by Blake Banner
“Stop, you’re going to make me vomit.”
“The point is, Lacklan, that these things need to be preserved.”
“And you are the guys to do it?”
It was Rho who answered. “Do you know of anybody else?”
I nodded. “Yeah, as it happens I do. What about the United Nations? Isn’t that the kind of thing they are there for? What about getting all the heads of state in the world around the table and making a plan…?”
Ben was laughing out loud before I had finished. His amusement seemed real. Rho had sat back in his chair, sighing and looking away at the wall. He wasn’t amused. I felt a rush of hot anger to my head.
“What, that’s funny? Seven and a half billion people dying of disease and starvation is funny to you?”
“No.” It was Rho. He looked back at me. “No, it’s not funny, Lacklan. What’s funny is that you—a bitter, twisted cynic like you—should be naïve enough to believe that the world’s political leaders would actually get around a table together for such a noble purpose. Shall I tell you why we are a government within the government? Shall I tell you why we operate in secret, and use blackmail and the threat of death and torture to control political leaders? Do I need to explain?”
My anger drained away as fast as it had surged. I felt suddenly empty inside, because I knew what he was going to say, and I knew that in his position, I would do the same. “Go ahead, tell me.”
“Because politicians are a breed. They are parasites who feed off sheep. They are greedy, predatory, and infinitely stupid! They look at this holocaust that is hurtling toward us and they think one thing, and one thing only. How can we use it to gain more power? What can we do to make sure we will come out top dog?”
He was right and I knew it.
“And how is what you’re planning any different?”
It was Ben who replied. “Because what we plan to do is to preserve all the best that humanity has created, and we plan to create an equitable, balanced, sustainable society that will not feed off the planet as a parasite. We plan to use clean, fusion energy and keep the human population down in the low millions, so that the Earth can regenerate itself. Our ultimate aim is for the good of humanity as part of the planet. And frankly, our plan is the only one on the table.”
“What do you want from me?”
Rho answered. “I already told you. We want you to do precisely what you are doing. Find Marni—or allow her to find you. Persuade her to work with us. We know we are not perfect.” He gave a small, unamused laugh. “We are pretty much making it up as we go along, adapting to a volatile situation, and even though we have got off to a bad start, we could use people like you and Marni.” He shook his head again. “We are not the enemy, Lacklan.”
Ben spoke again. “You need time to think this through, and we are going to give you time to do that. But before you go, Lacklan, I want you to consider something. Where we are now, where humanity stands right now, there is no way of fixing this without going through some kind of holocaust. Whichever way we go now, there will be pain, horror and death. Every path leads through hell. So the question becomes, what is the shortest route to a place where we can heal?”
I looked into his eyes. They didn’t waver. I said, “And how do Montilla and the Sinaloa drugs cartel fit into this glorious vision?”
He didn’t bat an eyelid. “We take whatever support we can get. We are not squeamish. But we decide on the final outcome of all this. Maybe you should focus less on where the money comes from, and more on what it was being used for.”
“Sun beetles and mind control?”
“Preservation of the Earth, and human culture.” Suddenly and unexpectedly, he stood. The interview was over. “Take the time you need, a day, two, stay at the hotel, relax. It’s on us. Think about what we have said. Join us, in whatever capacity you like. Your father’s position is still vacant. Help us to find Marni. Help us to bring her in. Let us, please, make this right.”
I stood and Rho stood, too. Ben held out his hand to me. I hesitated a moment.
“So you don’t know who Marni met with when she came to DC?” They didn’t answer. Their faces were expressionless, like they had somehow been switched off. “And what about Engels? I had assumed he was one of yours. So why’d you kill him? Why did you torture him?”
Ben took a deep breath. “We were using him. He didn’t know that he was working for us. We tortured him to find out where Marni had gone. He didn’t know.”
“Why didn’t you take them when they were in DC?”
He shook his head. “We didn’t know where they were.”
So Engels hadn’t lied, and his friend in Congress was for real. I took Ben’s hand and we shook. They showed me to the door.
Ben asked, “Do you need a car?”
“No, I’ll take a walk.”
He handed me a card. It had a personal contact number on it. “Anything you need, anything at all, contact me.”
I made my way down, back along the route we had followed, from Ring B back through C, D and E, and out into the autumn sunshine. I walked about a mile to the Arlington Memorial Bridge and stood looking down at the Potomac. I lit a cigarette and stood smoking and thinking. They didn’t have Marni. They didn’t know where she was. But they thought she would come to me, and then they would reel us both in.
I turned and started walking across the bridge, toward DC. It was maybe four miles to the Hilton, an hour’s walk. And as I walked, my mind went back to Tucson, to Marni’s house. I had been exhausted and in pain, and all I could think of was that I was about to find Marni’s body. That had been my whole focus. But I had been over the scene again several times, and each time I was more certain. Her rucksack and her boots were not there. They had gone.
Marni and Engels had returned together, but he had stayed when she had left. Had he given his life for her? Had they sold him the same line they had just tried to sell me, and then she had opened his eyes? It was impossible to tell. But he had stayed there and been killed, while she had got away.
My tracker was somewhere between the Hawk’s Nest, San Patricio and Sheriff Caleb’s house. Maybe it was shot full of holes. But I was pretty sure that Phil might have some idea of what to do.
By the time I had reached the Lincoln Memorial and started up 23rd Street toward Foggy Bottom, I had started to smile. Marni had not gone over to them, I was going to find her, and they were going to let me. Now they were playing my game.
At Washington Circle Park, I heard the ping of an email arriving on my cell. I stopped, pulled it out and thumbed the screen. My stomach lurched at a hot pellet of adrenaline. It was from Sarah Connors. I opened it. It said, simply:
What the hell have you done? Why didn’t you follow to DC?
* * *
What'd you think?
First of all, thank you so much for giving my work a chance. If you enjoyed this adventure, then I would be extremely grateful if you would consider writing a short review for the book on Amazon. A good review means so much to every writer, but means even more for self-published writer like myself. As it allows new readers to find my books, and ultimately allows me to spend more time creating stories that I love! :)
You can do so directly down below:
US Review Link
UK Review Link
CA Review Link
AU Review Link
* * *
Ready for the next mission?
If you are ready for the next adventure in THE OMEGA SERIES, then you can continue reading with book 3, The Storm. (free for those in Kindle Unlimited) The links are down below:
US Link – The Storm
UK Link – The Storm
CA Link – The Storm
AU Link – The Storm
That's it for now :)
Take care,
Blake Banner
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ALSO BY BLAKE BANNER
Up to date books can be found on my website: www.blakebanner.com
DEAD COLD MYSTERY SERIES
An Ace and a Pair (Book 1)
Two Bare Arms (Book 2)
Garden of the Damned (Book 3)
Let Us Prey (Book 4)
The Sins of the Father (Book 5)
Strange and Sinister Path (Book 6)
THE OMEGA SERIES
Dawn of the Hunter (Book 1)
Double Edged Blade (Book 2)
The Storm (Book 3)