by S. S. Segran
The friends looked at him, confused, and got up as well. “You’re leaving?” Tegan asked.
“Yeah. I have something that needs to be done.” Marshall fished out his keys. “Egad, how many rental cars have we gone through the past couple weeks?”
Mariah covered her mouth, thunderstruck. “It’s been just two weeks?”
“Mmhm.” Marshall patted his styled hair into place as a gentle breeze stirred it. “Anyway, I should really get going. Take care, guys.”
The five refused to let him leave before each of them took turns giving him a bear hug. The Sentry looked touched and colored a little when Kody said, “We’re gonna miss you, Marshall.”
“If you’re ever around the Great Falls area in Montana, give us a shout,” Jag said. “I know we’ll be more than happy to have you crash at any one of our humble abodes.”
As they walked the Sentry to his vehicle, Aari asked, “This isn’t the last time we’ll be seeing you, right?”
Marshall paused with one foot already in the car. He rested an arm on top of the open door and flashed the friends a devious smile. “Let’s say that our paths are sure to cross again pretty soon.”
The five converged upon him, demanding to know what he meant, but he dodged into the vehicle with a laugh. He waved at the teenagers as he backed out of the driveway. They waved back, questions still bubbling, and remained there even after the Sentry was out of sight.
“I miss him already,” Kody sulked, kicking at the dust and sending a puff into the breeze.
Jag led them back to the steps of the porch and sat down, Tegan and Aari on either side of him and Kody and Mariah next to them. “We’re lucky that we had him with us,” he said. “We would have been handicapped if not for him.”
The sun disappeared completely, leaving a full moon in its stead. It wasn’t long before a car pulled onto the gravel driveway and Jag’s family stepped out. Jag was the first to run to them; his siblings caught him in their arms and his parents joined them. Aari, Tegan, Kody and Mariah approached them afterward and greeted the newcomers with heartfelt condolences.
The door to the house opened and Jag’s grandfather hobbled out. Lady walked by his side, her flank rubbing against his leg in support. The elderly man was enveloped in a long family embrace where nothing but love was shared.
“Come,” he rasped, rubbing his eyes as he stepped back with his son’s arm around him, “come inside.”
Jag gave his siblings a light push, signaling them to follow the adults. He ignored their questioning expressions and waited until the door had closed behind them. Tegan nudged him. “Are we not going in?” she asked.
He tilted his head back to look at the stars that speckled the sky. “No. There’s going to be a lot of hugging and crying and I’m done with that. If I dwell in that kind of environment for too long, I’ll have an even harder time pulling myself out of it.”
Kody took off his baseball cap and attached it to a belt loop on his jeans. “So we’re just gonna sit out here, then?”
“Not quite. There was something I did when I was little . . . Follow me.”
Minutes later, the five were lying on their backs on the roof of the house, gazing up at the heavens. The longer Tegan observed the constellations, the harder she found it to hold on to earthly problems. This is so beautiful, she thought. She raised her hand to pinch the stars between her fingertips. “I never knew you did this, Jag. Your parents really let you on the roof of your house?”
“Are you kidding?” he retorted amiably. “I had to sneak out. If they’d caught me, they would have grounded me for life.”
“You always were a firebrand,” Aari jibed. “Which is funny because I don’t recall you stirring trouble in class.”
“I just know when to pick my fights.”
The others rolled into each other, laughing until their sides and chest hurt. “The only way that’s true is that you stayed away from confrontation when adults were around,” Kody giggled. “Now Aari, on the other hand, didn’t even care that Mr. Goh was five feet away when he knocked the other smart kid in the class out of his chair.”
“Oy!” Aari crawled over the others to smack Kody, who was on the other side of the group. “He was second-guessing all my answers on my history project in front of the class! I will not have my knowledge questioned!”
Tegan snickered as she pulled Aari away from Kody. The two boys sniped at each other good-humoredly before the friends settled down and went back to stargazing. For some reason, the worldly difficulties she’d been able to curb were crawling back into her mind. The last thing she wanted to do was voice her thoughts, but in the end she caved. “What now?”
“Mmh?” Mariah sounded preoccupied.
“North America is saved, somewhat, and that’s great, but the rest of the world is going to be a different place real soon. The damage has been done, and my gut tells me that by the time Josh creates and ships out more of the anti-nanomite, it’ll be too late.”
“Yes, please bring up the topic I wanted to avoid,” Kody groused.
“It’s not something I want to visit either, you know. We can run from it for as long as we want but reality’s gonna find us eventually. Might as well face it now.”
Mariah pitched a deep sigh. “As we’ve been told by both the Elders and . . . Tony . . . this is just the beginning. No one knows what’s in store next except for whoever Tony’s working for. About the crop failure—”
“It’s out of our hands,” Aari chipped in. “This is global. It’s in Josh’s court now, and then the Sentries’.”
Tegan pressed her hands to her temples. “What will happen next? War?”
“That’s a worst-case scenario,” Aari replied. “But that’s entirely possible. Countries that lost their crops and have run out of food will go after countries that are still producing food.”
“It’s the twenty-first century. Aren’t we a little more civilized than that?”
“One can hope. The things some will do to stay in power by making sure their people don’t revolt is a powerful motive.”
Tegan let his answer simmer in her mind instead of pursuing the discussion further. As the moon slowly traversed the sky, her eyelids grew heavy. She had just started nodding off when Jag said, “The plane crash last year.”
Kody yawned. “What about it?”
“That crash was what led us to where we are. Our lives have changed because of it. There’s no going back to the way things were before and I don’t know if I want to shoulder all the responsibility that’s about to come at us. We could just turn away. Say that this isn’t for us and we don’t want to do it. But then, that’s kind of selfish.”
“It’s going to be a dilemma we’ll be wrestling with for some time,” Aari said. “There’s no use pretending we’ll be strong throughout all this. We’re only human, I guess.”
“But,” Tegan cut in, “how about we acknowledge what we managed to achieve? Through everything that we’ve experienced, from the battle on the mountain last year to these crazy past two weeks, we came out alive and in some way victorious. That’s something to think about.”
“We had help,” Kody argued.
“And there’s nothing wrong with that! The Elders even told us back in Dema-Ki that we won’t be alone. We have the means to make this possible but we’re not comic book superheroes who have to carry this weight on our own. We . . . we have a family out there who will support us.”
“The Sentries,” Jag said, voice low. “Sentries like Marshall—and Gwen. We may not get to meet them, but they’re there.”
“Just knowing that lifts some of the burden, doesn’t it?” Tegan insisted softly.
“It does.”
“And as long as we’re together,” Mariah mused, “the five of us, I think we can help each other get through whatever else is going to be thrown our way.”
“True,” Kody agreed.
There was nothing more to be said. The friends stretched out to get comfortable and c
ontinued their stargazing in reflective but comfortable silence. They found strength in one another and Tegan knew it would remain that way for a long time to come. However much the world around them changed, they would still be able to plough onward.
Because the one thing that will always remain constant is our bond, our lifeline. We’re strong on our own and we’re stronger united. If we have each other, we’ll take on whatever we have to.
Epilogue
The sleek, white Gulfstream jet cruised at forty thousand feet above the Tyrrhenian Sea west of the Italian mainland. The luxuriously-fitted and technologically-advanced aircraft showcased a cozy interior with windows that permitted ample sunlight to brighten the cabin. Though the plane could accommodate eighteen people, only one passenger was aboard the flight.
Sitting on one of the lush seats and speaking into a phone was the founder of Phoenix Corporation. “Hello, Dr. Nate.”
“’Ello, Boss,” the man on the other end of the line hailed. “I got your message that you’d just left the Middle East. Where are you ’eading to now?”
“I am en route to the Heart.”
“Ah, the Heart . . . I wish I could be there! ’ow far out are you?”
“About thirty minutes.”
“You know, Boss, the move to acquire the island from the Italian government a decade ago is nothing short of a tribute to your unrivaled brilliance.”
“If you are done stroking my ego, Doctor, perhaps we can cut to the chase. I just finished reviewing the final report from Adrian about the damage sustained from the attacks on our pod sites, as well as the destruction of the Quest Defense lab, the Redding facility and the fact that we once again lost two of the five whom Tony had caught.” The fingernails of the Boss’s free hand dug into the side paneling of the cabin. “I need to know. How is this possible?”
Dr. Nate stammered. “I-it was a fully coordinated attack by a formidable f-foe.”
The Boss stifled a response and looked out the window at the scattered clouds below, eyes aglow.
The pregnant pause had obviously made Dr. Nate nervous. “I understand you must be furious with us for letting our guard down,” he said. “I will completely understand if you demand for ’eads to roll for this colossal mistake.”
“Yes, I am tempted. But I will have to take some responsibility for not being better prepared. Heads need not roll . . . for now. However, we would have gotten an early warning if only that incompetent technician had reported the Ransom pod shutdown as an attack rather than a malfunction.”
“I heard Luigi has dealt with the man.”
“He has. So I suppose there’s nothing more to say.” Reaching into a briefcase on the next seat to grab a tablet, the Boss tapped on an app to open up a calendar. “I assume you still haven’t heard from Tony or his men?”
“N-no, I haven’t. Doesn’t sound as though you ’ave, either.”
“It’s like he and his team just vanished off the face of the Earth. We were unable to trace his phone or locate the vehicle they were using. As much as I don’t want to say it, there are only two possibilities I can think of. One, he and his men are now being held hostage by our adversaries—or, he’s dead. Killed in action at best.”
“But Tony’s an incredible fighter. There was a reason why you chose ’im to undertake your personal tasks.”
“I know why I enlisted him under my wing, Doctor.”
“My apologies. Still, ’ow could this ’ave ’appened?”
“Did I not tell you that the Elders of Dema-Ki are highly capable?”
Dr. Nate swore violently. “The mole. The boy, Aari—remember I mentioned to you that ’e said there was a mole the Elders ’ad planted among us?”
“And I highly doubted it because I know the people I picked to be in the Inner Circle. Rest assured, I did take another look at the list.”
“And?”
“I stand by what I said. We’re clean. All the same, it wouldn’t hurt to have a chat with our people. I’d like you to see to that.”
“Me? Ah . . . alright.”
The Boss shifted beside the window to escape the sun’s glare and gazed out at the dark blue sea below. The call was ongoing but neither end spoke for a time until Dr. Nate let out a quick breath over the speaker. “As bad as all this loss is, everything else is running as scheduled.”
“I’m aware of that. I detest any part of our plan, no matter how inconsequential, being hindered. But you’re right. What has happened is but a blip. It doesn’t matter now because it will take time for North America to recover. Time they don’t have. As long as the global pods are maintaining course, the world will soon slide into a very precarious state. We will, at the right moment, deal the next blow and they will never know what hit them. I spoke to Dr. Bertram earlier and he assured me that he has made good progress on the next phase of our strategy.”
“’Ow long will we ’ave to wait?” Dr. Nate asked; the Boss heard fervor dripping from his tone like slobber.
“Three months at the latest. We are almost there, Doctor.”
“I will await that day eagerly.”
“As will the rest of us.”
Dr. Nate nibbled on his lip. “One thing is bothering me, Boss. The Elders and these . . . children. They know about us. What’s stopping them from going to the authorities with the knowledge they ’ave about our organization?”
“It’s precisely because they have knowledge about us—about me—that they will do no such thing. The Elders know the consequence.”
“Are you sure about this?”
“Do you have so little faith in me?”
“No! Of course not!”
“Then believe me when I say we will not have to worry about the authorities.”
“Yes, Boss.” There was a brief lull, then Dr. Nate said, “Uh, Boss, I really ’ate to cut this short but if there’s nothing more to discuss, I ’ave some work to get back to. It’s orientation day for our final batch of new recruits.”
“By all means, take your leave. We wouldn’t want to keep the future Stewards of New Earth waiting too long. I am expecting great results. Good luck, Doctor.”
The call ended just as a seatbelt warning sign came and the captain’s voice floated cheerily over the intercom. “Please fasten your seatbelt, Boss. We’ll be landing at the Heart shortly.”
Once buckled in safely, the tall figure relaxed back and pulled out the purple sphere, rolling the object between long, smooth fingers. The small orb slid down and the boss caught it in a tightly-clenched fist, uniform lines of veins protruding from the back of a tanned hand.
In time, they will all be humbled to ashes.
* * *
The five and their families had gathered together in the Sanchez household back in Great Falls, Montana, at Jag’s request. It was a warm mid-July evening and though they would have preferred having dinner on the porch in the backyard, the friends insisted that the families eat inside.
The five had some idea of what was to come; Marshall had contacted Jag a day prior and asked for the group to gather their families together. He’d entreated them not to question him but to make sure that their parents and siblings were ready. Bewildered, the friends could do nothing but comply.
It was after dinner now and most of those gathered had drifted into the living room to chat over the drone of the television. Jag’s and Mariah’s mothers were in the kitchen, talking as they did the dishes together. Aari ambled in to clear his plate of chicken bones but Mrs. Sanchez scooped it away from him and gave him a one-armed hug. “Don’t worry about this, hon. Go join the others. We’ll be there shortly. Wish we had some notion of what this gathering’s about, though. The five of you have been very tight-lipped about this get-together.” She gave him a pointed look.
Aari responded with a hasty thanks and shuffled out of the kitchen. He didn’t need Kody’s hearing to pick up on Mrs. Ashton’s next words. “You know, Jen, I tried to pry it out of Mariah, but she wouldn’t give me even a hint!”
Mrs. Sanchez laughed. “Jag’s the same. I think it has something to do with their road trip. But that’s just a momma’s Spidey-sense.”
Curious, Aari sauntered about in the dining room, staying within earshot but out of sight.
“You’re probably right,” Mrs. Ashton said. “They’ve been different since their return. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe they did re-discover themselves during this trip.”
“I noticed that in them too. That might just be it. In any case, I think we’ll find out soon enough.”
“Mmhm. Anyway, as I was saying, isn’t it strange how the outbreak suddenly stopped in North America but not the rest of the world? And they still have no idea what caused it.”
“To be honest,” said Mrs. Sanchez wearily, “I’m glad we don’t have to worry about it here anymore. But don’t get me wrong, it’s horrible that the other countries are still suffering. There was a lot of speculation at the UN conference that Rob and I were in a couple of weeks ago. Nothing concrete came out of it, though. This whole thing is still a huge mystery.”
“This is unbelievable,” Mrs. Ashton said. There was a clattering on the floor and she sighed; presumably, she’d dropped one of the forks or spoons.
“It’s just . . . this is what happens when a nation lives hand-to-mouth on its food supply. I’m beyond furious that the government no longer stockpiles grain and other staple foods. And don’t get me started on the amount of agricultural land lost to development and the monopoly of big agri-businesses. At the end of the day, you can’t eat money. As a country we need to make sure that our farmlands are protected. They’re priceless.”
“Couldn’t agree more. How is Hugo doing, by the way?”
Aari’s ears perked further; ever since returning home, the topic of his grandparents was something Jag did not want to address.
Mrs. Sanchez sounded deflated. “Hugo’s staying at the farm. It’s his home. We keep telling him that we have a room ready for him and Lady if he wants to come and be with us for a while, but I doubt he will. As difficult as it must be without Julia there, that’s where his heart is. But we’ll visit him often and he’s promised to spend more time in Great Falls.”