by R J Johnson
His eyes narrowed as he scrolled through the list. What he needed was a way to make a big splash. A place where he could make a statement to the world and tell everyone he knew that he was never going to be pushed around again.
Through all this, an image of his fiancée flittered through his mind. He cursed tried to push her out, but she stayed behind his eyes regardless. She was the only one who might hold him back at this point. She was the light of his life, but she would understand. All of this was for her – for their future. The money and power he could attain using his new stone… The possibilities were endless.
Suddenly, he felt at peace. He knew her as well as he knew himself. She would be scared at first – who wouldn’t be after their fiancé tells them they’ve become a God? But the next step would be acceptance, and he was certain then she would help him achieve his goals.
She didn’t have a choice.
He scrolled through the list on the search engine when he stopped and noticed something on the page. He clicked the link and began to smile. Taking notes on the motel’s pad of paper, he began sketching out his plan. It would need to happen at the end of the day, right as they were about to lock up, but it was perfect.
By the time he was through, the whole world would know of him and his power.
And this time, nothing could stop him.
Chapter Sixteen
Ododa willed his truck to go faster, but the ancient engine was already complaining, shaking and making more noise than usual.
To his horror, the explosions near the mine hadn’t stopped. Whatever was happening was part of a chain reaction that had gotten away from someone.
The car sputtered and died on the road. For the first time in his life, Ododa cursed. The mine was still a good five miles away, and despite that, he could hear the terrifying explosions echo through the valley.
He got out of his truck and looked under the hood. One of the hoses had burst wide open and was pouring out steam. Defeated, he sighed. He wasn’t going anywhere until that was fixed.
Another explosion resounded through the valley, and he knew he didn’t have time for that.
He closed the hood and turned, jogging down the jeep trail, hoping his body could still keep up with the effort.
It didn’t take long for him to start huffing and puffing. He didn’t like to think of himself as old, but knees’ complaints reminded him all too clearly that he wasn’t 22 anymore. He ran down the dirt trail, stumbling over rocks and brush as he rushed towards his people, hoping that the disaster, whatever it was, wasn’t as bad as it sounded.
The valley suffered through another series of low roars, shaking the ground underneath his feet. He stumbled and fell, crashing to the ground and scraping his knee wide open.
Hopping back up, Ododa hobbled for a moment, then moved down the trail slowly again. He grimaced in pain and frustration. It was so close, but so far away. If only he could get there sooner, faster.
Suddenly, he found himself jogging down a familiar trail. He yelped in surprise and fell to the ground once again. This time, he looked up and around to the brown and gray clays of the copper mine’s bottom floor. His eyes went wide as he looked around, making sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. Impossible, he thought; he’d been more than five miles away just moments ago.
He shook it off and ignored the strange memory lapse as soon as he heard another massive explosion, this one much closer. The ground shook under his feet as a shockwave nearly bowled him over.
Ododa stood back up and moved towards the crowd of people rushing back and forth between the mine and the open air, hauling people to safety.
Confusion ruled the scene. He stepped up and tried to take charge of the men and women running around, unsure of what to do. A man stumbled out of the mine’s entrance, bleeding badly and holding his arm, which was half torn off.
Ododa rushed up to the man, taking off his jacket and wrapping the man’s bleeding wound in it. He handed the man off to a nearby medical volunteer, one of several who staffed his camp. The volunteer took the man and moved him toward a pile of other casualties.
Ododa found Mbasi shouting instructions into a radio.
“What happened?” Ododa demanded, looking at the chaos around him. Mbasi ignored him at first, still shouting into the radio.
“I don’t care where they are, you get that road clear, do you hear me?” Mbasi yelled into the radio, sounding panicked. “Come in!” He shook the radio clicking the “talk” button frantically as if that would help.
“Sterling!” Ododa grabbed Mbasi by the shoulders and swung him around, “What’s happened?”
Mbasi looked at his subordinate in terror. “I was only doing what they said, I swear, I thought I had everything wired correctly…”
“Slow down, man, what are you talking about?” Ododa barked.
“The home office gave us a top-priority order to clear a route to the crystal chamber as fast as we could. You were already home for the day, and I thought…” Mbasi wiped the sweat off his brow as he looked around in horror. “I thought I could–” His radio squawked, interrupting his explanation.
“Sir!” the voice on the radio called out. “There’s still…”
BOOM! An explosion tore the world down around them. The whole side of the copper mine hill began tumbling towards Mbasi and the mining crew.
Ododa looked up at the approaching rockslide, then turned back towards Mbasi, his own eyes now opened wide in terror.
“Run, man!”
They fled along with the rest of the crew as half the hillside fell down upon them. Rocks and boulders bounded down the slope, crushing everything in their path. A mining truck, two stories tall, crashed straight past them in a lopsided roll.
They ran as fast as they could, hopping over discarded equipment and other obstacles in their path. Thousands of tons of rock, dirt and debris cascaded everywhere. Still they ran, barely staying ahead of the devastation Mbasi’s careless work had created.
After a slow rumble, Ododa and Mbasi turned to see the damage inflicted on the copper mine. The landscape was completely changed. Where once an organized and efficient mine had stood, now there was only collapse, the view resembling some alien backdrop. Ododa turned back to Mbasi, trembling with fury.
On top of everything else, Ododa’s perfect safety record was shot.
“What on Earth were you thinking? You were ordered to do what?” Ododa asked in disbelief, “Why would you…”
“I’m sorry,” Mbasi said in fear. “You weren’t supposed to know…”
“I’m the foreman of this whole operation!” Ododa shouted. “What makes you think…?”
“They didn’t want you here!” Mbasi finally shouted. Ododa tilted his head and looked him in the eye.
“You wouldn’t have allowed a quick setup. You would have made them go through the proper channels and file the paperwork. You would’ve had the inspection teams here all week, before blasting it, and they didn’t want any delays, so they told me to handle it.”
“What?” Ododa was floored. He could never have conceived this kind of backstabbing from the home office, and yet, here it was. “You can’t be serious.”
“I thought I could do it.” Mbasi looked apologetic. “Priority one, they said.”
Ododa looked back at the collapsing mine and felt the ground rumble again. More rocks rumbled in their direction, smaller and farther off this time.
“What was that?”
Mbasi typed on his iPad. “I placed an explosive charge on the sides of the crystal chamber, thinking that we could open up the whole area for them. One of the workers set off one of the explosions early while they were still loading up ordnance.”
Ododa wiped his face in shock. If they brought the entire load up to the chamber, that explained the multiple explosions. So incredibly stupid… he thought to himself.
“The road leading down to that chamber collapsed,” Mbasi said. He frowned, and his eyes went wide once again. �
�…I’ve got fifteen transponders showing underneath the rubble!”
“They’re alive?”
“Their transponders show a group of our people clustered around the refuge you set up,” Mbasi chirped. “Look…” He handed the iPad to Ododa, who grabbed it and examined it closely.
He ran up towards the hillside, looking for the collapsed tunnel, and stared at the destruction. He knew where they were located. He could even see it in his mind’s eye. If he had the equipment, he might even be able to get them out before the refuge they stashed themselves in ran out of air or collapsed from all the weight of the extra rock.
Mbasi caught up to him and looked at the hillside, glancing back towards the destroyed equipment they would have normally used. Everything was wrecked. There was nothing left. Men were beginning to gather together, looking to Ododa and Mbasi for orders.
“Who’s the closest mining camp?” Ododa asked, whirling towards Mbasi.
Mbasi glanced down at the iPad nervously, borrowed it back, and began to tap quickly. Ododa grabbed it away and tossed it to the side, grabbing the man by his cheeks. “Get on the phone to Camp 19 now! Tell them to bring everything!”
Mbasi nodded and turned, tripping as he stepped back, grasping for his radio. Finding it, he began shouting into it for help.
For his part, Ododa turned back to the blocked-in tunnel and closed his eyes, saying a small prayer that his men were still alive. He imagined the dark and dusty hallway that his people – people who had become like family to him – were now trapped in. He knew the terror they must be feeling.
When he opened his eyes back up, he gasped in horror.
Again, he found himself in a completely different place. Where he had been staring at the rubble of a collapsed mine, he was now inside the tunnel, standing right next to the refuge container where his friends had taken shelter.
He looked behind him and saw where the road had tucked in and saved his friends. Likely, they had run for the shelter just as the landslide began. It was the same rubble he’d been staring at just moments before, but from inside the mine instead of outside.
He heard screaming inside the refuge, and he pounded on the door. His people opened it for him, shouting with glee when they saw their savior.
“Iwe! We’re getting out of here!” Ododa said, looking around in relief to the worried faces of his men and women. “Leave whatever tools you have.”
“Ododa?” One of his best stepped forward from the group. “Thank God! How were you able to clear the landslide so quickly?”
Ododa looked around and swallowed. He decided to ignore the question.
“Come, come, hurry! We haven’t much time.” He hustled them out of the refuge container, opening the steel door which led down the tunnel. Ahead, a natural cavern was formed under thousands of tons of rock. He was certain there had to be an exit of some sort nearby. After all, he got in, didn’t he?
They walked past the crystal chamber door he had fallen into before. He remembered the stone in his pocket, taking it out and looking again at its bright yellow surface. He stared at the crystal chamber in wonder, a sick feeling in his stomach. He was beginning to think he understood where his mysterious power was coming from.
“It’s blocked!” his friend cried out. The ground around them shook violently again, rocks falling from the ceiling. The miners looked around in terror, thinking that they had only a few moments left to live.
And if he didn’t get them out of here, they’d be right.
“Back to the refuge!” another cried out, and his group began moving back.
Ododa stepped forward, praying that he knew what he was doing.
“Grab ahold of each other!” Ododa ordered to his co-workers. “Get close together, now!”
The men looked bewildered, but followed orders. Ododa stepped around them and spread his massive arms, hugging the group as much as he could. He thought about what he had seen outside and shut his eyes tightly.
Ododa was rewarded again with the sickening feeling of taking a step that wasn’t there. Then he found himself standing outside with the others, all safe and sound, as they burst back into view of everyone.
The shouts and screams of delight were deafening.
For a moment, he thought he might be able to get away with his miracle unnoticed. Right up until his people began to surround him and chant his name in triumph. He had saved their friends and families. For now, quite reasonably, that was all they seemed to care about.
From a distance, Mbasi watched the celebration with suspicion, saying nothing.
Chapter Seventeen
It was Christina’s suggestion again that they adjourn from the diner and find a hotel, where they could recover and lay low with a little comfort and room service. Scott and Emily disliked letting Alex delay the rest of his story, but after extricating a promise from him, they agreed to the hotel.
Alex checked them into one of the nicest hotels in downtown San Diego, sharing a pair of suites on a high floor. He debated getting them all their own room, but the hotel was already booked up. He even had to slip the desk clerk a few hundred dollars from his stash just for the two rooms they did get.
He didn’t mind. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t afford it.
Alex was lying on the bed when Scott exited the shower, toweling off.
“Shower’s free,” Scott said casually. “Although now that I think about it, you might be able to shapeshift yourself into being clean again.”
Alex snorted and felt for the second stone, the one Siobhan had held for so long, in his pocket. “I don’t think it works like that.”
Scott sat down on the edge of his bed, facing Alex, and hesitated for a minute.
“There’s something you probably should know…” he paused, as if uncertain how to proceed.
“What?” Alex asked, barely paying attention. His eyelids were growing heavy. He was the only one who hadn’t gotten any sleep on the way down to San Diego.
Scott shook his head. “Never mind. You’ve been through a lot, and…” He waved his arms, defeated. “It’s not like I need to add to your problems.”
Alex sat up and looked at his friend in the eye. “What is it?”
Scott looked down at the towel in his lap and then back up at his friend. “It’s up to Emily, Alex. That’s about all I’ll say.”
Scott stood and put on a T-shirt. “I’m gonna head down to the gift shop and pick up a few changes of clothing for me and the girls, plus some toothpaste to battle this coffee breath I’ve got. Do you need anything?”
“No…” Alex muttered, distracted by his friend’s strange behavior, “not that I can think of, anyway.”
Scott snorted. “Apparently, there’s a lot you don’t think about.”
“Cheap shot,” Alex shot back.
Scott grinned and opened the hotel door. He stepped back to see Emily, her hand outstretched, about to knock.
Scott looked back at his friend. “Emmy’s here.” He stepped out of the room, calling back over his shoulder, “Don’t you dare restart your story before I get back, either. I gotta hear how you managed to steal six billion dollars from the US taxpayers without being elected to public office.”
The door swung shut behind Scott. For the first time in over six years, Alex was alone with the love of his life.
He took a moment to drink her in. In all the confusion from last night, he hadn’t really had a chance to process that Emily was really there, standing next to him. It almost felt like a dream.
She was still as beautiful as ever, of course – but different somehow. Alex decided it was the eyes. Where there had once been innocence and youthful exuberance, there was now wisdom and…pain.
He felt a blow to the gut when he realized what he was looking at. She was worn out and on her last nerve. Not only was her career now over, but she’d been targeted for kidnapping by a sociopathic billionaire. What trouble would Alex bring her next?
She was no wilting lily; Alex knew that much.
She was strong, stronger than even he was. Her actions last night, taking on Kline and Tate, had proven as much. But right now, she looked at him with a mixture of surprise, fear, regret and anger. It was all there.
“Em… I…”
She held up a hand, stopping him from saying anything. She turned and looked out the bay windows at the expansive view of downtown San Diego. To her left, a plane was following its flight path into Lindbergh Field, ready to drop off its passengers for a sun-soaked SoCal vacation. Looking at the plane full of tourists, Alex wished he too was still on vacation, like this whole trip had started out to be.
“You were dead for a long time, Alex.”
Alex shrugged and sat down at the chair next to the desk, looking at her. She was still staring out the window, refusing to engage with him.
“You said that the Army was a diversion, something to take your mind off of us and help reboot our relationship.”
“I wanted to…”
“I know what you wanted to do. Your letters said enough,” Emily responded coldly. “You apologized constantly, but do you even know what you were apologizing for?”
“I…”
“You apologized for being selfish, for not understanding my needs. You apologized for treating me as if my life and my goals didn’t mean as much as you thought your life did. I was only a goal to be attained.”
“What I did was the single biggest mistake I ever made,” Alex said softly.
She turned, finally looking at him.
“There was a time I’d have given anything to hear one more word from you, but honestly, I’m pissed that you pretended to be dead rather than talk to me like an adult,” she said sharply.
Alex winced. She was right, but she didn’t know the whole story.
“You don’t know why…”
