Lost Contact (The Bridge Sequence Book One), Nathan Hystad [primary phonics books .TXT] 📗

They left us the means to the Bridge, spread apart by such distance that it would be next to impossible to gather them all unless we had the technology, which would indicate a certain intelligence level.”

“Classic concept,” I said. “It makes sense. Only from what I read in my father’s journals, they were each located by ancient civilizations, and almost all of them were revered at some point as artifacts from the stars to the locals.”

Hunter’s hand gripped my wrist at the mention of the journal. “You have his books?”

“I do. At home,” I lied. I’d actually brought them with me, but I didn’t want to let him know that. He’d take them, and I’d lose the connection to my father I’d only just found.

“What do they say?”

“They’re short accounts of him and Clayton obtaining each Token.”

“This is unbelievable. I funded him for years, and he wouldn’t so much as…” Hunter peered at Veronica. “This is important, Rex. I don’t know how much you’ve told our team, but I have a feeling that activating the Bridge is more imperative now than ever. The arrival of the Objects is like a ticking time bomb, and I fear that we’ll be destroyed, should we fail.” Hunter waved down the bartender and ordered Scotch. Neat. A double.

I cleared my throat. “I haven’t told her much, Hunter, but I guess she’s invested now.”

His drink came, and he raised the glass. “To new friends.”

“To new friends,” Veronica said, but her face was whiter than before. The conversation had obviously affected her, and Marcus was tapping his foot on the barstool, his hands fiddling with his beer.

“We’re going to be fine. We have four more stops, and then your guys will decipher the last location,” I told Hunter, but he didn’t appear to agree.

“Rex, I have some bad news on that…”

Marcus’ phone beeped, and he cut Hunter off. “Uhm, bad news.”

“What is it?” I asked, looking across the bar at him.

“I set an alert for local news near the town and airport in Madagascar.” Marcus rotated the phone, and I recited the translation.

“Three local men found dead.” I read the rest, seeing a brief mention of Haja and Hasin, along with a picture of a third. “That was the man who led us to them at the airport.”

“They know what we have,” Hunter said, downing the Scotch with a tilt of his wrist. “If our guides overheard anything, you can be assured that the Believers know it.”

I tried to remember what we’d said in front of the two men. “I think we’re safe.”

Marcus nodded. “Us too. We didn’t tell Haja anything while you guys were at Tsingy.”

“The Believers will have something to go by. And Hasin saw the Token, right?”

“He did,” I admitted, “but what—”

“They’ll double their efforts. Triple. He’ll want to see this through,” Hunter growled.

“Who? Who is he?”

“The leader. I don’t know who’s in charge any longer, only that he goes by Sovereign.” Hunter said a few words in Japanese, and the bartender returned with the bottle. He left it without another word.

“I can’t believe they’re dead,” Veronica whispered.

“Who’s dead?” Tripp asked as he arrived. I’d noticed him sitting in the bar for the last ten minutes since Hunter arrived, probably trying to determine if there was anyone suspicious in the vicinity. That he was here talking to us meant he felt we were in the clear.

Marcus informed the ex-SEAL of our African guides’ fate, and he flopped on the stool. “Can’t say they were great people, poaching snakes, lizards, and lemurs as they did, but I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Especially knowing the cult would have interrogated them first.”

I tried not to picture our Madagascar guides tied up at gunpoint. “What do you know about the Believers?” I asked him.

“Only what Hunter’s told me. But from his description, they have powerful allies, and that means they’ve likely recruited people in my line of work. I’ve probably met some of them,” he said.

“What’s next?” Veronica asked.

“We move quickly. Faster than we wanted to. Because we must remain one step ahead of them. They won’t know where we’re going…” Hunter’s words drifted off.

“They seemed to when we went searching for Castro,” Marcus muttered.

“Astute point, son. Keep communication to a minimum. Don’t tell anyone where you are, or why. No chatting to friends at home or trying to date while you’re in Japan, no snooping on your ex-wife’s Christmas plans. We have to stick together and find the last Tokens.” Hunter said this softly, but his words held serious weight.

“We don’t have the sixth, do we? We can’t determine the coordinates,” I said.

Hunter took another drink and passed the bottle across toward Tripp. Veronica grabbed it on the way and splashed some into her empty beer glass. “No. My team cannot determine the location. They think it’s in North America, but can’t be sure.”

“So why do we bother?” Marcus asked.

“Because the Believers might have it already. We can’t trust the Tokens in the wild. We must contain them, thus controlling the Bridge,” Hunter said.

There was a certain logic to it, but my shoulders slumped at the connotations. If I couldn’t secure all six Tokens, we had no means to access the Bridge.

6

“Are you certain you’ve managed to block the GPS?” Tripp asked Marcus.

“Definitely. It’s not overly complicated,” the younger man told him. “No one will know where we took this baby.”

Veronica sat in the tour helicopter’s pilot seat, and Hunter had chosen the one beside her. The rest of us cramped into the bench in the back, with Marcus taking the middle. “This is almost the same model as the ones I flew in Maui,” she said. “Simple, simple.”

She went over a checklist, her lips moving as soundless words emerged, and soon we were given clearance through the radio. Hunter spoke Japanese to the man on the radio, and Veronica lifted us from the concrete pad. There was room for a dozen other helicopters, with a few of them already departed for an