“And?” she asked when he seemed to lose his train of thought.
“Oh, right. When we lost contact with one of the Four Arrows, as Bob called them, I checked to see if there were spikes at the other three boxes. I’ve studied the cameras recording in those chambers, and it seemed to me there was an increase in brightness in each one. I can’t swear to it since we can’t as yet measure the flow, but it’s a best guess.”
“They are picking up the load from the missing one to maintain an overall constant in regards to the total energy,” she declared.
“My thought precisely.”
“What do you think would happen if we keep destroying the boxes? Would the load get shared to the last device? And if so, what would happen if we destroyed that one?”
“I’ve been thinking about that too, and my conclusions are, uh…inconclusive.” He coughed briefly. “We cut one leg off the table, and it is still standing. A table will fall if two legs are cut off. My gut tells me dark energy will find a way to compensate, no matter how many legs we cut.”
“Quantum entanglement?” she suggested.
“Perhaps,” he said sadly. “If that’s the case, SNAKE and CERN are linked in ways current physics cannot explain.”
She didn’t want to go down that path yet. “So, let’s focus on what we know. When we cut the first one, it sent that red wave of energy out into the atmosphere. Do you have any data in your laptop suggesting what it did?”
He smiled weakly. “Are the strange occurrences still taking place on the outside?”
She nodded grimly. The news was consumed with SNAKE, but there was still unusual activity elsewhere. The red blast of energy went all the way around the globe, just like the blue one, and seemed to double the world’s problems. More storms. More extinct animal sightings. More disappearing structures.
And was SNAKE really immune to the breakage of time that was taking place everywhere else? If so, was there any way to get her sister and best friend to SNAKE all the way from Down Under? She’d have to figure that out at some point.
“You seem lost in thought,” Donald noted.
“Oh, yeah. I’m worried about my sis.”
“She’s in Australia, right?” he asked.
“Yes. Sydney. She has a cushy job with some wealthy foundation. Goes around capturing animals for tracking and checkups. She loves it.”
“You two must have made a funny pair when you were kids. The scientist and the animal lover.”
She gave him a mock scowl. “I love animals, too.”
He held up his hands and chuckled. “I should have known. You are both trying to save the world, I suppose.”
That tempered the pleasant moment.
“Donald, how do I do that? I think the general will wait before destroying more of the devices linking us to CERN, but his patience won’t last forever. We need to get someone to Switzerland and confirm if it is still there, although I fear what will happen if it’s not.”
“I think you’ve got it exactly right. You have to find the answer to that question, Faith. If there is no one at CERN and it was destroyed, you may have no choice but to shut things down here. However, if CERN survives, you may have better luck turning off the energy from over there.”
He gestured to his laptop. “We can look at formulas and solve equations all the day long, Faith, but the answer is going to require someone like your sister. They’ll need to get their hands dirty out there and tell us what’s going on at the other end of the Four, uh, Three Arrows.”
She put her hands together. “Will you come with me to a meeting with the other staff? I’ll wheel you down there.”
Donald wore a faint smile. “No, I don’t want them to see me like this. That’s another lie about the Golden Years, Faith. You see yourself through the eyes of others. People saw me as an old coot before. Now they’re going to see me as a dried-up old coot.”
She hesitated.
“Faith, you can do this without me. You came in here already knowing the answers you seek. Trust your instincts, okay? You’ll make the right decisions.”
His fatherly praise warmed her soul with the glow normally reserved for homemade chocolate chip cookies. She took pride in being smart about how she ran SNAKE. As the general said, it wasn’t her fault she didn’t know about the military aspect of the experiment she’d authorized. She’d had some missteps along the way, but also some victories. Most importantly, she still had an oar in the water to guide her team.
“I know what I have to do.”
Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah
Buck imagined the famous words of Han Solo as he reached the halfway point of the water crossing.
Never tell me the odds.
The water was deeper than it had been, but he was sure he still saw the striped white line below him. He tried to keep his truck in the middle of the two lanes, so there was no chance of falling off the edge into a salty quagmire.
He had to wipe his brow to keep sweat from rolling into his eyes.
Connie sat up in her seat so she could see over the end of the hood. “Buck, are you sure? I’m having trouble seeing—”
“I’m good,” he interrupted quickly. “We’re going to make it.”
There was still half a mile, and the water was certainly getting deeper, but it wasn’t yet up to his side step, so that was a good indicator.
“Will you stop for a second?” she asked in a sensible voice.
He glanced over. “You okay?”
She smiled and held up her hand to show it wasn’t shaking. “Cool as a garden tool, my friend, but there is something I want to do.”
Buck put his foot on the brakes to stop them.
“I’ll be right back,” she said.
Before he could do or say anything, she opened her door and slipped out.
“Holy shit!” he screamed. “Connie?”
Mac hopped up from his bed, ran between the two seats, and immediately jumped into Connie’s chair as if he’d been patiently planning a coup. Connie’s boots were on the floorboard below him.
“What the fuck is she doing, Mac?”
For a few moments he didn’t see her, but then her red hair appeared ahead of him. She waded into the water and found the white line, then moved a few more yards forward so he could see all of her. Her sage-green knee-length dress was soaked a few inches at the bottom.
Buck rolled down his window and held his head outside. “Connie, what the hell?”
She turned around and waved. “I’ll guide you!”
“Damn, woman! Give me some warning next time,” he mumbled. He was a little perturbed at her taking matters into her own hands, but a much larger part of him had a lot of respect for her because it was a great idea. He was upset that he hadn’t thought of it.
Maybe he did need a partner. He’d made decisions without her input, so turnabout was fair play. “I will work on that,” he vowed.
After watching her walk for half a minute, he hit the gas on the big engine to catch up to her. The water soaked the fabric of her dress, but she used her hands to hike it up and keep the rest of it out of the water. For the first time he could remember, he hoped a pretty woman wouldn’t expose more of her legs—because that would mean it was getting deeper.
They’d gone about a hundred yards without her raising her dress, and he couldn’t help but enjoy the view. Small waves crested in the deeper water, and the flatness of the giant lake went for miles to the north and south. Connie looked tiny, and almost seemed to walk on the water ahead of him.
His mind wandered as they made it another hundred yards, but he came to the conclusion she was slowly raising her dress.
Connie stopped, turned halfway around, and pointed around his truck. Buck looked in the side mirror and realized he’d been so wrapped around the axle of Connie’s leadership methods he’d forgotten about the other trucks.
He gave her a thumbs-up.
The members of the convoy had stuck with him. Monsignor’s rolling firebomb
was directly behind him, followed by Eve and Sparky, with Beans at the back. They were the only vehicles in the water, but they looked like a fleet of battleships to him.
Buck hopped on the CB. “Connie is leading us across. She’s almost there.”
Everyone acknowledged, but he got back to focusing on his friend. There wasn’t far to go, but anything that could go wrong…
His fully-loaded truck would probably survive still water three feet deep, which would be about up to Connie’s waist, but he wouldn’t push it beyond that. That much moving water could push him off the road, no matter how much his rig weighed. The only reason he had tried this crossing was that the lake water wasn’t flowing in either direction.
He looked at Mac when he noticed movement inside the cabin.
“What the…”
The Golden Retriever had his back feet on the passenger seat, and his front legs were on top of the dashboard. He’d gotten himself up so he could see over the top.
He’s worried about Connie.
He was impressed by his pup’s ability to look after his pack, but when he glanced ahead to the object of their shared interest, Connie was in water up to her neck.
“Shit!”
Ramstein Air Base, Germany
Phil sat on the edge of his bed, facing his peer.
“I’m Ethan Knight, by the way.”
“Phil Stanwick,” he replied.
“I came here to see this soldier.” Ethan pointed to the man in the next bed, who appeared to be sleeping.
“Is he going to be all right?”
Ethan’s face hardened. “He’s dead.”
“Fuck, man, I’m sorry. What unit was he in? Where’s he from?”
They were the same rank, but they didn’t share much else. Phil was tall and muscular, while Ethan was thin and lanky. Both cropped their hair short, but Ethan’s was a lot lighter. There was no contest between the usability of their uniforms. Phil’s BDU’s were wasted.
“Would you believe me if I said this man was from the Korean theater of operations?”
“Did the Norks finally go and cross the DMZ? Nothing else has gone right recently. After what I saw in Afghanistan, I’d believe anything could happen out there, including World War III.”
“You get some credit. The Norks did come across the line, but the DMZ didn’t exist when this man fought in Korea. He’s—”
“Wait!” Phil broke in. “I know. He’s from the 1950s.”
Ethan nodded. “How the hell did you know? He’s not wearing a uniform, and I know he hasn’t spoken since he came into this ward.”
“I ran into similar shit back at Bagram.” He thought for a few seconds about operational security, but if Knight was talking about the 1950s like it was real, he figured he could mention his own time-bending experience. “We picked up some Soviets from the 80s, and I heard British redcoats from the 1800s showed up during my last fight with the Taliban. Something is majorly fucked up out there.”
“You saw them? I mean, up close and personal?” Ethan looked at the corpse again. “I saw this man’s uniform as he crawled out of a World War II-era C-47 that crashed in Bavaria, but I didn’t get to talk to him. None of the men in that plane survived.”
“It’s just like the Malaysia flight coming back,” he replied. “People lost in the past are showing up in the present. I bet there are a lot of civilians from the past we don’t even know about.”
He thought about his mother. She had disappeared on a Nevada highway when he was a teenager. If time was wrapping itself in knots, maybe she would find a way to come through like all these others.
Ethan’s jaw clenched before he answered. “It’s only gotten worse since the red wave went around the world yesterday. That’s the big reason CENTCOM ordered a complete withdrawal of forces. If this keeps up, we’ll be fighting Nazis and the Kaiser’s shock troops again.”
“You think it’s that serious? Shouldn’t we fortify eastern France or Germany itself? Why send everyone home? I can’t imagine that could be done quickly, and it has to be prohibitively expensive. We’ve spent twenty years building up our footprint in-theater. You can’t undo that in a day.”
Ethan considered the question. “Part of it is airlift capacity. Planes are mostly grounded, except for military transports or those we commandeer, and they are flying by paper navigation charts. If things get worse and we can’t fly at all, the bosses want all of our troops on friendly soil. As for the rest, I can’t tell you, but I am interested to learn more about what you saw at Bagram. If you have experience operating with units from the past, maybe I have a job suited for you here.”
His first thought was for his men.
“I can’t. Really—”
Ethan cut in, “The active battalions of the 75th Ranger Regiment are scrambling back to the States as we speak. The wounded went first. The rest dumped their gear and got the hell out of there. I promise you won’t be missing anything. Work with me now, and I’ll get you back to the States to meet up when they get there.”
He still didn’t like the idea of being away from his command, but it could take a week to find and then catch up with them. The Air Force probably had them over Australia by now, if he knew their skills. It couldn’t hurt to see what the guy wanted, especially if it got him better-informed for when he re-joined the battalion.
“I guess I’m free, for now.”
The other man smiled. “Great! I think you’ve just volunteered for the same mission as me. Have you ever been to Switzerland?”
CHAPTER 7
Lewes, Delaware
Garth headed for the swinging door of the convenience mart but realized he still carried the candy bars, so he set them on a shelf full of potato chips. “Lydia, could you come here for a second?”
The pioneer girl was infatuated with a display of hair barrettes, but she begrudgingly acknowledged him once she heard her name. “We aren’t staying? I could shop in here all day. And the food! You have so much more to eat than hardtack.”
It might have been fun to stand around and show her all the junk they sold at gas stations, and if she wanted real food, he knew exactly what fast food place he’d take her, but all that would have to wait for another time.
“Right now, just come with me, please.”
She dutifully hung the barrettes on their proper hooks, then strode over to him at the front door. Her smile was impressive until she saw that his hands were empty.
“Aw…” She pouted. “You said we could get chocolate.”
“We will,” he replied, pulling her through the door. “But not here. We have to get back in the taxi.”
His shirt clung to his chest as he walked across the hot asphalt. They got into the car, and he had a moment to wonder how much hotter Lydia must be in her dress and bonnet, but he didn’t start it up when she slid inside. Instead, he watched the storefront.
“What are—” she began before he shushed her.
His heart beat like a racehorse sprinting for the finish line, and, at first, he didn’t know why. However, the longer he sat there and waited to see if the woman would come out looking for his ID, the more he understood what had him worried. It wasn’t just the clerk.
“Anyone could take this away from us, Lydia. They could decide I don’t deserve it because I don’t have a license.” He paused for a moment. “And I guess it isn’t really mine.”
That was what scared him. Someone owned the car, and they might be out there looking for it. All it would take was one bad incident, and someone might report him to the police.
If Sam was here, we’d have already been caught. “Under the radar” wasn’t in his vocabulary.
“We have to find another station,” he reasoned.
“As long as we can get that chocolate, I’ll be a happy girl.”
“You can get that anywhere,” he reassured her. “We can’t risk losing this vehicle. Like you said, it would be impossible to get home if we had to walk.”
“How far away do yo
u live? I walked from Missouri to Wyoming before you found me.”
“Damn!” he blurted. “That’s amazing.”
She seemed surprised. “Don’t you ever walk? You look a little soft, but you still appear strong.”
He tried not to take offense. While he could run and jump with the best of them, there was no way he could walk as far as she did. Garth had a new appreciation for the wiry girl.
“Thanks. I’d rather not find out how far I can walk. Not while we have a perfectly good car.”
“I like riding in here, too. Let’s keep it!”
Garth had every intention of keeping the taxi, at least until he got home, but he was wary at the next two gas stations he tried. Lydia stayed in the car while he went inside to pay, and he was ready to run back to her at the first sign of trouble. However, both clerks wanted him to show identification before they’d sell him gas.
When he got back in the car after the third refusal, he started to doubt their prospects. “It must be a Delaware thing. Dad never told me I’d need identification to buy gas, although I never bought the gas, even when I was with him.”
Briefly, he thought about calling his dad and asking him what he should do. He’d no doubt have an answer, but Garth wanted to figure this out on his own.
“Sometimes the wagon would break, and Pa would have to ride to town and bring a part back to us. Is there any way you could do that with what you need for this tacks-see?”
He thought about it for a second. “There is no way to carry gas except in a container. I don’t know if they’ll ask for an ID when I buy one of those. I also don’t know where to get one.”
“Could you borrow the gas, like you did for this?” She patted the dashboard.
“You mean, steal it?” He chuckled, wondering if she saw him as a liar and thief. By all appearances, she would be right. However, he tried to head off the accusation anyway. “Did you steal where you came from?”
She lost some of her friendliness. “Well, I don’t like to talk about it, but there was that one winter where there was nothing to eat. I snuck into a farmer’s field and ate some dry corn husks, but Pa said it was okay with the Lord because I might have died from starvation.”
Broad America: A Post-Apocalyptic Adventure (End Days Book 3) Page 5
