Donny took one between the eyes, killing him before he hit the floor.
Rivkah swiped the guards’ leg, tossing him on his back, ready to put a hole in his head and chest.
“No!” yelled Jaxx, leaping for her arm, grabbing her trigger hand by the wrist.
She dropped to her knees, screaming, wrenching her arm out of Jaxx’s grasp. She covered her ears, touching her head to the floor. “What the fuck did you do that for?”
“Do what?”
“Zap me, you asshole. You didn’t feel it? When you grabbed me?”
Jaxx was genuinely confused. He hadn’t felt anything approaching a “zap.”
There were guards in the corridor. He didn’t want them to come any closer. He wanted to talk to Rivkah. He wished them away and his mind focused, his heart pumped full of adrenaline, emotion, life – everything he had. And, calm as could be, he pushed the energy outward. It was like being back in a starfighter.
The door broke off its hinges, flinging itself at the opposite wall at the approaching guards. They attempted to dodge the oncoming door, but it was too fast, slamming into them and forcing them to the floor.
Rivkah was up and in her usual defensive crouch. She glanced down at one of the guards and, before Jaxx could react, pounded her rifle’s butt plate against his temple, knocking him out cold. Then she turned and popped two shots through the doorway, hitting a guard square in the chest.
Jaxx lurched for her, willing her to stop the bloodshed, but was met with the butt of her rifle against his chest, keeping him at a distance.
She eyed Jaxx like a madwoman. “Don’t touch me. Never touch me. But, stay as close to me as possible, or I’ll lodge a bullet in the back of your head.”
She placed the rifle’s muzzle on the back of his head. “Move.”
Jaxx had never seen anyone move so fast, so confident. Her eyes, on the other hand, told of a different story. She looked tired, beat. He knew he was projecting, but his sense was that she felt what she was doing was wrong.
She pushed him forward with the rifle. “I said move, Jaxx.”
He put his hands up. “Where do you want me to go?”
She guided Jaxx out of the room with another push of her rifle. Guards lined the hall, but Slade and Fox were nowhere to be seen.
“You come after me, this guy gets one in through the chest. Understand?” She lowered the rifle to his mid back, prodding him forward. “If you guards don’t back up. I won’t give another warning.”
None of them moved, then one touched his ear as if he had just received a communication. He nodded, then waived the men back. They obeyed, giving Rivkah and Jaxx a clear path.
Rivkah growled. “What did you do to me?”
Jaxx looked over his shoulder. “I…didn’t do anything.”
But he knew as soon as she asked. It was the blood, the blood he gave her in the ship to keep her alive. It was his blood.
The moment he thought it, Rivkah picked up on it. “You did this to me? You personally? It came from you? What kind of sick freak are you?”
Jaxx didn’t know how to answer that. He walked down the hall, feeling the rifle against his back.
“Why do I have these powers?” she continued. “When I’m near you, they are alive in me. They aren’t so apparent when I’m not around you. What the fuck did you do to me, Jaxx?” She was breathing heavily, almost going off the rails.
No guards were in sight. Maybe he was more important to Slade than he thought he was. “Don’t pull that trigger, Rivkah.”
He felt her warm breath when she leaned closer, speaking low. “I won’t pull the trigger if you show me the way out, Jaxx. Seems like I’m pretty safe with you, huh? Ain’t no one in this facility going to ruin your life and let you burn your fucking body to a cinder.”
Jaxx said nothing.
“Answer me. Where is the exit?”
Jaxx shook his head. “I’m sorry, Rivkah. I don’t know.” He didn’t know, but at the same time, he didn’t want to leave. He wanted to continue his life’s passion, translating glyph after glyph, uncovering ancient mysteries. In truth, he wanted to figure out everything he could about Callisto. He wanted to go to Callisto, to touch everything on the satellite images.
Rivkah was knocking down that reality with a wrecking ball.
“You don’t want to leave,” she stated.
A wind, maybe from Rivkah, maybe from the ethers of the facility, stirred and blasted outward.
Jaxx dropped to the floor, covering his head, the doors lining the hall flew off their hinges. The woman was out of control.
Jaxx had some experience with this power…as a pilot, with Donny’s pen, and only minutes ago with the door to Donny’s office. He had control of it. She didn’t. Anger was fueling her. Intuitively, Jaxx knew that she was dangerous, not only to others, but to herself.
“You know him.”
“Who?”
“You’ll see.”
Rivkah shoved Jaxx into a now-doorless room.
Jon Shaughnessy stood dumbfounded in his boxers, toothbrush in hand, wide eyed, with his TV on.
Jaxx felt her in his mind like a rat trying to walk through a maze. He didn’t like it. Get out of my mind!
Rivkah abruptly stepped back like she had been pushed. “Jaxx, you know something about him.” She gasped. “He’s your escape route. He has something…hidden. Get it from him.”
Jaxx looked down. “No.”
Shaugnessy backed up, making his way into his bathroom.
Rivkah redirected her gun. “Stay put, pudgy.” She flipped her gun over her shoulder, putting a slug through another guard, then brought the gun out in front of her, giving Shaughnessy a grin. “Yeah, little-man, I am a crack shot. There’s no getting out of this room alive without my say-so.”
Jaxx froze, rooted to the spot. “I’m sorry, Jon. I didn’t bring her here. I don’t know what she thinks I know.”
“Jon, is it?” Rivkah asked.
Shaughnessy nodded slowly, keeping his eyes deadpanned on her, his lips slightly moving, but nothing coming out.
“Show me,” Rivkah demanded.
Shaughnessy bit his lip. “Show you what?”
“Show me what you’re hiding, then show me a way out of here. You know what I’m talking about. Don’t fuck with me.”
He reached under his bed, pulling out a laptop case, laptop inside.
She gestured to Jaxx. “Give it to my boy right here.”
Shaugnessy handed it to him.
It was the laptop he’d had stashed under his desk in the RIOUT room. What was it doing in Shaughnessy’s quarters?
“For a genius, Jaxx, you’re pretty slow. The laptop was their insurance, if things went south. Now it’s ours.” She turned back to Shaughnessy. “Now, show me your other secret.”
Shaughnessy shrugged.
Rivkah pulled the rifle up, so the sites were level with her eye. “I won’t ask twice. Genius here has infected me with the ability to read thoughts. Yours, my friend, are pretty interesting.”
Shaughnessy pounded his wall three times. It protruded outward, exposing an elevator.
“Thank you.” Rivkah guided Jaxx through the opening and onto the elevator. The wall closed shut in front of them and the elevator started its ascent.
45
June 9th, 2018
Charlotte, North Carolina
As soon as he was checked into his motel, Drew pulled out the thumb drive his mother had given him and plugged it into the laptop he’d purchased in the parking lot outside a 7-11. Amazing what people would do for a little cash. He’d had to tap one of his tin-foil buddies for a loan, but he promised he was good for it. Better yet, he promised to clue them in on the expose of a lifetime, if they’d just loan him a few Franklins, some Hamiltons and some Grants.
He powered up and went directly to the files on the drive.
Click-click: Operation Underfoot.
Click-click: TOP SECRET SPECIAL HANDLING NOFORM with Global Safety Ad
ministration Idiots. Why did anyone ever label anything “top secret?” You’d think they’d have learned by now.
He spent the next hour, reading and re-reading the documents his mother had secured for him. It was all official. Very succinctly outlined. Very matter of fact, but it boiled down to a simple hypothesis: Slade believed the oceans were rising, the planet was going to be uninhabitable, and he needed to evacuate the Government, the Administration, and other key players.
No citizens.
Not in round one, round two, or any evacuation round thereafter.
The reason Slade didn’t want anyone to know what he was doing was because he planned to leave the majority of the human race behind. He had a bunch of arguments – about the sanctity of the Constitution and the need for good government and their chances of survival – but he’d found a “tidally-locked moon” and was planning to go there.
Within days.
Drew didn’t have much time.
46
June 9th, 2018
St. George’s, Grenada
The elevator door opened and they were staring at a dark alleyway. It had been a while since Jaxx had been outside. He was glad it was dark.
He gripped the laptop as he was shoved forward by the barrel of Rivkah’s rifle.
Out of the elevator and into the warm heat of the night, Rivkah threw the rifle back into the elevator. A few seconds later, the elevator dinged and closed. A cement wall moved in front of it, hiding the elevator doors.
She was street-smart and could handle herself. That was a brilliant move. Walking around with a large weapon was a dead giveaway that something bad had happened, was currently happening, or was about to happen. She probably wanted as few eyes on her as possible.
“Move, Jaxx.”
Jaxx faced Rivkah. “Look, I’ll hand you the laptop and you can get going. I need to get back down there.” He attempted to step around her.
She blocked him. “Not a chance. You’re my ticket to safety and you’re going to – ” She tilted her head, staring into Jaxx’s eyes. “I keep hearing your thoughts.” She put her hands in a fist. “No, I feel your thoughts. What are you feeling now?” She gave a humorless grin. “Right. You have no freaking clue what’s going to happen next.” She prodded him in the chest. Hard. It hurt. “You don’t know a lot, do you, Jaxx? There are gaps. Gaps in that little cranium of yours.” Her finger moved up to his forehead. She kept jabbing.
“There are gaps, you’re right. I’ve been trying to fill them, but Donny has been keeping me on a tight leash.”
“Who the fuck ever had you on a leash?”
Jaxx shrugged. She knew a version of him he was only just getting to know.
Rivkah gasped. “Holy mother of all dogs. You really don’t know.” She fought to catch her breath. “If that isn’t the biggest, most cowardly way out I have ever heard of.” She got up in his face. “I don’t knoooooooooooow.” It was a whiny voice, meant to insult.
It did.
She dismissed him with a wave of her hand. “Fine. Here’s what happened. You were supposed to have my back. But you left me for dead.” She paused.
“Sorry,” said Jaxx.
“It gets worse,” she said. “You left me in a burning starfighter. Alone. To die. Only I didn’t die, did I? I survived. Crisped to the core.”
Jaxx scratched his temple. “Wait a minute. I saved you. I risked my life to save you. I donated my blood to revive you. I think you’re not remembering things correctly.” He wanted to say he thought she was nuts, but that wouldn’t get him anywhere.
She spat on his foot. “That was the first time Jaxx. Yeah, you saved me.” She threw her hands in the air. “Whoopty-doo. The second time. When you up and defected. I went after you. You shot me down.”
He had no idea what she was talking about. She snagged the laptop bag out of his hand, not waiting for a reply. She bounced it a couple of times, gauging the weight. “Heavier than I imagined. Must be industrial strength, because it’s twice the weight of a normal laptop.” She scrounged through the bag, ripping the Velcro compartments inside open. “What’s this?” She pulled out a fist full of US dollars, mostly twenties. “That’s not enough.”
“Enough for what?”
“To fly off Grenada.”
He pointed at himself. “I’m not going.”
She pulled out several credit cards. After reading the name inscribed on them, she gave Jaxx a wicked smile. “You’re coming with me. These credit cards are in Jon Shaugnessy’s name. You could pull off being a man, couldn’t you, Jaxx? If you really put your mind to it?” She pointed over his shoulder. “Now go, before I drag you to the airport.”
“No.” He folded his arms. He wasn’t moving. If she touched him, things would go bat shit crazy like they did last time, causing an uproar, waking up an entire city block. He knew it and because he knew it, she knew it.
The woosh of a craft overhead had them both crouching in seconds.
An Oospor Class-9 Dropship was hovering just in front of the alleyway, a man in armor stepping down the short ramp.
“Cole,” said Jaxx and Rivkah in unison.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Agent?” Rivkah stepped up to him. The woman had no fear.
Cole went for his IP-9, demagnetizing it from his titanium armor and yanking it over his shoulder, holding it out front of him. He aimed it at Rivkah. “I’m here for Jaxx, not for you, Rivkah.”
Jaxx stepped forward, shielding Rivkah. “What’s this about?”
“I’m taking you back to the fleet, Jaxx. Though, like any traitor, I’d rather see your eyes rolled up in the back of your head and your shitty, little coward’s body laid out in a casket.”
On each side of the alleyway stood two-story buildings. Behind them, at the base of a steep Fort George hill, was a concrete wall. Cole was in front of them. They had nowhere to go.
Rivkah sized Colonel up. “You should go back to the tin-shed you call Star Warden.”
Jaxx tried, again, to shield Rivkah. “Cole, please leave.”
Cole laughed.
Rivkah hissed, “Move out of the way, Jaxx.”
“No.”
“Move. Out. Of. The. Way. I can take him.”
Cole gave another hearty laugh. “I’d suggest you do as she says. I can kill two birds with one of these stones.” He patted his IP-9.
Jaxx moved to the side.
Cole roared. “Bye, Rivkah.” He pulled the trigger, firing a cluster of photon blasts, followed by tracers.
Rivkah ducked each one, then ran toward Cole.
Another cluster of shots and Rivkah somersaulted away, then flipped in the air, kicking Cole smack on his helmet.
It would have taken out anybody. Anybody not in a titanium exo-suit. Anyone not named S.A. Nick Cole.
Cole didn’t budge.
Rivkah fell back, slightly dazed.
Cole pulled the trigger.
Rivkah rolled to the side, kicking at his knee, which ought to have brought him to the ground. Again, he didn’t budge.
He shifted away from Rivkah and magnetized the rifle to his back. He jumped and came down with a crushing two-handed blow, missing everything but the road, taking a nice chunk of tarmac with him.
Rivkah stood, putting her hands up in a Muay Thai stance. She gave Jaxx a side glance. “Jaxx, you pansy. Help me.”
How? Jaxx didn’t know how to fight, let alone fight a giant like Cole in full on titanium attire.
Jaxx put up his hand, addressing Cole. “If you don’t hurt Rivkah, I’ll come with you peacefully.” He had a plan and it had nothing to do with going back to the Secret Space Program. Hopefully, Rivkah could still read his mind.
“That I can do,” Cole responded. “We have to get off this planet before too many people see my dropship.” He turned, his back now to Rivkah.
Just as Cole gestured to the ramp, Rivkah jumped on Cole’s back and kicked the demagnetizing button near his hip armor. She pulled his IPR-9 off his back and aimed
it at Cole. She hesitated. It was a powerful weapon. The kickback might knock her off her feet, if she wasn’t firmly planted.
Cole jerked away, swiping his arm outward.
Rivkah pulled the trigger and photon bolts connected with Cole’s chest armor, spinning him on his side, sliding him across the pavement. Sparks flew and he left one hell of a skid mark. When he stopped, he wasn’t moving.
Rivkah ran up the ramp, stopping mid-stride. “Jaxx, what are you waiting for? He’s not dead. He’ll be up and at ’em in seconds. Let’s go.”
Jaxx held the laptop close to him and looked at the wall that shielded the secret elevator that went back to Shaughnessy’s room and his dream work.
He looked back at Rivkah, waving for him to join her.
Cole started to move.
His choice was made, not by Rivkah or himself, but by the man who might wreak havoc on him when he got up. The door shut air tight and Rivkah keyed on the holographic display console and the dropship lifted into the sky.
47
June 10th, 2018
Over Wichita, Kansas
Rivkah was tired, her eyelids heavy. She was doing everything she could to keep them open.
She was flying the Oospor Class-9 dropship at near low orbit. To any star gazer, her highly-sophisticated technological ship would look like a passing satellite.
Even with Rivkah’s ability to master just about any ship, this ship was so sophisticated she and Jaxx couldn’t figure out how to make it fly any faster than a commercial airliner. It had too many holographic buttons and, without a ship manual, they were working with their knowledge from their experience flying SF-13 Air Wings. The Air Wings were easier to fly and that was saying something, because their Air Wings were damned advanced. Or, maybe it was the powers that Jaxx gave her that dumbed her down.
Rivkah nodded off for a second, then woke with a start. She took a deep breath and thumbed over her shoulder. “I’m taking a nap on the hospital bed back there.”
She walked to the bed and lay down.
“I guess I’ll assume controls?” He hoped that she got that he was being sarcastic. It wasn’t a tone he was used to deploying, but she was being an ass and he was damned tired of people pushing him around.
Project Atlantis (Ascendant Chronicles Book 1) Page 23