Petrichor

by R J Johnson

  HE was different.

  He could feel every drop of water around him. He cried out in surprised, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of water and power surrounding him.

  And if he really wanted to, the stone was telling him he could control it all.

  Ari shook his head and tossed the canteen aside. “No matter.” He raised his rifle and aimed down the sight at Johan. “You’ll be a nice trophy and an interesting story to tell one day I’m sure. Halprin will be upset he didn’t get to bag you himself.”

  Johan looked at Ari and saw the water that made up much of his body. He saw the molecules swimming around Ari’s blood, making up every bit of blood, plasma and spit in his body. And if what the stone was whispering to him was true, he might get away yet.

  Johan decided no matter how insane the thoughts were in his head, he had nothing to lose.

  He concentrated on Ari’s body which began to swell. Ari shouted, feeling his fingers swell up to three times their size. He lost his grip on the rifle as he felt at his swelling purple and red face.

  Ari screamed out in pain, as he began to shout unintelligibly through his swollen throat and lips. Johan’s brow furrowed as he concentrated on Ari.

  The man who’d sworn to protect him and then had sold him out to Halprin fell to his knees, screaming out in pain. Johan stood and limped over to Ari, looking down on a man he’d once called his friend.

  Ari looked up at him in panic. He tried to scream and his body burst, water pouring out of every orifice in his body. He slumped over, dead, blood running out all around his body.

  Johan swallowed and put a hand into his pocket, withdrawing the bright blue stone he’d taken from the crystal chamber. He stared at it in wonder and felt the sheer potential contained within.

  He heard shouts from down the riverbed and Johan looked up in alarm. He pocketed the stone and began to limp down the riverbed away from Halprin and his hunting team.

  If this stone was as terrifying as he suspected, Ari’s bloated corpse would only be the beginning of his revenge.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Lorelei reappeared within the dark alley next to the destroyed MARS headquarters next to the Old Man with tears in her eyes. She looked up at him in shock at his sad smile.

  “What was that?” she asked, wiping the tears away.

  “That was one version of the future…” he answered softly. “Something I’ve spent most of my life working to prevent.”

  “And you’re sure it’ll happen?”

  The Old Man looked down at Lorelei and smiled, brushing her blonde locks back behind her ear. “A very good friend of mine once told me that you can’t fight physics. So, if I’m to stop it, there will be sacrifices necessary.”

  Lorelei looked up at him shocked, “You mean…?”

  The Old Man looked at her and sighed. He’d known this was coming for a long time, but how did you ask someone to die when they had so much to live for?

  “Life is funny…” the Old Man began, his voice sounding distant, “We spend the first third of our life trying to figure out how this all works, some even look for the why’s, though I can assure you, the why’s remain locked away.

  “If you’re lucky, then you learn to stop asking why you’re here and begin to look for meaning in the time you do have. Some do that through their families, some through their work, and others… define their lives through great, impossible acts. Things that radically change society.”

  He chuckled and looked away from her, an ironic smile playing out across his face. Lorelei remained silent during the Old Man’s monologue. She could sense how lonely he was, as if he hadn’t spoken to anyone like this in a long time.

  The Old Man looked back at Lorelei, catching her as she examined him. He chuckled at her curiosity and continued.

  “But, most of us find ourselves lost in the minutia of the day-to-day. We go to work. We raise our children. We worry about the minor concerns. We wonder what would have been had we made different, better choices in the past. And all the while, we forget that we only live in the moment. So, when life does come along with our destiny, most of us aren’t prepared when it punches us right in the face.

  “I know I wasn’t ready when it was my turn. For a while there, I believed there was no meaning or reason to life. I figured all we were was a bunch of random particles constantly bumping into each other, creating experiences, all of them completely random and completely out of anyone’s control.

  “But that’s not how life works. We sit there and we wonder where we go wrong, how to make it all mean something. I was one of the truly unlucky. I didn’t even know what I wanted. I was looking for something to come to me. And because I didn’t know what I wanted, I wasn’t prepared.

  “The lucky ones are those who dare to dream no matter what stands in their way. We’re never really sure if we can accomplish what our wildest impulses say we can. Our world makes it difficult to believe we can accomplish them.

  “So we settle. We take what we think we deserve and figure good enough is good enough, all the while never realizing how much we could truly offer humanity if we just gave enough of a damn to put in the effort.”

  He grasped Lorelei’s chin and brought her eyes level with his, “And when our destiny arrives, we only have one choice. We take the opportunity offered, and turn it into something that changes the world.”

  Lorelei looked away. What the Old Man had shown her defied belief, or even description. Somehow, she’d traveled across the universe and watched a dying star kill everyone Lorelei had ever known or loved. Including her husband.

  And he was telling her she could do something about it.

  She swallowed back her fear and looked up with determination.

  “What is it you need?”

  The Old Man smiled softly and nodded as if he’d expected this answer all along.

  “Your husband loves you quite a bit,” the Old Man said suddenly.

  “What could you possibly know about me and Johan?” she asked surprised.

  The Old Man chuckled, “I just took you on a faster-than-light tour of our local star system and you’re asking me how I knew you were married?”

  Lorelei felt her face grow hot at the gentle ribbing. “I…”

  The Old Man waved her off, “It’s not important. I just wanted to compliment you on your choice. He is a good partner to you.”

  Lorelei found herself smiling at the thought of her husband. “He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

  “He hasn’t given up on you, you know…” the Old Man said. He waved and a large portal opened up in front of them. She gasped. Johan was standing right in front of her, and he was running across a darkened meadow, desperately looking for shelter. She felt an immediate sense of dread as she recognized the meadow he was running in.

  It was the same one she’d found his dead body in.

  “Johan!” she screamed. “Johan I’m here! It’s Lori!”

  “He can’t hear you…” the Old Man said gently. “It’s just a portal into where he is right now.”

  She whirled back toward the Old Man, her eyes flashing in anger. “Take me to him! You can do that can’t you?”

  “I can…” the Old Man quietly confirmed.

  Lorelei looked at him confused, the anger fading as she realized what the Old Man was saying. “But you won’t…”

  “I can’t…” the Old man said sadly. “I’m afraid Johan has attracted the attention of someone extraordinarily dangerous. Someone I can’t go near to. Not yet.”

  “Is Johan in danger?” she asked.

  “We all are…” the Old Man reminded her. He nodded slightly to the stars above.

  “To hell with that world!” she said, her brow furrowed in anger. “Take me to Johan!”

  “I need you to do something first…” the Old Man said.

  “What?” she asked. What could this man possibly want that he couldn’t do on his own? After the incredible demonstration of his power,
she couldn’t imagine the Old Man being in any danger.

  “I need you to come with me,” he said simply.

  She stared at him, wondering what the catch was.

  “No catch,” he said, answering her unasked question. “As soon as we’re done with what I need, I promise you’ll be free to rescue Johan.”

  She looked at the stone the Old Man had said was powerful enough to get her husband back and wondered what exactly she was supposed to do with it.

  She thought about Johan and how he looked so desperate to find her.

  Lorelei stood and looked up at the Old Man, fire in her eyes.

  “What the hell are we waiting for then?”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  The security guard carrying the disguised Alex and Scott slowly walked down the hallway before reaching the door at the end. He pulled his keys off his belt and unlocked the door. He passed the box holding the two escaped rats under his other arm and began unlocking the door in front of him.

  Stepping inside the server room, he placed the box down on the table next to the door and looked down, making sure the rats inside couldn’t get away. He frowned and looked around briefly looking for something. The guard found a heavy reference book, and weighed it in his hands for a moment. Without anything better, he turned to place it on the lid of the box.

  “There you go fellas,” the man said kindly. “Just hang out here for a few minutes and we’ll get you back up where you belong.”

  He turned off the lights and shut the door behind him.

  A flash and suddenly Scott was standing precariously on top of the table. He fell back, landing with an ‘oof’ on the ground.

  “Easy there,” Alex said, after transforming back. “If you don’t stick the landing the judges will deduct points.”

  “Not the time Alex,” Scott said, wheezing. Alex chuckled and reached out a hand to his friend.

  Scott took it and hauled himself back up off the floor. Alex glanced to the right and left looking at the long row of blinking lights. It was loud inside the server room, and cold. He shivered slightly and Scott chuckled.

  “They gotta keep it cool in here to keep everything from overheating.”

  Alex just rubbed his hands together, blowing into them. He looked over at his friend who was already moving over to a nearby tower.

  “Now what?”

  Scott didn’t answer as he pulled out a keyboard directly underneath a terminal and began typing quickly. After a few moments, he frowned, grunting under his breath.

  “What’s the problem?” Alex asked. He hated feeling useless, but this was his friend’s moment to shine. He was no slouch when it came to using computers, but the swirls of code playing across his friend’s computer had always remained mysterious to him.

  “They’re better at correcting their java exploits than I thought they’d be…” Scott muttered. “Damn fools actually update their anti-virus.”

  “And that means what exactly?” Alex asked, glancing back at the door. The security guard promised the rats he’d send someone for them. That probably meant they didn’t have much time.

  “It means it’ll take me five minutes to hack the terminal instead of two,” Scott said, irritated at the interruption. “But it’ll take me even longer if I keep chatting with you.”

  “All right, take it easy…” Alex said.

  Scott paused by a nearby terminal and inserted a flash drive into the computer.

  Alex looked at him strangely and frowned. “Do I want to know where you kept that while shapeshifted as a rat?”

  Scott looked at him confused, “Oh, that’s easy enough. I just created a neat little pocket beneath the skin using the shapeshifting stone. It concealed my stone and the thumb drive perfectly.”

  Alex raised his eyebrows and nodded, impressed. “Smarter than me.”

  “And that’s news?”

  “Knock it off,” Alex retorted. “Get that program installed so we can get the hell out of here.”

  “Don’t need to tell me twice…” Scott said typing quickly.

  Alex looked around, deciding now was the time. He wanted to make sure the air was clear between the two of them and nothing like what had happened at San Ellijo would happen again.

  “Scott…” Alex said in a low voice.

  “What?” Scott asked looking up, worried. “Is someone coming?”

  “No,” Alex said. “I want to tell you something…”

  “You do realize that if I don’t do this just so,” Scott said, his voice sour “I’ll risk alerting their IT guys that I’m in their system.”

  “I just want to say… I get why you’re doing this,” Alex hesitated. “I always regretted how I let Ash get away with taking away my life. I could’ve gone another way, I could’ve found someone to report what was going on. But I convinced myself that they were all monsters. That the world was working against me as it always had. It wasn’t my fault that Emily had left. Everyone else was the problem. Not me. And I hated them for it because I thought that’s what I needed.

  Alex reached out to his friend, “But what I really needed was the courage to let go. And I’m telling you to let go Scott. We delete your work from their servers and then we go back to fighting Kline. Leave the video behind. You don’t need it.”

  Scott stopped typing and looked at Alex with a quiet determination.

  “They killed her Alex,” Scott said softly. “I never really understood WHY you left after you and Emily broke up. At least, not until I lost Molly. When that happened, I completely understood why you felt like you had to get away. Why you had to stop seeing everything around you that reminded you of her. I was the same way.”

  Alex remained silent. It wasn’t the time yet. Not now, not in the middle of his hack. He decided to leave the argument alone and check out what Scott was doing on the screen.

  Reams of data were flying across the screen as Scott did his best to hack into the internal servers of Auburn Industries. After a few more moments, Scott clapped his hands and pumped his fist in victory.

  “Four minutes seventeen seconds. Kid’s still got it!”

  Alex looked over his friends shoulder to see Scott searching through the server’s drive.

  “How long?” he wanted to know. Alex didn’t like being exposed like this. Who knew how long they had?

  “Just give me a second…” Scott muttered, his eyes darting across the screen. He leaned forward and found what he was looking for. “Here it is…”

  Scott double clicked the icon and a video popped up on the screen and began playing. At first, there was nothing, and Scott frowned. He leaned forward and began clicking around on the video taskbar to fast forward it. He clicked the progress bar closer to the end and that’s when he saw her appear on the screen.

  It was a steady shot of a lab. A short, red-headed woman stood in front of a lab table, where she was concentrating on the notepad in front of her where she was making notations. She reached in front of her where a shelf stood and brought down a sample tray filled with tiny squares of what looked like metallic plastic. Alex recognized it immediately. It was the same sort of carbon fiber that Scott said made up the Hypertruck.

  Alex looked down to his friend and he saw Scott visibly moved. He reached out to the screen slowly as the red-headed woman took off her glasses and rubbed her face. She was tired. She yawned and sat back on a nearby stool where she raised her arms, stretching her body out and moving her neck side to side. Scott swallowed and let the tears begin to flow freely.

  “Molly…” he whispered. Scott didn’t think it was going to be this difficult to see her again.

  But maybe that’s because he knew what this video was going to show him.

  The report said the fire started in the corner where they stored some canisters filled with the various pyrophoric gasses they used to treat the carbon fiber material with. The reports blamed an unknown technician for improperly storing the gas.

  “Molly,” the voice echoed Scott’s an
d Alex looked up in shock. Scott looked flabbergasted as well.

  “Mr. Halprin…” Molly’s voice floated out from the speaker. Alex looked down at the monitor and saw the man he’d seen scrambling away from the building Scott attacked in Los Angeles.

  “Who’s that?” Alex asked, feeling even more confused.

  “That’s… JT Halprin…” Scott said, sounding just as surprised. He’d been told it was an accident. That it had been his fault. No one else had been in the lab. The records had confirmed as much. JT had promised him that in exchange for finishing the project, he’d keep Scott’s name out of the police report.

  “Molly, please, I’ve told you to call me James,” he said, smiling at her.

  “And I’ve told you that’s not going to happen,” she replied quickly, wrapping her coat back around her. “Among other things.”

  “Yes, so you say…” JT said, sitting down across from her. He examined her for a moment and nodded at the crystal samples on the table between them. “Is that my investment?”

  Molly’s face had turned sour when she saw JT invade their lab, but, she never passed up a chance to talk about her favorite subject. “It is. We’ve finished growing out the first crystals and should have enough for a proto-exoskeleton in a month.”

  “Excellent,” JT said, nodding as if he understood it all. “What about the camouflage?”

  She smiled and moved to connect a set of alligator clips to one of the larger pieces still sitting in the sample tray. Turning, she moved to open up a laptop that was connected to the wires on a USB cord. She plugged in the USB to her computer, flipping it upside down more than once to get it to go in.

  “Damn things…” she muttered. She flipped it over one more time and began typing on the computer. The piece of crystal fluttered, and then, in the same sort of ripple Alex had seen the Hypertruck perform back in Joshua Tree, it disappeared from view, with the alligator clips left to float mysteriously above the sample tray.

  “By God woman…” JT said, his eyes going wide. “You did it!”

  “Scott did it actually,” Molly replied, looking proud. “He sent me an updated patch for our software running everything and that took care of it.”