Guardians of the Gates - Part 3, The Osiris Gate - Jeff Schanz (story reading TXT) 📗

Various electronic items incorporated into the archway hummed and buzzed as they passed through one at a time. After they were all through, Silk Suit (Rob overheard him called Martin), told them that any electronic devices on their bodies had now been deactivated. Rob initially panicked and patted his pockets for his cell phone. Then he remembered that he had been ordered to leave it behind before he got on the helicopter.

This job is getting less and less reasonable every second.

The group was led through several maze-like tunnels, with hardened sediment walls that all seemed mostly organic in creation. The facility was beautiful on its own merits. Each tunnel they walked down had subtly different coloring, but they all shared a mesmerizing array of colorful striping that looked like it came from a designer’s palette. Purples, oranges, tans, yellows. Upon closer inspection, none of those colors were as vivid as they seemed, but the proximity to each other made them seem more vibrant at a glance. If Rob had to guess, most of these had been made by flowing water and likely dated back to the ice age. He was no geologist, but he had friends who were, and being from the nearby area of Flagstaff, he understood the features one could find if you were lucky. He almost forgot about the crappy position he had voluntarily put himself in.

The spiky-haired man led them through a corridor that had been widened by mechanical means, and which ended in a steel door embedded into the rock wall. The door had some kind of keyboard-operated lock.

“I think most of you know that I’m Morgan Ashe,” said the spiky-haired man, addressing the crowd. “This is my facility. It took me about… well, it took a long time to get these tunnels cleared, and some of them enlarged, to turn this place into the control center of the coming of the new age.”

Oh, terrific. This guy is some new-age lunatic.

Ashe continued. “Most of you have worked for me before, elsewhere, but for those who haven’t, or have forgotten, I am very serious about the secrecy of this project. There’s something you’ve never seen before behind this door, and unfortunately, that means absolute secrecy.”

Whatever. I’ll do my one day and get the hell out of here. Sign whatever they want, keep my mouth shut, and never come back.

Ashe tapped on the keypad and the lock clunked open. The door swung out to reveal a room that looked no different than the corridors. Everyone was ushered inside. In the middle of the room was a boxy machine that looked older than it probably was. The rest of the room looked fairly uninteresting. As Rob glanced around, looking for the epic secret, he noticed something odd about the wall on his left. It was not exactly a wall, rather the intersection of two slabs of rock meeting at a concave angle. Though there was no doorway there, out of the corner of his eye, it almost seemed like he saw another scene, like it was open to the outside. The moment he focused in that direction, the illusion was gone. However, there was a kind of almost imperceptible sheen to the air in front of the crevice. It was like there was a smudged pane of glass in front of it, but the glass was absent and only the smudges remained.

Mr. Ashe went to the center of the room, picked up a rock the size of a grape, and held it up to show the group. Rob stared like everyone else, having no idea what was so important about the rock. Ashe smiled, then tossed the little rock toward the weird wall crevice. One moment, the little rock looked like it would collide with the wall, and then the little rock was gone. No sound, no collision, no rock.

Everyone’s dumbstruck reaction seemed to satisfy Ashe. Mouths opened. Men walked toward the wall crevice looking for the rock. Ashe moved quickly to cut them off.

“Sorry, sports fans, but no one goes near the gate yet. I don’t think you want to find out what it will do to you,” said Ashe. “Admire from a distance, please. Ok, ok, I understand its way cool, but that’s not why you’re here. You’re here because this gate will serve a very important purpose shortly, and all the equipment in this facility is vital to making that a reality. You all have different skills that are needed to keep the facility running properly, so if you’ll come with me, we’ll get to the point.”

Ashe brushed past the group and exited the steel doorway. Rob and his comrades followed, keeping the same linear ranks as before. They were led back down one corridor they had already been down, then banked into a new one. There was an open doorway twice as large as the “gate” room. Though this one also had a steel door, the door was already open. They all went in.

Inside were several men in black military-style jumpsuits. Those men carried automatic rifles.

Ashe raised his hands to calm everyone. “I know, I know. What’s with the guns, right? Don’t worry, these men are here for protection, not to threaten you. So, don’t let them scare you.” Ashe continued speaking, but Rob was no longer listening.

I’ve about had it. Screw the paycheck.

The room they were all in was lined with old-looking machinery that would look at home in NASA’s mission control from the 1960s. Whirring wheels, dials, bulbs, and switches. That sort of equipment happened to be Rob’s specialty, so he assumed this was why he was brought here. But his doubts had peaked, and he wanted to exit this place the minute Ashe stopped speaking. Desert or no desert, he wasn’t going to be shoved in a room with armed lunatics.

“And so, that’s the real issue,” said Ashe. “I know all of you would gladly sign documents to secrecy if I asked. But I’m not going to do that. Basically, human beings are a bunch of lying sacks of shit, and it’s not that I don’t really trust you, but – I just don’t need to.”

A loud murmur began amongst the men. Ashe once again raised his hands.

“I already told you, you have nothing to fear from these men,” said Ashe, patronizingly. “They are only here to protect you. Well, protect me. And this base. No, what you should really be scared of is the men I have threatening your families if any of you decide to leave.” Ashe made a throat-cutting gesture. “We have all your addresses, and you have no phones to warn them. But, there’s no need to harm anyone if you all do the jobs you were sent here to do. And, yes, I will absolutely pay you the money I promised. I’m not that kind of monster, after all.”

Rob couldn’t breathe. His spine felt like a popsicle.

“So, this will be your new home for a while,” continued Ashe. “Honestly, there is nothing to worry about if you all just do your jobs. Then you can all go home to your lovely families and share your horror story of the maniac who held you hostage. It’ll be a cool story. And you’ll have plenty of money to get some professional therapy if you like.” Ashe chuckled to no one in particular. “In the meantime – you have work to do.”

This is the end of the sample.

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Publication Date: 04-09-2020

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