Captured (The Prometheus Project Book 2)

by Richards, Douglas E

  “Why don’t you tell us what’s going on,” invited Dr. Harris.

  “No, no. I wouldn’t think of it. The boy is doing a fine job. Why don’t we let him continue. At this point, there’s no reason you shouldn’t know the true extent of my genius.”

  “Is everything I’ve said so far right?” asked Ryan.

  “Almost,” replied Tezoc. “Almost. Your conclusions about my ability to control people, and alter their emotions and centers of reason to suit my needs, are quite accurate. But you aren’t giving me my full due. In addition to my other talents, I’m among the greatest inventors of my kind. My species has some slight mental abilities, but nothing like I’ve demonstrated here. During my years of preparation, I invented a device that dramatically amplifies my mental abilities, more than a hundredfold. The device is tuned precisely to humans. In fact, I chose your species because you are especially susceptible to my mental energy.”

  For just an instant a confused look crossed the tall mercenary’s face. “It still baffles me why I can’t affect you or your sister, though.” He paused for a few seconds in thought, frowning, but finally decided to continue.

  “My invention can also direct mental energy to the sleep centers of human brains,” he boasted. “Once I saw that Dr. Harris was with you, it was obvious you managed to free the Prometheus scientists I left with Captain Brice in the other building. While I suspect that all seventeen of them together couldn’t cause me as much trouble as you and your annoying sister, it wouldn’t do to have them running around the city unguarded. So I took the trouble to locate all of their minds a few minutes ago,” he continued. “You should know that they are all now sleeping like babies a few miles north of you.”

  Dr. Harris frowned. He had wondered how the other scientists the kids had freed were faring. Not all that well, it seemed. On the other hand, there were fates far worse than mere sleep.

  “But I digress, Ryan,” said Tezoc. “Why don’t you continue with your analysis.”

  All eyes turned toward Ryan. He took a moment to gather his thoughts and then said, “It was Regan who first realized something was very, very wrong. She figured the race that built this city as an outpost would’ve made it easy for authorized visitors to leave. And we knew that Tezoc was very smart and very careful. He had even beaten Qwervy portal security somehow. Regan couldn’t believe that he could do all these things that seemed impossible and then do something stupid like trap himself inside the city.”

  “The girl is an excellent judge of talent,” boasted Tezoc. “I’ll give her that.”

  Ryan ignored him. “Regan was sure he was lying. She was sure he could exit the force-field anytime, and anywhere, he wanted. So by sealing the city everyone else was trapped, but he could leave whenever he wanted. He told us that he closed our entrance because he was worried outside security would send the army after him. But by controlling Colonel Sharp, he could have reassured outside security that all was well down here. He could have bought himself plenty of time.”

  Ryan stared at Tezoc. “Well?” he said.

  Tezoc smiled. “Very good,” he said. “You have a knack for this. This is exactly what I did. Using your Colonel Sharp, I dismissed the outside security people, telling them that the city and cavern were being locked down for twenty-four hours while tests were being conducted on the electronic security systems.”

  “You told the Prometheus prisoners that you were worried about the military coming after you,” continued Ryan. “And that you weren’t worried about the Qwervy at all. The truth is just the opposite, isn’t it?” he insisted. “You aren’t the least bit worried about the human military. You’re worried about the Qwervy being able to come after you through the portals.”

  “Yes, yes, yes,” spat Tezoc. “The almighty Qwervy. While I don’t expect them to discover that Earth is off their grid for some time, it pays to be cautious. There is always a slight chance that I’m wrong about that. And while I despise them, I have to admit they’re the only ones who can stop me. At least for the moment,” he added defiantly.

  “You said you wanted this city as a base of operations,” pressed Ryan. “But this isn’t true either. You can take over Earth without it. You want it destroyed so the Qwervy can’t come through after you. And you planned to trick us into destroying the city, and ourselves with it.”

  “A brilliant plan, don’t you think,” boasted Tezoc. “The city can only be destroyed from the inside, and I didn’t want to leave behind anyone who knew anything about me. Fooling you into destroying yourselves was just too perfect to pass up, allowing me to kill two birds with one stone. Since I wouldn’t need Lieutenant Adams to play the role of alien anymore, he was also expendable.”

  Tezoc paused. “The equipment I gave your father is not set to the frequencies he thinks. If he had tried to create an opening in the shield he would have caused a chain reaction. As you predicted, it would have destroyed the city. About three hours after he turned the equipment on the entire city would have collapsed in on itself and disappeared.”

  “And you would have been long gone by then,” said Ryan in disgust.

  “Exactly. End of city. End of mercenaries. End of Prometheus team. And no portals for the Qwervy to travel through to interfere.”

  Tezoc’s plan may have been utterly ruthless, but there was no denying that it would also have been extremely effective.

  “Once you had my sister and me,” said Ryan, “why did you let us go? You didn’t need a nullifier.”

  “Very true, but no one else knew that. If I didn’t let you go on your wild goose chase, the prisoners might have become suspicious of my true intentions. Besides, while you’re both very clever, I knew you couldn’t threaten me alone. This way I kept you separated from the others—so you couldn’t mastermind any clever escapes and they wouldn’t feel the need to be heroic to protect you. Adults in your culture have a very overdeveloped sense of protectiveness toward children. By pretending to treat you fairly, I knew they would continue to cooperate.” Tezoc paused. “I also didn’t think it was possible for you to escape from Davidenko,” he added irritably. “Apparently, I was wrong about that.”

  “There was something else you were wrong about,” said Regan. “Destroying this city wouldn’t have kept you safe from the Qwervy. Once they realized what happened, they would just send a ship here and plant another nanobot. The nanobot would quickly multiply and rebuild the city—and the portals—in no time.”

  “Are you positive about that?” said Tezoc smugly. “I’m sure you remember that when several of the nanobots stopped dead—on my telepathic command, I might add, as your brother guessed—I collected them. Doing so was always part of my plan, you just provided me with an earlier opportunity. Now why do you suppose I would want to do that?”

  “To study them?” guessed Regan.

  “To reprogram them,” said Tezoc with a malevolent grin. “A little something I learned how to do in prison back home. You see, the Qwervy are far too overconfident. They don’t classify information about their outpost cities—including information on programming the nanobots—because in their unrivaled arrogance, they are certain no unauthorized person could ever travel to an outpost city to use it. Well I have!” barked Tezoc. “Right under their noses. And now I can program the nanobots to build anything I want—or to destroy what I want. I can make sure the Qwervy never rebuild their outpost, never have access to this planet again.”

  “But we didn’t destroy the city,” pointed out Dr. Harris. “Or ourselves. These kids saved us from that. So your plan is ruined.”

  Tezoc laughed and shook his head. When his laughter finally stopped, the lines of his face hardened to a fierce scowl. “Saved you? You aren’t going anywhere!” he thundered. “Ruined! You think they ruined my plan? They have barely disrupted it. These kids just bought you a week or so before I can come back and finish the job. And there won’t be a single thing any of you can do to stop me!”

  “We won’t have to,” said Dr. H
arris defiantly. “You may have bought yourself some time with our outside security, but the military will learn of this very shortly and come after you, no matter where you go.”

  This time Tezoc laughed even harder. He looked at Ryan, still laughing, and said, “Tell him. Tell him what’s going to happen next. Go ahead,” he demanded.

  All eyes turned toward Ryan who was rapidly becoming sick to his stomach. He wished he could avoid telling the entire group just how dire, and hopeless, their situation was. But he had no choice. “Tezoc chose the timing for his invasion very carefully,” he said miserably. “When he first took control of Colonel Sharp, he learned something from his mind. Something that made this day critically important to him.”

  Ryan waited, knowing it would only be a matter of seconds before someone made the right connection.

  “The president!” whispered Cam Kincaid in horror, suddenly looking as ill as Ryan. Several others gasped as the horrifying implications hit them like a fist to the gut.

  Ryan nodded. “The president is supposed to be flown here in Marine One for a visit in a few hours. But the Secret Service won’t let him even take off until they’re positive everything here is secure. Before they give him the okay, they first have to meet with the head of Prometheus security to get a face-to-face report.”

  Tezoc’s lips curled up into a self-satisfied smile. “And they will have their face-to-face meeting with Colonel Sharp,” he said smugly. “In fact, the colonel is here with me now, temporarily unconscious, right in front of where your entrance used to be. In just a few minutes, I will relinquish control of Lieutenant Adams here and retake control of the colonel. He will reassure the Secret Service that all is well.” He smiled malevolently. “After all, I want the president to feel completely safe landing here for his tour.”

  Amanda Resnick’s eyes widened in understanding. “That’s why you threatened any merc who as much as scratched Carl,” she said. “You needed him to lure the president here. If he was shot or injured, the Secret Service would be suspicious.”

  “It’s nice to see that someone is finally catching up to the kids,” said Tezoc dryly. “I have to say, it’s about time.” He paused. “The boy was correct. When I first enter and control a person’s mind, I need to be very close to them. That’s why I’m so looking forward to Colonel Sharp introducing me to the president.” He laughed once again. “Do you still think the military will be coming after me, Dr. Harris?”

  Dr. Harris was aghast. He couldn’t see any flaws in the alien’s plan. He would soon control the President of the United States, and there seemed nothing anyone could do about it.

  “And let’s face it,” continued Tezoc. “When I have total control of the president’s mind and body, I am the president! The power I’ll be able to wield will be staggering. And it won’t just be the president. Through him, I’ll have access to any world leader I want. To control. To alter. And it keeps getting better. You see, when I built my invention, I didn’t have access to any humans to experiment on. Now that I do, I should be able to increase its effectiveness considerably. I will still only be able to control one person at a time, but I’ll be able to do what I did with the mercenaries far more effectively. I’ll be able to alter the minds of massive groups of people at once, instilling blind devotion to me, unquestioning loyalty. Within a year I’ll be the absolute ruler of the entire planet.”

  Even the mercenaries were horrified at the nightmarish picture of the future painted by the crazed but brilliant alien. And there was absolutely no doubt he could do it.

  “But why?” asked Dr. Harris, frowning deeply. “Why do this?”

  “Spoken like a true sheep,” said Tezoc with contempt. “Just as a sheep will never understand the wolf’s need to hunt, you will never understand the pleasure I will get from bending an entire species to my will. From having absolute power. From being able to crush anyone on this planet beneath my heel on a whim. This is something I could never have achieved on Morca. On Earth, I will rule with an iron fist; the bravest of men will cringe at the mention of my name,” he thundered menacingly. “And it’s even more satisfying knowing the detestable Qwervy made it all possible. If I had escaped prison and stayed on Morca, I would have been recaptured fairly quickly by my own people, even without the help of their new alien friends. But the existence of the Qwervy’s portals changed everything. By using them, I could escape Morca altogether. I could avoid recapture. And I could claim a planet for my own.”

  Dr. Harris looked nauseous. “Why us? Why Earth?”

  “Oh, don’t take it personally. You just happened to fit the bill. I needed a planet that was advanced but not yet a member of the galactic community. One whose people had a fairly close resemblance to Morcans. And one whose people would be particularly susceptible to my telepathic abilities once they were sufficiently amplified. Out of the thousands and thousands of civilizations and planets I considered, only yours was perfect for my needs. Congratulations.”

  “But what will you—”

  “Enough!” snapped Tezoc. “As much as I would love to stay and chat, I’m about to be very busy. I have a certain colonel to take control of once again, and important people to see. Regan was right, of course. I know the telepathic codes to open the barrier anywhere I want. And now it’s time to use them to step through to the cavern and turn the generators back on so Colonel Sharp and I can use the elevator. The colonel had them shut off during the security lock-down and they’ll take ten or fifteen minutes to boot up.” He smiled. “I’m sure no one would want Colonel Sharp to be late for his meeting with the Secret Service. That would be rude.” With a final, cruel smile, he added, “Wait here. I’ll be back before you know it to destroy you and the city.”

  With that, the siblings felt a wave of highly amplified telepathic force, and their parents, Dr. Harris, seven members of Prometheus security, six mercenaries, and the tall man who had been Tezoc’s puppet all crumpled to the floor around them like rag dolls, unconscious.

  CHAPTER 24

  A Critical Mission

  Ryan and Regan gasped as the entire group collapsed around them. Once again, the alteration the Teacher had made in their mental frequencies that allowed them to be telepathic with each other also made them immune to Tezoc’s mental energy.

  As startling and unnerving as it was to suddenly find themselves the only two members of the team still standing, they were energized by Tezoc’s last words.

  They still had a chance!

  Tezoc had revealed he needed ten minutes or so to revive the generators and get the elevator operational again.

  They were not beaten yet. They could still stop him!

  But every second counted.

  They shook their father hard, hoping to rouse him from his deep slumber, but they could not awaken him. All the others in the group were sound asleep as well.

  Regan rifled through Hanly’s belt, removing a flash-bang grenade to replace the one she had used. She removed another small stun gun, exactly matching the one she carried in her pocket, and handed it to Ryan, along with several zip-strips.

  In seconds they were speeding to the cavern in a Hauler as fast as it would go.

  “We have two advantages over Major Manning,” began Ryan. “First—”

  “I think we need to be careful not to still think of him as Manning,” interrupted Regan.

  Ryan looked at her quizzically.

  “We need to always have it in our heads that he’s Tezoc, an alien, and the mastermind behind all of this,” she pointed out. “Since he is alien, we can’t be sure how strong and fast he might be. If we keep thinking of him as a regular human named Manning, we might not be as worried about him as we need to be.”

  “Regular human?” said Ryan, rolling his eyes. “I don’t know about you, but even when I thought that guy was human he scared me to death. I’m not sure it’s possible for me to be more worried about him,” he said. “But I do get your point. I won’t call him Manning anymore.” He paused. “As I w
as saying, we have two advantages. First, he thinks he’s totally safe. He has no idea we can come through the barrier after him. There’s no way he could have guessed we found a force-field nullifier in the last few hours.”

  “He’ll be surprised all right.”

  “Our telepathy is our other advantage. We can use it to work together without him knowing it.”

  The siblings immediately began discussing possible strategies, keeping their advantages in mind. It took them only a few minutes to agree on a plan they thought might work. They certainly wouldn’t have to wait long to find out for sure.

  Eight minutes after they had left the unconscious adults they arrived at where they knew the cavern was located. Although it couldn’t be seen through the force-field barrier, the cavern, and the real Tezoc, were waiting for them on the other side.

  Over the past several months they had come to know the cavern extremely well. It was the size of a baseball stadium. One half was nearly empty while the other half was packed with heavy machinery and scientific equipment of every kind. Rows of huge excavation vehicles that had been used to dig out the cavern were parked next to backup lasers and microwave generators. A large electrical generator provided power for everything in the cavern, including the elevator and all security measures. A backup generator was also located in the crowded half of the cavern, always standing at the ready in case of emergencies. Heavy, multicolored cables snaked across the floor bringing power to the cavern’s lighting and other systems, although the lighting system also had internal battery backups in case both generators were out for any reason, as they were now.

  Regan patted the light-red crystal nullifier in her pocket and took a deep breath. It was all up to them now. No mission in history had ever been more important. They had to find a way to stop Tezoc.

  The price of failure was unthinkable.

  They moved to a section of the barrier they hoped would open into the cluttered part of the cavern. They prepared to step through the force-field, bracing themselves to react instantly to any surprises they might encounter as they did so. As planned, Regan held a flashbang grenade while Ryan gripped a stun gun in his right hand.