by S. S. Segran
The old man acknowledged him. They sat quietly for a while, feeding off each other’s strength, until Jag’s phone rang. He quickly picked up when he saw that it was Kody.
“Hey, man,” Kody said, sounding as though he was uncomfortable. “I really, really don’t want to do this, but we need you back for the plan.”
“Right, sorry. I’ll be there soon.”
“I didn’t want to pull you away from your family, but—”
“It’s fine. See you in a bit.” Jag hung up and turned to his grandfather. “I’m really sorry, Gramps, but there’s something I have to do. I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise.”
He hugged his grandfather one last time before stepping out and running to the pickup. It hurt him to leave the two of them in the hospital but the plan needed to be executed flawlessly and he had to be with his friends to see it through.
The sun had almost set when he pulled into the driveway at the farm. He got out and met Kody and Mariah, who informed him that everything was in place. “I just need your phone,” Kody said.
Jag passed it to him and the other teenager ran into the barn with the device.
* * *
“A car just pulled up,” Kody whispered into an old walkie-talkie two hours later. “Everyone good to go?”
Inside the dimly-lit barn, Jag nodded at Mariah, who dashed up the stairs to the dark hayloft. He then placed himself against the wall opposite the barn door before clicking his own walkie-talkie and answering. “We’re ready. You holding out okay on the roof?”
“They parked right in front of the house but they haven’t seen me, so yeah. They’re getting out now; four of them. Tegan was right on the money about these guys tracking us—oh. Oh, jeez.”
“What?”
“I see Tony. He just got out, that actual pile of—”
“Focus, Kody. Weapons?”
“Tony has some kind of an automatic weapon. I think the others have tranquilizer guns. They’re going toward the house now. No, wait. They’ve turned. They’re heading to the barn. One of them’s on the phone—looks like they’re getting directions from whoever’s on the other end.”
“Good thing we put both our phones in here, huh?” Jag said, lifting up a rake.
“Yeah. Alright, Tony just told the other three to go in. He’s staying outside. Get ready. They’ll be there in three, two—”
The barn door directly ahead of him creaked as it slowly opened. Whoever wanted to get in was trying to be stealthy. Jag looked up from where he stood and saw three armed men enter with their weapons aimed at him. He dropped his rake and raised his hands over his head. “Whoa—whoa! What are you doing here? Please, don’t shoot!”
As one of the men prepared to squeeze the trigger of his gun, a sixty-pound bale of hay dropped onto him, knocking him to the ground. His head hit the floor and he didn’t get up. Another bale landed on the second man before he could react. He fell in a heap, still gripping his weapon.
The third man didn’t dawdle. He pointed his gun at Jag and squeezed the trigger. Jag anticipated the shot and jumped into hyper-mode. He saw the dart leave the barrel in apparent slow-motion and easily sidestepped the projectile. As the dart traveled leisurely past him, he reached out and grabbed it before it hit the wall, then spun around and charged at the shooter.
A look of horror formed on the man’s face when he realized he’d been jabbed between his collarbones. The world returned to normal speed as Jag watched the weakening man drop his gun and fall, lying spread-eagled on the ground. He kicked the gun away as Mariah ran down the stairs with ropes in hand. She moved the bales of hay from the two men once Jag had properly knocked them out with their own tranquilizers.
As she relieved the trio of their possessions and tied them up, Jag picked up his radio. “We’re all clear down here, Kode-man. Tony still out there?”
He waited for a response but heard nothing. “Kody? Can you hear me?”
Someone from outside the barn called out angrily. “You want to talk to your friend? Come out of there!”
Mariah gasped, then mouthed, “Tony!”
Together, she and Jag exited the barn and peeked around the corner. They saw Tony walking backward toward his vehicle, dragging Kody with him. The muzzle of his gun was pressed against the teenager’s head and he had an arm around Kody’s neck.
“I see you!” Tony shouted. “Step out slowly with your hands up!”
“Don’t hurt him,” Jag snapped as he and Mariah walked toward the young man. “We’re coming out.”
“Keep moving! Don’t try anything funny or I’ll shoot him!”
“You want us alive,” Mariah yelled. “You’re not gonna kill any of us!”
“Maybe not, but I sure as hell can make this extremely painful for him! Want proof?”
As Tony lowered his arm to take aim at Kody’s knee, a streak of gold appeared from behind Tony’s car. Mariah cried out. “Lady!”
The Labrador leapt and dug her jaws into Tony’s upper arm. He threw his head back and roared in pain, but he didn’t let go of his weapon while trying to shake the dog off.
Kody moved fast, jabbing an elbow right below his assailant’s ribs. Tony dropped the gun as he gasped for air but lashed out with his free arm in retaliation. Kody ducked and Tony’s swing went wild. In spite of being winded, the young man regained his balance, grabbed Kody and mercilessly flipped him over his shoulder. Kody landed hard on the ground and lay there, sprawled. Tony reached for his gun and picked it up. As he brought the barrel around toward the teenager, the enraged Labrador clamped down hard into his calf.
Tony screamed a curse. He pointed the gun at Lady, fuming, and was set to pull the trigger when Kody forced himself up and swung around, delivering a powerful kick to the side of Tony’s face. With his attacker dazed, Kody rushed to grab Lady and bolted unsteadily to the safety of the wheat field. That was the cue Jag needed.
He moved into action and covered the distance between him and Tony in less than three seconds; with Tony’s background in martial arts, he knew he had to be quick. Tony had no idea what hit him as he was bowled to the ground before being grabbed by his shirt front and hauled up. Before he could react, a fist slammed into his face.
“That’s for kidnapping my friends,” Jag snarled. He landed another right hook and heard Tony’s nose crack. “And that’s for trying to shoot Kody.”
Mariah appeared beside him and, with a queasy look, shot a tranquilizer dart point-blank into Tony’s abdomen. Jag let go and Tony went limp at their feet. Mariah bound the young man up with a rope she’d brought out, grimacing in distaste as she got some blood on her hand.
Lady trotted up to them, Kody just behind her. Jag picked up the dog and snuggled her. “You’re a crazy girl, you know that?”
“How’d she get out?” Mariah asked. “I was so sure Kody closed the front door.”
“Maybe she’s learned to open doors or something. Either way, I’m glad she came.” Kody went around Tony, wrapped his arms under the man’s armpits, and pulled him toward the back of the barn where an old shipping container was being used to store spare parts for farm equipment. Mariah and Jag retrieved the two men in the barn, leaving Kody to take care of the last one.
Once the friends had the men bound and placed in the container, Jag shut the doors and secured the locking bar with wire. “They’re not going anywhere,” he said, grim. “We’ll deal with them later.”
63
Tegan stumbled, having been roughly shoved into the room by a guard. She straightened and marched back to her chair opposite Aari. Her friend blinked tiredly at her as she took her seat.
“Where were you all night?” he asked.
She brought her shoulder to her ear to take care of an itch. “They put me in a room not far from this one.”
“I’m guessing you didn’t get a good look at this place, then.”
“Nope.”
“That’s a bummer.”
“How long was Dr. Nate with you?”
“I don’t know. A couple of hours, maybe more.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I gave him enough misinformation to keep him busy.”
“Did he buy it?”
“Oh, I’m fairly sure he did. I told him that the Elders are plotting to take them down, and that they seem to know what’s going on. I said that they’d planted spies inside his organization, too.” Aari laughed wearily. “He looked spooked by that and went into a gratuitously long ramble trying to convince me why he and his people are the good guys.”
Tegan relaxed back against her chair. “That was a good move.”
“Thank you. He asked if I knew who the spy was but I told him I had no idea, and that was all that came back with my memory. He told me to try to find out who the spy is. I agreed. I think he and I are good friends now.”
“Let’s make sure he continues to believe that.”
“Right. Coming back to our present situation . . . ”
“I’ve been trying to find an animal around here that could help me check out the area, but I can’t seem to find any to connect with.”
“Have you tried searching for something smaller, like an insect?”
“An insect?”
“Yeah. Something that has wings, like a butterfly. Or, you know, just a fly.”
“Ech, I guess I can give that a shot.” She closed her eyes and opened her mind, probing the novasphere. It took a while but she finally felt a peculiar presence touching her mind. She hopped into the creature without hesitating and was instantly overwhelmed by its visual capabilities.
Her new perspective offered a wraparound view of her surroundings. The three-hundred-and-sixty degree vision was initially disorienting but also intriguing. There were no blind spots; a big advantage for her mission, though she would have loved getting rid of the nausea caused by the creature’s erratic flying and raucous speed. But soon she gained a level of comfort that allowed her to navigate the creature with confidence. Time to check out what my crazy ride is.
She flew to the nearest reflective surface she could find—a glass panel on the exterior of a building—and brought her host right up to the surface. When she saw what the insect was, she pulled the connection, opened her eyes and croaked, “Yeow.”
Aari looked at her as though he’d been eagerly awaiting for her to return. “Did you find something?”
“Yeah,” she answered. “A dragonfly.”
“A dragonfly? Seriously? That’s so cool. And perfect for recon. Did you know their eyes are freakishly advanced? Pretty much all insects have multifaceted eyes, but dragonflies have thirty thousand individual facets! And each one creates its own image but they have, like, enough visual neurons to compile all those into one picture.”
“Thank you for the biology lesson, Aari. I figured that out all on my own. Matter of fact, I know it so well that I think I may just need a bucket to throw up in.”
“Uh, why?”
“It’s too much! My brain can’t handle all that visual input!”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine once you spend a little more time linked with it.”
“I did manage to get some degree of control but I’m not sure I really want to go back to it.”
“You have to, Teegs. We don’t have a choice. I know you can do it.”
Reluctantly, she nodded and readied herself, then jumped back into the dragonfly. Rather than synchronize with the insect’s abilities all at once, she decided to take things in increments this time. The dragonfly was quite the speedster and had the ability to move each of its four wings separately for greater maneuverability. Another thing she learned quickly was that the creature was always hungry. Is this what Kody feels every day? Gosh, no wonder he eats so much.
Lastly, she revisited the dragonfly’s vision. Aari was right; it took a bit of time but eventually she became used to its incredible panoramic perspective, which included more than just the human-limited color spectrum she was accustomed to.
Time to get to work. She guided the dragonfly until it was high enough to see the complex in its entirety. Mmkay . . . four buildings, all rectangular and linked with two covered walkways. Total length . . . erm . . . a thousand feet? Sure. Width . . . I’ll say about four hundred.
She flew to the front of the building nearest to the street and hovered above a well-filled parking lot until she found the entrance. Stealthily, she followed a worker through the sliding glass doors. Definitely admin, she thought, using her multi-directional vision to gather information about the main lobby. There were two receptionists tending to people in business suits but nothing else of interest, so she continued further into the building. As she made her way into the second building via one of the linking corridors, she wondered where she and Aari were being held.
The next building was clearly a laboratory. There were rows of long tables where dozens of men and women worked vigorously over banks of computers and various lab equipment. Tegan perched the dragonfly on a security camera to have a good look. Nothing out of the ordinary here, but why does it feel like I’m near . . . um, myself? Hey, hold up.
She flew in the direction of that strange sensation until she reached a wide passageway that ended with a blue door. As she flew closer, she felt the sensation grow stronger.
Looks like there’s a sign posted on here . . . Blah, blah restricted area, elevator use for authorized personnel only—hey! We took an elevator down, right? So it must be behind this door. Agh, could someone open this stupid thing, please?
Long minutes passed and it was clear that no one was going down or coming up. Peeved, Tegan continued her reconnaissance. The next building was labeled as a production facility but she saw nothing that indicated nanomites were being manufactured there. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for; perhaps some signage to indicate the type of operation that was going on inside the building. But that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?
Tegan flew to the last structure at the far end of the complex and discovered that it was a large warehouse. She returned to the lab and waited by the elevator again but no one appeared to grant her underground access. Giving up, she went back outside and circled the complex. She took note of the number of guards patrolling the premises as she flew above them, marveling that she could see them even though the dragonfly was moving in the opposite direction.
To the right of the complex was a security post where guards inspected incoming and outgoing traffic. She noticed another building not too far from it and made a note to revisit it later as she continued on. She turned left to the other side of the building. An Olympic-sized pool lay serenely next to the production facility. Curious, she flew toward a signpost. This is a test pool?
That would have held Tegan’s attention if her outstanding vision hadn’t picked up a small shipping bay beside the lab building she had been in earlier. The sensation that she was getting closer to her human self grew stronger as she drew nearer to it. A door with a keypad above the handle stood at the entrance, bearing a warning similar to the one inside the building. This must be another entrance that leads to the elevator.
She cut the link with the dragonfly again and was jarred into the room with Aari. It was strange going back to her limited vision. “Aari?”
“You’ve been gone for a while,” he said. “Guess you got used to the dragonfly, huh? Found anything?”
She described to him everything that she’d seen. “Do you think we’re being held under the laboratory building?”
“Considering these people tend to have their operations underground, it’s entirely possible. But we won’t know for sure until you can visually confirm that.”
“I can’t do that unless someone opens the door that leads to the elevator.”
“That could take some time. Got anymore sightseeing to do while you wait for your knight with the door’s access code?”
“Just a bit, yeah.”
“Have fun.”
Tegan was back in the dragonfly a few seconds
later. The insect, left to its own devices, had wandered back to the guard post. She led it to the curious structure beside the post and waited for someone to open the door. Unlike the lab elevator, she didn’t have to hang around long for someone to step out. The man, wearing a black uniform, did not look like the average security guard. His crew-cut and beefed up physique gave him an intimidating appearance.
Tegan slipped past and saw the door shut behind her just as she processed the many computer screens in front of her. They displayed live camera feeds from around the complex. As she moved toward a shelf, she was stunned to see it was filled with ammunition and other military-type equipment.
Not your regular security service, she thought as she flew to the top of the shelf. She noticed some kind of remote-control device resting on one of the racks as she passed by. Underneath the many buttons were engraved letters.
M.C.U.
Flashbacks erupted. Aari saw this on the mountain after the battle, didn’t he? That’s the Marauder Control Unit! The beasts are here? But . . . no, that can’t be it. If they were, I would have seen their kennel somewhere out there.
Turning back to the screens, she observed the feed for a few moments, then her vision picked up something else. Hello, what’s this?
A second set of monitors was arranged together on another wall. Another guard, just as menacing as the one who had walked out the door, was sitting in front of it. He glanced at the screens from time to time but for the most part was writing on a notepad; it didn’t seem as if he was too concerned with the images displayed in front of him.
Tegan brought the dragonfly closer to the monitors. The images displayed were of areas she hadn’t seen during her excursion inside. She hovered closer. This has to be underground. That metal door with the guards standing by it must be for the room Aari and I are in.
As she moved her attention to all the different monitors, she grinned to herself. Well would you look at that . . . they do have a secret lab down there after all.