The End The Beginning (Humanity's New Dawn Book 1)

by Ryan Horvath

  Ian checked his back as best he could in the mirror. He looked as though he’d been shot with birdshot. He didn’t know if that was a good example of irony or not but he thought it might be pretty damn close. The hawk had dealt Ian a highly damaging blow with each foot full of talons every time it had landed on his back.

  Ian decided he’d seen enough and needed to call for an ambulance but just then, something happened. As he was looking at his back he noticed that something had changed on what would have been one of the first wounds he had received from the Red Tail Hawk.

  “What the hell?” he said to no one in particular.

  The wound had shrunk. Not much but noticeably since he had first looked at it mere moments ago.

  After that, it happened fast.

  Ian and River watched in the mirror in amazed silence. One by one the injuries on Ian’s back began to heal before their eyes. The blood on his body remained but to their shock and miraculous wonder, Ian was somehow rapidly recovering from the vicious attack from the bird of prey.

  When his back was fully recovered, he watched his bicep, hand, forehead and scalp all close up and stop bleeding just as his back had done.

  “River, did you see that?” Ian asked.

  “I did, Ian, that was incredible,” she replied and blinked at him.

  Ian stripped off his shorts, underwear, and socks. All were bloodstained. He threw them into one of the plastic bags he always travelled with. He went back into the bathroom for the second time since waking up and started the shower. He got in and let the warm water rinse the blood from his skin. River sat outside the shower, watching.

  Ian could feel no more tenderness but only a mild tingling sensation from where the wounds had been but by the time he was done showering and toweled off he felt completely normal. He checked himself in the full length again.

  Not only were the wounds gone but there was no visible scarring whatsoever. Ian couldn’t believe that he had even sustained them, except for the memory of each inflected injury the hawk had dealt him. He doubted he would ever forget that.

  “It’s like you’re as good as new,” River said from behind him. She had moved to the bed, and watched him.

  Ian blushed. He did not realize he’d been parading around naked in front of her and then he realized how stupid that was. She was a cat after all and was always in her birthday suit.

  “I guess so,” Ian answered. With that, he got dressed, again doing something for the second time today. Just as he finished pulling on a new T-shirt, he heard Jack and Brian’s voices carrying in from the kitchen door. Ian and River left the room to go join them and share their awesome and terrifying experience with their group.

  28

  A CIA ANALYST AND CIA DIRECTOR HAYES

  Knock, knock, knock.

  Wednesday, late afternoon, CIA Director Hayes’s attention was diverted from the brief he had been reading to the door of his office. The brief was about something going on with Iraq.

  This may not be a problem much longer the director thought to himself.

  “Yes, come in,” the director said with authority.

  The office door opened and a mousy looking woman with glasses over eyes that were too small for her face entered. She was holding a file marked “TOP SECRET”.

  Director Hayes frowned upon seeing her in spite of the fact that she was one of his top and most trusted subordinates. Her presence in his office meant this had to do with that God damn thing flying around the planet and one of the few idiots who knows about it.

  “Yes? What is it?” the director decided it was best not to beat around the bush.

  “I have some information you’re not going to like,” she said flatly.

  “Well spit it out then!” he ordered.

  “Yes, sir. I was reviewing and auditing random systems in some of our more remote locations in the country. If I hadn’t been ordered to watch out for it, I very much could have chosen a different location and missed this,” she relayed.

  He looked at her impatiently and she continued.

  “I was looking into the DAFP database and discovered something on Dr. Simon Shepherd’s hard drive. He thought he had it well hidden but I am very good at what I do and I was able to access it,” she said.

  “AND?” The director boomed.

  “I found an e-mail, sir. Unsent and addressed to the media, the reputable media that is,” the analyst continued.

  Director Hayes stared at her, his anger building, as well as a headache.

  “The e-mail had numerous attachments related to the… situation… that Dr. Shepherd and that agency have recently been studying. The information would be pretty easily verified by any competent scientist,” the analyst added.

  “Damn it!” The director spat and slapped a hand to his desk. The analyst didn’t flinch at this reaction. “And you said this e-mail has not been sent yet?”

  “That’s correct, sir. And there’s more, sir,” the analyst offered.

  The director threw himself back in his desk chair in frustration. His glare toward the analyst let her know he was just about out of patience.

  “Dr. Shepherd also just downloaded a lot of the scan/analyze software from the computer system in Oahu, presumably to some sort of mobile device. He did register a personal notebook computer when he was taken to the facility. My guess is he put the software on there. Again, he thought he was being crafty, but I am very good at what I do,” she said looking smug.

  Director Hayes took in the information and tried not to boil over. He had just a little while ago given Shepherd the order to clear out, believing that the doctor had the good sense to stay quiet. And now it sure looked like he wasn’t going to keep his trap shut. It had been over fifty hours since Jack Thomas had been erased from the problem and Shepherd hadn’t come forward. But now with this new information, Shepherd could be a problem.

  And I paid the son of a bitch the director fumed to himself.

  “Where is the good doctor now?” he asked the analyst.

  “As far as I can tell, he’s still on Oahu. His software download was just about forty minutes ago,” she reported, eyeing the clock on the wall. “He has made flight reservations with Delta. It appears he’s going back to Philadelphia via stops in LA and Minneapolis. He could still be at the facility but he could also be anywhere on the island.”

  The director took this in and sighed before saying, “Thank you. Is that the complete file there?” he asked pointing to the folder in the analyst’s hands.

  “Yes, sir,” she replied and handed him the folder.

  “You may go now,” the director stated. “Good work on this,” he added.

  “Yes, sir, and thank you, sir,” the analyst responded and turned to leave.

  “Oh, one more thing,” the director said.

  The analyst turned, “Sir?”

  “You will let me know when our Dr. Shepherd checks in at Honolulu International,” he said icily.

  “Of course, sir,” she replied. The analyst turned again and walked quietly out of the office.

  Director Hayes thought about the conversation he had just had. Shepherd was still on Oahu which meant that at any time he could send that e-mail before making his flight back to his hometown. What’s more, he had taken with him the means to create another e-mail of the same effect.

  “Damn it,” the director spat out.

  He pulled from his pocket the same device he had used to give Simon Shepherd the extraction directive. It was a special device with a GPS jamming chip and the ability to carry with it a code that caused any trace of any call or text to be erased from record as well as a special decomposing code attached to all the text messages he sends out, which caused said texts to disintegrate from the receiver’s phone twenty seconds after the text is read.

  He punched in a text to an analyst who was stationed in Minneapolis. This analyst was specifically in place for jobs like taking care of Jack Thomas. The text was simple.

  SIMON SHEPHERD 24 HO
URS $4MIL EN ROUTE FROM HNL LAX, MSP, PHL DISPATCH AND ACQUIRE HIS LAPTOP. TRAVEL TIMES ATTACHED.

  He waited before sending the message. He stared at the wall willing his headache to go away and decided that even though it wasn’t past five o’clock yet, he was going to have a drink. He opened the small fridge and took out a bottle of Hendrick’s gin. He poured three fingers of the clear, cool, fragrant liquid and returned the bottle to the fridge. He sat back at his desk and sipped the gin, feeling it begin to warm him. After ten minutes, his headache was finally starting to abate.

  Fifteen minutes later, his desk phone rang. He answered it, “Yes?”

  It was the analyst who had been in his office earlier.

  “Dr. Shepherd has just checked in at Honolulu International, sir,” she reported.

  “Thank you,” the director replied and hung up his phone. For the next twenty or so hours, according to the flight itinerary provided in the file by the analyst, the director knew, or at least thought he knew, exactly where Shepherd would be. He picked up his special phone and sent the previously generated text on its way.

  Five minutes later he received a reply.

  SHEPHERD CONFIRMED. PURSUIT UNDERWAY.

  The director’s analyst had successfully set up the assassination of Simon Shepherd.

  The doctor should have behaved the director thought.

  29

  KAREN AND BLAZE

  Karen hastily changed from her night clothes into street clothes. She was starting to feel more and more panic wash over her. While she dressed, she used her smart phone on the speaker function to continue to try to reach Amanda. She redialed four times and each call went straight to voice mail, as the first attempt had. Amanda’s recorded voice sounded just fine but Karen doubted her sister’s real voice would sound fine at all.

  Blaze stood in the doorway watching Karen. His tail hung unmoving between his hind legs. He yipped, “Why do you think the bad smelling man has Amanda, Master Karen?”

  “You heard Amanda and me talking last night about visions, right?” Karen asked.

  “Yes, I did,” Blaze barked in response.

  “I had a vision just when I woke up. He was watching Amanda. And somewhere that is not even three miles from here I bet,” she stated.

  Karen dashed out of the bedroom she was using and headed through the house toward the garage and realized she’d left her smart phone on the dresser. She needed to call the police. While her house wasn’t far, the police station was closer to the grocery co-op than she was. She bolted back toward her bedroom, darted inside, snatched the phone off the dresser and headed back to the garage. She dialed 911 on the way, grabbed her purse from the table by the door and waited for an answer. While Karen listened to the ring in her ear she stood with her back against the garage service door looking around her kitchen and the lesser parts of the rooms beyond. Memories of her and Jack’s life in these rooms rapidly fired before her eyes.

  Her and Jack, making love on the kitchen counter on the first night they had lived there, unpacked boxes all around them.

  Jack attempting to cook dinner for them for the first time on their tenth wedding anniversary which resulted in nearly all the smoke alarms in the house going off.

  Her and Jack sitting in the living room under one blanket by the fire on a night when the power had gone out during a particularly cold winter night. They played Scrabble and tried, with little success, to keep their game tiles hidden from one another.

  The fight they had one night in the dining room because Jack had come home stressed out about a difficult environmental bill he’d been working on during his third year in office. She’d had a bad day herself and just added fuel to his fire until all they could do was quench that fire with make-up sex in the bedroom they had shared for so long.

  Karen stood looking, waiting for the 911 call to be answered. What’s taking them so long? She felt almost certain she wasn’t going to return home to this house once she stepped through the garage service door with Blaze. It wasn’t a vision at all, just a pretty strong hunch. Finally, on what was probably the thirteenth ring the 911 operator picked up.

  “911. What’s the address of the emergency?”

  “I’m not sure but it’s on the corner of Columbine and Walker. Across from the mall. The Great Falls Grocery Co-op. I think someone’s going to kidnap my sister.” And with that said, and one last glance around, she clutched her purse, opened the service door and she and Blaze entered the garage, leaving behind a home she doubted she would see again.

  Her car stood alone in the garage. Amanda had surely taken Jack’s vehicle.

  “Ma’am,” the operator said in her ear. “Did you say you think someone is going to kidnap your sister? The crime hasn’t happened yet?”

  “Well, yes, that’s correct.” A sense of dread joined the senses of panic and sadness that were with Karen since she awoke just a short time ago.

  “Mrs. Thomas,” the 911 operator must have gotten information on the source of the call. “What makes you think someone is going to commit this crime? Do you have any evidence?”

  “Well,” Karen stammered. She couldn’t very well convince the police to take action because she had had a vision. In fact, she could probably be arrested for making false emergency calls if she told the operator why she thought what she thought.

  “Mrs. Thomas,” the operator prompted. “Do you have any evidence? Is your sister with you?”

  Karen tried to think of a way to persuade the operator to dispatch officers but she could not. “No. No, she’s not. She’s at the co-op.”

  “Ma’am,” the operator started, sounding irritated now. “I’d like to remind you that the 911 system is not to be toyed with. You will refrain from making calls unless you are sure a crime has been committed or suspicious activity that could lead to a crime has been observed. Can you back up your statement to fit either of these parameters?”

  Karen and Blaze were in the car now. She was behind the wheel and Blaze sat erect looking at her. “No, I can’t,” Karen admitted.

  “Then I am hanging up with giving you a warning. Should you call again about a non-emergency, charges almost certainly will be filed against you. Now, we are very busy here. Good day.” And the operator clicked off.

  Blaze chuffed, “No help huh?” he had apparently heard both sides of the conversation.

  Karen looked at him and started the car. “No help,” she confirmed and pressed the button on the transmitter attached to her visor to open the garage door. She backed out of the garage and headed to town.

  “Do you think we’ll get there in time?” Blaze woofed from the passenger seat.

  “I hope so,” Karen said with no confidence that they would. She drove and navigated traffic as quickly as she could and within six minutes, she was in the grocery store co-op’s parking lot.

  In her vision, she’d seen the green eyed man in his car and Amanda walking into the store but she didn’t know where Amanda parked. She estimated about where the green eyed man had been parked and found the space empty. She found her dead husband’s car a few spaces farther away from the store. There was an open space next to Jack’s car and she guided her vehicle into it. She opened her door, got out of the car, and Blaze bounced out after her.

  Immediately in the open air, Blaze reacted. He tensed up and began to quiver. “The bad smelling man was here,” he barked. “Right here. He smells different though now. Cleaner. There was a smell on him the first time I smelled him that was also on Master George and Master Ann. A kind of burnt smell.”

  Karen made the connection for him. “That’s gunshot residue. Gun powder.”

  “Thank you,” Blaze chuffed. “He smells bad… like gun powder and also like crazy. I smell Amanda too. She was scared. Terrified.” Blaze began to move away from Jack’s car, his nostrils twitching.

  Karen watched him walk over to the space she had guessed the green eyed man had once occupied. He put his nose to the ground, showing interest in something t
hat was outside her vision.

  “Master Karen!” Blaze yelped excitedly. “Come quick!”

  Karen quickly jogged over to Blaze. What she saw explained something to her. I guess that’s why my calls went straight to voice mail. The remains of a smart phone were on the ground. It had been pulverized in such a way that Karen could not imagine what had happened to it for it to arrive in this condition. She could only recognize it for what it was because she knew it was her sister’s smart phone.

  So we are too late Karen said in her head.

  “This was Amanda’s. But the bad smelling man touched it too. Both of their smells are on it.” Blaze woofed.

  Karen thought about this and connected the dots quickly. Blaze had immediately smelled her sister and her captor upon the fresh air hitting him, he had tracked their smells to the phone.

  “Blaze?” she started. “Can you tell which way they went?”

  Blaze sniffed the air again and barked excitedly. “It’s weird, Master Karen. I was always a good smeller but I think I got better. Yes, they went that way.” He indicated west on Highway 193.

  “Then let’s go,” Karen directed, turning back to her car.

  “Just leave the glass open some so I can keep the scent. His is stronger,” Blaze chuffed.

  Karen thought about calling 911 again but she still had nothing other than her vision and a dog only she could understand to back her up. And she knew it would take twenty-four hours to file a missing persons report. So she decided not to call again. Hopefully Blaze could keep the scent and lead her to her sister. And hopefully they would escape. She thought about her conversation with Amanda from last night and the vision of the green eyed man chasing them.

  It looked like that vision would come to pass. She could only pray that the three of them would escape the crazy green eyed bad smelling man.