“What the hell,” Jennings said reaching for his pocket.
“It’s the com unit I lifted from Dr. Randal,” Eli said. “Remember, you took it from me?”
“I didn’t take it.”
“Yeah, you did. But whatever. I guess the fact that it’s ringing answers the question about whether it’ll work down here or not.”
Jennings pulled it from his pocket and said, “Looks like an ordinary cell phone to me.”
“Because that’s what it is,” Eli said. “Weren’t you listening when Nadia explained it? The only difference—according to Nadia—is it’s a closed system, keyed to a private satellite. A sat phone. Now please answer it.”
Jennings hit the button, and spoke into the unit. “Hello! Hello!” Nothing. He looked dismally at the screen and shook his head.
“Give me that thing,” Eli said. “I’ll try sending a text.”
Jennings handed it over. Eli typed in some words and hit send—having no idea if the message would reach them, or even if it would be sent. Within a few seconds the device vibrated. “They’re texting us back,” he said. “Evidently voice communication won’t penetrate the bedrock but text will. Go figure.” With a frown, he handed the unit to Doug.
Doug read for a long moment before saying, “We’ve got to get back topside.”
“Why? What’s going on?” Jennings asked.
“The area is crawling with soldiers. They’re not sure who they are, government or private militia, doesn’t matter. They don’t appear to be friendlies. Nadia’s people are watching them very closely but staying out of sight. She says the animals don’t seem to be intimidated by them and have continued to arrive, setting up a massive barrier.” Doug began typing a response:
Doug: Have the soldiers found the cave entrance?
Nadia: Not yet. They can’t get through all the animals. No way will those creatures give them an inch.
Doug: Good. So Annie and Ariel are safe?
Nadia: For now. Ariel says they’d better not hurt her friends. Also, she has a message for you. She says you will soon have visitors. I’m not sure what she means by that, but she says they’re friendly. Don’t harm them. Also they will show you a faster way to the surface. And hurry, she needs the artifact.
Doug: Hold on, we’re going for it now. Keep me informed of any changes. Be there as soon as possible.
Doug signed off and Jennings said, “How could anyone know a faster way to the surface? You and I have been all over this place, how many times?”
“Doesn’t mean it’s not here.” Doug headed off across the mottled but perfectly smooth surface of the immense cavern floor as the others followed.
“Looks like a giant ice arena,” Eli commented.
“We’ve suspected it for a long time,” Doug said.
“What, that it’s an ice arena?”
“No. I was talking about another way to the surface.”
“So where the hell is it?” Jennings asked.
“Beats me.”
“Then why’d they build the stairs?”
Eli gave a short laugh, and then, in his best Yoda voice, he said. “In case the elevator breaks, of course.”
Jennings grunted. “You think Ariel knows this cavern’s down here?”
“I think Ariel knows more than all of us,” Eli said. “She said the visitors will show us a faster way to the surface. How would she know that if she doesn’t know it’s here?”
Doug did not bother to reply. He knew his daughter. Nothing about her surprised him.
“Who do you think these ‘visitors’ are?” Jennings asked Doug.
“Don’t have a clue. What I do know is Ariel’s usually right about things, so I suggest we just go with the flow.”
“Yeah, but visitors? Down here?”
“That’s what she said.”
“Doesn’t even make sense. How the hell are they supposed to get in?”
“Hey, we don’t know everything about this place. Maybe there are other entrances.”
“Then why haven’t we found them? We’ve been all over this mountain hundreds of times.”
“Rick, I don’t have an answer for you. We’re just going to have to wait and see.”
They were perhaps halfway to the other side when movement on the floor up ahead brought them all to a dead halt. Doug and Jennings, wary, drew their weapons. They had both been across this floor dozens of times and had never seen movement of any kind. It seemed the only life in this place was the constant Blue Light and that eternal low frequency hum. Now something totally unexpected was happening.
As they waited and watched they saw a small section of floor lift, like a trap door. And then a young man’s head popped up through the opening and glanced around in confusion. When Jennings saw that the man held an automatic rifle, he drew his weapon and said, “Hold it right there. Who are you?”
The man said, “What is this place?”
“I’m a police officer,” Jennings said, “and I asked you to identify yourself.”
The man climbed up out of the opening in the floor and put his weapon down. “My name is Jason La Chance.”
“How did you get here?”
“That’s a long story.”
“Are you alone?”
“No. There are five of us, and we’re here because a little girl named Ariel asked us to come.”
CHAPTER 24
Ice Caves. Northern Maine Wilderness. July 6th.
It was a tense morning. Waking up and realizing that three of their party had bailed was a little unsettling.
“Where did they go?” Dr. Randal asked Annie.
“Where do you think they went?” Annie replied. “To retrieve the object Doug hid away four years ago.”
“And it took three of them to accomplish the feat?”
“I don’t have an answer for you,” Annie replied.
“You mean they went into the caves?” Nadia asked.
“I have no idea where Doug hid that object. He never told me and I didn’t ask.”
“Why not?”
“I didn’t want to know.” Annie gave a rueful shake of her head. “Too many bad memories associated with that object. But yes, I always assumed it was down in the caves somewhere.”
“Are those caves easy to navigate?” Nadia asked.
Annie glared at Nadia. “You want to try it and find out? Be my guest. Maybe in a thousand years they’ll find your bones.”
“Listen, Annie,” Nadia said. “There’s no reason to be hostile. I’m not after your husband or your child. What I said last night was the truth. I only want to help.”
“How about helping with breakfast then.”
“Sure.”
Annie didn’t feel any better about their situation than she had the night before. Worse, actually, because now she didn’t have Doug or Rick to help protect her and Ariel. Having Laura and her hunky husband here did give her a little comfort, but she still did not trust Nadia or Dr. Randal.
Ariel was the last to rise and she was full of the usual positive energy that charmed everyone. She came out of her bedroom carrying a rock in each hand.
“What are those for, Ariel?” Dr. Randal asked.
“They’re a way for me to communicate with other worlds.”
“Really,” Randal said amused.
“Yup.”
“Where did you get them?”
“Oh, here and there. I have lots of them. Some I found down by the pond. Some my papa brought to me from the caves.”
“And what makes you think you can use them to communicate with other worlds?”
“Because that’s where they’re from. Earth was born in a crucible of fire, bombarded for millions of years by comets and asteroids from alien worlds. We are made up of the stuff of those worlds, thus, we are connected to them in unimaginable ways. Sometimes when you hold special rocks, you can hear them talking to you. So I talk back.”
Dr. Randal did not press Ariel further. He understood geology and knew th
at Ariel was right about the formation of our planet. But the ability to hear, or communicate with those other worlds in the rocks they left behind by billions of years of fiery bombardment was another matter altogether.
While Ariel and Dr. Randal were having their conversation, Annie, Laura and Nadia made a breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon. Wolf made the coffee. It was strong and hot and delicious.
“Hey, my phone’s missing,” Dr. Randal said patting his pockets.
“Eli has it,” Ariel said. “He took it in case we need to contact them or they need to contact us.”
“How do you know that?” The moment he asked the question, Randal knew what the answer would be.
“I just know. Sometimes I know things.”
“He didn’t have to steal it,” Randal said. “I would have leant it to him.”
“He didn’t steal it, he borrowed it,” Ariel said around a mouthful of scrambled eggs. “They still don’t trust you two, you know.”
Silence around the table. Finally, “Do you trust us, Ariel?” Nadia asked.
“I guess I do. I don’t believe you’re here just to protect me though.” Ariel picked up her glass of milk and took a big gulp, washing down a mouthful of pancakes.
“So why do you think we’re here?” Dr. Randal asked.
“You want to study me. You want to understand me. You want to know who I am and why I’m here and what my role is in the scheme of things.”
“You’re absolutely right, Ariel,” Randal replied. “We would very much like to know the answers to those questions.”
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to stand in line,” Ariel said, “because I don’t have all the answers myself. Not yet anyway. I’m still learning.”
Randal beamed with pleasure at Ariel’s succinct answer.
Ariel turned to Wolf. “Danny Wolf?” she said.
“Yes, Ariel?”
“Last night you agreed to write me a song. Have you thought any more about that?”
“Actually yes I have. I had a dream last night, and some of it came to me. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring a guitar with me, so it will be difficult to finish it without the accompaniment of a musical instrument.”
“I believe there’s a guitar in my parent’s bedroom,” Ariel said looking at her mother. “Papa’s been trying to learn but I’m afraid he’s not very good.”
A series of small chuckles erupted around the table.
Annie got up from the table and went to retrieve the guitar.
“Do you know why it’s important that Danny write you a song, Ariel?” Dr. Randal asked.
Ariel frowned. “It just is. It’s hard to explain, but I think it has something to do with completing a puzzle. It has to do with the future, or maybe the past.”
“And you’re not sure which, or why it’s significant?”
Ariel shook her head. “I won’t know until the song is finished. If then. Please don’t ask me about this again.”
So, as the day wore on, everyone waited, and learned about the interlopers that had begun to invade their world, and Ariel played quietly to herself talking to rocks as Danny Wolf retired to a private section of the cave and worked on Ariel’s song.
CHAPTER 25
Somewhere beneath the ice Caves. Northern Maine Wilderness. July 6th.
“Well, I’ll be a son of a …” Jennings’s unfinished statement drifted off into a rumble of quiet laughter.
“Where are the others?” Doug asked the man who had just climbed up out of the opening in the floor.
Jason pointed at the trap door. “Down there. I suggest you allow them to come up before Spencer figures out what’s going on.”
“Spencer?” Jennings said. “Zach Spencer? What the hell does he have to do with you?”
“That’s another long story,” Jason said.
“Let them up,” Doug said.
Jason turned back to the trap door and said, “Come on, guys. They’re friendlies.”
Up through the opening came four people; a striking teenage girl with a head of curly red hair; a pretty blonde woman in her thirties, a tall, thin black man who looked to be elderly but in remarkable shape, and another young man with dark brown hair dressed in in a stained shirt and tattered sport coat.
The trap door was still open. Jason said, “I don’t understand everything that’s going on here, but I think we ought to close that before Spencer and his goons get in here.”
Eli marched over and looked down. “I can’t see anything,” he said. “Just blackness.”
“It’s a tunnel,” Charlee replied. “Between the house and the barn.”
“The what?” Jennings said with incredulity.
“I think you should close it,” Jason said again.
The sound of shouted commands and then automatic weapons’ fire broke the silence inside the great cavern. Dozens of tracer bullets whizzed up through the opening in the floor and sped toward the ceiling high above them. Eli fell back away from the trap door writhing as if he’d been shot. Jason dove for the door and slammed it shut, and as it closed, the lines that had outlined its existence vanished. The gunfire ended and once again the only sound in the great cavern was the eternal low frequency hum.
“You okay?” Doug asked Eli.
Eli patted his body all over and shrugged. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He moved gingerly back to the place where the door had been.
“Careful,” Danielle said. “Don’t trust them.”
Eli wasn’t listening. He got down on his hands and knees and thoroughly examined the floor, feeling around for any sign of a trap door outline. He looked up at the others, frowned and said, “Neat trick.”
“No trick,” Doug said. “It has to be Ariel. She’s the one who helped you guys through.”
“Seems we have a lot to talk about,” Jason said to Doug. “Who is she?”
“My daughter.”
Everyone stared at Doug. “We can talk as we go. Now we have to move. He struck off determinedly across the cavern floor as everyone followed.
CHAPTER 26
Hartland, Maine, July 5th.
Spencer and his team entered Ralph Little’s house amid billows of smoke and burgeoning fire. They found the remains of dinner on the dining room table and the body of Ralph Little near the open cellar door. Flames were spreading fast so they had to move. With wet handkerchiefs plastered over their faces, they performed a quick but efficient search of the house proper which proved fruitless.
In the cellar, they found the tunnel, which led to a weapon’s cache, and at the end, a ladder and an open trap door. A strange diffused blue light shown down through the opening, and from above Spencer heard voices, some of them familiar. “It’s a tunnel between the house and the barn,” the teenage girl he knew as Charlee said.
“The what?” a voice Spencer recognized immediately as that of Portland police Lieutenant Rick Jennings said.
“I think you should close it,” the voice of Jason La Chance said.
Spencer did not take the time to ponder how his old nemesis Rick Jennings could possibly be up there in that barn with the fugitives he sought. So, what the hell! Shoot first and ask questions later.
“Open fire!” he commanded as he and two of his squad aimed their weapons up through the opening and unleashed a volley of rounds. Spencer watched as tracer bullets flew skyward in some strange and otherworldly place that he knew in his heart was not a barn. He was intimately familiar with a phenomenon known as The Blue Light, however, and was reasonably certain that that’s what he was looking at here. In the next instant the trap door was slammed shut. He continued to fire for a few moments, watching his rounds punch holes in the wooden door.
“All right, get your asses up there,” he said, sending two of his team ahead. The man in the lead punched open the trapdoor while continuously firing his weapon. A second soldier followed. The shooting stopped. Seconds ticked by as flashlight beams crisscrossed the opening.
Finally, a voice said, “It�
��s okay, boss man. The place is clear. Come on up.”
When Spencer poked his head up through the opening he saw a nineteenth century barn filled with old junk and farm equipment. Without saying a word, he climbed out of the hole and did a quick circumnavigation of his surroundings. There were two vehicles, one with Maine plates and one with Connecticut plates, but a quick search of the premises turned up no people. His mind was working overtime trying to understand what had just happened. But there was no time. Smoke was beginning to fill the barn. A member of his team ran back inside after searching the perimeter and reported that the house was totally engulfed and the barn was catching fire.
“Everybody out!” Spencer commanded. Before going back to the vehicles he had his men do a cursory search of the property around the farmyard. It was night, and if the fugitives had escaped into the woods, it would be nearly impossible to find them without dogs. But Spencer was pretty sure they weren’t in the vicinity, and any more searching would be a waste of time. Finally, he called his team back, and as they were driving away from the inferno, Spencer was deep in thought. He knew that something extraordinary had happened here, something beyond his scope of knowledge. And considering the circumstances in the world, he had but one choice, though he dreaded it, an unthinkable last ditch option. He was going to have to contact the person who understood these things better than anyone he’d ever met. The crazy-ass bitch he knew as Angelica.
CHAPTER 27
Song of Ariel: A Blue Light Thriller (Book 2) (Blue Light Series) Page 27