The twins sat in silence, contemplating everything they heard.
“There’s something I think everyone needs to know,” said Alexie.
“What’s that?” said Richard.
“A few days ago, Jack told me about Rakiten paying John a visit. He was laying low in the kitchen so he could still hear without being seen. Apparently, Rakiten threatened John’s life during that meeting too. What’s more is that he even keeps some sort of morphacite animal close by him, like the ones each of the rogues had when we were attacked at the monastery.”
“I don’t like the feeling I’m getting about this guy. Not one bit,” said Garnet.
“Or about the Archon, for that matter,” Ferra added.
“Jack and I had been questioning the true intentions of the Searcher division for a little while now. It’s hard to know if we can really trust anyone in charge,” said Alexie.
“Then who should we be trusting? The Rogues?” said Butch. “We just told you those bastards killed Jack’s mother, and that was just so they didn’t have any loose ends! Rakiten said it was James’s family line that carried the genetic strain the rogues most feared.”
“Of course we shouldn’t trust the rogues! The only people we can trust, right now, in my opinion, is each other,” said Alexie.
“That may truly be the best thing to do,” said Richard. “Don’t get me wrong, I have tremendous respect for John and the work this division of the AEB has allowed me to accomplish. But even so, I don’t know how to process what I heard downstairs versus what we talked about up here.”
After a few moments of silence, Garnet outstretched her arm so her hand was in the middle of where everyone sat.
“From here on out, we trust and confide in each other. We’ll have our own little secret society, if you will. Who else is with me?”
Alexie, without hesitation, placed her hand on top of Garnet’s and flashed a smile to show her approval. Ferra was quick to follow, then Richard, Bridgett, and Butch. Every Searcher willingly entered into the agreement to trust in each other’s word above any sort of appointed leader in the Searcher division.
To Jack’s surprise, he began feeling the energy of the morphacite surrounding him as his focus sharpened. It seemed he wasn’t far off from gaining control of the substance. Plunging deeper into his subconscious, he searched for any kind of locus of control that would allow him to gain dominance over his bondage. Believing he found it, Jack latched on to the powerful sensation—one of complete dominion—sending a pulse of energy throughout every muscle cell and exo fiber in close contact with the morphacite around him. The crystalline substance confining him exploded off his body in a violent blast. Having his vision no longer obstructed, Jack saw he and Marcel were, in fact, alone in a small, dimly lit room. Thinking fast, he placed his hand on the morphacite surrounding Marcel and caused it to shatter and fall to the ground.
“You did it!” said Marcel, breathing heavily. “Oh la vache!”
“Quick, do you still have the warp crystal for the Searcher facility!” said Jack.
Marcel made a frantic move to search his pockets and was elated to find the rogue hadn’t taken the crystals from him.
“Got it!” he said, palming the crystal that would take them back to the facility and holding it up as the door to the room burst open.
A stream of blue light began to jet out from the crystal, indicating it would be only seconds before a portal formed and facilitated the Searchers’ escape. Mark was first through the door, sealing the crystal and Marcel’s hand together in a large bolus of morphacite, cutting off the rift he started to open. As Jack attempted to send spikes at the oncoming rogues, Mark took control of all morphacite in the room and used it to apprehend the Searchers once more. No matter how much they struggled to break free, Marcel and Jack were brought to their knees and cemented in place, unable to move anything below their shoulders.
“Such a pleasure to see the two of you again,” said Mark.
“It won’t be long before the other Searchers come for us and—”
Mark slapped a strip of morphacite across Marcel’s mouth, disabling him from speaking.
“Uh-uh, we don’t care what you have to say. Jack is who we’ve really been dying to talk with.”
Jack’s line of sight shifted from Marcel, to Mark, and to the two other rogues that entered the room. He recognized one of them as Sebastian, whose face he remembered seeing for a brief moment in the basement of the Austrian monastery. The other rogue, one with a woman’s features and obscured by shadows, he assumed to be Freya.
“What do you want?” said Jack, turning his attention back to Mark.
“First off, how did you break out of the morphacite holding you in place? Sebastian’s mastery of it should have exceeded your attempts to control it.”
“It wasn’t exactly easy,” said Jack. “I just . . . focused and took control.”
Mark clapped his hands together and gave a jovial laugh. Doing so allowed Jack to notice a scar on the hand that the morphacite spike went clean through at the monastery, indicating to him that Mark must also have the ability to rapidly heal himself.
“So you simply tapped into more of your exo’s power. Remarkable! Not bad at all for someone so inexperienced.” he said, then turning to address Sebastian and Freya. “What did I tell you? It’s just like we expected, a chip off the old block.”
“I want to know why you did it,” said Jack, becoming angry.
“Did what?” Mark inquired.
“Why you killed my father, why my mother’s missing—I assume it’s your fault she’s missing—and why you took me and Marcel hostage.”
Jack’s eyes began to well up with tears from the rage coursing through him.
“Did John never tell you why you and your father are special? Do you not know about the ancient genes that remained intact on your father’s ancestral line?”
“Yeah, John told me how the exos and stuff work,” he said, still fuming.
“No, no, I’m not talking about the basic concept of how the exos work, I’m referring to the fact that there’s a section of Drake DNA that has the potential of unlocking every secret the relics have to offer,” said Mark. “You see, your mom had remnants of the ancient DNA strain as well, just not enough to activate an exo. And with the genetic recombination event that happened at the time of your conception, when the DNA of your mother and father randomly combined to make you, it gave you the potential of having a genetic sequence closer to the ancients that brought us the relics than anyone else in modern history.”
Jack remained silent for a moment, then shook his head to signify his lack of such knowledge.
“That’s so disappointing. Even Marcel knew a little bit about it, which is why he always envied James. Isn’t that right, you jealous little pissant?” he said, turning to Marcel.
Marcel tried to yell a retort through his morphacite muzzle, but a pathetic and muffled sound was all that came out. The only thing he managed to do was turn to Jack and emote a look of remorse.
“Oh, don’t look so pitiful, Marcel,” said Mark. “I’ve simply told Jack the truth. Truth, as a matter of fact, is the most valuable gift you can give someone. Even I wouldn’t lie to either of you boys. Sincerely, I wouldn’t. That’s why I want you to know, Marcel, that this,” he grabbed a strange device from Freya’s hands, “is going to hurt like hell.”
John remained seated in front of his screen in the facility’s common room, waiting for the the strike team he sent to call him with the first news of the rescue effort. While he felt his anxiety climbing to higher levels than it had ever been before, the Searchers filed out of the elevator and walked straight to him.
“Would you all like to talk about something?” he said, taking some sort of pill with a glass of water.
“We want to know if the agents you sent found Jack and Marcel yet,” said Alexie.
John took in a deep breath, almost seeming irritated by the question. “You’ll know when I
know.”
“What do you know so far?” she pushed.
“I know they entered the Mongolian airspace a while ago. Now, as you could have guessed, all of you will know if the mission is successful the moment I find out.”
“And if the agents run into the rogues?”
“Then I hope our team can take them out.”
“That’s one hell of a hope,” Alexie scoffed.
“I’m doing the best I can, dammit!” yelled John. “I’m making it my personal mission to not lose any more of you! If you had any idea how close I am to being cast out of the division by Rakiten, you’d—”
“We’ve all heard how he talks to you and the kind of things he says. It sounds more like, given the chance, he’d do more than just cast you out,” said Bridgett.
“Most of that is just smoke and mirrors. I think Rakiten’s always considered himself a tough guy, so he puts on a front. Although, he’s still my superior and has the power to remove me from my position. All of you are like my family, truly. I’m not just saying that. And I’m trying my best to protect you while we get Jack and Marcel back.”
While the Searchers were, at first, angry with the way John handled recent events, they saw how emotional he became when talking about them being like family to him.
“Sorry, John. I’m sure we can all see you’re doing the best you can,” said Richard, motioning for the other Searchers to say something similar.
Alexie and Ferra were the only ones to remain stoic, arms crossed, and not so easily persuaded by John’s words, whether sincere or not. A loud static began to emit from the speakers, causing John to spin his seat around and hastily send an outgoing message from his screen.
“Strike team, this is John. Do you read? Do you have word on the status of our two missing agents?”
Everyone huddled around, holding their breath as they waited for a response.
“Yes, sir, we’ve done a thorough sweep of the building in Mongolia,” a voice said through the channel’s white noise.
“And?” said John, reflexively covering his mouth.
“Your boys are gone, sir—taken somewhere else. All that’s left behind is some broken tech and a bloody mess.”
“A bloody mess!” Alexie howled.
“We’re unable to tell if some of the blood came from a struggle with their captor or just from the removal of the agents’ tracking chips. It appears all their electronics and communication equipment were removed and left here.”
“Comb the area one more time,” said John, his hands beginning to tremor. “Try to find out where they could have been taken, or else find me some kind of lead that can help us.”
“Understood, sir. We’re on it. We’ll collect what we can and bring everything back to base with us.”
John and the Searchers remained silent for a brief stint as they coped with the news.
“What the hell do we do now?” said Butch.
John looked at him, his eyes shifting from Searcher to Searcher, and gave a simple shake of his head to signify he didn’t have the answer.
“I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” said Alexie, her voice booming. “We put our heads together and get Jack and Marcel back our damn selves.”
She stormed off toward the stairwell, followed close behind by the twins, then Bridgett, Butch, and Richard.
“Come on, boss, we need you too,” said Richard, turning around to address John before ascending the stairs.
“This is all my fault, you know.”
“The same thing would have probably happened if someone else was in charge. The rogues’ resolve to get what they want would supersede almost any plan to keep us safe. This is the time to fight back. I’d tell you to go ahead and sulk, if it would help get Jack and Marcel back, but it won’t. Now is the time for us to get a plan together, not after Rakiten potentially strips you of your position.”
“You know what,” said John, standing to his feet, “you sounded like a real leader, right there.”
“So you’re in?” said Richard.
“Yes, one hundred percent. You’re right, there’s no time to waste. Let’s go get our missing family members back.”
Mark walked behind Marcel with the mysterious device. He then proceeded to break off a large section of the morphacite that covered the upper and middle portion of Marcel’s back. Mark dropped a majority of the morphacite he removed to the floor, leaving only a small shard in his hand to form into a sharp blade.
“No! Please! Don’t kill him!” Jack pleaded.
Marcel tried his best to writhe around and free himself from his bondage, but to no avail. Mark slid the blade he created under the top of Marcel’s shirt and tactical vest, cutting away a large section of fabric and exposing the main bulk of Marcel’s exo atop his upper vertebrae.
“PLEASE! NO!” Jack continued, tears forming in his eyes as he remained frozen in place, unable to help. Severe nausea overcame him when he saw the look of sheer terror on Marcel’s face.
Mark threw the morphacite blade into the mass on the floor before holding the unknown device just above Marcel’s exposed exo.
“You know,” Mark began, “there’s an old saying that goes, ‘You reap what you sow.’ You may be unfamiliar with it, in that it originally referred to planting seeds and reaping the benefits come harvest time. We’ve been monitoring your every move, Marcel—observing each seed you’ve planted on behalf of the Archon.”
“We were just doing what John told us to do!” Jack tried to explain.
Mark hurled a strip of morphacite over his mouth to shut him up.
“As I was saying, we’ve observed you enough to know the kind of person you truly are, Marcel . . . and now, you will receive the consequence for your actions.”
Mark proceeded to push the device directly against the center of Marcel’s exo and press a button near its handle. Jack watched in horror as long, metallic wires and thin tendrils recoiled from their implanted locations throughout Marcel’s body. The question of what the device in Mark’s hand would be used for was answered: it was used to forcibly extract an exo from someone. Mark, noticing Marcel’s wails of agony being dampened by the morphacite over his mouth, removed the strip so the blood-curdling screams could be heard at full volume. Piercing shrieks filled the room as Marcel experienced each of the exo’s probes slither out of his muscles, spinal column, and brain, reforming into its original spherical shape. Moments before the ordeal was over, Jack watched Marcel’s head go limp as he blacked out from the shock and pain. When the process finished, the exo was grasped at the terminal end of the extraction device in Mark’s hand. Jack, who felt like vomiting, stared at the motionless morphacite-encapsulated body still anchored to the floor beside him. Smoke, or some other kind of vapor, emanated from the raw muscle exposed in the void where Marcel’s exo had resided. Jack didn’t know if his fellow Searcher was alive or dead.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
REUNION
“Monster! You’re a damned monster!” Jack roared as he found the power to fling off the strip of morphacite covering his mouth.
Mark ignored the proclamation and handed the device, still grasping the exo in a claw-like section at its terminal end, to Freya for safekeeping.
“Do you plan on removing mine too?” said Jack.
“No, no, we have other plans for you,” said Mark.
“Is he . . . did you kill him?” said Jack, looking at Marcel’s lifeless posture.
“Kill Marcel? Ha! No, he’ll be fine. Well, not exactly fine. In fact, he may wish he were dead, considering he’s lost a major part of his identity with the removal of his exo.”
Jack glared at Mark. “It seems that ‘monster’ was too decent a word to call you. What kind of person revels in doing something like that?”
“Call me a demon, for all I care. We’re doing what has to be done.”
“You didn’t have to do that to Marcel!”
“You don’t know him like we do. You haven’t entered his mind and glanced at
the essence of his very being. He would have betrayed all of us if it meant he gained favor with the Archon.”
Jack looked at Marcel, knowing there was a possibility of Mark’s words being true. “People can change. Marcel could become a better person.”
“There may not be enough time to change him,” said Mark.
“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That’s not for me to answer. I’m waiting for another member of our team to get here—the one who orchestrated your rescue.”
“My rescue? More like my capture!” said Jack.
“You may not view it that way when they explain the whole situation to you. Marcel was simply a bystander that happened to be beside you when our rescue took place. We had to improvise a bit, but made the decision as a group that it would be too dangerous to let him keep his exo.”
Jack remained silent for a moment, not knowing what to say.
“So you didn’t . . . you didn’t bring me here to kill me?”
Freya and Sebastian chuckled at the notion as they remained draped in shadow.
“Shh,” said Mark, quieting his fellow rogues. “No, Jack, we have big hopes for you that require keeping you alive, which means killing you would make no sense.”
“If I’m so important to you, will you answer a question I have?”
“What question would that be, Jack?”
“Did you kill my father?” he said, his eyes beginning to fill with a mixture of abhorrence and tears.
“I’m sure it seemed like we did,” said Mark, “but it wasn’t us.”
Jack experienced a strange feeling of relief and confusion. If he were to trust Mark’s words, then it was still a mystery as to how his father came to meet his end. He wondered if it was by order of some higher-up in the Searcher division that sent James to an early grave, but for what reason, he couldn’t yet fathom. Even so, he wasn’t sure how much merit his speculation held.
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