A Temporal Trust (The Temporal Book 2) (9 page)

“How’d they know?” General Gordon’s nostrils flared; his voice was a growl. Hartling and Cunnings, in contrast, were silent and just shook their sullen faces.

Hearing the sound of raised voices, Marcus, who had returned with Lieutenant Harrison a few minutes before, walked in from the other room. “What’s going on?”

The general was pacing behind the other two men, both of whom had broken out into a cold sweat. All three men had been at it for twelve hours straight. When eyes refused to stay open, Marcus took over a post while the worn-out man took a fifteen-minute power nap. The serious nature of the operation and lack of real sleep kept tempers short.

“The operation has been compromised,” General Gordon said as he twisted to face Marcus. His fist came down on the table with a terrible thud.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, we’ve lost contact with two of our planes.”

“Lost contact? Technical issues?” asked Marcus, trying to acquire information as quickly as possible.

“Every plane is equipped with redundant systems. Satellite, radio, HF and VHF subnetworks—you name it...It would be improbable for one plane to have technical problems, but two means outside interference.”

“And what of the people they were to pick up? Did this blackout occur before or after contact?”

“At the time of contact.”

“On the ground?”

Before he could answer Marcus, Vice Admiral Cunnings raised his voice. “General! Listen to this…”

Everyone turned as he tapped his screen, transferring the audio to external speakers.

“She’s looking at us…”

The audio had some static, but it was clear enough to send shivers down Marcus’ spine. He knew of whom the pilot was referring.

“Can you confirm?”

“Yes. All four marines—even the colonel. No...she’s just looking at us now.”

“G2, who is looking at you?”

“The...The woman who killed them all. The woman who is still standing even after hundreds of rounds. They are all dead!”

“G2—get out of there. Now!”

They could hear the roar of engines. The pilots had left the communications line open. In the background, they heard shouts from the two pilots as the craft was being readied for flight.

Crack!

It wasn’t loud on the recording, but by the pilots’ reactions, it was no minor bump in the dark.

“What was that?”
shouted the first pilot.

“We’ve been hit?”

“No, it’s the ramp. It was opened.”

“Impossible. We are taking…”

The speakers blasted with loud popping sounds before yielding to a permanent silence.

The room in DC was also silent for a few moments.

“How could this happen?”

General Gordon shook his head and threw up his hands. “The only ones who knew all the locations are in this room plus your friends and…” His eyes grew wide. “And that weasel Bracker.”

“But,” said Marcus, “Dr. Bracker didn’t have access to the locations, did he?”

“Hartling, Cunnings—did either of you leave your posts while Dr. Bracker was here? Even to go to the head?”

Both men shook their heads in the negative.

“And no one gave him access to their files?”

“Of course not!” Admiral Hartling was slightly flush at the accusation. “Bracker did come by earlier and he lingered a bit longer than he should have next to me, but I had my screen off. I’m sure of it. I intentionally logged out the second I saw him approaching. He couldn’t have seen anything.”

“Then, perhaps, we can rule out Bracker. He left when we did earlier and hasn’t been back. General,” said Marcus, “the planes that are not responding, were they all from one branch of the armed services?”

“No, sir. Two were under my control, and the one we just heard was under the Vice Admiral’s command.”

“And you followed my instructions that each organizer only knows about his one pickup?”

“Absolutely. Once it left this room, no single operation could have been traced to any other operation.”

“Then the leak had to come from this command center.”

“I’d stake my life on the integrity of these two gentlemen.”

“I have no reason to doubt you or their integrity. But could the system here be compromised? Could someone be listening in?”

The general swooped down and hit a button on the desk.

“Sir?”

“Get me a team to sweep the Joint Chief’s hall for bugs.”

He lifted his head to Marcus and the others and said, “No talking. Follow me.”

The men entered the elevator and rode it one floor up. Without a word, they exited and followed General Gordon down an undecorated hallway and into a small room with a heavy door. Closing the door, he pressed a few buttons on a panel on the wall. A red light went off and a second lamp turned green with a beep indicating the RF signal detector and the spectrum analyzer were clean.

“Now, we can talk.”

“The walls are five feet thick and solid. Completely sound proof,” added Cummings.

The walls were flat without any windows, pictures, or anything else that could house a microphone.

“We must call off all other rescue attempts until we figure out who is behind this.”

Marcus nodded. “I will contact all the Temporal and warn them to stay away. But I’ll need Sam. Have someone take me to the safe house immediately.”

“Understood. We’ll call off the remaining planes from an alternate comm center and contact you after we learn something. But even if it was a microphone or camera, how much information could it have gleaned? It isn’t like we spoke the locations or made it obvious on the monitors.”

“Perhaps someone has access to the same computer network?”

“Impossible. It is a mostly closed system. Any access to the outside world is so heavily firewalled Fort Knox would seem an open buffet in comparison. And even if they could get in, they would have to have intimate knowledge of both the system and military code.”

“Sam,” said Marcus, mostly to himself. “I must get to Sam now. General, can you arrange transportation back to the house?”

“I’ll have Lieutenant Harrison escort you there directly.”

“Sam, are you all right?” Suteko had noticed that he was hunched over in the corner with an emotionless glaze. It was a look that was hard to read and this worried her. Sam was naturally an open book; she usually had no problem figuring out his inner thoughts and feelings at a glance. It wasn’t her gift; she was just a woman who cared deeply.

He looked up at her, genuinely surprised by her presence.

“Suteko...I’m trying to track the Temporal around the world as Marcus asked. Three have gone missing.”

“Missing?”

“Yes, I saw their signatures clearly earlier today, but now...I fear something has happened.”

“Are you always a hundred percent accurate with your gift?” Suteko asked, hoping for any explanation beyond the most obvious.

“No. I can’t say that I am. But lately, I’ve been much better at it, and with concentration, I’ve been able to amplify even faint signatures. For three of the Temporal, there isn’t even a trace.”

“Let’s call the old man.”

But before Sam could stand, they saw the door open and Marcus walk in.

“Listen up,” said the old man as he slammed shut the door behind him. “I have some disturbing news.”

“Let me guess,” said Sam, interrupting the old man’s report. “The bad news is in Greece, Moscow, and Finland.”

“Yes. That’s part of it. Did you...do you sense something there?”

“I’m no longer able to track Ricardo, Aeolos, or Nicolaos.”

“They had lost contact with two planes and then a third was attacked just before I left.”

“Attacked?”

“Yes, attacked. Just before falling silent, the pilot reported seeing a solitary woman who had survived a barrage of bullets head toward the plane. He said all members of the strike team were eliminated.”

“All?”

“Yes, four Marines and their commander. All slaughtered with seemingly no effort. I’m afraid the pilots may have also suffered the same fate. There can be little doubt that Kaileen is responsible. She would not tolerate any witnesses.”

“I can see everyone else.” Sam had his eyes closed and was visualizing the Temporal on an imaginary world map. “Some of whom are in transit which means at least a few were successful. Did you contact everyone?”

“Nearly everyone. I started making calls on the way here. Most have been alerted to back off until further notice.”

Suteko’s eyebrows crumpled. “How could Kaileen have known?”

“It could have been anyone. There must have been a hundred people working on these operations up and down the chain,” said Sam.

“No,” spoke up Lieutenant Harrison who had been listening without comment. “The only person privy to all the locations is Marcus. Even General Gordon has only a third of the list. And every operation was independently managed. That means the timing and final location was only known by one of the three generals here in DC and one commander on the ground.”

“Yes. I further confirmed the three planes that were attacked were not coordinated by the same people.” Marcus was slightly panting from the excitement and having spoken to so many people in so short of a time. “We’ll just have to regroup and then get the planes back in the air as soon as possible.”

“Wait—I just thought of something.” Sam exercised his eyebrows into a serious frown. “It is four-thirty here and that means it must be pretty close to midnight in Greece. It was dark during the attack. Kaileen may not be overly affected by light like the regular Nephloc, but she must at least prefer night.” Sam looked at Marcus. “I remember the lighter that you used the evening I first met you. She appeared at twilight and your tiny light frightened her.”

“Or at least distracted her enough to cause her mask to fall.”

“That and the only times we’ve encountered her have been at night or late in the afternoon,” said Suteko, understanding what Sam was thinking.

“Right. Marcus, I think it would be a mistake to gather people at night. It would be nice to have everyone collected now, but I suggest scheduling pickups for daylight local time.”

“Getting to everyone may be a bit difficult,” said Marcus as he pulled out his cell phone and pressed a few numbers. “But not impossible. They will need to be armed with natural light. Flamethrowers would be most helpful.”

Lieutenant Harrison said, “Sir, would you like a ride back to operations?”

“Yes, but first, we need to visit the president.”

Harrison nodded as he pulled out his cell. Marcus put a hand on the lieutenant’s arm, lowering the phone. “I’d prefer to keep our meeting unexpected and under the radar. We cannot be too careful.”

“I’ll get the car.” Lieutenant Harrison said, returning his cell to his pocket and moving toward the door.

★

As Marcus turned and followed Harrison, Sam touched Suteko’s shoulder and pointed to a corner. Once out of earshot of anyone else, Sam said, “We need to find out what our guest knows and fast. It doesn’t like Ian and me. I can’t be sure that Catherine is with us. I was wondering…”

“If I could talk to it?”

They had left the Nephloc more or less alone since its arrival the night before. Sam constantly monitored its thoughts and occasionally one of them left food or drink for it, but they had decided to wait for Marcus before questioning it. Until now.

“Yes. I can go in with you just in case.”

“No,” Suteko said with a sigh. “I’ll go, but I’ll go alone. If I can show him I mean him no harm, he may trust me.”

“Him?”

“Yes, him. Marcus believes most Nephloc were once humans who eventually wholly succumbed to evil. But while it still has flesh, there is hope.”

“And by its stench, I guess there’s plenty of hope.”

“Sam...Anyway, entering with a bodyguard might scare him away. Just...monitor his thoughts”

“Remember, it…”

“He,” said Suteko, interrupting.

“He feeds on fear. Go in without fear.”

The door opened slowly. The noise seemed loud to its ears. In an instant, it scurried to the corner that it deemed to be the farthest from the door, the noise, and the light that had filled seemingly every inch of the previously dark room.

“Hello.”

It was a woman’s voice. There were two female Temporal that it knew about. It wondered which one was entering the room. It didn’t look up. It still had its head buried within its arms and its cloak tight over the round of its head. But the voice sounded kind. The voice almost made it want to lift its head.

“My name is Suteko.”

It was the female they had come for originally. Its eyes darted left and then right within the cloaked darkness. Surely she was here to torture it, it thought, to revenge the evil they had been sent to do. And yet her voice was soothing, totally lacking in anger. The Nephloc risked cracking open a single eye. It lifted its head just enough to see the figure of the woman speaking.

“What is your name, little one?”

It opened its other eye and lifted its head an inch more.

“Iiits lies,” it whispered. “Do not truust—saays sheee.” The creature’s voice was soft and to itself; it did not think she could hear, but the room was small and sound carried.

“I won’t lie to you, little one.”

The head went buried again. The woman had heard. It shuddered at the thought of what was to come and hardened its shriveled body against the inevitable blow.

The Temporal walked over to the creature and instead of the expected strike, it felt her hand rest on its shoulder with the softness of a woman’s touch.

But it was more than just a woman’s touch.

Warmth flowed through it. The sensation was frightening. It knew fire would kill it and its first thought was that the woman was trying to kill it. But then it calmed down. She wasn’t filling it with warmth from a deadly fire, but of a different kind—something soothing and comforting like moonlight; not the burning heat of direct light from the sun. For the first time since its changing, the Nephloc felt almost comfortable, at ease.

It lifted its head to meet her eyes. “Taank you.”

“You are welcome. What is your name? What can I call you?”

It was silent.

“Well, is there anything I can get for you?”

“Let usss walk.”

“You may either stay in this room or else we send you back to Kaileen.”

At the sound of that name, the creature rolled over to a different corner away from the woman. Few of the Nephloc knew the High Lady’s name, but it had been touched by Kaileen after the other three were killed and for the briefest of moments, it had seen forbidden knowledge. It knew the High Lady’s name, her secrets. Its head was once again buried within his cloak.

“It is okay. You may stay here. We won’t hurt you, little one. And we won’t speak of her.”

The creature lifted its head to look at its adversary. She stood and backed away, but she had not moved far. She was toying with it, it reasoned.
She pretends to be peaceful.

“I have a favor to ask,” it heard the woman say. “If you are to stay with us, we really need your help. Some friends of mine have been attacked. I need to know how you learned our locations.”

“Weee knows nothing.”

“Surely, there is something you can tell me that will help my friends.”

“No.”

She started to walk toward the creature when it exploded.

“Do not come! Go! Go away!”

It felt its eyes burn, not daring to blink. It kept them on her while trying to keep everything else covered by the cloak.

She nodded, backed up, and exited without a further word.

It waited a full half hour before extending its right arm outward. Pulling the arm of its cloak back to its shoulder, it looked at the patches of skin and exposed bone that made up its arm. It was grotesque, even to the creature itself. The skin was gray with blotches of dark brown where the last traces of blood had left its body, staining it. Its left hand’s fingernails were long. Far longer than its right hand’s. It had grown them for a reason, for this moment.

It let out several calming breaths before digging flakey fingernails deep into its right arm’s flesh. It was strange how painful it had been to insert the communications device. As dead flesh rotted, it simply fell off without the slightest pain or sensation. But when the woman inserted the device, it had been extraordinarily painful. And digging it out now had brought back that same intense pain.

It smiled through the ordeal. The Temporal had searched his cloak and patted his skin. But they had not looked under the skin.

That carelessness would enable him to become Perazim, that is, if he survived the Temporal.

Pulling it from under its skin, it quickly hid the device within its cloak just in case one of the Temporal was to come. It needed to catch its breath and calm down before making contact.

After several minutes, it retrieved its precious contraband. She had given it precise instructions. The power source had to be connected and then a code entered before the device would work. The lady didn’t want the device to be activated until it was inside and had made contact.

After making the report, it would once again disconnect the device. It was told to reinsert it into its bone and flesh, but the Nephloc would not do that. Not even the High Lady could make it do that—at least not while she was far away. It would hide it within its cloak; the device would be safe there. It was a minor show of independence and one the High Lady would never learn about, but for the spy, it gave him the feeling of absolute freedom.