by R. D. Brady
“I’m not sure if I should be happy we can’t find it or worried. After all, if we can’t find it, whatever the effect of the capstone might be is a moot point.”
“But do we have any other way to make this all go away?”
“Not unless we make enough Omni to either dose everyone who’s been empowered and remove their powers or make enough for everyone to be empowered so at least it’s a more even fight.”
“You’re not really thinking of that, are you?”
“No. Even if we could with so many people having the formula, it would be a constant battle. The world’s longest game of whack-a-mole.”
“So what is Plan B?”
Normally when people said they felt the weight of the world on them, it was hyperbole. But Laney knew in her case, it was accurate. She sighed. “Honestly? We don’t have one.”
There was a knock on the back door, and then Mustafa stuck his head in the room. “Hey. Am I interrupting?”
“No. In fact, we’re happy for any distraction,” Laney said.
Mustafa stepped fully into the room. “Well, my news is certainly distracting.”
“What is it?” Patrick asked.
“Danny. He got a message.” He focused his attention on Laney. “Someone wants to talk to you.”
She frowned. “Who?”
“The President of the United States.”
Chapter 43
Laney’s mind whirled as she and Drake headed to the control center. She vacillated between fear and confusion. Fear that somehow the President had tracked them down. But she knew Danny would know if that was the case. And being the alarm wasn’t being raised, that seemed unlikely.
Which only left confusion. What on earth would the President want to speak with her about? After all, the woman had targeted her friends and family. She’d denied Laney reentry into her own country. She’d gotten what she wanted: all of the Fallen out of the United States. She hadn’t been interested in talking then.
As Laney and Drake stepped into the front hall of the control center, Henry, Jen, David, Jake, Matt, Gina, and Danny, who were all gathered at the large table in the first room to the left, stopped their conversations.
“Well, that’s ominous,” Laney said into the silence as she stepped into the room. “So what’s going on?”
Drake pulled out a chair, and she took a seat as Danny began to speak. “I’ve been running checks on everyone in the camp’s communications. All their social media accounts, emails, just in case a red flag popped up.”
“Okay. So, whose account did it pop up on?” Laney asked.
“Mine,” David said. “It’s a backchannel that only Bruce and I are aware of.” He glanced at Danny. “Or so I thought.”
Danny ignored the glance.
David continued. “According to Bruce, the President wants to speak with you. She wants to enter into some kind of agreement.”
Laney frowned. “Agreement? Like what? We all turn ourselves in?”
David grinned. “No. She’s agreed to remove all the restrictions placed on enhanced individuals. Everyone would be given blanket immunity.”
Laney frowned again. But Drake was the one who voiced her thoughts. “Why would she do that?”
“Because she needs our help,” Henry said.
David nodded. “That is my thought as well.”
Laney looked at each of the people gathered around the table. “So you think she’s going to ask for help? Help with what?”
“Maybe she wants to create a Fallen army out of the people we have here,” Gina said quietly.
Jake crossed his arms over his chest. “Absolutely not. These people are not going to be conscripted into fighting for a country that criminalized them for abilities beyond their control.”
“Agreed,” Laney said. “Besides, that would be just changing the manner of death. Everyone would be right back where they began.”
“If we gave them the Omni, though, they could counteract the effects of those other soldiers’ abilities,” Matt said.
Everyone stopped and stared at him. He was right. They had it in their power to stop any force that was created through the Omni. But . . .
Laney shook her head. “No, expanding the amount of people that have that formula is a recipe for disaster. We can’t trust any of the governments of the world with it.”
“But maybe we need to think about weaponizing it,” Matt said. “To protect our people.”
Laney sighed, not liking the logic underneath Matt’s words. Because it would keep their people safe. They could make sure only people they fully trusted had access to it.
“This is all a moot point if Dom can’t recreate it,” Laney said.
“I think he might be able to,” Gina said. “It might even be good for him to have something to focus on.”
“Okay, well, Gina, can you broach the idea with Dom? I’m not saying we’re doing it, but I’d like to at least know if it’s an option,” Laney said.
She nodded. “I can do that.”
“Good,” said Jake. “Okay, so let’s, for arguments sake, say the President is not calling solely for the Omni. Bruce will no doubt tell her Laney won’t hand it over. So why is she calling?”
“There’s really only one way to find out,” Drake said.
Laney looked at Danny. “Can you make sure the call is completely secure? That they have no way to trace us?”
“For a limited amount of time, yes.”
“Okay.” Laney looked around the room. “Anyone object to me speaking with the President?”
No one said anything. “Okay, David, set it up.”
Chapter 44
Tiwanaku, Bolivia
The President wasted no time. Laney sat in the farmhouse with Henry, Matt, David, and Danny only a few short hours later. Drake had put up an argument about wanting to be there as well, but if this was a trap, she needed him to stay and protect the group back at Havenville. He had not been happy.
“Danny, we all good?” Henry asked.
Danny didn’t look up from his keyboard. “One more minute.”
Laney and Henry had arrived at the house an hour ago but Danny, Matt, and David had gone there as soon as Laney had given the go ahead for the meeting.
Danny hit a few more keys on his keyboard and then nodded. “Okay. You have five minutes. They’ll be trying to track us. After five minutes, I cannot guarantee the connection is secure.” He pointed at a screen, where 5:00 was frozen. “I’ll start the clock as soon as the call goes through.”
“Okay.” Laney sat down at the table in front of the camera. They’d draped a black sheet behind her so there was no visual indication of where they were. David and Matt had also draped heavy blankets over the windows and door to help muffle any additional sounds.
David turned on a white-noise machine. Laney raised her eyebrows. He winked at her. “A little extra protection never hurts. We’re good, Danny.”
Danny met her gaze, and she nodded. The screen in front of her, which had been emitting a soft blue light, now showed a desk with the seal of the United States behind it and a man sitting there that Laney recognized.
“Stan,” Laney said.
Stanton Calloway smiled, which somehow just made him creepier, as if his lips were not used to moving in an upward direction. “Dr. McPhearson. It is good to see you. I hope you are well.”
Laney crossed her arms over her chest. “No thanks to the U.S. government, yes, I am.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Stan said, completely ignoring the dig. “I’m not sure if you are aware, there was an auction for the Omni.”
“You don’t say.” They had discussed beforehand that they would give nothing away, not even that they knew of the auction. If they did, the government would know exactly how much monitoring they were able to do. And Laney did not want to give them any help in tracking them down. “What does that have to do with me?”
“The United States did not win the auction.”
“Who d
id?”
Stan hesitated, glancing at whoever was coaching him offscreen before he answered. “China. But we believe that more individuals may have since been given access to the Omni, through additional auctions that we were not aware of.”
“You mean invited to.”
Stan inclined his head. “That is accurate.”
“All right, so what do you want?”
“The President has authorized me to extend a full pardon to you and all the people currently residing with you—”
“A pardon? For what? Preventing the U.S. government from torturing people, one of whom was a child?”
Stan’s lips thinned. “It was still a violation of U.S. law. And there is still a warrant out for you and your co-conspirators.”
“So you create a horrific situation, we protect people from it, you call us criminals, and now you are offering to stop calling us criminals?”
“While I cannot agree with your characterization, I believe the sense is accurate, yes. The President is also willing to extend an offer of citizenship to any foreign nationals that you have, um, acquired in the last few months.”
Laney frowned. “Why is the President doing this? I somehow doubt that she is all of sudden feeling beneficent.”
Stan plowed on as if she hadn’t spoken. “There would, of course, be some stipulations.”
“Such as?”
“You would have to agree to protect the United States against an incursion of Fallen soldiers of any foreign country.”
Laney narrowed her eyes. “Who exactly would be responsible for that?”
Stan hesitated for the barest of seconds, but Laney felt it like it was an hour. God damn it. She knew what Stan was going to say even before the words left his mouth. “All individuals with enhanced abilities would be required to defend the United States. Any enhanced who fails to do their civic duty would be incarcerated for a minimum of twenty years. It would be a military service requirement, like in Israel.”
“Except in Israel all able-bodied individuals are required to partake in military service for only two years. You are only requiring it of a fraction of the U.S. population.” She frowned. “Wait. You haven’t stipulated how long they would be required to defend the U.S. So how long?”
Stanton hesitated. “For life.”
“Are you insane?” She paused, narrowing her eyes. “What age are you suggesting this military service begins?”
“Fourteen.”
Laney blanched. “You are out of your mind. You want to send kids into battle? What the hell is wrong with you people?”
“I assure you, there is precedent. In the Civil War, over one thousand Union soldiers were under the age of fifteen.”
Laney knew that ugly history. When the war was going badly for each side, recruiters would look the other way when obviously underage boys lied about their age to enlist. One of the youngest on record was Johnny Clem, who’d joined the Union army as a drummer boy at the age of eleven. He saw combat and was still actively serving until 1915, when he retired as a brigadier general.
As difficult as it was to wrap her mind around children volunteering to fight, that was not the plan that the government was offering. “I think we’ve evolved a little beyond that now. And you’re not talking about volunteers.”
Danny waved his hands at her and then pointed at the clock. One minute left.
Stan’s voice was stiff. “Be that as it may, this is the offer the government is placing in front of you. If you accept, you will all be allowed to return to the United States—”
“To be used as a shield. We’d be second-class citizens at best.”
“That is not accurate. Now, I realize you may need time to think this over. I have been instructed to give you—”
“Oh, I don’t need any time. I can give you my answer right now.”
Stanton leaned forward. “And what is it?”
“No.” Laney disconnected the feed.
Chapter 45
The room was quiet as Laney blew out a breath. They wanted the Fallen to fight for them, defend them, without giving them a choice. And hang prison time over their heads if they didn’t fulfill their requirements.
David shoved his hands in his pockets, rocking back and forth. “So that went . . . horribly.”
Laney pushed away from the table. “Can you believe them?”
“Well, we have been on call to defend against the Fallen for years,” Matt said.
“By choice. Not because we were forced. I mean, what am I supposed to tell the Oteros? They can come to America, lay their lives on the line, maybe orphan their kids, but hey, at least they’ll be able to check their Facebook status regularly? Not everyone with these abilities is a fighter. And going up against trained fighters? They won’t last a minute, never mind years.”
“That was sloppy,” Henry said.
Laney frowned. “What do you mean?”
Henry gestured to the computer screen. “Anyone with a lick of sense would know you would never agree to that. That we would never agree to that. It was a sloppy approach to make.”
“I agree,” David said. “There have to be some hardliners pushing the President behind the scenes.”
“Then she damn well needs to push back. She placed the country in this position, not me. We were working with her. She’s the one who put the targets on our backs, not the other way around.”
David put up his hands. “Hey, preaching to the choir here.”
Laney slumped onto the couch. “I know. I just . . .” She shrugged.
Henry sat down next to her. “You just hoped you’d be able to give everybody some good news.”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Well, you still might,” Matt said.
“How?” Laney asked.
“This was the first salvo in the negotiation. They came with what they wanted. Now they’ll go back to the drawing board, try to figure out a way to get what they want while giving you what you want, or at least as much as they can stomach us having.”
Laney slumped lower into her chair. “Great. A long, drawn-out negotiation. Fun.”
“No, not fun. Working through the personalities and demands of all the interested parties is not going to be easy.”
Yeah, it would make getting through the tunnels in the Great Pyramid look like child’s play.
Her breath caught at the thought, something clicking into place. The Great Pyramid. Laney pictured that winding path, each inch, each foot highlighting a different point in human history. And the concourses fifty feet high that were larger than the ones below, as if it needed the extra support. And beyond that all that space, an idea began to form in her mind. She crossed the room to Danny. “Can you do some sort of scan of the Great Pyramid with this gear?”
He frowned. “Depends. What are you looking for?”
“Something inside the Great Pyramid.”
He shook his head. “Inside? I don’t have access to anything like that.”
“You might not need to,” David said slowly as he joined them. “If you can gain access to the Egyptian government records on the Pyramid, that is.”
Danny grinned. “Oh. That I can do.”
“What are you thinking?” Henry asked David.
“The Egyptian government has held access to the Great Pyramid very close to the chest. They allow very little investigation into it, even though it’s safe to say curiosity about the Pyramid brings in the majority of the visitors to their country. More information would only increase that and increase the amount of money flowing into the country.”
“You mean how they discovered a cavern underneath the Sphinx yet refuse to allow further investigation,” Danny said.
“Not cavern, caverns,” Laney said. In 1987, a Japanese team had conducted an electromagnetic sounding survey. They found evidence of at least two cavities in the body of the Sphinx, and an additional two were located underneath the Sphinx. Their research was confirmed by a second research team in 1991. The second tea
m also found evidence of tunnels underneath the Sphinx. For Laney, the findings had taken on greater meaning once she learned that Edgar Cayce said that the Hall of Records of Atlantis was underneath the left paw of the Sphinx.
Laney shook her head. “I never could understand why the Egyptian government wouldn’t allow further research.”
“Or so we’ve been led to believe,” David said. “I had a . . . let’s call her a friend, who was stationed in Egypt. She told me there was a lot more research being conducted on the Pyramid than the public was aware of. The Egyptian government wanted to know everything they could about the Pyramid. They were just very selective about who they let know about that information.”
“I’m in the Ministry of State of Antiquities,” Danny said. “What am I looking for?”
“I thought it was the Supreme Council of Antiquities?”
“It used to be, when it fell under the Egyptian Ministry of Culture,” Mustafa said. “It became an independent ministry in 2011. The MSA is responsible for the conservation, protection, and regulation of all antiquities and archaeological excavations in Egypt.”
Laney peered at the screen Danny had brought up, scanning the names of files, her heart sinking. There were so many. “Can you limit that to only projects related to the Great Pyramid?”
“Yup.” Danny hit a dozen or so keys, and the list shortened, but it was still lengthy. “It has to be related to the capstone. Can you check any tests or anything else that was done around the turn of the century?”
“What are you thinking?”
“I don’t know. It’s probably crazy, but I just have this feeling—”
Danny peered at the screen. “There were a bunch of scans done of the Plateau.”
“That seems normal, given the plan to add the capstone at that time,” Mustafa said.
Everyone turned to him. “What?”
Mustafa blinked, apparently surprised by their surprise. “It was the plan for the turn of the century. They were going to create a capstone and place it on the Great Pyramid to complete it. They were all ready to go, but then a few weeks before December 31st, they called it off.”
