“Tom ...” Teller sighed. “Goddammit.”
The soldier froze, his eyes cold.
Even Minya frowned in confusion.
Freya raised her Beretta, arms locked, and pointed it at Tom’s left eye. “I’ll paste your fucking brains all over the walls, you bastard.”
Teller walked slowly across to Freya and placed his hand on top of hers, gently coercing her to lower her weapon, while never taking his eyes off Tom. “You sneaky bastard. You know, I was looking at my own team. For a while there, I even suspected pretty boy back there.” He motioned to Kelly.
Tom shuffled on the spot.
“But you were right under our noses, sitting in Dulce Base the whole time—up close and personal with the clone. Sasha, how long have you known?”
“Not long. Actually, I did not know until I arrived. I recognized his face. At first, I couldn’t place it, but then, it came to me. He was a sleeper agent living in the U.S.”
“A sleeper agent?” Freya asked.
“Yes. A good one. Or, at least, he was. One of a team of us that were sent to live in California. Until he went AWOL.”
“You were a sleeper agent, too?” Freya asked. “And you want to trust this guy, Jonathan?”
“Ms. Nilsson,” Sasha said. “I have saved you and your fellow Americans from being destroyed first.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You retrieved it,” Teller said, rolling his eyes at his own stupidity for not having seen it sooner.
“Yes,” Sasha replied.
“Retrieved what?”
“The uranium. My men and I tracked the Triads to Chechnya and found the facility. They were heavily armed, but we prevailed.”
“That didn’t quite come through in the report I received from Washington,” Teller said. “We were told a whole lot of uranium had gone missing, and the scene was littered with a bunch of dead Chechen Mafia.”
“Communicating we had taken their weapon could have been intercepted. Your instructions were to come and assist. So I knew I could tell you here.”
“Come and assist?” Freya echoed. “Why did you ask him to do that, Jonathan?”
“Because the Triads were keeping tabs on American forces. The last thing they were expecting was Russian help. Always thinking six moves ahead, sweetie.”
Freya wrinkled her nose.
Teller ignored her. “So, did you find out what he was going to do with it? Was he going to set it off in America? How would he ever get it into the country?”
“No, he wasn’t trying to smuggle it in,” Sasha replied.
“Long-distance?”
“What difference does it make?” interrupted Freya. “I don’t wanna be the heartless one here, but one warhead? He’d take out, what, half a city? What would be the point?”
“He wasn’t aiming for a city,” Sasha replied. “He was aiming for the upper atmosphere above America.”
“What would be the point in that?” Freya asked.
“Project Teak and Orange,” Sasha replied.
“Ah, crap.”
“Jonathan?”
Teller drew a deep breath. “A stupid project from the Cold War. Somewhere, someone wanted to know what would happen if the Russians exploded a nuclear device in the atmosphere above the U.S. So they thought they’d try it themselves.”
“What?”
“Yes,” Sasha confirmed. “The American Government thought it a good idea to detonate two 3.8-megaton nuclear devices twenty-eight miles above the Johnston Atoll.”
“Didn’t know you guys knew that,” Teller said.
“Mr. Teller, the fireballs they produced burned the retinas of every living thing within a 225-mile radius. You almost blew a hole in the ozone layer.”
Freya choked on the realization. “Oh, God, he was going to fry us. He was going to blast a hole in the ozone.”
“Yes, fry the Americans and drown everyone else. The result would have been the rapid melting of the icecaps. The entire Atlantic seaboard would vanish, along with Florida and the gulf coast. Anything low-lying in the rest of the world would disappear.”
Freya furrowed her brow in disbelief. “He was trying to recreate the great flood, the one that brought the ancients.”
“It seems so,” Sasha replied.
“And now your government has the weapon?”
“We have confiscated the uranium.”
Freya narrowed her eyes.
“Does he know you have his toy?” Teller asked.
“We don’t think so.”
“That means he’s still coming for Wak. He wants to use the creature after the flood somehow.”
“Yes, and I bet this fuckin’ weasel knows how.” Freya pressed her gun harder against Tom’s temple, forcing him to bend away.
The soldier grimaced against the force of the Beretta being drilled into the side of his head. “They replicated an orb,” he spluttered.
“What?” Teller and Freya asked in unison. Freya released the pressure slightly.
“They cloned it. The clean-up team in Siberia left behind some residue from the orb that got destroyed when the original creature died. They collected it.”
“Shit,” Teller whispered.
“And you’ve been leading this lunatic right to us?”
Tom didn’t respond.
“Hey ...” Kelly groaned from behind them. “What’s going on?”
“Hey,” Freya replied softly. “You’re awake.” She turned her attention from Tom, walked away, and hunkered down next to Kelly.
“Guess so. Who’s the new guy?” Kelly rolled his eyes in the direction of the Russian officer.
“That’s Sasha Vetrov,” Teller replied. “He’s a friend.”
“Another Russkie? Hey, Minya, you gotta friend.”
“Hardly,” she muttered.
“He just rooted out our mole, who’s been feeding the Chinese information,” Teller added.
Kelly raised his eyebrows.
“It was Tom. Turns out he’s an ex-KGB sleeper agent. Bought by the Chinese.”
“Oh, Tom. You dumbass,” Kelly wheezed before breaking into a coughing fit.
Freya put her hand on his arm. “How do you feel?”
“Like shit. You got any painkillers?” Freya shook her head. “No.”
“How about that tea?” Teller suggested.
“I guess that might work. Kelly, where is it?”
“There’s a baggie in my side pocket.”
“Keep an eye on Tom there, boys.” Teller stepped forward to retrieve the tea and paused. “Freya, perhaps you should fish it out.”
Kelly coughed a laugh. “Missing an opportunity there, Teller.”
Freya searched Kelly’s pocket. Her fingers grasped the plastic bag, but it was wedged inside, so she tugged harder. It broke free, dragging his passport along with it.
Teller picked up the passport and opened it to the main page. “Kelly Angelo Graham. Wow, your parents didn’t like you much, huh?”
Freya stifled a giggle. “I think it’s cute.”
“Just make the tea, jesters.”
Teller and Sasha organized a defensive perimeter while Freya set up a small portable stove. After quickly boiling a little water, she poured it into a tin cup containing the last of Kelly’s tea. She blew on it several times, much like a mother would for her child, and brought the cup to Kelly’s lips. He closed his fingers around hers and tipped the cup, allowing the foul-smelling liquid to trickle into his mouth. He didn’t even notice how hot it was, gulping it down quickly.
“Whoa, slow down there.” Teller laughed.
Kelly swallowed, out of breath. “You ever drink this stuff?”
“No.”
“Then don’t tell me to drink it slowly. It tastes like feet.”
Teller and Freya laughed. Even Sasha had to smirk.
“Get some rest, Kelly. We’ll set up camp in here,” Freya said. “Jonathan, do we have any idea where Wak or Victoria are?”
“No.” He shook his head. “The boys are on the perimeter, keeping alert, but we are in no position to go tracking them. There aren’t enough of us. I’ve radioed for a new chopper. We have to wait. And, in the meantime, decide whether or not to execute this bastard.” Teller motioned to Tom, who had been forcibly knelt on the ground, fingers interlocked atop his head.
Kelly nodded, wrapped his arms around his midriff, and closed his eyes before falling into a restless sleep.
Location: Under Teotihuacan, Mexico, South America
Kelly awoke with a jerk, his shirt wet with sweat. In the dim of the halogen lights, he surveyed the interior of the cave. A few soldiers, American and FSB, paced the perimeter of the underground camp. Teller slept soundly on an uncomfortable-looking rock, as did Minya. Kelly narrowed his eyes, searching for the Russian guy, Sasha. He couldn’t find him. Still, he could have been one of the amorphous masses lying about the ground. Finally, he met the worried face of Freya. She was sitting cross-legged, holding her knees with the insides of her elbows, her hands locked together.
“Bad dreams?” she whispered.
He nodded.
Careful not to make too much noise, she eased herself into a crawling position and crept to where he lay. “What was it about?”
“Huh?” He rubbed his eyes.
“Your dream. You said it was a bad one. What was it about?”
“Oh. Well, it was kinda weird. Did I ever tell you that back when I was bonded to K’in, I had a dream in which I was looking through his eyes? Actually, I had a couple. They were strange.”
“No, you didn’t mention them.” Freya drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her shins.
“Well, I did. It’s a very weird thing to experience a dream without language, just pure emotion. Anyway, I just had another one.”
“You saw through K’in’s eyes?” She asked, confused.
“No.” He shook his head. “Not through K’in. Through one of his kind. It sounds weird, but I think I was seeing a past event. There was a comet or a meteor, and it slammed into the earth. There were others of his kind. All were scared—no, terrified. I remember seeing a young one. It was looking at me as if it wanted help. Then a shockwave ripped through the ground, and everything went black. It got bright again, and I met a little tribal girl. She looked South American—maybe Mayan or Quechua. She touched me ... the creature.”
“Perhaps the meteor you saw caused the great flood? Remember, the one that Professor Alexander told us about? K’in’s people were meant to have come after it happened. It drove them from their homes.”
He nodded. “You know,” he began before stopping abruptly and wincing, clutching his ribcage.
Freya shot out her arms, ready to catch him should he reel back. “You okay?”
“Sure,” he replied, forcing a grin, before propping himself up. “As I was saying, after we left Russia, I did a bit of research before I left for the jungle. I guess I wanted to try and understand a bit more. Maybe make myself feel better.”
“And what did you find out?”
“Not too much. To be honest, I got a bit bored.” He chuckled. “But there was an article in the news. They talked about how some scientists had found evidence to suggest a massive meteor crash around twelve or thirteen thousand years ago. Something to do with a layer of platinum in the Greenland ice. They reckon this layer could have only been laid down by a massive meteor impact.”
“So, more evidence for the great flood. The timing is right.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“You know, it coincides with something Alejandro told me,” Freya said.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, about earth crust displacement.”
“Ah, Hapgood’s theory.”
“You researched that, too?”
“No, but the old goat loved that idea about the whole Earth’s crust slipping over the core. He went on about it.”
“Well, all the timing adds up. Meteor strike, massive climate change, Hapgood’s theory, K’in’s people.”
Kelly heaved a sigh.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just Chris would have loved this like his old man did. Izel too, to be honest. The whole family were intellectuals. Too good for me.”
“Too good for you?”
“Yeah, come on. We both know I’m no brainiac. I live by experience. I believe in what I can see, feel, and smell, ya know? I ain’t got much time for highbrow theories.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“Excuse me?” He raised both his eyebrows, surprised at her blunt response.
“You heard me. Bull. Shit,” she repeated. “You play dumb. I have no idea why. But you’re not as stupid as you make out. It’s just easier not to actually have a conversation with someone, right? Keep it flippant and people get bored and go away?”
Kelly paused, unsure how to respond.
“Well, I’m still here,” she said.
“For how long?”
“What?”
“Look, if you haven’t noticed, everyone who gets close to me bites the dust. Izel, Carmen, Chris. Now Alejandro. Shit, you even lost Tremaine.”
“Oh, shut up. You can’t believe only in what’s around you, in real experience, and then use fate and greater powers to suggest you’re bad luck.”
Kelly’s nostrils flared. “That’s my experience. I don’t need fate to make it so.”
“So you’re afraid something will happen to me? Is that why you didn’t stay when I asked?”
For a second time, he didn’t have an immediate retort. Mainly because she was at least in part correct. “Like it matters. You’re dating Wonder Boy over there.” He nodded at the sleeping Teller.
“Only because you left.” As the words escaped her lips, she realized her mistake.
Neither of them spoke for several minutes.
“Kelly, I ... what we did in your tent. I mean ...”
“Forget it. I gotta get up—my ass is killing me.” He grunted and placed both palms on the rocky ground before attempting to shove himself upward. The white-hot pain ripped through his insides as something ruptured deep within him. He yelped and immediately passed out, slumping back to the ground and smashing the back of his skull into a nearby boulder.
Freya fell to the ground next him and shook his shoulders. “Kelly? Kelly?” She turned and yelled. “Jonathan! Wake up!”
Teller jolted up, firearm drawn. “What? What is it?”
“It’s Kelly. Something’s wrong.”
Jonathan holstered his weapon and raised his palms to his soldiers, who were now fully alert. “It’s okay, boys. Stand down.” He stepped over to Freya and dropped down to his knees. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. He tried to get up and then screamed and passed out. I think he may be bleeding internally.”
Teller studied her. The fear at the thought of losing this idiot was burning through her wide eyes. He huffed and pursed his lips. “Okay, let me look.” He placed his right hand flat on Kelly’s stomach and pressed lightly. The tissue beneath felt hard against his fingers. Teller paused and thought for a moment. He lifted Kelly’s t-shirt.
Freya watched Teller’s expression darken. “What is it?”
“Cullen’s sign.”
“Shit, are you sure?”
He nodded and pulled Kelly’s shirt higher for Freya to see.
“Bruising around the umbilicus. He’s bleeding out internally pretty bad.”
“We have to move him.”
“There’s nowhere to move him to, Freya. We’re waiting for a new chopper. Besides, if you move him, you’ll make it worse.”
Freya fell silent. She knew he was right.
Teller took off his jacket, rolled it, and placed it under Kelly’s head. “I’m sorry, Freya. I really am.”
“Are you? Really?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re a tactical genius, a strategist who calculates risks to win
. You must have seen this coming—you and the Russian—plotting to stop the Triads.”
“I did what I needed to do to save as many lives as possible.”
“As many lives as possible? Are you kidding me?”
“It’s my job, Freya. It’s your job, too.”
“What about our lives, Jonathan?” She hushed her voice again. “It’s why you let us go on this trip, isn’t it? You were drawing the Triads out, giving them the opportunity to try and grab Wak. You knew they’d never get into Dulce Base. So you agreed to Kelly’s idea, because it presented the chance you needed.”
Teller weighed his response in his head. “Kelly provided an opportunity, yes. It was a calculated risk. The needs of the—”
“Don’t you dare quote that sci-fi crap at me! You were happy to put me at risk?”
“No, no, of course not. I was always there to protect you. I promised the General I would end this, but I’d make sure you were okay.”
“Benjamin? He knew you were going to use us as bait?”
“It was one scenario we’d considered. I didn’t see how it would arise. But it did. Look, I’m sorry. I am. But we’re almost done.”
“You lost at least twenty men, and Kelly’s dying. Just, just leave me alone.”
“Seems to me Kelly is the only one you actually care about.”
Freya hesitated just a fraction too long.
“See, I don’t even need you to say anything to know I’m right. Just like I don’t need to ask where you were when we got hit by the Triads.”
Again, Freya didn’t respond. She fought to maintain her anger, her stern expression. But the guilt seeped through her gaze.
Teller studied her. She was the strongest, most stubborn, and, quite frankly, sexiest woman he’d ever met. She could hold her own and was lethal with a Beretta. But perhaps he had only been allowed to see what she wanted him to see—her business face. When all was said and done, the man currently dying in her arms had an effect on her like no other. Around him, she became almost maternal, protective, and irrational.
“I’m sorry,” Freya managed, her voice barely audible.
“Me too,” he replied, bobbing his head. “Me too.”
Teller left Freya cradling Kelly. He made his way back to the spot where he’d been lying before to try to settle down again. But he didn’t sleep.
Children of the Fifth Sun Page 42
