“I don’t think so. It was like she was picking up some strange disturbance. They were on an alien world, Marcus. We have no clue what happened over there.”
He laughed and slid my dad’s drawing closer to himself. “We don’t even know if they were on another planet.”
“They’re young. Way younger than they should be. How else do you explain it?” Marcus and I hadn’t been able to speak privately, and this conversation was overdue.
“If we’re still on board with this whole alien thing, maybe they were beamed onto a ship. The Unknowns could have killed them, and when we finally powered up their Bridge again, they sent imposters back.”
“That’s sounding a bit science fiction, isn’t it?” I noticed the coffee maker was on, and headed across the kitchen to pour a cup. The smell jolted my eyes wide, and I sipped the old brew.
Marcus ran his hands over his hair, exasperated. “You’re saying the rest of this isn’t something straight from the movies? We’re discussing a different planet. Rimia. Are you kidding me? Rex, believe it or not, this is real. There are alien ships coming for Earth as we speak, and if we’re believing Dirk and Clay, these other guys may be our only hope at salvation.”
“Okay, here’s my problem with this theory. They said Rimia was empty, but they won’t admit that the Unknowns were involved. So they had a link from Earth to Rimia, fled for some reason, and left a second Bridge for us to access, but this one only has a single Token, with no Case. Do you have any idea how many artifacts have the sun etched onto them, Marcus?” I filled the cup and added some cream.
Marcus paused and checked his laptop. “It’s somewhere between ten and thirty thousand. Not all of them are a good match, but the computer only discerns the labels their curators gave them.”
“That’s a lot of items to sift through,” I whispered.
“We’ll find it. We have to assume the material is similar, which should make it easier. And few of these are black. Your father thinks the shape is round, which helps a bit. I wish he’d tell us where they found the information on the new Bridge. If the place was empty, how did they uncover the seventh Token?” Marcus asked.
Dad had been circumventing our conversations, especially on the subject of Rimia. I wanted to trust him, but he was making it extremely difficult. He claimed it was because the less we knew, the less we could reveal if caught, but I felt like that was a cover. “I’ll keep asking. In the meantime, whittle the findings down. I’ve asked my contact at the Smithsonian to give us access as well. He owes me one, or maybe two, so we should be good to search through their old database soon.”
“Good. That should help.” Marcus jumped in his seat as the front door opened, and Tripp walked in with Veronica.
“Where are the rest?” he asked. Tripp had been in a mood recently, and it wasn’t pleasant.
Marcus filled them in. “Clayton and Dirk are with Saul. Bev and the kids joined them.”
“I told you to keep an eye on them,” Tripp barked.
Veronica dropped her bags, and I made eye contact with her. Out of the main four of us, she’d adjusted the best. I was still reeling from her lies, or at least her omission of truth, but I had a new theory and couldn’t wait to confront her on it. I should have done this in private, but the words escaped my lips as soon as the front door shut. “Did you collude with Hunter?”
Tripp let go of the bags on the table and turned to face her.
“It wasn’t like that,” she mumbled.
“Answer his question,” Tripp said firmly.
“I’d contacted him a few times, but not with this name. He was aware that Clayton Belvedere’s daughter was out there searching for answers, but didn’t know it was me,” Veronica admitted.
“Then this wasn’t some elaborate ruse?” My voice held more animosity than I wanted, and I tried to relax. I reminded myself that she was on my side, and we needed allies.
She paled and rested her elbows on the island across from us. “In the plane. Antarctica. He confirmed my suspicions. He learned who I was.”
“And then he died,” Tripp grumbled.
“Like I had something to do with that! What are you implying?” she shouted.
“Nothing. He’s not inferring anything, right, Tripp?” I stared at the ex-SEAL.
“Right. This whole mess has me wound tight. I hate sitting here waiting.” He cracked a beer from the fridge.
“Me too, but what choice do we have? We need to find the Token and return to Rimia with it, and we have a little over two months before the Objects reach us. These beings across the second Bridge are supposed to help us fend them off.”
“Maybe we should go to the military,” Tripp said. “What chance do we have? We’re a handful of people with a few million dollars to fund another expedition. If I make some calls…”
I cut Tripp off. “No way. We’re not going over this again. No military. No government. Hunter said the Believers were everywhere. I can’t trust this to stay quiet if we start to tell everyone.”
“And what if it’s all a lie? Sure, Rex, I believe your and Veronica’s dads were brought somewhere, but… don’t they seem…”
“Crazy?” Veronica finished.
“Exactly. I’m no doctor, but they don’t appear to be firing on all cylinders, and I don’t blame them. Can you imagine being sent to another world devoid of other human life, and having to fend for yourself for eight years? It’s enough to drive anyone bonkers.” Tripp took a pull from his beer bottle.
“They’re not crazy,” I assured them. But what if I was wrong? They did seem to stick closely together, and I swore I’d heard my dad wandering the house at all hours of the night on several occasions.
“How are you feeling, Rex?” Veronica changed the subject, glancing at my stomach where I’d been shot.
“Good. Much better. Damn, I have a hard time accepting that Fred had been with them all those years. He fooled us for so long.” Beverly had told me she was doing fine, despite it all, but the toll was evident on her face. She was a wreck. The kids were asking a lot of questions, but Bev was telling them that their dad had to go away for a while. They were old enough to see through it, but for some reason, neither pressed the topic yet. I expected they’d begin to wonder about their father’s absence soon, and Bev would have to make up some form of the truth.
“Fred loved her. It was obvious. He was definitely a piece of crap, but he’d bought into the marriage. Even if he did care for his family, his loyalty was always with the Believers,” Veronica said, and maybe she was correct.
“What do we do?” Tripp asked me.
He still accepted me as a leader, which almost surprised me, but with Hunter gone, he was seeking someone to follow. A good soldier. “Wait until we locate the Token. Take the artifact and use the Bridge to head to Rimia, as Dirk and Clay suggest.”
“We’re banking on these allies being across the second Bridge. Who’s to say they haven’t been destroyed?” Marcus asked, and I shrugged.
“No way to know. It’s really our only course of action. You saw how much the cult wanted access to the Bridge. Or, if we trust what they said, to destroy it.” That reminded me of the nuke sitting in its case down in the vineyards’ storage shed beside the helicopter. It wasn’t something I liked leaving behind.
The front doors opened, and Saul was the first to enter. Dirk was next, and I barely recognized my father. His hair had been trimmed, but he kept it longer, the brown lengths covering his ears and framing his face. The beard was gone, revealing numerous pronounced scars on his cheeks and chin.
Clayton was freshly made up as well, with brand-new glasses. They were modern, and a far cry from the broken pair he’d been wearing the last eight years in Rimia.
“Turn the news on,” their counterpart said gruffly.
Marcus hopped from the seat, and Carson and Edith ran into the living room, plopping on the couch as the TV flicked to life. He quickly found the news, and the commentator sat with a stunned expressi
on as the image displayed four Objects.
“The sound’s off,” Saul muttered, and Marcus cranked the volume up.
“As some specialists surmised, the middle Object has divided, producing four in total. The President will be making a statement soon, and many world leaders have already issued press releases on the subject. They do appear to be directing for Earth, and it has many speculating that the end of the world is upon us. We’ll be broadcasting the presidential address when it occurs, and in the meantime, we return you to your regularly scheduled programming.”
Marcus tapped the TV off, and we all stood in silence.
“This changes nothing,” Dirk said, shucking his jacket off. “We knew they were coming.”
“But it changes how others react. Moving around the world discreetly becomes more difficult the closer we are to their arrival,” Saul suggested. “Wait until the panic sets in and they ground civilian air travel. Martial law. Soldiers in the streets. This could get messy.”
“The sooner we find this Token, the better,” Clay said. He looked like a stranger with shorn hair and a clean shave. His face appeared rounder with the square frames, and he stared at his daughter like she might vanish at any second.
“We’re trying, but I wish I had Hardy’s research.” Marcus returned to his laptop.
“What did you say?” Tripp asked.
“Hardy. Hunter said he spent decades tracking these Tokens, so he must have learned about the seventh somewhere. He would’ve investigated anything resembling the material they were made from, but once he concluded the sun symbol artifact wasn’t a hexagon, he probably dismissed it,” Marcus said.
“Hunter had mentioned his works.” Tripp lowered his empty bottle and stared out to the vineyard. “He told me that Brian Hardy hated computers, and that he was worried the guy would lose his books and material. Years ago, Hardy had agreed to let Hunter copy his library. He also mentioned paying for him to stay in that fine condo near the park.”
Marcus closed the computer slowly. “Are you saying we might have digital copies of his research?”
“I think so. But it’ll be hidden in his Hamptons house.”
I thought about Francois and the serving man’s betrayal, and wondered if it would be possible to trust the staff. Word hadn’t spread about Hunter’s death, but it was only a matter of time before people started asking after him. We had a couple of weeks, tops.
“What do you say?” I glanced at Veronica, then at Tripp, and finally, Marcus. They were my core.
“We do it. We must find the location,” Dirk said firmly.
“Dad, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but going to the States isn’t our best move. Bev will have to stay here with the kids,” I told them.
“We can’t go home?” she asked from beside Dad.
“Not until this is over. You know that.” I’d explained it twice already, but she was struggling to retain anything.
“They can’t remain alone. Someone has to guard them,” Dirk retorted.
“Why don’t you stay?” I suggested, and he blanched.
“Fine. You leave the Case here, and Clayton and I will…” He spoke, and his eyes lit up. I didn’t like the look of it.
“No way.”
“I’m following Rex. He’s my charge.” Tripp crossed his arms, and I appreciated his support.
“I need to go with you guys. If anyone can access Hunter’s files, it’s me.” Marcus had a good point.
Saul finally broke in as everyone began speaking at once. “Guys. Enough! I’ll guard the Case. Rex, you can bring one of the Tokens with you for safety, if you wish. I’ll watch the kids and Beverly.”
I glanced at my sister, giving her an apologetic smile, and she nodded complacently. “Fine,” she huffed and walked away, sitting beside her children.
“It’s settled.”
“How the hell do we procure passports for the old-timers?” I asked, and Saul laughed, pulling a yellow envelope out of a shopping bag.
“We were always prepared for something like this. Hunter set it in motion years ago, but he probably forgot. I’ve kept renewing them. On the down-low, of course.”
This guy might prove useful. I slid Dirk’s from the package, finding a dated picture of him, with our old home address listed as his place of residence. “Good. Then we’d better book some flights.”
Marcus opened his computer again. “I’ll be set for frequent flyer miles in no time.”
“They’re going to learn we returned home,” Veronica said.
“Good. Then they’ll think we gave up. Let them assume we’re done.” I smiled, hoping the Sovereign had stopped putting so much effort on capturing us, but I’d forgotten something important until now. “Saul, what do the Believers know about what happened here?”
The big man had told us this before, but everything had been so hectic in the early couple days, and I had been on bed rest for most of the duration.
“As I said, Fred wasn’t in contact with them. I shut his service off the moment you landed. Little trick I have from a colleague. I saw him sending messages out to the States, but nothing made it through. No wonder he was so agitated. But they knew he was coming, and that might be enough. Not to this vineyard specifically, but to Portugal,” Saul said.
“And what the hell are we going to do with that weapon of mass destruction in the shed?” Tripp glanced out the window.
“Leave it for the moment. It’ll be safe where it is. You guys do what you have to do, and I’ll be here.” I tried to assess Saul. The man had been undercover for decades with the cult and had worked for a shell corporation as their head of security. He could prove useful, but I hated leaving him with my sister and the kids.
“What else, Saul? What’s going to happen when these Objects park in orbit?” Tripp was growing tired of the lack of communication. I could see it in his eyes, hear it in the tone of his voice.
“There are levels to the Believers, and while I was important in my role, I didn’t have access to any of the pertinent files. I couldn’t tell you who the Sovereign is, or which political figures are owned by them. I’ve seen a few over the years, and I’ve even saved some surveillance footage from the meetings, but they’ve grown more reticent to be seen in the last decade. With the new leadership taking hold…”
“You mean the Sovereign isn’t the same one Hunter dealt with?” Dirk asked.
“Nah. I’d say we’ve… they’ve been through three of them in my tenure, but the latest is the most cutthroat. He’s placed more pieces on the board than any before, and to be honest, he’s caused a bit of a rift within the Believers.” Saul stared at his old friends, and I searched for a giveaway that he was concerned for them too. He didn’t offer any.
“Maybe we can use that?” I suggested.
“What, break into their next meeting and ask if anyone wants to support our cause?” Veronica laughed, but the room fell silent.
“That’s it!” Clayton shouted. “We should infiltrate the lair. Dismantle them from the inside.” His gaze traveled between Saul’s and Dirk’s.
“I don’t think so,” Tripp said. “It’s too dangerous. Plus, they’ll have visuals on us.”
Saul shook his head. “Not really. Like I said, the cult is a need-to-know kind of structure, so I’m willing to bet Hunter Madison’s fortune that only a few are aware of who Rexford Walker and Tripp Davis are.”
We could use this. I found myself excited by the prospect of attempting to crack their foundation, but in reality, there wasn’t adequate time. “We’ll focus on retrieving Hardy’s notes from the Hamptons house first. If there’s anything pointing to the star Token, we’ll grab it from the hiding place and bring it to Rimia.”
It felt good to have a plan, even one as ridiculous-sounding as traveling to an alien world with my long-vanished father and his sidekick.
“We’ll leave in the morning,” I told them. My stomach sutures stretched as I rose, and I winced, knowing I was overdue for my meds. The rest stayed p
ut, chatting, and I walked over to the living room where the kids were dozing on the couch, some cartoon playing on the TV. “Bev, can I speak with you?”
She must have been asleep too, because her head jerked up, her eyes worried until she saw there wasn’t an emergency. “Sure, Rex. What is it?”
“We’re leaving tomorrow.”
Her gaze cast away, staring at the hardwood. “I expected this. Is Dad going?”
I nodded. “Saul will stay with you three. Is that okay?”
“It’s not like I have a choice. When will this be over?” She wiped the sleep from her eyes, and I caught a glimpse of my sister, the little girl she’d been before my dad had departed for Rimia.
“I don’t know. We hope this will work, but…”
“Is he all right?” Her voice was tiny, but I heard it.
We both peered toward the kitchen, where Dirk and Clayton were talking quietly between themselves. The rest of the party had already retired to their rooms. “I can’t say. He’s… different.”
“Wouldn’t you be?”
“Yes. But it seems more than that.”
“Rex, if I tell you something, will you keep it between us?”
She was my sister, and she’d been through a lot. I had to agree. “Of course.”
“I heard them talking. It wasn’t English.”
“What do you mean? Clay and Dad?”
She leaned closer. “I’m no expert, but it was strange, Rex. Like…”
“Like what?”
“It was… never mind. I might be reading into things too much. I’m going to bring the kids to bed.” She started to get up when her knees buckled as she began to sob. I caught her and crouched, trying not to reinjure myself. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”
The kids were still out, and I was grateful for it. “Bev, there’s no way you could have known about Fred.”
“That’s what they always say. We liked to watch those true crime shows, and Fred would be shocked at how the wives never saw the clues. He was probably laughing at me the whole time. Testing me. Mocking me.” She cried into my shoulder and I stroked her hair, hating that she was in so much pain.
Lost Time (The Bridge Sequence Book Two) Page 2
