The Dark Above

by Jeremy Finley

  Yes. I’m here.

  What is going on? My God, where are we?

  I don’t know. I’m in a room just like yours. The agents found us. The same agents I told you about before. They somehow got to you before I could. I don’t know how. They want to keep us isolated.

  They can’t do that. We haven’t done anything wrong.…

  He sensed the apprehension as soon as she said the words. They’d spoken for hours at the abandoned home in New Orleans. She’d fought every claim he made, about the disappearance she didn’t remember to what she was capable of doing with the storms.

  But at last, she couldn’t deny it. She knew what she’d seen. She’d just said she wanted to go to her home. He’d of course agreed. He’d told her not to even give him her address. That as further proof, he’d just find her that night.

  He’d been too late.

  I’m trying to get to you. And Lily too. The agents brought us here. I don’t know where.

  They just can’t keep us locked in here. They have to provide us a lawyer.

  William almost laughed. She didn’t understand that the rules of the normal world didn’t apply anymore—

  Hey, William. You there?

  William’s eyes flew open. What was that voice?

  Dude, I know you’re there.

  William focused once more on Jane. I’ll find, you Jane. I’ll do everything I can.

  He could see her frantic expression. William—

  As he left her, he began to seek, until someone found him first.

  There you are. Hello, General.

  He was barely a teenager, swallowed in a La-Z-Boy recliner. In his hands were a game console, and the sounds of explosions and bullets came from a television. His hair was thick and unruly, and he wore a wrinkled Foo Fighters T-shirt and sweat pants.

  So what’s going on in your side of the X-Men dorm? Your room isn’t nearly as tricked out as mine. But just make a bunch of threats, you’ll have a keg in there in no time.

  You can see me?

  Si, compadre. Once you opened up the communication channel, as I call it. Your room’s pretty lame.

  William took a step back to steady himself. There would be no need to try and find the third of the abducted. The government already had him.

  Where are we?

  Somewhere in DC. The boy squirmed in his chair, leaning to the right in a desperate attempt to stay alive in whatever game he was playing. Deep DC. So far below that we can’t kill people. At least, that’s what they hope.

  Who are you?

  The boy cursed, slapping the console on his thigh. The sound of an electronic death came from the television. I can’t ever get past this stage. But all I got is time. So, I’m Ryan. Here’s my insta bio: thirteen, troubled youth, ability to kill. A pretty disturbing superpower, thanks to the star lords. It’s why I reside in the Taj Mahal of unwashed teenagers; they think if they keep me happy, I won’t kill people on the surface. And I have you to thank for this arrangement, I guess. And what’s the story with the hot doctor?

  William scowled. You can listen in?

  Oh sure. You and me are tight. You just don’t realize it yet. Each time you dreamed, opened the floodgates, reached out to the others, I was right there. Now that you’re my suitemate, looks like I can come to you, too. Which is nice, since I get no visitors, except for your aunt, that one time.

  You led them to us?

  We probably shouldn’t be allowed to wander around killing people. It’s not our fault, though, that we were picked up by the bastards and made to be weapons of mass destruction. I do wonder if we’ll survive, though, what’s coming.

  What do you mean?

  Ryan began playing again, swerving in his seat. I remember. I remember everything. I bet your little friend, Miss Lily, remembers too, but she’s too scared to talk about it. You and Dr. Sweetness are grownups, so they scorched your memory, it’s what they do to adults. But us kids remember. Oh wait, you were a kid when you were taken, right? So you must remember.

  William frowned. Everything I knew was wiped out by the same agency that is locking us away.

  Well, don’t be too grumpy about it. I wish I didn’t remember. I know what they did with us, how we’re different than the ones before. When they trigger us at the end, we’ll be just fine. Not like the old models, with their bleeding ears and blown up brains.…

  William’s stomach cramped.

  Nanna.

  Listen, Ryan, don’t say anything to them about how we communicate. I have to find a way to get us out of here.

  You can’t stop it. The US might be in slightly better shape with three of us underground, but, as you probably have figured out, it’s happening all over the world. All you have to do is read any news website and you’ll see it. Hate to say it, but if I were in their position, I’d lock us up down here and throw away the key. And we’re down deep. Level forty-two deep. There’s no way out.

  Just please don’t reveal that we can communicate.

  Sure. Just don’t be a stranger, OK? I think we’re going to be down here for a long, long time.

  I promise.

  The boy was gone, the connection broken.

  William knocked over two stacks of books and kicked a trashcan across the room. He pounded his fist on the door, yelling to be let out.

  Lily stirred, and Jane stood. He saw them, as clearly as he could see Ryan, also rising from his chair.

  He knew he could unleash them all. But it would do nothing. It would only prove why they need to be buried in a taxpayer-funded tomb.

  He slumped down in a chair, his head in his hands. He might be able to control their abilities, but it wouldn’t help them escape. There was no way for him to attempt to contact anyone—not Blue, not Quincy. Aunt Kate certainly wouldn’t tell his parents or brothers where he was.

  There was no way out. And everyone he loved would die because he couldn’t stop what was coming.

  And what would happen when it did? Would the dream just suddenly seize him, connecting him to all the abducted all over the world, triggering them all at once?

  If there was something in him that he could rip out, he would do it, even if he had to claw through his own skin.…

  William stared straight ahead. For several moments, he held his breath.

  Then he closed his eyes.

  The darkness was vast, so different than when he was trying to get to Jane across the angry gulf. This time, there was only black. He knew instinctively that what he was attempting wasn’t allowed.

  He wasn’t supposed to enter the dark voluntarily.

  When he took that first step, he felt it immediately: the anger looming in the distance, coming to pull him towards the disasters. He wanted to cower; its coming fury like a wave of heat.

  The dreams were how they designed it to happen. He was theirs, their vehicle, their way to get to the others to connect. Establish a web, unite them all.

  He was never to be in control, to navigate the way to the others on his own.

  He turned from it and plunged into the dark.

  How much time passed, he didn’t know. It felt like hours, but it could have been just moments; pushing through blackness as thick as tar. But at last, he found her.

  She looked tired. He hated to wake her if she were sleeping.

  As he reached her, Nanna opened her eyes.

  * * *

  “How many cups is that?”

  Roxy scowled, raising her right eyebrow at Stella. “Don’t judge, young lady. It’s been a hell of a couple days. More excitement than I’ve had since, well, you know, the damn aliens.”

  She expected a sigh or some retort from Lynn, but she’d just spaced out, sitting in the chair in the hotel room and staring out the window. Roxy had hoped she’d finally fallen asleep when her eyes had closed, given that Lynn had barely slept in the government safe house. But it appeared now she was just in a deep state of zoning out.

  “No judging here. You’ve just mentioned, more than once
, the coffee isn’t that good,” Stella said from where she sat across the room from her mother.

  “Oh, it tastes like the Mississippi River, all right. But at least it has caffeine. Still no sign of discovery?”

  Stella reached back and parted the curtain on her side of the window. “Not yet. But I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time. I feel terrible that I haven’t been able to respond to Anne or Chris or the boys, but I’m hesitant to make any calls, given the kind of tracking technology my sources say the FBI has at their disposal. Anne is blowing up my phone as we speak.”

  “I know I’ve said it already, but brilliant move, kiddo. Long live the fourth estate. And good thinking ditching the Volvo for a rental car. Although I was unaware that you’d changed your first and last name.”

  “I did a series of reports on how easy it was to buy fake IDs once. Had one made myself to prove it. I always wondered if one day it would come in handy.”

  “If you’re worried about being tracked by cell, shouldn’t you be worried about that laptop?” Roxy pointed to the computer sitting on Stella’s lap.

  “It’s got a pretty strong firewall, and everything I do is encrypted. I feel safe using it. As soon as we come up with some kind of plan, I’ll email Chris and Anne. They’re already so worried about William, now they know Mom is in some sort of trouble too. If I wasn’t so mad at my ass of an older sister, I would reach out to her for help.”

  Stella turned to Lynn. “Sorry, Mom. I know you don’t like me talking badly about Kate. But my God, signing that order? That’s low, even for her.”

  “Stella, now’s not the time,” Roxy cautioned, waiting for Lynn to interject.

  Instead, Lynn just kept staring. When Roxy saw she hadn’t blinked, she walked over. “Lynn?”

  Lynn slowly held up her hand.

  “Mom?” Stella asked. “Are you OK?”

  Lynn’s fingers folded, with only her index finger remaining extended.

  “What are we waiting for exactly?” Roxy demanded.

  Lynn closed her eyes. When she opened them, they were filled with tears.

  “Mom!”

  “I’m OK,” Lynn said softly. “It’s William.”

  “What?” Roxy asked, pulling up a chair. “What are you talking about?”

  Lynn exhaled. “I know where he is.”

  Roxy reached out and put her hand on Lynn’s shoulder. “Sis, seriously. You’re scaring me a little.”

  “I’m fine. He found me. I just need to think.”

  “Found you?” Stella asked. “What do you mean?”

  “Stella, I thought I heard you say that you trusted your laptop. Can you send secure messages?” Lynn asked.

  “I can,” Stella began, exchanging worried glances with Roxy. “But I don’t understand.”

  Lynn dug into her pocket, bringing out the flash drive. “I’m going to need access to my files.”

  “And they thought making two little old ladies leave their purses behind would keep us from causing trouble,” Roxy said. “Now, back to how you think you communicated with William—”

  “I don’t think I did. I did,” Lynn said, reaching for Stella’s laptop. “It was more … of a connection than communication. I could barely understand what little he said. I couldn’t respond, I didn’t know how. I have to make sure … that it’s all here. It’s my only choice.”

  “Choice to do what?” Stella asked.

  Lynn inserted the flash drive.

  FIFTEEN

  Two hundred and seventy-two text messages in two days.

  As she had done dozens of times in the last week, Kate resisted the urge to call her chief of staff and explain why she’d gone completely off the radar. Sorry, Rachel. It’s just that the world is about to end.

  Instead, she sent a quick apology, promising to explain more about why she was so unreachable. What she wanted to tell Rachel was to go home to her loved ones.

  Did you see the hurricane now forming in the Bering Sea, heading for Alaska, Rachel? Or how the southern tip of Greenland is burning? Or maybe how hospitals in Valparaiso are overrun, completely freaking out the Chilean government? But that, of course, has been momentarily overshadowed by the shooting massacre in Buenos Aires. The world is quickly realizing these are not isolated events.

  Kate’s phone dinged again. Make that two hundred seventy-three.

  Anne again. Her older sister’s texts were the hardest to ignore.

  Kate! I know you’re getting these. Stella’s not responding, you’re not responding. I can’t take this. If you care at all for your family, please call me. I have no idea where William is. It’s been two days since that video of Mom and Roxy leaving that house with Stella. We got into Maryland last night and no one will tell us anything. You must know something. Please, Kate. Please call. I can’t take this.

  Kate’s fingers hovered over her phone. My God, what would I say? That Mom is hiding from me too? That I know your son is in a government cell miles beneath the earth, and they won’t even let me see him?

  It still burned, thinking about how after she left William’s cell, she was briskly escorted out of the SSA’s building and ushered into a waiting Town Car. She’d demanded to see Director Wolve, but was told he would be calling her any moment now.

  That had been forty-eight hours ago.

  She’d repeatedly called. But the director of the SSA was out in the field, his secretary explained. Kate’s calls to his cell phone had gone to voice mail.

  When she’d demanded to see her nephew, she was told it was too high of a security risk at the moment.

  They used me and now have no need to keep me in the loop.

  And he wasn’t the only one.

  She’d learned the president had been having hourly updates, and her presence hadn’t been required. When she’d inquired with his chief of staff, she’d been told that the president intended to bring her in at the appropriate time. With that, her access to the Oval Office was shut down.

  So she’d made a phone call she never thought she’d make again. The car had arrived two hours ago.

  Kate didn’t wait for her door to be opened when they arrived at the SSA’s warehouse headquarters, brushing into the building as soon as her escort had punched in the code and allowed the screen to scan his eyes. Another code and another scan in the small front lobby, and they walked briskly through.

  She stopped walking at the sight of all the camouflage.

  The sprawling first floor of the operation was more chaotic than before, as men and women clad in army fatigues moved between computer screens and television monitors, each showcasing a different disaster somewhere in the world. At each work station were SSA employees, looking more dour than usual.

  She watched as one grizzled-looking soldier, an AR-15 strapped to his back, grilled a woman in a black suit about video of a hospital room. When the woman didn’t immediately respond, he shoved his finger at the screen.

  “Senator, this way,” her escort said, placing his hand on her arm. It was more of a forceful touch than she would have liked.

  Kate gave the operation another look as he led—no, whisked—her down a hallway. After several turns and another retinal scan, they arrived in a nondescript office.

  Inside, Agent Flynn Hallow leaned over two laptops.

  “Senator. I’m glad you called—”

  “I want to see my nephew,” she said, throwing her purse on a chair.

  “That’s beyond my ability to allow at this point.”

  “Then what about Steven Richards? I was told he was found with William and the others. Has he been useful?”

  “Not at all. He refuses to speak or eat. He won’t even change his clothes. He’s a very ill old man, that’s obvious, but won’t tell us even if he needs medicine. He’s just down the hall.”

  “I’ll want to see him. But first, why is Director Wolve not taking my calls?”

  “It’s General Wolve, not director.”

  Kate blinked. “Come again?”
r />   Flynn stood with a hunch, looking even more haggard in the dim light. “I didn’t know anything about him when he was suddenly assigned to lead the SSA late last year. Prior military, his records showed. But there wasn’t anything prior about it. Everything became clear when the military arrived two days ago, and our director ditched his black suit for his old dark navy one, featuring quite a few medals. I can see by your expression that everything is suddenly coming very clear. Feel free to take a seat.”

  “I’ll stand, thank you,” Kate said. “I’m not involved in the strategic planning of director personnel in government offices, but it’s certainly not unusual for a member of the military to be asked to step in to lead an obscure agency—”

  “Please, Senator. It’s called infiltration. It was their plan all along. We were all snowed. I figured you deserve to know, given your role in it. And why you won’t ever see your nephew again, or your mother, if they find her. Which they will. They won’t stop until they do.”

  “They? It’s your agency—”

  “The military is now running the show, Senator. We’re just worker bees doing their bidding. My counterparts across the world are reporting pretty much the same story. Every military in every nation in the world is scrambling, just as ours is, to collect the abducted, now that the SSAs have delivered our findings. We should have known better. Of course, only the US has found the host, the conduit. It means we have the means to control. Even direct, if the occasion calls for that.”

  Kate felt the dread spread across her. “Obviously the priority is to stop the abducted before they are activated.…”

  “You have been too long convinced that you hold the cards. You are blind to what even your president has been convinced to do. Yes, contain the abducted, stop the disasters. But just imagine what they can be used for. What wars can be won, who will emerge the true superpower if we, and only we, have someone to control them all.”

  The agent leaned forward. “Senator, you have helped deliver the key weapon in the greatest arms race of all time.”

  * * *

  The van drove down the street, slowly enough for the photographer behind the wheel to glance down at the map on his phone. No way is this address right. There’s nothing out here.