Taylor shrugged. “Maybe they don’t use their real names.”
Ostin frowned. “Something doesn’t feel right. Can you read their minds?”
Taylor looked over at the driver, who was divided from the back by a thick, bulletproof Plexiglas sheet braced with a metal caging. “I don’t know. I’ll try.” She put her hand against the metal siding of the van.
Ostin knocked on the plastic partition between them. The man turned back. “Yes?”
“Where are we going?”
“Someplace safe, amigos,” he said. “Someplace very safe.” He turned back toward the front.
Taylor looked at Ostin with wide eyes. “We’ve got to get out of here,” she whispered.
“Why?” Ostin asked.
“They’re taking us to the Elgen.”
The mood in back of the van changed from relief to terror.
“What do we do?” Abigail asked.
“Try the back door,” Jack said.
“There’s no handle,” Taylor said. “You can only open the door from the outside.”
“Can you shock them?” Ostin asked Zeus.
“Not through that plastic screen.”
“What if I melted through it first?” McKenna said.
“If you shock them, they’ll crash,” Taylor said.
“I’d rather take my chance with a car crash than with Hatch,” Zeus said. “At least with the crash I’ve got a chance of surviving.”
Taylor looked back at the men, then knocked on the plastic behind the first man. “Where are you really taking us?”
“I told you. Somewhere safe.”
“Where is safe?”
“You know all you need to know,” he replied.
“Who are you really?” Ostin asked again.
At first neither of them answered. Then the driver laughed. “Soldiers of fortune.”
“No,” said the other. “Underpaid soldiers.”
“Not anymore,” the driver said. “Soon we will be sunning on the beaches in Argentina.”
“You’re Elgen scum!” Jack shouted.
“No.” The man in the passenger seat turned back. “We are not with the Elgen company. But they pay better than the Peruvian army.”
“You know they’ll kill us,” Taylor said.
“What they do is not our concern,” the driver said. “And the Peruvian government will execute you anyway. Your chances are better with the Elgen company.”
“You’ve never met Hatch,” Zeus said.
“Met what?” the man replied.
“Manuel,” the driver said, his voice suddenly pitched. “Mire!”
In the middle of the road ahead of them was an army tank. Its cannon was pointed directly at them.
“That’s not good,” Ostin said.
“Who is that?” Taylor asked.
“Looks like the Peruvian army isn’t as dumb as those two think they are.”
“Que hago?” the driver asked.
“No sé! Vire!”
“Pueden reducirnos a cenizas!”
“No van a matar los chicos.”
“What are they saying?” Taylor asked.
“They’re trying to figure out what to do about the tank,” Ostin said.
Suddenly machine-gun fire exploded around them, blowing out the van’s tires.
“Everyone down!” Taylor shouted.
The teens fell to the floor. There was a loud screech as the tires shredded off and the truck’s metal rims hit the payment.
“Mi Madre de Dios!” shouted the driver.
“Firme!”
The transport veered off the road and everyone bounced around in the back. Bullets tore through the front and side windows of the cab, ripping apart the front of the van. A stray bullet hit Jack in the arm. “Ah!”
“They got Jack!” Wade shouted. “They got Jack!”
“Calm down!” Jack shouted. “It’s just a flesh wound!”
The van tipped up on two wheels, then slid down a small dirt slope where it crashed into a grove of small trees, tumbling everyone in back. When the motion stopped, everyone was quiet.
“Everyone okay?” Jack asked.
“I’m okay,” Abigail said.
“Me too,” McKenna said. “I just hit my head.”
“I’m okay too,” Taylor said. She had a small gash on her forehead and blood was running down the side of her face.
“You’re bleeding,” Ostin said.
“I noticed,” she said, wiping the blood from around her eye.
Ostin moved closer to her. “It doesn’t look too deep.”
Zeus said to Jack, “You okay, buddy?”
“Yeah. Stings a little.”
“I can help,” Abigail said. She took Jack’s arm and the pain went away.
“Thanks,” Jack said.
“Anytime,” she replied.
As they lay there, dozens of Peruvian soldiers surrounded the vehicle. Soldiers pulled open the front door of the van, then dragged the bodies of the traitorous soldiers out of the cab.
“Están muertos.”
A soldier looked into the window at the youth, then stepped back. “Everyone come out of the truck,” a voice said.
“We’re locked in!” Ostin shouted. “We can’t get out.”
“Apúrense!” a voice shouted. “Scales antes que reventa el combi!”
The soldiers swarmed the back of the van. “We will open the door,” one shouted. “If you run, we shoot.”
“Should I blast them?” Zeus asked.
“No. There’s too many of them,” Taylor said.
“And they’ve got us outgunned,” Ostin added.
“Maybe they’re going to shoot us for trying to escape,” Wade said.
“They have a tank,” Ostin said. “If they wanted us dead, they would have just blown us up. Besides, they probably just think we were kidnapped by those dudes.”
The back doors of the van swung open, revealing dozens of guns pointing at them, including two mounted machine guns and a flamethrower.
“Can you say overkill?” Ostin said sardonically.
“Come out,” one of them shouted in English. “One at a time.”
Ostin breathed out slowly. “Failed again,” he said.
“Michael,” Taylor said, holding her head. “Where are you?”
In the Tyrrhenian Sea. The ES Ampere.
“Are we in agreement?” Chairman Schema asked. Two hours earlier he had called the board together for an emergency meeting. An ominous, dark atmosphere permeated the boardroom.
Board member Eleven broke the silence. “I’m not comfortable playing judge and jury,” he said. “We’re voting to execute someone.”
“Perhaps you’d be more comfortable spending the rest of your life in prison,” Two replied.
“If they don’t hang you first,” Ten said.
“No,” Schema said, shaking his head. “There is no other option. Hatch must never leave this ship alive.” His gray eyes slowly panned the table. “We must be unanimous as a board. This is no time for dissension.”
“Then I’ll abstain from voting,” Eleven said.
“I will too,” Seven said.
“As will I,” Six said.
Schema looked at the three of them with disgust. “I didn’t realize the board had cowards on it.” Everyone turned away from the three except Schema, who stared at them coldly. “So be it,” he finally said. “Let the record show that board members Eleven, Six, and Seven are irrelevant.”
“I make a motion that we vote,” Two said.
“I second the motion,” said Ten.
“Is there any more discussion?” Schema asked. When there was no response, he said, “All in favor of the motion, say aye.”
The room was a chorus of ayes.
“Any opposed?” He looked at Eleven, Six, and Seven, who remained silent. “The motion carries.”
Schema’s secretary walked into the room. She leaned over and whispered in the chairman’s ear. Schema nodded.
“Have we confirmed who’s on board?”
“Yes, sir,” she replied. “Just the pilot and Dr. Hatch.”
“Alert security to their arrival,” Schema said. “Land them.” As she turned he looked over the board. “We’ve reached our decision just in time. I’ve just been informed that Dr. Hatch’s transport is landing on the ship.”
*
The Elgen helicopter dropped quickly beneath a low-hanging canopy of black-gray clouds, hovering a moment before settling onto the ship’s pitching helipad. Hatch almost threw up. White-knuckle landings on a rocking deck were just another on a long list of reasons for Hatch to dislike their corporate sea base.
“We’ve landed,” the pilot said.
Hatch nodded. “So we have.”
The pilot shut off the engine, and as the rotors slowed, two armed guards, one tall and lanky, the other short and muscular, approached the helicopter. Dr. Hatch opened the helicopter door and stepped out, looking at the guards with a wry smile. “Now why would you be holding guns?”
“Sir, please step away from the craft,” the tall guard said.
“I asked you a question,” Hatch said sternly.
“Please step away from the craft,” the guard repeated.
Hatch looked back and forth between them, then said, “As you wish.”
The muscular guard walked around Hatch and looked inside the helicopter.
“Visual inspection clear, sir,” he barked to the other guard.
“Were you expecting someone?” Hatch asked.
“We need to check you for weapons, sir,” the first guard said. “Please put your hands above your head.”
Hatch shook his head with annoyance. “Is this really necessary?”
“Yes, sir.”
Hatch complied with the command and the muscular guard patted him down, then stood back at attention. “He’s clean.”
“Does Chairman Schema know you’re treating me this way?”
“These are the chairman’s orders, sir,” the guard replied.
Hatch nodded. “How unfortunate.”
“Follow me, please,” the tall guard said. Hatch followed the guard, while the other guard walked behind him, his gun drawn.
Schema’s secretary buzzed the chairman as Hatch and the guards entered the waiting room. “They’re here, sir.” She nodded to the tall guard, who opened the boardroom door. Hatch stepped past him and into the room. He noticed two more guards inside the room. The board was silent on his entrance.
“I see there have been some changes since my last visit,” Hatch said, sitting down “Thank you for sending the welcoming committee.”
Chairman Schema, who was seated at the far side of the table, just glared at him, his anger barely contained beneath a veneer of forced civility, like the clattering lid on a boiling pot.
Hatch coolly returned his gaze. “You wish to say something?”
“Dr. Hatch, you were given specific instructions and deadlines to dismantle the biogenesis program. Instead, you flagrantly disobeyed our orders, leading to the destruction of our largest facility, leaving seventy percent of an entire country out of power, and doing irreparable damage to our reputation.”
Hatch showed no emotion. “We were attacked by terrorists. How is this my fault?”
“You were attacked because you failed to obey our order to release the Vey woman!” Schema shouted. “Your refusal to do so resulted in the attack.”
“That’s not wholly accurate. The group attacked us for their own political agenda.”
“Political agenda.” Three laughed. “They’re teenagers. Their only political agenda is free Internet.”
Hatch looked at Three, his eyes dark and fierce. “As I said, they have a political agenda.”
Schema continued, “The damage done by your impudence has set us back years, if not outright destroyed our chance for short-term success.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Hatch replied. “Do you really believe that any country will walk away from free electricity? Our plant being shut down was not our fault—but the poor handling of the situation is completely yours. We were attacked by a sophisticated and powerful group of anarchists and terrorists. When they attacked our plant, world sympathy should have been with us, not against us. But instead of invoking public sympathy, you apologized. What was going through your mind? What you did was tantamount to Roosevelt apologizing to the world after Pearl Harbor. Your stupidity turned public sentiment against us.” Hatch looked around the table at the board members. “Really, this is our leader? Our chairman? This is the man we trust with our future?” He turned and faced Schema. “You have done enough damage!”
Schema pounded the table with his fist. “Enough!”
“Indeed it is,” Hatch said, glaring at him. “You are no longer fit to run this organization.”
Schema jumped up from his chair. “How dare you!”
Hatch also jumped up, simultaneously slamming his fist down on the table. “How dare you! You have led this group from one disastrous decision to the next. Your shortsightedness is exceeded only by your stupidity.”
Schema was red in the face, his veins bulging from his temples. “Guards, take him to the brig.”
“I’m not done,” Hatch said, pointing at Schema. “It’s time the Elgen became who we were meant to become. It’s time for a change, but not the one you brought me here for.” Hatch’s eyes panned the room as his voice softened. “Yes, I know why you brought me here. You can’t fire me. I know too much. I hold each of your lives in my hands. You didn’t bring me here to fire me—you brought me here to silence me.”
No one spoke.
“Don’t worry. It’s not going to happen. If anyone will be silenced, it will be our illustrious chair.”
“Guards, take him out of here!” Schema shouted. “Now.”
The two guards walked up behind Hatch.
“Sir, put your hands behind your back,” one of them said.
“So it begins,” Hatch said. He looked around the room with a confident, dark smile. “Does anyone here, besides me, of course, object to the chairman’s scheme to put me down?” He looked back and forth between the group. “Answer carefully, your decision will hold consequences.”
“Even in complete failure you’re defiant,” Two said.
Hatch looked at her. “You’ve always shared the chairman’s animosity for me. It makes me wonder what else you share.”
The woman blanched. “How dare you!”
“How dare I? You have no idea how much I’m willing to dare.”
“You’re a fool,” Two said. “We are fortunate to be rid of you.”
“Don’t be too sure,” Hatch said. “The day is not over yet.”
Two chuckled. “Are you so obtuse or arrogant as to think that this board will change their minds?”
“The day will reveal who is truly obtuse,” Hatch said. “And no, I don’t believe that you will change your mind, but the less obtuse board members will. And my arrogance is not unfounded. Mark my word, friends: Those who don’t support me will live to regret their decision. Sooner than you imagine.”
Seven stood up. “Mr. Chairman, is this treatment of Dr. Hatch really necessary?”
“I agree,” Six added. “Dr. Hatch has provided much to our organization. There wouldn’t even be a Starxource initiative if it wasn’t for him.”
Schema looked around the room. “Anyone else disagree with my actions?” he asked softly. “Would you like to resurrect the discussion on Dr. Hatch’s reprimand?”
Eleven also raised her hand.
“Seven, Six, and Eleven,” Schema said, looking at the three in disdain. “You are relieved of your board membership and are under house arrest until we decide your fate. Captain, see that there is a guard stationed at each of their rooms.”
“Yes, sir,” the guard barked back.
Schema looked around at the rest of the table. “Is there anyone else who wishes to join them?”
No one spoke.
&nb
sp; “Take these fools away,” Schema said.
*
As Hatch and his two guards boarded the elevators near the center of the boat, Hatch said to his escorts, “I’ll give you one more chance to prove your loyalty to me.” He paused for emphasis. “Not for my sake, but yours.”
“Shut up!” the first guard shouted. “You’re insane.”
Hatch smiled. “So be it.”
The elevator doors opened onto the bottom level of the ship, and Hatch was marched down a long corridor to the brig. The Ampere’s brig consisted of four cells, six foot by six foot, with padded walls and electric locks. Being on the ship’s bottom level, the brig was situated less than seventy feet from the engine room, so the cells and the outside corridor were always noisy, reverberating with the sound of the yacht’s massive diesel engines.
The second guard opened the first cell door and stood to its side. “Welcome to your new home. Get comfortable. You’re going to be here a long, long time.”
“I don’t think so,” Hatch said. He turned to the first guard, who was still clutching Hatch’s arm. “Are you going to take my cuffs off?”
The guard shoved him into the small cell. “Maybe tomorrow,” he said. “But probably not.”
“You don’t have tomorrow,” Hatch said.
“He’s a nutcase,” the second guard said. He slammed the door, which locked with a loud buzz and electric click. Both guards turned to go.
“One more thing . . . ,” Hatch said after them.
Both guards turned back.
“Let me tell you something that many have learned the hard way.” He leaned toward the bars and his voice fell to a low, guttural growl. “I never ever, ever forget.”
“Like an elephant,” the first guard said, laughing.
“Come on,” the second guard said. “Just leave the nutjob in his cage.”
Suddenly the corridor lights flickered. Then the lights at the end of the hall went dark.
“Gentlemen,” Hatch said. “I believe there’s an electrical storm coming.”
Both guards drew their weapons, the first a submachine gun, the second a Colt sidearm. Suddenly the second guard dropped his handgun and began screaming. His face was red and he was violently shaking his hands in the air. “My hands! They’re burning!”
Then the first guard also threw his gun to the floor and fell to his knees, pulling off his boots. “My feet!”