See No More

by W B Dineen

  I can’t remain quiet a moment longer. “Hundreds of millions of people dead for their own vanity? Don’t they fear what awaits them in the afterlife? Don’t they believe in God or some higher power that will judge them for this massacre?”

  Tony shakes his head in response. “Sadly not, Kate. For these thirteen, they are their own religion, their own god. They are the highest power they understand, and through creating their New World Order, they’ll live forever.”

  CHAPTER 65

  My intention of turning Jake into my own personal jungle gym doesn’t happen. I’m once again in a place where unconsciousness is the only answer. As we walk back into the house holding hands, he leans in and kisses the side of my head. “Do you want to be alone tonight, or can I come in and hold you?”

  “Please hold me. I don’t know what to do with everything Tony told us. It seems improbable the six of us are going to be able to stop the Trēdecim by ourselves. I mean, we don’t have our own army like they do, and we don’t have unlimited funds. What can we possibly fight them with?”

  “We’ll turn their arrogance against them. They think of themselves as the ultimate power and right now they probably are, but people who assume they can’t lose often leave openings in their armor. Plus, we have your dad and Theo on our side and they’re the only duo on the planet who know how to build one of these things. Your dad is the only one who has the blueprint.”

  “Where do you think he keeps it? Back at the lab?”

  Jake shakes his head. “There are no physical copies of it anywhere. Your dad memorized it and then destroyed the only one that existed.”

  I can’t even remember my chocolate chip cookie recipe without looking at it and I’ve made it at least a hundred times. How in the world does my father remember how to make a weapon of mass destruction? When my parents’ DNA was being divided up, I clearly latched on to more of my mom’s. No complaints though, there’s no way I’d want the burden of my dad’s intelligence.

  I collapse onto the bed without even taking off my clothes. Jake pulls me into his arms and I fall asleep listening to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. He smells earthy and smoky like a campfire, and for some reason the scent makes me feel safe.

  I dream about cities disappearing, children screaming for their mothers, and army tanks rolling through crowded streets. Innocent people get mowed down in cold blood. I hear the tortured cry of babies, and watch helplessly as wounded people crawl through wreckage, searching for safety.

  In another dream I’m standing next to the WTC when it vaporizes next to me. In another, I’m climbing the Great Pyramid of Giza when the creepy head of the Sphinx turns around and blows me off, right before the pyramid disappears. I’m left free-falling through the hot desert air.

  My dreams are torturous and endless. I wish I could wake up and find that the last couple of weeks, and everything that’s happened since my dad came back into my life, was the real nightmare—even if it meant never having learned Theo was one of the good guys. Even if it meant hating him forever, at least the rest of the world would be relatively safe.

  I roll over and look at the clock to see it’s only three thirty in the morning. I can’t bring myself to go back to sleep, so I go to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. I think about picking up a book, but then I look over at Jake and realize I’m not going to miss another opportunity to get better acquainted with him. The way we’re going I have no idea how much longer we have.

  I quickly take my clothes off and crawl back into bed in nothing more than my birthday suit and a smile. I wrap a leg around him and run my hands up under his t-shirt to feel the strength of his muscular chest. I let my mouth follow the path of my hands and trail kisses up to his neck. I feel something interesting build under the covers and am about to pounce when Jake puts his hands on my arms and lifts me off him.

  He mumbles, “Just brushing my teeth. Hold that thought.”

  How sweet. I’m pretty sure I’m past noticing if he has bad breath, but still, it’s a nice gesture. He’s back in short order and smells like a field of mint. I throw my arms around his neck and bring his mouth to mine. Plainly put, I go to town. I feel my body and mind connect with his in deeper ways than I’ve experienced before. Almost like we’re calibrating our spirits as one.

  After we’ve sated our carnal needs, I’m finally able to fall into a dreamless sleep. When I wake up, I’m alone in bed and the clock says it’s already seven. I don’t want to get up. I want to call Jake right back in here for act two of our little play but realize it’s probably better to find everyone else and see what’s going on.

  When I get down to the kitchen I inhale an array of wonderful smells. My mom is making bacon, eggs, pancakes, and blueberry muffins. She’s flying around processing last night’s information the only way she knows how. For her, stressful situations involve cooking. After my dad left, my mom hardly ate anything, but she cooked like a small village was counting on her for its survival.

  My mom and I share a hug, but we don’t talk. I sit down and eat a grand total of six pancakes, three eggs, two blueberry muffins, and four strips of bacon. Apparently, my mom and I have very compatible ways of dealing with the impending end of the world. She cooks, and I eat.

  CHAPTER 66

  My dad comes into the kitchen and fills a plate before sitting down next to me. “Did you eat?”

  I reach across the table and pour myself a large glass of orange juice. “Enough for three people. Where is everyone?”

  “Jake and Niko are with Tony in his war room under the gazebo. He just checked in with the Trēdecim. They’re discussing his plans for the day.”

  “Why aren’t you with them?”

  Theo leans over and takes my hand, the one not holding a fork. “I wanted to come in and check on you and your mom. Last night was a pretty intense information drop.”

  “Did you know about all that? The list of targets, I mean?”

  He sighs, “I knew there would be targets. Why else would they want the weapon? I just didn’t know they’d already chosen them, or that there would be so many.” He sips his coffee. “I guess I naively thought they would pick one or two, but thirteen? I shouldn’t be surprised, but even I have a limit of how much evil I can grasp.”

  My mom sits down and joins us. She brings a muffin on a plate but doesn’t seem to be interested in eating it. She picks it apart and stares at my dad. “This isn’t your doing, Theo. This is not your fault.”

  My dad hears her but doesn’t look like he believes her. “I copied the weapon, Beth. I created a machine that could destroy the world. I did that.”

  “It was your job. It’s what you were contracted to do by your own government. If you hadn’t done it, they would have found someone else.”

  He shrugs his shoulders. “Maybe, but it’s possible that person wouldn’t have succeeded.”

  My poor dad is carrying the weight of this horror on his own shoulders, but that’s neither going to solve anything nor change it. “Dad, what’s done is done. You can’t undo the past, and you can’t redo it. You have to accept it.” I’m about to go into my whole You are Here/X Marks the Spot mall analogy with him, but in the present circumstances it doesn’t seem as profound as it has in the past.

  Niko, Jake, and Tony walk into the kitchen and Jake comes right over to me and lays one on me, like he isn’t going to hide anything going on between us. I kiss him right back. No one makes any comment or seems to think there’s anything worth commenting on, which is comforting. My mom usually makes a big deal out of wanting to know what’s happening in my romantic life, but she’s obviously a bit preoccupied with the impending end of the world as we know it.

  The newcomers grab plates and retrieve their breakfast. Tony inhales deeply and smiles at my mom. “You’re hired! If you ever want to live a life of drudgery in my kitchen, I’ll pay you whatever you demand.”

  My mom returns his smile. “Life of drudgery, nothing. I’ve dreamed of kitchens like this
, but never thought I’d have the opportunity to cook in one. As far as payment, the only thing I want is your assurance you’ll keep your dad from carrying out his plan.”

  “I promise to do my best, Bethanie. Truly, it’s been my only goal for the last several years.”

  Theo asks, “So, who are you meeting at Caltech this morning?”

  “I’m consulting with two of the Trēdecim’s contacts from JPL and one of the current professors who’s reverse engineering for them.”

  Nikolay interjects, “What do you hope to find out from them?”

  “The professor thinks he might have some information on Fareed’s whereabouts, based on something Professor Ramos mentioned during a meeting last week.”

  My dad interrupts, “I hope that meeting was before my run-in with Dale. Bethanie and I saw him on campus and wound up bringing him back to our safe house, so he wouldn’t mention seeing us to anyone else.”

  Tony nods his head. “Ah, you erased his memory.”

  “Barely, but yes. I don’t think I gave him enough to forget more than two days, tops.”

  “Did he say anything to you about Fareed?”

  My dad shakes his head. “No, in fact, the weird thing is he didn’t even seem that surprised to see me. I don’t know how they explained three professors going missing overnight, but Dale was only interested in what I’ve been up to since leaving, not why I left.”

  Tony finishes another bite of his food. “Very few people knew exactly what you were doing with that weapon, so it’s not like anyone was told about its theft.”

  We finish our breakfast in relative quiet. Tony stands up. “Okay, I’m off. Theo, I’ll check in on your cell at about eleven. Be prepared to leave the house to meet me.”

  I don’t know what’s going to happen today. I’m hoping Tony finds out some answers to our questions. I can’t help but feel all hell is about to break loose.

  CHAPTER 67

  I’m sitting by the pool with my dad and Jake when Tony video calls. It’s ten twenty, a full forty minutes before we expect his communication. Theo answers and turns the phone around, so we can see him. “Hey, Tony, you get done early?”

  “We haven’t had our meeting, yet. We were just small-talking when I got some disturbing information. Are the three of you alone?” I nod my head in affirmation.

  “Okay listen, I need you to go straight to the gazebo.” When we don’t respond immediately—and I mean in less than a second—he yells, “Now!” I feel exactly like I did when the bomb went off in Einstein’s Cave, the same adrenaline rush, the same racing heart, everything.

  We hustle across the backyard and once we get to the statue, dad peeks around her. “I don’t remember what you did to get in.”

  “Reach underneath the birdbath in front and flip open the panel. There are four buttons in the shape of a square. Punch them in this order, upper left, lower right, lower left, upper right, lower left. You have to do it almost simultaneously. You have a quarter of a second between hits or it won’t open. When you leave, reverse the order to close it back up.”

  My dad follows his direction and the statue moves as it did last night. Tony continues, “Go down the stairs. On the left there are three light switches. Only turn on the third.”

  Once we’re in the nerve center, Tony instructs, “Go to the map showing where the Trēdecim are located. Hold the phone up so I can see it.” We all look at each other nervously. “Shit! Okay, here’s what’s happening. According to my contact from JPL, they have a meeting with my dad this afternoon in Pasadena.”

  That gets our blood moving. Theo says, “But the dot that represents your dad is in the same position it was in last night.”

  Tony nods his head. “Exactly. And if he’s to make it from his private Island in the Atlantic to Los Angeles, his dot should be in California by now.”

  I stammer, “S-so the contact got it wrong?”

  He shakes his head. “I don’t think so. I’ve been watching my father’s location a lot lately and things don’t always add up. I think he’s found a way to get rid of his chip and plant it on someone who works for him, someone who travels where my dad tells them to, and stays as long he instructs.”

  Theo interrupts, “Wouldn’t the other Trēdecim have noticed the same thing?”

  “No, because the slips he’s made are on private calls to me. He hasn’t misspoken on official check-ins.”

  Jake scratches his head. “If your father can do this, isn’t it possible for the others to, as well?”

  “Probably, but right now that isn’t our concern. Right now, my dad might be showing up at the villa at any minute and the five of you and Buddy are there. You need to run to the house and do everything in your power to make it look like you’ve never been there. Make your beds, get rid of your clothes, wash dishes, everything. And you need to be in your cars and out the gates as fast as humanly possible.”

  Tony takes a deep breath. “I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life. Go, now! Call me when you’re out.” Then he hangs up.

  You have never seen anyone run so fast this side of a roadrunner cartoon. I yell as soon as my feet near the house. My mom and Niko are sitting at the table drinking coffee and I scream everything at them, then add, “Jake and I are going upstairs. I’ll pack for you and make your beds. You guys take care of the kitchen, dishes, and pool. Dad is going to bring the cars around and take care of Buddy.”

  Then I fly out of the room as fast as my terrified noodle-like legs will carry me. As Jake throws everyone’s belongings into suitcases, I take care of the beds. I toss all the wet towels in a garbage bag and put it next to the overnight bags to take with us.

  Jake grabs our stuff and carries it all down to the cars while I wipe bathroom counters and make sure nothing is left behind that will give us away. By the time I get downstairs, my mom and Niko have already left.

  Dad motions for me to jump in with Jake, while he locks up. No sooner are we out of the gate than we see three identical SUVs turn down Arden. I look back as my dad’s car goes in the opposite direction out of the driveway. I can only hope no one in the oncoming entourage realizes he was coming from the house they’re going to.

  I look at Jake with terror in my eyes. “We’re going to pass right by them!”

  He turns on the radio loudly. “Put your sunglasses on and bop along to the music. With that hair of yours, you’ll look like a teenager. I’ll play the part of your irritated father.”

  Even though I want to live to see another day, there’s a part of me that wants to look out the window and see what the devil really looks like.

  CHAPTER 68

  We turn onto California Boulevard without incident, but I’m still shaking in my boots. I think back to everything we did to get out of the house and try to reassure myself we didn’t leave any trace behind. Jake seems preoccupied, as well. He passes Pie n’ Burger before turning right onto Lake Avenue. I have no idea where we’re going, so I turn off the radio and ask.

  He pulls into the left lane to pass a granny driver. “Palm Springs.”

  “Palm Springs! Why are we going there?”

  He shrugs his shoulders. “I didn’t have time to ask questions. Your dad just said, ‘Meet me at the safe house in Palm Springs.’ So that’s what we’re doing.”

  I haven’t spent a great deal of time in the desert outside of Two Bunch Palms, which is a to-die-for exclusive spa. They do this great Desert Abhyanga massage where they tap rhythms on your body using scented oils to open your chakras. I’m aware of how Hollywood that sounds, but it feels amazing, so don’t judge me.

  We get on the 210 Freeway and are near the Duarte exit, when we see my mom and Nikolay. Jake passes them with a mock salute. I ask, “How many safe houses do you guys have, anyway?”

  He looks like he’s doing some mental math. “Seventy-eight in the Southwest. They mostly belong to various black-op groups. There are twenty-nine alone in Southern California.”

  “Why so many?”<
br />
  “Because an enormous amount of covert operations take place between Edwards Air Force Base, Vandenberg, Twentynine Palms, Camp Pendleton, and the underwater facility in the San Pedro Basin near Catalina. The bases are all connected by a series of underground tunnels, so civilians don’t find out what’s going on there.”

  “Holy crap, underground tunnels? That couldn’t have been cheap.”

  “The annual US black-ops budget is over a trillion dollars. The boring machines that dig the tunnels run thirteen million dollars each. Then the cost of using them can be anywhere from nineteen thousand to a million dollars a foot.”

  I’m stunned. “Why in the world do they go to so much effort to build underground tunnels? I mean, it’s got to be more than just so the public doesn’t see anything.”

  Jake sighs. “What you should be asking yourself is what they could possibly be hiding that requires this level of secrecy. And it’s not only tunnels they’re building. There are underground cities across the entire length of the country.”

  “Cities?! Why?”

  Jake takes a quick peek at me, almost like he’s deciding how much he’s going to say. “Look, Kate, there’s a complete shadow government that works in secrecy. Like we mentioned before, senators, congressman, even presidents, who aren’t part of the Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg Group, have no idea what’s really going on, because they’re short term employees of the country.”

  I interrupt, “I still don’t get why the president wouldn’t know. I know you claim he has no real power, but that’s hard to believe. He’s the highest elected official in the land. That has to be worth something.”

  “Yeah, it’s worth a shitload of prestige, a nice house, four hundred grand a year while in office, and once out, speaking engagements that can pay up to three quarters of a million dollars each. Elected officials are a turn-and-burn operation. Black-ops are forever. We’ve been building on a foundation of secrecy for over sixty years; you don’t give short-term politicians that kind of information, or things wouldn’t stay secret for long.”