The Prometheus Objective

10

As the dawn spread and the shadows of the massive walls and inner constructs retreated, Nina took the measure of the situation.

Three kids, one of them her own, but all of them under her care and never had she felt so vulnerable. So responsible. Recklessness was never a tool in her arsenal, but up until now she would take chances, act impulsively and occasionally throw caution to the wind on her missions of stealth, murder or espionage. She knew she could take care of herself in any situation, if she had it all planned out. Especially if she had the added cheat of some psychic help scouting out the outcome in advance.

But her current predicament as caretaker for the youth was uncharted territory; the fact that their mission might well decide the fate of the world had her all but paralyzed. She had her doubts about this objective from the get-go, and splitting up the team was never a clever idea when faced with adversaries like Custodians or psychics that could send out false images.

Having Aria here was a small comfort at least; Nina had hoped that her ability to shield their location from other psychics using her ‘Blue Screen’ of safety or whatever it was, would be enough, but something told her that their enemies had other means of tracking them. Maybe Nina hadn’t been as careful with the travel arrangements, using Xavier’s old network of pilots and bribed officials. Their enemies were omnipresent, and Xavier’s connections had obviously diminished with the psychic purge and his incarceration.

Now this — something else had afflicted their guide, made him psychic?

And now Alexander, normally gung-ho to get into gear and go treasure diving, was the one advocating restraint.

“We need to find out what’s happened. Everyone stop and focus. See the answer…” He met everyone’s eyes in turn, as the bugs circled around lazily, as Nina waded out of the canal, careful to avoid the urchins. Further out, she noticed a stingray extracting itself from the muck and gliding away.

“What’s the question?” Jacob asked, a slight mocking tone she knew so well. It had never made her as annoyed as right now.

Aria cleared her throat and glanced back to the boat. “What drove our guide nuts?”

“Yeah,” Alexander said. “That question will do.” He lowered his head. Without seeking it, Aria’s hand found his. She reached out and took Jacob’s in her other hand. The two boys looked at each other with some concern, and then at their free hands.

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Nina exhaled and stepped between them. She took each hand and completed the circle. “It’ll work better if I’m in the loop anyway.”

Her latent power had always facilitated other psychics — like Caleb before that first fateful dive to find the Pharos treasure. She was a catalyst, supercharging and focusing their talents, and that power didn’t fail her here.

Although she didn’t focus as much as she wanted, she got glimpses as well of something incredible. Something massive.

Something global.

And of course, at the center of it all was…

Caleb!

Aria shouted it. Alexander gasped about the same time.

Jacob squirmed and clenched her hand, almost as hard as Alexander was squeezing it.

“He’s activated another Tablet.”

“How is that possible?” Alexander asked. “One was destroyed and we’re going after the only other one…”

“Different somehow,” Aria said, frowning and squeezing her eyes.

“Another dimension?” Alexander almost whispered it. “I see a portal, and a buildup of energy…”

“Two beings in combat, their struggles about to set off a…”

“Nuclear explosion.” Jacob shook his head and tried to break away. “Whatever apocalyptic shit we just saw, it doesn’t really help us. We’re getting off target. All that happened but doesn’t answer the question. Why did our guide go all ape-shit?”

Nina was proud of her son in that moment. Despite obvious concern over what happened to their father in the explosion, he was sticking to the original crucial question, to their immediate situation.

“I see it,” Alexander said, his voice cracking in fear and concern. Fighting it himself, trying to stay in the vision.

Nina squeezed his hand back, harder, and willed the talent to be unleashed, to flood his mind and take shape.

“I’m seeing pyramids. Megaliths around the world. Energy sources from the ancient civilizations.”

“Yes,” Jacob said, complementing or sharing in the vision. “Beams of energy launched into the atmosphere, creating…”

“A shield.”

Nina now saw it as well: a luminescent sphere around the earth, sparkling and resonating, vibrating with power.

A shield. Protective and yet…

“It’s causing a change,” Alexander whispered. “Emitting electromagnetic wave patterns. Interfering with our brains. Or activating areas in those that aren’t like us already?”

“All around the earth…” Jacob said.

“Everyone turning psychic.”

Aria gasped. “Oh my god.”

“I see…” Jacob tried to pull his hand free, but Nina held it fast.

Finish it.

“…riots. Suicides.”

“Fighting, accusing, everyone. It’s too much to handle.”

Nina let go.

The four of them looked at each other in awe.

Nina was the first to say it. “I don’t know if that’s changed our mission, but it seems we’re here. And securing another of those most powerful artifacts can’t be a bad thing.”

“Let’s try the sat-phone again?” Alexander asked. “We have to see if they’re ok.”

Nina shook her head. “We can’t reach anyone out here. No reception earlier, and worse here. Something about the latent energy of the site.” She held out her phone, changing to the compass app, which was spinning around aimlessly, unable to find true North.

They had lost all contact late last night before they landed — and now Nina knew why. Probably grid overloaded, or intentional sabotage, or any number of things as chaos reigned around the planet.

“No, and we definitely can’t now.” Aria spoke breathlessly, turning toward the north, toward a buzzing sound in the distance.

“Why not?” Alexander asked, but never got that answer from her.

Jacob cursed. “Helicopters. Coming fast.”

Damn.

Nina pushed them toward the center of the island, toward the larger structures and open doorways, tempting with ancient secrets and whispering sounds. She gathered their gear and followed.

“We’ve got no choice now. Won’t make it out of here on the boat. Have to blow the boulder and get down there…”

Jacob met his mother’s look in a backwards glance.

“Or we could stay and fight.”

“Oh shit.” Alexander stood by a well-shaped aperture in the center of the courtyard. Fruit bats scattered from the mangroves and lizards scurried out of the sunlight. The others joined Alexander and looked down.

“Oh.” Nina hefted her bag, weighing the weapons and the explosives. Her vision followed the beam of light Aria played over the monstrous block below.

The pit wasn’t so much a direct drop as it was a leveling-off, and then it tunneled at an angle, but that’s where the huge boulder had been wedged, with barely any pockets around it that hadn’t already been overgrown with vines or filled in with dirt and debris.

Damn. “We blow that boulder, and the earth above it collapses.”

She scanned the area ahead, envisioning the path of the tunnel, but then remembered the map.

Alexander had it out and was tracing the line on the faxed diagram Victoria’s group had sent over. Crude and spotty, it was surprisingly accurate — at least in consideration of the major structures nearby. But the line representing the tunnel carried straight some distance, and under the next immense wall, which would surely collapse after any imprecise explosion, or worse, hold only until they attempted to traverse below a weakened support.

“Can’t risk it,” she said. “Got to be another way. Let me see that map.”

Alexander was about to hand it over when he took another look, then held it to the sun, tracing the tunnel. He looked up, and then scampered around some brush and coral outcroppings and moved toward the boundary of Nan Dowas, where the bay encroached, scintillating with the rising sun. Then he looked in the other direction, to the western walls where a lone palm tree, tall and bent, stood like a silent marker.

From behind them came the sound of the helicopters, louder and louder.

“Hurry up, kid.” Nina was already scouting out defensible positions, as they would have to make their stand here.

“The tunnel, it travels far in that direction, and I think, leads under the bay, by the way it’s drawn.”

“So, we jump in the bay, and scuba back and try to find it?” Jacob frowned and looked back the opposite direction.

“No,” Alexander said. “We are going to suit up and go under, but not in the bay. It’s under the silt and the reef where we have to go. An underwater city — which is right where the natives said it was, but the Japanese and Germans never found it because it had been swallowed up and sent so deep into the bay during the last cataclysm.”

Jacob groaned. “Then what are we talking about? How are we going to—”

Alexander pointed now, around the edge of Nan Dawas, past the line of sight of the walled wreckage, at a straight line following the canals, to the next distant walled area and impressive inlet.

He had the guide’s map now in his hand and was tapping one area. “Dorang Island. It’s got an artificial lake in the center. Ceremonial and sacred to the Salenudeur people who supposedly built this city. But more importantly…”

He turned to Aria first, grinning and couldn’t help thinking that he sounded a hell of a lot like his father right now. “More importantly, they tracked an underwater tunnel that leads from the lake to the reef.”

He started off, fast, urging them on.

Nina followed, shaking her head and slinging the bag over her shoulder. “Best lead we’ve got, and I’d rather not be sitting ducks for airborne attack. Leave the boat and run!”