How’d he know Kyoshe? Less than a dozen people knew she existed.
“Mr. Wellington, you’ve given me a lot of information that needs to be verified.”
“I understand, but please know time is not on our side.”
Jessie nodded her understanding, “No, it’s not. If what you say is true you might want to find a safe location and stay there until Dr. Sheitz can be found.”
Jessie took the envelope and left the office. She called Max to cancel the surveillance of Wellington and told them to meet her back at headquarters.
It had taken about an hour and a half, but Jessie’s plane was finally taxiing on the runway. Once she was airborne, she opened the envelope and put the VHS into a device that could read it as if it were a digital chip.
The video showed Dr. Sheitz, John Wellington, and a couple of other scientists performing tests in a desert with a device about the size of a coffee saucer. Sheitz pointed and pressed a button. First, there were little tremors. Then all of a sudden those tremors weren’t so little. The machine appeared to bring on a full scale earthquake. The next thing Jessie saw was that the entire city turned into a raging ball of fire. Jessie’s mouth fell open. She pulled out the report and read it. Not only could this device create earthquakes, but tornados, fire storms, and any other manner of climate disturbances. It was also highly unstable.
The video seemed to show the experiment was limited to the area in which they tested it. It went far outside the expected range into a small town of several thousand. The town became a raging inferno. Apparently, everyone in the town was killed. There were no survivors. The damage that little device could do was unbelievable.
Jessie was so engrossed in the report that when her phone rang on her secured line, she almost missed it. It was Téa. “Jessie you’re never going to believe this. I’ve just decoded some of the cache of documents that I found. It looks like Dr. Sheitz was working for both Mr. Wellington and another group. This other group is fronted by incredibly rich religious fanatics who appear to want to create an ‘Armageddon’ so they can build ‘the new world’. It’s been hard for me to get sound out of the compound because it’s so deep into the ground.”
“Téa, I’m elevating this situation to a level nine. Have Jake and Gray put two teams on alert. We’re going to need them to go into that compound.”
“What did you find out…?”
Jessie’s other phone rang. It was Kyoshe. “Téa, I’ve got to take another call. I’ll call you back with details.”
Chapter 19
Kyoshe never spoke to Jessie in English. So Jessie spoke to her in her native Mandarin tongue, “Kyoshe…what is going on? It feels like all hell is going to break loose.”
“Wellington was telling you the truth. What he doesn’t know is that Dr. Sheitz only worked for him so that he could continue his research. Wellington had the resources. Once the research was finished, he took it and staged his ‘abduction’. The Council only recently found out about this device.”
“I know where both he and the device are. I have two teams on standby plus my team. We can be ready to go if you can provide us with more Intel of the layout of the compound. We can extract and terminate on site.”
“No. I’m afraid it is too late for that. The compound is a virtual Fort Knox. We intercepted a carrier who confessed to us that they plan to use the device within the next six to twelve hours. You’ve seen the damage it can do, and that video showed it being tested on its lowest levels.
Apparently, they’ve divided the world up into six quadrants and plan to use it on four. North America is one of them. The only thing you can do now is get the people you love into the bunker just as I will do.”
For the first time ever, Jessie heard Kyoshe’s voice in English. “I hope and pray like hell that we survive this thing so we can live to fight another day. If not, I love you my daughter.” The line went silent.
Jessie was stunned and confused by that display of emotion. Kyoshe believed to show emotion was weakness, so Jessie was stunned and confused by the unexpected display. My daughter? Did Kyoshe think of her in that way? She didn’t know what to say, but was humbled and honored. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much time to process her words.
Jessie pressed her amulet twice. Téa, Max, Jake, Tony, and Gray appeared, “Change of plans, my friends. We will not be infiltrating the compound. I’m afraid there isn’t enough time. This situation has just been elevated to a level ten.”
Everyone started talking at once. Jessie closed and rubbed her eyes. “Listen, please. Not only is this a level ten, but we also need to activate our survival protocol.”
It suddenly got really quiet. Max spoke out, “Is this a drill or a test?”
“It’s neither. I’ve just confirmed that the damage that is going to be done will affect millions. They won’t survive it. And…time is not on our side; this action is scheduled to happen in the next six to twelve hours.”
“Jessie how long have you, Max, Tony, and Shelly been in the air?” Téa asked what everyone else was coming to realize.
“They’ve been in the air about an hour and a half. They should make it before the process starts. I’ve been in the air about twenty minutes.”
Gray cursed, “Is there any way you can be here within six hours?”
Jessie smiled weakly, “I can talk to the pilot but I’m guessing no. We’ll do our best though.”
It was silent, again. Jessie couldn’t stand the look of helplessness in their eyes. She hoped it wasn’t a mirror of hers.
She was the leader. She set the tone and the tone needed to be survival, “Look,
