The Underworld (The Atlas Series Book 3) (27 page)

Turner did not seem convinced. “I have an idea of why your vision showed us strapping Cronus and Hades to my machines, but I’m not sure your Grigori friends would agree to let it happen.”

“They don’t have a choice. If it’s the Atlas mission, they
have
to accept it or the world ends. Tell me what you’re thinking.” Kala could see that Turner held the answers and she needed to know them.

Owen confirmed, “Kala is right. We would never question the mission.”

Tilting his head sideways as if he found that hard to believe, Turner answered, “’Never’ is a strong word.”

Kala could see that Turner was having a real struggle trusting that Talan and Owen would be on board with whatever was rolling around in his head, so she suggested, “We can talk privately if you want, but they’ll eventually find out.”

Talan stepped forward. “You’re talking about harnessing Cronus and Hades’s powers to use for your own purposes.”

Turner had the expression a child who was just caught stealing a candy bar.

Talan had been disguising himself as Turner and Roberta’s mentor for years now, so he knew the couple better than anyone. Now Talan nodded in understanding. “Roberta has been able to raise the dead, but you don’t want to be tied down to spells to keep them animated.”

Roberta and Turner’s faces went pale at the accusation, but they didn’t deny it.

It took a moment for Kala to process. “What?”

Owen slowly appreciated the situation. “Remember, Kala, when you came here to the Compound to reassemble Talan and Turner’s two assistants? You were worried about them talking to General Clifton and I told you they could be trusted.”

Kala vaguely remembered the moment. “I guess.”

“Those were walking corpses, so there was no threat of them turning sides.” Owen asked Roberta. “If you aren’t controlling them, who is?”

Roberta answered cautiously, “I have a handful of warlocks in a secured room. They keep the corpses animated during the day, but it takes a lot of energy. We can only control a handful at a time. They can’t function on their own.”

“And why on earth would you do this?” Kala seemed to be the only one disturbed by this news. Then she glanced over at Derek. His dark skin almost appeared pale at where the conversation had headed.

Turner wasn’t fazed at the disgust in Kala’s tone. “For security and control. If I control everyone around me, I can never be betrayed.”

Remembering the vision Cronus showed her of the future, Kala realized that this was probably the first step in Turner’s journey to becoming the most powerful man in the world.

Power of the dead: Hades was able to control corpses, but they could also perform tasks on their own.

If Turner could harness that ability…

“If you control Hades, you control the dead,” Kala concluded.

Slowly Turner nodded. “On a grand scale. One I could never achieve with just magic.”

“But how could this restore
balance
to the universe?” Kala was at a loss.

“I don’t just want an army of the dead, Kala. The balance that your mission will bring is what I
need
to do with Hades’s power,” Turner admitted. Then, addressing Owen and Talan, he explained, “You two know even more than Kala and Derek that we humans will destroy ourselves in the next twenty years, thirty if we’re lucky. Things have to change for this world to survive and this Atlas curse or whatever it is, knows that. And, it knows,
I’m
the only one who knows
how
to stop it.”

His eyes now turned to bore into Kala’s. “Everything happens for a reason. Tell me, you’ve seen the future. I can tell by the way you look at me. Do I make the world a better place?”

Kala paused before answering, then clarified, “The
world
, yes, but the people…” The images of people being murdered to maintain population control.

Turner didn’t seem fazed by her implication. “Your curse isn’t about balancing
people
, it’s about balancing the planet. As long as the planet survives, then humans will, too. The curse doesn’t care if the thousands of lives Fortski could have saved with his cure for cancer die. It only cares that we stay on our path. Our path leads to survival.”

Turner said it with such conviction Kala believed him. She could see the man from the future now. Hard, cold, evil even – but doing things for the greater good of the planet. Like her.

And his words rang true. Kala had always thought about the Atlas curse saving lives, because she was a soldier and that was what she was trained to do. But it wasn’t about that at all. It was why a horrible act had to be committed every four days. The planet didn’t see it as being an act of atrocity at all, it saw it as a necessity for survival. It was about saving the earth itself, weighing its options and deciding on a path that led to its continued existence. It didn’t matter who or what lived on it as long as the world stayed intact. That was the balance.

And Turner was the man to do it. Kala remembered all the good things about the future: no more roads, just grass and trees, fuel cell cars that recycled water so there was no such thing as droughts, no waste or garbage, just clean. Clean air, clean water, clean soil. It was a Utopia of sorts. Only Turner and Roberta would know what the trade-off was to obtain this healthy world: culling the population by any means necessary, but not so much that the public would notice. Take out the unwanted and blame it on a natural disaster. No one would question it. They’d only say a silent prayer in thanks that the world wasn’t too overpopulated to live in.

Seeing Turner’s future laid out for him, Kala felt a deep empathy for the man. They weren’t that far apart in their missions. Kala had to perform the unthinkable for the greater good as well.

Their goals were the same: protect this world by any means necessary.

It was as if Kala was renewed. Maybe this was what it meant to be Gaia’s child. Maybe that was why she was destined to be Atlas, to be the Fated One. Her first priority had to be the earth, because without it,
no life
could exist.

No more needed to be said. Kala looked at Talan and Owen, searching their faces for approval or disapproval. She almost wanted to laugh, because the same expression was in both their faces: trust. They were leaving the decision to back up Turner to her. Glancing over at Derek, Kala saw that he was shocked by everything he had heard, but his loyal eyes were with Talan and Owen.

Kala had never felt more connected to anyone than these five people in her entire life. Even more than Jack, and that was a hard thing to admit.

To Turner, Kala said, “I don’t need to know the details. I trust you.”

“And you know why Harry can never find out about what we’re doing?” he asked of the room.

Kala responded, “Because he’d try and steal the power for himself and use it to get rich and powerful, not for the greater good.”

Turner sighed in relief, “Precisely. This Atlas mission has to stay between the six of us. No one else can know.”

But Gaia was also a part of her vision… It was time to fess up. Only Owen would be shocked since Talan already knew her secret. Turner, Roberta and Derek might find it fascinating, but only Owen would truly understand the ramifications of what it meant to be Gaia’s daughter. “Remember, Gaia was in my vision as well. We have to tell her. I don’t want to spring it on her when we’re in the room. After all, we are going to capture and harness her son and grandson for all eternity.”

Roberta was thoughtful. “She was on board in your vision though, correct?”

Kala nodded. “Yeah, she was with us. Being that she’s
Mother Earth
, I don’t think she’ll have a problem with our motives. I just have to figure out how to contact her.”

Talan glanced at Kala, unsure, and she took that as her cue. “I should tell you something else before we proceed.” All eyes were on her. “Gaia visited me when I was in the caves under the ocean.” Kala paused, trying not to sound dramatic as she confessed, “She told me I was her daughter.”

As she predicted, only Owen was taken aback, but then his eyes lit up and he touched her cheek with his hand affectionately. “I always knew you were special.”

This was getting a little too dad-like in front of the crowd, but Kala didn’t mind. She loved the fact that Owen would always see her as his daughter and she’d always see him as her father.

Turner cleared his throat. “We
are
on a time crunch here.” He motioned to the clock with his head.

0d 0h 45m 23s.

Kala’s heart jumped in her throat.

“I still don’t know how we’re going to track down Cronus, Hades and my mom and get them to…” Kala eyed Turner for an answer as to the location.

“Los Angeles,” he replied simply.

“Los Angeles? Are you freaking kidding me? Where is this place?” Kala was more than shocked to find out that the location of her vision was clear across the country. Luckily, teleportation was on the table, but still… she was running out of time.

“Not even Harry knows about this place in LA,” Turner answered. “It’s an underground site like this one, but it houses only
my
people. I let Harry think all my best scientists and engineers are here in the Compound and, by keeping Fortski here, there’s no reason for Harry to even suspect I have another facility.”

Kala supposed Turner was right, since Fortski was considered the smartest man alive. General Clifton would assume that Turner kept his best people with him and not in another location. “How can you be sure that the room in my vision is in this Los Angeles facility?”

“Because the only two brain machines that would work on beings as powerful as Cronus and Hades are in the Los Angeles headquarters,” Turner explained. “If I concentrate on the location, can you teleport me there, if you’ve never been?”

“I have no idea.” Kala suddenly saw a whole new set of problems. “If Turner is the only one who’s been to the location, then how
are
we going to teleport there?”

Talan answered, “Turner is right. All he needs to do is think of the location and I can take us all there.”

“We should go now, to make sure it’s the right place,” Turner suggested.

“Just the three of us.” Kala motioned to Talan and Turner. Then she turned to the others. “We’ll be right back.”

No one seemed pleased by this notion, but no one argued either.

Roberta focused on Turner. “Be quick.”

The grin on Turner’s face showed how excited he was to teleport and even Roberta had to smile back.

Owen nodded his approval and Derek gave a small salute.

With everything in order, Talan stepped forward and touched both Kala and Turner’s arms.

In a millisecond Kala stood in the room from her vision, Talan and Turner by her side.

Turner almost stumbled from the jolt of teleportation, but a smile was still plastered to his face. “Remarkable,” he uttered, his voice awe-filled.

Talan ignored Turner, keeping his attention solely on Kala. “Is this the place in your vision?”

“Yeah, definitely,” Kala confirmed.

The overwhelming sense of déjà vu took her aback. Everything was identical to her vision. They were in some kind of basement with slate walls, floors and ceilings. In the center of the space rested Turner’s famous “brain machines.” Kala suddenly wondered if they actually had a name. Turner seemed like the kind of guy who would label his devices, especially ones like these that he revered so highly. Hundreds of cables and wires grew into the ceiling like vines and hung loosely over the metal chairs, ready for Hades and Cronus to be strapped into. Seeing the cold metal seats, Kala had a sudden pang of sympathy for the deities, knowing the kind of pain they’d have to endure sitting on such a hard surface until the end of time.

Or until someone woke them up: that was always going to be a fear and a possibility.

Kala had awakened Hades after 2,000 years. She bet Cronus had never planned on anyone doing that.

Shaking the thought from her mind, Kala instructed Turner. “Let’s go back and get the others so we can come up with a plan.”

Turner grinned, which indicated to Kala that he was on board. Talan shook his head in amusement and touched the two of them so they could travel back to the Compound…

Nothing.

He tried again.

Nada.

This was never a good sign, and Kala was running out of time.

Immediately on guard, she kept her eyes open for any sudden attack.

“I can’t let you leave.”

Whirling around, Kala found herself face-to-face with Gaia. When their eyes met, Kala knew that this was supposed to happen.

These were the three allies from her vision.

“It’s you.” Kala felt an instant sense of purpose. “You’re the one who is going to bring Cronus and Hades here.”

Gaia nodded slowly, “Yes, I am.”