“More than a hundred leaders around the world are trying to surreptitiously sell everything they own. Dumping stocks at unprecedented rates. The financial markets are crashing, but no one can fathom what’s driving the bear market. You know what this means, don’t you?”
Sam sat back. Now the other penny had dropped, he could see where Elise had been leading him all along. His impatience vanished. “We’re closer to the final date of the event. Someone out there knows what’s going on. They’re selling companies and buildings that will soon be under the world’s oceans, concentrating their cash into gold. Preparing for the new world.”
“Thought you’d be interested,” she said, as though it were merely a new tip about the stock market.
“Thanks, Elise. Keep digging, and keep me in the loop.”
Sam considered his next move. This was bigger than the guy trying to kill him. Forget about him. Sam wanted his boss, or bosses. If Elise couldn’t find them, no one could. But he had a job to do as well. He dialed a number that only a few people had.
“What is it, Sam?” answered the Secretary of Defense.
“It’s begun.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Airlie Chapman stared at the ancient world around her through dark brown, intelligent eyes, as she crept through the dense forest. She was tall and lissome, and moved with the decisive gait of someone much younger than her thirty-five years of age, as she made her way through the path that tracked upward and deeper into the jungle. She wore a bikini underneath a pair of denim shorts and a dark tank top. Her light brown hair was tied back in a French braid.
In the twilight before dawn, the mist from the various hot springs rose above the ancient forest, like something out of the Jurassic period. She left the coast of Isaac Hale Beach, in the Puna District, and headed further into the forest. Despite it being early, there was a warmth to the air that made everything feel comfortable.
She watched as her boyfriend, Adrian, jumped across the various volcanic rocks, trying to spur her to move faster.
“Come on,” he said. “We have to reach the hot springs before sunlight.”
“Why the rush?” she asked. “I’m on my first vacation in four years since I started my damned PhD. No one’s going to make me hurry.”
“I want to beat the crowds and be the first one in the water!”
He had a confident and engaging smile. With his good-natured attitude, and those boyish good looks typical of an athlete still moving toward his prime, he was fun and immature at the same time, but kind and generous — willing to do anything to please her. Not at all like the academics she tended to go for. When he’d asked her out, she surprised herself by saying yes. That was five weeks ago, and since then, Airlie had discovered that he’d brought a unique and pleasant aspect to her otherwise cumbersome and perfect little life.
“You go ahead. I’ll meet you there soon,” she said.
He made a face like a wounded puppy, and then smiled. “Okay.”
She watched him disappear over the next set of volcanic rocks that formed a small ridge. Airlie increased her stride. Thirty seconds later, she passed a large rock and came face to face with him. He kissed her on her lips. She opened her mouth and met his tongue with an eagerness that few men in her life had ever instilled in her.
And then he pulled away.
She went to kiss him again, but he pulled back, farther. “What?”
He was grinning at her.
She tried to kiss him a third time, but he simply smiled and started running along the path. “You’ll need to catch me if you want to kiss me.”
Airlie laughed. This was the price she was going to have to pay for dating a younger man. “All right.” She started to make her way quickly through the forest.
Eighty feet along the path and it opened to a large jellybean-shaped hot spring. Formed from a collapsed lava tube, its volcanic base was nearly fifteen feet deep and provided a startling green shade to the blue water. Steam rose invitingly from its surface. Airlie had never seen it before, but the sight took her breath away.
She turned to meet Adrian, as he kissed her again. When he stopped, she found herself smiling. The sight was stunning, but it was more than that. She found herself feeling a type of joy and contentment that no other man had been able to provide her.
“Beautiful isn’t it?”
“Magic,” she admitted.
“I thought you’d like it.” He smiled with genuine joy. “I was looking forward to seeing your response when you saw it. There’s something terribly endearing about the way your eyes light up in wonder. I’d like to spend a lifetime doing such simple things with you and traveling the world. What do you say, should we get married?”
“Sure,” she said, assuming he was just speaking without any conviction.
Then he got down on one knee and revealed a diamond ring.
She swore. “My God! You’re serious!”
He looked at her with a slightly confused and pained face. “I am.”
She shook her head in disbelief and kissed him again. This time he pulled back and she stopped. She stared at him.
“Well?” he asked.
“Well what?”
“Will you marry me?”
She beamed. “Yes!”
He kissed her again and then said, “Let’s jump in the water.”
She glanced at the water. The steam seemed to be glowing off its surface, like some sort of bubbling primordial pool. “Shouldn’t you test the water or something, first?”
Adrian shrugged his shoulders. “Why?”
“It looks pretty hot. The sign before said that the temperature can fluctuate.”
“You think it’s going to burn me?” he asked, with an incredulous grin.
“It might.”
Adrian laughed. “There’s only one way to find out.”
He took a giant run and jumped into the deepest part at the center of the hot spring. His head dipped under the water and he disappeared.
Airlie stepped to the water’s edge and watched. She felt her heart race. She stood up and chided herself. It was irrational. Her fiancé was just playing a trick. There was no reason he should simply disappear into a small hot spring.
But she found herself holding her breath.
Then Adrian surfaced. “Ah it burns! It burns… help! Quick, throw me a branch…”
Airlie, already taut with concern, reacted immediately. She ran to the edge of the hot spring, where a large vine dangled close to the water. She pulled on it, using all her weight, and the vine snapped fifteen odd feet above her.
She took the edge of the vine and threw it into the boiling water. Adrian caught it on her first throw. She quickly dragged him toward the edge, pulling it hand over hand, like a rope.
He screamed loudly.
“Give me your hand,” she shouted.
He grabbed her right hand and pulled her into the water.
It was lukewarm and felt delicious under the rising sun. She surfaced from the water, and started to scream.
“You bastard! I should kill you myself.”
Adrian was laughing uncontrollably now. He went to grab her and she shook her head. He caught his breath. “I’m sorry, but you should have seen your face.”
“You bastard!” Her heart was still racing. “Don’t you ever do that to me again.”
He grabbed her and kissed her again. “I’m sorry.”
She relaxed in the water for a few minutes and then climbed out, resting on the warm volcanic rocks that lined the edge of the hot spring.
Airlie watched her now fiancé play in the water, seemingly unable to tire of playing in the crystal-clear spring. So, this was the man I’m going to spend the rest of my life with. The thought made her happy. His carefree and playful life was almost a polar opposite to her lifetime of research and academia. Adrian would provide the balance that she needed.