“I’m not the chosen one,” Gabriel.
The old woman smiled smugly. “Good. Now you understand. Sit by the fire.”
Gabriel was so perplexed at this point that the old woman could have told him to jump in the stream and he probably would have done it. He dropped down next to the fire cross-legged and stared at her with a look of stark, unfiltered confusion. With a great deal of noise and grunting, the old woman settled down across from him.
“Now, I’ll see…” she closed her eyes and, for all he could tell, appeared to go to sleep.
“Umm. You’re not-”
“Shhh!”
Gabriel bit his tongue. Okay, so she’s not asleep, he thought. He narrowed his eyes as he watched her. A deep-throated humming sound rattled up through her chest and erupted out of her nostrils. She began to sway back and forth.
Gabriel waited. And then he waited some more.
Finally, he decided he was about to go to sleep and he’d better get up and move. He started to rise and the old troll instantly opened her eyes and commanded, “Sit!”
Gabriel sighed helplessly and settled back down. A moment of silence passed, and then the humming and swaying began again. It wasn’t long before exhaustion began to weigh on him. Gabriel hadn’t had enough sleep in days. He’d been constantly moving. His nightly lessons with Aldron had drained him, and after the long walk from the Black Tower to the troll village, he was about wiped out.
Gabriel felt himself nodding off. He shifted slightly and jolts of pain went up and down his back. His legs were numb from sitting too long and his rear end was aching miserably. At last, he decided he had no choice but to draw on the power. He closed his eyes and reached out to it. The energy whooshed into him. He caught it and hung on to it, forcing it into his body the way Aldron had trained him.
At that instant, an invisible pair of hands slammed into his chest, knocking him down on the ground so hard that he somersaulted backwards and landed sprawling in the dirt. The impact almost knocked the breath out of him. He leapt to his feet, eyes wild, turning in a slow circle.
“What was that?” he said.
The old troll opened one eye and then slowly opened the other. Then she burst out in laughter. The harsh sound was like a cement truck driving over a rock pile. Gabriel eyed her up and down. “Why are you laughing?”
The old troll shook her head gently. “Sit,” she said. Then she closed her eyes and started humming again.
Gabriel cast a furtive glance around the village. Some of the elders were watching him, over by the fire pit. He thought they were smiling, but it was hard to be sure. Reluctantly, he settled back down on the ground.
Chapter 27
Jodi’s eyes fluttered open and she found herself staring up at the sky. It was a dark blue color, the color of evening fading into night. Large clouds drifted lazily overhead, forming shapes that looked foreign and familiar all at once.
A breeze blew over her, and the trees at the edges of her vision shimmered and shook. Jodi inhaled deeply. She could smell the grass and the rich, dark earth beneath her. She smelled the light perfume of wildflowers and the scent of pine and the musky odor of the deep woods. And she smelled the others. Their scent was wild and powerful, like leather and salt and blood, but it was subtle, concealed by the more prominent scents of the wildlife around her.
Jodi sat up and glanced around. She was in a meadow, somewhere in the mountains. She could smell snow on the breeze, but she wasn’t at a high enough elevation to see it yet.
A large black wolf with blazing yellow eyes was lying a few yards away. He threw his head back and yawned lazily. Hello, sister.
Jodi’s heart skipped a beat. She rose cautiously to her feet, scanning the area. Wolves surrounded her, at least a dozen of them. Some were little more than pups, but others were like the black one: large, ferocious, terrifying.
Oh stop that.
Jodi blinked. She turned around, searching for the source of the voice. “Who said that?” she whispered. She didn’t dare speak louder for fear of attracting the beasts’ attention.
Little sister, why do you smell like fear? Your heart races the wind.
Jodi turned again, locking eyes with the enormous black creature. “Was that you? What are you doing? Are you talking in my head?”
The wolf rolled his eyes and then lay back in the grass. Rest, he said inside her head. Moonrise soon, then we hunt. For now, cool grass… warm sun.
Jodi felt tears welling up inside of her as she stared at the creature. “What’s happening to me?” she said. She thumped down on the grass and landed on something hard. Frowning, she twisted around to remove the object. It was Mr. Oglesby’s cane.
“What?” she murmured. “What’s this… oh!” Then she glanced at the wolves around her, She looked down and saw her shredded jeans and stained tank top. The sweater she’d been wearing that morning was gone entirely.
“Oh,” she said again, this time louder. “Oh, no.”
Chapter 28
When Reeves pulled up to the security gate at Black Mountain, Phineas looked like he was about ready to have a heart attack. He took one nervous glance at the armed guards and the giant steel doors leading into the side of the mountain and said, “Are you sure this is the place, Reeves? Perhaps we took a wrong turn. Perhaps we should go back-”
“No,” Reeves said, cutting him off. “This is the place. Don’t worry; I won’t let them hurt you.
Phineas chuckled nervously, clearly not comforted. The security guard next to Reeves tapped on the window, and Reeves rolled it down. “I’m sorry, sir, this is a non-civilian facility. I’m going to have to ask you to turn around and-”
“What’s your name, boy?”
The soldier frowned, clearly not happy about being called a boy, even if Reeves was old enough to be his father… or possibly even grandfather. “Sir, don’t make me repeat myself.”
“Then don’t,” Reeves said, cutting him off again. “Open this gate now, kid, or I’ll pull this entire mountain down around your ears.”
The young soldier’s hand strayed towards his sidearm and Reeves grinned. “I’m going to ask you one last time…” he said.
Reeves gave him the look. It wasn’t something easily defined, save to say it was a look he’d earned in three different wars and two dozen covert ops spanning the globe. It was the look of a man who could tear someone apart ten different ways before they could even blink. The rookie soldier was smart enough to recognize the look. His hand eased away from the holster at his side.
“I’m going to call my superior,” he said nervously.
“You do that,” said Reeves.
The young man walked into the booth at the side of the gates and lifted a receiver. He didn’t even have to speak. Two seconds later, he pressed the button to open the gates and waved Reeves through. Reeves glanced at Phineas as he shoved the Hummer into gear. The old professor was clutching his heart.
“I think I’m dying,” he said.
“You’re not dying, Phineas, you’re having a panic attack. Breathe deeply. Think about something you like… something boring… like writing a book.”
The giant steel doors in the side of the mountain parted wide to allow them through. The tunnel inside was at least one hundred feet across and three times that tall. It was big enough that the army could take the largest piece of machinery known to man and drive it through. Actually, they could drive three through at once. The Pentagon always was good at spending money, Reeves thought. Far better at spending it than producing anything with it.
Reeves had been inside military D.U.M.B.s before, but that was decades ago, when stealth technology was brand new and no one had ever heard of the internet. Times had changed, and he assumed the military bunkers would have changed, too. He was more right than he could have imagined. He followed the tunnel to the large parking area next to the underground lake, and pulled into a space. This was the area where the children had first arrived with Starling. Reeves didn’t know that yet, but he
was about to learn everything.
As he climbed out of the Hummer, Starling came running up to greet him. “John Reeves,” she said breathlessly. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir. You’re something of a hero to me.”
Reeves grunted, completely ignoring the compliment. “What’s your name, girl?”
“Uh… I’m, huh, Commander Starling. Samantha.” The look on her face was priceless. She was so taken aback by Reeves, and so enamored of him all at once that he almost decided to go easy on her. Almost.
“Where are they, Commander Starling?” he said gruffly.
“Of course… right this way, sir. I’m sorry it was necessary, but there was a bit of a situation…”
“There still is a situation,” Reeves said between clenched teeth. Starling gulped. They disappeared down a long tunnel, with Starling at the lead and Phineas Frump nervously bringing up the rear and wringing his hands.
Exactly ten minutes later, Reeves, Phineas, and Commander Starling were standing in the kitchen of the children’s hotel suite. Pete was on the couch watching Looney Tunes and eating Rocky Road ice cream.
“What happened to him?” Reeves said.
Starling stood with her back against the counter, arms folder over her chest, a look of genuine concern etched on her face. “I don’t know,” she said. “He was getting along just fine until yesterday afternoon. Suddenly it’s like… well, it’s like he’s lost his mind. He’s regressed to the mental capacity of a five-year-old.”
Reeves wore a dour expression. So far, Starling had admitted that she’d completely lost track of Gabriel and Jodi, and there was something clearly wrong with Pete. Of them all, only the orphans seemed to be doing fairly well. They were young enough that all of this was a game to them. Even so, they had been extremely happy to see Reeves, and they were quite distressed that Julia hadn’t come with him. Some of them even said that they wanted to go home.
“I’m sorry,” Starling said, reading the expression on his face. “I’ve done everything I could.”
Reeves tried to bite his tongue, but he couldn’t hold it back. “You took them away from everything they knew, everyone they trusted. You brought them here into your cozy little fortress and tried to brainwash them into believing that everything would be fine, but the truth was you had no idea what you were talking about. Now, you’ve lost two of them and I don’t even know what’s happened to Pete here… how long do you think it’ll be before something like this happens to the orphans, too?”
“We’ve done everything in our power,” Starling said defensively.
“Really? And yet you justify taking them from their home because Julia and I weren’t protecting them well enough? You really are the government, aren’t you?”
Starling looked like she was on the verge of tears. She wouldn’t have taken this tongue-lashing from anyone but Reeves. Because of that, because of how much she admired him, it hurt even more. Especially since she knew everything he said was true.
“That’s not fair,” she said quietly. Her eyes were moist and her voice almost cracked. Reeves pulled his gaze away from her and it settled on Professor Frump.
“Phineas, how are you with hypnosis?”
“Oh… I don’t know,” he said hesitantly. “Oglesby was always the master at that.”
“We don’t have Oglesby anymore,” Reeves said bluntly.
“I know. Yes, of course, I’ll give it a shot.”
“Wait,” said Commander Starling. “You want to hypnotize Pete? Why would you do that?”
Reeves and Phineas exchanged a dark stare. “Frankly, because we’ve seen the work of the Shadowlords before,” Phineas said. “We recognize it when we see it.”
Understanding dawned on Starling’s face. “You think a Shadowlord did this to him? But how is that possible? He’s never even left the… Oh God. Are you saying there’s a Shadowlord here in the base?”
Reeves nodded to Phineas, ignoring Starling’s question entirely. “Let’s get on with it,” he said. Phineas searched his pockets for a moment and then pulled out his pocket watch.
“You will remember everything,” Phineas Frump said twenty minutes later, snapping his fingers. Pete blinked and sat up.
He looked up and saw Reeves, Phineas, and Starling standing there, and it took him a moment to put it all together. Then he remembered. “There was a Shadowlord,” he said at last. “He was at the clockwork machine…”
“Clockwork machine?” Phineas said. He shot Reeves an odd expression.
“Yeah, it’s kind of like a big clock. It’s full of gears and sprockets. And it has statues, Reeves!”
It was clear from the look on his face that Pete wasn’t talking about just any statues. “Where is this machine?” said Reeves. “Take me to it.”
Starling licked her lips. “You know, most everything here is highly classified…”
“Unclassify it,” Reeves said.
Starling bit her lip. “Okay,” she said uncomfortably. “But I’m going to raise the security alert. If there’s a Shadowlord in the base…”
“Don’t bother,” said Reeves.
“Why?”
“Because you won’t find him. The creature obviously knows how to get in and out of this facility without being noticed.”
Starling digested that. “Then what do I do?” she said. Under Reeves’ stare, her powerful demeanor wilted. She was no longer the commander of a secret military base. She was a young woman in trouble way over her head. Reeves suddenly felt bad about how he’d been treating her.
“Double the security on the orphans. Then take us to the machine,” he said. “And tell me exactly why a Shadowlord might be interested in it.”
Less than five minutes later, they were staring at the clockwork machine. Reeves hadn’t taken much note of the other military projects in the Tech Sector. His singular focus was on the machine, and for the moment, nothing else was relevant. He watched the thing for a moment, analyzing the movement of the gears and the whirring springs.
“What does it do?” he said.
“We’re not sure yet,” said Starling. “We found several stone idols with the machine. We think that there are more, but we have no idea where to find them.”
“There are more!” Pete said excitedly. Reeves grimaced. The kid knew nothing about psychological operations. Just because Starling was ready to give up her secrets didn’t mean D.A.S. should as well.
Starling stared at Pete, her eyes wide with surprise. “You’ve seen more of these?” she said.
Pete nodded emphatically. Then he noted Reeves’ sour look. “Yeah, umm… maybe?” he said awkwardly.
“The cat’s outta the bag now, kid,” Reeves said. “Might as well tell her everything.”
“Sorry,” Pete mumbled. Starling glared at Reeves for a moment and then turned to Pete.
“So tell me,” she urged him. “What do you know?”
Pete shuffled his feet. “Well, there are several statues. Seven in total, if our studies are correct. We found one, which the shadowfriends stole from us. Reeves and Julia were supposed to be finding the others, but… hey, Reeves, what happened anyway? Where’s Julia?”
Reeves grimaced, his face darkening further, if that was possible. “They got her,” he said. “I went back to the mansion to track her, but… you know the rest of the story.”
“We can still find her,” Pete said. “I should be able to configure some of the computer systems to track her down.”
“In a bit,” Reeves said. “Right now, I want to know what this machine is.”
“I’m sorry,” said Starling. “We just don’t know-”
“It’s a clock!” Pete said, cutting her off. “Well, kind of, anyway. That’s what I noticed right before the Shadowlord caught me. If you analyze the movement of the parts, you’ll find that there’s a regularity, a rhythm, just like the tick-tock of a clock. Only, this is far more complicated. It doesn’t just keep time for our planet.”
“Then what’s it do?” said
Starling.
“It keeps time for the whole universe.”
They all stared at the machine for a moment. As complicated and intricate as the machine was, that seemed impossible.
“Okay,” Reeves said. “Then what do the statues do?”
Pete shrugged. “I have no idea. I never did get a chance to analyze the one we had.”
“Well this is your chance,” said Reeves. “Get on it.”
Chapter 29
Julia thought she was feverish at first. A damp sweat covered her body, and her clothes were nearly dripping with the moisture. She felt the cot rolling beneath her, swaying and rocking, rising and falling sickeningly. Nausea gripped her, and it took all her strength not to vomit. Somewhere in the distance, she heard the sound of a bell ringing. She pushed herself upright and wiped the sweat from her eyes. Her vision blurred in and out of focus. Gradually, she saw the cot across the way illuminated in the dim stream of light that trickled down the hall. She realized suddenly that she was not in a room, but on boat… or possibly a submarine.
Julia crawled uneasily to her feet, fighting the dizziness and nausea. She reached out to steady herself as the ship rose precariously. Somewhere, deep in the bowels of the vessel, steel girders moaned and creaked. Julia worked her way up the tunnel to a doorway and pushed it open. She found herself standing on the main deck of what appeared to be a transport ship. A gust of wind and rain slammed into her and strangely, it was warm.
The last she could recall, Julia had been in the Iraqi desert with Reeves in an underground temple near the ancient city of Babylon. Now… where was she? Sea stretched out in every direction, as far as the eye could see. The rain was warm; almost tropical. The bow of the ship rocked forward as it crested a wave and then dove toward the bottom. Julia grasped the rail as the freighter twisted precariously beneath her.
“Hallo there!” someone called. She raised her eyes and saw a dark-skinned man with a shaved head jogging towards her. He was barefoot, wearing a pair of stringy cut-off jeans and a white button-front shirt with the sleeves torn off. It hung open, blowing wildly in the wind.
Shadow Rising (Shadow Born Trilogy Book 2) Page 14