Landlocked (Atlas Link Series Book 2) (44 page)

“Why would TruGates hunt Lemurians?” General Holt asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t know. Valerie only said that they were, that Chelsea was in danger, too, and that she’d only talk to Chelsea about it.”

“So get in touch with her,” Chelsea said. “Bring her here, or tell me where to meet her.”

“Can you handle that?” I asked her.

“As long as she doesn’t come at me, I won’t have to handle anything,” she said.

“With your permission, General?” I asked.

He nodded. “We’re drowning in empty holes. We’ve thought for so long we were on the right side of this war, only to discover we aren’t. Now we’re faced with enemies from all sides. If Valerie has the answers that piece together the truth, then bring her in.”

“She said to have you take us to the Franklin once I told you,” I said to Chelsea.

“How will she know to meet us?”

I shrugged. “She said she’d know.”

But how, I had no idea.

he Franklin, for the first time in my life, felt nothing like home. The menacing walls crowded me, enclosing me in a cage with a wild, frenzied crowd. I’d worn a hat to try fending off anyone who might recognize me. I knew it was foolish. Of all the places to attempt inconspicuousness, the venue in which Phoenix and Lobster had rose to fame was not one of them.

I led Trevor up to the bar and sat facing the crowd at a table without a light over it.

“You said she’ll know?” I asked him.

He nodded. “Somehow.”

I relaxed into the chair and we waited. Finally, a head of red hair I knew so well joined our table. Valerie pulled over a chair and sat right next to me like we were the best of friends. We might have been if not for the pesky hijacking thing that stood in the way. “Valerie.”

She smiled. “Hey, girlie. Long time no see.”

I glanced at Trevor for direction on how to take this. His expression was one of discomfort, either at Valerie’s behavior or the fact the three of us were in the same room for the first time in two years.

Valerie snapped her fingers at a waiter, not that they’d be able to hear the action over the music. A waiter came over and took Valerie’s drink order. Valerie looked us over before ordering a mudslide for Trevor and a shot of tequila for me. Trevor’s jaw clenched. Guess Valerie had heard about Trevor’s lack of tolerance.

I laughed and turned to Valerie. “You know, I guess I kind of missed you.”

“Figured it was better than giving him straight alcohol,” she said with a wink.

“You know about that?” Trevor said and shook his head. “Of course you do. Well I’m glad the two of you are friends again.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” I said.

“Probably depends how long you live for,” said Valerie. It sobered up the whole table.

“What’s that mean?” I asked. Not that Valerie thinking we’d die was a good measure of anything. We’d survived the hijacking after she high-tailed out of there.

“I’m surprised Trevor didn’t tell you,” she said, eyes flitting to him.

“I only told her that someone was hunting Lemurians,” Trevor said. “The other TAO staff kind of know the other half. You didn’t exactly give me much to go on.”

I looked to him.
You kept something from me that’d put me in danger?

Our drinks arriving cut off any response he might have given.

“Look, girlie,” Valerie said. “I can only tell you so much because most of it depends on getting SeaSatellite5 back. If you don’t do that, the rest won’t matter.”

“So Trevor says,” I replied. “I also hear you think General Allen’s involved.” And he wants me dead, which I already knew. So anything she had to say about him was probably moot.

Saying his name aloud sent a terrified chill down my spine. He’d come so very close to winning.

Valerie must have seen my reaction. “What do you know?”

“General Allen set up TruGates to hunt Lemurians. He hates them, but I don’t know exactly what’s going on there.” What else did I know? “He hates me and knows there were two Lemurian spies on board SeaSat5. Except he thinks it was me and Dave, not Trevor or you and Dave.”

“Why would he think that?” Trevor asked.

I shrugged. “Because I told him it was me. I didn’t want him coming after you, and I didn’t want your name thrown around alongside ‘treason’ and ‘traitor.’”

“There’s more to it than that,” Valerie said. “This is what I wanted to tell you in person. I can’t trust TAO isn’t bugged and I can’t trust Trevor to get the details right.”

Trevor didn’t say anything.

“What’s going on?” I asked her.

She leveled me with a look that said this wasn’t going to be good. “General Allen isn’t just after Lemurians. He’s threatened and attacked you, hasn’t he?”

“Yeah, to find out about the spies on SeaSat5, like I said. Then I found this super secret chamber he had where he’d captured and tortured Lemurians.”

Her eyes widened regarding my last comment, but she didn’t hold back. “It’s not just you, Chelsea. He’s after Atlantean super soldiers. He’s going after Lemurians
and
super soldiers.”

Well okay then. That explained a lot.

Only, that opened up a whole world. My head spun with the full weight of her words.

“Meaning there’s more of us out there besides me and Sophia?” I asked, gripping the table as if the spinning had been a literal force. Of course there had to be more of us, but it was easy to think of Sophia and me being the only ones when we’d never found another.

“Yes, there are more of you.”

I didn’t even have to look at Trevor to know that’s the part he left out. “Okay, that makes sense, then. He’s been pretty… aggressive, shall we say, in regards to me.”

Valerie frowned like she knew exactly how aggressive he’d been. How much
did
she know? “Yeah,” she said. “He’s also not Lemurian. He’s from something much older, much more questionable.”

“
La Ciudad Blanca
,” Trevor said. “I thought you said you didn’t think they were around anymore?”

“Hang on,” I said. That name was not in any way new. It’d been in my thesis work right alongside Atlantis and El Dorado and Shangri-La. “
La Ciudad Blanca
,
as in the lost White City in Honduras? The place people think they find every few years?”

Valerie nodded. “Yes.”

“We found ruins of the city in Brazil on a trip through a Link Piece,” Trevor said. “That’s how we have the piece needed to get to SeaSat5. Dr. Hill wasn’t sure what he found, but Valerie was able to figure it out.”

“With help,” Valerie added. “Help that came at a cost, and has now sent me into hiding.”

I couldn’t wrap my head around this all. I’d missed so damn much while with TruGates. A city in ruins in Brazil. Link Pieces leading to SeaSat5. The freaking White City. And somehow General Allen and his terrifying agenda were related? “So
La Ciudad Blanca
, another lost civilization, is also on the playing field. They hate Lemurians and Atlantean super soldiers, and sent General Allen to kill us all? Did I get all of that right?”

She nodded. “More or less. I’m… trying to do what I can, but like I said, it won’t matter if you don’t get the station back.”

“Why? What’s so important about the station? Beyond the obvious I mean.”

“Not now. What
is
important is you knowing exactly who General Allen is and why he’s after you. He probably knew what you were when he signed you to TruGates.”

I threw back the tequila shot and placed the glass back onto the table. “Makes sense. I can take out more Lemurians than his crew. And I don’t know why, but that’s probably what he was after since he apparently holds the captured Lemurians. There were a dozen bodies in the secret chamber I found. Do you know what that’s about?”

Trevor’s face scrunched up. “Secret chamber?”

“Exactly what it sounds like,” I said. And just as dank and creepy.

Valerie shook her head. “No. I don’t know, Chelsea.”

It was worth a shot, especially since Valerie seemed to know a lot about everything lately. “Okay, here’s another question for you, then. One you
can
answer.”

“Yes?” she asked.

“Why help us?”

“Chelsea,” Trevor warned.

“No, I want to know,” I said. “You pretended to me my friend—our friend—every day leading up to the hijacking. Then you stood by and watched them take the station and kill Michael, another friend. Then you went and helped Trevor get me burn medicine, and you helped me contact Admiral Dennett. I don’t understand you, Valerie.”

“I called TAO, too,” she said.

“Exactly,” I said as I tapped the shot glass on the table. “
Why
?”

She sipped her drink before answering. “Because like I told Trevor, I didn’t expect that idiot to take the station, to risk it being destroyed. I knew Thompson would come if we found something—it was me who’d alerted him to the Link Piece cache. I did it all because those were my orders, and those orders used to mean something. But then I found out what was really going on, and you know what? SeaSat5 is worth the price I’m paying for helping you retake the station. SeaSat5 is more important than you know.”

“Let me guess, you don’t feel like sharing?” I asked.

She shook her head. “It’s not that I don’t want to, I can’t. Some things you need to discover on your own. I’m pointing you in the right direction to find out.”

“You
can’t
tell me sounds a lot like you
choosing
not to.” I ran my hand through my hair. This whole situation was ridiculous as hell. “Do you have any other parting words of wisdom?”

“Watch out for Dave,” she said. “He knew about me, and knows I’ll help you again if I found out anything about what’s going on. I know he gave you the dream to lead you to the station, but just… be careful when you go. If you can find a way to block his powers, do it.”

Dave had powers, too?
Figured
. He was way too accepting of just about everything I was and the abilities I had.

“One more thing,” Valerie said. “I’m doing what I can to round up the other Atlantean soldiers TruGates is hunting. Their numbers are small and they’re spread out. Thought you’d like to know.”

“How many others are there?”

There were more people like me out there. Valerie had
found
them. I wanted to go with her and help, to talk to these people right now. Did they have powers, too? What were the odds they even knew about their ancestry and abilities if I hadn’t for twenty-one years?