Chapter 25
39 hours, 51 minutes, 09 seconds
Admiral Stark leaned back in his leather chair, the tips of his rounded fingers tapping gently on the conference room table. “I understand you’ve been through quite an ordeal,” he said to Jack, who was sitting next to him.
“That’s putting it rather mildly,” Jack replied, lacing his own fingers together. They had hustled back to the portal in less than twenty minutes. Even Ivan in his terribly crippled state had somehow managed to keep up. Thanks in part to the behemoth, that final leg of the journey had been largely uneventful.
“I’ve already spent some time debriefing the others. You’re the last one and when I’m done, I’ll have a meeting with Dr. Salzburg and appraise him of the situation.”
Jack shook his head.
Stark caught the disgust on Jack’s face. In spite of being alone in the conference room, he glanced around nevertheless. “I suppose I understand including Salzburg on the team. After all, he did discover the alien chromosome, I’ll give him that. But to put him in charge of the entire operation…”
Sighing, Jack slid a tablet over to Stark with an article from the Washington Post, shortly before it was shut down under dubious pretenses. It was something Anna had pulled during a general sweep of the internet before the full blackout had been implemented.
“I’m familiar with Kay Mahoro’s article,” Stark replied. “Call me old-fashioned, but there’s a big part of me that really doesn’t want to believe what’s written here is true.”
“I feel the same way,” Jack agreed. “It makes me wonder if men like you and I are part of a dying breed.”
“Or part of a dying species,” Stark amended with a dark touch of irony.
“I’m sorry about Peterson,” Jack told him.
“It wasn’t your fault. That’s what makes these guys so brave. They sign up knowing any day may be their last.”
“Speaking of last days, when we were over there, Mia pulled a bone out of the ground. From what we could tell it belonged to the Mesonyx who once inhabited the city beneath us. There’s reason to believe the structure we found encasing the portal wasn’t intended as a religious shrine so much as a means to keep things from crossing into our world.”
“We have a contingent of guards in the pyramid’s main chamber at all times, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Jack nodded. “I also suggest you send a seismic team through the portal the first chance you get and have them run a few surveys. That should begin to tell us what kind of planet we’re dealing with.”
“I’ll see to it,” Stark replied, tapping a pen against his leg. He leaned forward and pushed a button, illuminating one of the large screens on the wall. “We’ve been reviewing the footage from the drones Anna sent up to survey the area. What do you think of this dome idea?”
“I can’t think of another explanation,” Jack replied. “Although that’s probably a question best left to Gabby and Eugene. They’re the ones with the advanced degrees in physics.”
“You’re not here for your looks, Jack,” Stark reminded him with a wry smile. “Your gut is usually on point and I want your take on this.”
“I’m not sure it matters,” he told the admiral.
The response seemed to worry Stark.
“Don’t get me wrong, I would love to find the answer to that question. But with less than forty hours left before the end of the world, it isn’t high on my priority list. Either way, I’m sure the others have already given you an earful on what they think. You ask me, the fact that we found a single structure is encouraging. Something built it and I’m sure it wasn’t the Mesonyx and can guarantee it wasn’t whatever’s running around that jungle.”
Stark nodded. “Which leads me to this.” He clicked the button again and an overhead image appeared of multicolored foliage. He zoomed in, past what looked like either a wide river or an unusually shaped lake. “What do you make of this?”
Jack leaned in. It appeared to be a miniature mountain, rising up from the jungle floor, covered in thick vegetation. “Hard to say really.”
“We ran the image through a few filters and came up with this.” Stark clicked again, erasing most of the trees. Now it didn’t look like a mountain at all. The shape was far less ragged, a square with rounded edges, much like what they had been calling the greenhouse, only much, much bigger. Jack stared at it intently, realizing the dimensions were far too symmetrical to be natural.
“You’ve found another structure?”
“We believe so, and there may be others,” Stark replied. “I’m gonna need you to go back through that portal and find out what’s inside.”
Jack aimed a finger at the shimmering liquid surface that ran from one end of the enclosure to the other. On one side was the portal. On the other, the structure they needed to get to. “Is that what I think it is?”
“It is a liquid,” Stark told him, not trying to sound coy but doing a damn good job of it. “We’ve done every kind of image analysis you can think of, but the truth is we won’t know what’s really there until we get up close and personal.”
“Looks like a lake or river that slices the terrain in two,” Jack said, pensively. “I don’t see any way around.”
“I got a team of engineers working on a lightweight inflatable raft that will ferry you all over.”
Jack couldn’t help but feel a little skeptical. “Whatever you build better be strong enough to keep Ivan and Anna from taking a swim.”
“It will be, don’t worry,” Stark said, his lips forming a dimpled little grin.
“Listen, lately all I do is worry. Sometimes it feels like the only thing keeping me alive.” Jack stared at their new objective, that large square building almost entirely hidden by the jungle overgrowth. “You think the key to stopping this might be in there somewhere?”
Stark frowned. “For our sake, I hope so.”
Chapter 26
“Ollie tells me you were shot by Sentinel agents?” Kay asked, desperate to escape the awkward silence with the strange techno-punk girl before her.
At a notch over five feet, Armoni was solidly built with a mess of stringy black hair and the kind of pallid expression that screamed ‘vitamin deficiency.’ Other than her height, Armoni bore few of the other characteristics that would suggest she was a girl, let alone a young woman. But in a weird kind of way, she and Patrick made a good couple, artificial as it might have been.
“Shot through the spine,” Armoni said, in an accent that sounded Argentinian. “Fell from the roof of a building and landed in a pile of trash. It should have broken my fall, but it only seemed to break my back even worse. Not that I could feel anything anyway at that point.” Armoni paused, staring back at Kay through strands of hair that cried out to be washed.
“You don’t look like someone who broke their back,” Kay said, feeling like maybe she should have just stayed quiet. This was what she did though whenever she felt uneasy—the reporter in her sprang into action with a million questions. The longer she kept Armoni talking, the less time she’d spend thinking about Derek and the horrors their families were surely enduring.
“Not broke, snapped like a twig actually. I was lucky to be alive. Or unlucky, depending on your point of view. I expected the Sentinel bastards who shot me to finish what they’d started. I certainly would have. Instead, they put me on a stretcher and carried me off.”
“To the hospital?” Kay asked, naively.
“Hell, no, to an interrogation chamber. They started questioning me right away. Try to imagine it. I’m lying flat on my back with two men trying to waterboard me, but that wasn’t getting them anywhere. I don’t know how long that went on for, but eventually, they threw me in a cell and that’s where things went from bad to worse. I thought I was going to die. In fact, I prayed for it, harder than I’ve ever prayed for anything in my life. But I wasn’t given death. I was given Salzburg. Maybe not given, since I’ve been told it was probably in me the
entire time, but it came awake. For days I couldn’t think straight or even talk. For all intents and purposes I’d become a vegetable. Then one day, that heavy wet blanket that’d been draped over me was lifted and I could think again and with the kind of clarity I’d never known before. A day later, I could suddenly feel my toes. Then I was able to wiggle them and before long I was back on my feet. It’s hard not to believe in miracles when you live through something like that.”
“That’s incredible,” Kay said, fighting back tears. Not for Armoni though. The girl’s story reminded her how her mom had been bedridden, only to rise within days. Her mother too had thought the hand of God had come down to lift her up again, like Lazarus. It was hard not to see it that way too, even for Kay, a firm nonbeliever. Miracles aside, she had seen plenty of stories in the last two weeks of people experiencing incredible recoveries from ailments associated with Salzburg. It seemed hard to be thankful, however, for an illness that beat you down only to lift you up again, even if it tended to leave you better off than before.
Armoni was biting her nails. “A few weeks ago, I was one of the best hackers in South America. After Salzburg, I’m probably the best in the western hemisphere.”
Kay laughed. “Sounds like a line from a commercial. After Salzburg my days just feel brighter.”
Armoni bent forward, holding her belly in silent laughter.
Watching the girl lose herself, a bizarre feeling of jealousy suddenly crept over Kay. It took her a moment to untangle what it was about. Armoni was tough and didn’t give a damn what people thought of her. But then so was Kay. But there was one thing that would forever separate the two of them. And on some strange level, it was something Kay wished she could have. Salzburg.
•••
Not long after, Ollie assembled the group in the kitchen. “Armoni’s been kind enough to break into NASA’s mission control database over at the Kennedy Space Center,” he informed them. “The nuclear missile launch is scheduled for midnight tonight. That gives us six hours before those missiles leave the pad for outer space.” He reached into a duffel bag and handed them each a pair of white NASA technicians’ overalls.
“What are these for?” Kay asked, flipping the garment around so she could see both sides. It had bold numbers etched onto the shoulders and a large NASA patch on the rear.
“Camouflage,” he replied. “We only need it to last until Richard and I can plant these detonators. With any luck, they’ll destroy the rocket along with the launch pad it’s sitting on.”
Kay noticed on the front of her overall was a nametag. “I guess I’m Sandra Johnson.”
“Only for a day,” Ollie reassured her. “Then you can go back to Kay Mahoro. In case you’re wondering, Sandra is a real person—a launchpad technician who left to do work at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena. Each of us will be impersonating former employees. Armoni has seen to it that our IDs look authentic and that the NASA database lists our covers as on duty, along with our picture.”
Kay saw the ID card clipped to the technician’s outfit. “I don’t remember giving you a picture of me.”
“You can thank the internet for that,” Armoni said. “A few minutes in Photoshop to get the angle just right and voilà, instant I.D. badge.”
“Where were you when I was in high school?” Kay said, recalling prowling convenience stores, begging perfect strangers to buy her alcohol.
“Uh, probably in grade school,” the hacker replied, smirking.
“All right,” Ollie said sternly. “Let’s get serious. We only get one shot at this.”
Patrick set two tool boxes on the kitchen table and opened them. Inside were what looked to Kay like plastic explosives with timers, only these ones had been spray-painted white, presumably so they could be attached to the white fuselage without being spotted.
Ollie then carefully moved the cases aside and unfurled a map of Merritt Island. “A small Zodiac will be waiting for us on the north side of the NASA causeway,” he said, pointing to a stretch of road which led from the mainland to the island. “Banana Creek will bring us just north of the launch pad. This is going to be a bluff-your-way-past-any-guards type of mission, although each of you will have one of these just in case.”
Ollie produced a silenced pistol and placed it on top of the map.
Kay swallowed hard. This was starting to get real.
“While Patrick and I plant the explosives,” Ollie said, continuing with the plan, “Kay and Sven will keep an eye out, distracting any tech who starts sticking his schnozz where it don’t belong.”
Sven snapped the fingers on his right hand. “Not a problem,” he growled. “We got this, don’t we, Kay?”
What she wanted to say was, “Have you all lost your minds?”
Remember why you’re here, Kay.
But instead she said: “You’re damn right, we do.”
Ollie whooped and high-fived her. “That a girl.”
“Man, I wish I was going with you,” Armoni said with genuine disappointment.
Kay spun on her heels. “What? You’re staying behind? I thought you were some kind of master hacker?”
“Armoni only needs internet access to work her magic. Besides, we’ll be in constant radio contact. If we need her for anything…”
“Ask and you shall receive,” Armoni said, finishing his sentence with a flourish.
“Everyone clear?” Ollie asked, eyeing them intently, one by one.
Kay and the others nodded.
Ollie checked his watch. “Good, now go get some rest. We leave at sundown.”
Chapter 27
Back on Northern Star, Mia took a hot shower and changed into a fresh pair of clothes. She had only been on the other side a handful of hours, but with everything that had happened, her concept of time was stretching out, the way it tended to for accident victims. They had made it out. At the time, that was all that had mattered. But now that Mia was safe, for the time being at least, a new set of concerns had begun to take over. She wanted nothing more than to hear her daughter’s voice.
Mia’s cell phone was on the table in her room. Plucking it up, she flipped through the pictures of Zoey she kept there. Then came the videos. Her daughter’s first birthday, her first steps, her first bike ride. So many firsts, it was hard to imagine they might never find what they were looking for here, not before the fiery end arrived to touch every single one of them.
Soon enough Mia realized even the videos were only making the longing worse. There was a complete ban on any incoming or outgoing communication, except at the highest levels. Her only chance of seeing her daughter again lay on the other side of saving the planet. But hey, no pressure, right? Mia set the phone down with a thud and let out a pained burst of sardonic laughter.
A gentle, almost hesitant knock came at the door.
She rose, looked through the peephole. A young girl with short, curly black hair stood staring back at her. Mia let her in. “Hey, Noemi, do you need something?”
“Not really,” the young girl said, bouncing past her and into Mia’s room. “I was speaking with my sister when your face popped into my head.”
The cloudy expression on Mia’s face seemed to clear away at once. “Is that right?”
Noemi spotted a ragged-looking stuffed animal lying on Mia’s pillow. It was a little dog which she picked up and hugged.
“Mr. Pickles is so cute, can I keep him?”
“Huh? Uh, yes, you’re right, that is Mr. Pickles.” With anyone else, knowing the name of the toy her daughter had loved as a baby would certainly have freaked her out. But not these girls, not after she had seen proof of their abilities under laboratory conditions. “He belongs to my daughter…”
“Chloe.”
Mia shook her head. “Close. Her name is Zoey. Have you always been able to see things about me?”
Noemi was sitting on the edge of the bed, making Mr. Pickles walk along her thigh. “I don’t remember.”
Mia drew closer. “Noemi,
it’s very important. I want you to try to answer my question.”
The young girl stopped moving, her head down, her hair covering part of her face. Mia assumed Noemi was thinking until she saw the young girl’s shoulders begin to shake. Mia slid an arm around her shoulder. “I didn’t mean to push you.”
Noemi turned and gave her a hug, melting that thin barrier of objectivity Mia had always tried to keep with any of her human test subjects. But right now, in more ways than one, this was her daughter she was hugging and Mia drank in the moment, hoping it would never end.
Soon, the young girl straightened and Mia wiped the tears from her eyes. “You miss your mother, don’t you?”
Noemi nodded.
“You’re helping us a great deal, do you know that?”
The girl just looked at her with those deep, piercing eyes.
“I promise you, when all this is done, I’ll bring you and your sister back to Rome to be with your family again.”
“They’re dead,” Noemi said.
That took Mia by surprise. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“A car hit them on their way to work,” she said, her throat still heavy with sadness. Her eyes fell. “Sofia and I knew before they told us.”
“Do you only see things about people you care for?”
“I suppose so,” Noemi replied before returning to Mr. Pickles, only this time showing a little less enthusiasm.
“I’ll tell you what. Any time you need a hug from me or Mr. Pickles, you let me know and both of us will be happy to oblige.”
Noemi smiled, the whites of her eyes mapped with red lines. “What does ‘oblige’ mean?”
“It means to do as someone wishes.”
Mia heard someone standing at the door and looked up to find Jansson, her well-defined facial features tensed.
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