Chapter 15 – Charge!
“I’ve confirmed that she’s very close to completing the aerosol compound. In fact, I’ve decided to move to phase two tomorrow morning, which will require that we move to Test Site Bravo. Make the necessary preparations to bring all of the prisoners with us; we may still need them,” Jared instructed.
“Will do,” responded one of the henchmen.
“We’ll leave at 6 a.m. Make sure you’re ready,” Jared said, and then he walked out of the room and back down one of the tunnels.
“What do we do now?” asked Chandler.
“If we go in there now, they’re pretty well defended. If we wait until they’re loading up tomorrow morning, though, then we can take them out when they are the most vulnerable,“ I said. I turned and looked at Chandler. “Were you able to weaponize the meteor?”
He smiled. “Yeah, I was able to make a colloidal solution with it. I found a dart gun in the Sutherland’s shed and was able to load ten darts with the solution. I’ve got it behind the seat.”
“And the gel gun?” I asked.
“Fully loaded with enough gel for about fifteen shots, also behind the seat,” he responded.
“What do you think, Faedra? It’s your parents, so it’s your call. Do we try and rescue them tomorrow when they’re loading up, or do you have another idea?”
“What if they don’t bring them all out at once? I mean, my mom’s in a hover-chair and all. They could have my dad and Mr. Franklin loaded up while my mom is still inside. If we tried to rescue them then, they could just threaten to hurt my mom unless we give up.”
“Good point,” Chandler said.
“There’s another option. We could go in now. If we use Chandler’s darts to take out the guards, we could work our way back through the cave until we get closer to your mom and dad and Mr. Franklin. They aren’t expecting us, so we’d have the element of surprise,” I suggested.
“Yeah, but we could easily run into some problems with that. We already know that they’re keeping Mrs. Sutherland in a different room from Mr. Sutherland and Mr. Franklin,” Chandler said. “So we don’t know that we could get to them all in time to prevent a standoff where they have one of them, and we have the other two, or something like that. And we don’t know how many goons are in there either.”
“What if we wait until they’re all loaded up?” Faedra asked. “Then we’ll know exactly where they all are. They may even all be together if we’re lucky. At the very least, we’ll know more about what we’re dealing with.”
“I think she’s right,” Chandler replied. “Waiting until they’re all loaded up and ready to move is our best bet. With the only road out being one lane, they’ll be driving single file – more vulnerable to an attack.”
“That makes sense,” I responded. “I think I’ve got a plan...”
* * * * *
The next morning, Jared and his goons started loading their vehicles at 5:30 a.m. We had positioned one of Chandler’s drones so we could see the whole process without being seen ourselves. Both Faedra and Chandler had suited up in the silver hazmat suits just in case they were exposed to some of the meteor during our rescue attempt. We watched the video screen as the goons loaded Mr. Franklin and Mr. Sutherland into the back of Mr. Franklin’s car. They were both looking groggy and had to be practically carried out of the cave to the car. All of the goons were wearing silver suits, so they must have been using meteor fragments out in the open to keep Faedra’s dad and Mr. Franklin out of it.
Faedra’s mom came out of the cave using her hover-chair, and she was also wearing one of the silver hazmat suits. They loaded her up in the back of the Humvee and put her hover-chair in the cargo bay. At least now we knew where she was. Lastly, Jared the Mole himself came out. He was carrying a large silver cylinder with him when he got into his car. I assumed the container was probably holding the aerosol gas Mrs. Sutherland had been developing. I just hoped they weren’t prepared to use it on us when we broke up their little party.
By 5:50 a.m., they started up their engines and began driving down the road away from the cave single-file. Now we knew how many enemy agents we were dealing with. Fortunately, we had already seen everyone the night before. Besides Jared the Mole, there were the two henchmen from the first room in the cave and the super-strong woman.
We were all in place as they rounded the first corner. Jared the Mole’s car was first. He was the only one in the car. He was followed by Mr. Franklin’s car, which was being driven by the super-strong woman. Bringing up the rear was the Humvee with Mrs. Sutherland and the last two goons.
Jared the Mole stopped his car about ten feet from the huge tree that Faedra had placed across the road the night before. He got out and walked up to it, then turned around and pointed towards the super-strong woman, waving at her to come forward. She got out of the car and walked up to the tree. She was about to pick it up and move it when I shot Chandler’s gel gun at her from my hiding spot behind some bushes.
The gel gun worked like a charm. The super-strong woman went down as she was enveloped in a purple coating of gel. I raised the gun to fire at the mole next, but he had ducked behind the car. I heard some commotion from the direction where the Humvee had stopped and glanced back just in time to see the driver, who had gotten out of the Humvee, drop like a sack of potatoes right beside the driver’s side door.
“The mole is on your side, Chandler. Do you see him?” I called out.
I heard some more commotion, and then came his reply, “Don’t see him, but we got the other two in the Humvee.”
I came out of the woods so that the fallen tree was between me and the mole’s car, just in case he had a gun or something. The tree was about four feet in diameter, so it gave me some good cover. When I got to the point where I could see the other side of the car, the mole was nowhere to be seen.
“I don’t see him anywhere!” I called out.
“Hold on,” Faedra said. I saw her fly up into the sky about fifty feet and look around. “I can’t see him either,” she reported.
I cautiously worked my way over the tree and back to where Chandler was proudly standing over one of the incapacitated henchman.
“Dart gun worked like a charm,” he said as he smiled from ear to ear.
“You did great,” Mrs. Sutherland replied from the back of the Humvee. “Is everyone else alright?”
I turned to see Faedra reaching into the back seat of Mr. Franklin’s car and pulling her dad out, then carrying him back towards our location. The closer he got to where we were, the better he began to look. By the time he reached us, he was looking normal.
“Thank God you kids are safe,” he said as he gave Faedra a big hug. “Colleen!” he exclaimed, opening the back door of the Humvee and giving his wife a big hug next. “I’m so glad you’re alright!”
He quickly turned back around to address the three of us.
“Are you kids alright?”
“I think so,” Chandler replied.
“Is everyone neutralized? Any more agents we need to deal with out there?” Mr. Sutherland asked.
“I think Jared the Mole got away,” Faedra replied.
“Jared the Mole,” Mr. Sutherland said, smiling slightly at the name we had given to Jared Spitznik.
“Yeah, and he just disappeared with the canister,” I replied.
“Ahh. That’s not good,” Faedra’s mom said.
“What was in the canister, Colleen?” Mr. Sutherland asked.
“Only enough meteoric gas to debilitate a platoon of supers.”
“That’s not good. Well, then, we need to get John to the hospital A.S.A.P. and alert the director of Homeland Security about the gas,” Mr. Sutherland said.
“John? You mean Mr. Franklin?” I asked.
“Yes, that’s right. They apparently hit him on the head pretty hard when they captured him. He’s been in and out of consciousness since they brought him in,” Mr. Sutherland replied.
* * * * *
On the way to the hospital, I called my mom to let her know I was fine and to tell her what had happened. She wasn’t too thrilled that I had ditched school in favor of a highly dangerous rescue operation, but she was happy I was alive and well and that Faedra’s parents were safe. By the time we arrived at the hospital, she was waiting for us in the E.R.
We waited for an hour before a doctor finally came out to give us an update on Mr. Franklin.
“I’m afraid Mr. Franklin has a very nasty concussion. He’s in and out of consciousness. We’re monitoring his brain activity and have him in the ICU for the time being. You can come back and see him if you like, two at a time, but I can’t guarantee he’ll come back around anytime soon.”
From the look on my mom’s face, you would have thought I was the one in the ICU. I was concerned about Mr. Franklin too, but Mom looked like she was about to start crying.
Mr. Sutherland put his hand on Mom’s shoulder. “You should go and see him, Sandra. Take Dylan with you.”
My mom and Mr. Sutherland were looking at each other in that way people sometimes do when they have a shared secret but don’t want to say it out loud. My mom nodded before turning to me. “Come on, son. Let’s go see him.”
“Yeah, sure. It’s gonna be alright, Mom,” I replied.
The doctor walked us down the hall to the elevator and gave us instructions on how to get to the ICU before he headed back to the E.R. Mom didn’t say much as the elevator took us up. I’d never seen her like this before. I just held her hand and waited.
One of the nurses let us into the ICU and escorted us to Mr. Franklin’s room. The ICU ward itself was somewhat circular. In the middle of the circle was the nurse’s station, where there were several nurses and computer monitors displaying what I assumed were patients’ vital statistics. Around the outside of the circle was a semi-circle of glass walls and glass doors, on the other side of which were the patients. The succession of glass was only broken by the double-doors we had just walked through as we came in.
When we entered Mr. Franklin’s room, he looked peaceful. He had a bandage on his forehead, patches with wires coming out of them placed on his temples, and an I.V. tube in his arm. The nurse told us we could stay for ten minutes, and then she left us alone in his room. I was surprised when Mom walked up to Mr. Franklin and took his hand in hers.
“John, it’s me, Sandy. Can you hear me?”
I stared at my mom, somewhat confused. I’d never heard anyone call her ‘Sandy’ before in my life. While Mom was looking at Mr. Franklin, I could see his eyes begin to move behind his eyelids. A monitor in the corner of the room that I assumed was monitoring his brain activity began showing colored lines spiking up and down.
“Mom, look,” I said, pointing at the monitor.
“Mmmhh...” came a sound from Mr. Franklin.
“John, can you hear me?” Mom asked.
Mr. Franklin’s eyelids raised to half-mast, and he stared directly at my mom. “Hey... San... it’s good to see you...” The sentence came out like he was half-awake, but he had definitely just called my mom ‘San’ – another variation of her name I had never heard her called before.
“John? You know who I am?” Mom asked, her voice getting all choked up as she spoke. This was truly weird.
“Of course I know who you are, sweetheart. You’re my favorite person in the whole wo...”
He stopped speaking mid-sentence as his body arched in the bed. Buzzers started going off and two nurses rushed into our room.
“John?” my mom called out, still holding his hand as his body convulsed.
“You’ll have to leave now, ma’am,” a male nurse said as he ushered my mom and me out of the room.
An orderly led us out of the room and escorted us to the ICU waiting room. “You can wait here,” he said. “Someone will come out and give you an update once things calm down in there.” Without waiting for a reply, the orderly turned around and went back into the ICU, leaving my mom and me alone in the small waiting room.
My mom took a tissue out of the tissue box on the table next to our chairs and wiped the tears away from her eyes. “Dylan, I’ve got something to tell you.” She took one of my hands in hers before continuing. “Mr. Franklin isn’t who you think he is. A long time ago... well, there’s really no other way to tell you this, and I know you’ll probably be upset with me and all, but now that John remembers who I am... This is so hard to say... A long time ago, Mr. Franklin and I were married, and...”
I was so shocked I had nothing to say. I just sat there with my mouth open and waited for the next words that would come out of my mom’s mouth.
“...and then he had an accident. He was injured on a job we were working on, and... and he forgot who I was...” She choked back a sob before she continued. “And after that, everything changed. That’s why I never re-married – because I’m still in love with him.” At that point, she looked directly into my eyes, and I had a sense that whatever she was about to say next was very important. “And that’s why, instead of telling you the truth, I told you that your father had died...”
“What?! Are you telling me that Mr. Franklin is my father?” I was raising my voice, but I didn’t care. I let go of Mom’s hand and stood up, backing away a few steps and turning around in total shock. I turned back around and faced her before I continued. “That... that...” I couldn’t finish my sentence.
“You were born a few months after the accident. At first, I thought he would recover and remember who I was, and that we had a baby on the way, but he didn’t. Then you were born and began getting older, and by the time you were getting old enough to be told who your father was, I just couldn’t bring myself to tell you. By that time, John was out of the hospital and looked normal enough, but he still didn’t remember us. I tried to talk to him, to convince him of the truth, but he just didn’t remember... Finally, he moved away and went to seminary and started a new life here, so I moved here and took a job and started over – using my maiden name, hoping against hope that one day he might remember and everything would be made right... I’m so sorry, Dylan. I did what I thought was best, but I realize I should have told you a long time ago.”
“Well... yeah, you should have, Mom,” I scolded.
I ran my hand through my hair and stared out into the hallway. At that moment, I could have sworn that I saw a blur of something move past the doorway. Before we could continue our conversation, the same orderly who had escorted us into the waiting room burst back through the doorway.
“Did you see him go by?”
“Who?” my mom asked.
“Mr. Franklin?” the orderly replied.
“No, we haven’t seen anyone come by!” Mom said.
“Wait,” I replied. “I thought I saw a blur go by the doorway, but that couldn’t have been him, right?”
“He’s a speedy?” the orderly asked.
“Yes,” Mom replied.
“Then that was him; he’s probably long-gone by now. You should both come back into the ICU and see something.”
Mom and I followed the orderly back into the ICU, to Mr. Franklin’s... my dad’s room. A small note had been placed on the pillow, folded tent-style so that it sat on the pillow like a place-card at a fancy dinner. On the front, it simply said ‘Sandy’.
Mom picked up the note and opened it. I looked over her shoulder so that I could read what it said.
Sandy,
I’m so very glad to see you again. I look forward to picking up where we left off so many years ago, but there’s something I must do first. You and everyone we love are in danger, and I’m the only one who can help stop it before it’s too late. Remember Project Pegasus.
Love,
John
Mom looked up at me once she had finished reading the note, a look of concern on her face. “Dylan, we have to go downstairs right away. If Project Pegasus is still underway...” Without completing her sentence, she grabbed my hand and began walking out of the ICU.
* * * * *
That day it was as if my life was split into two parts – the old part of my life was over, and a new part was just beginning. Rescuing Faedra’s parents, finding out my dad was still alive – none of that prepared me for what was about to happen next...
TO BE CONTINUED...
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Sample Chapter of The Testament Stone by C.L. Wells (https://fictionwithamission.com/testament/)
Prologue
Sunday, July 3rd
The cool evening breeze felt refreshing as Alana Roberts stepped into a small clearing in the forest and closed her eyes. She had learned over the years that it was much easier to tap into the eco-net when she wasn’t distracted with what she saw in the physical realm. As she stretched her hands out to her sides, palms up, and began to concentrate, the green pendant around her neck began to glow. Soon the breeze, which had been very mild when she had entered the woods, began to increase in intensity, swirling around her. The ubiquitous leaves that had been resting on the forest floor moments before began to circle her gently in the air. The branches on the surrounding trees started swaying rhythmically. She turned her face towards the sky as the wind lifted her slowly off of the ground until she was levitating almost a foot above the earth.
She was now in full communication mode, listening and watching in her mind’s eye to see what the forest would show her. A month ago, she had seen a man trapped under an ATV that had rolled back on him when he’d been ascending a steep bank. He had managed to get out from under it, but the initial fall had broken his leg, and he wasn’t able to push the ATV upright and get back home. Alana had been able to determine exactly where he was and had called the police so that rescue workers could find him.
Over the years, she had helped dozens of people. There had been lost children, hikers trapped by a snow storm, injured campers, and even lost animals whose owners were distraught when their beloved companions had gone missing. She had helped all of them with her unique gift.
Her gift allowed her to sense danger anywhere within the contiguous forest surrounding her or in the