'Oh? Is that a fact?' The edge returned to the senior General’s voice.
Hoth chased that edge away. 'It might be a good idea if you headed for the station right away. If memory serves, Captain Forest is taking the next train back east, too. It would be a good idea for her to be escorted by someone who knows her.'
Shepherd bit his tongue yet again, nearly hard enough to draw blood, and mumbled, 'Well, then, I guess that’s that. You have a really nice day now, you hear?'
Hoth heard.
– Jon Brewer and Ashley stood in the second floor office at the mansion. Gordon Knox sat in a chair along the wall.
'What do you mean, ‘missing’?'
'According to what Jerry Shepherd saw, the building Trevor entered vanished. Simply disappeared with everyone inside. We searched the area but found no trace. Once the area is secured by Army Group North we'll send Omar and science teams to the site to evaluate what actually happened.'
'I don’t understand. He said he was going to Ohio to surprise the troops to boost morale. He didn’t tell me anything about leading a mission.'
Jon paused, his eyes wandered, and he rocked back on his heals as he summoned the explanation he recently concocted. 'Well, you know Trevor, um, he just got, well, out there and decided to do this, I guess.'
Ashley’s eyes narrowed and locked on him, her mouth opened a little. Jon heard her thought as clearly as if she spoke the words, I can’t believe it. You just lied to me.
Jon looked at the floor.
'I see,' she spoke in something akin to a growl. 'And exactly what was this spur of the moment adventure he went off on?'
'One of our Special Forces units went missing. He decided to lead a rescue mission.'
'A special forces unit?'
'It was the Dark Wolves. They’ve been our best over the years.'
Ashley asked, 'What was this building? What was in there? Who was in there?'
Brewer tried to slow things down. 'Shep is on his way here to fill in the details. Like I said, he was on the ground with Trevor when it happened. Maybe he can shine light on all of this. But, hey, Ashley, according to the reports Trevor was alive when the place disappeared.'
Gordon Knox sat in his chair observing the conversation without saying a word. Ashley decided to drag him in. 'Gordon. What do you know about this building? What do you know about the aliens that took Trevor?'
Jon could only guess at how much Gordon knew about Trevor and Nina's relationship. On one hand, he had not joined the movement until long after that episode. At the same time, his business was information and he had grown close to Trevor in recent years.
Knox replied, 'Well, they weren’t aliens. Isn’t that right, Jon?'
'People?' Ashley turned fast on Brewer. 'Why didn’t you tell me that? Who were they?'
'Calm down,' Jon raised a reassuring hand but he quickly realized that Ashley now looked to Gordon for answers.
'Anita has nothing on record that matches the type of structure Shepherd says he saw. Captain. Forest went to the area originally after receiving a radio transmission requesting help.'
'Forest?'
Gordon said, 'Captain Nina Forest. She’s the commanding officer of the Dark Wolves.'
'I know that name.'
'Yes you do,' Jon tried desperately to gain control over the conversation. 'Nina was one of the original band of survivors. She and Shep came to the estate those first few months.'
Gordon continued, 'The reports are a little sketchy and, well, convoluted. We know that Captain Forest and her unit disappeared while on mission. Trevor, General Shepherd, and Reverend Johnny took in a follow up team to find them.'
'Wait a second,' she interrupted. 'Johnny, too?'
Jon felt things spiraling further out of control.
Ashley turned to him. 'Reverend Johnny is missing, too? Trevor took Johnny all the way out to Ohio, met up with Shepherd who came all the way from-what? — Kentucky-'
'Tennessee,' Jon Brewer corrected.
'Okay, Tennessee, and they went off searching for a couple of missing soldiers?'
'Nina, listen-' Jon stopped. Had he really just said that? 'Sorry. I mean, Ashley, listen. Shepherd will be back soon. Until then we really don’t know exactly what happened.'
Ashley stared at him.
Jon reached for his jacket hanging on the back of a chair and repeated, 'When Shep gets here we’ll all sit down and sort this out. In the meantime, General Hoth is pushing west to secure the area. We’ll be sending in all sorts of specialists to find out what happened. We’ll find him, Ashley. We’ll find Trevor.'
She added, 'And Reverend Johnny, too.'
'And Johnny, yes.'
'And Nina Forest and her soldiers.'
Jon shook his head, 'No, they’re on their way…'
Brewer stopped again, caught like a deer in headlights. He closed his eyes and then finished because he could not do otherwise. 'They let everyone go except Trevor and Reverend Johnny. Captain Forest and her unit have returned to duty.'
'I see.'
He heard the tone in her voice.
Something is going on here; something you’re not telling me.
Brewer slipped his jacket on fast and escaped from the room.
– Evan knew he did not look good wearing safety goggles. Not Dukakis-in-the-tank bad, but certainly on the geeky side. However, on this day he traded image for substance. Sort of.
He followed Omar Nehru through the large, long building and up a set of short but steep metal stairs to a platform. A gaggle of media-wearing geeky goggles as well-waited on the plant floor below like a crowd gathering for a rock concert.
As bulbs flashed, Evan sensed an opportunity. He turned and lent a helping hand up the steep stairs to the third member of his party, Jim Hutch, a burly man with side burns who sweat profusely.
'There you go, Jim.'
'Thank you, Senator Godfrey.'
'Now that won’t due, Jim. That won’t do at all. Call me Evan.'
'You should be coming over this way, so as to get the best view,' Omar directed in a loud voice. He had to speak loud because the machines that filled the massive industrial center drown out most conversation.
Omar's tour took the men to a big long cylinder set horizontally on thick support struts. Gauges, controls, hoses, wires, and all manner of mechanisms dotted the surface of the thing. At one end a funnel-like orifice; at the other an arched opening feeding onto a conveyor belt.
From front to back the machine stretched nearly fifty yards with the diameter of a railroad tanker car.
Evan addressed the crowd more so than Omar as he said, 'This matter-maker is much larger than the one we discovered back during the first year. I remember when you and I got our first good look at one of these.'
'Um, yes, of course,' Omar would not challenge Evan's historical revisionism.
Hutch turned his nose up and grunted, 'Damn ugly thing. Looks grimy and what's that smell? Geez, smells like something rotting.'
'It is an industrial-capacity matter transfiguration machine,' Omar came across as defensive. 'Given the variety of substances pushed through its workings it does develop an unpleasant odor, which is a side effect that cannot be helped.'
Evan sensed Omar's temperature rising, although the edge in his voice might be as much due to a lack of a cigarette as anything else. Whatever the case, Evan interceded, 'So, tell me Omar, how much do we understand about the workings of this contraption?'
'What we have learned has come from what you might say 'trial and error.' We have developed a
