17 |

Over the Atlantic

 

“You’re sure your brother won’t mind?”

Tark Gerald shrugged at Oswald “Spud” Fletcher. “So what if he does? I’m family, and we need to keep those two out of sight.”

Tark buried his head back behind a magazine, leaving Spud to once again look at the posh surroundings they now found themselves in. He had never been on a private jet before, and it was a life he could get used to, though it would be rather hypocritical if he did. He had joined Step Back Now seven years ago, shortly after it had been formed by Gavin Thatcher, and deeply believed in the cause, though for perhaps different reasons than some of the others.

He was chronically unemployed.

And not by choice.

He wanted to work. He struggled to, but as his mother had always said, he didn’t “have it all upstairs.” He was stupid. He couldn’t handle math, he could barely read and write, and he just couldn’t concentrate long enough to learn anything useful. He’d had scores of jobs over the years, but few lasted beyond the first week, his employers quickly realizing that eagerness wasn’t enough.

When he had bumped into Thatcher on the streets of Liverpool, he had shared his story, and rather than offer advice, Thatcher had given him something better.

A reason.

Computers.

Machines were taking over the world, leaving some people behind, like him. In the days of old, manual labor was in high demand. Shoveling dirt or shit, it didn’t matter. A man with a good set of hands and a strong back could always find work.

But not today.

Machines took care of all that. Now all the jobs required the one thing he didn’t have—brains. Thatcher had invited him to a speech he was giving, and since he was unemployed, he gave him a listen.

It had changed his life.

Machines were the problem.

Technology was the problem.

Rid the world of these things, and people like him could have a future. He wanted to destroy every single computer that was out there, though that wasn’t Step Back Now’s goal. Thatcher and most of the others realized that it wasn’t the machines that were evil, it was the way they were used. People were forgetting their humanity because of the way they used the technology. Mankind—or peoplekind as he had heard some idiot refer to what most people concerned of such things would have called humankind—would never rid itself of technology, so he’d probably be condemned to the life in which he found himself trapped.

Though it wasn’t that bad a life anymore.

When he had finished school, his friends had all moved on, even the lowlifes had jobs. He had been trapped in the same house he had grown up in, constantly berated by his mother, and smacked around by his father every time he came home, fired again.

But now he had friends. Friends who believed in something, and who helped him through not only giving him something to do, even if that was just handing out fliers or holding a gun, but somewhere to live instead of with his parents, and companionship that he hadn’t felt in years. Step Back Now was his new family, they were his brothers and sisters, and he would do anything for them.

But kill?

He stared over at their prisoners, as everyone pretended to be business associates so as to not raise the suspicions of the crew of three that manned the plane. Could he kill them if it became necessary? He had never fired a gun in his life. He had thrown plenty of punches, let loose some great kicks, and prided himself on being able to take both—perhaps a few too many to his head when he was younger might explain some things. But kill? No one had ever talked about killing people. That had never been part of the plan.

Never.

They were trying to save mankind. That was why they as a whole had nothing against computers or machines that actually helped people, like medical devices. They didn’t want babies dying because incubators were some evil technology. Again, it was how it was used that was their concern. Was it used for good? Or was it used to avoid human interaction? The latter was what they were fighting. Human interaction was what he craved, and it was what everyone should crave.

Human interaction.

He stood.

Tark looked up at him. “Where are you going?”

“Just stretching my legs and taking a leak.”

“Well, make it quick. We’re landing in Portugal any minute now, and I don’t want to waste a second we don’t have to.”

Spud frowned. “Yeah, yeah.” He hated how Tark sometimes treated him like a child. He headed for the rear of the plane then took care of business. He freshened up in the small bathroom, then stepped out, feeling a lot more at ease. As he passed the two prisoners, he couldn’t resist the urge, and instead of returning to his seat, he sat across from them.

“Why were you there?”

The man looked at him. “Excuse me?”

“Under the water. Why were you there?”

“None of your business.”

Spud tensed, his chest tightening as a rage inside took form. He hated being disrespected. He hated being ignored. He was a person, and deserved better. He tapped his weapon. “You should be more polite, or that woman of yours could get hurt.”

The man was about to respond with what Spud was certain would be a threat, when the woman wisely cut him off with a hand and a response. “We’re archaeologists. We found something under the water that we were exploring.”

All was forgotten, and Spud’s eyes widened in excitement as he leaned forward. “Really? You’re archaeologists, like Indiana Jones?”

She jerked a thumb at her partner. “He’s more Indiana, I’m more Lara Croft.”

Spud grinned, his eyes darting to her chest for a moment then back to her face.

Definitely not old Lara. New Lara maybe.

“So what did you find?”

“Just an old city.”

“Cool!” His eyes narrowed. “Wait, you weren’t far from shore. How come nobody else ever found it?”

The man sighed. “The earthquake shifted the seabed, revealing it.”

Spud nodded slowly as he processed this new piece of information. “So another earthquake could bury it again?”

The woman shook her head. “More likely it would slide down deeper.”

Spud scratched behind his ear. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

The woman put her two index fingers together in the form of the top of a triangle. “The Azores is just a cluster of mountains that happen to be volcanos. Over millions of years they erupted on the ocean floor, and just like volcanos on land, slowly got higher and higher, until eventually they broke the surface of the ocean.”

Spud curled his leg up under him. “That’s incredible. I had no idea!”

“Most of the islands in the oceans are actually volcanos, like the Hawaiian Islands.”

Spud’s jaw dropped. “So what you’re saying is that if there’s another earthquake, the city you found could slide farther down the mountain, toward the ocean floor.”

“Exactly.”

His eyes widened. “That’s why everything was on an angle when we were working! We were on the side of an underwater mountain!”

The man stared at him. “What were you doing?”

Spud froze, realizing he had said too much, but dying to ask one last question, not remembering the last time he had held a real conversation with people, especially people who were clearly this intelligent. “Umm, you said an earthquake could cause the city to slide farther down the mountain. Ahh, what about an explosion?”

Both their eyes widened, and the man leaned in. “Why? What have you done?”

Spud shook his head, panic setting in. “Nothing, nothing, I swear. I’m just curious, umm, there’s a military base there, isn’t there? You know, explosions from that.” He mentally patted himself on the back for the recovery.

The man leaned back, not looking convinced. “If the explosion were big enough, it could trigger another landslide that could send the city sliding to the bottom of the ocean, and beyond our reach.”

Spud leaped from his seat. “Yeah, umm, well, thanks for the chat.”

The man leaned forward. “If you people are planning on setting off a bomb, then you need to stop what you’re doing. You could destroy the most significant archaeological find in the history of mankind.”

Spud stared at him for a moment. “Wh-what did you find?”

The two archaeologists exchanged glances, and the woman nodded. The man stared up at him.

“Atlantis.”