David Sakmyster - The Cydonia Objective

Nina looked back. Jacob was still doubled over from the effort, and Nina realized he was the one that had solved the puzzle and opened the door. And Isaac had just taken the credit. He felt her attention, glanced up and met her eyes and for a moment there was a hint of need. But then he blinked away all the emotion and the coldness set back in as he stood up. He squared his shoulders and quickly moved inside.

“The keys?” Calderon asked hopefully.

Isaac was checking the box, looking at it from all sides. Poking the center piece that held the three triangular slots. He shook his head. “Our dear brother has taken them.”

“Thought as much,” Calderon said. He let go of Nina’s wrist, but gave her a slight push toward Montross. “Xavier, my friend. It’s time to be useful. I’d ask you to willingly tell us what you know, but I’d never trust you.”

Montross clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, then laughed. “Are you saying we just can’t be friends?”

“Not today. Nina?” Calderon pointed with his cane, giving her a target. “Do your thing. Find out what Montross knows about the keys, and where the boy is hiding. We’re going in after them, and I don’t want any surprises.”

Her head down, Nina approached, refusing to make eye contact. When she finally did, reaching for Xavier’s face, planning to start with a gentle caress that would shuffle his memories and visions, causing what she needed to drop into her thoughts, he said in a low voice:

“Your master bids, and you obey…”

Her intensity shockedeven herself. Maybe it was knowing that she had spectators and she didn’t want to disappoint, didn’t want to show weakness, especially in front of her boys. Or maybe Montross had just gotten under her skin, and she was striking back tenfold.

Either way, she went at his mind, hard. Dug in deep, forcing herself upon his psyche, taking every inch he reluctantly surrendered, every fleeting glimpse he failed to protect, snatching at the images like a multi-armed Hindu goddess. A hundred eyes, all peering into separate nooks, places Xavier could never blockade, not all at once under such an onslaught.

She saw things, so many, all at once. Too much to process now. She saw a woman on the edge of some monument in the Grand Canyon, with Xavier holding her hand as they watched the sunset paint glorious hues upon the striated cliffs. She saw a warehouse full of shelves a hundred feet high, with locked compartments guarding things of such antiquity… and Montross sneaking out, darting from the shadows with something spherical and shiny in his grasp, a thief in the dark.

And then she saw them: Caleb and Alexander, rushing through a shadowy maze of passageways. Hurrying, following someone in a gray cloak. Her vision fast-forwarded, piggy-backing onto Xavier’s spark of prescience.

And now they’re outside, climbing out of a well onto the desert sands. In the distance, a motorboat revving up. Dark figures on board, holding guns and watching the skies, looking southeast, toward the distant peaks of the three pyramids. Fast forward again:

A giant half-dome of glass, sparkling in the sun, surrounded by high-rises and minarets.

Nina let go, backed away, gasping for breath. Wiping the sweat from her brow, she turned away from Montross, who wouldn’t look at her. “Senator,” she whispered. “They’re not down there anymore.”

“Where-?”

She blinked, standing up straight and focusing on Montross. He shook his head, but she continued anyway.

“They’re heading to Alexandria. To the library.”

Calderon nodded. “Ah, our friends the Keepers.” He started twirling his cane in his fingers, slowly, focusing on the dragon.

“Stepfather?” Isaac asked quietly. “Are we going there?”

“Oh we are, my boy.” And he smiled broadly. “I’m through playing cat and mouse with them. There’s no longer any point to the chase. Not when we have a way to end this once and for all.”

Isaac was rubbing his hands together, and even Jacob seemed excited.

“It’s time,” Calderon said, “for the new library to meet the fate of the old.”

Over Pakistan

“One more unscheduled stop, I swear.” Colonel Temple emerged from the pilot’s cabin and faced his passengers. Phoebe sat beside Aria, who was sound asleep but turning fretfully, her eyelids fluttering. Orlando sat on the other side, as if they were the girl’s protective parents, and for a few minutes before takeoff, he actually let himself imagine such a fantasy—that he and Phoebe were living out normal lives. Maybe returning from Disneyworld with a tuckered out daughter.

But then the plane banked away from the sandstone cliffs and Aria looked back on her father, sedated and asleep, hooked to an IV and sprawled out on the back three seats. Orlando met Phoebe’s eyes, which for a moment were clouded with fear and adrift in loss, before she managed to find strength in him and draw it to herself.

She reached over and held his hand and tried to smile. “So, where are you taking me on our next date?”

Drifting off, Aria managed a giggle. “I like you two.”

“We like you,” Orlando said. “Even if we don’t understand how you do what you do.”

Her eyes were the bluest he’d ever seen, but the pupils were so large, threatening to spill over into the blue. It was as if she had been drugged. And maybe she has , he thought. He knew Colonel Temple needed her fresh and alert when they got back to the Stargate base, and her powers weren’t really needed here, as long as they were a swiftly moving target at fifty thousand feet. They were safe. So maybe he did give her a little help in order to sleep.

“I just do it,” she said. “It just happens. Natural, like if I threw a rock at you. If you couldn’t dodge it, what would you do?”

Orlando looked at Phoebe, then back at the girl. He shrugged. “Try to block it or hide behind my arms?”

Aria nodded. “Just like that. Reflex. Except instead of raising my arms, I raise this… thing. This layer, like a blanket, except it’s really wide and long and stretches pretty far back in time too.”

“Neat,” Phoebe whispered. “But you look exhausted. Your dad’s stable now, he’s resting. You should do the same.”

Aria yawned, closed her eyes and smiled. And then she was out.

Even Temple’s entrance didn’t wake her. “Don’t worry,” he said. “We don’t need her for this.”

“For what?” Orlando asked, straining to see out the window. His ears had just popped with their descent. “We haven’t been flying for more than an hour. Where are we?”

“Over part of Pakistan.”

“Ugh,” Phoebe said with a groan. “Please tell me we’re not making another extraction or going into another cave.”

Temple shook his head. “This one’s simple. We land, you get out and you give me your impression of the site.”

“What site?” Orlando asked. And he started wracking his brain for possibilities. What was in the mountains of Pakistan that they needed to see? What, besides another terrorist cell, or a cache of weapons or something?

“Just something I have my team members probe to test their talents.”

“Another test?” Phoebe asked. “Really? After all we just did?”

Temple folded his arms over his chest. “Okay, it’s not a test. I just want to see if you two can give me more information than those other psychics. Please, it’s important.” He took a seat in front of them, strapping himself in.

“Important for whom?” Orlando muttered. He grabbed hold of the armrests, preparing for a bumpy landing.

“For you,” Temple replied. “Because this… you just have to see. I don’t have your gifts, but I’m told it’s quite… earth shattering.”