[Book One] Destined for More

Chapter Five _ (Not so) Frozen Alien in the Basement

The flight lasted a few hours, during which we learned that world communications were down due to an unknown problem that basically screwed everything up. It was early in the morning when we finally landed. There were two black cars with tinted windows waiting for us when we exited the helicopter. Maggie and Glenn were giuded to one, while Sam, Mikaela and I to the other, and they drove us off again. After an hour and a half, the car stopped. We were all more confused than before: they had taken us to the Hoover Dam. Despite the situation, I couldn't help but snicker as a specific scene from the Percy Jackson books immediately came to mind.

The S7 agents guided all of us forwards on the road on top of the dam. We noticed a group of soldiers not far away, and at the same time the Secretary of Defence Keller himself walked in front of us.

"Team, attention! Present arms!" One of them ordered, and the soldiers did.

"At ease." The Secretary grereted them with a nod. "Captain, Sergeant. Got your intel. Excellent work."

"Thank you, sir." One of the soldiers spoke up, presumably the Captain. "What about the gunships?"

"They're being retrofitted with sabot rounds now. But it won't do us much good if we can't get world's communications back up."

I couldn't listen to the rest of the conversation because we stopped in front of an all too familiar face. Again.

"Hey, kid." Simmons greeted Sam. "I think we got off to a bad start." He put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "You must be hungry. You want a Latte? HoHo? Double venti macchiato?"

He was having none of it. "Where's my car?"

Another man stepped in. "Hey, kid." He quickly introduced himself as S7 director Tom Banacheck, then went straight to the point. He looked at Sam with a serious face. "Son, I need you to listen to me very carefully. People can die, here. We need to know everything you know, we need to know it now."

"Okay." Sam nodded. "But first, I'll take my car, my parents.. maybe you should write that down. Oh, and her juvie record." He nodded towards Mikaela. "That's got to be gone. Like, forever."

I grinned. There was a moment of silence as Simmons stared intensely at Sam with a not-so-happy look in his eyes.

The director finally spoke again. "Come with me. We'll talk about your car." We took that as a yes.

Mikaela uttered a timid "Thank you." as we proceeded to follow the man.

I heard Simmons comment: "Man's an extorsionist." I smiled and kept walking. He hadn't seen the rest of us yet.

He soon caught up with the front of the group and we moved on.

---

During the walk from the vehicles to the facility, some introductions were made. We met Captain Lennox and Sergeant Epps. When I said my name, Lennox gave me a weird look.

I blinked. "What?"

"You're Marcus Atchley's kid?"

I sighed. "Yup."

"You mean," one of the other soldiers spoke from behind us. He had a spanish accent. "the CEO of the company that supplies us with the most advanced technology and weaponry we could ask for? Which, by the way, is one of the biggest and most famous companies in America? That Marcus Atchley?" He made sure to emphasize a few points in that sentence.

I pursed my lips together, then huffed. "That's exactly the one."

Lennox was confused. "Isn't he in Washington right now?"