Bridgeworlds: Deep Flux (10 page)

“What is it, Bernard?”

Bernard rubbed his chin. “Well, sir. I have seen you rummage
through the mansion before but never through your fathers room in
such distress. What are you looking for, Sir?”

“I am looking for something my father must have hidden, some
kind of clue as to the family’s link to Omar Metzger… how that
relationship began,” said Jack in frustration.

Bernard gave Jack a confused look. “And you never thought to
ask me, Sir?” Bernard went to one of the panels in the wall and pushed
on it and a piece of the wood floor slid open revealing a box in a secret
compartment in the floor.

“I don’t know what is in it, Sir. But don’t count out the help
when trying to locate something in a mansion, Sir,” he said and walked
back out of the room as if he had found something to clean.

At the top of a box full of papers, Jack found a letter from
Germany that was post marked 1943. In the letter was the map to some
lost treasure that it appeared his father had followed and found. The
letter was short, “When the name Omar Metzger comes to you, trust
him with your life and your family secrets. Invest in Omar’s projects and,
by all means, when your son goes to find the Lost City of Atlantis, send
Omar with him. His life depends on it. Later your son will find this letter
and everything that leads to Omar, but keep this letter secret so he can
find it at the right time.” It was signed “Nekar.”

What? My father was only 10 when he got this letter. Omar
wasn’t even born yet.

Beneath that letter Jack found a copy of Omar’s birth certificate.
He found a newspaper clipping of the bombing in Israel that had killed
Omar’s mother and father. There were letters back and forth with a
Japanese family; it was Omar’s adoptive family. Jack’s father had
contacted them and told them about Omar. He had even given them
the money to adopt him and put him and Misaki in an advanced school
for child prodigies. And when she had gone into a coma his father had
paid for extensive research to be done on Misaki.

This is unbelievable. My father had been a benefactor for Omar
for so many years, helping him from behind the scenes. Does Omar
know?
Because that letter had gained Jack’s father his fortune, he had
taken it very seriously.

Jack sat on his father’s bed with his head in his hands; so many
emotions rolled through him, he couldn't put words to them. Omar was
the only other person his father had taken care of like Jack. To Jack this
made Omar almost like an older brother. Going through Omar's files
made him feel even closer
. Now I have to go save him.

Jack left the mansion in a hurry. The Raven Towers were three
skyscrapers that looked like black glass knife blades jutting from the
ground to the clouds with the tallest tower in the middle. It was a multibusiness complex with businesses mostly owned, run, or affiliated with
Jack Raven. The driver took him to the circular brick parkway with a
fountain in the center. Jack gathered his father’s papers on Omar and
quickly got out of the limousine passing a statue of his father to enter
the middle building.

Waiting at the glass doors was Sasha Romanov.
She couldn’t
even wait in the office to talk to me. Scientists… no regard for social
decorum.
Sasha stood an inch taller than Jack with her heels on in a
knee length black skirt and a stained lab coat.
She must have come here
straight from work.
Sasha was a brilliant and attractive woman. Jack
normally liked women who were assertive, career minded, intelligent,
and attractive but Sasha very obviously had a thing for Omar.
I doubt
Omar even thought in such terms about anyone.
Omar had always
seemed too obsessed about his sister to care for the attention of any
other woman.

As Jack rushed through the glass doors the scientist
interrogated him. “Why have you called us here? They said it was life or
death. Is Omar back; is he ok?”

Jack gave her his most charming smile as he entered the
elevators and swiped his key card for the top floor. “Sasha! I’m great, so
nice of you to ask. I’m saving it for when we get upstairs where
everyone else is. But if you're good I will give you my father’s file on
Omar. It contains his entire life story; things I sure didn’t know, and
even a few psych evaluations. Very interesting material, especially the
place where he talks about you.”

She blinked.
Good, hopefully stunned long enough for this
elevator to get us to the top.

But Jack had no such luck. Instead she punched him in the arm.
“Look. That boyish smile and witty sarcasm may get you what you want
with most women but I will not be treated like an idiot.

He laughed as he rubbed his arm,
Wow, she can punch pretty
hard, that really hurt!
“Hey, it surprised me, too." Jack opened the
folder he was carrying and grabbed the cover form that had all of
Omar’s medical information on the front handing it to Sasha.

She looked at the form and paused as if thinking. “You really do
have his files,” she said quietly.

The elevator reached to top of the tower where Jack’s office
was. It had black marble flooring, a glass desk, a few chandeliers, and
two purple leather sofas to either side of the desk. He smiled as he
thought about how much he enjoyed seeing people react to being
seated on purple furniture. Finally, his own logo hung on the wall
behind the desk. He had been told that it was arrogant to have your
own logo, but he considered it such a good design, he could not pass it
up. It was a black playing card with purple lining that has a J at the top
left corner with a raven flying above it and the same thing inversed at
the bottom.

On Jack’s left was his “field team” sitting quietly on the couch
and to his right Tyree Jackson, Omar’s young muscular lab assistant. He
was a large man but awkwardly so; though a grown man, Jack had
always thought of him as child-like and easily swayed. He wore glasses,
a red hooded sweatshirt with a white tee shirt underneath, black jeans,
and Timberland boots with the beginnings of a goatee growing around
his mouth. His hands were in his pockets, and he looked around as if he
felt out of place.

Jack approached Tyree and stuck his hand out. He gave him a
reluctant look before shaking his hand. “How have you been, Tyree? I
have not seen you since the last time I visited Misaki.”

“Uhm, I have been good. It wasn’t that long ago. I’m just
confused as to why you have me here. I'm just a lab assistant who, has
become more of a glorified bed nurse to Misaki.”

Jack smiled, “Relax Tyree, we are all friends of Dr. Metzger and
we are here about him. You are very important to what I have to say.”

Jack turned to the others. Most of them were familiar faces.
Bogdan, Charli, Caleb, and Owen were part of a team Jack had
assembled many years ago, but there was a new member. The man
looked to be Italian. He was short and had a very stocky solid build. Jack
cocked his head at the man. “You are new.”

The man calmly nodded and stuck out one of his hulking hands
and spoke in an unmistakably Italian accent, “I am Ingatio Marinelli; I
will be assigned as your personal bodyguard on this journey.” Jack
shook the man’s hand, and it completely engulfed his own. He had
never met a man so burly.

Jack turned to Sasha and Tyree on the other couch. Both of
them looked impatient, but Jack would not do away with formalities.
Jack pointed to the tall man on his team’s couch whose body was in the
shape of a triangle. He had a thin waist and massively broad shoulders.
His eyes were an ice blue, his skin was fair, and his hair was a blondish
red. “This is Bogdan, he is the leader of my field team. He is prior
Russian military and well trained in the art of war and tactics. He is also
somewhat of a theologian.”

Bogdan simply nodded and said, “This is true.”

 

Tyree raised an eyebrow and adjusted his glasses. “Field?”

Jack ignored him knowing he would get to the point after
formalities. “Next to Bogdan is Charli and Caleb. They are cousins, well
trained in martial arts from an early age. They both have some special
abilities that will come in handy. Charli is a telekinetic and Caleb can
speak to animals and control them to an extent”. Caleb had brown eyes
and dark hair and looked to be in his late twenties. Charli had blue eyes
and blonde hair. She looked to be about sixteen years old but had been
confirmed to be twenty.

Tyree tried to speak again but Jack kept going. “Then there is
Owen, our demolitions expert.” Owen was fairly short, was muscular,
had a shaved head, wore large black sunglasses and a sleeveless black
vest with camouflage pants and combat boots. He nodded his head
toward Tyree and Sasha.

Sasha stood up, “Enough of this charade. First, there is no such
thing as
telekinesis
. And second, I didn’t come here to meet your team. I
came to find out about Omar.”

Tyree, still sitting, looked up at Sasha with agreement on his
face.

Charli hand signed to Caleb but it was subtle. Jack imagined that
the others didn’t notice. Other than that Charli kept her composure.
Jack knew that if it had been him, it would have been too tempting for
him; he would have shown off.

Jack turned his attention back to Sasha and Tyree. “Tyree, I
need access to the section of tunnel.”

 

Then Tyree stood up. “No. I have my instructions and I will not
go against them.”

Jack closed the gap between him and Tyree quickly. He put his
hand on Tyree’s shoulder. “Dr. Metzger had one week, Tyree. It’s been 3
months. Do you think he would abandon his sister and his research?
Omar is stuck.”

Tyree shook his head. “You are not going to bully me into it; I
will not tell you where it is.”

Jack sighed. “I had hoped it would not come to this. But I have
bought all the shares of holdings that the government has over the
project. I am your boss, Tyree.”

“I’m not telling you,” he said shaking his head insistently.

 

Sasha joined in. “Tyree, its ok. We know you are loyal to Dr.
Metzger. I, of all people, respect that, but we need to go after him.”

 

“I made a promise,” Tyree insisted, “and I plan to keep it.”

I hate this but I have to push.
“Tyree, I know you support your
mother with this job. If I have to fire you, you will not get a good
reference and I doubt you will find the kind of pay you are making now.”

Tyree shook his head as he turned to walk away but then
suddenly before Jack could react Tyree turned around and struck Jack
on the nose. Tyree was always so calm and gentle that Jack was
surprised. Tyree then got in his face and said with tears of anger in his
eyes, “You can't abuse your power like this with no consequences. If you
keep walking all over people to get what you want, eventually you are
going to walk all over the wrong person.”

Jack wiped a bit of blood from his nose.
That was a solid hit.
Jack nodded in agreement but gave Tyree an expectant look.

Tyree wrote something down on a scrap of paper. “That is the
address and below it the code to get in. I hope you are happy with
yourself.” Then Tyree got up and walked out of the room.

After Tyree left, Jack went over to his desk and buzzed his
receptionist. “Have a check cut for three hundred thousand dollars to
Tyree Jackson.”

“Yes, sir,” was all they heard from the other side.

 

Then Jack walked back over and stood with his team. He looked
over at Sasha. “We are missing a scientist. Will you come with us?”

 

She raised an eyebrow, “You act as though I was going to give
you a choice.”

 

Jack laughed. “Let’s get to this portal.”

The team piled into a van and went to the location; a large
warehouse that was owned by Omar. He used the code to get into the
front entrance. The team fell behind him while entering.

Before heading to the warehouse Jack had given Sasha a chance
to pick out equipment and provisions. They carried with them enough
food for several weeks and after that ran out they would need to find
sustenance. Bogdan had seen fit to bring a remote control wagon with
them that would carry up to 2000 pounds. Bogdan did not normally like
bringing extra baggage but this was different; they might not be able to
come back. Jack eyed the wagon. It was actually large enough that all of
them could sit in it if they had run through or lost their provisions. A
vehicle might be useful.

Jack got to the room where the tunnel was being kept and set
down his things. He stepped towards the tunnel to glance in it.
It looks
so harmless.

Then he approached Bogdan. “What did you think of the riddle
that Misaki spoke?”

 

Bogdan nodded and spoke in his thick Russian accent, “It is
Biblical.”

 

Jack raised an eyebrow, “Then you know what to do?”

Bogdan shrugged, “More or less. We will see.” He walked to the
portal and laid a hand on it. Closing his eyes, he reverently bowed his
head.

Sasha approached Jack, “First telekinesis and animal whisperers,
and now prayer to open a portal? Really, Jack?”

 

Jack shrugged with a simple smile, “When you find something
that works, you learn not to question it too much and just run with it.”

 

Sasha shook her head, “Maybe you, but not me. However, I am
interested in that file you mentioned.”

Of course you are.
Jack laughed, “Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Here
you go.” Jack handed her the entire file. It would be a seed planted.
Show her that there is no such thing as coincidence.

Sasha took the files and sat down, thumbing through them. Jack
hadn’t even read through them all. It was ridiculous how much
information his father had on Omar.

Jack turned his attention to the other members of the group.
Charli and Caleb were hand signing to each other even though neither
was deaf. It seemed that they were the most exclusive members of the
group and the most powerful. Charli and Caleb were the only people on
earth that Jack had found in his search for people with special abilities.
After finding out that they were cousins Jack had paid the rest of their
family to be genetically tested for dormant abilities, but he found
nothing.