Journey to Ohmani (Across the Infinite Void Book 1)

by Ashley Grapes

  “No, it’s my first time here. A taxi driver told me about this place and thought it would…resonate with me,” Levi said.

  “Why did you have your cell phone on? Were you recording us, spy? Jeremy, bring me his cell phone.”

  “I didn’t know about the cell phone rule. It was my grandmother who was texting me.”

  The speaker took the phone and read the message aloud. “Just visited your mom in prison. She says she loves you and to stay strong.” The man looked at Levi with a quizzical expression.

  An idea popped into Levi’s head. “Yes, my mom is in jail as the second suspect to the spaceport bombing.”

  The crowd began to whisper and stir wildly in their seats.

  “Her preliminary trial is next Wednesday. The charges against her are terrorism and conspiracy…and murder,” Levi added for a little more pizazz.

  A couple of men in the audience whooped their approval.

  “It’s true!” one man yelled from the darkness. “I’m the one that drove him to the jail to visit her. He’s a real fine ’merican’.”

  Levi knew from the brain cells starting to spontaneously combust in his head that the voice was from the racist taxi driver. He looked over at the leader and shrugged his shoulders, knowing he had won over the audience.

  “Well, I’ve got a few more questions for you. But first, we’ve gotta’ make sure you’re a real fine human. George!” he yelled to someone behind the stage.

  Levi was waiting for something dramatic to happen. Then he heard a scream coming from the back of the room. It was Talon. Panic took hold of Levi’s body and he jumped off the stage and went running back up the aisle.

  “His girl’s a Sydces!” he heard one person scream.

  “Spies!” yelled another.

  “Grab them both!” the man yelled on stage, causing a new parade of hands to grab Levi.

  Talon screamed again, giving Levi newfound strength to get to her. He became unstoppable, pushing his way through the crowd and throwing men like they were ragdolls. He could see through an opening in the crowd that two men were holding Talon up. She stood hunched over in their arms, covering her ears with her hands. One of them threw her over his shoulder and made the mistake of walking towards Levi, thinking someone had grabbed him as well. Levi hit the last man standing in his way with a resounding clock in the jaw and was close to reaching Talon when he heard the speaker yell something over the microphone.

  “Police! Police!”

  The man holding Talon dropped her like a bag of flour and began running like everyone else towards the secret door. Unfortunately, there was nowhere for them to run, as the police had blocked off the exit and stood waving their guns. Levi ran to Talon’s side during the chaos. She was curled up in the fetal position, still holding her ears in obvious pain. He needed to get her out of here.

  “Come with me.” a voice whispered in Levi’s ear.

  Levi looked at the man who said it. He was a younger, good-looking man with chiseled features, a full head of curly brown hair, and a pair of concerned dark blue eyes. Levi wondered if he could trust him. The police would have been a godsend if Levi hadn’t just bragged about his mom being a suspected terrorist to a room full of xenophobic meat heads. He grabbed Talon and followed the young man down the aisle and around the right side of the stage. Many audience members were crawling into trap doors under the platform or locking themselves in small backstage rooms. At the end of the hall was another door that said ‘Custodian’ on it. The man whipped out a key and unlocked it. Once in the room he frantically unfolded a miniature ladder that had been propped up against the wall and placed it in the middle of the floor. He climbed up to the top of the ladder and tied a string on a small metal loop that Levi had not noticed before. When he was done knotting the string, he pulled on it, causing the tile on the ceiling to fold down into a set of stairs much like in an attic. The man re-folded the mini ladder and stuffed it behind a shelf full of junk.

  “Police!” someone yelled on the other side of the door, banging heavily. “Open up!”

  The curly-haired man put a finger over his lips in the universal sign for them to be silent. He cut the string and retied it on another loop at the bottom inside of the collapsible staircase with incredible speed. He then proceeded to run up the stairs without the teeniest of sound and beckoned them to follow with a quick flip of his wrist. Levi obliged with Talon in his arms, wincing at the creaks and groans that sounded under his heavy steps. Levi could hear the police wiggling the handle trying to get the door to open. At the top of the ladder, Levi stepped into the dark attic and sat down with Talon in his arms.

  Their mysterious savior started to pull up the ladder from their spot in the ceiling with a simple pull of his string. Just as he closed the three of them in the dark space in the ceiling, Levi heard the door slam open and the sound of footsteps below them. The police officer was throwing things around, trying to find anyone hiding amongst the junk. Talon was still in pain, tears rolling down her cheeks as she fought back whimpering from the torture that was still a mystery to Levi.

  “All clear,” the police officer declared, running out of the room.

  The man then turned on a small light on his watch and waved for Levi and Talon to follow him. Levi could now see that they were not in an attic, but a passage. It was very narrow, and Levi could not easily walk and hold Talon at the same time. When he tried readjusting her in his arms she pushed his hand away and forced her legs to stand on the ground, albeit wobbly. They made their way down the corridor as quickly and quietly as possible. Talon stumbled in front of him, hunched over with her hands clutched tightly over her ears.

  The metal walls were rough and uneven, indicating to Levi that whoever had built the tunnel cared more for functionality than aesthetics. It was also obvious the passageway was a secret. The air was unbelievably stagnant and held the pungent smell of rats and their droppings. After a few minutes of walking, Talon uncovered her ears and did not seem to be in pain anymore, sending a wave of relief through Levi.

  “We are far enough away now.” The man finally stopped and turned to them. “My name is Michael. My dear, I could tell from the moment I saw you that you are Pila’s daughter, Talon. Your hair is unmistakable.”

  Talon looked at the man, her face still red from crying. “Who are you? How did you know my mother?”

  Michael squinted slightly, wondering how much he should disclose. “Your mother was the supply specialist for the Stellar, but that was a cover. You are old enough now and have been through enough to know the truth, Talon. Pila was working as a covert operative for the intelligence agency I also work for.”

  “My mother was a spy?” Talon said, having to sit down.

  13 EXPLOSIVE POLITICS

  Levi mistook her sitting down as a sign of poor health. He ran to her, placing his palm on her forehead. “Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine…physically,” Talon added.

  “The Revolutionists, as they like to be called, make sure no aliens are in their audience by blasting high frequencies…about 30,000 hertz, which is outside of the human hearing range.”

  “Yes, it sounded like someone was blowing a hundred whistles in my ear. I couldn’t think straight.” She winced, remembering the pain. “I’m just so confused about my mother. I had no idea.”

  The man looked down the hallway and leaned his head, trying to catch the faintest sound. “We built this, you know. Our agency,” he said, looking around at the jagged walls. “We are subcontracted by the United Nations to collect intelligence by monitoring extremist groups like this one. Our goal is prevention — to keep the peace by stopping things before they happen. Your mother, although a Sydces, loved humans very much. She loved her best friend and the human race as a whole after having lived on Earth for so long. She, like everyone who works for our firm, wanted interspecies peace. She ran intelligence for us quite often here on Ohmani and was the one to discover this Revolutionist group. It was her work that got th
is secret passageway built.”

  “How long had she been working for your company? Seven months?” Talon asked.

  “Yes, but how did you know?”

  “That’s when she got the Supply Specialist position and started traveling to Ohmani a lot. Do you know who murdered her?” Talon asked frankly.

  “I’m afraid not. She did no field work at all, and wasn’t supposed to engage in intelligence on U.S. soil, which leaves me to believe it was either a separate conflict altogether, or someone up here on Ohmani found her out. The problem is, we did not receive any intelligence to suggest either scenario.”

  “Why were you down there? In the Revolution Lounge?” Talon asked.

  “The Revolution Society has been closely watched by our company. It was my job to listen for any leads at their meeting tonight after the bombings earlier today. Unfortunately, I didn’t really learn much; those men look and sound a whole lot tougher than they actually are. Based on what I have learned, I do not believe they were the ones who set off the bomb. Perhaps the better question is, why are you two here?” he asked, sounding like a reprimanding parent.

  Talon and Levi looked at each other, wondering how honest they should be with this stranger.

  “Well,” Talon began, “I found this note the day my mother was murdered.” Talon pulled the piece of paper out of her pocket and gave it to Michael. “That’s why we were here. We thought maybe Utpal was the name of the bomber. Levi just happened upon the password by an overly-enthusiastic blabbermouth.”

  “The Revolution Lounge is known for being quite discriminatory against aliens. The Revolution Society even more so. They change their password every month…Pila probably just wrote down this month’s password, which was Utpal. As far as I know, there isn’t any single person named Utpal but I will check the database. This,” he said looking again at the piece of paper, “is just a list and doesn’t give us much information…but she obviously knew something about the bomb, which is the first I am hearing of it. Maybe she thought the Revolution Society was responsible. Did you happen upon anything else that could help?” Michael asked.

  “No.”

  “Okay, let’s get you back to Bale’s and fill him in on your adventures tonight. I’m sure he won’t be happy.”

  “You know Bale?” Talon asked confused.

  “Who do you think got Pila her job at our company?” Michael said. “He mentioned you were here on Ohmani so I assumed you were staying with him.”

  “But Bale is a lawyer. He didn’t tell me he was a spy too,” Levi interjected.

  “We are spies, we’re not supposed to tell you, and we all have our full-time covers. We are everywhere, integrated into the system. You will never know who is a spy by what they do on the surface…or a bad guy for that matter. That being said, Bale is our agency’s only lawyer, which is his primary schooling. Let’s go.”

  After ten minutes of walking, the tunnel began opening up to a more reasonable diameter and they began walking at a more brisk pace. Finally, they reached a door that required a code, which Michael began punching in. When they stepped through the threshold, Levi looked around the small dark room that again looked to be for storage of some sort. He could hear the noise of machines pumping away outside the closet.

  “What is this place?” Levi asked. “Are we still underground?”

  “Barely. The surface is essentially the roof of this building. We are standing in the oldest atmosfactory on Ohmani. It was used when they were first terraforming this place and establishing the atmosphere,” Michael said. When Levi gave him a confused look he continued while punching in another code for the next door out of the room. “This asteroid is an M-type, which means its composition is mostly metal like nickel and iron. The metals leached into the soil at such toxic levels that it killed most of the plants originally brought to Ohmani. To fix this problem, scientists created transgenic plant species that could handle this type of environment. Before the new plants could establish in sufficient numbers on the walls of the asteroid, factories like this were the sole source of nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide production and recycling.”

  They stepped through the door and Levi saw that they were indeed in a factory. Throughout the room were automated machines larger than tractor trailers. Some pumped away, while others spun like the backs of over-sized cement trucks. Chains and conveyer belts and pipes ran the length of the room and disappeared through the walls and ceiling.

  “I’m guessing by the codes on the doors that your company had permission to build secret passageways to and from this place,” Talon said as they walked through the giant room.

  Michael laughed. “You are a spy in training, I see. Yes, for the reason I just explained, this factory lost a lot of money when the terraforming process was over. We pay them quite a hefty amount to let us build our tunnels.”

  “You mean there’s more than one?” Levi asked.

  “We are spies,” he replied flatly. “And I trust you two can keep the secret. The only reason I told you in the first place is one, your mother, Ms. Terry, and two, I’m impressed you infiltrated the Revolution Lounge.”

  They walked up a set of stairs, went through one more door and stepped into the dark night sky. Billowing gases rose up in every direction, blocking the view of the city around them. They weaved through the towers of vapor, past another area filled with vats of algae bags, and they finally reached the exit gate.

  “Call Bale, Levi, and tell him to meet at the location,” Michael said as they all climbed into a car.

  “What location is that?” Levi asked.

  “It’s dangerous to do business at our personal living quarters and our company building is closed at this hour. We have an apartment on Allen that we meet in for purposes such as this.”

  “Is it 6108 Allen Street North, apartment 36?” Talon asked.

  Michael slammed on the brakes and looked at Talon in the back seat. “Yes, how did you know that?”

  She looked at Levi uncomfortably, knowing that her next words were about to get her uncle in further trouble. “Because…I’m staying there.”

  Michael began swearing and mumbling under his breath until they had left the premises, which required another gate code, but did not say anything more to the two teenagers in his car. Levi whipped out his phone to text Bale.

  Michael saved Talon and me from killer rednecks. He wants you to meet us at Talon’s place right now to discuss developments.

  Bale texted back an exclamation mark, followed by a thumbs up. The apartment was back on the ceiling, and for the first time Levi was going to be able to take the bypass for automobiles instead of for pedestrians. As they approached the thicker tubes shooting up into the sky, an automated voice in the car told the passengers that it had connected to the bypass system and was initiating autodrive. Michael took his hands off the wheel and crossed his arms, still seeming upset over the news that Bale had allowed his niece to stay in their secret rendezvous location. Levi found this childish, seeing as Michael had given up his ‘top secret’ spy cover at the drop of a hat.

  Before the tubes shot straight up into the sky, they curved and lay flat on the ground in front of the car, with three in a row at the bottom and two on top – like a honeycomb. The car was moved into another lane that started to elevate on a ramp, heading towards the top right tube. They entered it, going about two hundred meters before their car started to lift diagonally off the ground while remaining perfectly horizontal. Soon, the car was lifting straight up and Levi could see the cars in the other tubes around him also travelling towards the ceiling. When he started lifting off the seat, Levi heard the same whooshing sounds as on the PB and the car began to flip one hundred and eighty degrees to the side. It was strange to think that his up was now his down and visa-versa.

  “How does it flip the car?” Levi asked, his own curiosity surprising himself.

  “When the car doesn’t have gravity acting on it, strong air jets come out of the sides of the tubes and h
it the car, creating the force that turns it. It doesn’t take much,” Michael explained.

  They landed on the other side and headed to the apartment building. The police were still out in full force, patrolling the streets with dogs and krits. When they finally arrived at the apartment, Bale was already there. He crossed the room and stood in front of Talon.

  “I’m sorry I lied to you,” he said to Talon, placing his sausage fingers over her shoulders.

  Talon responded by hugging his torso. “I forgive you. Nice to meet you, Uncle Bale.

  It was a sweet moment that was interrupted by Michael. “I can’t believe you’re letting her stay in this apartment. This is for business matters.”

  “Well, now that the truth is out in the open, she can stay with me,” Bale said.

  “How is Bockie tonight?” Levi asked, wondering if she was worried that he had not shown up at Bale’s yet.

  “Actually I do not know. She stopped by and dropped a suitcase off with your clothes and then she was out the door again. She wanted me to look at her boobs,” Bale grimaced.

  “Sorry.” Why wasn’t Bockie at Bale’s? Levi whipped out his phone and called Bockie. She didn’t answer so he sent a text. A minute later his phone dinged.

  The Stellar Grand paid for us to stay in another hotel tonight while they run their investigations. I’m good. Love.

  “Alright, everyone,” Michael cut in. “We need to get everything out in the open. “We need to sit and divulge all the information we have.”

  The four of them sat and recounted what they knew thus far. Levi did not really learn much until Bale began sharing what his team had discovered investigating Axella’s case that day.

  “So you used your spy contacts to look into the evidence they had against my mom? And they found traces of powder residue on my mom’s fingers during her very first booking process?” Levi clarified.

  “Yes. This is what I believe happened. The bomber, Jivine, had used a secret passageway to get from the spaceport to the surface…much like the one you all used tonight to escape The Revolution Lounge. That would have been a very tiring trip for Jivine seeing as the spaceport is over a mile underground near the outside crust. The OSP uncovered this tunnel during their investigations and found that it came out behind a stall in the same bathroom your mom went into. Jivine had been covered in an explosive residue that she had tried to clean off of herself. Traces of it were still found on her according to the autopsy report. Your mother went in soon after Jivine had left, and somehow, got the powder on her too by coincidence…perhaps she grabbed the wrong wall when she was throwing up or something. Cameras caught them both leaving the bathroom within fifteen minutes of each other. Anyways, the existence of the powder on her fingers, followed by the fact that she met with Jivine in the hotel later that night is enough to at least raise suspicion I’m afraid.”