Part 12 (1/2)
On the far wall of the large bas.e.m.e.nt were two doors and Grace headed for them. One led to a staircase going up. The other led into a cool, windowless room containing the building's plumbing and piled with dirt. There was no sense going up again. They'd only grab her.
Locking the bas.e.m.e.nt door leading to the staircase, Grace crawled into the dirt room. Pulling her knees to her chest, she sat and waited until the sound of the whirring chopper blades receded, all the while knowing that as soon as she went out again, they might return.
Grace's stomach rumbled with hunger as she pushed open the door of the dirt room and re-entered the dark bas.e.m.e.nt. She couldn't stay there all night. She'd simply have to try to find her way back to the garage. Hopefully the blackness of night would help and the jammer would work. She had to pray that the nanochip in her blood wouldn't begin broadcasting a signal the moment she emerged from underground.
The building she was in seemed quiet as she stole up the dimly let staircase to the first floor. A man came into the lobby, holding his jacket over his shoulder, sweating from the heat he'd just left behind in the street. ”Wow, it's hot out!” he said to her as he punched a number into his cell phone.
”Sure is,” Grace replied casually.
He eyed the cut on her arm. ”That looks like it hurts,” he remarked. ”Better clean it up.”
”I will,” Grace agreed, heading for the front door.
The man suddenly cursed and banged his cell phone with his other hand. Grace whirled toward him to see what the problem could be. ”I haven't been able to get a call through all day,” he explained angrily. ”These solar flares are jamming everything.”
Not everything, Grace thought as she pushed the door open and left the building. Apparently Global-1 had stronger equipment than the average person.
Outside the sky glowed eerily, almost as though the sun were still making its way through the blackness of night. The heat was no better than it had been during the day. Checking that she still had the manila envelope, Grace made her way down the front steps onto the street, her eyes darting in every direction, alert for any sign she was being trailed.
”Grace,” a female voice hissed.
Startled, Grace turned. Kayla's back was to the side wall of an alley. Reaching out, she snapped Grace into the alley beside her. ”Thank G.o.d, I found you. We all came out looking for you as soon as we saw the commotion. Did they come for you?”
Grace nodded. ”It was close,” she reported.
”I'll bet.” In a quick jog, Kayla headed down the alley. ”Come on. We're all leaving.”
Grace followed close behind. ”Where are we going?”
”To the desert. Hurry. We were just waiting on you. We're already way behind schedule.”
Pasadena Sun August 8, 2026 - Bedford Hills, New York CHEROKEE BAR CODE DISSIDENT RELEASED FROM JAIL. CALLS FOR SUMMIT OF NATIVE AMERICAN SHAMANS AND CHIEFTAINS.
In her first press conference upon being released from the all-women Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills, New York, the Cherokee Medicine Woman and shaman known only as Eutonah thanked former Senator Ambrose Young, who had worked vigilantly for her freedom. ”He has become a great friend to our cause,” she told the press and followers who had a.s.sembled to hear her.
Her second statement called for Native American leaders to send delegations to a summit to be held on Hopi and Navajo lands near Sedona, Arizona. ”This too-bright sun means the time is upon us,” she said enigmatically. When questioned on the meaning of her words, Eutonah said only, ”The people have long awaited the time that all the prophecies have foretold since the beginning of this world. We must be ready to engage our hearts, minds, and spirits to face the inevitable changes.” When pressed to say what these ”changes” might be, Eutonah refused to elaborate, but added, ”Companies have been strip-mining this land for almost a hundred years. First it was coal and minerals, then oil. Most recently it's the uranium. And last year they found lithium deposits out there.”
When it was pointed out that native peoples have allowed this by selling mining rights, she answered, ”Back in the last century the Navajo were so impoverished that they sold some of the mining rights. That's true, but the company they sold the rights to mined to an extent that was never imagined by the native Indians. Back in 2014, Global-1 bought up every small mining company with a contract out there; now they're spreading into Hopi territory. In the last five years, Global-1 has also spread into Utah, onto the lands of the Ute, Shoshone, and Paiute nations. It's completely destroying the land.”
When asked to speak to the feelings of the tribal nations on this issue, Eutonah told the a.s.sembled crowd, ”The native people are protesting like crazy. A Tribal Council has gone to D.C., believing that the entire balance of the universe has been upset because all these minerals are being pulled out of the ground. The members of the council say that by taking the minerals out of the earth there, the very bio-electric balance of the universe has been thrown off-kilter. They are not speaking in the mystical abstract here. They are talking about science: radioactivity, magnetism, and the tidal and gravitational balance that the heavenly bodies maintain in relation to each other.”
When asked to comment, President Loudon Waters claimed that the Cherokee leader was merely trying to frighten people in order to keep her movement vital. ”Every problem with the bar code tattoo has been ironed out. This woman no longer has a reason to exist. She's simply looking to extend her fame and influence in a world where her movement has become irrelevant.”
In response, Eutonah stated, ”Loudon Waters does not speak for the people, not my people or those of any other race or nationality. He speaks only for the greed of his own group. The people of this planet need to know that the last days of prophecy are upon us. The time is now.”
Grace stepped out to the mouth of the cave, careful to stay back in its shade. The Decode station gave shelter not only from the blasting sun but also blocked the signal the nanochip in her blood were bouncing onto satellites in the sky - if they were indeed getting through the powerful solar flares. She surveyed the expanse of desert in front of her. It seemed to her that off in the distance she could see something that s.h.i.+mmered and reflected the sun. Turning, she saw Kayla come alongside her.
”Is there water out there?” Grace asked, pointing.
”It's a mirage,” Kayla replied, s.h.i.+elding her eyes as she studied the horizon. ”It's an optical illusion, a trick of the heat and the light. But I always like to think it's the ghost of the sea.”
”What do you mean?”
Kayla turned to Grace and smiled softly. ”Millions of years ago there was a seaway that came through here, splitting the continent. As the waters receded, they left these deserts. There are fossils of sh.e.l.ls all over the place out here. I've seen them myself.”
That the Earth was so very old was something Grace found almost impossible to imagine. She tried to think of an ocean in the spot she was looking at. Without too much effort she could imagine it. The vastness of the desert seemed made to accommodate an ocean.
”It does look like an ocean out there. I see it, too,” Kayla said.
Grace turned to her sharply, surprised.
Kayla laughed, amused by Grace's shocked expression. ”I can see what you're thinking because I'm a telepath,” Kayla explained. ”You knew that, didn't you?”
Grace remembered seeing Kayla and Mfumbe communicating mind to mind back in the garage. ”Can you see into anyone's mind?” Grace asked.
”Most of the time,” Kayla replied. ”Just like you, I imagine the ocean out here. It's a vision I have all the time.”
”But aren't your visions of the future?” Grace inquired. ”That would be a vision of the past.”
”I know. I don't understand it.”
Eric came out from the cave and stood between Kayla and Grace. He had arrived the night before, after Grace was already asleep. He put his hand on her shoulder.
”We've found your family,” he said.
Closing her eyes, Grace sighed with relief and happiness. The pleased look on Eric's face told her they were all right, that this wasn't bad news.
”Where are they?” she asked him.
”Decode headquarters in the Adirondacks.”
”But why ... how ... what are they doing there?” Grace stammered, confused.
Dr. Harriman emerged from the cave. ”I can answer that.”
”Dr. Harriman!” Grace cried. ”What happened to you?”
”After fighting my way down out of the tree tops, do you mean?” he asked. ”After that ordeal, I contacted your father - I mean the father who raised you, of course.”
”You know my father, then.”
”Growing up, he was my best friend. Who else would I trust with my only child? I never doubted he would love you as his own.”
”How did you contact him?”
”It was I who tipped your family to flee to the Adirondacks. I knew Global-1 was coming to pick them up. I thought you would make it home sooner and that Global-1 wouldn't arrive until later - that there would be time for all of you to escape together. But I was wrong. So I told them I would have Decode come pick up Grace and that they should go ahead.”
”You work with Decode?” Eric asked, aghast at the news.
”Once I saw how Global-1 was using my work, I wanted no part of it. When I saw how they were treating Kathryn Reed, Grace's biological mother, I was doubly horrified.”