Will shouted over the roar of the engines. “Lars, we have a problem!”
“No, my boy. We have two problems,” said Stanzic calmly, as he looked behind them.
“You are operating an illegal vehicle. Put down immediately or we will take action,” ordered one of the soldiers through his intercom.
Stanzic hit a button on his console and began quickly pulling away from them. As he did, they began firing sonic bursts from their front guns.
“They’re firing at us!” shouted Will frantically.
“Yes, sonic weapons. Even their guns are politically correct. They aren’t intrusive to the environment,” mocked Stanzic. “and fortunately for us, they aren’t very accurate either. They’re concentrated low-frequency sound, and they do pack quite a wallop, so we’d better be careful.”
As they scraped the valley floor, trees bent sharply as bursts of sound waves missed their intended target. The transport continued to bank side to side to avoid objects on the ground as well as the attack from behind. These air-powered military craft were obviously no match for Stanzic’s GS940 and they fell far behind.
“We’re almost to the canyon wall that leads up to the observatory,” said Stanzic. “They’ll see us if I take us up there, and it might allow them to put the pieces together as to who was causing havoc down in Abysson. A path leads up from the canyon floor all the way to the top. I’ve hiked it myself years ago.”
He could see the look of terror in Will’s eyes at the thought of having to ascend twenty-five thousand feet.
“Not to worry. I’m going to get you as close to the top as possible.”
Stanzic put the craft in an almost straight climb up the face of the canyon wall. He could see far below in the distance the two hovercrafts emerge from the tree line and begin to look for him again. He immediately stopped his climb and hovered close to the wall. As he’d described, a very narrow path was carved out of the side of the cliff.
“OK, Will. Get out and follow this path. It leads to the patch of trees where I hid the 940. From there you know your way back to the hologram chamber. I’ll meet you there,” said Stanzic, fighting the controls to keep the 940 steady.
“Lars, I can’t do this,” said Will panicked. “This is twenty thousand feet up. I can’t do this!”
“Listen to me. You have to do this. We’re almost out of time, and the transports are coming. If we’re caught, we’re as good as dead. Think of your daughter. Edena needs you, and this path is the only way. If we aren’t in that room when the four hours are up, the hologram program stops, and then they’ll become suspicious as to why there’s no talking. It won’t take long for them to put it together.”
Will took a deep breath and climbed out onto the narrow path that led up the face of the canyon wall, hanging on for dear life.
“I have to lead them off. When you get there, hit the blue button on the chair’s control console.”
“Why? What will that do?” asked Will, growing frustrated.
“Just trust me. I have to go now. Get back up there as fast as you can. We have under two hours now. I’ll meet you there.”
Stanzic turned the craft toward the direction he’d seen the military hovercraft coming and put the 940 into a steep dive. As he picked up speed and fell away, Will could hear him shouting a high-pitched yell as if enjoying the experience, and his silver flowing hair stood flying behind him. Now that Stanzic was gone, he was alone atop the highest canyon wall on Mars in the dark. Mars’s two moons provided some light, but clouds were coming in fast, and even that light was beginning to fade. He heard the clap of thunder and saw a vast spider web of blue lightning in the distance. He began to follow the steep path and knew he couldn’t just walk slowly if he was going to make it; he had to proceed at a brisk pace if there was even a chance.
“C’mon, I have to do this. I have to go faster,” he repeated to himself.
The storm was now overhead, and lightning and thunder were beginning to get furious. The rain began to pour down over the canyon, and it made the ascent even more treacherous. As the minutes passed, Will was able to put himself in a zone and forget about the height. The valley below wasn’t visible due to the clouds and rain now coming down harder than ever, which actually helped him to forget how high he really was. The faint lights from the small city in the Folands were the only thing he could see in the distance. Just as he thought he had his fear all under control, he came to a gap in the rock path. There was a four-foot piece of the path that was missing, which meant he’d have to jump to the next section.
“Oh my God, no! Damn! No!” he shouted.
All of his fear and anxiety flooded back in, and he felt paralyzed. He looked at the path and knew what he had to do. It was the only way. He took a few steps back and began a fast run toward the gap. He leapt from the edge and safely landed on the other side, sliding to a stop on his knees. The lightning continued to light up the night sky, and the rain poured over the path as he rose to his feet and continued to make his way upward. He wasn’t sure but felt that at least an hour had passed, which meant he had less than an hour to scale the rest of the canyon wall and climb the ladder to the top of the observatory. He was startled by the sudden noise that echoed off the rock face. It was his com; he could see Jonas’s face on the view screen.
“Boss, hey, put down the drink and answer,” quipped Jonas.
He pressed the button to answer the call.
“How’s life in paradise? You know you really do owe me one for this.”
“Jonas, I really can’t…”
“You’re living it up while I’m doing all the heavy lifting; I think I need a vacation when you get back. Look at you all wet; are you in the hotel pool at this hour? Must be nice.”
Will kept trying to get a word in, but Jonas was in rare form. “Jonas, please, I can’t—”
“OK, I understand. Parties to attend, dinner with Stanzic. You were supposed to call and tell me what happened.”
Will had now determined there was only one way to handle this, and he knew he’d regret it later, as Jonas’s hurt feelings would linger for weeks. He clicked the button to disconnect from the call and saw Jonas’s face disappear from the screen. He couldn’t afford to lose even a few minutes at this point.
The path wound around a small turn, and to his horror, Will came to an even larger gap that had crumbled away. This time it was much larger and would be a very far jump onto an even narrower path than before.
“This is impossible!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. He looked back down the trail and debated going back until he realized there really wasn’t anywhere to go.
As his anger built up, he seemed to lose his fear of making the attempt. He knew he had little chance of making it, but he had to try because the alternatives weren’t much better. As before, he took a few steps back to get a large enough head start and began to run full speed toward the gap. As he approached the edge, a large flash of lightning and blast of thunder erupted. All at once, hundreds of cavern bats began to swarm out in front of his path; they seemed to be coming from inside the rock wall. His feet skidded to a stop just short of the edge, and he covered his head until the bats passed. As the lightning once again lit up the night sky, it also shed light on a hole in the side of the canyon wall near the edge of the broken trail where the bats had emerged. Someone had carved out a tunnel to go around the gap on the inside of the cliff wall. Will pulled out his com and switched it on as a light source.
“This just keeps getting better,” he whispered.
As he entered the small opening, he had to crouch down in order to clear the top. The hole went in a very small distance and immediately curved back, emerging out to the other side of the path. Someone had encountered the same problem and found a better plan than what he was about to do.
“Disgusting…bat shit!” He could feel the droppings under his feet, as they covered the entire floor of the opening.
He saw the flash of the lightning through the exi
t as he started to emerge from the other side of the jagged opening. Just as his relief of not having to jump the long distance set in, his feet slipped out from under him, and he slid toward the cave’s exit on the other side of the path. The bat droppings made for an extremely slippery surface, and it gave him nothing to brace his feet against to stop his fast slide. As he slid through the opening on the other side, he saw the cliff’s edge quickly approaching.
“Oh no. This is not good!” Will shouted, hearing his voice echo off the cave’s walls. He scraped and kicked, trying to gain some traction to stop his momentum, and just as he was about to go over the edge, he saw a thick branch jutting out from the rocks. As he reached out and grabbed it with both hands, he could see his com fall into the mist and clouds below. He swung down and smashed hard against the cliff face causing him to hit his head against the top of the giant limb.
All of the events of the past few hours flashed in his mind as he tried to recover from the blow to the head. Through his confused haze, he knew he had to force his muscles to hold on. His mind raced as his body fought instinctively to survive. The truth of humanity’s evolution on Mars. The underground city and the trauma of what was happening now. He now began to understand his connection with Earth; it was much deeper than just a random obsession. This was the key to man’s existence and he wondered if he somehow knew it all along.
There was no choice. In one swift motion, he pulled himself up and reached out to grab the rocks that jutted out below the path. He crawled onto the narrow ledge on his hands and knees and collapsed. He felt the rain beating down on him, and as he tried to get up, exhaustion took him, and he fell to the ground.
In his mind visions of Earth from far out in space flashed in front of him as he raced toward the planet and dove through the clouds as if not in a human body but a being of energy without boundaries. He raced over the surface, skimming treetops and flying high above Earth’s great volcanoes. The vivid blue oceans were crossed in seconds as he arrived at a place he knew. He smelled the fresh air as water flowed in a stream and the massive trees swayed gently in the cool breeze. The blue sky above him was awe-inspiring as he saw creatures gliding gracefully in the wind. He sat in the soft grass and felt a peace he’d never experienced. Some part of him wondered if he was dead. “Is this the afterlife?” he asked himself. As he lay down, he looked once again up at the sky to see the large creature standing over him. The peace went away as fear gripped him. The giant creature’s mouth opened as he let out a terrifying roar. The creature’s scream merged with the sound of the deafening clap of thunder that awoke Will from his dream.
“Oh no. How long? How damn long?” Will cried out as he desperately fought to regain his senses. As he pulled himself up, he reached for his com to see how much time had elapsed while he was unconscious. In a moment of panic, he remembered seeing it fall down into the clouds. There was no way of knowing how long he’d been out and if he had doomed both he and Lars Stanzic. He took off running full speed up the path, navigating the treacherous terrain with a desperate urgency. There were several smaller breaks in the trail, but he didn’t even stop to ponder an action plan. As he leapt over each without missing a step, he finally saw the massive observatory towering overhead as the path curved around the canyon wall.
“Thank God,” he whispered to himself.
He sprinted the last five hundred feet, and as Lars Stanzic had said, it came out right where it should have.
“No transport. Maybe it’s not too late,” he said to himself as he gasped for breath. He assumed that if too much time had elapsed, Stanzic would have returned and hidden the transport back in the trees. Another horrifying thought crossed his mind: what if Stanzic had been caught or killed? What then?
The anxiety of so many terrifying possibilities swirled in his mind as he fought to catch his breath. He knew he had no choice now but to follow Stanzic’s instructions to whatever end it might lead.
He navigated the path around the backside of the observatory and came to the ladder that led up to the roof. As he looked down, he laughed to himself at his fear after what he’d just been through. The fact that he had a ladder to climb was like a luxury at this point. His legs burned as he continued up, and pure adrenaline kept him going. As he reached the roof, he looked for any signs that Stanzic might have been here before him but saw nothing. The hatch felt heavy as he pulled it open to expose the passageway down. He stepped onto the ladder that descended into the observatory, and the pain in his legs began to overwhelm him. He knew he had to keep going and began to climb down. When he reached the bottom, he walked over to the floor panel that led into the hologram chamber. He started to climb the small ladder that led into the room and realized he was an absolute mess, covered in dirt and bat droppings.
“How can I possibly explain this?” he thought.
He looked down and realized he was still wearing the brown uniform that Stanzic had given him. As he unzipped the front, he noticed that his clothes were in perfect condition. This uniform had a waterproof quality to it and had preserved everything underneath. He ripped it off and reached into his pocket for the cloth he had used to wipe his forehead and frantically wiped the dirt, water and sweat from his face and hair using a small puddle of water at the bottom of the ladder. Water from the storm must have come through the access hatch as he climbed through it. He once again began to climb into the hologram chamber, which was dead quiet. This meant only one thing: the hologram program had ended. There was no way of knowing how long it had been off and what those on the other end of the listening device would do. Just then, Stanzic’s words rang out in Will’s head.
“Hit the blue button,” he said.
Will ran over to the console on the arm of the chair that Stanzic had been sitting in and scanned it for a blue button.
“There it is,” said Will quietly as he pressed it down with the ball of his hand.
Immediately a holographic image of Lars Stanzic appeared to the side of him. He was on one knee, bending over, as if he was fixing the hologram machinery behind the chair. A loud noise echoed through the chamber as the door began to unlock itself and open. Will had no idea what, if anything, would be on the other side. He walked through the door, leaving the hologram chamber, and turned left before stopping in his tracks. At the end of the hall were the two men from the restaurant, who were walking toward him purposefully. Will put his head down for a second, and his heart nearly jumped out of his chest.
“My shoes. My damn shoes!” he said under his breath.
His shoes were covered in mud and dirt from his ascent up the canyon wall. He’d forgotten to check them out as he cleaned up in the maintenance corridor.
“What if they see them, how will I ever explain this?” he thought.
The first man was wearing a dark suit and had a very large build, and his partner also dressed in black but was tall and skinny. Both men had an intimidating aura about them, and Will was sure that these were the men who had been listening.
“Where is Professor Stanzic? We need to have a word with him,” said the taller man.
“He—uh, he’s right around the corner, but I wouldn’t bother him. He’s tending to a broken circuit.”
Will was trying desperately to cover for both the silence and for why Stanzic couldn’t talk. If they entered and tried to engage Stanzic’s hologram, the whole thing would fall apart.
“Broken circuit or not, we have to speak with him. Move aside.”
Will began to feel panic, as he knew there wasn’t anything else he could do. As the men passed him to enter the chamber, he looked to the far side of the hallway and thought about running, but he knew he had nowhere to go. As the men passed him, he looked back at the holographic image of Lars Stanzic crouched down as if hard at work on something. The larger of the two men approached him from behind.
“Professor Stanzic, we’ve had a problem, and need you to come with us.”
Will scanned the walls, looking for door controls. If he
could close the door, it might allow him enough time to get away. There were no controls, only the smooth, black surface that covered most of this chamber.
Stanzic’s hologram didn’t respond to the man, and continued working on the bottom of the hologram generator.
Will could see the suspicious look on the taller man as he looked back and forth between his friend and Stanzic’s image. The larger man once again spoke more adamantly to the hologram.
“Professor Stanzic, sir, you need to come with us. There has been an explos—a problem in the Folands.”
He obviously didn’t want Will to hear anything about an explosion, and he quickly caught himself. The larger man, seeming frustrated, finally went to grab the shoulder of Stanzic’s hologram. Will knew this was it; he would have to be the one to explain all of this, and there was no way he could. He once again prepared to run as soon as they realized Stanzic was just a hologram, and wondered if they would even question him or just kill him right here and now should he be caught. He knew one thing: he wasn’t going to wait to find out.
As the man grabbed Stanzic’s shoulder, the real Lars Stanzic stood up straight and began to talk loudly to him. Will let out a sigh of relief at the sight of his old mentor. Stanzic must have gotten there just behind him, and as he kept them busy for a few minutes outside the chamber, Stanzic must have positioned himself in place of the hologram.
“How dare you disturb me? I was working with high-voltage electrical circuits. I need total quiet. Will, didn’t you tell them as I had asked?”
“I did, sir,” said Will.
The men were looking for answers as to why there was so much quiet in the room for apparently about eight minutes. Stanzic’s ruse had worked; the men sheepishly stepped back and asked if Stanzic could follow up with them later. As they left, Will could see Stanzic smile as he pointed to his shirt. He had the device back on.
“Will, my boy, why don’t you head back to your room and rest. You look like you could use some. It’s very late. I’ll come get you in the morning to escort you to your transport.”
Destiny Earth Page 10