Dalton climbed out of the isolation tube, his body shivering uncontrollably. Jackson was already back, a towel draped over her shoulders, and she handed one to him as he reached the floor. He immediately noted Barnes’s body still in its tube. “Do you have contact with him?” he asked Hammond.
“No,” Hammond said. “I’ve been trying, but he hasn’t responded.”
“His signs?”
“Strange.”
“Strange how?” Dalton demanded.
“Not like the others. He’s out there being supported with power somehow, just not from Sybyl.”
Dalton turned back toward his tank. “We need to go look for him.” He halted as Mentor entered, coming from the operations center.
“You did it,” Mentor said, slapping him on the back.
“MILSTAR is still up there,” Dalton said, “with the retransmit capability.”
“I can work on correcting that, now that I have some time,” Mentor said.
“And the Priory and Mithrans are still out there, wherever they are,” Dalton added. “We’ve only stopped them for the moment.”
To that, Mentor had no reply.
Jackson put a hand on Dalton ’s shoulder as he prepared to climb back into his isolation tube. “You need a break. Wherever Barnes is, he can wait for a little while. You need rest.”
Dalton was about to argue with her when he realized she was right. He sat down wearily on a crate, Jackson doing likewise across from him.
“We have to reconstitute Nexus here in the United States,” Mentor said. He pointed at the other three people in the room: Dalton, Jackson, and Hammond. “The four of us.”
“Five of us,” Dalton said, indicating Barnes. “We need to do better than reconstitute Nexus,” he continued. “This war between the Priory and Mithrans has been going on for a long time. With the advances in technology we’re seeing, this conflict almost just destroyed us. I say for the next round, we go on the offensive.”
He put his hand out, palm up. “Are we agreed?”
Jackson immediately reached out and put her right hand on top of his. Hammond followed. The three of them looked at Mentor.
The old man slowly nodded. “It is time.” He placed both his hands over theirs.
Dalton could feel the power, the aura of strength, coming off the other three. It wasn’t much to fight the Priory and the Mithrans with, but it was a start.
Robert Doherty
Robert Doherty is a pen name for a best-selling writer of suspense novels. He is the author of Psychic Warrior, Area 51: The Grail; The Rock; Area 51; Area 51: The Reply; Area 51: The Mission; Area 51: The Sphinx, Area 51: Excalibur; Area 51: The Truth; and Area 51: Nosferatu. Doherty is a West Point graduate, a former Infantry officer, and a Special Forces A-Team commander. He currently lives in Boulder, Colorado.
For more information you can visit his Web site at www.nettrends.com/mayer [http://www.nettrends.com/mayer].
