The Dark Rift: Ascension (The Dark Rift Book Series 1) (25 page)

Jodie felt like she was drowning in confusion. "Dad? What are you doing here? What in the hell is going on with you two?" She searched her parents' faces, seeking answers.

"Well, Helen, tell your daughter why we’re here. Tell her what was so important you had to abandon her … and me … and the human race. We’d both love to hear your explanation." Evan moved closer to Jodie and closed the door behind him.

Jodie felt numb since waking in the room with Mei and Leah. She was torn away from her friends and roughly escorted by armed guards. They wove through a maze of hallways leading to her mother's office. Standing in the same room with them, she wondered if she was imagining this scene or if these were really her parents. "Dad, why do you have a gun? Put it down, now. And what do you mean, abandon the human race?"

"I’m afraid I can’t do that, Jodie. Have you had a chance to talk with your dear mother yet? Has she explained what she’s created here? You have no idea what she’s done or who she really is."

Jodie’s mother pulled a chair over and sat down. "It’s too late, Evan. No matter what you do to me, the plan will still go ahead."

"Plan? What plan? Tell me what’s happening here," Jodie said. She could feel her jaw clenching. "People have been trying to kill us ever since we found out about this place. Why?"

Jodie’s mother laughed. "Oh, Jodie. You and your misfit cast of characters. The only reason any of you are still alive is because of me. I had my men force you into the tunnel. We ran a maintenance train to pick you up."

Jodie’s face was growing hot. "Mother, from what you just said, it seems the only reason any of us are here to begin with is because of you. I don’t understand what you're doing here. Where are my friends?"

"Well, of course you don’t understand, Jodie. You’re too good for all this, right?"

"I don’t even know what the hell all of this is, for God’s sake. Now, somebody fucking tell me the truth." Jodie felt a growing rage rising up and her fists clenched. She looked over to her father, his face filled with contempt and hatred. His gun was trained on her mother. She wondered if he could really pull the trigger.

"She’s abandoning ship, Jodie. She’s taking her little lab into the sky as one of the chosen. A perfect genetic specimen to start a new world, don’t you think? Your mother’s made a deal with the devil. An extraterrestrial devil, no less. She’s taking part of the gene pool and leaving us all behind to watch the world fall apart, literally."

"You can come with me," Jodie’s mother said. "You can be part of it all. What kind of life do you really have here, anyway? Acting the way you do. Those people who you call your friends ... the rest of the people in the installation ... they're not important. They don't have a role in the larger scheme of things."

"What exactly does any of that mean? Everyone has importance. That's something you never understood, did you? You might be my mother, but you don't know anything about me, so don't assume I would join you in whatever you're planning. All I know is, I've been chased since last week, ever since I started asking questions about this place. People ... innocent people ... have died." Jodie's disdain for her mother was increasing with each connection she made. The woman she hit on the road, the coroner, her neighbor, maybe even the man found by the boys in the river, probably all dead because of the Gypsum Corporation. She wondered what her mother's role was, exactly. "What are you planning here?"

"What we're doing is bigger than a few innocent people. It's bigger than all of us. It's necessary for the continuation of our species."

"If you would both stop talking in riddles, I might be able to figure this out. This place … this is what you’ve been doing with your life? Both of you?"

"Only your mother, Jodie. I’ve been more of a casual observer, so to speak. She’s been making her own little gene pool, a concoction of only the best ... isn’t that right, Helen? To send into space and colonize. She thinks she’s saving us, but she’s really killing us."

"Send into space? Are you both insane?"

* * *

Noah stood by the bed, staring at his friend. "Fester? What are you doing here? How did you get here? We've been looking all over for you."

"My dad. He had some guys bring us here when I was sick. Cool dog," Fester said, shifting in the bed to see Hunter.

"He’s not mine. He’s Nick’s," Noah said, pointing at a blood-covered weary Nick who was being helped to a chair by Noah's mother. Shifting his focus back to Fester, Noah said, "Man, you look bad. What happened at your house? I went through the window." Glancing up at Bonnie Martin, Noah felt embarrassed. "Uh, sorry, Mrs. Martin. I got inside and the door was all busted up and stuff."

Fester looked at his mother and she nodded.

"They broke in our house, these guys with white suits on. They grabbed my mom and took her to a van parked in our driveway. Then they came for me. I kicked one of them hard, in the ... well, you know where. I pulled off his mask and he got all freaked out, like he couldn’t breathe or somethin’, and ran out the door. I ran behind him to try to get to my mom and another guy chased me down the street, but I had to stop cuz my leg hurt real bad. You shoulda been there. It was like, epic."

"What did you do then?" Noah asked, feeling a little bit sad he'd missed all the action.

"I thought I lost the guy chasing me, so I went back to see where my mom was and the van was gone, so I went in through the window and locked the front door so they couldn't get back in. I looked all over, but she wasn’t inside. Then, I heard the van again, so I went back out the window. That’s where some big dude grabbed me. He, like, put his hands around my neck so I couldn't breathe and stuff. It was really weird. They drove us in the van all night to some office building. We got in this elevator and came down here. We came in and my dad was here."

"Did they grab him, too?" Noah asked, thinking he already knew the answer to that question. He already knew Mr. Martin was creepy.

"No, my dad says he works here."

Noah noticed the look on Fester's mom's face. She looked around the room, not at anyone in particular. Noah thought she must be embarrassed because her husband was part of all this. When she turned her head, he noticed a bandage on her neck. She spoke in a barely audible voice.

"Evan said to give you this," Fester's mom said, handing an envelope to the man who brought them to Fester. Noah realized this must be Isaiah, the same man Jodie talked about when they were at the cabin.

"I ... we ... Tim and I didn't know anything about this place. I'm sorry for what you've had to go through to get here, but you have to stay out of sight. They'll kill all of you. They've been disposing of people since we got here." Her eyes filled with tears. She reached over to the bed to touch Fester.

Isaiah opened the envelope and pulled out a plastic film. "This will get us through security at the elevators." Pointing to the bandage on Fester's mom's neck, Isaiah said, "They hurt you too, didn't they? They put trackers in you and Tim, right?"

Fester's mom nodded. "David ... my husband ... he told us we couldn't leave or the device would become radioactive or something. He said we'd die."

Noah's stomach started to roil at the thought of Fester and his mother not being able to leave.

"Nick, we need your help," Isaiah said. "Tim and Bonnie have disc-shaped tracking devices inserted in their necks. I don't know anything about these discs other than they start to emit radiation when they're taken a distance from some sort of source signal. In other words, they can't leave unless the devices are removed. I need you to take them out."

Nick stood, with help from Noah's mom. He wavered on his feet. "I don't know how to do something like that. And we have no meds or anesthesia. What are you asking me to do?"

"You know exactly what I'm asking you to do. We have no choice. None at all. I'm going to look for Jodie. Her father brought me down here to find all of you. Now it looks like he's gone looking for Jodie, himself. I'm going to try and find everyone and we’ll all get out of here together. Be ready for us." Isaiah turned to leave the room and ducked down abruptly. "Everybody, get down. Someone's coming. Grab Hunter."

Noah scrambled across the room and ducked down next to his mother, who crouched behind Nick. Nick shoved Hunter over to him and Noah grabbed onto the dog's collar, holding tightly. Noah pushed Hunter away slightly when he realized the dog had blood on his fur. He could still see the scene he'd peeked at while being carried out of the room by Nick. Bob lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood. Noah desperately wanted to cry again. Seconds later, he wanted to hit something, but couldn't do that, either. He felt defeated.

Noah could hear footsteps coming in their direction and saw Isaiah spring up from his hiding spot and grab a man entering the room. Nick jumped up and knocked the man to the ground, pulling a gun out of his hand.

"What the hell?" the man blurted out.

Fester's mom stood up and pointed. "Isaiah and Nick, this is my husband, David."

"Let me go, you idiots," Mr. Martin commanded.

Hunter barked and growled low at Fester's dad. Noah realized Hunter felt danger from this man. For some reason, he did too. He'd only seen Mr. Martin two or three times over the entire time he knew Fester, but knew he didn't like him for the way he treated his family. Now, it looked like there were other reasons not to like him.

Mr. Martin looked back and forth between Noah and Christy. "Why are you here? What business do you have coming here?"

Noah’s mom held up her hand to stop Noah from responding. "We came to find Tim and Bonnie," she said. "Noah was worried about Tim after he went to your house and found the door broken and your wife and son gone. You people … your people tried to kill us. They killed a police officer who was with us and forced us down here. They murdered our friend ... what is so important down in this hellhole that they would want to do that?"

Mr. Martin was silent for a moment, then said, "You have no idea what you’ve stumbled into."

Nick moved over abruptly and grabbed Mr. Martin's arm. "I don’t know about you, Isaiah, but I’ve had enough of this bullshit."

Isaiah nodded and the two men led Fester's dad back out of the room and into the hallway, where they sat him down against the wall. Nick reached over and pulled the door shut, but Noah could still hear their voices and stood up to see what was going on. On the other side of the room, his mother was speaking loudly. Noah thought she might be trying to keep Fester from hearing what was happening in the hallway.

Isaiah stood in front of Mr. Martin. "Where is everyone?"

"What do you mean, where is everyone?" Mr. Martin laughed. "They're already on their way. I need to take my family right now or we'll miss our train."

"Really?" Isaiah said in a sarcastic tone. "Taking a trip? Where are you headed?"

"You wouldn't understand. You and that useless FBI."

"What do you know about the FBI?"

"We all knew about you as soon as you started your investigation. We knew when they got in the vent, too," Mr. Martin said, pointing to Nick and addressing him. "How do you think you got down here so easy? You weren't a little suspicious when a maintenance train showed up to pick you up?"

Nick grasped the front of Mr. Martin's shirt. "And the welcoming committee that met us, was that your idea?"

Mr. Martin didn't respond, but Noah could see the slight smile on his face, even from a distance. The look on his face made Noah angry as he thought about what happened to Bob. Noah wondered if Mr. Martin was really smart enough to work at a place like this.

"I should kill you, you son of a bitch." Nick's hands moved up to the man's neck.

"Nick, back off." Isaiah pulled on Nick's arms, trying to pry them off. "We need him. He can tell us how to take out the tracking devices."

Nick shifted his view to Isaiah, and released the pressure on Mr. Martin's neck. Noah lost sight of Nick as he slumped to a sitting position against the wall behind him.

Mr. Martin coughed and spat. "You need me ... for what?"

"Your wife and son both have tracking devices inserted in their necks. You'll show Nick how to remove them."

"Now, why the fuck would I do that? You don't seem to understand. We're leaving and there's nothing you can do about it."

Isaiah moved close to Mr. Martin's face. Noah could barely hear what they were talking about and put his ear against the window. He felt hatred for Fester's dad building in him.

"I'm aware of your plan, David," Isaiah said. "What I can tell you is this. We're also leaving, but we're going back up to the surface of the planet. I don't really care if you come with us or not. In fact, if you don't work with me on this -- if you don't show Nick how to remove those tracking devices -- I'll stuff you in maintenance closet and handcuff you to a shelf. Then, I may or may not shoot you in the head. Now, you'll get up off this floor and go in the next room. You'll show Nick where he can find medical supplies. You'll tell him what to do to remove the tracking devices. Otherwise, the shot in the head will come first. Are we clear?"

Mr. Martin turned and spat again. In a raspy voice, he responded, "It won't matter anyway. We're all going to die. We probably missed the train by now."