Shocking Memories

Chapter 21

I landed in the construction site Jared had taken me to for practice. Questions were racing through my head, none I could put into words. I didn't know which way was up anymore, not that I ever did.

The immediate threat was gone now, which was welcome, as I could now take my time with this investigation. I looked around the sparse site with its measly walls and haphazardly constructed outlines. Deductive reasoning told me a company like Anutek wouldn't waste money on a site that wasn't being worked on. So, it was being worked on. If nothing was being constructed in plain sight, then it had to be out of sight, and there was only one place that was out of sight. Down. Eventually I found exactly what I was looking for, a small metal hatch that was partially covered by sand.

I blew the hatch open and descended into the hole, sliding down the built-in ladder. The ladder led me to a large room, but I couldn't make out much more than that as it was too dark. Once I'd taken a step into the room lights flashed on, revealing a large warehouse full of metal shelves, cars, trucks, boxes, and tons of tech items I didn't have a chance of understanding. None of these strange things were the focus of my attention, instead that belonged to the large, metal platform on the far side of the room, raised to about eighteen feet high. It had various wires draping down from a large console that had been build onto it, a console that Jared himself stood behind, typing away at something. I know his name was Dyson, but he'd always be Jared to me. It was impossible to separate the two.

Scarlet, who stood below the platform, spotted me first and gave the platform a couple of knocks. This sound pulled Jared's attention from the console and caused him to look around the room in quick jerking motions. The moment he spotted me, a grin split his face. "So you came!" Jared exclaimed from his platform. "I knew you would, but I gotta say, I don't appreciate your stopping of the train."

"I don't really care," I replied, eyeing Scarlet nervously. "So, what, I beat ice so now I have to kill fire?"

Jared looked to the motionless Scarlet curiously, "You don't need to. She's just here for security. Frankly, I just want to talk."

"What is there to talk about? You're a terrorist!"

Jared thought this over, considering refuting the claim, then decided against it, "Yeah, that's true. But I'm doing it for a good reason."

"And what reason is that?"

Jared snapped his fingers, lighting a section of wall behind him. There was a large, wire-like, form on the wall, a long purple rubber-like tube that stretched down into the floor. On the same platform as Jared was a clear portion of the tube with a clear glass door.

"This reason. I'm trying to save the world."

"I doubt that."

Jared chuckled, "I can understand why, but it's true. Humanity has been trying to save the world for a while, and I thought I would try my hand at it. I gathered some friends of mine, and we went to work, tried to create a better world. We succeeded, and created the company you know as Anutek... We changed a lot, created many life changing things, but we were still far off from saving the world. We had to change things up, break a few rules, get a little desperate. It worked Liv, we could never go public with what we did, but we found a way to prevent a wide variety of human tragedies."

"By inventing a purple tube?" I asked sarcastically.

"By inventing you."

Silence fell over the room as we all waited for the other shoe to drop. I waited for Jared to take it back, or make a joke, and he waited for me to say anything. I looked to Scarlet, who did not seem phased at all by what she had heard. Meanwhile it had hit me like a truck might a deer.