Project Sparta (The Xander Whitt Series Book 1) (10 page)

He peered through the cracks of his fingers, covering his eyes. He saw Seamus still standing there, unaware of Xander’s presence. He only realized then that it wasn’t Seamus, but a reflection. Xander was looking into an angled mirror that was followed by a series of reflections, leading to Seamus who was still unsure of his visitor’s location.

Xander found his legs and raised the semiautomatic from hip to eye. He took each step under a cautious whirlwind of breaths.

“Come out come out wherever you are!” The battle was obviously a game to Seamus, but with a shotgun Xander knew that it would only take one shot to tag him and put him out of commission.

Xander knew that the exterior of the Fun House was only about fifty feet long. The windy path of continual mirrors proved an arduous trek. He hadn’t traveled far but the series of mirrors made it seem like an infinite expanse.

Anni chimed through his helmet, “Ezra has been eliminated. Seven Spartans remain.”

Xander was saddened at the sound of his friend’s name, hoping he would have done better. Then another Seamus came into view.

“Oh, come on now Xander, come out in play!” Seamus mocked.

He’s close.

At that moment Xander emerged into what seemed like a foyer, lined with mirrors on the walls and ceiling. A chandelier hung at the circular room’s center. The fixture’s light reflected in all the mirrors, creating a halo that encircled the room. The black and white checkered pattern of the floor tile reflected off the ceiling. Another narrow passage appeared and met the chandelier hall. Xander was suspicious of whether Seamus was down the hall. It was much darker than the foyer so it was difficult to see into it. Seamus’s reflections disappeared from view. Xander’s gaze stayed fixed on the horizontal abyss across from him, as he peered a little closer to see what could be down the hallway.

He stepped once, twice…

Seamus broke out into the foyer from the passage, firing on all cylinders. He fired and pumped his next round into the chamber and fired again. Xander started sprinting as fast as he could around the perimeter. Seamus’s shotgun rounds trailed him, hitting his reflection in each mirror he passed. Shattered glass fragments marked the trail of carnage that was chasing Xander from behind. Xander then caught a shell in the leg, which sent sparks flying from his suit.

Xander’s right leg collapsed underneath him midstride. He spun from his wound, swapped shooting hands, and fired off five rounds, left-handed, square into Seamus’s chest. The Spartan became engulfed in sparks.

His color faded. He fell limp. Motionless.

Xander stepped over to him and looked down at Seamus, who could not move but was fully alert.

“Good match, Seamus.” Xander smiled down and Seamus returned a slight nod.

“Seamus has been eliminated. Six Spartans remain,” Anni announced.

After catching his breath, Xander limped out of the fun house. When he got to the entryway he surveyed the landscape. The merry-go-round was turning and the roller coaster traveled around the park. Tobias was out in the open heading toward the Fun House, but the wooden coaster flew overhead. Tobias dropped. All Xander could see in such a quick swoop were red locks of hair dancing in the wind.

“Tobias has been eliminated. Five Spartans remain.”

Fiona’s in that roller coaster picking off people as she passes them. That’s pretty clever. Requires a good shot…and even better reflexes.

Xander noticed the sun had broken the clouds and the snow had slowed to a slight sprinkling flurry. Xander took off his glove and reached his bare hand out into the open, feeling the sun’s rays on his skin. The small hairs on his hand stood up and the nerves in his hand melted at the feeling. It had been a long time since he felt the sun directly. His hand, exposed, he reached for more sunlight, until a bullet zoomed by just missing him.

Xander’s attention returned to the battle. He noticed the blinking capsule that drove into the ground near him. He had forgotten about Ashton and the sniper rifle she had atop the Ferris wheel. Xander investigated the bullet that drove into the dirt before him and quickly judged the angle from which it must have come, visualizing the bullet’s trajectory. From this, he was able to gather a clear indication of Ashton’s position on the Ferris wheel from whence she fired the round.

She must have been at the top of the Ferris wheel. Xander mentally charted her revolution, taking into account the arc and speed of the Ferris wheel.

We need her out in the open, no matter her vantage point. She’s circling back now. You’re clear!

He slung out from cover to get a good look at the Ferris wheel. He noticed Ashton in one of the seats cycling around awaiting her position of high ground for her next shot. Xander’s eyes darted to the base of the Ferris wheel where he noticed a large red button, an emergency stop button. And with those two sights he had a plan to take out Ashton. He ducked back for cover and waited patiently, counting down from ten.

Xander spun out from cover and shot the large red button, stopping the Ferris wheel with Ashton at its highest peak—exposed.

Xander retreated into the Fun House and intentionally shattered the closest mirror with the butt of his firearm.

Last thing I need now is bad luck.

He took a sizeable shard of glass and brought it back to the entryway. He looked up at the sky and took in the sunny day for another brief moment. He again heard Hardy’s words in his head.

You will learn how to use the elements at your disposal. In fact, that is probably the most important lesson you will learn because when you are in the field, that’s all you have…

Xander angled the shard of mirror and followed the shining light up the Ferris Wheel to its apex, until it settled on the sniper at the top. He pulled out from his cover, careful to keep the shard of mirror positioned on her. With no shot his way, he knew that she was blinded by the light. After approaching ten steps closer to the Ferris Wheel, he finally threw the mirror down into the ground and raised his rifle to the clear shot of Ashton. He snapped off five well aimed rounds and watched as the sparks rained down from the top cart of the Ferris Wheel. 

“Ashton has been eliminated. Four Spartans remain.”

Xander looked down at the shard of the mirror with which he had just blinded Ashton. He saw himself in its reflection, suited up and armed. It was the first time he saw a glimpse of his future. A trained soldier out for the kill.

Another hail of gunfire sounded to the south, Anni gave an update in their helmets: “Mac has been eliminated. Three Spartans remain.”

I’ve got to move. Fiona is on the wooden coaster riding around and picking people off. No idea where Duke is.

Xander stayed low and limped along as fast as he could to the entrance of the coaster when the car circled away from him. He wanted the vantage point—he had to find Duke and why not pursue Fiona in the meantime? Xander ascended a flight of stairs to reach the loading platform of the roller coaster. He ducked for cover because he knew the roller coaster would slow to a stop for boarding before it sped off again. Xander found a support beam and stood tall, his back up against the cold pillar.

As he waited for the coaster to finish its lap around the rails, Xander focused on a thought.

Fiona could be betraying all of us. She could be a double.

Xander’s fist tightened on his rifle as he allowed the thought to take hold of him. He heard the car screeching to a halt as it approached the platform. Xander spun out from cover and dove to his left, launching off his good leg. He fired four bullets into Fiona’s torso and landed on his side.

“Fiona has been eliminated. Two Spartans remain,”
Anni announced.

He surprised himself. He couldn’t help but admire the maneuver—it was straight out of an action movie. He was sure that Captain Axle would chastise him later for the reckless move, but now he had to focus on the last recruit in the field.

All right, Duke, it’s just you and me
.

Xander boarded the coaster and he was off. His world moved in fast forward as he sped down the coaster tracks at thirty miles per hour. He rode the coaster one time through to process the route. Then the coaster came to a stop at the docking station. Xander searched the turnstiles wildly.

No Duke. Where the hell is he?

The coaster continued on for its second run. Xander’s eyes scanned the carnival grounds wildly. He saw no movement. It wasn’t until Xander heard something behind him that he knew he had been outsmarted.

He turned around to see Duke five cars behind him. He must have been hiding the entire time, knowing Xander would pursue Fiona and take her out. The cherry-picking tactic was largely considered to be a cowardly strategy, but it clearly didn’t matter to Duke, as his rifle steadied on Xander. Xander leaped from the moving roller coaster. He had processed enough of the route to know the coaster would dip and pass over a gaming booth. His launch was successful but before he reached his target, a pill shaped bullet clipped his other leg, and his suit gripped him in immobility. Xander’s altered trajectory carried him through the wooden siding of the gaming booth like a wrecking ball. Electric sparks shot in every direction. Xander lost consciousness as the lights of his suit faded. Anni’s voice grew more distant. He was left to cold darkness as the light snow covered his motionless body.

“Xander has been eliminated. Congratulations, Duke, you have won the battle.”

Chapter 17

The Compound

November 30
th
2010

Xander scanned his surroundings as the recurring dream materialized. He only vaguely knew where he was—the backseat of a station wagon. A man with thick blond hair drove the car while a woman sat in the passenger seat in front of Xander. Her brunette curls fell behind her seat and dangled before Xander. He reached his hand out and grazed her warm silk locks with his fingertips, sending a wave undulating through them.

His focus on his mother’s hair snapped as the man behind the steering wheel glanced back toward him.

“Isn’t that right, Xander?” Xander didn’t know the question and didn’t care. He could only muster a disjointed thought over his emotion. It was a nostalgic declaration.

“I love you, Mom and Dad.” A gushing
awe
sounded from the front seat. His mom unbuckled her seat belt, spun around and sat up on her knees, her beautiful face propped up on the head rest. She had glacier blue eyes, dimples and a tight, thin smile.

“And we love you, Xander. You are so sweet.”

Xander was sobbing at the sight of his mother. He tried to speak through the tears. “I miss you so much.”

Xander’s mother reached back and wiped his tears away. “We’re right here, Xander.” She didn’t understand what he was saying. His father turned back to look at him.

“Yeah, son, we’re not going anywh—” Xander’s dad wasn’t looking as an eighteen-wheeler slammed into the driver’s side of the car. It hit them so fast, yet it all seemed to happen in slow motion. The windows shattered and shards of glass flew by, slashing Xander’s face. His dad’s neck snapped on impact and his mother was thrown out of the passenger window. The car spun out of control and then a thump sounded under the back right tire of the car. Xander looked back to see his mother’s body skidding across the road. Xander’s head then hit hard on the window, cracking it.

Xander’s world sped back to the present as he shot up in the infirmary bed, sweating and wheezing. Pain surged through his fractured ribs as his lungs inflated against them. His body ached horribly from the wounds sustained during the battle in the park. Xander, alert and raving, checked himself and his surroundings. The damp bed sheets grounded him back in reality. His head fell back on his pillow, but all he could see was his mother’s face. It was the clearest memory he had of her. It was the only memory he had of her. Every dream he had of his parents ended in their deaths. He grabbed the cross pendant around his neck, hoping to find strength that he worried would not come.

Chapter 18

Tobias’s Laboratory

Brookland – Washington, DC

June 30
th
2016

An echoing rattle sounded throughout the northern DC ghetto as Xander pounded his fist on the rickety garage door. The seemingly abandoned warehouse was a collage of faded colors—the windows had an auburn stain lining their frames, the siding was tagged with graffiti. These beauty marks were intentional on the part of the inhabitant. He had learned the importance of camouflage. No one would expect someone with a 175 IQ to be living behind a dented garage door. Xander’s eyes met the lens of a surveillance camera shifting to view him. He offered a shrug and a nod, as if to say, “Yeah, I know, it’s been awhile.”

The garage door screeched as it slid open and a tangled explosion of hair poked out, followed by Tobias. His appearance had matured since the Compound—his skin had hardened but his frame still seemed skinny and weak and he still wore the same dark-rimmed glasses. Xander was always amazed how smart Tobias was. He often thought his wild head of hair was probably an accurate illustration of his thoughts. His mind was like a computer surging with an extra hit of electric charge. Tobias also happened to be one of the clumsiest people Xander had ever met. He smiled at the recollection and noticed Tobias’s shirt was off by one button the whole way down.

“W-w-well if it isn’t Xander W-W-Whitt!” Tobias pushed his glasses back up his nose, examining his old friend before him.

“Tobias. It’s good to see you buddy” They embraced as comrades from a previous life. Half patriotism, half nostalgia.

“What brings you to the g-g-ghetto of D-C-C-C?” Tobias chuckled.

“I need the best forensic analyst I know.”

“Well you came to the right p-p-place.” Xander surveyed the warehouse before him. It looked about as sterile as a junk shop, but he knew this was the best lab in the area code. Containers of half-eaten fast food cluttered the closest table before a row of computers. Each lab table, littered with test tubes, held homemade machines, the purpose for which only Tobias knew. Many of the machines had gathered dust like an old arcade, power chords and wires sprawled over the open garage floor.
Jeopardy
was playing on an old tube TV in the corner, under a mound of statistical output reports.

“You look like you c-c-could use some c-c-coffee.” Tobias leaned forward and shuffled around another cluttered table. He threw off papers and CDs to uncover a coffee pot. He filled the pot with water and prepared the coffee. He forgot the filter, but didn’t even notice.

He could probably recreate the polio vaccine from scratch, but he just botched the easiest chemistry experiment known to man.

Jeopardy
chimed in the background.

Found before “Account,” this term originated with announcers who described each punch in a boxing match.

“What is ‘blow by blow,’” Tobias answered. For some reason, if Tobias was stating facts or scientific findings, he did not stutter, but his social conversations remained mildly incomprehensible. He wasn’t even looking at the TV, the volume was up just loud enough to barely make out the words, but he answered each question as if he was a computer spitting output. The coffee pot came alive and the hiss of brewing began. Tobias finished his scurry and then leaned against his desk and folded his hands. He looked over his glasses at Xander and asked with complete focus, “So what can I do you f-f-for?”

“I was running an intel op in the Korengal Valley on a terrorist code-named Agent Zero. There was a scheduled meet to exchange the target for an impending attack here in DC. Turns out Agent Zero knew I was coming and intentionally left this for me to intercept.”

Xander handed him the cloth-wrapped stone. Tobias unwrapped it and held it in his hand. Tobias’s initial reaction was much different than Xander’s and Axle’s. His face didn’t even twitch when his eyes landed on it. He wasn’t looking at it, he was studying it. He was able to separate himself from it and view it scientifically, like a surgeon performing an operation. After inspecting all sides of the stone, he turned it back to its front side and read the inscription. He was like a musical genius that examined every aspect of the music before he listened to the lyrics. After reading the inscription, he appeared saddened, processing its implications.

Xander seized the moment of inspection to analyze Tobias’s reaction, applying his watchful eye for any sign of Agent Zero.

Subtle expressions are aligned with genuine sorrow. His brain is still actively thinking. He is not stalling for effect. He is reacting as his same fastidious self. Tobias’s personality and strengths do not match what would be needed to form and lead a terrorist cell.

After completing his preliminary assessment, Xander added commentary to Tobias’s inspection of the stone.

“We have a defector, Tobias. I need you to do what you do best and find me a lead.” Xander’s tone became grave. Tobias exhaled in disappointment.

“Well, first off, this is sandstone, which is a pretty common stone in the Middle East. It’s been used as a building material throughout many ancient civilizations. There is also some in the Midwest but that sandstone tends to have more of a reddish tint than this. I can tell this was manufactured in a specialized way. You can see how straight it’s cut.” Tobias’s stutter left him as he reported his observational analysis.

“Someone manufactured this stone? It’s not just some random stone someone inscribed?” Xander asked.

“Exactly b-b-b-but we must tes-t our hypothesis-s-s-s. I can think of at least a dozen tests to run. I could use a ha-ha-hand.” His eyes lifted over the rims of his glasses. Xander smiled, knowing Tobias had accepted the job.

“Let’s get to work, then.”

«————————»

Project Sparta had trained them into indefatigable operatives. Late nights were no problem and often required, and this night was no exception. Xander and Tobias worked through the moon’s arc. The hours blurred as their extreme focus remained on the stone.

Xander played the role of Tobias’s lab assistant as they performed their first general tests. He was the sous chef to Tobias’s creative genius as he cooked up a finger print analysis and carbon dating profile. Occasionally, Xander would hear Tobias speak an instruction to himself or murmur an observation aloud. Tobias was consumed by his work but continued to answer each question from his large collection of pirated
Jeopardy
episodes without fail.

“Who is Honus Wagner?” he answered under his breath.

Xander knew that they shared a healthy amount of insomnia—their brains could not turn off. He had to train himself to sleep by pausing his constantly chugging train of thought.

A computer chimed, indicating its calculation was complete. Xander dismounted the sandstone from a small disk platform used to elevate it.

“Okay, what I have done now is measure the nuclear decay of the rock’s radioactive isotopes. This should tell us the rock’s age.” His feverish eyes scrolled down a long page of results until it found the one lone number in the crowded output he was looking for.

“J-j-just as I had expected,” Tobias marveled, piquing Xander’s interest across the lab.

“What is it?” Xander stepped away from his more rudimentary experiment.

“The rock here is only a year old. This supports my initial suspicion that it was not formed by naturally occurring biological processes.”

“Okay, then, how was it made?”

“Controlled biological processes,” Tobias replied, Xander stood by silently as he considered the finding.

“Why would anyone want to do that? Why not use a natural rock?” Xander asked.

“Because
any
rock would not do for their purposes.
This
rock must have a property that differs from standard geology.”

Tobias placed the rock on a platform in a machine one table over. Two mechanical arms rotated, scanning its surface with lasers. A digital reproduction was sketched out on a nearby computer monitor. Xander again stood surprised at the technology in the homemade laboratory.

Xander watched as Tobias continued his detailed tests and realized that his comrade had become a mad scientist of sorts. Tobias had chosen a reclusive life, and he continued to offer support to any Spartan who needed it, but mostly he dedicated his free time to research.

“And v-v-voila!” Tobias raised his hand to display a piece of transparent plastic film pinched between his fingers. He held it to the light with a smile. Small ridges appeared on the film, forming an oval shape.

“Go run this fingerprint. I had to piece many parts of it together but it should be okay. Scan it into that computer and run it through my database.”

“Do you not have access to the federal database?” Xander asked.

“We’re g-g-government con-con-contractors they don’t let us have access-s-s-s to them, and we d-d-don’t let them have access to us, so no. I don’t but M-M-Mac could get in, I’m sh-sh-sure.” There always seemed to be a strong bond between Mac and Tobias. One chose the computer as his weapon and the other chose the lab. The Spartans largely operated alone in the field but when they needed a support team, Mac and Tobias could always be relied upon.

“What is Johannesburg?” Tobias cocked his head toward the TV as if awaiting confirmation.

“That is correct,” Alex Trebek’s voice sounded. Tobias fidgeted about as his analysis grew more complex. His motions appeared staccato yet his progress remained fluid. His feet scurried over to the table at the back of the room, where he started scouring through lab equipment like a squirrel. He consulted the computer-generated reproduction of the stone and then he froze and peered closer. It was obvious that something struck Tobias.

“What is that?” he gasped, barely audible to Xander across the lab.

Tobias approached the rock on the scale and a satisfied expression appeared on his face.

“Tobias, what is it?” Tobias ignored Xander, consumed on the finding before him.

“Tobias?” Again no answer. His finger grazed the tip of one of the Arabic letters inscribed on the stone.

“Tobias!” he finally snapped out of it. His head pivoted toward Xander.

“The chemical makeup of this is consistent all the way through…up to a point. After analyzing the material, there is one key attribute that makes this rock different from one you’d find out in the world somewhere. You asked why they constructed it? They did it to hold something.” The information hung in the air for a moment.

“The weight confirms it. There is a small hollow within this rock. Xander, that’s not just a rock, it’s a box!”

Xander was struck by the finding but more questions formed. “How do we open it?” he asked. Tobias just grinned.

“You’re going to love this.” Tobias held the inscription up to Xander.

Tobias’s pointed to the middle Arabic character
–
و
.
He took a pencil and dug into the loop of the character. Immediately, loose sandstone shavings fell from the stone like sand, leaving a small hollow in the side of the stone. Xander brought his eye to it and noticed ridges and grooves had formed inside it.

They grinned at each other because upon cleaning the hollow, it became apparent what they had found.

They had discovered a keyhole.