Marcus stopped Edith and stroked her hair. “Wait… what book?”
She handed it to him, and he appraised it in the dim lighting. It was old, the cover and spine rough like cracked leather. Was this the book Rex had referred to? It had an indent in the front.
“We have to sneak this out of here,” Marcus said. He didn’t know where to go.
“We saw a lady,” Carson said, breaking his silence.
“Where?”
“She was dead. Over there.” Edith pointed away. Marcus guessed it was north.
He didn’t want to head in that direction. “Who was it?”
Carson shrugged. “She had a big gun. She had the logo Uncle Saul talked about.”
A Freedom Earther. It had to be them. “Okay. Come with me.”
They walked, each kid holding one of his hands. It was a slow process, and he had to ask them to be quiet every other minute, but they eventually located the body they’d discovered earlier.
Marcus knelt by the woman, checking her pulse. A Believer sentry must have found her slinking around their property. She had a canteen draped on her shoulder, and Marcus slipped it around the corpse’s arm. Rigor mortis had set in, making it difficult to move her.
He unscrewed the dead woman’s water and passed it to the kids despite his voracious thirst. They drank, but not greedily, and Edith gave it back. The water was warm, but so refreshing.
Now what? Marcus grabbed her gun, an M4 carbine from the looks of it. He ensured it was loaded and slung the strap across his chest. The radio crackled once, and he couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it there.
Marcus picked it up, stared at Bev’s children, and pressed the talk button. “Is anyone there?”
“Roger that. Who are we speaking to?” The voice was friendly. There was a small chance the Believers were setting a trap for him, but he didn’t have a lot of options.
“Marcus.” He waited a moment.
“Marcus! Where are you?” Hearing Rex’s voice invigorated Marcus. The kids came closer, Edith crying again.
“I’m with Carson and Edith. And, Rex…” Marcus clutched the hardcover. “I have the Book.”
Part III
Lost Hope
1
Opor’s trail was simple to follow. Her footprints dug into the mud, leaving her calling card the full mile long walk into the valley. It grew greener with every few steps, until Dirk was in the center of a hearty and thriving ecosystem.
So much for the Zalt sucking the life out of everything. If Opor had been wrong about that, what else was she misinformed on? Dirk had flung the Zalt from Claude’s mind. He’d returned to his own body, still able to smell the charred flesh of the entire cluster of Believers. It showed how much the Zalt leader cared for the vessels they inhabited. If they died, the Zalt likely returned home to their Objects. Humans were disposable. It made him even more upset that Rewa had inhabited Opor. Rewa didn’t care if she survived. He’d already used Hunter for decades, and when that man died, he’d resorted to Opor.
Dirk couldn’t see her yet, but was confident he was close. He walked for another twenty minutes and saw the plants began to wither. He’d gone too far. Whatever kind of destination Opor had in mind, it would be in the heart of the lush valley. He turned around, moving slower.
When he ended at the last location he’d tracked her footprints to, he stopped, assessing the situation. Dirk couldn’t see anywhere she might have gone. He scanned up the few tree trunks, but they were young saplings, green and yellow, too small to climb.
That only left down. He tapped with his feet and discovered a hollow point. He tugged on the grass, and it lifted. There was a hatch, old and metal. “Opor!” he called into the dark opening when he unhinged it, and heard the echo of his own voice.
Dirk turned on a flashlight and lowered into the hatch, his feet landing on a metal floor a second later. It reverberated from the impact, and he searched the space with the beam of light. Dirk hadn’t spent much time on alien ships, but if he was a betting man, this was similar. The walls were rounded, smooth and damp. Water trickled from the ground above, implying the structure had been concealed for ages.
There was no furniture, just a room with two doors. He went to the closer one and depressed a heavy latch. The door clicked, and he slid it to the side. Another room. No sign of Opor.
When he opened the next door, he landed in a lengthy hallway. His flashlight beam fell flat in the darkness, and he thought he heard a noise reverberating back to him from somewhere farther on. Dirk fought the chill hitting him and pressed forward.
Whatever Opor was doing, she was down here somewhere.
____________
Carson slept in my lap as we lowered for Roger’s farm. Marcus and Edith both dozed too, her head leaning against my best friend’s shoulder. It had been an emotional reunion, and I scanned through the Book, wishing I spoke their language. This was going to take some time to decode. With Saul gone, our options were limited.
Lewen and the Rodax understood precious few words, but Roger told us someone at his place would be able to help us. So far, he’d been good on his promises.
It was around two in the morning when we settled to the ground, and I gently woke Carson from his deep sleep. He jolted upright but calmed when he saw my face.
“It’s okay, buddy,” I reassured him. I’d never been close with Bev’s kids, not like I should have been, but seeing them rush onto the ship set off something primal inside me. I had to protect them with my life.
“Welcome to the birthplace of the Freedom Earthers,” Roger said as the doors opened. Gren’s ship was already landed between two huge red barns. He lifted a hand in greeting when he saw me, and I returned the wave.
“I’m sorry about tonight,” I told Roger. We’d stayed quiet on the trip, with everyone trying to recover from tonight’s loss.
“My people died to prevent these bastards from winning. We may not have accomplished it quite yet, but we made headway. They knew there were risks,” Roger said. He sounded confident, but I could see the mask cracking. No one could witness their friends die and not be broken up about it.
“Rex, we have to go. The hub only has five hours before the network link is complete,” Marcus told me. He’d shown me the tablet, and I believed him, but we had other things to worry about.
“Soon. We’ll be gone in an hour, I promise you.” I patted him on the shoulder, and he slunk away, going to check on Tripp. The Rodax had supplied treatment and assured me that Tripp and Evan were fine. I couldn’t handle any more deaths from my team.
Roger’s farm was in northern Alabama, and the cicadas chirped endlessly as we walked to his house. The stars shone brightly above, without a cloud in the sky.
I heard the front porch door open with a squeak, and a woman calling for her husband. Her silhouette floated to the yard, and a dog raced past her, coming to Roger.
“Heston, you old sock.” Roger scratched his dog behind the ear, and he circled Roger in excitement.
His house was a modest but sprawling ranch, and the barns were where all his Freedom Earthers gear was parked.
“Is that a tank?” Veronica asked, catching up to me.
“Looks like it,” I whispered.
Roger’s wife was slight, a drastic contrast to the huge man. She was fully clothed despite the late hour, and she appraised us with interest. “What happened?”
“We’d better go inside, Coleen.”
“Roger, where are the others?” She peered at the incoming people and jumped at the sight of Gren.
“Inside, Coleen. We have a lot to discuss.” Roger didn’t say another word.
“We’ll be waiting here,” Gren told me.
“Thanks. For coming,” I said to the Rodax, and he nodded.
“It was Lewen’s idea,” he told me. Of course it was. Lewen had seen what we were facing and requested an extraction from the other spaceship. It had saved many of our lives.
Tripp was still on the ship, the medication keeping h
im sedated, but Bill walked up with Evan.
“You feeling okay?” I asked the special agent.
He managed a smile on the porch. “Chest feels like a cannonball hit me, but I’ll be fine.”
Veronica led the children into the house, and Coleen was already fussing over them.
“Come in, Rex. Let’s figure this out.” Roger held the door for me, and we entered the warm home.
A half hour later, we convened at his giant wooden farmhouse table. He must have loved dinner parties, because there were twelve seats, and most of them were filled with our group. The remaining Freedom Earthers lingered outside with the Rodax.
Coleen appeared in the dining room, and she told me the children were washed and put to bed. “They’re welcome to stay here for now.” She wore a green flannel shirt, her short brown hair wrapped under a bandana. Roger saved a seat for her beside him at the head of the table, and she smiled as he slid a cup of steaming coffee in her direction.
Coleen kissed him on the lips, staring at him for a moment before taking her seat. I read the unsaid words as if she’d spoken them. She was grateful her lug of a husband was alive, and maybe slightly irritated that he’d abandoned her in the first place.
“We need to leave,” Marcus said again. His eyes were baggy, and his cheeks, which were always so smooth, had patches of black beard growing on them.
“Tell us about the hub,” Veronica urged.
And he did. He quickly gave us the keynotes on his capture and subsequent imprisonment. We listened while he spoke about Jessica talking with Alan Black, and how the Umir visited.
“One of the Zalt took control of the guy?” Evan asked.
“Zalt?” Marcus tilted his chin up and frowned.
“That’s what they’re called,” I told him. “The Unknowns are the Zalt, but not even the Believers seemed to understand that.”
“Whatever they’re called, we have to kill the network. Have you guys seen it out there?” Marcus asked.
I thought about what we’d encountered in Mexico and nodded. “Somewhat. Tell us.”
Marcus continued his story, including his attempted escape on the road trip to Texas. He skipped over a lot of the horrors he’d witnessed in Dallas, but it was clear the majority of the population had been killed. Millions. Dead.
“We have no clue how many more places were hit by the Zalt’s premature attempt at attuning,” Evan said. “Roger, any word from your people?”
“Been quiet. Most of my sectors haven’t reported back yet.” Roger slipped his flask out, dumping the contents into his coffee. His wife gave him an admonishing look, but it didn’t stop him. “I don’t think it’s good.”
“The Believers were prepared, and I think the Umir were around to help.” Marcus hand’s trembled when he picked up the cup of coffee. He clutched it tightly to his chest. “If we don’t shut the hub in Odessa off before sunrise, the network will be spread across the world. We’re talking about a huge percentage of us instantly dead. The rest will have Unknown… Zalt in our heads.”
“Even if we disable the hub, we’re worried they’ll still attempt to attune,” I told him. “We have to do something else.”
“What?” His gaze shifted to the Book on the table in front of me. “How can you stop them with a book?”
“That’s what we need to find out.” I wondered where my father was at that moment. He would be crestfallen to hear that Beverly had been taken by one of our enemies.
“What are we waiting for?” Bill asked. He stroked his unruly beard and settled his arms across his ample belly. “Can we read it?”
Roger glanced at his wife and smiled. “Coleen can.”
“You speak their language?” Lewen asked her.
“Roger wanted me to study it. Thought it might come in handy. Not sure where this man gets his intuition, but we’ve learned to trust it.” Coleen set a palm on her husband’s forearm.
He drank deeply from his cup. “Until tonight. I lost… so many of them.”
“We couldn’t have known,” Evan said. “We had no idea there were robot warriors, or that the Zalt would come in the middle of it.”
“It’s because we had the wrong location. If we’d had the proper intel that it was on the coast, not Atlanta, we’d have nailed them.” Roger was finally releasing his emotions.
Coleen ignored his angry speech and locked gazes with me. “May I?”
I passed the Book to her, and she carefully opened the cover. The leather spine creaked. “What exactly are we looking for?” she asked.
“I want to find out how to let one of them attune with me,” I told them. “Or vice versa.”
Marcus choked on his coffee, and Bill just shook his head, closing his eyes.
“Don’t worry; it’s only a trap. I have to turn the tides,” I promised them.
“Then I’ll go read as much as I can and grab you when I have the answer.” Coleen left, and I almost chased after her. Saul had given his life for the Book, and I didn’t want to let it out of my sight.
Roger must have noticed me staring after her. “Don’t worry, Rex. She’s with us. We’ve been married for fourteen years. All wedded bliss.” He laughed, and the mood lifted slightly.
I’d almost forgotten a very important detail. “We haven’t contacted Colonel Jerkins. We’ll send word. Give him the coordinates for the hub near Odessa.”
“I’m on it.” Roger left the room, taking a satellite phone with him.
“Marcus, what are we looking at out there?” I asked.
He had the tablet in his hands, and he watched the screen blankly.
“Marcus?”
“Sorry,” he said. “The hub killed them, but the Umir sentries departed. I think we have to be within a mile for me to destroy the network with this.” He indicated the tablet.
“They’ll see us from the ground,” Evan said.
“Then we drop in from above using the Rodax,” Veronica suggested.
“Good idea. But this thing is dangerous, and I think the Zalt can transport themselves down anywhere near it,” Marcus said.
“They didn’t get into you?” Bill studied him.
“No. I’m not sure why, but I was okay.” Marcus set the tablet to the table. “Rex, you’re not coming?”
I shook my head. “I can’t. I have to attempt this.”
“And then what? You’re on the Objects? What’ll you do up there? We have no idea what the Zalt are.” Marcus was angry, and I couldn’t blame him.
“They are lifeforms. Organic,” Lewen said. “But they are more. Much more.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. Okay, so Rex is staying. Who’s coming with me?” Marcus asked.
The floorboards creaked from the living room, and a shadow filled the doorway. It was Tripp. “I will.”
“Tripp, you were almost crushed today. I doubt you should be—” Evan stopped when Tripp walked into the room. He wore a black armored suit and gripped a Rodax machine gun.
“I’ll be fine. They have quite the medical advancements. I feel like a million bucks,” he said.
“That will wear off. It’s temporary, Tripp,” Lewen assured him.
“Then we better kick this hub’s ass before that happens.”
“I’m sorry, Tripp. I need you.” I broke the news to him, but he didn’t lose his serious expression.
“Evan and I will join Marcus,” Bill exclaimed.
“We will?” Evan asked.
We discussed the plan in detail, and when Coleen came to gather me, the rest of the team was preparing to leave Roger’s farm.
____________
“And the network isn’t completed yet?” Beverly asked Jessica. She already knew the answer, but making this woman sweat was worth the extra questioning.
“Not for another three hours.” Jessica had quickly showered and was back in the main living room, sitting across from Beverly on the floral-print couch.
Bev could see why the woman had been chosen by her people to lead the Believers.
What a stupid name for the organization, but it made sense. They wanted so badly to believe in something beyond their own inept race that they’d taken to the teachings with very little prompting. Yeral would have liked to have inhabited a human form centuries earlier, but he’d had pressing matters with regards to their Exodus to Earth.
Yeral was now Beverly, and with that merge came the memories of the woman. She was related to a man named Dirk Walker, the same human that had first accessed the fabled Bridge. From her knowledge, he pieced together that it led to Rimia. He recalled Rimia well from his time on the planet. Unfortunately, their stay had been cut short by a poisoning of the land.
Bev stayed quiet and appraised herself. There was blood under her fingernails, and her hair was knotted and greasy. Yeral considered the conditions the Believers had kept the woman under, and thought they were cruel even for his standards, but the vessel would do. They just needed to get the network lined up, and the rest of the Zalt could descend to Earth.
It was a glorious place, unlike any world they’d clung to before. There was great promise here. When he thought that, the tiny part of Beverly that was still struggling for power recalled a two-word phrase. Promissa Terra. Promised land. He smiled at the words. Yes. While this vessel’s family sought a promised land through the Bridge, Yeral knew it was already under their noses. Earth was the destination.
“Why are you inside this woman?” Jessica asked, her composure slipping.
“She is powerful. I’d chosen Claude, a man across the world. He drew me to him,” Bev said.
“Claude Giroux?” Jessica asked.
“That’s him.”
“I’ll kill him,” she muttered.
“You won’t need to. He’s already dead. We lost hundreds of adequate vessels. I was infiltrated. I wish you could have identified this resistance force earlier on, because they’ve caused a lot of damage,” Bev said.
Jessica just stared at her.
“At any rate, we’ll bring the Zalt to the planet in three hours. Is there anything to worry about?”
“You will have no issue accessing my people.”
Lost Hope (The Bridge Sequence Book Three) Page 21