I can feel the energy draining from me as I struggle to stay conscious. The side effects of the Predictr continue to take their toll. My arms are numb. I can barely steer. My lungs are burning, making every breath unwanted, and the road in front of me looks gooey. Looking back in the rearview mirror, I see the squad cars follow me. There is another armored car that pulls in behind them. Looking out of the passenger-side window, I see my friends skidding across the water in that speedboat, heading away from the dock. As long as they’re safe. I can do nothing but chuckle through the pain that I feel in my ribs as the flames intensify from my laughter. Watching them leave safely gave me pleasant thoughts. Their safety was my only promise to the guys that I made when we were snot-nosed kids back in the Rose.
My neck jolts as my pursuers ram the back of my car relentlessly, causing me to use all of the strength left in my numb arms to keep the car steady. Then I see the armored car’s hatch open with an RPG-toting Chimera coming through the hatch. There’s a flash from the armored car, then a smoke trail, and then I feel it slam into the back of the car, hitting the gas tank. The back end of the car bursts into flames, and I lose control.
***
Dwight’s friends see from the speedboat his car burst into flames. The car skids left and right and then smashes into the railing, somersaulting over the rail and landing hard in the shallow water.
“We have to go back and get him! He’s not dead! He can’t be dead!” Lara yells, crying uncontrollably.
“No one could survive that crash,” Neiala says, “not even him.” A tear rolls down her face as the boat speeds off with the team, bouncing on the waves into the horizon.
After a few hours, the speedboat docks at a secluded area far down the coast where a small house is incased in a thicket of trees.
“He’s gone,” Kim says, exiting the boat.
“Those bastards will pay for this,” says Ron, following closely behind him as they enter the house.
“Shut up, all of you,” Rotiart angrily says, slamming the door behind him. “No one man is the beginning or end of this. What he did was what needed to be done. The only thing that is important is the agenda.”
Rotiart walks into the next room. “Our objective was compromised as we ran into some trouble taking out the targets. Understood. Also, Black Horse showed his face. No, we lost him too. Yes, the towers were leveled. I do not know if Black Horse and Orb were killed in the attack. The Lamb is also presumed dead. Understood, Father. Our chopper is on the way. We will depart shortly.”
“So, what now?” Ron says. “We tuck tail and run? Our friend is dead, the city is on fire, and we still have not killed that spider lady and her horse friend, who are like superheroes.”
“We go back and prepare for the next mission,” Rotiart says. “We need to be debriefed, and then my father and the other elders will have our next move. We still stopped them from implementing their plan.”
The team’s hopes have been shattered from the death of Dwight. Ron, Steve, Kim, Neiala, and Lara all share a look of despair.
“He was a good man,” Rokie says, breaking the silence in the room. “But we cannot allow his death to be in vain.”
“Don’t worry,” says Steve. “They’ll pay. Everyone will pay.”
Chapter 30: Horses and Pawns
A large group of police cars, EMS trucks, fire engines, and unmarked authority vehicles are parked around the crash site where the helicopter, the armored personnel carrier, and Dwight’s car went over the railing at the dock. The flashing lights from the emergency vehicles bounce off of nearby buildings and the people themselves, lighting up their faces. Half a mile away, the sky fills with black smoke and the glow of an intense fire as the two buildings that the two commercial airplanes attacked burn furiously.
A peculiar group of authority figures is gathered near the railing, looking down at the car in the water. Bobbing up and down slowly in the water, the severely mangled car smolders, darkened by a murky oil slick near the pier. The car slowly sinks, leaving a small wake of burning gasoline as it slips beneath the surface.
Police officers and other first responders line the scene with yellow crime tape, while others disperse a small crowd that has formed during the panic of the attack on the buildings. The firefighters douse the flames of the wrecked car so that the awaiting authority figures can access the car after craning it out of the water.
Suddenly, a large cry comes from the crowd of pedestrians when the two skyscrapers, where Ron, Dwight, Neiala, and Rokie fought Black Horse and Orb, begin to collapse. A 100-foot wall of black soot and ash blankets people and buildings for hundreds of yards. Running for their lives in panic, the crowd disperses from the crash site.
“It’s good to see you alive and well, my lord,” a young police officer says. “The body has not been found in the wreckage, Lord Black Horse. The receding tide may have taken the body offshore.”
“Sweep the docks until you find him,” Black Horse says. “We don’t need him alive. We only need his body.” Black Horse then takes a cell phone from his pocket. “Status?” Black Horse asks the person on the other end. “Good, stay with them until you have gained the information on their plans, and then terminate the targets. Notify me when you’re done. Argh.” Dropping the phone after grabbing his chest, Black Horse falls to one knee.
“My lord!” one of the officers says, grabbing him, “you must rest and see one of the sage’s immediately. Your defeat of the infidels has taken a toll on your body, my lord. I can acquire some serum for you. Please, I insist.”
“Unhand me. I’ll be fine!” Black Horse pushes the officer’s hand away from his shoulder. “Send for transportation. We must leave soon.” After picking up the phone, Black Horse says, “Pale Horse, the Mockingbird is dead. No, the body has not been found yet but will be soon. Understood. Has one of the missing been found yet? Yes, I understand. Does the Cabal know of our intrusions? Excellent. Understood.”
He is then helped into a black sedan and taken away.
“Do you see the apparatus Orb and Black have on them?” Keebo explains, back in Siberia and inside the bridge. Everyone looks on, pointing at the images on the screen while playing back the fight inside of the tower. “Now look at it through the ion filter. Do you see the energy field permeating from the device? Its aura glows just like the Predictr that I’ve designed. Yet it’s vastly smaller in size and weight and is more powerful than what I could have ever imagined, and without the horrific side effects of my design. Look at how quickly Orb and Black Horse react to their attacks. It increases their strength and reaction speed exponentially, and there seems to be no side effects from the massive amounts of energy that they are being exposed to. If they are this much more advanced than us, then we’re going to have a huge problem on our hands.”
“Reports have come back from Manhattan,” interrupts Neiala. “It seems that Black Horse and Orb are still alive and kicking. Black Horse has not shown his face in over fifty years. There must be something of much importance if he’s come out of hiding. He spoke of needing Dwight for something. We need to find out what that something is. However, now that Dwight is dead, I think it has severely crippled our plans as well.”
“Nonsense,” Rotiart angrily interrupts. “Our main focus should be to stop the Trident and nothing more. When the Trident is stopped, the Horses will be drawn out and Atlantis will be destroyed again. Dwight’s death will not dictate the outcome of this war. Besides, we have slowed them down significantly. Father?” All eyes turn to Shundai.
“Yes, I gave the order to level the towers, even before you failed to kill Orb and Black Horse,” Shundai says. “And it was Dwight who was the key to the entire operation.”
“What?” Neiala angrily says.
“A necessary sacrifice in a thousand-year war,” Shundai says in sincerity. “My heart is heavy for the people lost, but it had to be done.”
Neiala slams her hands on the table. “There were thousands of people in those buildings
, and you had them destroyed? Why wasn’t I told about this until now? If we have come to this, then all hope is lost,” she says and then storms out of the room.
“Neiala!” shouts Rokie. Shundai stands and thrusts out his arm.
“Let her go, Rokie,” Shundai commands. “Her anger is warranted. The towers were a secret operating base of Theoretics that the Chariot were using to send signals to their satellite called Cerberus,” he says, addressing the room. “With years of research and information that have been retrieved from our sources, we had determined that Cerberus was to be used to trigger phase three of Trident with high frequency waves that can target areas of the world to within a few hundred meters. It will not stop them completely, but it has crippled them severely. And even though many innocent lives were lost, hundreds of millions of lives would have perished if Trident had been released. Now, more sacrifices must be made. We have acquired a small-yield nuclear device. We will set it off in a Colorado base known as NORAD. This base is a communications strong point. If we destroy it, then we will severely cripple them and draw them out.”
“Dwight is dead, and this is what you people talk about?” interrupts Lara. “You can all go to hell.”
“You have no place in this matter,” Rotiart angrily says. “Be happy that you and your flunkies are still in our protection, unlike your friend back in Vegas.”
“Rotiart!” Shundai shouts.
“What?” Ron says. “You mean to tell me that you are responsible for David’s death?”
Suddenly, just as the meeting is about to end, a video feed interrupts on one of the monitors, and a deep and warped voice floods the room. There is no face to the voice, just a screen full of static.
“Is this the lair of the Tempests?” the voice asks as it warps and changes pitch from low to high.
“Yes, it is. I am Shundai, leader of the Tempest. And who might you be?”
“You can call me Enoch.”
“Enoch?” Shundai says. “What is your business here, and how did you obtain our frequency?”
“My business?” the muffled and warping voice says. “My business is to protect humanity. Your cause has failed, and if you do not change your strategies, all shall be lost. I obtained your frequency from the one that you call Dwight.”
“Dwight is dead,” Shundai says. “He died over a week ago in Manhattan.”
“Yes, I know. He told me days before that incident that his life was in extreme danger. He only wanted me to contact you if he was killed. Someone who is sitting in your room right now gave me this information.”
“How do you know this?” yells Shundai.
“I am closer than you think, my friend,” Enoch says. “I am here to tell you that I am on the brink of finding the key to Cerberus. The attack on the beacons was futile. It did not stop the Trident, or Cerberus, it merely slowed them down. What needs to be done now is to hunt down all of the Spiders. If you find the Spiders, then you find the Horsemen as well. I know of two of the Horsemen, yet the other two have seemed to evade me. They also have something else that they are planning.”
“You don’t know anything,” Rotiart shouts. “For all we know, you could be here just to deceive us!”
“Silence,” Shundai commands and turns back to the monitor. “What are they planning? What is your location? I can send one of my best men to bring you in, and I can guarantee your safety,” says Shundai.
“That is not an option. However, this is what I will leave you with. They have been diligently searching for something or someone. If they obtain what they seek, they will become unstoppable. I’d advise all of you to concentrate your efforts on killing Orb and Recluse and ferreting out the remaining Spiders. Killing them may bring you the information that you need, but it will not stop them. Only one thing will stop them. Until then, stay on high alert. You have a traitor among you. I will contact you when I have more information.”
“What can stop them?” asks Shundai.
The screen fades out and darkness replaces the static on the screen. The voice goes away, and nothing but questions fill the room.
“Pairon, were you able to track the transmission?” asks Shundai.
“No. He used some sort of encryption device, and I’m picking up multiple coordinates. However, I did copy the unique signature of the transmission.”
“Good. I want any and all information that can be gathered about this, Enoch, and bring it to me within the next twenty-four hours. And who is this person that has been leaking information? Speak now!”
“Well,” says Lara, “Dwight told me about the insider a while ago, and that the insider was closer to bringing down the Chariot than any of us. He said that this insider, whom he met years ago while he was enlisted in the Marines, explained to him a few days ago that Cerberus is still far from the reach of the Chariot, and that Dwight was a key to Cerberus’s completion. Without him, the plan might be impossible. I think that’s why he sacrificed himself and gave me the contact information to the insider. Before we went on the mission to Manhattan, Dwight said the insider would contact me within a few days.”
“Very well,” Shundai says. “Even though we have limited information from this unknown person, we should factor it into our options. We will take into account what the insider says and see how this plays out before other options are weighed.”
The two men and the woman on the monitors agree, but Rotiart is furious with Shundai and the Elders’ decision.
“Father, we cannot seriously trust these outsiders and this Enoch. For all that we know, they too can be spies of those retched fiends.”
“Is there a problem with my decision, Son?” Shundai sternly asks.
“No, Father,” he replies, holding back his true thoughts. “Excuse my insubordination.”
“Now, after having this talk with this insider, we must strengthen our other cells around the world. Ron,” he says, turning to the bored Ron, who has his feet propped up on the table and is picking his nails, “you will go to South Africa and meet with a man named Luther.”
“Hmph,” the nonchalant Ron responds, “sounds like a party. As long as he’s not as ugly as Steve. I might fling myself off of a bridge if he is.”
“Steven and Kim, you will both go to our outposts in Morocco, where a woman by the name of Dendi is in command of a small cell.
“Lara, you will go to Australia in exile until contacted. You will be safe there. We have very strong influence in that region of the world. You will be called upon if needed. But in your delicate situation, I think all of your time will be taken up.”
Lara looks at Shundai in shock of him knowing and places her hand on her stomach.
“It looks like Dwight will live on in another way,” Shundai says, smiling. Neiala looks away and places her hand on her stomach as well.
“The search still continues for the body, old friend,” Black Horse says, back at the Chariot’s headquarters. “Maybe it washed out to sea. It may be lost forever.”
“No worries,” Pale Horse says. “I’ve just received information that our Lamb has left us with a gift that we can use—she’s pregnant. Even in death, the Chariot lives on. We also still have the Viper.”
“Are we going to awaken him soon?” Black Horse asks.
“Only if Red Horse agrees,” Pale Horse says. “Red Horse is a tough one to persuade. She sometimes worries me with her compromising and lustful ways. Even though she doodles in human emotion, she always does her duty. But if he is awakened, then it shall be a joyful day for us. That will be the last move to let us know that our kingdom has been completed.”
“And what of the rebels?” Black Horse asks.
“The bothersome rebels are at their end, my friend,” says Pale Horse. “It’s just a matter of time before we acquire what we need from the Mole. Give the signal, my friend, and send the Viper to retrieve our gift.”
Black Horse laughs an evil laugh. “Long, live, Atlantis.”
“But all of those people?” Kim says.
>
“A small price to pay for the preservation of the human race,” says Rokie. “My father does what it takes to protect the human race. It was in our best interest.”
“And what about us?” Steve asks angrily. “Our friend is dead. I’m surprised you haven’t poisoned us or killed us in our sleep, just like you did David.”
“You are very valuable to us. David was an uncalculated situation that had to be dealt with. You all have been given special assignments. Your skills and knowledge are very useful. I have been given orders to look after you until then.”
“So now what?” Ron says. “What will I be, a freaking squire? Cleaning your knickers and bringing you wine? No thanks. I’d rather take my chances on the outside of this underground ghetto.” Ron storms off.
“Ron!” Lara says.
“Let him go,” says Steve. “He always gets worked up. He’s not going anywhere. He may be an asshole, but he’s not dumb.”
The next day, Kim is in the room alone with Rotiart while he goes over important documents.
“May I ask what you are looking at, sir?” Kim asks.
“Schematics on a suspected Chariot stronghold. Nothing you should be concerned about,” snaps Rotiart.
“Forgive my intrusion. Shundai seems very strict on you,” says Kim.
“Yes, he is. A lot is expected of me. I am next in line to rule this faction.”
“What happened to your mother?” asks Kim.
“She died a long time ago. We were in Venice on a lead that an operative of the Chariot was in the area. Our cover was blown, and one of the Spiders killed her. That Spider was Orb.”
“I am deeply saddened for your loss. I lost my parents when I was very young as well,” Kim says in a soft, empathizing tone. “So, do you think we can stop this Trident?” His tone tightens. “My friend Dwight wasn’t confident that we could.”
Chess Players: Atlantis and the Mockingbird Page 22
