Migration: Beginnings (Migration Series Book 1)

by Walter Hopgood

  Chapter 29

  Jason pulls the SUV into their driveway and gets out as Rhys does the same, waving at the neighbors as he grabs their purchases—a few things from the grocery store and a couple books on adoption—from the back seat. He starts walking to the house, spotting Jason talking to a man on their porch in military uniform.

  “Hi, boys!” he hears Leslie call and turns his attention to her, giving her a quick wave before stepping onto the porch.

  “Major,” Rhys says with a nod as he considers the man standing on the porch in front of them.

  “What can we do for you?” Jason asks.

  “Doctor Tambor, Mister Frost-Tambor,” the major whose name, ‘Nichols’, is stitched across his chest, acknowledges. “I have been asked to retrieve you two and escort you down to Sacramento. It is a matter of grave urgency.”

  Jason rolls his eyes, and Rhys automatically shakes his head. “Are we back on the project?” Rhys asks, and while he sounds just a bit angry, there’s also definitely a bit of relief in his tone.

  Rhys figures that maybe he is a little bitter at how they’d been discarded from the project, but at least the military has seemed to come to its senses. Plus, he figures that they haven’t had the chance to get the device working over the last few days because it was, as the major said, ‘grave urgency.” And if they hadn’t, then he and Jason hold more power than the government does.

  “Well, we can’t just leave,” Jason counters, and Rhys knows Jason’s about to level the unsuspecting major with the amount of frustration he’s been holding in the last couple of days. “We have stuff to take care of around here. Rhys’ job needs him, and we’re about to make some big changes to our family.”

  “Uh…” Major Nichols blurts; a confused look plastered on his face, followed by a flash of what looks like anger.

  “Yeah,” Rhys says as he joins in, not holding back his own anger and hurt. “You can’t just come up here and beg to take us back. I mean, how do we know you’re not going to pull the same shit on us again?” But even as Rhys holds a hard line, he knows deep down in his soul that he wants to go back to the project.

  “Is there any way…” Nichols starts to ask.

  Jason holds a hard expression, and he cuts his eyes toward the major. When he turns to Rhys, who gives him a look that says ‘Please,’ he relents just a bit. The effect is minor, but Rhys recognizes it.

  “Okay,” he starts. He turns back to the major. “But not as long as last time,” he adds. “Two, three days, tops.”

  Nodding, Major Nichols says, “Absolutely.”

  “Hey, Leslie,” Jason calls to their neighbor.

  “What’s up, sweetie?” she asks as she approaches them, her daughter hot on her heels.

  “We’ve got to go back to Sacramento,” he says.

  Leslie gives him a look that seems to say ‘Yeah, right’ and he counters, “No, really. Just Sacramento this time.”

  Rolling her eyes as Ainslie grabs at her mother’s arms to be picked up, she counters, “Like you could tell me the truth, anyway.” With an easy laugh, she adds, “And if you did, this one would have to kill me, right?”

  Major Nichols gives Leslie an uncomfortable look.

  “I’ve still got a spare key and can check on Baxter for you,” Leslie says. Once everything is settled, she kisses Rhys and Jason each on the cheek before heading back to her own home.

  Jason and Rhys make sure they’ve packed everything they’ll need for a few days, and finally agree to head out with Major Nichols. He guides them to his car, which is waiting on the street.

  “Sweet ride,” Jason says as he appreciates the late model sedan. He climbs into the back seat, Rhys climbing in right after him as Nichols sits down in the front seat.

  The ride to the airport is quick, with Jason making idle chitchat as Nichols drives silently, nodding here and there whenever he’s tossed a question. They pull up to the general aviation area, where Nichols parks the car and waits for Rhys and Jason to join him after gathering their suitcases from the trunk.

  They walk through a fenced area just short of the airport terminal, Rhys and Jason giving each other confused looks until Nichols leads them onto the tarmac where a private jet awaits. They stand, looking up at the plane until Nichols brings them out of their thoughts.

  “Please,” Nichols says, gesturing to the lowered staircase.

  Rhys follows Jason up the stairs, and they enter the plane, immediately surrounded by a plush interior. “Fancy,” Jason says as he sits down in an overstuffed chair. “Oh God, it’s like butter,” he says, slowly closing his eyes and digging deeper into the comfort. “If this seat were a man, I’d totally consider dating him.”

  Rhys gives his husband a curious look as he goes to sit down himself.

  “You know…only after an appropriate period of mourning and celibacy after you fall off of a mountain or something,” Jason adds, giving his husband a wink.

  “Wow,” Rhys says as he experiences the luxury for himself. And while he thinks Jason is sometimes over the top, he has to admit that the seats are pretty comfortable.

  Nichols follows them onto the plane and hits a button, which retracts the stairs. When the doorway is sealed, he leans into the cockpit and mutters something Rhys can’t quite make out, then closes the door and returns to the cabin. “Are you buckled in, gentlemen?” he asks.

  Rhys and Jason make quick work of the seat belts, and give Nichols a nod as they settle into the comfort.

  “Good. Now let’s get down to Sacramento so we can get to work.”

  Chapter 30

  Captain Franks is going over project documentation as she waits to hear back from Portland Station on the whereabouts of Doctor Tambor and his husband. With her promotion and previous work on the project, General Landingham decided to bring her up to speed on everything they’d been working on, including the details of the device itself. She shakes her head, wondering just how three pieces of metal could allow them to travel great distances throughout the universe. But then again, she’s been witness to a great number of secrets while in the military. Still, this one comes as more of a shock to her than she thinks it should.

  As she studies the beams currently resting against a far wall of the warehouse and ponders what exactly could make such a thing possible, she’s interrupted by an airman who approaches, calling to her as he nears.

  “Captain Franks?” the Airman asks, voice unsteady.

  “Yes, Airman Sasaki?”

  “Ma’am, we got a call from Portland Station. He says that they have been unable to locate Doctor Tambor, or his husband.”

  “What do you mean they can’t locate them?” Franks asks as the hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stand up. She tries to shake it off, but a general feeling of unease begins settling somewhere near her stomach.

  “Well, ma’am,” the airman starts, pausing a second as if he thought he would get in trouble for passing along bad news. “When our people went to their house, they were summoned by a neighbor who told them that Doctor Tambor and his husband had already been collected by someone in uniform about an hour previous. The thing is,” he adds, voice quieting and glancing around, “they’d been picked up about thirty minutes prior to Portland Station getting the request.” The airman clears his throat. “We’re not sure exactly where they are…”

  Franks’ blood suddenly runs cold; the military was supposed to have been keeping an eye on Rhys and Jason since sending them back home, or at least that’s what she’d been led to believe. Her mind wanders through the possibilities, trying to dismiss the darker thoughts that push to the forefront of her brain, demanding attention.

  “Get me General Landingham,” Franks responds as she stands up, dismissing the airman with a nod. As Sasaki scuttles away, Franks crosses the room and picks up a phone. She dials and waits for a response from the other end of the line. When it finally comes, she barks, “I’m gonna need flight plans and records of all traffic in and out of every single airpor
t in the Portland, Oregon metro region for the last twenty-four hours. And passenger information for every rental car rented, plus passenger lists for trains—inbound and out.” She slams down the receiver and contemplates what else can be done. If Rhys and Jason have been kidnapped, she needs to know by whom, and where they would be going.

  It stands to reason that the couple might be on their way to Sacramento, based on the work they’d done for the military. Since Bartlett had been the one to leak information to someone on the outside, it would make sense that whomever she was working with would try and lure Rhys and Jason to the Sacramento area where the beam was. Where would they go? Where should she start looking? The original hangar was a good bet, but they could be anywhere.

  Considering the situation, Franks goes back to the desktop computer she had been working on before and goes to sit down, though she’s stopped by an obstruction. As she glances down, she finds her briefcase in the seat—where she’d last left it. She’s about to pick it up when something inside catches her eye. It’s the slim, leather-bound notebook that she keeps the SIM cards in for when they’d traveled halfway across the globe. Opening it up, she turns the stiff pages, finding an empty spot in one of the openings, her mind going back and remembering the scene where she’d handed the SIM cards, labeled, “India/Nepal/Bhutan” to Rhys. She’d never gotten them back. While she doesn’t know anything about Rhys or Jason’s phones, she has all of the details about those particular SIM cards. She wonders if they would be able to track it, and is about to reach for her own phone to start a search when Landingham charges into the room.

  “Just what in blue blazes is going on?” Landingham demands.

  “I believe Doctor Tambor and his husband may have been abducted, sir,” Franks says as she turns. “But we may have a way to track them down.”

  Chapter 31

  Soon after stumbling back into the original warehouse where the first beam had been initially stored, Rhys and Jason are each pushed to the center of the room. Rhys tries to turn to Jason, but the feel of the cold steel barrel of a gun at his back sends a terrorizing shudder through Rhys, stopping his attempt. He falls to his knees as the angry man has ordered him to do, stumbling unevenly since his hands are bound behind his back. He’s sporting a massive bump on his head from where the man, someone who obviously is impersonating a United States major, hit him over the head with the butt of a pistol sometime before descending into Sacramento. While they were out, both he and Jason had been subdued with zip ties around their wrists.

  Rhys defies the imposter and looks to his side as Jason is forced to his knees next to him, Nichols (or whatever his name is) coming to the front and pacing back and forth before them. The man is immeasurably angry, based on the way he is almost viscerally shaking, glaring daggers at Jason.

  After a few minutes of pacing, he finally speaks. “Where is it?” he demands.

  “I’ve told you everything we know,” Jason replies with eyes wild as he turns to Rhys. There is a desperate, pleading look covering his face, but Rhys knows he’s mirroring the same look back at his husband.

  Nichols paces back and forth, then goes and stands in front of Jason, pointing the gun at his head. “You’re pathetic,” he mutters as he pushes Jason’s head back with barrel of the gun. He leans down, reaching for the necklace that hangs around Jason’s neck, angrily yanking it away from Jason with a grunt.

  Rhys looks around for something—anything—he could use as a weapon. He wants to try and charge the crazed man, but with his arms bound behind his back, he’s not sure he could make it even a step before the man shot him.

  Nichols studies the necklace for a few seconds. “You stupid, pathetic little insects,” he says as the necklace reflects the fluorescent overhead lights, sending small slices of light skittering around the room. “Your ancestors stole from my ancestors, so I’m taking back what is rightfully mine. Including this,” he adds as he thrusts the necklace in a forward motion.

  With as angry as this imposter is, Rhys hopes that Nichols doesn’t realize the pendant hanging from the chain is a fake, or he might become even more furious.

  Nichols begins to pace, his eyes staying on the necklace until he finally comes to a halt halfway between Rhys and Jason. He looks to the locked room behind them where the beam had been stashed initially, then turns back to the couple.

  “My family had rightfully taken possession of the cnawd cludiant hundreds of years ago,” he reflects with a quiet voice and then turns to Jason. “But your family had to interfere, forcing it from my ancestors. When my ancestors were close to reclaiming it, your pathetic family decided to break it up and hide it from us. But, now that you’ve been so kind as to locate the three pieces of the device, we have everything we need. Finally.”

  Rhys fidgets with the plastic that binds his hands as he tries to free himself, but they only dig further into his skin and offer absolutely no freedom in allowing him to either remove or at least wiggle one hand free. He watches as the madman returns to Jason’s side, lowering the gun to aim at Jason’s head.

  “Now tell me,” he says as Jason gasps in a breath when the cold metal once again pushes against his forehead, “where is the device?”

  There’s another nudge, and Rhys hears the gun being cocked. Suddenly a ringing noise cuts through the silence, Jason and their captor quickly glancing over at Rhys. It takes him a second to come back to reality and realize that the ringing is coming from his phone deep in his pants his pocket.

  “God damn it!” Nichols says, dropping the gun to his side. He crosses to Rhys where he leans down, holding the gun aimed at Rhys, muttering, “Don’t even fucking think about it.” He bends down and reaches into the pocket of Rhys’ jeans, pulling the cell phone out. He glances at the screen, drops it to the floor, then raises his foot, bringing the heel of his boot crashing down onto the glass. Rhys can hear the device shatter, the glass crunching underneath the man’s heel as he grinds his foot in a circular motion. Once silence is restored, their captor’s face turns red. “Where is it?” he screams again.

  “We told you, we don’t know,” Rhys says. “After we got back from Zambia, the plane landed here at the airfield. General John Landingham met us and we were sent home for a few days while the next phase of the project was figured out. The last time we saw it, the military was loading the beam into a truck.”

  Nichols resumes pacing, his fingers play with the safety on the side of the gun. Jason finally adds, “We’re telling the truth; that’s all we know.”

  After a few minutes of silent pacing, Nichols looks around like he’s been defeated, and his expression changes to that of pure rage. Rhys figures he’s never seen a man so angry before in his life as Nichols’ dark, soulless eyes seem to bore right through him.

  “Then you are truly of no use to me,” Nichols says, his voice just barely above a whisper. If Rhys was scared before, that tone makes him absolutely terrified. Nichols nods, and then walks back to where Rhys is kneeling, pushing the barrel against Rhys’ temple. “Say goodbye to your little boyfriend,” Nichols spits out as he once again nimbly flips off the safety.

  “No!” Jason says, and it breaks Rhys’ heart to hear his husband’s voice so pained. “It was my family, not his. Rhys has nothing to do with this. You want to kill someone, then kill me,” he offers. “But not Rhys.” He’s sobbing as he chokes out the words again, his quiet voice pleading, “Kill me,” as he lowers his head in resignation.

  “Oh Jason,” Nichols says, “You pathetic fool. Don’t worry—I’m going to kill you both. I’m going to make you watch as I blow this little faggot’s head off. Then, when you’ve watched your whole life crumble around you, I’ll put a bullet in your brain.”

  Nichols cocks the gun, turning to Jason with unfeeling eyes as he grins an absolutely sadistic grin. He stands there, the cold steel pressing against Rhys’ forehead, and forces Rhys to turn and face Jason.

  “You know,” Nichols says as he stands in front of Rhys, “my only regret
is not having your whore mother here, as well. I would have loved to kill her, too.” With an even more evil grin, he adds, “And make you watch.”

  Jason is on his feet in half an instant, taking Nichols by surprise. His scream of, “No!” echoes off the empty warehouse walls as he charges Nichols, and Rhys is suddenly transfixed. He watches as Jason dashes for the madman, and Nichols pulls the gun from Rhys’ forehead and levels it at Jason’s chest.

  Time slows down as Rhys watches the scene before him unfold in horror, his world starting to spin out of control. Suddenly, there’s a sound of a gunshot that fills the room, echoing off the walls, and he watches Jason stagger into their captor, the two of them stumbling to the concrete floor a second later.

  “Jason? Jason!” Rhys calls when he catches his breath. He tries to get to his feet, but has a problem being able to see through tear-filled eyes, and stumbles to his husband’s side to check on him. And that’s when he hears it.

  “Clear!” someone calls from behind him as Rhys missteps trying to get to his husband. He tumbles unsteadily to his knees, falling to his side as he tries to turn Jason over, not sure how badly injured Jason is, or how much time he may have before Nichols can get his bearings and get off another shot.

  “Jason?” Rhys calls as someone comes up behind him. Even with his hands zip tied behind his back, he’s going to do everything he can to protect his husband from whatever new menace approaches.

  “Doctor Tambor,” comes a familiar voice a moment later, mixed with a cacophony of footfalls that rapidly approach from the doorway. “Rhys,” the voice continues as Rhys feels a tug at the zip tie that binds his hands. He’s at first thrown by the touch, instantly shrinking away from it in a protective move. The hand at his shoulder is insistent, forcefully turning Rhys’ body, demanding his attention.