Apparent Power: DiaZem Trilogy Book One

by Dacia M Arnold

  He sat back in his chair and adjusted his suit jacket. His smile curled even more than before. There was something he was not sharing, but she had enough information. She had played the game and remained cooperative. He would, no doubt, track her until she led him to Caleb. There was a reason they were not more aggressive in pursuing her. She looked down at her hands and twirled her wedding ring, out of habit.

  “Any word from my husband, Scott?”

  Lucas’ smile faded into a sneer. For as well as Valerie could mask her emotions, he wore his plainly on his face.

  “He was recruited and is now employed by the CDC. With his background, he has become quite an asset to the collection and transport of conductors. He is, at this exact moment, about to cross County Road 59 heading back out to rural Kansas.”

  The screen changed to a black and white surveillance feed of Scott sitting in the engineering chair of a train, wearing a CDC uniform. Valerie’s mouth went dry, and a gasp escaped her lips. She fought back the tears. She was thankful her husband was alive but disheartened to see him wear the same uniform of the people she was trying to avoid. Lucas had almost all the leverage he needed to bend her to his will.

  Valerie rubbed her forehead, trying to find the words to move forward. She needed to remember that Caleb needed her protection, but the ’Squatch team also required her to gain the upper hand.

  “How can I help you, Dr. Jarrett?” Hearing herself say the words made her physically sick. She swallowed back nausea.

  “I will allow you to take your journey to find your son. I cannot guarantee you will not be collected by agents of the CDC along your way. They have explicit and unwavering orders to detain suspicious individuals, but I can tell you I will make no direct orders to collect you unless, of course, you have no intentions of coming to the facility on your own free will.”

  “Well then, I guess you have all your bases covered.”

  Valerie reached to the computer and pulled the energy from the conference. The call ended, and the screen went black. She opened the door and walked past Max who did not try to hide the fact he had been eavesdropping on their conversation. She was no longer afraid of him. He had no authority over her. He could watch her all he wanted. In a few hours, she would leave, and he would receive whatever reward Lucas promised for his role in her cooperation.

  Valerie walked down the stairs to the first floor. Gear and boxes of the prepackaged food rations were being handed out. She fell in line with Hyka and accepted her rations for the trip: familiar military-style MREs. None of them tasted good. Even with the food and ammo packed, her bag still seemed lighter than what she had brought with her. Valerie would have carried all their packs if doing so meant she could leave sooner, but she still had to stick with the timeline. The minute the CDC suspected her of running, they would hunt her down. She would play nice until she found her son. Then she would fight with every ounce of her being to evade the CDC. Her father tried to convey a warning, of what the CDC planned to do. She knew she needed to stay far away from where he was.

  When she returned to the first bedroom Max had designated for her, Valerie noticed the burn marks which peppered the walls. A yellow and white quilt replaced the comforter she had damaged in her fit. She laid on the bed and looked up at the fan and around the corners of the room, searching for the device Max used to watch her.

  “There is a small camera mounted above the TV,” Max said. He had opened the door without her even noticing. She cursed under breath as she sat up for forgetting to lock the door, again.

  “Can I help you?” She tried to remain neutral, but she overcompensated and came off exactly how she felt.

  “Yes, Mrs. Russell, you can. I know you don’t care for me much, and understandably so. As you can tell, I’m not a conductor. My sons are. I have three talented boys with bright futures. You hadn’t met them because the CDC took them to the facility with the other conductors before you arrived. You see, I might have a fancy house, smoke expensive cigars, and live very, very comfortable, but all this means nothing without my boys, as I am sure you understand.”

  Valerie remained tight-lipped, but her heart weakened ever so slightly to the man. The CDC had not taken her son, but if they did, she would walk with open arms wherever they wanted her to go if she could have him back.

  “My fate had been undetermined until you came along. Ole Mike Burton put all this together for you and Kevin. In the planning stages, this was all hypothetical, and I just assumed I would be like one of you before people absorbed electricity and before DiaZem were the diamonds to the ring. You and your brother mean far more to your father than his own life. Now you are a precious commodity to everyone, young lady, even more than our friends realize.”

  Valerie’s face grew hot.

  “You sold me out for what? My dad said nothing bad is going to happen to the conductors. Your sons are safe, like my father and brother. Dr. Jarrett said they would be released soon. Why would you betray my father’s trust like this?”

  “I can see you are angry, and deep down I understand why, but humor me. Nothing happens in my house without me knowing. I replayed your discussion with Lucas many times, and there is something clear to me that you may have missed: what your father was trying to tell you. Nothing is going to happen to the conductors.” He paused and waited to see if she would understand.

  Valerie was so full of rage she could not think straight.

  “The general population will suffer. The government will eradicate us. The New World Order has found a way to eliminate all but a fraction of the population to raise a globalized central government: harbor the conductors and destroy the rest.”

  Duke had mentioned genocide before, but the idea seemed unbelievable at the time. Max would be among the victims of mass genocide.

  He moved across the room toward her, waiting for the realization to wash over her. “My sons will be released, but I won’t be around to see them. At least, this was the case until you came along. Yes, they know where you are and where you are going. They will track you every step of the way. Once you find your son, they will take you both to the facility. They are hoping you passed the DiaZem gene on to him. In exchange for your detention, I receive a spot in the new society along with my boys. Please, don’t look so surprised. You would have done the same to be with your son. We both win. You’ll be happy in the New World.”

  “I’ll be happy when I get the hell out of this house,” she said, nearly spitting the words at him.

  He raised his hand to touch her shoulder but did not. Instead, he smiled and nodded in defeat. She could see where he was coming from; however, if she were in his situation, she knew she would have found a better way.

  Once the door clicked shut, she pulled the photo from her cargo pocket. She missed Caleb’s chubby baby cheeks. His hair was so long in the picture, swept to one side out of his eyes. His back was to the camera, and he was sitting on her father’s living room floor. She remembered he was pulling the carpet and pushing his fingers deep into the threads, exploring. He had only turned his head when she called his name. Valerie regretted not holding him closer, not giving him enough kisses. She wanted to hug him tight and breathe him in. He looked just like Scott. She missed them both so much. Four days felt like an eternity, without a guarantee to be reunited.

  She thought about Scott wearing the CDC uniform. Shocked the one person in her life she trusted might be the one to turn her and Caleb in. She had to continue to believe he would prove to be the man she married, who loved them more than anything. She prayed he did not know the truth of the situation. Once he was aware of what he was contributing to, he would fight to protect her and Caleb from the organization he served. She could still trust him. She had to. Scott was the one who could keep her from falling apart. She just needed to find him.

  The crisp evening air gave instant relief from the stuffy confines of Max’s fortress. Valerie kept silent pace with Major as she had been instructed to earlier in the day during battle dri
lls. Hyka stayed a moderate distance behind them with Jack at a similar distance ahead. Griff had gone far ahead with a can of spray paint. Every thirty minutes, Valerie spotted a green mark on a tree or an abandoned vehicle notifying the group of safe passage. Twice Jack forgot to stay clear of the street lights and walked so close they flickered. Major yelled curses at him both times, making Valerie laugh. But the moon was high and bright, and she could see her footing without the use of any artificial lighting. After three hours of walking, they caught up to Griff leaning against a sign for Dirty Woman Park.

  “You’re home, Hyka!” Jack yelled back, laughing.

  Aside from a huff, her expression never changed. Hyka shoulder-checked Jack as she walked by, then dropped her bag at a picnic table. Valerie found an empty table away from the group.

  “Look,” Major announced, “we are stopping for twenty minutes. Eat, do your business, and we are back on the road.” He and Jack stood together and unpacked their MREs. They spoke just low enough Valerie could not hear.

  Griff sat down with Hyka and asked her questions about her medical background. Without a word, Hyka stood up, collected her meal, and walked away. As she approached, Valerie moved the items on her table to make room for the scary woman to join her. She sat opposite of Valerie on the picnic table. Valerie did not dare speak first.

  “Figure out how to work your magic yet?” Hyka asked, referring to the tall order everyone anticipated Valerie could deliver.

  Had they not witnessed her panic attack, they would not have believed she had any abilities at all.

  “No. The moon is so bright out here I’d forgotten about the headlamp. I guess now would be a good time, huh?” Valerie started to dig in her bag.

  “No worries. Griff has his lamp on. You’re not a monkey, you know.”

  Valerie was caught off guard by the statement. She knew well she was a human. Hyka blew her bangs off her forehead and rolled her eyes.

  “I meant you don’t have to sit here and do every trick they tell you. Yeah, you got super powers or whatever, but having magic doesn’t mean you have to jump when they say jump. Keep your voodoo to yourself. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone. It’s not dark out here, anyway.” Hyka took a bite of a mystery food from an unlabeled green plastic wrapper and proceeded to talk with a full mouth. “You did good playing cool, though. What did the geneticist have to say? Why didn’t they come to pick us all up from Max’s? That creep. I never trusted the guy, even before all this went down.”

  “Dr. Lucas Jarrett is in charge of research for the entire country. He works in Denver. The CDC must already have a DiaZem because I couldn’t tell how old he was.” Valerie took a bite. She mulled over how much she should share with the group. Hyka still scared her, and she had a strong gut sense Major did not like her at all. Griff represented a lie from someone she had allowed in her home and had trusted with her son. She had just met Jack. She went along with the group out of necessity.

  “I got to see my dad and Kevin,” Valerie said into a substance labeled Chili Mac.

  Hyka looked up and stopped chewing. “They alright?”

  “Yeah. Dad said they were fine and the conductors are not in danger. He also said the CDC couldn’t find Caleb, but once I do, Gia would know something. I didn’t hear the rest because that prick cut the feed.”

  “What else did you find out?” Hyka continued eating what looked like a compressed piece of bread that she covered with cheese with a strong odor of jalapeno, which she squeezed from another green plastic pouch.

  “They think we are genetically superior to everyone else and are pieces of a giant electrical circuit. Ridiculous. The CDC is developing some way to harness the electricity absorbed by conductors, but the facility requires two DiaZem to power the entire Midwest.” Valerie tried to play down what Lucas told her.

  “Sounds like Atlantis.” Hyka studied Valerie’s face for acknowledgment.

  Valerie had no idea where Hyka was going with her statement.

  “The lost city of Atlantis? They were a self-sustaining, advanced technological civilization without explanation. Could be we are just descendants of them. When the gene went dormant, the city sank. Makes sense to me.” She shrugged.

  “Oh,” Valerie nodded. She decided not to tell Hyka much more. She was also going to keep her conversation with Max to herself. Despite her animosity toward him, she did not want to complicate things further.

  Their time was almost up, and Valerie realized she had not eaten much. She took bites of what she could identify. The mystery food did not deter Hyka, and she finished all but a couple of green pouches.

  “I heard your mom died.”

  Valerie stopped chewing and looked up at Hyka, who continued without reverence for her comment.

  “I never knew my mom. My dad was in love with her. She left us when I was two. He still hasn’t gotten over her leaving. We stay close with her family because knowing my Native heritage is important to my dad, but sometimes I wish she had died so he could move on.” Hyka gathered her things and walked away.

  Valerie sat with a blank expression on her face, unable to chew. Shocked, she tried to process what Hyka meant, but Jack walked up and snapped her out of her reflection.

  “How are you holding up, kid? Ready to move?”

  “Could be better. You know the CDC recruited Scott? He’s driving transport trains for them, helping them collect conductors. I saw him on video during my conference call. He’s not a conductor. Well, he’s a train conductor, but he’s not like us. He doesn’t have the gene.” Saying the words out loud brought another realization to her mind. They would try to kill him. If she wanted this ever to end, she would need to figure out her abilities to save her husband and every other person within a five-hundred-mile radius. Grief rolled over her, and she tried to think about anything else. She did not want to risk throwing herself into another episode and giving away their location.

  “Valerie, look at me,” Jack said in a stern tone. “You are losing focus. Stop thinking about what-ifs and think about what you need to do now. Keep your mind busy with the task at hand. We have a few more hours until daylight. Then you can rest. You can’t change what has already happened. But you can choose how to react. You can stay here and feel sorry for your luck, or you can pull yourself together and unleash mama bear on anyone who gets in your way.”

  Valerie smiled. Jack was right. She would sooner tear someone apart with her bare hands before playing the victim. She felt her cargo pocket and pulled out the picture of Caleb. She could feel the rage building at the thought of someone taking him, but she would get to him first.

  “Form it up,” Major called over the group, signaling the time had come to continue their journey. Griff started off first, and each person fell in behind him at a measured distance. Valerie walked with Major with no need to know the measurement.

  “I would not be here if not for Hyka,” Major said after a while. Much like his daughter, he spoke from a place in his mind ten steps further than the actual conversation. “She talked me into coming. I couldn’t care less what happens to this world, but she has a bleeding heart. She said helping you would give me purpose.”

  Major remained silent for a few moments. Valerie found his claims of Hyka’s soft spot unbelievable but dared not admit it. At any moment, he would reveal why he did not like her. Valerie remained silent.

  “I’ve done things in this life I am not proud of, Mrs. Russell. I’ve hurt people. Hell, I’ve been responsible for the deaths of hundreds, and I’ve carried the guilt on my shoulders for years. If there is even the slightest chance of redemption in this. . .” He sighed. “I guess what I’m trying to say is someone must stand up and do the right thing. For once, it’s going to be me.”

  Dawn was close to breaking on the horizon and with the moon hidden by the western mountains, small fires glowed in the distance. The plane wreckage spread over a mile of visible highway. Gridlocked vehicles had been pulled to the shoulders, abandoned. The b
ody of the plane lay across the four lanes, blocking all directions of travel. The group crossed the highway and headed west to an RV park. Their first campsite.

  Major pounded on the door of the new, thirty-foot RV which looked out of place compared to its neighbors. There were a few much smaller RVs with more permanent additions; concrete stairs, brick and mortar fire pits, and even couches sat in front of a few.

  Major reached his hand into the front wheel well and did two sweeps of his hand before pulling out a magnetic box. He opened it to reveal a key. With a silent nod to Jack, everyone pulled out their handguns. Major jerked open the door and allowed Jack to go in first, then followed behind.

  “Clear,” Jack said first.

  “Clear,” Major said and walked to the door to motion everyone inside.

  Hyka holstered her handgun as she walked past Valerie, up the stairs, and into the RV. Valerie followed, ready to sit down after their twenty-mile hike.

  Once everyone was inside, Major stood by the driver’s seat and gave orders. “The ladies will share the full bed in the back. I’ll take first watch. Jack and Griff, you take the loft beds and get some rest. The time is about 0630. Griff, set your alarm for four hours. Jack, you’ll cover the watch after Griff. Everyone needs to change their socks. Mrs. Russell, be sure to put your boots back on. If we are forced to leave in a hurry, you’re going to want those already on your feet.” He winked before turning and making himself comfortable in the driver’s seat.

  Valerie walked the remaining length of the RV, down four steps, and sat on the full-size bed. Scissors flew across the room into her lap.

  “Cut the tape off your feet. You might not have time later.” Hyka jumped and landed on the bed next to Valerie. “Also, don’t tighten your laces all the way. Just tight enough they won’t go flying off if you have to run.”

  “Thank you. I don’t know if I could’ve come all this way on my own.”