Near Sighted (A Jake Townsend Science Fiction, Action and Adventure, Thriller Series Book 2)

by Richard C Hale

  “I’m just glad you’re here,” he said.

  “I’m glad you’re here.” She pressed her lips to his and kissed him softly, then groaned and pulled away. She touched her fingers to her lips and winced. “We should probably wait a bit for that,” she said, but smiled.

  He chuckled at her and then sat up, leaning against the wall next to her. He felt like someone had beaten every part of his body with a bat. Every part of him was sore. “Man, what the hell did they do to me?” He winced and tried to stretch, but the pain in his rib put a stop to that. He grabbed it quickly and drew in a sharp breath.

  “It might be broken,” she said, turning to him and prodding gently with her fingers. He winced slightly at her touch. “Bart didn’t pull any punches when he kicked you. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was fractured.”

  “I’ll be all right. I know the kick he served up to me would cause this pain, but why is the rest of me beat to shit?”

  “What did they do to you in the machine?” she asked. “You were pretty bad when they brought you in here.”

  He didn’t want to remember it anymore but she needed to know. He shook his head ashamed of himself. “I broke,” he said and turned away from her. “That machine was the worst thing I’ve ever been through. I can’t imagine how you endured it.” He turned back to her and reached for her hand.

  She stared at him and then spoke softly. “What did they do to you? All they did to me was ask questions. Then I filled my head with nonsense and they gave up.”

  He was relieved she hadn’t had to live through that scene of death and he wasn’t sure he wanted to tell her about it. He looked down at his hand holding hers and didn’t want to think about it.

  “Lucky,” she said softly, reaching up to his face and tilting his head up so she could look into his eyes. “Tell me.”

  He told her. A single tear traced a line down her bruised face when he was finished. He wiped it away with his finger.

  “I failed,” he said quietly. “I couldn’t take it any longer.”

  “Oh, Lucky. Nobody could have withstood that. I know I wouldn’t have been able to.”

  “Now, they know everything I know.”

  She nodded but said nothing.

  “What I don’t understand is if they have all they need, why are we still alive?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, and then leaned in and let him hold her. They stayed that way until the lights went out.

  ~ ~ ~

  Peter banged on the door of the Sheriff’s house for a third time and lights finally blinked on inside. An angry voice could be heard from the other side of the door. “This had better be good.”

  The door was thrown open and a man in long underwear stood in the doorway, his graying hair standing up in clumps and the redness of his eyes betraying a habit Peter was sure most in the town probably knew about. When the man spoke, it was still a voice of authority, though somewhat slurred. No one else seemed to live with him. “Who the hell are you?”

  “General Peter Smith, United States Air Force.” He held out his I.D. and the man glanced at it and then noticed the armed men arrayed behind him. “We require your assistance.”

  “I bet you do,” the man said. “What’s this all about, General?”

  Peter did not mince words. “We have a situation that has come to our immediate attention and we need local expertise in locating a possible terrorist cell operating within this city limit. Who am I speaking with?”

  The man eyed Peter suspiciously and glanced again at the men behind him. He seemed to come to some conclusion. “Arnold Littlehorn. And I’m sure you already know I’m the sheriff. This can’t wait ‘til morning General? It’s probably twenty below.”

  “It is morning.”

  Littlehorn looked at his watch and scowled. “Come back at seven,” he said and slammed the door in Peter’s face.

  Peter stood there for a second and then turned to the men behind him. The Lieutenant shrugged and somebody chuckled. Peter turned back to the door and banged on it until it was opened again.

  “Enough!” the sheriff said. “If you do not vacate these premises, I will have every single one of your asses hauled down to the jail and thrown in collectively where you will rot until some higher power deems you’re important enough to bail out. I’m sure you have a timeline to adhere to, and spending the night and the next day in jail will surely slow you down. Now let a man sleep in peace. This can wait until daylight.”

  Peter pulled his pistol from its holster and pressed it to the man’s forehead. “No it can’t, Sheriff. Now, this is how it’s going to go. My man here is going to follow you into your house where he will observe you dressing in appropriate attire, then he will observe you contacting your deputies, or whatever you call your help in this hick town, and waking their collective asses up, then he will escort you back out here where you will accompany me and my men on our mission. This can be done at gunpoint if you so desire. Do you understand?”

  Littlehorn nodded slowly. He seemed to be sobering up.

  “Johnson!”

  “Sir!” A soldier stepped forward and saluted.

  “Escort Sheriff Littlehorn inside.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Peter put the pistol away and watched the sheriff glare at him before the soldier nudged him inside.

  “So much for diplomacy,” Peter said to his Lieutenant. “Littlehorn. A local?”

  “Probably sir. It’s common for Native Americans to hold public office in this part of the country. They garner widespread support.”

  Peter wasn’t sure if that was going to be an asset or liability. He guessed he’d just have to wait and see. The sheriff returned in a few minutes dressed in jeans and a fur-lined coat that looked handmade. Peter looked questioningly at Johnson and the man nodded. The sheriff spat in the snow and then stood there waiting. “Where to, General?”

  “We were hoping you could tell us that.”

  The sheriff only shook his head.

  ~ ~ ~

  Jake was kneeling in a row of snow-covered bushes as Bodey made some adjustment to the house’s power meter. If Bodey was correct, all this will have only taken a few minutes and then they could be on their way. Sven and Bob were counting on this. Winslow knelt next to him as the two operatives waited in their own row of hedges a few feet away.

  Jake looked around the night and could not believe how they had been able to convince Sven and Bob of the urgency and necessity of this little outing. When Jake had opened the door to the motel room and found the men blocking their path, he had figured it was over. The jig was up and whatever he needed to accomplish here in the Grand Tetons was going to remain thwarted and the world was in for quite a surprise. Too bad he didn’t really know what that was.

  Sven had stood there with a grin on his face and said, “Going somewhere?” He pushed Jake inside and Bob closed the door standing with his arms crossed in front of him.

  “We need to leave,” was all that Jake said to them.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Sven said. “We’re tired of chasing you three across the country and since we can’t seem to contact Smith, we’re all going to have a nice little picnic in this room and await further instructions.” Bob nodded. Jake couldn’t remember, but he was pretty sure he’d never heard Bob utter a single word.

  “We need to leave,” Jake repeated.

  “What’s so pressing?” Sven said, sitting in the only chair in the room. He barely fit into it.

  “It’s hard to explain.”

  “Try us.”

  So Jake did. Surprisingly, Sven listened without saying a word, his face a stoic mask as the story was laid out for him and Bob. Jake felt the truth was the best way. It was just too incredible for make believe, so he left nothing hidden and he hoped the urgency would speak for itself. When he was finished, Sven sat quietly for a minute just staring at him and then he turned to Bob. Bob shrugged.

  Sven went to the phone on the dresser and dialed a number
from memory. Jake could hear it ringing but no one answered. This seemed to bother Sven more than the story Jake had just told them and he hung up, dialing again. This time a strange bleating noise emanated from the receiver and Sven pulled it away from his ear as if in pain. He turned to Bob who shrugged again. Something was definitely wrong and Jake looked at Bodey expectantly. Bodey shook his head. He had nothing to do with whatever was happening now.

  “What is it?” Jake asked.

  “Nothing,” Sven said but paced a few steps. He finally came to some conclusion. “If you do nothing, what will happen?”

  “I can’t answer that,” Jake said. “There are too many variables and that is why we cannot delay. I understand your position and General Smith would want you two to act with authority, but this is much too important to wait. Smith would want you to do whatever needed to be done until he and his team are able to finish the job. All we are asking for is a few minutes to sabotage a psycho’s ability to cause anymore damage and then you two can do whatever you have to with us. Just turn away for about an hour and pretend you didn’t see us.”

  Sven looked at Bob again and then said, “What is it, exactly, you want to do?”

  Bodey had shown them his plan and they both nodded in approval. “We’ll go with you,” Sven had said and Bob nodded.

  “Does he actually speak?” Winslow asked.

  “Yes,” Bob said and they were all surprised by his voice. It was very deep.

  So, now Jake watched as Bodey flipped a lever on the side of the meter and the lights in the house went out. Jake smiled and then frowned as he heard an engine start up somewhere close by. Bodey sprinted over to him.

  “I was afraid of that,” he said.

  “Generator?” Jake asked as Sven and Bob approached in a crouch.

  Bodey nodded. “I think it’s located inside the house. I heard it start up, but I don’t see any outhouse or enclosure containing the engine.”

  “The lights went out though,” Winslow said.

  “The generator probably only supplies power to necessary lighting and equipment. I bet it won’t run the whole house.”

  Sven pointed to smoke pouring out of a small exhaust stack and said, “There’s the vent. It must be inside. What do you want to do now?”

  “We need to get in,” Jake said and they all looked at each other. “Any suggestions?”

  “I guess we become burglars,” Bodey said and grinned.

  ~ ~ ~

  Peter, his men, the sheriff, and two deputies, were combing the streets of the small town looking for anything that might give them a clue. It had been an hour since he had awakened the sheriff and though they had only been searching for fifteen minutes, Peter already felt like he was looking for a needle in a haystack. Apparently there had been another EMP sometime between the time they arrived here and now because the only things that were working were the radios in the vehicles and one specially designed cell phone. Everything else was dead.

  Peter and one of the sergeants were currently on the north side of town in one of the nicer neighborhoods looking for God knew what. He kept his eyes peeled for anything that would clue them in. The streets were deserted and the houses buttoned up tight. Not too many people moving around at 4:15 in the morning. The radio squawked to life.

  “General?”

  Peter picked up the mic and pressed the button. “Smith here.”

  It was the sheriff. “We’ve got a 1969 Chevelle over here on Bacon Street with license plates registered in Colorado.”

  “Give me the number.”

  The sheriff read the plate off and Peter smiled. “That’s them. We’ll be right there. Stay put.”

  The street was just a couple of blocks away and they were there in a matter of minutes. The other two Suburbans and the deputies arrived five minutes later. Peter looked around at the houses and could not tell if one housed a lab, and the others, children sleeping in their beds. If the lab was here, the occupants probably knew his crew had arrived. Three police vehicles and three all black Suburbans looked a little obvious at this hour of the morning.

  They were about to start searching the surrounding properties when Peter watched Jake, Bodey, the girl and his two operatives, Sven and Bob, walk from the side of a house and head straight for him. A commotion followed with guns being drawn, but Peter was able to calm everyone down. He was not surprised to find them here.

  “Anything you want to tell me?” Peter said to Jake as he stood in front of them.

  “The lab’s inside this house,” he said and pointed to the place the Chevelle was parked in front of. “We cut the power, but they have a generator. It came on immediately.”

  Peter nodded. “Anything else you want to tell me before I have you locked up in the jail?”

  “Yeah. I need to go in.”

  Peter shook his head. “I can’t allow that. You shouldn’t be here and if my men had done their jobs, I wouldn’t be dealing with this right now.” He glared at Sven and Bob who remained silent. “What the fuck do you think you were doing? Trying to get yourself killed? These are not nice people, Jake.”

  “I know that. I can’t explain it to you. I need to go inside and that’s all I can tell you.”

  “That’s all you’re willing to tell me or all you know?”

  “The latter.”

  Peter couldn’t believe it. He had seen some pretty screwed up shit in his life and though he remained a mostly down to earth guy, he knew there were things at work in this world that could not be explained. And everything Jake usually associated himself with was somehow associated with those unexplained phenomena. “Help convince me.”

  “You’re just going to look at me like I’m crazy.”

  “Try me.”

  He leaned in close, like he had something he only wanted Peter to hear. “I’m supposed to do something in there. I don’t know what that is, but I’ll know it when the time is right. I have to go. But Bodey and Winslow will be in danger if they go. I need you to keep them out.”

  Peter studied his old friend hard for a moment and made up his mind. “This is what will happen. The insertion team will breach the property followed by myself, and local law enforcement, if needed. I will let you follow ONLY behind the insertion team. You will be with me. Understood? If you cannot accept the terms, then you will not enter at all.”

  “Sounds like I don’t have a choice,” Jake said. “All right.”

  Peter nodded at Jake. “Now wait over there while I do my job. I’ll come get you when we’re going in.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Ginny jumped when the lights went out and Lucky could hear computers and machinery kick off as quiet settled in the room. He whispered to her. “Let’s go. Maybe we can get out of here with the power off.”

  “The door is locked,” Ginny said. “I tried while you were out.”

  Lucky stood in the dark and went to the door. He could see the outline of light around it. Apparently there were some emergency lights or a generator had kicked in. He could hear a faint rumble now and he assumed a generator was running somewhere. He tried the door. It turned in his hand and he pulled it open. “The lock must be electrical,” he said as Ginny grabbed his hand and followed him out of the room.

  The computers in this room were rebooting and the cooling equipment was operating but at a reduced capacity. The minimal noise the electronics made allowed them to hear if someone was approaching, but would not mask their own movements. They needed to be quiet. He nodded to the chamber’s door and she nodded back. It was the only way out. He approached the door and listened. He could hear nothing. He opened the door slowly, expecting a gun or a face to surface on the other side but the chamber was empty. He walked past the Plexiglas room shuddering at the memory and pulled Ginny along toward a door on the other side of the room. They had not been through it before. At least not while conscious.

  The handle turned in his hand and the door opened easily to a stairwell that led upward. The stairwell was lit by a single emer
gency lamp on battery power and the shadows could hide almost anything or anyone. Lucky stepped into the area and started climbing stairs. He could see it went up at least two flights. Somewhere above, he heard a thump and then silence. He leaned in close to Ginny. “Have you been here?” he whispered.

  She shook her head. “No. But it’s the only way to go.”

  He nodded and kept going past the first landing. A door stood closed, but he felt it somehow led to a place they didn’t need to go. She nodded upward and they continued up to the last landing. Another thump was heard and he could feel a vibration in the handle.

  “That sounded like an explosion,” she whispered.

  “But exploding what?”

  She shrugged. Now they heard small arms fire and they both looked at each other in the gloom. “Smith,” they both said at the same time.

  The door below them burst open and footsteps could be heard rapidly descending underneath them. He couldn’t tell, but it sounded like three people. Another door opened and then slammed shut again. The footsteps moved away.

  He stood there with his hand on the handle and waited.

  “What?” she said.

  “I don’t know. Maybe we should follow them. See where they are going in case Smith needs to know.”

  She hesitated, then shook her head. “We need to get out of here. We aren’t even armed.”

  “But if the lab is a dead end, why did they go down there? Now they will be trapped.”

  She thought about this for a second and then came to the same conclusion. “Unless there is an exit down there that we’ve missed.”

  He nodded.

  “Check this door first anyway,” she said and he opened it slowly. The room was dark and he reached in to flip the switch. Nothing. The room apparently did not warrant power from the generator. He stepped into it with her following and a little light from the emergency bulb in the stairwell illuminated shadows and angles. It was a storage room and no other door was present. She must be right.