Taking that to mean he didn’t care, Alric made himself as comfortable as possible and began to read. The smallest detail could be important.
He wasn’t sure when Xis had been founded, but they’d had their talons into a lot of people’s lives, none of it appearing to be for the good of anyone except themselves.
Most of the descriptions were barely a paragraph, so he read through them quickly, skimming through the As before the last of the sunset slipped away. Alric sat up with a startled “what?!” when it became clear that his current A was about Ashar.
‘Subject Ashcroft, Whit and Pamela, son: Ashar. Both parental figures show fanatical and obsessive tendencies. Mother is self-indulgent, unethical, and weak-willed. Father involved in multiple secretive affairs. Violent and hostile inclinations. Exemplary subjects for manipulation.’
‘Son presents with four unusual bones on back. Exposure minimal. Fund experimentation and monitor son. Proceed with blood and DNA testing.’
“This doesn’t make sense,” Alric muttered. Why would they take Eve because of her bones, but ignore Ashar? Why test him outside of the walls versus inside of Xis? And what kind of experiments were being done? That was the end of the archive file and, frustrated, Alric shut the screen down and stretched out, staring up at the stars blinking to life while his mind whirled questions into a frenzy.
Was he missing something about Ashar that was important? That was different than he or any of the others? Blowing out a breath, Alric shifted on the seat, feeling the press of his own bones against cushion.
Why was it taking so long for Eron to answer him with the location? The guy’s life was being broadcast on social media, so it didn’t seem like a hard task for a hacker who was obviously well skilled.
Digging into his pocket, Alric maneuvered the phone free and brought up his last text, his finger hovering over the numbers on the phone pad. His last text was still there waiting for an answer. ‘Need help finding Ashar’s location. Will go to him.’
Maybe it wasn’t finding Ashar that was the problem. Maybe Eron didn’t want him to unite with the other man. But what reason would there be for that? So far, Eron had proved trustworthy. Had he been too quick to allow the stranger to lead his path?
Closing his eyes, Alric let his concern gather. His breathing deepened, and his limbs loosened against the worn fabric of the car seat. The thought that Eron was safe floated and lingered. Alric’s lips curved up as his thoughts faded away, comforted into sleep by peace.
The insistent buzz of the phone forgotten against his leg woke him. Annoyed, Alric fumbled for it, grasping it as it quieted before it began buzzing again. Groggy he lifted it to his ear, pulled it back and blinked at it while he searched for the button to answer.
“Dude, what?” Lance exclaimed from the back and his face appeared over the seat, eyes wide, his hair wild. Lance shoved his phone into Alric’s face. “Tell me I’m dreaming this!”
Yawning widely, Alric held his phone in front of his face as it buzzed again, relentless in its pursuit to get him to answer. “Oh,” he expelled. “Not a phone call.” Another yawn muddled his words. Alric tapped the button to bring up the text that was trying to get his attention.
‘No time for Ashar. War is imminent. Go underground. Do not wait.’
“What?” Alric sat up, mimicking Lance’s reaction. He grabbed at Lance’s phone, his heart kicking as obstinately as the phone had been buzzing. The same message had been sent to both of them.
“What does this mean?” Alric asked Lance. “Is underground code for something?”
“Yeah, dude.” Lance was already in action mode, climbing out of the car and pushing into the brush.
Straightening his twisted clothing, Alric followed Lance out, finding his own tree. “Do you think he meant to type a different word?” he called out to Lance.
“No! Hurry up, dude!”
Alric pushed out of the tree cover and climbed into the passenger seat. “He said war, Lance. This is America. There hasn’t been any threat of war in any of the news we’ve listened to.”
His vision had told him. Alric leaned forward, feeling sick. Another one was coming true.
“I’m taking over the action plan, dude,” Lance stated, maneuvering over the dip of the ditch and back onto the road. “This is out of your expertise. Things are about to happen in hyper speed. Eron is going to have to help us out. There are things that need to happen before we can go underground.”
He was serious. Lance believed Eron meant what he had said. Shaking his head, Alric tried to think of something else that would have made sense in the short sentences. Anything that would justify continued denial.
“Those ear buds are going to come in handy. Eron will need to help us out to drain bank accounts, we’re going to need to stock up on supplies, ditch the car and get to a high ground complex.”
Complex? Gaping at Lance, Alric pressed his fingers against his eyebrows. He was dreaming. It was another vision.
Too bewildered to clear his mind, he let Lance take the lead. The thought of war terrified him.
It wasn’t until the skyline of a city came into view that acceptance kicked in. Eron had been serious. For whatever reason, he had directed them away from Ashar because a more immediate threat loomed. One that part of him had prepared for. Hydration pods. Protein Packs. Vitamin Surges.
Grasping his phone, he tapped out a message to Eron. ‘I will need my formulas, where do I find them?’
If Eron was right, it was possible that the very thing he had spent the last several years of his life creating could be what kept them alive.
He needed to get on board with what was happening. “Do you know how to go underground, Lance? And why would we go to higher ground if we are trying to go below ground?”
“It’s code speak, Alric. ‘Go underground’ is a phrase. It means to disappear.”
Right. Lance’s tone implied that he was an idiot for not knowing that already. “So you do know how to do that? I kind of thought that’s what we were already doing.”
Turning into a parking lot, Lance shifted into park and removed his phone from a pocket. “Different context. I got this. Let me handle it.”
“So you know people who can help us… disappear?”
“Yup. That’s what I keep saying.”
“What will you tell them?” he asked, not sure that announcing a possible war was something anyone was going to believe.
“Vague is always the best option, dude. I’ll tell them I’ve been given a viable threat from a trusted source and that we need to disappear. Conspiracy theorists can be useful in some situations. This would be one of them.”
Lance pushed his door open and Alric twisted to watch him go to the back of the car. The trunk came up, blocking his view.
The phone vibrated against his leg where Alric had let it fall. He grabbed it, flipping it to see the screen. ‘Put the ear buds in. I will direct you to your formulas.’
“Lance!” He climbed out. Lance was shoving a gun in his sock. “We need the ear buds.”
“For what?”
Alric dug into his bag, searching for them. “There’s something we should get and Eron’s going to take us to it.”
Lance held out a gun. “Put this in your pants.”
Alric rolled his eyes and checked the safety. He put it beneath his shirt into the waist of his jeans.
Finding the box with the buds, he removed a set and handed them to Lance. “Put those in your ears,” he ordered.
Lance rolled his eyes, but grinned. He shut the trunk and they both got back into the car. The seat dipped as Lance resumed his seat.
“You turn yours on?” Lance asked.
“Uh, no.” Alric removed the left one and carefully examined it, noticing that a tiny section of it was open. He pushed it closed and felt a click, repeating the process with the right bud.
Both in, he turned to Lance. The ear buds felt odd in his ears, the sound around him muffled just slightly enough that
he didn’t feel fully acclimated.
Lance sent a text and, a few moments later, a voice spoke in Alric’s ear. “Can you hear me?”
Alric jumped.
Lance laughed. “You’ll get used to it, dude.”
Feeling ridiculous, Alric answered out loud. “Yes, I can.”
“Nice to finally meet you, Alric.”
“Thanks for your help with everything, Eron. I don’t know how you did it, but thank you.”
“You’re chosen, Alric. I just did my job.”
Alric had no idea what that meant to Eron, but the words struck deep inside of him.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Alric chewed his lip, mentally rehearsing what he had been told to say, the crash course of ‘what if’ scenarios he’d been given making him twitchy.
Eron was running the show. First, withdrawals of large amounts of money, then a collection of his formulas.
The bank was in front of him and he was supposed to walk through the double glass doors like it was normal and request a lot of money. Panic was tearing at his stomach. The withdrawals he had already made had been chicken scratch compared to the amounts he was asking for now.
Taking a few deep breaths, he patted his front pocket to reassure himself the identification he would need was there and nodded once at Lance before reaching for the door handle.
Giving his shoulders a tiny roll as he stepped through the door, he reminded himself that if he could sit across from Afion and be calm, he could certainly walk into a bank of strangers and fool people.
Reassured, he stepped up to a teller who greeted him with a friendly smile. He smiled back, carefully keeping his head angled down and his shoulders slightly hunched as Lance had instructed. Casual attitude, no sudden movements, fingers still. ‘Pretend you own the place.’
Lance’s last words rang in his head as the teller accepted his withdrawal slip and his identification, turning to tap at her keyboard. “I’ll just need a second authorization and a few minutes for this, sir. Is there any specific form of monetization you would like back?”
“Hundreds will make it easier to hand over,” he requested with a grin. “Buying a car. Vintage.” He propped an elbow on the high counter, shoved the hand at his side into his pocket, crossed his ankles.
She smiled. Alric had been coached for every scenario Lance had been able to think of. “Good for you,” she congratulated.
She set paperwork on the counter and marked a couple of x’s on the page. “Go ahead and sign those while I get the cash for you.”
The signature had been practiced as well, and Alric signed without hesitation, holding the pen differently than was his norm to give the lines and angles the slants that would vary it from his real handwriting. Alex Reed. Then, while he waited, he doodled slowly, drawing a car, the pen helping to ground him and ease his nerves.
‘Add truth,’ Lance had told him. Anyone watching would see that he was relaxed. Anyone looking at the paper later would maybe remember he had mentioned buying a car.
The money tucked away in his bulky utility jacket, and his stomach roiling with adrenaline, Alric exited the bank and began his rehearsal with Lance for the next one.
Later, mentally and physically lagging from the constant thrum of anxiety he had pretended not to feel as they’d gone to bank after bank, they drove back out of town to find somewhere to hide the car for the night.
Eron had gone quiet in their ears after letting them know he would be in touch in the morning.
The next day was spent gathering supplies, things that Alric didn’t want to try and understand the need for. Things were happening too quickly, and he was struggling to find the strength to face it all.
He had gone from one nightmare to another.
Needing something to focus on because Lance was busy meeting a contact, he pulled up the archives to read.
Lance climbed back in.
“Yo dude, what’s next?” he said aloud. Eron was in their ears.
“Collections. I’ve got your location in your maps. Follow the directions.”
“What are we collecting?” Lance questioned.
“Life.” Eron’s voice was confident. “When the war hits, Alric’s formulas could very well be what keeps you alive.”
Lance gave Alric an appraising look. “What’s he talking about? What exactly are your formulas?”
“I told you I was a scientist and created things that would aid humankind. That’s what we are collecting.”
Eron’s voice interrupted. “Afion has moved troops into Kazakhstan.”
“Oh, that’s not good. What does that have to do with America?” Lance obviously had no problem questioning Eron.
“The area has been unstable for some time, but their President has just died. Afion is claiming defense against an Islamic uprising.”
“Okay, dude, so that’s bad, but does it affect us in any way?”
Alric pulled up the map app on his phone. A cursor blinked. They were approximately twenty-nine minutes away from their first retrieval.
“There’s been a lot of movement in the past week. He’s set things into motion.”
The two argued while Lance drove. Alric gave Lance plenty of warning for turns, but he still managed to drive like he wasn’t aware of them until seconds before each one.
The map showed five minutes before arrival when Lance questioned whether there was a need for weapons. “What should I be expecting here? Should I get Betsy out?”
They’d been passing overgrown fields, sporadic crumbling farmhouses, and an occasional other vehicle for some time. Alric was half expecting to have a need for a shovel.
“It’s a safe location,” Eron assured them.
“You’d be surprised how many houses in the middle of nowhere are overrun with thugs holding guns, dude.” Lance was pulling off onto the grassy roadside. “I’d feel better with some metal in my hand,” he said as he climbed out, retrieved the gun he wanted, and loaded Betsy with a loud click.
“Get that revolver out,” he ordered.
Alric had done well enough from his lessons on the boat that he felt he could handle the gun pretty confidently, but his aim wasn’t that great.
Pocketing it inside his jacket rather than holding it, he followed Lance toward the rustic barn ahead of them. Wood still covered most of it, splintered in sections. The roof had several areas of faded shingles missing. Square windows lacked covering of any kind, and one door of the pair was missing.
It was beautiful, still, despite its dilapidated state. Tall grass scraped against their ankles as they maneuvered carefully to the entrance.
“Well, seems deserted,” Lance observed. “You stay out here while I check it out.” A flashlight was pulled free from a pocket and Lance disappeared into the darkened interior.
Alric felt pretty safe. He was sure there wasn’t another person for miles. They were in the middle of nowhere and no one cared what they were doing.
Lance appeared back in the doorway, frowning at Alric.
“Can’t see the dark places well in here,” Lance commented. Alric followed him inside, following the beam of light over the walls and floor.
“Eron, what are we looking for?” Alric asked.
Light came in through the gaps in the wood, highlighting the outline of things.
Lance picked up a pitchfork and poked at a pile of hay.
“It’s your thing, Alric. What are we looking for?” Lance questioned.
“They’re vials. I just don’t know what they are in, or how many there are.” Alric tipped over a wheelbarrow with stagnant water in it. A drowned rat was the only thing left behind as the water soaked into the dirt.
“Vials of what?” A bucket fell over when Lance bumped it, spilling nails.
“In the well, at the bottom, in the wall,” Eron said to them. “I don’t know how they got in or out, so be prepared.”
Alric picked up the bucket as he passed it.
The well was all but obscured by tall gr
ass and weeds. Alric pulled away part of a tree limb and peered over the brick ledge. He couldn’t see anything.
“I’ll get rope,” Lance said by his side. Rope had been one of the many items Lance had added to the needed supply stash.
The well didn’t look like it had been a working one for a long time. Alric picked up a broken piece of brick and dropped it in. He heard no splash, but thought maybe he heard it hit ground with a dull thud.
“Tie this around your waist,” Lance instructed when he came back, holding out the end of a rope.
“Why me?” Alric asked, taking it.
“You’re smaller than me, dude.” Lance braced a foot against the side of the well and pushed. “Feels pretty sturdy still. Guess you’re going in.” He leaned over and aimed the beam of the flashlight down. “Can’t see a thing.”
Tugging at his knot, Alric contemplated what could be at the bottom. Snakes. Rats. He prayed for courage as he sat on the edge of well and swung his legs in.
Lance tested Alric’s knot, then nodded in approval. He handed him a flashlight. “Go slow, dude.”
The rope tightened against his lower rib cage as it took his body weight. The width of the well allowed him to use his arms and legs to help somewhat, and once Alric got his bearings about him, he called out for Lance to pause so he could take out his own flashlight and turn it on.
The light didn’t pick up anything but blackness and the stone walls of the well. Putting it away, he continued leveraging himself down.
“See anything yet?” Lance shouted a couple of minutes later.
Bracing himself, Alric targeted the light again, relief flooding through him when he spied dirt. “Yeah!” he called out. “Looks like a couple more yards!”
Awkwardly holding onto the flashlight this time so he could see when he was close enough to set his feet down, the rest of the way went quickly. He yelled for Lance to ease up and set his weight down, scanning the light along the stones that lined the bottom of the well wall for the section Eron had told him to look for.
Seal One Page 15
