He is an exact replica of me all the way down to my clothes and speech. We both stand at the same time and wait for judgment. Suddenly, he drops his sword, and everyone scowls with suspicion because a Harvester never relinquishes his sword.
I smile at him. “Oops. You just gave yourself away, Harvey 2.0.”
A few of the Harvesters laugh at my joke. Two of them grab him and restrain him as Mr. Herald rushes into the scene. “Arrest him!”
They usher Harvey 2.0 down a hallway and disappear. “This isn’t over, Harvey,” he shouts at me.” And for some reason I believe him.
“Report to my office, now,” Mr. Herald commanded.
Just minutes later, I sit in front of Mr. Herald who paces behind his desk. I can tell he’s confused and shocked at the same time.
“What the hell was that? He was an exact replica of you all the way down to your cheesy spurs! How—”
I know his mind is boggled and he doesn’t like it. He’s not used to that feeling. But how do you think I felt when I first saw me looking at another me?
“Vega is improving his new creations and techniques, powers even. Obviously, he’s prepping for the rise of the Necropolis. The City of the Dead will follow him into battle against us and do whatever he orders when they see his powers and what he can accomplish.”
“I don’t need a history lesson, Harv. What I need? Vega’s head!”
He slams his clenched fist on the table and punches a hole through it. I haven’t seen him this mad in quite a while. Not to mention the president is still a hostage.
“Tell me this, Harv. Why doesn’t Vega use his Master Hole to usher in the rise of the Necropolis early?”
“Good question. I only have three thoughts on that. One, he wants to weaken us as much as he can so when the rise does occur his victory will be easier. Two, he wants to follow the prophecy to a tee in order to have full power to battle us. Or three, he simply cannot do that.”
Mr. Herald sits at his now damaged desk. “That makes sense. But we can’t take the chance to find out one way or the other.”
“Gerald, listen. It doesn’t matter what we do. Prophecy is prophecy and there’s no avoiding it, just prepping for it. Period.”
He nods in agreement. “Now, presently, what do you suggest we do with your impostor?”
I wickedly smile at him. “Leave that to me, boss.”
An hour later, Dorian, Naes, and myself encircle Harvey 2.0, who sits strapped to a metal Djinn prisoner chair with a magnetic field around him to keep him from escaping. A Halo of Truth surrounds his head. He doesn’t seem intimidated in the least. Doesn’t surprise me. He has the same emotions and most of the capabilities I do. Haloes of Truths don’t work on me, so our chances are slim to nil it’ll work on him. My senses tell me that torture may be the only action that’ll work on this Underworlder. And to be honest, that’s fine with me if it means we extract info we need to topple Vega.
Since I’m the head of the interrogation, I step forward and stare down Harvey 2.0. “I’m going to ask you a series of questions, and I will get the truth. If I don’t, well, we go to the next level. And I think you know what that means.”
I’m not surprised to see him smile an arrogant smile at me because he knows exactly what that means and what will happen. Now I know for sure Vega has inserted as many memories of mine as he could remember into his creation’s mind. I need to quickly create, implement, something new, something this abomination has no clue about or our ship is sunk. Quick, Harv, think of something quick. First, I’ll ask him a question to prove the Halo of Truth is ineffective on him.
“Where’s the president and tell me what Vega’s plan for the rise of the Necropolis?”
He pauses for a moment. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Harvester.”
Now I know the Halo isn’t working on him. The next phase: shake him up emotionally. The hard part: how to do that? I’m interrogating myself. This is freaky.
“You know, Vega must not think too highly of you. He didn’t do a damn thing to make sure you didn’t get captured. In fact, your very existence is worthless.” I see my comments are getting to him. I dig in deeper. “That’s right. You haven’t even lived a real life. All you know is what I lived. You’re some sort of scientific experiment created by Vega’s mad scientists in a lab! Not to mention, you don’t even have your own identity. You’re me!”
“Shut up!” he hollers at me.
Now I got him. “You’re life is meaningless!”
Harvey 2.0 fidgets in the chair. His eyes were shifty. He profusely sweats. He violently convulses for a few seconds and then abruptly stops. “I don’t know Vega’s plan, but I know where he can be located.”
I smile at the others and they nod at me. “Fine. Where?”
Early in the morning, on a cliff side, in Bryce Canyon, Utah, Charon, Dorian, Naes, and I and three more Harvesters, attached to ropes, rappel down to a small cave entrance. We disengage from our rope harnesses. One of the Harvesters is Kelly Marie, Agent number 4101. There aren’t many of them, but yes, a woman. She fights better than most men. When my wife died, she was there for me, and I will always have a place in my heart for her. Many people have said that we would make the perfect Harvester couple, but Agency policy states Harvesters can’t have intimate relations with one another. Maybe, some day, I should toy with the notion of breaking that policy. Anyway, this is where my replica told us to go. There’s a 50 percent chance he led us into a trap. If you were in Vegas with those odds, you’d be a happy gambler. When your existence is on the line, well, in this biz, you’re still a happy gambler. The wind picks up and howls through the canyon with such power we are forced to cling to the side of the cliff so we don’t plummet nine hundred feet to the rocky bottom. A bad situation indeed and we have just barely began this quest. Birds of prey soar above us as if they know something we do not: We’ll soon be food for them. Not a confidence builder in the least.
I know why Vega picked this area to possibly be the Underworld’s head science laboratory. One of our old training exercises was in this area, and Vega always said he loved it here. So quiet, natural obstacles, hard to traverse, desolate, for the most part, no water, intimidating terrain, and no GPS or cellular phone reception. Now that I survey the area, I begin to think that this definitely would be an ideal location for one of Vega’s major hubs for his Underworld army. I take one last look at our beautiful, serene surroundings before we might engage in a very epic battle. But I must admit, it is so beautiful what I see, and I’m normally not a touchy, artistic type of guy. This area of the world is mind-boggling. All the browns, oranges, yellows, the geologic wonders, and shapes is absolutely stupendous to the senses.
Speaking of senses, my keen hearing picks up a one of kind hum that I know very well. It’s the hum of a Hole. I start to think that this might be the locale of Vega’s mysterious Master Hole. Maybe, and I say maybe, only because I don’t believe it until I see it, and it could be a simple recording of a Hole to throw us off. However, my adrenaline begins to pump, and I’m ready for the battle. I look up at the birds of prey, and I think to myself that we won’t be the ones they’ll be feeding on. I’m confident in that.
I hand signal to everyone into actionable maneuvers for deployment into the bowels of Vega’s lair of . . . what? I’m not sure yet. But I don’t show, by any means, that I’m not certain. That would only discourage my team. I must show a definitive assurance that I’m positive or there might be a mutiny amongst us that I haven’t seen in centuries amongst Harvesters. So I stay calm, cool, and collected. However, I can’t help to think that if this is one of Vega’s major hubs, then why aren’t there any exterior security? This isn’t like Vega at all. Security is one of his major strengths. He prides himself on that fact. With that said, we move into the cave in a staggered, stacked formation just like the Special Forces would do and were taught by Harvesters back in the day, and they didn’t know they were being taught by Harvesters. We don’t need flas
hlights due to our extra keen senses. The best way to sum it up, our vision in the dark is similar to that of a bat to the hundredth power. Cool, right? I think so. To us, it’s like daytime. As we move deeper into the cave, it appears to be just a normal, simple cave. No signs of electrical wires, past presence by anyone, and no unusual scents. It’s eerily quiet, a type of quiet that makes you feel as though you shouldn’t be where you are and hightail it out of there. But our job dictates that we continue and we do so. We move deeper into the cave with our swords drawn.
The cave opens up more to about sixty feet high and forty feet wide. I glance behind us and realize the sunlight shining in can barely be seen. No bother. We’re professionals of the highest degree, and we’re here to accomplish a mission. We continue on and eventually come to a wall of rock and dirt. We stare at each other with befuddlement.
Kelly Marie rubs the dirt with her foot. “There has to be a hidden device of some sort that will allow us to proceed.”
“Kelly Marie’s right,” I add on in order to keep my crew tuned in to the goal at hand. “Everyone look around for anything out of ordinary that’ll help our situation. Keep in mind, the president himself could be here somewhere,” I continue.
We tear apart the area with our swords and search for some sort apparatus which will allow us to continue on to the next stage, a stage we have no clue about or what it consists of, and we know we’re in the dark about, information wise. Dust and dirt are kicked up into the cave by the wind and causes a mild brownout. The search isn’t going well.
Naes taps my shoulder. “I think your buddy lied to us.”
Kelly Marie approaches us with a slight smirk.
“I’ve seen that smirk before, Kelly Marie. What’s up?” I ask her.
“Harvey, I think I found a passage with Djinn’s new visual anomaly goggles,” she tells me. She leads us over to a small nook in the cave’s wall. “I found this.” She points her sword at a miniscule circuit board of some sort within the wall. All of our eyes light up. “I don’t know about you, but that definitely isn’t indigenous to the geology,” Kelly Marie states with a hint of confidence, yet arrogance too.
But it’s an arrogance that’s a turn-on, not an annoyance. She and I exchange looks that could be analyzed as a possible date later. I must admit, I do not mind. I haven’t had a lady interest in my life in many years. I turn and look at the first Harvester. “You’re the tech guy. Show me what you can do.”
He steps in front of the circuit board and pulls out some of the Agency’s topnotch equipment from his side bag and goes to work.
I tap his shoulder. “The Agency has spent a lot of time and money on your training. Prove yourself, Harvester.”
I only say this to him because it will push him to do the best he can, and it’ll make him strive to prove himself to me. It sounds weird, but I must admit, most Harvesters want to prove to me they deserve to be Harvesters. Is that so bad if it furthers our progress? The Harvester taps into the circuit board and he already has a perplexed face.
“This is some sophisticated technology here,” he says with a discerned tone in his voice.
I move right to his left ear. “Get what we need done. Show me you’re worth being here,” I whisper to him.
He nods at me as sweat rolls down his face. “It has a crossover lay security system. One little mess up, and they’ll know what we’re doing and that we’re here. Whoever hooked this system up is really good,” the Harvest tech says.
“Yeah, well, you’re better. Put the Academy’s training to good use,” Dorian says.
The Harvester tech busies himself with a new sense of confidence and self-assurance. Maybe all of us makes him a bit nervous, anxious even. Suddenly, we hear two men talking near the cave’s entrance. All of us hug the cave’s wall. I tap the Harvester Tech. “Keep working, but be silent.”
He gives me the thumbs up and continues to go to work.
The rest of us look down the long cave shaft, but we can’t see where the two men are. I wave the second Harvester and Naes into action. They stealthily maneuver toward the cave’s entrance. Naes hand signals to me that they aren’t Underworlders. Rather, they’re civilian rock climbers.
However, with that said, we still can’t let them know of our whereabouts. I hand signal to Naes to hide and wait to see what they do and make sure they don’t discover us. They hide in the shadows and observe them.
“Hey, let’s check out this cave, man,” the first rock climber says to his friend.
“Let’s do it,” he replies.
When I hear that, I quickly move in Naes’s direction. I see him draw his sword, and I signal to him to lower it, and he does so. I don’t want these civilians to be killed, so I pull out a device created by our master inventor Djinn. The two rock climbers don’t see me point his triangular device at them. I press my thumb on the fingerprint indicator and a knockout agent sprays at them as they get within a foot of me. They instantly drop unconscious. Naes and I drag them into the shadows.
“I got it!” the Harvester tech exclaims.
We all run back to the circuit board.
“All right, Techie. Show us what’s behind the curtain,” Charon tells him.
He gives Charon a confused look. “What?”
“You can’t be serious. The Wizard of Oz? The classic film? The wizard’s behind the curtain.”
“I’ve never—”
I’m annoyed now. “Would you two please shut up?”
The Harvester tech grabs two wires. “When I cross these two wires, something will be revealed. I’m not sure what, but it should help us.”
“I don’t like this,” Dorian says with concern. “It could be a trap.”
“We knew that coming into this, Dorian.” I point at the Techie. “Do it.”
He crosses the two wires and nothing. “What the—”
Suddenly, the ground gives way and a protective cage encapsulates all of us, and we rapidly descend through some sort of manmade tunnel. We hold on as if we’re on a topnotch, high-speed rollercoaster. Although we travel at a fast rate, we stand our ground with swords in hand, ready to square off with whatever’s below us. Track lighting on the walls illuminate our descent. There are no controls, buttons, or gears to slow or even stop our rapid descent.
We just have to wait and see what happens. We are at the will of something unknown, and I don’t like that at all. So for now, all we can do is enjoy the ride. My guess is that we have easily descended at least five hundred feet and counting.
“How long have we been falling? Shit!”
I agree with the first Harvester. It has been a while. Naes begins to sway back and forth, which is a common reaction due to rapid descending in a tight, even claustrophobic area. I give him a stern look that can be read as, “You’re better than that, Harvester. Man up!”
He gathers his composure and does so with a nod directed to me. We are traveling so fast now that my spurs begin to spin due to the whirlwind within the elevator type shaft.
“It feels like we’re slowing down,” Kelly Marie remarks, and she’s correct.
This is when it’s going to get interesting. I gather everyone’s attention with a few finger snaps. “Be alert, at your best, and always remember, teamwork. We’re the best of the best. We’re Harvesters, damn it! Rock and roll?”
This riles up my crew. “Rock and roll!” they simultaneously say it back to me.
I’ve never met a Harvester from any continent who didn’t get pumped, amped up before a harvest. The transport system slows down even more, and now, I can see light many yards below us emanate from out of a side tunnel.
“I see a light below us, so we definitely have company,” I inform my crew. I notice the first Harvester appears terrified.
“I have a bad feeling,” he says.
I can’t help it, but my first reaction is to backhand him hard across the face like General Patton did to that soldier coward in WW2. However, I do not. “Harvesters should never feel that
emotion! Get your shit together, Harvester.”
He vigorously nods at me, but I’m not convinced, and now don’t know if I can trust him. It’s my mistake since I handpicked my crew for this Harvest. I’ll have to keep an eye on him. Even Kelly Marie stands strong and stoically awaits the battle. It only takes one on the team to mess everything up and get all of us sent to the After unwillingly.
The mechanics to the traveling cage come to a grinding halt just feet over the light as if it has broken down. We stand our ground like we’ve been trained to do. Our eyes are wide open and alert. We know for a fact we are going to encounter something. That something? We aren’t sure yet, but we’ll be ready that’s for damn sure. This would intimidate most, but it excites me. I prefer it this way.
Throw something at me that I had no clue you were going to do, and I enjoy the altercation even more. Bring it on! That’s how I think. I just hope my crew still feels and thinks the same way.
I start to wonder why this carriage thing didn’t stop at the bottom. This actually may work to our advantage. My crew appears anxious to advance, but I signal them to remain still and quiet. My keen hearing picks up nothing. I don’t know if this should concern me or not. I wave my crew into action. I exit the carriage first and drop to the floor. If there’s anything I’ve learned over the years, it’s your crew admires, appreciates, and will be loyal to a leader who actually leads. I put my back to the wall and they follow suit. I edge myself to the corner of the wall.
I take a few deep breaths, then peer around the corner and see rows and rows of large, human-sized test tubes filled with some sort of sticky fluid or saline solution with different bodily figures housed in it. I immediately think they’re Vega’s new creature creations. Track lighting illuminates the laboratory, which is easily a hundred yards long and fifty yards wide. There’s no security whatsoever anywhere. This is a shocker. Is it because Vega thinks it’s such a secluded area that nobody would ever find it? Or is it because it is so secluded, he wanted us to be lured here just for that reason. I always think it could be a trap and that has helped me survive for all these centuries as a Harvester. Trust is earned, not given.
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