by Jon S. Lewis
Colt sighed. “We’ll look for Jonas, you find the dog, and we’ll meet back at the entrance at 0930.”
“Roger that,” Stacy said.
“We need to find that dog before it wanders into somebody’s backyard,” Colt said as he turned back to Glyph and Danielle.
“What about Jonas?” Danielle asked.
“I’ll circle back and see if I can find a different set of tracks,” Colt said. “You two help them find the dog.”
Colt pulled a small disc from a pouch on his belt. The moment he hit the button, a three-dimensional holographic map of the area projected into the air.
“Where are you hiding?” he murmured as he walked back up to the lawn in front of the nuclear power plant. But there were no other tracks, so he ended up back at the riverbank.
Overhead a smattering of stars dotted the sky as the moon fought to break out from behind a bank of clouds, and a cold breeze whipped across the water. Colt picked up a smooth stone and was ready to skim it across the surface of the water when the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.
Something had moved up ahead.
He doused the lights mounted on his helmet and switched the pattern of his Whitlock Armor System to nighttime camouflage. Odds were that it was Jonas, but why would seeing Jonas trigger Colt’s internal early warning system? Something wasn’t right.
Colt crept along the riverbank, thankful that the rush of the water masked most of the sound as he attempted to channel his inner spy. The telescopic night vision goggles helped and so did his enhanced vision from his Thule DNA, which is why he saw Jonas standing next to a man on an unmarked armored ultralight before either of them spotted him.
“What are you up to, Jonas?” Colt whispered aloud as he watched the man hand Jonas an envelope.
Jonas looked around before he removed his pack and placed the envelope inside. A moment later the man on the ultralight took off, and Jonas scrambled up the embankment back toward the nuclear power plant.
Colt waited until he thought Jonas was far enough away that he wouldn’t be able to hear or see him approach, and then he crept along the shore and followed him through the thick brush and up the hill.
Something moved.
“Jonas?” Colt asked.
No response.
“Is that you?”
A massive shape burst from the thicket and grabbed Colt by the forearm with its jaw. It was Pierce’s genetically altered Malinois, but why was it attacking? The armor held, but the pressure was excruciating as the dog swung its head back and forth like it wanted to rip Colt’s arm out of its socket.
Something popped in his shoulder, and the searing pain sent Colt to his knees.
Adrenaline surged, and the pain gave way to a feeling of euphoria. Colt felt powerful. Unstoppable. He grabbed the dog by the nape of its neck and yanked it from his arm. Its jaws snapped as it fought to gain another hold, but Colt stood up and threw the animal against a boulder.
There was a loud crack, and it fell in a heap. It started to bubble and bones began to crack. Fur gave way to scales, two extra sets of arms grew from its back, and its paws turned to fingers.
“You can shape-shift into animals?” Colt asked.
The Thule that had been a dog just moments before stood and took a step toward him but staggered. It took a second step and fell to one knee, bellowing in pain. Its chest heaved as it struggled to breathe, but then it shifted once more.
A chill crawled up Colt’s spine. “Who are you?” he asked as he stood there looking at a perfect copy of himself.
“Who are you?” the shapeshifter mimicked, its voice matching his in pitch and inflection.
“Colt!”
He spun around to see Danielle and Glyph, who were standing on a ridge at the top of the embankment.
“We heard something and—” Her voice broke off. “Which one is you?”
“I am,” the two Colts said together.
She raised her sniper rifle.
“Dani, it’s me,” Colt said, unable to tell which Colt she was aiming at.
“He’s lying,” the doppelgänger said.
“Please, Dani,” Colt said. “You don’t want to do this.”
“What’s my dog’s name?” she asked.
“Wolfgang.”
Danielle pulled the trigger, and the doppelgänger fell to its knees before its face hit the ground.
: :
CHAPTER 15 : :
When Pierce learned that Danielle had shot his dog, he was furious, until Colt pointed out that it was a shape-shifting Thule and that somehow it had come from a program funded by the senate committee that Pierce’s own father sat on.
“As for you,” Colt said, turning to Jonas, “start talking.”
Jonas didn’t say a word. He just stared at the USB drive that Colt held between his fingers.
“He’s probably a shapeshifter too,” Pierce said. “You need to put him in restraints or shoot him with a tranquilizer or—”
“Enough,” Colt said, and for once Pierce stopped talking.
“It’s not what you think,” Jonas finally said.
“Okay, then what is it?”
“If I tell you, they won’t help me anymore.”
“If you don’t, you’re going to end up in one of those underground prisons,” Colt said. “The choice is yours.”
Jonas sighed. “Have any of you heard of the Tesla Society?”
None of them had.
“What about you?” Jonas asked, looking directly at Colt. “Has your grandfather ever mentioned it?”
“Not that I remember.”
“It’s kind of like the Illuminati, only most of the members are scientists and inventors. You know, people like Einstein and Steve Jobs. Anyway, the government wrote them a blank check and asked them to find a way to predict where the Thule are going to open the gateway, and then shut it down.”
“What does that have to do with the guy on the armored ultralight?” Colt asked.
Jonas closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as though what he was about to say was going to be painful. “I know one of the members. He has a theory that he can’t prove, so he asked me to help.”
“You?” Pierce asked. “Yeah, right.”
“Leave him alone,” Stacy said.
“My contact can’t send the data over e-mail, so he has it delivered,” Jonas said. “And since the information is . . . well, sensitive, he prefers to deliver it whenever we’re on patrol. That way it doesn’t go through inspection at the front desk.”
“What kind of data?” Colt asked.
“The coordinates for every active portal since we started tracking them back in 1956.”
: :
CHAPTER 16 : :
Phantom Squad didn’t get back to campus until after ten the next night, and Colt rolled his eyes when he saw the Phantasmic . . . March to Victory posters already hanging on one of the kiosks.
He offered to walk Stacy back to her dorm under the auspices that he didn’t trust Pierce, which was partially true.
“Can I ask you something?” he said as his boots crunched on the freshly fallen snow.
“Sure.”
“You and Pierce . . . you weren’t actually . . . well, you know . . .”
“What, dating?” Stacy laughed, breaking the tension. “I don’t know what you would call it, but we were close—at least for a while.”
“Sorry, it’s none of my business.” Colt turned his attention to a squirrel that scampered up a tree. He hoped she didn’t notice he was blushing.
“It’s fine,” Stacy said. “There’s a reason I didn’t tell anyone that we knew each other back home. Most people think he’s an arrogant, spoiled-rotten jerk.”
“No comment.”
Stacy smiled. “He wasn’t always like that. I mean, yeah, I suppose you could say he was always . . . well, confident.”
“Confident?”
“Things just come easy for him. I’d study for hours and end up with a B on a chemistry test, an
d he’d blow it off and end up with an A. It was infuriating, but I’m pretty sure he has a photographic memory. It was the same with sports—he was the star on our basketball team even though he never took it seriously. But everything changed when he found out his dad cheated on his mom. He got angry.”
“Is that when you guys broke up?”
“Something like that. There’s a part of me that still likes him, as strange as that may sound. It’s just that I know how much it hurts when your parents get divorced, so I guess that’s why I’m not as hard on him as I should be.”
“I’m sorry,” Colt said. “I had no idea.”
“You don’t have anything to be sorry about. You’re not the one who had an affair with one of my teachers.”
Colt stopped, his jaw hanging open. “Wait, are you serious?”
Stacy nodded. “Crazy, isn’t it? I was so embarrassed that if I hadn’t gotten the invitation from CHAOS, I would have emptied my savings account and moved to a remote jungle in South America.”
“I don’t even know what to say.”
“Danielle was right—you’re not so bad,” Stacy said with a grin.
“Don’t believe everything you hear.”
“What if I told you that she sneaked out the other night to go and see Oz?”
“Now you’re just messing with me.”
Stacy raised a single eyebrow. “Are you sure?”
Colt couldn’t imagine Danielle breaking the rules like that, especially after everything that happened with Oz and his dad. Then again, it was only a matter of time before they admitted to the rest of the world that they were more than friends.
“She’s liked him for a long time,” Stacy said as she cut across the lawn toward a bridge that led to the girls’ dormitories.
“Yeah, I kind of figured.”
“All right, now it’s time for me to ask you a question.”
Colt knew he was in trouble from the way Stacy was smiling.
“Tell me about Lily,” she said.
“What about her?” Colt said, trying to sound nonchalant.
“Do you miss her?”
He bit his lower lip and made a silent vow to get even with Danielle. What was he supposed to say? That he thought about Lily all the time, or that it didn’t matter because he was pretty sure she had moved on?
“You do, don’t you?” Stacy’s smile was gone.
“I don’t know,” Colt said. “I guess. But it’s not like she was my girlfriend or anything.”
“If you say so.”
“I’m serious,” Colt said, sounding angrier than he had intended. He lowered his voice and continued. “After my parents died, Lily was . . . I don’t know, I guess she was there for me. Her birth parents died when she was little, so she knew what I was going through. It’s kind of like you and Pierce, I guess.”
“It didn’t hurt that she’s beautiful.”
Colt frowned.
“Danielle showed me a picture.”
“She is pretty.” Colt shrugged, trying to keep his emotions in check. Talking about Lily made him miss her more than ever, and yet he liked spending time with Stacy. Then again, what did it matter, if the world was about to end?
“You don’t have to be embarrassed,” Stacy said as they approached the front porch.
“Yeah, well, I better get going,” Colt said. “Don’t want to get caught out after curfew.”
“Like it matters,” Stacy said. “What are they going to do, expel you? Everyone knows that you’re our only hope against the Thule. I’m pretty sure you could do whatever you want and they wouldn’t touch you.”
“I doubt it.”
Stacy leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks for walking me home,” she said.
She ran up the front steps and through the door, leaving Colt more confused about his feelings than ever. Lily seemed so far away, and Stacy was real. Then there was Miranda . . . not that he had feelings for her. Not really, anyway. Still, even if she only liked him because she thought he was going to be famous, it felt good.
“Colt!”
He turned around and saw Grey and Ethan running toward him.
“We’ve been looking all over for you,” Ethan said.
“Yeah, everywhere,” Grey added. “Have you heard?”
“Heard what?” Colt asked, more than a little annoyed. He wondered how long they had been watching him.
“The Black Sun Militia broke their treaty with Koenig’s Defense Corps, and there’s a rumor that the Vril will be next,” Ethan said. “You know what that means, right? They’re going to be so caught up fighting each other that they won’t be able to invade Earth.”
“We’ll see,” Colt said.
“Oh yeah,” Ethan said as he handed him a piece of paper. “I almost forgot. Have you seen these?”
Colt turned it over, and when he saw a Phantasmic . . . March to Victory poster he crumpled it up.
“What are you doing?” Grey said. “That thing is awesome.”
“Yeah, I was going to have you sign it so I could send it back home to my brother,” Ethan said.
Colt took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Maybe later, all right? I just need to clear my head.”
: :
CHAPTER 17 : :
Grey and Ethan were still asleep when Colt slipped out of bed the next morning. He hesitated a moment, looking at Oz’s empty bunk as he wondered if Danielle had been sneaking out at night to meet him. The thought of them dating, much less kissing, made him uncomfortable. It wasn’t that he was jealous. He just thought of Danielle as his kid sister, and he didn’t want anyone kissing her—and that included his best friend.
A flashing light caught his eye, and he walked over to his dresser to find that he had a message waiting for him on his tablet. It was an e-mail from Danielle, who wanted to meet him at his grandpa’s apartment after breakfast. Apparently she and Jonas had spent the entire night and into the morning poring over the data from the Tesla Society, and they’d had a breakthrough.
“I better not be late for my training scenario with Agent Rhane,” Colt grumbled under his breath. As much as he wanted to believe that the Black Sun Militia breaking their treaty would keep the Thule from invading, he still wanted to be ready.
Colt took a quick shower, changed into his uniform, and stopped by the commissary to grab a protein bar and an energy drink. By the time he got to the apartment, Danielle was sitting at the kitchen table with a plate of scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon and a tall glass of orange juice.
Grandpa had an open invitation to join the faculty at the Intergalactic Defense Academy, but he had no intention of accepting the offer. He claimed the only reason he was still living in campus housing was because he wanted to make sure there was a smooth transition with the new leadership team—but Colt had a feeling that he was sticking around to make sure nobody else tried to assassinate his grandson.