The Relics- The Keystone Trilogy - Part 1

by Michael K. Damron

  “I’ll be damned. This is a haul, if I’ve ever seen one,” said John.

  “It looks like everything in here is some kind of relic or artifact we can take back to the facility,” said Marcel, smiling at the discovery and making the morphacite spikes he controlled rejoin the mass he carried on his body.

  Jack walked up to a large desk near the rear of the room and began to pick up and examine the relics spread across the table’s surface, marveling at the variety of artifacts.

  “Here’s how I want you to proceed,” said John, his voice somewhat muffled from the poor signal they received so deep underground. “Don’t spend too much time in there, just do a preliminary survey of what’s in the room. Then, Marcel, hold a portal to the Searcher facility open while you and Jack transport everything from there to here and we can worry about doing a thorough analysis on it later. Understand?”

  “Yes, we’re clear on what to do,” said Jack.

  Marcel nodded in agreement with him.

  The two relished in the spoils they had stumbled onto. Each scroll and piece of parchment contained priceless information regarding exos and other ancient relics. The large amount of warp crystals spread about paled in comparison to the loose morphacite, stacked in high piles at each of the room’s four corners.

  “We should be proud for finding this room,” said Marcel. “It has to be the largest relic jackpot the division’s ever seen.”

  “Yeah, we didn’t do badly at all as a team. Maybe now we can let bygones be bygones,” said Jack.

  “A reconciliation? Hm, I might be able to handle that,” said Marcel, extending his hand for Jack to reciprocate.

  As Jack reached to shake Marcel’s hand, a loud noise rang out from the passageway when part of the bones aligning one of the walls cascaded to the ground, causing both of them to turn their heads in alarm and gaze into the dark expanse beyond the room’s open door. They were quick to form weapons from the morphacite they brought along, but not quick enough. From behind Jack and Marcel, outside of their field of vision, two rogues rushed out of the room’s tall cabinet. An unstoppable mass of morphacite enveloped both Searchers and immobilized the weapons they formed, causing them to make a clanging sound as they fell to the ground. When the black substance covered their cameras, cutting off all video feed, John became profoundly concerned and tried to communicate with them through their telecoms.

  “What the hell happened! What was that noise! Your feeds are blacked out. Are the two of you okay? I repeat, ARE YOU OKAY!”

  Although they could hear John, Jack and Marcel couldn’t respond while they were completely engulfed in morphacite.

  “Nice work,” one rogue said to the other. “Looks like we can still go through with the original plan. You take care of the room’s contents and I’ll deal with these two.”

  Jack and Marcel, straining for breath within their morphacite cocoons, felt themselves start to free fall as one of the rogues opened a portal below their bodies, warping them to an unknown location.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  EXTRACTING AN EXO

  A portal opened behind where John sat on the facility’s first floor. Richard, Garnet, and Ferra appeared from the other side with a bounty of morphacite and a new collection of warp crystals.

  “How’s it going, boss?” said Richard, not noticing how flush John’s face had become.

  “Uh, at the moment . . . I can’t say it’s going well.”

  “What’s wrong? Did something happen?” said Garnet.

  “It’s Jack and Marcel. It looks like they’re in some sort of situation right now. I didn’t see exactly what happened, but I’ve lost all communication with them and their video feeds aren’t there anymore. As we speak, the GPS tracking on them is saying they’re still in Paris, but it can sometimes take a few minutes to update an exact location when the signal is being tracked underground.”

  “Where else could they be?” said Richard.

  “They should still be there,” said John. “I just pray this isn’t something involving the rogues. I heard a crashing sound coming from their microphones right before their feed went dark. And that makes me really worried, considering—”

  Another portal opened in the main area as John was talking. Alexie and her team traipsed through, their eyes strained from poring over so many writings and texts during their mission. All three helped carry the small bounty of scrolls and tomes back to the facility.

  “Oh, hi,” said Alexie. “Didn’t know any of the other teams would be here already. I hope it’s all right that I made the executive decision to come back with all this stuff after we went through everything in the storehouse.”

  No one standing around responded to her. Once she noticed the distressed look on some of their faces, she could see something was wrong. Looking around the room, she noticed Jack and Marcel were nowhere to be found.

  “What’s happened?” she said, breathing deep to try and stop her mind from assuming the worst.

  “We’ve lost contact with Marcel and Jack,” said John.

  “Do you know why?” she asked, her breaths becoming shallower.

  “As I was just telling Richard’s team, it’s still unknown. There was an audible crash that came through their telecoms before their video signals cut out.”

  “We should all go to where their mission was and help, right?” she said, starting to worry. “They may be in trouble!”

  “All we can do right now is monitor their status. Marcel was given the only warp crystal we had for that location. We could fly there, but first I’d send a preliminary rescue team from the AEB that’s already in the area. Now, if you look at the screen, you’ll see that the boys’ vitals are still okay, which means they’re alive. Their heart rates have spiked and I’m waiting to see if we can regain communication with them. By looking at their GPS signal you can also see that . . . oh, shit.”

  “What? What’s ‘Oh, shit’? Why did you say ‘Oh, shit’!” said Alexie.

  “It’s their GPS signals,” said John. “They’re . . . now they’re somewhere in northern Mongolia!”

  Alexie’s legs became weak, causing her to nearly stumble to the floor before Bridgett moved fast to catch her.

  “This means the rogues have them, doesn’t it?” said Richard.

  “I . . . dammit, I think so,” said John, beginning to touch his screen and get a plan in action. “I’m going to call all agents even remotely close to the boys’ location for an immediate rescue attempt. Everyone else needs to hold tight while I think about the best strategy for what we do next.”

  “We’re supposed to stand around and do nothing!” Alexie scoffed, dumbfounded.

  “Something is being done,” said John. “You and the other Searchers just need to sit tight while Richard and I convene on what warp crystals we might have that could be utilized for the boys’ rescue. Now, if I don’t get around to ordering the initial strike team, we may lose our chance to get Jack and Marcel back.”

  This sentence caused Alexie to finally break down into an amalgam of tears and anger. Bridgett and the twins rushed over to console her and take her somewhere else. John placed the necessary call and ordered a team of twelve tactical agents, stationed in Harbin, China, to get to the current GPS coordinates of Jack and Marcel.

  “I’m sorry Jack’s missing, sweetie,” said Bridgett, her arm around Alexie to comfort her as best she could. “We’re all worried about him and Marcel.”

  “I told you I thought something was going to go wrong.”

  “I know, I know, but you couldn’t have possibly predicted this. It’s not your fault.”

  Garnet, sitting close by with her sister, gave a sudden gasp. “Wait, Alexie, you and Jack are a romantic item? How did I miss that?”

  Alexie didn’t answer, but Bridgett nodded her head at Garnet to signify it was true.

  “Oh, you poor thing,” said Garnet, moving to hug Alexie.

  Ferra, trying to sympathize, joined in the group embrace to offer her s
upport.

  “I need to tell you all something—something weighing heavy on my mind,” said Alexie, her voice trembling. “Jack told me before the different teams went out on their missions today that he sensed something bad was going to happen. I had the same feeling, deep down, later on. If I had only listened to him, to myself . . . We have to find him! We have to!”

  She started to become flooded with more feelings of overwhelming sadness.

  “There’s no point in blaming yourself,” said Bridgett. “This is the time when you need to be the strongest. You’re allowed to be upset, but the act itself won’t lead to getting Jack or Marcel back.”

  Alexie sat there for a moment, thinking about what Bridgett said while regaining her composure.

  “You know what, you’re right,” she said, straightening her posture. “If John can’t figure out a way to get them back, we may just have to rescue the boys ourselves!”

  “Hell, yeah!” said Garnet.

  “If it comes down to that, I’m in, too,” said Ferra, smiling.

  “You can count on our help,” said Bridgett, embracing Alexie once more.

  Just as Jack and Marcel thought their end would come from suffocation, the rogue displaced the portion of morphacite covering their mouth and nose, allowing them to gasp for air. The remainder of their bodies, including the eyes and ears, continued to be bound by a morphacite shell.

  “Please, don’t do this! Let us go!” said Jack, his voice sounding muffled through covered ears.

  He thought Marcel was also trying to plead for their release, but couldn’t make out the words he spoke. The rogue went to each Searcher and briefly shifted aside the morphacite covering their in-ear telecoms so they could be removed and destroyed. The same was done to their body cams. Next, the rogue lifted their left arms, up to the elbow, out of the morphacite shell and took a razor-sharp blade to their forearms, removing the AEB tracking chip sequestered within. Jack and Marcel screamed in agony as the chips were fished from their arms. Once the rogue finished stripping them of all traceable elements, they opened another portal underneath the captured Searchers to move them to their final destination. The pain Jack and Marcel experienced at the previous location was temporarily overshadowed by the full-body shock of slamming onto the floor of wherever they were warped to next. Jack could still hear the muffled sounds of Marcel’s panic and knew he needed to think of another means of escape that differed from simply talking the rogue out of what they were ordered to do. Unable to conceive of anything else, Jack began trying to enter a meditative state and focusing on his exo with the aim of finding a way for him and Marcel to break free.

  John sat pinching the upper portion of his nose with his thumb and index finger. His head throbbed as he anxiously hoped for a speedy rescue of his missing Searchers while holding on to the futile notion that a better plan would come to him if the team of AEB agents failed to retrieve them.

  “You got a splitting headache, boss?” said Butch. “I can get you something to take for—”

  “I already tried to offer him something while you were in the kitchen,” said Richard.

  “No, it’s fine,” said John, leaning back in his chair and exhaling a long breath.

  The indicative sound of an incoming call began to ring out from his screen on the table. John picked up the device with haste to see if it involved an update from the agents in Mongolia. His eyes became as wide as saucers when he saw it was Rakiten trying to contact him.

  “Richard, Butch, make yourselves scarce. I’m supposed to take these sort of calls in private. Make sure my screen’s camera can’t see you.”

  They scrambled to duck behind a couch in the far corner of the room to get out of sight while remaining silent to better listen in on the conversation.

  “John, it’s been a while,” said Rakiten. “What news do you have for me?”

  “There were some very successful searches conducted today from various sites. Richard was even able to use the new warping gun that’s been in development. It worked like a charm, really,” he said, gulping as he talked. “And we’ve located some writings and drawings in old handwritten books and scrolls that contain information about things such as exos and warp crystals, exactly the kind of things the founder has been looking for.”

  “John, John, John . . . what do you take me for? I was notified the moment you ordered a handful of AEB agents on a rescue mission to northern Mongolia.”

  John remained silent, holding his breath as Rakiten continued speaking.

  “All I know right now is that two agents from Division 1042 are missing. Which two is it?”

  “It’s . . . Um . . . Jack and Marcel, but finding them is my highest priority and that’s why I immediately ordered a strike team and I just know we’ll be able to—”

  Rakiten raised his hand on the screen to act as a visual cue for John to stop his meandering discourse. He began speaking to him in a slow, aggravated tone.

  “Losing Marcel is an annoyance, I’ll admit. But the Drake boy—you know he was the most valuable asset we had. Why do you think the rogues have been after the Drakes, you fool? To them, that family’s genetic line is the most worrisome hitch in their plan to become all-powerful. Don’t you remember me telling you this!”

  “Y-yes, I r-rememb—”

  “Stop! Quit talking, you insignificant leech. You don’t do a damn thing I say, do you? Worthless annelid. You know how ancient the Drake genotype is—how much potential could lie within. If Jack has the right mutations, he could become even stronger than his father was. But we’ll never find out if he has the perfect gene sequence if the rogues steal him from us!”

  John wasn’t able to form any words as he agonized over the situation he found himself in.

  “By the way, we’ve determined James’ wife, Melissa, was also killed by the rogues.”

  “What!” said John, gasping.

  “Her body was found by one of my teams this morning,” said Rakiten. “She didn’t even pose a threat to the rogues, you know. Her genes didn’t even allow for an exo to attach to her. And now Jack, the last of his line, has been taken by the rogues under your watch. Whatever you have to say for yourself, it won’t be enough. If I have any say in the matter, there will no longer be a need to keep you at your post in the Searcher division.”

  Rakiten cut the call feed, leaving John a mute mess. Richard and Butch popped up from behind the couch and looked at him with worried expressions.

  “You shouldn’t have had to hear that,” John said with a depressed tone.

  “Is he always like that?” said Butch.

  “Rakiten? Yes, he’s not a pleasant person to deal with.”

  “I’d say,” said Richard.

  John sat in silence for a moment longer before imploring, “I have a lot of work to get done—a lot to keep monitored and keep a watchful eye over. The two of you should go eat or . . . just go do something else.”

  Sensing their boss’s anguish, Richard and Butch nodded their heads at his request and walked off to the kitchen.

  “That Rakiten sounds like a real asshole,” Butch said in a hushed tone.

  “I thought so too. He didn’t exactly sound levelheaded, did he?”

  “The way he berated John . . . Do you think we should tell the girls?”

  “Seems like they’re dealing with a lot right now,” said Richard.

  “Damn, Rich, we all are. I think we should at least let them know what we heard and get their opinion on the matter.”

  “Yeah, that’s probably the best thing to do. Let’s find them so we can all talk about this as a team.”

  Before long, Jack and Marcel felt themselves being levitated off the floor. The morphacite around their bodies began to shapeshift until it anchored them into a sitting position on chairs placed at the center of the room. The actions broke Jack from his meditative state, causing him to assume something was about to happen to him and Marcel. As minutes went by wherein no one disturbed them, both Searchers, still b
linded and bound with only their nose and mouth exposed to the open air, thought they may be alone in the room. Jack, hearing the muffled sounds of Marcel’s elevated voice, formed a cognitive link with him.

  Marcel! It’s me. Calm down, man. We need to think hard and figure a way out of this situation.

  Geez, Jack, it took you long enough to form a cognitive link with me! You should use your mental powers and try to control the rogues’ minds. It seems like I can’t do a damn thing to help our situation, but maybe you can.

  Listen, they’ve removed everything from us that can be tracked, even the citizen chips in our arms. And now we’ve been brought to an unknown location. It’s not likely John and the other Searchers will be able to find us.

  Don’t talk that way, Jack, maybe—

  Marcel, I have a plan. It may not work out, but it’s at least something.

  I’m listening.

  There’s a possibility we could overtake the morphacite confining us, said Jack. But I think in order to do that, we need to really concentrate on the connection with our exo.

  I don’t see much of a point to it, said Marcel.

  There’s no reason to giving up now. When I sever our telepathic link, focus all your energy on connecting with your exo. That’s what I’ll be doing, and it just might help get us out of here.

  All right, Jack, all right. I guess it’s worth a try.

  Once the telepathic link ceased, both Jack and Marcel began to enter a deep state of focus, hoping it would allow them to overtake the morphacite enveloping their bodies.

  “Are you serious?” said Alexie, her eyes welling up with more tears after hearing about the rogues killing Jack’s mom.

  “That’s . . . a lot to take in,” said Bridgett. “I can’t believe they got her too. And I wonder, is Rakiten always that nasty toward John?”