“Thanks, Conner. I’ll forward time and coordinates for escape and rendezvous once I know more.”
CHAPTER 13 -
BRIAN
I hadn’t thought to ask Gaige what he wanted to eat, so I piled a sample of everything offered in the cafeteria that day onto my tray. By the time I got back to the lab, my arms burned from carrying the heavy load. I had overdone the food, but I wanted to make sure I got something he liked, or at least could eat.
I entered his room and placed the tray on a desk along the wall. The guards stood completely still and silent. I thought Gaige might open up to me, but not with these guards listening. I needed to clear them out. I’d watched the prisoner before they arrived. Maybe they wouldn’t consider it a stretch for me to keep an eye on him during their lunch break as well.
“Hey, guys,” I said to the guards. “Why don’t you go get some lunch?”
Remaining perfectly still, they said nothing. Their eyes, however, revealed I had their attention. They had to eat, but who was I, a civilian, to relieve them from their orders?
“General Ash told me to give you a lunch break,” I said. “So go ahead and take that now, while I’m here to watch him. Be back in an hour.”
The men made note of the time, and filed out for lunch. If really left to General Ash, they would have probably starved where they stood.
When the guards were gone, I turned to Gaige who’d moved from his chair to the back of the cage. He appeared to be fairly young, early twenties at most. That I could tell before. But with him standing for the first time, I could see that he was tall and muscular. And damn intimidating. I’d have hated to be one of the people who had to bring him in.
“I wasn’t sure what you liked so I got a few things to choose from,” I said. “Pick anything you want.”
He walked to the front of the cage and looked down on me. He thanked me and picked out several dishes. I slid the plates he’d chosen through the feeding slot at the bottom of the cage bars, along with a bottle of water, and resecured the small door that covered the opening. He made no attempt to grab me. He just sat back down quietly in his metal folding chair.
We both had to eat. I figured we might as well do it together. I picked out a few items for myself and left the remaining food on the desk. Gaige waited for me to roll the office chair next to the cage and settle in with my tray of food before he took a bite. His movements were well-coordinated, considering he ate with cuffed hands.
“Sorry about the cuffs. If I had the key, I’d take them off.”
He looked at me with his unusual colored eyes and then swallowed. “That’s okay, I’ll manage. That general, he’s unstable. You should be careful around him.”
He was worried about me? I found that ironic since he was the one in the cage. “Yes, I know. I also know what you are. Or at least what they think you are.”
“They’re correct.” He picked up the bottle of water and twisted off the lid. “I am alien to your world.”
I knew it, but hearing him admit that he was truly an alien sent a chill throughout my body. “They’re afraid of you. That’s why they have you locked up in this cage.”
Gaige took a drink of the water and put the lid back on the bottle. “People fear what they don’t know.”
“That’s my point. Well, I suppose I haven’t really made a point, but you’re right. They don’t know. They don’t know anything about you or your technology and they’ll want to know. They’ll want the advantages your technology could give us, but they’ll also want to know as much as possible about you.” I paused, wondering if I should elaborate. “I just don’t know what they have planned for you.”
He nodded as if he understood, but he didn’t seem concerned and even had a slight smile on his face. “You don’t have to worry about me.” He took the last bite and added the plate in his lap to the others already stacked on the floor of his cage. “Thank you for the food.”
I opened the slot and Gaige slid the stack of small plates through, again making no attempt to harm me. I latched the door and placed my tray with all our empty dishes on the desk. Every instinct in my body told me this being was not hostile. I returned to the cage and reached my hand through the bars. “It’s an honor to talk with you, Gaige.”
Gaige grasped my hand firmly. “And you, Brian.”
After spending the remainder of the hour with Gaige, I knew that, alien or not, he was a peaceful being. Whenever the General returned, I had to try and talk to him—as futile as that might be—about Gaige and his fate.
CHAPTER 14 -
TORI
The technical proposal sat on Brian’s desk, surrounded by a potpourri of his scientific clutter—text books, reports, and gadgets that had so far kept me occupied while my mind wondered about what was going on in our lab. I put a hand on the cover of the three-inch thick proposal again. Instead of opening it, I reread the awards lining the shelf to my left for about the fourth time, and then pulled back the steel ball at the end of the Newton’s cradle that sat on the desk to the right of the proposal.
“Gravitational potential energy,” I said, and let the ball go. It slammed into the ball next to it with a loud metal clack that repeated over and over as the energy transferred through all five balls and back again. “Momentum.” I watched for a while and then checked the temperature on Brian’s Galilean thermometer. Its colorful liquid-filled orbs floated peacefully in the paraffin oil. Seventy degrees. Down a degree since the last time I had checked.
The steel balls slowed their pace. “Sorry guys, you have to give something up to heat and friction.” I pulled the ball at the end back again, let it drop, and gazed off into space, still wondering what was in the lab and why it had caused Brian’s weird behavior.
I came to the conclusion that General Ash must have been hovering over something. I’d heard that whenever Brian had a hot project, the general dropped by from headquarters to put his fingerprints on it. It sounded like he collected credits the way a kid collected lightning bugs on a summer night. That could make anyone nervous. In a building full of civilians, I’d know soon enough. He’d stick out like a sore thumb in his uniform full of stars.
General Ash being around might explain Brian’s behavior, but it didn’t answer my other questions. What was this project? And why was the project all I could think about?
The news played on the TV monitor mounted in the corner of Brian’s office—bombings, murders, hostages, more bombings, and more murders. What were we doing to ourselves? And why were we doing it? I punched the off button on his remote and looked down at the proposal, determined to make a real effort to read it this time.
I turned to the first page, but the ink swirled into black blurs on the white background. I closed my eyes, rubbed them, then opened them and made another attempt. The fuzzy edges of the letters sharpened and went fuzzy again. When they finally cleared into a crisp print, I started to read through the pages, but struggled to make sense of even the simplest sentences. I concentrated on the words so hard I thought my gaze might burn a hole through the paper, but I couldn’t get any of the information to stay with me.
Feeling weak, I leaned forward and rested my head on my crossed arms. I’d almost fallen asleep when I thought I sensed someone in the room. I raised my head and looked up, expecting to see Brian or another engineer. Though no one was there, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was not alone. I stood on wobbly legs and turned in a complete circle. I still saw no one and dismissed the feeling to the puny state that had come over me.
I started to sit down, but couldn’t. My body, moving almost on its own, one foot in front of the other, guided me from the room. I had a mission, a destination.
When I stopped, I found myself in front of the lab door, staring, still feeling the presence but knowing now I was separated from it by this door. I placed my hands against the cold steel, only to have it warm instantly beneath my palms. I jerked my hands away, frightened at first, and then placed them back against the metal.
I stood very still, concentrating, and knew I had to get into the lab. I didn’t know why, I just knew that I did.
An anxious knot gripped the pit of my stomach. My body swayed and I rested my forehead on the cool metal to steady myself. Again it warmed at my touch. I braced myself, determined to find a way in.
I remembered all the years I’d been the perfect child, the perfect student, never disobedient. I considered going back to Brian’s office, but couldn’t walk away. I had to know what was on the other side of that door.
CHAPTER 15 -
GAIGE
My breath caught and my heart pounded. Victoria drew close. I had to stop her.
As Brian and the general argued nearby, I clutched the bars of my cage and concentrated hard to block whatever energy might have been getting through the wall that I thought I held in place between my presence and her. At the same time, I tried to will her away. I sensed a brief hesitation in her, but it passed quickly and she remained determined.
I couldn’t let her find me. Not here. Not now. But how could I stop her?
CHAPTER 16 -
BRIAN
“Why are you worrying about that thing and not out there preparing the craft for the trip?” The general, veins in his temples bulging, nodded his head toward Gaige every time he said the word thing, as if he hadn’t already clearly established what he thought of Gaige—not as a living, breathing being, but merely an object for us to do with as we would.
“Sir. There’s really not a whole lot I can do for the move until the team gets here to crate it.”
The general clenched his teeth.
I modified my answer. “But, it’s ready from my end. Everything’s a go, sir. And I’ll advise during the crating process to insure it’s properly protected for a long trip.”
The general’s expression eased. “Good. I don’t want any delays.” He turned to leave.
“Uh, sir?”
“What?” he said, but continued to walk toward the doorway.
“Sir, please wait.” I followed after him. “I still need to speak with you about the plan for Ga—the man. I mean the thing.”
I gestured toward Gaige, who gazed off in the distance like his mind still resided back in his own world. His hands clutched the bars of his cage so tightly that I almost expected the metal to disintegrate beneath his grip.
“I just think we owe it to another living being to thoroughly examine the best way to treat, um deal, with him.” I moved closer to Gaige’s cage and tipped my head toward the general, encouraging Gaige to say something to defend himself. I hoped at the very least, the shock factor that our alien could communicate with us would get the general to listen.
Gaige’s eyes remained fixed far off somewhere, oblivious to my movements.
The general turned back toward me. “That’s not my concern. Or yours either. I’ve been told we’re to bring that thing and the craft to the remote location. That’s exactly what we’re going to do. And that’s all we’re going to do.”
“Told? Aren’t you in charge of this project?” The words slipped out before I could stop them.
The general hung his head and exhaled. I braced myself for the explosion that was sure to come. He raised his head, the fury gone from his eyes now. “No, as a matter of fact, I am not. I have my orders just like you. And I’m telling you to let this go. Please. For your sake. For my sake. For the sake of anyone who’s ever given a shit about either of us. Drop it. You can’t even imagine how badly this could turn out for us. If you could, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
CHAPTER 17 -
TORI
Still leaning my forehead against the door, I turned my head first in one direction and then the other to check for people. The day had slipped by while I tried to evaluate the proposal and not a soul roamed the halls this late in the afternoon. I raised my head from the door and tried the code. As I anticipated, it didn’t work. I tried the previous code, then the one before that. I hadn’t worked there long enough to know any other codes, so I tried different combinations of the ones I knew. Getting in would take a miracle, but that didn’t stop me. The tumblers knocked against each other over and over, but the lock never released.
“Come on lock,” I whispered.
Click.
I wondered if my ears had deceived me and pushed down on the handle before it could reset. It moved. I had unlocked it! I pushed the door open and stepped through into the huge main bay of the test lab.
Tools lay scattered about on the work benches and random items sat here and there around the bay—desks, cabinets, tables full of electronic equipment—but I saw nothing that hadn’t been there the day before.
A door near the back of the lab slammed. I heard voices and scrambled to hide behind a nearby electronics cabinet. As the agitated voices grew louder, I recognized one of the voices—Brian’s.
It didn’t take long to realize the other person was General Ash. I knew I’d be in big trouble if he found me in the lab. I pressed myself as close as I could against the cabinet and waited for them to leave. My heart pounded in my ears so loudly that I was afraid they’d hear it too. But they walked right past me and exited the lab.
After waiting a moment to recover my nerves, I eased my head above the cabinet enough to look around. All was clear. Staying close to objects I could quickly hide behind, I tiptoed in the direction from which Brian and the General had come.
Around a corner, an aircraft like nothing I’d ever seen sat perched on tall, thin legs. I stepped closer to the dull gray, triangular object, but the craft wasn’t what called me. My eyes went to a door that led into a smaller laboratory. Something in that room tugged at my soul as strongly as if it had physically grabbed me and pulled me to it. And I couldn’t stop myself. I didn’t want to stop, consequences or not.
Calm, resolved, and completely unconcerned that Brian and the general could return at any moment, I placed my hand on the doorknob. My head swam and I stumbled back a step, but I didn’t let go of the knob. I held to the doorframe with my free hand and steadied myself. Nothing was going to stop me from getting into that room.
CHAPTER 18 -
GAIGE
I squeezed my eyes shut and concentrated as hard as I could to turn her around. Her will was too strong. I opened my eyes, knowing she’d be in the room soon, no matter how hard I tried to stop her. The only thing left for me to do was protect her when she arrived. That meant distracting the guards.
“Guards,” I whispered.
The one facing the door turned in my direction and both raised their weapons. With guns aimed and ready to fire, they moved closer to the cage.
“What do you want?” the larger one asked.
“The restroom. I need to use the restroom,” I said.
The guards looked at each other. I’d lured them closer to my cage and diverted their attention from the door. That would give me a second or two advantage when she walked into the room.
CHAPTER 19 -
TORI
I turned the knob and opened the door to chaos.
A man—handcuffed and caged like the animals they studied in that very lab decades ago—yanked his handcuffs in two, sending links flying. In the same fluid motion, he reached through the bars and grabbed the two guards standing outside the cage. The guards dropped to the ground and lay motionless. I didn’t know what to do. I should have run, but something kept me planted where I stood.
“Get out!” the caged man yelled. “And don’t let anyone know you saw me or the craft.”
I immediately, and without question, turned and ran from the room. Only partway across the main bay, a hollowness I’d never felt before wrenched my gut, stopping me in my tracks. I bent over, clutching my stomach. I couldn’t explain it, but I had to go back—go back or be torn apart running away. I turned and ran toward the small laboratory just as fast as I’d run from it.
When I arrived, I peeked inside before entering. The caged man lowered his head and sighed. He didn’t seem su
rprised to see me—disappointed or worried, maybe, but not surprised. I walked toward him. Stopping at the edge of his cage, I could do nothing, say nothing. I just looked at him. A stranger. Yet I sensed something so familiar about him.
He grasped the bars. “You have to go. This place will be flooded with people soon.”
I knew I shouldn’t have been there, but I couldn’t leave. I looked at the men lying on the floor. “Are they . . . dead?”
“Of course not. They’re just unconscious.”
The caged man had managed to take down two members of the Air Force’s well-trained Security Forces team from inside his cage—while handcuffed. At least, he had been handcuffed. If he could do that, how had they been able to keep him here? And why? What had he done? “Who are you?” I asked. “Why are you here?”
“It doesn’t matter. You must go. Please, go.”
With broken handcuffs and bodies on the floor, I should have been afraid. But nothing about him frightened me, even after what I’d seen him do. Leaving him there, all alone in a cage—I couldn’t do it. A tear rolled down my check. “I can’t.”
Two furrows creased into the man’s brow, right between his eyes. He reached one of his now-freed hands through the bars and tore the door’s lock from its mounting. The door swung open. I stepped back, not sure what to expect. He walked out and held his hand out to me. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you.”
I took hold of his outstretched hand. My breath came fast and deep, and my heart rate quickened. But not from fear. No, I wasn’t afraid. Captivated, but not afraid. “I know you won’t.” And I knew he wouldn’t. A feeling, so deep within me that I hadn’t even known the place existed, told me so.
The Anuan Legacy: Book 1 of The Anuan Legacy Series Page 4