Chapter 2

Trevor settled back on the park bench with a tiny sigh and set aside his tablet. The teenage girl in front of him smiled at him shyly and held out her iPad eagerly. He sent her a smile in return, though his wasn’t at all shy, and he took the device from her. Holding it in his hands for several seconds before returning it to her.

She pushed the power switch and gave a small gasp of delight when it powered up. “Thank you! Oh thank you!” she gushed before rushing off.

He shook his head and picked his tablet up to restart the movie he’d been watching. He sent a glance over to where is mother sat at the folding table a small distance away, smiling for the benefit of any passerby. His father stood just behind her, speaking to a man in a dark suit, wearing a set of those mirrored aviator sunglasses. The guy looked like a cheap version of the old dude from the MIB movies.

Trevor shook his head, great just what he needed, MIB wannabe. He watched as the man slipped his father a thick envelope. He pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. Fabulous, now what was his dad getting him into. The men shook hands; his dad had a large, used car salesman grin on his face as they turned and made their way over to where Trevor sat.

“Son, this here is Agent Brooks and he’s just hired you.”

“Great, for what?” he asked his dad. Not sparing a glance for Brooks.

“That isn’t important, you are to come with me,” Agent Brooks told him.

Trevor felt his anger spark at that answer. He’d spent most of his life being told what to do and when to do it. His parents had decided that because of his little gift he was their salvation, their meal ticket. And because of it, he should do as he was told, always. It was his duty as their son to provide for them. He was getting a little tired of it at this point in his life. He was old enough to know that he wasn’t their meal ticket and it wasn’t his task in life to care for them for eternity. They were supposed to raise him to be independent, teach him to go out into the world on his own. Instead, they wanted him chained to them for the rest of his days.  

“I think I should at least be told where we’re going and what’s expected of me. I am the one doing the work here.” He glared at his father. “Right Stan?” He’d stopped calling his parents Mom and Dad a long time ago. Parents didn’t exploit their children they loved them. His parents didn’t love him. He was a paycheck.

“Now Trevor"”

He cut his dad off. “Right, whatever, let’s go, Agent.” He stood and brushed past MIB Wannabe, stalking toward the parking lot, his iPad held under his arm. He didn’t want to hear his dad’s lecture on how he should be grateful for what he had; grateful for the gift God had given him, and the rest of his dad’s bullshit.

It had been a damn long time since he’d been grateful for anything. It was because of his so-called gift that he had no friends, couldn’t trust a single person to be a true friend. Hell, he couldn’t even have a girlfriend. He’d stopped trying to find a woman who could look past his friggin’ gift and love him for who he was and not what he was a long time ago.

“Get in the car Mr. Madison,” Agent Brooks told him, gesturing at a big black Escalade. The windows on the thing were so dark they were practically blacked out.

“Nice,” he muttered as he slipped into the back seat, where he ended up squashed between two other agents. He was surrounded by an entire squad of MIB men. He let his head fall back against the seat and shut his eyes. Yeah, this was great. He was being shuttled off by government agents to an unknown location and his dad didn’t give a crap. Hadn’t even cared to ask, all he’d cared about was the fat envelope of cash he’d been given.

Story of his life. His parents only ever cared about what they could make off his gift. They had a damn website dedicated to him and his wondrous gift. A Facebook page and a Twitter feed, too. Imagine that. It brought the nuts out of the woodwork.

People came from all over to see him and they forked over cash just to have him touch their electronics for a second.

That was what he did. He resurrected electronics. Trevor gave a small snort. He was the f****n’ Jesus of electronics. Laid hands on them and they were healed instantly. Halle-frickin’-lujah! And he hated it. All of it.

He was surrounded by people, yet, he was so very alone. People wanted to be close to him only because of who and what he was, what he could do for them. Not because they truly wished to be his friend or cared about him. And because of that, he realized he’d become exceedingly jaded and cynical about people. Stopped caring really about them at all, stopped looking for a woman to spend his life with, to have a family. He’d given up on that.

A grimace twisted his features as he remembered his last girlfriend. Susanna. That had been the last straw. The one who’d ended his dreams of love and happily ever after. That been his last attempt at independence from his parents as well. It was a memory that still gave him the worst kind of heartburn.

 

He entered the apartment and tossed his keys onto the little table in the entry, stopped and cocked his head slightly. A frown creased his features. Susanna was supposed to be at class. He made his way to the bedroom and froze in the doorway.

Not only was she not in class, she was here with a man, not only with a man but also with a man who was supposed to be his best friend. He stared at them for several minutes in silence. Unbelievable. He’d thought he’d finally found a woman he could trust, one he could spend his life with and here she was doing the nasty with his best friend.

He shook his head. “I’ll be in the kitchen. When you two are done, Susanna can pack her things and move the f**k out.” He spun around and headed for the kitchen, ignoring their shocked gasps that had issued from the both of them. His statement had been made calmly and in a rather bored tone of voice. Why? Because he was done. Done with the lying, cheating women who thought he was a thing to be shown off to increase their status in the world rather than a person with actual feelings.

When he made it to the kitchen, he grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat at the kitchen table, staring silently out the window. It should have been a shocker that he felt absolutely nothing, no pain, nothing, over this betrayal. But it wasn’t.

Susanna came skidding into the kitchen, the sheet from the bed wrapped around her slim little body. “Trevor, baby! I’m sorry! Really, we can work this out, I know we can!” Fake little crocodile tears ran down her face.

Behind her, David came walking into the room buck a*s naked and he didn’t even care as he leaned his hip against the counter. Trevor shook his head. “No, Susanna, we can’t. Go move in with David. I don’t care. I really don’t care.”

David folded his arms over his chest, still didn’t seemed to notice he was in his birthday suit. “You really thought she loved you man? Wow.”

Trevor curled a lip at the guy. “Help her pack then both of you get the hell out of my house. I never want to see either of you again. Clear?”

David looked a bit stunned over that declaration. “Hey, I was doing you a favor here!”

Trevor stood slowly, flattening his palms on the table as he did. “Pack. Out.”

David held up both hands and backed away slowly. “Right okay, we’re going.”

Trevor had stayed in the kitchen until Susanna was packed. She’d tried to talk him into letting her stay a couple of more times, he wasn’t hearing it, he told her if she didn’t go he was calling the cops.

 

Trevor lifted his head and looked around the interior of the car. Susanna was a memory better left forgotten; it was after that incident that he’d given up on trying for a serious relationship again. David had soured him on friendships as well. Wasn’t worth it either way. “Where are we going?” he asked Brooks, who was sitting in the front passenger seat.

“No place you’d know,” Brooks answered him.

“Great, nice answer. Have we left Virginia?”

“Yes.”

Another great answer, Trevor thought to himself. “Are we in D.C. now?”

“Yep.”

This guy was all about the details. Trevor laid his head back against the seat with a sigh.

It took some time, but they finally pulled up in front of a gate to some sort of facility. Whether it was a military facility or simply some secret government facility, he didn’t know, since there was no sign of any kind. The guard let them in when Brooks flashed some sort of credentials at him.

“Who in the hell are you anyway?” Trevor asked.

Brooks held up the credentials. “FBI. Although, if you’d like the military is in on this operation as well as the CIA.”

Trevor stared at him in silence. Great, just fabulous, what had his father gotten him into for God’s sake? He was screwed six ways till Sunday. His father had gotten him involved in some government conspiracy.

The driver parked in front of the sprawling cinderblock building and they piled out of the truck. Brooks led them into the building and down a long corridor to the door of an office, where he stopped and knocked.

A gruff voice called for them to enter, only he and Brooks went inside, the other three agents left, continuing on down the hallway.

Inside the office, a man sat behind a large desk wearing a General’s uniform. He smiled at Brooks but didn’t rise from where he sat. “Brooks, finally! About time, you got back! This the kid?”

“Yes sir. This is Trevor Madison. Mr. Madison, General Maitland.”

The General sat back, folding his hands over his flat belly and stared at Trevor as if he were considering him and his ability to do whatever job it was that he’d been hired to get done. “Well good to have you here; now let’s go show you what it is you’re here to do, shall we?”

He rose from his seat, crossed the room, and led Trevor from the office. He was aware of Agent Brooks trailing along behind them as well. The General turned several corners before stopping before a normal looking door. Well, for a government facility.

“Well, here we are.” He put his palm against a panel, leaned forward, and waited while a scanner did a whole retina scan thing. Then stood back and waited until a computer-animated voice told him he was cleared to enter and a door slid open to admit them to the room. The General smiled at him before stepping through the doorway.

Inside, the room was rather plain, white walls, white floor. Boring. No furniture. In the center of the room was a pedestal, like you’d see in a museum. On top of the pedestal was a tiny gold pyramid. Roughly five inches high. Trevor frowned.

“What in the hell is that?”

The General grinned, his hands shoved into the pockets of his pants as he circled the pedestal. “That is why you are here.” He flicked a glance at Agent Brooks. “Brooks.”

The Agent took over, explaining to Trevor what the thing was or rather what they thought it was. “About six months ago this piece was discovered on a dig in Egypt. No one has any idea what it is or what it does. Some experts believe it was left behind by a higher civilization and it was what helped the ancients to build those fabulous structures of theirs. We have yet to find any expert on ancient Egypt than can read the Hieroglyphics on the sides. They appear to be of an unknown origin. We also believe that the piece opens, though no one can figure out how it opens. When it was scanned, it gave off an energy signature and it is also hollow.”

Trevor looked between both men and the little pyramid. “You want me to touch the thing?”

“Precisely,” the General said with a fat grin.

Trevor walked nearer the pedestal, leaning in closer to the artifact. The second he neared it he felt something ugly rear up inside it. As if it were a rabid dog that sensed something moving closer that it could sink its teeth into, something ugly, dangerous, and feral. He stepped back and felt the thing settle. His brow furrowed and he stepped forward. The thing leaped up once again and Trevor retreated.

“No way am I touching that thing.”

Agent Brooks pulled the aviator glasses from his face for the first time and pinned him with a cold, icy, gray-eyed gaze. Trevor thought Brooks had some talent if he could wander about in those glasses all the time. “Mr. Madison, your father was paid a lot of money for your services. You will do as you’re told.”

He pointed at the artifact. “That thing was buried for a reason. There is something in there that was locked away because it should be locked away. I suggest you take it back to Egypt chuck it into a very deep hole and bury it before it gets free and does some major damage.” He started for the door.

“Now see here kid, you have one choice and that is to touch the thing. There isn’t another choice. I’ll give you a little time to settle in, but you will bring it to life.” The General lifted a two-way radio from his belt and spoke into it. “See Mr. Madison to his quarters.”

“Hold on just a second, am I a prisoner then?”

“A guest that can’t leave kid,” the General replied.

“Listen old man that sounds a hell of a lot like a prisoner to me!” He was getting mighty sick of the man calling him kid. He was twenty-four years old, far from being a kid any longer. Although, the General looked to be on the close side to sixty, so perhaps to be fair Trevor did appear to be a kid to him. Still, he didn’t appreciate being addressed as one.

The General shrugged. “Let’s not quibble, shall we? You’re remaining here either way until you touch that little artifact. You can’t tell me that you can tell simply by staring at it that it’s good or bad kid.”

Trevor didn’t have a chance to reply, two men dressed in uniform came into the room. The General smiled politely and gestured at them to take Trevor away. He was led away to what wasn’t exactly a prison cell, but not exactly a luxury suite, either. The room was a plain apartment containing a simple kitchenette, a bathroom, and a bedroom. As well as, a tiny living room.

After a week, he was bored out of his mind. He was also determined to escape. There was no way in hell that he was going to touch that little pyramid and awaken whatever was lurking inside of it. He was certain that it was a really bad idea that they would all regret.

So on the night of his tenth day of captivity he made his move. Most of the guards had learned about his gift and they knew exactly who he was, so incidentally wanted to get close to him and his fame, if only for a few minutes. Trevor played on it; he knew they only wanted to be friendly because it meant a small bit of fame for them, so he used it to his advantage.

He pick pocketed a keycard for the doors from one guard. And talked another into taking him to the cafeteria after hours, claiming he was hungry and wanted a midnight snack. When they made it to the cafeteria, he knocked the man out with a tray and slipped out a side entrance. The employee cafeteria area was much less secure.

He smirked, damn fools, he thought as he slipped over to the perimeter fence and began to climb it.

“Hey you! Stop!”

Trevor swore and started climbing faster. A hand latched onto his ankle, he kicked out at the man with his other foot. A sharp pain radiated through his leg, he didn’t have time to consider what it was though. He needed to get out of the facility before someone set off an alarm and alerted the entire place to his escape, he kicked out at the man holding his ankle again, and this time got in a solid kick causing the man to release him.

He scrambled up to the top of the fence, pulled out the towel from his room that he’d hidden inside his shirt, and flung it over the barbed wire, then pulled his body over the top of the fence and dropped to the ground on the other side.

A groan escaped him when his ankle folded beneath him as he hit the ground. He didn’t have time to worry about an injury; he jumped up and limped off into the darkness, ignoring the shouts he heard behind him telling him to halt. Several shots rang out before someone told the men to stop. They obviously needed him alive; he couldn’t touch that damn artifact if he were dead.

Panting, a stitch forming in his side, he ran on, worried they would soon be after him in cars. He was scrambling through sparse trees, with no idea where he was headed; he needed some sort of plan. He should have thought of that before he’d jumped the fence. Should have emptied out the wallet of the guy he’d knocked out in the cafeteria, his was mostly empty of ready cash. It didn’t matter at the moment, he needed to keep running once he was further away he could come up with some sort of better plan.

Right now, simply getting away was the best plan.