filming with camcorders and phones. Nina raised her hand and did a mock bow. “Play along,” she whispered to Caleb. Then, kicking off the last of the ropes and smoothing back her hair, she leapt over the side, tugging Caleb along behind her.
He jumped too, and just as he caught a glimpse of men in blue running up the far stairs, he landed and dove into the crowd with Nina, high-fiving a few people, then pushing through and making for a side door. They were through, and into a cafeteria teeming with people in line and at their tables, gorging on lunch. Nina took Caleb’s hand and he felt a sudden surge of power, a tugging of a vision, but urgency squashed any connection. Under his shirt, strapped to his back, the shard of strange metal –the spear—seemed to vibrate and thrum. It felt warm, almost hot. Itchy, and for a desperate moment he feared he’d have to strip off his shirt and rip it free, giving away their location; but as soon as she pulled her hand away, it subsided and again felt cool.
He glanced back, but saw that the security men were whipping their heads around, trying to see anyone out of place. The rest of the crowd had moved on, back to their sightseeing and roaming the decks, lining up for the driving range or the rock climbing station, the previous excitement forgotten.
A dish was thrust in his hand, and then he and Nina were on the far side of the buffet line, nodding to an older couple and heaping fruit onto their plates beside their cold cuts.
“We’re safe,” she whispered.
“For now,” Caleb said. “But we could just let them take us to the captain, then call Colonel Temple.”
“Not yet,” Nina said. “Better to blend in. If my guess is correct, this ship just set sail from Vancouver on the first leg of the popular Alaskan Inside Passage tour. Next stop, tomorrow morning, will be Juneau where we can get out on the shore excursion. Rent a jeep and head overland to Gacona.”
“Tomorrow,” Caleb said, looking at the line of food as his stomach grumbled. Mimosas, coffee, heaps of scrambled eggs and sausage and fresh-baked rolls. “What do we do until then?”
Nina piled food onto her plate. “Why darling, we enjoy the cruise.”
2.
After Temple had finished up the presentation, he had Diana take Aria aside to debrief her. Then he turned to his other guests. Phoebe and Orlando had moved in closer to the wall-length screens, studying the pictures of Mars.
“Okay then,” Phoebe said after tearing her eyes away and blinking as if to rid her irises of the grainy Martian sands. “I guess we know our objective.”
Orlando grinned at the screen. “Big Red. The God of War, Ares to the Greeks, Mars for the Romans, and…”
“Knock it off,” Phoebe quipped. “You’re not my brother.”
“No,” Temple said, “but you’ll do just fine. Orlando, I’d like you to go and assist the Dove in his search. Both of you together should be able to crack this thing, get around those shields and see what’s really down there.”
“You mean Google Mars isn’t accurate?”
Temple rolled his eyes. “Please.” He turned to Phoebe. “I won’t even get into the layers of disinformation and outright data manipulation, but in all honesty, despite a few badly eroded surface monuments, what’s really of interest is, I believe,
Phoebe nodded. “Thanks. I gather he doesn’t see many girls on a day to day basis.”
“Not in the flesh, no.”
Orlando clapped his hands. “All right, I’m off to see the Dove. Or as I would have called him–”
“Please don’t say it,” Phoebe begged, shaking her head.
“-Big Bird.”
Orlando chuckled to himself and headed out, while Phoebe rolled her eyes at Temple. “See what I have to live with?”
Temple managed a smile. “Now, for you. I’d like you to—”
His phone chirped. “Hang on a sec.”
But as he reached for it, Phoebe swooned and had to grab the nearest table edge. She looked up sharply just as his eyes met hers and he spoke into the phone. “Talk to me.”
He nodded, then again. Then said: “When was this? Okay, get me a secure channel to Eielson Air Force base. Commander Maxwell. Have him call me back in three minutes.”
When Temple disconnected the call, Phoebe searched his eyes. “My brother! I saw him!”
He studied her carefully. “Where?’
Phoebe almost choked on the word. “Falling.” She swallowed hard. “From a plane.”
Temple nodded, his face grim. “They were shot down just north of Vancouver Island.”
“And…?” Phoebe’s heart was racing. “What else did you hear? Because I saw nothing! They were falling towards something below, on the water, something…” She rubbed her head. “I don’t know! Then it all just went blue again!”
“Blue? You’re sure?”
“Do I look like I’m kidding?”
“No, but that I don’t understand.”
“What?”
“I believe they fell together, or they jumped out of the plane before it was attacked.”
“They? Who do you mean?” Phoebe blinked, then winced as she eyes closed for a second. “Nina! It was her I saw falling before him.”
“Yes, it was her plane. She may have been taking him to HAARP.”
Phoebe frowned. “I… don’t think so. That’s not the sense I had. Plus, they were shot down, and not by your guys, right?”
“Right, which I suppose indicates that Nina may have had a change of heart.”
Phoebe looked down. “Still don’t trust that bitch.” Her eyes lifted. “But you think they survived?”
“If you can’t see them, then it might mean something else is acting in their vicinity. Something that’s clouding your sight.”
Phoebe blinked, then glanced over Temple’s shoulder, to the side area where Aria sat talking to Diana.
“Something,” Phoebe said, focusing on the NASA scientist, “that might be powerful enough to keep them hidden—and maybe even safe.”
Orlando knocked, softly at first, then a little louder. Shrugged, then pushed his way inside. After a moment, his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and then… a squeaking, and the great bulk that was the Dove turned in his massive ergonomic chair.
“Ah, so it’s to be babysitting duty, is it?”
“Uh,” Orlando stammered. “That colonel guy said I’m supposed to help out here.”
The Dove let out a belch. His eyes, serious and dark, focused on Orlando for an uncomfortable moment. Then he brushed crumbs off his bulging gut, grinned and pointed to a plain-looking metal chair in the corner. “Pull up a seat, amigo. Let’s see what we can see.”
Orlando nodded, wrinkling his nose at the smell of Cheezits, and stepped over a collection of Hostess Twinkie wrappers. “Okay, so it must be the maid’s day off?”
“Cute.” The Dove clicked some buttons on the arm of his chair and the giant screen on the far wall flickered to life. And The Face came into focus, stopping Orlando in his tracks. “Never seen it that big, have you?”
“Or in that much detail. I thought we didn’t have these kind of images. And the last one was all kinds of fuzzy. Looked like crap.”
“Exactly like some weather-eroded three hundred million year old mountain would expect to look,
