Roam Around the Earth
Jason Paul Rice
Contents
Untitled
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
From the Author
Preview: Lost In Dreamland: Whitney Powers Paranormal Adventure #3
About the Author
Roam Around the Earth
By Jason Paul Rice
Copyright 2017 by Jason Paul Rice
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. All names are made up and used fictionally. Any resemblance to real people is completely coincidental. Any resemblance to real events is only part of the author’s imagination.
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Author’s Note: Some of the situations in the book might be similar to some current or past government events. This is not an attack or statement on any country, political party or person. I wholeheartedly respect everyone’s beliefs, heritage and political affiliation and the right to express those views. This story was only written for entertainment and for clarification purposes the Bureau of Investigation or B.o.I is the equivalent of the F.B.I. Happy Reading.
Whitney heard a ghostly whisper in her left ear, “The time is near for your next adventure. Don’t forget that we will make sure you get all the help you need.”
Whitney spun her head around and looked for her friend, but couldn’t find anyone except Trent, who sat at the desk next to her. The couple had been given an office to share since they would be working together on everything.
Whitney sat at her desk and leafed through updates on the latest developments in a Level One case about racketeering and extortion. She had been on the job for less than a week and most of her time had been spent being briefed on security clearances, job expectations, office processes and filling out an extraordinary amount of paperwork.
She looked over at Trent and got a surge of pride for serving her country of Adoxia. She felt strange going from a librarian to being an agent for the Bureau of Investigation. Most of her current colleagues had spent their entire careers in law enforcement and she hoped no one would resent her for the lack of experience.
Everybody, including the Chief, seemed to welcome Whitney and Trent with open arms. She had quickly found out that the leader of the Bureau was beloved by almost everyone for his dedication. Whitney discovered that he personally cared about all the agents and the integrity of the Bureau.
Whitney had never spent an extended period of time away from home and being in the Capitol had already started to wear on her. She hated the constant city traffic and that she and Trent were living on the thirteenth floor of an apartment building. Studying up on the immense handbook of regulations had dominated most of her time since arriving. She wanted to be close to her mom and sister to plan for the upcoming wedding.
One of her fellow agents named Barrett Nedhurst walked through the open door and said, “Powers, Merrick, Chief wants to see you in his office.”
Whitney glanced over and made eye contact with Trent who appeared as confused as she was. They got up and walked down the hallway of the agents’ offices to the very end. Trent knocked on the door.
“Come in,” sounded the Chief’s deep voice.
Trent opened the door and let Whitney in before following right behind.
“Sit, sit, there’s something we need to discuss,” the Chief said.
Whitney noticed that her boss looked like he had been slapped by the devil. His pale, perspiring face looked like he had just been violently ill.
No sooner than their backsides hit the chairs, the Chief slapped a folder onto the desk.
“Not more paperwork. I’m so sick of filling out forms, taking lie detector tests, learning alarm codes. How many pages is this one?”
The Chief looked into Whitney’s eyes and she could tell this was serious. He said, “This is what I had alluded to back at Pennsburgh. However, it’s gotten ten times bigger according to some new intelligence. There’s a dossier inside. You need to read it carefully.”
Trent picked up the sealed white folder and prepared to open it.
The Chief said, “No. Not here. This shouldn’t even leave this building, but this is so preliminary, you need to take this and keep it protected. There are some incredibly serious accusations inside there. I don’t know if it is true or not, but it merits initial investigation.”
“We will treat the dossier with the highest sensitivity, you can rest assured,” Trent told the Chief.
“I’m counting on you to keep this to yourselves. You are the only ones to have this document. If this gets out, I’ll know who did it. Tomorrow, we will discuss any questions you might have and I imagine there will be plenty,” the Chief opined.
“Thank you, Chief.”
“Sir, we’ll do our best to make the country and Bureau proud,” Trent promised.
The newly engaged couple had to sit through traffic and Whitney had to curb her impatience to rip open the folder in the car. She controlled herself until they got home and into their apartment. The Bureau had set them up in plush accommodations with leather furniture and rich mahogany tables and desks.
They sat down at a table and she tore open the top of the folder and pulled out a thin dossier. It was only about fifteen pages long and the heading was marked, ‘President’s Actions Involving Foreign Governments’. They read the entire document twice and Whitney realized why the Chief had looked so bad.
The disturbing file touched on the most serious matter Whitney had ever encountered. The current President had just taken over four months ago and Whitney really liked Alan Gergen, the former Governor of the state of Redinell. She couldn’t even imagine that the sweet-looking old man could be behind all the nefarious activities described in the dossier.
After sitting in silence, Trent said, “You realize what this means if true, right?”
“It means our President is a traitor. Plain and simple. If true though, of course. Do you know who Erick Emerson from the IA of Beraglenn is?”
“Can’t say as I do, but I do have a lot of friends in the IA community in Beraglenn. They have organized crime over there too. Let me make some calls and see what I can find out,” Trent told her.
Beraglenn was one of Adoxia’s closest allies and the two countries always shared intelligence with each other. Whitney waited impatiently and tried to figure out both ends of the conversation as Trent called his friends. He hung up after talking to five people about the matter.
“And?”
“Five for five. They all say they would bet their life that whatever information came from Erick, is the stone cold truth. They didn’t have one bad thing to say about the man, which is amazing. I was skeptical when I heard someone had paid Erick to find the info in the dossier, but this all checks out. It seems like we need to really dig in on this and see what’s going on,” Trent said.
“I would have never imagined they would give the two newest peop
le this case.”
“He probably didn’t want to believe it. He did say it was preliminary, but the last guy I talked to said that they know about this in their Intel Agencies and have warned our guys about it,” Trent revealed.
“How can that be?”
“Because, he said the President has put people in place to cover this up. He said we should be prepared for an incoming fake case to divert the agencies away from the real story. He said all this even bigger than the dossier could indicate. ‘It runs so deep’ were his exact words, I believe,” Trent said.
Whitney turned on the TV to check the weather for the next day. The news channel had a report on about the arrest of a Representative of Adoxia by the East Coast Branch of the Bureau of Investigation. Apparently, Terry Gerst had been caught in a relationship with a seventeen-year- old girl. Whitney watched as the agents were removing items from Terry’s house.
“That’s pretty crazy,” Trent said.
“Guess he didn’t learn his lesson the first time. He was just busted for something like this a few years ago. Why are they clearing out his house though?”
“Not sure. That does seem kind of strange for sure,” Trent agreed.
“So most of these names in the dossier are masked, how can we start to figure out who they are?”
“That is going to be tricky and to be completely honest, I don’t know how we can even start to verify this information. We can’t just drag in all the people who are named and try to get them to talk. Let’s talk to the Chief and see what he has to say about it,” Trent told her.
The next day, Whitney sat next to Trent in the boss’ office.
The Chief asked, “Did you get a chance to look at that item from yesterday?”
“Of course. We found out that EE comes with shining credentials from everyone who knows him. Why did he put the report together in the first place?”
The Chief said, “He was paid by a political opponent of Mr. Gergen. He runs a private intelligence firm and uses his sources from more than thirty years of field experience. I was afraid he was right about this, but I’m wondering why we don’t have any of this intel. It just doesn’t make sense.”
“My contacts have stated that our President has appointed people to the heads of the intelligence and justice community who are extremely sympathetic to his cause. Everyone other than you, apparently,” Trent said with a laugh.
The Chief let out a boisterous laugh. “I’m surprised he let me stay on then. I’ll find out this information and get it to you guys. First, I need to find out who the rats are that I have to bypass to get what we need.”
“So what can we do to find out if this is really true?”
“It’s going to be difficult. Most of these events happened in the past year, but not within the last four months. My biggest worry is that everything has been deleted or shredded already and we’re embarking on a wild goose chase,” the Commander said.
“We can still get to stuff if it’s been deleted, shredded not so much. I’m willing to do anything to get to the facts. Do we know of any money trail? That might be the first place to start,” Trent suggested.
The Chief said, “You’d better practice great restraint on this one. If there is something afoot, we can’t set off the alarm bells. I don’t want anything you work on to end up in the press. Am I understood?”
Trent and Whitney agreed with the Chief.
“I need to get all the foreign intercepts concerning communication from any members of the government of Goldera, particularly those involving the Gergen team of advisers. That should be a start.”
The Chief warned, “Be careful not to go for everything at once. I know it’s frustrating, but until I can get more support behind this, you two are all I have. Make me proud.” He let out a big belly laugh and dismissed the two agents.
They were walking to their car and Whitney heard another whisper, “You need to drive out of the city to meet an old friend. I’ve pre-programmed your GPS so all you need to do is get in and follow the directions.”
“All right, let’s do this,” Trent said.
“Wait, you heard that too?”
“Of course. I heard it in the office too, but that sounded like it was only meant for you. I don’t mind getting out of the city for a little bit,” Trent said.
“Me too.”
The directions took them west and they had to drive for a while to get to their destination. The sun slowly crept behind the jagged peaks of the mountains in the distance. Whitney started to get excited with only a few more miles to go.
They left their car in the lot at the state park and walked toward the hills. The emerging half-moon kept disappearing behind the gray clouds as the sky turned an unusual shade of reddish purple. A strong wind began to stir and kicked up the dusty earth. Whitney covered her eyes for protection as the heavy breeze continued.
When she opened her eyelids, Trent grabbed her and started dragging her back toward the car.
“What are you doing?”
“Did you see that thing back there?” Trent asked pointing at a tall, golden skinned man.
“Wait, stop, that’s my friend Darominius. Hey, buddy.”
The dragon shifter slowly lumbered over as Trent squeezed Whitney’s arm. She shook herself loose from Trent’s grip as Darominius came to a stop and bowed.
He said, “My lady, good sir. I don’t think I’ve ever been called buddy before, so there’s a first time for everything.”
“Trent, this is Darominius. So, uh, did you just drop by to say hi, or uh…?”
Darominius shook his head, “Impatience is something I’ve never found on a list of virtues, my lady. I am here to help you, as I said I would. I am going to take you to remote places for events that have occurred in the past.”
“We’re going to travel through time?” Trent asked.
Darominius said, “To be precise, I am going to travel through time while you two hang on to my back. We won’t be going back very far, but I will be taking you to events that are pertinent to this case.”
“So I guess the dossier is true then?”
Darominius answered, “You are about to find out.”
He started to walk away and kept growing bigger and bigger. His skin changed from soft and reptilian to what appeared to be shingled pieces of golden steel. The transformation only took about thirty seconds and Whitney stared at the dragon.
“Get on my back and hold on with all of your strength or you might die. Don’t be scared and make sure to get your hands under the scales. Don’t worry, you won’t hurt me,” Darominius instructed.
The couple hesitantly climbed onto the dragon’s back and the shingled surface felt as hard as stone. They both secured themselves near the dragon’s shoulders, just above the wings. Darominius began to flap his wings and Whitney almost fell off.
She dug her hand under the huge scale and squeezed hard. The dragon rocked around as he started to ascend off the ground. The aerial earthquake turned into a smooth upward climb and they quickly reached the dark clouds.
They changed directions and streaked through the water molecules clinging to the clouds. Whitney could also feel a weird sensation of electricity as they raced forward. The speed kept increasing and Whitney had to shut her eyes because of the harsh wind.
Suddenly, her golden friend began a sharp dive straight toward the ground. Whitney felt like she was going to be sick as they dropped at a tremendous speed. They hit a pillow-like landing and Whitney opened her eyes.
She stood next to Trent in an office meeting. There were people translating a language that Whitney didn’t understand.
“Boo,” a voice sounded from behind them.
Trent and Whitney both screamed. She was scared that the people in the meeting had heard them, but everyone carried on as if nothing had happened.
“They can’t hear you. Can’t see you either. That’s the great thing about this type of travel. However, if you drift off more than a mile in any direction, all
bets are off. Anything can happen then. For now, we’ll probably just stay in this room,” Darominius told them.
“When and where are we?”
“That I cannot tell you. Remember when your family of friends from another world told you that there are certain rules the intermediaries have to follow. I can take you places, but I can’t tell you any more than that,” the dragon shifter said.
“Well, I can see the Golderan flag in the middle of the table.”
Six men sat at the rectangular table, three on each side. She vaguely recognized a few of the men, but wasn’t sure exactly who they were. It appeared to be a meeting between representatives of Goldera and Adoxia. The two countries had been adversarial toward each other for quite some time and the relationship was at an all-time low. Goldera was located in South America.
One of the men on the Adoxia side said, “We would love to repair the broken relationship between our two great countries. I think that would be of great value to get more trade going once again.”
A man from the Golderan side spoke and Whitney listened as the person next to him translated, “If this possibility were to happen, what would your candidate like to see out of the agreement?”
The same man from Adoxia spoke again, “Our mutual friend is not guaranteed to win this election as you may already know. We could use some extra support on this matter.”
The translator explained this to his associates before speaking in Adoxian. He slowly said, “We can help with election. We have many people in your country who owe us a favor or two. We have people that work at polling stations and we know some people that work on the ballot devices themselves. We can make you win.”
Roam Around The Earth: Whitney Powers Paranormal Adventure #2 (Whitney Powers Paranormal Adventures) Page 1
