by Nick Thacker
The right tires began to kick up gravel, and Jake pulled hard on the wheel, trying to compensate. He over-corrected, and it was too much. The back tires kicked toward the cliff as the car skidded perpendicular to the road. Jake felt the pull of momentum, but he held fast to the steering wheel with his left hand as he reached for the emergency brake with his right. Yanking back as hard as he could, he immediately felt the brake grab. The tires locked, but the car didn’t slow, sliding through the loose gravel as though it were on a sheet of ice.
Time slowed to a crawl; Jake was helpless and frozen in place. There was nothing he could do to prevent the inevitable crash. An intense flash of light enveloped him, and he heard the engine and instruments come back to life — as if they had never stopped. The flash dissipated, and he was able to again make out the headlights and dashboard instruments — just as the same loud SNAP and pressure change from moments before hit him again.
All this he saw and felt in an instant; one that vanished as time sped back to normal. He saw before him the vast emptiness beyond the edge of the cliff as the car shot over the brink. Time slowed once more; he was suddenly weightless. He hovered a few inches above his seat, tethered by the seatbelt. As the car hurtled toward the ground, Jake could do nothing but stare through the windshield, mesmerized and helpless.
CHAPTER 3
9:13 AM - WHITE ROCK, New Mexico, USA
Cole's morning was shaping up to be one of the best he'd had in a while. The sweltering heat of summer had finally faded into a bearable warmth that made his early morning runs quite enjoyable. Throughout college, he'd slowly gained weight and gotten less fit, and as he continued to eat whatever — and whenever — he liked, he watched his high-school football player’s body morph into a middle-aged storehouse of excess flab. At 27, Cole finally decided this "extra baggage" was unacceptable.
14 months and 67 pounds later, Cole was well on his way to being more healthy and fit than he'd ever been. His parents were proud of his weight loss and fitness accomplishments, but they feared that Cole was too "into" his workouts, and his new lifestyle was going to consume him. Already he'd gone through three girlfriends in three cities in just over five years, and each failed relationship had left him feeling emptier than the one before.
But now, with just the open road to contend with, none of that mattered. He enjoyed this run — the 7.2 miles from his home outside of White Rock to the second switchback, where he'd turn and head home. New Mexico's mountainous landscape stretched for miles ahead and to his left, and a sheer cliff face flew upwards on his right. Running used to daunt him but in this setting it was different; more relaxing.
As he approached the second switchback, his mind wandered, comparing his past failures and disappointments with his present health and potential. A year ago he couldn’t have walked this route without oxygen. Today, he'd finish the run, take an ice bath, and not even feel strained in the morning. Maybe he'd head into Santa Fe tonight and meet up with some new friends, or maybe he’d relax at home with a movie and a beer. Cole loved the freedom of living one day at a time, accountable only to himself.
The switchback appeared ahead of him, and he slowed to a jog for the last hundred yards. Just as he started his turn, he caught a flash out of the corner of his eye. Three hundred yards away at the base of the cliff, he could barely make out a destroyed vehicle.
Cole stopped and stared. That wasn’t there yesterday. Surely the police should know about it by now. He squinted, unable to make out any details. He started jogging toward the wreck — from here, he couldn’t see any signs of other cars or people. There were no sirens either.
He got closer. The sedan was almost completely crushed — obliterated, really. He wouldn’t have been able to even recognize that the thing used to be a vehicle if not for the tires — one was smashed, but still connected to the axle, and another could be seen resting on its side about a hundred paces off. He looked up, knowing that the stretch of road he was on climbed up and around this mountain. These highways in and out of White Rock and the surrounding area often had switchbacks and tight turns, and someone must have driven their car off the road, landing on this lower section of road.
There was a blackened wall of rock to the car’s left, and a small crater beneath it, spreading and cracking onto the two-lane highway. Bits and pieces of charred vehicle and metal components were strewn outward around the wreckage. The whole mess was steaming and smoking, and he could hear hisses and pops every few seconds.
Cole kept his eyes forward as he neared the wreck. He slowed to a quick walk and eyed the car carefully, looking for survivors. The smoke stung his eyes, and the heat of the dying fire was still intense. The acrid smell assaulted his nose and mouth.
“Hello?” he called out. There was no response — he knew no one could have survived such a crash — but still, something about the situation wasn’t right.
He crouched down, trying to peer through the smoke and twisted metal into the car’s interior. Straining to see through the smoke and hot air, he tried to discern any signs of life from within the vehicle. Seeing none, he bent down closer to the ground.
The crunching of heavy boots on gravel sounded behind him. The hairs on the back of Cole’s neck stood up, and he scrambled backwards, away from the wreckage.
“Stand up. Place your hands on your head and step back away from the vehicle.” The voice was deep and menacing, with a gravelly strain that suggested its owner preferred not to speak unless absolutely necessary.
Shit, Cole thought. The cops are here, and I’m the only one around. He placed his hands on his head, and turned slowly to his left —
“Do not move! Do not turn around.” The bellowed command seemed very out of place for a police officer at a crash scene in the middle of the desert.
Cole tensed, then continued to back up. After several paces he stopped and hesitated, awaiting further instructions. Who does this guy think he is?
“Here.” There was a metallic clang and a thud. Cole looked at the ground to his right, seeing a crude set of shackles. “Put them on, then turn around.”
Cole’s heart was pounding. He had no desire to put on handcuffs and place himself at the mercy of some stranger — who wasn’t acting much like a cop at all. What if this was just some wacko looking to rob him, armed with nothing but rusty shackles and a scary voice?
Cole decided he’d take his chances. He spun around to his left.
…Straight into a crushing blow, square on his cheekbone. Stars flashed inside his head. His eyes blurred, and he dropped to one knee. The pain was unbelievable — he had been hit before, in schoolyard fights mostly, but this was something else, like getting hit by a truck.
Cole got up, wiping his eyes with his wrist. Struggling to clear his vision, he looked up into the face of a behemoth; a broad-shouldered man with a slightly hunched back, dressed in military fatigues and holding an assault rifle loosely in his massive hands.
“Get up, boy, and hurry.” Cole realized the man spoke with an accent, but he couldn’t quite place it. Russia? Eastern European?
Then, as his eyes finally re-focused, Cole saw the other three men.
CHAPTER 4
9:20 AM
AGENT VLADIMIR Beka watched the young man standing next to the wreckage, his back to the soldiers, and he could almost hear him assessing the situation. He was nothing special — average build, neither fat nor skinny. Vladimir wondered if he was scared, and he smiled inwardly at the thought.
They’d caused the car wreck late last night. Beka himself had wired a simple explosive charge to the road, set to detonate on impact. The first vehicle that came down the winding road at the top of the cliff hit the strand of explosives and careened down here. The car was almost immediately engulfed in flames, but the driver — a man of about thirty years — was able to crawl out before the sedan caused him too much harm.
It was amazing he’d lived, actually, but it made it easier for the Vilocorp team to pluck him off the side of t
he road, wounded and in a daze, and bring him into the lab.
There, Beka knew, the man would die. Not right away, but eventually. He would be subjected to many tests — painful tests — and he would eventually succumb to his injuries. So far, none of their subjects had survived, and that man — and this kid in front of him now — would be no exception.
Beka had been a part of Vilocek’s guard unit for more than a year and had mostly enjoyed the work. His commander, Agent Karn, was something of a slavedriver who expected more from his agents than most military combat units, but Karn did allow his men autonomy most of the time. Karn didn’t care what the men did off-duty, and on-duty he certainly didn’t care how the dirty work was done — as long as it was done quickly and completely.
Recently, the team received orders from the head of Vilocorp — Tanning Vilocek — to use “immediate and lethal force” to acquire particular assets for the company. Karn, Beka, and the other three agents were all too happy to comply. An entire African village was then thoroughly laid to waste.
On another mission, they had smoked out the entire corporate headquarters of a small mining company in Peru to find a particular object for Vilocek. The employees were herded into a group outside while Agent Karn and the others went in to retrieve the package. Beka, tasked with keeping the people in line, tied the people together by the hands and fired a few rounds into the edges of the group. In the ensuing chaos and stampede, many were trampled as others struggled to escape. Beka had watched with mild interest for a few moments until the hysteria began to annoy him — then he calmly shot the survivors.
Beka had no doubt that this type of dirty work was his personal talent; a sadistic calling that made him perfect for Karn’s team and for Vilocorp. His childhood priest had often talked about the importance of “calling,” and Vladimir now understood that the priest had been right all along. Beka was a killer, and he was brutally good at it.
He heard the whump of Karn’s rifle butt as it struck the young man’s face, and Beka came back to the present. He licked his lips in anticipation of a fight, though he knew it would take very little to beat the American into submission. He stepped up to receive his orders.
“Cuff him and bring him back to the facility. Dr. Vilocek wants to run initial tests within the hour.”
“Yes sir.” Beka responded without emotion. He reached for the shackles at the young man’s feet. As Beka squatted down, Cole suddenly lashed out and kicked some gravel into Beka’s face.
Then he bolted, leaving Beka and the others momentarily frozen in place.
The soldiers behind Agent Karn lifted their rifles in turn, preparing to fire at the fleeing man.
“Stand down,” Agent Karn rasped. He swung his assault rifle up and aimed steadily down the sight. Beka stood obediently by, watching as Karn tensed his upper body and relaxed his core, preparing for the recoil.
The rifle let out a thump, not unlike the sound of a cork popping from a wine bottle. Instead of the quick and deafening bang of a normal assault rifle, the thump hung in the air — a pulsating, rhythmic zzzzz. The sound resembled an electric discharge, but deeper.
CHAPTER 5
COLE COULDN’T HEAR ANY FOOTSTEPS, and he was just beginning to wonder what was going on behind him.
Then the shockwave hit him.
His body convulsed with tremors for a split second. He felt everything go weak. He tried to force his legs to keep moving, but a loud, pulsating hum overtook his thoughts and filled his brain. His entire body felt tingly, like a limb fallen asleep. He was completely paralyzed.
Still conscious yet unable to look around or even blink, Cole had a sudden sense of vertigo — it seemed the road beneath his feet was slowly receding.
CHAPTER 6
FORCING HIS EYES OPEN, HE tried to blink back the fuzziness in his vision and look around. Bryce couldn’t believe he was alive.
He also couldn’t believe how much pain he was in. The bullet wounds — two of them — felt tight, like someone was pushing down on them. A quick glance down revealed that they had been cleaned, wrapped, and bandaged, but he felt like other areas of his body had been under attack as well. His head felt swollen; under pressure. His legs were weak; it was almost impossible to shift his body to the side to see his visitor.
His visitor.
Who was that? The fogginess in his eyes cleared, but his mind seemed reluctant to operate fully. He squinted, trying to see who was sitting next to his bed. A man, he could tell from the wide shoulders and lanky frame. He was older, maybe mid-fifties, and his thinning salt-and-pepper hair sat in a small swirly wisp on his head.
“Ah, Captain, it’s good to see you awake,” the man said.
“Who — who are you?” Bryce asked, still groggy.
“My name is James Whittenfield, Jr. My company, Whittenfield Research, is one of the leading philanthropic environmental organizations in the world. I’d offer to shake your hand, but considering — “
“It’s ok. What exactly can I do for you, Mr. Whittenfield?“ As he let the man continue his introduction, Bryce got a look around. He was in a hospital, and from its dingy appearance it seemed it was a small and all but forgotten one at that.
“Call me James. Well Bryce, I’m interested in you. Your performance last week in Samarra was quite impressive. I heard about it from Major Dwight Maynes — “
“Maynes? He wasn’t there,” Bryce said, confused.
“Actually, he was there just in time to snatch you right out from under the grasp of the Iraqi Republican Guard. He flew in; his chopper team gunned down five or six Iraqis just outside their camp, and saw you on the ground. Good thing, too — you weren’t in such great shape. A few more minutes down there and you’d have bled to death.”
“Yeah, well, I’m starting to think maybe that would have been better,” Bryce said, trying to stretch out his tight muscles.
“I’m not so sure about that,” Whittenfield said, reaching for something in his coat pocket. As he did, Bryce noticed the man’s attire for the first time. A pressed suit, Brooks Brothers or another high-end tailored variety, with a fitted white Oxford shirt. Conservative, yet contemporary. His left hand was inside the coat, and the man’s wrist and watch was exposed. A Cartier Chronograph, 1953 edition. Bryce knew it was worth upwards of $20,000. So this guy really does have some money. He also didn’t fit in with the hospital, either. The walls behind the man were dusty, and Bryce could smell the faint hint of the dry sandiness of the desert. They were still in Iraq, or at least somewhere in the Middle East. Maybe in a civilian hospital, though it was hard to tell.
He looked back to the man at the side of his bed. This guy, James Whittenfield, was American, judging by his accent. Possibly from the northeast — Philadelphia, or Boston.
Whittenfield retracted his hand from his coat pocket, holding the notebook.
Bryce’s eyes narrowed; the events that day on the battlefield coming rushing back.
“If you weren’t rescued, we might never have found this little gem.”
“So what? There’s nothing in it — it’s blank,” Bryce responded.
“I noticed. Lucky thing, too — the others aren’t.”
“The others?”
“Right. I’ve got plenty more of these little notebooks,” Whittenfield said, flipping through the blank pages. “They were my father’s — James Whittenfield, Sr., that is. He started Whittenfield Research, and these books, about thirty of them altogether, were his personal journals. Research, hypotheses, experimental results — it’s all in there. This one — the one that was stolen from my lab a few months ago — is the last notebook; one he hadn’t started writing in yet,” Whittenfield explained.
“What kind of research? What does the company do?”
“Captain — Bryce —“ using his first name as he continued, “my work has always been a roller coaster ride. There’s always someone you’re pissing off one day, and the entire scientific community’s in an uproar because of you the next. We are
an environmental research firm, and most of our clients are multinational corporations. Pharmaceuticals, defense systems engineers, even oil conglomerates — they’re all waiting in line to talk to us. We provide a unique form of insurance to our customers: future proofing.
“You see, Capt. Reynolds, most companies are more afraid of the future than anything else — are they going to remain profitable? Are they going to consistently deliver on their numbers and keep their shareholders happy? Are they even going to remain solvent in this economy? These are things they’re worrying about every day, and companies like mine offer an insurance policy against these fears. We can research and deliver the next line of products that will redefine their industries, before their competitors even know they’re working on it.”
Bryce interrupted, frowning. “So, you’re a gigantic research firm working with the world’s largest companies; why haven’t I ever heard of you?” he asked.
“Well, first — we’re not exactly a ‘large’ research firm. We only work with a few clients at a time, though conveniently they usually want the same thing — immunity from their competitors’ attacks. Immortality, if you will. They all want to maintain their position at the forefront of their respective marketplaces, and it turns out we can usually deliver on that wish. Due to this extremely proprietary nature of our work, we aren’t well-known outside the small circle of businesses we’ve worked with — and we intend to keep it that way.”
“Ok, great. Makes sense,” Bryce said, finally sitting up fully on the hospital bed. “But what does this all have to do with me?”
“I know about your mother, Bryce,” Whittenfield said, almost cutting Bryce off. “I know she’s suffering from a rare viral infection; a strain that’s rendered her mostly paralyzed.”
