Captured (The Prometheus Project Book 2) (3 page)

Ryan frowned. On the other hand, this didn’t mean you could just ignore it. You always had to assume there really was a fire and leave the building. “I sure hope
you’re right,” he said. “But we still need to check it out, just in case.”

Regan nodded. “Okay,” she said. “But exactly how are we going to do that?”

“Good question,” replied Ryan. He shook his head in frustration. “I only wish I had a good answer for you.”

C
HAPTER
3
A Painful Assault

T
he Resnick siblings began riding toward the alien city once again.

“What about telling Dr. Harris and the team?” suggested Regan.

“What would we tell them?” said Ryan. “We can’t tell them we can’t feel the Teacher anymore, because they don’t know about the Teacher. We can’t tell them about the telepathic warning because they don’t know we’ve become telepathic.”

Regan frowned. He was right. The Qwervy had wanted to see how humanity handled the discovery of the city all on its own, so had instructed the Teacher to cease all communication with them and not to help humanity in any way. The Teacher had asked them to promise to keep its existence a secret and they had agreed. Since their telepathy stemmed from their interactions
with the Teacher they had decided not to tell anyone about this either.

They hated having to keep secrets from their parents and the team, but they had made a promise to the Teacher and it was one they intended to keep. After a few minutes of further discussion, however, they agreed on a strategy they thought would allow them to determine if the telepathic warning was a false alarm or not.

They reached the main Proact gate and were quickly waved through by the guards. Proact was a company that served as cover for the scientists on the Prometheus team, but also employed top scientists from every field who knew nothing about Prometheus. These scientists worked on advanced projects using
human
science and technology. The vast Proact grounds were enclosed by a razor-wire fence and protected by laser alarms and roving guards. The only access to the alien city, far underground—an enormous elevator housed inside a concrete bunker—was within this perimeter, but was protected far more extensively.

Once inside Proact, they passed through several additional checkpoints, provided several passwords, and had their fingerprints and retinas scanned electronically, a ritual they had come to know well. Finally, after ten minutes, they were at the last phase of their journey, inside the enormous Prometheus elevator as it plummeted downward toward the alien city.

Regan looked up toward the multiple cameras she knew
were hidden inside the elevator’s ceiling and waved happily at the elevator guards who were monitoring their arrival down below. The kids were a favorite of the members of Prometheus security, and Regan knew that whoever was on elevator duty would appreciate any break from what was clearly the most boring security rotation of them all.

At last the elevator stopped and they stepped off into a massive, man-made cavern, the size of a baseball stadium, illuminated by powerful electric lights and filled with machinery and high-tech equipment.

They immediately recognized the two heavily armed guards who faced them as they exited the elevator, Captain Dan Walpus and Lieutenant Duncan Martin. Both were tall, clean-cut and athletic.

All of the members of Prometheus security were hand-picked by Colonel Carl Sharp, the head of security who had quickly become among their closest friends on the team. Colonel Sharp knew that he and his security team were absolutely necessary for a project of this importance, but he also didn’t want the scientists to feel as though they had suddenly joined the military. To ensure they would be as comfortable around his men as possible, he insisted that his team wear civilian clothing and that everyone, including the two youngest members of the team, call them by their first names instead of their military titles.

Both men smiled warmly. “Hello kids,” said Dan cheerfully. “How was school?”

“Great,” they both said at once. “How are you guys doing?” added Regan.

Duncan shrugged. “You know. Same old, same old. The elevator goes up, the elevator comes down. The elevator goes up, the elevator comes down. So far, no bad guys.”

“Fantastic,” said Regan grinning. “Good work. I bet the place would be crawling with bad guys if it weren’t for you.”

“Absolutely,” agreed Dan playfully.

“You know, that reminds me of a joke,” said Regan. She paused for a moment to make sure she had it straight in her head. “A girl living in Pennsylvania sees a man dressed from head to toe in bright purple polka-dots,” she began. “The girl asks the man why he is dressed like that. The man says, ‘I’m dressed like this to scare off all the Kangaroos.’ The girl raises her eyebrows and says, ‘Kangaroos? But there
aren’t any
Kangaroos in Pennsylvania!’ To which the man replies, ‘Exactly! You see how well it’s working.’”

Both guards grinned from ear to ear. “Have we ever told you you’re our favorite young woman on the team?” said Dan.

“You have,” said Regan, her eyes twinkling. “And I keep telling you I’m the
only
young woman on the team.”

“That doesn’t make it any less true,” countered Dan lightheartedly.

Ryan shook his head. He had witnessed similar exchanges all of his life. Regan had a playful, friendly personality that was infectious. He had never known anyone who could just naturally charm people the way his sister could. But as much as he didn’t want to break up the fun, they were running a bit late and he was anxious to enter the alien city.

“Do you know if Carl is here today?” he asked Dan.

Dan nodded. “He’s inside Prometheus. He should be there until late tonight.”

“Thanks,” said Ryan as he and Regan headed toward the far end of the cavern and the only entrance into the alien city.

They soon approached a familiar array of high-powered lasers, microwave force emitters, high-tech generators, and other advanced equipment unleashing a furious assault on the opaque force-field wall. Ben Resnick had figured out how to precisely tune this energy to counter-balance the frequency of the shield, inactivating, or nullifying, a large, rectangular section of it and creating an entrance to the city. This massive onslaught of energy had to be applied continuously to prevent the gap in the force-field from instantly closing.

As always, an ever-changing rainbow of colors danced across the opening, obscuring what was beyond. They calmly stepped through it and into Prometheus, a magnificent city sprawled out farther than the eye could see in every direction, including up. By some miracle of
alien technology the city was immensely larger than the hole it had carved out deep in the earth of Pennsylvania.

A large row of top-of-the-line, electric-powered golf-carts were now parked beside the entrance: not only larger and faster than standard golf-carts, but far quieter as well. Beside these were parked a number of huge, electric trucks, all green, with rectangular cargo beds about three times the size of a standard pick-up. Four adults could fit comfortably in the vehicle’s large front compartment, either sitting or standing. The team called these unique electric trucks “Haulers” because they were used to haul heavy scientific equipment around.

Both kids loved driving the golf-carts, but it was Ryan’s turn, and he jumped into the driver’s seat while his sister sat beside him. No matter how often they traveled within Prometheus the unusual and spectacular architecture and the exotic alien vegetation never got boring. They passed buildings that shimmered and others that changed colors depending on the angle from which they were viewed. Buildings that appeared to be floating and others that sparkled brilliantly as though made of diamonds. Some of the buildings were simple and elegant while others were in the shape of awe-inspiring geometric figures, like impossibly complex three-dimensional snowflakes that had come to life.

They had agreed to meet their parents at three-thirty and they were running a little late. Ryan quickly accelerated the cart to its top speed, and before too long the
familiar zoo building he and his sister had discovered during their first adventure in the city came into view. As usual, amazingly real-looking holographic images of alien animals appeared one by one in front of the door, showing anyone passing what could be found inside.

Small though it was, the zoo building contained numerous doors, or portals, that each led to a different primitive planet. The Qwervy allowed visitors on these planets since none of them had intelligent life. Circular force-field barriers, similar to the Prometheus shield, completely surrounded the portal entrances on each planet to protect visitors from any dangerous animals, but a tram could be used to cross these force-field domes to explore.

Ryan passed the zoo—which was now showing the three-dimensional image of a giant creature, covered in red fur, with a body like a polar bear and a face like a crocodile—and stopped the cart in front of their parents’ new laboratory building. It was octagonal, like a stop-sign, but silver instead of red. Their mother, Amanda Resnick, had specialized in predicting what alien life would be like, but she no longer had to predict: she was the first biologist on Earth who could actually study the real thing. She had set up shop in the building next door to the zoo and their father had set up his lab there as well.

The building appeared not to have any entrances, but appearances were deceiving. As the kids walked up
to the middle of a solid wall a large panel seemed to dissolve, creating an entrance. Once they passed through it the wall rematerialized behind them. Regan had dubbed these “invisible doorways.” While they were quite visible, it was impossible for anyone to know they were doorways just by looking at them, so the name was somehow appropriate.

Their parents were both wearing long white lab coats. Their father was sitting at a large, stainless-steel table in the center of the room studying a computer screen. Their mother, a short, attractive woman with soft features and blue eyes, was peering carefully through a powerful microscope at one end of the table.

The kids started to say hello. From out of nowhere their heads exploded in pain! Something was hammering at their brains and bringing pure agony in its wake.

They grabbed their ears as the merciless blast of searing pain hit them with such force they weren’t even able to scream.

The pain was blinding, as if red-hot fireplace pokers were being jammed into each ear, stabbing relentlessly at their brains.

And there wasn’t a doubt in either of their minds that if whatever was causing the pain didn’t stop, they couldn’t possibly survive it much longer.

C
HAPTER
4
The Alien Device

R
yan’s legs felt rubbery and he knew he was nearing collapse.

“Ryan, leave the building. NOW!”
came a shouted telepathic command from his sister, already outside of the building, which barely managed to find his conscious mind through the immense pain crushing his brain.

Somehow his legs obeyed her command and the next thing he knew he had joined his sister outside.

He gasped in relief as the pain ceased immediately. Regan was lying on the ground with an exhausted look on her face and he stumbled to the ground next to her. Although she had fled the building before sending her message, she wasn’t in much better shape than he was.

An instant later their parents were kneeling over them wearing horrified expressions. They had looked up from their work just in time to read the agony on the
faces of their children and then to see first Regan, and then Ryan, stagger out of the building.

“Are you okay?” asked Amanda Resnick worriedly.

They both nodded.

“What happened?” asked their father.

Both kids told them about the sudden onset of over-whelming pain centered on their ears and head, and how it had dissipated immediately after they had exited the building.

“Great job, Regs,” said Ryan warmly. “Thanks for saving me from that.”

It never occurred to him that running from the building would help. He had assumed that whatever was happening to them would happen anywhere within the city.

Their parents looked confused. “I don’t understand,” said their father. “How did Regan help you?”

Ryan realized his mistake immediately. He had forgotten that his parents didn’t hear his sister’s telepathic shout.

“I don’t know what he’s talking about,” said Regan, also realizing his mistake. “I
didn’t
help him.” Right after saying this she quickly broadcast,
“You’re very welcome, Ryan. It’s not like you haven’t saved me before.”

All sets of eyes turned toward Ryan. “You know, now that I think about it,” he said lamely, “she’s right. I’m not sure what I meant just now.”

Their parents exchanged worried looks. Ryan hallucinating
help from his sister wasn’t a good sign. Their mother examined them carefully and then had them answer a few simple math and science questions to be sure their memory and reasoning had not been affected.

Fortunately, after a few minutes they seemed to be doing well, and their parents were beginning to finally let out the mental breath they had been holding. Mrs. Resnick guessed that they would have been knocked unconscious in another ten or fifteen seconds had they stayed where they were. After that, who knew how long it would have been before they suffered permanent damage.

When their mother was absolutely convinced they had fully recovered, all four Resnicks made their way back to the large table at which Mr. and Mrs. Resnick had been seated when their children had arrived. They were understandably cautious entering the building again, and prepared for an immediate exit if they were assaulted once more, but nothing happened.

Ben Resnick stroked his chin, deep in thought, and his brown eyes danced rapidly across a set of graphs displayed on a large, high-definition computer monitor on the table. He was a little less than average in height, had brown hair a few shades darker than his son’s, and often looked a bit unkempt. He was also widely regarded as one of the best physicists in the world.