Neil grabbed his chin before speaking again. “Steve, stop this fool to save your family or whatever reason you wish. At this point, it does not make me any difference. However, Diamond Jack must be stopped at any cost.”
Steve stood up. With all of this new information, it did change the dynamics of the problem. After all, the future of mankind was at stake—and a lot more. “All right, let’s get this maniac.”
Chapter Fourteen
From inside a dark hotel room on the south side of Dallas, Diamond Jack stared ahead at the dark wall. His pale eyes were in a fixed stare as sweat poured down his cheeks. This night had been a complete travesty. Not only had he been betrayed by Steve Miller, but he’d also lost a good factory and all of his men. However, he was still free and had several alien weapons at his disposal. Furthermore, he also had a nasty surprise for everyone. Oh yes, much more was to come.
He leaned back in the wooden chair and sighed. The thick muscles in his arms and chest bulged as he stretched. He was more ripped now than ever. The drugs were turning him into a brute, but his mind was beyond genius level and still increasing. Soon, it would be time for yet another injection—and it was well worth the risks. Oh yes, he could really have the best of both possible worlds—brains and bronze. Even the headaches were beginning to decrease as he used the alien helmet more and more. The time had come to see just how far he could go, just how much his body could take.
The cell phone on the table beside him started vibrating. He did not have to see the number to know who was calling. The man whose money controlled it all was always just a phone call away. The creature who walked behind the shadows was probably ready to hear about the fiasco tonight. Well, Jack would tell the truth. There was simply nothing else to do.
“Oh hell!” Diamond Jack reached down, picked up the phone, and said, “Hello, Eric…”
“I’m watching the news,” Eric replied with a dark and course voice. “I am not understanding what I’m seeing. What in the hell happened?”
Jack leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. “Death is what happened. We were caught by surprise. Steve Miller betrayed me as well.”
“How?” Eric asked. “You had the best equipment and the best brains in the world at your disposal. Besides, you can also read minds. How in the hell did they get so close without you knowing?”
Diamond Jack looked up and sighed. “Human determination and creativity can easily surpass technology of any kind. They’ve also discovered that lead shielding can block brainwave signals just as it can with radiation and other energy pulses. However, I have good news too. These alien weapons have proven to be far superior to anything the army has. Just one alien gun and four pulse rifles held off over a hundred men with armored vehicles and helicopters. Imagine what an army of men armed with these things can do.”
“Interesting concept,” Eric said.
“Yes. And it gets even better. I have four new weapons in the trunk of my car. They will prove very instrumental in my war against the USG. Also, once I get that ship open again, your company will have exclusive rights to anything found on board.”
“That’s excellent thinking. The moon’s surface will soon become privatized as well.”
Diamond Jack gripped the telephone tightly as a thought came into his mind. “Eric, I’m taking the war to them.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Like I said, I’m taking the war directly to the USG. Then, you will have what you want, and I will at last have my revenge on those animals. And when this is over, you’ll share with me the most valuable treasure of all—the secret of everlasting life.”
“Do you need more men?”
“No. I already have everything that I need.” Diamond Jack reached over and withdrew a syringe from a small medical kit on the table beside him. “I’m going to invade their complex and take control of their systems. I know where to go and exactly what to do. Just watch the CNN report on the damage that I will soon cause.”
Eric smiled. “I always knew that you had great potential.”
Diamond Jack laughed and injected a full vile of solution into his arm. “I’m ready to become a super human too. During the next couple of hours, I’m going to use all of my medication at once.”
“All of it?” Eric questioned with concern. “That’s not wise.”
“There is no time to be cautious now. In order for me to absorb the information that I need, I must be at more than full strength. I must become more than human. It must be done.”
“Be careful, my friend.”
Diamond Jack eyes slowly rolled back in his head as the drug started to immediately take effect. “I’m going to the next level …”
Chapter Fifteen
Steve gazed into the magic book he’d used earlier. He turned a few pages and stopped at a picture that caught his attention. This moving image reflected an alien city that had thousands of buildings and towers scattered across a seemingly endless horizon. In the skies above this mega-metropolis, countless scores of flying aircraft buzzed about like a giant swarm of bees. In the upper horizon, several more space arks could be been seen slowly cruising through the clouds.
He yawned and turned to another page. He carefully focused in on the new image that filled this page. A frozen world could clearly be seen. And cruising across this sea of snow and ice was a huge land vehicle of some kind. It appeared to have been as long as a football field and about three stories high. There were about two dozen treaded sets of wheels at its base. The roof of this thing was a landing strip in which a smaller vehicle quickly docked. Wow, he realized, the technology these beings had once possessed was unbelievable.
He then heard the door behind him open. He turned around to see Jenny White walking in. “I didn’t expect to see you this soon. I hope that you have encouraging news, right?”
Jenny moved out of the shadows and into full view. She was dressed in a short skirt and a blouse that showed deep cleavage. “I do have better news. Most of the riots have stopped since that news footage of Diamond Jack’s latest rampage has been made public. People are somewhat confused. They are probably concerned as to how a freedom fighter could vaporize an entire city block and blow down a building without regard for any innocent victims who may have been in some of those structures.”
Steve nodded. “Perhaps they are beginning to see the real Diamond Jack.”
“We also went into our history archives and uploaded graphic scenes of carnage from past disasters. After digitally inserting these images into our present news footage, we made a bad scene look even worse. If the world ever needed a reason to hate Diamond Jack, we’ve given them some really good reasons now.”
Steve just shook his head. “The lies and deceptions never stop with you people, do they?”
“He did it to us,” she replied, moving closer. “Anyway, it succeeded. We can work freely without having to fight against the public too.” She moved closer to his chair and leaned over for a better look at what Steve was doing. “What has your attention?”
He inhaled deeply. “Your perfume smells really good. My wife wears the same kind. That fragrance reminds me of wild roses.”
“It cost me a lot too—a thousand dollars for just one ounce.”
“Yes…” he replied, remembering something else from his past. “My wife has told me about how expensive that stuff is.”
She smiled, leaning even closer, showing more cleavage. “What are you searching for?”
He turned to another page. “I was just thinking, that helmet Diamond Jack wears is a type of communication device. These aliens used those things like we use telephones today. And if that’s the case, if we locate another one, I could place one of those things on my head and zero in on this maniac’s location.”
She replied, “Good idea.. However, that alien helmet emits a type of radiation that rewrites DNA codes. Using those th
ings is dangerous. Just look at what it is doing to Diamond Jack.”
“We’ll have to take the risk. I won’t need to use it for long, just until that maniac is located. He’s busy looking into our minds. Why can’t we look into his?”
Jenny pulled up a chair next to him and leaned back. “How will looking at images from thousands of years ago help us now?”
He gazed back on the page. “If I locate Earth, perhaps these aliens established a base or had a missing spacecraft hidden we’ve yet to discover. If so, we’ll know where to go to look for another one of those helmets.”
“Steve, we’ve had that orb for years. Dozens of scientists have viewed the images on that thing hundreds of times. If there had been anything like that to see, we would have seen it long ago.”
He frowned. “It’s my time to waste.”
“Okay, Steven,” she whispered, leaning back further in a provocative way. “Just move to the seventh page. You see, each page in this chapter represents a different planet. The first one you were looking at we believe represented their home planet. Each one after that was some other earth-like world. The seventh page covers Earth itself.”
He turned to page seven and saw a new image. A frozen world appeared. This time, however, he could see a herd of wooly mammoths grazing in a field of grass by a large lake. Other unknown creatures milled about the snow-covered tundra as well. “Let me guess, this is an image from the Ice Age, right?”
“Exactly. You are currently seeing southern Illinois as it was in those days. I don’t even think that Indians had migrated this far south at the time of this recording.”
“How much information about Earth is in this book?”
She laughed. “The recording capacity of these orbs is incredible. So is the storing capacity of that book. You’ll be sitting there for over six months viewing page after page of moving images before you’ll see it all. I still think that you’re wasting time.”
He sighed and stood up. “Wow, we were so close. I’ll have to think up another idea.”
She walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “We can work this out together.”
Steve stood completely still, realizing that she was moving from the position of a co-worker to something else. “What do you call yourself doing, Ms. White?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” She squeezed him even tighter. “I’ve had the hots for you since I first saw you the other day. Too much kept happening for me to let you know how I felt.”
He pulled away. “I’m a married man, and I’m morally straight. I’d never cheat on my wife. Besides, she would never understand an affair either.”
“She would never have to know,” Jenny replied. “I’m not asking for a long-term commitment, just a casual fling. I want you to make me feel like a woman again. Hell, I’ve not had a real date in almost two years.”
He looked down in pity. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you with that.”
“Why not, Steven?” she snapped. “We don’t know what the future holds. If Diamond Jack has his way, we’ll all be dead soon. Then, if all of this technology falls into the wrong hands, the world is screwed. In other words, we’d better enjoy ourselves while we still can.”
“I’m not giving up so easily. I also believe in doing the right thing.”
She put her hands on her hips. “Who is to determine what is right or wrong? In some cultures, it is perfectly acceptable for both men and women to have multiple partners inside and outside of marriage.”
“Not for me.”
“Why? Are you relying on your religion?”
“That’s all I have to rely on,” he said, turning around to face her directly. “If you were a true Christian, you’d see my point too!”
She looked at him for a full five seconds before speaking again. “I’m realistic. I believe in science and technology. I believe in what can and cannot be proven. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe in what the Bible says. However, maybe many of the things we’ve always read about didn’t happen the way we thought they did.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes. The discovery that alien beings visited the Earth thousands of years ago has changed everything. How do we know that many of the amazing things that happened in the Bible were not the result of alien technology? And let’s not stop with the Bible either. Maybe many of the Greek or Egyptian gods were just man’s way of explaining encounters with these aliens. After all, the alien blueprints’ text are written in ancient Egyptian.”
“And where did the aliens come from?” he questioned. “And how do you explain the amazing things that are still happening today? You’ve been watching too much television.”
She turned away in disgust. “Look, I don’t have all of the answers. At least look toward reason. Some of these ancient myths and stories could have been grounded in fact.”
Steve turned to face her again. “I don’t care. You have your beliefs, and I have mine. I’m not here to prove a point. When this maniac is captured, I’ll be the one to kill him. You don’t have to get your hands dirty.”
“Kill him?” she yelled, almost laughing. “You are the big-time Christian who won’t play off on your wife, but you are ready to kill a man. I seem to remember a commandment that strictly forbids killing people.”
Steve continued looking toward the far wall. “I know what must be done!”
She quickly walked over next to him. “Let me tell you something, Steven. Over the last few years, we’ve been able to piece together a lot about these aliens. First of all, based on the images from the orb you’re watching in that book, their sun seemed to have been rapidly changing colors and growing larger. We believe that it was at the end of its life and was about to explode. These aliens knew this and were looking for a new home.”
“What does that have to do with anything happening now?”
Her hand went up. “Just listen, okay?” She then refocused. “They built arks as a means of escape. However, they first had to find a world like their own and then prepare it for colonialization. That’s where their robotics technology came in. Each orb contains billions of pages of information on how to manufacture almost everything they used. This information was then uploaded into space-age robots. These mechanical workers then traveled to different worlds in those arks. Once there, they’d start building an intra-structure—buildings, roads, vehicles, communication devices, and many other things. And since these robots worked much faster than people and needed no special environment or rest, they could literally build entire cities within a few years. When the aliens finally arrived, a suitable world would have already been waiting for them.”
He folded his arms. “That makes sense, but it still changes nothing. The threat of what these machines can do now is our biggest problem.”
“Maybe, but think about this, if we could open up that ship and activate those robots on board, we could just sit back and let them do their thing. Let them do the work and mankind will reap the benefits.”
“And how long do you think it will be before some smart fool decides to convert these robots into soldiers? What if mankind stumbles across some new weapon that could wipe out all of humanity? What happens then?”
“Don’t be so negative.”
“I know how people think,” he replied, turning and heading toward the rear door. “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I know what I have to do.”
“What do you mean by that!” she yelled out as he exited the door. “Answer me!”
He kept moving without saying a word. It was time to disappear again and do all of the undercover work alone. In fact, he’d always worked best when doing it his way. Now was the time to prove this point yet again.
She quickly picked up her cell phone, dialed a number, and waited for someone on the other end to answer. “Neil, we have a big problem.”
Chapter Sixtee
n
Diamond Jack turned and rolled across the floor. His groans grew louder and his tremors became more violent with each passing moment. The nightmares of his past were returning as the hellish solution raced through his veins. Thick muscles contracted as his forehead gradually flattened and his ears started to leak blood. The mutations were becoming even more pronounced as his humanity gradually started slipping away.
After injecting himself with all of the solution, he’d sat back in his chair to relax. Unfortunately, the convulsions and seizures had come quicker than ever before. They’d been more violent too. His body was swelling faster as well. It was as if he was changing from a man into something else. Hopefully, he be able to control the process and what came next.
***
Neil opened the door to Steve’s room and gazed down at his co-worker. “I’m surprised to find you in here. I thought that you’d gone off and disappeared on some wild search.”
Steve continued looking into his computer without uttering a single sound. His eyes were focused on paragraphs of scrolling text. The start of this new digital bread trail originated here. If he could not predict this maniac’s future patterns, maybe he could track him in some other way. “I see Jenny reached you rather quickly,” he finally replied.
Neil moved around the desk and gazed into the computer screen too. He was not ready to bring up what Jenny had told him. It was time to change subjects. “What’s going on, buddy?”
Steve frowned and looked up momentarily. “I don’t have to leave the complex to be on my own. You all have the best tracking equipment in the world right here. In fact, I have a hunch on something.”
Neil sat down and scooted closer to the computer. “Okay, I’m listening.”
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