He put his hand on her cheek.
"That’s a lovely world. A wonderful dream."
She wrung her hands.
"And after tomorrow, you get to dream it. I won’t remember enough to want to dream."
"Memories make us who we are. Take them away, and you change the person. But I’ll still…I’ll still…"
"Don’t say it. You won’t like me at all. Promise me; promise me you’ll try. Promise me that you’ll try to make me remember the dream."
"I promise."
They both knew he lied. A lovely lie, nonetheless.
Trevor pulled the necklace holding his secret key from around his neck.
"When did you get that?"
"I always wear it. It’s always with me."
"What? How come I've never seen it before?"
"Because it's my key. No one else's. Come with me. I want to show you something."
He led her to the basement.
"I think you need to know something about me. About me and, and ‘all this’."
They followed the stairs into the basement. The armory door stood locked. The plasma screen TV off, the bar dusty and on the pool table sat quiet, a full rack waiting to be broke.
He maneuvered her toward the small door under the stairs.
"Trevor," she hesitated. "You don’t have to do this."
"I don’t want to have secrets from you. I want you to know it all."
Nina took a deep breath and kissed his cheek.
"Okay then. Show me."
He opened the door and clicked on a solitary bulb that shined on a dingy little chamber surrounding a utility cabinet and a hot water heater. Trevor slid that cabinet to the side, revealing a small gray door.
Stone slipped the key from the necklace into the lock. It clicked. He grabbed the iron knob and turned it, eliciting a squeak. The wooden door opened to a dark entrance.
He took her by the hand and they carefully followed a tight stairway down.
Nina heard a low hum in the air that grew louder as they descended into a dimly lit space.
No stone, no concrete, only walls of earth. Old tree roots poked in from the ceiling.
"Where are we, Trevor?"
"Now that’s a good question. I suppose we’re under the mansion."
"You suppose? Where else could we be?"
Trevor walked to a plain wooden table. An oil lamp and a pack of matches waited there.
"I suppose we could be…somewhere else. I honestly don’t know. I do know there’s nothing to be afraid of. Do you trust me?"
She nodded.
He lit the oil lamp. The soft glow of the flame bounced off the dirt walls.
"Look at this."
At the far end of the room sat an old wood and iron chest. Trevor walked to that chest. Nina stood a pace behind.
He reached over and, with two hands, pulled open the heavy lid. As it opened, a blue/gray light streamed out from inside, first in streaks then as a glow.
Trevor stepped back. Nina stepped forward.
She raised her hand to shield her eyes as the glow rose out from the box like a balloon lazily drifting into the air.
Nina blinked rapidly as her pupils adjusted to the sudden influx of light. After a few seconds, she dropped her hand and stared at the object.
A sphere of a kind. She guessed it slightly larger than a basketball. The surface appeared made of a clear membrane that fluttered as if containing liquid. The light came not from that surface, but from an object inside.
Nina narrowed her eyes and leaned closer to the ball hovering above the open trunk.
"Not too close. It can be overpowering."
"What is this? What is inside of it?"
Here eyes separated light from substance until the object inside the sphere took shape in her mind. She recognized the twisting parallel lines and ladder-like rungs between. She recognized them from science class, the Discovery Channel, and posters at the FBI crime lab.
A double helix. DNA.
Trevor confessed, "How can I fly an Apache helicopter? How can I shoot so well? How come I know tactical hand signals? I mean, c’mon, I sold cars, remember?"
Nina concluded, "So this is where you get it all from? This is how you ‘pick it up’?"
"That’s right. I have to come down once and a while and recharge. It’s sort of like a library. I can only read so much at any one time. It’s not complete. There’s a lot of shit not in there. I can’t do much more than basic first aid; could never be a surgeon or anything like that. It was a gift to me. But a gift with limits."
"It’s human DNA."
"The genetic memories of humanity. Like I said, not all the memories. Just a shit load of em’. I could fly that Apache because there are memories in here from a pilot from the Gulf War. Memories are also in there from engineers and scientists and generals who won great victories."
She stared at the beautiful ball.
"Amazing."
"One thing that I don’t get, though," he scratched his chin. "This is how I know how to fly Eagles. I shouldn’t know that. There shouldn’t be non-human memories, right? But the flight controls and all of it came to me from here."
"This is…this is beautiful."
His voice grew deeper, softer. She thought she heard regret in his tone but soon realized that she really heard embarrassment.
"And that’s how I know that memories are what make us who we are. I know because Richard Stone would not have survived in this world without this gift. The memories of great victories or how to rig generators or hunt game; all of that gave me confidence and strength."
She turned and faced him, her face slightly askew, puzzled by his words.
He made a finer point: "I’m a cheat. Without this, I’m nothing but a car salesman, and not a very good one, either. All the memories this thing has given me…and the skills; that’s why I’m a leader. Not because I’m brave or smart, because other people were brave and smart and now I’m standing on their shoulders. I’m a fraud, Nina."
Nina grabbed his face with both hands and pushed her lips against his. When she finished, she pulled away and spoke her mind.
"Information, Trevor. That’s all. How to do things, what worked in the past…that’s all this is. What you do with that, that’s what makes you special."
"Don’t you get it? With this, anyone can be a hero."
"Not just anyone, Trevor. You. You got this gift for some reason. Not me, not the others. You. Did all those memories give you the resolve to charge down that hill? Did these memories make you reach out to me? To show me who I could be?"
He opened his mouth but no words came out, so he shut it again.
Nina lectured, "Sure, you’ve got some pretty fancy tools. But you have to use those tools, Trevor. Being a leader isn’t just about what you know or what skills you have, it’s about what you do with all that. Some men would take these gifts and use them for their own gain. You use all this to save your people. I’ve watched you listen to advice when you needed it, or block everything else out when you knew you needed to be decisive. I saw you kneel before me in the rain, Trevor, just so I’d stay. You put aside your ego for the good of the cause. You’d do anything. You’re no fraud, Trevor."
"I never wanted this. It’s no gift. It’s a curse."
"That’s why you make such a damn good leader."
He shook his head; "I’m not the man you think I am. I’m…less."
"Now you listen to me, because I don’t know what you’re saying. I love you. I don’t love you because you fly alien ships or can shoot good. I love you because you care about people and you cared about me. You brought feelings out in me that I never had before. You believed in me. None of that came from memories," she pointed toward the mystical object. "I would love you if you weren’t the great leader. I would love you if you were still just selling Chevrolets. And I’ll tell you what…if I could have any wish at all, I would wish that you and I could live in that dream world where we didn’t have to b
e something; we just lived."
He hugged her and said, "I’d like that, too."
---
It would be their last night of being in love.
They lay together in bed and whispered as he massaged her with gentle caresses, as he felt the magnificent strength and warmth of her body. She purred softly at his touch.
He studied her and wondered; he wondered what path the future held for her. He wondered if she would find someone else. If she did, would he be happy for her, or jealous?
They explored one another a last time. A desperate time. They could feel the ticking of the clock; the certainty that dawn marched toward them, that a new day would come and steal away all the days that had come before.
Tears flowed even amidst the sighs of satisfaction. The embraces became frantic clutches.
When finally their love had been fully satiated, they lay together and dared not sleep because then the next moment would be morning. So they whispered more. They whispered as long as they could.
Slowly their tired eyes wavered, their exhausted bodies begged for rest; they slipped stubbornly into sleep.
Time ran out.
35. Sunset
The June sun rose over the mountains to the east. Its glittering beams reflected across the gentle waters of the lake and shined on the balcony of the mansion.
Trevor Stone stood at the glass doors watching the sunrise. How he hated to see it.
Nina Forest emerged from the bedroom and glided to him with a blanket wrapped around her body. It draped to the floor as if a gown.
She shared the view and said, "You’re up early."
Trevor, dressed in khaki cargo pants and a black shirt, kept his eyes on that dreadful sunrise.
"It’s going to be a long day."
When he said no more she walked away mumbling, "I suppose I had better get ready."
He finally faced her.
"Nina…"
She paused to listen, but what more could be said? They had said it. Whispered it. Cried it all last night.
She flashed a soft, sad smile then continued on to the bedroom. Trevor returned his gaze to the view.
Jon Brewer knocked at the half-open hallway door then walked across the room and stood by Trevor’s side.
"Everything is set."
Trevor did not even blink.
Jon stepped closer.
"Are you okay?"
Trevor considered.
What a question. What was the answer?
He told a transparent lie in a monotone voice without pulling his eyes from the glow on the horizon: "Sure I’m okay. Just another day of walking the path. Another day of doing what I’m supposed to do; of being a link in the chain. Just another day."
Jon swallowed, glanced around, then returned from whence he had come. His footfalls echoed on the wooden floor.
Duty called. Trevor followed Jon toward the hall. Half way across the room, he stopped and turned to view the rising sun one more time…
…The captured alien shuttle now named "Eagle One" flew lead with two more of the magnificent crafts on its flanks, all three flying south through the rays of morning. The nose cone pushed through banks of misty white clouds drifting beneath a blue sky.
Inside the cockpit, Nina Forest felt as if she were surrounded by that blue sky, feeling as if it were her nose pushing through the clouds.
An illusion, of course, constructed by the navigation goggles.
She had manned the controls since take off and had not stopped smiling the entire trip. Trevor observed from the co-pilot’s seat, sharing her excitement.
"This is amazing," she repeated for about the one-hundredth time. "I’ve never…never flown anything like this."
Dunston flew Eagle Two in the formation. His voice announced the end of the journey: "Approaching the LZ. Ground team reports area secure."
Trevor pushed the transmit button on the control panel.
"Eagles Two and Three, give us a bulls eye to land on."
Nina jumped, "Wh-what? You’re going to let me land?"
"Your last lesson…"
…Garrett "Stonewall" McAllister watched the flight of ships approach from the north. Scattered around him lay the remains of The Order’s abandoned outpost: blast craters, crumbled walls, and destroyed doorways left from last autumn’s battle. Human and K9 soldiers guarded the perimeter as well as the inner corridors.
Two Eagles swooped over the outer walls. The vehicles descended parallel to one another into the courtyard and landed, leaving enough space between them for the third airship…
…"Just relax," Trevor soothed. "You’ve got to see outside but you still have to watch your monitors on the panel."
Nina did just that, balancing the superimposed image broadcast from the exterior to her eyes with the reality of the control panel inches in front of her.
She wiggled the flight sticks left then right. Her feet worked the pedals to modulate the force of the anti-gravity circuitry.
The ship that had once belonged to aliens but had become a human machine eased toward the Earth and landed perfectly between the other two shuttles. The landing gear bounced gently as the springs absorbed the weight.
Nina sighed and removed the goggles.
"That was amazing. Thank you."
Trevor told her, "That’s it. There’s nothing more I can teach you."
"And now I forget it all."
He shook his head and assured, "You’ll fly one of these again some day. You’re a pilot and this is an amazing plane. You’ll be in that chair again. I know it."
They stood and moved to the closed cockpit door. She placed a hand on his wrist.
"Thank you for teaching me this; for having faith in me…for…for everything."
Nina spoke without tears. Neither of them had any tears left to shed.
He touched her cheek.
"You have been…you are the best thing that ever happened to me. I am more when I’m with you. I will be less without you."
"At least you get to remember it. I won’t even have the memories."
He told her what he feared to be the truth: "You’re getting the better deal."
Nina forcefully answered, "You remember. Do you hear? Remember for both of us. It’ll hurt, but don’t let this…don’t let it mean nothing. Please. For who I am now. Don’t forget."
He took her in his arms one last time and hugged her tight. She squeezed back as hard as her tired muscles allowed.
"I will. I will always remember…"
…Shepherd exited Eagle Two and joined Nina, Trevor, and a K9 escort that included Odin and Tyr. Stonewall led the group into the main building.
The walls that had seemed damp and alive to Trevor last year now felt stale and dead. Whatever pseudo-life they once held, Jon’s raid had exorcised. However, Johnny reported success in finding the enzyme needed to chase away the parasite in Nina’s head.
Grenadiers and soldiers lined the route. Portable lights and generators carved patches of light and dark. Bones and decayed flesh marked where The Order’s defenders fell last year.
Stonewall brought them to a room with a low ceiling. Small compartments lined one wall in front of which stood a table apparently grown from the floor. Trevor recognized the kind.
Reverend Johnny beckoned Nina, "Rest here my dear."
"Do I need to get undressed or something?"
Johnny shook his head ‘no.’
"You will be on unconscious for a few seconds as we apply the counter agent. The devilish thing that has housed itself in your person will dissolve almost instantaneously and evaporate into nothingness."
Trevor helped her ease onto the slab. He held her hand. Reverend Johnny produced a medicine bottle of chloroform.
"This will start your journey," he poured a dab on a cloth and reached toward her. "Breathe deeply."
Trevor grabbed Johnny’s wrist and found Nina’s warm blue eyes one last time.
"Goodbye."
She smiled nervously and sq
ueezed his hand tight.
Trevor released Johnny’s wrist and allowed the doctor to continue his work.
The Rev spoke as Nina breathed the anesthetic. "O LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief."
She breathed deeply, her eyes closed, and her body grew still. Her hand went limp in Trevor’s grip. He let go.
Johnny extracted a line--about the size of a garden hose--from one of the compartments. At the end pointed a thin needle, the sight of which sent a shiver along Trevor’s spine.
"What is that?"
"It is The Order’s version of a hypodermic needle. The incision is tiny, almost microscopic. Yet, it will inject the counter enzyme directly into the implant. However, if she were awake she would feel intense pain. I believe it is designed for pain, to be honest. That is the way of The Order; pain and misery."
Trevor swallowed hard and accepted the Rev’s explanation. Still, he hated the idea of such an ugly thing touching his Nina.
Shepherd stepped forward. He would be the only face she knew when the deed finished.
Johnny pressed the needle into the side of her head. Trevor heard a slight sound of liquid running. After a few seconds, he withdrew the vile contraption.
"It is done."
Johnny used a cloth to wipe the tiniest hint of blood from Nina’s scalp. Trevor saw no mark or scar; no wound whatsoever. Nothing left behind; no trace.
The men hovered over her for several minutes until she stirred. Her eyelids flickered, and then opened to see Shepherd standing overhead.
Nina tried to sit but wavered and nearly fell from the table. He steadied her balance.
"Shep? Wh-what? What is happening?"
Nina saw others in the room. Her eyes narrowed as she glanced at them one by one.
Trevor found her blue eyes. Her icy blue eyes.
She returned his stare and asked, "Do I know you?"
He wore a stoic face, shook his head slightly, and answered through clenched teeth.
"No."
"C’mon, easy does it," Shep encouraged her to carefully step off the table. "This way," he said and she followed on wobbling legs.
Trevor stared at the empty space on the table…
…The Eagles’ anti-gravity circuits pushed off the earth and propelled all three ships skyward. The craft merged into formation and flew away from The Order’s empty base.
Beyond Armageddon: Book 01 - Disintegration Page 46