David Sakmyster - The Cydonia Objective

The other one, his head lowered in slight show of respect, said: “It’s good to see you. And for real this time.”

“Catch up later, boys.” Mason Calderon walked behind them, twirling his cane. “Let’s get down there and get what we came for.” He beamed at Nina. “Good to finally meet in person, Ms. Osseni. May I please have it?”

She nodded, drawn to something about him. The power in his shoulders and in his walk, the dazzling hint in his eyes revealing his utter belief in himself. Without hesitation she lowered the satchel, zipped it open and held it out for him. For some reason she thought she should bow her head, as if offering a grand gift to her king.

He reached inside and reverently took hold of the Emerald Tablet. Pulled it out with trembling hands. It was glowing, brighter now, dazzling in his eyes, swallowing up their blackness, substituting a throbbing green aura. He wobbled and Nina thought he might collapse under the thing’s power. But then it seemed to rejuvenate him. His mouth opened, almost in an ecstatic silent cry. “At last…”

And then he was walking past her without another look, and the boys were in his place.

Nina’s eyes darted back and forth. One child to the other. Both so similar and yet she also saw them with other senses. She saw their differences, little nuances. And she knew, from her glimpses into their pasts, which was which. Jacob on the right: a streak of something… different in him. So different than the cold-heartedness they both chose to portray. A little smoother, Jacob was, his edges not as sharp as Isaac’s. His thoughts more deliberate, his words more carefully chosen. He… he was the reader, when occasion allowed. He did it in secret, when Isaac was asleep. Jacob… he’s more like Caleb, I can see it…

Isaac… Nina smiled at him, and the boy grinned back, taking the attention as a selfish compliment proving he had been singled out over his brother. Competitive from the start. Isaac was definitely hers. She continued smiling, thinking about the contrast that no one else could see.

“Move,” Calderon said, nodding to her and to the troops. “I’m back in charge. Let’s get what we came here for and get out. I don’t like all the attention that’s coming our way.” Beyond the perimeter, news vans struggled to get close enough to see, but were kept back by more Egyptian troops. Bright lights stabbed out, away from the Sphinx so no one could get a clear look at what they’d found.

The boys hurried past Nina, and each grabbed a hand as they passed, turning her around and bringing her with them. She clasped their hands, and she was surprised at how normal this felt. How good. Like it was just another day, and they’d been together all this time.

On her way down, she glanced back and saw two guards leading a red-haired man out of the helicopter, moving him along towards them.

Ah, Xavier. Coming to join the party. I wonder…

But that was when she felt the surge, jolting up her arms from where she held her children. As if they were each live wires, and she was caught in the middle, unable to let go as the currents ripped through her psyche.

It was asif there was a split screen in her mind. On the right, from Isaac came a flood of unrelenting visions, bombarding her with their brazen ferocity:

A younger boy with a mop of curly brown hair stands over a writhing frog, its legs and lower torso flattened. A streak of gore leading to the skateboard a few feet away. The boy has a screwdriver in hand, angling its sharp tip toward the frog’s blinking eyes…

Another shift and he’s a bit older, sitting before a large screen, sipping lemonade while watching scenes of desert warfare: anonymous planes bombarding villages, cluster bombs decimating ground forces, sniper rounds exploding soldiers one after another… Isaac giggling, eating popcorn.

On the seat beside him, Jacob is watching, no less rapt, but seems to wince at every scene of escalating violence. In the shadows near the back, a man stands leaning on a golden-tipped cane.

All this Nina saw in only a few seconds, but what she found herself focusing on was the left-most panel, the one showing only a single image…

Jacob, perhaps only four, lingering by the bedside of a patient, a woman strapped to a table in a familiar room. He looks back at a departing figure on a skateboard and when he’s sure he’s alone, he reaches out. And takes the patient’s hand in his.

The boys let go simultaneously, in their enthusiasm for seeing the door at last. The door under the Sphinx, the one that only they could open. If, Nina thought, staggering a little after the release, they could duplicate what Alexander had been able to do .

She was dizzy, lightheaded. Her arms felt like jelly rolls.

“And how are the little rugrats?” came the voice at her back. She turned slowly to see Montross standing on the last step. His hair was a crimson mess, tangles and strands across his face. His shirt covered with sandstone dust, sweat and dirt, yet he looked radiant. A beaming smile, twinkle in his eye as if despite everything, despite being bound and in the enemy’s camp, he was right where he wanted to be.

I wouldn’t doubt it, she thought. Nor would she let her guard down. She had new allegiances now, and owed this man nothing more. In fact…

“You knew,” she hissed. “You must have.”

Montross let his smile falter. “I didn’t. I never asked those kinds of questions, and didn’t know I needed you until several years after they had taken your boys. I was too busy hiding from Waxman. Hiding, exploring… Researching all this. The Tablet, what it can do.” He cocked his head, looked around her to where Calderon had the boys probing the wall. Isaac seemed morbidly distracted by the blood smears on the floor. The remains of Robert Gregory and Marcos.

“I don’t know if I believe you,” Nina said, keeping her eyes on Montross. She thought about the long journey they both shared. The plans devised late into the evenings. The shared visions, often in bed together, where she returned his thrusts by penetrating his mind, reveling in his visions—those that she could access. She had found it surprisingly difficult to get past some of his defenses, to see the things that truly drove him. Hints of attachment beyond what he had felt for his mother and his foster father, who were taken from him at such a young age. Nina knew there was another woman, someone he was protecting. Someone he might even…love? And that knowledge had both intrigued and infuriated her. That she couldn’t see who it was. That he still had his secrets.

Montross shrugged. “It doesn’t matter at this point. I only hope they know what they’re doing.”

“And do you?”

“Me?” He glanced down at himself. “What am I doing? Nothing, I’m just a captive, my fate at the whim of your new master.” He blinked and glanced over at Calderon. “He is your master now, isn’t he?”

She fumed. He knew that would get to her, still knew how to push her buttons. “I have no master. I choose the best team for my talents.”

“Not always successful at that, right? Could’ve done better than Waxman.”

“Or you?”

“I thought we made a pretty decent team.”

Nina smirked. “Just be quiet and let my boys work.”

“Got it!” Calderon whooped a second before the grinding sound thundered inside the chamber. The wall was rising.

Jacob tottered, appearing dizzy. But Isaac ducked and rolled under the door, taking advantage of his brother’s condition to get inside first. Nina headed toward Jacob, going to check on him. She reached out, but Calderon grabbed her wrist forcefully and brought her with him into the room, illuminated by the bright spotlights set up down here from when Robert Gregory made his attempt at access.