by Joel Stewart
A murmur erupted around the room. Alden Foren stood up and addressed General Reminir above the commotion. He looked almost as ragged as the military personnel. “Permission to speak sir?”
“Go ahead Alden.” Reminir responded.
“I did some research on the Chengarian genetic mutation experiments when I first took this office and found many missing links. We thought we had destroyed their research, but after last night I did some strategic hacking into the Chengarian archives where I found new research notes. After our espionage missions, the bulk of what was left of their research was stored in a facility that was less than secure. According to their records, the research was stolen five years ago by agents from Ardia.” Another murmur swept over the room. “They killed one of the agents in the attack and he was positively identified as Ardian. This creature last night may not have come from Chengar at all, but Ardia. This begs the question, are Chengar and Ardia working together? Or do we have a vulnerability we are not aware of that is making both nations see us as an easy target?”
“We are not an easy target!” Roared Admiral Rodan before anyone else could speak. Admiral Rodan was in command of the Air Navy. “In fact, we have a new prototype airship in its testing phases that may be able to match this beast in speed and maneuverability.” The murmurs around the room made it difficult for anyone that was not shouting to be heard.
“Enough!” Commanded General Reminir. The murmurs cut off. “Thank you for your diligent research Alden, this may be the part of the puzzle that was missing. If our conflict with Chengar did become a world war, we would have Mendoria and Farsia on our side . . . more than enough to compensate for the additions of Toran, Brendora, Scera, and the Farasi Island chain, but the addition of Ardia to this rag-tag alliance adds a wild card we do not fully understand. Ardia is a complete unknown to us. We know their technology has taken a different path than the rest of the world because of their isolation, but we cannot know if their overall technology level is more or less advanced. We have assumed that it is less advanced because they do not share talent and technology with its neighbors, but if it can breed a creature such as the one we saw last night, we may have underestimated them. I believe we need to assume they are working together and increase our western defenses in response. The lingering unanswered question is: After centuries of isolation, why would the Ardian’s partner with Chengar now, and why against us? We have not shown any hostilities toward them.”
The council nodded in agreement, but no one seemed to have anything to add. “OK,” Reminir said after a few moments. “I want national guard called up and the civilian volunteer force activated. Air and ground patrols need to cover every square inch of territory from here to the ocean if need be until we figure out where that creature came from and where it went to. The last thing we need is for an army of these things to show up and attack our capital with no advanced warning. Stovak, come with me to Jorgen, we will oversee the defensive preparations on our eastern coast. Admiral Rodan, get that prototype airship fully operational as soon as possible, that is your top priority. The rest of you know what to do, get me a full update on the status of our military standing and production capacity. Begin preparations for wartime factory shifts. Civilians . . . find a way to let the public know what is going on without causing a panic. They need not know about Ardia until we can confirm it. We will reconvene in three days to go over the data and figure a way forward from there.”
“Sir!” A breathless man ran in the door, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but we have scattered reports of Chengarian high-altitude recon craft ducking in and out of radar range all along the eastern coastline.”
General Reminir looked angry. They have been preparing for this, he thought. But how did they prepare for this when the coup just happened a few days ago? He looked up to see the governing circle waiting for him to say something. “Dismissed.” He growled.
The next morning Jesse groggily rubbed his eyes and opened them. The sun was already coming up over the side of the tower wall. He felt a little sore from not sleeping in his bed, but overall felt very refreshed. He noticed his clothes felt a little uncomfortable and then realized he had slept in them.
“Good morning sunshine!”
The voice did not immediately register as familiar. He looked up and a beautiful redhead came into focus. Jesse smiled. He knew she was probably a spy for Lena or the Sanctum for some unknown but presumably nefarious purpose, but it was hard not to feel happy when those bright eyes were staring down at him with an amazing smile to boot. Was he actually falling for the enemy? She called him sunshine. Did that mean something?
Jesse shook his head as if it would shake away his uncertainties. He and Cliff had chatted up Arelia and her friend Riley for a long time last night. Arelia did not hide the fact that she worked for the Sanctum as a coordinator. Apparently, it was her job to take any issue from any Sanctum building on the entire continent of Denoria and try to find resolutions through use of other Sanctum resources. If there were any problems she could not fix on her own, she would bring it before the Arch-Elders in Dengrin. It was a surprising amount of responsibility for someone so young, but she had grown up in the Sanctum as the daughter of one of the Elders and started shadowing the previous coordinator when she was only seventeen.
The other woman, Riley, was also beautiful. Jesse was not all that interested in her though—she did not have a very active sense of humor. Arelia thought Jesse was hilarious, but he barely made Riley laugh the whole night. Riley was a member of the Denorian military and had temporary duty in Castle Dengrin for the Peace Talks with Chengar that went terribly the previous day. Now it looked like her temporary duty might turn permanent with the rising tensions and talk of war. Riley was also too tall for Jesse—he liked shorter girls. With her dark hair and heavily tanned complexion that may only be partly natural, he could see her with Davis. Especially with her lack of humor. He could probably talk guns with her till the wee hours of the morning, Jesse smirked.
“Are you going to get up or am I going to have to drag you down the stairs?”
This time he recognized the voice: it was Cliff. Jesse felt like he might get up, if Arelia would stop staring at him with those eyes. He could swear they were hypnotizing. The enemy Jesse, the enemy! He reminded himself. He raised his hand up and Arelia moved around to take hold of it and help him up. In her grip he thought his hand might break. After she yanked him to his feet he started rubbing his hand. “That’s quite a grip for a little girl.” He said half flirtatiously and half out of concern. Maybe she was a bad guy—how many little girls have an iron grip?
“I work out with Riley a lot.” Arelia admitted. “Sorry, didn’t mean to hurt your hand.”
Jesse’s face turned red with embarrassment. “Yeah . . . I . . . uh . . . I do a lot of delicate technical stuff with my hands that require fine motor control.” Jesse racked his brain trying to think of a better ego save. “It’s . . . ah . . .”
“It’s OK.” Arelia finished for him. “A hard grip doesn’t prove anything, I’m sure time spent working super-techno projects is better spent than time at the gym anyway.” Arelia smiled and winked.
At that moment Jesse was half wishing that Davis was around to hear that comment and half wishing he could just give her a big hug. He couldn’t help but smile. The moment was broken by a man walking up on the top of the tower in full military uniform. He looked around at the four members present and narrowed his eyes down on the two men. Arelia and Riley looked alarmed for some reason.
“Are either of you Cliff Johnson, Jesse Clark, or Benjamin Davis?” The man asked without explanation. His accent sounded strange, but a look of recognition was seen on Riley’s face.
“Get down!” Riley yelled as she dove at the man. The tackle caught him by complete surprise and bowled him to the ground, a gun skittered across the stone bricks as it was knocked out of his hand mid-draw. The two went down together but the man was able to deflect Riley’s momentum, so she tumbled to th
e side instead of landing flat on top of him. He jumped to his feet and yelled an order in what Cliff and Jesse knew to be Chengarian. He drew a knife but before he could do anything, a kick from Arelia sent the knife flying through the air and over the edge of the tower.
A barrage of lighting-fast punches and kicks from the short redhead put the man completely on the defensive until two more men came springing up the steps with weapons raised. This made Arelia back off to re-evaluate her next move, but before the two men could do anything two gunshots correlated with both men falling back down the stairs with bullets in their chests. Riley trained her weapon on the one remaining man. “How did you get in here?” she demanded.
Cliff and Jesse stood there speechless. Riley had told them to get down, but they barely had time to react before everything started happening. Before they could even crouch it was all over. “Why were you asking about us?” Cliff yelled, overriding Riley’s first question. “What is so important about the three of us?!” The man looked back and forth and started stepping backward slowly. Before anyone realized what he was about to do, he bolted for the side of the tower and hurled himself to the stone pavement 1,000 feet below.
“Wha . . . Why would he do that . . .” Cliff blubbered.
Riley and Arelia looked at each other nervously. Riley finally spoke. “I need to go report this.” She stated. She left Arelia standing there and tried to head down the stairs, but a huge arm came up from the stairwell and shoved her to the ground. She struggled to bring her pistol to bear but like lighting Davis was on top of her, knocking the pistol into the air and over the side of the tower. It was as if the pistol was rushing to rejoin its original owner on the ground.
“Who are you!” He roared in the most terrifying tone Cliff or Jesse had ever heard. He raised his own pistol and pointed it down at her. “Why are there two dead Denorian military personnel at the bottom of the stairs?!”
“Calm down Davis!” Cliff yelled as Jesse subconsciously stepped in front of Arelia. Jesse knew at this point Arelia could protect herself better than he could, but the token gesture seemed to be a natural reaction to Davis’s threatening tone. Davis never looked away from Riley. “What happened here Cliff.” He demanded.
“Those men at the bottom of the stairs were Chengarian agents. We heard them speaking Chengarian. I think Riley and Arelia here just saved our lives. There is a third man at the bottom of the tower, he jumped rather than be captured.”
Davis looked confused and slowly lowered his pistol. Then, he put it back in its holster at his hip. “I am sorry . . . Riley, is it?” He lowered his hand to help her up.
Riley’s demeanor was cold as ice. It was apparent she was not used to getting tossed around like a rag doll. She slapped his hand away and got up herself. “As I was just saying, I need to go report this.” She walked past Davis and down the stairs.
Davis turned toward Cliff, Jesse, and Arelia. He saw Jesse still standing protectively in front of Arelia. “Huh.” He said out loud even though it was meant to be a thought. “So Arelia, anything you want to share with the group? Do you know anything about this?”
Arelia looked pale as death. Her face started shifting through the emotions of determination, fear, consideration, and resolve. It finally settled on perplexed. “I’m sorry Benjamin . . .”
“Call me Davis.” He cut in. “I hate the name Benjamin.”
“I’m sorry . . . Davis.” She corrected. “I am a simple maiden of the Sanctum. I am afraid I do not know why agents from Chengar would be looking for the three of you.”
Davis looked confused. “The three of us?”
“Yeah.” Cliff cut in. “Just before all this went down the guy that jumped off the tower was asking if Jesse and I were . . . well . . . us or you. He asked for the three of us by name.”
Davis looked concerned. “I am going to head back down to guard Alex. I came when I heard gunshots through the balcony door of her room, but I don’t want to leave her alone too long. You guys will need to stay here until you give your statements. Meet me in Alex’s room when you’re done.”
Cliff and Jesse nodded in agreement. What is going on around here? Cliff wondered.
Chapter 9
Jesse arrived outside the gate to Lena’s estate. The gate opened automatically but he pulled his car up to the side. He got out and popped the hood. After pretending to look at the engine for a minute, Davis drove up in his ATV. “Need a lift?” Davis asked sounding scripted.
“He is a terrible actor.” Jesse mumbled under his breath. “Yeah. I’ll just ride in with you and have this checked out later, I’m hungry!” Jesse walked around and got in the passenger side of the ATV. How did he ever become special forces acting like that?
Cliff and Alex pulled up behind Davis in Alex’s cute, pink car. Alex honked her horn impatiently. It sounded like a bird chirping. “So we are really doing this.” Alex did not seem nearly as excited about trying to be a spy as she did the other day at lunch. The Chengarian agents that were killed earlier that morning drove home the potential danger they were all in. To make matters worse, there had been reports of someone on a murder spree throughout Dengrin. At least twelve dead in the last two days—some military, some not. The chilling part of the story was that the only three eyewitnesses to any of the murders described a silver haired woman that matched the description Davis had given of the android woman who had attacked his truck.
“We are really doing this.” Cliff replied solemnly. “Remember, we are here to buy time for Jesse’s program to pull data from Lena’s system, if you hear the code word we evacuate right away.”
Alex let out a long breath she did not even realize she was holding in. “Right. If someone says ‘tombstone’ Davis covers for us and we book it to the cars.”
“You know we should not even be bringing you to this.” Cliff said sadly. “We have been hired to protect you and here we are driving you into the home of someone who, for all we know, might mean to kill us.” Cliff had conflicting thoughts about Lena since Arelia and Riley saved them on the rooftop. On one hand, he was pretty sure the android woman that was committing these murders and put him in the hospital worked for her; on the other, Arelia helped save his life from agents of Chengar. Either way, they needed this information.
“I am going with you and that’s final.” Alex was firm. “If Lena is who you think she is, I want to see it for myself.” She proceeded to drive up the hill behind Davis while Cliff just shook his head. Arguing with her when she was like this was a waste of time. Alex wiped away a small tear before Cliff could see it. The heavy suspicion even made the flowers seem less beautiful. At the top of the hill the two cars were backed into their normal parking spots to speed up a get-a-way if need be. Keys were left in the ignitions.
“Ahh . . . My favorite visitors!” Lena exclaimed as she hurried out the door. “I was hoping to see you today!” She seemed a little older today than normal, a little more stressed. She was wearing the same dress that she had on the last time Cliff and Alex had come to see her.
“We were a little worried being out and about after what happened in the castle the other day, but we decided your cooking was too good to pass up.” Cliff said warmly. “All the killings around town have kept us on edge too.”
Lena grimaced. “Arelia came by earlier today and told me about the attack at the top of the tower. I am so glad you are all safe. All this talk of killing is not fit for whetting your appetites, why don’t you come inside? I have some spicy chicken strips for appetizers!”
“That sounds great!” exclaimed Alex. Her face reddened as she felt ashamed for being excited about the food of a potential enemy. The four of them followed Lena into her tiny home and sat down around the coffee table. Small strips of meat were heaped up on a tray. Everyone glanced at Davis and he shook his head no. He had warned them beforehand that eating anything put out could be laced with a drug and should be avoided. The smell was so tantalizing that everyone but Davis was inwardly thinking that the dru
g would be worth it.
Lena looked confused when they all did not immediately start digging into the chicken. “Is everything alright?” she asked carefully.
Davis leaned over to tie his shoe and pulled a handgun out of a holster he had strapped to his ankle. He pointed it at Lena. “That’s the problem, we are not sure if everything is alright and you are going to start talking.”
Alex, Cliff, and Jesse all looked at each other nervously. They knew this was a possibility, but they had planned on just stalling Lena and gathering information. Davis really jumped the gun on this, Jesse thought. A mischievous smirk crossed his face that seemed inappropriately out of place given the situation. No, he wouldn’t say it out loud, even he had better sense than that.
Lena looked startled at first but then smiled at the gun pointed at her face. “What is it you would like to know?” She asked calmly as if the gun wasn’t there.
“What is the awakening?” Cliff fired off, adapting to the rapidly escalating conditions.
“Why . . . the awakening is not a what, but a who. You four are the ones who need to be awakened.” Lena’s answer was simple but guarded.