The walls around Lyle’s Port are massive too. Iron reinforced concrete.
“’Bout time,” Julia says, sitting up a bit in her seat.
“Got the tablet?” He glances at her as he stops the SUV at the credential check gates. Not as huge as the town’s gates, but still impressive.
Eight guards stroll out of flanking bunkers. All are armed and dressed in black tactical gear.
Julia rummages around in the glove compartment and brings out a nearly paper-thin device of plastic and glass. Their credentials tablet.
The shortest of the guards taps Ash’s window with a gloved knuckle.
Ash rolls the window down while taking the credentials tablet from Julia. Standing at her door is another guard, assault rifle ready for action.
Ash hands the shorter guard, probably the team’s leader, the tablet.
The guard swipes through the information, face an unwavering frown. “What is your purpose in Lyle’s Port?”
“Business,” Ash replies. “We were to meet Murdock Jones in the harbor, but our coordinates got mixed up and we came ashore three hundred miles n—”
“Shut up.”
Ash glares at the guard. “You asked, I answered.”
The guard, gray eyes glimmering in the bright lights, shifts from the tablet, and gives Ash a withering gaze. Those eyes tell Ash all he needs to know about the man. He’s the alpha, or so he thinks. A tough man, who has seen some shit in his life and in order to counter all the horrors, his heart and mind have turned to iron. He’s used to having everything go his way and only his way. No gray area with this guy.
Ash sighs. “I apologize. We just need to meet Murdock Jones so—”
“Credential information needs updating,” the head guard grumbles and hands Ash back the tablet. He straightens. “Mr. Jones left Lyle’s Port two hours ago.”
Ash opens his mouth and closes it again.
“Oh, lovely,” Julia says. “There goes our financial backing.”
He closes his eyes, shakes his head, and opens them again.
The head guard stares at him, arms crossed over his chest. His bald head gleams under all the lights.
“Alright,” Ash says. “Thank you, but I guess we no longer need to enter now.”
The head guard grunts, nods and backs away from the vehicle. “Word of advice.”
Ash frowns.
“Don’t be a smartass to someone who can gun you down without penalty.” The head guard turns away and returns to the left bunker.
The rest of the guards move away, most also returning to their designated bunkers.
Ash rolls up the window.
“Let’s go home, boss,” Julia says. “We’ll figure the rest out later.”
“We need to get ahold of Murdock. Tell him what happened.”
Julia nods. “Well, we can do that when we get home.”
“No.” Ash straightens in his seat. “Get out the phone. I’ll call him now.”
“He never answers though…”
“He’ll answer.”
Julia blows out a heavy breath. “Fine.”
She rummages around in a black bag, brings out the phone, and hands it to Ash.
Murdock’s supposed personal number is in his contacts. He touches the call button, holds the phone to his ear, and waits.
The call is picked up in three rings.
“Barrington? Where the hell are you?”
“Hey,” Ash says. “Our coordinates had a glitch and we hit the coast three hundred miles north of the destination. Currently leaving Lyle’s Port.”
There’s a long pause, then… “Did you get it?”
“I think so,” Ash says. Because, whatever the bones he managed to collect are, he didn’t recognize them.
“You think? I pay you to know, Barrington.”
He draws in a deep breath and slowly. God, he hates this vile man. Still, without Murdock there would be no funding to go on productive digs. He’s worked for Murdock for three years now and still doesn’t trust the man. The oil tycoon has a reputation for his employees unexpectedly, well, dying.
Take the leviathan debacle not so long ago in the South Pacific for example…
Yet, he says, “Okay. I know. It’s definitely not a species I’ve seen before.”
Another long pause from the other end, then Murdock says, “Meet me in Des Moines.”
Ash is about to tell the man okay when there’s a beep of a call ended. The bastard hung up on him. He tosses the phone into the center counsel and turns the SUV away from Lyle’s Port.
“He’s pissed, isn’t he?”
Ash shrugs. “Maybe. Wants to meet us in Des Moines.”
“Close to home, at least.”
“Right.”
He sets out, taking the clearer roads if they prove safe enough. Most are. The few he avoids are the main interstates, which are crawling with vagrants. Interstates are the easiest and fastest ways anywhere, so of course the assholes want to stalk them. Easy meals.
So, he takes highways and secondary roads.
They have a couple days until they reach Des Moines.
Ash just hopes Murdock Jones accepts the rare find.
SIX
All told, it takes over eighteen hours to get from the east coast to midland Des Moines.
Another half hour to find the hotel where Murdock is staying.
Espiath’s Hotel, Murdock’s text had read. The newest, most lavish hotel in all of Iowa.
It took a bit of time, but he eventually found the monstrosity.
He parked, not in the parking complex, but across the street in the lot of an abandoned grocery store. There’s no way he’s paying the fee if he’s not staying here.
Together, Ash and Julia haul the tub of bones into the lobby of a hotel made specifically for the wealthy.
Behind the counter, the clerk frowns at them. A tall, lanky man with slicked back gray hair, this clerk watches their every move. And when Ash makes it a point to notice him watching them, the clerk lifts his head a bit, long blade of a nose aimed toward the intricately sculpted ceiling, eyes finding something else to look at.
Making sure the tub of bones is out of the way from foot traffic, Ash approaches the counter. “We have an appointment with Murdock Jones.”
The clerk slowly lowers his gaze to Ash, and snorts. “You? I hardly think so.”
“Ash Barrington, look it up.”
The clerk sniffs, glances away. “I think not.”
Anger flares within Ash. “Look, you snobby motherfu—”
“Ah, Ash,” a smooth, cultured voice sounds, “There you are.”
From deeper into the lobby, a man of average height, dressed head to toe in a brilliantly white suit, Murdock Jones emerges from cool shadows. He casually swipes a small, black comb through his equally black mustache. He tucks the mini-comb into the front pocket of his suit jacket and beams a smile at Ash.
“Your travels were safe, I assume?”
“Fine.” Ash cocks a thumb at the clerk. “Well, until this douchenozzle, anyway. Almost had an assault charge on my hands.”
Murdock chuckles. “Oh, come now, Ash. Quinton is perfectly harmless.” Yet, Ash catches the man’s dark eyes (weren’t they blue the last time I saw him?) shift toward the clerk in a cold glare.
Ash doesn’t turn to see but can hear the shuffling of feet and someone clear their throat. Apparently, Quinton the Clerk is in trouble.
Murdock, with his oiled black hair and tanned skin, his manicured fingernails, says, “Glad you made it back safely, Ash.” Murdock, with his crocodile grin, “Where is it? The skeleton.”
Ash steps aside and gestures to where Julia stands near a red sofa. “Over there.”
The oil tycoon frowns. “She’s a bit on the modern side, isn’t she?” He slides a much toothier grin in Ash’s direction.
It takes Ash a second to realize the man just told a joke. He chuckles, shakes his head. “No, it’s behind her.”
The grin melts a
way, face firming up. “You mean the tub you two lugged in? That’s the great find? That’s what I paid for?”
“Um, yeah.” Ash sighs. “The Board neglected to tell me about the active volcano.”
For almost a minute, Murdock doesn’t move, nor does he speak. He simply stares at Julia. She tries to look anywhere but at the man, feet shuffling. Under Murdock’s gaze, it’s hard not to squirm a bit. The man has the power to give the order to have you killed, body disposed of and your entire identity erased with a mild snap of his slender fingers.
Then Murdock smiles and motions toward Julia and the tub behind her. “Well, then, let’s see this discovery.”
Ash leads the man to the tub full of fossilized bones.
Again, Murdock frowns. It’s deep, edging on irritated, his frown. He hunkers down, carefully sifting through the bones, then shoots Ash a confused expression. “Are some of these…cut?”
“Yeah. Had to cut a few of them. Ran out of time with the lava and all.”
Murdock huffs out a breath, but nods and stares at the bones some more. “What do you think it was? And it better not be another damn velociraptor. I can’t give those things away these days.”
“Honestly,” Ash says, “I don’t know. The configuration in the rock was odd. I need to take these to my lab and—”
“No need for that,” Murdock says. “I have a great team that can connect the bones, even the ones you destroyed. You can assess it after they’ve done the reconstruction.” He stands and claps his hands, startling Ash.
Two large men dressed in gray suits hurry out of the shadows, pick up the tub and haul it to an elevator plated in gold.
“I have a new job for you,” Murdock says, running the tiny comb through his black mustache.
“And me?” Julia pipes up.
Murdock waves a dismissive hand without looking at her. “Sure, sure.” His gaze levels on Ash. “It—”
“Whoa, hold up,” Julia spouts and stands beside Ash. “We’re partners. You talk to both of us.”
Murdock rolls his eyes and Ash wants to punch the pompous asshole.
“That’s right,” Ash says. “Both of us.”
“Oh for…” Murdock runs his hands over his shiny, slicked hair. “Fine. Fine. But this job isn’t just some go-dig-it-up-and-give-it-to-me opportunity. It’s bigger than that.”
“What’s the job?” Julia asks.
Ash nods, interested.
Murdock grins. “Are either of you familiar with Lake Superior?”
SEVEN
“This is the dumbest thing you’ve ever made me do, dude,” Julia says as they stop in a large lot which gives way to the Port of Duluth.
Ash shrugs. “He got me with, ‘Massive pile of bones at the bottom of a lake’.”
“I know, and it’s stupid. All of it. I don’t trust the bastard.”
“I don’t either, but the pay we signed for will retire us both.”
“I’m thirty…”
He lifts an eyebrow. “You don’t want to retire early? Really?”
She stares out through the windshield at the giant lake before them. “This is all I know and all I ever want to do.”
He laughs, then manages, “Yeah, see, there’s something wrong with you, lady.”
Julia punches his shoulder. Hard. Hard enough to jar him a bit. “Fuck off. You can’t tell me you wouldn’t miss all this. The adventure of it all. The rushes and discoveries…”
He nods. “I’d miss it.” He winks. “But who says we can’t keep doing this job even after we retire?”
She blinks, finally smiles. “Good point.”
They face Lake Superior.
Since the changes Earth took decades ago due to everything from the melting ice caps and nuclear effects to straight up pollution and the gray fogs of biowarfare during the Civil War Two, the once wild Great Lake is now mild, nearly placid. The only Great Lake which remains full of waves and life is, oddly enough, Eerie.
It’s just now seven o’clock in the morning and the sky is full of golden roses and soft oranges as the sun rises higher above the horizon. It’s quite beautiful. Ky would love it, Ash knows. He smiles a little, thinking about how she would gasp and point at all the colors and tell him how she’s going to paint this very scene when they get home and—
“…this.”
He shakes his head, blinks. “Huh?”
“I said, we should go do this.” Julia opens her door. “If I die on that lake I’m gonna come back and kill you.”
“What if I die too?”
“Well, shit, then I’ll bring you back to life and kill your ass again.” She scoots out of the SUV. “C’mon, man.”
He gets out of the vehicle and together they walk toward Port Duluth where, according to Murdock, a specialized team awaits them.
Ash listens to the sound of his old boots clumping over the cracked cement and almost hears the shuffling of small sneakers. Ky’s small sneakers.
Ghosts…
He focuses on the harbor ahead. Before long, a small town comes into full view, along with what appears to be hundreds of large docks. The day is already getting hot and he arms sweat from his forehead.
Not long and they’re standing on the docks.
“So, uh, who are we supposed to meet here?” Julia asks. “Looks pretty deserted.”
And indeed, it does. The docks should be bustling, but they’re not. Instead there are places that appear in a need of repair. Warped planks and entire docks slathered in green moss and black mold. One of the farther docks slants downward and appears to lead directly into the lake.
Once, these docks bustled with fishermen and the buildings behind him were like processing warehouses for the fish. At least by all the stories his grandparents told him.
Not anymore.
Now, it’s like a ghost harbor. It’s simply void of life.
Except…
“On your knees!”
Ash catches a glimpse of two men in black gear, carbines pointed at him, and does as he’s told. Julia follows suit.
“Who are you?” A woman, shouts. “Names. Credential info. I want everything you have.”
“I’m Ash Barrington and this is my partner, Julia Evers. Murdock Jones sent us to aid in the exploration.”
There’s a long pause, and the muzzle of a gun presses against the back of his head. “Do you have a credential tablet?”
“Yes. In the glove compartment of the Land Rover in the parking lot.”
Another long pause, then, “A direct call to Murdock Jones has been initialized. Stand fast.”
The minutes pass like hours and Ash desperately needs to piss.
Finally, the woman says, “Stand up. You’ve been cleared.”
Ash and Julia do. Ash turns, coming nearly face to face with a stony-faced woman.
“Master Chief Green. US Navy Seals.” She holds out a hand, smiling a bit. Dark skin glistening gorgeously in the rising sunlight. “Sorry about the inconvenience, Dr. Barrington.”
He shakes her hand. “No worries.” He hasn’t been called Dr. Barrington for years. “I take it you’re the team we’re supposed to meet up with?”
“Team Talonshank,” Master Chief Green says, nodding. “Yes.” She points at the vessel bobbing near a dock to the far right. He hadn’t even noticed it until now. “We’ll escort you to the facility.”
Ash cocks his head a bit. “Facility?”
Green smiles. “That’s classified.”
He smirks, thinking, And this is why I hate working with the military.
The military always give tiny flakes of information, barely enough to go on, no matter how crucial information is needed. They follow orders and do what they’re told. Like they don’t really have minds of their own.
The Talonshanks escort Ash and Julia to the object bobbing in the water. To Ash, it resembles the tall topside hatch on submarines, only much stouter.
The hatch opens and a thin man, bald head gleaming, pops out like a damn gopher. H
e smiles a nearly toothless smile. “Watch’yer step, folks.”
Ash helps Julia balance while she steps onto a small, metal platform fixed to the protruding hatch. The bald man nods and disappears down the passage as Julia swings her leg over. She too disappears into whatever awaits below. A min-sub, maybe?
Heart thudding heavily, he steps onto the platform and climbs down the narrow passage.
When his boots clomp on the bottom, he turns and finds himself face to face with the bald, nearly toothless man. He’s smiling. And it’s not a very pleasant smile, though Ash does see friendliness in the man’s blue eyes.
“Welcome aboard!” He steps aside. “I’m Merlek, your host on this dive. Please find a seat and buckle in. We—”
“Oh, for shit sake, Merlek,” Green says as she thumps to the floor. “This ain’t royalty we’re escorting. Get to your station. We dive in five minutes.”
Buckling in, Ash catches Green’s attention. “We were never told of a facility.”
Green plops in a seat directly across from Ash, sighs. “What were you told?”
Ash glances at Julia. She shrugs, then gestures for him to spill it. “Just that we’d be a part of a team collecting dinosaur fossils and piecing them together for shipment to collectors.” He frowns. “Which makes little sense because very few dinosaur fossils have been recovered in this region due to erosion.”
A corner of Green’s mouth quirks in a slight, crooked smile. “That’s all?”
“Yeah.”
Green leans back, buckles in as the rest of her team follow suit. “Well, most of that’s true. You’ll be assisting and sharing your expertise with everyone. But it’s not some cakewalk piece the bones together and go home mission. It’s—”
All the lights dim to red, an alarm brays and the bald man’s voice says, “Prepare to dive. Prepare to dive.”
Green rolls her eyes and says, “Just sit back and relax. We’ll bring you up to speed as we go along.”
The Guillotine Page 3