Leap - 02

by Michael C. Grumley

  Hours later, his car turned off the old road and into the gravel parking lot of a tiny hospital. He was several hundred kilometers outside of Beijing, in a small rural town that the country’s reckless industrial expansion seemed to have forgotten. He brought the car to a stop and slid the gearshift into park, then opened his door and immediately stepped out.

  Retrieving a large satchel from the back seat, Wei marched briskly toward the old, faded double doors. He pulled one open and walked down a narrow hallway. When he reached the last door, he paused and gently pushed it open.

  She was just as he had left her. Lying in bed, with eyes closed. She was so beautiful. Her smooth face and delicate hands still looked as tender as he could ever remember. It was only her accelerated breathing that gave away her illness. He lowered himself onto her bed and placed his old hand over hers.

  She wasn’t diagnosed with degenerative heart disease until after her mother had died. A small part of him was thankful for that. Watching his daughter slip away was torture enough, but the thought of having to hold his wife while she watched would have been unbearable.

  Wei stood up and turned around in the same motion, setting his satchel down on the old table. He unlocked it and promptly pulled out a small brown paper bag. He tilted the bag down, causing the first vial to slide out into his palm. He then held the cylinder up and shook it. The fluid was now completely thawed. Inserting the needle of a syringe into the top, he pulled the small plunger back, withdrawing the clear liquid.

  He stared at his angel for only a moment before finally inserting the needle into her IV tube and discharging the bacterial solution. Next, he calmly, but quickly, began withdrawing the solution from the second vial.

  When he was done, Wei slipped the bag and the empty vials into his coat pocket. He left the rest of the contents in the satchel.

  He sat back down on his daughter’s bed and held her hand for the last time. God, she was so beautiful. So perfect. Just like her mother. She had been his sunshine in a world of darkness, with her eyes always so bright and pure.

  Now, her heart was in the last stages, and a final gift was all he had left to offer. When he’d learned of the discovery in Guyana, he knew it was his last hope. His only hope. And he had moved heaven and earth to make it happen.

  Now his precious seventeen-year-old daughter lay helpless, fighting against a disease that was quickly breaking her body down. Why were the most beautiful so often the ones taken?

  Wei would never know if the DNA solution helped her. He could only pray now that it would. If it did, he hoped that she would one day learn the truth about why her father took his own life. That it was an act of a man who had sacrificed everything to give her one last chance.

  From the beginning, he knew it was unlikely they would be able to harvest the plants without someone finding out. He also knew that they might have to fight their way out to protect it. But when the Americans showed up, Wei knew his fate was sealed.

  Nevertheless, a preemptive strike against the United States would only lead to trouble. Especially when they finally discovered it was a Chinese submarine that had destroyed the U.S. science vessel and not the Russians. And the most obvious solution to avoid the Americans’ rage was to blame the attack on a rogue officer. Someone with both the authority and the mental deterioration to do it. After all, the man had lost both his wife and daughter. Once identified, his government would, of course, have to make him the example and the punishment severe.

  However, Wei had other plans. Even in her critical condition, he had moved his daughter to a safe location. Some place his masters would never think to look. After the funeral service, he changed her name and enlisted the help of a truly honorable man: a rural doctor and a faithful man of God.

  The doctor would care for Wei’s daughter until her final day, whenever that would be. The rest of his satchel, packed full of money, would provide whatever resources the man needed to help his people. And one day, he might just be able to tell Wei’s daughter the truth. That Wei was not mad. He was not insane. He was a man of morals who had seen too much in his life, and too much of the true state of humanity. He was not about to unleash the power of immortality upon a race whose only decent values came from the unavoidability of death. Left unchecked, with no earthly penance, he had little doubt that his fellow man’s soul would become something truly terrible.

  And yet, in the end, he was a father. A father who loved his daughter more than life itself. He could destroy the precious cargo of his masters, but he would never let his little girl go without doing everything he could to save her.

  If she survived, perhaps her special DNA would one day in the future be discovered when the human soul had grown wiser. But the time was not now.

  He only hoped that whoever was in charge of the discovery for the Americans, believed the same.

  76

  It was his fault.

  Admiral Langford stared down at Krogstad’s headstone less than twenty feet away and struggled to maintain his composure. Giving orders that cost lives was not for the faint of heart. Nevertheless, no one could avoid the emotional agony when that person was a friend.

  He had ordered Krogstad to stop the Chinese warship at all costs with a ship that had no ability to fight. But after the Russian torpedo attack, Krogstad was left powerless to do anything but delay the inevitable. He lost his life, along with several of his crew. And for what? The corvette had escaped with its cargo, protected by the Forel. It appeared the Russians and Chinese had been aligned the entire time.

  The response from the United States would come soon enough, and Langford was quickly growing wary as to where it would end.

  The Chinese now possessed one of the greatest discoveries in history, and the U.S. had nothing. The sample from aboard the Bowditch could not be found, which was not surprising considering the sheer damage to the ship and its science lab.

  Langford glanced up forlornly at Krogstad’s wife and family, still huddled in front of the marker. Commander Lawton stood next to her mother with an arm around her shoulders. All they would know was that Roger Krogstad was innocently attacked and that he still managed to save most of the lives aboard his ship. They didn’t know that their husband and father was dead for a very simple reason. And that reason was standing only a few feet behind them.

  Langford finally turned to go as the rain began to drizzle. He looked solemnly at Clay, who was standing nearby, waiting.

  “It was a nice service.”

  Langford nodded. “Did you know that Roger and I entered the academy together?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “He was a hell of a captain.”

  “He was indeed.”

  Langford squinted up at the dark clouds and sighed. “The Russians are denying everything. Claiming they didn’t have any knowledge of the Forel or its mission.” He scoffed. “Next they’ll tell us someone stole the damn thing.” He looked back at Clay. “And Brazil is insisting that both the Forel and the Chinese corvette were sunk off their southern coast. So it appears the Chinese now have their ‘deniability.’”

  “Sunk by whom?”

  “That’s a good question.”

  “What happens now, sir?”

  “Who knows?” He looked at Clay. “Go take some time off, John. You’ve earned it. I’ll do my best to leave you alone this time.”

  EPILOGUE

  Caesare was nearly finished typing his last report when Borger opened his office door and stepped inside. He closed it quietly behind him and stood, waiting until Caesare was done. While he waited, Borger scanned the room very carefully with his eyes.

  “The room’s clean, Will,” Caesare said without looking up.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Would you like to bring your device back and scan it again?” When Borger paused to consider the question, Caesare looked at him. “What’s up?”

  Borger spoke in a hushed tone. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about. About…Guyana.”

>   Caesare saved and closed his document then leaned forward. He watched as Borger grabbed the only other chair in the room and dragged it forward to the other side of the desk. “What is it?”

  Borger didn’t speak right away. Instead, he blinked twice before inhaling and spoke barely above a whisper.

  “I’ve been thinking…”

  “That was my first guess.”

  “About the mountain. About what we found.” He paused again. “We both agree it came from somewhere else, right?”

  “Right.”

  “And ‘somewhere else’ means pretty far away. Maybe really far.”

  “Okay.”

  “So…I’ve been thinking about something: efficiency.”

  “Efficiency?”

  “Traveling through space takes energy, right? And if you want to do it quickly, it takes a lot of energy. We already know this. It’s why even our spacecraft and probes are as small as possible.”

  “Correct.”

  “Traveling to Mars or Jupiter takes a while. And relatively speaking, they’re not really that far away, right? So traveling a very long distance, like between stars, means you have to travel pretty fast if you want to arrive anytime in the foreseeable future. I mean, who’s going to send something if they have to wait ten thousand years to get there?”

  “Are we getting somewhere here, Will?”

  “Yeah, sorry. What I’m really getting at, is that someone had to build that place inside the cliff, right?”

  “Clearly.”

  “So, if they were going to travel here, to bring their tubes and DNA, they had to arrive in a relatively short amount of time. I mean, even they would have a finite lifespan, right?”

  Caesare shook his head thoughtfully. “Presumably.”

  “Even if your body stopped aging, it doesn’t mean you would survive forever. So, regardless, whoever brought those tubes here had to do it in a short enough timeframe that they could still finish the job.”

  “Which means fast travel.”

  “Exactly. And fast travel means a lot of power required. And that means efficiency.”

  “I see. In other words, you don’t take what you don’t need,” Caesare said.

  “Yes! You don’t take what you don’t need, so you can get here faster. It’s no different from any other form of transportation.”

  “Very true.”

  “So whoever it was would have needed their cargo, food, and a host of other things. And the further away they came from, the more fuel they would need to achieve velocity. So my point is…that they would not only need all of this to get here, but they would need almost twice as much to get back!”

  Caesare stared at him thoughtfully. “Which means if they had to get here and back within a lifespan, they would have to go even faster.”

  Borger nodded. “And that means doubling again the amount of fuel, and if you start nearing light speed, the energy needed begins to approach infinite.”

  Caesare leaned back in his chair and put two hands together in front of his mouth. “So, it was a one-way trip.”

  “It was a one-way trip,” Borger repeated triumphantly. “It’s possible it was round trip, but the probabilities and physics are hugely against it. Regardless of what kind of propulsion system they used. That’s assuming we’re not talking about some make-believe technology like on TV. No energy source is free from mathematics or economics.”

  Borger continued. “And since they clearly had cargo to transport, they had to use some kind of vessel or ship. So my question is this…where’s the ship?!”

  Caesare was looking at him over the top of his hands now. “Well, if they hid their cargo, they could certainly hide a ship too.”

  Borger nodded agreement.

  “So…I guess either they bury it or ditch it.”

  “That’s basically what it boils down to.”

  “So where is it?” asked Caesare.

  Borger took another deep breath. “I have absolutely no idea.”

  Caesare remained in his chair, thinking about it for a long time. Finally, he shook his head and stood up. “That’s a damn good point, Will.”

  Once he was standing, Borger noticed a large black bag sitting on the floor behind Caesare. “Are you going somewhere?”

  “I am.” Caesare picked up the bag and winced from the pain in his side.

  “But you’re not even healed yet.”

  “I know, but I can’t wait.”

  “Where are you going?”

  Caesare grinned subtly. “To find Miguel Blanco.”

  “Does Clay know?”

  “Clay’s busy.”

  The Hercules C-130 transport plane was waiting for Caesare on the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base. Its four turboprop engines were already idling smoothly when he climbed aboard. He smiled immediately, seeing the faces of a Ranger team lining each side of the fuselage.

  The door was closed behind him as he sat down onto the metal bench next to one of the soldiers. He peered down the line with a look of admiration before leaning back carefully against the metal wall behind him.

  It was Caesare’s favorite way to fly. And his flight to Brazil would give him plenty of time to think about Borger’s lingering question.

  Where was the ship?

  _____

  Clay dropped the main sheet, letting it slide down to the boom where he began folding it accordion style. He then quickly wrapped the straps around, securing it in place. He paused and laid an arm over the folded sail, looking out over the horizon again with amazement.

  “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

  Alison grinned, wrapping the last strap around the smaller end of the boom, and gazed out with him. “I doubt many have.”

  He turned to her as Alison suddenly cleared her throat.

  “Can I…ask you something?”

  “Of course.”

  “Okay.” Alison tilted her head nervously. “So, I know this might not be the ideal time and place, but…it’s been a year now. And I know we haven’t exactly been able to spend a lot of time together over the last three or four months.”

  Clay listened as she continued.

  “I mean, not as much as maybe we’d like.” She stopped herself. “Not that I’m assuming how much time you want to spend with me…” She rolled her eyes. “This isn’t coming out right.”

  She looked into Clay’s blue eyes and quickly glanced away. “It’s just that…I want to, um…spend more time together. And I don’t know if you’re seeing anyone else. I mean, why wouldn’t you be? You’re amazing. It’s just that I really like you and I don’t know-”

  “Alison,” Clay said calmly, cutting her off. She stopped with raised eyebrows. He smiled warmly at her and walked the length of the boom until he was just on the other side from her. “Alison, I need to be honest with you.”

  Her heart sank.

  “I haven’t been interested in anyone else since our first date.”

  Alison’s expression melted. “Really?”

  “Really.” He wrapped his hand over hers. “You’re the one who’s amazing. You’re incredibly intelligent, beautiful, and compassionate. There are so many wonderful things about you that it’s hard to even count them all. Not to mention, you’re awfully cute when you’re nervous.”

  Her eyes softened and she pursed her lips. He suddenly ducked under the boom and came up close to her. From there, Clay wasted no time, squeezing Alison’s shoulders and kissing her deeply.

  Come now, Come now.

  “Just a minute!” Alison sighed, then turned and frowned at Dirk’s head, bobbing out of the water, excitedly.

  In the cockpit, she took the face mask from Chris and pulled the straps carefully over her ponytail.

  Chris waited a moment then asked, “Air?”

  Alison gave him a thumbs-up.”

  Next to them, Lee was helping with the second mask. “How’s that, Mr. Clay?”

  Clay grinned. He’d given up trying to get Lee to call him by his
first name. He wiggled the outside of the mask to make sure it had a secure seal. “Good.”

  He then added the waterproof earplugs and turned to look at Alison. “Can you hear me?”

  “Loud and clear.”

  Together they wriggled the BCDs and tanks onto their shoulders. They slipped their arms through and then clipped the wide straps together.

  Through her mask, Alison motioned to Clay. “You’re going to love this.”

  “I’m sure I will.”

  As he followed Alison to the stern of the boat, Clay stopped and gazed out again over the ocean. He was still amazed. Tens of thousands of dolphins together at once and surrounding the boat for miles. What was this place?

  Clay watched Alison jump into the water with a scissor kick, keeping her head above the surface. She rotated herself around and waited for him.

  He hadn’t worn this exact kind of a system before, but Clay was almost as comfortable in diving gear as he was in his own skin. He fell smoothly into the warm Caribbean water and popped up a few feet away.

  Dirk and Sally both circled around from behind and popped their beaks out of the water.

  We go now. We go now.

  She looked at John. “Are you ready?”

  “Yep.”

  With that, the dolphins disappeared below, and Alison and Clay rolled forward, kicking their fins.

  It was a clear day which provided the most sunlight and brilliantly lit up the beautiful coral below them. They hadn’t gone very far before Clay’s voice came over the speaker.

  “Wow, Alison!”

  She turned her head as they descended. “I know, right?!”

  He stared, transfixed on the scene below them. The deep colors and vibrancy of the coral were almost unimaginable. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

  “Me either. This is what they pilgrimage to every year.”

  Clay remained in awe as they drifted lower still. The amount and the variety of sea life were incredible, and he’d never seen underwater vegetation so encompassing. “I’ve never even seen this on a postcard before.”