“Because it couldn’t see us.” Beverly glanced at me. “Right?”
I nodded. “See those stones? They’re markers for an electric fence. Eco-Trek must use it to keep the Grueler away from certain areas.”
I closed my eyes and gave them a good rubbing. But I couldn’t get the Grueler out of my mind. I could see its dual heads, its sleek metallic body, and its powerful metal limbs. I could feel the warmth emanating off the panel of red lights mounted where its eyes should have been located. I could sense its size and weight. And I could hear its buzzing jaws, its rotating tracks of spiked teeth.
“That makes sense,” Graham said. “Still, how was it able to track us all over the island?”
“It’s probably programmed to recognize a combination of things,” Beverly said thoughtfully. “Auditory sensors would recognize footsteps and voices. Visual sensors could determine the identity of prey as well as its location.”
“Pretty advanced for a bucket of bolts. How do you suppose Simona got her hands on it?”
“Same way she got the drones.” Beverly shrugged. “She must have a high-level connection in the U.S. military.”
They continued to talk about the Grueler in hushed, almost reverent tones. Meanwhile, I drifted toward Benigno and Carrie. He was no longer crying. Instead, he stared off into the distance, a lost look in his eyes.
I took a deep breath. “He was a good kid.”
Benigno looked away.
“I’ve lost loved ones before.” I felt a sharp pain in my chest. “Never even saw it coming. I could spin you a bunch of crap, tell you it gets easier over time. And maybe it does. I suppose it did for me. But I know that doesn’t mean much right now.”
He twisted toward me. Gave me a blank look.
“Find a place to hide,” I said. “Somewhere along the road. We’ll get Rizzalyn for you.”
He wiped his eyes. “I’m coming with you.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Yes. I do.”
I pulled him to his feet. He gathered Akolo in his arms and gently placed the boy’s body on the edge of the pavement. Then he exhaled a long breath and turned toward me.
For a moment, I stared into his hollow eyes. Seeing his pain, I began to question my own quest. Yes, my father had tipped the scales heavily in favor of progress. Yes, he’d rampaged right through New York’s history, leaving a trail of carnage in his wake. But would saving the reliquary really make up for that? Could anything make up for it? And even if it could, was it worth the risk? What if something happened to Beverly? To Graham? Was one artifact — were any artifacts — worth their lives?
I forced the questions from my mind. Then I moved to the side of the road, taking care to stay within the stones. Crouching down, I headed south. The lack of guards indicated no one had seen us yet.
And I intended to keep it that way.
As we approached the station, Graham touched my arm. “We need to talk.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Alone.”
I slowed my pace, allowing the others to gain some distance on us. “What’s up?” I asked.
He nodded at Benigno. “Is he going to be okay? I mean can we depend on him?”
I shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out.”
“Fair enough. Listen, I overheard your conversation with Carrie and Beverly. And Carrie’s right. Eco-Trek needs to go.”
I shook my head. “You’re both crazy.”
“Perhaps. But we’re right about this.”
“We’re finding the reliquary and Rizzalyn. Then we’re out of here.”
“What about Eco-Trek?”
“Someone else will take Simona down.”
“You don’t know that.”
I exhaled. “I know we can’t stop her by ourselves.”
“We have to try.”
We stopped short of the station. Its walls were made of concrete. A large sign, mounted above the loading bay, read Eco-Trek.
We waited for a little while, watching for guards and timing the bright spotlights. Then we headed for the loading bay.
A quick check confirmed the doors were locked. Taking the lead, I stole alongside the hangar. Then I peeked into the interior. Controlled chaos lay before me. Men and women of all shapes and sizes hurried back and forth. Some wore lab coats while others wore overalls or other garments. Most of the activity centered on a gleaming drone, which sat almost directly in front of me.
Other drones, exactly like the one we’d seen in Israel, were lined up nearby. To the side, I noticed a small business jet. I assumed it was for Simona’s personal use.
Close by, I saw a mini-junkyard. Discarded machinery, broken tools, and other garbage were strewn over a twenty square foot patch of coated concrete. Many of the items were fairly large. Behind the junkyard, I saw racks of blue jumpsuits and other gear.
“Go for the jumpsuits,” I whispered. “On my mark.”
I bided my time, waiting for an opening. Then, one by one, I waved the others into the hangar. They darted to the racks, grabbed jumpsuits, and ducked behind the machinery.
I paused for an extra moment. Then I hustled into the hangar and made my way to the racks. After everything we’d faced, it seemed so easy, so simple. And yet, I knew it was an illusion. Things weren’t going to get easier.
They were about to get a whole lot harder.
Chapter 65
Ed Hooper clutched his armrests as the weightlessness sensation fled his body. Gradually, he felt heavier and heavier, until he was at roughly one hundred and fifty percent his normal weight. Then his weight reversed course. His grip loosened as he grew lighter and lighter.
Hooper wasn’t especially fond of flying. He liked his feet on the ground, where he could control them. But if he had to be airborne, he supposed the HyperMax was the way to go. Simply put, it was the fastest plane available to the U.S. military.
In fact, it was the fastest plane in the entire world.
Just a half hour earlier, he and a small team of Delta Force operators had been ushered into a top-secret hangar in a remote part of Northern Virginia. They’d quickly been introduced to Major Kevin Ford, a pilot with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. Ford was a tall, broad-shouldered man who spoke with a Boston accent. His eyes were soft around the edges, hinting at a career spent testing equipment rather than fighting with it.
After a brief explanation of the flight, Ford had taken them aboard the strange-looking HyperMax aircraft. Within five minutes, it was roaring down a runway and lifting into the sky.
With the aid of special rocket-based engines, the HyperMax had quickly ascended above the outer limit of Earth’s atmosphere, which was approximately twenty-five miles off the ground. Then Major Ford had shut off the engines and the plane began to coast.
Hooper shook his head as he remembered how Major Ford had described the flight. It was, the Major had explained, like skipping a stone along the top layer of the atmosphere. First, the plane would climb gently to a height of forty miles. Then it would lose altitude. Upon falling to a height of twenty miles, the denser air would cause an increase in aerodynamic lift. Coupled with a quick fire of the engines, the plane would be sent upward again. The entire skip, from start to finish, took about two and a half minutes.
Since the HyperMax only required occasional use of its engines, it burned an incredibly small amount of fuel. And because it spent so much time out of the atmosphere, it was able to safely redirect heat build-up into space. This allowed the plane to make do with a lighter airframe and thus, even less fuel.
According to Ford, the trip from northern Virginia to the tiny island of Pagan — an eight thousand mile ride — would take about 23 skips. Adding in the ascent and descent, he’d estimated the entire flight would be about eighty-two minutes.