by Nick Thacker
Ben sighed. “There are other civilians there? Reggie, this is already a mess.”
Reggie smiled. “What have we ever done together that hasn’t been a mess? Look, guys, it’s not that big a deal. We try to get The Hawk, or we don’t. This isn’t a long-term planned op, it’s an opportunity. Mr. E wanted to capitalize on our situation. You two were close, I was a flight away, and we can take advantage of timing.”
Ben frowned. “Does that mean they don’t know we’re coming?”
Reggie shook his head. “Not really. The guy running the place, Adrian Crawford, was more than happy to have us — he’s actually planned a bit of a welcoming party, from what I hear. Benefits of being CSO, I guess.”
It was true — they had been in most of the major newspapers across the country lately, on account of their travels and adventures. Most of the reports had been tamed and watered down to give them the plausibility they needed as well as to ensure no explicit details would be revealed, but the effect was the same. They were considered minor-league celebrities at this point. The public loved the idea that ‘normal people’ like them were taking on some of the nation’s challenges. The military was too large, too fragmented, and too disorganized to worry about the smaller issues, and local and regional law enforcement often ran up against budget constraints, resources, and priority conflicts to care.
The CSO had carte blanche to meddle in domestic affairs, as long as it was not a currently active military operation or a state-level operation. The board members of the CSO were from all branches of the military and approved the team’s operations or denied them, giving only enough information to justify their decision.
It was a good arrangement, and Reggie had no doubt the reason it had been so successful so far was in no small part due to Mr. E’s wide-reaching influence and network, as well as the size of his wallet. For Reggie, an ex-Army sniper, the increased freedom was enough of a draw to the group without even considering the phenomenal pay.
“But Ravenshadow doesn’t know,” Julie said. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“That’s what I think. I’m not sure if Crawford is tight with Garza, but I can’t imagine he’s going to be telling his security the names of every single person who comes into his park.”
“Probably not,” Ben said. “But there isn’t really anyone at the park yet, remember? Just a handful of investors and us. We’re going to stick out like sore thumbs.”
“Maybe,” Reggie said. “But I’d bet Garza will be busy setting up his systems and getting everything ready for the park’s soft launch in a month. We’ll be under the radar because we’ll just be tourists. In and out, hopefully with The Hawk in tow.”
“Hopefully.”
12
THERE WAS A SUDDEN REALIZATION that came over Ben as they waited on the tarmac of the airport in Nassau. The chopper hadn’t spun down, as they were only there to refuel and pick up their fourth passenger. He sat with Julie leaning against his side, asleep. Reggie was grinning about something he was looking at on his phone, which left Ben to his own thoughts, a somewhat dangerous proposition.
The realization that he’d had was that he had decided. It was a single word, a simple word. He had decided, and now he was here.
It was sort of like a brief, one word story of his life. He had decided to run away from home at eighteen years old and work to become a ranger, eventually ending up at Yellowstone. He’d decided to stay there, to live life as a recluse and somewhat withdrawn from the rest of the staff and team there, up until he’d met Julie. She’d raced into his life like a whirlwind, snapping him up and taking him away to help solve a crime, but he realized now that he’d decided it. It had been a conscious, active decision. Something he’d had a choice over, and he’d chosen to follow her.
He had chosen to get involved with the CSO as it had been formed, and he had chosen to accept the role they’d given him.
None of his life had been an accident, when viewed through that lens. Sure, things had happened that he had no control over, but at every step of the way when he’d been given a choice to make, he’d made a decision.
It was sobering, really. To know that his life was his own, that it was something he was in nearly full control of. He wasn’t sure if he liked that or not. He wasn’t sure if he liked it because he wasn’t sure what he truly wanted. He loved Julie with all his heart, of that much he was sure. But he had ridden along with her during their courtship, allowing her to take the lead on things like wedding planning, vacation planning, and just about every other big decision.
But that, in itself, was a decision.
He’d decided to take the backseat. He’d decided to not care about those things. And he was realizing it now.
What would be different if I’d decided something different all those times? Where would I be?
He couldn’t be sure of anything, but he was almost positive he wouldn’t be anywhere near here. He wouldn’t be anywhere remotely close to The Bahamas, stopping over on their way to examine a ‘science park,’ and he wouldn’t be with Julie or Reggie.
He wouldn’t be fighting a war against a man who’d killed a man he’d hardly known a year ago.
He yawned, feeling the weight of the thoughts that circled his mind and the fatigue of travel hit him all at once. He wished for a moment he was Julie, small enough she could tuck her feet up underneath her and curl into Ben’s side and actually be comfortable. He was far too large for that. Tall, wide-shouldered, and — thanks to Reggie’s help over the past half-year — in very good shape. But that made it even harder to get comfortable. He couldn’t rest on any particular limb because his bodyweight would put it to sleep in minutes, and he couldn’t just curl up and rest because there were not very many chairs or seats in the world large enough for that to be useful.
He watched the tarmac, focused on the wavy lines of heat streaming up off the concrete. It was hot outside, but the inside of the chopper was a crisp 65 degrees. It was humid, which made it feel cooler, but he wasn’t complaining. He liked the feeling of the cold snapping against his skin.
A door opened on the side of a building nearby, and he saw a man step out, lugging a suitcase in one hand. It was the kind that had wheels, but the man must have felt the need to prove himself, as he carried it in a way that made him lean almost 45 degrees to the side in order to balance it properly.
Behind the man and the suitcase a woman stepped over the threshold and out onto the baking tarmac. Ben felt himself straighten, then relax so as not to wake Julie. But his eyes were riveted on the woman. Tall, thin, sun-darkened skin and curly black hair, the woman looked like she had spent her entire life on the island. She wore tight, short cargo shorts, folded up at the very bottom, hiking boots, and low ankle socks, allowing just about all of her perfectly formed legs to show. They shined in the sunlight, the deep brown color of them contradicting the white of the concrete beneath her.
She slid forward more than walked, and he watched the entire time. Her face was long and thin as well, with small features and eyes that seemed to be peeking out from beneath her skin.
Her sky-blue blouse was buttoned up to the second button, and he could see a large bead necklace hanging around her neck. She wore a matching anklet.
Reggie whistled. “Wow,” he said. “Looks like this trip just got a whole lot more fun.”
Ben glared at his friend. “You’re disgusting. What, are you going to ask her to dinner?”
Reggie grinned. “We’re all eating together, I believe. So yeah, maybe. Unless you’re going to ask her first, in which case I’ll see what Julie’s up to —“
“Save it, pal,” Ben said. “Better keep your sights set on the doctor here.”
The doctor approached the side of the chopper and put her hand over her head to protect her hair. The man struggled against the weight of the suitcase and finally set it down when she had reached the open door. Reggie leaned out to grab the luggage and he hoisted it up and inside, effortlessly. The man scowl
ed at him, but Reggie just widened his grin.
“Reggie,” he yelled to the woman.
“What?” she yelled in reply.
She stepped up onto the ladder and into the chopper’s bay, then looked around for a seat. Julie awoke, stretched, looked at the woman, and nodded toward her.
“I said, name’s Reggie!”
“Hey bud,” Ben said into his headset mic. “We can all hear you loud and clear. Stop blowing my eardrums out.”
He laughed, then reached for the fourth set of ear protection headphones dangling behind the seat and offered them to the doctor. He waited for her to put them on, then he started up again. “Name’s Reggie,” he said.
She smiled, nodding. “Pleasure to meet you. Dr. Sarah Lindgren.”
“Lindgren,” Julie said. “Swedish?”
She nodded. “I’m Swedish-American.” She laughed, an easy, warm chuckle. “I don’t look very Swedish, I know. I grew up in the Cayman Islands, but my father, Graham Lindgren, is Swedish. My mother’s Jamaican, and I got her looks.”
Julie shifted in her seat to address Sarah. “Professor Graham Lindgren?”
Sarah smiled, impressed. “Yes — you’ve heard of him?”
“I did a semester at Cambridge. Didn’t he teach there?”
She nodded. “Yes, I believe he did. Visiting professor for a few years. Did you study archeology?”
Julie laughed. “I have a Master’s in Computer Science, and an undergrad in Information Systems. But I dated a guy who studied anthropology, and he dragged me along to your dad’s lecture once. His idea of a date.”
Ben watched the exchange with amusement, reading Julie’s facial cues as she explained this part of her past. A part, he noticed, she had never explained to him.
“And just who was this knight in shining armor?” Ben asked.
Julie seemed surprised for a moment, as if she’d forgotten that everyone else in the chopper could hear her conversation with the newcomer, but Sarah Lindgren leaned forward easily and stretched out her hand. “You must be Ben,” she said.
He nodded. “Pleasure.”
“All mine,” she said. They locked eyes for a moment, then she turned back to Julie. “And yes,” she said. “I’m interested in hearing all about this ‘knight in shining armor’ as well.”
Julie blushed. “Well, he was a fling. Just a year, maybe. The point is that I remember your father’s lecture far more than I remember the boy I went with.”
“Oh?”
“He gave a phenomenal presentation. All about this idea that there could have been a ‘master race’ that seeded different areas of the world after a cataclysmic event knocked their civilization off the map.”
Sarah’s head fell back as she grinned. “Ah, yes. The old ‘ancient aliens’ theory. I got loads of that growing up. He dragged us all over the world actually, trying to find proof of it.”
“Aliens?” Reggie asked.
“Well he didn’t believe that, necessarily. But that was the common criticism of his peers. Everyone seemed to think that humans just sort of stood up one day and started walking, eventually getting to all corners of the globe. Even though no one really knows what exactly happened, it’s a pretty commonly held belief that they spread out first, then developed in pockets of civilization after.”
“And your father believed there was some civilization before all that, right?” Julie asked.
“Precisely. He looked at similarities between ancient societies, as well as creation myths from all over the world, analyzing similarities. Ultimately he believed that there was a race of people who spread out after their home was destroyed, reaching these primitive societies and teaching them things like farming, medicine, and architecture.”
The chopper began to rise, and Ben involuntarily gripped the seatbelt tighter. Their pilot was a pro, and he hardly felt the jostle of lifting off the skids, but it was the acceleration, against the direction pull gravity, that shook him. He hated flying. Always had, though he was never sure when he’d developed the phobia.
Reggie and Julie loved to tease him for it, especially since they spent a lot of their time in the CSO flying to one place or another. Reggie was a trained pilot, quite capable, and on trips from the cabin to Anchorage in the tiny Cessna the CSO owned, he often took the opportunity to give Ben a hair-raising experience by tossing them into a quick dive or throwing the plane one direction in a sharp spin. ’Dodging a bird,’ he would say. Ben never laughed.
The helicopter continued to rise, and he tried his best to listen in on the rest of Sarah’s conversation with Julie. She was an interesting woman, growing up with the archeological wisdom of her father’s obsession, and no doubt picking up quite a few tidbits along the way. But her own career was impressive as well: an undergraduate degree in Evolutionary Biology and a graduate degree in Archeology and Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh, and a PhD in Anthropology from Australian National University.
On top of that, she was humble. Charismatic, kind, and quick to follow up an answer to their questions with a question of her own, Ben immediately took a liking to her.
He noticed that Reggie did, as well.
His friend had slid over in the chopper’s seat as far as his belt would allow, and his arm was perched precariously close to her hand. He was riveted to her face, watching and taking in every word she spoke as if she were a prophet. If she noticed, she didn’t show it.
Ben was amused, knowing that the behavior was typical of Reggie. He was divorced, currently single, and thought quite highly of himself. He was a good-looking man, tall, fit, and carried himself the way an Army man would, with strong, broad shoulders and a chiseled jaw that would have looked at home on a GI Joe toy.
But Sarah seemed much more interested in chatting with Julie. The talk went from her background to Julie’s, then to how she’d met Ben, and finally it had devolved into girl talk, discussing the latest reality shows that neither of them had time to watch.
Ben and Reggie stared at them as they talked, waiting for a lull in the conversation, but one never came. An hour passed quickly, and Ben found himself just starting to fall asleep against the humming and vibrating hull of the chopper when the pilot’s voice cut into his headset.
“We’re here,” he said. “Two minutes out, but you should be able to see the outer ring of the park out your window, Ben.”
Ben looked out at the water, the sun’s reflection bright and straining his eyes. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust, but then, out on the horizon, he saw it.
13
LIKE THE PILOT HAD SAID, the first thing Ben saw was a circle, stretching out east to west nearly as far as he could see. At first it appeared to be nothing more than a line on the horizon, like a whitish jetty jutting out from the shoreline, but there was no shoreline anywhere in sight.
As they drew near in the helicopter he could see the edges, how they bent back around itself to form the ‘ring’ the pilot had described. If he had to guess, he would have said the park was a mile in diameter, but there was little to go off other than raw intuition. The ocean sprawled outward on all sides, dominating the landscape and dwarfing the park itself.
The line that came into focus eventually gave way to its true shape: an ‘outer ring,’ in that there were more rings inside it he could see, concentric circles stacked one inside the other, three in total. They had the appearance of floating on the surface of the water, though he knew they had to be anchored in some way to the ocean floor. He knew little about oil rigs, but the structure in front of them now seemed to be designed with an oil rig in mind. Semi-submersible, round rather than squared, and about ten times the size.
The circle that made up the center ring supported a building that stretched upward, probably five or eight stories tall, rounded to match the circumference of the ring it sat on. The other, larger rings had smaller buildings sprouting out from the surface, most only two or three stories tall.
The second ring was the sparsest, with o
nly a few buildings dotting the perimeter. They were short, squat, and unassuming, and most looked like cabana beach houses, complete with palm-frond roofs and wooden sides. The outer, largest ring featured more buildings, all dressed in the similar cabana style and of differing heights, but Ben could see that this ring had been designed to emulate a beach. The inner circumference of the ring had been filled with sand, giving the water between the first and second rings a greener, lighter appearance. The helicopter flew over the southern edge and turned east, heading toward the helipad on the far side of the largest ring, and Ben got a view of the artificial ‘beach’ that the park boasted.
Dots became individual lounge chairs, much like the ones he had just left behind on the cruise ship, and bright splashes of color became umbrellas and the smaller circles of drink tables. The cabana-style houses came into closer view, and he could see that many of them were in fact three-sided structures with bar tops installed, bar chairs sunk into the sand beneath them.
“Looks like the top deck of the cruise ship,” Julie said into her headset.
Ben nodded. “Yeah, but they’ve imported the sand to complete the effect.”
The pilot cut in. “The park spent a lot of money on this place. They’re hoping there are enough people interested in an all-inclusive ‘science’ vacation.”
“You think there are?” Dr. Lindgren asked.
“No idea. Not really my thing, but I’ve got a grandson who might get a kick out of it. I’m not sure about the whole ‘learning plus relaxation’ idea. Seems like two mutually exclusive things, if you ask me.”
Ben nodded along, though he wasn’t sure he agreed. Something about the place intrigued him. It was beautiful, situated in an isolated area of ocean near The Bahamas and the Florida coast, but unlike the theme parks he’d visited as a child and the nature repositories he’d worked at as an adult, this place was trying to combine the benefits of both worlds. Learning about nature and wildlife while enjoying an all-inclusive vacation seemed like a pretty good deal.