Jack James and the Call of the Tanakee (14 page)

The commander looked at his daughter and sighed.

“There’s a lot we know. Much more than we tell the public.”

“Yeah,” Jack nodded. “We get that. We all know the government is holding back on UFOs and life on other planets. Tell us something we don’t know.”

The commander chuckled.

“Son, we don’t have the time.”

“Humor me,” Jack kept his eyes on the man.

“Tell him,” Amelia said.

“For as long as mankind has been in existence, we’ve been at war. But this enemy isn’t like any other. They’re not soldiers with guns or tanks or even jets. They’re not human.”

“The Nagas,” Jack said. “We know. And we also know how powerful they are.”

“Yes, but what you don’t know is they’ve been slowly and systematically taking over and directing the human race for thousands of years. They don’t control us all, but they control enough of the most powerful and influential people, and that keeps the human race from evolving, from reaching a higher level, both technologically as well as spiritually.”

“We know this,” Jack looked at his dad, mom, Amelia, and finally the commander. “Teresa told us.”

“Did she tell you mankind has been to the cusp of those higher levels before? Many times—hundreds, even thousands of years ago, the human race possessed advanced technologies. We were enlightened spiritually, and closer to our natural connections to Eteea than even now. And each time mankind has gotten close, just before we were to make the leap, we’ve been thwarted, stopped, set back to the stone ages by a cataclysmic event.”

“Not exactly,” Jack shook his head. His mind raced with so many questions. “So all these machines…they were invented a long time ago, by people just like my dad?”

“Exactly,” Amelia said.

“You sure you didn’t know all about this?” he shot her a cautious look.

“No,” she glanced at her father. “I didn’t know until we met Teresa. I thought my dad was just an ordinary naval officer. Thought his job was boring.”

“Huh,” Commander Klein huffed. “It’s been anything but boring. We’ve been busy. Very busy. Especially lately. It’s been difficult, though. The Nagas are extremely active, recruiting and corrupting government officials and corporate executives. They’ve even infiltrated the armed services—every branch,” he lowered his head. “It’s a damn shame too. Lots of people, good men and women are being misled and corrupted by those evil sons a—”

“Commander Klein, watch your language,” little Lily seized everyone’s attention, wagging her finger like a scolding mother. Liz bent and picked up her daughter. Lily acted fidgety, bouncing against her mother’s chest.

“Lily!” Jack still couldn’t grasp it. “My whole family’s here?”

“We had to bring you all. The Nagas are very thorough. It just isn’t safe anymore, and they’d go after your family if they couldn’t get Ben or you,” the commander tipped the nonexistent hat on his neatly-cropped head. “The Nagas are everywhere, which is why we have to keep this unit secret. Nobody knows about us,” he looked at Jack. “So I don’t think I have to stress the importance of keeping your mouth shut.”

“You don’t have to worry about me,” Jack said. “I’m the True Soul. I was born to lead this group.”

The room got quiet. Even Ben stopped working and adjusted the safety goggles on his face. Everyone stared at Jack.

“What?” he asked curiously.

“True Soul?” Commander Klein laughed. “You’re not the True Soul.”

Jack’s knees went weak.

“I’m not…I’m not the True Soul? How can this be?”

It didn’t take a second for Jack to get an answer. The large film-like entryway made an electrostatic sizzling sound and commenced rippling open. Jack recognized the kid the second he saw the black and lustrous bodysuit, the opaque, glassy helmet which left the mouth exposed, revealing a resolute, wicked grin.

“Look out!” Jack pushed Amelia into his mother and Lily, forcing them all behind the stone monolith with Ben. In one swift motion, Jack spun and reached the pedestal where the O/A was sitting, determined to power it up and deal with this menace once and for all. However, inches before he had the machine in his grasp, it fluttered, shook, then flew straight into the intruder’s outstretched hand.

Jack trembled with fright over the kid’s power, but had no time for fear. The other Eteea machines must have been unearthed for a reason, though they’d been hidden away for a long, long time. No telling if they worked. He had no choice, and jumped at his chance to snatch up the closest one, press it, and initiate the power sequence.

He got the machine on just in time. A shot from the O/A burst toward him and bounced off the protective shield he’d managed to beckon at the last second. He watched the electric purple light ricochet, then fixed his glare on the intruder. He held down on the Eteea machine and let it power up to the max, whirring intensely, preparing to launch a counterattack.

“Jack! NO!” Amelia got in front of him. “Don’t hurt him!”

“Yeah, Jack,” the masked boy said. “Listen to your friend. Not that you could hurt me if you tried, though.”

“Who are YOU!” he rushed forward, his physical body becoming the wind, then returning to flesh and bone before slamming into the intruder’s chest. Even the O/A’s defensive field couldn’t repel such a swift attack. The boy let out a loud ‘
Oof!’
and careened into a rack of electronics, shattering several glass cabinets.

Jack’s mother shrieked. His dad screamed for him to halt all hostilities. Amelia begged both boys to quit fighting. Even Commander Klein tried to stop them. No one would deter Jack from getting to the bottom of this. Nothing would prevent him from learning, once and for all, the identity of this…this scoundrel.

He almost got there. Almost got to the point of grabbing the boy’s helmet, and was ready to rip it off when Jack saw something that made him freeze in place. His blood ran like a river of ice, and he thought his heart had broken in two when Takota stepped between them and said, “Don’t do it, Jack. Don’t hurt him. I-I can’t let you.”

Staggering, stumbling, Jack fell to his backside on the hard floor, pushing away from Takota, away from the masked boy and his smug sneer. Jack pushed Amelia away also, when she made an attempt at helping him to his feet. He glanced at the watching faces and then darted his attention again to the boy, then Takota, standing close, knees bent in a ready stance, and aiming a determined stare back at Jack.

“Takota, I-I,” he struggled for words. “I thought you were
my
protector.”

Takota had no answer. He only hung his head as the commander spoke for him.

“Takota, as the most powerful of the Tanakee, is the True Soul’s protector.”

“Yeah,” Jack couldn’t understand why the commander couldn’t understand. “And I’m the True Soul.”

“’Fraid not,” Pud appeared in a sudden and tiny electrical storm. Then Enola, Ayita, and Cheyton showed up in equally brilliant flashes.

“Pud!” Enola nudged the orangish rascal with her elbow. “Don’t be so callous.”

“What?” he shrugged. “He isn’t.”

Jack studied the faces studying him.

“You guys are serious, aren’t you?”

“I’m sorry, son,” Ben said.

“If I’m not the True Soul, then who is?”

“ME!”

Suddenly, the mystery kid’s visor changed from cloudy and dark to perfectly clear, an alteration which exposed the face once hidden inside. For the second time in just a few minutes, Jack’s blood turned to ice. He refused to believe it, yet there it was, in living color, right before him. Standing a mere ten feet away was the one person in the world he didn’t want to see right now—Argus Cole.

His dark eyes shined like black onyx, reflecting the light from the Eteea machines on the shelves. Even wearing a helmet, his dark hair remained glossy and perfect, with a tiny cowlick ensuring its stylishness.

“Argus!” Amelia ran to him and checked his suit. “Are you all right? Did Jack hurt you?”

Argus giggled.

“I told you. Jack can’t hurt me.”

“That was still a reckless thing to do,” the commander copied Amelia, inspecting Argus for injury. “You two should be fighting the Nagas, not each other. Both of you put down those machines!”

Reluctantly, the boys placed their respective devices on platforms with the others. The machines whined and buzzed as they powered down.

“What in the world’s going on?” Jack threw up his hands. “Has everyone gone mad?
He’s
not the True Soul—
I
am!”

“Jack,” Amelia approached. He backed off, and she stopped short. “I know this might be confusing, but hear me out. Argus is one of the Eteeans. He’s one of us.”

Her father added, “My team has been seeking the Children of the Blue Crystal for quite some time now. We’ve found you, Jack. But Argus—his skills with the machines are second to none, and I’m convinced he’s the True Soul, not you.”

“Sorry, Jack,” Argus giggled again. “No hard feelings, ‘kay, buddy?”

Jack strode with resolve right at the new kid. Takota stepped in the way and Jack halted before running into the little guy.

“Takota? How could you do this to me?”

Takota averted his eyes and sighed.

“I’m doing what I have to do.”

“What? You have to betray me?” Jack pointed at Argus. “For him? What do you even know about him? Why all of a sudden are you changing your allegiance like this?”

“He’s not changing his allegiance, Jack,” Commander Klein said. “We’re all on the same side, here. We’re all Eteeans. He’s just following orders. The True Soul must be protected by the most powerful Tanakee.”

Jack slapped his hands against his thighs.

“I still don’t get it. How can you guys say he’s the True Soul? Teresa said
I
was the True Soul! Is everybody forgetting that?”

“On this one Teresa was wrong, Jack,” Amelia said. “I’m so sorry, but she was.”

“Maybe she got confused,” Argus lifted his chin smugly. “She’s an old lady, right? What is she, almost a hundred? She’s probably got Alzheimer’s or something.”

“You take that back!” Jack darted once again for Argus. Even unenhanced by omnidimensional energy, he moved quite fast. Argus, though, moved faster. Like a cat, he flicked his wrist and, by some unseen force, pulled the O/A to him as if he had it on a string. Threateningly, Argus squinted and the O/A hovered above his shoulder, sparkling with tiny lightning bolts.

“Argus, STOP!” Amelia screamed.

Argus laughed, letting the O/A descend into his awaiting hand.

“Just wanted to show Jack a trick or two. The True Soul needs to have full command of his Eteea machine,” he released the O/A, and it once again levitated to eye-level. “It’s very important to always have control, and to never let anyone else get their hands on it. Right, Jack?”

Jack kept his teeth clenched. Though he didn’t want to admit it, the little hover trick was impressive, and he wanted to know how it was done.

“You can’t do this, can you, Jack?” Argus continued. “In fact, you kept losing the O/A, if I’m not mistaken. Which is proof you aren’t, and can never be, the True Soul. I mean, what kind of True Soul keeps losing his Eteea machine? Not only is that incompetent, it’s dangerous. What if the machine got into the wrong hands?”

“It’s too late for that,” Jack spouted.

“Jack!” Liz warned.

“I’m serious, Mom!” he answered with even more fury. “There’s no way he can be the True Soul! No way!”

“Son, listen,” Ben crouched down and met him face-to-face. “We have to all work together to fight Essinis, and we can’t be fighting one another. That’s what Essinis and the Nagas would want.”

“But…but…” Jack tried to make eye contact with Takota, but had no luck. His chest became heavy and his breath got tight, with a stomach full of manic butterflies. “But if Takota isn’t my protector, who is?”

“We’ll have a briefing about that and many other things,” announced Commander Klein. “Until then, I recommend you all get something to eat, get some rest, and familiarize yourselves with the Black Pyramid.”

“Black Pyramid?” Jack glanced at the surroundings. “What’s that?”

“We’re inside a secure compound deep under a mountain system in Alaska. This is your home from now on. The Nagas and their human followers are everywhere, and they’d snatch you up the moment you stuck out your head. They almost did back at Winmart. It’s safer this way, with you guys living here. So get used to it.”

Jack observed Argus and Takota with a keen eye. The furry fellow still didn’t want to look at him.

SIXTEEN

JACK SPENT THE NEXT three hours by himself, wandering. A state of profound shock set in as he tried to accept, or somehow come to grips with, all that had just happened to him. Argus? The True Soul? It just couldn’t be. And Takota. How could he lose Takota?

He roamed the myriad passageways and chambers of the underground complex known as the Black Pyramid. A mammoth place. One of the guards told him the structure was almost twice the size of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, and probably much older, though nobody could say for certain who built it and why. A network of elevators traveled up and down ninety-nine levels, terminating in a hot and steamy, dark and dingy place. They told Jack it was the reactor, and said the entire complex got its power from what was a new form of clean fusion. Jack only knew it was cooking him like an oven, so he didn’t spend much time there. He also didn’t spend much time in the mothballed areas which made up most of the pyramid, vast spaces that hadn’t been used in centuries.

Everything was larger than life, and, though ancient, looked more modern than anything he’d ever seen, with architecture way beyond its time in accuracy and engineering. Precise, seamless fusions of some kind of unknown metal alloy, rounded off and no hard angle in sight. And the scale. Every room he went into was gigantic. Every floor bigger than the last. He found the dining hall, known as the Commons, and it looked like it could hold two thousand easy. Same with a room they called the Connections Center. And another place called the Discovery Room. Lastly, he came to an area that the guards told him were the dorms. Jack’s lungs emptied involuntarily as he walked in and saw rows and rows of bunks, hundreds of them, lining the room. A grand hall, really, extending the length of a football field.

He saw Amelia lying on one of the beds and sat next to her.

“Are we expecting someone?” he half-joked about the seemingly endless cots, though his nerves wouldn’t die down.

Amelia laughed halfheartedly.

“You might say that,” she sat up somberly. “Listen, Jack. I know it’s not helping right now, but I truly am sorry about this.”

“How could this happen, Amelia? How could you not see this coming?”

She looked past him, or through him, to somewhere else. Perhaps a place that didn’t really exist but in her imagination.

“Amelia,” he shook her from her waking dream. “You okay? You’re starting to act like I do sometimes.”

“Oh,” she shook her head. “Sorry. I was…Jack, there’s something I want to tell you. It’s about my abilities. Things have been happening. Strange things. I think I’m being manipulated.”

“Manipulated? How? By who?”

“I’m not sure, but my Eteea powers have been used by someone, or something. They’ve been invading my mind, coming to me in my dreams and scaring me. But I think they’re doing more than that. I think they’re using me to find you. That’s why I’m here, why we’re here. This place is safe. The Nagas can’t see us here in the Black Pyramid.”

“Why can’t they see us here?”

“This is a sacred place, with an ancient magic protecting it.”

“Kind of like Wind Whisper Woods.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Kind of like that.”

The entrance sparkled and fizzled, then peeled away like an electrified skin and in barged Argus.

“Hey, guys!” he smiled wide. “Let’s go to the Discovery Room for some work with our Eteea machines, you wanna?”

Jack only wanted the kid to leave. He’d had enough of Argus for a lifetime. Then the smart-aleck said something that forced the competitive spirit out of him.

“Betcha can’t control your machine better than me!” he then ran down the hall, disappearing from view.

“That…that ARGUS!” Jack stood abruptly. “I’m gonna teach him a lesson!”

“Wait!” she held his wrist. “Jack, don’t!” she forced him to meet her stare. “Argus is powerful. He’s strong and knows how to use the Eteea machines better than anyone.”

“You gotta be kidding me,” Jack said. “You mean because of that hovering thing? That’s just a trick. When it comes to actually using the device, I’m better than him!”

She looked at the floor.

“What? I
am
better, aren’t I?”

She didn’t say a word, and refused to make eye contact.

“I can’t believe this,” he turned away. “You like him. You like him and you want me to just go away somewhere and crawl into a corner!” he faced her again. “That’s not gonna happen!”

He strode from the dormitory in a huff. Amelia followed, begging him to reconsider, but he would hear none of it.