The Twelve Stones

by RJ Johnson

  Kline exited the helicopter and nodded towards Geoffrey, indicating he should follow him. Geoffrey swallowed. Alone time with the boss, he thought to himself. Hooray.

  Geoffrey trailed his boss into his luxurious office with some trepidation. Kline had a legendary temper and was known to strike down anyone who had angered him, which is why all of the men on Kline’s payroll were paid incredibly well. It was insurance to have his orders followed, no matter how strange they might be. As Kline’s right-hand man, Geoffrey was making a seven-figure income, which in his book paid for quite a bit of loyalty. However, Geoffrey was well aware that his loyalty was in no way a two-way street.

  The only thing that made Geoffrey feel good about walking into Kline’s trailer alone was that the billionaire had already had several chances to kill him, and yet, he hadn’t.

  Kline walked straight towards his desk at the other end of the office and buried himself in paperwork, rifling through files on his desk. Finding several pages, he nodded to himself, muttering nonsense. Geoffrey just stood silently to the side.

  Nodding again, Kline wordlessly held out a sheaf full of paper. Geoffrey’s eyes narrowed, and he approached his boss, taking the papers from his hand.

  The handwriting on the documents was not the clean and precise script of Kline that Geoffrey knew so well. Instead, it was full of drawings, maps from all over the world, with strange notations in their margins. Picking one up and examining it more closely, he noticed that it referred to their current location.

  “What is all this?” Geoffrey asked slowly.

  “This is humanity,” Kline replied softly. “For as long as we have recorded history, I own various related documents or exact reproductions thereof.” He waved at the piles of ancient documents. “I've spent more money than you will ever see in your pathetically short lifetime to accumulate the sort of history displayed before you. I’ve read thousands of documents, visited hundreds of sites, interviewed dozens of witnesses, all relating to the phenomena you’ve witnessed tonight.”

  “And?” Geoffrey was frustrated. None of this made any sense.

  “What did you see at JPL, Mr. Tate?” Kline asked lazily, leaning back in his chair. “The truth, now.”

  Geoffrey swallowed. What the hell?

  “I watched several of our best men pump round after round into Alex McCray's chest. I saw his wounds heal themselves instantly. I watched a grizzly bear come out of nowhere and kill one of our top men. I held McCray’s stone and felt my wounds heal themselves of their own volition.” He paused, looking his employer straight in the eye. “I have no idea what I've seen tonight. That's the God's honest truth. What I do know is I've witnessed power unlike anything humanity has seen before.”

  Geoffrey approached Kline's desk and leaned over, not feeling as confident as he looked, “And I know that the stone carried by McCray that granted me those healing properties is nearly an exact copy of the ring you wear every day.”

  Kline smiled and nodded slightly.

  “Fascinating to see them in action, isn't it?”

  Geoffrey was taken aback.

  “You mean, you knew?”

  “I expected something similar.” Kline replied, “I imagine you know the source of my strength, then.”

  “Is it your ring?”

  “It is. And, through my research, I have come to the conclusion that there are ten more stones just like the ones I and young Mr. McCray possess.”

  “Stones?” Geoffrey replied weakly.

  Kline paused, his eyes glancing back in his head, as he thought about what he would tell Mr. Tate. He was a loyal employee, and there was no one Kline trusted more in his organization. It was time for Kline to reveal his greatest secret.

  “My boy, how old do you think I am?” Kline asked.

  “I would think you’re in your sixties, for as long as you’ve been involved in finance,” Geoffrey replied slowly, “But looking at you, I can't say you're any older than forty five.”

  “Quite right,” Kline replied. “As it happens, this November, I will be celebrating my 112th birthday.”

  Geoffrey’s jaw dropped in shock.

  “That’s not possible,” Geoffrey said slowly. “No one can live that long, and look the way you do.” He shook his head again. “It’s not possible.”

  “My boy,” Kline said, smiling, “you’re telling me you haven’t seen enough in the last twelve hours to be convinced of something as simple as immortality?” Kline raised his eyebrows. “They really do pound the cynicism into you Americans.”

  Kline admired his ring for a moment, tracing the curved edge of the stone embedded in the ring, looking at it with a knowing smile. He looked up at his assistant and continued.

  “This stone I carry was created by an advanced alien civilization, and I believe they left several other stones just like it scattered across our world. This stone is what has kept me young for the last sixty years.”

  “Aliens?” Geoffrey laughed. “Little green men from Mars, right? Came here to probe Uranus?” He laughed at his own joke. “There’s no such thing as aliens!”

  Kline rushed over to Geoffrey, lifting him over his shoulder and tossing him causally across the room. Geoffrey collided with the opposite wall of the trailer, threatening to shake it off its foundation. With a resounding crash, he fell in a crumpling heap on the floor. With his body still somewhat bruised from the earlier fight at JPL, he cried out in pain. He raised his head up to watch his boss approach him. Geoffrey shut his eyes, preparing for the worst.

  And suddenly, he found himself righted, with Kline brushing off Geoffrey’s leather jacket. Smiling, Kline picked up a chair that Geoffrey’s body had knocked over, set it right and helped Geoffrey into it. Geoffrey sat in a daze, certain that death was coming at any moment.

  Kline walked over to his trailer’s built-in kitchenette. “Would you like something to drink, Mr. Tate?” he called over to his second in command. His tone was pleasant and unlike anything Geoffrey had ever heard before.

  Incredibly confused as to Kline’s motives, and still a little woozy from his boss’s attack, he shook his head. The room spun around him. Reaching up with his hand, he felt the back of his head, hoping there was no blood.

  Kline took a teapot from his hot plate and filled it with water from a jug in the refrigerator. Setting the teakettle on the camp stove, he turned back to his assistant and clasped his hands in a warm manner.

  “Now,” Kline began slowly, “let me show you something.” He pointed to a poster on the wall, full of stars and galaxies. “Do you know what that picture is?”

  Geoffrey shook his head. He was tired of the games.

  “A few years ago, NASA aimed that fancy Hubble telescope of theirs towards a rather small, generally empty-looking spot up in the sky near the Fornix Constellation. Over a period of a few days, they took a snapshot, and that right there is what they found. They call it the Hubble Ultra Deep Field.”

  Geoffrey looked at the picture. It was a bunch of stars and galaxies, nothing he hadn’t seen a million times before in science fiction.

  “Thousands of galaxies, each with billions of stars, with trillions of possibilities for life existing out there, and that’s just one tiny slice in the sky.” Kline shook his head and laughed, “You know, it isn’t just the universe that’s infinite; humanity’s ego gives it a run for its money.

  “The very thought that we’re the only sentient beings in the universe is laughable. My boy, the question isn’t if there’s life in the universe, but where they are and just how many are there. Someday soon, people will laugh at this belief, in the same way you’d laugh at someone who told you the Earth was flat.”

  Geoffrey swallowed. Whatever his boss's rationalization for the stone that gave him his strength, it was hard to deny the raw power Kline had demonstrated at JPL.

  “You’ve always admired this ring.” Kline put his hand out in front of Geoffrey’s face. The dull tan finish of the ring reflected the light from the fluore
scent bulbs. Geoffrey nodded in response. Kline smirked and opened up a cupboard, retrieving a cup and tea.

  “Green tea. It’s fantastic with anti-oxidants.” He extracted a teabag and placed it in the cup. Tilting his head towards his ring, he examined it closely before speaking.

  “It was 1943,” Kline began. “I was a Colonel in the British infantry. The Americans, along with my unit, had the responsibility of chasing Rommel out of North Africa. My boys had spent a lot of time on the front lines, clearing out German strongholds through Northern territory, when we happened on a mansion unlike anything we had seen before.”

  He poured the hot water into the cup and sat down across from Geoffrey. “Our unit commander had seen just as much action as we had in the last few months. So, when we came on the mansion, we were ordered to clear the area of any German resistance, and then take a day to rest. The idea of a hot shower and a real bed was quite a motivator, let me tell you.

  “There weren’t many people left in the town. Most had cleared out long before the Germans came. And there wasn’t much chance of any German resistance there; most of the army had fallen back by then to protect Italy for the planned invasion by American forces later that year.”

  Kline paused as he sipped his tea. “I was downstairs, going through some personal letters looking for evidence the occupants might be Nazi affiliated, when I happened on a safe. I called my mate downstairs to the basement, telling him what I had found. Like me, he was ecstatic. Most of the soldiers were shipping back tons in ‘souvenirs,’ - looting of course, a less polite term for it, and we were the only suckers in the unit who had yet to find anything of value.”

  Kline sipped from his tea again. “We were good friends. We had gone through training together, split rations when one fellow was low on sugar, coffee or gum, what have you, but on that day, we found something we could not split. After he opened the safe up with a few well-placed charges, I eagerly dug through it, hoping to find some commodity stashed away safely by the mansion’s owner hours before the Germans had invaded. My mate ignored all that and went directly for the stone. However, once he grabbed it, something about him changed. He began screaming, ranting and raving. I didn’t catch most of it; the man was insane. He accused me of stealing from him, and to my amazement, grabbed the safe — which had to weigh several hundred pounds — and hurled it at me as if he were tossing a pebble. His anger grew from there, uncontrollable, raging. Every time he managed some feat of strength I thought was impossible, he would outdo it by a thousand times only moments later.”

  Geoffrey watched his boss’s face. Kline was far away, and his eyes stared off in the distance as he told his story.

  “When an animal at the zoo becomes uncontrollable, the only humane thing to do is put him down. With my rifle, I shot my friend, the first shot going wild. Once he saw what I was about, he charged, and I pulled the trigger again, as many times as I could, finally killing him. As my mate lay on the ground, bleeding out of several holes that I, his best friend, was responsible for, the stone flashed and fell from his hand. Curious, I picked the stone up, and felt what he must have felt. It was like grasping a live power cable in your hands. Dangerous, and yet…” Kline’s voice grew strong and dark, “knowing at the same time that you control all that power, it’s…” He smiled as he licked his lips. “It’s quite a feeling.”

  Kline’s eyes returned to the present and focused on his assistant. “I couldn’t return to my unit. Not after shooting a fellow soldier. Besides, while the power had driven my friend insane, I found I could control it, channeling it into strength that no man has ever been capable of. I abandoned my unit, returned to London under a new name, and began my life as a businessman, profiting off the reconstruction of Europe. When my fortunes amassed, I disappeared into the ether, only to return in the 1980’s with a brand-new identity.”

  “So you’re not…?” Geoffrey trailed off, attempting to absorb all the information.

  “My boy, even if I were to tell you my real name, you wouldn’t find anything. I wiped every record of what I humorously call my ‘first birth’ off this planet. In fact, I’ve been known as several different identities on three different continents. It isn’t difficult when you have money.”

  “Plastic surgery can only go so far, and you don’t look older than 40, and yet, to have served as a soldier fifty years ago?” Geoffrey spluttered. “It defies all logic.”

  “Logic?” Kline thundered as he rose up from the chair, a terrifying figure indeed. “What you have seen me do, what you’ve seen Mr. McCray accomplish, defies more than just logic.”

  Geoffrey cowered, his mind racing for answers. “The stone has some sort of longevity associated with it?”

  Kline smiled broadly, his temper receding. “My boy, I haven’t aged a day in thirty years.”

  Geoffrey’s eyebrows rose. The more Kline talked, the surer he was that he was going to die. “Mr. Kline, why are you telling me all this?”

  Kline smiled, “Because you’ve seen far too much without having some valid questions about the work we’re doing here. I had hoped to keep you in the dark a bit longer, but it seems that is no longer possible if I want the job done right.”

  “Why am I still alive?” Geoffrey asked bluntly, unsure if he really wanted to know the answer. “You’re telling me something that’s too fantastic to believe, and yet, I’ve seen it all with my own eyes. I know men like you. Men like you control information like you control power. You don’t just give up information without having some plan for me.”

  “You’re right; I do have a plan for you. For one, you've never been anything but loyal to me, and now, in addition to your generous salary, you are fully aware of the fact that there is absolutely nothing at all to keep me from killing you right here on this very spot,” Kline said maliciously. “Which means you know you are on a short leash. The phrase ‘keep your enemies close’ isn’t cliché by any means.

  “I’m going to give you one more secret. This ring is surgically implanted into my body. A steel rod welded into this ring connects directly to the skeletal structure of my hand. There is nothing on this planet that will take this stone off of my finger. So any thoughts of you stealing the ring and consolidating your power over me are useless.” Kline smiled. “If you want to continue living and make an obscene amount of money at the same time, you really have no choice but to follow my orders.”

  Kline moved quickly. One second, Kline was lazily stirring his tea; the next, his face was directly in front of Geoffrey’s. “One false move,” he warned in a low, hissing tone “will be your absolute last. Do we understand each other?”

  Geoffrey, nearly certain he was about to die, closed his eyes tightly and thought of the home he grew up in. He was nothing if not a survivor.

  “What would you have me do?” Geoffrey opened his eyes, hoping they didn't betray the deep fear that had settled in the pit of his stomach.

  Kline smiled and adopted his cheery tone once again. “Excellent. You can begin by telling me from the beginning what happened at JPL.”

  Geoffrey nodded and began to run down the series of events. Kline stroked his face occasionally, listening intently. He smiled once he heard Geoffrey tell him about how his gunmen had emptied their clips into Alex’s body, and yet he remained unscathed. He dashed over to his notes, running his hands carefully through the brittle diary pages.

  Satisfied, he snapped the book shut turned and smiled at Geoffrey. “Do we have any leads on the boy?”

  Geoffrey shook his head — and then, remembering, he patted the inside of his jacket and took out the Christmas card.

  “There’s this card. It’s from around the time Mr. McCray disappeared. This was probably his girlfriend at the time.”

  Kline snatched the photo away from his assistant and examined the two people in it with a critical eye.

  The brunette was beautiful, her fierce and sparkling blue eyes popping out of the photo. The other Kline easily recognized as the man from the dese
rt. Both were smiling, and both held each other as couples do when they’re in love.

  “If he’s disappeared for the last six years, it’s unlikely she knew anything about it.” Kline mused out loud.

  Geoffrey completed the thought. “It’s possible he still has feelings for her…”

  “I think it’s a good time to go ask her. Find what you can on Miss Harper, and perhaps she will be appropriate enough leverage on Mr. McCray. If we fail to persuade the young man with his former lover, then we drop her out of the chopper. Understood?”

  Geoffrey quickly nodded, tapping on his PDA as he looked for information on the girl. Kline’s idea was a good one, and Geoffrey cursed himself for not thinking of it sooner.

  “Search parameters have given me the name of one woman, in charge of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence at the Allen Telescope Array in Hat Creek, California.” Geoffrey skimmed the website and found a picture of the director. Showing his PDA to Kline, he smiled. “That’s her.”

  Kline clapped his hands in victory.

  “Excellent. Then you and I will go find this woman and see what she knows of her last boyfriend.” Kline raised himself off his chair, putting on his jacket with an excited expression on his face.

  Geoffrey also got out of his chair warily, unsure if he really was walking out of the trailer alive.

  “Mr. Tate,” Kline said conversationally as they exited the trailer and headed towards Kline’s waiting helicopter. “Remember that you are only alive right now because I deem it so. Once more, do we understand each other?”

  Geoffrey looked back into the beady eyes of Rupert Kline. The only chance he was going to take on the man’s promise was by following the orders he was given and hoping he could stay valuable enough. If he at all failed in finding this girl, Geoffrey would place himself on the first jet to Brazil.

  Chapter Thirty

  Emily pulled her car into her space at the Allen Telescope Array. The commute had gone quicker than normal this week.

  Every Monday morning, she drove three hundred miles north from her home in San Francisco and stayed at the complex, decoding signals from outer space for four days out of the week. The co-founder of Microsoft had spared no expense on living quarters for the scientists and programmers, so Emily never minded her commute. The Allen Telescope Array (or ATA, as it was known) had become a home away from home, a place where she could concentrate on work and only work. As the years went by, Emily found herself stuck in a routine, working as hard as she could, then returning back to the home Alex and she had once shared. It was a place where she could decompress, forget about numbers, star charts and ETI’s (Extraterrestrial Intelligences) for a moment. It was a place where she could drink a bottle of red wine and wonder privately to herself where her life was going. Then, each Monday morning, it started all over again, with her drive back up to Hat Creek.