“There is no time for that,” Neil Stone barked. “You were placed over Roy’s case so that we’d have an inside man at the hospital who could report on Agent Miller’s every move. Now go in there and tell him to get his butt down here immediately. Crap is about to really hit the fan.”
Dr. Chong took a deep breath and gritted his teeth. “Please, just give him a few minutes.”
“We don’t have a few minutes!” Neil yelled. “Millions of lives could be at stake now! Get in there and deliver this message!”
Dr. Chong swallowed. “Yes, sir, I’m headed back in there now.”
“Good. Now call me the moment he leaves.”
As Reverend Henderson finished his prayer, he looked back to see Dr. Chong approaching the room. He knew that something was not quite right about this entire situation. He could always tell when a lie was in someone’s mind. If things were not bad enough already, it appeared that even more secrets had yet to be revealed. “Steve, I think that something is up.”
Steve looked back with piercing eyes that reflected his anger. He couldn’t believe that he’d be contacted by anyone at a time like this. His mind could see only red before his concentration was broken by yet another sound—a sudden gasp. Roy’s mouth had opened wide, and he’d started gasping deeply. The man’s hands and feet were trembling as the monitoring machines came alive with beeping sounds.
“Dad?” Steve called out, quickly grabbing his father’s limp hand.
Helen rushed over to Roy’s side and held his other hand. “What can we do?” she asked, looking back at the doctor.
Dr. Chong shook his head in sorrow. “It’s almost over.”
Roy’s gasps were coming further apart as his twitching became less and less. His feeble breaths were very ragged now, and the machines hooked to his body showed a declining pulse. His breaths became more faint and further apart. The machines started beeping as the emergency alerts snapped on.
Slowly, the minutes passed. Moments later, the twitching was no longer noticeable either. His breaths no longer came. There was no outward sign of life. Then, suddenly, all internal organs stopped completely. The only sound left in the room was the long beep of the machine that measured his non-functioning heart.
Dr. Chong moved over to the bed and put his stethoscope to Roy’s chest. He listened carefully for about ten seconds before standing erect again. “He’s gone.”
Helen leaned over Roy’s body and cried. “I’ll always love you, my dear.”
Steve stepped back against the wall and stared into space. With tears in his eyes, he could not even find words to express this moment. For years, he’d tried to prepare for the loss of a parent. However, he was in a void. He stood still for almost another minute before being able to utter a single sound. “Reverend Henderson, I’m sure that arrangements have been made. I hope that they’ve been made.”
“Yes, your mother has already seen to that.”
“Thank you…” Steve whispered. Now the time had come to make choices that would affect the rest of his life.
Dr. Chong moved back from the bed. “If you and your mother would like a few moments alone with your father, I can arrange for you to have as much time as you need.”
Steve looked down at his sobbing mother and then back at Dr. Chong. “Thank you,” he whispered. “You’re a good man.”
Reverend Henderson moved over next to Helen and placed his hand on her shoulder. “I will call Roy’s sister and brother-in-law. I’ll also let your sister know too. You don’t have to do anything else.”
“Thank you…” she whispered.
Steve looked over at the preacher and nodded. “I’ll take mother home when she’s ready. I have a feeling that some more stuff is about to come down.” He then looked over at Dr. Chong, and the man was suddenly looking very nervous. “Am I right, or what?”
Dr. Chong swallowed again. How could he tell this man that he had another mission at a critical time like this. After all, the man’s father had only been dead a minute. The entire situation was too unreal. “I did receive a call for you a few minutes ago.”
“Let me guess, it was Neil Stone,” Steve said. “The fool probably wants me to come down to his office tonight for some kind of crazy mission. He probably placed you over my Dad’s case so that he’d be able to keep track of my movements at all times. The man may even expect me to solve this crazy situation without telling me any of the real facts. I’ve been ignoring Jenny White’s calls all evening. Are you his flunky too?”
Dr. Chong took a deep breath and looked back into Steve’s eyes. “I don’t really know what to say. You seem to already have all of the answers.”
“Well, you can tell Neil Stone to kiss my—” The phone in Steve’s pocket started vibrating again. He retrieved the device and gazed at its small screen. He did not recognize the number, but decided that it was Neil calling from an unknown phone. “Never mind, I’ll tell him myself.”
“Please take it outside,” Reverend Henderson whispered. “I know that you’ll have a lot to say that isn’t very appealing.”
Without responding, Steve turned and exited the emergency room door. Once outside, he leaned against the outer wall and lifted the phone to his ear. “Hello?” he snapped, ready to explode on Neil. However, there was only silence. “I said, hello! Speak up because I do not have time for stupid games!”
The sound of heavy breathing replaced the silence. Then, a soft chuckle was followed by a demented laugh. “I’m coming for you.”
“Who in the hell is this?” Steve yelled, growing even more enraged at this sinister prank caller. “Speak up or I’m going to hang up!”
“Death is the great equalizer. No matter how rich, how famous, or even how holy you are, death awaits us all at the end of the tunnel. But nothing makes it sweet, does it?”
Steve frowned with a different kind of rage as he suddenly recognized this haunting voice too. “Damn, not you!”
“The feeling is mutual, punk!” Diamond Jack replied. “You know, I gave the gift of a lifetime. I gave you the chance to overcome death, and you just threw it away. What kind of son would allow his own father to die? How could you betray me too, huh?”
Steve took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Look, man, my father is dead now and so is your mother. I guess that makes us even.”
“Oh no, we’re not even close!” Diamond Jack growled. “I’m still suffering physical pain because of what the USG did to me. I’m still a wanted man all over the world. I have no one to go back to either. My mother was my only living relative, and I can never have a family of my own either. All are complements of the USG. Finally, your betrayal comes with a very high price as well.”
“Dad’s death a few minutes ago ended any control you had on me. There are no more bargaining chips. I’m done with this whole mess!”
“That’s where you are wrong! You still have a mother, a sister, a wife, and a son. Your betrayal of me has condemned them too. After I’ve finished off the USG, I’m coming after your family and then finally you too. That is a promise!”
The telephone suddenly went dead.
In frustration, Steve hurled the cell phone against the far wall and it shattered into at least three different pieces. The game had just been raised up another notch. Now that his family was involved, he could not just walk away.
Chapter Thirteen
Steve marched down the plush hallway of the USG’s executive suite. He was beyond mad. Now that his family was involved, he only wanted revenge. Neil Stone was number one on his list with Diamond Jack as a close second. However, that would have to come later. For now, he just wanted out of this mess. It was time to resign from the FBI.
He increased his pace, passing a dozen or so people in this dimly lit hallway. Perhaps it was a mistake to make demands when he was deep within the tombs of this secret maze of phantoms and machines. After
all, Neil had already threatened to do him harm once just a day earlier. Now, under even more pressure, Neil was probably capable of almost anything. However, Steve did not have much to lose. His father was dead, and the rest of his family in hiding. Not that it made any difference with a maniac out there who could read minds. Yes, even Neil would not run the risk of silencing the only man on Earth who could catch Diamond Jack, the one who could expose decades of secret information to the entire world.
Steve could already see Neil’s office door at the end of the hallway. The time had come to end this little fiasco. After resigning from this mission—and perhaps the FBI all together—he could then focus on tracking down Diamond Jack on his own. Oh yes, he’d been down this road before with other criminals. He worked best alone. But first, he’d have fun by beating the hell out of Neil Stone.
With fire in his eyes, he thrusted open the doors to Neil’s main office suite. However, he was greeted by seven military policemen and two security agents. They all had their stun guns drawn. Behind them, Neil Stone was seated at his desk and Jenny White was leaning against the far wall.
Steve stopped advancing and tensed with silent rage. “Why are all of these guys here? What are you afraid off? I’m only one man!”
Neil stood up. “I know how unreasonable you can be at times. Anyway, I have some news that you will probably want to hear. Things are a lot more serious than you can possibly imagine.”
“There is nothing that you can say to change my mind. I’m resigning from this case and going completely off the grid. I work best alone.”
“I cannot let you do that. You know too many of our secrets.” Neil looked toward the military policemen in the room and then back at Steve.
“So what is your plan?” Steve folded his arms, gritted his teeth, and balled up his fists. “Perhaps I’ll be the next victim you’ll torture to death. Yes, we all know what you are capable of. But be warned, I’m not going down without a fight. You see, if anything happens to me, I’ve planted a virus in the main network that will shut down all computers that are hooked to the regional network. Let’s see how far you’ll get with nothing working down here but portable calculators. Now maybe you’ll be able to force me to deactivate this virus, but that will take time. And with Diamond Jack out there, I don’t think you have much time. At the moment, you have about two hours before all of your satellite links start shutting down. Next, you’ll not be able to retrieve information from many of your databases. Finally—”
“Okay, I get the picture!” Neil yelled, frowning with anger. “Please just here me out!”
“Steve, please don’t do this!” Jenny almost screamed, quickly rushing over and grabbing Steve’s arm. “You don’t know what will happen if that maniac is given an opportunity to …”
“Yes?” Steve looked down into her face and then back over at Neil. “I struck a nerve, didn’t I?”
Neil swallowed and took a deep breath. “Okay, men, you may leave now. I will handle it from here.”
The military policemen and the two security officers reluctantly left the office, leaving just the three of them alone.
Steve walked over to the couch in the corner and sat down. “This had better be good. That fool has threatened my entire family with death.”
“Is your family in a safe place?” Neil quickly asked.
Steve looked up. “For now, Mom is in a secret location. I don’t even know exactly where it is. Diamond Jack will not read my mind about any of my family members. Donna and my son are hidden away too. My sister has been told to stay put in San Francisco as well.”
“Good. At least we don’t have to worry about them for a while.”
“I thought that you had important business to tell me?” Steve snapped, getting back to the main reason for this conversation.
Jenny, who’d been standing by the couch, sat down next to Steve and turned to face him. “What you are about to hear will warp your understanding of everything. Then, you’ll see why we are literally making history.”
Steve leaned back against the headrest and relaxed. “Okay, you two, make my day. Tell me this earth-shattering secret. What does Diamond Jack have on this agency?”
Neil moved over to the marker board behind his desk. He touched its corner and an electronic screen appeared in the board’s center. He then moved his hand along the bottom of the small screen to enlarge the image until it filled the entire board. “I know that you’ll find this interesting.”
“Maybe,” Steve casually replied. He then focused on the moving digital picture on the screen again. It appeared to have been a video of the moon’s surface. In fact, the entire Earth could be seen above the eastern horizon. As the image moved to a sharper focus, a large crater became visible. In this crater, a cigar-shaped metallic object became visible. “What the hell is that, a submarine on the moon? It looks like some kind of giant craft with rocket boosters on the back.”
Neil nodded. “Yes, this is the lunar surface. However, you’re looking at some kind of ancient alien spacecraft. This thing is over a mile in length and more than six stories high at its widest point. Hell, you could put five battleships inside that thing.”
Steve leaned forward. “Where did it come from and how long has it been there?”
“We don’t know where it came from,” Neil replied, “but we suspect that it has been on the moon for several thousand years. But anyway, here is what is so interesting.” He leaned forward. “This thing is made of a seemingly indestructible metal. We can’t melt it, drill into it, or even burn through it. The hull of that ship easily withstood a twenty thousand degree nuclear torch. I doubt that even a nuclear blast would rupture its dense metal skin.”
Steve nodded his head. “Let me guess, you also believe that’s the mothership of the craft you have in the hanger below this floor? After all, that is the connection point in all of this, right?”
“Yes,” Neil replied. “Look, fifty-three years ago, NASA sent up a rocket to photograph an area of the moon where a telescope had once focused on this mysterious object. At the time, the astronomers were mystified as to what this object was. Anyway, three Apollo missions centered around the investigation of this craft. Billions of dollars have already been spent trying to unlock the secrets within this thing.”
“Interesting…” Steve whispered to himself. He then looked at Neil again. “I guess that the main problem is that no one has been able to get into that ship. However, what does this have to do with Diamond Jack?”
“Something within that giant space ark responds to radio waves,” Jenny finally spoke. “Back in 1947, a certain combination of radio signals reached that thing and a hatch on top opened. Then, a small craft came out and headed toward Earth. That thing crashed in the desert near Roswell, New Mexico and exploded. We did find some of the wreckage and have since used what we found to advance our wireless communication capabilities.”
Neil moved to the other side of the board. “Anyway, there was a helmet that was found in the wreckage. We had no way of knowing what it was. For decades, it sat in various secret laboratories all over the country. One day, Agent Jack Mason eased into one of these labs and placed that thing on his head. The device was a perfect fit. It then suddenly activated and downloaded all sorts of information directly into his brain. He suddenly became one with those alien machines. He knew how to operate much of the equipment too. He even knew which series of coded signals to transmit to that ship on the moon to open the thing up.”
Jenny leaned in closer to Steve. “Six months ago, shortly after his escape from our prison, he hacked into the computer that controls the central communications disk. He then beamed a coded signal to that ship. A small craft shot out of that thing and brought an orb down to Earth before returning back to that space ark.”
“We know all of this because there is a satellite orbiting the moon and transmitting data at all times,” Neil said. “It’
s all been recorded. We figured that whoever or whatever sent that thing would come back at some time to check on it. Unfortunately, that has not happened.”
Steve chuckled to himself. “It is all becoming clear to me now. You tortured that guy to try to force him to open up that ship, not because of a missing cylinder. You didn’t care about whether scores of people would have been killed if that cylinder containing an orb had exploded. You just wanted Jack Mason to open up that ship. That is just plain sick!”
“Steve, look at the possibilities,” Jenny whispered. “Over the last couple of decades, we’ve built a digital empire off of blueprinted designs contained in just one orb. I’m talking about everything from smart phones to third-generation robotics technology—and a hell of a lot more. Yes, if we did all of this from just one orb, what would we do with five or ten orbs. Who knows, there could be thousands of orbs in that ship and other stuff that we’ve not even dreamed of before. Our civilization could advance thousands of years in just a few months. We could literally become gods.”
Steve smirked. “Either that, or man would most likely destroy himself. Maybe man is not ready for that kind of power. It would be like giving an atomic bomb to a group of cavemen. Perhaps that is what happened to these beings. Where did they go? Why didn’t they survive? And don’t give me any silly reason about germs killing them off. That ship never even made it back to their home world. So, where did all of the original inhabitants go?”
Neil took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We don’t know what happened to the creatures who built all of this stuff. It could have been germs or something else. Hell, we don’t know. However, we both have a common enemy now. Diamond Jack will keep coming until he is stopped. That maniac also has weapons at his disposal that nobody has ever seen before. Finally, with Jack being the only one who can open up that ship, he can hurl new crap at us at any time.”
“It has already been reported that Diamond Jack is in possession of some new kind of weapon that can blast individual targets on the ground from deep space,” Jenny interrupted. “We are talking about taking mass murder to a whole new level. That by itself should be enough to convince you of the importance of this mission.”
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