The Atlantis Allegiance

by S. A. Beck

  Yuhle aimed, adjusted his glasses again, and pulled the trigger.

  Nothing happened.

  Grunt laughed. “If you were as good with a gun as you think you are, you’d have checked to see if the Taser has a safety. Spoiler alert! It does.”

  Yuhle blushed.

  Grunt went on with his lecture. “The Taser uses a compressed nitrogen charge to fire a pair of electrodes. Those are inside the cartridges, which we have more of over here. Don’t touch them. You probably want to point that away from you, Yuhle. Yes, and away from Otto too. Anyway, they’re attached to the Taser by thin wires and can shoot up to thirty-five feet on these models. The electrodes are barbed so they stick through clothing into skin. Once they hit, they deliver a hefty electric charge. Your opponent will be down for the count. Now, these used to be one-shot weapons. No problem if you have good aim and are only dealing with one bad guy. With you two jokers, I think it’s safe to say that’s not the case. Luckily these are the latest model, the X3, and they can fire three shots before reloading. So you can take out three opponents without causing them any real harm.”

  Otto had noticed, to his relief, that he was only being trained to use nonlethal weapons. Killing Nazis or zombies in a videogame was one thing, but he didn’t want to kill real people. From what Edward had said though, a lot of people in power wanted to kill Otto just for standing up to the government.

  He wished he understood what was going on. He knew Jaxon was in danger, he knew he had been framed for a crime he didn’t commit, and he knew that pretty much everything he thought he knew about the world was wrong. Other than that, he didn’t know anything.

  Grunt snapped his fingers in front of Otto’s eyes. “Hey, pyro, wake up. This is important.”

  Otto focused again. Grunt went through the firing sequence then stood back to let them aim and shoot at their targets. Otto hit his, and Yuhle missed. They fired their next two shots, and Otto hit once more, as did Yuhle. Otto was relieved the scientist hadn’t had to use his pistol during the prison break.

  “Okay, maggots, reload. And shoot straight this time. Your lives might depend on it.”

  “I’m thinking a gun is better for what we’re up against,” Yuhle said, regaining his swagger.

  “You might be right, professor, but I think you look much cuter with all ten of your toes. Reload and do it again,” Grunt snapped.

  Otto chuckled.

  “Quiet, pyro. You only hit twice out of three times. That means one of your opponents got a chance to gut you.”

  “Ah… right,” Otto said, turning off his Taser.

  Vivian came strolling up. “How are the newbies, Grunt?”

  “Terrible. Swagger like Rambo and fight like Teletubbies.”

  Vivian laughed.

  “Aren’t you guys supposed to do the fighting?” Otto said.

  “If we get attacked, honey, we all have to fight.” Vivian turned to Yuhle and held up a cell phone. “Your phone rang.”

  Yuhle’s jaw dropped. “What? It’s not even on. We agreed on that.”

  Vivian looked at Otto. “Cell phones can be tracked, so we keep our personal phones off. Since Yuhle dropped out of circulation, he shouldn’t even be getting any calls, but he has.”

  “How do you know I got a call if my phone is off?” Yuhle asked. “Oh, wait. Edward?”

  Vivian nodded. “Yeah, he tapped your phone account. It’s actually not a call, but an email to one of the anonymous accounts you made at the Albuquerque Public Library before you left the Poseidon Project.”

  “Which one?” Yuhle asked. “And no, I don’t need to know how you know about them.”

  “No secrets with Edward.” Vivian chuckled. “It was an email to studmuffin@torguard.net.”

  Grunt cackled and slapped his knee. “Studmuffin? Well, they’ll never suspect it’s you!”

  Yuhle ignored him. The scientist looked worried. “That account was just for Dr. Yamazaki and me. No one else knew about it.”

  Everyone fell silent. Yuhle had told them the story of his old boss and how she had suffered a mysterious stroke that Yuhle suspected had been inflicted on her somehow by General Meade. From what he had said, there was no way Dr. Yamazaki could be up and using her email.

  “Let’s go see Edward,” Yuhle said.

  They found him where he always was—in his trailer in front of his computer screens. His shortwave radio wasn’t on. Briefly Otto wondered if anyone would replace that earnest Spanish voice he had heard on his first visit.

  Edward looked up from his computer screens. One showed a schematic of a disk-shaped machine with writing in German and a swastika beside the writing. Another looked like a topographic map of a portion of the ocean floor. The third computer screen had a short video running on a loop that showed a secret service man standing next to the president. The camera focused on the secret service man as his face slowly changed into something reptilian.

  Otto shook his head. “Lizard aliens, Edward? Really?”

  Edward held up a finger. “Not lizard aliens, but the conspiracy to get us to believe in lizard aliens.”

  “Ah… right.”

  Yuhle butted in. “What’s this about me getting an email on one of my secret accounts?”

  “Not too secret. I’m going to have to teach you about Internet security,” Edward said.

  “Whatever,” the scientist replied, looking annoyed. “Can you open it safely?”

  “Yeah, I can hack into it via the Tor network. My proxy server works through a proxy server. We won’t be traced.”

  “Do it.”

  “Okay, studmuffin,” Edward said with a grin.

  Grunt cackled again. Edward’s fingers danced over the center keyboard, and an inbox appeared on the central screen. It contained only one message with no subject line. Edward clicked on it.

  The message contained only two words—“Subaru three.”

  Everyone gasped.

  Everyone, that is, except Otto. “Subaru three? What does that mean?”

  Edward ignored him and turned to Yuhle. “This was a code between you and Dr. Yamazaki?”

  Yuhle nodded.

  “What the hell does it mean?” Otto demanded.

  “Ever noticed that all of our vehicles are Subarus, except for the Hummer?” Yuhle asked him.

  “Um, yeah. So?”

  “Subaru means Pleiades in Japanese,” the scientist explained. “They’re a cluster of bright blue stars in the constellation Orion. In Greek mythology, they’re the daughters of Poseidon.”

  “You’ve lost me,” Otto said.

  “Poseidon was the god of the sea and the patron deity of Atlantis,” Grunt said.

  Otto looked at him in surprise.

  Grunt shrugged. “I don’t kill people and blow stuff up all the time. I get time to crack a book.”

  Otto bit his lip and looked back at the computer screen. “So couldn’t this General Meade guy have gotten the code word and the email address from your old boss?”

  Yuhle shook his head sadly. “Dr. Yamazaki couldn’t even speak coherently when I last saw her. There’s no way she’s recovered enough for General Meade to have gotten that information out of her.”

  “They couldn’t have even read her mind if the stroke was that bad because she wouldn’t have remembered that information herself,” Edward said.

  “Reading minds? Come on, Edward, this is serious,” Otto objected.

  “And so am I. ESP exists, but the US army doesn’t have any espers. Only the Swiss army does.”

  Otto turned away from the computer hacker. He didn’t even want to hear the explanation on that one.

  “So what does the ‘three’ mean?” Otto asked Yuhle.

  The scientist adjusted his glasses. “It’s one of our safe rendezvous points. When we decided to get out of the Poseidon Project, we went to a public library on separate days and set up anonymous email accounts. Verbally we agreed on a number code for several meeting points so if we were separated and in danger
, we could meet. Number three is a diner in downtown Albuquerque. We set times to meet: ten in the morning and seven at night. She’ll be there at both of those times until we go pick her up.”

  “This is a trap,” Grunt said.

  “We had a code to put in if we were emailing under duress,” Yuhle said.

  Grunt shook his head, the tribal tattoo on his face rippling in the dim light of the computer screen. “I don’t care. Distress codes are standard procedure. If they were smart, they would have figured you’d agreed on one and tortured that information out of her too. This is a trap.”

  “Not necessarily,” Vivian replied. “The real mystery is how she’s recovered so quickly. Even if they cured her somehow and are holding her, we’ve got to try to get her free.” She turned to Otto. “Looks like you got your first mission, honey.”

  “Me? I’m not a mercenary!”

  “You’re the only one she doesn’t know, honey. Edward took one of her classes in college. Me and Grunt met her through Yuhle when he first got the idea of making the Atlantis Allegiance. Only you can get in close without her alerting her captors. And if she isn’t captured, you can still check out the situation before we move in.”

  “What if I’m arrested for breaking out of prison?” Otto asked.

  “We’ll conceal your identity.” Vivian smiled. “Makeover.”

  Otto let out a long, low sigh. He didn’t see any way out of it. “All right, I’ll do it.”

  At sunrise the following morning, they made it into Albuquerque. Otto was worn out from the eleven-hour drive. He hadn’t been able to sleep much in the backseat as Vivian and Yuhle took turns driving. He had never been able to sleep well in cars, and the thought of stealing a scientist from under the noses of the federal government didn’t exactly help.

  Dawn broke clear behind them, silhouetting the New Mexican hills and sending golden rays over the desert. They stopped for breakfast at a waffle joint, then they idled in a park for a time, waiting for the ten o’clock rendezvous. Otto studied a map Edward had printed out of the streets around the diner.

  “Make sure to memorize that, honey, because we have to destroy it,” Vivian said.

  She didn’t look the least bit tired from her all-night drive from Nevada. Otto supposed she was used to this sort of thing. Yuhle, on the other hand, looked wrecked.

  “Destroy it? Why?” Otto asked.

  “Evidence,” Yuhle said. “Never leave a paper trail. That’s why I’m still alive.”

  Otto felt his heart flutter. As ten o’clock approached, Vivian fitted him with a small microphone and an ear plug so tiny and well camouflaged that Otto could barely see it when he looked in the Subaru’s rearview mirror. The microphone was invisible too, hidden under his shirt.

  “I’m going to be watching you through a sniper’s scope, honey,” Vivian said. “I’ll tell you what to do. You just act natural as you do it.”

  “A sniper’s scope? Is that going to be attached to a sniper’s rifle?” Otto asked.

  Vivian gave him a grin that would have looked more at home on Grunt’s face.

  Half an hour later, Otto strolled down a busy sidewalk, past morning commuters hurrying along to their office jobs. Cars honked in the heavy traffic of the street. So many people. Ever since his jailbreak, he’d been in the middle of the desert. He’d gotten used to the silence. A police car drove by. Otto tensed.

  “He’s on his regular rounds, honey,” a sultry voice whispered in his ear, “and there’s no radio chatter about you. Keep going.”

  “You people know everything,” he whispered.

  “The government knows more. Only talk if it’s absolutely necessary.”

  Otto glanced at the nearby rooftops. Was Vivian up there somewhere? She hadn’t told him from where she would be watching so that he couldn’t inadvertently give her away. Otto forced himself to look straight ahead and act casual.

  The diner was up ahead. It was one of those fake retro places that looked like an imitation of something from the old days of Route 66. A bright red neon sign flashed the words “Dan’s Dandy Diner” over a sleek exterior that was almost entirely covered in chrome. Otto thought it looked like a toaster. Through the large windows, he saw people hunched over their late breakfasts, some in chattering groups and others sitting alone with their phones or laptops.

  With his first glance through the window, Otto didn’t spot Dr. Yamazaki, whose features he had memorized from a photo Yuhle had showed him. He went inside and scanned the interior. He saw a lone woman. She had long black hair and wore a trench coat. Otto casually walked between the booths, passed her without looking, and sat at an empty booth where he could get a better look at her.

  It was Dr. Yamazaki. She looked thinner than in the photo Yuhle had shown him, and she was dressed oddly—in a man’s trench coat over an old dress that looked as if it probably cost five dollars in a charity shop— but it was definitely her.

  Otto pretended to look at the menu and tried to relax. His heart pounded. She doesn’t know you, so she can’t give you away. You don’t even know if this is a trap or not. Maybe she’s not out to get you. But what about everyone else? That prison break, and your face, must have been all over the news.

  Vivian had thought of that and dyed his hair and put a bit of makeup on him to change his skin color. That felt woefully inadequate. Otto imagined all eyes were on him. He looked toward the front counter and saw the manager talking on a cell phone and looking in his direction.

  Don’t be paranoid. If you look nervous, you could mess this whole thing up.

  He glanced at Dr. Yamazaki. She was hunched over a steaming cup of coffee and a Danish. She looked exhausted, deep lines of strain marking her face. She kept glancing out the window.

  Is she signaling someone? Waiting for the cops? Relax. She’s waiting for Yuhle and is acting like anyone else who’s waiting for someone. Chill out.

  A waitress strolled down to his booth. “What are you having, kid?”

  “Do you have eggs Benedict?”

  That was their agreed-on code to signal Vivian and Yuhle that he had spotted Dr. Yamazaki.

  “Only what’s on the menu, kid,” the waitress said, sounding bored.

  Otto’s mind raced. If this was a trap, wouldn’t she be nervous? Unless she was a cop or government agent who did this all the time. Stop second-guessing yourself.

  “So what do you want?” the waitress asked.

  “Um, just a Coke for now. Thanks.”

  The waitress nodded and walked off. Otto glanced around. The manager was no longer looking at him, and he didn’t catch anyone else doing so either. So now what? Tell them the coast was clear? They had a code for that too.

  “This place isn’t bad,” he mumbled.

  Vivian’s response came whispering into his ear. “Looks good out here too. Make your move, honey.”

  Summoning his courage, he stood and walked over to Dr. Yamazaki’s booth. Her eyes widened as he sat down opposite her. She looked about to bolt.

  “The Subaru is my favorite kind of car,” he said. “How about yours?”

  Dr. Yamazaki studied him, looking equal parts hopeful and suspicious. “Who are you?” she asked in a low voice.

  “One of Yuhle’s friends,” he whispered and tensed. Now he had given himself away. At any moment a SWAT team might come busting in, throw him on the floor, cuff him, and haul him off to jail.

  Dr. Yamazaki studied him. “Prove it.”

  Otto leaned in closer. “You and he formed the Atlantis Allegiance. You set up those anonymous email accounts in the public library. On his second day on the job, you nagged at him for being half an hour late. Anyone else know that stuff?”

  A smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “I wouldn’t say I ‘nagged’ at him.”

  “He would. He says you’re testy about punctuality. Oh, and your favorite ice cream flavor is mint chocolate chip.”

  Dr. Yamazaki looked relieved. “Let’s get out of here.”

 
Just then the waitress came with his Coke. So as not to look suspicious, he ordered a bowl of cereal and spent a tense couple of minutes drinking his Coke.

  Otto looked around to make sure no one else was sitting close enough to listen in. “The big bald guy with the ugly tattoo wants to know how you got away. And why you’re vertical. He’s the suspicious sort.”

  Dr. Yamazaki looked into her coffee. “I’m not sure myself. I was lying in the hospital when some of… them showed up.”

  “Our them or their them?”

  Dr. Yamazaki smiled. “Our them.”

  Otto sat back, trying to hide his surprise. By the way she said it, she meant people like Jaxon. So there really were more of them.

  Dr. Yamazaki went on. “One of them laid his hands on my head, and I got better within minutes. I was still too weak to move on my own, and while they were taking me out of the hospital, all hell broke loose. Federal agents, hospital security, the police, everything. The security and police seemed to be just trying to arrest us. I suppose they thought I was being kidnapped. The agents though”—she shuddered—“they gunned us down as fast as they could. I’m not sure any of the team that saved me survived.”

  Otto tensed. If they would do that to other Atlanteans, they would kill Jaxon just as quickly if she got out of line.

  “But you got away,” Otto said. That seemed too convenient. He knew Grunt would sure feel that way.

  “Barely. One of them shielded me with his body. They managed to kill or incapacitate all the agents chasing me, but by then my new friends were all dead or dying.” Dr. Yamazaki shuddered and wiped a tear from her eye. “What was strange was that none of them carried any guns. It was like they didn’t want to kill anyone, not even the government agents. They weren’t very well prepared. After that, I took a phone from one of them and his wallet. I hitchhiked everywhere. There was enough to get me a cheap motel, some clothes at Goodwill, and some food. I used the phone to email our mutual friend, then I waited for you to come.”

  Otto thought for a moment. What she said could be true. On the other hand, they hadn’t heard a thing about it on the news. Edward had found a report a few days ago of a running gun battle between the Bloods and the Crips that he thought could be a cover story. But the question remained—was the doctor telling the truth? Had a team of Atlanteans cured her, or had it really been the same people who had given her the stroke to begin with?