“Alexander,” began the older general, “I have returned from Syria with great news. The Persian army is encamped at Sochi just north of here. Instead of marching south to meet us, they are attempting to cut off our line of supply.” He leaned closer. “And now a royal entourage accompanies the troops!”
Parmenio smiled as he waited for Alex to assimilate the information in his sickened state. Clenching his fist, he tried to contain his enthusiasm. “The Persian King Darius, himself, now joins the fight! This is the battle you’ve been preparing for since a child! Get well, my king, as destiny awaits us.”
Caught up in the excitement of his role and the prospect of leading a great army, Alex momentarily forgot his original reason for entering the montage. Dr. Harding had warned him to avoid physical damage as it could cause irreversible shock.
Excitement turned to determination.
I must find the lock.
“One more thing,” Parmenio said. “I have also received a letter from our spies deep inside the Persian Empire.” He pulled a small piece of parchment out of his helmet. “It forewarns of the most unlawful treachery from within.”
Parmenio placed the parchment paper in Alex’s hand and closed his king’s fist around it. With all the might he could muster, Alex brought the letter up to face and read it to himself:
Parmenio, this matter is of utmost urgency. Alexander’s physician, Philip of Arcadian, is in the pay of King Darius III. Beware of any nectars as they may be poisonous.
Alex attempted to recall everything that he could remember about the history of Alexander the Great. He recollected that the man was always in constant threat of poisoning. Was this threat genuine?
Alex’s thoughts were curtailed by the abrupt entrance of an elderly man. “Parmenio!” he shouted. “Have I not requested that King Alexander remain unperturbed until his illness abates?”
Parmenio slowly stood and glared accusingly at the man. Dressed only in a long, white tunic tied at the waist, he was a familiar figure around Alex’s tent.
“Philip of Arcadian!” Parmenio stated reproachfully.
“There are no exceptions,” demanded Philip. “King Alexander’s health, not your conquest of Persia, is what is important at this moment.” Between his hands he held a large, bronze chalice filled with a red liquid. “I have brought Alexander the medication he needs to become well once again.”
Philip walked over to his king and knelt at his side. Before he drank from the chalice, Alex handed his physician the note Parmenio had just given him.
Philip read the letter and was noticeably shaken by its contents. A note like this most certainly was a death sentence, even for a close friend and confidant of the king like himself. “I… It…”
Despite Parmenio’s acceptance of the spy’s information, Alex had doubt of its authenticity. After further contemplation, he brought the chalice to his mouth and gulped down its contents. Exhausted by the whole ordeal, he laid back on the pillows and the world began to go black.
Did I do the right thing? was all he could think before his world went completely dark.
As he left the tent, Parmenio turned to Philip and pointed at him. “If Alexander does not awaken, expect your next meal to be served in Hades!”
Chapter_21
“Move the furniture,” Samantha demanded. “Push everything to the side of the room.”
Loyal to the company and all her executives, Phil obeyed without complaint. Gingerly, he began to move one of the antique oak tables over towards the windows. With as much grace as he could muster, he slowly put it down to assure its legs would not be bumped or damaged in the process.
Just as he delicately pushed it back a little further, he heard a smashing sound. To his astonishment, he saw Samantha throwing a chair to the corner of the room. As it hit the floor, the cushioned seat broke off and feathers spewed from its underbelly.
“Ma’am?” Phil asked.
Samantha kicked over an end table, sending a glass lamp crashing to the ground. She seemed too involved clearing out a space even to respond to the question.
“Ma’am?” Phil asked again with a little more baritone.Samantha did not slow her rampage. Potted plants were tossed to the side. Dirt scattered on the floor. “Make a widespace in the center on the room,” she commanded, looking to the other end of the office, contemplating the dimensions she needed.
Without argument, Phil began to move everything to the walls. Like a bulldozer, he hurled what he could throw and pushed or rolled the objects too heavy to lift.
Samantha looked over her shoulder as she stood in the middle of what once was an elegant office. “Phil,” she asked, slightly winded from the ordeal. “Will your brother still be escorting Alex’s fiancée when she arrives?”
“Yes ma’am.” He responded, “He’s almost here now.”
“Good,” she said, catching her breath. “How about the company’s stratoskimmer?”
“Ready.”
Samantha took a small box out of her pocket. About the size of a tennis ball, it was a dark shade of black and provided no inkling as to its function. After putting it on the floor in the center of the room, the box became even darker in color. It almost seemed as if light was drawn to it, unable to escape—much like that of a black hole. However, this object possessed no great gravitational field nor did it seem to bend space or time.
“Stand back,” Samantha ordered. “This gadget Alex made packs a wallop.”
Before she had a chance to activate it, the door to the room dematerialized. Phil’s identical twin Gil stood at the entrance accompanying Marissa.
“What’s all this security?” Marissa asked. “I feel as if the place has become a war zone.”
As she walked into the room, she was completely taken off guard by the abject destruction. “What happened here?” she gasped. “Was your office robbed?”
Marissa walked over what was once part of a couch as the door behind rematerialized, leaving Gil outside to keep guard. “Is this linked to Alex somehow?”
Samantha raised her eyebrow as if to say, “Say no more.” She looked over to Phil. “Let’s proceed.”
Phil then placed his hand next to the door, and the windows to the office became tinted, creating a mirroring effect whereby all light reflected off them. A low buzzing sound began to emanate from the walls around them.
Still bewildered, Marissa walked further into the room. She felt sickened by the destruction before her eyes, and it physically saddened her the longer she gazed upon it.
“It’s safe to talk,” Samantha finally said, albeit in a slightly hushed tone.
Marissa recognized the safety featured Phil just activated. It was the sub-harmonic generator Alex had designed for his and Samantha’s offices. Implanted in the walls and windows, it created a broad-spectrum vibration field that essentially made the area impenetrable to all forms of eavesdropping.
“Who did this?” Marissa reiterated.
Samantha knelt down on the ground next to the black box. Looking up at her guest, she said, “I had no other option.”
She then placed her hand on top of the box. The longer it stayed there, the colder she became. It was as if the box were sucking all the heat and energy out of her palm, leaving the limb almost lifeless as a result.
Samantha stood up, clenching her cold hand, hoping to bring life back into it.
“I’m receiving a secure message,” Samantha said, finally able to open and close her hand without pain.
“Is it Alex?” Marissa blurted. Sickened by the recent course of events, she could not help but constantly worry about her fiancé. Though she, Samantha, and Phil all previously received a curt message from William about his safety, the communication brought her little solace. She knew Alex’s life was in dire jeopardy, and The New Reality would stop at nothing to kill him.
“I’m not sure,” Samantha said, pushing back everyone to the side of the room. She looked hesitantly at the box in the middle of the room. Though Alex explaine
d that there was no danger in using it, due to its effect on her hand, she questioned its safety. “All I know is that when the box turns from white to black an incoming message is attempting to be transmitted.”
The room suddenly grew colder, and the lights began to flicker and then dim. A sense of foreboding filled each of them as their core body temperature plummeted. It was as if something were reaching deep inside them, almost directly into their souls, and sucking the life force out of their bodies. The colder it became, the more the three of them moved closer to the walls.
“Ma’am,” Phil said. “Why don’t you two wait outside? This no longer appears safe.”
Though Samantha and Marissa could not argue with Phil about the safety risk, neither budged as the room became cool enough to see their own breath. They would rather freeze than leave.
“What is this thing?” Marissa said, feeling as if her face were frozen.
“Alex told me something,” Samantha whispered through chattering teeth, “but I honestly wasn’t listening at the time. All I remember is that he said the box transmits and receives messages through something called quantum entanglement. He also mentioned another thing about gloves, a coat and that it could be only activated in wide, secure spaces.”
Suddenly, a blast of heat shot through the room as the cube burst into a three dimensional recreation of the lab under the Macedonian Training Grounds. The image now filled most of the office and although colored in different shades of gray, it was of remarkable visual quality.
All three of them instantly noted of William, Dr. Harding, and Jules looking at a holographic image above a table next to them.
“I wonder what they’re doing?” Samantha said aloud.
Marissa brought her finger to her mouth. “Let’s not let them hear us,” she whispered.
“It’s OK,” Samantha assured. “They can’t hear or see us. Alex said it’s basically a one-way transmission.”
“Basically?” Phil questioned, raising a suspicious eyebrow.
“Yea, basically,” Samantha nonchalantly commented, wishing she had been more attentive in her conversation about the quantum entanglement box with Alex. She then walked over to the hologram that William and the other two men were looking at.
“Where’s Alex?” Marissa asked, darting her eyes around the room. Almost intuitively, she turned her attention to the pods, as if for some reason she knew they held the answer.
While Phil stood at attention against the wall, Marissa slowly walked over to the pods, intently inspecting them with each footstep. Upon reaching the nearest one, she placed her hand against it. Expecting her entire limb to pass through, she was surprised to discover that the image was solid. She then slid her palm against the canister’s cylindrical contour as if it were actually in front of her.
“I thought this was just a hologram,” Marissa announced, flabbergasted by the discovery. “But I can touch and feel everything as if I were right there.”
Basically, Phil then thought, reiterating his recent conversation.
“Really?” Samantha commented. “I don’t recall Alex mentioning anything about that?”
She then smacked the top of Dr. Harding’s shoulder.
Harding immediately jumped backwards as if he’d been touched by a ghost.
Samantha quickly withdrew her hand, completely surprised by the response.
“Did something just fall on me?” Harding said in a metallic-sounding voice while looking on the floor behind him. “I swear that it felt as if something just hit my back.”
“This is unbelievable,” Samantha commented, wide-eyed. “Phil, Marissa,” she declared, finally understanding the principles of quantum entanglement. “Don’t touch anything! Though they can’t hear or see us, they can definitely feel us.”
William quickly picked up on Harding’s response and knew his message had been successfully received. “So you said now that Alex is in one of those pods,” William commented, knowing his friends were listening, “he will have full access to The New Reality computer system?”
“That’s the goal,” Harding commented. “It looks like the upload is complete and Alex has successfully entered the Alexander the Great montage without any cerebral or bodily damage. However, because his posterior cingulate cortex was not completely primed before entry, time will move much faster for him in this virtual world than it does in real time. What seems like a week to him may actually only take a day.”
“Well if you’re telling me that everything is going according to plan,” Jules chimed in, “then I must bid you and this place goodbye. It seems as if William and I have a rendezvous in Georgia with a Misses Myra Keres.”
“It’s amazing how Albert Rosenberg kept this whole cloning project secret here in this underground lab without anyone else in the company knowing about it,” William said. “Or how he was able to detour all vehicles away from the 40.8000° North, by 22.5167° East coordinates.”
Both Samantha and Marissa held their mouths in disbelief.
“The greatness gene,” Samantha said.
“Alex’s hair,” Marissa added.
“Albert Rosenberg must have been cloning people he deemed great,” Samantha concluded.
Marissa continued, “And analyzing their DNA to determine what made them so special.”
“And Alex was one of those clones,” Samantha finished.A loud thud echoed from outside Samantha’s office. A few bangs then accompanied the sound. A siren went off in the commotion.
“It’s time to leave,” Phil authoritatively said. “I need to get you two to the stratoskimmer. It looks as if someone has come to pay us an unwelcome visit.”
“But we’re not done,” Marissa said.
“William,” Jules chastised. “Skip the adulation until Alex finds the lock. Until then, concentrate on the matter at hand: getting into The New Reality.”
“Lock?” Samantha thought. “What’re they talking about?”
Another thud rattled their building, sounding as if it originated from just outside the office.
“Let’s go,” Phil demanded. “Mr. Pella left my brother and me personally in charge of the safety of both of you, and right now ‘no’ is not an acceptable answer.” He pointed to the vague outline of the box in the center of the floor. “Please, ma’am.”
Samantha understood that listening any longer would be counterproductive. She hoped that what little they had just heard from the conversation would be enough to lead them in the right direction. She then bent down and placed her hand on the box, and the quantum entanglement image vanished.
From his belt, Phil grabbed a small device that looked like a calculator and walked over to the door, which dematerialized upon his approach. He then turned back to Marissa and Samantha. “Follow my brother while I slow any intruder’s approach.”
Samantha ran over to her desk. Reaching into a side drawer, she grabbed two watch-like devices and placed one around her wrist. The other she threw to Marissa as they ran to the door.
“What’s this?” Marissa asked as she caught the device.
“It’s some thingamajig Alex gave me,” she responded. “All I know is that you put it around your wrist, aim and push the button on the top to shoot.”
“This way,” Gil insisted, starting to run down the hallway.
The two followed the hulking man while his brother Phil remained in front of the office. Just as they were halfway down the hall a massive commotion erupted behind them.
Samantha turned back and to her surprise saw three WOGs on the ground and Phil hurling another at two others. As the intruder flew through the air, the man knocked down the remaining WOGs charging his position. Phil turned towards Samantha and pushed a button on the calculator-shaped device in his hand. A steel door immediately began to descend from the ceiling, partitioning the hallway halfway between them.
Two more WOGs darted under the door before it sealed shut as another five charged Phil’s position. Their numerical advantage made it impossible for Phil to s
top them all. Luckily, he was able to halt most of them before being tranquilized unconscious on the floor.
“Keep moving!” Gil shouted.
The three of them ran left down an adjacent hall. Marissa fumbled with the watch-like device Samantha gave her. It took her a few attempts but she finally secured it around her wrist while running.
As the three continued sprinting, two WOGs ambushed their position by jumping down from the ventilation shaft in the ceiling. Before the first one could raise his weapon, Gil tackled him to the ground, slamming his head against the wall.
As the second WOG landed on the floor, he was met in the throat with one of Samantha’s high heels. The man gasped for air while Samantha spun around and used her other high heel to spike the WOG on the top of his foot.
The man gasped for air and did his best not to fall over in agony. As he backed away to reposition himself, Marissa pointed her watch and pushed the top button. An electric pulse shot out from it and sent the WOG flying into the wall behind him. After the impact, the man crumbled to the floor.
Samantha scrambled onto the ground and took aim, remembering the other WOGs who had made it past Phil. As the two men turned down the hall, Samantha sent them flying backward to the floor after two direct electric pulses from her watch-like device.
“They know exactly where each of us is,” Marissa said, bringing Samantha upright by the hand. “With our biotags, it’s impossible to hide from them.”
Gil, undeterred by their momentary distraction, jumped to his feet and placed his hand against the wall. A hidden door leading to an underground tunnel dematerialized next to them. Samantha and Alex had routinely taken this shortcut to the stratoskimmer bay in the past. “Follow me,” Gil said running through the doorway.
“How do we know the WOGs won’t be following us down this tunnel?” Samantha asked, now holding her high heels in her hand and running in her bare feet.
“We don’t,” Gil curtly responded, as the door rematerialized behind them.
The three continued to run until they raced through an open passage leading into a large hanger. Fortuitously, it was completely vacant other than a single stratoskimmer. A man waving them on stood at the top of the stairs leading into the vehicle. “Let’s go,” he shouted.
The Hidden Reality (Alex Pella, #2) Page 17
