She pulled the still silent weapon from her mouth and stared at it in surprise. “You did something to alter the gift from my father. Why didn’t the sound affect the three of us?”
“No idea… and Lake didn’t do shit to anything,” he answered tersely, brushing past her. “Let’s go. Unless they’re all dead now, we might not have a lot of time.”
Most still live, Lake heard in his head.
“Don’t care,” he said as he walked.
Sugar stopped to check the first body they found. “This one still lives, but he’s out cold.”
“This one is a shifter like Maxwell,” Gina reported as she rose from checking another body for life signs. “Based on the bleeding pattern, I think the sound we never heard ruptured his ears. After that, it probably caused non-repairable brain damage. He’s definitely dead and likely it was from whatever the resonance tool did to him.”
Sugar grunted. “The sound of the whistle caused internal bleeding? Glad you pointed it at these guys instead of at us.”
Gina shrugged. “If I could have inspected the changes made to the resonance tool before using it, I might have minimized the effects and prevented the shifter’s death. We have no quarrel with these men.”
Lake glared at both women. “These men shouldn’t be here at all. Be grateful we didn’t have to fight them while they were trying to capture us.”
“Spoken like an uncaring warrior,” Gina said coldly.
Sugar sighed over the fight. “Yes, Lake. We get your point, but cut us a break. Mourning the loss of someone’s life is part of most females’ chromosomal makeup.”
Ignoring them, Lake yanked open the front door and stormed inside.
Sugar sighed as she disappeared. Hey, Artifact?
I am listening, Sugar.
Any threat inside the house? I don’t want the boy to die because he’s too upset to pay attention.
Host Lake desires personal support from Gina of Rodu.
Sugar nodded as she sighed. I think Gina wants to give him support, but they’ve got a lot to work out before that can happen.
Synchronicity achievable with compromise.
Sugar chuckled at the artifact’s absolute optimism as she held one of the two giant front entry doors open for Gina. Lake’s father had lived in a mansion of sorts. Had he lived there all alone?
She stopped Gina briefly at the door. “Try not to blow your whistle at him. Lake’s about to find out the secrets his father’s been keeping from him all his life.”
“I would never do such a thing,” Gina grumbled.
“Just saying,” Sugar replied, rolling her eyes when a mad Gina stomped inside as stiffly as Lake had.
23
"Lake?" Sugar called as she and Gina roamed the cavernous space with no idea of where to go. Lake had disappeared and left them behind.
Given how stuffy and stale the air was, the utilities had likely been disconnected for quite some time. The place obviously had been ransacked at some point. Things were shoved hastily back into drawers and shelves. When she was first on the run, she'd come back to find this situation in her own home many times.
She and Gina eventually wandered into what looked to be a man's study. It smelled of cherry pipe tobacco and leather polish. There was even a fireplace where ashes remained.
"Lake's father died five or six months ago but this room smells like he just stepped out of it. You can definitely tell this was his favorite space."
Gina nodded but didn’t comment.
Moving on, Sugar walked to the massive desk and sat down in the chair behind it. She looked around the room. The decorations were masculine to a fault. There wasn't a cheerful pillow or comfortable throw on any of the furniture. What a lonely life the man must have had.
On top of the desk, there was a rectangular-shaped clean spot in the middle of a crumpled paper calendar that covered a large part of the surface. Something important used to sit in that blank rectangle.
"Bet they took his computer, which means we've lost access to his notes," Sugar summized.
Gina nodded and continued her search of the shelves she was perusing. "Lake's father kept quite a large collection of books. I see Science. Philosophy. Atlantis. Egyptology." She pulled one free and wondered why it was not covered in dust like the rest as she read the title, "In The Time Before Time: A Tale of Lost Civilizations.”
Sugar smiled. "That's one of the first books ever written about the pre-history of Earth. It even mentions Athena the Ancient. I can still remember the first time I read it. I got chills of excitement. My gut just knew it was true.”
Gina carried the book to Sugar. "Show me the passage concerning Athena. I have no patience for searching through stationary pages for information."
"It's called a book," Sugar said smartly. “And you don't just look for one piece of information in it. You read it slowly and think about what the author is trying to convey."
"I do not understand the difference. Clarify," Gina demanded.
Sugar smiled. “A book is a long, ongoing conversation the author is having with the world around him or her. Books are a lasting form of communication here on Earth. I wish more people saw them that way."
Because she had it memorized, Sugar easily flipped to the section. In the margin of the exact page talking about Athena, someone had included a series of numbers and dashes: 06 - 25 - 17. Those are definitely not coordinates. Looks like a date," she mused.
Combination to unlock.
Sugar lifted an eyebrow. "Intriguing. What does it unlock?"
Desk.
"Okay. Guess it will be the kind of lock people use at the gym," Sugar said, searching for a place on the desk to enter the series of numbers.
“I’ve never heard my father talking to the being inside him. You seem to talk to your sentient blade all the time just as Lake talks to his.”
“Talk to the artifact? Yes. I talk to it all the time.” Sugar lifted her head to meet Gina’s stare. “The majority of humans hear a little voice inside them. The one inside me has more of a personality and tends to be bit bossy. But it’s also very helpful—like now, for instance. The artifact said those numbers are to some sort of lock mechanism for the desk."
Gina laid the book down and searched in and around the desk. “I see no entry pad for numbers. It does not appear to be designed for that sort of lock.”
“Maybe it’s not this desk,” Sugar said, searching as well.
“Doesn’t it know for certain?”
Sugar shrugged. “Sometimes I think it does. Other times it seems to wait for me to figure it out.”
“Which means I was correct about it ruling all your actions,” Gina declared.
“Ruling is not quite the right word. How about we say it influences me?”
“Your word choice only debates the degree with which the the blade makes you act. Since your free will is impacted in all cases, I do not see the difference.”
Sugar chuckled. “Lots of things impact a human’s free will. I suppose I consider the sentient blade as my partner. Since I’ve never minded being a team player, we’re good with each other.”
Irritated by Sugar's flippancy, Gina picked the book up again. She began reading the passage. Then there was a noise upstairs that had them both lifting their heads.
They rose without speaking and followed the sounds. In what was still decorated like a very young boy's bedroom, they found Lake looking frantically through drawers and cabinets and toy chests.
They walked into the area and looked around. They heard Lake swear in frustration while he moved from place to place.
Sugar smiled. "What's up, Junior? Looking for a special toy you want to keep for a souvenir."
"No. I'm looking for a bloody key," Lake said.
Gina flinched when Lake turned to glare at Sugar. She saw Sugar raise an eyebrow over his glaring. Did they treat each other so rudely on purpose?
Axel was often irritable and angry. She did not understand the need to vent such stro
ng emotion in such an unsatisfying way. Her primary goal for herself was maintaining peace.
Lake grunted as he went back to looking. "My father made me unlock my desk when I was home on leave from school once. I think I was sixteen or seventeen then. When I asked why he wanted it unlocked, he said he intended to sell my childish things and replace them with real furniture. I told him not to bother because I intended to go straight to college after boarding school. I was trying to hurt his feelings so I told him it wasn't in my plans to come home to live."
"Many men aren't good with making changes. Maybe he just never got around to following through with his plans,” Sugar suggested.
Lake shook his head. "No. The next time I was here—which was three years later—nothing had changed except that my desk was locked. He asked me how my trip to Angkor Wat had gone. We spoke about it for maybe ten minutes. I never thought the damn desk being locked was unusual until the blade told me to come here because my father had left something for me in the desk. I guess I could just break into it."
"Maybe he was waiting until you were old enough to deal with what he wanted to leave for you,” Sugar said, walking close. "Are you sure the desk takes an actual key?"
Lake looked up at Sugar. “I was being rhetorical. I made the locking mechanism myself one summer when I was home for a whole month. I used the inner parts of a combination lock, only I don't remember the combination. I'm sure I wrote it down somewhere. That's what I'm searching for. Like every other kid, I once fancied becoming a spy."
Gina brought him the book that was still in her hands. She opened it to the page and handed it down to Lake who was on the floor. "Your father wrote numbers in the margin of a passage about Athena the Ancient. Are these what you're searching for?"
Lake took the book from her, read the numbers, and rose to return to his desk. He sat in the chair for it, rolled the cylinders, and heard the final click of it unlocking.
When he pulled out the single large drawer, inside were multiple stacks of cash—some in pounds sterling, some in dollars. There were also pictures of his parents together, along with their old passports and several brochures of places they'd visited.
And in the very back was a full-sized journal tied up in leather bindings.
Lake removed the journal from the drawer and held it in his hands while swallowing hard. “My father once told me only the most important facts went into this journal. These are my father's most treasured notes. I guess this is what the blade sent me to find."
Sugar patted his shoulder. "Leaving his journal for your inheritance is very professorial of your father. I think he and I may have watched the same movies when we were growing up.” Her gaze went to the now empty drawer—well, mostly empty. “What's that, Lake? There's something stuck in the back."
The corner of a white envelope was barely visible. Sugar carefully pulled it forward and out. Lake was still staring at the journal and she didn’t think he’d even heard her.
Sugar handed the envelope to Lake because his name was written in large letters on the front. "Looks like your father wrote you a note. Better read it here in case we need to do some more digging for things he left you.”
Lake handed off the unopened journal and the book to Gina who took them without a word. Sugar smiled at the silent agreement that had sprung up between them.
Lake opened the envelope and started to read.
"Dearest Lake,
I pray you find these things before the people I work for do. I had to reveal to them more than I wanted to about my findings, but I kept as many secrets as I safely could."
Lake rolled his eyes at his father’s dramatic statements as he continued to read the letter aloud.
"The deals I made over the years cost me your mother and they cost me the time I should have spent watching you grow up. Since you're reading this, you will know my mistakes have ultimately cost me my own life as well. However, none of that compares to my greater sin against humanity itself. I let my pursuit of knowledge blind me. Humans are meant to do good and to serve each other for the short time we walk this planet."
Lake paused at the next words. His eyes didn't want to see them.
Sugar put a hand on Lake’s shoulder when he went silent. "I know this is hard for you, but it sounds like your father made enemies, and I imagine those enemies are now ours. We all need to know what happened. Please keep reading."
Sighing, Lake nodded and put his gaze back on the page.
24
With tons of emotions threatening to choke him, Lake decided to pretend that the letter wasn't about him. Maybe in doing that he could get through the rest of his father’s revelations without screaming.
"This is difficult for me to confess, but it must be done. Despite what we led you to believe, you were not born to your mother and I. You were brought to us as an infant—a living experiment of our government—and placed into our care. Everything about your upbringing was carefully orchestrated for one specific purpose. Like the ancient warriors who carried them all those millennia ago, we were preparing you to one day become a host to a sentient blade."
Lake let the letter fall to the desk and rose to walk. His parents weren't his real parents. His life wasn't his real life. Nothing—absolutely nothing about his life was what he believed to be true. His entire existence had been controlled long before his blade got involved.
Why didn't you tell me? Lake demanded of the being inside him. His heart-wrenching question went without a response when most of the time he couldn't get the being inside him to shut up. It was yet one more betrayal to deal with.
Wanting to know the rest, Sugar picked up the discarded letter, skimming it to where Lake had stopped reading.
"The journal I hid with this letter holds all my notes about the sentient blades, including some theories I developed about them that can only be proven by those who host them. I sincerely believe one was found long ago. That blade was hidden in a pyramid so I believe the host would be Egyptian. Perhaps the host still lives.
Within the last year, another blade has been found—it was the one I could not locate at all. It seems someone stumbled across it in a cave while taking a hike. I hear a bond has been formed between the blade and its discoverer. This one worries my employers most though I do not know why."
"Huh," Sugar said, pausing to ponder. "Your father was certainly well connected. He knew about both Rodu and me."
She lifted the letter again.
"By now—if you believe anything of what I'm saying—you will know that I sent you to the locations where I'm fairly sure the last two blades sleep. It is my secret hope that one of them chooses you and that you choose it in return. Those that made you will come after you no matter what happens or doesn't, but your continued life is my most ardent wish.
Please forgive me for revealing the existence of the blades to those who seek them for their own purposes. By the time I discovered the meaning of real evil, they had already given your mother terminal cancer to remove her from my life. I gave them information in my bargains to save her which as you know did not work."
Sugar let the letter fall. "This is awful. They caused your mother to have cancer. Your father sounds tortured."
"Is that all of it?" Lake asked, his throat painfully tight.
Sugar glanced at the letter again and shook her head. "No. But the rest is for you. I think you should read it privately."
Lake stared at the letter dangling from Sugar's hand then shook his head. "I think I've read enough."
Gina slipped the paper from Sugar's fingers and pressed it into Lake's hand. "Read the rest, Lake Allen Wright, Savior of Rodu. Read it aloud. We will all bear your burden together."
Lake nodded numbly.
"Just the last couple of paragraphs. That's all that's left," Sugar said quietly.
Lake raised the paper until he could read again.
"I have no excuse for my weakness except to say that I am not a warrior. Every demand they made of me I met to save you
r mother and you for as long as I could be clever enough to do so. I expected to fail in the end, and I'm sure you will be told that I died from a heart attack or some other natural occurrence.
I pray I have not failed you completely, Lake. If there is any justice, you will live and become something that the evil humans of this world cannot corrupt as they have corrupted me. Keeping you away from them was the best good I did in my life and the only way I could show you that I cared. I hope one day you will understand and forgive me for not being a proper father."
Sugar looked around the room and found a basket full of well-used toy soldiers. She noticed there were a plethora of war toys decorating his room. Lake’d had tanks, helicopters, and more toy guns than any child should have possessed.
She dumped the toy soldiers out on the bed and started gathering all the contents of the desk drawer, even the money. Who knew? It might be useful one day.
She removed a pillowcase from a pillow on the bed and slid the now full basket into it.
So Gina had the journal. Lake had the letter from his father. And she had collected everything else.
"Is there anything more you want to get from here?" Sugar asked. "I doubt you will ever get a chance to return. It won't be safe."
Lake looked around and shook his head. "No. There's nothing left for me here. There never was."
"Let's go home then," Sugar said softly, waving her hands to shoo them to the door.
Lake carefully folded the letter as they walked out and handed it off to Gina who slid it back into the original envelope and then down between several pages of the journal. Sugar marveled at how seamlessly they'd morphed into a team, but Lake still looked like he was in shock.
Mad Panther (Alien Guardians of Earth Book 2) Page 15