The Omega Project

by Ernest Dempsey

  There was nothing there.

  His eyes and weapon dropped simultaneously to the ground where he found, to his surprise, the source of the shadow he’d seen a minute before, as well as the sound at the door. A raccoon looked up at him with surprise in its eyes. The creature chirped and then scurried away into the darkness at the end of the building before disappearing around the corner.

  Sean shook his head and took a few deep breaths to calm his nerves.

  He closed the door after stepping back into the room and shook off the cold. It was freezing out there, and he knew that the journey ahead was only going to get more treacherous. He looked over at the bed and sighed. No chance he was going to fall asleep again, not after the raccoon incident.

  The good news was he’d get an early start, one he probably needed anyway. The bad news was he was still tired.

  He was about to collect his things and head out to the car when another thought occurred to him. All this time, he had been so intent on getting out of town and trying to evade police that he forgot to analyze the Madison letter.

  He exhaled through his nose and stepped over to his bag, pulled it out of the secondary compartment, and plopped back into bed. He flipped the switch on the lamp next to him—half expecting it to not work—and rested his head against the headboard while holding the letter in both hands over his lap.

  The yellowish light cast an eerie glow onto the paper as he began reading.

  Captain Lewis forged a path across this great nation, a mirrored birth to the intrepid and strong. Not far from where life began, a mere hundred paces from the northwestern corner, the serpent guards the gateway to the secret the late captain stowed away.

  Sean paused and considered the paragraph. Nothing jumped out at him in the cryptic text save for the part about the secret the captain hid.

  Mirrored birth? Hundred paces from a corner? A serpent? He let out a long exhale through his nose and ran both hands through his now dark brown hair.

  Sean went on to the next paragraph.

  Where disappointment dwelt in the hearts of the men, a second piece leads the way to what he feared. Find it near the serpent’s head, beneath a stone misplaced long ago, and you will be one step from what took the fabled city of Plato.

  Without the clue from the first location, he couldn’t possibly know where to look for the next. Or could he? That part remained unclear.

  The last portion of that paragraph, however, gave Sean chills that shot from the top of his head, down through his arms and legs, all the way to his toes. The fabled city of Plato? Surely, that couldn’t be right. Could it? Was James Madison actually talking about—dare Sean think it—Atlantis?

  There’d been countless oral traditions handed down through generations regarding the mythical Greek city that had vanished so long ago, supposedly under the surface of the ocean. In modern times, a flood of books, movies, and television shows had been dedicated to dissecting whether the fabled city had ever truly existed. Now Sean was reading a letter from an American president, a man regarded as intelligent in almost every way, yet here he was making a reference to a place often considered apocryphal by most historians.

  Was there another city Plato mentioned that was more mysterious than Atlantis? If there was, Sean couldn’t think of it, at least not one nearly as prominent as the Atlantis story.

  He read the next paragraph, which also appeared to be part of the mysterious riddle.

  At last, our journey ends, across the river to the southwest of the final camp, the secret is buried there within a dark chamber, put there long ago by an ancient people.

  The power hidden there must only be used in the most desperate of times, for the destruction it brings is immeasurable and it cannot be controlled, for the ocean is something that can only be unleashed, not tamed. I pray those times never come. If they do, it could be the end of all things, including our young nation.

  This is the reason for our precaution, our vigilance against such mystical and relentless threats. The ring of three has been spread across the land, and only one with wits, courage, and a humble heart should take the challenge. For if you complete this journey, death awaits for many.

  The last paragraph was intriguing. There was absolutely no way to know where it was talking about, which meant Sean would have to stick to his original plan. Sort of.

  He’d planned on heading out to Montana, both to do his research and to lie low, but now he wasn’t so sure.

  This first paragraph suggested a detour, but what was the exact location it was specifying?

  “A mirrored birth,” Sean muttered. “What does that mean? A mirrored birth?” He pulled out his burner phone and opened the Google app. He typed in the words and waited a few seconds for the results. When the page finally populated, he discovered a multitude of medical descriptions, products, and discussions, but nothing he thought would help him.

  He clicked over to page two of the search results, something he almost never did, but found nothing useful there, either.

  “What in the world is a mirrored birth?” he whispered.

  He wished Tommy was there with him. Not to mention Adriana. He’d had to relay through Tommy what was going on. Sean knew his friend would let his wife know what happened, but that did little to comfort him. She was an oak for him, someone he could lean on when things got tough. Tommy was, too, but they weren’t here at the moment. He was on his own. Sean also knew that it was still too early in the morning for a phone call.

  He figured he could call them in an hour or so. He was on central time at the moment, so the east coast was an hour ahead. Yes, he could call in an hour, while he was on the road. And the sooner he got going, the better.

  But where?

  That problem lingered. He could take off toward Kansas City. By the time he was past Columbia, he could call Tommy and the others to see what they thought. West was certainly the right direction, for now.

  12

  Missouri

  Sean stared at the road ahead. The horizon was still dark in the distance, barely hinting at dawn, with a dim illumination from the sun rising to his back in the east. Sean glanced into the rearview mirror and noted the brightening sky behind him, though the sun still hadn’t come into view. The cloudy sky ahead, too, would blot it out.

  He’d checked the forecast on one of his weather apps, and it looked like there was only a 25 percent chance of precipitation. Odds were it was going to rain, but that could change on a whim out here.

  Weather in Missouri was unpredictable at best, and the closer he got to the Kansas border, that unreliability only increased. Cold air blew down into the prairies and plains from the Rocky Mountains, chilling the air to the east for hundreds, if not thousands, of miles.

  He glanced at the clock as he passed the signs marking the exit for the University of Missouri. Close enough.

  He picked up his phone and tapped Call on the number he’d entered before leaving the motel earlier that morning.

  The device began ringing and he hooked his headphones into his ears, choosing not to use the SUV's system. He recalled a case from a few years ago where someone was located using that very method. He imagined they had even better means of tracking people now.

  “Hello?” Tommy answered in a groggy voice that signaled he’d just woken up.

  “It’s me.”

  “Hey S—” He caught himself and stopped. “Hey, buddy. How are you?”

  “Still alive and still on the road,” Sean said. “I needed to talk to you about the clue from Madison’s letter.”

  “Which one? Seems like there are three.”

  “The first one. Doesn’t look like we can work on the other two until we know the location of the first.”

  “Yeah, we came to the same conclusion. Seems like Madison or Lewis or whoever…left something for us to find that will fill us in on the next spot.”

  Sean laughed.

  “What?” Tommy wondered, his voice growing steadier as he continued waking up.


  “Nothing. Just the way you said it. That’s all.”

  “Said what?”

  “That they left it for us to find, as in no one else was supposed to locate it.”

  Tommy chuckled. “Oh, right. Yeah, anyway, it’s an interesting riddle, to say the least. One of the tougher ones we’ve encountered. And there doesn’t seem to be a code or cipher involved.”

  “It’s starting to sound like you don’t have any ideas as to where it could lead.”

  “Well…” Tommy paused for a second, which sent concern spiraling through Sean’s head. “I mean, we don’t have an exact location, per se.”

  “So, you got nothing.”

  “Not nothing. It’s just that we’re not 100 percent. Do you have some thoughts on it?”

  “I did a few searches on the mirrored birth thing but came up with zilch. Most of it was medical stuff or products for new moms.”

  “Yeah, we got the same. Alex had a thought, though. Might be worth considering.”

  “I’m all ears at this point.”

  “He said that maybe the first paragraph has a dual meaning. So, Madison mentioned the great nation and then the birth thing. That leads you to think that he’s talking about the birth of the nation. You know, the Louisiana Purchase more than doubled our size or whatever and essentially got the whole Manifest Destiny thing rolling.”

  “I thought the same. Continue.”

  Tommy yawned.

  Sean imagined him stretching his arms up high over his head.

  “Yeah, well, what if it’s not just that. While our country is strong and intrepid, as the riddle suggests, the word mirrored gives the impression that it’s referring to two births, not just the birth of the country.”

  “Right, but what other birth would it be talking about?”

  He guided the SUV into the left lane and passed an 18-wheeler that was rumbling slowly along on the right. When he was by the truck, he merged back over and glanced into his rearview mirror. It was still early, and there weren’t many vehicles on the road, mostly truckers who were eager to get their loads to their destinations on time. Very few travelers were out at this time, and the few that were, likely had the ski slopes beyond Denver in their sights.

  “Well, it’s interesting. See, Sacagawea gave birth just before the Corps of Discovery mission began their westward journey.”

  “Yes, that’s true. She was not only a brave and amazing woman, willing to endure the hardships and all the challenges the wilderness could throw at her, but she did it with an infant.”

  “Right. So, her child, Jean-Baptiste Toussaint, was born in North Dakota at Fort Mandan, the place where they started heading west.”

  A chill shot through Sean’s body. His heartbeat picked up, and his breathing quickened. “That’s it,” he said.

  “Well, we’re working on a few other possibilities, but yeah, that might be a good place to start.”

  “Yeah. Yeah, do that,” Sean said. “But I think you got it. Why didn’t I think of that before?”

  “Because…you’re on the run?”

  “Yeah, tell me about it.”

  A silent pause came over the phone for a moment. Tommy wasn’t dumb enough to ask his friend where he was. If his phone had been tapped, they would zero in on Sean’s location. That could still happen, but calling from a burner phone gave him a fighting chance.

  “How…how did…” His voice cut off, catching in his throat.

  “She took it fine. She knows where you’ll be.”

  “You told her not to come out there, right?”

  “Yeah, but you know her.”

  Sean’s lips cracked, and he nodded. “Yes, I do.”

  “We’re going to figure this out, buddy,” Tommy said, trying to encourage his friend.

  “How’d it go with the people that came to see you?” It was a question that had been on Sean’s mind since he left Atlanta. The Feds that stormed the building, so to speak, could have done something nefarious to his friends, especially if those agents were less legitimate than they represented. The fact he was talking to Tommy at this very moment meant that nothing bad had happened. Sean didn’t voice his relief, but he definitely felt it.

  “They had all the right credentials, said all the right things. They’re legit,” Tommy said. “From the way they spoke, it sounds like they really believe you did it.”

  “That means there’s someone higher up the chain of command pulling the strings.”

  “But who? Who would you have ticked off in the government that would go to such lengths?”

  Sean didn’t have the answer for that question. He’d been considering it, though, and had a few ideas. During his time in the government, he’d been careful not to step on any toes. Even so, that happened from time to time whether he wanted to or not. With a juggernaut as large as the American government, it was impossible not to tick someone off every now and then, no matter how careful you were. Sean had likely made a few enemies, but none that jumped right out at the moment.

  Then there was the other possibility.

  He had no evidence to support his other theory, but the fact that he couldn’t recall upsetting someone high up in the rankings made him think there was at least a little validity to it.

  “I may not have upset anyone high up,” Sean said. “It’s possible that whoever is behind all this is simply using the guy in the video to get what he wants. Then there’s a win-win for them. The puppet master gets his. The guy who hates me gets what he’s after.”

  “And they all lived happily ever after,” Tommy finished.

  “Right. Except us and our friend President Dawkins.” He turned on his blinker and weaved around a minivan with six stickers on the back displaying their family unit: the husband, wife, two kids, and a cat and dog. “Did President McCarthy say anything about the situation?”

  “She did. She said the nation is praying for John and doing everything they can to find him and bring the perpetrators to justice. I’m sure they’ve increased security around her and the other former presidents to make certain this doesn’t happen again.”

  Sean knew it wasn’t necessary to increase McCarthy’s security detail. She’d have plenty anyway. For the other former presidents, though, it was probably a good idea. They were almost never a target for something like this, but they had their own security people on hand all the time just in case. A few upgrades here and there wouldn’t hurt. Sean knew, though, that John was the only president that would be targeted. He wasn’t friends with the other former leaders, and the man from the video had been very clear that the entire purpose of this ruse was to get back at Sean. Now it seemed there was more than one person involved, potentially a very powerful person.

  “I gotta hang up,” Sean said. “Will check in when I arrive.”

  “How much longer you think it will take?”

  “Not sure. Depends on the weather. If I find anything there, I’ll let you know.”

  “Okay, buddy. Be careful.”

  “Thanks, Mom. I mean Schultzie.”

  “Hilarious.”

  Sean ended the call, then took a deep breath and sighed. What in the world was going on?

  He gripped the steering wheel and focused on the long stretch of road ahead. Next stop, Kansas City. Then on to North Dakota to see if Meriwether Lewis had left anything there that could help him with his mission.

  His life and the life of his friend John Dawkins hung in the balance.

  13

  Chattanooga

  Adriana waited patiently as the phone rang once, twice, three times. For a moment, she wondered if the man on the other end would pick up. It was fifty-fifty whether that would happen or not. He’d lived in the world of intelligence and espionage for a long time. That lifetime of experience made him paranoid, cautious, and meticulous.

  She sat in her car along a backcountry road in southeastern Tennessee. She’d spotted the gravel driveway that was chained off at the entrance to an empty pasture. There was
a for sale sign there, so she knew that no one would be coming around anytime soon—unless there was a buyer out visiting properties in the cold.

  She’d spent the night in a cheap hotel, using cash to pay for the room and using one of her false identities to make sure the transaction couldn’t be traced in any possible way.

  Before going to bed the night before, she’d stopped by a drug store and picked up some essentials, one of which was hair coloring. She’d gone with a bright, almost platinum-blonde shade. She hoped Sean wouldn’t mind the temporary change as much as she did, but then again, it didn’t matter. She had to do whatever it took to survive. Now that her face was about to be, in all probability, splashed across the media, she’d need to have a new look.

  It wasn’t the first time Adriana had gone through an identity change. She’d done it numerous times in the past whenever she needed to avoid unwanted attention.

  The phone rang one more time before something clicked in the speaker.

  “Hello, Hija.” The man issued the greeting she’d heard nearly every time she called. It was endearing, gentle, welcoming. Whenever she heard him say that, Adriana found every worry in her heart seemed to melt away.

  “Hello, Daddy,” she said.

  “It’s been a while.”

  “It hasn’t been that long, Papa. You were at the wedding.”

  “True, but for a father, even a few minutes is a long time to go without hearing from his little girl.”

  She cracked a smile. Diego Villa was a smooth talker, but he was never insincere. He truly was a romantic, in every conceivable way. That passion carried over to the love he held so deeply for his daughter. She was everything to him, and he never let her think otherwise.

  He’d been forced to go into hiding long ago. Assisting the United States government had its perks, but it also made enemies, the kinds of enemies that didn’t play by the rules. If they found him, they would execute him in a way that would be horrifically painful.