Babel Found (5 page)

The Smithsonian Castle

Washington D.C.

“What is it exactly that you’re looking for, ma’am?” Todd asked, feeling his body shake with every careful word. Besides his female teammates here, this was the longest he’d talked to a woman outside of work in over a year.

“Please,” she answered, “my name is Terra, like the earth.” Todd’s heart fluttered a little, his insides shaking from her smooth and seductive voice. “I was actually hoping you could tell me more about this building—the Castle.”

“Okay…Terra… You’re beautiful—I mean your name is beautiful…” He couldn’t see his own cheeks, but he knew they had to be bright red.” He breathed and tried to start over. “M-my name is Todd by the way.”
Dang, smooth one.
But to his surprise, Terra reached out her hand, coaxing him to do the same. They shook and met each other’s eyes, smiling. But embarrassment won and both quickly let go, trying to find something else to look at instead. Todd was actually stunned that Terra reacted as she did.

Interesting… Maybe her bravado was an act—a show?
He’d known people in the past that would pretend to have it all together in order to get ahead in life. They would be overconfident in order to hide their shyness.

For one another’s sake, he then quickly tried to think of anything insightful to say.
Darn, nothing.
“Um, what specifically would you like to know?”

She smiled again, her nervousness driving Todd crazy. She then tucked a loose hair behind her ear. It was a simple movement, but it melted his heart further. “I was hoping to possibly have a behind the scenes look at this place,” she continued, standing straighter, trying to compose herself. “It’s always fascinated me. Would you be able to do that for me?”

An alarm sounded in Todd’s head.
Warning! Warning!

He grumbled, intrigued by this stranger, but Todd also knew she was laying it on pretty thick, trying to coax a highly illegal impromptu tour out of him. And of course, it was working. She swayed next to him, flaunting herself enough to scramble his brain further. Then again, she could have just walked by him and it would have done the exact same thing. He’d never had this kind of interaction with a woman of this…grandeur…before. But, Todd knew his job and what revealing anything could do.

“Sorry, ma’am—Terra,” he said, stopping and turning to her, “I can’t do that. You’ll have to join one of the other guided tours we have available on the grounds. I personally recommend something over at the Air and Space Museum.”

And with that, Todd spun on a dime and quickly disappeared around a corner, flattening himself against a wall, breathing even harder than before. He waited to hear the clicking of heels before leaving his improvised refuge, his hands still shaking from the frightful discussion.

Gender and beauty aside, he felt something else emanating from the raven-haired mystery woman, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

Ding.

An icon appeared in his glasses’ Heads-up Display—the HUD. It was the international symbol for an email and it was labeled with a simple letter:
M
.

Ben?

He whispered, “Open.” It was barely loud enough for himself to hear let alone anyone else within an earshot of him, but it was plenty loud enough for the NVS comms to pick up. The file opened and he quickly read it, having to reread the slightly coded message again to fully understand it.

He raced down the hall, turned another corner, and came to an ordinary wooden door. From the outside, it looked like it belonged to a janitor’s closet, but on the inside—downstairs really—it held his entire life’s work.

Everyone’s really.

Ben had taken up residence in Dr. Boyd’s vacated office, having offered it to Hank first. He remembered the conversation. Hank immediately refused it, stating that he was never around and that it would go to waste. But Todd knew the real reason was that Hank didn’t want to be surrounded by the memory of his father whenever he didn’t have to be. It was still too painful for him right now.

Todd pulled out his unmarked black keycard, holding it up to the top right-hand corner of the door. A soft click emanated from somewhere within the frame, swinging the camouflaged blast door in. He quickly slipped inside and descended the stairs to the basement level. There were only six of these keycards in use. Every single one belonged to their team and no one else.

Motion sensor lights flicked on as he made his way to the end of the moderate sized corridor. It dead-ended at another door, his door. What used to be a large storage closet was now the heart and soul of the NVS network…along with a few other toys Todd had been working on for a rainy day.

Directly across from Ben’s office—on the right-hand side—was Kane’s office. He, like Hank, was mostly in the field, but when they did come back to the Castle, it’s where he would spend a lot of his time, going through contacts and setting up other
off-the-books
activities. It was barely set up—mostly still packed with boxes. When the incident in Mexico occurred, they had to drop everything and leave.

Olivia had a lab next to Kane’s office, twice as big in size, filled with all kinds of high-tech gizmos. Todd couldn’t pronounce half of them, let alone understand what they did, so he rarely stepped foot in it. He was afraid of releasing some sort of toxin or something else dangerous like that. Olivia continuously told him that her lab was perfectly safe, but he steered clear just in case.

Hank actually shared an office with Nicole. They were here the least and only saw it fitting to consolidate their work environment when taking in Todd and Olivia.

Todd turned in front of his door and looked back towards the end of the underground hall, back to the steps, visualizing the grizzly scene on that fateful day. Ben and Nicole filled him in the week he arrived. Dr. Boyd being shot, Hank holding his dying father in his arms, and Nicole and Ben weeping for their fallen comrade.

Goosebumps raced up and down Todd’s arms when thinking about it and a tremor raced up and down his spine as well. He turned back towards his office but felt the shaking again.

The heck?

He looked down at his legs, expecting to see them shaking with fright or nerves, but he saw nothing. But the ground shook still. A low rumble, just enough to sound like the hum from a big rig came next, causing Todd to sprint back towards the blast door.

He took the steps two at a time, quickly unlocked the magnetized door, and then shimmied through before it even opened halfway. As soon as he made it back to the main hall he could hear screams coming from the front of the building, drawing him further forward. The shaking also grew in strength as he moved closer.

He pushed through the clogged entryway, using his lanky build to his advantage, and made his way down the steps, stopping once he reached the front curb. He looked east and found nothing, just a mass of people moving away from him. They all had a look of shock on their faces and were also looking past him to the west.

Confused, Todd turned and faced the same direction, seeing something that didn’t make a lick of sense.

“Zoom,” he said, commanding his glasses to telescope in. They complied and magnified his vision.

“ENVY,” he said, talking directly to his custom-made automated system. It was the brain behind the NVS network. As of now, he was the only one that had vocal access to it. The others could voice-activate certain app-like programs within, but Todd could actually converse with it. It was a new development, one he hoped to have implemented in the coming months. He continued, “Can you please tell me exactly what I’m seeing?”

His eyes widened and his legs buckled at the answer.

“Just like Teotihuacán,” he said to himself. It was, in fact, almost exactly like what Coaxoch did except that was in Mexico and she used a pyramid. This was D.C.—the nation’s capital.

He shook away the vision of what was coming towards him and spoke. “ENVY, record and deliver video to predetermined field operatives. Also, send an SOS and a holy shit!”

Todd wasn’t one to openly curse, but watching the statue of Abraham Lincoln stomp through his own reflecting pool seemed as an appropriate a time as ever.

Site “A”

Outside Djanet, Algeria

“Pharaoh!” Ben shouted, doing as Kane had taught him.

The two men stationed around the dig’s raised perimeter, snapped their assault rifles towards the newcomer, zeroing in on his head and chest respectively. It was a command word Kane had set up if, and possibly when, something bad happened. All they needed to do was watch and wait. If Anu did anything out of the ordinary, they had the authority to take him out.

Smiling, the southerner slowly raised his hands, never taking his eyes off the Israeli historian. “You have some nerve, Dr. Fehr. You should’ve just played nice. Y’all would’ve survived longer that way.”

“Funny you should say that,” Ben retorted, making sure everyone around the site could hear them through their various comms systems. All the men here, including Joshua, wore run-of-the-mill military grade earpieces and tactical mics. It was another precaution set up by Kane, one that was being put to good use at the moment. “I thought the exact same thing when you showed up unannounced. You should have called ahead. The result would have been different.”

Ben and Joshua sidestepped the intruder, making their way up the inclined ramp. They backpedaled as they moved, always watching the man in black.

“How did you get here?” Ben asked as he continued backwards, pulling his stunned assistant along. “Who are you working for?”

Anu slowly turned, seeing another red dot appear on his chest as a third gunman stepped into view behind his prey. One more move and the professionals would shoot. “How did I get here?” He smiled again, chuckling out a laugh. “Let’s just say I
dropped
in.”

“And your employers?” Ben again asked, his voice starting to shake. He was having trouble keeping up this front. “We both know you don’t work for who you say you do.”

“True,” Anu replied, shrugging, “but I do, in fact, work for a friend of Mr. Boyd’s. Who it is exactly, I can’t say.”

“You
can’t
say, or you
won’t
say?”

Anu just answered Ben with another silent voracious grin. The answer was pretty clear. He wouldn’t be talking.

Okay,
Ben thought,
what would Hank or Kane do?

Hank would summon his gifts, something he’d been getting better at the last few weeks. Todd had outfitted him with a few new accessories, making it easier for him to call upon, and therefore, control the fires within.

And Kane?

Kane would just march right up to the guy and start swinging, or if push came to shove, he’d just shoot the guy where he stood.

The problem was neither were here.

Was there a third option?
He looked around and knew what they needed to do…
Run

“Joshua…” Ben whispered, pulling the younger man in close, “run.”

The twenty-something from Raleigh stopped and looked into Ben’s eyes, his mouth opening and closing like a fish trying to breathe in air. Ben shook him, squeezing his shoulder hard, getting his attention.

“Run, damnit—don’t stop. Hide if you have to, but
do not
, under any circumstances, follow me.”

“W-why?” Joshua asked, shaking.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Ben replied, glancing back down to the blue-eyed man. “He’s here for me.”

Joshua’s jaw unhinged, unable to form words. He didn’t have to, though, Ben spoke for him.

“Damnit, Josh, go!”

He turned and ran, heading straight through the command tent, heading for the back entrance. Within his earpiece he could hear the security team conversing, surrounding the man named, Anu. They were ordering him to the ground and from what Ben could discern, Anu was surprisingly listening and obeying.

Ben didn’t stick around to find out, either way. He bolted through the back flap and leapt into one of the excavation’s uncovered Jeep Wranglers. It was waiting where he’d left it earlier in the day and he started it, putting it into gear.

Shots erupted from the other side of the tent, originating from the direction of the site. Ben’s foot paused just above the accelerator as he listened to the battle waging atop the orichalcum slab.

He groaned at what he heard. It didn’t sound promising.

He was instantly struck with a gust of wind that collapsed one of the tent’s supports, making it list to the left. But it wasn’t the damaged tent that really caught his attention, it was the bodies sailing into the air above him, screaming the entire way up until they were out of earshot. Something—someone—had just thrown part of the security team sixty-plus feet into the desert sky.

The Jeep tore its way back towards the village. Ben didn’t need to see the men land to know their fate. He only had one life to be concerned with right now. His.

As he cruised over the UNESCO-sanctioned national park, something that was jailable on any other day, he was alerted to an incoming call from ‘Q.’ The notification popped up in his glasses’ lenses, just on the outer edge of his vision.