The Golden Couple (The Samantha Project Series, # 2) (19 page)

“Yes. Remember me? Stephen and Ellie’s daughter?”

“Yes, of course. I can’t believe you’re here. Come in.” He opened the door just a little bit more.

“Um, no I can’t. I mean, I can but I have some people with me.” I pointed back to the van. “Can they come in, too?”
 

Fisher poked his head outside and turned it right and left, surveying the street. “Who are these people? Who’s with you?”

“Well, Colin, my boyfriend. You met him at my house.”

“Yes, that’s fine. He can come in.”

“And I have some other people with me. There’s a man and his son. The man is a friend of Dave’s.”

Fisher grabbed my coat sleeve. “Dave? You mean your Uncle Dave? Where is he? I’ve been trying desperately to find him. Is he with you?”

“No. His
friend
is with me. His friend has a son. And then there’s a girl. She’s my sister.”

“You don’t have a sister!” Fisher snapped. He began scanning the neighborhood for whoever he thought was after him. “What is this? Is this some setup? Where are they?”

“Who? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Those bastards from GlobalLife. I know they’re coming for me. And they used you to get to me, huh?”

“What? No!” I was getting impatient. “Listen. We just need to ask you some questions. That’s it. Now can they come in or not?”

He hesitated but could see my desperation. “All right. But tell them to hurry up.”
 

I ran back to the van, making sure to warn everyone about Fisher’s highly paranoid state. Everyone raced to the house.
 

Fisher was waiting at the door. “Get inside. Quickly now.” Once we were inside, he slammed the door and locked the deadbolt. He turned to Jack. “So you’re a friend of Dave’s?”

“Yes,” Jack replied. “We went to MIT together many years ago. And this is my son.”

Erik put his hand out, but Fisher ignored him. He’d noticed Brittany standing behind Jack and couldn’t stop staring at her. “Samantha, this girl. She looks just like you. How can this be?”

“She’s my sister. My twin sister,” I clarified.
 

“Tell me how this is possible,” Fisher’s eyes remained focused on Brittany. “How could your parents not know about her? Or did they know and they kept her a secret? But that doesn’t make sense.”

I moved in front of her. “It’s a long story. And we don’t have much time.”

Fisher glanced over at Jack and Erik, still suspicious of them. “What is this about, Samantha? Why did you show up on my doorstep? And why are these people with you?”
 

I figured it was best to get right to the point. “I think you have a message for me. A message from Dave.”

Fisher listened but didn’t agree or disagree.

“I think you have a flash drive. A strange looking flash drive that can only be accessed with your fingerprint.”

Fisher got up close to me. “Have you been spying on me? Why would you do that? Did you hide cameras somewhere?”
 

I backed away from him. “No. I have dreams sometimes. Premonitions. And I had one that showed you getting a flash drive. Along with a piece of paper. I think it was a note from Dave.”

“You have premonitions? How?”
 

“I don’t know,” I lied. “I’ve just always had them. But sometimes they’re not accurate. And sometimes they’re just dreams. So was I right? Did you get a flash drive?”

Fisher hesitated. “You’re sure you can trust these people?”

I nodded. “Yes. One hundred percent.”
 

“Okay. Then yes.” Fisher sat down. “I have the flash drive. And I
had
the note from Dave, just like you said, but I burned it. I didn’t want the evidence around. But the note didn’t say much. It was written to me. It just said to make sure you get the flash drive.”

“So what was on the flash drive?” I asked, still fearing the answer.

He shrugged. “A file with some type of directions. That’s it. You’re supposed to go somewhere on a plane.”

“A plane? I can’t get on a plane. GlobalLife has people working in airport security.”

“It’s not a commercial plane. It’s a private jet,” he explained.

“Dave couldn’t get a private jet. There’s no way. He doesn’t have that kind of money.”

Fisher gave me a strange look. “Of course he does. Dave must have millions stashed away. You’ve known him all these years. You know he has money to rent a private plane. Heck, he could probably buy one.”

“Well, I knew he made a lot of money when he sold his company but not—”

“He made a LOT of money, Samantha. Millions. From the way he lives, I don’t think he ever spends it. I guess I shouldn’t say that. I don’t know him that well.”

Dave did live frugally. He’d probably invested those millions and doubled or even tripled his fortune over the years. So it was possible that he rented a private plane.

“Where is this plane taking me?”

“I’m not sure. I’d have to open the file again. I opened it at my office the other day and I haven’t looked at it since. Only GlobalLife has those fingerprint flash drives. So I knew this involved them. And now I’m afraid to go anywhere. Just opening that flash drive, I found out stuff I shouldn’t know.”

“Dr. Fisher, we really need to see what’s on the file,” I insisted.
 

He stood up suddenly. “Oh, before we do that, I have something else for you.” He took an envelope from a bookshelf behind Jack. “When I heard you’d gone missing, Sam, I didn’t think I’d ever see you again to give you these, but here. These are for you.”

He handed me the envelope. Inside was a stack of photos. The
 
photos were pictures of Mom and Dad and me from various years.

I flipped through a few of them. “Where did you get these?”

“Your dad’s office. They were in his desk drawer. One of my students was using the desk and found them.”

Fisher had no idea how much those photos meant to me. They were the only photos I had of my parents. “Thank you. Really, I can’t tell you how much—”
 

“Can I see?” Brittany came and sat beside me. I gave her the stack of photos and watched as she looked at each one. It was the first time she had seen her real parents. I felt my eyes tearing up.
 

She held up one of the more recent photos. “Your mom was so pretty.”
 

“She’s your mom, too, Brittany,” I reminded her.
 

“I know. I’m just not used to that, yet. And look at your, I mean, our dad. Since I never had a dad, it’s kind of weird just saying that.” She paused to look closer at the photo. “He looks really nice, Sam.”

“He
was
nice. To everyone. So was Mom.” I could feel a tear running down my cheek. I couldn’t get into this with her now or soon I’d be a crying mess. I glanced up, trying to focus again.
 

Jack noticed me struggling. “So, Dr. Fisher, do you think we could see that file now?”
 

Fisher ignored him and looked at me. “Samantha, I’d really like you to explain why these people are here with you.”
 

I wasn’t sure what to say. Jack stepped in again. “Dr. Fisher. As you stated earlier, knowing too much can put you in danger. And you already know more than you wanted to know. If we tell you everything, that’s just more information that could put you in harm’s way. Now do you really want to know about us, given the risk?”

Fisher considered it. “No. I guess I don’t. All right. I’ll go get the flash drive and the computer.”

Fisher disappeared down the hall then came back with his laptop, setting it on his dining room table. We all gathered around him except for Brittany, who was still immersing herself in the photos of our parents.
 

The flash drive was just as I’d seen in my dream. An ultrathin, oval-shaped device as wide as a fingertip. Fisher inserted the drive into the computer and then pressed his index finger on one side. It immediately opened a document, which was nothing more than a single-page letter from Dave.
 

The letter was written to me. It read,
“Sam, After you get this, I want you to leave right away. A private jet has been reserved and is waiting for you. When you arrive at the small airport, tell nobody your name. Just use the reservation number below. You don’t need ID or anything else. The plane will take you to another small airport, where a car will be waiting. The driver will say a code word to you. The code word is what I called you when you were a child. If he doesn’t say that word, don’t get in the car. The car will take you to a safe house. I know you have questions, but you just need to trust me.—Uncle Dave”

Below the letter was the name of the small airport where the private plane was waiting, along with the phone number and address. Under that was the reservation number; 64D09N21D57W.

“Well, that’s it,” Fisher said. “That’s all that was in the file.”

I felt hopeless again. Dave’s note said nothing about alien genes. Nothing about missing base codes. How would getting on a plane help me? It didn’t even say where the plane was going.

Erik pointed to the laptop. “Hey, Dad. Check out that confirmation number.”
 

Jack bent down to see the screen. “What about it?”

“Doesn’t that remind you of something? Where did I see that?” Erik closed his eyes to think. Then he opened his eyes and nudged Jack with his elbow. “Luke.” He said it quietly so Fisher wouldn’t hear.

Jack knew instantly what he meant. The plane reservation number was all jammed together, but it exactly matched the number and letters that Erik had deciphered from the codes in Luke’s journal; 64D09N 21D57W.

Jack looked closer at the combination of letters and numbers. “Dr. Fisher, do you have a world atlas or other type of world map?”
 

Fisher was taken aback by the odd request. “Well, yes. I have an atlas.”

“Would you mind if I took a look at it?”

“It’s in my office. I’ll go get it.” Fisher went down the hall and to a side room.

“Those numbers and letters are the exact same, Dad,” Erik said.
 

Fisher came back with the atlas. “What do you need this for?”
 

“Oh, just a silly trivia game.” Jack laughed. “My son and I were having a debate in the van over a geography question. I had to settle it or we’d never stop arguing.”

Jack opened up the atlas and used his finger to pinpoint a spot on the map. Then he closed the atlas and handed it back to Fisher. “That’s all I needed. Thank you.”

Fisher gave him an odd look and set the atlas aside.

“Would you mind giving us a few minutes alone?” Jack asked Fisher. “I really don’t want to get you more involved in this than you already are.”

Fisher looked over at me. “Samantha?”

“I agree. It’s best if you don’t know too much.”

Fisher went down the hall into a side bedroom.
 

Jack lowered his voice. “That wasn’t at all what I expected to see on that flash drive. It explains nothing.”

“Wait. What were you and Erik just talking about?” Colin asked. “Something about Luke’s journal?”

Erik explained. “Remember how I was decoding that stuff in his journal and those two codes I worked on ended up being a mix of letters and numbers?” Erik quickly checked to make sure Fisher wasn’t listening. “The letters and numbers were the exact same as the reservation number for the private plane.”

“And seeing them again, I finally figured out what that those numbers and letters were,” Jack said. “They’re latitude, longitude. 64 degrees, 9 minutes north and 21 degrees, 57 minutes west.”

“So is that where the plane is taking us?” I asked.

“That’s what I’m guessing,” Jack said. “The thing I can’t figure out is why Luke had the exact same location written in his book, in code form no less.”

“What’s the location?” Colin asked. “Where is the plane going?”
 

“Iceland.” Jack paused, unable to believe it himself. “Reykjavik, Iceland.”

“Where’s Iceland?” Brittany whispered to Colin.

“It’s an island in the Atlantic Ocean.”

“It actually crosses into the Arctic Ocean as well,” Jack added. “It’s closer to Europe than North America. It’s a small country. Not highly populated.”

“Iceland?” I felt like we were being tricked again. “Why would Dave send us to Iceland? Jack, I’m starting to think this isn’t real. GlobalLife fakes messages all the time.”

“How did you feel when you had the dream about this? Did you feel like it was really a message from Dave?”

“I used to think so, but now I’m not so sure,” I admitted.

I thought back to the dream. At the time it seemed so real. I could almost feel Dave’s presence through that note he wrote to Fisher. If I went by feeling alone, I would believe it one hundred percent. But now my logical side was telling me not to get on that plane.

Erik came over to me. “Sam, after you had that dream, did you have any doubts about the note or the flash drive?”

“No. I felt like Dave was trying to help me somehow.”

“Then that’s your answer. You can’t go by how you feel now. When you had that dream, or premonition, your abilities were strong. You could sense that the dream was real. Now your abilities are fading and fear is clouding your judgment. You can’t base your decision on that.”

“He’s right,” Jack added. “Your premonitions have been on target every time. If this was a GlobalLife hoax, you would have felt it back when you had the dream.”

“Then I guess we’re going to Iceland,” I said.

Jack looked at Erik then back at me. “You’re going, Sam. I’m not so sure Erik and I should go.”

“What? Dad, of course we’re going!”
 

“The letter was meant for Sam. Not us. We need to keep looking for a way to stop the timer. And I’m pretty sure it’s not in Iceland.”
 

“But Jack, we don’t know that,” I said. “Maybe Dave found what we need. Maybe he has the base codes.”

“Or maybe he’s just trying to keep you safe, Sam. Iceland is a good place to hide out. This could all be a way to keep you far away from GlobalLife so you can live a halfway normal life. How would Dave even know about the base codes?”