The Unseen (23 page)

“Maybe the spinster archaeologist will stop acting crazy now that there’s some light,” said Rich.

“I’ll stop acting crazy if you get away from me.” Roberta gave him an anything but gentle shove.

“You two are a match made in hell if I’ve ever seen one,” said Kent. “Now let’s comb the area. Let me know right away if you see anything unusual. Remember, we’re looking for blue rocks.”

* * * *

Bunny looked around the perimeter of the doline, deciding where to focus her time. The thought that she might be the first to find one of these extraordinary rocks raised her heart rate. She wanted to make a difference. She walked to the opposite side of the doline from where the others had gathered. For some reason, she was drawn to the area where the collapsed wall was shallower. Lush jungle trees and plants had walked their way down inside of the cave. Iridescent blue butterflies flitted around the lush green plants and sunlight glistened on mossy rocky surfaces. Winston’s voice broke into her reflections.

He looked at her expectantly. “So what do you think, chief?”

Bunny ruffled his blond curls affectionately. The man always expected the best from her, when until recently, everyone had seemed to expect the worst. “I think the weird rocks will be near water. I think some kind of chemical reaction caused those weird elements Kent mentioned.” She picked up some rocks that lay in a deep puddle of clear water. As she studied them, Winston leaned in so close, his blond curls tickled her cheek. She smiled, thinking what a thrill this adventure was with him around.

He brushed his fingers over one of her palms that held the wet rocks. “You know what I think?”

Bunny found it hard to think about rocks when excited tremors of heat raced up her spine. “Hmm.”

“I think you’re a smart woman. Could I persuade you to be a guide for some of my tours? You could tell people about the local flora and fauna, the ruins we’re walking by, stuff like that.”

Their noses collided when Bunny jerked her head in his direction. She wanted to jump up and down and sing out loud.
He wants a tomorrow for us.
“Oh, Winston, you know I’d love to.” Sun glinted off shiny triangular crystals on a rock, slightly larger than her hand that lay on the edge of a small, crystal-clear puddle of water. “Hey what’s that?” She abandoned the specimens in her hands to pick up the rock that attracted her attention. “Gosh, it’s really heavy. And there’s a few specks of that bluish color we’ve been looking for on the edges of the crystals.”

She held the stone up high so Winston could examine it with her. Their shoulders touched and contentment warmed her core as they shared the moment of discovery together. Winston took it from her for a minute before laying it back in her palm. “It looks completely different from the other rocks around here.” Winston pointed to another rock that lay on the ground nearby. “But there’s a blue rock that looks more like limestone.”

“Wow, that’s really weird.” Bunny leaned over and picked up the chunk of rock. She noticed that one side shimmered like metal and the other side had transformed to a pale blue. “Look at this.” She pointed to the bluish tint. “This one’s mostly the color of that powder.”

By now, they had attracted Kent’s interest. With Rebecca beside him, he strode over and asked what they’d found.

“They’re really heavy. Do you think they have metal in them?” Bunny passed one of the rocks to Kent.

His hand lowered at the weight. He gazed at her, his blue eyes full of surprised admiration. “Oh, most definitely. It’s way too heavy to be any kind of non-metallic mineral. Good eye, by the way.”

“She is a good woman to have around.” Winston laid his hand on her back and massaged it with his fingers.

Bunny felt her smile start deep in her belly before it burst out on her face. “I’m so thrilled that I could help.”

Kent refocused his gaze on the rock and frowned. “This isn’t a cave rock. These minerals appear to have crystallized at a high temperature. It makes no sense that these rocks are here. There’s nothing in this area except limestone. My first thought was meteorite, but now I’m ruling that out.”

“Why don’t you think they’re meteorites?” Rebecca asked.

“When meteorites pass through the earth’s atmosphere, they start to burn. So by the time they hit the ground, the outsides show melting known as a fusion crust. They often also melt so much they get stretched into long shapes. These lack a fusion crust and are igneous, not sedimentary rocks, so the only way they could have gotten here is if someone intentionally brought them in from somewhere else.”

Kent crouched down and flicked his finger in the water. “But it’s really strange. Look how the blue mineral we see in these rocks has adhered to the limestone. It’s growing right into the cave rock. I wonder if it’s some kind of organic material.”

“Do you think that’s the invisibility mineral?”

“There’s only one way to find out.” Kent pulled his rock hammer from his belt. He laid the rock down on a flat rock and ground some of it up with his hammer. He tried to hand-separate the blue powder from the parts of the rock that were unaltered. When he pinched a little of the powder and placed it in his palm, he instantly disappeared.

“Whoa,” said Winston. “That’s incredible.”

Kent reappeared once he brushed the powder off of his hands. A smug grin crossed his face and he cast a sideways glance at Rebecca. “It looks like we just hit the jackpot.” He called everyone in the group over and after they gathered, he showed them what Bunny had found. “Apparently, whatever metallic minerals these rocks are made of, when they weather in water and react with the constituents in the limestone, they transform into the invisibility powder. Let’s gather up every other rock that looks similar and haul them out. I’ve got more sample bags here in my pack.” He passed them to everyone in the group.

Bunny and Winston worked side by side, collecting rocks. As they pointed out finds, looked them over and slid them in bags, often touching hands, arms and even faces, Bunny couldn’t help thinking Winston felt like someone she’d known all her life. She couldn’t wait to plan their first expedition together. He’d said something earlier about an open water swimming trip to the South Pacific. Visiting those exotic volcanic islands rimmed by white sand and turquoise water sounded so romantic. Six months ago, she’d never imagined she’d get such a rush from an outdoor experience.

Rebecca walked over toward Bunny carrying a bag stuffed with rocks. “I heard you went through quite an ordeal to get here.”

“Yeah, it was kind of crazy. But fortunately my new friend Winston made the whole experience tolerable, an adventure, actually. But I was worried about you guys. I feel so bad that I was so much trouble earlier. I wanted to somehow make up for it.”

Rebecca leaned toward her and hugged her before stepping back and meeting her gaze. “Bunny, you’ve definitely done that and more. It was brave of you to come back out here and help when you could have stayed somewhere safe instead.”

“When those men started shooting at us in the hotel hallway, I realized I was ready to stop sitting on the sidelines. I never realized what I was missing until I dove back into the game and started playing again.”

Winston gently massaged her neck with his fingers. “Yeah, you should have seen her—she was brilliant.”

“Well, I’m really proud of you.”

“Thanks, Rebecca.” It felt so good to be appreciated. It made all the guilt she’d felt earlier feel like a distant memory.

She floated weightless in dark space surrounded by stars. A brilliant purple and green planet illuminated her view. Space ships—spinning orbs of millions of lights—launched from the mysterious planet straight toward her! Anticipating their impact, she snapped her eyes shut. When nothing happened, she cautiously opened her eyes. The space ships had disappeared from her field of view. All at once, an enormous dark mass arced toward the planet. A noise that sounded like a thousand atomic bombs rang in her eardrums and pieces of the planet exploded outward in every direction. She caught a piece in her hand and saw the metallic minerals she’d seen earlier in the cave.

The rock transformed to a pale blue color and started to attach itself to her hand. She tried to pull it loose, but noticed her whole hand had turned blue. She screamed. And then all at once she sat inside a space ship, looking at Earth through an enormous glass window in the front of the ship. A man sat at a console in front of her. “Who are you?” she asked.

“One of the Unseen. You’re one of us now,” the man said.

She felt fingers weaving their way through her hair and heard a voice. “Bec, it’s okay.”

She opened her eyes to darkness, but then felt Kent’s comforting warm lips against her cheek.

“You were dreaming.”

She sat upright. “I was. And it was really weird. I dreamed I saw the place where those strange rocks came from. It was an alien planet.”

Kent kissed her again and skimmed his hand over her collarbone. “Don’t worry about that now. Just go back to sleep. You need your rest.”

Rebecca stared off into the darkness, trying to process the meaning of her dream. She knew it related to her recent hallucinations. All at once it struck her.
Ingesting the powder somehow connected me to the beings who brought the rocks here.

“Holy shit,” Rebecca shouted.

Kent groaned and rolled toward her. “What is it, Bec?”

I’ve got a mental connection to alien beings, she wanted to shout. She willed her fidgety body to lie still. As eager as she was to share what she’d learned, she saw no sense in disrupting his sleep. If she talked now, she’d wake up the whole camp.
Plus, they’ll all think I’ve lost my marbles.
“It’s nothing. Just another silly dream.”

Rebecca wondered why the aliens had brought the stones to the cave.
Did they bring them as souvenirs to remember their planet?
She wondered if the beings now lived on Earth or if they’d gone elsewhere.

She considered different ways of explaining her experience to Kent. This latest story wouldn’t be much weirder than others she’d shared recently. She recalled the way he’d looked at her when she first jumped up into the trees.
But the smugglers have that capability, too. Oh, crap.

She stared into the darkness, thinking. Those men would also be super alert, have lots of energy and barely need any sleep. She’d only ingested it once, but what if they’d consumed more of it than she had—who knew how powerful they could become in that case?

The sound of gunfire broke into the deafening chorus of jungle insects and frogs. She frantically nudged Kent. “Something’s wrong—you have to get up. I just heard gunfire.” She wondered if she should ingest more powder. For some reason, instinct told her
no
.

Kent sat up, rubbed his eyes and looked around. He spoke to her in a whispered tone. “You stay here.” He reached under his backpack for his gun.

“Kent, there’s something you need to know before you go out there.” Rebecca kept her voice low.

Three more shots rang out and then one of the men shouted, “We’re under attack.”

“What is it? I’ve got to get out there.”

She gripped his arm to connect with him, since they couldn’t see each other’s facial expressions in the inky dark. “It’s really important.” She quickly explained how she had more energy since she swallowed the powder. “They’ve been ingesting it too, so be prepared for them to be at the top of their evil game.”

Kent found her hand and squeezed it. “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. I better get out there now, Bec. “

“Wait. Why don’t you ingest some of the powder, so you’ll have equal abilities.” She unzipped her backpack and handed him a vial, pawing at the air in the darkness until her fingers reunited with Kent’s hand.

“Okay, I’ll do it. But don’t move. Stay here until I get back.” Kent unzipped the tent door and disappeared into the eerie night.

“Sure,” Rebecca said, crossing her fingers behind her back. The minute he left, Rebecca slid on her night vision goggles, poured some powder into her hand and stepped out behind him. She couldn’t stay back, not when his life was at risk.

She followed the sound of Kent’s footsteps through the brush, desperately hoping she wouldn’t step on a poisonous snake or something equally deadly or creepy. She nearly tripped over a body. So much blood was pouring from his head, she figured he must be dead. She reached a spot where Seth and David were crouched over a fallen body. Looking closer, she saw it was Rich. He was bleeding profusely from a wound to the leg.

She knew right away if the blood spurting from the artery wasn’t blocked, the man would die. Kent and David were both shirtless and didn’t have anything to use on the wound. “Here, use this,” Rebecca said. David whirled around and Rebecca whipped off her shirt, which appeared as soon as she removed it from her body and tossed it his way.

“Thanks, Rebecca. That’s just what we need.” David wrapped the shirt tightly around the thigh to stop the spurt of blood. “Okay, perfect.”

Not wanting to be seen shirtless, Rebecca stayed invisible.

Kent’s voice sounded gruff. “Hey, I thought I told you to stay in the tent.”

“Yes, you did. But you know me—I’ve never been able to stay away from trouble. It’s a good thing I ignored you, isn’t it? The guy could have bled to death. I see you killed one of those lousy bastards? Are there any more of them?”

Kent peered at her through his night vision goggles, his lips pressed tightly together. “I’ve got a bad feeling they’re still lurking around here. Some of Rich’s men are scouting the area. We can’t afford to let our guard down for a minute.”

A hand clamped over her mouth before a gag was stuffed into her mouth. She felt her body being pulled away from safety and into the brush. Since she was invisible, no one saw it happen. She struggled, wanting to toss the powder from her hand, but her captor gripped her hand tightly closed with his. Fear ripped through her insides. In an instant, she could be dead. And then these men might go after Kent. Spotting a white stone on the ground, she kicked it across the ground.