Catalyst (Breakthrough Book 3)

by Michael C. Grumley

  “Your father sounds like a wise man.”

  Li Na’s voice grew quiet. “He was.”

  They continued in silence for several minutes before she spoke again. “So what exactly is in this case?”

  “I’m afraid it’s a long story.”

  “I think we have time.”

  “Not enough,” Clay responded. He stopped again and shined the light forward. The end was in sight. In the distance, he could see wet soil rising up from the water.

  Several minutes later, they made it to dry ground where Clay immediately dropped his things. He focused his light on the bag and unzipped it, retrieving the thermal blanket.

  “Here.” He moved to Li Na, who had just sat down against the rock wall, wrapping the blanket around her legs and feet. “It’ll warm you up faster.”

  “Thank you.”

  He stood up. “You’re doing great.”

  “It doesn’t feel like it. I can barely stand up. I’ve been sick.”

  Clay nodded. “Are you hungry?” He turned back to his bag and pulled out a small package. He cut it open with a knife and handed it to her.

  “What is this?” She took the thick, brown plastic bag and turned it over.

  “It tastes better than it looks.”

  “What’s an MRE?” she asked, reading the letters off the bag.

  “Food. It’ll give you some energy.”

  Clay sat down on the opposite wall and watched Li Na take a bite of an unrecognizable chunk. After chewing, she raised her eyebrows and took another bite.

  “Not bad, huh?”

  “It’s very good.”

  Clay leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He hadn’t slept more than an hour in the past two days and without much food, he was reaching a new level of exhaustion.

  “Where are we going?”

  He rolled his head from side to side. “I’m not sure yet. First we need to get out of here.”

  “How much farther do you think it is?”

  “Hopefully not far. We’re headed back uphill, which is encouraging.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Encouraging? It means…hopeful. Of course, a little luck wouldn’t hurt either.”

  “Do you believe in luck?”

  He grinned and closed his eyes. “I do right now.”

  Li Na stared at him in the ambient glow of his flashlight. It was the first time she’d gotten a good look at his face. Or at least all of it. He was handsome, for an American. With dark hair and a square jawline, he reminded her of someone she might see on television. He was also tall and very tired.

  “Are you in the military? In America?”

  “I am.”

  “Like a soldier?”

  “Not anymore. Now I’m more of an investigator.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Someone who tries to find things out.”

  “Oh.” She took her last bite and folded up the empty plastic bag. “My father admired the American military.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Yes. He said Americans fight for honor.”

  “We try to. Usually.”

  “You don’t always?”

  “Unfortunately, not.”

  “My father said that you-” She stopped suddenly when Clay’s eyes shot open.

  “Shh!” He held his hand up, signaling her to be quiet. His eyes stared at her, unmoving. “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  He angled his head slightly. He heard it again. They both did. A distant thump.

  Clay was instantly on his feet. He grabbed Li Na and pulled her up, whipping the blanket from her legs.

  “There’s someone else in this tunnel!”

  “Are you-” Clay cut her off, clamping a hand over her mouth.

  “Yes, I’m sure,” he whispered. “We have to go! Quietly.”

  He stuffed the blanket and empty plastic into his bag, hefting it back onto his shoulder. The rest he gathered quickly before stopping and looking at the case in Li Na’s hands.

  They had traveled almost another quarter mile through the tunnel before Clay suddenly lowered his light and turned it off, plunging them into blackness. He remained still. “Do you feel that?”

  “What?”

  “A breeze.” Clay closed his eyes in the darkness and held his breath. He was sure he felt it. An almost undetectable flow of air. “Come on!” He turned the light back on and surged forward, with Li Na stumbling to hold on.

  A hundred yards farther and Clay stopped again. This time when he briefly turned off the light, Li Na didn’t need an explanation. She could see a ray of light in the distance.

  “Is that the end?”

  “I think so.”

  Clay turned the flashlight back on. Clumps of rocks and dirt littered the floor of the tunnel as they’d seen at the other end. As they neared, the light grew brighter to illuminate the mouth of the tunnel, largely hidden from the outside beneath a curtain of roots and vines.

  Clay stopped at the curtain of vegetation and separated several vines. There wasn’t much to see. Just a narrow path outside, almost entirely reclaimed by the forest.

  Clay powered off the flashlight, tucking both it and the phone into the pocket on the leg of his pants.

  “Stay close.”

  He unslung his HK in a smooth motion, raising it to his cheek. He then took a step forward and let the rifle slowly emerge from between the vines. His eyes searching left, then right.

  He stepped out onto the dry groundcover, crunching under his feet, and listened carefully. Clay continued slowly and had made it less than ten feet when he froze, causing Li Na to bump into him.

  “What is it?”

  Clay didn’t answer. Instead, he turned carefully around and stopped, staring over Li Na’s head.

  Lining the tiny hill above them were over a dozen soldiers, all with their rifles raised and aimed directly at Clay. Off to the side stood Li Qin, with a bandaged right hand, and before him, the terrified teenage boy who had shown them the tunnel.

  Clay didn’t move. Instead, he stared up as Qin smiled and laid his good hand reassuringly over the young boy’s shoulder.

  “Drop your gun.”

  Clay felt Li Na press in behind him as he studied the other soldiers. Very slowly, he lowered his HK to the ground.

  Qin motioned to one of the men next to him, who then lowered his own rifle. It was at that moment that Clay removed the phone from his pocket and held it up.

  The approaching soldier stopped and studied the phone curiously. He glanced back to Qin, who was doing the same. Together they watched as Clay turned the unit in his hand and began typing a message with his thumb.

  Qin’s eyes opened wide. He screamed at the soldier who was now within twenty feet. “STOP HIM!”

  The man exploded into a run, quickly reaching the end of the incline and launching himself forward.

  Clay took the full impact and was thrown to the ground while the phone tumbled out of his reach. The soldier reached it first and brought down the full weight of his boot, smashing the device into several pieces.

  73

  In Washington, D.C., Wil Borger’s heart nearly stopped when he read the single word message from Clay on his own phone. He stared, disbelieving, at each of the nine letters displayed on the tiny screen.

  “Oh no.”

  He suddenly jumped when his desk phone rang. He leaned over his desk and looked at the incoming number.

  “You have got to be kidding.”

  Upstairs, Admiral Langford turned away from his window when his office door opened and Wil Borger was shown in by his secretary. She closed it behind him, leaving him standing awkwardly and facing Langford.

  “You wanted to see me, Admiral.”

  “I did.”

  Langford walked back to his desk and sat on the edge, studying Borger. He motioned to a chair. “Have a seat.”

  Borger nervously stepped forward and eased himself down.

  Langford
folded his arms. “Anything you’d like to tell me, Wil?”

  “Um…what do you mean?”

  Langford scratched his temple, thinking. “I just had a very interesting conversation. Care to guess with who?”

  Borger tried to smile. “Not my mother, I hope.”

  “Very funny.”

  Borger’s smile disappeared. “Sorry.”

  “As insightful as a call with your mother might actually be, the person I just hung up with was Alison Shaw.”

  Borger stared back with genuine surprise. “Alison?”

  “Yes. Do you know why?”

  “Uh…no, sir.”

  Langford continued studying Borger. “Do you know where she is?”

  “Puerto Rico?”

  “She’s aboard the Pathfinder. Anchored not far from Trinidad.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  Langford nodded. “What’s surprising to me, however, is why Ms. Shaw called me…asking about you.”

  “Me?”

  “That’s right.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Well, that makes two of us. You see, not only is Ms. Shaw in the Caribbean on a very important mission, but now she’s calling me…and asking that I put you on a flight to Trinidad.”

  “Trinidad? What for?”

  Langford stared down at Borger with steely eyes. “I thought you might tell me.”

  “I don’t know why, sir.”

  “I see.” Langford sighed and stood up. He rounded his desk and sat down heavily in his chair. After some consideration, he pressed his hands together in front of his face. “Ms. Shaw is with Commander Lawton on the Pathfinder investigating what they believe could be a second location for our mysterious plants. Like those found by Clay and Caesare in Guyana.”

  “What?!” Borger leaned forward in his seat.

  “That’s right. Another possible location, but this one is underwater.” Langford watched as Borger remained frozen, thinking.

  There were three things going through Borger’s head, each as earth-shattering as the next. And if it weren't automatic, he probably would have forgotten to breathe.

  The possibility of a second location was stunning in and of itself. Another source producing what could only be described as an evolutionary miracle. A mutation capable of changing the genetic structure of a living organism, resulting in something mankind had never seen before. But there was a reason. A reason that was both logical, and at the same time, utterly jaw-dropping. The secret which both Alison and Borger already knew.

  The Chinese had made the find of the century. A find that had culminated in the attack on a U.S. naval ship by the Chinese in an attempt to flee with every piece of plant they had managed to gather. The rest they’d burned.

  But that was only the tip of the iceberg. The Chinese had fled with what they thought was the entire find. But what they didn’t know was that the source wasn’t the plants at all –– the source was in the water. Water, highly enriched by something hidden at the top of the mountain. Something extraordinary.

  A vault. A vault hidden within the mountain, housing thousands, maybe millions, of perfectly preserved samples from an alien biosphere. And what appeared to be the total sum of another planet’s genetic and cellular history encoded in countless protected seeds…and embryos.

  It was an amazing discovery that was nearly beyond words. But now the idea of Alison discovering a second site left Wil Borger completely speechless. Because a second site could answer a pressing question that Borger had been losing sleep over ever since they discovered the vault.

  With the sheer amount of materials needed to construct what was hidden in that cliff, Borger was convinced a ship had been used to transport it. From very far away. But the distance involved, along with the speed needed to reach Earth, would have required a level of energy that was formidable on any scale. To Borger, it meant only one thing: a one-way trip. And if he was right, it presented the big question that Wil Borger couldn’t answer. Where was the ship?

  But maybe Alison’s discovery was the answer to his question…maybe she had found the ship! By matter of simple deduction, the ship would have had to be destroyed or hidden. Perhaps dumped somewhere that no one would find.

  How Alison had managed to find it, he couldn’t begin to imagine. But the ramifications of what she may have discovered was far more important in Borger’s opinion than how.

  “Mr. Borger,” Langford said, breaking the silence. “You look like you have something on your mind.”

  He slowly nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  “Well?” Langford said, his hands still pressed together in front of him.

  Borger wanted to tell him. He’d wanted to since they’d first found it. But together, he, Clay, Caesare, and Alison were afraid to. They knew what unleashing such a discovery could do. To the world.

  The power contained in whatever liquid those embryos were floating in was almost beyond comprehension. Especially in a world that fought wars over far less, and in many cases, on lies alone.

  They had kept the secret from Langford and everyone else out of the fear of what would be unleashed onto the world.

  And that was the third thing which had caused Borger to freeze in his chair. It was the realization that only the threat of someone else finding out would make John Clay send Borger the message that he did.

  Nine characters. A single message before his satellite phone lost signal permanently.

  TELLNGFRD.

  74

  M0ngol didn’t like to be bothered. Not by his colleagues, not by his boss, not even by his friends. As far as he was concerned, his work was too important to be interrupted, which made the surprise visit by two Ministry of State Security agents all that more irritating.

  To him, MSS agents were simply thugs, with Qin being a rare exception. He was one of the few who truly understood what someone like M0ngol was capable of and respected his abilities. Others, like the two now escorting the young hacker down an empty hallway, just had no idea. Together, they were taking him through a section of the building he’d never seen before. He had only heard of it.

  However, unlike most others, M0ngol was only mildly interested to see the place in person. He had more important things to do than to explain yet again how cyber espionage worked to someone who would never possess the capacity to understand it.

  The two thugs on either side of him hadn’t said anything since pulling M0ngol out of his chair downstairs. Together they walked briskly to the end of the hall and turned right, following another long section which ended at two faceless double doors. Outside stood two more agents, waiting for them.

  When they reached the doors, he watched the four goons exchange looks of importance amongst themselves. Then the door was opened and M0ngol was ushered inside.

  The room was large, and unlike the dreariness of the hallways, it was richly decorated –– particularly with the giant mahogany conference table and high-back leather chairs filling the space.

  Inside sat a lone person. An elderly man looking outward from the far end of the table. He studied M0ngol carefully before motioning to the table and chair.

  “Please sit down.”

  The young man complied.

  “Do you know who I am?”

  “Yes,” M0ngol replied. “You’re Yu Xinzhen, Chairmen of the Politburo Standing Committee. Most people know who you are.”

  Xinzhen nodded, studying the young man. His tone and posture spoke volumes. He was one of the new generationals, one of the inflicted, as many of the elders referred to them. Immature and emblazoned by a sense of rebelliousness. But in the end, little more than children hiding behind a veneer of maturity, with a shroud of gadgets giving them a feeling of importance. And then there were those like this one, swollen with self-importance and undeserved power, granted by an exploitation of technologies their parents didn’t understand. That most of the world didn’t understand.

  He stared at M0ngol with a sense of bemusement. “Do you kn
ow why you’re here?”

  “No.”

  “You’ve been working with Qin.”

  “I have.”

  “And it seems you have uncovered a great deal.”

  Xinzhen watched the expression on M0ngol’s face begin to change. This wasn’t about giving another explanation of what M0ngol was able to do. This was about what he knew…what he had learned. An air of nervousness began to form.

  “I have discovered some things, as requested.”

  Xinzhen nodded. “As requested.”

  “Yes.”

  “And by who would that be?”

  M0ngol shifted slightly in his chair. Qin had clearly spoken to the old man, but he didn’t know what was said between the two. A fleeting thought that left M0ngol wishing he’d recorded Qin’s call.

  “Qin. He asked me to learn everything I could about General Wei.”

  “And what have you learned about Wei?”

  “Well, we learned that his daughter is alive.”

  “And.”

  “And that the general may have hidden something with her.”

  “And.”

  M0ngol stopped. His mind was racing. He looked out through the glass door to find the two agents watching him intently. His confidence was melting. “Um…and… an American is trying to reach her first.”

  To M0ngol’s disappointment, the old man’s expression did not show the faintest hint of surprise. Instead, he took a deep breath and placed a delicate hand on the table. “What else?”

  “W-what do you mean?”

  “My dear boy. You think me a fool.”

  “No! No, sir.”

  “Then tell me. What else have you been learning about?”

  M0ngol swallowed. “What else?”

  Xinzhen rapped his fingers on the table. Oh, how quickly they shrink.

  “I know you’ve been searching for a great many things on General Wei. Surely you’ve found more interesting facts to share with me.”

  “Um…I-”

  “You’ve read about our project in South America.”

  The young man stammered. “A little.”

  “I think you know more than a little. Indulge me.”

  M0ngol nodded. “They’re searching.”