“She’s lost a lot of blood,” Jaxx said.
The doctor waived a medical wand over her. It lit up. Diagnosis and instructions shot out from its holographic display.
The doctor knelt next to her and felt her pulse. “The Med Stave suggests a foreign material is keeping her alive. I don’t understand the material type, other than it’s a mixture of a highly heated golden ash and concentrated spring water, abundant in mineral content. Some minerals I’ve never heard of. Sagitium? It also says she has less than an hour to live.”
Cole ran into the craft, the door hissing shut behind him.
“She’s lost 1781 milliliters of blood. We have to cauterize the wound and get more blood into her, STAT.”
Cole sat next to the pilot. “Not before we exit the exosphere. Strap in.”
“We don’t have time,” Jaxx yelled. “Help her now.”
They placed restraints around Rivkah’s wrists and ankles.
The pilot hurried to his chair, pressing buttons on the control panel. “We’ll be up in a few seconds. We can help her then.”
Rivkah moaned. “I’m...thirsty. Water.”
Jaxx stroked her forehead. “Soon. Very soon.”
“Get in your seat, Lieutenant. We’re getting this ship off the ground.” Cole thumbed at a seat behind him.
“I’ll be right back, Rivkah.” Jaxx raced to his chair and plopped down, buckling in.
The pilot pushed his visor down. “Heading to the stars, fellas.”
Out of the view screen, Jaxx saw the trees rush by in less than a second. His body sunk down with the ascension and they soon past the clouds, shook hot through the atmosphere and jetted through the exosphere into space.
And out in space, debris was everywhere. Starfighter debris.
Jaxx didn’t know if the terrible mess was mostly from the squadrons he splintered off from or if the thousands of bulky and singed pieces were from Taiyonian starfighters. From the expert way the Taiyonian’s flew, he guessed most of the debris belonged to his squad-mates.
Right now, though, space was at rest. Vacant. No fighting, at least not in this ship’s proximity.
“We have a problem,” said the doctor, rummaging through a silver supply box. “No blood. The med team didn’t replenish after our last search and rescue. It’s been mad up here.” He moved things around in the box, still searching. Unsuccessful, he threw his hands up.
“We have Jaxx,” Cole mentioned. “I’m signing him up.”
Jaxx unstrapped and stood. “I’ll volunteer. You need my blood?”
The doctor beckoned him over. “Yes.”
43
June 9th
Charlotte, North Carolina
Drew had on a hoodie and a Parka, with a full, face-covering faux-fur hood. He didn’t pull the hood up because that would draw attention. Instead, he buried his face as deep as he could and hoped that the bulk of the hoodie made him look tubby.
His mother was right. Her compound crawled with Secret Service types. Did those guys not know how to blend in? Not just the suits and the shiny shoes, but the squiggly ear-pieces.
Drew and Laura didn’t go through their usual “who are you? do you know my son?” routine. Instead, Drew introduced himself to the nice people at the front desk as a her third-cousin, twice removed, come to tell her that she’d come into some money. Money always threw people off the scent. It had the advantage of being both exciting and private. No one would interrupt them.
They made their way to the far side of the garden and admired the flowers, making mindless chit chat. Drew was careful not to say anything that his “muddled” mother might not understand and she, who perhaps had done this act for some time, didn’t let on she knew who she was or what she’d told him over the phone.
Until they sat down.
“You sent me your phone?” Laura was more Laura than she’d been for nearly fifteen years.
Drew had trouble keeping it together. “I did.”
“Good lad. I taught you well. The pictures you took were outstanding, but it was what wasn’t in the pictures that interested me.”
Drew gawped. There was nothing else he could do.
“I can’t tell you what I did or when, because I’ve signed the Official Secrets Act, but I have skills.” She smiled.
Drew’s heart broke a million times over. His mother had been inside the shuffling, confused woman, all these years.
“I tracked this GSA organization and hacked their files.”
Drew’s eyebrows took it to new heights, his mouth to all-time lows.
“Close your mouth, there’s a train coming.”
He laughed. It was something she used to say when he was a kid.
“They aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer, these men you are investigating. In fact, I’d go so far as to say, they’re idiots.”
Drew nodded. Couldn’t argue with that.
“They kept a log.” Laura smiled. “Do you need to take notes or do you still have a photographic memory?”
Drew tapped the side of his head. “Still got it.”
“The log recorded messages between GSA and Underfoot Black. The messages were short and confusing. The log numbers were in order, but the numbers weren’t sequential. Someone has doctored the log.”
Drew nodded. He was firing on all cylinders. His mother was brilliant. She was about to blow the whole thing open.
Laura closed her eyes and recited the list:
“Log 114: SSP doesn’t know anything yet. Keep it under wraps.
Log 181: SSP probed TECS IV, then left. We feel they are unaware.
Log 192: A few retired SSP agents work for us. Again, keep it under the radar.
Log 213: SSP is privy to our exploration.
Log 477: TECS IV has spotted an anomaly. Disregard. The anomaly is uninhabitable.
Log 599: TECS IV found what our scientists are calling the Golden Egg.
Log 611: SSP is investigating TECS IV and GSA. They have also found the Golden Egg.
Log 665: SSP will not cooperate with us.
Log 668: SSP’s recent communications say their scientists do not see global warming a deadly threat. Our scientists disagree.
Log 704: Stay underground.
Log 832: SSP knows we have Kaden Jaxx and demand him back.
Log 914: SSP and TECS IV has gone dark. No communication with SSP and TECS IV is offline.
Log 1043: SSP and GSA to cooperate.
Log 1096: Avera investigating GSA. Eliminate.”
Drew gasped. That was the kill order he was afraid of.
“What did you think when you went fishing in this pool? Of course, they want you gone.” She closed her eyes and continued:
“Log 1152: We move launch date up from June 11th to June 12th,. Launch location: Sandy Island, Caribbean, just east of Grenada.
Log 1163: Government evacuation procedures in place. Everyone is ready.”
“I don’t...” Drew wanted his bong in the worst way possible. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“There’s more, but we don’t have time. No one here has seen me string more than five words together at one time in ten years. You have to leave and you have to stay safe.” Laura squeezed her son’s hand, got up and left without looking back.
Drew didn’t need to open his palm. He knew what she had given him. It was a thumb drive. Laura Avera knew what a thumb drive was? Hell really was going to freeze over. He pulled his coat up around his ears and smiled his way past eight G-men.
44
June 9th
Underfoot Black, Grenada
“In five seconds, you’ll be coming back to the present,” said Donny. “One, notice how comfortable and relaxed you are. Two, you’re becoming more aware of my voice. Three, you are about to wake up as if you were in a deep, healthy sleep. Four, your eyes are becoming lighter. Five, you’re here, now. Your eyes are opening.”
Jaxx opened his eyes, blinking several times. He gazed at the ceiling, bringing himself fr
om the Oospor Class-9 Dropship to the room. Donny had pulled him out of a hypnotherapy session where he recalled the same memories he had in his private session last night. Donny also stopped when Jaxx volunteered to give Rivkah his blood. But Jaxx needed more. He wanted the rest of his memories. He wanted every last drop.
“Take me back under.”
Donny glanced at his watch, then shook his head. “We’ve got what Slade wants.” He tilted his head to the side. “Why do you want to go back under?”
“I have to know.”
“Know what?”
“Why they say I defected.”
Donny huffed. “Alright, close your eyes.”
Jaxx closed his eyes.
A gun went off outside the room, then another.
Jaxx sat in a start. Did that come from inside the facility or was it the beginning of his trance?
The door burst open. Rivkah. She pointed a rifle at Jaxx. She returned. The second time in so many days. You couldn’t keep her locked up if she was cemented into the walls.
Donny pushed back into his chair, hands up.
She motioned with her rifle to the door. “Get up, Jaxx.”
“All right.” Jaxx walked to the door, hands raised, his mind racing. In a way, he was happy to see her again. He felt he knew her better, at least a little. That happiness was tempered somewhat by the rifle.
Donny eyed over Rivkah’s shoulder.
Rivkah caught the look and twisted on her heels. A guard pushed his way in. Rivkah went for him. His gun went off. Donny took it between the eyes, killing him before he hit the floor.
Rivkah swiped the guards’ leg. He tossed to his back. She slammed her boot on his chest and aimed her rifle at the guy’s head.
“No,” yelled Jaxx. He leaped for her arm, grabbing her trigger hand by the wrist.
She dropped to her knees. The rifled slipped from her fingers. She screamed and wrenced her arm out of Jaxx’s grasp. She covered her ears and touched her head to the floor. “What the hell did you do that for?”
“Do what?”
“Zap me, you asshole. You didn’t feel it? When you grabbed me?”
He felt nothing of the sort.
Guards entered the corridor, their boots clomping hard on the tile. Rivkah slammed the door with a swift kick. More than anything, Jaxx wanted to talk to Rivkah. But they were trapped. The guards, Slade, Fox, everyone, needed to leave him alone, give him time to speak with his old friend. But they wouldn’t. He squeezed his fingers into fists and grind his teeth. His mind focused, his heart pumped full of adrenaline, emotion, life—everything he had. And, calm as could be, he pushed the energy outward. It was like being back in a starfighter.
The door broke off its hinges, flinging at the approaching guards. A few went to dodge. Too fast, the door slammed into them. Like dominoes, they fell hard.
Rivkah pushed to her usual defensive crouch and grabbed her weapon. She peeked around the doorway and glanced at one of the downed guards. Before Jaxx could react, she pounded the butt of her rifle against his temple, knocking him out cold. She turned and popped two shots through the doorway, hitting a guard square in the chest.
Jaxx lurched for her, willing her to stop the bloodshed, but was met with the butt of her rifle against his chest, keeping him at a distance.
She eyed Jaxx like a madwoman. “Don’t touch me. Never touch me. But, stay as close to me as possible, or I’ll lodge a bullet in the back of your head.” She rounded him and pressed the rifle’s muzzle against the back of his head. “Move.”
Jaxx had never seen anyone move so fast, so confident. Her eyes, on the other hand, told of a different story. She looked tired, beat.
She pushed him forward with the rifle. “I said move, Jaxx.”
He put his hands up. “Where do you want me to go?”
She guided Jaxx out of the room with another push of her rifle. Guards lined the hall, but Slade and Fox were missing.
“You come after me, this guy gets one in through the chest. Understand?” She lowered the rifle to his mid back, prodding him forward. “If you guards don’t back up, I won’t give another warning.”
None of them moved, then one touched his ear as if he received a communication. He nodded, then waived the men back. Rivkah and Jaxx had a clear path.
Rivkah growled. “What did you do to me?”
Jaxx looked over his shoulder. “I…didn’t do anything.”
But he knew as soon as she asked. It was the blood, the blood he gave her in the ship to keep her alive. It was his blood.
The moment he thought it, Rivkah picked up on it. “You did this to me? You personally? It came from you? What kind of sick freak are you?”
Jaxx didn’t know how to answer. He walked down the hall, the rifle against his back.
“Why do I have these powers?” she continued. “When I’m near you, they’re alive in me. They aren’t when I’m not around you. What the hell did you do to me, Jaxx?” She breathed heavily, almost going off the rails.
No guards were in sight. Maybe he was more important to Slade than he thought. “Don’t pull that trigger, Rivkah.”
He felt her warm breath when she leaned closer, speaking low. “I won’t pull the trigger if you show me the way out, Jaxx. Seems like I’m pretty safe with you, huh? Ain’t no one in this facility going to ruin your life and let you burn your body to a damn cinder.”
Jaxx said nothing.
“Answer me. Where’s the exit?”
“I don’t know.” He didn’t, but at the same time, he didn’t want to leave. He wanted to continue his life’s passion, translating glyph after glyph, uncovering ancient mysteries. In truth, he wanted to figure out everything he could about Callisto. He wanted to go to Callisto, to touch everything on the satellite images.
Rivkah was knocking down that reality with a wrecking ball.
“You don’t want to leave,” she stated.
Jaxx had some experience with this power…as a pilot, with Donny’s pen, and only minutes ago with the door to Donny’s office. He had control of it. She didn’t. Anger fueled her. Intuitively, Jaxx knew that she was dangerous, not only to others, but to herself.
“You know him.”
“Who?” asked Jaxx.
“You’ll see.”
Rivkah opened a door and shoved Jaxx into a room.
Jon Shaughnessy stood dumbfounded in his boxers, toothbrush in hand, wide eyed, his TV on.
Jaxx felt her in his mind like a rat trying to walk through a maze. He didn’t like it.
Rivkah abruptly stepped back like she’d been pushed. “Jaxx, you know something about him.” She gasped. “He’s your escape route. He has something…hidden. Get it from him.”
“No.”
Shaughnessy backed away and made his way into his bathroom.
Rivkah redirected her gun. “Stay put, pudgy.” She flipped her gun over her shoulder, putting a slug through another guard, then brought the gun out in front of her, giving Shaughnessy a grin. “Yeah, little-man, I am a crack shot. There’s no getting out of this room alive without my say-so.”
Jaxx froze, rooted to the spot. “I’m sorry, Jon. I didn’t bring her here. I don’t know what she thinks I know.”
“Jon, is it?” Rivkah asked.
Shaughnessy nodded slowly, keeping his eyes deadpanned on her, his lips slightly moving, but nothing come out.
“Show me,” Rivkah demanded.
Shaughnessy bit his lip. “Show you what?”
“Show me what you’re hiding, then show me a way out of here. You know what I’m talking about. Don’t screw with me.”
He reached under his bed, pulling out a laptop case, laptop inside.
She gestured to Jaxx. “Give it to my boy right here.”
Shaughnessy handed it to him.
It was the laptop he stashed under his desk in the RIOUT room. What was it doing in Shaughnessy’s quarters?
“For a genius, Jaxx, you’re pretty slow. The laptop was their insurance if thi
ngs went south. Now it’s ours.” She turned back to Shaughnessy. “Now, show me your other secret.”
Shaughnessy shrugged.
Rivkah pulled the rifle up, so the sites were level with her eye. “I won’t ask twice. Genius here has infected me with the ability to read thoughts. Yours, my friend, are pretty interesting.”
Shaughnessy pounded his wall three times. It protruded outward, exposing an elevator.
“Thank you.” Rivkah guided Jaxx through the opening and onto the elevator. The wall closed shut in front of them and the elevator started its ascent.
45
June 9th
Charlotte, North Carolina
As soon as he was checked into his motel, Drew pulled out the thumb drive his mother gave him and plugged it into the laptop he’d purchased in the parking lot outside a 7-11. Amazing what people would do for a little cash. He’d had to tap one of his tin-foil buddies for a loan, but he promised he was good for it. Better yet, he promised to clue them in on the exposé of a lifetime, if they’d just loan him a few Franklins, some Hamiltons, and some Grants.
He powered up and went directly to the files on the drive.
Operation Underfoot.
TOP SECRET SPECIAL HANDLING NOFORM with Global Safety Administration.
Idiots. Why did anyone ever label anything “top secret?” You’d think they’d have learned by now.
He spent the next hour, reading and re-reading the documents his mother had secured for him. It was all official. Very succinctly outlined. Very matter of fact, but it boiled down to a simple hypothesis. Slade believed the oceans were rising, the planet was going to be uninhabitable, and he needed to evacuate the Government, the Administration, and other key players.
No citizens.
Not in round one, round two, or any evacuation round thereafter.
Slade didn’t want anyone to know what he was doing because he planned to leave the majority of the human race behind. He had a bunch of arguments, about the sanctity of the Constitution and the need for good government and their chances of survival, but he’d found a “tidally-locked moon” and planned to go there.
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