So far, she’d done a terrible job of that, hauling them around the country. First Saul had been there to protect them, but he hadn’t made it. Then Marcus had stayed behind, and now he was gone, probably dead too. Who knew what Rex was doing, or if he was alive?
Bev watched her children, trying to believe that someone would help her.
Since when had she become such a victim? Bev had prided herself in being a strong woman. In high school, she’d stuck up for her friends. In college, she’d marched for any cause she deemed thought-provoking. Somewhere along the line, she began to work and stress about bills. Then the business. Fred. The kids. Her mother.
Bev pictured her mom on her deathbed. She hadn’t fought during the illness, not once. She’d wallowed in her misery, dragging Beverly into the mess with her.
Bev stood up, moving to the window. She climbed past the kids to gain a view.
Hundreds of people were in the yard, and she could hear their chatter through the hundred-year-old windowpane. The Believers were here. Something big was about to happen.
She muttered to herself.
“Mom, what are you saying?” Edith rubbed her eyes and sat up. Her cheeks were red, her hair fuzzy.
“Feerel eeree olipior, muska.” Bev’s hand flew to her lips. She touched her own face. Who said that?
Edith’s bright blues welled up with tears, and she started to cry, cowering from Bev.
“No,” Bev tested. “It’s fine. I was only kidding.” She cried too, scared witless at the words that had escaped her mouth.
“Promise?” Edith asked. By now, Carson was up, his cowlick defying gravity.
Bev never lied to her kids, at least not when asked something directly. She did hide the truth on occasion, especially about their father during the last couple of months, but this was far worse. “I promise.” She smiled reassuringly.
Edith wiped her tears, and Carson sat there biting his lip. “I have to go to the bathroom.”
Bev sighed. Her captors had been kind enough to provide a private two-piece washroom attached, and she told him to go. Carson scurried across the room.
“Mom, tell me why we’re here?” Edith’s question broke her heart.
“You remember the Objects,” she started.
“From TV?” Edith moved to the edge of the bed, dangling her legs.
“That’s right. They’re coming to Earth.” Bev peered out the window again.
“Can I see?” Edith asked.
“Outside?”
Her daughter nodded. Bev scooped her up, holding her tightly. They both stared at the grounds.
“What’s going on? Are they having a party?”
“I’m not sure, Edie, but there’s something you need to hear.” She shifted the girl’s weight. Edith was getting so big. “The Objects are carrying someone. And these people are inviting them to Earth.”
“That’s bad, isn’t it?” Edith didn’t look at her when she asked.
“Yes.”
“How do we stop them?”
Bev’s eye twitched. “I don’t think we can.”
“Uncle Rex would. Grandpa would.” Carson was back, and he was pouting in the middle of the room.
A laugh escaped Bev’s lips. “You know what, that’s true.”
“So we have to help.” Edith squirmed from Bev’s hug and ran beside her little brother. She draped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him in. “Let’s stop them, Mommy.”
It was too much. The dreams. The voice inside her. The expressions on their faces. A tear fell, but she smiled despite herself. “Okay.”
4
After a tireless night, Marcus set back to work. The Umir hub was a complicated system, but once he did a deep dive, he understood the foundation. Engineering at its root was mathematical, and math was universal. He wasn’t as smart as some of the kids he’d gone to school with, but he had an advantage. One Rex always complained about.
Marcus could look at a problem and, given enough time, discover two or three solutions, almost without fail. He glanced up from the tablet full of alien text and saw Jessica talking with the group of cultist soldiers that had arrived last night. She paced, pointing at the Umir and then to the sky. She was pissed this was taking so long.
Marcus would have been lying if he’d told anyone he wasn’t purposely trying to delay. That didn’t mean he’d actually figured it out either. There were twenty Umir in position, circling their hub, which was rolled into a sphere. It hummed gently, and the ground vibrated around it.
When he’d touched it, the hair on his arms had risen. He’d tried to stay as far back as he was able since then.
“I sense trouble,” Grady yelled.
Marcus peered toward the nearest town. The sun had risen an hour ago, and someone must have come across the carnage on the nearby road. He smiled, anticipating that the incoming fleet would scare off Jessica and her band of merry men.
“Move into position,” she ordered. “No one comes close to the hub.”
Marcus tried to remember Jessica in the kitchen at the mansion estate, a dab of flour on her nose. This was hardly the same person. She scowled, lines running deeply over her forehead. Her mouth twisted into a sneer.
“You!” she shouted at Marcus. “Should I just shoot you? Am I wasting my time?”
“No!” he called. “I almost have it.” I think. Even if he did, could he possibly enable the network? How much of what Jessica had told him could be trusted? She’d said the Unknowns were coming regardless. He’d seen all those dead bodies in Dallas. He still did, when he closed his eyes. That would happen to the entire world if this failed. Was that possible?
“You’d better hurry up.” Jessica’s gun pointed at his head. He kept working.
“I’m trying.”
Jessica’s footsteps grew farther away, while the sirens drew nearer.
The Umir rose, unrolling from their ball shapes. All twenty of the terrifying robots faced outward, guns raised.
Marcus saw the steady stream of vehicles advancing: fire trucks, police cruisers, and ambulances. They wouldn’t know what hit them.
Maybe if he finished this task, the Umir would sneak out of protective mode. Or… Marcus had seen a segment of the program that might help their situation. He exited the current screen, trying to recall where the file had been. After several minutes, he located it. The sequence was laid out in front of him, and if he could just break it, there was a chance the entire project would fail.
Marcus’ tongue grazed his teeth. By the time the emergency responders were slowing, he thought he had it.
He glanced at the lead police car and saw the man climb out. He wore a beige uniform and the largest cowboy hat Marcus had ever seen. What did they call them in the cartoons? A ten-gallon hat?
The man spoke into a bullhorn. “Stop what you are doing. You are under arrest.”
A bullet struck the man in the chest right at the heart, and blood gushed out. Even from a hundred meters away, Marcus could see the red staining the ground.
A scattering of gunfire came toward Jessica and her Umir. Marcus hit the key and crouched behind the hub. The robotic device began to unravel. What had he done? A loud noise emitted from it, and he watched in horror as a beam cast from its torso. The light ascended and fell in a sphere around the circle of Umir. The sunlight reflecting through the filter glowed crimson.
“What did you do?” Jessica asked.
“I don’t…” Marcus watched as the police’s bullets rang and fell short of the Umir. The hub had created a shield, protecting them.
“Good.” Jessica grinned. She walked up to the barrier and set a palm to it. The gunfire ceased, and a second police officer approached, using his dead boss’s bullhorn.
“What the hell are you doing?” he asked from behind dark aviator glasses.
“Making the world a better place.”
Marcus still held the tablet, and in an instant, he understood how to fix the issue with the hub’s network. If he patched
it, the Unknowns would have access to their entire population.
____________
“You’re sure this is our best move?” I asked Saul. He wore a black uniform with dual gun holsters. He threw a knitted hat on his bald head and patted me on the chest.
“It’s the only move. I go in, tell them my story, secure the Book. You guys storm the gates with Roger, but, Rex…”
“What?”
“Be cautious. Roger and the Freedom Earthers aren’t a group you should turn your back on. If they think for a moment that you’ll stand in their way, you’re toast,” Saul said.
“They don’t seem…” I stopped myself from finishing the thought, because I was wrong. They looked professional, well-trained and well-armed. They piled into their Jeeps, and Tripp honked from behind the wheel of the borrowed 4X4.
“You coming?” His arm dangled from the open window, and he knocked on the metal door.
“Be right there,” I barked. Veronica sat in the passenger seat, chewing a piece of gum. Evan was in the back.
“Where do we meet?” I checked with Saul.
Saul looked into the distance. “I’ll get the Book and send it out.”
“Send it out? What does that mean?” I grabbed him by the shoulders, squaring him toward me.
“Like it sounds. I’ll give it to someone. They’ll ensure it departs their compound.”
“You’re not leaving, are you?” I started to pace as the first of the line of Jeeps exited by the front gates.
“No, Rexford. I won’t be going. I’ll stay. Pretend I’m with them.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Why?”
“Because there’s more to it. What if they do manage to link this hub? You say you saw Jessica on the road, heading for Odessa. She’s with Marcus. Someone has to deal with her.”
“She still wants the Bridge. I can trade it for Beverly,” I told him.
Saul shook his head. “Jessica only thinks she wants the Bridge, but once they’re taken over by these Zalt bastards, it’s inconsequential. Think about it.” He slipped a piece of paper into my hands. “I have a satellite phone. I’ll contact you when I can.”
“Do the Freedom Earthers understand not to kill you on sight? How would they distinguish you from the Believers?”
“Roger promised as much.” Saul looked doubtful.
“Why wouldn’t he stick to his word?”
“Because a lot can happen once the first bullet is fired. Chaos creates unforeseen results. Plus, he hates the cult.”
“So what? You’re only…” I paused when his gloomy eyes circled up to meet my gaze.
“Rex, I am one of them. I may be working to stop their plans, but I bled for the Believers. I’ve killed for them. You have no idea how many times. I’ve helped get to this point. There’s no redemption for me. Not anymore.”
“I refuse to accept that.”
His scowl softened. “You remember how I said you were just like your father?”
I nodded.
“I was wrong. You’re better. Rex, you have something rare. Integrity.” He glanced at the Jeep full of my friends. “Take care of them.” He leaned closer. “She’s a hell of a woman. When the dust settles, don’t let this experience come between you. Let it bring you closer together.” Saul patted me on the shoulder and walked away.
He climbed into his truck, and without so much as a honk of his horn, he drove past all the waiting Jeeps, turning left to exit the campground.
“Everything good?” Veronica called.
“Perfect,” I lied.
Once I was in the Jeep, Tripp fired it up.
“Good luck out there today,” someone said. Bill wandered to our vehicle. He looked uncomfortable in the camo vest, the Freedom Earthers patch front and center, but he did seem at ease with the gun on his hip. I guessed he had some experience with firearms.
“You too, Bill. Who are you traveling with?” Evan asked. The two had become fast friends.
“Roger,” Bill said. “On the third wave. Says it’ll be the best position.”
The sun was high in the sky but would lower to the west in the next couple hours or so. With a quick peek at my watch, I saw there were only ninety-five minutes before the Believers’ attuning party was raided. Saul would be arriving within the hour, giving him thirty minutes to secure the Book and get it out before the bloodshed.
We’d devised three waves of attack, the first utilizing Roger’s best soldiers. They would storm the event, taking down as many of the cultists as they could. We were on the second wave, sent in as reinforcements. All of this would take place in five-minute intervals. Roger and the last of them would emerge in wave three. There were only two rules: protect your family, meaning the other Freedom Earthers, and don’t kill Alan Black. He was for Roger.
Tripp stuck a toothpick in his mouth. “Bill, let me ask you something?”
“Sure, go for it.” Bill rounded the Jeep, coming to our side.
“Do you believe any of the crap you used to spout off on-air?”
Color rose in Bill’s cheeks. “You’re an ex-military man, aren’t you?” he answered with a question. I chuckled, and Tripp shot me a glare in the mirror.
“SEAL. Why do you ask?”
“Did you believe in what you sacrificed each and every day? Or did you blindly take orders… for the good of our country?” Bill crossed his arms, standing his ground.
Tripp looked ready to exit the vehicle, but his seatbelt held him back. “Are you comparing your stupid show to what I endured out there? In the mud? In the swamps? Do you have any idea how much blood is on these hands?”
Bill lifted his chin defensively. “I helped a lot of people. I gave a voice to real issues. At the end of the day, it’s just a radio show. That’s why I’m here. I want to be part of something bigger.”
Tripp’s rigid posture relaxed. “Don’t mind me. I’m always a little wound up before a raid.”
“No problem. I can understand that.”
“Tripp, save some of that energy for the mission,” Veronica called, and blew a bubble. It popped and stuck to her nose. Tripp threw the vehicle in gear.
“See you out there, Bill,” Evan said as Tripp drove away.
“What was that about?” I asked Tripp when we were past the gates.
“Beats me. I’m not much of a radio guy. Prefer the newspaper.”
“You’re really showing your age with either option,” Veronica joked.
We drove south, heading for Atlanta. I zoned out, trying not to overthink the upcoming battle.
Five Jeeps were in a row, and the one in the lead stopped as we rounded the city, moving for the area where Saul had assured us the house was located. It had been almost an hour since we’d left.
“What’s the hold-up?” Tripp called to the vehicle ahead as we all pulled over.
The woman glanced at us, her plastic-framed glasses slipping down her nose. “No idea. Roger gave the order!”
The roads were quiet, but not as empty as I might have assumed. “I don’t like this,” I muttered to Evan.
“Could be anything,” the special agent said. “Lemme go check.”
“Looks like Roger and Evan have become fast friends,” Tripp whispered when the man was out of range.
“Seems like it,” Veronica said. “I don’t mind Roger. He does come across as too relaxed for a revolutionary, though.”
“I think he’d be perfect to overthrow the country,” Tripp said with a thick layer of sarcasm.
“Don’t let these guys hear you saying that,” I warned. “They’ll die for him.”
“How did he ever get started? There’s no way he learned about the Believers and threw all this together in a couple of months. He’s been planning for years. You can tell.” Tripp turned to look at me from the driver’s seat. “I’ve seen this kind of thing in different countries. An enigmatic man, probably a loner as a kid. Lures people online, draws them in on some generalized ideologies, and he has the first core
group.
“I bet he grew from there, letting his chapter heads or ‘sector chiefs’ recruit more militia. Before you know it, he’s got a full-blown army, ten thousand strong. And all they were looking for was an opportunity.”
“And you think Roger would have stayed in the shadows if the Believers hadn’t come into the news? The Objects?” Veronica asked Tripp.
“Not for long.”
“What about the name? It’s sewn onto their clothes. Can’t be a coincidence.”
“That’s bull. Roger probably called them that ages before he was worried about aliens or cults. Freedom Earthers. No better a name than the Flat Earthers, except they’re not making wild claims. I swear, if Marcus did some digging, he’d uncover propaganda videos from their early days, and I guarantee Roger wasn’t focused on the ‘Earthers’ part. He was spreading the idea of ‘Freedom’. It’s how they always operate. Prey on the weak or the poor. Offer a better future. Compel them to share the same beliefs.”
“Does that change anything for us?” I asked.
“Nope. We use them to get what we want, and that’s the Book. The Vice President’s head on a stick is the icing on the cake.” Tripp chewed his toothpick and leaned out the window as Evan returned. He had on his suit again, and the jacket blew open to reveal his Bureau-issued piece.
“What’s the news?” Veronica asked.
Evan’s cheeks billowed out. “Roger got word from Saul. We’ve been had.”
Tripp clenched the steering wheel. “What are you saying?”
“The house in Atlanta is empty. Saul broke in. There’s no Book. No sign of Black.”
“Son of a bitch,” I muttered. “What about the guy you found scouring around your campground?”
“Saul thinks they were decoys sent to put us on the wrong trail.” Evan squinted at the sky, and I followed his gaze. The red had returned with a vengeance, and it was worse to the east of us.
Tripp slammed his fist into the dash. “What are we going to do?”
Lost Hope (The Bridge Sequence Book Three) Page 16
