Aegis Incursion (42 page)

Tegan knocked her knees together while rolling her eyes. “We really can’t have one day when nothing happens to any of us, huh?”

“Apparently not. I’m hoping that this won’t be a pattern.”

“As long as you five are okay, we’re good,” Marshall said encouragingly. “Aari, you got the location on your phone?”

“Yep, right here.”

Tegan cracked her knuckles as they sped toward the abandoned town that hid the prize they’d been searching for. “Here we go.”

M
arshall winced each time the tires of the vehicle dipped into a hole in the road. The asphalt had long since given way to gravel and then to dirt, neither of which the rental car was designed to traverse over smoothly.

Scattered around them was a vista of dry plateaus, barren hills and a rocky mountain range in the distance. Brush and bushes seemingly made of sticks and dried twigs stuck out in plentiful clumps on either side of the road and rolled into the flat land ahead of them. The sky overhead was bright with some clouds that grew a little thicker just behind the mountains.

“This is a cool place,” Tegan said. “It’s surreal.”

Aari had his phone out and was snapping pictures. “I can’t believe we’re going to see a town that was submerged for
decades
and then just reappeared ten years ago . . . I have no words for this. It’s strange. I mean, here we are in the midst of a growing catastrophe, investigating historic places we probably never would have otherwise.”

“The universe has a mysterious way of working,” Marshall agreed. “Thing is, even in the most challenging of times, there’s always a blessing to be found. We just either need to push past the darkness to appreciate it, or adopt a different mindset to find it.”

“Is it a Dema-Ki thing to impart wisdom whenever an opportunity presents itself?” Tegan asked brightly.

Marshall gave a lopsided smile. He turned the car off the winding track and onto what was supposedly a parking area, but was really just a small patch of level ground comprised of more crushed rocks and sand. A wooden visitor sign bore a few posters with information and images of St. Thomas. There were no other vehicles around. The intensity of the environment didn’t hit them until they got out into the blazing heat and began the trek down to the valley not too far below. It felt as if they were truly the only people on the planet; there was no city noise, no sound of cars. The world had simply dropped off into a void and all that was left was this shallow and arid valley.

Marshall let Tegan lead him and Aari through the winding path. They had to avoid some small animal droppings that speckled the narrow path. Up ahead, Tegan ran between two of the stick bushes that had spread onto their path. “Gah! Spider webs!
Noooo!
”

“Thanks for clearing that for us, Teegs,” Aari called.

“Shut it, Barnes!”

Marshall laughed quietly and pulled the brim of his cap down. He could already feel the sweat rolling down his neck and arms. Taking gulps from his water bottle, he thought,
Rose wasn’t kidding about the heat.

A few small signs on posts cropped up here and there to remind visitors not to touch or remove anything from the soon-to-appear historical sites. Marshall patted the signs as they walked past, lips pressed tight together.

It took nearly half an hour to reach the first sign of human settlement at the edge of the once-submerged town of St. Thomas, Nevada. While it may not have been much to look at, it was still intriguing to see the remains of a building that had probably been a house made of clay and stone. Aari and Tegan both ran ahead, phones in hand as they eagerly explored. Marshall watched them fondly and allowed them to wander for a few minutes before advising them to continue onward.

“Keep an eye out for wells,” he reminded them as they passed the remnants of another building.

“Righty-o,” Tegan said. “Whoa, check that out! The roof is still partially intact!”

She took off toward the building, leaving Aari and Marshall to hasten after her. While the teenagers crouched and peeked through a hole in the wall where a window to the basement used to be, a circular clay-brick protrusion about a foot high caught Marshall’s attention. He walked over to it and looked down into a yawning hole with gray dirt at the bottom.
Here we are . . .

He whistled to the others and they loped over. “We’ve found well number one,” he said. “Let’s hope the canister is in there.”

Bending down, he grasped the rusty iron grate that had been placed over the opening and pulled at it until it came loose. The Sentry tossed it away and wiped his hands on his pants. Tegan took a rope, peg and hammer from her bag while Aari produced a collapsible shovel from his. Tegan hammered the iron peg deep into the dirt and tied one end of the rope securely around it as Marshall looped the other end around his waist. He grabbed the shovel from Aari and lowered himself into the well. It wasn’t until he reached the bottom that he realized how narrow the space was.

He held the end of his flashlight in his mouth and began digging, pushing the dirt to either side of him. It took a few minutes of shoveling before he hit hard ground. Shaking his head, he folded the shovel and climbed back up the rope to the surface where the teens helped him out.

“Nothing in that one,” he said, then sneezed the dust from his nose. “On to the next.” As he walked, he noticed that Tegan and Aari seemed amused. “What’s so funny? We haven’t found the canister, you know.”

“Er . . . ” Tegan looked away. “Anyone ever told you that you’ve got a funny sneeze?”

Marshall’s cheeks bloomed rose-red.

“Not that it’s weird,” Aari said rapidly.

“Just . . . unique,” Tegan chimed in, giggling.

Marshall pulled the brim of his hat lower and avoided speaking until they reached the next well. It was bigger than the first one but not as deep. Marshall rubbed his hands together, yanked the iron covering loose, and put it aside. He tested the pegged end of the rope, drank what was left of his water and then descended into the hole. Reaching the bottom, he cleared the drifted leaves and twigs before shoveling away at the dirt. Noticing that it had suddenly become dark, he glanced up and saw the teenagers peering down at him intensely. He pulled the flashlight from his mouth. “Hey, Thing One and Thing Two, you’re blocking my sunlight!”

“Oops! Sorry, Marshall!” Tegan pulled Aari aside, letting the light shine down again.

Marshall grinned to himself as he gripped the flashlight in his mouth again and dug deeper into the well. He’d been working for just over ten minutes when his shovel hit something much harder than dirt. He put the tool aside and knelt down, running his fingers over the obstruction.

Rocks.

Hadn’t Rose mentioned that Elwood had weighted the canister down with rocks?

Marshall picked up his shovel and cleared the rest of the dirt away before pushing aside the football-sized slabs. He removed three of them before his hand brushed against something. His heart began to race and he dug hungrily with his hands until his fingers touched what felt like rotted canvas. Pangs of doubt crept in.
The canister’s supposed to be made of metal . . . ?

He continued to dig and brush away the dirt. When the bottom of the well was sufficiently cleared, he paused to point the flashlight at the object. The canvas had been a bag with strap handles. Excitement growing in his chest once again, he began tearing at the material, paying no attention to the clouds of dust it gave off. His light reflected off a shiny surface half-buried in the remains of the bag and loose dirt. He reached in, sensing a smooth, rounded object against his palms. He lifted it from its resting place—tenderly, as if it was a gem—and yelled from around his flashlight. “
We got it!
”

The teenagers whooped and hollered and begged him to hurry back up so they could see the canister for themselves. Marshall was exuberant as he gingerly dusted off the silver capsule and placed it into his duffel bag. He clenched the rope in both hands and climbed out of the well. Aari and Tegan closed in on him while he opened the bag just enough for them to see inside.

“I can’t believe it!” Aari exclaimed, hands resting on top of his hat as his feet tapped out a little jig. “We actually found it! It’s real and we
found
it!”

“In the nick of time, too,” Tegan said. “Look over there, by the mountains. The clouds are rolling in pretty fast.”

Marshall heard a rumbling in the distance. “We’re done here. Let’s move it!”

Tegan and Aari ran ahead, still hollering in joy. Marshall jogged behind them, feeling the weight of the canister against his back.

Unbelievable. We did it.

The wind came up without warning, nearly blowing Marshall’s cap off. He could feel a few drops of water pattering onto him.

“This is ridiculous!” Aari called. “The one day we come out into a desert where it never rains, it actually
does?
”

“Doesn’t matter, we got the canister!” Tegan shouted.

Marshall slid a hand into his pocket to check the time on his phone, but found that it wasn’t there.
Come
on
, Marshall
, he groaned.

By this time they were nearly at the incline that led to the parking area. Marshall raised the car keys and called to get Aari’s attention. Aari turned back and caught the keys as the Sentry tossed them. “You two go ahead and get to the car—I dropped my phone somewhere and I don’t want you getting caught in the rain!”

“Alright! We’ll save a bottle of water for you!” The teenager lengthened his strides and caught up with Tegan.

Marshall turned around and rushed to retrace his steps. “It better not have fallen while I was getting out of the well,” he muttered.

After several minutes of retracing his steps, he found his phone laying face-down on the path . . . right beside some animal droppings. The Sentry sighed.
At least it didn’t land
in
that mess
.

He checked the screen to ensure that it wasn’t cracked and ran back up the path, looking forward to the bottle of water the teens had promised to keep for him. Raindrops were falling faster now but he managed to keep just a little ahead of the storm clouds. Fifteen minutes after recovering his phone, he topped the last incline. The sight that welcomed him brought his high spirits to a jarring crash.

The doors on the right side of the car were wide open. Tegan’s and Aari’s bags lay haphazardly on the ground but the teenagers were nowhere in sight.

No. No. No.

Marshall stumbled forward. Right beside the car, he saw fresh marks in the dirt where a vehicle had spun its wheels. The sand and gravel of the parking lot had been disturbed, indicating signs of a struggle.

The Sentry threw his duffel bag into the backseat of the car, then fell to his knees and let out a roar of anguish.
How did they find us?

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, a feeling struck him. He went on all fours and searched underneath the vehicle. Stuck under the trunk, behind the right tire, was a small black box—a tracking device. Marshall cussed himself out as he tore off the tracker and raised it over his head. Just as he was about to smash it on the ground, he stopped himself. If he left the device in the parking area, Tegan’s and Aari’s abductors would think the car hadn’t moved and that they were home-free.

As he rolled the device off his palm and let it drop into the bushes, he caught sight of something glinting in the sand: the car keys. Aari must have dropped them.

Marshall clung onto the keyset tightly, got into the car and raced onto the uneven road.
I should have taken care of those scumbags when I had the chance . . .

The storm caught up with him; rain beat down on his roof, a wild tribal drumming. Flashes of lightning behind him lit up the road. All he could think of was how he had botched his duty so horribly. He’d let Aari and Tegan out of his sight and now they were gone
.

What kind of Sentry am I?

PART FOUR

“W
here are the others?”

“We’re not telling you jack,” Tegan spat. Her world had turned black the moment her captors slid a bag over her head. “Why don’t you just bug off, Tony, and let us out!”

She knew she was sitting in a speeding vehicle; every turn and lane change could be felt. A rough hand had a death grip on her right arm—each time she attempted to move, the hold would tighten to the point where she was sure her humerus would snap.

“We’re not the bad guys!” Tony said from somewhere up front, sounding exasperated.

Just ahead of her, she heard Aari launch a torrent of choice words at Tony. “That’s rich. What do you call this, then? Surprise adoption?”

“Good Lord, you two . . . ” From the volume of his voice, Tegan assumed Tony was leaning toward them from the front seat. “I like you kids, okay? But this is my job and it’s bigger than you or me. A lot bigger. So if you’re not going to cooperate, I will do whatever I must to make you talk. You just need to tell me where Jag, Mariah and Kody are.”

Aari growled. “They’re not with us.”

“Don’t sass me, Aari.”

“You’re not getting anything out of us, sleazeball.”