“No. Allow me.” Jessica set the tablet on the seat and exited the SUV.
“She’s got a set of balls on her,” the driver mumbled, and Barry grunted his agreement when the door was shut.
Marcus shook his head. The tablet was there, screen on, and no locking mechanism activated. He used his right hand, dragging it closer with a finger. Barry peered back, snickering as Jessica laid her threats on the guy in the truck. The driver rolled down his window, trying to hear the conversation.
Marcus ignored the disruption and slid the tablet onto his lap. The map showed a red icon blinking across Texas. It wasn’t moving for any of the huge cities, like San Antonio, Houston, or Dallas. It was closer to Odessa.
The dot stopped. He held his breath and stole a quick glance. Jessica was still talking to the man behind them, and he went quickly, exiting the program. He launched a browser, finding there was no network. He cursed under his breath and gave up. There was no point in even trying to send a message now.
The door handle clicked, and Marcus exited the program, returning to the map. He dropped the tablet and realized it was too close to his leg. The door was locked. It must have been an automated feature when the SUV went into drive. Marcus took his chance, leaning across to unlock Jessica’s door manually. He shoved the tablet to the place where it had been resting, and she yanked the car open.
“Out of my way,” she ordered, taking her seat.
The honking had stopped. “What did you tell him?” Barry asked.
“What he needed to hear. He won’t be bothering us again.” Jessica took the tablet, and Marcus looked out the window, catching the reflection of the lighted device. Could she tell he’d sent a message?
“Odessa,” she whispered, and closed the device, shoving it into the back flap of the seat ahead of her.
Marcus breathed a sigh of relief, and the SUV started crawling forward. His program couldn’t deliver the messages because there was no network to link to, but it would run in the background, waiting for any connection. The moment that happened, all of his contacts would receive the communication. Marcus could only hope it would find them somehow, because he wasn’t sure he’d be able to stop this hub himself.
Finally, after another ten minutes, they neared the line of police cruisers. The rest of the cars had turned around, but Jessica had demanded they discover what the issue was.
A female cop approached, her hand casually resting on her gun. “I’ll tell you what I told the others.” She looked tired, her eyes puffy with black bags under them. “This area is under quarantine. There’s been an outbreak in Dallas. You can’t take the 20.”
Marcus listened intently. Quarantine. What was that about?
Jessica leaned forward and shoved a badge at the woman. “That’s why we’re here. With the flight ban, we had to drive.”
Marcus caught a glimpse of the identification and almost laughed. CDC. Out of Atlanta, Georgia. Of course she had one of those.
“I’m sorry, Doctor Phillips.” The policewoman handed the ID back. “We’ll let you through. Should be smooth sailing without the traffic. But… we’d better send an escort. Things are a little unpredictable right now.”
“Unpredictable how?” Marcus blurted, getting a frown from Jessica.
The cop stared at him, and he almost considered telling her he was a captive, a prisoner of the Believers. But he kept his mouth shut. If he said anything, they would just kill more innocents.
“We aren’t supposed to say, but… since you work for the CDC, I’m sure you’ve heard a lot. Last night, they all…” She started to cry. “They’re dead. My captain. I can’t reach my sister, so I don’t know how she’s doing. Everyone’s eyes burst. Blood everywhere. I was out of town.” She wore a state trooper uniform, and Marcus assumed she’d been far enough from the Unknowns’ range.
Jessica did her best to seem compassionate. “Did anyone survive?”
The woman nodded, sniffing back her tears. “Yes. But they’re… different.”
Someone shouted at the officer, and she waved to the cars ahead. “Let them pass. CDC!”
“CDC. Thank God,” a relieved voice said.
A minute later, they were passing the police line, driving toward Dallas. The road sign noted the city was twelve miles away.
9
Twenty miles hadn’t sounded like a lot to him initially. Dirk’s steps came slower as they continued up the incline. Even at a ten-degree pitch, every step felt like ten. His back ached from the weight of his pack, and his knees protested the motion.
“We have to break,” he told Opor.
“We only have two miles left,” she replied. Opor was moving as slowly as him, and Dirk could see the pain in her face.
“It won’t do us any good to arrive on the Objects exhausted and stiff. We’re going to rest for the night,” he said.
“Fine.” The sun was almost below the horizon, and they set to work building a fire. It was a simple comfort, and not even a necessary one, given the warmth of the evening and the fact that their food was already prepared. But he took solace in the act, and when the flames were licking the air in front of him, Dirk finally relaxed, sitting on the ground cross-legged.
“Why did you go to Earth?” Dirk asked Opor. “You, of all your people. Did they think you were working for them?”
For a second, the glimmer in her eyes reminded him of a young Hunter Madison. It was disconcerting to see it in Opor’s expression.
“Mezpa begged me to stay with her. To make the perilous journey to Earth on our ships. But I’ve always been a bit of an adventurer. I don’t regret my decisions.” The fire flickered.
“It must have been difficult.” Dirk watched the woman he loved, controlled by another’s mind. He was close to her, but still so far away. It pained him not to hold her. To stroke her hair. To kiss those lips. Her entire village had been murdered. He hated the Zalt with every fiber of his being.
“It was. But occupying Hunter Madison also had its advantages.”
“A billionaire tycoon. I can see that,” Dirk said. “I wish you’d told us. Brian Hardy would have loved to discuss it with you.”
“You miss him.”
“I miss them all. Saul. Brian. Clayton, especially. Most of the people I’ve known and cared for are gone. I don’t have much left.” He stared at the flames.
“You have Opor,” she said.
“Yes. If you let her live.”
“And your children,” she reminded him.
“If we survive, I’ll go to Kabos with Opor. She’ll never fit in on Earth, not after this incursion. We can live among the Rodax and other Children.” He hadn’t decided on this until that very moment, but when he said the words, they made sense.
Opor nodded. “I think she’d appreciate the choice. Though I doubt she will be easy to drag away from Rimia.”
Dirk gazed at her. “Can you feel her inside?” He tapped his temple.
Opor nodded. “She’s there. Not present, but resting in the background. I can read her past. Sense her pains, and her joys. She does love you, Dirk.”
He smiled and picked up a stick, poking the firewood.
They ate and chatted a little more. His muscles protested as they lay down, letting the fire burn out. He fell asleep to the silence. Everything surrounding them was dead. They’d been lucky to even find the old, dried wood.
Dirk closed his eyes and instantly felt the pull into another life.
Claude Giroux walked through Paris. Dead people littered the streets, and he shook his head, mumbling about the Unknowns rushing things.
“You have to assist me!” a man pleaded from a restaurant entrance. The glass of the café was shattered, bricks on the sidewalk. He held a woman, clearly dead.
“I’m sorry, she can’t be helped,” Claude said in French. Dirk’s mind translated the words as he watched through the Believer’s eyes.
“But she’s…” The man staggered forward. He had a gun in his hand and an insane look on h
is face.
“She is gone.” Claude tried to ignore the man. The people following him gave them space.
He stopped a few feet away, never pointing the weapon at Claude. Instead, he lifted it, pressing the barrel into the side of his head. “What happened? Why are they doing this?”
“Because we didn’t listen. We didn’t prepare for arrival,” Claude told him, and the man nodded, as if he understood what that meant. He pulled the trigger, and Claude averted his gaze. He’d seen enough blood.
Since the other night, he hadn’t been able to sleep. Not since the Unknown in his mind had tried to force him to stab himself.
Claude froze, suddenly sensing the visitor inside him again.
Dirk’s consciousness quieted. He didn’t want the cultist to abolish him. Not tonight.
Claude shook the cobwebs out and continued on his path. He could feel the call.
Footsteps echoed behind him in the cobblestone courtyard, and he glanced back, finding a growing number of people joining his journey. He’d been walking all day, unwilling to drive. This was his pilgrimage. Their pilgrimage. Claude had no doubt that the group trailing after him were Unknowns.
By the time they reached his destination, there were well over five hundred of them, and Claude led the pack into the courtyard at the Chateau de Versailles. It was one of Claude’s favorite locations, so it was fitting that he was being drawn here.
The palace was gorgeous, a true testament to the class and perseverance of man. Only they’d lost their way. When was the last time humans had created something majestic like this? Many considered the reign of Louis XIV a world-altering period of time, and Claude agreed. This era would be far more powerful, and Claude would see himself an integral part of it.
He’d been selected to house the Unknowns’ leader: an entity so old, it made this castle look shiny and new.
To hell with the Sovereign and the cultists who didn’t believe in the cause like he did. Claude had felt the thing’s presence on numerous occasions. It was a warm and inviting mind that greeted him in his sleep. The being spoke his praise and told him to prepare himself.
The Unknown was on an incoming Object, heading for Earth. Claude was advised how to aid him, more with a sense than absolute details. He followed his instincts, the ones imprinted by the alien leader.
Claude would house the visitor in his body. Give up control of himself so their god could walk this world.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that there was someone else playing with him, though. That with all his preparations, he’d opened his mind to another.
Claude peered at the water beside the palace. It glimmered with the night’s stars. What a place. Peaceful without the throngs of tourists. Instead, they lay dead on the ground, eyes red and bloodied. He didn’t even see them anymore. They were meaningless; inconsequential.
“Come. With me,” he told the gathered crowd, and they obeyed. Into the front entrance, and there among the opulence was his awaiting savior. His connection to the Unknowns’ god.
Claude hadn’t been sure what to expect, but the red eyes burned brighter as he walked toward the robotic form. Long arms extended, and he realized they weren’t arms. The guns didn’t aim at the people. It knew these were Unknowns, and Claude was the vessel of all vessels.
Their group congregated around the robot, circling it like a crowd around a gladiator amphitheater, and they chanted.
Dreen allono reespenlen.
____________
I awoke, finally feeling rested. I’d been Jessica again. It was the strangest dream. Marcus was there, tied at the legs. The tablet had shown a location outside Odessa, Texas. That was where the hub had stopped. She’d confronted a man in a truck. The way she’d spoken, the horrible things she’d threatened to do to him if he didn’t back off, she wasn’t someone you wanted to mess with.
I sat up and scanned the ship. The others were asleep, with the exception of Lewen. She sat in the pilot’s seat, staring through the clear window at the Mexican landscape beyond.
We’d moved to a more remote location, with nothing but hard-packed dirt and a few tenacious shrubs strong enough to penetrate the difficult terrain. Heat shimmered in long waves in the distance, telling us how hot of a day we were facing.
“You okay?” I asked her. She observed me as if I was a ghost, and blinked rapidly.
It was so unreal talking to an alien. She appeared so human, it didn’t feel like they were different at all. Which made sense, considering we were born from their stock. I couldn’t imagine how the various religions would incorporate this realization, but that was for another time. First, we needed to stop our world from being invaded.
From the looks of things in the city we’d visited, the invasion had begun early. If this was the wake-up call, we were listening. The Zalt were coming, and they were a force unlike anything humanity had ever faced.
I asked again, “Are you okay, Lewen?”
“I’ve been thinking,” she started. “Maybe we should be going for the Book instead of the hub.”
I sat on the seat beside her. “Why?”
“If we get the Book, we can send you onto their ship. You have the aptitude,” she said.
“That’s some pressure. We have no idea if I can even connect to one of them,” I told her.
“Tripp advised us you’ve done it already.” Her purple eyes were darker than usual in this light.
“And again last night. I was the Sovereign.”
She smiled at me. “What do you think?”
It was impossible to predict what the right answer was. “Hard to say, isn’t it?” I could tell she was afraid to chase the hub, after what it had done to her friends the night before. We weren’t prepared to go into battle with it again, not without allies and a better plan.
“We’ll discuss it with the others,” I said.
“Let them sleep until they wake.” Lewen watched her people. They’d rallied for comfort. It was cramped, but we made do.
A couple of the Rodax were rousing from the sound of our voices. “How can we prevent this attack?” I asked her. “Truth only.”
“We were confident, but now… I am not so sure.”
I’d assumed as much, but I hadn’t lost all hope. There was still a chance. “If we have the Book, do our odds improve?”
“Greatly,” she said.
I glanced at Veronica and Tripp, wishing so badly that this was over. Two paths had diverged in front of me. Which was I to select? I nearly laughed that the fate of the world might reside in my hands.
“Is something amusing?” Lewen asked, and the corners of my lips rose in a smile.
“No. It’s just that I chose my profession so I could dig into the past. That, and follow in my father’s footsteps. I was obsessed with what had become of him, and spent the next twenty years chasing a ghost that wasn’t actually dead. Now I’m speaking with an alien on a spaceship, about to decide whether to strike a dangerous robot queen, or search for a Book. A single volume buried among the world’s literature.”
“That doesn’t sound funny,” Lewen affirmed.
The grin faded. “Not in the least.”
“What are we going to do?” she asked.
“Get that Book,” Tripp said from behind me. His shoulder still had the patch on it, but his eyes were much clearer this morning.
“You think so?” I checked.
“No. But I can tell you do, and I’ll support that.” Tripp patted my shoulder. “You haven’t screwed me over yet. Plus, I don’t relish the idea of getting shot again, not by an angry horde of robots. If there’s another option, I say we go for it. If we fail, then let’s hit this queen with a nuke.”
This time, I did laugh. He didn’t join me. “You’re serious.”
“As an alien invasion,” he finished.
“Okay. Where do we start?” I asked him.
“You know where.”
“Jessica’s apartment,” I whispered.
“As good a place as
any,” Veronica added, stretching as she yawned.
“We’re going to fly to Boston?” The visual of us lowering into Massachusetts in this craft would be enough to start a riot.
“Can we find a safe location to land?” Lewen asked.
“Colonel Jerkins.” Tripp looked at me, and I nodded.
“He’s the one man I think we can trust.” He’d helped us get to Porto in the first place, and it was obvious he wasn’t working for the Believers. If he was, we would have been killed, and the Bridge would already be in their hands.”
“Wait. We’re already supposed to trade Jessica. The Tokens and Case for your sister and Marcus. Let’s make them throw the Book in,” Veronica suggested.
“Too risky. She would never hand us the Book if it’s as dangerous as Lewen is saying,” I reminded them. As important as my sister and my best friend’s lives were, I had to consider the rest of the world too.
Tripp raised an eyebrow. “Boston?”
“Boston.” Saying it solidified my decision.
We departed an hour later, leaving Gren and the other craft behind. They would remain with the soldiers, awaiting our communication. It was already dangerous traveling to Boston like this. We didn’t want two spaceships drawing even more attention.
Veronica led the way, guiding us to the Atlantic before turning north. All in, the trip only took an hour and forty minutes. I used my father’s old watch to keep tabs. I glanced at the worn leather band and tapped the face. With a quick wind, she would be good for a few more days.
The army base would likely see us coming, but we decided to land a couple of miles away. It was a dreary February day, and chilly enough to send a few white flakes from the clouds. They landed on the ground, trying to decide whether to melt or band together.
“We walk from here.” I motioned to Lewen. “Stay put. Any sign of trouble...”
“I’ll hang back with her,” Veronica said. “It might help, having a human on board.”
Lost Hope (The Bridge Sequence Book Three) Page 11