Paradise Hacked (First Circle Club Book 2)

by Siegel, Alex

  "The call will be untraceable?" Virgil said.

  "Yes, but don't ask me to explain how I did it."

  He gently picked up the phone which was attached to the laptop. He referred to his notepad and dialed Cat Lady's number.

  She answered after two rings. "Yes?" she said cautiously.

  "This is Virgil. I need your help."

  "So soon?"

  "Unfortunately, yes," he said. "It's a messy, dangerous situation. You still want in?"

  "Sure. Sounds fun."

  "I'm glad you feel that way. Take a cab to the Sears in Glendale Heights. I'll meet you in front. After I make sure nobody is following you, I'll bring you to the team."

  "You're paranoid," Cat Lady said. "I like that. Should I pack for a trip?"

  Virgil considered the question. He was worried about tracking devices on her clothes or in her luggage.

  "No," he said. "I'll provide what you need. Don't bring anything, not even a purse. Certainly not a phone."

  "Give me two hours."

  "OK. Bye."

  He gave the phone back to Mei.

  "Do you think I'll like this Cat Lady?" she said.

  Virgil shook his head. "I doubt it. Whenever she opens her mouth, she's lying, but that doesn't mean she can't contribute to the team."

  Chapter Seventeen

  Sara heard somebody unlocking the door of her safe. She hoped her long, tedious journey had finally come to an end.

  She pushed on the door, and it opened. She climbed out of her safe and stood up.

  Sara was in a circular room with stainless steel walls and a very high roof. The floor appeared to be solid, polished rock. Bright lighting made her squint after the darkness inside the safe. A single, square window was about twenty feet up.

  Four soldiers were also in the room, and their assault rifles were aimed at her head. Gas masks and goggles covered their faces. They backed cautiously to an open door, and one by one, they left. The door slammed closed with a heavy metallic thud. Sara heard huge bolts engaging. There was no handle on her side.

  "Sara, is it?" a male voice said through a loudspeaker mounted on the ceiling.

  She turned her head. "Yes."

  "Up here."

  Sara looked up at the window. A tall man with a beard was standing behind the glass. He was wearing an Air Force uniform.

  "Who are you?" she said.

  "You may call me Dr. Z. You should feel honored. This facility was built at great expense in the 1950's to house aliens, but it's never been used... until now. We had to sweep out decades of dust."

  "Is it some kind of secret prison?"

  "I suppose you could call it that," Dr. Z said, "but I prefer to think of it as a research laboratory."

  "And I'm the lab rat."

  "Exactly. That enclosure will be your home for the rest of your life. If you're thinking about escaping, don't bother. You're two hundred feet beneath the surface of a barren wasteland. There are many layers of security between you and freedom, and all of that security is focused on you. You're the only prisoner here, the sole object of everybody's attention."

  For the hundredth time, Sara regretted letting herself get captured. She should've stayed with Lisa or at least fought harder.

  Her best hope lay in making contact with Barachiel. The stainless steel walls, polished to a mirror finish, gave her an idea.

  "Can I have some water, please?" Sara said. "Clean water in a clean cup?"

  "Of course," Dr. Z said. "You are my guest, after all." He walked off.

  After a few minutes, a hatch in the ceiling opened. A small table suspended on ropes descended through the hole. The ropes were too thin to bear Sara's weight. A steel cup stood on the table.

  She grabbed the cup. The table immediately rose back to the ceiling.

  The cup was full of water. She walked over to a wall and splashed some onto the shiny surface.

  "Barachiel!" Sara said. "Barachiel!"

  Nothing happened. She frowned. She didn't understand what she was doing wrong. Making contact had always been easy in the past.

  "Who is Barachiel?" Dr. Z said.

  "That was just a ceremony we aliens like to perform. Barachiel is the name of our god. I was sacrificing a little water to honor him."

  "I see. Are you going to drink?"

  Sara couldn't actually drink the water. If she tried, she would cough it up.

  She set down the cup. "I only needed it for the ceremony."

  "Then let's get right to business. You're going to tell me everything. What planet did you come from? How did you get to Earth? What kinds of technology do you have?"

  "I'm not inclined to cooperate."

  Another hatch in the ceiling opened. A vertical steel pole descended, and it was making a buzzing noise. Blue sparks danced on the top.

  "In that case," Dr. Z said, "we'll perform an experiment. I was told your kind is extremely tough. Even bullets can't slow you down. Let's test your sensitivity to electric shock."

  A giant spark shot from the pole to the wall. It made a sound like a gunshot, startling Sara.

  "I have friends, you know," she said.

  "Yes. I've seen the pictures."

  "They'll find me."

  "I doubt that," Dr. Z said. "Only a handful of people know where you are."

  "You just told me all your security folks are watching me," Sara said.

  "But they don't know who you are or exactly why you're here."

  She realized stubborn defiance wouldn't serve her well. Electricity probably couldn't hurt her, but he would find something that could. A damaged body would only make her situation worse.

  She needed to play for time. Virgil and the rest of the team would rescue her eventually, even if the task required moving Heaven and Earth. It was just a question of when... and how many people died in the process.

  "OK," Sara said. "You win. I already told the colonel we come from the planet Nibiru. Our species is known as the Zetas. We have three genders and live for five hundred of your Earth years. We travel on laser beams fired from guns a mile long...."

  * * *

  Virgil watched from the roof of the Sears in Glendale Heights. He had an unobstructed view of the entire parking lot. It was getting late for shopping, but a few cars remained. Tall lamps created pools of light on the vast expanse of black asphalt.

  A fitful breeze blew chilly air on his face. The cold didn't bother him, and he wondered what kind of temperatures his body could handle. He knew he could swim in molten lava if he wanted, but maybe extreme cold would be an issue.

  A yellow cab drove into the lot, and Cat Lady stepped out. She was the prototypical skinny blonde bombshell. Her snug black jacket was partially zipped, allowing some cleavage to show. White slacks clung to every curve from her narrow waist down to her high heels. Virgil knew she had dressed sexy just for him. She was trying to muddle his mind.

  He waited until the cab left. Cat was alone in the parking lot, and he didn't see any suspicious cars in the vicinity. He judged it was safe enough.

  Virgil leapt off the roof, dropped thirty feet, and landed softly. Cat turned at the sound, and her eyes widened in surprise.

  "Where did you come from?" she said.

  "Never mind. Let's move. Follow me."

  He looked around again but didn't see anything suspicious. He jogged to a neighboring parking lot. Cat had difficulty keeping pace in her ridiculous high heels.

  Virgil's minivan was parked behind a bank building. He opened a side door and took out some clothes lying on the seat.

  "Now strip," he said.

  "What?" Cat said.

  "Take it all off, including underwear. Leave your clothes on the ground. They may be bugged."

  "They aren't!"

  "I don't know that," Virgil said. "Come on. You don't have anything I haven't seen on other women."

  "But it's freezing!"

  "Then move fast."

  She gave him a murderous look, but she complied. She stripped
off her clothes as quickly as she could.

  She stood before him with goosebumps on her naked body. "Satisfied?"

  "Turn around. Hands up."

  "Come on!"

  "Just do it," he said.

  Cat clenched her jaw and made a slow turn. He tried to maintain a professional demeanor as he inspected her for bugs, but she did have a very fine body. She obviously spent a lot of time working out.

  Virgil gave her the clothes he was holding. She inspected a black sweat suit and cheap white running shoes with a critical eye.

  "I'll look like a soccer mom," she said.

  "Just put them on before you get hypothermia."

  Cat put on the clothes with a frown. The two of them climbed into the minivan, and Virgil drove off.

  "Are you going to tell me what this is about?"

  "Some of it," he said. "Sara has been captured, and we're trying to rescue her. Did you meet her? Short brunette."

  "I saw her. Who took her?"

  "The US Army, and they're probably holding her in a top secret location. They think she's an alien."

  "Oh." Cat bit her lip. "That's tough."

  "If the job were easy, I wouldn't need you."

  "Last time we met, you told me I wouldn't get paid. Is that still true?"

  "Yep," Virgil said. "It's a charity mission. And if you try to con me or sell me out, there will be no place on Earth that is safe for you. For once in your life, you'll have to be trustworthy. You want to bail out now?"

  She stared out the window. He waited patiently for her to respond.

  "This will help me be a better person?" she said softly.

  "It's a big step in that direction."

  She sighed and nodded. "OK. I'll stick it out."

  "Good," he said. "We'll discuss the rest when we get to the motel."

  A few minutes later, Virgil parked in front of the motel. It was a single-story building with just twenty rooms. White paint covered the brick walls. The doors opened directly onto the parking lot, an advantage when moving weapons in and out.

  He and Cat went into the motel. Lisa and Captain Kyle greeted them at the door. Mei was still working on new, secure phones for the team.

  "You met Lisa before," Virgil said. "This is Dirk Kyle, recently of the Army Special Forces. We convinced him to flip sides."

  "That's not quite accurate," Kyle said. "I'm a neutral third party attempting to negotiate a peaceful settlement."

  "I doubt the Army sees you that way."

  "True, but for the sake of my honor, I'm sticking to the story."

  Cat was staring at him with a dreamy expression. Virgil understood the attraction. Kyle was a sturdy, handsome guy. The scar under his left eye made him look especially manly.

  Mei stood up and shook Cat's hand. "I'm Mei. I'm the technology expert for the team, and Virgil's girlfriend."

  That last part surprised Virgil. Did Mei feel threatened by Cat's beauty?

  Cat looked around. "I know Sara is gone, but there was another guy. He was a bit older."

  "Alfred. He's in the sack." Virgil pointed at the white sack in the corner of the room.

  She gasped. "Is he dead?"

  "No, just resting. He had a hard day. He'll be fine in the morning."

  Cat stared at Virgil with an expression of disbelief.

  "Let's get down to business," he said. "We know a military outfit called the Crusader Special Unit took Sara. They're well equipped and hostile. Captain Kyle, would you like to add anything else?"

  Kyle paused. "I suppose. The commander is Colonel Jack Knox. Under normal conditions, he is a director in the Army Research Laboratory, but he is old-school military. A real guns and bombs kind of guy. Don't expect him to negotiate or surrender. I don't think he has a flexible bone in his body. The brains of the operation is Dr. Theodore Harlow. He handles the science."

  Virgil appreciated how Kyle was finally opening up and showing more trust.

  "What is this about?" Cat said. "What is the Army doing here?"

  "Captain," Virgil said, "would you like to explain?"

  "That's top secret information," Kyle said.

  "Everybody here has secrets. The only way we'll win is if we lower the walls a little."

  Kyle made a sour face. "Harlow discovered a portal to an alien world. The Army is investigating."

  "Like a space warp?" Cat said.

  "Sort of. According to Virgil, it doesn't lead to an alien world, but he won't say where it actually goes."

  All eyes turned to Virgil, but he remained silent.

  "Are you going to lower the walls like I just did?" Kyle said.

  Virgil was in an awkward spot. He wanted to tell the truth but was forbidden to do so. He looked at Lisa, and she just shrugged. Mei kept her face down over her laptop.

  "I think it's necessary for both of you to understand what is at stake here," Virgil said. "Let's take a walk. Just Kyle, Cat Lady, and me."

  "You don't want me to come?" Lisa said.

  "Ever heard of plausible deniability?"

  "Sure."

  "You'll want some in this case," he said.

  "Got it. Bye."

  Virgil, Cat, and Kyle left the hotel. They walked slowly down the road under a night sky full of twinkling stars.

  "I can't tell you the truth," Virgil said, "but you might accidently guess a few things."

  "Can we ask questions?" Kyle said.

  "If they're phrased very carefully."

  Nobody spoke for a moment.

  "I have one," Kyle said. "I've noticed all of you act very human even though you aren't."

  Cat nodded. "Yeah. Like you talk normally even though you don't breathe."

  "It is remarkable," Virgil said. "One might think some part of us was human after all."

  "What part?"

  Virgil shrugged.

  "You're cyborgs with human brains," Kyle said.

  Virgil smirked. "No."

  "The old man at the amusement park mentioned you have human souls."

  "That was an interesting statement. Makes one ponder, doesn't it? Normally, human souls are separated from their bodies at death."

  Kyle stared at the ground for a long moment. "After you kidnapped me, we went to that creepy basement which smelled like a month-old corpse. There was an iron hatch in the floor. It had strange inscriptions and gave me a very bad feeling. I kind of knew what was on the other side, but at the same time, I didn't know. When you stare at me, I get the same feeling."

  "Some mysteries are hidden from the living," Virgil said.

  Kyle gulped. "That was a gateway to Hell!"

  "I can neither confirm nor deny."

  "And you looked very comfortable there. Your 'medical supplies' were in that room."

  "I probably shouldn't have mentioned that," Virgil said. "Slip of the tongue."

  "Lisa has the same... presence as you." Kyle was staring at Virgil with a fearful expression.

  "We are two of a kind."

  "You both came from Hell, but Alfred and Sara are different," Kyle said. "You bleed black and Alfred bleeds white. Angels?"

  "Angels don't have human souls. Alfred and Sara do. That's a critical distinction."

  "You say that as if it's a known fact."

  "I'm well educated," Virgil said.

  "But Alfred and Sara do come from Heaven."

  Cat was standing awkwardly and glancing back in the direction of the motel. She was scared.

  "Lovely night, isn't it?" Virgil said. "The air is very refreshing. This idle conversation about Heaven, Hell, and human souls is interesting, but maybe we should talk about the magical portal instead. Where might it lead? The answer isn't outer space or an alien world, nor is it anywhere on Earth."

  Kyle narrowed his eyes. "Heaven?"

  "For the record, I never told you that, but hypothetically, if that were the case, how do you think angels would respond if intruders in spacesuits showed up at their doorstep uninvited?"

  "Badly."

  "I
ndeed," Virgil said. "They might even assign a special team of investigators to figure out what's going on. They might demand to know who passed forbidden knowledge to Dr. Harlow. Just as the Army vigorously protects its secrets, so do Heaven and Hell. Hypothetically, of course."

  Cat shook her head. "I don't believe any of this. Dead people returning to Earth? Portals to Heaven? It's ridiculous. I know you guys aren't normal people, but there must be a scientific explanation."

  He drew a knife from a sheath hidden under his jacket. He stabbed himself in the hand, pushing the knife through to the hilt. When he pulled it out, black, sticky gunk covered the blade. He held the injured hand in front of her face and watched the wound close. She had a terrified expression. Kyle also looked uneasy.

  "This isn't one of your cons," Virgil said in a low voice. "Or just another mission." He shot a glance at Kyle. "Dr. Harlow is trying to pierce the veil of death and violate laws laid down by God. He is hacking the system which governs the eternal afterlife. He must be stopped. You two are going to help me achieve that objective. Am I clear?"

  Cat nodded.

  Kyle muttered, "Yes, sir."

  "One other thing," Virgil said. "This information is extremely sensitive. If you tell anybody, you'll be in the kind of trouble that follows you to the grave and beyond. Cat, I'm talking to you in particular. Your first instinct will be to look for a profitable angle. You'll try to turn this situation to your personal advantage. Don't have those thoughts. Dr. Harlow has put himself on a path which leads to damnation and eternal suffering. You could easily join him in Hell. There is plenty of room for more sinners down there, and plenty of demons to torment them. I'm giving you a chance to start climbing out of that hole. Seize the opportunity. OK?"

  Cat raised her chin. "You assume I'm nothing but a crook."

  "Because you are. Tell me I can rely on you, and mean it."

  She hesitated. "You can rely on me."

  "Good," Virgil said. "Now let's go back to the motel."

  They turned around and started back.

  "As long as we're working together," Virgil added, "we should know each other's skills. Cat, you go first."

  "Well, uh, lying, cheating, stealing, and dressing well, of course," Cat said.

  "Any honest skills?"

  "Is sex an honest skill?"

  "I suppose in some circles," Virgil said.