Black Onyx Duology (7 page)

16

James
was the first to snap out of shock. He walked over to Dillon and stood silent a while before touching the suit.

“I went back to the city,” Dillon said.

“So I see.”

“This was in that tower. In a chamber underneath the city.
”

“You just put on a strange…artifact?”

“It’s probably more accurate to say it put me on.”

George was walking up now. “What the hell! I told you no one gets anything without me. This trip is over!”

He went to grab Dillon and instinctively, Dillon raised his hand. Without a single touch, George was thrown off his feet, flying back and tumbling head over heels.

“George!”
James said, running over to him.

“Oh crap
, is he okay?”

James
bent over the man, checking his head for wounds. He was fine, though in shock.

“How did you do that?”
James said. “You didn’t touch him.”

Dillon shook his head. “I don’t know. I just thought about pushing him back.”

When George was on his feet, he glared at Dillon and then turned away and headed back to camp.

James
stood. “He knows what it is.”

“What?”

“That wasn’t a normal reaction to what we just saw, Dillon. He knew about it.”

Dillon walked to the tent just behind
James. Inside, George was packing up his gear.

“You knew about this,”
James said.

“Yeah, I knew.”

“But you couldn’t find it.”

“No.”

“What is it?” Dillon asked, his voice echoing in the tent.

“It’s how they mapped the coastline. It’s a weapon. At least I think it’s a weapon.”

“How did you know about it?”

George sat down on a small cot. “My grandf
ather was one of the first Norwegian explorers to this part of Queen Maude Land. He found the city. He called it Atlantis, mistakenly I think, but who knows. He thought the earth had shifted and Atlantis had been buried here, under a mile of ice. He never published his findings. My father and he spent their entire lives exploring that city, and they didn’t find anything. Where did you find it?”

“In the tower. Underneath the city.”

“We searched everywhere, including the tower. There’re no entrances.”

“It…
allowed me in. I don’t know why.”

George was quiet a moment. “That suit was in some of their writings. Reformed Minoan, that’s what my grandfather called their language.
He disappeared here shortly after. My father abandoned it after that. He said something was inside the city and he wasn’t ever going to bring me here. But I found it without him.”

James
said, “Do you know how it works?”

“Magnetic putty, that’s what my grandfather called it in his journals.
The closest translation. It creates a magnetic field around the wearer. You’re not really flying so much as pushing against the magnetic field of the earth, maneuvering around inside it. But these were special suits. Reserved for their priests. Not everyone can wear them. I think that’s what happened to my grandfather. I think he discovered the suits and it killed him.”

“There’s something down there,” Dillon said. “I don’t know what it is. Something…alive.”

“The writings said the suits had a modification. Something that was added to it. It…distorted the user’s mental and physical state.”

“That’s how they were destroyed,” Dillon said.

“What?”

“I saw it. I saw it when that th
ing down there touched me. Their civilization was destroyed by giants. Men in these suits were fighting them…they were killing each other.”

“Why did you need us up here?”
James said.

“I’m bankrupt,” George said. “
I’ve spent everything I had exploring this city…but I had to come back. Those suits…those suits…I mean, who knows how much power they contain. I had to come back. So I went to Henry and he agreed to finance two expeditions.”

“One question,” Dillon said. “Do you know how to get out of this thing? It split down the middle to let me in but there’s no seams or cracks.”

“I don’t know how it’s controlled. None of their writings ever described in detail how they worked. I think they were worried about their enemies getting their hands on the suits.”

“How did you get in?”
James said.

“I told you, it sucked me in.”

“Well, it must’ve responded to you. That means you can get yourself out.”

Dillon straightened up but the tent was too low. He stepped outside and closed his eyes. He emptied his mind, the images of slaughter fresh. He forced them out, counting slowly to ten, his mind blank in between the numbers.

He felt the freezing chill of the Antarctic wind and opened his eyes. The suit was open. He stepped out and it closed up again.

Dillon stood staring at it. “Gentlemen, I do believe all of us just got very, very rich.”

17

The next day, it was decided that the expedition was over. Dillon wouldn’t take them down there again, insisting the black substance was far too dangerous. They decided that the suit was enough of a find to make the expedition worthwhile. Whatever it sold for would be split three ways among them, after Henry’s cut.

On the voyage back, Dillon sat on the yacht, staring at the suit that was set up on the deck.
James had tried to enter it, as had George. It wouldn’t open for any of them. But when he had walked to it, it opened up wide and engulfed him. He tested it several times and the principle held true: He was the only one that could use it. It had…bonded to him somehow.

Henry had been notified that they’d found an artifact unlike anything that had ever been discovered. Though
tentative, once they had described what they were bringing back with them, Henry could not name a figure high enough. What would a government pay to have the ability for their soldiers to fly and have the strength to run through walls? It was, he said, a blank check.

James
stepped out of the cabins and came and sat by him. It was freezing and they were both bundled up tight, a battery-powered space heater in front of them. They didn’t speak at first and instead just stared at the glimmer of the stars off the water.

“I don’t think we should sell it,” Dillon said.

“What?”

“I don’t think we should sell it,
James.”

“What exactly would we do with it otherwise? Use it as a lawn decoration?”

“I ran through walls like they weren’t there. I can fly. Who knows what else that thing can do? Why do we need to sell it?” He leaned toward him. “What if I go to the diamond mines in Zaire? I can bore into the caves and take whatever I want.”

“Dillon, we don’t know how this suit operates. What if it’s dangerous? How is it powered? You could be halfway to the center of the earth when it runs out of batteries…so to speak.”

“I don’t think so. I can feel its…power. George said it uses magnetism; I think that’s what powers it somehow.”

James
shook his head. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Give me a week,
James. Forget that, give me a couple days. Let me show you.”

“It’s half Henry’s and then you and I only have a third stake ownership each. They
may not wish for us to keep it.”

“We’ll buy them out. They’ll be
millionaires, what’ll they care.”

James
exhaled. “The diamond mines of Zaire.”

“How long have we been saying we would go there? I’ll fly in, take as much as I can carry, and get out of there. It’s not like De Beers is going to miss it.”

James looked back to the suit. “We don’t know what it is, Dillon.”

He thought a moment and then stood up. “I’m going to the mainland. I’ll meet you there.”

“We’re over the ocean. Just be patient.”

Dillon walked to the suit. He stripped down to just his thermals and got inside. The suit instantly filled him with a calm euphoria. He looked up and began to drift. Pulling his arms close to his body, he sped over the ship and glanced down to the inky black ocean below. The
Falklands weren’t far and he tilted forward and began heading in that direction. The wind flowed over him like the sea and he drifted upward to the low flying clouds and slowed as he went through them. He then shot up into the sky, gaining altitude so quickly he felt sick.

The ship was just a dot of light below him now. It was amazing how quickly he had lost all fear of this suit. It was almost as if the suit could sense his fear and calm him…sense his sadness and give him euphoria.

He propelled himself forward toward the mainland. Wanting to see just how fast the suit could go, he straightened himself like an arrow and concentrated.

The ocean below him was a blur.
The land raced at him, moving so fast he was barely able to register what he saw.

He shot past the Falklands and continued over the sea. He turned
north, having only a vague sense that he would hit South America eventually. He loved Rio de Janeiro; maybe he would take a quick stop there?

As he concentrated, emptying his mind and allowing the suit to guide him with its momentum, the speed only increased. He had to see where he was going using the periphery of his vision, much like
speed-reading. Everything else was distorted and out of focus.

He flew until his back ached and his neck was throbbing from the strain. When he finally slowed, he was so far inland he could hardly see the ocean. He was hovering over a massive city, the
lights sparkling as brightly underneath him as those in the sky. Coming in low, he could see a dance club with a line outside. He spotted a park nearby and landed among some trees. He closed his eyes and when he opened them, the suit was open. Stepping out, the warm weather was like a blanket around him, and he could smell the fresh scent of grass and trees.

He was wearing thermal pants and a Columbia collared shirt with Vibram shoes. Not the best outfit for fitting in, but not the worst either. The suit, he found earlier, was essentially immobile. It weighed probably upwards of
two to three thousand pounds, James had guessed, and even with a winch and five men they couldn’t budge it. Dillon wasn’t worried about theft.

Walking across the park, he got to the main street and tried to look at the license plate
s on the cars passing him. He was able to speak some Spanish and though the language on the plates was close, it wasn’t identical. It was Portuguese. He was in Brazil, though he couldn’t guess which city.

He walked across the street and found the club that he had eyed. The line was only ten or so deep and he waited. There was no cover charge and he knew the watered down alcohol was where they made their money.

The club was packed and the heavy bass of the music vibrated his feet. He walked to the bar, which was off to the side and a little quieter than the main floor. He sat and the bartender came to him.

“
O que posso fazer por você?”

“Um, English?”

“Sim. A little.”

“Heineken?”

“Sim.”

The bartender took out a Heineken and popped the top. “
Isso será de quatro real.”

“I only have dollars,” Dillon said, taking out a small wad of cash he had brought in his shirt pocket.

“Five dollars.”

He handed hi
m the cash and took a sip of beer. Turning to look at the writhing bodies in the club, he realized he missed home. Not home, exactly. He missed Jaime. He thought about calling her but knew he couldn’t hear her inside with all the noise. And it was probably the middle of the night back in Honolulu.

“You’re definitely American,” he heard a
n accented voice say. He looked over to see an attractive blond, about his age, sit down next to him. She held up a cigarette and waited.

Dillon reached to the package of matches on the bar. He struck one and then lit her cigarette.

“How can you tell?”

“Only an American would wear pajamas to a party in this country. Everyone else is trying to show off how rich they are.”

He sipped his beer. “You got me. And they’re not pajamas although I have slept in them an awkward number of times.”

“So, what brings you to Sao Paulo?”

“Is that where I am? Huh. I’ve never been here actually.”

“Wow. You don’t even know what city you’re in? You are the adventurer.
Or a junkie. Which is it?”

“Right now, not much of either.”

“Why?” she said, blowing out a puff of smoke. “You not feeling well?”

“I hav
e an opportunity that I’m not sure I’m prepared to handle.”

“Well, my father always told me to try new things because you never know what was going to change you.”

“You believe that, huh? That people can change?”

“You don’t
?”

“I don’t think so. I think we’re pretty much born the way we are. It comes with the package.”

“Hmm,” she said, placing her hand on his thigh, “that’s such a sad way to view things. Are you sad right now? ‘Cause I think I may be able to help.”

“Try new things, huh?”

“That’s my…como é que se diz? My motto.”

He pulled out his remaining cash. “And I suppose this would be enough to experience that motto?”

“It would be close.”

He grinned and finished his beer, handing her the cash. “Keep it. I have to go.”

“Really? You don’t want anything?”

“You helped me make up my mind about something. Consider it a consultation fee.”

She smiled and placed the cash in her bra, leaning in and giving him a kiss on the cheek. “Well good luck in your adventure then, jungle man.”