Time of the Draig Read Free Page B

want me to transfer you somewhere safe?”
    Boomer immediately mouthed, “Nowhere is safe, and we both know it. Besides, I told you I was coming with you.” The smile crossed his face as he stated his pledge, “I’ve got your back.”
    “And I’ve got yours,” she replied immediately. There was no doubt Boomer would come with her. However, the plan was shaky at best and riddled with risk.
    “Is everything ready?” he asked silently with a nervous glance to the metal poles.
    “It will be before you are reported late for transfer. I just want to double check the calculations one more time,” Samantha said as she rose from the desk and walked to the far computer bank. Her hand reached for the control panel that held the safe. Entering the access code, the hidden door sprung open. Her hand reached for UNK005. The softball-size object offered its usual light vibration as she held it in her palm.
    She held the sphere up to the light and marveled at it. To the untrained eye, it appeared to be a perfect sphere made of amber. But it was so much more. The black swirling material inside, while still of unknown origin, contained what seemed to be an endless amount of information and energy unlike anything the world had ever known. She had only scratched the proverbial surface of what she could learn. It was still more than any other human being had ever done.
    UNK005, or unknown object number five, had been found buried in the desert near Phoenix almost twenty years earlier when the military dug the foundation for the base. It had traveled the world and stumped every scientist and archaeologist her father had brought in for answers. Carbon dating hadn’t worked, and no laser could even scratch the surface, much less open it for study.
    The memory surfaced clearly in her mind. Her father had been stationed in Southeast Asia, and Samantha had been visiting on her first leave. One night at dinner he opened the case and asked her what she thought. It had vibrated for her then, too, which was something unique. When she told him, his face brightened. Dad told her to keep quiet about that part and promised he would see her assigned to the international project. His lips had twitched into a smirk as he said, “I think it likes you.”
    She shook aside the memory and glanced at the clock, 0930 hours. Not much time to work with, but even that was amusing. For better or worse, time was hers to control.
    The object went into the case next to her mainframe computer as she prepared to work. Boomer didn’t need the order to stand and block her from the prying eye of the security camera. He did so unbidden.
    As soon as his massive frame effectively hid her from sight, the real work began. Her private laptop slid out from its protective drawer along with UNK005’s little brother. There was the secret, the part only she, Boomer, and her late father knew. There was more than one object. The little one was the size of a golf ball and looked the same. It didn’t have the same amount of raw power, but the two together were a complete circuit.
    Samantha spoke more for her own benefit as the singer crooned about people of the sun, not that she had seen or felt the warmth of the sun in months. “We need to prevent these from ever being found. I have the original map stored on my computer, showing exactly where the items were found in 1986. We are going to arrive two years prior and find it first. It will be up to us to find a better hiding place.”
    She continued thinking out loud. “We will arrive in Kansas City and travel by train to Denver, then rent a car, and drive the remaining distance. The objects were only five feet deep in the ground. We should be able to rent the equipment we need at any local hardware store.”
    “Our fake IDs and passports are in my computer case. The gold and silver coins tucked within the case can be sold easily. Old records indicate a coin collector who lived in Kansas City at that time with a storefront on the