The Legend of Things Past (Beyond Pluto SciFi Futuristic Aventures Book 1) (17 page)

“I have learned to hate all traitors, and there is no
disease that I spit on more than treachery.”

—Aeschylus

May 20, 2176

Fort Belvoir, VA

Captain Brain Umar

The General had arrived several minutes before. He wore a
deep scowl that deepened the more he listened to Tobias talk. His lip curled up
in disgust when Tobias mentioned coming to the base to kill him. He took a step
toward the microphone as if in challenge.

They all looked at each other in shock—and somewhat in
suspicion—at the mention of spies. Who could they be? Were they there, then, in
that very room?

“Oh, plenty, m’boy. Plenty,” Tobias said. “But only one
who’s really important. Shall I tell you who it is?”

The room took on an unnatural, tense silence. Brian could
practically feel everyone holding their breath. He leaned forward in his seat,
staring at the microphone, willing the information to come out of it.

“I can’t deny that I’m incredibly curious,” Donovan said.

“I suppose it wouldn’t…” Tobias was speaking and then he
wasn’t.

The feed had cut off. Everyone started talking all at once.

“What happened?”

“Can you fix it?”

“McGregor, get that feed back up!”

“Knight didn’t turn off his microphone, did he?”

“Maybe he really is a traitor.”

McGregor scrambled forward, fumbling with the speakers,
sweat pouring down his face.

Brian stared at him incredulously. The voices of the other
people in the room faded into the background as his focus narrowed in. The
clouds in his mind cleared again, bringing him a new epiphany. Earlier he
thought he’d figured out where the cure was—in plain sight, somewhere in the
army base. He had thought that perhaps the spy system was more than just a spy
system—maybe, somehow, it hid the cure. He had wanted to follow the thin cords that
lined the walls back to their main source. Where was the device that actually
sent the information to Tobias? Maybe the cure was hidden there.

Just then, though, something else occurred to him—once again
so obvious that he wondered how they all could have missed it. Without
thinking, filled with anger at being betrayed and lied to, Brian jumped from
his seat and tackled Colonel McGregor to the floor.

Before he knew what he was doing Brian had straddled the man
and was punching him in the face. Rough arms seized him from behind, pulling
him away.

He stopped struggling immediately. He came back to his
senses quickly, surprised at his own ferocity.

“What the hell is the meaning of this?” the General yelled
in his face. “Have you gone mad?”

The other Colonels were helping McGregor to his feet. Brian
dusted off his jacket and tugged his shirt back into position.

He stared hard at Colonel McGregor who looked at him in
alarm and confusion.

“He’s the spy,” Brian said. “Or one of them, at least.”

Everyone was silent at once, staring at him.

“That’s complete nonsense!” McGregor said, looking
indignant. He wiped a line of blood from his chin. “You’ve become unstable,
Captain Umar. Maybe you ought to sit this one out.”

The rest of the soldiers looked utterly baffled. The General
stared at Brian regretfully.

“Oh, come on!” Brain said. “It’s obvious isn’t it?” He was
frustrated that they hadn’t realized their stupidity as quickly as he had.
“McGregor is the most gifted and admired mind in the field of computer science
and technology! How did he not detect the spying system in the base?”

There were raised eyebrows all around. The soldiers were
looking at each other, eyes questioning. The ones who had helped McGregor to
his feet stepped away from him, as if his treachery were some disease that they
could catch.

“Tobias is a genius, sure,” Brian went on. “But in physics
and biology, not computers. He couldn’t have set up the spy system without
help. The only person in any position to help him outwit the strongest wireless
security in the world was…”

“You!” The General rushed toward McGregor, face red. The
Colonels holding on to Brian let go and restrained the General. He let them
hold him back. Spit flew from his mouth as he spoke. “Do you have anything to
say in your defense?”

There was nothing McGregor could say—his guilt was so
obvious now that Brian had pointed it out. He seemed to know it. His face
transformed from affronted and angry to mildly disappointed but amused.

“Well, I suppose it was only a matter of time before I was
found out.”

“Colonel Hesekiel McGregor, you’re under arrest for treason,
sedition, and conspiracy to murder. By your own admission, you have worked with
Tobias, an enemy of the world, to kill the entire human race and overthrow the
world’s governments.”

One of the Colonels took out a pair of electric cuffs.
McGregor didn’t try to run. He just smiled.

“I think that’s my cue to leave.” He moved his arm to look
at his watch. “Planet Lohiri,” he said into it.

One moment he was there, the next, there was nothing but
empty space.

He was gone.

“I enjoy the hunt much more than the ‘good life’ after the
victory.”

—Carl Icahn

May 20, 2176

Lohiri

Donovan Knight

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt,” Tobias said. “You’ve worked
with him rather closely.”

Donovan was only waiting for Tobias to confirm his
suspicion.

“It’s Colonel Hesekiel McGregor.”

Donovan strained to control his anger. “That makes sense,”
he said. “He’s in control of the entire base’s computer systems—that includes
all security. There’s no way that a brilliant mind like his, with all that
access, wouldn’t have discovered your spying system.”

“Exactly,” Tobias said.

“There’s just one thing.” Donovan was tired of this charade.
He had all the information he needed anyway. He just needed to get out of there
and return to Fort Belvoir. Hopefully his blunder didn’t get them all killed.
He didn’t even know if any of this information had really reached the base. He
might be humanity’s only hope.

“And that is?” Tobias said.

“Why have you talked to me this whole time?” Donovan asked.
“You know that I’m not really on your side. McGregor would have told you as
soon as he found out.”

Tobias smiled. “Yes, he did tell me. I found that it would
amuse me to watch your brave attempt at sacrifice and rescue. To watch the
soldiers at Fort Belvoir scramble around like an overturned beehive.”

“What if I get away?” Donovan asked. His hands clung to the
armrests. He was expecting a storm of clones to burst through the doors at any
moment.

Tobias shrugged. “I doubt that you will.” He smiled
knowingly. “Even if you succeed in escape, you’ll do no injury to me. It’s like
I told you all before—it doesn’t matter how much you know of my plans. I’ve
already won. There’s nothing you can do.”

A figure appeared in the room with them.

Tobias stood casually. Startled, Donovan jumped from his
seat. Realizing who it was, his eyes narrowed.

“Colonel McGregor,” he said. “Or should I just call you
Hesekiel now? You won’t be working for the Army and Space Force anymore.”

McGregor walked toward them nonchalantly. “Hesekiel will do
just fine, thank you.”

“Welcome back,” Tobias said. “My grandson and I were just
having a nice chat.”

“Don’t call me that,” Donovan snapped.

Tobias smiled. “So we’ve lost all the giddy family
togetherness, have we?”

“We’ve never been family, Tobias,” Donovan said. “The man
who raised me was the purest version of you. He’s my family. Not you.”

“How absurd,” Tobias said. “Unlike the rest of the specimens
here, that was the original me. The body I inhabit now is an exact clone of
that one. We’re one and the same.”

Donovan shook his head.

“Face it, boy,” Tobias said. “You were raised by only half a
man. The real thing is standing before you.”

Overwhelmed with anger, Donovan launched himself forward.

Before he could get his hands on Tobias, a force hit him
from the side. McGregor had tackled him to the floor. Donovan tried to get up,
but McGregor had him pinned firmly. With a herculean effort, Donovan pushed
McGregor off him.

McGregor flew ten feet and landed on a table that collapsed
underneath him. They recovered at the same time, planting their feet on the
ground within seconds of each other. They charged.

Donovan was dimly aware of Tobias sitting back down. He had
to keep an eye on Tobias in case he decided to join the fight or bring in more
clones. For now he seemed content to watch them destroy his library.

Donovan collided into McGregor’s body with an unbelievable
force. Donovan had expected to send McGregor flying again, but the man didn’t
budge an inch once they made contact.

They were evenly matched. Of course. Tobias had given
McGregor the formula, too.

They fought for what seemed like hours to Donovan, each
trying to gain purchase on the other’s limbs, each trying to land a solid punch
or kick but neither of them succeeding.

McGregor flawlessly blocked each strike that Donovan
launched. Donovan eluded every fist that McGregor threw his way.

The time whiled away, with Tobias watching silently from his
chair.

Then Donovan felt something begin to change. He felt slower,
weaker. He just barely dodged McGregor’s punches. He was breathing fast. He was
tired. So tired.

A fist landed on his jaw, sending him flying. He crashed
into a shelf and brought down an avalanche of books. He struggled to rise. His
legs shook. They wouldn’t hold him. He fell back down.

McGregor moved toward Donovan, intent on finishing him off,
but Tobias raised a hand, stopping him.

“That’ll do for the moment, Hesekiel,” Tobias said. He got
up and stood over Donovan. “I knew from the beginning that you’d never come to
my side. Even if Hesekiel had never told me about your plan—I would have known.
You’re just like your father, you know. Naïve. Stubborn. I knew you wouldn’t
change your mind.

“So I planted a vial of formula for you. It was Hesekiel’s
job to make sure you used it. He didn’t have to try very hard—you walked right
into it.”

Donovan was seething. He wanted to kill them both, but he
couldn’t get his arms and legs to cooperate.

“The version of the formula that you took is one that uses
your body’s reserves of energy to fuel your actions. It doesn’t create any
energy of its own, the way the real one does. The more you move, the more the
virus will use up your body’s resources to sustain the actions.”

Donovan fought the pain, the overwhelming weariness. He
managed to rise to his knees. He put one foot firmly underneath himself.

“If you continue to fight,” Tobias continued, “—and I have
no doubt that you will—you will die of exhaustion.”

With a burst of effort, Donovan stood up and charged
forward. Tobias did nothing to stop him. He ran toward McGregor, who crouched
in preparation.

At the last second, Donovan dodged. He ran around McGregor,
straight for the exit.

“Follow him,” Tobias said from behind. “Destroy him.”

“Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to
do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer.”

—Denis Waitley

May 20, 2176

Fort Belvoir, VA

Captain Brian Umar

They all stared at the empty space that had held McGregor’s
body only moments ago.

“He teleported!” Brian said. “There must have been something
installed on his watch.”

“But…,” one of the Colonels said. “I thought teleportation
was only possible inside an enclosed space.”

“This is Tobias we’re talking about,” Brian said. “He
invented teleportation. He must have found a way.” He turned to his father.
“General.”

The General seemed to come out of a daze. “Yes, Captain?”

“I think I know where the cure is. As soon as I find it, we
need to send a message to the troops to rescue Knight.”

The General nodded. “I’ll be awaiting your call here.”

“Yes, sir.”

Brian ran. He fetched some equipment from a supply closet
and headed straight for Knight’s room. He uncovered one of the wires he and Jonathan
had found. He pulled a signal detection device from his pocket. Brain connected
it to the wire.

After a few seconds the device beeped. It had locked in the
unique signal traveling through the wire. Now all Brian had to do was follow
the wires through the walls, using the machine as a guide. It would lead him
back to the source.

Brian walked up and down the halls following the beeping
sound of the device. If it stopped beeping, he knew the wires were not there
and that he was going the wrong way. The more it beeped, the more confident he
became. When he passed a door to a stairwell the device went haywire.

Brian turned back and stepped onto the landing. He held the
device close to the walls and the beeping increased frequency. Brian pulled out
a hammer and slammed it into the wall, breaking through the plaster. He pulled
away the chunks, revealing a thick wad of vertical cords. He ran up the stairs
to the next landing and put the device next to the same wall as the one below.
The beeping slowed down almost imperceptibly. Brian ran back down two flights
of stairs to check the floor below his discovery.

The beeping grew more intense. He followed the cords down,
floor after floor after floor. Sweat was pouring down his face, Brian quit his
descent. He left the stairwell and waited for an elevator. He had a hunch about
where the cords would lead.

Brian rode the elevator down to the basement levels—a floor
below the parking. He entered a long, bright hallway with doors lining it on
either side.

He let the device guide him. He turned several corners. He
kept track of them all, not wanting to get lost down there.

The device led him to a door that was no different from any
of the others. Brian entered a room filled with beeping machines. It was dark
at first, but as soon as he moved two feet inside, automatic lights flickered
on.

The room housed all of their internet connectors, all of
their power sources. The machines glowed a bright blue.

The wires led to a big machine quite like all the others.
There was no difference between them that Brian could find. He looked it over,
searching for some kind of opening. The machine itself wasn’t the one sending
Tobias the footage. It would be much smaller.

Brian ran his hand over the smooth metal fingers, searching
around the sides that were hidden by the other machines. Finally, he felt
something—a soft, round shape that gave way beneath his fingertips. It was
small, like a button.

Brian pushed it. It stretched under the force. There was
something underneath the rubbery material. Brain pushed harder and felt the
hard point under the rubber go into the machine.

The machine clicked and hummed. A door that had not been
there before opened. Inside were two things—a black, metal cube, about three
feet on every side, and a refrigerator that stood four feet over Brian’s head.

He opened the refrigerator. There were rows upon rows of
test tubes filled with clear liquid. Brian pulled one of them out. He dug into
his pocket for the sample of virus. He put the virus in a petri dish, then
observed it under his travelscope—a small but powerful microscope about the
size of his fist. It was used primarily by scientists who worked in the field.

Brain added the contents of one of the vials to the petri
dish and kept his eye on the virus. The organisms squirmed in the liquid when
the vial was added. They wriggled fiercely. The vial contained nothing alive.
Brian could only guess what had been in there.

The virus vibrated at the edges, tiny pieces of it breaking
away from the main body and dissolving until they disappeared. Right before
Brian’s eyes, the virus specimens vanished, leaving an empty petri dish.

Brian called the General. “I found it.”