The Impossible Future: Complete set by Frank Kennedy (mini ebook reader .txt) 📕

Agatha saw the married forty-something Bowmans embracing beside the first car in the caravan. She never expected the owners of Albion’s only bed-and-breakfast to take part in this endgame. They loved their life; she expected them to go rogue and stay behind.

 “Help me up,” she told Christian. “Call everyone over here.”

Standing, Agatha ran a hand across her face and felt many cuts; she planned to avoid mirrors.

The surviving observers cheered her quick recovery as they gathered around. She knew few other sane humans would have gotten to their feet so soon, but the troops needed to see her alert. She began:

“I have spent most of my life crushing the spirit of those in my orbit in order to achieve sadistic gratification and further my personal objectives. I offer no apologies. My modus operandi has served me well, first through the UG assaults I led on New Caledonia and Xavier’s Garden. Later on, in dealing with those treacherous fools in my presidium. I have stared into the face of my mortality, and I am genuinely humbled.

“If today should be my last, I wish to leave a different legacy. I can deny Chancellors a future far more bleak than what we are already facing. We know what will happen if these Jewel hybrids come to be. This is a betrayal of our original mission, but we have had the benefit of time to see the truth.

“We cannot stop the others, but we can stop this one. It gives me no gratification to kill a boy, but I am here to save humanity from itself. If nothing else, may my epitaph speak of that singular accomplishment. We are the heroes. Yes? We gave James his childhood, as we agreed. But we will not allow that abomination to return to our universe. Join me to the end.”

She saw it in their eyes. There was no more doubt in the rightness of their cause. The pain raced through her like nails, but Agatha did not care.

Minutes later, after Jennifer Bowman drove away toward Austin Springs and the chopper took flight, Agatha’s determination was rewarded by a desperate man’s voice on the police band.

“Officer down! Officer down! Need assistance. Fortnight Road and Highway 39. Multiple suspects, heavily armed. Repeat …”

Agatha sensed promise. She turned to Arthur.

“Heavily armed at sunrise? Chancellors, perhaps?” As Arthur scanned the maps on the laptop and quickly assessed the report as coming from the west side of Lake Vernon, fifteen minutes away, Agatha smiled without pain.

“Dearest Walter. I do believe you’ve gotten yourself into a spate of mischief. Perhaps we should offer immediate assistance. Yes?”

 

32

S AMMIE WANTED TO take the outboard deep into Ginny’s Creek, but Jamie insisted she pull in to a small sandy spot near the mouth. He wanted off the boat. He just finished explaining almost everything to Michael, and even Jamie had a hard time believing his own.

Sammie veered the boat to a tiny stretch of sand which was covered in part by scattered pine needles and surrounded on either end by fallen debris and tree stumps. Low ground cover spread behind it into the woods, where trees – mostly pines – were thinly spaced. The trees cast impressive silhouettes in gray morning light.

Jamie and Michael hopped out, splashed through the shallow water and grabbed the bow, bringing the boat onto land. Sammie did not leave the driver’s seat.

“Now what?” Michael asked.

“We stop running,” Jamie was quick to respond. “I gotta think.”

“I’m down with that. Ain’t every night a fellow takes a couple slugs and has his best friend do a Jesus number on him.”

Jamie scoped the surroundings and saw no homes. He decided to follow the rugged shore back out to the mouth and facing the lake. He had no sense of why, beyond a vague notion that to go farther into the creek was not smart. The creek disappeared around a dark bend.

“You coming?” He asked Sammie.

“No. I need to be alone. Don’t worry, Jamie. I won’t leave.”

When he saw the emptiness in her eyes and heard the resignation cross her lips, Jamie knew he could trust her. He and Michael trudged along the shoreline, walking over and around driftwood and other debris, their wet sneakers squishing with every step.

“I’m sorry I got you into this, Coop. If they’d gunned me down on Main Street, they never would’ve come after you.”

“And you’d be a corpse, dude. We both got away, and that’s all that matters. We just gotta figure out our next move and before you know it … we’re gonna be running track again. New coach, I’d reckon. Maybe a guy who won’t try to kill us. It’ll be like nothing happened.”

Jamie broke a smile.

   “I don’t believe how well you’re taking this.”

Michael dropped a brother’s hand on Jamie’s shoulder.

“You’re the best friend I ever had and you saved my life.” He snickered. “I used to tell people, ‘That Jamie, he’s always got my back.’ Damned if that weren’t the truth, huh?” His lower lip quivered. “I love you, J. Don’t you ever forget.”

They fell into each other and shared a firm hug. Jamie’s earlier sensation of helplessness grew into despair. He told almost all the story to Michael on the boat ride in, but he left out one important detail. He couldn’t say the words then, and he didn’t know how to do it now. He wanted to believe that maybe he could make the impending reality disappear so long as his best friend was at his side. When they separated, Michael asked a question.

“There’s something I got to know. When I woke up, first thing I saw was you sticking a gun upside her head. What’s up with that?”

Jamie trudged on toward the lake.

“She’s not what you think, Coop. We’ve got some trust issues.”

Jamie explained details of