The Revelation Chronicles: Evolution Page 10

  “Kara, dear? Are you feeling any better?”

  The feeble, elderly woman’s voice emanating from beyond her bedroom door startled her and she nearly fell off the bed. Ms. Parkman had come to check on her.

  “Uh…no,” she managed to say, after her best attempt at a genuine cough.

  “Well, open this door, child. Let me get a look at you.”

  Kara could feel her body trembling as she climbed off the bed and nervously approached the door. She was not good at lying. Never really had a reason to actually—up to this point. Ms Parkman was going to see right through her.

  She opened the door.

  Ms. Parkman was standing there, one hand resting on her hip and looking every bit the hard-nosed college professor she used to be. Kara was certain the cat was out the bag.

  “Oh, dear. You look like death,” Ms. Parkman said, her voice laced with concern. She gripped Kara’s arm and checked her forehead gently with the back of her hand. Kara just stood there, unsure what to say or do. Ms. Parkman was fretting over her like the charge nurse at a hospital nursery that’s filled to capacity. Kara felt as though she might burst any moment.

  “I’m sorry…I can’t lie to you!” she blurted out. “This is tearing me up inside and I need to share it with someone.”

  “Calm down, child,” Ms. Parkman insisted, rubbing her hand soothingly to comfort her. “What has you in such a fuss?”

  “Charlie left the compound and decided to turn himself in. I tried to talk him out of it, but I couldn’t. I’m so worried.”

  Kara broke down into tears, throwing herself into Ms. Parkman’s arms. Her shoulders heaved up and down uncontrollably.

  Arthur, her father, must have heard the commotion and came to investigate.

  “What is the matter?” he asked. “Why are you crying, Kara?”

  He looked from one to the other with solemn concern for his daughter.

  “Charlie is gone. The fate of us all now rests in his hands,” Ms. Parkman said.

  Arthur didn’t respond, much to Kara’s surprise. She fully expected him to be outraged and scold her for going against his wishes.

  Something.

  Anything.

  But, instead he said nothing. Almost as if he had expected this outcome from the start.

  “Hey, why all the sad faces?” Nick asked, with the usual display of naiveté. He was on the way to his room to retrieve the bag of Funions hidden underneath his armoire when he saw the group congregated in the hallway. He was like a squirrel in that respect, always stashing food away for later consumption.

  “I’m sorry, father. His mind was made up. I should have said something sooner.”

  “Now, now, dear. It’s not your fault. Events were meant to play out this way,” Arthur said with an unusual display of calm, all things considered.

  “What are you talking about?” Nick asked, realizing something was amiss. “Did something happen? Where’s Charlie?”

  He read the expressions on their faces and knew the answer.

  “So much for T-E-A-M,” he muttered. “I knew this experiment of putting us all together would be a waste of time.”

  “Calm down, Nick,” Arthur said, trying to compose the suddenly pessimistic and bitter speedster. It was uncharacteristic of him because he was always so upbeat and positive—something Charlie loved about him. Perhaps he was merely showing frustration at being left in the bullpen with the game on the line.

  “Why?” he fired back.

  Arthur shook his head with an exhausted sigh. Then, to make matters even worse, Michael strode toward them with his new flame, Allison in tow. Things were quickly getting out of hand. All of a sudden, it had turned into an impromptu gathering.

  “What’s going on?” Michael asked, his dark green, penetrating eyes moving from one person to the next.

  “Wonder boy has gone rogue,” Nick said flatly, spitting the words out like one does when tasting something undesirable. Like vegetables. Nick hated them; it didn’t much matter what kind. Just give him anything smothered in cheese or fried in grease. The higher the caloric intake the better.

  Michael did nothing to hide his growing distaste for Charlie. He couldn’t care less and Kara knew it. She didn’t have to be a mind reader to figure that out.

  “What’s his big plan?” he asked in a casual tone.

  “He’s turning himself over to the FBI agent who’s been after us,” said Kara. “He did it to protect us. All of us.”

  She was being defensive.

  “Does he really think this ends with turning himself in?” Michael asked. “Freddy’s beyond saving. We’ve all seen what he’s done. What he’s become. And the government will just keep coming. They won’t stop until we’re all either caught or dead.”

  “I thought I taught you to be more resilient than that.”

  Michael’s whole demeanor changed. At last, Robert, the patriarch and soul of the surviving Alarians on Earth, had spoken. His commanding voice was like a wave in the midst of a storm crashing onto the shore. He could harness the tide and wash their troubles, their doubt and their fears back out to sea. He’d done it countless times before. When Robert spoke, they all listened.

  “Have you forgotten your training?” Sharp eyes, aged but keen as a bald eagle bore a hole straight through Michael, who chose not to respond. A wise decision, no doubt.

  “Have you?” This time he focused his powerful gaze on Nick, who, for all intents and purposes, had seemed to suddenly lose the ability to speak. Imagine that.

  Kara managed a thin smile and breathed a sigh of relief. If anyone could figure a way out of this mess Robert could.

  “I trained you to work as a team. Not fall apart at the first sign of trouble or when things are most dire. You are strongest when you work together. Do not ever forget that.”

  He was right and they each knew it. Alone, they were formidable. But together, they could be unstoppable. The way forward was to end the bickering and unite. They had to set aside their differences and remember what they were fighting for.

  “I have but one question for the three of you: Your leader is in trouble, whether he knows it or not. What are you going to do about it?”

  Chapter 41

  Cain awoke from a restless sleep. He threw back the sheets and sat up slowly, moving his head side to side in an effort to shake loose the cobwebs.

  The same recurring dream had served as an alarm clock for days now, a week to be precise. Each night the sequence was the same: A fall from an impossible height. His hand stuck in a device that emitted huge plumes of green smoke. The very device that served as inspiration for the one he would release on Earth's population soon.

  Someone else was there; someone was with him in the dream. The man's face was always distorted, unable to be made out—until now. This time was different. This time he recognized him.

  Charlie Reese was the man who haunted his dreams. His was the face of all the pain and torment Cain had suffered. He remembered feeling helpless—hoping, praying Reese would save him. He recalled the excruciating anguish while his lungs filled with water. He remembered waking up on a cold slab in the city morgue.

  He remembered everything now.

  Charlie had promised to save him. He trusted Charlie; even went so far as to put his faith in him. But in the end he was betrayed—left for dead in that dark, watery grave.

  Anger swelled in Cain and the walls of his quarters began to quake and rumble. The lights flickered rapidly as though a violent storm was raging outside. But the storm was not outside; there wasn’t a single cloud in sight. It was building within Cain. And he would soon unleash that storm with its full might.

  Charlie Reese would pay for his deception and betrayal. Cain knew his innermost weakness. He knew just how to make him pay. Evolution’s next move would bring him to his knees. It was Charlie Reese’s turn to feel the pain.

  Chapter 42

  Agent Simmons was hard to convince, but I had finally won him over—I think. He wa
s a tough one to read, no doubt a product of his profession.

  We sped down the interstate at a high rate of speed. I watched as Agent Simmons deftly maneuvered the car in and out of traffic like he was playing a game of Frogger. The plan was to turn me over to his boss at some super secure offsite facility. He’d first suggested a blindfold, but then thought the better of it, realizing it was pointless. It didn’t matter if I knew where we were going. If and when I decided to leave, nothing could stop me. Besides, we were both operating under the presumption of trust.

  The silence between us was tense, and for a while, I thought the road noise from the oversized SUV alone was going to be enough to drive me crazy. I leaned against the door and stared out the window, pondering if I had made the right choice. I was putting a lot of faith in a man I knew nothing about. But, then again, so was he.

  Agent Simmons kept his eyes on the road and fumbled in his windbreaker jacket, producing a pack of badly crumpled cigarettes.

  “Mind if I smoke?” he asked, already lowering the driver’s side window.

  I shook my head.

  “Would you like one?”

  “No, thanks.”

  He threw the pack on the dashboard and lit up, inhaling deeply. As he exhaled, what little smoke didn’t waft through the open window filled the cab. The pungent odor reminded me of Arthur and his affinity for the pipe. At least his pipe tobacco smelled better.

  “So… something’s bothering me,” Agent Simmons said.

  “What’s that?”

  “You and Fredrick Carter were best friends, right?”

  “Freddy. And yes.”

  I probably wasn’t going to like where this line of questioning was headed.

  “Our intel suggests he went missing shortly after the incident at the Grand Tower Hotel. His parents filed a missing persons report a few days later. No one’s been able to find a single shred of information that confirms he’s either dead or alive.”

  “What are you getting at, Agent Simmons?” I asked, growing slightly agitated.

  He took a long drag from his cigarette and dipped the ash out the window.

  “That was your friend at the Baxter R&D building, right?”

  “Yeah…” I said quietly.

  I didn’t want to go into detail, but he was just going to keep pressing. I returned my gaze to the window. I could see the quiet neighborhoods with a street light on every corner. An elderly gentleman walked a Great Dane that was nearly as big as he was. On another street, a woman in full workout attire was out for a late jog. Two streets over, a group of kids were flinging a football back and forth under the lights.

  What did all these people have in common, you ask? They had absolutely no idea what was going on around them. No idea their delicate existence was at stake this very moment. I used to be one of them. Now, here I was trying to make sure that when they woke up in the morning, they still had a world to call their own.

  “I wasn't certain that was Freddy Carter, what with the glowing green eyes and all, but I had a hunch. So, can you explain to me how he also has superpowers?”

  “We call them abilities,” I corrected him with an air of annoyance. “The Orion device is a biological weapon of sorts. It was created by a dangerous alien faction known as the Chirac. Their leader is named Viktor. That device is what turned Freddy and I'm assuming his followers into what they are now. I destroyed it, but not before a portion of the payload was released. What you witnessed was its result.”

  I conveniently left out the part about Viktor being my ‘dear old dad’. Didn’t really seem relevant to the conversation.

  Agent Simmons let off a low whistle.

  “This is a lot to process. So… if I’m hearing you correctly, there are not only two, but possibly three factions running around out there with abilities?”

  “That’s correct. Freddy—or Cain as he’s known now—calls his movement Evolution. They were behind the abduction of the Vice President. The Chirac and Viktor have been strangely quiet since the Grand Tower Hotel incident. My people, the Alarians, are in the middle. We're the good guys.”

  “The government’s been playing a game we don’t even know the rules to,” Agent Simmons said, somewhat resigned. “We’ve been chasing the wrong leads this entire time.”

  “Yeah, namely us,” I offered. “That’s why I’m here. Maybe I can help you win the game without having to throw a last-minute Hail Mary.”

  Agent Simmons grinned and threw on his blinker, slowing a bit to take an off-ramp. Braking softly, he turned onto a narrow two-laner that cut a path straight through the dense forest on either side. We cruised past a worn sign along the shoulder that read HANOVER BAY MARINA. I remembered reading somewhere it was a boneyard where old naval vessels went to die.

  Then a strange thought clicked in my head. The dreams I’d had of Viktor. In them he was always in lots of pain. My eyes widened as I began to recall more vivid details of the dream. He was on a ship! This had been a trap all along and I’d walked right into it.

  “We’re almost there,” Agent Simmons said, for his part selling the deception beautifully. “My superiors will want to—”

  The SUV screeched to a grinding halt. The driver’s side front door dislodged and crashed through the brush like an emergency hatch on a 747 jetliner.

  “What th—?!”

  Agent Simmons’ eyes stretched to the size of tennis balls as he tried to comprehend what was happening. It must have dawned on him rather quickly because he turned to me apprehensively.

  “Charlie…” he said, his voice now flooded with extreme caution—like a lion tamer who was about to lose control of a big cat. “What are you doing?”

  I unstrapped my seatbelt without a word and exited the vehicle.

  “Did you really think you could trick me?” I asked, anger swelling up inside me.

  “What are you talking about?”

  He seemed genuinely confused. But, then again, he was a highly skilled government agent. They were trained to beat lie detector tests, right?

  “You’ve been lying to me and setting me up the entire time, haven’t you? You never planned to honor our agreement!”

  I stepped in front of the SUV and glared at him through the windshield. With the headlights in my face, I must have looked like a half-crazed madman. I know that’s how I felt.

  “Look, I don’t know what set you off all of a sudden, but I never lied to you.”

  “Oh, really? Then tell me you don’t have Viktor locked up out here somewhere.”

  His face went as white as a bed sheet.

  “I—I can explain. We were—”

  “Don’t bother.”

  With fists clenched, I tore the driver’s seat from the floorboard of the SUV and willed it upwards and out, suspending Agent Simmons in front of me like a piñata at a five-year old’s birthday party. I actually felt like taking a few good whacks at him. I did have a birthday just around the corner. But all I’d probably be rewarded with was more lies on top of lies.

  “You don’t want to do this, Charlie,” he reasoned. Tiny beads of sweat began to form on his bald head.

  “Yeah, I kinda think I do.”

  Kara was right. Trusting the government was not a good idea. I should have listened to her.

  A gathering rumble from behind me caught my attention and I paused to listen.

  Choppers.

  We were about to have company.

  “Wait! No!” Agent Simmons yelled.

  It should be beneath him to beg for mercy, I thought. What kind of self-respecting manhunter would do that?

  But he wasn’t talking to me. Too late, I noticed the lone sniper in the tree line thirty yards to my left. I’d been so focused on revenge and the choppers approaching that he’d got the drop on me.

  A sharp whistle, like that of an arrow being loosed from a bowstring, sliced through the darkness. My hand shot to my neck, grabbing at the pain that ran like hot acid through my body. Excruciating pain unlike any I’d eve
r experienced before.

  I pulled the dart from my neck and tried to focus on it, but my vision was failing along with my abilities. All I could make out was some sort of vial attached to it. There appeared to be a tiny amount of a strange-looking solution inside. The remainder was already coursing through my body.

  A dull numbness overtook me. I lost feeling in my extremities next and collapsed to the ground, releasing both my physical grip on the vialed dart and the mental grip on the suspended seat holding Agent Simmons. On my knees now, forceful wind gusts from rotor blades bent back the tops of the trees and knocked me completely over.

  Swarms of heavily armed men dropped from a fleet of Apache gunships. Blinding floodlights covered the area. Someone shouted, “DON’T MOVE!” Not that I had much choice in that department.

  A long stick, much like a cattle prod, was shoved into my back just between the shoulder blades. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out.

  Everything went dark.

  My last conscious thought was that I’d never get a chance to prevent the global disaster I knew was coming.

  Chapter 43

  Jasmine was busy running security updates and complex code algorithms when Kara walked up behind her. Michael and Nick tagged along for the visit. After the motivational pep talk from Robert, it appeared they were all on the same page again—at least for now.

  Jasmine tapped away skillfully with one hand while the other held a pencil which she twirled casually in her hair, completely oblivious to their arrival. Speaking of hair, she’d recently decided to go with a bright shade of pink. She liked to shake things up every now and then. Call her eccentric that way.

  “Hello, Jasmine,” Kara said in greeting.

  “Kara!” she replied with glee, spinning her chair around. “What brings you to my little corner of the world?”

  “We need your expertise.”

  “You know I’m here to help,” she said with her usual enthusiasm. “Tell me what I can do for you.”