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

initially resisted our demand to lower his weapon. He’s in custody until …”

“Oh, my God,” she said as if exasperated. “The gun? I can explain that. When we were attacked, a man shot Daddy, but my Daddy had a rifle and fired back and killed the man. I don’t even know what that person wanted or why.” She choked up, her eyes watering. “Daddy was still alive, and we went to him. I was going to call for help, but John grabbed the other man’s gun and ran off. That’s when we chased after him, like I told you before, and lost him in the woods. Next thing we knew, these other men with machine guns …”

Agent Hedgecock raised both hands. “Timeout. Look, all three of you are in shock, you’re probably hungry, and we need to contact your relatives.” Hedgecock paused. “You boys could use shirts, and we have questions that need answering. There’s much more going on here than probably any of you realize.”

“OK, I understand,” Sammie said. “I’m sure John can answer all your questions, but could you please give us, like, two minutes alone? He’ll help you better if I talk to him first.”

Hedgecock sighed but nodded the other officers out of the van.

“Two minutes. No more. Oh, and Miss Huggins … Samantha … we need you or Mr. Cooper to provide directions to your campsite.”

Michael snapped back. “I was just along for the ride. I got no sense of direction. Runs in the family, if you get my speed.”

Sammie nodded. “As soon as we’re done, I promise.”

When the van cleared of everyone but his last two friends, Jamie didn’t know where to begin. Instead, Michael did the heavy lifting.

“Dude. You’re my hero. What you did in the woods … beyond unreal.” He offered Jamie another, briefer hug and darted his eyes between Jamie and Sammie. “I used to figure I was the stud in this outfit, but you two are the bomb. Got more guts and brains than me.” Michael paused. “Here’s the score, dude. When we saw you being hauled in by the cops, Sammie came up with a plan. Pretty sweet if we can pull it off.”

Michael turned over the rest of the story to Sammie. She described hiding their rifles in the brush and racing from the woods, asking whether anyone had seen her tall, blond cousin. She told Jamie why they needed to act as harmless and emotionally distraught as possible to avoid suspicion flying their way. She apologized for giving Jamie a new name and creating a story in which Ben became the attacker who killed her father.

“It was the only strategy that seemed to fit,” she whispered. “Our parents created your second identity in case of emergency. Jamie, they can’t be told who you really are. They have to believe we were caught in the middle. Just three kids. They won’t think we’ve been running around the woods with machine guns killing people.”

“Maybe not you,” Michael smirked as he pointed to his skin.

“This is the FBI,” Jamie said, remembering Agent Bronson’s words of warning. “They’ll figure out something isn’t right.”

“I’m trying to buy us some time,” Sammie said. “They’re taking us to Austin Springs. We need to get you out of handcuffs ASAP.”

Sammie hugged him again, and Michael added a simple, “Amen.” Yet Jamie wasn’t so sure Sammie’s plan was going to work, especially when he felt a familiar, foreboding presence. Jamie looked over Sammie’s shoulder to the bench where he was sitting.

Lydia the Mentor didn’t volunteer a word through her frown.

 

50

8:40 a.m.

E UPHORIA FILLED THE red Camaro less than ten minutes after Arthur Tynes reversed course and drove the Chancellors toward Austin Springs. The news came faster than they predicted: Jennifer Bowman, who was trolling through town since shortly after 7 a.m., saw the Jewel arrive in a van at the tiny police department.

That their target would be trapped inside a small, fixed location seemed too good to be true, as if the universe were dangling a new temptation in front of them.

Agatha smiled along with Christian and Arthur. She wanted to give them hope, even though her sense of being overwhelmed by the sheer force of history was growing. She needed this singular victory; she earned it through fifteen years of sacrifice away from the prestige she once knew among the Chancellory. Yet she could not escape a feeling of doom.

The sensation grew to a palpable level when, not five minutes after the news about the Jewel, did Walter’s threat come to life. Agatha kept the live feed from the interdimensional fold on her phone. She was discussing a strategy for the attack when she noticed movement at the fold.

Invisible space shifted, a crack opening in an otherwise obscure location in the deep forest more than a mile from the nearest living soul. Two dark, mechanical shapes shifted into life for just an instant, and the feed dissolved into static. Seconds later, the feed cleared, and the mechanical shapes vanished.

Agatha closed her phone. She knew what was coming.

The Shock Units long produced unimaginable fear in any man unlucky enough to face the Guard’s most terrifying combat machine. The machines were known to be invisible until the instant before powering their weapons. And then, so the stories went, they made themselves visible as they discharged their weapon. Each machine was powered by a human operating as the CPU, but these were specially-bred humans whose purpose rarely extended beyond blind obedience to orders and a desire to destroy all targets with impunity.

She knew the Shock Units would hone in on the Jewel’s unique signature and plot the most efficient course to their destination. They would stampede across the land – invisible, relentless, merciless. Assuming the reports were true about their ground speed, Agatha decided she had no more than an