The Time Stone (14 page)

“
Sounds rough,” James
added. “Do you trust me, Tina?”

“
I don’t trust anyone but
myself. But honestly, you and I are not that different, James.
Maybe there is a reason of fate our paths crossed again after so
long after high school. I do want to trust you but I don’t know
why. When you were going to leave me in that cell to rot alone, I
felt as if a piece of me was dying. I needed to go with you, to be
with you there. I can’t explain it.”

“
When destiny calls,
Tina…” added James.

“
Huh?” Questioned
Tina.

“
My dad always spoke to me
about destiny and finding your own way, a purpose in life.” James
spoke philosophically for the moment. “Everything happens for a
reason, Tina.” Said James.

“
I never knew what it was
like to be in a real loving family because everyone I got close to
screws me over. So I learned to look after only one person in life…
myself.” Tina lectured.

“
I have learned the
definition of family truly is that you look out for one another
above all else.” James added.

“
I think that’s ridiculous
rhetoric. I have lost every family I have ever had. I do not know
that definition.” Tina frowned.

“
That’s sad. I pray you
find that. Family is the most important thing.” James frowned. “I
want that for you. You deserve a real family.”

“
I don’t know if that is
possible for me” said Tina frowning with an insidious
glare.

CHAPTER 32

Broad Staffnight and his entourage
walked towards the gate after their own private security
clearance.

“
Sometimes it’s good to be
the head of a Fortune 500 company and have access to all the
political advantages and privileges that come with it.” He wondered
to himself. They walked forward to the gates when suddenly there
was a slight beeping sound from Chief Hightower’s pocket. He took
out his cellular phone, a specially-designed communications array
hooked up to Temporo, Inc.’s computer networks and camera systems
throughout town including the airports. The device resembled a
small round metal orb. He read the contents of the display
screen.

“
Sir, we are picking up
the DNA signatures of two of the escapees from Sector 11.” Chief
Hightower spoke looking at the device in his palm. “It’s James
Timewalker and Tina Prescott. They are approximately five to six
meters eastbound.”

“
Isn’t technology
wonderful?” Asked Broad rhetorically. “Call central and have them
picked up immediately!!!” Broad ordered.

“
Central dispatch, we need
sector cars ASAP for wanted fugitives James Timewalker and Tina
Prescott.” Said the Chief of Police into his radio.

Within moments, sirens were heard in
the distance and lights blazed on top of the squad cars of the
Chronix Bay Police Department. The demonstrators scattered fearing
the worst and the cars pulled up in front of the terminal entrance
on Main Street. Several armed officers exited their vehicles and a
large van that contained a squadron of officers in full riot
gear.

“
Men, we are expecting
full resistance from two escaped fugitives who are wanted for
murder. We are instructed to apprehend and shoot to kill if
necessary. I repeat, shoot to kill if necessary.” Yelled Lieutenant
Brock Walton, the fair haired policeman in his youthful years with
a cheap suit and a glare of fire in his belly as he led his team
guns drawn to the battlefield of the airport lobby like predators
ready to attend to their prey.

James and Tina saw the squadron enter
and in a panic ran towards the gate they were destined for. They
saw Broad and his entourage who pointed them out prior to entering
the gate to the plane and in turn the duo ran the other way chased
by over a dozen armed officers. They ran into a corridor near the
gate and were stopped by the man in the dark suit who they saw
several times. He was riding in a security vehicle like a golf
cart.

“
Enter the vehicle.” The
man uttered in an almost mechanical manner as several shots headed
in their direction striking the small security golf-cart-like
vehicles and walls around them barely missing them. So they obeyed
his words frightened but sure that his way was better than the
alternative they faced and without hesitation or question they ran
into the vehicle with him and rode into the gate towards the plane
and in the blink of an eye the man grabbed them both by the shirt
and vanished in a whirl of bluish light as the cart piloted itself
into a wall. By the time the officers led by Lieutenant Brock
Walton arrived they were shocked to see no one was there and
Lieutenant Walton looked out the window to see the plane was being
taxied on the runway and then taking off towards Brazil.

“
Damn, how did that
happen?” He wondered to himself as they stood by
powerless.

CHAPTER 33

On the plane, James and Tina sat next
to one another on their supposed assigned seats and smile to one
another.

“
We are on our way to new
good times and grand adventures my friend.” Tina
uttered.

“
I hope you are right as I
have a bad feeling we are about to encounter the unthinkable.”
James responded as the plane flew through the air from Chronix Bay
to the far away land of Brazil. Tina took off her wig. She notices
the man in the dark suit seated next to them.

“
Are you who I think you
are?” Tina spoke slowly and frightened.

“
I was Michael Prescott
many years ago.” His voice was mechanical and sharp. “I am now
number five hundred thousand and fifty-five.”

“
I was told my father
disappeared thirty-five years ago. I never knew him because I was
only a baby. I saw photographs only and heard stories that he
worked for some covert agency as some type of analyst.”

“
That is true. He was your
father and had been assigned high priority clearance to the Genesis
Missions. He was closely affiliated to a group of men in power, a
secret society of warrior-prophet-billionaire-tycoon-politicians
and entrepreneurs with a society as old as civilization and a
mission as old as time, bent on complete domination and control of
everything.” He turns his head and James and Tina notice a small
flesh wound in his ear slowly healing itself.

“
You got shot?” Asked Tina
rhetorically.

“
A minor wound. I will not
be harmed. My regenerative capabilities continue. The natural order
of things has been adjusted by mind control and technological
implants providing superhuman mental and physical abilities so that
is why your father is not here but only his likeness. Everything
about him was replaced with the advancements handed down throughout
the centuries in complete secret of the world outside.” Number Five
Hundred Thousand and Fifty Five spoke calmly.

“
What is this society?”
Asked James.

“
They are a devious cabal
that sought to control all from behind the scenes for centuries
even before the founding of this country. They evolve with time and
technology. There are those amongst them who believe and that have
made contact with alien beasts, true danger experiments. They are
known as the Machination or 12VM.”

“
That’s amazing” said
James.

“
And what could they
possibly want with a couple of nobodies like us?” Asked
Tina.

“
They sense specialness in
both of you. They are constructing a weapon to be unleashed in the
skies above, a new prototype bomb beyond any known nuclear,
fission, or apocalyptic capabilities.”

“
You mean like end of
world stuff?” Tina asked frightened.

“
It is known as project
Prometheus. It is a cold fusion reactor capable of generating an
explosion so powerful it will be one million times as strong as the
atomic bomb.” Number Five Hundred Thousand and Fifty Five spoke
roughly.

“
Dear God, why would they
want to do this?” Asked James.

“
Control…of all
time.”

“
And why are you helping
us with this?” Asked James.

“
I am no longer amongst
them. It is a complicated … story…” he held his ear and sensed
himself begin to fade. “No one will remember my presence when I am
gone.” He looked at them with darkness in his eyes. “It is for the
best. They are the ones who set you two up. Clear your names and
look out for one another. Always remember.”

“
What?” Tina and James
uttered simultaneously and rhetorically.

“
Remember my words and
this… your destinies are one in the same throughout time and
knowledge is power.” With that Number Five Hundred Thousand and
Fifty Five then vanishes into thin air.

James and Tina sit in their seats like
the rest of the passengers onboard the craft and hold tight to
their armrests thinking of greater things to come in the
future.

“
Tina, do you remember how
we got on board?” Whispered James.

She looked at him with a suddenly
blank stare and shrugged her shoulders.

They stared forward for the rest of
the trip trying to figure it out as they did not even remember what
they were running from. The 747 jet plane soared through the
dawning skies.

CHAPTER 34

When James and Tina landed in Brazil,
they were surrounded by the loud music of native lore and the
passing through of vendors with their livestock and various items
for sale, the smoke of the natural humidity covering the air, and
the colorful array of décor and clothing reflecting in the bright
sun light of the open atrium. There were people scattering about
speaking Portuguese. They walked off the plane, having slept most
of the way, and into the atrium heading straight for the door
before they could be spotted.

“
Good thing we don’t have
no baggage claim,” Tina uttered.

“
Let’s just move on out
before we’re seen by anyone.”

“
Relax James, we are in
another country. Can you believe it?” Tina smiled jovially without
expecting an answer. “When I was a kid growing up upstate, I never
thought I would ever leave the county, let alone the country. I was
quite relieve when I went to Chronix Bay.”

“
I for one never left
Chronix Bay, period.” James replied.

They exited the terminal and headed
for a series of cars parked nearby with stickers and cab service
labels. One had a young native with thick hair smoking a cigarette
while reading a paper and leaning up against the hood of the car.
“Sorry, no service,” he scolded them in his thick accent
recognizing them as Americans. The duo continued on and saw Broad
Staffnight and his entourage inside of the terminal.

“
James”, nudged Tina,
“isn’t that the party from the terminal that pointed us out to the
cops?”

“
Yeah, and now they’re
here, which can’t be a coincidence.” James said.

“
They are after us. Let’s
get as far from here as possible.” Tina smirked. They entered the
back of a blue cab that was sitting with the engine
running.

“
We need to get away from
here, now.” James yelled.

“
Where to?” Asked the
confused driver.

“
Anywhere!?!?!?” Both of
them yelled.

“
Tourists?” The driver
uttered as he shook his head as he had asked them to which way they
wanted to go and both nodded frantically and yelled.

“
Let’s go,” said
Tina.

“
And let’s go” repeated
James.

“
OK, tourists.” The driver
replied annoyed as he pulled off and took them away leaving screech
marks on the ground.

The blue cab pulled up to the
outskirts of a tropical dry forest region. James and Tina could see
large stone monuments and ancient temple ruins in the backdrop of
the jungle and mountainous regions in the distance emitting smoke
and fog covered by the glistening intense heat and sunlight. The
driver explained in Portuguese that he could not
continue.

“
This is a tourist area
but I will not go over there” yelled the man angrily in
Portuguese.

“
What did he say?” Asked
James.

“
He’s afraid to go there.”
Tina explained.

“
Can you take us to a town
or something?” Asked James.

Tina spoke loudly in Portuguese
translating to the angry looking cab driver.

“
No go farther” the driver
yelled in English after sputtering various curse words in
Portuguese as he sat about impatiently and put out his hand
expecting payment. The duo exited the car nodding to one another
and took off running into the woods leaving the angry driver
cursing under his breath in Portuguese “good thing this wood is
cursed.”

CHAPTER 35

The duo trekked through the jungle
uncertain of their surroundings and scared of their misfortunes if
they suffer a fall or other disaster. They wandered through the
bushes of leaves and muck underneath their feet and the hanging
vines and branches coming down that seemed like endless threads to
navigate through.

“
I never thought the
jungle would be so disgusting.” James commented
frowning.