Atlas (The Atlas Series) (17 page)

They had him outnumbered, yet Kala still felt the need to be deferential. This was the guy in charge: whether or not they tied him up or hurt him, this would be the man that hunted them down afterward. Clifton was scary, but Turner was terrifying.

Turner seemed to know this as well, though he was much more fascinated by Asmodeus and what he thought was a neurologist disappear before his eyes.

“So,” Turner said, looking directly at Kala. “You’re the cause of a lot of trouble, aren’t you?”

Kala nodded, not sure what she should or shouldn’t say.

Derek walked over one of the unconscious guards, standing protectively next to Kala. Kala wanted to give him a big hug for doing what he’d done, but now was definitely not the time.

“I’m assuming Harry will be okay?” Turner nodded towards General Clifton, still lying in a heap on the floor.

It was strange to hear General Clifton called by his first name.

Jack quickly checked Clifton’s pulse. “He’s just unconscious. Asmodeus didn’t kill him.” Jack walked back to stand beside Kala.

“Asmodeus, huh? What kind of a name is that? Arabic?” Turner was starting to work things out.

Kala noticed Jack making eye contact with Derek. They were planning a coup if they had to, she could tell. She didn’t want them to be on the run their whole lives, not if she could help it. “General Turner, I acted alone in all this, Jack and Derek are just trying to protect me out of loyalty. Please don’t punish them.”

Turner shook his head. “I’m not punishing anyone.”

Kala waited for the “just kidding” part of the conversation. When she didn’t hear it she asked, “You’re not?”

“No. Unfortunately for you, Harry will come after you no matter what I order. I can keep you off the official records as a fugitive, but that won’t stop Harry.” Turner eyed his friend with a kind of resignation. Then turned to Jack and Derek. “As for Colonel Norbin and Lieutenant Echols: they will stay in their command positions here at the Compound. Harry won’t argue.” Turner nodded toward Derek, “Harry likes loyalty, just make him think that Lieutenant Hicks deceived you and that you’re loyal only to him. The man loves his ego stroked.”

“I don’t know if I can…” Derek began.

But Kala finished his sentence for him, “Derek will do it. Thank you, General.”

Kala looked up at Derek with as much determination as she could muster. “This is my problem, Derek. I don’t want you involved any more. If you were executed because of me, I’d never forgive myself.”

Derek didn’t argue, but Kala could see that he knew better than to argue in front of Turner. She just hoped Turner would be convinced.

Jack looked at his clock. “I don’t mean to break this up, but Penny can only hold off Asmodeus for so long. He’ll be back soon and when he does none of us can stop him from taking Kala.”

Turner looked around the room at all his unconscious soldiers in annoyance. “My soldiers can’t even win against Lieutenant Echols, what chance do they have against…?” He left the sentence hanging waiting for someone to finish it. When no one did, Turner said simply, “I’m not letting you go until you tell me who he is.”

“You wouldn’t believe us if we told you.” Kala wasn’t sure how much she should tell Turner.

“You’d be amazed at what I’d believe. I’m working on projects right now that would blow your mind. They will literally change the world as we know it. I can believe quite a bit.” Turner shrugged. “Besides, like I said, I can keep you here as long as I want until you tell me.”

“That’s the point, General, you can’t,” Jack corrected him. “Asmodeus knows where Kala is and as long as he knows he can pop back in and pop back out with her before you can utter
Stop
.”

Turner took a moment to evaluate that in his head, then finally nodded in agreement. “Just tell me what I’m dealing with so I can come up with some kind of defense in the future.”

Kala could see that Turner had complete confidence in his ability do just that. So much so that she felt the sudden need to tell Turner everything on the off chance that he could develop something to help her fight Asmodeus. “He’s a Demon, sir.”

“A Demon?” Turner repeated.

Derek looked at Kala like he was in on a joke. She knew he didn’t believe it for a second. He thought she was lying to Turner.

So when Jack said what he said, Derek’s face went from amused to confused in about a second.

Jack confirmed, “Asmodeus is the
King
of the Demons, General. He’s the most powerful being on the planet, and I can’t stop him. I can’t slow him down. And if we don’t get Kala out of here, it’s over.”

Turner nodded. He tapped the brain machine as if it held all the answers. “If this Asmodeus is after you, then you must be something
different
. I have all the results I need to research
what
you are.” He looked directly at Kala. “You
do
want me to help you, don’t you?”

Kala wasn’t sure how to respond, but help from General Turner the mastermind behind every crazy invention she’d ever seen, sounded like a godsend. “If you think you can, sir. I could use all the help I can get.”

“Good. Now that that’s settled, you two,” he pointed to Jack and Derek. “I’m assuming you’re useless against this Demon?”

Jack said, “Yes, sir.”

Though Derek still looked distraught at where the conversation had gone, he said boldly, “I could take him, General.”

Jack intervened, “No, Derek, you couldn’t.”

Derek had had enough. “What the hell is going on here?! Are we really having a serious conversation about
Demons
? This is bull!”

“Oh my,” Turner said, then he handed Derek a small round object the size of a marble.

Derek took it. “What’s this?”

A flash of light from the object and Derek dropped to the floor, unconscious.

Kala’s instincts overrode her good sense: she grabbed a gun from the floor and pointed it at Turner.

“Relax,” Turner looked more annoyed at her behavior than worried. “He’s out cold. These events were a little too much for our friend here. It’s better for your Lieutenant Echols’ cover story if he wakes up with Harry. And you Jack, you need to stay here, too, if you don’t want to be on Harry’s hit list. You have the best chance to convince him that you are still loyal, since you didn’t fight any of the soldiers.”

That was the first time Kala realized Jack hadn’t fought at all. In fact, he’d just stood there. Derek had been the loyal-monster-machine. If Asmodeus hadn’t shown up to save her, would Jack have let her die? A ball of emotion churned in her stomach. Maybe it would have been better if Kala had been killed. That way if Clifton became the next Atlas, Jack would have no problem taking him out. Jack just couldn’t take her out.

It was a conflicting thought. On one hand Jack couldn’t kill her, on the other hand he could let someone else.

Kala pushed the notion aside. Maybe Jack froze like she had. Maybe she was thinking too much. Being abandoned her whole life made the girl paranoid.

“Lieutenant Hicks, you’re coming with me,” Turner ordered.

Chapter Seventeen

Kala followed General Turner down the long hallway feeling like she was in grade school walking to the principal’s office. It wouldn’t matter if Kala had super powers like Asmodeus, Turner would always make her feel intimidated. Although Kala had to admit that he was taking all of this quite well. Nothing seemed to faze the guy. The more crazy the explanation, the more intrigued he became. Kala figured that it was just the way his brain worked. Turner was an inventor or, at least, he hired brilliant people to invent things for him: either way, he saw the world differently than most people. Kala knew enough about history to know that people like Turner really did change the world.

Turner slowed down enough so that Kala was walking beside him. “I’m assuming everything that you told me before is true as well? About the whole Atlas thing?”

Kala nodded yes, not quite sure why she was confessing. Still, if the General thought he could help, then at this point she was desperate.

“Interesting,” was all Turner said.

When Kala couldn’t think of anything to say, she ended up simply putting one foot in front of the other to whatever destination Turner had in store for her.

After a few twists and turns through the Compound, Turner spoke again. “This Demon character, he can just appear at any time? Does he use some kind of device or is it a power?”

“Definitely a power, and yes, he can jump in whenever he wants to. That’s how I ended up in New York,” Kala explained.

“And you escaped this… Asmodeus?” Turner prodded.

Kala realized she’d have to bring up the Malaks as well. “I escaped while he was distracted with a Malak.”

“An Angel?” Turner asked curiously.

“They call themselves Malaks,” Kala said, impressed at Turner’s knowledge. “But yeah, I guess they’re Angels.”

“Yes, the word Malak means Angel in Arabic. This is old magic,” Turner said as if categorizing Kala’s particular situation in a filing bin in his head.

“Magic?” Kala asked timidly.

“Oh yes.” Turner appeared to be opening up at the excitement of all the day’s new revelations. “My wife Roberta is a student of all kinds of magic. She’s quite an expert. Vodun is her strongest suit, but she’s dabbled in old magic from the Greeks and the Arabs. She’ll be very interested to hear about all this.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t be talking about this too much. Wouldn’t General Clifton try and have us all executed or committed to a psychiatric ward?” Kala didn’t like the idea of Turner telling people, even if it was his wife, about her situation. She barely understood it herself and she figured in two days when she didn’t accomplish her mission Turner would have enough on his hands trying to save the world.

“Let me handle Harry. I won’t be able to stop him from hunting you, but I will be able to help you hide. I’m developing a system now for tracking people and making people disappear. They go hand-in-hand as you might guess. As for this Demon fellow, how is he tracking you?” Turner was in business-mode and Kala felt a surge of hope that maybe good old-fashioned science might help her through this, rather than crazy-magic-DNA-transformation like Penny had done to her before.

“Supposedly, once he knows who I am he can track me anywhere in the world. He said I have a distinct signature. Penny said it was my DNA and she was actually able to shift my DNA profile enough to hide me from him,” Kala explained as best she could. She still wasn’t quite sure how all this worked.

Turner was genuinely flabbergasted. “Shifting DNA? Interesting. I’ll have to tell Fortski. He’ll definitely be interested in hearing about this.”

Kala had no idea who Fortski was, but she assumed he was one of Turner’s main scientist-inventors for Turner to mention him by name.

“Do you think anything you have will help hide me from Asmodeus?” Kala wanted to know if there was a chance at success here.

“Possibly.” They arrived at a sealed metal door. “Through here.” Turner opened the secured door with a biometric scan of his eye and they entered the most insane room Kala had ever seen.

The room itself was the size of a football field jammed packed with enough electronics to make Kala’s head spin. It was hard to focus on any one thing at a time. Almost every inch of space was taken by some kind of machine or computer, all with wires, blinking lights and robotic parts. She saw a few of those brain-machines that had been used on her sitting empty against the wall.

After averting her eyes from all the flashing lights, Kala finally noticed a handful of scientists busy at work at various stations. None of them looked up at the two of them as Turner led her to the middle of the room.

“Here we are.” Turner stopped in front of a small metal pedestal that came up to Kala’s waist. There was what looked like a type of tranquilizer gun resting on top, a row of tubes filled with red liquid next to it.

“Is that blood?” Kala asked about the red tubes. She really didn’t want it to be blood, but the closer she examined it, the more she knew what Turner would say.

“Every type, yes,” Turner confirmed her suspicions. “This is the prototype. You’d be one of the first human volunteers.”

“Awesome,” Kala said, trying to hide the sarcasm from her tone. “What does it do?”

“It uses nanotechnology. Inside the blood are the teeniest tiniest devices, not even the size of a single blood cell. The devices are GPS trackers, once injected into the bloodstream, we’d be able to find that person anywhere on the globe, but we found that the GPS trackers mutated in the specimens and it had the opposite effect. The nanos completely hid the injected volunteer from any tracking system available today.”

“Why?” Kala was curious.

“No idea. We’re still trying to figure it out.”

Kala was skeptical, but tried to be hopeful. “So you think it might work on me?”

“To be candid, I have no clue, but it’s worth a shot, right?” Turner was acting more like a concerned friend than Kala’s superior officer, but she found his attitude reassuring.