The doors on the elevator opened to the entrance level. Blake asked, “What did you just say, Connor?”
“I said that somebody else probably found it already.”
As if hit by a bolt of lightning, Blake rolled his eyes and exclaimed, “You’re right. Somebody did find it.”
Blake started to unpack the monitor again, and April started to panic. “What are you doing? We have to get out of here!” But Blake’s heart was racing and his energy soared. He had an idea.
“I just need a minute.” He pulled up a manual search program on the computer and released the mosquito into the air right there in front of the entrance. He handed the computer to April and told her to watch the line at the top of the axis.
“What are we doing? Why are we looking here?” she asked. Just then, the point on the monitor spiked, reaching the top line. “It’s here! The charm is here!”
Connor perked up. “What? What do you mean the charm’s here?”
Blake explained that he had only set the mosquito to search a cross section of the site, but not the tower itself. “Don’t you get it? You were right. Someone has already found the charm. In fact, they found it a long time ago.”
Blake walked into an adjoining room where the mosquito had landed on a wall. Blake kicked at the wall and could tell that it was hollow. “Help me with this, Connor.”
Blake and Connor pushed on the wall until it gave way into a passage that led underground. It was dark, but it was also modern. The walls were plastered and clean. Connor found a light switch at the entrance. He flipped it, and the entire passage became illuminated.
April was stunned but excited. Blake turned to her and said, “Don’t you see? This wasn’t a housing complex. It was a lab.”
Connor asked, “A lab for what?”
Blake explained that the rumors of people getting killed had to be true. “Whatever they were doing here, they were using people as the guinea pigs. We need to see what’s down there.”
April reminded Blake they were getting very tight on time, but she agreed that they needed to explore. “We can go down there, but it has to be fast.”
The group followed the path and the steps that led at least fifty feet down into the ground. The farther they descended, the colder it got, but their excitement level kept them warm.
Blake took one final turn and the path ended at the entrance of a room. Not a huge underground complex—just a single room. In the center of that room was a stand. On top of the stand was a brilliant, sparkling, red charm.
“That’s it! That’s the charm!” Connor yelled. He wanted to run to the stand, but Blake stopped him.
Connor asked, “What are you doing? Let’s get it and get out of here!”
April came to her son’s side. “Walter left strict instructions that we could not take the charm once it was found. We are to report that we found it and await further direction.”
“Screw Walter!” Connor replied. “He’s not the one here looking at the thing. Let’s take it and go.”
Blake said, “We have our orders. We need to follow them. Think about it—this thing has been here all this time and no one has moved it? There’s something else going on here, and we need to let Walter know what we found.”
April took a close look at the stand and noticed that the sides of it looked like a person’s hands. It was as if the charm was being cradled by the hands.
Connor reluctantly agreed that he would wait but that he wouldn’t wait long. “I want out of here, and the way out is that charm. Let’s get a hold of Walter or Johnson and get this done.”
April looked at her watch and said, “We have ten minutes to get outta here. Let’s move.”
The group turned off the lights to the passage, grabbed the metal mosquito, covered up the passage entrance, and ran back to the jeep. April told Blake that he’d better hang on. “I’ll have to drive faster this time, so it might get a little bumpy.”
Blake grabbed the handle on the door frame and held on for dear life as April bumped and rattled them back through the path to the site entrance. Without a doubt, she would get them back to the entrance in less than five minutes.
A quick park of the jeep and a sprint back to level one left the group with three whole minutes to get out of the site offices. Marco was relieved to see them as they came stumbling through the door.
“Cuttin’ it a little close, aren’t you? How did it go?”
“We’ll tell you later,” Blake replied. “Unhook the scrambler and let’s get out of here.”
Marco disconnected the scrambler, and within seconds, all of the monitors popped back up. They all sprinted back up the staircase leading to the main hall. Out in front, Blake said, “We’ve almost made it.”
As he reached the main hallway, he heard the door around the corner open and the sounds of two security guards entering the building.
“Damn, they’re early. Marco, pass me your bag.” Blake dug around inside the bag with a purpose and then threw it over his shoulder. “Everybody take each other’s hand and lean against the wall.”
The two guards rounded the corner and walked right past April and the team. They never saw a thing. As they both bounced down the staircase, Blake let go of the wall. “I knew that camotape would come in handy.”
With that close call, the group sprinted the rest of the way down the hall, making one quick stop to scramble a camera. In less than a minute, they were back out the main gate. The sun was beginning to peek over the tree lines, and Marco could see several workers showing up for the workday. Blake shut off the scrambler and put everything back in his bag.
Still a little out of breath, Blake said, “We just made it, guys, but we did make it.” The group gave each other some high fives and started out on their walk to the other side of the site, planning to enter on the west side per their normal procedure. It would take about fifteen minutes to get to that entrance, but it was worth it. It was now exactly 6:00 a.m.
Blake told everyone he would send along all their discoveries to Johnson after work today, and then it would be on to Phase Three and the recovery of the charm. April looked around one final time as they left the east entrance and was comfortable they had not been seen. She didn’t notice anything out of place. But she didn’t look hard enough.
A small bird sat in one of the trees, near where April and the team had exited the marsh. The problem was that it wasn’t a bird at all. It was a monitoring device. On the other end of that device sat a man. He watched the group as they left the site and followed them as they walked away.
The man heard the door of his office open and a voice ask, “Is it time?”
“Not yet, mate,” he replied, “but it’ll be soon.”
The man at the door smiled. “I knew I could count on you, Roger.”
Chapter 15
KEEP IT TO YOURSELF
It was 6:00 a.m., and Matthew was in the kitchen at his home in 2016. He had been up all night. While the Hathmec was able to keep his energy level to a point that helped him stay awake, it couldn’t account for the lost rest that was a basic requirement for every living being. Sleep allowed the mind to ease itself, to temporarily escape from the constant nagging of a thought that wouldn’t go away.
The thought that wouldn’t leave Matthew’s head was simple: “Why is Amanda not home yet?” When Matthew had left Amanda in the early hours of Thursday morning, she was still at the SAP party with Cameron. That had been almost six hours ago. He couldn’t believe that the party hadn’t ended by six in the morning. He was worried. He was stressed. He was jealous.
The rest of the Chance family was still asleep, but they would be up in just a few minutes. He was sure that Addie and Bryan would be in a wonderful mood when he told them that Amanda was missing. Suspecting that Addie liked Amanda more than she liked him, he felt she would be disappointed.
The worst possible scenarios filled his mind, until he heard a car door slam outside of the house. Finally! He ran to the window and saw
a cab pull off down the street. Amanda was slinking up to the side entrance of the garage.
She cracked the door slowly to avoid making too much noise. Despite her caution, the door squealed as it opened up enough for her to squeeze in. She carried her purse and jacket in her arms. Her hair was tousled, as if she had stuck her head out a car window at fifty miles an hour. The first thing she saw when she entered the house was Matthew, his arms crossed and a scowl chiseled into his face.
“Where the hell have you been? I’ve been pacing a trench into the kitchen floor all night worrying about you.”
Amanda was clearly tired and seemed agitated. She threw her jacket and purse onto the dining room table and walked right past Matthew. She made her way up the stairs without a word.
Matthew could see the stress written on Amanda’s face. “We have to leave for class in an hour. Are you gonna be ready by then?”
“I’m not going,” Amanda replied in a bored tone. She disappeared out of sight, straight to her room, and closed her door. She wasn’t heard from for the rest of the morning.
Matthew took a quick shower, changed his clothes, and prepared to head to campus. He knocked on Amanda’s door before he left but got no response. He tried to rush past Addie on his way out, but she was trained to tell when people were hiding something. One quick look at Matthew, and she could tell that something was wrong.
“Where’s Amanda? Why aren’t you riding together?”
Disappointed, Matthew walked into the kitchen and grabbed a warm bagel that had just popped out of the toaster. “She’s not going to class today.”
Addie replied, “You two must have had a big night. Did she find out anything from Cameron? I really think they’re starting to get close.”
Matthew took a bite of his bagel. “Yeah, I think they’re getting close.” The despair in his voice was obvious. “I would probably just give her some space today,” Matthew added. “I think she needs a little break.”
Addie smeared some cream cheese on her own bagel. “I’m glad Cameron was the one that Amanda needed to get close to. I think she really likes him.”
As Matthew and Addie continued to talk, Amanda crept to the top of the staircase and quietly took a seat. She could hear what Matthew and Addie were saying.
Addie asked, “Do you think Amanda got anything from Cameron last night?”
Matthew replied, “To be honest, Addie, I don’t care what Amanda did last night. If she got some information, that’s fine. If not, then I’ll just have to figure something else out.”
Addie put her hand on Matthew’s shoulder. “It’s not a good thing, not to care. Are you two ok?”
Matthew shook his head. “It’s like Walter said. She’s an asset, but in the end, we have to do what we have to do to complete the mission. I can’t worry about Amanda and do what needs to be done.”
Amanda stood up from her seated position at the top of the steps and slunk back to her room. In the kitchen below, Matthew thanked Addie for the bagel and made his way to the door. Addie reminded him to be home early for the big dinner with the Landrum family that evening. “We’re eating at six, so don’t be late.”
Matthew threw his bag into the car and took a long look up at Amanda’s window on the second floor. He thought he saw one of the shades move, but he wasn’t sure. He hadn’t meant any of the things he had said to Addie. He was upset and frustrated with himself as much as he was with Amanda. He just didn’t know what to do.
As Matthew pulled out of the driveway, Amanda watched him leave from her window. She walked away from the glass with tears streaming down her face. Her laptop was open on her desk, and she started typing a letter. Tears kept clouding her vision, and she had to wipe them away to see what she was typing. But the more she typed, the more they flowed.
Matthew spent the entire morning looking for Cameron, figuring he would get more information from Cameron than he would from Amanda. But he hadn’t shown up to any of his classes, and he was nowhere to be found on campus. Matthew checked the library, the science building, the quad, the food hall—no one had seen him.
He tried Cameron on his cell phone, but it would go straight to voice mail every time. He texted and e‑mailed him, but there was still no reply. Matthew attempted every form of communication that 2016 had to offer with no luck. He finally tried the one thing that most young people from that time wouldn’t even have thought about. He walked over to Cameron’s apartment to speak to him face to face. It was a wild concept for the time, but he didn’t have anything to lose.
Cameron lived on the bottom floor of a campus apartment building. It reminded Matthew of the housing complex that he lived in with April and Connor. It wasn’t as clean as his old home, but college students lived there, so that was expected.
He knocked on the door three times. No response. He knocked three more times. Still no response. He knocked three more times, this time adding, “Cameron, are you in there? I need to talk to you!”
Matthew put his ear to the door and heard a muffled movement from inside the apartment. A voice said, “Hang on, I’m comin’.”
The door opened a moment later, and Matthew saw a wreck of a young man staring at him. “What do you want, Matthew? I’m not really feeling that great.”
Matthew could see that Cameron wasn’t in the best of shape, but he was determined to get some information from him. “Are you ok?” he asked. “You look terrible.”
Cameron groaned. “Dude, let me give you a little advice. Never drink alcohol. Just avoid it completely, and you’ll be glad you did. My head is killing me. I feel sick to my stomach. The room is still spinning a little. It’s just not worth it.”
Matthew could see that he was hurting, so he invited himself in and told Cameron he could help him. “I have this new medicine that can help with headaches and stomach problems if you want to try it.”
Cameron replied, “If it can get rid of this pounding in my head, I’ll try anything. Let me get some water.” Matthew told him that he wouldn’t need any water.
“You let it dissolve in your mouth? I’ve taken stuff like that before and it’s nasty.”
Matthew replied, “No, it doesn’t dissolve in your mouth. You don’t even swallow it.” Matthew presented Cameron with a carrier stone that he had flattened out to the size of a quarter and told him to press it against his forehead.
Cameron had never heard of such a remedy, but at this point he was willing to try anything. He took the flat stone and pressed it against his forehead with his left hand as instructed. As he did so, Matthew shared the powers of the health charm through the carrier stone, and its healing power started to make Cameron feel better within a few minutes.
“I have to get some of these. I’m already feeling better. You’re the man.”
Matthew agreed that he was indeed the man and told Cameron to keep that pressed to his head for the next hour. “You should be feeling pretty good by the end of the hour.”
Cameron sat down on his recliner, which was situated in the middle of his apartment’s living room, and closed his eyes. Matthew took a seat on the floor and asked, “So, can you tell me what happened with you and my sister last night? She didn’t get home until six this morning, and she had to take a cab.”
Cameron opened his eyes. “Yeah, I was obviously in no shape to drive. I didn’t want her to have to take a cab, but I knew she needed to get home.”
Matthew tried again. “So, what happened?”
Cameron bounced back and forth in his chair for a minute. “Well, you know how things are with the female creature. They’re complicated, and sometimes you think you know what they want when in reality you couldn’t be further from it.”
Matthew had no idea what Cameron was rambling on about, but each new comment frustrated him more.
“I think we have reached a point in our relationship where things will move at a new pace, and I just need to figure out what I need to do to make sure she’s comfortable with me and feels confident that I can b
e the type of guy that she needs.”
Matthew could tell that Cameron was making this garbage up on the fly. Matthew stood up and said, “Look, I have no idea what you’re talking about. All I want to know is what happened last night and if my sister is ok.”
Cameron closed his eyes again. “I think that’s between me and your sister, bud. If she wants to tell you what happened last night, she can.”
Matthew wasn’t happy, but he also couldn’t blame Cameron for keeping his mouth shut. “Are you still coming with your mom tonight for dinner?” he asked.
Cameron replied, “Yeah, I’ll be there. I think Mom is bringing her new boyfriend with her. God, I hate that prick, but she thinks he hung the moon.”
Cameron got up from his chair and grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator. “Have you ever cared about somebody so much and known that they were with the wrong person, but you just couldn’t do anything to stop it?”
Matthew grinned. “Yeah, I know exactly how that feels.” As Matthew started to walk to the door, he said, “I’ll see you tonight. Keep that disk on your head for another thirty minutes or so.”
Cameron replied, “I actually think I’m cured already, but I’ll keep it on a bit longer. Thanks for the help. You’re a real good friend.”
Matthew smiled. “Friends are there when you need them. I’m sure you would be there for me if I needed you.”
Cameron returned the smile and said, “Of course I would. I’ll see you tonight.”
Matthew drove back to the campus and walked around for a while. It was a good place to clear the mind—as long as no one wanted to talk. He did a good job avoiding conversations until he ran into Lindsey Hofner behind the student center.
“Matthew! Matthew, hold up!”
Matthew recognized the voice as belonging to one of the twins, but he wasn’t sure which one it was until she caught up to him. She was wearing a purple shirt, so he knew it was Lindsey.
“I just wanted to thank you again for last night.” Matthew looked at her with a blank stare. He was trying to remember what he had done for her.
Last Chance Volume 2 - The Legend of the Hathmec: Planting the Seed Page 22
