True Traitor (First Wave Book 7) (17 page)

Slate added, “Just the US government takes in trillions of dollars a year in taxes from their people, if you included the taxes in other countries as well, then list what the people are getting for their money, besides the shaft, you can see that billions are being funneled into the companies of the elite through back door deals.”

Ivint and Reven were stunned. Neither had ever imagined that things were this bad within the governments on the planet. It seemed that everything went back to one particular group of people.

Thjodhild interrupted their thoughts. “Do not think that because they are normal humans, that they aren’t as dangerous as any Relian. In some cases, the dark factions are worse and the danger is more real because they are closer to home and blend in easier. It doesn’t help that they began dealing with another race around the time we told them to fuck themselves. We have never figured out who it is, but we don’t believe it’s the Relians. We have indications they were here, on the planet, before the outpost was there,” she admitted.

That got Grai’s attention. “You think another race is here?” he asked, having thought the same thing a long time ago but had never been able to find proof.

Thjodhild nodded her head and stood to pace the other side of the table. “Sadly, we’ve never been able to figure out who they are. This Dark Faction pays very well for secrecy and anyone who makes a mistake or is no longer useful is killed. And it’s usually made to look like a suicide so it’s much harder to track them and get any information,” she said, wishing like hell they did know something more.

Like most of her people, Thjodhild wanted nothing more than to enter the fight. She was born and bred a shield maiden and couldn’t think of a better time or a better reason to sharpen her sword. The humans were her people too, and she believed they should have a fighting chance to survive the conversion. Not be crippled by lying governments who were controlled by a select few who wanted to observe the death, destruction and desperation from sheltered locations. The ultimate reality show. With the winners and losers chosen by them.

Reven was confused and cleared his throat to get Thjodhild’s attention. “So is the military involved or not?” he asked.

Thjodhild nodded. “Sort of. There are separate divisions, the regular military only knows them as a secret group who has authority over their installations, equipment and personnel at will, but they have no clue what their agenda is or where they are housed. We know they’re at Area 51, an underwater base in Florida, Wright-Patterson, and few other interesting places. Several other countries are in on it as well and have similar teams that work together,” she said, disgusted that it was so far reaching.

Reven nodded, understanding now, while Grai finished sending an urgent message to several of his deep cover operatives to see if they had heard anything or could find out something for them without blowing their cover.

Ivint turned to Thjodhild and asked, “What is their usual response time to an incident?”

The small woman sighed dramatically. “That depends. In remote places like this, we have untold hours if we can get Internet and communications down quickly enough. Mostly because there is no military base close enough to be affected by a comm blackout. But, this got out of hand too quickly and it took too long for our people to act . . . I’m expecting them at any moment,” she said honestly, letting them know just how dire the situation was.

Grai cursed under his breath, Thjodhild had been right, his people weren’t really good at this part. They went in, they blew things up and killed some bad guys and left as fast as they went in. Usually it was under the cover of darkness and done in a way to minimize exposure.

Even so, his people had alternate identities for the regular human world to cut down on suspicion, it appeared Thjodhild’s people didn’t and some were actually known to the government through their previous interactions.

Grai shook his head, unable to believe they were this close to being exposed.

“What are your contingencies for this?” he asked, knowing they had to have one.

“Blow the whole Folly with a targeted pulse weapon manipulated by one of our hybrids to vaporize all trace of anything technological,” Thjodhild said, obviously not thrilled with that particular option.

Reven was incredulous that such a drastic option was necessary. “Our only option to head off something that extreme, is to what? Work faster?” he asked.

Thjodhild sighed. “It’s a little more complicated than that. But, yeah, we need all hands on the surface helping with debris removal and on the communications, making sure nothing slips through the cracks. We haven’t heard anything on the military channels, but since this group works outside of them, we probably won’t,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Ivint was still a little disturbed by the news and needed clarification. “Do we have any idea what this group knows about us?”

Thjodhild held up a finger and opened the comm. “Clear the surface area around the old works NOW! Detonation in 5… 4… 3… 2. . .” she nodded at Slate and the mountain was rocked by an explosion.

Thjodhild opened the comm and said, “All teams check in with command and get the elementals to the site.”

Grai watched the adept woman take multitasking to a new level. She was not only proficient, but very intelligent and Grai hoped that they would be able to forge an alliance with them. From what he’d seen, his people needed to learn how to go more deeply into preventing their exposure.

Grai was a little sickened that he’d more reckless than he’d imagined, believing that they were unknown up to this point. In his arrogance, he never thought that one of the Valendran survivors had created their own little fiefdom and that their people had been taken captive as far back as World War II.

He wasn’t a fool, he knew the planet was evolving technologically and he thought his people had been keeping up with it to limit their exposure to the world, but they had nothing like this operation going on. This was impressive and more detailed than he imagined.

There were over a hundred hybrids scanning human communication channels, using complicated programs that his people were currently in awe over as they sat with the mountain hybrids who were showing them how they worked to keep their presence from the humans. Anything potentially harmful was being deleted, more believable sources were sometimes altered to look fake in order to discredit them. A tactic that Thjodhild explained that they learned from the US government.

Thjodhild turned to Ivint after all the teams checked in that they were safe after the blast.

“They know enough to reverse-engineer Balal crafts and make their own. They’ve been testing them out around the world pretty regularly. They have almost as many craft in the sky at any given time as our people do,” she admitted then sighed heavily.

“We also know that they are hunting our children. Once they realized that we were different and among them, they began looking for ways to test children to determine if they are hybrids. Some countries like China and the Soviet Union went on an active search for gifted children — most of which have disappeared into secret government facilities. Other countries like the US, use more deceptive means to find them. The kids are stalked until certain criteria is confirmed and then they disappear,” Thjodhild said with a shake of her head.

Ivint was horrified.

“You think they are taking our children and continuing the experiments on them?” he asked.

Thjodhild nodded. “We know they are. They are looking for a way to steal our cell structure and longevity. The elite want to live forever with their money. And they are also weaponizing them for their own personal security,” she said with disgust.

Grai wanted to hit something.

“How many of our people do they have? Do you know where they are?” he asked, forming a team in his mind, of people to take with him on a rescue mission.

Thjodhild shook her head.

“Not really. There are too many options and Fiorn has never allowed us to try and capture one of their people to try and find out more information,” she said with a sigh.

Reven was pissed.

“So, the Relians and the Dark Prime want our people dead and the elite want to torture us to save their own pathetic and useless lives . . . nice. Tell me again, why we don’t just expose ourselves to the real people on this planet?” he asked in frustration.

Slate turned from his control center.

“Because in doing so, we would also have to tell the people what their own governments have been doing to them. The loss of life would be catastrophic as the people rebelled, and the governments would use it as an excuse to cull the people they didn’t want and institute martial law,” he explained.

Grai shook his head.

“In most countries they’ve been forced to be completely defenseless. It’s hard to fight a tank and fully armed military personnel with a stick and a pocket knife. They’re waiting for the majority to be unarmed before they fully sweep in and enslave them. Hitler’s playbook all over again. Obviously, they took more than just the doctors and scientists from Germany,” he added with disgust.

Reven growled in anger and frustration, knowing it wasn’t their place to interfere, but wishing they could anyway. Everyone felt the same way, but their hands were basically tied until the people decided to wake up and stand up on their own. Then, maybe they could step in and help.

Grai felt the vibration in his comm and saw the response from his covert teams and entered a response with an additional request. He grinned at the immediate reply. If anyone could find out something on a group of hybrids being kept prisoner by the government, it was this team. He also contacted David, to see if he knew of anyone that he could trust to find out more information.

Slate sucked in a sharp breath and turned quickly to Thjodhild. “Ma’am, Fiorn was just seen at Beta. Looking for True and Leif. They say he was mumbling something about the truth . . . and a traitor,” he said, his concern clear in his voice.

Thjodhild erupted. “Damn that stubborn bastard! This is not the time for one of his temper tantrums!” she said, rubbing her temples too vigorously to actually do any good.

Looking up at Slate, she ordered, “Get my team there now,” before she turned to Grai. “Fiorn would never harm those kids. But, send along some of yours too. They can take a look around Beta and ease your mind on True’s safety there. ”

Grai nodded and looked at Ivint and Reven before calling out, “Niklosi, Discorian, Vader, Spike and Makeerno on deck!”

Chapter Fifteen

Countdown Clock to Human Discovery

10:00 Hours

This is a WSBC Channel 9 News Special Report. Another large explosion was heard in the Burnt Tree Ridge area moments ago. The area has again become engulfed in a thick dust cloud visible to our crew set up in Gypsum, 10 miles east of Burnt Tree Ridge.

Geologists at the Adventure Caverns believe this is more falling rock after an aftershock from the 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck last night. Aftershocks, which should lessen in intensity should subside within the next several days. Further study will have to occur over the next few days and weeks to determine the stability of the area, but they believe that area of the park would reopen again in time for the spring season.

WSBC News had tried to get one of our drones inside the area to view the mountain, but it was apparently hit with debris from the more recent collapse and we’ve not been able to reestablish communications with it. We will get you updated news and information as it becomes available.

True stared at Leif in shock as she shivered from the cold. This place was the most bizarre that she’d ever seen. An hour ago, they had walked into what Leif had called the school, and now they were walking through ice covered passageways.

When they first walked in the large, Greco-Roman looking building, True had wondered why Leif called it the school, but she didn’t have to wonder for long. There had been a large, airy, open room that greeted them when opening the door. The walls were completely lined from floor to ceiling with stone shelves and there were long, stone tables behind each of the shelves.

As Leif pulled her to the nearest wall, he’d pointed at what appeared to be small niches carved into the shelves, each niche containing an elaborately crafted stone jar with foreign writing above each niche.

Leif smiled at the wonder in True’s eyes as she looked at the thousands of niches and jars around the room.

“This isn’t all of it either. We stopped counting at around 10,000 scrolls. That’s what each of the jars contain. Scrolls. Written in an ancient language of Earth that I’ve never seen before. Our own people seem to think it’s knowledge. Ancient scrolls of knowledge that the humans will need in order to rebuild after the conversion,” Leif said as he opened his arms wide to encompass the room. “A repository, kept safe from the evil in this world and we’re now the keepers of that knowledge.”

True was stunned. She ran her hand along one of the beautiful jars and was tempted to try and look at one of the scrolls, but was afraid of the condition it would be in and she didn’t want to damage anything.    

Instead, she turned to Leif.

“How do you know what’s on them?” she asked.

Leif laughed.

“We looked at them, silly girl,” he said as he grabbed the jar she’d been looking at and pulled it gently out of the niche.

Within moments he’d walked to a table behind the niches in the wall and placed the jar on it. True was far too curious to complain when he reached in the jar and pulled out a pristine scroll. Not the ancient kind she was used to seeing, like the Dead Sea Scrolls, all brittle and in delicate pieces. This was a brilliant white fabric with gleaming golden rods.

True watched in awe as Leif lay the scroll gently on the stone table and slowly rolled it out so that she could see it. She stared at the elegant, yet bold symbols that covered the fabric-like material, trying to discern anything familiar about the unique writing.

Leif grinned at True’s wide and interested eyes and he took her hand in his own and ran it down the fabric of the scroll. “You feel that? We don’t even know what it’s made of. It’s almost like silk, yet it’s not. The composition is unique, even to us. It’s even fire and water resistant,” he said and at her curious look quickly added, “Don’t ask. We had a few blunders when we discovered this place.”

True pulled her hand reluctantly from Leif’s and allowed the feel of the fabric to tease the tips of her fingers. She smiled as she felt the silky smoothness . . .  and something else.

“It has metal fibers in it?” she asked, looking up at Leif with wide grey eyes.

Leif chuckled and smiled at her. “Yeah, it’s shot through with precious metals. Platinum, gold, silver . . . it’s like a code,” he said.

“Huh? What do you mean a code?” True asked, running her fingers down the fabric again.

Leif pushed away from the table and walked a little way down the shelves and grabbed another jar. True watched him bring it back to the large table and pull out another scroll, this one with gleaming silver rods. He laid it out on the table, underneath the other one that was already out.

“This one,” he said, pointing to the one with silver rods, “has silver rods and the fabric is shot through with silver threads. The gold one, is shot through with gold threads, the platinum, etc. You get the idea,” he said with another grin at his curious mate.

True ran her hand down the fabric of the new scroll and it felt the same as the first. She could feel the metal strands woven in with the fabric and it was almost like they possessed their own energy.

“Do they resonate?” she whispered, a little in awe of the feelings that the scrolls seemed to be evoking in her.

True could feel her energy dipping and spiking as she ran her hand down the fabric, as if it were trying to speak to her energy through the energy in the metal. She knew it sounded crazy, but she couldn’t help but think that the scroll was trying to communicate its contents to her.

Leif grinned and quickly pulled the scrolls from under her hands and rolled them back up as True looked at him in open mouthed surprise.

“Hey!” she said in irritation.

Leif chuckled as he put the jars back on the shelves where they had been before. “They do resonate, little firefly. In fact, we found that they can be ‘read’ that way. You don’t have to know the language for the contents of the scroll to be imparted to you,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned against the wall of shelves.

True sputtered and looked around at all of the scrolls. “Oh my God! How many have you read like that? What do they say? Can I read one?” she asked in rapid succession, her excitement going through the enormous roof at the knowledge contained here.

Leif held his hands up and shook his head.

“No! First of all, only part of one was read and it was by accident. Second, we have no idea if we read one completely, if it will disappear or be unable to be read by another. Third, they are not ours to read. If these belong to the humans and are meant for their survival after the conversion, then we have no right to read them. We can’t take the chance that we’ll be taking away their future in order to satisfy our own curiosity,” Leif said with conviction. 

True was a little surprised. She hadn’t considered any of that when she’d touched the scroll. She hadn’t thought at all beyond her own curiosity and thirst for knowledge. It was those realizations that brought things fully into focus.

“Oh my God . . .” she whispered, turning in a small circle as she looked around the room.

Leif smiled sadly and said, “Yeah . . . now you get it.”

True’s breath left her in a rush as a thought struck her. “Oh God, if the wrong person got hold of this place . . .” she said, thinking of the Relians, the Dark Prime, or even the elite human scum.
Hell, even a regular human with bad intentions.

Leif nodded.

“It’s why Nana will never leave here and why there are guards outside. She believes we were guided here to protect this place. To keep it safe for the humans. Like an Antarctic Alexandria. A repository of knowledge. Most of us believe she’s partly right. Whether we want to be or not, we are now the keepers of this place and the knowledge within. And we have a duty to make sure it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands,” he admitted, believing they were doing the right thing.

True knew in her heart that he was right. This place needed to be protected, but the temptation to read the scrolls still beat at her energy like a throbbing pulse.

“I get it . . .” she said, nodding her head slowly as she looked around the room.

Leif chuckled.

“This is only the first room,” he said and he grabbed her hand and pulled her across the room and into a hallway.

Just like in the folly, the floors lit up as they entered the darkened hallway, illuminating the way. This time, the walls didn’t light up though; the ceiling did. The walls were completely lined with niches and more jars, presumably containing more scrolls.

An hour later, they’d reached an area that extended into the wall of the mountain surrounding the exposed city. There was a walkway that looked like it’d been melted, that ran the length of a hallway. It was large enough for them to slide onto the ice, down the hallway.

True gasped at the frozen niches in the wall here. There were gleaming plates of precious metals, inscribed in a different language than the one on the scrolls. She held her hand flat against the ice wall covering the plates and could swear she felt energy resonating from them like she had with the scrolls.

Leif grinned and pulled her hand down from the wall.

“The plates also resonate and we try to keep from messing with them,” he said, keeping hold of her hand and gently rubbing the back of it.

True looked at the rows of different plates in the hallway.

“Why did you melt the hallway then?” she asked.

Leif shook his head. “We didn’t. This place has been melting on its own since we arrived here. When Nana first came, she said that only the entrance room was thawed out. Different areas have melted since then on their own,” he said, also curious how and why it was exposing itself like this.

True wasn’t too surprised. Everything about this place was kind of ‘magical’. Like a real life fairy tale. Of the apocalyptic kind.

“Do you think its thawing because the conversion is close?” she asked.

Leif sighed, then nodded.

“Yeah, that’s kind of the opinion around here. We can’t read this language either. It’s as much a mystery as the language on the scrolls,” he said, wondering what her thoughts were on the mystery of the place.

True looked back at the plates frozen behind the wall of ice.

“Do you think the plates hold knowledge as well?” she asked.

Leif chuckled at the awe in her voice and pulled on her hand.

“Come on, the scrolls and plates aren’t all that’s thawing,” he said as he led her down the rest of the thawing hallway.

They got to the end of the hallway and saw that it opened up to the left and the right, but each were sealed off approximately seven feet in by a wall of ice. Leif turned them to the right hallway and stepped carefully onto the melting ice, leading her just inside the hallway enough to see what was in the niches in the wall there.

True sucked in a breath at what was in front of her in the niches and she used Leif’s body to slide around him so she could see the other items that were still frozen behind large sheets of ice.

She was getting ready to hold her hand up to the ice in front of one of the items and Leif gently grabbed it and pulled it away as he shook his head.

“No. This place started melting 14 hours ago — when Tristan blew up the folly,” he warned. None of them were sure if that meant anything, but they agreed that no one was touching anything in here until things were settled at the folly.

True turned stunned grey eyes to his.

“Are you serious? How do you know?” she asked.

He pointed to the melting ice beneath their feet and several small hex cams. They were little, hexagonal shaped cameras that could be rolled into an area, where eventually it would stop and right itself into a position to give a 360 degree view of an area.

“This place is monitored 24/7 to make sure that no one tries to take the knowledge. As areas begin to thaw, we throw in more cameras. Until 14 hours ago, we had no idea this was here,” he said before correcting himself. “We knew that there was another hallway, we just didn’t know this is what was in it. We assumed it’d be more scrolls or plates.”

True looked at the gleaming items hidden behind the ice and had to stop herself from reaching up to touch the ice again.

“What are they?” she asked.

Leif crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. “I have no idea. They appear to be made of precious metals like the plates and scrolls, but we don’t know if they’re weapons, technology . . . or what,” he said, looking closer at the shining golden box behind the ice.

A thought occurred to True and she sucked in a breath and looked up at Leif with wide eyes.

“Do you think these are items mentioned in the human religious texts?” she asked, trying to recognize any of the strange items behind the melting ice.

Leif shook his head.

“I don’t know. There’s nothing like that in the parts that have melted, but there’s no telling what we’ll find when this place fully thaws,” he said, curious to see what would be revealed to them next.

True pushed off of Leif and slid across the hallway to the other side that was melting.

“Where does the water go?” she asked, looking around and seeing no slush to denote the thawing.