Catalyst (Breakthrough Book 3)(37)

Clay peered out of the small window to his left, into the morning darkness with twinkling stars above him. There was an eerie feeling inside the cabin, sitting alone listening only to the roar of the two Rolls Royce Turbofan engines outside as they rocketed the aircraft through freezing air at top speed.

The Gulfstream would have to make multiple stops to reach its final destination in Manila. It was as far as he could go without raising flags in a government plane. From there he would have to travel aboard commercial flights, first to Taiwan and finally in through Hong Kong. With the help of a falsified passport, it would be his best chance at entering China without too much attention from customs. Once inside, it would be another 1,200 miles to Beijing and hopefully enough time for Borger to narrow down his search area. Assuming the target was still there.

Clay tried again to relax and lay back against the chair’s soft headrest. He struggled to imagine what had motivated General Wei to destroy or hide the treasure which his soldiers had worked so hard to recover in that jungle.

He closed his eyes and instead thought of Alison. He pictured her face, with long brown hair falling over her shoulders. Her beautiful eyes smiling back at him. He was falling for her and let himself smile as he began to drift off to sleep.

In the end, it was his exhaustion that had prevented Clay from figuring out Wei’s motives that night. And when he finally did two days later, it would already be too late.





17





Alison sat in her office, thinking about John. She had been expecting a call the night before, but it never came. She wasn’t overly concerned, but it was just another example of the challenges in trying to maintain a long-distance relationship, especially with their jobs. Still, she had no regrets. A man like John was a diamond in the rough. The kind of man every woman wished for but rarely found. There were certainly plenty of wonderful men out there. But someone had truly broken the mold after John Clay.

Her thoughts wandered back to the week they’d just spent together after returning from Trinidad. The walks on the beach holding hands, the feeling of safety she felt with him, and the way he spoke to her. They stirred emotions Alison hadn’t experienced in a long time, if ever.

It made it all the more ironic that she hadn’t yet realized her cell phone was still in her car. Nor that John Clay would be well over the Pacific before she discovered the voicemail he’d left while his plane was refueling in California.

With a sigh, Alison shook herself out of her daze and stood up from her chair. She rounded the desk and walked to the door where, with a quick pull, she stepped through and proceeded downstairs. Something had been haunting her since Trinidad. Something she’d been reluctant to pursue without really knowing why. So much had happened in the last few months. So much had been discovered that Alison was almost afraid of what they might learn next.

The breakthrough with Dirk and Sally was truly a miracle of modern technology. It had blown open the doors to a real, genuine conversation between the two most sentient species on the planet. But what they’d found was not just exciting, it was frightening. Frightening in its potential to disrupt what they as humans had assumed for so long: that somehow animals without familiar or recognizable communicative abilities were little more than cute creatures in a kingdom over which humans claimed dominion.

But now…now they had discovered not only a shocking level of understanding in Dirk and Sally’s communication, but also exposed an almost shameful level of human hubris. And a level of disconnectedness with the world around them that left Alison worried for her own species. Even Alison’s own personal connections were beginning to feel devoid of any true meaning. Instead, it felt like a detached view of the planet. Mistakenly superior. Materialistic. Clinical.

The truth was, Alison was growing fearful of finding out that humans might not be very human after all. That rather than contributing to the world as it really was, they were instead gradually destroying it under a veneer of “progress.” The last thing she wanted to do was become even more disappointed in herself or her race.

Alison forced a smile and pushed open one of the doors into the observation area. She’d often thought that the dolphins, especially Sally, could almost sense her coming. Which made it all the eerier when Sally seemed to be waiting for her as she arrived.

Hello Alison.

“Good morning, Sally. How are you and Dirk?”

We happy. How you?

“I’m happy too.” She was thankful the dolphins were not able to read human faces yet. Nevertheless, if Sally detected something different from Alison’s response, she didn’t show it.