“In that case,” said Ant. “Perhaps we might talk with them. I am very much interested in meeting your large friend. I’ve noticed he stumbles about here and there, eh?”
“Yes, but don’t use the word ‘stumble’ around him, ok?”
Ant smiled, “As you wish.”
Tressa and Ant descended in a more conventional manner. They went inside the building they climbed and rode the elevator to the ground floor then walked outside and re-entered the hotel next door.
As they were crossing the lobby the desk clerk flagged her down. “Miss, I have a message here for anyone in your party. May I give it to you?”
“Certainly,” Tressa replied. She opened a folded note and read, ‘I may have to work on “you know who” for a few days. He is really being difficult and I’m trying not to let on all that we know or suspect. I’ve got some help coming from a few local news people I’m friendly with – they’ll let him know how badly it would play in the press if he continues pursuing two inexperienced teenagers for a world-wide power plant bombing plot. Ridiculous!
I’d better stay here – they’ve got accommodations – and monitor the situation. We can’t fail at getting this done our way or three careers will end on this trip. I’ve made arrangements with the hotel to handle any expenses for your needs until I return. I would suggest that you get the “large one” out of town before they throw a net over him and cart him off to the zoo. Try some of the castles we spoke about in N.O. They’re spectacular! Be careful. Leave details with Hotel Desk and I’ll contact you as I have news. F.’
Tressa felt the wind go out of her sails. How can we be stuck here in this kind of trouble and Fergus wants us to go skipping around looking at castles? He’s as loony as Clyde!
Ant looked at her concerned face and asked, “Is everything alright? Can I assist in some way?”
“No. Just some unexpected news. But I’m more interested right now in how you know about me and my friends. No one knew we were coming here.”
“Let’s go upstairs and you can introduce me to your companions. I will be glad to enlighten you about everything.”
As they got off the elevator at their floor Mason was standing there waiting for it to arrive. “There you are. I’ve been looking all over for you. I thought maybe you got caught by the pol-” He noticed Ant for the first time and immediately shut his mouth. Starting over he said, “I was worried about you. Are you OK?” As he emphasized ‘OK’ he nodded toward Ant.
“Yes, I’m fine and you don’t need to worry about him. This and Antonio Fer… I’m sorry…” Now Tressa nodded toward Ant.
“Antonio Ferdinand DellaGotti at your service,” Ant said. “It’s too hard for people who meet me to remember. Let’s just use Ant.”
Mason looked Ant up and down and grudgingly nodded. “Ok, Ant.” Then he turned to Tressa and asked, “Who is Ant?” as he jabbed his thumb in Ant’s direction.
“Actually, I’m not sure, but he knows who I am. Let’s get in my room and we can find out what’s going on.”
As the trio went into Tressa’s hotel room she sent Mason back across the hall to fetch Clyde. A minute later the pair returned. Clyde was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He lightly pushed Mason out of the way and flopped down across her bed making the springs and frame groan in protest. Both pillows flew up and off the bed from the impact. “Hey, Tressa. Hey, new guy”, he yawned. “What’s up now? We getting out of here?”
Tressa pushed his legs out of the way enough so that she was able to sit on the tiniest corner of the bed. Mason and Ant had found seats on a chair and the top of the desk. “Clyde Strumble, this is Ant. Well, he’s got more name than that, but let’s just go with Ant.”
“Hello, Clyde. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I have very much enjoyed the way you are able to hide your appearance from others.”
Clyde had started to spell his name out to Ant when he realized the compliment Ant had given him. “Hey, this guy really gets me. Finally, someone realizes the usefulness of a good disguise. You’re alright in my book Ant.” They shook hands as Clyde tried to reach his right arm across the bed from around the back of his head. “Ok, I’ve met the new guy. I’m still wondering if we’re getting out of here.”
“We are and we’re not,” said Tressa.
“Well, that clears it up for me,” Clyde yawned again.
“Let her finish. I’ve got some questions, too,” Mason interjected.
Tressa continued, “Fergus sent us a note that he was working on getting Colonel Zimmer to drop the accusations against us about blowing up the plant. He’s over at Perpetual Power’s headquarters right now working on it. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it may take a few days to straighten out. Until that happens we’re on our own.”
Clyde and Mason both looked shocked and blurted out, “What about food?”
“Relax, it’s all worked out.” Tressa assured them.
Ant had been watching the interchange with a bemused expression, “Actually, that may be just perfect,” he said. “I think I should explain some things and then you can all discuss how you’d like to react. I am happy to answer any questions for you once I am finished.
“First, you should know, I am part of a group that has been searching the globe over for pieces of a technology that will change the world. The reactors that Perpetual Power uses are indeed quite efficient and have lasted over 300 years. However, they have several drawbacks that were being worked out at the time of the Incidents. My great, great, great, and a couple more ‘greats’ grandfather was a scientist in a committee comprised of great minds from fifteen countries. They had cracked the code, so to speak, and built a prototype new reactor that was small, portable, safe and efficient to the point that ‘perfect’ is close enough for our discussion.
“When the solar flares began to interfere with the Earth’s environment the committee decided to disband and each took a part of the new reactor with them to their respective countries. That decision came about, as near as we can figure, because the scientists were worried the machine could fall into the wrong hands or be lost completely if left intact. They had planned on reconvening after the solar flare storms settled down, but as we all know the storms grew and caused the devastation from which we are all rebuilding.
“Those pieces have been scattered in oceans, ruins, mountains, swamps and every other kind of place you can imagine. We have sought them out to reassemble this technological wonder and give it to the world. Consider how fast mankind could rebuild itself if power were unlimited and free to everyone. We would be able to move forward together, and knowing the pitfalls of the past we could avoid those things that drove us apart. Once we have all the parts we can duplicate them and reproduce the machine for every city, town or village. Perhaps eventually every family will have their own.
“Over the past 200 years my family has located the descendants of four of the other scientists and we have banded together to find the pieces we’re missing. We refer to ourselves as Seekers, and we will find all the pieces we hunt. As you can imagine fifteen small pieces scattered around the world are hard to find. Some of them we already had in our possession from our own forebears. We believe some have already been found by others hunting for them because when we figured out where they were hidden, the pieces were gone. In fact, one of the missing ones is right here in this room.”
Mason, Clyde and Tressa were already struggling to catch up to what Ant was telling them. This information caught them off guard and they started to feel everything they knew about their world shift under their feet. Fighting for time, Tressa asked Ant to repeat that last bit.
He said, “There is one of the pieces we seek right here in this room.” Looking down he waited for the inevitable.
“What? Where? What?” Tressa stabbed her eyes around the room looking for something out of place that could be from a world-changing machine. “I don’t know what you mean,” she pleaded.
Ant got up and walked over in
front of her. He smoothly took her hand and helped her up until she stood before him. Gently he reached out and slid her necklace up out from under her neckline. The small circular ring with three holes in it shone dimly in the light from the window. As he softly released the chain and let it fall against Tressa’s shirtfront he said, “That is one of the pieces we have been looking for. A crucial piece, according to what we’ve learned from notes and rumors.”
Tressa had been confused before, but now she was totally lost. Did Dad know what this is? If he did, what does that mean? What should I do with it? What does it do? All these questions bounced around her head and she thought she might fall over. Sitting down, she put her head in her hands and tried to make sense of it. Looking up at Ant she said, “How do I know any of this is true? Why should we trust you? You may have learned my name somewhere and are playing some sort of game. I don’t find it funny. We’ve got enough problems right now. Prove yourself or get out of here and leave us alone.”
Ant looked at her with his blue eyes sparkling. “I can’t prove anything for sure until we get all the pieces. However, you can trust me.” Moving away and leaning against the desk again he cocked his head slightly and looked her square in the eye. Before he could speak she was suddenly startled, because she had seen that exact same expression before. “You can trust me because your mother is Gianna Angelica DellaGotti Tremaine. She’s my aunt. And I’m your cousin.”
Clyde using all his powers of observation rolled over and said, “Who’s Gina Angel Smellygotcha Tremaine?”
Chapter 20
A cousin? I have a cousin! Do I have grandparents? All I remember is hearing stories about my grandfather doing this or my grandmother doing that. I always assumed they had passed away before mom and dad got married. I figured that was why we never saw them. What about Aunts and Uncles? How big is my family? Tressa wrestled with all these questions and couldn’t wait to get Ant to herself to get some answers.
For now they were all gathered in a restaurant across the street from the hotel eating pizza. The faux Italian eatery had red and white checkered tablecloths and containers of Parmesan cheese and Red Pepper flakes on each table. As expected, the table rocked to one side until someone put a folded napkin under the shorter leg. Ant, Mason and Tressa were at one table and Clyde had commandeered the two tables next to them for himself. He tried valiantly to fit into a small chair but it refused to be a comfortable spot for him.
Mason had started to find common interests between Ant and himself and they were chatting away while Tressa silently ate her pizza and tried to make sense of these startling new developments. “Tell me about my dad,” she asked Ant.
Ant stopped chewing and looked at her. “I only met him when I was quite young, but the whole family loved him a lot. I’ve been told that when he and your mom got married they had hoped to travel back and forth from Top Peake, but Gabriel had made some arrangement with my grandfather about that. I’ve never learned what it was, but you could always ask Grandpa.”
“He’s alive? I have a grandpa?” She asked incredulously.
Laughing, Ant reached over and patted her arm. “Yes, you have a grandpa. You have aunts and uncles and cousins. You have a great big family. I will take you to them and you will meet them all. It will be a giant party.”
“Let’s go!” Tressa stood up and prepared to leave.
“Wait, wait, wait!” Ant laughed again. “We can’t go right now, but we will. Soon! I promise,” he crossed his heart. “First, I need to finish a small task and then we can go meet them all.”
“What do you have to do? I want to help so that we can go as soon as possible.”
“I am glad to hear you say that because I could really use your help. As well as Mason and Clyde, too if they’re willing. There is another piece of the machine nearby and I am tasked to retrieve it.”
Ant continued to inform them about his background. “As I told you, my family, umm, our family” he said as he squeezed Tressa’s arm, “has been the keepers of this secret for 300 years. The first 100 years they struggled to survive along with everyone else, but they remembered. They remembered their legacy. They sought out the pieces on their own, and as my family came across the other descendants they were added to the Seekers, as we began to call ourselves. We seek out the pieces we need to recreate a machine that will help to save mankind from centuries or even millennia of rebuilding.
“Gabriel Tremaine gave his life saving the lives of 8 Seekers. Our grandfather among them. He had spent the previous five years helping the Seekers recover pieces of the machine. Slowly we unearthed the locations of the pieces. As I told you earlier we found some and some were already gone. The one I am after is in a ruined castle atop a sheer mountain. It will be difficult to get to and harder to find once I’m on top, but it will be the fifth piece in our possession.
“Tressa, your piece I am not counting as ours. Your father found it and I will not second guess his wisdom in giving it to you. Moreover, we will not take it by force. We want to give the world an incredible gift. We will not smudge that gift with violence.
“The Seekers have been keeping an eye on the Tremaine’s’. Every Festival season in Top Peake there is a Seeker among the travelers who bring games, toys, specialty foods or other items as a vendor. We have been waiting for you to be Chosen that we might make contact and have you help us as your father did before you. I was asked to keep watch over you until such time as we could make a quiet introduction.
“Why you? It seems like more of something an adult would travel around and do.” Tressa asked.
Ant responded, “Who would assume a teenager is doing something important? I can travel and appear as a student, or a local kid wandering around a city and so on. There are times when my youth is more valuable than experience. I am much more invisible than an adult would be when it comes to following someone around.”
After finishing their meal the group went back to the hotel room to hear from Ant what the task involved. He wanted their help, but only if they understood all the risks.
“We must travel into Bavaria. There is a castle left over from the Incidents that was the home of a scientist working on the new reactor. We believe that his piece is still in place and no one else has tracked it here yet. The difficult part is the entry. Over the course of time there has been some major tectonic upheaval in the area and the ruins of the castle are very difficult to reach.”
“Once we get to the top we will need to find an entry to the tunnels that form the basement of the castle. We believe that is where the piece will be found.”
Clyde spoke up, “Ok, so we climb all the way to the top. Then we climb down the inside a little bit and pick up the machine piece. Then we climb back up to the summit, and finally climb all the way down.”
Ant gave him an amused look, “It may be a bit more difficult than that. You know most of these old castles had tunnels that used to run underneath them and out as emergency exits. In the event the castle got overrun the family could escape into the countryside and try to make their way to safety. Some of those tunnels run for quite a ways. We may have a lot of searching to do.”
Undiscouraged, Clyde said, “Well, then we better get going.”
They laid out plans for travel to the area of the ruins and left a message with the desk clerk for Fergus in the event he tried to reach them. Packing their belongings into lightweight backpacks for the journey they set out to find the sixth piece of the mysterious machine that could change the world.
As they settled into seats on a Magno-bus that would take them into the heart of Bavaria, Mason sat down next to Tressa. “This is going to make a great story. I can just feel it. I’m climbing to the top of a mountain and searching for a lost piece of history. Maybe I’ll be chased by bad guys and can make a narrow escape. That would be a fantastic ending.
“Let’s hope it’s not that exciting. I would settle for a relaxing climb with some wandering around with a flashlight and then lunch followed by s
ome nice easy repelling back down.” Tressa told him. “And, you can have the castle part. I’m telling about the power plants blowing up.”
He poked her in the ribs, “You can have that part. Most people won’t believe a couple of kids were there in the middle of it, anyway.”
As the sun was settling behind them, they stepped off the Magno-bus in the state of Bavaria. Ant had researched this area well and had them set up with a small hostel that would allow them to drop their stuff and give them a warm bed without too many frills.
They found a street side café for dinner and afterwards in the hostel Mason entertained his friends and some other travelers with a few short stories. They all jumped, even Tressa, who was familiar with the story, when he had the zombie jump out of the closet in Knock, Knock. Who’s There? As he told Water, Water Everywhere he got so caught up that he was laughing along with the group and had to stop several times. Afterwards, people drifted off in ones and twos to turn in for the evening and eventually only Tressa and Ant were left in the common room.
“Ant, tell me about this machine. I don’t understand how it will change everything.” Tressa had spent the afternoon’s trip on the Magno-Bus considering all that she had learned and was trying to fit the pieces together.
Ant yawned and said, “It’s all about power. I mean, everything is about power. Whoever controls the power and the source of the power controls what people can and cannot do, where they can live, how much they can govern themselves and so on. Consider Perpetual Power. They have a lock on the recharging deal, right?”
Tressa held up a finger, “What about the black market cubes?”
Ant folded her finger back down, “They’re garbage. The damage they end up doing to all the rest of the equipment involved in a power umbrella is staggering. It’s actually cheaper in the long run to pay Perpetual for a legitimate power cube.
Here’s the other nasty little secret you won’t hear. Perpetual supplies all the black market cubes, too. Any that are manufactured and get rejected by quality control are sold out the back door onto the black market. So they get paid either way. If you use power, Perpetual is getting paid.”
Perpetual Power Page 13