Time Storm Shockwave (14 page)

“He found this place, didn’t he?”

Actually, I did
, she thought but didn’t answer.

“
He’s also a brilliant scientist, two doctorates, correct?” The question was aimed at Mark, who nodded in the affirmative.

Ashlyn glanced at
him.
He looks as if he is handling this all right
. She was used to people trying to kill her and always having to be on guard, but she doubted that he had many enemies.

She probed for more information, “What has changed in the last two days?”

“I told you, the disasters changed our circumstances dramatically.”

“
What disasters are you referring to?”

The admiral
gawked at Ashlyn, then at Mark, clearly surprised by their ignorance. “Of course, you have been out at sea with no contact from the outside world. I’m speaking of the virtual destruction of the better part of North America.”

Mark flashed her a sideways glance. Certainly, he was thinking the same thing she was.
That explains the EMP and the loss of communication.
However, she didn’t want to volunteer any more information than absolutely necessary.

“What happened?”
she asked.

“NASA informed the government and the military
of an incoming CME the day before it hit. It was the largest on record.

She gave Mark a questioning look.

“A coronal mass ejection”—he answered her unspoken question—“is similar to a solar flare except for that a part of the sun’s plasma explodes out into space, rather than just energy.”

The admiral continued, “The
Earth was directly in its line of fire. We knew that the tremendous size and direction would spell unprecedented disaster for the world. The public wasn’t told because it would have only caused panic.”

“So I’m guessing the outcome was as bad as NASA feared?” Mark asked.

“Much worse, I’m afraid”—the admiral answered—“luckily, those of us down here remained unaffected.”

The admiral told them of the concurrence of other disasters and the domino effect that it had created. After describing the hellish scenario, he motioned for them to follow him and walked out of the room.

This can’t be true.
She looked to Mark for reassurance, but he appeared to be as stricken as she felt.
The EMP was real enough.

He took her by the hand, and they followed a little behind the admiral.

“Do you think it’s all as bad as he says?” she asked Mark quietly.

“I hope not,” was all he said.

The admiral took them to an enormous room with only three walls, and then the opening closed into a wall behind them. After a moment or two, the opposite wall opened, and they walked out onto what looked something like an airplane landing strip with lights on both sides. Far off in the distance, to the left and to the right they could see enormous towers, which had red, blinking lights at the top of each. The actual distance was impossible to gage in the near darkness.

Ashlyn was more confused than ever. She made eye contact with Mark, but it was clear that he had no answers.

The admiral directed them to the back seat of a golf cart with their own personal driver. They hesitantly climbed on. Nothing made sense at all. The admiral stayed behind.

They traveled for a few minutes in silence and then Mark laughed softly and had an odd grin on his face.

She turned to him and furrowed her brow. “What about this situation do you think is funny?” she asked.
He must be cracking up under the stress.

“I’m
sorry”—he pulled himself together—“I suddenly thought of the Wonkavator. We must have gone up and sideways too. I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

“
Wonkavator?—” she asked bewildered “—what is that?”

“You know, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

She eyed him strangely, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He cocked his head, and then said, “I forgot, you didn’t get out much in your childhood. It was a movie. There was a large glass elevator, which went in every direction.”

“You think that was an elevator?” she asked.

“
I don’t see what else it could have been. We must be at one of the AUTEC bases on Andros Island, but I can’t figure out how we got here,” he said quietly a few minutes later.

“What’s that?”

“A military base.”

He looked up at the
sky, and then down at his watch. He flicked it a couple of times and then said, “Look at your watch.”

Her watch read 10:00.
I’ve really lost track of time.

Mark
showed her his, which was in military time and then she understood. It was 10:00 am., not pm. She stared up at the darkened above.

She leaned over, “Do you think we’ve gone through another time travel thingy.”

He started humming the Twilight-Zone theme song. She didn’t get the reference again. He put his arm around her and smiled.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes.
He has definitely lost it, but then so have I.

***

Mark and Ashlyn
had traveled for nearly twenty minutes in silence. Even though the cart was only moving twenty-five miles per hour, he would have expected to see some kind of buildings. Of course, it was too dark to see very far. His compass had inexplicably begun to function again. They were traveling southwest, but he wouldn’t have bet his life on it. They had sat quietly during most of the drive, too lost in thought.

When they finally arrived at their destination, there were a number of buildings that looked like ordinary military barracks to the east, though it was hard to see how many in the dark.
However, they stopped at an enormous building that didn’t look military at all. It was not a pyramid, but seemed similar in shape as if the architect had been trying to mimic the style. The outside walls angled inward gradually but ended with a flat roof, rather than a pointed one.

If this was AUTEC, it didn’t look anything like what he would have expected. There were several other buildings near them that looked similar to motels or apartments, which were also not military in style. A couple of naval officers walked past and stopped to salute the admiral, but otherwise there didn’t seem to be many people around the immediate area. If indeed it were the middle of the night, as it seemed to be, it would make sense that most of the base would be sleeping.

Further south, in the distance, stood a large machine of some sort, difficult to make out in the dark.
He wouldn’t have noticed it at all had it not been so large. It was high atop a tower and seemed to be spinning, or maybe just had lights rotating around it. The top was too high to see clearly, Mark guessed that it had to be at least ten stories high. He was certain that he had never seen anything that size from the satellite images of Andros Island he had viewed recently.

They followed the admiral
into the superfluous building. It had a large gallery with a cathedral ceiling. Three stories high, Mark conjectured, based on the visible, indoor walkways around each level. Four, two-story marble statues guarded the south end of the large room, with water flowing from the palms of their outstretched hands into a large pool. A fountain in the center of the water completed the bizarre sight.

T
here were only a handful of people inside the building. The few who there were seemed to be casually visiting with each other. All wore the uniforms of naval officers, but nobody seemed to be working.

Admiral Preston
was already there. Apparently, his cart was faster than theirs was.
He probably cheated and used a helicopter,
Mark thought.

The admiral
drew his hand through the air in a sweeping gesture, “Welcome to AUTEC.”

Mark addressed the admiral, “This seems kind of elaborate for a naval base.”

The admiral’s face was impassive. He didn’t respond.

“What does AUTEC stand for?” Ashlyn asked.

“Atlantic Underwater Testing and Evaluation Center,” Mark responded.

“Actually
”—the admiral corrected him—“that’s what we tell people, as well as most of the officers and sailors that are not assigned to this specific base. This facility is
Top
, Top Secret, and we want to avoid too many questions.”

Mark scowled.

Admiral Preston continued, “It actually stands for the Atlantis Underwater Testing and Evaluation Center.”

“Excuse me?” Mark exclaimed.
This guy is full of it.

Ashlyn laughed
right out loud. “You have got quite an ego; did you name it yourself?”

Mark
flinched.
Clearly, she isn’t as afraid of him as I am.

The admiral smirked
.

“I’ve looked at several satellite images of Andros Island, zooming in on AUTEC purposefully
—” Mark’s curiosity outweighed his fear “— I’ve never seen a building of this size or shape in any of the pictures.”

The admiral
responded, “This facility is not visible from any satellite.”

Mark scowled, “The entire Earth is visible from satellite. The pictures are so
good that people ought to think twice before skinny dipping in their own backyard pools.”

“This facility
—” the admiral motioned around them dramatically “—is not visible via satellite because it’s under the sea.”

“You mean we’re under water?”
she asked.

That explains the darkness
, Mark thought.
It must be enormous. We traveled for miles. How could the navy have built a dome so strong?
Then he considered the pyramid they had come through and finally understood.
The navy didn’t build it.

Chapter 13

In one drop of water are found all the secrets

of
all the oceans. — Kahlil Gibran

~

Stewart had been trying to be stealthy as he walked through the corridors, but when he came to a large room with another p
ool in it, he heard someone behind him.

He turned around quickly in surprise and then felt relief wash over him, “Ashlyn, where have you guys been?”
His heart sank when he saw her expression and realized that it was Dierdra.

***

Mark asked the admiral, “What is holding
back the water?”

“
Now that is the question, isn’t it?”

Ashlyn turned to Mark. “Do you believe him?”

“I don’t think there is any other explanation—” Mark responded, and then spoke to the admiral again “—that wasn’t really an answer.”

“We found it this
way”—the admiral said flatly—“I could use your help. As you can imagine, scientists are currently in short supply.”

Mark realized that this
was no longer a hostage situation, rather a dialogue; one in which he had become a valuable asset.
That explains why he isn’t trying to kill us anymore.
There’s no way I will help this man, but maybe I should play along until I find a way to get us out of this mess.

A crewman in fatigues
appeared and handed the admiral a message. He read it quickly and then said, “Take our guests to the cafeteria”—then he turned back to Mark and Ashlyn and said—“I will meet you there and answer all of your questions. I have something I must attend to.”

As soon as
the admiral was out of earshot, she leaned close to Mark and whispered, “He can’t be trusted.”

“I know, don’t worry
—” he gave her a reassuring smile “—we are going to get out of here, I promise.”

The crewman led them into a large dining hall in the same building. Cafeteria was an understatement; i
t was as pretentious as any five-star restaurant at a resort.

Two officers were at the door. They did not appear to be guarding it
—
probably just here to wait on the admiral
. A waiter in civilian attire seated them at a small table then presented them with menus.

There were no prices. Apparently, the food was free. They ordered their food and didn’t speak until it arrived. There was simply too much to process
in the bizarre setting.

“I’m worried about Stewart,” she finally said.

“So am I.”

Almost immediately, the admiral joined them. As if on cue, a waiter delivered his plate immediately.

“My friend is on my boat. I would like to talk to him—” Mark demanded “—I need to let him know we are okay.”

The admiral looked up from his food, and while wiping his mouth said, “Don’t worry about your friend; he will be here very soon.”

Ashlyn’s eyes
widened in surprise, but she tried to act normally.

“What?—” Mark tried to bite
back his contempt “—you sent someone to my boat to get him? Was it Dierdra?”

The admiral
smiled down at his T-bone, not meeting Mark’s eyes. He then took a bite and chewed it a while before answering.

“Actually, he came to us.”

“How?” Ashlyn asked in surprise.

“The same way you
did”—the admiral gave her a suspicious look—“Didn’t you tell him how to get here?”

“Yes
of course—” she glanced at Mark before answering “—but I didn’t think there was any more diving gear on the yacht.”

“
Actually”—Mark said—“there was some regular scuba gear in the engine room. We never use it, so I didn’t think of it.”

***

Ashlyn was furious.
They could have stayed together!

“I’ve been so worried—” she kicked Mark under the table “—I wish we had all come together.”

He looked over at her, and furrowed his brow, but she didn’t meet his eyes.

“Excuse me, admiral
.”

The disgusting man
lifted his head from the plate of food he had been gorging himself on.
What a pig
! She wanted to vomit.

When he said,
“What is it, my dear?” she nearly did.

Clearly, this man had been the one in charge of her life, of the lab where she had been raised, and of all the other horrors, through which she had been.

“Are we going to have a room, or rooms to stay in?—” She swallowed hard, trying to keep her voice emotionless “— I’m assuming we won’t be leaving anytime soon.”

“Quite correct, it
is impossible to come and go freely from such a depth. Even though we don’t feel the pressure because of the Atlantean technology, we are unable to leave without decompressing.”

“How
deep are we?” Mark asked.

“At this spot, e
xactly 6,135 feet below sea level.”

Mark raised his eyebrows in surprise, “
, So we’re in the Tongue of the Ocean?”

Oh, crap!
Ashlyn thought. She had been trying to plot an escape.
That kind of depth will surely complicate things.
She tried to keep her expression flat.

“Why are there so few people around?”
Mark asked.

“As I said earlier, I lost a
great many of my people in the disasters. Most of them were stationed topside until needed. Beyond that, this area of the base is restricted to VIPs and officers.”

So now we are VIPs
, Ashlyn thought sarcastically. “I’d like to go to my room now if you don’t mind—” she had lost her appetite “—our sleeping arrangements were a little subpar last night.”

She hadn’
t eaten much, but she couldn’t take any more civility with this evil man. Besides, watching him gorge himself on his nearly raw T-bone wasn’t helping.

“Of course, and you have my sincerest apologies for the poor treatment you received.”

Unable to fake nice anymore, she said caustically, “That’s okay. It must have taken you a while to decide whether to murder us or not.

“
Ashlyn”—he smiled sickly—“you are one of my most valued assets.”

“You mean possessions, don’t you?
—” She said sarcastically and stood up “—just make sure Stewart has a room when he gets here, or I will put all of those great skills you gave me to good use.”

It was clearly meant as a threat
, and Mark shot her a surprised look. She had been telling him to stay calm the whole time they had been down there.

The admiral’s face changed
markedly, as did his voice, “Don’t think you aren’t expendable Ashlyn.”

She didn’t flinch or back down.
“Am I? If you kill me, you won’t have your little science project to make copies from anymore, assuming you can build another lab. Don’t think Dierdra will be around forever.” 

The admiral
stared at her for a moment, and then unexpectedly started to chuckle.

That made Ashlyn even angrier.
“You find my threat funny? You know that I could kill you before you even had the chance to call your guards if I decided to."

Mark cringed but said nothing.

The admiral stopped laughing, and narrowed his eyes. “I know perfectly well how easily you could kill me. I have no doubts about that. Of course—” he relaxed “—I’m pretty sure that you wouldn’t put your friends in danger that way.”

There was something in the way he said
friends
, and then glanced over at Mark, which gave her pause. Somehow, the admiral could read her feelings. She didn’t say anymore but broke his grip on her eyes and looked away.

“
Besides”—he continued—“that is not what I thought was funny.”

Confused, she asked,
“What was it then?”

Then his mouth widened into a full grin, exposing his ugly, yellow teeth
, and gold canine. “That you think you’re that important that you’re the reason we cloned you.”

This was unfamiliar territory,
and Ashlyn was suddenly speechless. She had always made assumptions about why they cloned her.

“So why …Why did you clone me
then?” She asked hesitantly—suddenly afraid of the answer.

“You were a rat in a cage, nothing
more.” His expression was flat, and she couldn’t read any emotion in it at all. “Just the first rat, I might add. When you refused to do what we told you after the DMDT, we simply started testing plan B.”

She stood there, as silent as a statue and didn’t move for what seemed an eternity. Finally, she asked,
“So I was a test subject, simply to find out if your technology worked?”

The admiral nodded in the affirmative
. “When you found out I still had my own will after the DMDT, you cloned me to see if—” she didn’t want to hear him say it, and she swallowed hard “—so you could clone other people and control their will?”

One side of his mouth
slowly curled up. “You cost me a lot of money, little girl.”

She felt ill,
and suddenly dizzy. Noises pounded in the back of her head as black, suppressed memories began assaulting her senses. Research wasn’t all they had done to her in that lab.

Mark watched the blood drain from her face.
“About those rooms?” he said, but the admirals evil eyes remained fixed mercilessly upon her. He kept staring at Ashlyn until finally, without breaking his lock on her, motioned for one of the officers to come over.

“
Jackson”—the admiral said without emotion—“take these two to the VIP barracks, and then find their friend.”

Mark took Ashlyn’s hand as they followed Jackson. Before they were out of earshot, the
admiral added, “You don’t think you destroyed the only machine we made, do you?”

His words echoed in her mind, but she said nothing.

Jackson led them the short distance, through the darkness to their rooms, which were in a sparsely decorated building, something akin to a motel. He opened Ashlyn’s door for her. She relinquished Mark’s hand absently, and then walked into the room without looking back. The door closed between them. Jackson pointed to Mark’s door—then walked away.

***

There were no locks, no privacy
. Mark waited until he could no longer her Jackson’s footfalls, and then walked back to her door and knocked softly.

When she didn’t answer, he opened the door anyway. She sat alone in her room, staring at nothing. The VIP suite had a private bathroom with a shower
. It was devoid of furniture except for a twin bed, directly below a useless window. A clean jumpsuit was folded neatly on the bed, along with a pillow, and miscellaneous personal items and toiletries. Her diving gear lay in a pile on the floor.

He sat down on the bed
. Still, she didn’t move seemingly unaware of his presence. However, when he put his arms around her, she leaned into him. Her body shook in soft jolts against him between silent sobs. He didn’t say anything. He just held her and pressed his lips gently against the top of her head. Then he leaned his cheek against that back of her head while she clung to him. He
could
only imagine the horrors that she must be remembering.

It
seemed a very long time before she finally pulled back a little and spoke, “I’m sorry.” Her green eyes burned with pain.

He ran his fingers
lightly over her hair. She had tried to comb it out with her fingers during the cold, wet night before, but it was still a little messy and held the soft aroma of seawater.
She had no makeup, and was completely exhausted, but in that moment he knew, he had never seen anyone so beautiful.

“Why are you apologizing?” He asked
quietly, his face very near to hers.

“I’m just
—” tears welled in her eyes, and she closed them tightly for a moment, before meeting his gaze “—thank you.” She swallowed hard.

He voiced his thoughts, “You are so beautiful.”

“What?—” She shook her head “—you’ve got to be kidding. I’m sure I’m a mess.”

He was tired and unshaven, but he smiled and responded, “You are beautiful!”

She pressed her face into his neck. “I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you too—” he kissed her forehead “—I should let you get some rest.

“Wait.” she clung to him, and he held her tightly. When she finally pulled back, there was sorrow in his eyes. “Why are you sad,” she asked.

He was quiet for a moment, and then said, “I’m not sad, I was just thinking about when Dierdra was on the yacht
, and I thought she was you—” he took a deep breath “—I was already so in love with you and she was so cruel. She just went on answering to your name.”