Day of Doom (13 page)

Jake grinned and said, “Pretty weird place and time to discuss the future. An empty supply closet in the middle of a train station, while we’re waiting for the world to maybe end. So for an encore let’s go find a dumpster and really start getting serious about our relationship.”

Amy laughed. “See, you just made me do it. Laugh.”

He grinned and held her tighter. “You think we’ll make it through this?”

“If we stick together, I think we have a good shot.”

“I’ll stick with you, Ames. Whatever happens I’ll have your back. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, I do. And I’ve got yours.”

It was stuffy in there. Amy could feel herself growing warm. And this made her think of something not quite so pleasant.

“Jake, if anything happens to me —”

He gripped her tighter and said, “Amy, don’t.”

“We have to be realistic about this, okay? So if anything happens to me and I don’t make it out of this alive, can I count on you to take care of Dan?”

Jake   looked   down,   his   eyes moistening. Amy noticed this and she felt her eyes tear up, too.

“I will take care of Dan. You have no worries there.”

“Thanks.”

“Will you do the same for Atticus?”

“Of course,” she said in a hushed

voice.

“But I want you to know that I will die for you, Amy. I will die so that no harm comes to you.”

She blushed. “I know,” she said in barely a whisper.

“Can we stop being so depressed now?” he asked.

She hugged him back. “Yeah. Sounds good.”

Jake was starting to kiss her again when Amy’s phone buzzed.

“I better get that,” she said.

“Can’t it wait?”

She pulled the phone from her pocketand glanced at the screen.

“It’s Dan.”

Jake was still holding her. “Just onemore minute.” His lips dipped to hers.

She jerked back.

“Hey, my kiss wouldn’t be that bad,”complained Jake.

“It’s not that. Something’s going on inthe center of the station. Dan said to come

now!”

She raced out of the storage closet.

Jake stared at Amy wearily, then

hustled after her.

Sometimes a guy just can’t win.

A voice was booming over the station PAsystem.

Jake had caught up to Amy before shereached the center of the station.

“Amy, what’s going on?” he asked.

“Who’s that talking?”

“Over here,” said a voice.

They both turned and saw Dan motioning to them from a corner of the long hall. “This way,” he said urgently.

They ran over to him. Atticus was also there.

“This way, quick,” said Dan.

“What’s that loud voice?” asked Jake as they ran along.

“It’s   coming   from   a   press conference,” said Atticus. “Loudspeaker system piped throughout the station.”

“It’s being held in the middle of the station,” added Dan.

“A press conference? Who’s holding it?” asked Amy.

“You’re never going to believe it,” exclaimed Atticus.

“These days I’ll believe anything,”

she countered.

“It’s Isabel Kabra,” replied Dan. “She’s holding a press conference on AWW. This should really be good.”

As they ran toward the center of the station, the voice grew louder and louder.

He stood in front of a large, ornate mirrorthat hung on one wall and studied himself. He wasn’t tall, at least in stature. Aboutfive-six. His hair was brown and wavy. His build was slight. But he was wiry,with more strength inside him than showedfrom his frame. His features were sharp,pugnacious —  some would say ratlike. But people who thought he resembled arodent were just jealous. And besides,

what he looked like was just wallpaper.

What counted was what was on the

inside. He came from a long line of great

men.

“My name is Damien Vesper,” he said to the reflection, and as the words came out of his mouth he smiled and his

chest swelled with pride.

“And   my   father   was   Damien

Vesper.”

He smiled again.

“And we are both directly related tothe first Damien Vesper, who gallantlybattled and defeated Gideon Cahill all

those centuries ago.”

His smile now spanned his face as he recalled his family’s domination of the Cahills.

At least, that’s how the Vespers saw

it. And that was the crux of it. Vespers were winners. They always had been and they always would be. Which meant the Cahills, despite their wealth and status, would always be losers.

He had risen to be Vesper One at the tender  age  of  twenty-three,  not  by birthright, although that should count for something, but rather by ability. He was, simply, the most ruthless of all the Vespers, willing to do anything, kill anyone, to accomplish his goals.

He lifted his sleeve, revealing the large burn on his arm. It was ugly, still painful, but he wore it as a badge of honor. He could take the pain. He could bear the wounds, because he came from greatness.

But as spectacular as his bloodline

was, he planned to surpass them all to become the greatest Vesper of all.

He turned away from the mirror and continued to turn things over in his head.

Damien  Vesper  was   superb  at brooding. He found it useful to think things through. Also, he liked to be alone. He did not care for people, really. Which was one reason he had no qualms about killing lots of them. For him, most people didn’t deserve to live. They were useless, pathetic losers taking up precious space on a chunk of rock moving in slow circles in the solar system around a boiling mass of energy called the sun. For Damien Vesper, it was time to do some serious pruning of the human race. And he now had the means to do so.

He   had   constructed   this   little

chamber as a personal retreat. It actually was built to mirror the private chamber of King Louis XVI. The little king married to the beautiful Marie Antoinette was a

favorite model for Damien. He liked the

king’s arrogance, his disregard for others. He liked his unquenchable thirst for power and the fact that he did not care in the least who was hurt by it. This was a world where one had to look out for oneself. And those who were clearly superior   to   others   must   have   no reservations   about   exerting   that

superiority.

However, he did not want to share the king’s fate. Being beheaded by guillotine by French revolutionaries was not how he wanted to leave the world. He

was not afraid of death. He simply wanted

to go out on his own terms.

He rose and looked out the window.

What was staring back at him was starkand foreboding. It had truly begun. Damienhad imposed his will on the very planet. The strange-looking sky, the unpredictablewinds, magnetic fields gone haywire: Mother Nature herself was under his

power.

But now there were decisions to be made. Disloyalty could not be tolerated. Ian Kabra had given Damien, stupidly enough, valuable information about his mother. Damien had always harbored doubts about Vesper Two. It was a known fact that if anyone rivaled him for sheer, audacious, unbridled ambition, it was Isabel Kabra. Yet the foolish woman

should have worked harder to maintain the

secrecy of her ambitions. She was acting as though Vesper One were incompetent.

She thinks she can take advantage of me because I’m young and she believes me unfit to lead the Vespers. She will find out how wrong she is. I am young. But I am more than qualified to lead. Indeed, it is my destiny. And she will not rob me of it.

He would need to purge the traitors from his ranks. It actually wouldn’t be that difficult. Damien knew what lurked inside other Vespers. He knew how they thought, how they reacted to situations. What they feared. He knew all this because he was a Vesper like no other.

Yes, he would take care of those who sought to destroy him. But then his thoughts turned to Amy and Dan, his

sworn enemies. The Cahills were weak. In the end, they would be no match for him. But other Vespers in the past had fallen to overconfidence. He would not

give them a chance to strike him a mortal blow. Indeed, thanks to them he had all that he needed to complete the Doomsday device. The world was already feeling the effects of the machine, though Damien had not   fully   engaged   it.   The   ancient Archimedes invention was a true marvel.

Its   destructive   power   was   nearlyunimaginable.

I look forward to seeing what it canreally do.

Damien walked to the door. He had

something   to   do.   Something   very important. Then again, everything he did was important.

Soon the world would know verywell what Damien Vesper was capable of. They soon also would know of hisgreatness.

From a safe distance, Amy and the otherswere watching in disbelief as Isabel didher thing.

“The sheer gall of that woman neverceases to amaze me,” said a goggle-eyed Amy, as she watched Isabel perform forthe crowd gathered around her.

Isabel’s amplified voice boomed outwhile a large sign painted with the letters
 
AWW
 
hung behind her on the makeshift

stage.

“Dark days are coming, my friends,” said Isabel, who stood in the center of the stage with a microphone in hand. “Things will be happening that you will not understand. I don’t understand them, either. One look at the skies will confirm

that an apocalypse is upon us. There will be no guarantees exactly what the future will bring. But one thing I can guarantee you, my friends, is that I, Isabel Kabra, and my organization, AWW, or Aid Works Wonders, will be there for you.”

Some people in the crowd started to

clap and cheer.

“Hey,” said Dan. “Those are Isabel’s guys.”

“They’re there to get the crowd fired up,” said Amy. “It’s an old trick.”

“And it’s working,” added Atticus.

The rest of the crowd indeed began cheering Isabel as she continued telling them all the good she would do for them.

After she finished speaking, a flock of reporters rushed the stage and started asking Isabel questions. She faced them with a big smile and an attractive tilt to her head.

One reporter asked, “What danger doyou foresee, Ms. Kabra?”

She turned to him and looked directlyat a large video camera that another manwas holding. “If one could foresee danger,

it would largely cease to be a danger,” said Isabel smoothly. “What we will need to be is vigilant, diligent, and persistent.”

“Anything   else?”   asked   another journalist.

“Of course. The most important element of all. Leadership. I will be happy to serve. I want all of you to look to me when the time comes. Remember who

warned you. Remember who guaranteed that she would be there for you. Even the loss of
 
one
 
life cannot be tolerated. It’s far too precious.”