Initiates (The Book of Adam 3)

by Scott Gelowitz

  The old man picked up a telephone while Augustus began to run, and Adam followed as fast as he could. They burst through doorways and climbed down stairs as fast as their legs could take them, until they finally ran outside into warm night air.

  “This way,” called Augustus as he ran.

  A small explosion sounded as they turned, and fire alarms rang throughout the area. Smoke began pouring out of the building they were running toward, and a few people staggered outside as they approached.

  “They blew up the panel after they transported away,” said one of the guards stumbling outside. “I barely got out of there in time,” he said, coughing as he spoke.

  Adam’s heart sunk. He wanted to go inside the building to make sure for himself, but deep down he knew they were gone.

  He felt sick as he looked around. The RTS Hub that they had just exited from looked familiar somehow, but with all that had just happened, his mind struggled to remember just where he had seen the enormous round building before. It looked like a gigantic Radome.

  One of the workers spoke into her radio. “Epcot control - we need fire and rescue at Ellen’s Energy Adventure now!” she yelled.

  Epcot? Walt Disney World? Florida? Adam wondered for a moment, but pushed that aside as he thought about his main concern.

  “We need to find Kevin,” he said to Augustus and the worker with desperation. “How can we follow them?”

  They both looked back at him and shook their heads.

  They both understood what had already happened.

  Derek, his accomplice and Kevin were long gone. The explosion made sure that there was no way to trace where they went.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  The next hour was a blur. Gurpreet and the Baranov family arrived in no time. They questioned Augustus and Adam with a contingent of upper management listening in, and as soon as the whole story was finished, Gurpreet started giving orders.

  “Get every ear listening and every eye watching now! We need leads and we need them before the sun comes up. That’s less than an hour.”

  The group scattered in a flash.

  A report came back quickly that only one person was missing from the shipping/receiving area. He was an older employee working the night shift, and he had been in the same job for years. Co-workers had heard him grumble about his position in the past, but they hadn’t realized that he hadn’t grumbled all year. Later on it was discovered that his entire family was missing too, and they knew that the family had either been kidnapped and used as leverage or they had moved because of a large payment.

  Kassie was brought from Area 51 and given the bad news. Her cries broke Adam’s heart, and he sat alone on a cement curb, his face in his hands, dazed and confused.

  A hand fell on his back and a voice sounded in his ear.

  “It’s not your fault,” said Charity Baranov softly.

  Adam looked up with glassy eyes and shook his head. “It is completely my fault. I should have listened to him at the beginning of the year and never trusted that…that…”

  “He fooled all of us, Adam, not just you,” said Gurpreet as he stepped closer. “If anyone is to blame, it’s me. I am the one who ordered that Derek be allowed to go to Area 51.”

  “It’s not your fault either, Gurpreet,” said Mikhail Baranov as he joined the conversation, his arm still around Kassie as though she were still a toddler. “Kevin did what he needed to do in order to save someone else, that’s it. It was an unselfish act...” his voice cracked, but he cleared his throat and continued, “…an unselfish act, just like we’ve tried to raise him and exactly the quality you are trying to find during training. I would say he passed.”

  Gurpreet nodded. “Absolutely.”

  Adam couldn’t accept the fact that they weren’t blaming him. It was his fault and he needed to do something – anything.

  As he tried to keep his eyes from letting tears of frustration, anger and sadness fall, a sight that was incredibly strange made his mind stop focusing on what had just happened, at least for a moment.

  Elianora was bustling toward them, and Mary was right beside her.

  “I just spoke with John Gunderson,” she said as she neared Gurpreet. “He doesn’t know where Derek would have taken Kevin, and I believe him. He’s shocked but not completely surprised that Derek did what he did.”

  Mary ran over to Adam and held him tight. “Are you alright?” she asked.

  Adam shook his head but wasn’t able to speak.

  Another recognizable voice sounded through the growing crowd. It was Horton.

  “I’ve been able to get a rough direction on the last transport. At least it’s a start,” he said to Gurpreet.

  “Let’s get the word out to everyone in that general direction. Now is not the time for sleep,” replied Gurpreet, and a few more people scattered.

  Horton walked over to Adam and Mary. “I’m so sorry, Adam. I should have known better, damn-it!”

  Adam shook his head. “He fooled us and we saw him all the time.”

  “If he’s been working with Larix, I’m sure Derek has had a lot of training in deception,” said Mary.

  Horton stared at her and then stammered, “You’re right, of course, and I think he comes by it naturally anyway.”

  He continued to stare at Mary.

  “Hello Horton,” said Mary.

  Her voice shook him out of his trance. “Hello Mary. It’s good to see you. You’re looking…”

  “It’s been too long,” Mary cut him off.

  “Yes. Over ten years now,” said Horton.

  “Twelve,” replied Mary.

  Horton looked back to Adam and then back to Mary.

  “I should go check my readings again and make sure they are accurate,” said Horton.

  “First Trevor and now Kevin,” Kassie wailed in anguish. Mike held her tight as she cried.

  Horton stopped when he heard what she said.

  “Can we at least tell her about Trevor?” Mike asked Elianora as she approached again.

  “Absolutely,” she replied. “Horton?”

  Horton looked back at Elianora. “I think we can make an exception in this case.”

  “What?” asked Kassie, “What about Trevor?”

  “Trevor is perfectly fine,” began Horton.

  “Perfectly fine with no memory of me!” Kassie shouted back.

  “Just listen,” Charity said in a soothing voice.

  Horton looked at Kassie. “He is perfectly fine and his memory is in tact. He was moved to another training area we have and is finishing his training there. The whole program is a psychological test to determine exactly how selfless and trustworthy you all are. We introduce different ideas to each of you in order to see what your response will be. The main one is the idea that you could be sent away forever with your memories wiped, or even just the memories of the League, and we see how you respond. We remove enough students so that everyone knows someone that gets ‘rejected’, which is why we encourage you to meet so many people, and then see the response again. It helps us determine if you’ll be trustworthy with our secrets or not. Everyone that gets invited for membership already has those qualities, but some have a lot more than others. Those are the ones we are looking for.”

  “How can you test for those things?” asked Adam.

  “I thought you might already have an idea,” said Horton, looking back at him. “Think about it for a second.”

  Adam thought, and a picture came to his mind.

  “The interviews every month. Are we recorded?” Then he paused and thought some more while Horton watched. “The chair! It has something to do with that chair we sit in during the interview.”

  Horton grinned. “It’s no ordinary chair. It measures a lot of things like heart rate, perspiration and breathing, but also many that you don’t even know about. We get a baseline on your first interview by doing a little chatting and then hitting you with some bad news right away so we can tell the difference. It’s
complicated, but fairly accurate.”

  “So Trevor is fine?” asked Kassie.

  “Except that he keeps asking about you,” said Mike.

  Kassie laughed a little through her tears.

  “But you didn’t find out that Derek was rotten to the core with your interviews?” asked Adam.

  Horton looked at Elianora.

  “We know that there are ways to fool the system, especially if you know what’s happening. We will be looking into all of his records right away,” said Horton. He looked back to Elianora and nodded his head back in the direction of the RTS Hub.

  “I really should go check my readings again,” he said, and he walked away.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Time seemed to speed up with every moment waited, and sometime in the early morning Adam had fallen asleep on a soft chair in one of the RTS Hub offices. When he woke a few hours later, he found that he was the only one in the room.

  As soon as he opened the office door, noise assaulted him from every where, but he heard shouts coming from a room up the hallway, and they were voices that he recognized. When he stuck his head through the door, Mary, Elianora, and Gurpreet were in the middle of a heated argument while a host of others sat around them.

  “No,” said Mary. “Absolutely not.”

  “I’m not saying that he should either,” said Gurpreet, before someone tapped him on the shoulder and pointed at Adam.

  Gurpreet looked at Adam and forced a smile.

  “Come in,” he said.

  Mary looked at him and the anger drained from her face, but it was replaced instead by pity.

  “What’s going on?” asked Adam.

  Gurpreet looked to the others, and when they didn’t speak, he did.

  “We received a message about half an hour ago.”

  “From who?”

  “Larix.”

  Adam’s heart sank.

  “What does it say?” he asked.

  “Play it for him,” said Elianora.

  Mary scowled at her with a look Adam knew well, although she had never used one on him that was that intense.

  “I need to know, Mom” said Adam, looking at Mary.

  Again her face softened. She gave in and nodded slightly in Gurpreet’s direction.

  Gurpreet pointed to a screen on the far wall, and a video sprang to life. Larix’s face filled the screen. A moment later, the video began.

  “Is it recording?” Larix said to someone behind the camera in his most soothing English accent.

  “Yes,” replied the distinct voice of Derek Gunderson.

  “Hello Sentinel League, so nice to be able to send this message to you this morning. I think you all know my camera man, Derek Gunderson. Say hi Derek.”

  Derek chuckled and said, “Hello!” brightly from behind the camera.

  The hair stood on Adam’s neck at the sound. Anger boiled deep inside.

  “I was so glad to finally meet him face to face. You Commons and your technology. Derek convinced me that this will be the quickest way to send you a message. He here has just become my new number one man,” continued Larix, “and while he failed to bring me Adam McTaggart, who I really wanted to see again, I think he has brought me someone even better.”

  The camera panned over to see Kevin in a chair, gagged and tied up with blood running out of one of his nostrils. He was bruised and one eye seemed to be swelling, but he was alive and struggling against his bonds.

  “He is going to be our guest for a while, and I promise that we won’t hurt him any more - unless he makes us,” Larix made a ‘scout’s honor’ sign with his fingers.

  “I do realize that none of you know where the Heartstone is, so I’ll give you some time to find it. I understand that my friend Adam will be most important in discovering its whereabouts, since it was his father that decided to take it, so none of you have to worry that we’re going to attack you. I’m not unreasonable, you know. You are completely safe for the next six months, and we will contact you then for a progress report. If you find it sooner, well, I have eyes and ears everywhere too, so we will know.”

  Adam struggled to find any clues in the video, but the room it was filmed in had stark white walls and nothing to give any other clues.

  “Let’s just leave you with a parting shot of your best friend Kevin, so you don’t forget why you are going to work so hard at your task.”

  The camera panned over. Derek walked right up to Kevin so that his face took up the entire screen. Every cut and bruise was visible at that point, and an anger rarely seen glowed in Kevin’s eyes.

  “Talk to you soon,” said Larix in a cheery voice.

  Derek’s chuckle sounded in the background, and the video stopped with Kevin’s beaten face still focused in the middle.

  “I need to find it,” said Adam.

  “No, you don’t,” said Mary.

  Elianora and Gurpreet looked at each other. Elianora’s lips were pursed.

  “Yes, I do,” replied Adam. “I just don’t know where to start.”

  “We are just discussing our next steps,” said Gurpreet.

  “We have discussed your next steps,” said Mary, her voice raising and getting stern.

  “Why don’t I take Adam for a bite to eat while you all talk it over,” said Augustus, standing up from behind a few others. “He’s probably starving. I know I am. I’ll bring him back here in about an hour.”

  Adam was about to protest, but he saw Augustus wink. For some reason, he felt that he could trust Augustus, especially since Augustus had tried so hard to help him find Kevin the previous evening.

  “Yeah, now that you mention it, I’m starving,” said Adam.

  “That would be best,” said Mary still staring at Gurpreet intently.

  Augustus led Adam out of the room and down the hallway. He said nothing until they reached an un-staffed cafeteria, where he said, “Grab a couple of sandwiches and a drink,” and Adam complied.

  “I’m asking you to trust me right now. I may be able to help you find the Heartstone, but you have to know I’m not on Larix’s side. I’m also not totally on the side of the Sentinel League.”

  “Whose side are you on then?” asked Adam as they began walking.

  “Aeturnum, but not the people that have become Mongill. We are a separate and newer organization, and have adopted that name again because of what it truly means.”

  As Augustus spoke, Adam saw that they had walked into the RTS Hub personnel transport area. The old man was still sitting at the controls.

  Augustus nodded and the old man nodded back.

  “We’ll be back in exactly thirty minutes, no later.”

  The old man hit the switch and Adam realized that he already knew where to send them.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  They materialized in a brightly lit room, and Adam recognized it because it was so similar to the Radome in Grayson. The only major difference was that it was a little smaller, although not quite as small as the Radome in Killaly.

  “You alright?” Augustus asked and Adam nodded.

  “Where are we?”

  “I can't tell you that. Just know that it is safe.”

  Augustus pulled open a familiar hatch and climbed down. Adam followed, and as soon as he stepped outside he knew that he wasn't in Grayson. Maybe in the time of the dinosaurs Grayson had looked like the tropical forest he was walking through, he thought.

  They hiked up a well-worn trail for a few minutes until a large hut came into view. Tropical birds flew by sounding unique calls, but even they couldn't distract Adam from the building ahead.

  “Who lives there?” asked Adam.

  Augustus smiled.

  “You're going to find out in about two minutes.”

  “I'm beginning to wonder if my judgment is off and I shouldn't have trusted you,” said Adam half-joking.

  Augustus stopped and started walking back in the other direction. “If you don't want to see him, I will take you straight back and we wi
ll never contact you again,” he said.

  Adam looked Augustus in the eyes and decided he was being truthful. “Sorry, but I've had bad luck trusting people lately.”

  Augustus nodded. “If I had been through what you've been through with Karl and then Derek, I'd be in the same position. We only have about fifteen minutes to talk to him before we need to catch the transport back, though, so you have to decide really quick. If you decide to go back now, though, you'll regret it when the truth comes out in the future.”

  Something clicked in Adam’s brain. He suddenly remembered why he had begun the journey to Area 51 in the first place. Hope and excitement began to flow through him.

  “Let's go,” he said to Augustus, and Augustus knew that Adam might be on the right track.

  “He's been here a long time waiting,” said Augustus, “But you have to let me go first so you don't get shot.”

  Adam nodded and slowed down.

  “It's Augustus,” he yelled as they neared. “And I've brought company.”

  Adam could barely contain his excitement with each step they got closer. He was sure he knew who he was about to see, and he couldn’t wait to ask him how he was still alive.

  The door burst open and Adam looked at the man on the other side.

  “Adam,” said Augustus. “This is Edward McTaggart Senior, your grandfather.”

  For Jennifer,

  Jessica, Zachary, Rachel and Rebecca.

  About the Author

  Scott Gelowitz grew up in Grayson, Saskatchewan,

  and now lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, with his wife Jennifer and their four children.

  For contact information, or information on other books in The Book of Adam series, please visit:

  www.scottgelowitz.com