by Zara Novak
“Well, I have this,” he said, holding up a small control in his hand. He pushed a button and an automated voice suddenly echoed through the lobby.
“Self-destruction sequence initiated. T-Minus three minutes.”
“You’re fucking bluffing,” Davian shouted.
“Am I? Why not ask the eyes you have in the sky? The explosives are right underneath us. 2000lb of plastic explosives. Enough to launch us all into space.”
“Uh guys…” Rocky said, his voice coming from a speaker on Hunter’s armor. “The info checks out. He’s not bluffing. That place is loaded with explosives.”
“What’s the game, Harkin?” Hunter said. “All we have to do is sprint out of here.”
“And all I have to do is override the countdown. We can all be dead in the blink of an eye. So, this is what we’re going to do. You give me the amulet, and I give you the control to deactivate the explosives. It’s a very simple trade.”
Harkin walked through the lobby until he was right at the front doors.
“Now you listen here—” Hammer began.
“Ah, ah,” Harkin said. “Take another step and I blow this place to smithereens. That goes for all of you.”
“Have you thought this through, dickhead?” Davian said. “If you die then no one gets to the tomb.”
“Have you thought it through, commander?” Harkin fired back. “If you don’t cooperate then the world will definitely end. If you do… then we’ll all still be alive, and all of humanity will worship me as a god.”
“Apocalypse is certainly more attractive,” Davian murmured.
“Make the trade,” I said.
All of the guardians looked at me in surprise.
“Rachel?” Hunter said. “You can’t be serious.”
“Let him have it. We can still escape here and catch up to him. We’ll figure it out. This isn’t the end.”
“Listen to the girl,” Harkin said. “She’s the only one here with a brain.” He held up the control as if to offer it. “Now give me the amulet.”
I fished it from my pocket and held it up. “Along the ground, at the same time.”
“Of course.”
We counted to three and both threw.
The amulet slipped along the marble in its cloth. The control slid along the floor and stopped at my feet. Harkin shoved the amulet into his pocket and stepped back quickly towards the doors. Just holding the thing looked uncomfortable for him. His nose was bleeding, and he looked in pain, but he had it, nonetheless.
“Until next time guardians,” he said. “Good luck with that control.”
Harkin disappeared and I instantly looked down at the remote. A timer was at the top, counting back from three minutes. We had one-minute left. Underneath was a keypad and several switches.
“What do I do with this?!” I panicked, holding it up so everyone could see.
“Let me get a visual!” I heard Rocky shout over the radio. “Give it to Charge!”
The guardians all gathered around quickly. I passed the remote to Charge, while Rocky tapped into his visual feed.
“What are we dealing with here?” Davian barked.
“A fucking trick,” Charge said. “The timer’s started moving at double speed.”
“Let’s just get out of here!” Hammer shouted.
“Not enough time,” Charge said. “Listen up, Rocky, this sort of device will send the ignition sequence over a very specific radio frequency. Is there any chance you can run a shortwave scan and send out a signal jam?”
“Will that stop the explosion?” Hunter asked.
“It will do one of two things,” Charge said. “Kill us all instantly or deactivate the sequence.”
“Rocky?” Davian shouted. “Rocky? Answer the man!”
“Little busy trying to find my signal jammer!” Rocky shouted back over the radio. “Briggs! Stop moving my goddamn things!”
“Haste please!” Charge shouted. The timer was on twenty-five seconds and descending rapidly.
“Got it!” Rocky shouted. “Oh fuck!”
“What now?!” Davian roared.
“Where’s the power cable?!”
“Rocky!”
12 seconds.
6 seconds.
4.
“Got it! Just got to hit the switch!”
The radios all went dead instantly, and the lights went off. I closed my eyes and waited for the explosion that would kill us all.
16
Hunter
I kept tight hold of Rachel while waiting for the blast that would surely kill us all. The immediate silence was penetrated by a shrill and deafening whistle. It was radio interference, and it forced us all to pull our earpieces out.
A scrambled voice came over the radio.
It was Rocky.
“G-Good n-ews!” the stuttering signal said. “We stopped the explosi-on!”
Just as he said that speakers in the lobby started playing again. “Self-destruction sequence initiated, T-Minus 3 minutes.”
“Rocky?!” Davian barked. “What’s going on?!”
Rocky responded again, the signal a little clearer this time. There was no stuttering, but there was heavy static on the signal. “Hey guys, so we have a little complication. The signal jam has stopped the countdown, but the interference has put the system into an infinite loop, it’s going to keep counting down from 3 minutes over and over again.”
“Let’s get out of here then,” Hammer said. “We’ve got plenty of time to leave now.”
“Not that easy,” Rocky said. “Harkin’s plant supplies the gas lines to the city in the valley below. If this place goes up—”
“The whole town goes up,” I said in grim realization.
“Bingo,” Rocky said. “So, we have to stop the countdown. It looks like the system is controlled by three separate radio relays. I’ll need four teams of two to go to each relay and manually reset them every three minutes while I work to break the loop.”
“So, I’m down six men,” Davian snarled. “Fucking great. Striker, Ash, you take the first relay. Hammer and Zero, you’re on the next. Charge and Mac, you’re the third team. Saydra, I’ll need you to help me.”
“What about us?” I said to Davian.
“Last I checked you’ve got an apocalypse to stop. You and Rachel both need to get out of here.”
“We’re coming down to land now!” Rocky said.
“Davian turned to us. Hunter, I want you and Rachel on that ship. Briggs are you there?” he said into his earpiece.”
“Where else would I be?” Briggs’ voice came in response.
“Picking up your award for smart mouth of the year,” Davian growled. “Hunter and Doctor Stone will meet you outside now. You’re on a one-way flight to Australia.”
“Not looking forward to that jetlag!” Briggs quipped.
A moment later Rocky had run into the lobby. “Okay, let’s keep this place from exploding!”
As he ran in Rachel and I left. I looked back at my guardian brothers one last time before heading up the ramp leading onto Xerxes-1. The ramp closed behind us and Brigg’s voice boomed from the ship’s speakers.
“Ready to go?!” he shouted.
“Ready,” I answered.
In a minute we were on the bridge. “Welcome aboard this redeye flight to Ayer’s Rock, Australia,” Briggs joked as we ran in. “How was your stay with Harkin?”
“Three stars out of ten,” Rachel said. “The room service sucked.”
Briggs laughed. “Strap in guys, we’re going to be flying fast.”
“Any sign of Harkin?” I asked as Rachel and I belted up.
“I picked him up on my radar. A private jet left here about five minutes ago. It looks like he’s going full speed for the other side of the planet too.”
“Then this really is a race to the finish line,” I said.
“Oh, for sure,” Briggs said. He jerked his hand back, lifting the ship into the air quickly. The ship started to shake, the sound of engines
filling the cockpit as Briggs charged for an emergency takeoff.
“Our inflight movie is… use your imagination!” he shouted over the din. “And we will be serving… absolutely nothing! Enjoy your flight!”
He thrust his hand forward again and the ship rocketed forward into the night.
The race was on.
17
Rachel
The stakes were too high for me to fall asleep. I couldn’t stop thinking what would happen if Harkin got there and used the amulet before we could stop him.
We probably set some sort of record for crossing the globe, but the journey still took hours. When we finally broke into Australian airspace, we all became more alert as the prospect of losing settled in.
The archaeologist in me was screaming when Briggs brought the ship down to land directly on top of Ayer’s rock. We shouldn’t land even within a mile of this thing; it was a one-of-a-kind geographical feature and there was no saying what damage we were doing.
But there were bigger things at stake, like the survival of the whole world.
Precaution could be damned for one day.
Hunter threw a pistol my way, and we ran down the ramp with our weapons ready. Both of our hearts sank as we saw Harkin’s ship already there.
“He beat us!” I shouted.
“We don’t know that yet,” Hunter said.
It felt surreal to actually be running on top of Ayer’s Rock, but my inner scientist had no time to fangirl. On the flight over here I wondered how we would even find the tomb’s entrance, but a glowing circle at the center of the rock formation answered that question.
As Hunter and I got closer we realized the glowing circle was an entrance to a spiral staircase, which descended directly down into the rock. A beam of bright light was shining up from the shaft, pointing into the sky.
Hunter took the stairs first and I followed quickly behind. We were descending for several minutes until the shaft finally ended.
The stairs opened into a huge subterranean chamber. It was like the entire mountain had been hollowed out to accommodate Halo’s new hiding place. We were standing on an elevated stone platform that looked out over a great lake.
A long walkway stretched across the lake, leading to another platform about five hundred feet in front of us. There a giant statue of Halo stood, looking over the chamber and her tomb. Most of the chamber was dark, but a huge pillar of golden light surrounded Halo’s statue, which was easily the height of an apartment block.
At the foot of the statue there was a throne. A golden figure sat atop the throne and kneeling in front of the figure was another.
Harkin.
Hunter and I ran across the walkway until we reached the final platform. Harkin turned to look at us, but he didn’t seem concerned about our arrival. We didn’t even fire our guns, something told us both that it was too late.
Harkin didn’t look good.
Dark veins pulsed across his pale skin. Blood ran from his eyes and nose. The amulet was now lying on a bronze plate just in front of Harkin. He looked glad to be rid of it.
“Thank you for returning my amulet,” the golden woman said calmly from her throne.
Bright and warm light seemed to emanate from every atom of her body. Her voice was a choral choir in the quiet chamber.
Halo.
“Hunter, Doctor Stone,” Harkin said as he looked back at us and laughed. “You’re about one minute too late.”
“State your wish, and I will grant it,” the goddess said. Harkin looked back at her and rubbed his hands together.
“Make me a god. I want infinite strength and power. I will be the new lord of earth; the universe will be my dominion. None will stop me; all will worship me.”
“Your wish is granted,” Halo said. Light flowed from her and entered Harkin’s body. He turned to us, his eyes now glowing with brilliant white light. For some reason his eyes didn’t reassure me in the same way Halo’s did.
It looked unsettling on him.
“There you have it,” he said, his voice sounding like many voices were speaking at once. “Game over. Time to reshape the universe in my image. Killing you both is very tempting, but I think I will make you my eternal servants. Yes… that sounds very satisfying.”
Harkin lifted a hand in our direction, but suddenly froze in place.
“Before that happens, we must finish our business,” Halo said calmly. Harkin’s frozen figure was shaking and trembling in place, a statue of infinite power and world-destroying rage.
“What is this?!” Harkin roared. “Release me at once! I am a god!”
“And so am I,” Halo said. “And my power is only limited to my capabilities. I cannot create something more powerful than myself, so I have dominion over you. Welcome to the realm of gods Mr. Harkin, there are plenty more gods out there more powerful than you and me.”
“We had a deal!” he screamed.
“And we still do, but a prior deal was made, and that must be satisfied first.” Halo turned and looked at Hunter. “You have returned.”
“I have,” he said.
“You remember our arrangement from last time?”
“Yes.”
“So,” Halo said, looking at me. “What will it be?”
I froze. “What?”
“You have a wish to make, Doctor Stone,” Halo said. “So, what will it be?”
I looked between her and Hunter. “I’m a little lost.”
Hunter addressed Halo. “Am I allowed to break my silence now?”
Halo nodded. “You are.”
“Hunter?” I said to him. “What’s going on?”
He looked at me. “When Trey betrayed Laurelai I was left with no choice but to make a wish last time, so I did. But I didn’t make a straightforward wish. I took a deal with Halo.”
“What deal?” I asked.
“Should I ever find my mate, I ask for my wish to go to her. So… here we are, and the wish finally passes onto you. Enjoy it.”
“I—”
I didn’t know what to say.
Hunter had made that wish all those years ago, hoping that one day he could find his mate just so she could take his wish.
So, I could take his wish.
“You idiot!” Harkin roared, dark laughter coming from him. “You could have wished your friend back to life! The one you betrayed!”
Hunter barely acknowledge Harkin. “I don’t know if you’ve ever seen resurrection magic, Harkin. But people are never the same when they come back. Bringing them back wasn’t an option.”
Halo snapped her fingers and a bright chime sang through the air. “That is enough Mr. Harkin. No more interruptions until we are done.”
A cage of golden light surrounded Harkin now. He thrashed about inside it, looking like he was screaming bloody murder, but we couldn’t hear a word he was saying. I looked back at Hunter.
“Why that wish? You could have had anything. All the power in the world. You could have wished to find your mate.”
“That wasn’t necessary. I always knew I’d find you. It was just a matter of time. And as for the wish… it would have been wasted on someone like me. I knew my mate would one day make it count.”
“So there you have it, Doctor Stone,” Halo said in her warm and earthly voice. The soft heat radiating from her was so peaceful and comforting, but even in her immortal and eternal power I could detect the sorrow in her golden song. “Your mate made a selfless wish and passed the opportunity onto you. I now ask that you use that gift, before the time runs out. There isn’t long left. Only minutes.”
“Damn,” I whispered to myself. “Not long to think. You got any ideas?” I said to Hunter.
“A few, but I passed this power on for a reason. What are you thinking?”
“Take away Harkin’s powers for one. The world would almost certainly be safer without him running around as a god.”
Hunter laughed. “You can say that again.”
But then I realized what I had to
wish for. There was only really one logical answer. Men like Harkin weren’t the danger in a game like this. I could wish for a dozen different things that would keep the planet safe this time around, but there was only one thing that could permanently make us all safer.
“I know what I want,” I said as I turned to face Halo.
“Yes child?” she asked in expectation.
“I wish for you to be free,” I said. “End the cycle. Release humanity from this game. Mortals have no place taking the power of gods. We’re all much safer this way.”
Halo blinked, her golden white eyes flowing with tears.
“It has been several thousand years since my sister trapped me here. Nine times I have granted a wish. Three times my tomb was never found. In all those iterations none have ever asked for my freedom. Until now.”
“That is what I desire,” I said confidently.
“And that desire is beautiful and selfless,” Halo said. “But I regret to tell you child that I do not have the power to grant that wish.”
Just then a column of brilliant white light descended from the top of the cavern.
It hit the ground and a portal appeared before us. Through the doorway I saw the backdrop of the universe. A million stars and galaxies all twinkling through eternity. A figure materialized in the doorway and walked forward.
She was small, with long black hair and brilliantly blue eyes. A floral headband topped her brow. A long white summer dress flowed from her willowy body. Motes of golden light surrounded her. Grass and flowers sprouted up from her footsteps.
The goddess of all creation. The sister that had imprisoned Halo.
Gaia.
“But I do have that power,” Gaia said in a soft yet powerful voice. She looked at me, her eyes filling my soul with the sage wisdom of a universe. “Congratulations Rachel Stone. You are what we have been waiting for.”
“We?” I asked.
Halo and Gaia both looked at one another. “Yes,” Gaia said. “You see, Halo was never really a prisoner here, and we never really fell out. Those were… creative little lies that we sewed throughout history.”
“I don’t… I don’t understand. If she wasn’t a prisoner, then what was the point of all this?”