The Keystone: Finding Home

by Seren Goode

  What just happened?

  Not explaining, Shim spent the time pacing back and forth in the front of the theater. The video continued to run. The images projected on him made him look like he was wrapped in newsprint. The movie ended, restarted, and finally, the segment of the video he had been waiting for came up again. He pulled me to a bench at the front of the theater. His grip on my hand was uncomfortably tight. “Watch—watch, here it comes,” he whispered.

  I turned my worried gaze from Shim to the screen. The segment was showing interviews taken over a period of several decades with self-proclaimed abductees recounting their abduction stories. Shim squeezed my hand tighter.

  There was a man with thick salt and pepper hair and tan skin so wrinkled and cracked from the sun, it was hard to get an exact bead on his age. He was dressed in a buttoned-up plaid shirt and his callused hands were folded calmly in front of him as he spoke.

  “I’m not from Earth, and I wasn’t abducted. I was brought here accidentally through a passage while I was working in a mine on my home planet. I was digging in one of the oldest levels of the mine when a blinding light opened a passage in front of me. The gravitational pull from the threshold dragged me in, and when I fell out of the passage on the other side, I was on Earth. I’ve been trying to find my way home ever since.” The graphics at the bottom of the screen said he was Terrance Shanon from Gypsum Cave, Nevada. The show moved on to the next interview.

  “Did you see?” Shim asked, pulling me off the bench. As he grabbed my shoulders and practically shook me, I shrugged him off and grabbed his hands, holding on.

  “I’m not tracking. You need to tell me what you are seeing.”

  “Does Terrance Shanon from Gypsum, Nevada sound familiar?”

  I shook my head.

  “What if the interviewer got his name wrong? ‘Terrance’ could have sounded like the long form of ‘Tar’ and ‘Shanon’ could be a misspelling of Xanon. Tar Xanon.”

  Understanding dawned.

  “That was the name from the Federal files on the last case linked to my mother’s case. How did you even see that?”

  “It was the Gypsum that caught my eye. Now we have a lead on who he was.” Shim was right. I was stunned, speechless, and I understood his bizarre behavior now. It was almost inconceivable we could have stumbled on this lead and, based on the past behavior of this Helios Kratos group, not surprising that Tar Xanon might have been killed for telling his story.

  We watched the video through again, and again. The docent stuck his head in the room and informed us the museum was closing. Shim used the video mode on the burner phone he was carrying to record the brief interview, then switched to the camera and snapped still shots. We scoured the credits for more information but didn’t find anything else useful.

  Eventually, the fuming docent slapped on the lights and forced us out of the room. He trailed us to the front of the museum, pushing us out the front door with a look of triumph. I barely registered the lock on the large glass doors clicking into place behind us. All I could think about was getting back to the condo and showing the others what Shim had found.

  Chapter 27

  Gypsum Cave

  Jaxon caught big air as he jumped a dune. Standing up on the bike, he easily absorbed the impact of landing. Clouds of dust puffed up from the wheels of his dual sport bike as they sank back into the sand on the trail. With Skylar on the back of Shim’s bike, he took the dune slower and stayed grounded. I followed at a snail’s pace with Breeze riding behind me. I was pretty comfortable on the bike after Shim gave me a crash course on how to ride two-person but was being extra cautious in deference to my nervous passenger.

  We had gotten up early to beat the heat and were anxious to hit the trail after waiting out yesterday’s windstorm. Shim’s video and pictures from the museum of Tar Xanon, a.k.a. Terrance Shanon, his supposed abduction by aliens—unlikely—and connection with our parents—much more likely—had stiffened our resolve. None of us knew what to make from the information, but now we were even more curious and cautious as to what we would find out at Gypsum.

  The cave was located twelve miles outside of Las Vegas with the last few being off-road miles, so motorbikes were the perfect form of transportation for the day trip. Though the brothers’ bikes were street legal, we took back roads to avoid the police and circled around a lot to make sure we weren’t being followed. The extended trip had taken us a of couple hours.

  The transition to sand from off the dirt road had been rough for all but Jaxon, who let loose a whoop and yelled, “Come on, you squids,” before he belted out across the desert like he had been set free. After a few jumps and spins, leaning over the front tire for maximum traction, he headed back toward us. His face was masked behind his helmet, and he held a straight line from his wrist to his shoulders as he stood on the bike, his knees slightly bent, absorbing the impact and loving the ride.

  Shim, a natural on a bike, too, was toning down his cruise to accommodate Skylar.

  My bike got a little squirrelly in the deep sand, the handlebars wobbling.

  “Remember, accelerate to even it out, and don’t use your front brake,” Shim shouted over the noise of the engines.

  Skylar yelled out, “Relax.” I thought he was talking to Breeze, but it might have been for me. My concentration was fierce as I tried to keep loose and not muscle the bike.

  Thirty minutes later, we slowed to a stop. Shim hopped off, kicking down the stand and taking off his helmet, grinning as he turned to help us.

  I was floundering. Fully supporting both the bike and Breeze’s weight, I struggled to keep balanced in the sand. Shim and Skylar rushed to get Breeze, who had surgically adhered herself to my back.

  They tried pulling off her hands. Breeze seemed reluctant to let go of her death grip and kept repeating, “Okay…I’m okay…okay…I’m okay.” Shim pried up each finger, one by one, and helped her to dismount. Skylar took over, leading Breeze on wobbly knees over to a shaded area to sit down. He fussed over her, helping her peel off Jaxon’s old protective jacket.

  I sighed with relief, pulling off the helmet and unzipping the jacket, an old one of Shim’s. Grit coated my face and had seeped under the protective layer. I itched, and my body was still humming from the memory of the bike’s vibration. Shim chuckled as I tried to get off the bike too fast and my legs turned to jelly. I caught myself as Shim kicked down the stand on the bike and offered me an arm of support.

  We had discovered online that the cave was an important paleontological and archeological site. I didn’t know what to make of that. How could that be a secret base or laboratory? Since the cave was only a dozen miles outside Vegas, you would think the place would get a lot of visitors. But the historic markers had all been removed, and we had only found it based on GPS tracking and an old dirt road that lad up the east side of Sunrise Mountain. It would seem the area had been made deliberately hard to find, maybe by the owner of the land, who, we had learned online, was a private mining company that discouraged visitors.

  Jaxon took off to patrol the area on his bike, spraying sand behind him while Breeze lay back on her elbows in the shade of a rock, trying to get her wind back. I was still a little wobbly, but insisted I was okay, so the three of us, Shim, Skylar and myself, dropped into the mouth of the cave.

  “Remind me to carry a better flashlight for the next time we are in a cave,” Shim remarked. I laughed, like this would happen again.

  Once we were past the entrance, it got dark fast, the thready beam of our flashlights bouncing around and every so often trailing across the glittery walls. There was a gypsum mine nearby, which was probably the substance making the walls sparkle. We picked our way past the entrance, examining every nook and cranny we came across.

  “How big is this cave?” Skylar inquired as he dipped down to look at a low crevice.

  “Three hundred feet.” Shim’
s disembodied voice floated around us. “They found a really old, like 30,000 years old, animal in here, and a basket that was 10,000 years old.”

  “Wow. Where? This place is empty…eck.” Skylar’s voice trailed off with the sound of sliding rock. Shim and I flipped our lights around until we found him, jumping up from the ground. “I’m good.” He slapped at the back of his pants. We kept searching the cave and found it disappointingly empty. Not sure what we were looking for anyway, we headed back toward the entrance, defeated.

  Skylar and I hunkered down in the shade next to Breeze and relayed what we had, or rather hadn’t, found. Shim joined us, pulling out bottles of water and power bars.

  It was another twenty minutes before Jaxon came screaming back, pulled his rear brake and sliding sideways into a stop, spraying rocks and sand in an arc away from us.

  Jaxon ripped off his helmet. “I found something,” he said, breathless with excitement. He waited on his bike while we quickly put our bottles away and mounted up to follow him up the hill.

  The view from the top was spectacular. Spread out as far as the eye could see was a gigantic quilt of land in shades of taupe, beige, sand, camel, umber, tan, and sienna, sewn together by rust colored hills and low, dark, mountains. Down at the base of the hill was an enormous warehouse surrounded by a field of solar panels, positioned like soldiers guarding the building. They were angled to catch the sun, and the glare bouncing off the acres of shiny plates was blinding.

  We hid the bikes behind a large rock formation and crawled to the edge of the summit to study the find.

  Shim reached into the bag on Skylar’s back and pulled out Arie’s binoculars. “There’s no branding, no company name anywhere, just a giant picture of a sun on the front.”

  “This has got to be it,” Jaxon exclaimed.

  “Well, solar panels, sun, Helios, it would make sense. Plus, with this many solar panels, they could do some major manufacturing and still be off the grid,” Skylar added.

  Jaxon’s interest in the building increased, and a gleam entered his eye.

  “Jaxon, it’s just a warehouse. What does it have to do with our parents?” Breeze wasn’t sold yet.

  “This is what we are looking for. I know it,” Jaxon assured her.

  “You think our parents are in there?” Breeze asked doubtfully.

  “I don’t know, but it must be where Cambridge was heading. It sure isn’t the cave back there, and there is nothing else here for miles,” Jaxon said.

  I agreed, but I was starting to get cold feet about our plan. I wanted my mom’s diary but were we sure it was here? And, even if we got into this building, how would we find it?

  “What do you think Cambridge is going to do here?” Skylar asked.

  Jaxon shrugged.

  “Look at all the guards. It looks dangerous.” Breeze said, still sounding doubtful as she shaded her eyes against the sun to get a better view of the building.

  While Jaxon and the twins debated what to do next. I slid closer to Shim, who had been studying the site with binoculars. “What do you think?”

  “I think I can get in,” he said without taking his eyes from the building.

  “Are you kidding?” Skylar asked, incredulous.

  “No. Jaxon is right; this is what we were looking for. We need to know what’s inside, and there’s only one way to find out. Shim lowered the binocular. “I’ve been watching them. It looks like they are on a timed schedule. With a little planning, I can slip by them.”

  “What? We are going in? Are you crazy?” Breeze asked.

  “Not we…just me. The rest of you need to stay out here and keep a watch out.”

  Shim pulled Kindle’s ring out of his pocket and put it on, turning the stone inward. He flexed his hand making sure he could touch the stone when he fisted his hand. “I’ll keep an open channel, and you can tell me what is going on.”

  “Not us. Them. They can keep watch.” Jaxon pointed to the twins. “I’m going with you.”

  “So am I,” I added. I pulled off my bag and handed it over to Breeze, then ran my fingers along the stone in Amé’s necklace at my collar. I didn’t trust that anyone else was as invested in finding the diary as me.

  Jaxon pulled the ancient necklace out of his pocket and slipped the strand of shiny beads around his neck. His thumb lingered on the weathered surface of the stone.

  Shim threw his hands up. He seemed to realize the futility of protesting. “Okay, Fine. Let’s do a communication check.”

  After we all checked in, Shim and Jaxon handed over their bags to the twins.

  “I hope using these things doesn’t give us cancer or something,” Jaxon contributed dourly.

  Breeze, who had her finger on the cuff on Skylar’s wrist, cut in, “WHY would you say that?” Her voice echoed through our heads as Breeze shook her other hand angrily at Jaxon. Her emotion cut through the connection almost as clearly as her words, leaving a sour feeling in the pit of my stomach. Wow, was it my imagination, or did these stones connect us deeper the longer we used them?

  “Yuck, I can taste how mad you are at me,” Jaxon spit onto the sand.

  “It is kind of gross. We will have to watch the emotions while we are using the stones,” I concurred.

  “Sources, we are actually going to do this?” Shim accidentally transmitted.

  “Well, yeah, big bro, it was your idea,” Jaxon said.

  I took my finger off the stone, so I wouldn’t make the same mistake as Shim. I didn’t want the others to know how nervous and worried I was about us getting caught. But Shim was right. This was the only way. I took a deep breath and, without touching the stone, said, “Okay, let’s figure out how we are getting in.”

  Chapter 28

  Into the Sun

  Almost immediately, our plan to infiltrate the building started to unravel.

  We watched the warehouse from the cover of the hill for several hours until Shim figured out the pattern of the guards patrolling the perimeter. When the timing was right, Shim, Jaxon, and I slinked down the hill. It was difficult crawling on my belly through the sand and shrub brush. Prickly needles penetrated my jeans. I would be picking out the points threaded in the fabric for a while. And I had sand in my bra—but that would have to wait. We slithered into a crouch at the bottom of the hill and, grasping our stones, waited for the twins’ “go ahead.” When the call came, we raced for the side of the building, weaving through the forest of solar panel stands. With a soft slide into the side of the building, we had yanked on the door the guards had been entering and leaving through.

  It was locked. Of course it was. Why wouldn’t it be? But now, we had to find another way in.

  Shim and Jaxon headed in opposite directions to see if they could find another door, leaving me stranded in the middle. They had been gone forever when I heard a scratch on the opposite side of the door. Frantic, I looked for a hiding place. Behind me, the smooth white wall offered no nook to hide in, and in front of me, the solar stands were too slender for even my scrawny frame to hide behind. Desperate, I raced for the corner of the building, hoping to make the edge before the door opened. I had a dream like this once, where I was running in sand and no matter how hard I ran, my destination was always just out of reach.

  “Grace, run faster,” Breeze urged in my head. “Shim, Jaxon, stay where you are. The door is opening.”

  I panted. The corner still seemed yards away. In the quiet of the desert, I could hear the metal creak of the door swinging open behind me. My fingers reached out toward the edge.

  “Two people in uniform coming out. Guards—they’re early.” Of course they were. Why hadn’t I been brave enough to go with Shim or Jaxon to search for another opening? Instead, I’d stood frozen in indecision.

  I finally caught the corner, and with little concern about what could be on the other side, I grasped the edge and
pulled, whipping myself around and into the unknown.

  “You’re clear!” Skylar crowed.

  My heart pounded as I hunched over, hands on my knees, sweat dripping into my eyes, as I tried to catch my breath.

  “Grace, they are heading your direction. You might want to find a place to hide.”

  I groaned and stood up. This side of the building was cut in half by a huge loading dock, open and exposed like a large gaping wound. I felt small and vulnerable standing there. What did they ship from here? I only had a minute to puzzle on this before Skylar’s warning urged me forward. I didn’t see Jaxon anywhere, so he must have made the next corner, but I never would. I had to find a place to hide, and the loading dock was the only option.

  A gravel road led out of the loading area, and as my shoes left the hard dirt and raced across road, stones flew up, hitting the backs of my pumping legs. Sweat poured down my back and into the waistband of the jeans I was seriously regretting wearing. My hands burned as they scraped across the concrete when I hauled myself up onto the ledge. I pulled on the dock’s rolling door. It was locked. I hadn’t expected it to be open, but I had hoped. Jumping down, I did a quick visual exam of the rest of the doors, which all looked locked. Frustrated, I slammed my hand down on the concrete, scraping my skin once again. The only break from all the bays was a set of metal stairs leading up to another security door. I ran for it. The stairs rattled as I bolted up them to the door and pulled on the knob. It was locked too.

  “Grace, they are turning the corner. Hide,” Breeze beseeched me.

  At a loss for what else to do, I slid under the railing and crouched beneath the stairs. It felt like I was crawling into an oven, with the reflective metal hot from the sun and the heat radiating up from the concrete as I pushed as far back as I could into the dark recess of the stairs. I hissed and muffled a cry as my back touched the stairs and burned like I’d been branded.