by Mikayla Lane
He could tell she had a soft heart and even though those same men were going to kill them, she still didn’t want them to be outright murdered.
“The ultimate survival game. Sounds like karma to me. Any chance of putting these assholes outside the door and doing it to them?” Harry asked, gesturing to Mike and the other bound men.
Mike began screaming into the tape over his mouth as tears streamed down his face. Several others in the room voiced their approval of Harry’s idea, and Haruki narrowed his eyes at the crying and whimpering jerk.
“Mikal, thank you for your swift intervention. I have one more favor to ask. I need to know everything Dante and Siggy can find out on a Michael Zickenbergen. He’s become a problem, and I need a final solution for him,” Haruki explained.
“Where have I heard that name?” Mikal asked.
“Useless social media billionaire who dodges paying his corporate taxes, has no morals or ethics and pretends to be a philanthropist while stifling any opinion that doesn’t agree with his via his social media companies. His high profile status is why I need a final solution,” Haruki admitted.
“Fuck, that one’s going to be hard. It would help if I knew the whole situation,” Mikal prompted, hoping Haruki would finally explain what was going on.
Haruki sighed in his mind as he looked at the faces staring at him, waiting for an answer.
“Not yet, brother. A few more hours,” Haruki replied. “Thank you, for everything.”
Haruki severed communication with Mikal and faced the room.
“We all have reasons to see this ass become jungle food, but his people know where he is, and sooner or later, someone will come for him. We need a better way to get rid of him without bringing his whole corporation down on this place,” Haruki explained to everyone.
“He’s right,” Harry admitted with a nod of his head.
Mike screamed almost non-stop while some sighed and others shook their heads.
“Most of his own people hate his fucking guts! He has to pay people to even be around him and pretend to be his friend!” someone shouted.
There were murmurs of agreement around the room and Haruki shook his head.
“I have no doubt that he’s generally hated by everyone and if it weren't for his money he’d be shunned like the morally bankrupt trash that he is, but his company won’t just leave this place alone. They want this power, and they’ll come for it,” Harry explained.
“Then what’s the damn point if there’s no hope?” someone whispered in the back.
The only person who could hear it was Haruki with his enhanced senses.
“Trust me, my friends and I will come up with a viable plan, even if I have to tie him into the chamber so he can find Dale,” Haruki promised. “There is always a way, we just need to find it. I’d think with the collective brain power in this room, and more time on our hands since there’s no attack coming, we could figure it out.”
“Damn right we can!” someone shouted and several laughed at the outburst.
“I think we need to decide who needs to come in the chamber with us, and we need to rotate the guard in here and on the radio, so everyone gets a chance to see what’s going on in there,” Deanna suggested then turned an angry gaze to Mike. “This idiot doesn’t need to take up any more space in our heads right now.”
Suddenly everyone in the room erupted in chatter as they tried to decide among themselves who would get to be in the chamber when they went back inside.
“You’re excellent at distracting them,” Haruki leaned down and whispered in her ear.
Deanna laughed, enjoying the feel of his arm draped over her shoulder and her hand around his lean midsection. She was exhausted but wouldn’t miss a moment of this for nothing in the world.
“We’re scientists. All you need to do is throw a problem out there like you would a ball, and we’ll become obsessed with playing with it,” she explained as she watched the group slowly whittle down their list.
Mike began screaming again and started flopping around in his chair to get attention. He became more frustrated the longer everyone ignored him. Haruki studied the man, noting the urgency in which he was rocking around, almost tipping the chair over.
“Do you want another cup of coffee?” Deanna asked, interrupting his perusal of Mike.
“I would appreciate it very much,” Haruki whispered as he leaned down and gently kissed her temple. “When we get out of here, I will devote every spare moment to you and my daughter, but for now, I must see to the situation. Otherwise, I’d have melted your ears with questions about your life, hopes, and dreams.”
Deanna felt her heart melt at his words as a thrill ran through her. She couldn’t be happier that he felt the same way that she did, even though they hadn’t been alone for a second and hadn’t spoken of anything personal. She looked up into his soft brown eyes with those amber swirls and blushed at the look of devotion on Haruki’s face as he gazed at her.
He brushed a tendril of hair from her face and began leaning in, to finally taste her lips when he heard someone loudly clearing their throat. He pulled back and heard Deanna’s sigh of regret as he turned to Harry.
“I believe they have the chamber issue figured out, and we’ve set up guard shifts. We really need to let them go to the bathroom and have some water. I don’t want these idiots peeing on my floor. I cook in here, and we eat in here,” Harry said, putting his arms across his chest as his eyes dared anyone to argue.
“You have a point I was just going to address,” Haruki said as he stormed across the floor to Mike.
Without a word, he brutally ripped the tape from Mike’s mouth and leaned over him.
“I’m sick of your cowardly sniveling. What do you want?” Haruki snarled at him.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” Mike whispered in a shaky voice.
Haruki grabbed the back of the chair and the seat and lifted Mike up into the air and over the other bound men. He ignored the gasps and Mike’s shrieking as he carried him through the mess hall and out the door without breaking a sweat.
“Please! Please don’t kill me!” Mike screamed as large tears streamed down his face.
Haruki shook his head as he thumped the chair down in the dirt outside. He walked around to look at the shaking and crying Mike.
“Well, it seems that took care of you needing to go to the bathroom,” Haruki said with disgust, slapping the tape back over Mike’s mouth.
Everyone burst out laughing when they saw Mike’s wet pants.
“The others should be taken one by one, and we need to put them out here where it’ll be easier to watch them,” Trevor suggested.
“We need more than one guard for that. It’d be far too easy for one of them to overpower a single person,” Haruki said.
“How about we get them to the bathroom and solidify our plans while Dog and Tom finish whatever they’re doing up there?” Harry said.
Complaints and groans were heard from the group, but Haruki nodded his head in agreement with Harry’s idea. He didn’t trust Mike and his men and would feel better if he helped get them settled before they went back in the pyramid.
“I’ll get the first one to the men’s room, maybe someone else can make sure he gets water and re-secured out here while I get the next one to the facilities,” Haruki offered.
“I’ll get the water,” Deanna said.
“I’ll get the chairs and get them re-secured,” Trevor added.
They spent the next hour taking care of Mike and his men before they found themselves heading back to the tunnel. Haruki took Deanna’s hand and led them inside.
“Damn if they didn’t let some shit heads like you in there!” Harry called out to Dog and Tom.
Dog stood and gave Harry a toothy smile as he flipped him off with both hands.
“Screw you too, Hairy Bear,” Tom teased back.
“Hairy Bear?” Haruki mouthed to Deanna, trying to stifle his laugh at the strange camaraderie between the
old timers.
Deanna chuckled and shrugged.
“They came up with that stuff long before I got here,” she whispered.
“OK, those going in, line up outside. Give me your name and let me make sure it gives you permission before you step through,” Haruki called out as he weaved his way through the group and stepped across the threshold of the chamber with Deanna.
He was grateful when only five people lined up. With the four already inside, anything more than ten would make it hard to move around. Haruki made quick work of giving them access to the chamber and sighed in relief when the automated voice gave them all access.
With everyone safely inside and marveling over the interior of the anteroom, Haruki gently pulled Deanna over to the pedestal that had displayed the three planets. Instead of placing his palm on it, he pointed at one of the words.
“It says, ‘worlds,'” he whispered and smiled when he heard Deanna’s excited gasp.
“Wait! Let me get my pad!” she exclaimed, digging into her pack until she pulled out her journal and a few pencils.
Haruki watched as she carefully sketched the symbols before writing the word next to it and was surprised that he had to force himself to see the symbols instead of the English translation. His mind had already adapted to switching it for him.
“It is this place that is doing it,” Bacandi whispered through his mind. “It is teaching you the language.”
Haruki wasn’t surprised by his beast’s comment. Everything about this strange and mystical place was proving to be layers of secrets and more mysteries.
“Is the word in front of it Tri? As in Tri-Worlds?” Deanna asked, remembering what he’d called it earlier.
“Yes, that’s exactly what it says,” Haruki said with a smile.
Deanna beamed with happiness as she turned back to the pedestal and put her hand over his.
“Read it to me first,” she whispered as she moved his hand to the next set of symbols that she assumed was a word.
Haruki sucked in a breath at the feel of her soft hand running over the back of his and had to force his thoughts back to the pedestal.
“It says, Tri-Worlds. Next to the largest planet it means, Dakken’. Then Dranar and Daetz’,” Haruki whispered as he moved their hands down the list from the biggest to the smallest planet.
He tapped on the last planet three times and was surprised when the screen changed to detailed information on Daetz’.
“Is that more information on Daetz’?” Deanna asked in excitement.
“Yeah, there’s pages of it,” Haruki admitted, trying to take in as much of the information as he could.
“Does it say where it is?” she asked.
She was still curious as to where these worlds were and if they were still inhabited or if the pyramid was acting on autopilot and no one was on the other end anymore. With at least another hour to go before the message was confirmed to be in the hands of the Dawn Commander, she was hoping for a spoiler.
“There’s a lot of information here. Maybe we should record what I read, and you take pictures so we can study it later,” Haruki suggested, thinking it beat a movie and chill any day.
“I think that's an excellent idea,” Deanna agreed and dug in her backpack so he wouldn’t see her blush.
Chapter Eleven
Mikal sat quietly in the transport, listening intently to the threats, and more recently, the begging of the group of men that had been heading towards Haruki’s location before he, Gun, Dante and Shane intercepted them.
“You’re never going to get away with this! You can’t take over that pyramid! The US government gave it to him! Mike . . . Mike is going to have all of you killed!” the blindfolded and bound leader screamed out as he struggled with his restraints.
Shane and Dante sent meaningful glances to Mikal at the mention of a pyramid.
Mikal gave them a sharp nod, wanting the man to continue giving them the information he couldn’t get from Haruki. He leaned forward, close enough to frighten the blindfolded man into jerking back in the seat.
“Mike? You mean that Zickenbergen idiot? His possession of the location has been rescinded and since his . . . rights have been terminated so to speak, so has your employment,” Mikal growled hoping to scare the man into revealing more information by alluding to Mike being killed.
“Oh, God! You’re Russians, aren’t you? Or Chinese! You have to be!” the man screamed, his terror level increasing.
Mikal shrugged his shoulders at the confused look on his brother’s faces and decided to try something.
“Nope, not foreigners at all. How the hell did you make it as a mercenary when you can’t even tell a homegrown accent?” Mikal patronized the man.
“You’re lying! I know you are!” the man shouted. “Mike bragged about how he bought off the new speaker of the house to get the rights to the technology! There ain’t no one above him that could have taken the place from Mike!”
Mikal’s eyebrows raised at the information, and he looked at Dante to make sure he was getting them all the information they needed on the speaker.
“We’re hovering over the drop zone,” Gun told Mikal through the shengari’. “Ready to throw them out at any time.”
Mikal didn’t think he’d get much more out of the men and stood. He leaned forward and grabbed the leader, pushing him down the aisle to the door.
“I guess that’ll teach you to trust a politician,” Mikal growled before he threw the man out of the ship.
One by one they were thrown unceremoniously from the ship until the last of them hit the ground. Their weapons were thrown out next. Mikal disappeared for a moment and reappeared next to the leader. He slipped a knife into his bound fingers.
“I would suggest you count to 20 before you try to free yourself. I’ll be watching to make sure you do,” Mikal warned before he disappeared and reappeared inside the ship. “Get us out of here, Gun.”
“We heading back home?” Gun asked as Shane and Dante held their breath as they waited for Mikal’s answer.
Mikal closed his eyes and sighed.
“Take the quickest route you can plot to Denali,” Mikal said.
“Damn straight,” Shane muttered. “Our boy is in trouble if the government is involved.”
“What have you got on this Zickenbergen asshole?” Mikal asked Dante.
“Man, it depends on how deep in the rabbit hole you go. Most of what I’ve found has been through our systems because strangely enough, the internet appears to be wiped of any dirt on the guy,” Dante said in irritation.
“How is that possible?” Shane asked.
“Because this ass pays to make sure nothing stays on there. He’s got a lot to hide, beginning with the fact that he’s related to none other than the Rothfellers,” Dante stated with a sneer of disgust.
“Son of a bitch! We should have known that bastard Satalis was involved somehow!” Shane erupted.
“Calm down,” Mikal advised Shane before turning to Dante. “How is he related?”
“He’s the grandson of Satalis’ direct human cousin,” Dante said. “That’s the cousin who secretly funded Hitler and Mengele’s experiments. These days he force sterilizes the poor in third world countries through his charity.”
“The Dark Prime picked the perfect family to emerge in,” Gun muttered with a shake of his head. “Just goes to show, like really does attract like.”
“How the hell does the new speaker fit into all this?” Mikal wondered aloud, not seeing a connection.
“Turns out that guy was bought and paid for by the globalist/elitist trash a long time ago. It’s the only way he’s gotten as far as he has because no one else can stand the smug prick,” Dante explained. “Seems he’s in bed with Geoff Zorroughs and according to their private emails, Zorroughs has promised him the presidency if he turns the US into one of Zorroughs’ globalist puppet countries.”
“And Zorroughs is that guy funding the globalist movement to destroy national so
vereignty so that he and his super-rich pals can rule the world, right?” Shane asked, trying to make sure he had the players right in his head.
“Yep, that’s the idiot. They’re the ones who believe they are descended from the ‘real’ Gods, which is where the Rothfellers and Satalis come in,” Dante explained. “See these fools have somehow convinced themselves, probably with the help of Satalis, that they are meant to rule the world because they descend from the Relians who they think are the true Gods.”
“Are they really hybrids of any kind?” Shane asked, not believing it for a moment.
Dante snorted and shook his head.
“Not even close. According to their DNA and medical records, these idiots are nothing more than regular descendants of the Jewish people. Guess they should have checked that before siding with Hitler,” Dante said with disgust.
“OK, that ties the Speaker to the Rothfellers and Satalis, Mike is linked through the Rothfellers, and this Zorroughs prick is linked to them all, is that it?” Mikal asked, trying to learn all of the players.
“Yup, Haruki had to have found something that these guys think will help them in some way, and they aren’t likely to give up. My guess is that we don’t have much time to find a final solution for this Mike guy before they send an army looking for him,” Dante warned.
Mikal’s mind raced with what they knew so far, and he refused to make a snap decision when he didn’t know all of the facts from Haruki. The last thing they needed to do was charge in on something and potentially endanger their brother and his mate.
“We got evil fuckers all around, the Dark Prime as the cherry on top and our brother and his mate in the middle. At what point are you going to call our brothers?” Shane demanded, ready to kick some ass.
“Besides my promise to Haruki that I wouldn’t just charge in on him, there’s Ainsley, three newborns and six new parents to think about as well,” Mikal argued, keeping his tone even and calm in the face of Shane’s emotionally charged state.
“There’s also the people disappearing, and whatever world they’re going to,” Dante added. “We need to think about whether or not these assholes plan on trying to invade the place, or calling in reinforcements.”