The big highway crossed over the two-lane road up ahead, and the on-ramp veered off to his right. His sense of direction said going right would take him south.
The ramp was designed like a swooping S-curve. Visibility was poor, but he was used to that now. However, about midway through the turn, the steering wheel seemed to stop working and the car drifted to the right. The engine raced like the tires were spinning but not gripping.
“Holy shit!” he screamed as he wildly pulled at the wheel. He was barely doing twenty miles per hour, but the car had a mind of its own and went into a shallow ditch next to the road, stopping a little short of some trees.
The engine sputtered for ten seconds, then quit.
“Oh, hell,” he exclaimed in rising panic. The muddy grass outside his window looked close because the car sat in a shallow drainage ditch. He turned the key to try to re-start it and jumped in surprise when it cranked right up.
“Yes!”
His excitement was short-lived, however, when he tried to put it in gear and back up. The wheels spit mud all over the side of the taxi, and some of the chunks came inside and splattered the interior of the windshield.
“Shit. Shit. Shit.” His heart raced as his situation dawned on him. The car was perfectly fine, but it was bogged in the mud. He would need help getting it out.
A couple of cars passed while he fought to get the wheels to grip. Another vehicle was parked on the ramp about fifty yards ahead. It hadn’t been there a moment ago, and the brake lights were on, like they were waiting to see what he did.
Now he experienced true panic. He was a sitting duck. A beached yellow duck.
The wipers kept enough of the rain off the windshield, so he saw the lurking vehicle. If they were nice, maybe they’d help him out of the ditch and he’d be on his way. If they weren’t…
“They can’t all be bad guys,” he told himself. Dad had reassured him that the world was filled with good guys. Unsung heroes who wanted no recognition for their actions. Folks who would help you out of a jam if you were stuck on the side of the road after midnight.
But he had also warned him about the bad guys. Wolves in sheep’s clothing, always in search of the next easy score.
And he sat in a car full of guns and ammo. The wolves would want all of it.
“Make up your mind. Choose a course of action. Stick to it.” Dad would be proud that he’d remembered his lessons.
Garth opened the driver’s door…
Highway 395, California
The snow came down hard and heavy, but the great number of warm engines creeping along the pavement prevented accumulation below his treads. Buck kept moving forward without needing to break out his chains.
Driving on the slippery roads was nerve-wracking, so he didn’t dare handle his phone himself, but Connie was more than happy to dial the numbers every five minutes for him. After an hour of their routine, she placed the phone in the cradle, then pulled the 10/22 from where she’d jammed it next to her door.
“Mind if I stick this behind my seat? I don’t want it to fall out when I open this door.”
“Sure. Just as long as you know where it is.” He left unsaid that if she needed it, they’d be in real danger. “It has a strap, so you can carry it if you get out. Whatever you do, don’t go outside without your gun. If nothing else, it will make people think twice about bothering you.”
“Or they’ll attack me to get it,” she replied in jest.
He remained serious. “That’s always a risk of open carry. I tend to believe the bad guys operate under the assumption that people with guns are not to be fucked with. There’s easier prey out there.”
She lost her humor. “Is that what I am? Prey?”
He laughed it off. “We are both prey, ma’am. Don’t think anything of it. It’s the benefit of sticking together. If we both have guns, it means we’re willing to back each other up. That counts for a lot, even if we don’t look like a couple of BAMFs.”
“BAMFs?” she asked.
“Bad Ass Mother Fuckers. It’s what you are now, okay? Nine-tenths of it is looking the part. You survived a gunfight. You survived an assault. You survived being ripped from 2003. And, last but not least, you didn’t even flinch when your car was totaled.”
“I did tear up when I got into your truck. That doesn’t sound like something a BAMF would do.” She laughed a little, suggesting she wasn’t totally writing herself off.
“Everyone starts at the bottom. I was a mess after my first engagement in Iraq. I didn’t cry, mind you, but I almost pissed myself a river when I realized some of those bullets were aimed at me. It’s perfectly normal to be scared out of your skin in these situations. Trust me, you handled yourself as well as anyone possibly could. In fact, I’m glad you cried a little. If you hadn’t, I might think you were some sort of psychopath. That would suck.”
They shared a warm laugh.
Ahead, the road went through rocky terrain with steep cutouts on each side. The snow didn’t cover the red rocks, which made them contrast with the half-foot of snow everywhere else, but red brake lights came on as they traversed the rocky chokepoint.
The road went downhill and curved to the right, and was also covered with snow. He recognized the potential for disaster right away. Buck’s legs tensed as he feathered the brakes to keep his truck at about walking pace around the bend.
“They must have been going too fast.” Buck barely had time to rubberneck a dozen cars and one big rig in a ditch next to the road. They were piled up like a bunch of kid’s toys. Some of the small vehicles had been crushed beyond recognition.
“Holy moly,” Connie declared as she gawked at the scene. “Shouldn’t we help them?”
Don’t get involved, he thought.
There were no ambulances or police cars. A lone eighteen-wheeler was pulled to the side of the road, facing the direction Buck traveled. It would be easy to justify that someone was already there to help.
Don’t get off mission.
“We should at least see if we can help, shouldn’t we?” Connie’s tone suggested she thought it was a good idea.
At the last moment, he pulled onto the shoulder in front of the other trucker. It would ensure he had room to maneuver if he had to leave in a hurry. He would never again let himself get trapped like he had been back at the motel, although he committed to ramming his way out if necessary.
“You wait here,” he said to Connie as he threw on the e-brake. He left the motor running, which was standard practice for him.
“I thought we were a team?” she replied with a little disappointment.
“And right now, I need you to watch my, uh, our rig. Don’t let anyone in, okay?” He didn’t want to scare her, but she had to know it was an important task. “If anyone tries to get in, you shoot them.”
He picked up the small rifle and handed it to her. “I’ll be back as fast as I can. I’m only going to see if help is on the way. That’s all.”
She took the rifle. “I’ll do as you ask, but I don’t even know if I can fire this.”
He gave a quick refresher. “It’s ready to fire. Simply press this safety release, then pull the trigger to shoot. Make sure nothing is behind your target, like me or Mac.” He smiled, then slid out his door.
Mac jumped on the vacated seat and looked down at him. “Take care of Connie,” he said to his friend.
Cars and trucks continued to pass him on the road as he walked back to the other truck. He noticed the man sat in the cabin of his Blue Mack, so he waved until he was recognized. The driver gestured for him to come over to his side step.
“Hey,” Buck said as the guy opened his window. He shivered because he wore a short-sleeved Hawaiian shirt instead of a heavy coat.
“Hey, driver,” the older man said back. “You going into that mess?”
Buck shook his head. “I felt bad driving by like we don’t have a problem in the world. Is there anything we can do?”
The guy held up his CB micr
ophone so Buck could see it. “I’ve been trying. I get plenty of trucks, but no emergency services within a hundred miles. I was able to relay a message through six different drivers up to Reno, but it could be an hour before anyone gets here.”
Buck looked at the pileup. The long white trailer of the semi-truck had detached and flipped over. Plain cardboard boxes had been flung over the white snow like someone serving up pieces of bread to the birds. At least two of the cars were on fire, creating thick black smoke at both ends of the pileup.
Despite his misgivings, he felt obligated to get a bit closer and take a quick peek. “I think we should—”
Gunshots snapped in the cold silence over from the area of the wrecks.
“Aw, shit,” the man in the cab exclaimed. “Things are getting hot over there.”
More gunshots indicated it wasn’t only one person doing the shooting.
Buck’s mind switched faster than Houdini’s hands. “I can’t get into another shootout. Hey, I’m on channel 4. Buck Rogers. Let’s stick together.” He waited long enough to see the man give him a thumbs-up sign.
“I’m Clarence, but I go by Sparky on the squawk box. I’ll follow you.” He started to roll up his window but stopped. “Another shootout? You’ve been in one today?”
Buck waved. “We’ll talk. I have to go!”
He ran back to his rig.
Being with her was already paying off. He realized her positive effect on him as he climbed into the cabin. As much as he wanted to help those in need, he wasn’t going to voluntarily enter a gunfight. The old Buck might have considered it.
He resolved to tell the first emergency services person he passed on the road or heard on the CB. It was the only sensible thing left for him to do.
Eighteen
Search for Nuclear, Astrophysical, and Kronometric Extremes (SNAKE). Red Mesa, Colorado
“Doctor Sinclair!” Benny shouted. “Wait up!”
Faith had left Donald in his room and was heading back to Bob and Sunetra when the Denver newspaperman spotted her from fifty yards away.
“What are you doing back?” she asked as he trotted up to her. He’d spent all of the previous day at SNAKE and left with the other reporters when the general took over, but it didn’t surprise her at all to see him back so soon. He was tenacious.
“I never left,” he remarked. “I watched the Humvees in the parking lot to see what they were up to. Last night I slept in my car, but this morning I came inside as soon as I saw someone at the front desk. It surprised me that the military guards let me right in.
“Yeah, well,” she said as she looked up and down the hallway, “you may regret that decision. You can get in, but I don’t think they’re letting anyone leave.”
“Like Hotel California,” he said dryly.
“Yeah, just like it.” She smirked.
He pulled out his phone. “Should I call my wife and let her know I’m okay? I sent her some texts last night, but if I’m staying…”
Faith brushed his arm to get him to hide the phone. “Don’t let them see it or they’ll take it away.” Then, thinking of the tenuous level of trust she had with General Smith, “Shit, Benny. I wish you wouldn’t have shown it to me. Come here.”
She led him into one of the many unused offices and shut the door.
“I can’t knowingly let you run around with a phone, Benny. We’ve all had ours confiscated.”
“Seriously? That’s a massive swat at the Constitution. Did you mention it to the Army guys?”
“They’re Air Force, actually. And no, I didn’t interrupt their shakedown to quote the law. I’m not at liberty to publicly state what is going on here, but I believe it to be very important. All I can tell you is no other news organization that I know of is here. And if they were, they wouldn’t get anything more than what I’m telling you now. I hope you understand.”
“I’ve heard there is something important happening down in the collider ring. Care to comment?”
She pursed her lips to stall for time, because he must have meant the strange boxes they’d found. There was no way he could know about the link to CERN unless someone had fed it to him.
“I’m not sure I—” she began.
“Oh, come on. Everyone knows, doctor. I hear it discussed in the hallways. They are talking about shutting down the cryo, which suggests something major has happened. Doesn’t it take two weeks to re-start and re-cool everything?”
“A month,” she deadpanned.
“A month,” he repeated. “And even if you are willing to spend a month offline, won’t your benefactors get a little peeved? We’re talking about a huge story. Come on! Tell me what’s happening.”
She was in a difficult spot, but she returned again to trust.
“Benny, do you trust me?” She gave the young reporter a hopeful look.
“Well, you did come through on getting me into the press conference yesterday.” He said it like it was a stubborn admission. “But you didn’t give me an exclusive.”
She chuckled. “To be fair, my press conference was halted before I could offer anyone an exclusive interview.”
“The military guys said there was a terrorist threat. It was a lie, wasn’t it? If it had been terror, none of us would be here.”
After a long pause, Benny kept talking.
“I take your silence as an acknowledgment of something big. You’ve got to tell me. The national news is swamped with unusual earthquakes and freak storms, and now there’s talk about ice getting out of control at the poles. All planes are grounded, and road travel has become as dangerous as Russian roulette. Nobody knows what’s going on, and it is freaking people out. If you know something, you have to share it.”
Faith kept up her poker face. “Benny, if you trust me, I’ll swap you the phone for a promise I will tell you everything I know as soon as I’m cleared to do so.”
He stepped away from her. “But I need my phone. How will I contact my paper? My wife? How will I read the news? There’s a ton of stuff going on out there. In the last few minutes, I’ve gotten fifty alerts! The world’s gone apeshit.”
“And you’re in here, I get it. If you work with me, I’ll do my best to keep you in the loop. It may not be “apeshit” quality stuff, and you may not be able to report on it in real time, but you’ll have access other reporters can only dream of.”
Another good reason jumped out at her, and it would make her pitch to General Smith much easier. “Frankly, I don’t see why we need more than one reporter here. You can be our exclusive partner.”
He appeared to think about it. “That’s a generous offer, but the ape stuff is amazing. Did you know the Coors brewery looks like it did fifty years ago? It’s only ten miles north of here.”
“Well, they must not like changes,” she replied.
“No. You’re missing the point. The whole brewery reverted to what it looked like fifty years ago. The people didn’t change. The machinery did. It got old.”
The old came forward in time. Like a rubber band.
“Interesting,” she said noncommittally, trying not to give away that she knew about similar events. Her abrupt wording got Benny’s keen attention.
“Did the general kick us out because something in here is related to all that? Are you studying the phenomenon here in secret? What?”
Her options dwindled to almost nothing. She couldn’t tell him the truth or it would betray her pledge to the general. Telling Benny a lie might hold him off for a bit, but then she would lose the leverage of truth. She needed to think bigger and longer-term.
She opened the door, signifying their private chat was over. “General Smith is doing his job in my old office. You know where it is?”
“Of course.”
She looked outside and saw some of the staff in the hallway. Turning back to Benny, she held out her hand. “Please give me your phone. I give you my word that all will become clear when we meet the general. If possible, I will get this back to you.”
<
br /> His shoulders slumped. “I thought you trusted me.”
She understood completely.
“You have no idea how much I do. There is something big going down in the world, and I’m confident working in here will be worth your while, but I can only bring you inside if you trust me now. The alternative is sitting in the spectator seats with the rest of the press, if they are let in at all.”
“You better not screw me over,” he said as he surrendered his phone.
“Benny, I would never think of it. Truth be told, you and your phone may have just saved the world.”
Canberra, ACT, Australia
Zandre delivered the tranquilizer rifle to Destiny as promised. He was in a hurry to get to his own hunt, so he didn’t want to stop and talk for long.
“Thank you,” she said once the handoff was complete.
“I hope you find something,” he said with sympathy. “I didn’t bring you out here to watch me shoot animals since I know you don’t favor it, but the bounty is too large. The taxes are killing me, all right?”
“Z, you don’t need to explain yourself. I made it, thanks to you. I would never have known these animals were back.” Inwardly, she wondered for how long. Faith said SNAKE had caused the time issues. Did that imply a fix would return things to where they had been? Would all the fantastic specimens disappear?
I have to study one before they go.
With that thought, she was in a hurry to depart as well. “Where are you going?” she asked him.
“Walker Hill, for starters.” He pointed to a distant hill. The rest of the landscape was gently rolling terrain covered in grass and a few trees, but that hill was taller than the rest and a lot greener.
“I’ll go a different way,” she replied.
“Good luck,” they said in unison as they split up.
Destiny had been to his ranch several times over the years, but she’d never gotten out on her own. It was liberating to be back in nature with the powerful little vehicle at her disposal. As for where to go, she figured Ducks of Doom were exactly like almost every other animal. Eventually, they’d end up at the watering hole.
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