“What the hell are you doing? Dad, what are they doing?” Jack had just enough time to glance at his family, all with worried expressions, before he was roughly pushed out of the door and into a black Volvo estate.
It was too much for Jack, thoughts wildly racing around in his head.
The men in the black Volvo estate! he realised. It was a long time since he had seen them.
The car sped through wide boulevards, escorted by air vehicles overhead. Jack thought he must be having a nightmare and hoped he would wake up soon. His thoughts quickly turned to Megan.
She has no idea what is going on up here.
The car glided down a ramp and into a wide tunnel lit by a thousand little round lights. Another few minutes later the vehicle circled into an expansive, well-lit area with a domed roof and stopped outside a large foyer. Jack was ushered through the sliding doors, taken up an escalator that moved twice as fast as he’d used before, and into a large room with black leather furniture. A man emerged from another door.
“Please sit down, Jack,” he stated, a cold look in his eye. Jack couldn’t believe it; the man was Timos, Sobek’s brother, who Jack thought had perished in the explosion of the Underworld.
“I… thought you were…” Jack quavered.
“Dead? You thought I was dead?” Timos finished for him with a quick laugh. “That was spectacular wasn’t it. But you don’t think I was anywhere near there do you? When are you going to realise that we don’t die. We live forever! I’m not the young man I appear to be. And my sister, whom you are very fond of, is a hundred and fourteen years old!” He laughed again.
Jack felt sick to his stomach. “What have you done to my family?” he frantically asked, “they don’t know me.”
“You don’t expect us to let you take them back to Earth, do you?” Timos half yelled. “You must be out of your little mind! They belong to Jovian, and you will never take them away from us. As I said to you a long time ago, we have big plans for our girls.”
“What have you done to them?” Jack asked again, simmering with anger.
“We simply wiped their memory of you,” Timos gloated, rounding on him. “You do the job that you have been commissioned to do and we will do our job.”
Jack was livid. It confirmed his suspicions of Premier Tiberius and his fellow dignitaries.
“Once you have completed your mission, then we can get on with ours. Once Jovian has been rejuvenated by Earth’s energy, we will take control of both worlds,” Timos announced icily.
“And what will that be?” Jack glared at him with such disgust that he felt like punching him.
Timos answered him in a very intimidating way. “Do you remember the Sphinx? She was once real, with the head of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird. She was once our ruler. We intend to create another, but this time she will be different. She will be used as an almighty conduit to transform Earth’s energy to Jovian’s.”
Jack stared at him, waiting for him to continue.
“We have been bringing people from Earth for many years via the Bermuda Triangle for scientific research, to use their DNA to create our new ruler,” Timos stated, enjoying the look on Jack’s face.
“Only one woman has provided this. Her name is Megan. She didn’t know the actual reason why I was in med school with her,” Timos finished off, showing his true colours.
Jack had gone completely white. He managed to whisper, “The girls.”
“Yes, indeed!” Timos confirmed, his finger in the air. “Well done, my son, now can you see why you simply cannot take our girls away from us? They are destined to create our new ruler. We have created them as super intelligent beings, which is the very essence of our Sphinx. Their minds will be used to create her, but whose minds will, alas, once their use is finished with, be left in a vegetative state. You could almost certainly have them back then, we’ll see. After all, they won’t be of any use to us after that.” He laughed at his final words.
Jack felt sick and dizzy and blacked out. He came to a while later when he found himself in some sort of sick bay with glass walls. It smelt clinical. He sat up, and as he did two nurses hurried in and tried to give him a drink of something, which he whacked out of their hands and stormed out. He didn’t get very far when he was once again seized by the suited men, who forcibly sat him down, this time in front of a giant computer screen.
Timos strolled in. He had that steely grey look in his eyes, the same look on their first meeting.
“Perhaps you would like to see what we have in store for our girls. And then we must erase your memory,” he said evenly, his mouth curling into a manic sneer.
Jack couldn’t afford to let that happen. He jumped up and punched the man nearest to him and tried to run, but four men were stronger than one and he was forced to sit down again in front of the screen. He saw Megan’s beautiful clones being lead into the centre of a vast concrete pad that was surrounded by what looked like a huge temple. They were in a trance-like state and formed a circle facing a woman who was morphing into a Sphinx. It wasn’t simply a structure of limestone bedrock but a massive manmade creation that was alive and moving. What happened next frightened the living daylights out of Jack. Its eyes opened, and blinding, piercing, colourful rays of light shone over the surrounding land, and forming within the rainbow of colour were the words, “Sinestu-ipini-itxaro-ahalguzti”. Jack could hear cheering from hundreds of thousands of people all around the countryside. That was enough for him; he spun around in his seat and stood up. Timos was standing there like an army major with his hands behind his back, a smug grin on his face.
Jack marched right up to his face and yelled, “I will never allow you to do this!”
Timos slowly took a step back and, without saying a word, nodded to his men. Jack didn’t hear or see anything, but felt weird, as if a bolt of lightening had zapped him. He felt his legs go like jelly and had to sit down. Then he wondered where the hell he was and who these people were who he’d never seen in his life before. He even had trouble remembering who he was, but he knew he lived in a small town in the north and his parents had gone missing on a yacht. He had a sudden feeling of loss, but didn’t know why.
Chapter 25
For days Megan had gone through the motions of existing. She had filled her days with sitting in front of her computer, waiting to hear from Jack. At the end of the week, with still no word, she began to worry. She had, however, been in touch with the girls every day, but two days ago they had suddenly stopped communicating with her, and she couldn’t understand why. She was completely baffled by their silence. She tried to contact them again for the fourth time that day and finally, later that evening, there was a new message waiting for her.
“Yay, finally,” she said aloud, opening it. Her joy turned to bewilderment. In front of her the message read, “Whoever you are we are issuing a warning that we see your persistence in attempting to establish contact with us comes under our jurisdiction as an offence, and we have passed your personal details onto the Jovian Criminal Investigations Bureau.”
Megan was stunned. She couldn’t understand why she had received a message like that from her beautiful sisters.
“Oh please, Jack, let me know what’s going on!” she cried, pulling at her hair.
Chapter 26
Jack couldn’t get a grasp of his surroundings. All he knew was that one minute he was sitting in front of his computer like he did every weekend, and now he found himself in a room he’d never seen before. And the furniture was completely different from his place. Timos walked in. Jack remembered his manners and greeted Timos, offering his hand and introducing himself.
Timos shook Jack’s hand, stating, “Yes, we have met, but you will not remember me…..or anyone else for that matter.” He smirked at himself. Jack pulled his hand away. He felt weird, then everything went haywire in his head. He started seeing visions and asked to be excused. Within a short time everything had come back to him.
Those
slime balls are trying to erase my memory! Jack realised, telling himself that they were not going to get away with it. Trouble was, his entire family’s memory had been wiped as well and knew it was going to be impossible to convince them to return to Earth. He had to think of a way out of this. One thing he knew for sure was that he couldn’t let on to anyone, especially not Timos, that he hadn’t been stupefied.
Jack had to return to Megan. While he had his chance he grabbed his Lucre Boxes and shoved them together again. Within minutes he was back in New Zealand standing outside his house, and he raced towards his front door. Megan burst out of the house, ran down the path and flung her arms around him.
“Take it easy Megs,” Jack soothed, “I’m okay. Everyone is okay. Let’s go inside and talk.”
Megan listened intently. Jack did, however, decide to leave out the bit about the Jovian empire’s ultimate intentions for her clones.
It was still pretty upsetting to know that her beautiful sisters had lost all memory of them.
All those years forgotten, she thought. Now she knew why she’d received such a cold response from them.
Megan’s thoughts turned back to the Jovian authorities. “How can they do that to us, Jack?” she cried, searching his face for answers, “it’s so unfair! What are we going to do now?”
Jack looked lost. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I do know that I have to get our family out of there and back here. But how I’m going to actually do that I don’t know. I can’t force them to come back with me. There must be some way of reversing their loss of memory. I have to find out how the Jovians do it. As far as they’re concerned they think I have forgotten everything, but only as far back as where they had me before; commissioned to carry out the introduction of GE. So, I’ll have to play along with their little game for while.”
He pulled Megan into him. “I’m so pleased to be back here with you though.” Megan returned the cuddle, though still ached to see her little sisters.
Chapter 27
The Thebes Federation of Science contacted Jack straight away with the message, “As the introduction of genetic engineering is well underway, we take this opportunity of commending you for your excellent work to date, and to convey our gratitude we have deposited a considerable bonus amount of ten million Egyptian pounds into your account, which we trust will be most gratefully received.”
“Hah!” Jack retorted, “this is their bent way of making sure I’m still focussed on their devious little plan. They’re going to get back as good as they give,” he said, smiling to himself as he tapped his reply message. “These guys want war, they’ll get war!” he said with conviction and waving his fist at the computer.
“Well…” Megan uttered gingerly and started to caress Jack’s neck, “it’s going to be another David and Goliath…I hope you can handle it, Jackyboy.”
“I can handle it,” he replied confidently. Jack was pretty fired up.
As days turned into weeks with little or no action, Megan was becoming distressed, and had stopped eating properly. Each new day she grew more pale and sickly. Jack knew he had to do something.
He had to make sure Megan was taken care of first, so asked a lady neighbour to keep an eye on her. He told the neighbour he had to go away on business. Then, once Megan’s needs had been organised and they’d given each other an extra long cuddle, Jack pushed the Lucre Boxes together again and in a few seconds was back in his parents’ house. He knew he had to be extremely careful this time. He waited until one of the girls emerged into the foyer of the house by herself.
It was Bo. She looked like she was in a hurry and was startled to see Jack standing there. She froze. To her it was the same intruder as the other week, and who had been taken away by the authorities.
“Bo, don’t be afraid please, I’m not here to hurt you,” Jack quickly assured her.
“How do you know my name?” Bo asked in a whisper.
“Bo, although you don’t know who I am, I know who you are. I’m Jack Dunlop,” he said carefully.
Bo stared at him, her demeanour guarded. “Are you related to my parents?” she managed to say.
“Yes. I’m…their son, and your guardian. Your full name is Bo Sleanne Dunlop, and you made dollies’ outfits when you were a young girl, then as you got older you became popular for your fashion designs, and still are. You even have a Bo Sleanne label.” Jack stopped there, as he didn’t want to freak her out completely, thinking he was just a creepy stalker.
“How…come I’ve never met you before?” she asked anxiously.
Jack took a step closer to her and carefully took hold of her hands. “We were always a very close family up until a few months ago when I had to carry out a mission for the Thebes Federation of Science and both your sister Megan and I were sent away,” he carefully explained.
“My sister…Megan?” Bo repeated, looking like a lost little lamb.
“Your older sister’s name is Megan. You and your sisters are the spitting image of her. She is beautiful, but she has a broken heart. She misses you all terribly and wants us all back together again.” Jack paused, aware she was thinking hard. She put her hands to her head and shook it. Then slowly took them away and looked straight into Jack’s eyes.
“I remember! I remember!” she squealed. “How come I…,” she trailed off.
“Your memory had been wiped by the Jovian authorities, who do not want the family to escape this place and live with us in New Zealand,” Jack tried to elaborate, feeling so very relieved.
Jack’s father walked in and stopped short when he saw Jack talking to his adopted daughter. Before he had a chance to do anything, Bo jumped up to calm him down, convincing him to hear Jack out. Jack knew if he could get through to him then he would be halfway there to winning them back.
His father wasn’t showing any signs of believing him. In fact it almost looked like he was simply going along with what Jack was saying to bide time to alert someone else in the family to call the authorities. Jack felt desperate. He didn’t know how else to jog his memory. Obviously the older you were, Jack comprehended, the less likely your memory would return.
He didn’t know why, but he grabbed his father by the arms and started saying the words,“Sinestu-ipini-itxaro-ahalguzti” over and over. Ben’s face changed to that of annoyance to bewilderment, and then he sighed heavily. He threw his head back and moaned. Jack could see it was quite scary for Bo to witness. By this time the rest of the family had gathered around, but kept their distance. Nobody said a word as they watched their father and husband break down and give the stranger in front of them a bear hug.
Jack then turned to his mother and took her hands, repeating the words to her. She too broke down and sobbed. Just from hearing Jack’s repetition and feeling an unusual energy around them, the other girls began to cry as their memories also returned.
Jack felt such a huge relief and didn’t waste any time about stating the urgency of their travel. The girls were of mixed feeling once again, as they were being ripped from the only world they had ever known, ripped away from their friends that they couldn’t say goodbye to. They also wanted to bring Sobek with them. She was their mentor, and to them, part of the family. Although Jack felt extremely uneasy about it (another bad hunch) he decided to let her come, as Megan would have wanted it too, so Eshe, Nina and Sakmet went to fetch her.
The girls had been gone far too long for Jack’s liking, and he had a terrible feeling that something was about to go wrong. His instincts proved right when dozens of uniformed men burst into their home, this time marching right past Jack, and seized the girls. They all cried out, frightened, as they were ushered outside into awaiting cars.
Six other uniformed men forcibly stopped Jack and Ben in their tracks when they tried to intervene. It was once again devastating for Jack to see them being pulled away from him, especially when he knew he’d been so close to rescuing them. He despised the Jovian authorities for handling them in this manner. He ran down the path aft
er pushing through the row of men, only to see Eshe, Sakmet, Nina and Sobek, already detained in one of the cars, looking desperately back at him. Jack felt so much anger and hatred within him he now understood why people sometimes ‘lost it’.
Jack, Ben, and Nancy Dunlop stood there in stunned silence as their girls were abducted by the men in the black Volvo-like cars. They weren’t solely Jovian reprobates as Jack had first thought; they were part of the Jovian empire, who had big plans for Megan’s twenty-four clones. And now Sobek was involved too, captured by the men who worked for her brother.
Jack turned to face his parents and spoke with defiance. “They’re not going to beat us. We’re not going to let this happen. We will get them out of here. Firstly though, for your safety’s sake, I’m going to take you back home to Megan. Now.” He grabbed the Lucre Boxes before they had a chance to protest, and, with his parents’ arms linked around him, pushed the boxes together.
Megan got one hell of a fright. She was in the lounge gazing blankly out the window when Jack and his parents solidified in front of her. She jumped up and wrapped her arms tightly around Jack, then hugged Ben and Nancy. Jack had to explain why they hadn’t returned with the girls, and Megan’s happiness quickly dissolved into fear. Jack had to settle her down and assure her they had part of the family back and it was only a matter of time before they would all be reunited again.
Megan began to feel at ease that he would do it for her, and Jack knew he couldn’t let her down.
Chapter 28
Jack spent a restless couple of nights thinking about how he would do it, then initiated his plan of attack. He set to work on his computer and got in touch with the people who he’d helped track down their loved ones, and some others whom he knew he could trust.
Jack once again gave Megan a goodbye hug and a kiss, hugged his parents and pushed the Lucre Boxes together, smiling and saying as he was liquefying, “This time I won’t come back empty-handed, I promise.”
The Jovian Legacy Page 23
