He frowned. “I got a Lego set for my fourth birthday.”
In a few minutes, they had taken his rifle, six magazines, and a wallet with only a federal ID. Cameron looked at the card and handed it to Alex. “IXTF.”
She scowled and threw the identification on the ground. “Where to,” she said, slinging the rifle over her shoulder.
Cameron, that identification was fake. The IXTF rotate their holograms on the cards every six months as a precaution. These are Genjix.
“Should I tell Alex?”
Not yet. Digest the intel later.
“What should we do now, Tao? I have enough supplies to last a day or two. I don’t know where Mom is, or if she’s even alive. Should we try to go to a motel?”
No motels. There is a good possibility the Genjix are operating out of Eureka. They will be watching the few hotels there are in town. Staying in the forest is your best bet. For now, get some distance from the farmhouse.
“I hope Alex likes camping.”
Somehow, I doubt it. As long as it does not rain, you two should be fine for a few days.
Cameron looked up at the sky. It was clear now, but it rained around these parts more often than it didn’t. Well, he would worry about that later. He had to stay alive and protect Alex until they could find help.
“Come on,” he said, trying to sound reassuring. “I know where we can go.” He took her hand and led her into the complete darkness of the woods.
Jacob Diamont walked through the remnants of the tattered house. Bullet holes riddled the walls, and large chunks of paneling dangled from the ceiling, cut into shreds by automatic fire. Entire sections of the house had been blown out. To his left, water spouted from the cracked sink. Jacob looked up and watched curiously as a corner of the second floor sagged. This building was no longer structurally sound. His team needed to act fast and sweep the house for clues before the entire thing collapsed on top of them.
Amazingly, the computer terminal next to the sink was untouched and still functioning. It would give his people a chance to pull whatever data they could from their systems. Currently, one of his men was working to bypass security. Jacob stepped over a fallen beam and hunched over a body. He rolled it onto its back and signaled for someone to carry it outside. The cleaning team was on its way, and all the bodies had to be moved before the scene could be wiped.
“Wrap it up in twenty minutes. Strip the scene and finish the upload.”
“Adonis,” his man said, shaking his head. “All their systems just went hard lockdown.”
The information could be time sensitive. Get it to the techs’ hands immediately.
“Yes, Chiyva.”
“Find the data center and yank out the drives,” he instructed. “I want these on their way to the loyalty haven for analysis within the hour.”
He peered out of the building and saw the line of corpses being dragged out onto the lawn. Half his team was scavenging for intel, while the other half was running corpse recovering. They had found five bodies here, and a dozen more across three other buildings. This was a large operation, possibly even one of the Prophus command centers.
The betrayers had put up a good fight. He had lost seven of his men in this assault. He would have to beg Chiyva’s forgiveness. Jacob mentally ran through his own resources; he had only seven men left to complete this mission. Though the losses had been non-blessed and expendable, he hesitated requesting more support. After all, he had failed in capturing his quarry.
Forgiveness is a human quality. An irrelevant one. Result and efficiency are the only metrics that matter.
Efficiency was the key. No, Jacob would not beg for more men. His men had died destroying a major cog in Prophus operations. There was no shame in that. He would complete the job with the seven he had. He would do so even if he was the last man remaining. His standing depended on it.
One of his agents came in and handed Jacob a burned photo. “We found this remnant in an incinerating lockbox.
Tao! It was a rare visceral reaction from his Holy One.
Jacob took the picture and stared; his chest clenched. For over ten years, he thought he had avenged his grandfather that day on the freighter, and had even proudly told Chiyva that when he was blessed with his Holy One. Now he must bear this shame until the wrong had been righted. There had been rumors of Roen Tan surviving: scattered reports and sightings, but nothing concrete. By that time though, Jacob had had more important things to worry about.
The blasted Prophus had revealed the Holy Ones to the world and everything was in an upheaval. Within a year, the Genjix had lost much of their influence across the world, and Quasiform had stalled. Combined with the Council Power Struggle, Jacob had all but forgotten about the man. Still, he should have been surer, confirmed it somehow.
The burned photo was missing its bottom half, but it clearly displayed the heads of a child and a woman. Roen’s face was only half shown. He looked older than Jacob remembered, but there was no mistaking that face. His visage had been burned into Jacob’s soul from when he was twelve.
And if that was Roen, then the woman could only be his infamous wife, Jill Tesser Tan. She had the honor of being the Genjix’s most wanted vessel, even more than the Keeper. If Jacob could kill her as well as Roen…
Then you will have earned consideration on the High Council as well as fulfilled your revenge.
“It is fate, Chiyva.”
Fate is created, not ordained.
“I will earn my place on the Council.”
Finish up here. There is much to do.
Jacob focused on the task at hand. His people were sifting through the remains now, searching for any clues that could lead them to where the Prophus had fled. He walked through the bullet-riddled kitchen and into the pantry, where a stairwell led to a dark pit. This must be one of the fabled Underground Railroad operations the Genjix had heard so much about.
His people followed the retreating Prophus underground to the tunnels shortly after they secured the house. The betrayers had scattered across the varied tunnels like rats. Jacob’s men had captured a few of them trying to escape east toward the mountains, but had not found anyone else, yet. The other two men he had sent into the western tunnels still had not reported back.
“Adonis,” one of his agents said, coming down the stairs. “A message. We found it in one of the bedrooms upstairs.” He handed Jacob a notebook. On the blank back page, near the bottom left corner was a small circle with a sun wheel inside. A Seal of Shamash, and a clue.
“Hand me the black light,” Jacob said, putting the notebook flat on the counter. He hovered the small handheld UV light over the blank page and watched as markings appeared in Korean. Jacob read the message. His grasp of languages wasn’t as strong as many other Adonis Vessels’, but he compensated with other assets. Besides, his role wasn’t to think; he was simply an extension of his Holy Ones’ will.
The scientist is heading south. We are done here. Clean the premise. You now have dual targets. You will need to split your forces to follow both. Be aware that the IXTF activity in this region is higher than most.
Jacob grunted. Those fools from Interpol were beneath contempt. Even now, as the Genjix pushed the world toward war, the incompetent IXTF wasted their time hunting wayward Holy Ones in ones and twos. Little did they know that within a few years, almost all humans would become vessels, and then within a quarter century, there would be no more humans at all.
Jacob signaled for his forces to wrap things up. Ten minutes later, a series of explosions detonated what was left of the buildings, leveling everything. The base underneath the main house received similar treatment. A cleaning team would arrive next to retrieve the bodies and remove the debris. By this time tomorrow, it would be as if the Prophus had never been here.