Time of Fate (Wealth of Time Series #6) by Andre Gonzalez (e book reader online txt) 📗

happening downtown right now. Officials are unsure what war the angry mob is yelling about, and calls for police have been made to maintain the peace. No violence or riots have been reported. This is a developing story.”

The screen showed the crowd had already grown in size, at least 200 people following the crazed man who had just barged out of the marketing office. Devin flipped through all the local news stations, finding them each covering the mysterious march taking place down the block.

“We’re fucked,” Uribe said. “Tell your teams to leave any weapons behind. If we show up with guns, this will spiral even more out of control. Have them hold that perimeter, but don’t interfere with any local law enforcement—that’s a sure way to derail everything. Do we know if coverage has started in other parts of the continent?”

“Haven’t received word on that yet, but I’m sure it’s a matter of time. Some of these crowds are over 300 people strong.”

“Okay, let’s make arrangements for a blackout across the continent, and I’ll convene the Council right now to get a formal vote on the matter. I hope it’s not necessary, but I don’t want to take any chances since both of our leaders are missing.”

“Yes, sir.” Devin nodded and left the chambers, phone already to her ear as she fielded yet another call.

“Order in the chambers!” Uribe yelled, demanding silence from everyone. They hung up their phones and returned to the table where their chief had already settled back into his seat. “Do we have any updates?”

They all looked around blankly, silent.

“First off, I want none of you to panic. We have procedures in place for just about any situation you can think of, even this one. It is up to myself as the Chief Councilor to declare a state of emergency in the absence of both the commander and their lieutenant. The Bylaws state if reasonable attempts to make contact with leadership have failed, the Council will act on a temporary basis until they are heard from. I’d say we’ve reached that point, so I’m calling to vote a blackout for the Road Runner organization.”

“That seems drastic,” Councilman Bolt said.

Uribe raised a hand. “It is, but we can’t sit on our hands. Unfortunately, this matter is too widespread for us to contain through regional means. We need to take control over the entire continent, and this will be a short, three-hour blackout—in which time we better hear something back from Chicago.”

“Can you remind me what exactly a blackout entails?” Councilman Roth asked. “I’m familiar with the gist of it, but not all the details.”

“Yes. A blackout calls for the shutdown and closure of all Road Runner offices around the continent. The doors will be locked and the power will be cut off for the duration of the blackout. This prevents anyone from entering or exiting our buildings thanks to our electronic locks. We offer a twenty-minute notice to all offices in case anyone needs to be outside, but we strongly encourage they remain inside for safety concerns. A blackout also cuts the feed for our network. All communication will be handled via direct text messages to our members. It also calls for all Road Runners who live outside of an office to remain inside their homes and urge any friends or family to do the same. All of this is done to allow our security teams the freedom to focus on the unraveling issue without having to worry about potential threats to our offices and members. It doubles our number of guards to help contain the situations brewing across the land as we speak. I will put up the three-hour blackout for a vote. It must be voted on and approved each time we wish to extend it, should it come to that. The commander reserves the right to call off the blackout, but we must inform him of the situation first. Please cast your votes and place in the box.”

Uribe gestured to their ballot box sitting on the table and waited as everyone scribbled their vote on small slips of paper.

Once all votes were cast, he pulled in the box and immediately started opening the papers and keeping a tally. “Reminder, we only need a majority vote to pass any emergency actions.”

His eyes bounced from the papers to his notepad where he drew a tally mark of each vote, passing the slips over to Councilman Bolt for confirmation.

“I count five votes to two in favor of the blackout,” Uribe declared.

“Confirmed,” Bolt said in a monotone.

“Perfect. I’ll arrange a call to all Lead Runners in North America to inform them of this decision. Plan for the blackout to commence in twenty minutes. During that time, take the moment to gather any snacks and drinks you may need for the evening. Our role during all of this is to make preparations in the event neither of our leaders return.”

Councilwoman Penny gasped at the opposite end of the table. “We’re on CNN and Fox News.” She held up her cell phone and scrolled between the front pages of both sites speculating what this random cult was doing around America.

“Close that and stop worrying. Our actions now will help us contain this. We are in recess until I return.”

Uribe stood and left the chambers, returning to his office where he’d send out a blast email to all Road Runner offices around the continent. He asked all regions to send text messages to their local populations informing of the blackout. Uribe believed that members reacted better when having news delivered by their local leader instead of someone from the top of the organization.

It only took him a couple minutes to outline the details and hit send, prompting him to lean back in his office chair and draw a deep breath. Something in his gut told him that Commander Briar was indeed in danger.

Chapter 12

They boarded the jet in Chicago, not jumping back into the present day of 2020 until all