sense."
Maja looked over the accelerator ring and how two technicians worked on something.
"It doesn't feel quite safe to come home to the apartment right away. I have not had time to prepare. "
Tommy did not answer but let Maja tell at her own pace.
"But on the other hand, Arne is not there, it may be different when it is only me and she."
"You really didn't like your father?"
Her eyes flashed.
"He was not my father. Fathers don’t treat their children in the way that he treated me. "She took a deep breath," a parent's responsibility is to help and support their offspring. To try to give it as good conditions for life as possible.” She thought of Lisa and Stella and she felt a wave of love. Tommy raised his hands.
"Just curious, don't shoot the messenger."
She looked down and put her hand on Tommy's arm.
"Sorry, that was not the intention."
"It's ok."
They sat in silence while Maja pondered the conversation and the next day. The two men continued to work on the accelerator ring. One of the men raised his arms in a victory gesture and jumped down on a small ledge. The second man gave the first a high-five. Maja smiled. After a few minutes, Tommy looked up at the clock on the wall.
"Should we go back?"
Maja nodded and drank up the last coffee. Tommy frowned.
"How will you do tomorrow?"
Maja shrugged.
"I'll meet her. I’ll go to Copenhagen and meet her at the apartment”, she shook her head, "absolutely incredible."
"It really shook you up?"
Maja nodded and remembered that she had not said anything to Tommy about what she and Henrik had seen the day before at Pepparholmen. She blinked.
"But it wasn't just my mother's conversations that had been exciting in the last twenty-four hours."
Tommy looked quizzically at her.
"What else?"
Maja leaned forward and said with a conspiratorial voice.
"I was at Pepparholmen yesterday and saw it."
Tommy’s eyes widened.
"Did you see UFO?"
Maja nodded and smiled.
"Yes, I had just picked up Henrik and we were on my way back to Malmoe. We had just come up on Pepparholmen and all cars had stopped so we were forced to stop too.
Tommy nodded for her to continue.
"We saw a lot of people move down towards the water, so we stepped out of the car and ran after. There must have been more than three hundred people there.” She paused, "it was absolutely amazing."
Tommy stared at her.
"I saw on news that there had been three, true?"
“Yes, at least at first.”
"What do you mean at first?"
She hesitated.
"It's hard to explain. But there were three distinct lights that moved in the water. A gold, a red and a blue one. When we came down to the shoreline the three colors were separated and several hundred meters apart. It might have been a couple of minutes but then they began to move towards each other. "
Tommy nodded.
"And?”
"They merged together as one. It's hard to explain but it was just the way it was. It happened without any sound, no explosions or anything like that. They just merged together. And then, it came up from the water. "
Tommy sat quietly while Maja tried to describe what she had seen
"It was absolutely magnificent. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It looked like a gigantic, lying pyramid that ascended and shimmered when it rose from the water. It was big, huge.” She paused, "more than a hundred meters wide.”
"What happened then? I heard it flew down into the water again? "
She nodded.
"Yes, it was over the water for about thirty seconds before it slipped down again and set course northward.”
"I wonder if it relates to the spheres."
She shrugged.
"It has to be. But I've never seen anything like this before. We still have the seven places in the world where we have contact with the spheres? "
He nodded.
"Right, seven. Two of them are here in Europe. But I think none of the places are here in our region. "
She laughed and picked up a hair band out of her pocket and put up her hair in a ponytail.
"No, but now we may soon have eight. I'm sure it has to do with the spheres. But exactly how, remains to be seen. "
Atacama deep, the coast of Chile.
March 16, 2049
It was impossible to see anything. Darkness engulfed him. He wondered if something had broken in his virtual reality goggles but instinctively, he knew that they worked fine. David swore.
"I can’t see. It’s completely black. I have a problem with maneuvering, it responds very slowly. "
Jonathan felt concern grown within.
"What is it? Are you stuck or what? "
David's voice strained.
"No, I can move but I can’t see."
Melissa watched the control panel and saw how David’s pulse increased and heard how he struggled with regaining control of the beetle. His voice was stressed.
"Melissa, I think it's an octopus or something, I can see suction cups on the camera."
Melissa tried to come up with a solution. Jack's battery would be emptied quickly when David gave full throttle to get free. She looked at the battery indicator. Eleven minutes and quickly draining. She pushed the communications button.
"Try to see if you can control it towards the edge. It might release if it gets pushed. "
"Ok, I'm trying. Stand-by. "
Jonathan heard how David spoke to himself when he twisted his body to get away from the octopus's grasp.
"Now let go you bastard."
David increased to full throttle via the slider and steered hard against port. Jack softly hit the wall. He gasped.
"It didn't help. It is still there. "
Jonathan heard how David tried one more time but achieved only the same result. David’s voice was now more strained than before.
"How much power does it have left?"
Melissa responded immediately.
"Seven minutes. If it doesn't let go soon, we’ll lose it. "
David panted.
"Any other good ideas?”
Jonathan pressed the communication button.
"Squids use ink to escape when they get scared, right?"
"Yes, what does it help us now?"
David hit the wall once more. This time harder and he groaned with pain when he struck hit his knee. He sounded angrier now.
"Come on now, help me instead of discussing."
"Use the photo flash. Do it now! "
Melissa’s mind raced. It could work. There was a small but powerful flash mounted just above the camera on the beetle. She shouted into her microphone.
"Do it, David, use the flash!"
David did not answer when he
struggled to enter the commands for a series of three quick flashes. His world was lit up of three flashes in quick succession and he felt how the hard grip that the octopus had about Jack loosened. He shouted.
"It’s letting go! It has not released it completely, but it seems to be surprised. ” Before Jonathan had time to respond, Melissa repeated his thoughts.
"Do it again!"
David again pressed the command for three more flashes and this time the octopus completely let go and David cheered.
"It worked, it worked! Good job, Jonathan. "
Jonathan smiled.
"Great work, David.”
Melissa let out a deep breath as she watched David regain control of Jack and glanced over toward the battery indicator. Four minutes. She gasped.
"David, you’ve got to get out from there right away. You only have four minutes left of the battery. "
"I'm almost there. Ten meters more and then to the right, I can see it. "
At first, Melissa did not understand what he said.
"Come out of there now, at once."
"No, not yet, I'm almost there." Melissa watched the screen that showed what David saw and she could see how Jack approached the broken door at the bottom in the corridor. She breathed fiercely. If they lost Jack now it would be a hard-financial blow for them. David steered the beetle skillfully through the broken door and slipped it into the hold. The muddy water was darker here. An icy lump grew within her.
"Two minutes, David. Then you’re on backup power. "
David did not answer but focused on the hold. He slipped down to the floor and glided over it. Nothing there, only a thick layer of mud.
"I can't see the box."
Melissa’s voice was sharp.
"Ok, that’s it then, come back now, at once."
David was about to confirm when his gaze slipped down to the left. Something gleamed in the mud. There! He twisted his body and the beetle slipped softly down towards a collapsed shelf. There was something gleaming underneath it.
"I see something." He studied it more closely, "it looks like metal."
Jonathan and Melissa held their breath.
"What does it look like?"
David activated the metal claw from Jack's side.
"Hard to say, trying to get seized about it."
The metal claw slipped twice on the object before it got hold of what looked like a small metal ring attached on a metal box. David laughed nervously when the claw finally got a firm grip of the ring.
"Got it!"
Melissa barely dared to look at the battery indicator. The main battery was empty and there were less than two minutes left on the backup battery.
"Two minutes, David, any more than that and the beetle will be lost forever down here."
David did not respond but focused on gently pulling out the metal box from the mud. It was relatively hard set, so he had to give full throttle for it to come free. He howled of joy when the mud let go of it. He set a straight course against Jack.
"On the way back now. With the box. "
Melissa stared at the battery indicator and tried with her will to get it to go slower so David could make it back.
Jonathan's voice was calm and collected.
"I’m in a holding pattern just outside the whole David, right outside. I'm waiting for you. "
Melissa nodded to herself when she saw David navigating past the rubble in the long corridor. The box got stuck a few times and her heart missed a beat each time but luckily the beetle managed to continue each time.
David focused. He knew it was now or never.
"Melissa, what does it look like?"
"One-minute left."
The last few meters seemed infinitely long, and David looked up. There, almost straight in front of him was the hole and he could see Jacks powerful lights outside. He put everything on one card. He pulled up the metal box hard against him and set a straight course against the hole and gave full throttle.
"I’m coming now, Jonathan!"
Outside the hull, Jonathan stared at the hole and could see how a shadow quickly grew inside from within it. In the next second the beetle slid out from it, but the speed was low, and it began almost immediately to descend. Jonathan stretched out the two waiting arms and was ready.
"Got you."
The powerful arms softly caught the beetle and brought it safely to the underside of the jack. Jonathan felt how it clicked and regained the power it was charged by Jack's system. David cheered.
"That was really in the nick of time, Jonathan, thank you again.”
Jonathan chuckled.
"Two times in a day. You can almost believe that we have done this before. "
"You are always welcome here Jonathan." She paused, "but what do you say, will you come up to the surface now?"
David again shared the control with Jonathan and they confirmed that they were on the way up and set the course straight up. As they ascended, the darkness became light. Jonathan saw up to the surface and watched how the dark waters around them turned into brighter shades of blue. As they approached the surface a weight fell from his chest.
* * *
The sound surprised him, and he froze. He had not expected that. A woman's voice. It was not Melissa's, it was another woman who spoke with a raspy, dark voice. Jonathan pushed the slider that controlled the VR glasses and they slipped up on the helmet. He blinked and heard the faint sloshing from the pool. He twisted and could see a beautiful woman with shoulder-length, dark hair standing behind Melissa. The woman did not smile, and her hand held a compact, black weapon that was trained directly at Melissa's head. The woman's gaze was icy when her green eyes stared at Jonathan. She was dressed in a black, fitting overall and gestured at him.
"Come out of the cube."
Jonathan did not protest and pulled off the straps that held him. He took a cautious step out of the cube and wobbled, his sense of balance was still adapting. Jonathan glanced over at David who was still strapped in the second cube. The woman pressed the gun against Melissa's head.
"Him too."
Jonathan could see that Melissa's eyes glittered with fear and her hand trembled when she pushed a button on the control panel.
"David, you need to come out now, at once."
Jonathan saw how David lurched in the cube and his glasses slid up on his helmet. He chuckled.
"Why you sound so sad, honey?"
His smile hardened when he saw the woman with the weapon directed at his wife. He hid his surprise and coolly said.
"Who’re you?"
The green-eyed woman gestured at David to get out of the cube. He nodded as an answer and did as he was told. When he hunkered and stepped out of the cube, the woman urged Melissa on her feet.
"Go over to them."
Jonathan felt rage surge up within and he cursed himself for not taking any precautions. He should have been prepared for something to happen. That is what Backmann always emphasized. Preparation is alpha and omega. He glared at the woman.
"Who are you?"
The woman smiled, and Jonathan could see a line of perfect, white teeth. Her voice was cheerful.
"My name is Umbra and I'm here on my new father's behalf; to reclaim what you found on the ocean floor."
David took a step forward.
"Not going to happen, what we found is ours and you can forget that we will give you anything."
Jonathan studied the woman and pondered what she said. My new father. What did she mean by that? There was something special about her, something unusual. When he looked at her it was like she had a strange kind of aura around her, he had never seen anything like it and he had a hard time finding words for what he saw.
Umbra continued to smile.
"You have no choice. I will take what I have come for and you will not be able to stop me. "
David took another step forward, now clearly more furious than before.
"I don't know who you think you are, but you don't thre
aten my wife with a gun."
David threw a hard punch at Umbra, but his hand moved through the air. Before Jonathan had time to react, it was as if Umbra trembled, and David's hand hit nothing but air.
David stumbled forward and nearly fell and Melissa gasped when she did not understand what she was seeing. David hesitated and took a step to the side and glared at Umbra. Without saying anything, he hunkered down, and Jonathan could see that he was as taught as spring. A second later, he hurled himself forward against her. Jonathan saw how Umbra suddenly vibrated, and David hit the wall behind her. She stood a meter away and smiled at him. Jonathan's stomach froze. Whoever this Umbra was, she was quick, that much was clear. He swallowed hard.
"What do you want?"
Umbra turned against Jonathan.
"You have to be Jonathan, right?"
He nodded.
"Yes."
Her smile vanished, and she glared at him and Jonathan shivered when her eyes darkened.
"It was you who killed John Vendrick III?"
He nodded. Before he had time to say anything his world exploded. He barely had time to move when Umbra suddenly stood face to face and gave him a hard blow to the side of his head with the butt of the gun. He saw stars and pain seared through his head, from the temple down to the shoulder. He sank to his knees. Umbra towered above him and hissed.
"He was my father."
Jonathan blinked in suprisement and concentrated on the pain that roared in his head. His head still pounded when he tried to get back on his feet.
"What?"
Umbra glared at him.
"John was my father when he was alive. I was nothing before I met John. It was he who made me the one I am today, and he became my father and when he died, Arik became my new father”, she paused,” But you killed John. For that, I will kill you. Slowly."
The last word she said emphatically and with an intensity that assured Jonathan had no reason to believe that she lied. She took a step forward and Jonathan braced for the impact, but nothing happened. Umbra bowed down to him.
Genesis Page 14
