Houston. Would it be so bad? She could team up with the rest of the Bureau, and try to help after the disaster struck. What would the country look like? What was this going to do to the world? Kendra imagined the new planet after the events transpired. Estimations said that over half of the United States’ population would be gone within the first week after the ash began to fall. The series of brewing hurricanes would wipe out most of the Caribbean. Europe was up in the air, but with the looming eruptions, it wasn’t going to be pretty.
She ran a hand over the file she’d dropped to the desk and opened it up, scanning over the faces of the missing people. Didn’t they deserve a chance? Would their world end as they sat tied up in a basement somewhere?
The entire case had Kendra’s insides twisted up. They had to be connected, especially with the Tesla man being near for a few of them. She was sure the others around the country were taken in similar styles. But to what end? Why abduct doctors, scientists, professors… teenagers as well?
Then it hit her like a slap in the face. Someone planned to start over. To do so, they’d need skilled people on hand.
Her heart raced as she considered the implications, but her attention was pulled away when her cell phone chimed, and she saw what she’d been waiting for. The black truck with the GPS device stuck to it had begun to move.
She grabbed her files and ran for the exit. It was time to find out what the hell was going on.
* * *
Val
Val’s entire body flooded with adrenaline. The guards on the second level of the dry dock looked like they could open fire at a moment’s notice. Her gaze snapped back to Lewis Hound, standing on the catwalk above them. The crowd of abductees was still trying to edge away from the man who’d asked Lewis if they’d be allowed to leave his secret end-of-days club.
“If you don’t want to be a part of the Eden Project,” Lewis Hound began slowly, “then yes, you may leave; but first, I’d like to ask for a fair chance. You need to see what this is all about before you make such an important decision. As such, none of you will be allowed to leave until we arrive at the Eden facility.”
The dry dock filled with worried murmurs and a rising roar of discontent. Now that Lewis had claimed to have a good reason for abducting them, people were becoming more brazen about questioning his motives. A few people even began shouting out insults.
“Come on, don’t be stupid,” Justin muttered.
“Do they not see how many guns are aimed at us?” Val added.
“Don’t worry!” Lewis said, raising his hands for attention. “I’m not here to keep you in suspense. We’re leaving for Eden right now.” He turned and nodded to something out on the water at the open end of the dry dock. It was only then that Val noticed the glinting lights bobbing over the water and the rising whine of motors.
All of a minute later, a group of eight large Zodiac boats pulled up on the concrete ramp at the open end of the dry dock. Armed guards piled out and began gesturing to them. From the catwalk above, Lewis Hound spoke once more: “Who wants to go first?”
To Val’s surprise, Ana hurried toward the boats, pulling her along by the arm.
“Hey, slow down!”
“Let’s go,” Ana whispered sharply. Justin and his professor followed, pushing through the crowd to join them.
They reached one of the boats, and clambered over the front with a group of at least twenty others. There were two people in the back standing under a covered section: a man keeping the passengers covered with his rifle, and a woman manning the controls.
A pair of men crawled in over the bow, and the Zodiac reversed out of the dry dock and went skipping over the choppy water, aiming for a big white and red container ship on the horizon.
“Had a change of heart about this situation?” Val asked over the roar of the outboard motors and the cold wind whipping off the water.
Ana didn’t reply. She was busy whispering something to her brother, and he was nodding along. Both of them were watching the guards in the front of the boat. They were just a few feet away, struggling to hold onto their weapons and stay standing at the same time, perched precariously in the prow like hood ornaments. The water was too rough for them to keep the passengers properly covered.
Val tensed up, suddenly worried about what her friend might be planning. “Guys, let’s not do anything stupid...” she said, but the wind smothered her words.
Ana breathed in her ear, “Follow me. We’re gonna get the guy in the back.”
Val blinked in shock, watching as Justin and the professor began pushing through to the front of the boat, angling for the guards perched in the prow.
They hit a particularly large swell, and the guards in the front almost bounced overboard. Before they could recover, both Justin and the professor had reached them and grabbed their rifles.
“Now, gurl!” Ana hissed, but Val was rooted to the spot, frozen with terror.
Justin seized the upper hand almost immediately and pushed the first man overboard with a cry and a splash, taking his rifle in the same movement. He turned and slammed the stock into the second guard’s stomach while he struggled with the professor. Then that guard went over too, and the professor had his rifle. They turned and swept the weapons back toward the covered section of the boat.
Val spun around, suddenly worried about how Ana might have fared without her help. But Ana had the third and final guard covered with his own sidearm, having opted for stealth rather than brute force. The third guardsman’s hands were raised above his head, far from the rifle dangling around his shoulders. That only left one more, the woman manning the controls, and her hands were busy with the wheel and throttle.
“Drop it!” Ana screamed to the man with his hands raised.
“You heard her!” Justin added from the front, raising the stolen rifle to his shoulder to aim it over the passengers’ heads.
Before the third guard could comply, the driver’s expression tensed, and her eyes hardened. Her arms and shoulders flexed.
A sharp jolt of adrenaline shot through Val’s system as she realized what she was about to do. Val hit the floor of the boat as the driver wrenched the wheel and sent them tipping up on one side. Passengers cried out, and multiple splashes echoed. Val gritted her teeth while clinging to a fiberglass bench seat and the boat’s slick sides.
The roar of motors quieted, and they were turning more gently the other way, bobbing violently in the rough water slapping the sides of the boat.
“Get a floodlight!” someone shouted. Val risked peeking up to see the driver snapping fingers at another man. There was no sign of Ana back there, or of Justin or the professor in the front. At least five or ten others were bobbing around them in the water, screaming for help.
Val stood up and watched as the remaining guard produced a handheld floodlight and began sweeping it around.
“Go help them up!” the driver said.
“Someone needs to keep the others covered, ma’am.”
“I’ll do it. Give me your rifle!”
The man passed his rifle to the driver. She aimed it over the passengers with one hand, while her other stayed on the wheel and throttle.
Val watched as he ran around to help people up from the water one at a time. Other passengers joined in, reaching over the sides to help the ones who’d fallen overboard. She eyed those bobbing faces and stringy mops of wet hair, searching for familiar features under the floodlight.
But there was no sign of Ana, Justin, or the professor. Was this part of the plan? she wondered. Try to take control of the boat, and jump overboard if that failed?
Soon the water emptied out, and they cruised slowly back the other way, searching for the two who’d gone over first. Another Zodiac slowed as it pulled alongside. “Everything all right over there, Sergeant?”
“We had a little mutiny, but it’s all settled now!” the driver shouted. “We have a few men overboard, if you want to help us look.”
“Copy that.
”
The next fifteen minutes were spent circling around, searching the water. They eventually found both men, but still no sign of Ana, Justin, or the professor.
Val shivered and hugged her shoulders.
“That’s it,” the sergeant at the back of their boat said, wheeling around. “Thanks for the help!”
“Don’t mention it,” the driver of the other Zodiac replied. And then both boats were roaring over the water, heading for the container ship.
“Wait!” Val cried. She stood up and stared straight at the woman driving the boat. “What about the others?”
Crow’s feet scrunched up around slitted eyes as the sergeant realized who Val was talking about. “The mutineers?” She shook her head. “They wanted to leave so badly—let ‘em! They’re about to find out why a billionaire spent his fortune on this project. Ungrateful bastards.”
Val swallowed thickly and peered out over the moonlit water to the shore. It was a long way, but Ana used to be on the swim team. She would make it. Hopefully her brother and the professor would, too.
Turning towards the container ship, another shiver coursed through Val. They’d escaped, but what about her? What awaited her at the Eden facility? Was it aboard the container ship, or was that just another stage of the journey? Her gaze dropped to the rippled water racing by in a blurry sheet beside her. Maybe she should jump overboard, too.
Eighteen
Roland
4 Days Left…
Roland’s eyes snapped open. He’d been sleeping, and judging by the layer of dew over his body, he’d been out for a few hours. The sun was desperately attempting to sneak through the dark low-level cloud cover, but was failing miserably. Roland shifted from side to side, rotating his ankles and wrists, easing his aching bones.
He was tucked away beneath some leafy tree branches near the edge of the fence, with a clear line of sight on the warehouse’s bay doors as well as the loading pier over the rocky outcropping at the ocean’s coast.
The air was fresh out here, and Roland fought back a sneeze. It had been a long time since he’d been exposed to so many sights and smells, especially in real life. He’d spent the last ten years hiding inside his grandmother’s house, staring at a computer screen.
Part of him was exhilarated to be in the field, to be putting himself out here, having the courage and tenacity to do something like this. The other part was terrified, and thought he was being a dumbass for risking his own skin.
“It’s for the greater good,” he whispered to himself, although that wasn’t quite true. He didn’t care about the rest of humanity. This was more about his innate desire to learn the truth, to discover what exactly he’d spent the last couple of years tracking. If Lewis Hound was here, Roland had to learn why.
He’d stayed here all night, and hadn’t seen a thing. Not one single movement. Had he even heard a bird chirp? He listened, and the sound of birds cawing and singing hit his eardrums. It was funny how many things transpired when you weren’t paying attention to them.
“Okay, so there are birds. But am I too late?” he asked the air. It didn’t answer.
Roland slid his phone out and checked his usual sources. Iceland was worse. Far worse. The mid atlantic ridge was so close to them, and it linked to the others, cutting through the Caribbean to South America.
A thought slapped Roland across the face, and he went completely still, frozen by the mere idea. Had Lewis Hound created something to cause all of these weather disturbances? It wasn’t totally out of the question. If he made devices and planted several of them strategically around the plates, perhaps inside the fault lines and inside the active fissures, then he could speed up the inevitable. Time it just right, and you’d have doomsday.
But what about the hurricanes and the toxic fog…or the droughts? Roland wasn’t an expert on those, but he figured a man of Hound’s means could potentially figure out how to cause those disasters, too.
What was inside this warehouse? Would Roland find evidence of these machines, created to bring around humanity’s demise? Would Hound ransom the world? But to what end? He was already the second richest man in the world. What more could he want?
One word scrolled across Roland’s mind: Power.
He wasn’t sure if this all added up. He was frequently subject to delusional thought patterns, but maybe he was on to something. He couldn’t lie here all day and wait to find out. Roland had to locate a way into the warehouse before it was too late.
He stared at the countdown ticking away on the front screen of his phone and sighed. Four days until the end.
Seeing the time slipping, and the looming chain-link fence around the property, Roland thought about the new truck waiting for him nearby. He could keep driving, head north this time. The roads would be quiet. He could head into Canada. By his estimations, northern Manitoba was as safe a zone as he could find, as long as he didn’t mind the cold.
Before he could consider this, his attention was taken away by a buzzing sound: faint at first, but increasing with each passing breath.
He fumbled for the binoculars, and wiped the lenses before placing his eyes against the cold damp metal. It was a drone, hovering high. He almost panicked, thinking it was heading straight for his hiding spot, but it veered to the right, moving for the fence line.
Something was happening.
Another half dozen of the compact flying drones were released from outside the warehouse, each moving toward the perimeter, and they traveled in a circle, covering the base with eyes and presumably ears.
Things had become interesting. Roland fought the urge to retreat to the truck. He’d ventured this far, and he was so close to learning the truth. His phone was placed beside him, and it vibrated as a notification alerted him of a message. He broke his gaze from the warehouse and saw it was a message from his website, DigitalWizardry. He must have forgotten to shut it off in his rush to escape LA.
The subject line read: Missing daughter. Need your help.
He opened it, only to find the ramblings of a man searching for his abducted daughter. Roland thought about the news articles he’d seen about the hundreds of people across the country going missing in the weeks before the evacuation. The man also said he had a laptop that might contain her whereabouts, but it was locked. Roland was about to decline when the massive bulk carrier arrived, peeking over the horizon.
Roland’s heart nearly stopped as the immense ship cut through the waves, making its way toward the pier. Four white cranes stood up like omens along the center of the flat surface, and Roland watched in morbid fascination as it came to a halt about a hundred meters off the shore. The entire process had taken half an hour, and his bladder was threatening to burst by the time he finally set the binoculars down.
He slowly moved, staying behind the tree cover, and when he was done relieving himself, he returned to his hiding spot to see the unexpected. Zodiacs were racing out from the container ship with a rising roar of outboard motors, and Roland’s hand shook as he noticed the guards inside them, holding guns. AR-15s, if his eyesight was accurate. The Zodiacs disappeared around the water-facing end of the warehouse, and then he heard the motors start up again.
The boats were crowded and heavily laden now, with at least fifteen people aboard each of them. The passengers looked to be a diverse group: teens, a couple of kids, but mostly adults of varying ages and races. Then it all became clear. These were the missing people. Who else was being herded from a warehouse owned by Hound four days before doomsday? He was creating a safe haven, a place to start over from—or else Roland was totally off base. He really wasn’t sure.
He thought back to the email from the freaked-out father about his girl, and he scanned the people on those boats. They were farther away, but he thought there were a couple of women that could be teenagers on one of them. He brought up the email again, and saw the man had used an alias. That would be easy enough to track.
Roland opened an app he’d created on his phone and
tracked the man’s IP. It belonged to an Andrew Miller. His thumbs quickly flashed over the screen, and seconds later he was in the State of California database. Mr. Miller appeared to be an ex-Marine. He was divorced, and had three moving violations over the last five years, and four parking tickets. He’d also recently been arrested a few days ago for shooting a firearm.
Roland stared at the man’s image, and found himself shivering at the cold angry eyes. This was who he needed to help him. There was no way Roland was going into that warehouse alone, not after seeing those drones and armed guards. But this… Andrew Miller was the ticket.
He replied to the email, telling the man to bring the laptop to Capetown. He passed his cell phone number on to the guy. Even if Andrew wasn’t who he said he was, Roland’s phone had a custom-built locator inhibitor installed, so the man wouldn’t be able to use it to track him should things turn sour.
Roland would have been able to remotely do the job in a matter of minutes, but there was too much at stake. He needed Andrew so he could show the man this warehouse, and inform him about the group of people boating over to the bulk carrier.
Roland jammed the binoculars over his eyes, and saw the boat begin to move. The guards were on it as well, but that didn’t mean there weren’t more inside. It was time to go. With any luck, Andrew was already on his way.
He was about to gather his meager belongings when a twig snapped behind him. A thousand thoughts flashed through his mind, but it settled on one: protect yourself.
His hand snaked into his pack, and he felt the cold steel of his pistol. He’d used it already, just yesterday, but hated the idea of using it again. He rolled to the side, and hid the gun behind him as he stood up.
“Stop where you are,” the man’s voice said. Roland still couldn’t see his face, but he spotted the polished black military-issue boots, and the gruff voice told him this wasn’t a Boy Scout looking for a badge.
Final Days Page 15