“I’m worried,” Veronica admitted. “You saw what happened in Mexico. Those villagers. How many cities’ populations have already been destroyed?”
“That’s impossible to say. All we can do is fight to prevent the Zalt from doing it again.”
“And you plan to do this from the inside?” From her expression, it was obvious she wasn’t buying it.
“How do I know? I’m only going by what the Rodax told us.” I was repeating something she’d already heard. She’d been here with me the whole time.
Veronica glanced at Lewen. She was out of earshot if we kept our voices low, and Veronica did. “These guys really failed us, Rex.”
“They did.” I scratched at my chin, feeling the scruff of my beard. I wasn’t used to the facial hair since I’d started teaching. “Why send a few soldiers against an army of cultists?”
“I don’t think they understood what the Zalt did to gain a foothold.” Veronica used the screen on the dash, running some scans I didn’t fully understand. “If the Objects were coming to Earth, and we’d beaten the Umir’s deployment, then we might have stood a chance.”
“The road to hell is paved with regrets.” That was something Richard used to tell me, implying I should always take action and control my own destiny, instead of growing old and wondering what I’d done with my life. Now he was dead, and I was flying in an alien ship to meet with a militia group. The universe had a strange sense of humor.
“Our timing was horrible, Rex.” She gaped out the cockpit window. “How are we supposed to get your sister if Jessica is all the way in Texas?”
“We’ll figure that out,” I said. Truth was, I didn’t expect this to be easy. We were going to see a lot of casualties in the coming war. We already had, even before we realized we were in combat.
Veronica’s hand rested on mine, and she leaned over, kissing my cheek. I turned my head, and our lips touched. “We haven’t had much time to talk.”
“I know.”
“These next two days are important. We either save the world or watch our people die. Or worse: we’re infiltrated.”
“Hunter wasn’t so bad,” I reminded her.
“Are you suggesting that not all Zalt are our enemy?” Veronica asked.
“Not really. But I have to cling to some form of consolation, don’t I?”
She nodded, eyes straight ahead as she guided us along Jerkins’ route.
In twenty minutes, we were descending for Atlanta, but not close enough for anyone to spot us in the sky. Lewen showed Veronica how to ensure there were no exterior lights, and she managed to land despite not having runway beacons. The farmer’s field was long, bordered by tall trees on all sides, giving us the perfect tarmac.
The moment we set down, I spied the high beams aimed directly at us. Two Jeeps rolled up to the ship, and we only exited when Tripp gave us the okay.
It was tough to see the incoming people’s faces with the light shining in my eyes, but his voice was enough to put a smile on my face.
“Rexford Walker. Never thought I’d live to see you again.” Special Agent Evan Young hugged me, patting me on the back. He turned to Veronica and repeated the action. When he went to Tripp, he stuck his hand out instead, shaking with the ex-military man.
“Where is everyone?” Tripp asked suspiciously.
“Twenty miles from here.” Another man arrived, and I used a hand like a visor, seeing Saul Goldstein. He looked like a statue, standing with his big arms folded across his chest, immovable.
“Saul.” Veronica rushed to his side. She looked tiny as they embraced.
“How?” I asked him.
Saul just watched the ship behind us. And his gaze shifted to Lewen, who’d finally emerged from the comfort of the Rodax vessel. “You did it.” He stepped closer. “You found them. Promissa Terra.” His voice was low, and he got to his knees. “All this time. Forty years. My whole damned life.” Saul was emotional, the weight of his undercover work releasing in his voice. “You found them.”
“Saul, this is Lewen. Lewen, this is Saul Goldstein.”
“I heard Dirk Walker speak of you,” she said.
Saul climbed to his feet, scanning the area. “Where is he? Where’s Dirk?”
“We have a lot to catch up on,” I said, clapping his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
“Twenty miles. Why so far?” Tripp asked as we departed to the Jeeps.
Evan opened the vehicle’s door, letting us in. He took the driver’s seat, and Saul chose the passenger, motioning for Veronica and me to enter. “We didn’t think that a spaceship landing at our camp was a great idea.”
“I see your point.” I looked at Tripp getting into the other Jeep, and gave him a nod.
The engine fired up, and Evan started the drive to the Freedom Earthers’ camp. “Tell us everything,” Saul said.
And I did.
2
Dirk Walker watched Opor as she bathed in the pool. He rinsed off, trying to let the sunlight dry him before dressing again. The entire region was a desolate wasteland. Gone were any signs of greenery or life, at least until the last two miles. Finally, he’d seen evidence of perseverance. The occasional weed stuck out from the cracked earth, thrilled to be alive despite the odds.
Water managed to stay in this bowl of the ground, indicating a fresh rainfall. It would be gone in another couple of days, soaked into the land, but for now, they used it for drinking water, then bathing.
“Will Rimia ever be thriving again? Could it be?” he asked Opor.
“We were taught that was impossible, but I think we’ve been deceived.”
“Why do the Zalt destroy what they touch?” Dirk looked to the north, as if expecting their destination to jump out at him. The horizon appeared much the same in all directions.
“We absorb the energy. The blood. The pigment. Any nourishment. It is the only way.” Opor was dressed, her hair still dripping wet.
“If that’s the case, how do you survive?”
“We remain in orbit,” Opor said.
He’d been trying to obtain glimpses of their culture, but Opor wasn’t very forthcoming in these matters. He was shocked she’d even passed this tidbit of information on. “In orbit?” he asked, repeating the words, trying not to startle her.
“The Objects, as you called them, stay in orbit. We live below, inside the locals.”
“Until you drain the planet, and subsequently, the people?” he dared to ask.
“It takes time. As you can see, I was able to occupy Hunter for decades,” Opor said.
“But…” Dirk’s eyes flew wide. “The cancer?”
Opor nodded. “The body can only withstand it for so long. Eventually, we die, but cannot return home to our ships until we are strong enough. We decay into the earth, absorbing everything around us. Only then can our consciousness transport into our primary vessels.”
Dirk tried to picture what this being, Rewa, who lived inside his beloved Opor, really looked like. He decided not to ask, because it felt too personal.
“Can we continue?” he asked. Their destination was taking longer to get to, the walk always on a steady incline. But they were close.
He asked more questions, but Opor’s responses grew more clipped, so he changed the subject to Rimia. “You destroyed the buildings in the city. Why?”
“To dissuade anyone from returning to it. Only a small group of the Zalt came here. That’s why we stayed on this side of the lake. When we knew it was time to leave, we destroyed the Rodax’s Children, leaving a contingency for future use. As we’ve discussed before,” Opor said.
And that was it. A simple tale. “Why only a selective group at Rimia? Why not…”
“We prepared for our Exodus to Earth. The Zalt were spread too thin. We all gathered in one place before leaving for your home planet.” Opor climbed over a rock and hopped down to the ground. Dirk followed, almost tripping on a loose stone. He steadied himself and trailed after her.
Dirk recalled his l
atest dream walk. Claude was at the Chateau des Versailles, a monument Dirk had visited himself when he was a younger man, before Rebecca and the kids. “Who is your leader?”
Opor went rigid, stopping her ascent up the rocky hillside. “Why do you ask?”
“I…” He was hesitant of how much to share. Despite her appearance, this wasn’t Opor. It was an alien entity who’d lied to him for years, pretending to be Hunter Madison. But at this point, he needed to trust someone, and his options were extremely limited. “I dreamed of the man waiting for the Zalt leader to enter his mind.”
She paled in the daylight. “How did you see this?”
He pointed to his forehead. “I just do. I’ve been attached to the man for as long as I’ve lived on Rimia.”
“Interesting. You are the prime candidate, then,” she said.
“For what?”
“Some people are born with the ability to attune without instruction. The very powerful ones can link to others with ease. Have you dreamed into others?” Opor asked. She was leaning toward him, her jaw muscles tensing while she waited for a response.
“Sure. Rex, a couple of times. I haven’t tried much. Honestly, I never wanted to see the man from Paris either, but I did. I lived with what your people did to Clayton, and hated them so much for it.” Dirk had been trying not to think about his best friend. Those dead eyes, the capillaries ruptured.
“You are different. They forced themselves into Clayton. He fought them. You… you have the power to do something more. We’ve found it is hereditary,” Opor told him.
There was no point in hiding it. “Rexford exhibited aptitude.” He told her about Rex’s experience with Jessica, and the memory he’d been shown from Hunter’s past.
“I didn’t send that to him. He must have plucked it from my mind.” Opor shook her head. “Then Rex will have to be cautious as well. The most powerful Zalt will search him out. If he’s on Earth, they will find him.”
“Damn it. Can we move any quicker?” Dirk wanted this journey to be finished with.
“What about your daughter? The grandchildren?”
Dirk hadn’t even considered them for some reason. “She never mentioned it. And Edith and Carson are just kids.”
“We are not that discriminatory. If they are open, they will be taken.” Opor kept going and advised him that they were only a few minutes away.
“Taken? Like you took Hunter?” Dirk asked, trying to keep the malice from his voice. “And Opor.” That time, he failed.
“Yes. But on the plus side, they will not be killed like so many unprepared. Even with the Umir’s network, many will die.”
Dirk was lost. “How many?”
She shrugged. “You have more people than we need. At least sixty percent will be lost.”
Sixty percent of the Earth’s population would be snuffed out if the Zalt had their way. Incredible.
They crested a hill, and it lowered into a valley below. The ground gave way from hot beige dust and stones to a spattering of red and green grass. There were even a few threadbare trees.
“This is it?” he asked.
“Yes. The access is beyond.” She started down the hillside, and Dirk followed, trying to mentally warn his children of the danger they were in.
____________
The constant beeping and buzzing drove Marcus mad. The ground vibrated endlessly, throwing his nerves on edge. The Umir circled their queen, blinking red lights as they attempted to connect to their network. There was no reply.
“I was told it was broken. But how do we fix it?” Jessica asked. She stared at the tablet, which was plugged into the queen, hardwired with technology found inside the hub’s bigger sphere. The text was in the Unknowns’ language, but she had no issue reading it.
There wasn’t a single cloud in the night sky, and Marcus glanced up at the blanket of a million stars. Once he’d looked to space as a symbol of hope, a place where the impossible might be possible.
Countless nights in Florida, he’d walked to the beach and stared for hours, dreaming his way to a brighter future. Now when he saw the bright pricks of light, he shivered. Every one of them carried a credible threat. He hated the Unknowns for making him lose his hope.
Marcus glanced at Glen, who was talking quietly with Barry. The other man seemed agitated. His satellite phone beeped, drawing Jessica’s gaze from her screen.
“What is it?” Jessica asked.
Marcus still had his gun, and he considered pulling it. Glen met his stare from across the grounds and shook his head firmly.
“It’s Black. He’s going ahead with the ceremony tomorrow.”
Jessica ran for them. “Give me that phone.”
She took it, and Marcus could only hear bits and pieces of the conversation, since they were a good forty feet away. He’d been ordered to stay put, and that was what he was going to do. The Umir looked distracted as they attempted to connect to the hub, but he assumed they’d kill him all the same if he stepped out of line.
“Listen here, Black, we have two days before they’re ready.” A pause. “I understand that, but… A coup? Really? You think you’re the chosen one, Black?” She walked closer to Marcus. They were on farmland, beside an old unused barn. The house looked refurbished, and Marcus didn’t have to look far to see that the homeowners had been killed by the Umir. They were all on the porch, the old farmer’s corpse clutching a sawed-off shotgun.
“You will wait for me to connect the hub, or so help me God, I will tear you limb from limb.” Jessica’s voice went low, and Marcus felt the power of her threat. He didn’t doubt she would do exactly as promised.
“I don’t have the hub fixed yet. Wait for a day. Wait a damned day,” she hissed.
In the end, Black must have relented, because when she tossed the phone back to Barry, she had the slightest of smirks.
“I knew that idiot let me leave too easily. Not a problem. I’ll deal with Alan Black when we return.” The sound of a helicopter’s rotors startled them. The lights grew closer, and the oversized helicopter landed a quarter of a mile from their position.
Five minutes later, ten Believers arrived. They were dressed like Saul had been when they’d first met: black uniforms and facemasks, and carrying heavy artillery. They held the automatic weapons like they’d been born with them, and the soldiers inspected the area.
“Tell me one of you knows something about computers,” Jessica said.
They shook their heads, and she finally turned to Marcus.
“I guess I don’t have a choice,” Jessica said.
“This is nothing like the programs I work on. I don’t have the slightest inkling how to operate Unknown technology,” Marcus told her.
“I brought you for a reason. Stop shaking and get over here.” Jessica shoved the tablet at him.
He held it, assessing the schematics. The lettering was unfamiliar, but Marcus started to understand what he was gawking at.
“You will be rewarded, Marcus. If you fail, the Unknowns will take our people by force, killing most of the population. If you succeed, the carnage will be far less messy,” she said.
Marcus swallowed and went to work.
____________
The camp was quiet in the late hour. I checked the time, finding it was well past three in the morning. I was so tired, but the strong coffee perked me up as we found the table inside Roger’s tent.
“This is Bill.” Roger introduced another man, a heavyset bearded guy in a white linen shirt.
“Nice to meet you, Rex,” the guy said, and I recognized the voice.
Tripp beat me to it. “You’re Bill McReary, aren’t you?”
“I am Bill McReary, coming at you live from the camp of the infamous Freedom Earthers. Only I’m sad to inform you, our nation is under duress.” Bill said this with his best radio tone, getting a smile from Roger.
The rest of us weren’t in a joking mood. “Roger, you’ve assembled quite the formidable team.”
“We hav
e sectors around the country, but this is our largest. The Freedom Earthers have uncovered nests of the cultists everywhere, and we’ve dealt with a lot of them.” The way Roger said dealt with could only mean one thing. Tripp nodded his approval. “We’ve been warned of an event transpiring tomorrow, and we have the address.”
“Where did you get it from?” I asked him.
“The source was credible,” Saul answered for Roger.
“Are they still here? We could check—”
“Rex, they’re dead.” Saul’s stare bored into mine. He was trying to relay a message. These people were dangerous, but we needed them to have a fighting chance.
“Where is it?” Tripp asked.
A generator chugged from outside the tent, and I followed the extension cord to the laptop set up on the table. Roger flipped it open and spun the screen to face us. It showed a satellite image of the house.
“That’s a big place,” I whispered. The driveway was a good mile long, and I guessed the residence was sitting on over twenty acres.
“Wouldn’t want to cut that grass,” Bill muttered.
Veronica went straight for it. “What’s the plan?”
“We’ve been watching the house. We’re going to surround them. Jeeps will go as far as they can after taking down the sentries. We have some ATVs for the harder terrain. We nab the Vice President.”
I took another swig of dark coffee. “And the rest?”
Roger’s hands were intertwined over his stomach. “Casualties of war.”
“Rex, they can do whatever they want. As long as we get the Book,” Saul said.
I still couldn’t believe he was alive. “What happened?” He’d evaded my question for the last time.
“I’d rather not—”
I slammed a palm on the table. “Dammit, Saul. We saw you in the mountains. You were a dead man. You were shooting…”
He rubbed his head while making a deflating sigh. “I shot at you guys. I had to make a good show of it. No one suspected me. There was too much chaos. The stampede killed a dozen or so.”
“And the sacrifices?” Veronica asked. “What happened to them?”
Lost Hope (The Bridge Sequence Book Three) Page 14