“Hello, Tony,” Mr. Clean replied. “You look well.”
“Thank you, Mr. Clean, but if you are contacting me on this line, I think it best we dispense with the pleasantries. Has it begun? Are we at war?”
“At the moment, this remains uncertain,” Mr. Clean said. “However, recent events lead me to believe we should assume the worst is drawing near.”
“What’s happened?”
“Have you seen any news broadcasts coming out of Washington State in the last few hours?”
“No. What did I miss?”
The display image split, Mr. Clean’s face now only taking up one half of the screen while the other was filled with a reporter smiling into the camera as she stood in front of a small crowd gathered on a sidewalk.
“As you can see, local Seattle residents from the Pioneer Square neighborhood are looking up and scratching their heads this evening. So, what’s the big mystery? Well, if you happened to be walking by this street corner yesterday, you would have been passing a building three stories taller than it is now. That’s right—in the last few hours, this historical building… shrunk. Civilians who were walking by when the phenomenon is said to have occurred claim they heard strange noises. One man described the sound ‘like the cracking of glacial ice as it melts, coming from the roof tops.’ Shortly after, the entire building shook and small chips of brick began to fall. When folks looked up, the building was as you see it now.
“Everyone I’ve spoken to on the street tonight has their own theory, some claiming it’s a conspiracy, but most believe it to be a hoax. The investigation is only getting started but City officials have stated that they’ve been unable to contact the building’s owner….”
“You moved yourself?” Tony asked, speaking over the news cast.
“Correct,” Mr. Clean said as he cut the news feed.
“Then where are you now?”
“Currently, I’m in stationary orbit over the continental U.S. My emergency protocols were triggered today when our top three assets were compromised. Which, for the time being, puts you in command until those assets can be reacquired.”
“Mr. Clean, I need you to back up here. Three assets?” Tony paused. “Heyer, Jonathan—who was the third?”
“Rylee Silva was considered our third highest priority,” Mr. Clean replied.
“Okay, but Silva is on the other side of the continent….” Anthony trailed off, his face growing grim. “Wait, you said was?”
“Unfortunately, earlier today, her dormant implant manifested inside the armory,” Mr. Clean said. “She perished within The Never.”
Eventually, Mr. Clean started from the beginning in order to bring Anthony up to speed on what details he could. Nearly an hour had gone by before he had any idea how such a catastrophe had been put in motion.
“You said another dormant device arrived at the same time as Rylee’s,” Anthony said. “Who did it belong to?”
“That remains unknown. The only compatible male Heyer and I knew of was a Grant Morgan. However, the device was never activated in him. Heyer didn’t even have the dormant implant on Earth. How it came to manifest inside the armory alongside Rylee’s is a matter of sweeping conjecture at the present moment.”
Anthony nodded. “How did The Cell capture Heyer in the first place? If he was in danger, why didn’t you blink him to safety?”
“I only became aware that Heyer had returned from the Feroxian Plane when he showed up on The Cell’s video feeds. Something was wrong with his device—he was unconscious and I could not get a safe read out on his location. Normally, this wouldn’t have been an obstacle—I am able to transport matter as long as I can get an accurate location. However, at some point, The Cell must have become aware of my use of human GPS satellites as a backup system. Within seconds of Heyer’s appearance on the feed, they killed power to the entire block and hit some type of kill switch on the GPS systems for the entire state. The timing was too suspect—this was a preconceived plan to acquire him.”
“If the GPS satellites are back up, what’s stopping you now?” Anthony asked.
Mr. Clean’s face was replaced by overhead images taken from a satellite. Each showed an airstrip where a semi-truck carrying a very unconventional trailer was in various stages of being unloaded from a military transport aircraft.
“These images were taken over Joint Base Lewis-McChord two days ago. A similar vehicle was close to Jonathan’s residence around the time they were taken into custody. The vehicle in question was covered, likely to reduce civilian interest, but it matches the dimensions of these images from over the base. I am unable to get a read on anything inside that outer shell. Whatever this is, it is not on file with any patent office,” Mr. Clean said.
Anthony sighed. “Yeah, it wouldn’t be. If they have him in there, he might as well be in the center of a black hole.”
“You recognize this?”
“Not exactly. I’ve seen schematics for a similar design that one of my smaller divisions has in early stage development. I’ll be telling them to drop the project, because if The Cell has access to a fully functional model then I’m guessing the Department of Defense has another developer on the pay roll that is years ahead of us.”
“What’s the application?” Mr. Clean asked.
“The idea started with insulating electronics from EMP blasts. Protecting transport vehicles—keeping planes from falling out of the sky if they were caught in a pulse. Once advanced enough for mass production, it would have been used to safeguard infrastructure. The researchers I’m funding thought they could take it further—a lot further,” Anthony said. “The short version is, if Heyer is in there, we’re gonna have to walk in and get him.”
Anthony studied the images a moment longer before his expression blackened, and he rubbed his fingertips against his forehead.
“You know, when Heyer and I discussed the contingency plan for recovering him if he was ever captured, I looked at the tech at his disposal and told him that he was paranoid.” He shook his head. “He said, ‘Every strength has its weaknesses.’ I guess we’re lucky he was never so confident.”
Mr. Clean watched him, but didn’t reply, and Anthony realized the AI was either at a loss to see the sad humor he was expressing or simply had nothing to add.
“What about our fearless leader?” Anthony asked. “If the GPS satellites are back up, you should be able to get a lock on Jonathan.”
“Unfortunately, no, but now that I know why Heyer is out of reach, there is both good news and bad news.”
“Well, let’s hear it.”
“In order to manipulate the intel The Cell was getting from their cameras, Jonathan carried a piece of me into the residence. This allowed for me to link into their hub directly. When I found I was temporarily unable to pull Heyer to safety, I commanded that piece to abandon the hub and attach itself to Jonathan before he was taken into custody. I was able to track where that piece was taken,” Mr. Clean said. “That’s the good news.”
“Alright, then what’s the bad?” Anthony asked.
“The signal from Jonathan went dead shortly after they took him into a building on the same base where the truck was delivered. Given what you’ve told me about said truck, they must now have him in a chamber insulated with the same type of technology.”
“Alright, so we know where they’re holding him for the time being,” Anthony said. “Assuming Heyer is in the same building, we need to extract both of them at the same time.”
“Which brings us back to the contingency plan—we are going to have to adapt.”
“Right. The Washington location was always a priority—I’ll see to it that the prototypes we’ve been developing are moved there without the authorities asking questions. After that is in motion, I’ll get the extraction team headed there. I’ll be on a flight this evening and will meet you at the site when we are ready.”
“No need to use traditional transportation—we need to move quickly. Contact me when ever
ything is in order and I will transfer you and the team to the site. If this cannot be accomplished quietly, we may have to consider going to plan B,” Mr. Clean said.
Anthony frowned. “I wasn’t aware of a plan B.”
“There wasn’t one, but Jonathan made a remark when we last spoke—he never intended it to be taken seriously,” Mr. Clean replied. “If we run out of time, you have the authority. You could allow me to … take a Voltron-like approach.”
Anthony raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, let’s try and avoid plan B.”
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T. Ellery Hodges lives with his wife and three sons in Seattle, Washington. He is currently hard at work on the finale of The Chronicles of Jonathan Tibbs. If you’d like to know more about T. Ellery, visit his blog at www.telleryhodges.com, follow him on twitter @telleryhodges, or like The Never Hero page on Facebook! If you prefer email, he’d love to hear from you at [email protected].
The Never Paradox (Chronicles Of Jonathan Tibbs Book 2) Page 62