The Last World (19 page)

Chapter 25

Everything he’d been told and shown was true, or as true as Franklin ever wanted to admit. Out of all of his lifetime of experiences, the one he just lived through was by far the strangest and most terrifying of them all. He didn’t know if what he saw was the truth or not. He believed it was, but he didn’t know what to believe anymore. With each passing step toward the hotel where his father was staying, Franklin wondered what he was supposed to do. Tanok had bent him to his will, but he hadn’t given any insight into why it was done.

Franklin thought about what was planned for him and how he would be able to fulfill the instructions of his… benefactor? Jailer? Executioner? All three and more applied to the being he knew as Tanok. The man was driven and he could understand why, but Franklin’s rational mind refused to allow him to accept what he saw. He wanted to believe it after seeing the look
in the elderly woman’s eyes but…

“You’ll know what to do when the time comes.”

He turned to where he heard the voice originate, but all that greeted him were the dark bushes and the sounds of crickets beginning their nightly song.
What time was it?

*****

Judith Reed sat in the lone chair the hotel kept in her room and let her eyes simmer over the cloud of steam rising from her cup of coffee. Since the first time she was allowed to take a swallow of coffee at the age of ten, she’d been a caffeine junkie. It wasn’t a debilitating habit like smoking or drinking, but it did have its dark side, namely the need to run to the bathroom before she popped.

Judith felt put out that the government hadn’t bothered to put her up in a better establishment. Taking another sip of her coffee, she wondered how her guard was
sleeping. She knew he wouldn’t remain outside her room all night since everyone had to sleep at some point in the day. They had other ways of keeping an eye on her should she try to escape, but she doubted they’d use them. They knew how much she needed them, it was almost as much as they needed her. After taking another sip, Judith sat back in the chair and thought back over her day, remembering the pair that came in toward the end with greater ease than she wished.

The fa
ct a couple of low-level dumbasses like them could walk right into her laboratory as if they belonged there was intolerable. The security in a place like that was unacceptable. In an instant, she had an idea, opened her purse, and pulled her government-issued phone out. By pressing a single button, she was connected to the security branch at the Pentagon.

Judith interrupted the voice on the other end before he could begin his rehearsed speech. “That’s nice, listen… I need to speak with General Bowen immediately.” She paused
and listened to the man on the other end. “I don’t care if he’s unavailable… No, I will not call back in the morning… I want to speak to someone in authority young man, this is a matter of national security. If you don’t put me through this instant, I’ll… hello? Hello? You fuck-shit!” She closed the phone and took a pair of deep breaths while considering what to do. She would wake the guard, Jenkins, Tompkins… what ever the hell his name was, if he was sleeping. He‘d be able to reach somebody that would listen, and they’d be sorry they hung up on her. For all that imbecile knew, she was calling to report a terrorist sighting.

With her mind made up, Judith put her robe on over her clothes to protect her from the cool night air, stormed from her room, and began pounding on her guard’s door
until it opened and forced her way inside before closing it behind her.

*****

Franklin smiled at what he knew to be Judith’s reaction when she learned the true extent of her pull with the military. He could hear her outrage before it even occurred to her. In the short minute he entered her mind, Franklin gained more than he needed to finish whatever Tanok wished for him to do.

Franklin walked away from the room where the pair were discussing security protocols and what the woman wanted done. He did as Tanok had instructed and used his abilities. Hearing Judith’s thoughts and knowing things about her no one else did freaked him out at first, but the feeling soon passed.
It took him a few minutes to realize why doing so came with such ease. One reason being, they came through clearer than if she was standing right in front of him. Another was the simple fact he could do such a thing. Until then, he only caught glimpses of what people were thinking and those were often so jumbled he chose to ignore them. His mind went back to the two times he heard other thoughts clearly. The first was when the doctor was worried at his cerebrum being swollen, and the second when Fulton Drake had the idea to try to cheat him passed through his mind. Both of those came through very clear, but he chalked them up to his imagination or a simple form of observation on his part. Now he understood those incidents hadn’t been something he dreamed or imagined, otherwise he was doing so right then.

It was Franklin’s second clue as to the truth behind his visions. He didn
’t need or want further convincing after nearly being torn apart while on the road to see his father. All of that was immaterial to him then because he wanted to see Winfield. The rest could wait.

A tugging at the back of his brain told him he was making the wrong decision
, but he didn’t care. By then, he was standing in front of his father’s room and knocking on the door. When the door opened, the look of surprise on Winfield’s face was worth every second of Franklin’s walk.

“Hi
, Dad. I’ve been released into the world once more.” Winfield stood in the doorway; his head slowly moved from side to side. In an instant, he stepped through the door and embraced his son. Franklin hesitated for a heartbeat, then hugged his old man back. It felt so good that he didn’t want it to end.

Their meeting lasted into the early morning hours as Franklin and Winfield
talked about their memories. During the exchange, Franklin felt a brief moment of lightheadedness, but he didn’t think any more of it once it passed. While sitting there, part of him reached out under Tanok’s subtle guidance, searching for the one that found the remains of Tanok’s vessel.

*****

Zach felt a nagging itch that made him look around while he and Steve were heading home. In his own way, Zach felt bad for the way he acted earlier, but there was one rule he could never see broken, and that was to have a mixing of the races. Some things were better left alone. Without knowing he was doing so, Zach pressed down on the accelerator as hard as he could for the final hundred feet of road to Steve’s house.

“Holy fuck! What’re you doing
, Zach?” A lead footed specialist himself, Steve braced for the upcoming accident. Even he wasn’t crazy, or stupid enough, to do anything like this. “Zach! Slow down!”

Zach slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel hard to the left
, causing the car to go into a spin that stopped facing the correct way in the other lane in front of Steve’s house.

The bitter smell of burning rubber filled both of their nostrils
, but Steve didn’t notice as he was shaking almost beyond his ability to control it. He wanted to get out and run for his home but instead he sat and stared at Zach, waiting for him to do whatever it was he was going to do.

After almost a minute of sitting there, Zach looked over at him. “I’m sorry…. Why are you still here?”

“You almost fucking killed us, dude!”

“I did?” Zach’s eyes were glazed over, but he looked far more nervous than Steve ever thought anyone could.

“You alright?” Steve’s concern was genuine, for Zach never acted that way. This… episode was something Steve never encountered before.

Zach nodded in answer
. “Yeah, I just need to get some rest. Feeling kinda jittery.”

Steve nodded and climbed out of the car. “Okay, call me when you get home, alright?”

Zach nodded, then shook his head while smiling. The movement cleared the glassy covering from his eyes. “Don’t worry about me. You’d better get some sleep; we have a big day tomorrow.”

Steve eyed him as his mind worked over the current problem and decided it’d be better to let his friend get home and rest. The desperate look in Zach’s
glazed-over eyes a minute earlier scared the shit out of him. With a final nod, Zach put his mustang into gear and peeled out, leaving a track of rubber in his wake. Steve watched him disappear, then turned toward his house. He wanted to say something to his dad, but he knew what he’d say. “Leave it be son, he’s not your problem.” He wouldn’t be any help, but Steve still debated asking him until he saw all of the lights off in the house. After making his point following Steve’s first day at work, both Fulton and his wife were in bed by the time Steve got home. Maybe he’d see them again if he managed to make it home before nine o’clock, but did he want to?

*****

Franklin’s mouth twisted into a smile when the missing part of him returned from its mission. It was a time of bliss for Franklin, as he had a place to stay until his car was repaired, courtesy of his father, and everything was beginning to come to fruition for Tanok’s plan. The piece of metal was the one oddity in the entire thing for Franklin. What in the world would they need that for?

Tanok terrified him, but Franklin also understood him on a basic level most people could never contemplate. Before they went to bed, Franklin imparted the idea into his father’s mind to go to the National Guard Headquarters in the morning
and to take him with so he could finish the business Tanok needed him to do to safeguard the people of earth. Before he went to bed, he prayed he wasn’t making a mistake.

*****

In the early morning, Steve trotted down the stairs and headed straight for the door, not giving his dad a chance to grab him and imbue more wisdom before his third day of work. As things stood, he still felt uncomfortable with the way Zach treated his friends the night before, but he was hesitant to say something that could possibly set his new friend off. Zach was a bit weird since the moment the pair met, but he seemed different after Steve got back in the car. His behavior was something Steve couldn’t place. Steve grew up with racist parents, but it wasn’t hate he saw in Zach’s eyes. It was like a form of… desperation.

It was a look that scared
him worse than anything he’d ever seen before. Not sure how to handle it, he went straight to bed after getting home. After he spent half the night tossing and turning, he understood it was a problem that shouldn’t concern him, but he considered Zach his friend so why wouldn’t he try to help him? Steve’s mind was full of different ideas on how to talk to his friend but when he reached the road, no car was sitting there waiting for him. He looked up and down both sides of the street, but there wasn’t a soul in sight. With a queer feeling in the pit of his stomach, he turned back toward the house and thought over what had happened.

The answer to Steve’s question was across town driving into work at nearly a hundred miles an hour. A little over an hour before, Zach sat in his apartment struggling with whether or not to leave the piece of metal in his bathtub. He knew he shouldn’t take it into work with him, but for one reason or another, he couldn’t turn his back on the metal and leave the room. Not sure how long he was struggling with himself over such a stupid idea, Zach decided to take the metal with
him just to end the stalemate.

Making his way through town, Zach felt the urge to stop by Steve’s house, to test a sudden thought he had. Not sure what he was doing or why, Zach parked further down the street and walked into the Drake’s yard with the metal in his right hand. When he reached the window by the kitchen he paused at hearing the voices from inside. One belonged to Steve’s father and the other to his mother, or so he assumed. They were discussing something about vacation plans for Florida in a few months when winter hit the northeast. Not a bad idea, Zach reasoned
. He never liked the cold much himself, but he didn’t have the money to move anywhere with a warm climate.

While he listened, Zach looked at the piece of metal in his hand. Did he really want to do this? What if something went wrong?

That is why you are here. To test such an occurrence.

Odd, he didn’t remember ever hearing that voice before, but despite his reluctance, his hand raised with the metal in his palm. Then, as if by magic, the metal twisted, melted, and shaped its way into a smaller
rod-shaped device. Curious as to what just happened, he watched as his hand reached out until the metallic shape touched the electrical box below the meter. The touch lasted less than a second, but it was enough to send a strange feeling coursing through his arm, much like when he touched an exposed wire when he was a kid.

Inside the kitchen, the lights went out and the woman started asking her husband something in a panicked voice. Without understanding, Zach moved away as the back door opened and was out of their yard by the time Mrs. Drake was helping her husband into her car. Once he was back in his mustang, he didn’t notice the dark blue BMW shoot past him doing well over forty. In fact, by then he didn’t realize a lot of things. The only thing that occurred to him was he needed to go to work and forgot all about picking up Steve. In seconds, his car was in gear and turning off of the street minutes before Steve stepped out to the road
to look for him. Neither one of them knew or understood what had just occurred.