by Brandt Legg
As she came out of the water, bloody and drenched, Wen grabbed Damon’s dropped magnum just as she caught a glimpse of Chase scaling the far side of the volcano. Even if she still had her phone, which had vanished into the murkiness, it would be too late to stop the eruption. The beast had already begun to rumble. Flames lit up around the base—real flames! More fire ignited around the rim—Real fire! She tried not to panic as she raced across the lagoon toward the now active volcano.
The flames reflecting on the water were blinding. Just twenty feet from the churning fires, a man burst through the bushes, grabbed her around the waist, and flung her back into the water. The last thing she saw before going under was Chase going over the rim of the glowing volcano.
Seventy-Eight
Ryker, unknowingly standing right over one of the water jets, became alarmed as the glowing mist and rumble started all around. An eerie soundtrack of mystical chants and drums began.
Suddenly, the jets erupted under him, its force and thrust lifting him into the air several feet in a blast of water and light that shot thirty feet past him. When the spray disappeared, Ryker slammed back down to the ground in a disoriented daze amidst blinding orange lights and a drowning stream of returning water. He clawed for his machine gun, but it was lost in the dazzle. Another eruption shook him as the drumming beat in-time with dozens of flaming posts at the base of the lagoon. The third round of jets tossed him into a rock wall, bloodying his head. A brief pause allowed the now beaten and drenched Ryker to see Chase coming at him.
He reached for his holstered handgun. At the same moment, another jet burst into him. This one felt like getting hit in the stomach with a telephone pole fired from a rocket. He crashed down six feet away, closer to the edge, as the lights frantically blinked and mock lava flowed. The eruptions quickened along with the frenzied music.
Ryker, trying to find Chase again, realized he was backed up against the real flames on the edge of the caldera. Singed and steaming, he spun away, trying to avoid the next geyser.
“You killed my father!” Chase screamed, pointing a gun at the beleaguered agent. As Chase pulled the trigger, a thrust of water erupted and nearly tore his arm off. Unlike Ryker, he wasn't lifted off the ground, but he felt like his shoulder had been dislocated, and he, too, was now weaponless.
The man came down on top of Wen with a large knife. She fired the magnum at the last instant, destroying his face. He crashed into the water next to her. Dizzily, she stood and looked up at the volcano. All she could see were towering flames and ‘lava’ streaming into the sky, a dance of countless fires blasting out of the water surrounding the base.
Wen tried to run, but her leg was too injured, a mix of searing pain and numb nothingness. She somehow stumbled out of the lagoon, forced away from the volcano by the flames, which seemed to be building toward a finale.
Chase charged at the bigger man. Ryker readied for the attack, bending his knees slightly and flexing his arms out toward Chase. A ring of jets exploded all at once, knocking both men off their feet. A torrent of water rained down on them as the lights made everything appear to be on fire. Chase, focusing with every last ounce of energy, crawled toward the edge. Ryker, somewhat foggy, stood shakily, scouring the faux crater for his adversary. Before he saw him, Chase bulled in fast, like a lineman looking to bury a quarterback in the big game. Ryker, absorbing the blow, picked Chase up, about to throw him into the caldera wall.
Everything erupted in a spectacle of drumming music, orange, red, and yellow lights, pulsating geysers, and steam. The entire rim blazed real fire like a massive torch. Caught in the middle of it all, the two men took the blows one after another. Chase felt like a punch drunk prize fighter in the tenth round. He didn’t even know the difference between up and down anymore as the water tossed him in a tortuous bashing.
He struggled to his feet only to be knocked down again, but on the third try he somehow managed to dodge the jets and stagger to the edge, where he found Ryker still down. Chase kicked his nemesis repeatedly. Ryker rolled over and pulled Chase back into the stew. The two slugged it out. Ryker connected several power blows to Chase’s face and chest. The jets and lights continued to swirl around them. Drums building to a crazed climax made Chase feel as if he were in a jungle horror.
Ryker pressed his size and muscle advantage, but Chase hadn’t been as punished by the eruptions. They locked together and flew into the flames at the rim. Ryker, smoking and smoldering, released Chase, who had also been burned.
Through blurry-eyed pain, as the drumming became intolerable, Chase went at Ryker’s legs. He pushed and fought with all his remaining strength until suddenly there was no resistance.
Ryker went over the rim, screaming through the flames, plunging thirty feet. Seconds later, the drumming stopped. The lights and water ceased. Flames were suddenly extinguished. Chase crawled to the edge and peered over. Ryker lay, still burning, impaled on a fire post at the base of the volcano.
Seventy-Nine
Chase and Wen were detained at the hospital, expecting to be charged, until a reluctant lieutenant released them. Chase didn’t ask any questions. He knew only one person could have gotten that accomplished.
Not until they were safely in the air did Chase call her.
“Thanks for getting us out of that mess,” Chase said, drinking a shot of whiskey instead of taking the pain medication he’d been given for his burns. “But this doesn’t mean I owe you again.”
“Speaking of owing,” Tess said. “Why did Flint owe you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Why was Flint so loyal?”
“Because I pay him a fortune.”
“No,” she said, trying to understand how Chase couldn’t know how Flint felt. “You can’t buy loyalty like that. It’s more than that.”
“Wait, is Flint okay?”
“He’s dead. I’m sorry.” Sorrier than I can say.
“Oh . . . no.”
“He died saving me.”
“Who killed him!?”
“Someone trying to get to me. He’s dead now.”
“It was about horUS, wasn’t it?”
“The program is critical to our survival. It’s surprising that you don’t understand that.”
“Really? Aren’t you all about keeping peace between the corporations? How does spying on citizens help that?”
“We need to make sure the people don’t get swayed. Humans are emotional beings. That makes for an unpredictable future, and too much is at stake.”
“Do you hear yourself?”
“You make my point. You’re an idealistic young man. We’re in a war, a complex war unlike anything we’ve ever faced. China, extremists, rich and powerful multinational corporations, loyal to no flag.”
“You have a big job, don’t you?” Chase said sarcastically as Wen showed him a report from the Astronaut on her screen.
“The Chinese will win. They have the numbers—they could lose the equivalent of the entire US population and wouldn’t even miss them. AI, quantum computing, robotics, military, belt and road . . . they’re leading the world. Their corporations are already fighting ours. It’s a balancing act. I’m trying to save the world from their tyranny.”
“Is tyranny any better?” he asked, ignoring Wen’s eye signal to not push further.
She took a deep breath. “For your own good, forget about horUS.”
“No, because it’s much worse than just mass surveillance. I know about ARES—Adaptive Response Enhanced Surveillance. You’re going to use those drones to intercept everything, and with the NSA already recording every call, collecting every email, and mixing that with search, browsing, social media histories, and Alexa, you know us better than we know ourselves.”
“You’re being dramatic,” she said, hiding her shock that he’d discovered ARES.
“Am I? Deny that the drones will be used for systematic specific elimination of problems through ordinance equipped units,”
he said, reading from the Astronaut’s report. “And the spread of viruses for larger—”
“The program is for the good of the country,” she interrupted.
“Who decides!?”
“Chase, you are way beyond your realm here.”
“I’m going public.”
“That won’t be allowed.”
“Why? Will it embarrass the president?”
“The president does not know about ARES.”
“The president doesn’t know? Then who authorized it?” He couldn’t resist giving Wen a look that said, See? It was right that I pushed.
“The people the president works for.”
“You mean the American people?”
“Are you joking? The president doesn’t work for the people. That’s an old fairy tale meant to keep everyone believing in democracy.”
“Why hasn’t the media uncovered this?”
“Because they’re in on it! Who do you think owns them?”
“You’re going down.”
“It’s never going to get to me. I’m completely insulated, and it won’t get to the President either,” she said, speaking to him as if he were a child. “Don’t you think we planned these things, making a contingency for everything? We have contingencies for the contingencies.”
“They won’t be good enough. I have proof.”
“Your proof is nothing.” She laughed. “We are practiced at deception. The public buys it every single time. You’ll recognize our work when you see it in the news headlines. A pentagon official has a heart attack. The CIA Director will take the fall for horUS/ARES, but he’ll be caught in such a quagmire when he resigns, and there won’t be enough information to prosecute. The public attention will move on very quickly. There’ll be a headline, a little war somewhere, something else happens, diversions that you will notice when they occur, but the public’s attention is so easily swayed.”
“Particularly when you control the media.”
“Yes, particularly.”
“How do you sleep at night?”
“Grow up, Chase. Whoever has the gold, makes the rules. The ones with the biggest guns have all the fun.”
“Catchy, but I’m confused,” he said in a mocking tone. “Is it the Chinese, the extremists, the corporations, or the average American citizen who is the enemy?”
“Poor Chase . . . you want everything so simple. It’s all of the above. We can’t sustain tens of trillion of dollars in government debt and continue to spend this much money on weapons. The problem with China is their leaders think they can beat the multinationals, but the corporations won the invisible war—they robbed the treasury and enslaved the people through taxes and debt. They are in charge now.”
“Not if I can help it.”
Epilogue
Although Chase and Wen did get the information about horUS and ARES out to the world, Tess was right. Ultimately nothing happened, and it quickly faded. Instead, the mainstream news outlets hyped the capture of Gunner, Powder, and the other militia members now branded as terrorists. Twenty-six other buildings were found to have been pre-planted with AI-Enhanced-Doomsday. Gunner had been planning attacks on tech companies for years and had begun secretly installing the explosives eleven months before he even found out about horUS.
Facing life behind bars, Gunner allegedly hung himself in prison while awaiting trial. Powder never recovered from injuries sustained when he “resisted arrest”, and also died before he could be tried. The US Senate convened hearings after public outrage concerned about Pentagon, CIA, and NSA overreach, but after Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Cane Westfield, considered the mastermind of horUS/ARES, killed himself, coupled with the death of the Secretary of Defense from an apparent heart attack, the committee reached too many dead ends. However, they promised stronger oversight in the future. The CIA Director resigned.
Allegations about the president’s involvement were categorically denied, and after two successful terms, the public seemed more focused on who would be coming next. And, as predicted, a headline-grabbing situation occurred almost as if it were a planned diversion. Iran began test firing nuclear missiles toward Israel, and suddenly the world could only see the Middle East.
Chase’s mother was expected to make a full recovery, and would be moving in with Boone for a while. Chase had a private memorial foundation created to honor his father, its single mission in arranging that in every US hospital that catered to minorities and low-income people, when a baby was born, the parents would receive a new photo album and a simple camera.
Dez and Chase had decided not to rebuild the Balance Engineering headquarters, but would continue to secretly develop SEER in an undisclosed location. Wen had suggested it to be somewhere far away from San Francisco.
“It’s just like with Snowden,” Chase said to Wen as they flew to Amsterdam to meet members of WOLF. “The public doesn’t care. They’re giving their masters a pass.”
“It’s all a big 1984 warning,” Bull said. Lenny had died the day following the attack at the mall due to complications from the gunshot wound. It had hit her harder than expected. Bull decided to join The Cause after Wen persuaded her to use her brilliant hacking skills for the better good. “And everyone is missing it,” Bull continued. “You always think when you see something terrible happen in books and movies—a dystopian society, a dictator’s rise, water—how did no one see that coming? It’s because we all choose to ignore the warning signs.”
“I just heard from the Astronaut,” Wen said, smiling. “He’s agreed to help The Cause. He’s heading to Amsterdam, too.”
“We’re going to need all the help we can get,” Chase said. “Especially if . . . ” He paused and looked out the window as a red and yellow sunset lit the clouds.
“If what?” Wen asked.
“If,” he said, turning and staring into her dark eyes, “we’re going to change the world.”
Ready for more Chase and Wen?
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About the Author
USA TODAY Bestselling Author Brandt Legg uses his unusual real life experiences to create page-turning novels. He’s traveled with CIA agents, dined with senators and congressmen, mingled with astronauts, chatted with governors and presidential candidates, had a private conversation with a Secretary of Defense he still doesn’t like to talk about, hung out with Oscar and Grammy winners, had drinks at the State Department, been pursued by tabloid reporters, and spent a birthday at the White House by invitation from the President of the United States.
At age eight, Legg's father died suddenly, plunging his family into poverty. Two years later, while suffering from crippling migraines, he started in business, and turned a hobby into a multi-million-dollar empire. National media dubbed him the “Teen Tycoon,” and by the mid-eighties, Legg was one of the top young entrepreneurs in America, appearing as high as number twenty-four on the list (when Steve Jobs was #1, Bill Gates #4, and Michael Dell #6). Legg still jokes that he should have gone into computers.
By his twenties, after years of buying and selling businesses, leveraging, and risk-taking, the high-flying Legg became ensnarled in the financial whirlwind of the junk bond eighties. The stock market crashed and a firestorm of trouble came down. The Teen Tycoon racked up more than a million dollars in legal fees, was betrayed by those closest to him, lost his entire fortu
ne, and ended up serving time for financial improprieties.
After a year, Legg emerged from federal prison, chastened and wiser, and began anew. More than twenty-five years later, he’s now using all that hard-earned firsthand knowledge of conspiracies, corruption and high finance to weave his tales. Legg’s books pulse with authenticity.
His series have excited nearly a million readers around the world. Although he refused an offer to make a television movie about his life as a teenage millionaire, his autobiography is in the works. There has also been interest from Hollywood to turn his thrillers into films. With any luck, one day you’ll see your favorite characters on screen.
He lives in the Pacific Northwest, with his wife and son, writing full time, in several genres, containing the common themes of adventure, conspiracy, and thrillers. Of all his pursuits, being an author and crafting plots for novels is his favorite.
For more information, please visit his website, or to contact Brandt directly, email him: [email protected], he loves to hear from readers and always responds!
BrandtLegg.com
Books by Brandt Legg
Chasing Rain
Chasing Fire
Chasing Wind
Chasing Dirt
Chasing Life
Chasing Kill
CapWar ELECTION (CapStone Conspiracy #1)
CapWar EXPERIENCE (CapStone Conspiracy #2)
CapWar EMPIRE (CapStone Conspiracy #3)
The CapStone Conspiracy (books 1-3)