Ai retorts, her body jerking upwards several times before she decides to remain seated. “You seriously can’t tell—”
“Sam, I don’t see why you can’t have more of an open mind,” Jake says, interrupting Ai. He has battled for the last half hour between a state of anxiety and one of peace, the conflicting realities about what he is telling himself is happening getting to him in waves.
“You were put in jail by these people.” I narrow my eyes at Jake, hoping to emphasize the fact that he is not thinking straight. With the peaceful classical music playing in the background and the smooth marble floors that glow almost as much as the glass on the windows, there is a welcoming vibe to this helicopter that has a way of trapping one inside. “You would be out of your damn mind if you think they are sincere when they say they want to work together and help us.”
“Well, if we don’t believe that, then we just have to sit here scared. We don’t have any other option.”
“Yes, we do.” I eye the door that is bolted shut that leads to where the pilot’s cabin is. Inside is whatever goon was hired to fly this thing, the control board, and the Chimera Cube.
I watched the Chimera Cube every moment that it was off my body, doing my best to ensure I knew its spot at every moment. A brief period lasted where I thought that the backpack would remain with Justin and the other Syndicate members, which almost led to me having an intense mental breakdown in the middle of the woods.
Then one of the masked figures carried the bag into the helicopter. From their body language, it is easy to tell they have no clue what is inside. After all, right now, we are all headed to Beijing to carry out an operation that the Syndicate has been planning for months.
“You realize that will never work, right?” Jake watches me, eyeing the door. “We don’t even have a shot.”
“You know what is back there.” I grit my teeth. “We have no other option but to try.”
We are both speaking a bit cryptically on purpose so that we don’t trigger the Syndicate people listening in and watching in on the security cameras to make a command that will get Ai killed and so that if the guards can understand any English, we are making it hard for them to infer exactly what we are talking about.
“They only left it with us as a show of goodwill.” Jake is becoming impatient, meanwhile Ai is listening in from the corner, her own body about to burst out of her seat and scream. “I’m sure those guys down on the ground have a safe car to transport them back to civilization. Meanwhile, we are stuck in a helicopter that could be shot down by China’s missile defense system at any moment. They wouldn’t have left it there unless they want to work with us.”
“You have it all wrong.” I rub two fingers on my chin, the wiry hair of my beard feeling rough and uncomfortable. “They would only decide to keep it here if they wanted us to think that they are working with us. They are only being nice by their standards because they want something from us.”
“They can take everything from us if they want to.” Jake spits on the floor, the saliva dripping out of his mouth in a long, stringy liquid. “They can get anything out of us through sheer force—they don’t need to be nice.”
The low hum of the propellers is the only sound that follows his words. I don't care if he doesn't agree with me. I don't care if this is bound to get us killed. I have to try.
I eye the door again. Jake knows exactly what I'm trying to do. I finally understand why he has been telling himself it's all going to be okay this entire time—he's too scared to do something if it's not.
"Guys, you are scaring me," Ai says as I stand up from my seat.
The dull echo of a bullet sliding into its chamber hits my ears. That sound has plagued my nightmares for years, now the danger fuels me.
"I don't know how much they are paying you." I let my gaze meet their eyes that stare at me from behind their creepy masks. I can feel the tension threatening to explode. They are only an instant away from shooting me, but until a bullet pierces through my skull, I won't let anything stop me. "But I can give you a lot more. I don't care if they are paying you ten million dollars each. I'll give you each a billion right now, and another ten billion if you can land this thing on the ground safely without getting me or any of my friends hurt."
No one has shot me yet.
Well, that's obvious. I'd have to stop telling you this story if they shot me.
Jake is about to burst forward and put his own hand over my mouth to shut me up. Ai is staring at me in shock; she has no idea if I'm bluffing, or if I'm some mystical wizard who has billions in cash on me.
Meanwhile, the masked figures don't move at all. Their guns remain pointed at me, each of their fingers hovering over the trigger, one spasm or twitch separating me between life and death.
I know the council heard what I said.
I know they must have an idea that I am referring to the technology I hold, and I have no doubt at what each person is hearing in their ears.
"Kill him."
Each millisecond that they refrain from shooting me, I know is one second closer to the voice inside their heads winning out.
My skin feels numb from the amount of adrenaline flowing inside me. My thoughts spiral out of control in my head as I rapidly simulate various possibilities of what I can do to get out of this.
The only logical thing I can do is to keep speaking.
If these people know about the Chimera Cube, it’s okay. Soon the whole world will know.
I just have to make sure I'm the one at the top of it.
"I have a secret to creating unlimited wealth in the world." I gulp, my stomach churning as I imagine someone in the Syndicate thousands of miles away grinning as they listen to this. "Something that can make everyone immortal, instantly heal wounds, and make anyone the richest person in history. It's why these people are after us. It's why the government wants to kill us, and if you help us in landing this, we will share our power with you."
The energy shifts. I feel their rigid stances shift to be a bit more open, one even lowering the barrel of their gun away from my head.
Now's my chance.
"All you have to do is drop your weapons and let me into the pilot's cabin." I smile, making sure to keep my speech clear and confident despite the fact that the fear has me on the verge of breaking down. I don't even know if any of them can speak English.
This may be hopeless.
"You have nothing to lose." My fists are clenched, my voice shaking a bit as I utter the words. I have nothing else to say, because the truth is I have no idea what they have to lose. All I know is that I have everything and more at stake.
One seems to understand. They let go of their gun. The most beautiful sound I have ever heard is now the startling bang of a pistol falling onto the marble floor.
Another one follows soon after. They even take their mask off in a sign of respect, revealing their thin, patchy facial hair and large bald head that remained hidden behind their hideous mask.
The last person, the one standing to the side of Ai, finally drops their gun.
I glance at Jake with a wide smile on his face as he stares at the guns on the floor with astonishment.
Each person looks at me, part of them scared and untrusting, but deep in their eyes I can see the hope. They want to believe me more than anything else, and that's all that matters.
"Get me my backpack inside the cabin and I'll get you your first payment. I can fill up this entire helicopter with gold if you would like? I am open to negotiating, so let me know what works best for all of you.”
Two of them stare at me dumbfounded as they rip off their masks. They must be having trouble believing that this is not a dream.
The one with the scruffy beard who is closest to me, his gun only inches from my head when I was sitting down, bolts to the door.
It is clear whatever amount of money the Syndicate offered them wasn't enough to get them to not take a wild chance.
This is working.
I smile at Jake, every doubt in my mind about the situation fleeing my mind. I am the one with all the power. I am the one in control.
As the man pushes on the door, the glory of the Chimera Cube only feet away from me, the rush of adrenaline floods my system. There is no better feeling than being in control.
My smile fades the moment I realize no matter how hard he pushes on that door, it isn't going to budge. The excitement morphs to apprehension within me as the streams of lights at the top of the helicopter all blink red on and off at a seizure-inducing tempo.
My stomach drops out of my body as my feet leave the floor, my body floating in an odd space between the floor and the ceiling.
Ai screams. Two of the figures in the bullet-proof vests yell a series of commands at one another in Mandarin. Now, I finally realize that everything is out of my control. The second my head smashes against the roof, the impact sending my body colliding back down to the floor, any confidence is knocked out of me with the searing pain.
The propellers of the helicopter have seized to rotate. Gravity has now taken over.
This helicopter is free-falling to the earth.
We have no way out. We have nowhere to hide. We have nothing to save us.
This helicopter is going to explode—and we are too.
Chapter 26
I can’t die like this.
I just can’t.
I mean, of course if one wants to get technical, I can—the prospect of death in this moment is all too easy to consider. But I can’t let the Syndicate end me like this just as we are about to enact our plan to bomb the Chinese capitol building.
I might not have a choice.
“This must be a joke!” Ai screams, clutching the side of the chair so that she is not thrown around by the force of gravity that is now tugging the helicopter down to the forest floor.
I’m not quick enough to grab onto support as she is. As the helicopter tilts a bit to the side, its lopsided weight causing it to shift into a deadly nosedive, my body is thrown against a wall.
I can’t even feel the pain.
All I know is that my back will be covered in bruises when I wake up in the morning—that is if I ever get to feel the comfort of a pillow again.
A series of loud, vitriolic words fly out of the mouths of the two masked figures and the one bald man who decided to take off his mask. Everyone knows what is about to happen.
I don’t even need to speak Mandarin to translate the terror in their voice. The second this helicopter hits the forest floor, we will all die in a fiery explosion.
I have one desire inside me to scream and curse at the top of my lungs in a terrible rage. I want to somehow force the energy of my scream to reach the ears of every member in the Syndicate and shatter their ear drums.
The laws of physics unfortunately make that desire impossible, and those same laws of physics are what cause this aircraft to plummet with exponentially increasing speed to the earth below.
I have under twenty seconds to find a way for us all to live, which doesn’t sound like a lot of time but when every millisecond painfully ticks by, enough terror and adrenaline can be experienced in that amount of time to suffice for a lifetime.
“You lied!” the bald man screams and stands up on the wall of the helicopter, which is now effectively in the same position as the floor. He picks up the pistol he dropped on the ground, the barrel now pointed directly at me.
I don’t waste any time trying to talk my way out of it this time.
I know exactly what the Syndicate is doing. They want me dead and the Chimera Cube undamaged and all to themselves. The second they deliver a bullet into my head, this helicopter will continue on its normal path—I’d rather this forest burn than let that happen.
I only have one option.
The bullet is fired at me.
I know because I hear the jarring echo and can feel its force reverberate through my body. It misses. The bald man is already back down against the wall of the plane, the force of gravity pulling us downward too powerful for his muscles to combat.
The other two operatives’ bodies are hanging on in a mangled mess to one of the far seats. They have no shot at delivering a bullet to me accurately. Their masks have fallen off, one of the creepy white things landing on my feet from their perch above me, their facial expressions strained as they try and claw their way to one of the windows and escape.
But it’s hopeless.
The chaos of the moment is too great. Loose items are already falling everywhere, pieces of metal and even a parachute smash into my body, making it even harder for me to get up. There’s no way in hell I can get out of this.
The pull of gravity is too strong.
Ai loses her grip on the edge of the chair she was seated on, her body colliding against the cold metal of the wall. She yells, crying out to God, to her parents, to any and every higher being in a plea to save us.
No one is listening.
Despite the low hum of the engine being absent, the obnoxious beeping noise that emits from the flashing red lights are enough to make it difficult to hear someone even if they are yelling in your ear.
My head is glued to the wall. I attempt to push myself off the wall with all the strength in my body, but it does no use. The force of gravity is too powerful, and I don’t have to look out the window to know that it has almost pulled us down to the earth.
“Dammit!” Jake screams, and I strain my eyes in his direction. He is still holding on to the row of chairs on what is now the ceiling of the aircraft, but he managed to pull on the emergency life vests located underneath the chairs.
The second his fingers grip the flimsy life vests, he hastily tries to grab one. Given that no one is too coordinated when free-falling through the air inside a vehicle, he only knocks the life vest to the side, causing the entire rack to fall out of its place.
If only this was one of those times where I could laugh at an error like that. The rack of life vests is soon at the mercy of gravity along with Jake’s body. They are both headed straight for me.
I have no chance at getting out of the way.
“Shit,” I yell in desperation, tears threatening to poke out of my eyes. The adrenaline coursing through me that is causing time to move by in slow motion is only serving as my brain’s way to torture itself.
I’m literally backed up against a wall, the magnitude of g-force taking hold of my body crippling my movements and making me want to do nothing more than convulse wildly and vomit.
That feeling compounds when the rod crashes into my body. Right before it makes impact, I close my eyes. I don’t want to see it smash my ribs in half or watch Jake fall next to me as we are both helplessly drowned in a pile of life jackets (life can be ironic in the worst ways sometimes). The feeling of pain that shoots through me tells me all I need to know.
I grunt, rolling over on my side, my hands instinctually clutching my ribs. I’m lucky that damn thing didn’t impale me.
Ai cries out, a painful wheeze that is at just a high enough pitch to be heard over the incessant beeping from the helicopter’s internal alarm system.
They might as well be screaming “fuck all of you!” at us, because they aren’t doing anything to help but to add to the chaos—but that’s exactly the point.
Jake lets out a flurry of curses right in line with the Syndicate operatives, one of whom haphazardly fires a bullet that does nothing more than ricochet off the bullet-proof window lazily.
After witnessing that, I’d like to believe that this helicopter is indestructible. But nothing can withstand the force we are about to endure—even with the Chimera Cube, it would be nearly impossible to get us out of this.
I jerk my body to the side. I feel my abdominals stretching to the max, my lower back and hips right about to pop out of my body from the intense pressure I am forcing them under.
The metal bar bangs against the floor, a dull echo reverberating against the metal beneath me. I push several life vest
s that have slid off the rack out of my way so that I can keep rolling and flopping madly along the floor.
I’m not ready to give up.
I don’t care if there is no way out of this.
I won’t go down at the hands of these motherfuckers without a fight.
“Agh!” I scream, the agony of every one of my nerves in my body screaming at me to stop only causing me to push forward harder. The weight of the gravity pushing down on me along with my severely bruised ribs is enough reason to make me want to lie on that wall and let the smooth blackness of death overtake me like a warm blanket on a cold winter night.
But I know they are watching.
I know they are laughing at us right now, each and every one of them bastards in the Syndicate smiling at what will be our inevitable demise.
The thought makes me want to kill them.
It makes me want to prove them wrong.
“I’ll kill you!” I holler at the top of my lungs, the anger released in that scream propelling my body the extra bit forward it needed to claw to the side of the aircraft which is covered in a wide window from the floor to ceiling.
In a split second that feels simultaneously like it didn’t exist but also like a million years, I stare out at the vast landscape. We are falling into a valley in between the towering mountain ranges that form the Tibetan region. Tens of thousands of evergreen trees stand at the base of the snow-capped rocky peaks, their tall, skinny structures having a sort of mystical ambiance presiding over them due to the fading sun and dark clouds in the sky.
The trees are only a few hundred feet below us.
Within seconds we will all be dead.
“Let us out! Let us out!” I beg for mercy, finally realizing that this helicopter is nothing more than a hi-tech jail cell meant to hold us inside so that they could kill us in a show of power. At least this is slightly better than dangling from the bottom of a helicopter and being tossed into the ocean.
I smash my fist against the glass. For some stupid reason I suspect it is easier to smash through bullet-proof glass than break through a locked door. I don’t test my hypothesis lightly.
The Conspiracy Chronicles Boxset 2 Page 23