“Then what do you think, Gragas?”
“They can be used for psychic ability and quick materialization, meaning he can manifest what he wants and in a short period. In a way, he can brainwash people, and perhaps, a population, all except those of the bloodline.” Gragas paused. “In other words, he can get what he wants and, in most cases, when he wants.”
Ozzy let out a quick laugh. “He could always get what he wanted, Gragas. And psychic abilities? I’ve read the myths, and that’s all they are, only myths. I think you’ve entered Fantasyville.”
Gragas rubbed his hands together. “Oh, that type of psychic ability with the crystal technology in hand is real. He’ll use it to rule Mars if that’s his biggest desire. Once he gets all thirteen skulls, a lot of things will go his way. He’ll have greater abilities and be more powerful in creating a coup—a government takeover. I only hope he brings in the light and not the darkness that seemingly pervades your high officials and Ministry with you humans.”
Ozzy shrugged. “Once I get Lily and my money, I don’t care.” He looked off at the mountains.
He had Anonymity up his sleeve, and when all the holovids, holoimages, and holodocs hit prime-time news, it would finally get Robert Baldwin off his back and for good.
And send Robert to prison where he belonged.
18
Tagus Valles, Mars
The ship shuddered and bounced up and down as Ozzy lowered Relic’s skids and flicked off the engines. “Let’s go. Grab the sphere.”
They were on one of Jonas’s landing pads next to his driveway. The pads were a nice, new installation, covering up all the blown-out holes in his yard from the battle Jonas waged against Mort Wildly’s bunch and the Mars Ministry Police before Ozzy found the Ark.
Ozzy slid down the ladder. “How is he?” He unclipped his helmet and set it on the floor.
Jozi was crouched next to Lou. She was already out of her suit and in her jumper. Her big blue eyes flitted around and a strained smile appeared. “He’s okay but sleeping. He’s going from cringing pain to being relaxed every minute or so.”
“He’s a trooper. Us Macks can get through anything.”
Ozzy pulled off his EVA and let it fall to the floor, a smile spreading on his face.
“You’re in a good mood,” she said.
“More than you know, Jozi. I’m getting enough auric credits to get my ass off this rock, along with my daughter, my brother, and…” He cocked his head. “And you. I mean, that’s if you want to join us. We make a pretty good team.”
“It wasn’t long ago that you wanted me off your rig and out of your life.”
If it weren’t for Jozi, he’d be dead ten times over. “Don’t fault a guy for changing.”
“Well, thank you for the offer, but I must decline. I’m going to clear my name with the MMP and the Ministry. And maybe Robert and I can talk. I have a lot of questions as to why he didn’t come to get me from the orphanage and adopt me and what really happened between him and my parents. Maybe he could tell me what they were like. I barely remember them.”
Ozzy held back his desire to tell her to stay as far away from Robert as possible, but she wouldn’t listen. She’d always put that man on a pedestal, making excuses for all the crap he’d done, and even thinking that without Robert, humans would be doomed.
Jozi’s wristband beeped. She sighed. “That’s not a good sign.” She pressed it on, and a hologram folded in front of her and began playing a holovid.
As if on cue, the High Judge’s face stared back at them with a smile. “This is a video recording, but I have patched it into the MMP wristband of Jozi Ryan.” He paused and cleared his throat. “If you turn yourself in, and turn Ozzy Mack in, and if you do so in the next day, I will relieve you of all charges, and you may live your life free again, though outside of the MMP and the Ministry.”
Jozi winced and glanced at Ozzy.
“And if you don’t,” continued Robert, “I’ll expose that you and Ozzy aren’t only working for all the crime syndicates on this planet, but that you are both indeed working undercover for the Dunrakee scoundrels. You won’t only have the MMP after you, but you’ll have the Martian Marines, every Naval officer, and every citizen pining to end your lives.”
A black screen appeared, and the holovid sucked back into her wristband.
Jozi dropped her head into her hands. “Shit. This isn’t like him. Why is he doing this?” Jozi’s nostrils flared. Her sadness over the situation was changing to anger. “I’m getting a little pissed.”
It was obvious, but it bared repeating. “So you don’t expose him, even by accident, Jozi. You know things he doesn’t want you to know.” Ozzy shifted on his feet. “So, what are you going to do?” He trusted her, but she had a stronger connection to her Mars Ministry Police family and her uncle than to him.
“What do you mean ‘what am I going to do?’”
Gragas’s bootsteps clanged down the ladder. “I’ll give you one last chance, Ozzy.” He had the crystal sphere in his hands.
Ozzy lifted his hand but kept his eyes on Jozi. “What are you going to do?”
Jozi shook her head, the skin between her eyes creasing. “You’re fine, Ozzy. I can’t believe you’d think that of me.”
“Are you sure that’s how you’re feeling?”
She stood, marched over to him, and looked deeply into his eyes. “I’m more than sure. Now, drop it. I won’t turn you in.”
Ozzy pressed his palm to his heart and bit his lower lip. “If you are sure then thank you. But, if you are not, know I won’t be taken into custody easily.” He took his eyes off of Jozi and glared at Gragas. “One last chance for what?”
“To stop your daydreaming of buying an Eagle to head to Europa with your daughter. It’s a good, sound plan but doesn’t help the whole of the galaxy. If you join up with my Galactic Knights then—”
“Nope,” interrupted Ozzy, pressing the button next to the ramp. The ramp hissed open. “I’m getting my loot and going. Simple as that.”
Jonas was standing outside with a few of his men and one little girl with a huge smile on her face.
“Daddy, Daddy,” yelled Lily. She hurried up the ramp and jumped into Ozzy’s arms.
“Hey, Lily-bug.” He gave her a big kiss. “Where’s your mommy?”
“She’s asleep. I was playing chess with Jonas waiting for her to wake up, but you came here and surprised us.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a tight hug. “Why is that person lying down?” Lily pushed away, and her expression changed from joy to fear in seconds. “He looks hurt.”
“That’s Uncle Lou. He got an owie, but…” Ozzy glanced at Jonas, who was walking up the ramp. “Jonas will use his medbots to help him recover. Right, Jonas?”
Jonas crossed his arms, resting them over his fat belly and rolled his eyes. He glanced over his shoulder at one of his guards. “Get my medbots ready and a stretcher. We’ll get Ozzy’s brother to my personal medical wing.”
“Thank you, Jonas.”
“Yeah, you have my sphere, Buddy?” Jonas rubbed under his chin, pushing his jaw outward with interest sparkling in his eyes.
Ozzy thumbed over his shoulder. “Gragas has it.”
Jonas flinched. He and Gragas weren’t on the happiest of terms ever since Gragas blew Dawes to hell and back, taking many of Jonas’s auric assets that were resting in the banks of the city of Dawes. “Take Gragas,” Jonas ordered his guards. His eyes squinted, and his face turned as red as the crimson soil outside the graviton-domed cities.
Ozzy stepped back and toward Gragas. Jozi, her hand on her holstered gun, also positioned herself next to Gragas.
“Bury your beef with Gragas, and I’ll give you the sphere.” Ozzy winked.
Jonas’s eyebrows rose. He held up his hand, which stopped his guards from pushing past Ozzy and grabbing the Galactic Knight. “You really like this fellow, don’t you?”
“Without him, you wouldn’t have your sphere.�
�
Jonas dropped his hand. “Whatever.” He shooed away his guards. “Consider my grievance against him no more, plus we shouldn’t do this in front of the girl. It’s bad manners. And, Gragas, it was more of a technicality than anything. You know, to show people that if they screw with me, bad things happen.” He rubbed his hands together. “Now, the sphere?”
Ozzy lowered Lily. “Go back in and see Mommy, okay?”
Lily pouted and dropped her chin against her chest. “Okay.” She stomped down the ramp then quickly changed her gait into a skip and disappeared around a tree and to the mansion’s back entryway.
“Gragas, hand Jonas the crystal sphere, and I’ll gladly accept the rest of my auric credits.”
Gragas moved forward and extended the sphere to Jonas.
Jonas grunted and grabbed the sphere like a greedy weasel. “It’s beautiful.” He snapped his fingers, signaling for a guard. “Bring the Ketler Crystal Skull.”
It was a skull Ozzy had found on Ketler Asteroid—his old squatting grounds where he used to park Relic to get away from the world and every MMP on it.
A guard walked up the ramp with a skull matching the same glowing colors of the crystal sphere.
Ozzy’s brows snapped together. “Do you have all thirteen skulls, Jonas?”
Jonas patted the sphere as if it was his pet. He didn’t look up. “Almost.”
“Why are you bringing the Ketler Crystal Skull in here?”
“I know, I know,” replied Jonas. “I need all thirteen crystal skulls to get the powers of this sphere, but I only want to see how they interact. Have you read the Rose Coptic Tablet?”
Ozzy nodded. The tablet suggested that even one crystal skull next to the sphere could make the crystal skull sing and if used properly to hover objects and also heal anything and everything in its presence.
Jonas smiled. “Care to test this on your brother?”
“The medbots are fine.”
“Party pooper.” Jonas cocked his head to the side and motioned for his guards to take Lou.
A few guards came forward with a gurney and placed an unconscious Lou on it and covered him with a blanket.
“You’ll take good care of him until he’s better?” asked Ozzy.
Jonas nodded. “Of course.”
“Then after you give me the rest of the credits, I’ll be back here to pick him up in my Eagle.”
“Fine with me.”
The guards carried Lou down the ramp and went in the same direction as Lily.
Jonas walked the sphere over to the guard holding the Ketler Crystal Skull.
Kashiiish!
A bright, blue light pierced the air. Ozzy threw up his forearm to cover his eyes and dropped to the ground.
A commotion erupted around the ship.
“What in Mars-nuts did you find me?” growled Jonas.
19
Tagus Valles, Mars
The sphere was shattered and in shards where it sparkled on the ramp’s floor. The crystal skull was intact, but Ozzy wasn’t hired to keep that unharmed. He was hired to bring back an undamaged sphere.
He hadn’t even exited Relic, and he was already in a heap of shit.
“What the Mars-tar did you give me, Ozzy?” Jonas jammed his clenched fists on his hips, and his eyes looked like pots of boiling molten lava. “Did you try to screw me over and give me a fake or defective sphere?”
Ozzy stood. “You know just as well as I do what happened, and I don’t have a clue.”
“You haven’t a clue? This is your expertise, Ozzy. What. Happened?” Jonas asked.
Ssswooph!
Pieces from the sphere began to shoot toward the ceiling and form a straight line. Each shard projected light, which created a holoscreen from the ceiling to the floor.
Ozzy and Jonas stepped back.
The display blinked on, showing two planets floating in the cosmos. Both were blue and green and about the size of planet Earth, and they were glowing in front of the gold and brown colors of Jupiter.
A woman’s voice, sounding much like Shar’s, said, “Before the war between Mars and Maldek ended life on both planets, our great mystics and shunned scientists knew the end of Mars was at hand.”
“What are we watching, Ozzy?” asked Jonas.
Ozzy looked around. Jozi and Gragas were standing next to him along with Jonas, and they all gazed at the screen in front of them.
Ozzy was too busy wanting to hear what the person had to say to respond.
“Ozzy, what is going on? You’re the expert here.”
“Shut up, Jonas.”
The voice continued, “…so we sent many of our great secrets, artifacts, and technologies to Earth; hidden until those of the bloodline could find them.”
The image panned out, bringing Earth into view. A straight, white line connected Mars to Earth. The image zoomed in on Earth and moved in closer and closer until the vid burst into Earth’s atmosphere, through the clouds, and to the left edge of a continent.
It panned, going past ocean waves slamming onto the sand-covered beaches, and moved eastwardly. The image slowed. Martians were in the hundreds and looked as if they were toiling the ground.
“We planted thousands of seeds from our home planet that turned into trees,” continued the voice, “all of which were eventually called redwoods. That is where we hid the crystal sphere—under one certain redwood’s roots. There it will be found. It will call to the bloodline when the bloodline knows of its whereabouts…and when the bloodline is ready.”
The display screen faded, taking all the shards with it and blinked out of existence.
Ozzy heard Jozi gasp, and Gragas and Jonas were shaking their heads. They stood there for several seconds, not saying a word.
Jonas reached over and patted Ozzy’s back. “You’re of the bloodline, as we discussed before, and that’s why I had you find the Ark of the Concordant.” He cleared his throat. “And now I need you to go to Earth and find the real sphere for me. After that, I will pay you what you are owed.”
Jonas spoke matter-of-factly as if everyone standing in Relic’s storage bay knew exactly what the plan was—even Ozzy—and that he would be completely fine with it.
“Did you just say you’ll pay me after?”
“You heard me correctly.”
Ozzy stiffened. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“Never would I kid about money. You didn’t retrieve what I asked for. You brought me a map, not the artifact. That means your mission isn’t over yet.”
Ozzy curled his fingers into a fist. “You piece of—” He took a step forward, but Gragas wrapped his arms around Ozzy’s chest.
Jonas smirked. “You’re going to dig under the redwoods to their roots.”
“The redwood roots?” said Ozzy, shrugging Gragas off of him. “You’re telling me a tree planted eons ago is still alive?” Jonas wasn’t thinking clearly. If anything, the tree and its roots died tens of thousands of years ago, if not longer.
“The roots, Ozzy. It’s probably somewhere buried in the root system,” Gragas said. “Roots from newer trees are probably tangled around the sphere as we speak.”
Ozzy shot Gragas a look. “Whose side are you on?” He shook his head. “Even if the redwood trees were still around in the location specified on the screen, and if the sphere is tangled somewhere within a redwood root system, then what makes you think I’d be dumb enough to fly my ass to Earth and get the damned thing? You ever hear of the Dunrakee? Yeah, they run that planet right now and would blow my tail out of the sky the instant they saw me.”
“I don’t think you should go, Ozzy, but my guess is that the root system, just like all root—”
“Not now, Gragas. Enough of your school lessons,” shouted Jonas, slashing his hand in the air. He took a deep breath, smiled, and strode to Ozzy, wrapping his arm around his shoulders. Jonas rolled his eyes upward as if looking into an imaginary sunset and lifted his hand to paint a scene for Ozzy. “Just imagine. You grab t
he sphere, bring it back to us, and you’ll be lauded as a hero in the black market and all the crime syndicates. Oh, it’s a grand plan, I know. All the crime syndicates will want you for their digs, and you’ll be rich beyond rich.”
Ozzy slouched in his stance. The last thing he wanted was to continue to work for crime bosses. “Read my lips, Jonas—The Dunrakee are on Earth. The Dunrakee don’t like humans. The Dunrakee kill humans. The Dunrakee would kill me. My answer is no.”
Jonas dismissed Ozzy’s words. “But you have that indigo rock that makes you practically invisible on all types of radar, and of all things, as I said before, you are someone who can find a pin inside a Mars hill.”
“Okay. I’ll think about it,” Ozzy said, pushing Jonas’s hand off his shoulder. His answer was no, but he’d tell Jonas that after he was inside his cockpit and flying away from Tagus Valles with his daughter in the cockpit.
He wouldn’t tell Jonas the “no” in front of Jonas’s cronies, who outnumbered him and his friends ten to one.
“Ozzy, don’t do it,” Jozi said. “You have a family that needs you. You—”
Jonas cut her off. “What if I offered you one hundred million auric credits? With that, you wouldn’t ever have to work again, you’d be with your daughter whenever and wherever you want, and you can finally get that Eagle you’ve always pined for.” Jonas folded his hands over his belly and eyed Ozzy.
Ozzy paused, forcing himself not to wince, flinch, or do anything that told Jonas he was all in. That was insane auric, and anyone would be insane not to take it.
“Ozzy.” Jonas took out a holopad and began typing. “I’m sending this to Relic’s com line. Open it up when you’re in the air.” He pressed another button. “Sent. It will have important information for you to read and tell you about what’s going to be happening on Mars soon. As you will see, the crystal sphere is very much needed…by me.”
Ozzy pointed at Jonas. “First, give me my daughter back.”
Jonas rubbed his chin. “I’ll send her and your ex-wife to my private resort in Gledhill along with Lou. No one knows that I own it, and no one will ever think twice about going there. They’ll have a great time. And they’ll be safe. Trust me.”
Martian Insurrection (Mars Colony Chronicles Book 3) Page 8