“I know that,” Strauss said without emotion.
“Let me contribute as a scientist,” Faith pleaded. “Give me all the data you’ve collected. I’ll do whatever you ask. I’ll keep my people in line however you need them. I know I can help you make this right.” Faith motioned at the paint cans, black lines, and subway-sized blue energy beam.
The general considered.
“I only ask one thing in return,” Faith added.
“Here it comes.” Strauss crossed her arms.
“Let Buck and his friends go free.”
“Why would I ever do that? I have you. I have your team. I own your collider. Buck and the rogue soldier who tried to shoot me in the ass will soon be dealt with.” She pointed at the reactor structure.
Faith’s reason for sticking around had a lot to do with saving Buck’s people, but she also needed to protect Missy, Doctor Perkins, Benny, and even Bob, her ex. They were all prisoners inside SNAKE. Faith had gotten herself banished twice, but she finally had the leverage to get back in.
“It’s simple, really. The dipsticks you brought with you don’t understand what we’re dealing with here. This is a Stafford-Perkins dark matter teleportation system. The bridge between the two locations is in perfect symmetry with the harmonics of the outer crust of the Earth, but it’s precarious because of the exponential rise in power required to maintain it. In fact, the thing is so power-hungry that it sought out and brought in a whole fucking nuclear reactor from a parallel universe. It’s cutting-edge theoretical physics that five people in the world can understand, one of whom is in this room.”
Every word she’d uttered was gibberish, but that was why her ruse was going to work. Underneath her perfect hair and fancy-pants riding crop, the general was an idiot.
“The only thing you have to do to get your spaceships to the stars and unlimited energy is let Buck and his friends leave SNAKE and go their own way, ma’am. Let them live their lives in peace.”
Strauss rubbed her chin as she thought about it.
It gave Faith a chance to see the dead bodies scattered around. She counted three men in the military uniforms and a man and a woman in white coats. A third scientist sat in a chair with his eyes bulging out like he’d watched his life pass in front of him. It looked like Phil and Buck had really stuck it to them, which made her happy despite the sight of the bodies.
“I do like your offer,” Strauss said in a reasonable voice, “but I wish you would have come to me a few minutes earlier.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, that truck you saw driving away was indeed Buck and his family. If you had come to me just a little sooner, I wouldn’t have given the order to have them eliminated when they reached my roadblock. I am so sorry.”
Strauss was not sorry at all.
Faith would make her sorry, however.
No matter what it took.
Location Unknown, Pacific Ocean
Destiny stood at the edge of the ocean, watching Zandre get pulled under the surface by…things. He’d given his life to make sure she had a chance to swim across the open water to the Majestic, which hovered a hundred meters out. She assumed it couldn’t come any closer because of its size.
To get there and stay alive, she had to go to it.
“Now swim for the bloody boat!” had been Zandre’s final words to her.
She didn’t want to let him die in vain.
Destiny took three steps into the surf but stopped to wipe away her tears.
Gray shapes fought over her friend, which ripped her heart to pieces. Part of her wanted to run for high ground come what may, but most of her wanted to earn the gift she’d been given.
She took a few more steps into the surf. Her body felt stiff and robotic, as if she weren’t inside.
She’d escaped the fire.
Avoided the Tasmanian tiger.
Survived a disappearing train.
“I can do this!” she cried.
She hopped over an incoming wave, ran deeper into the surf, then fell face-first into the excited water. Her knees struck the sand as she tried to clear the beach, but she was soon able to paddle.
“God, please give me strength,” she prayed.
A few yards into deeper water, she was aware there was enough space below her for one of those gray monsters to swoop in and chomp her stomach. A few yards farther, one of those beached whale things could fit under her. It might be able to swallow her whole from beneath.
She couldn’t keep herself from halting. She had to know if Zandre was alive. Maybe he’d tricked the sea creatures as he’d tricked her and was now standing on the beach cheering her on.
No one was there.
He was gone.
She couldn’t see any activity where he’d sunk into the water.
“Ahoy!” came a distant cry.
She paddled around so she could see the ship. A man stood against the front rail, waving frantically at her.
“I’m saved,” she muttered.
She started swimming again, filing what had happened to Zandre in the back of her mind. Every scary image in movies, TV shows, and documentaries about sharks was shoved into another dark corner. The news about her dad…
Despite everything, Destiny knew how to swim. Her stroke was rusty and she didn’t make great time, but there was forward progress.
“Don’t stop,” she pleaded with herself.
“Catch the rope!” a man yelled.
The guy on the bow of the ship aimed a little cannon in her direction, then with a puff of smoke, he sent out a long line. It splashed into the water behind her, forcing her to redirect sideways to grab the rescue rope.
Her bare foot hit something. It wasn’t the bottom.
“Fuck me,” she blurted.
She slapped the water as much as paddled as she went for the lifesaving red and white line. There were little floats attached to the rope every few meters so it didn’t sink below the chop.
“One more meter…”
Something nipped her elbow.
Something else bumped her hip.
Her stomach crouched in the deepest corner of her ribs. The things that had killed Zandre were done feasting on his sacrifice. They were already searching for their next meal.
“Help!” she begged.
Her hand fell on the rope.
Then she lost it.
“Pull me in!” she yelled before realizing she didn’t have the rope.
Her heart threatened to explode.
She reached her whole arm over the rope and grabbed the last float as it went by. When it cinched up between her fingers, she put both palms around it.
The man on the deck reeled her toward the boat.
She continued to feel nudges, bumps, and nips.
“Faster. Much faster.” She panted in terror at how many things she struck on her way in and made herself as thin as possible so she stayed above the water rather than below it. However, by the time she closed on the Majestic, it felt like she was being dragged over a stretch of tarmac since there were so many creatures packed into the food trough.
“Don’t fucking stop!” she screamed.
Destiny assumed there were procedures to follow. A regular rescue might get her close to the boat as slowly as possible so she could be drawn up the side.
“Full speed!”
The man waved her in.
She prayed the sailor understood she was about to be swallowed by a hungry sea creature. However, as she neared the boat and looked around, she judged there was no way anyone could mistake the danger she was in.
The sea was gray with sharklike fish. Each was two meters in length and had a long snout full of sparkly-white teeth. It was as if dolphins and sharks had spent a drunken evening together that resulted in a crazy breed that was a little of both.
“Hold on!” the guy yelled.
She was tempted to curse him for saying something so stupid, but she didn’t want to jeopardize his cooperation. Her life was
in his hands.
The last bobber on the line strained her palms as she held on, but the high speed made her weave to the left and right in the water. It was difficult to hang on while also keeping herself upright.
But letting go would mean death.
Destiny approached the side of the boat. The guy had listened to her since he didn’t slow her down. The mass of gray rising from the waves was motivating him almost as much as it was her.
“Coming up!” the crewman yelled.
She was lifted out of the water and banged her shoulder on the hull. Two or three creatures from the sharknado leapt out of the water with her. Two smacked the metal and fell out of sight, but one crashed into her legs.
The deadly fish seemed as surprised as she was to be out of the water. It snapped repeatedly, but once it had struck her, it fell sideways out of reach.
All she could do was kick.
She bounced off the side as the rope kept going up for the last three meters. Only when she was well out of the water did the man at the controls slow her ascent.
“Hold on!” he said again.
“No shit,” she replied, regaining some semblance of sanity as well as her sense of sarcasm.
The man reached an arm over the side.
She took it with relief.
There was nothing to do but let herself be pulled over the rail since she had reached the point of total exhaustion. The mad swim and the ride on the rope couldn’t have taken more than a few minutes, but she would bet she’d given up years of her life getting through it.
Nonetheless, the second she was safe, she turned back toward shore.
Someone behind her yelled, “Full reverse!”
The bloated corpse was still at the edge of the beach. The little motorboat sat next to it. A few of the black tendrils still stuck out of the sand, perhaps wondering if anything tasty was coming for it. There was no sign of her friend.
“I love you too, Zandre.”
The old guy had been there through every challenge in her life. He was one of the few family friends who knew Destiny’s and Faith’s father had died while scuba diving off the coast of Queensland. Her mom had brought the news to the girls when Destiny was a young teenager.
“The water took your father,” her mom had said through her tears.
She shivered. Mom had never told her the real cause of death, though she’d figured it out. The animals that had attacked her father had probably been similar to the sharklike killers lurking near the waterline of the Majestic.
“I’m happy to say the water did not take me,” she told her mother in absentia.
“Give Dad a hug for me, Z,” she said to the waves.
A few minutes later, a crewman came to her side. “Do you need a towel? We can warm you up inside.”
“Thanks.” She glanced over the side. “But I just want to be out here for a while.”
“Okay, but if you need anything, I’m Walters.”
“I’ll let you know,” she replied.
“Uh, before I go,” Walters went on, “what happened to the others? The captain? My two mates? Do we need to pick them up too?”
She stared at the shore.
Beyond the beach, she looked at the endless piles of garbage. How far did it go in each direction? What continent were they on to see so many active volcanoes? What did the origin countries look like if a wave had come along and washed out so many fundamental pieces of their cities? If a cataclysmic event like the one her sister had warned her about had struck the Earth, how would she find her way to Faith?
“Miss?”
“There’s no one left. That beach is nothing but death.” She gave it the finger for good measure.
Walters kept talking. “We had to leave the first time because there were huge things hitting our hull. I think we should get out of here before they come at us again. Don’t you?”
“Why are you asking me?”
The man stepped closer. He wasn’t bad-looking. Maybe a few years younger than her, with a nice mustache and the beginnings of a beard. Through her shock, she thought back to what Zandre had told her about needing to have a bunch of babies. Was that why he had given up his life?
“Don’t take this the wrong way, miss, but with the captain gone, those people down below are going to want to take over. From what I’ve seen, they couldn’t pilot a kid’s toy in a bathtub. They’ve done nothing but get drunk and whine about the end of the world. You, however…”
She blinked away her shock.
“What about me?”
“You’re a naturalist, aren’t you?”
That career seemed like another existence, but he was right.
“Yeah.”
“So, we need someone in charge who can get us through all these sea monsters. Who can get us to shore when we need to. We need someone with their shit together.”
She pushed herself off the rail, taking in the man’s full height and charming smile. That he’d come to her rather than telling her how things were going to be made her like him.
“I’ll tell you what. The captain said we have ten days of fuel. I’d like to go find my sister in the United States since I know for a fact she has the scientific claptrap on why all this is happening. If that sounds like a deal you can live with, I propose we both take over this ship to make sure we accomplish something worthwhile with our lives. What do you think?”
“I’m in.”
“Me too.” She smiled.
It was time to earn Zandre’s gift.
Alpha Site
Phil was lucky to escape the shooting gallery without a scratch. He’d tried to shoot the general in her wide-open flank, and he did get a few shots off, but the female scientist had heroically run into his gun barrel. The surprise attack had been a suicide play for the woman, but it had saved General Strauss.
From there, he’d had to reposition to the giant column. He was able to fire on the move and keep the guards from shooting his mother, but he never got a good bead on the general again.
After his mom ran into the tunnel to freedom, he was tempted to stay and work with Buck to eliminate every last person in Strauss’ group, but the alarm had been triggered, reinforcements would certainly come, and he didn’t want to make his own suicide play.
Buck, to his credit, made the same determination. He stood at the edge of the tunnel, ready to chase Connie. They traded salutes, then separated to make their separate escapes. An hour later, after sneaking around the underground nuclear power plant and going into the main collider tunnel, Phil was still running.
And still being chased.
The supercollider was built in a big loop. He remembered someone telling him it was sixty-two miles in circumference. As he kept turning left, he wondered if anyone could run all the way around it in one go. The answer had to be yes since the two men on his tail wouldn’t give up.
He couldn’t stop, either. He’d tried it a few times. The equipment was set up so he couldn’t easily get from one side to the other, and he was running on the inner part of the loop, which made it easy for the guys in the back to keep tabs on his position. As long as they kept pace with him, they wouldn’t get surprised if he decided to turn around and shoot.
The problem was larger than the two men. If he chose to fight, he might be able to strike them from a hundred yards out, but there was a non-zero chance he’d also hit the equipment. Power surged through the chamber, including the smaller pipes running beside the big one, and he didn’t know what would happen if those got damaged.
Fortunately, the men seemed to share his wariness since they didn’t shoot at him either.
“Maybe we could all take a break?” he joked to the empty chamber.
“What? No? Fine, I’ll keep running.”
There was a station every mile on the course. He’d figured that out as he ran through the first one. A sign said it was one mile to the next transfer station.
At the third one, he decided he’d had enough. He had to also allow for
the possibility that the guards chasing him had been instructed to stay close but not apprehend. Meanwhile, other guards could be up ahead or driving over the surface to get around him. The longer he stayed in their house, the better their chance of hunting him down.
When he reached the open room, he went to the ladder-like stairs that crossed the pipes. The A-frame design would take him up and over, but it would also expose his flank to the two runners should they decide to shoot.
He fired twice at the concrete roof, which made the guys stop and duck and gave him his chance to cross the supercollider ring.
They did not fire back.
Phil crossed a tram track, then ran for the fire exit.
Unlike the rest of the place, there was no equipment inside the stairwell. Dim bulbs hung at each level, giving the staircase only enough light so he could avoid falling. If he’d wanted to set up an ambush, it was the perfect place.
By the time he reached the top, the two guards had started up.
Fight or flight? he wondered.
He peeked out the door and saw a pine forest. There were no roads, no paths, only trees.
Trees full of those birds. Full of who knew what else.
He checked his ammo. He’d lifted the rifle from the guard he’d put down, but the man had only carried one spare mag. Since he’d gone through most of the shells in the first mag, he’d popped in the second already. Wasting what he had on those two guys seemed futile.
Phil leaned over to look down the middle of the stairwell.
“Fire in the hole!” he screamed at max power.
He didn’t have a grenade, but he hoped they thought he did. Maybe they would freeze in place for a few precious seconds, enough time for him to push out the door, reach the dense forest, and prevent anyone from seeing where he’d gone.
Outside, he took a second to establish the cardinal directions. He didn’t want to go east, which led back to the front of the supercollider. It was the one place he knew there were lots of guards. North was a mystery. South was where he’d planned to go, but it would require him to cross the middle of the supercollider’s boundary.
“West it is,” he whispered.
Phil sprinted for a dense patch of pines, then found a shallow gully to dip into and run on the downslope. Any competent tracker would see his footprints and give chase, so he didn’t slow even when his heart pushed its way into his throat.
End of Days | Book 5 | Beyond Alpha Page 24