by A N Sandra
Wesslan did think he could wait to be rescued, or at least he wouldn’t come out to help fight, which was a shame. Gari wasn’t much use fighting, and neither was Celeste, but they both gave it their best effort. A giant snake tore open one of the refectory windows, and suddenly it was no longer a safe haven. Wesslan and the mortal girls inside ran out into the blinding sun and turmoil.
“Should have fought when you could,” Golda muttered as the serpent that had broken the window came out the refectory door and pounced on Wesslan a few steps outside. Several of the colony’s quarter-Eternal young men ran to try to rescue him, but they were too late. Pieces of Wesslan were flung over the courtyard as the serpent relished his conquest. The young men beat at the snake with hatchets and knives, but it had tough scales and was hard to injure. It seemed to Golda that the snake had become slightly bigger already, but she hoped she was wrong.
“Come get some nails!” Gari shouted to Golda. He was trying to secure the mortal girls into a large grain storage building to keep them safe. Golda knew it wouldn’t work, but the girls had been promised sanctuary from Blood Drinkers when they were infants and she had to try to honor the oath of protection sworn to their mothers.
“I’m coming!” Golda yelled to him. Together they raced to nail planks across the door. Two members of the Blood Drinker’s hoard tried to pull Golda down, but she used the hammer in her hand to defend herself. She smashed one in the jaw, sending him reeling, and she managed to swing the hammer hard over the head of the other, dropping him instantly. With wild abandon Golda nailed another plank across the door.
“That was amazing!” Jurgon called from where he was perched toward the top of a tall tree, evading members of the hoard. Golda ran to help him, using her hammer to fight through the hoard shaking the tree. Once she was in the thick of the group, Jurgon slid down the tree. Together they punched and whacked their mortal foes with Golda’s hammer and their fists while they were stabbed and clawed by the invaders. Their opponents drew on the power of adrenaline, but they were defeatable because Jurgon and Golda were so much faster than any mortal could be.
“The main lab is on fire!” Sith shouted and everyone ran toward it, but as they approached, they could hear things inside exploding from the heat. Hot shards of metal and glass flew through the through the crowd, dropping Blood Drinkers and their fighting hoard as well as citizens of Atlantis with no discrimination.
“Follow me!” Golda called to Barden. “We need to protect my lab!”
Chapter 18
November 15th, Interior Alaska Homestead
“This is the coziest place on Earth,” Peter commented as he ate pancakes in his pajamas for lunch. He had a notebook filled with calculus equations next to him, which he was ignoring to pursue pleasure-reading on his e-reader. He had just finished Leviticus for Bible study and was enjoying some Tolkien at the moment.
“Dallas was a lot of things, but it wasn’t cozy,” Helena agreed. “Nothing is as cozy as days at a time where you wear pajamas and eat breakfast food for every meal. Even if you do have to have school at home.”
“I have no idea when it’s going to quit snowing, and I don’t care,” Peter said. “It’s even cozier when it’s just us.”
Ray and Lourdes were taking the day off from study to spend time with their mother, who was having a bad day. Helena hoped they would keep Tawna relaxed and out of trouble, but Tawna loved her drama, and so Helena was sure that Ray and Lourdes would rather have been reading Leviticus in Christina’s tiny house than where they were.
“I don’t mind Ray and Lourdes taking a little time off here and there, but both of them are learning so fast I don’t want to see them lose steam.” Christina said from her room. The door was open, and she was working at her white board. “It doesn’t take much to jeopardize progress.”
“Are you making progress?” Helena asked, trying not to sound too flippant. “With saving the world?”
“Saving the world, or saving the people?” Christina Harris sighed. She turned from her white board and looked at them. “Mass vaccination could still save a lot of people, but I don’t have the answers to stabilize the vaccination to put it in water systems, even if we could make enough, which we just can’t. The real issue that I keep trying to escape from, but that I keep coming back to, is that even if we had enough vaccinations for the whole planet, the virus is in the hands of people who will just keep mutating it to get past our efforts. The families the Hollisters partnered with in China, Europe, and the Middle East are just as ruthless as the Hollisters and they all probably have—”
Christina stopped herself, leaving awkward silence for a few moments.
“Have what?” Peter wanted to know.
Christina was still silent. Helena’s patience snapped. If the end of the world wasn’t the time to quit keeping secrets, when would that time come? Would all the secrets that people had ever kept be dissolved as people fell ill and died before they knew how sick they truly were?
“I don’t see why you can’t tell us whatever it is,” Helena said with irritation. “We’re in the middle of nowhere. Who do you think we could tell? The rabbits? A moose? Even they’re hiding in the snow.” I couldn’t find a moose right now to save my life.
“They probably all have… well… I have a sort of aide in life. A little box… I’m not sure what’s in it. I know it has a rare crystal inside, but I don’t think the crystal is what makes it special. I believe the crystal is a power source for whatever is in the box.”
Peter set down his e-reader with a hurt look in his eyes.
“Are you kidding?” he wanted to know.
Christina bit her lip, looked around as if checking for a spy of some sort, and then brought a small round ivory box out of the pocket of the fleecy plaid shirt she was wearing.
“It’s glowing!” Peter breathed.
“I think a crystal makes it glow,” Christina said. “Haven’t you noticed feeling calm and in control when you’re around me?”
“Yes,” both Peter and Helena admitted in unison.
“When you came to the dinner table when we were small it was like everything was perfect,” Helena remembered.
“I always made sure the box was in my pocket for dinner.” Christina smiled. “We had such wonderful family dinners—”
“You could have loaned it to us for hard things,” Helena accused her.
“I almost never leave it anywhere,” Christina told Helena. “The work I’ve been doing has been so important—”
“And yet you never had a clue what Blaine Hollister was planning—” Helena cut in.
“We would never have known without the box,” Christina interrupted right back. “The plans he has are very complex—”
“I just think you’re pulling our legs,” Helena accused Christina.
“You can draw your own conclusions,” Christina said kindly. “Use the right data when you do. I worked on the vaccine chips with only a few interns and managed to do other research that kept Bioline profitable for years. Your father worked next to me and is known throughout the whole pharmaceutical industry as being the top project manager, even though he was a very dedicated father to you both, and later to Lourdes and Ray. We have pulled together this whole community in Alaska with very little warning time and created new identities for eleven people in the same short time. I could dazzle you with the way your father has hidden money and stored assets if I had hours to explain his efforts, and he is not a trained wealth manager. He simply operated with a clean sense of focus and calm…”
Christina went on talking, but Helena was already weighing the information her mother was dispensing so freely after so long. It made a lot of sense. The extra information her mother had just provided brought a lot of things into focus that had been mysterious before.
“You brought the box to the Little Tots Easter Egg Hunt in Plano, didn’t you?” Helena tried not to laugh at the memory of Peter and herself and the eggs falling out of their baskets while the
ir mother idly strolled beside them looking around the church yard of Plano Sacred River Faith Center.
Christina bit a smile into a smirk.
“My presentation to the second-grade class about dinosaurs,” Peter exclaimed. His expression went from shocked to indignant. “O-M-G, Mom, I would have gotten an A anyhow!”
“Mrs. Kimmel told me that she still shows the video of your presentation to all the second-grade class before they do their own.” Christina grinned outright.
“Just what I always dreamed about.” Peter shrugged with amused sarcasm. “Being famous to a bunch of second graders.”
“Right now, I’d take it,” Christina told Peter in an earnest tone of voice. She slumped against her whiteboard with regret. “Being famous isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be.”
Chapter 19
November 18th, Kern County, CA
“The work is done,” Court told Curtis. She’d been trying since August to help him understand this day was coming. Curtis had been more interested in the heist she had promised to make at the Global Forces pharmacy on his behalf than the situation in the Mojave Desert. The uncomfortable subject had become more urgent. “We’ve been inventing work for weeks, but there’s an inspection crew coming after Thanksgiving. All bets are off at that point. They’re going to see that this place is clean.”
“I get it,” Curtis said. “I know we don’t really have any expenses, but I wish we were making more money. It doesn’t matter though, we can’t let them take our people for dam crews.”
“God no,” Court fretted. “My IT people tell me that more than three hundred Hollister Youth Foundation workers died taking out the Salt River Project dams alone. The IT people in Arizona are still sending out fake texts and emails from those workers to their families.”
“I hate that people are so stupid,” Curtis fumed. “They always believe what they want to.”
Court didn’t remind Curtis that he also believed what he wanted to. Everyone does! The stories on the Dark Web about Chinese workers cleaning up ocean debris were even more horrifying. Hundreds of Chinese workers were dying every week to remove trash from the sea so the next “owners” of the sea would have it in the best possible shape. Court wondered if they buried the dead Chinese teenagers at sea or if they were considered to be more trash.
“It’s time to go on to the next phase of what we’re doing here,” Curtis said. “We need more weapons and we need to practice with them. The most important thing we can do when the virus breaks out is stay here out of the way. I don’t want to go to war with the Global Forces. But we do need more in our arsenal than we have. I’ve been putting out feelers for black market automatic weapons.”
Court braced herself to tell Curtis no. Even though the “caper” in LA had gone amazingly well, worrying about it for months had taken a toll on her that she worried might make her crazy if she tried to repeat it. Robbie had been the one to make perfect plans. Any plan Curtis came up with would be full of holes and Court would be forced to plug the holes in his plans as well as do her own part.
“—in Las Vegas,” Curtis was saying.
“What about Las Vegas?” Court wanted to know.
Curtis was irritated that her mind had wandered. “That’s where the arms dealer is—”
“I love the Venetian. I’m in,” Court interrupted.
Curtis looked pleasantly surprised.
“You probably thought you were going to have to manipulate me, but I’ll go,” Court told him. She had made the decision quickly and she felt reckless. “I’m taking Joshua and Brooke. We were even, but you’re going to owe me when it’s done.”
“I don’t owe anybody for doing their part.” Curtis sounded perfectly pleasant. “We are living cooperatively by choice. Everyone does what they need to and it’s my job to tell them that.”
“I’ve put my butt in harm’s way more than anyone else here,” Court replied with her own smile. “I’ve done things I would never ask someone else to do.”
“No one has it easy around here,” Curtis said. There was a hint of impatience on his face and his eyes glimmered as though he were explaining life facts to a kindergarten student. “And next winter, when the Hollisters send their Valentine’s Day card to the whole world, everyone is going to be in harm’s way, every second. We all appreciate the medicine, now we need the weapons. Can you do it without bitching or not?”
Court knew that Curtis rarely lost his temper because things usually went his way. There was no reason for the tit for tat she insisted on keeping, except that she hadn’t trusted Curtis since Robbie’s death. Curtis hadn’t managed to find a way to reason with Robbie, who had been his best friend. Court felt it had been too easy for Curtis to decide Robbie needed to die, even though she had come to that conclusion herself. A part of her soul had died the night she lured Robbie into the desert and shot him. It was hard not to feel like Curtis should have done it himself.
“I can do it,” Court said as pleasantly as possible. “And I will.”
It was tempting to ask who he would get to purchase the weaponry he wanted if she didn’t do it. Gregory, the other crew leader for Kern County Hollister Youth Foundation, was a solid guy. He had an engineering degree of some kind from Cal Poly. He could plan jobs, make lists, and until Joshua had joined her crew, his crew had outworked hers consistently. Not by much, but consistently. The trouble with Gregory was that he had no imagination or ability to think outside the box when he was met with unforeseen circumstances. In the last two years, three of his crewmembers had died in accidents that might have been prevented if he had been better at reacting. Still, three crewmembers dead in two years was so far and above any stats that the real Hollister Youth Foundation had in any California country that it was impressive. Court had never lost one crewmember to an accident, although one of her crews had suffered food poisoning and been out of commission a couple of days. Curtis had teased her about it unmercifully.
“You took Brooke and Joshua last time,” Curtis said. “Why not try somebody new?”
“I trust them,” Court said simply. “They don’t let me down.”
“If you’re trying to become the A Team, it’s a bad idea,” Curtis frowned. “Everybody should be given a chance to get good at this sort of thing.”
“Everyone can’t be good at everything,” Court answered. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“I don’t like relying too much on the same people,” Curtis went on. “I depended too much on Robbie—”
“We all depended too much on Robbie,” Court cut in. There was a lump in her throat but she talked over it. “Because it wasn’t a mistake. It worked until he cracked. There isn’t anybody else like him.”
“Joshua has a magic touch,” Curtis said. “He’s not as smart as Robbie, but whatever he does works out well. I don’t think you should take him to Las Vegas and put him in harm’s way. I should work with him to take over some of the things Robbie did—”
“Don’t turn Joshua into Robbie.” Court heard her voice sharpen. A visceral reaction in her gut made her feel like she was outside herself. How like Curtis to see if Joshua was useful to her before annexing him. She tried to pull herself together and remember that Curtis had been there for her when she was an eighteen-year-old girl who was terrified the world was ending and had needed to be needed. “I have no interest in trying to do this without him.”
“Take him for now,” Curtis said. He looked at her closely. “Since it’s that important to you.”
“If you’re wondering if Joshua and I are having a thing, it’s not your business, but we aren’t.” She couldn’t help tacking on one more little remark to dig at Curtis. “It’s not like I owe you because I’m taking Brooke and Joshua. You should want me to have the best people for the job.” If you want me to come back.
“Good to know.” Curtis smiled just a little, a smirk that he had gotten personal information out of Court she probably never meant to divulge. “Let’s make a plan.”
Court listened to everything Curtis told her about the weapons dealer he’d been connecting with on the Dark Web. He had a plan outlined to meet with the man in Las Vegas, firm up the deal, and exchange money and weapons in the desert later. It was a broad plan, and Court already knew she would change some of the details, but she didn’t interrupt Curtis. She showed him respect while he spoke. She’d gone too far, and she knew it. Curtis wasn’t a loving and benevolent father figure. He wanted to be served. Mostly people served him because he was charming and inspirational, but Court hadn’t spent hours in counseling over her daddy issues without being able to detect a narcissist. She knew what Curtis was. It surprised her that it had taken her this long to realize it. She had killed Curtis’s best friend. He had ordered it, but she had done it. Maybe, probably even, Curtis wouldn’t be disappointed if she didn’t come back from the mission. He’d been glad for the medicine, he clearly wanted the weapons very much, and he’d be mad as hell if the money was lost and he didn’t get them. But would he be sorry if Court didn’t come back? Court hadn’t respected Curtis since he’s told her to kill Robbie. Probably Curtis felt the same way about her.
Court made a decision as Curtis went on with details of his plans for the weapons. She’d bring them back, then she and Brooke and Joshua were going to get rid of Curtis before he got rid of her. Lake Havasu was very close to Las Vegas, and Court was going to check on her mom. The time had come for her to start taking care of her own business.
Chapter 20
November 20th, Manhattan, NY
“Justin… Justin! Are you even listening to me?” Sarah Hemmings, Doctor Justin’s personal assistant poked him. She had been reading some contract terms to him that he needed to agree to or disagree with regarding his next media appearances. “I know you haven’t been yourself since Molly died… We can put these things off…”
“But then why did I come to work at all?” Doctor Justin shrugged. He looked at Sarah with a defeated air. “I know you’re wondering why I’ve been bothering.”