Forbidden (The Seeker Saga, #2) (35 page)

After examining it for a moment, Arthur eased the envelope open.  He took out a single sheet of paper and read it silently.  A foreboding quiet shrouded the room.  Arthur finished reading, flipped the paper over, and, finding nothing on the back, wordlessly handed it to John.  John read it and passed it to Rob.  One by one the letter made its way around the group. When it came to me and Madison, she took it and held it out for both of us to see:

To My Son,

Do not mourn for me.  Is death not the greatest achievement of freedom?  Does that not make it the richest moment of meaning in our petty lives?  Freedom is what I have always sought. But, I could not find it on this earth.

To My Guests,

I am sorry for what you have found.  I did not intend for things to end this way.  I had little choice.  My home has been under surveillance for many years.  Your arrival has not gone unnoticed.  You have demonstrated forbidden knowledge of the crystals; others who will come for you to keep that knowledge secret.

There are things I learned from the Village Council.  The information they gave must not die with me.  Find the ones who can do what you do.  Seek their counsel.  They will answer your questions.  But be forewarned: the crystals lead to neither peace nor freedom.  Make haste to close this chapter of your lives.  It is something I could never do.

You must hurry. Time is not on your side.

35.65, -83.16

“What does he mean, ‘those who will come for you?’” I asked, feeling a swell of disquietude stirring within me.  “Arthur?”

“My only guess,” he answered solemnly, “is the same government force which disbanded the research group has been watching my father.  It seems they kept tabs on the researchers.”

“Even now?  Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“The note says they’re coming,” Rob said.  “I don’t think we should stick around to see if they’re friendly or not.”

“What are the strange numbers on the bottom?” Madison asked.

“Coordinates,” John answered confidently.  “It seems Arthur Eliot left us with one last parting gift.  There’s no doubt in my mind that’s where we’ll find his village.”

“You think so?” I asked.  “Arthur?  What do you think?  You knew your dad better than any of us.”

Arthur chewed his lip, his gaze altering sadly from the body of his father to the rest of us.  “I don’t know what else it could be,” he said, “other than—” 

He cut off as a low rumbling sounded in the background, like a plane flying too close to the ground.  I looked at the others in confusion.  A plane?  We were in the middle of the woods. There were no flight paths anywhere near us.  Slowly, the rumbling started to build, growing louder and louder.

“What is that?” I asked, uncertainly.  I realized the noise had been on the edge of hearing for some time, but all of us had been too absorbed to notice it earlier.  It seemed to come from everywhere at once.

“It sounds like…” Rob started to say, but the sentence died in his throat as the very ground we were standing on began to tremble.  My eyes went wide. I was seized by sudden paralysis.  The trembling became stronger; the rumbling became louder.  The sound came from all directions. The deep bass shook the foundation of the cabin.

“Earthquake!” Madison yelled.  My head shot up.  I saw dust falling from the ceiling.  “We have to get out!”  She grabbed my hand and started to run up the stairs.

“No!” Arthur exclaimed.  We froze in our steps.  “Wait!  Something’s wrong.”

The sound continued unabated.  The walls continued to tremble… but none of it got any worse.  I closed my eyes, focusing on the noise.  The rumbling had a choppy quality to it.  Like something beating at the air.  Like…

“That’s no earthquake,” Arthur exclaimed as I realized the same thing. “It’s a helicopter!”

“What the hell’s a helicopter doing here?” Eve screamed over the noise.

“They’re coming for us,” I said simply.  We were trapped.  There was nowhere to go.  Nowhere to run.

“Who?” Ashley cried out.

Abruptly, all the noise cut off.  The rumbling stopped.  For a moment, there was silence, broken only by the buzzing of the incandescent bulb in the room.  Then a loud zap sounded, and the electricity died.

“What’s going on?” Madison demanded wildly.  Enough light streamed through the window for me to see the dim outline of her shape.  I opened my mouth to respond, but was cut off when a booming loudspeaker tore through the night.

“YOU ARE TRESPASSING ON GOVERNMENT PROPERTY,” a voice blared through the air.  It was a deep voice, used to giving commands.  “WE HAVE THE BUILDING SURROUNDED.”

I looked around frantically.  Fear was clear on their faces.  Arthur senior’s warning had not been for naught.  Somebody was here.  Our arrival had been noted.

“SURRENDER YOURSELVES AT ONCE.  YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES TO VACATE THE PREMISES.  COOPERATE AND YOU WILL BE UNHARMED.  RESIST AND FORCE WILL BE USED.”

“We’re trapped!” Ashley exclaimed.  “What do we do?”

I did the only thing I knew.  I linked to my crystal. 

The blue light burst from my neck, coating everything in its brilliant glow.  The connections seared into place, and immediately I knew the most intricate details of everything around me.  I felt the dimensions of the room, the makeup of the stone walls, the whole cabin above.  Everything was clear, existing in my mind as a perfect replica of the surroundings.  I knew the stairs that led up to the cabin’s first floor, knew the hidden entrance door I had stumbled upon to get here.  I started to feel out using the connections, prodding toward the outside of the cabin, to see who was coming after us – and stopped.  Something tickled the back of my mind.  There was a nagging feeling I had overlooked something.

I shrunk back through the connections, focusing on the entities closer to me.  What was it that poked at my unconscious? 
Wait
—I had it.  The wall!  There was something peculiar about it.  With the overwhelming amount of information the crystal gave me, it was easy to overlook a detail if I didn’t know just where to focus.  I shifted my attention to it, feeling through the smooth stones one by one, and found… another hidden passage!  It led to a path that went deep underground.  I didn’t know how far it extended, but it was our way out.

I released the crystal.  “There’s a way out!”  I exclaimed, and pointed to the wall, right at the spot.  Without waiting for anyone to act I bolted up the stairs to close the door leading here.  I remembered how hard it was to pick out from the wall.  The light was still on in the office, but I didn’t have time to switch it off.  I closed the door and ran back down.

Everyone was crowding around the space I pointed out.  They were feeling at the wall for the door.

“ONE MINUTE!” the voice blared from outside.  I spun around. 
No!  We needed more time!

“It’s right here,” I cried as I ran through everybody and put my shoulder against the wall.  The stone didn’t budge.  I tried again.  It didn’t move.  I knew the door was there! The impression of it was still imprinted in my mind.  I pushed against it. Nothing happened.

“Hurry!” Ashley urged.

I nodded, and embraced the crystal again.  I had to know how it worked.  I felt around the seams of the entrance, and found… some kind of heavy mechanism in place.  Behind the door.  A contraption of metal gears and rods.  The mechanism went from the door, through the middle of the wall, up into the ceiling, and to a hidden lever that was right where… right where Arthur had hanged himself.  I released the crystal.

“There!” I cried out, pointing to the spot.  “There’s a lever there. It opens the passage!”  Rob wasted no time running over.  He jumped, but couldn’t reach the ceiling.  He looked around. His eyes landed on the stool.  He hesitated only a second before grabbing it.  He put his arm into a discreet gap in the ceiling tiles and yanked something down.  A grinding sound of rock grating on rock resulted.  The door dislodged slightly from its hold. 

“THIRTY SECONDS!” the voice blared.  “TWENTY-FIVE SECONDS…!”

“Quick!” I hissed.  It wouldn’t take long for the men outside to scour the cabin, to realize we were hiding.  It wouldn’t take long for them to find this space.  I cursed myself for leaving the light on upstairs.  It was a dead giveaway.

“TWENTY SECONDS.  NINETEEN. EIGHTEEN…”

I could hear boots pounding on the floor above.  So much for the promise.

“The door’s stuck!” Rob vexed.  He was trying to pull it open, but the stone slab wouldn’t move.  “Help, help!”

“TEN SECONDS!”

Everyone grabbed an edge of the door.  “Heave!” Rob commanded.  We did, and felt it move ever so slightly.  “Heave!”  Again, it moved a tiny bit.  Inch by inch, we pulled the door back.  I could feel the men in the back of my mind.  Without the crystal, even.  I knew they were there.  I knew they were looking for us.  I did not want to know what would happen when they found the door to the basement. 

“…ONE!  YOU GIVE US NO CHOICE.  FORCE WILL BE USED.”

“Heave, heave!” Rob insisted.  I pulled with as much strength as I could.  The stone scraped against the floor, moving just a little.  A little more.  A little more.  And…
there
!  We had made enough of an opening to slip through.

“Go, go!” John screamed.  He pushed Madison in first, and then Ashley.  Eve refused his help.  Liz was next.  John stopped for her.  It happened so fast, but I thought he squeezed her hand just before she went through.  All the girls were gone.  “You next,” he said to me.  I nodded, and went in.  Rob came in after me.  John was last.  “Is that everyone?”

“No,” I said.  “Arthur.  Arthur!”  I could hear the men beating at the door upstairs.  Arthur was still in the basement.  I looked through the slit, but couldn’t see him.  “Arthur, come on!”

“I’m not leaving my father!” he said.

“You have to!  You’ve got no choice!”  The pounding above us continued.  It wouldn’t take long for them to break through, now.  The thin wood was not meant to hold out intruders.

“I’m not going to leave him,” Arthur said defiantly.  “He died because of me!”

“And we’ll die
without
you!” I pressed.  “Come on!”  I looked over my shoulder, and saw I was the only one still at the door.  Everyone else had started running down the tunnel.  Rob stopped in mid-stride.  He looked back at me.  “Arthur, come on!” I urged frantically.

“No!”

I had no choice.  I took one glance at Rob, and slipped back into the basement.  “Tracy, no!” he screamed.

Arthur was standing with his back to me, facing the stairs.  He was focusing on something in his hand.  “My father killed himself because of these men,” he said solemnly.  “I will not have his death go to waste.”

Just then I realized what he had in his hand.  It was hard to see in the dark, but the metal shape reflected a ray of the moon.  He was holding a gun!

“Arthur, there are men out there with real weapons,” I pleaded.  “We need you with
us
!”

“They caused this.  They will pay.”

I ran and grabbed his arm.  “Come on!”

“No!” he shoved me away.  I fell back and hit the ground hard.  “Don’t interfere, Tracy!”

A shadow moved in the corner of my vision and crashed into Arthur.  It was Rob!  He had the older man pinned to the ground.  The gun flew from his hand and clattered against the stone floor.

“Idiot!” Rob yelled.  “You’re more use to us alive than dead!”

“I’m already dead!”

“You’re not going to avenge your father’s death by getting killed!” I screamed at him.

To my surprise, that struck a nerve.  Arthur blinked, and stopped struggling against Rob.  “You’re right,” he said.  “You’re right.”  A crash sounded from above.  The men had broken in!

“Come on!” I screamed, scrambling for the opening.  “Come on!”

Arthur ran and threw himself in.  Rob came next. 

“We have to close the door!” Rob exclaimed.  He heaved his body against the heavy rock.  It didn’t move.  “Help me!”

I could hear footsteps pounding down the stairs.  I looked at the tunnel we were in for the first time.  It was all uneven, hard rock.  Rob was struggling to move the door back.  But I had the crystal.

“Get back,” I told him.  “NOW!”  Rob looked at me unsurely.  I met his eye and inclined my head an inch.  “Trust me.”

Rob nodded, and grabbed Arthur by the shoulders.  Together they barreled into the tunnel.  I went with them.  We ran, racing away from the door, moving down the path as fast as our legs would carry us.  I glanced over my shoulder, stumbling in the dark, watching the opening like a hawk.  The second I saw a shadow there…