Guardian of the Stone Read online

  “I do not talk like that,” Edeline protested, rolling her eyes. “But you’re right—I do need to save my money.”

  “That a girl,” said Amanda, laying out her hand for the book Edeline brought in to trade. “This is a good way to start.” She waved the book in the air. “I’m proud of you for letting one go.”

  “It wasn’t easy.” In truth, it had been close to impossible. Edeline treasured her books like many treasured jewels. Through them she had traveled the world, experienced history, and fallen in love over and over again. She wanted to keep them all. But by giving up one, she saved half on another.

  Amanda placed the book on the counter. “Think of it this way—you’re now two dollars closer to France.”

  It was a good point, Edeline realized as she walked through the store’s narrow aisles searching for her next great romance or adventure. Every cent saved brought her that much closer to her dream. She was born in France, and in France lay her history. It was a history her father was oddly reluctant to speak of, but one she desperately wanted to know.

  At the moment, all she knew for sure was that she was born in a small village in France, and that her mother had died in childbirth. Although her father had assured her they had no living relatives, Edeline was still determined to at least return and stand once more upon its soil. Of course, she hadn’t told her father yet. Something told her he’d be less than pleased.

  “Having any luck?” Amanda yelled back from the front of the store.

  “Still looking.”

  Spotting a title that caught her interest, Edeline reached up to pull it down.

  Suddenly her eyes began to blur as the books began to spin. A loud and heavy moan roared in her ears. Her stomach turned, and her body felt instantly drained of energy. Grabbing hold of the shelf, she waited anxiously for it to end.

  It had been years since she’d experienced the feeling, and she’d really hoped it was gone for good.

  The bright lights beamed down upon the dance floor, their reflection bouncing off Federic’s recently polished shoes.

  “You’re doing wonderfully, Federic,” Alison reassured his bent head as he concentrated fully on the placement of his feet. “You needn’t worry so. Really, you’re doing fine.”

  “You say that now because your toes are in one piece. You won’t be singing my praises when I bulldoze them over.” He stopped. “I’ve lost count.”

  Alison smiled. “Don’t count. Just dance.” With a gentle pull, she encouraged him to move.

  Unable to do anything but follow, Federic stepped back into the dance. As the music beat rhythm into the crowded room, he and Alison waltzed around the large dance floor.

  The music ended, and they slowly made their way back to their table.

  Her arm linked with his. “I’ve had a lovely time. Thank you, so much, for accompanying me.”

  Pulling out her chair, Federic helped her take her seat. “I wouldn’t have missed it.” Moving closer to the table, he waited as the waiter walked by, pushing a loaded cart of cakes and pastries. The rattling of the wheels merged with the voices around him into one solid, loud moan. His stomach turned, and his limbs weakened as the world around him began to spin.

  “Federic, Federic!” Alison’s voice rang from a distance.

  Soon the voices cleared, the room quit turning, and Alison was right at his side, holding tight to his hand while her eyes searched his face. “Oh, Federic, are you all right?”

  Nodding slowly, he moistened his lips. “Would you mind if we called it an evening?”

  An hour later, he was hurrying to Edeline’s room.

  Sitting up in bed with her blue comforter tucked safely around her, she held what looked to be a new adventure tight in her hands. As he stepped into her room, she dropped the book against her chest and smiled. “You’re home early.”

  “I…yes.” He sighed with relief.

  She appeared completely unaffected by the breach, but he knew it wasn’t so. Like his, Edeline’s senses had always become a bit muddled when a piece of the present passed through the barrier into the past. They could feel the invasion where those who were born of the present could not. Of course she’d never known what it was. She’d always written the experience off to a weak stomach, and he’d played along. He’d seen no benefit in confusing her world with that of the past. But the time was coming, perhaps sooner than later, when he’d have no choice but to tell her.

  Her eyes fell to the open collar of his shirt, noting, no doubt, the missing tie. “Did you have a good time?”

  “A very nice time. And you?”

  She waved her new book in the air. “Stopped by Paul and Amanda’s.”

  “Anything exciting happen?” he asked, hoping she’d tell him about the spell.

  “Saved two bucks on my purchase.”

  “Good for you, Edeline.” Just as he suspected, she didn’t want to worry him. Stepping across her floor, he stopped beside her bed and bent to plant a kiss upon her forehead. “I’m going to bed. Love you.”

  “I love you too, Dad. I’m glad you had a good time.”

  Leaving her room, he headed straight to his.

  The beautifully etched, wooden heirloom box sat atop his dresser. Opening the lid, he pulled out the general’s number and sat down at his desk. He was torn for what to do, but in the end, he reached for the phone.

  “General Matthews,” answered an unhappy and groggy voice.

  “General Matthews, Federic Depuis here. I’m sorry to be calling so late, but I thought you’d want to know. I believe there’s been a breach.”

  The hot Texas sun pounded without mercy against Dane’s back as he scooted forward through the brush. His movements, swift and smooth, were invisible to those who stood guarding the compound below. Camel-colored camouflage along with a brush-covered helmet helped him blend naturally into his surroundings. He reached into his pocket, pulled out his binoculars, and then scanned the heavily guarded zone.

  There were three massive metal buildings side by side about a quarter of a mile from the makeshift airstrip. Several large field trucks sat in various clumps around the buildings, a couple of them loaded high with stacks of illegal cargo. Others looked ready to go, most likely awaiting their next wild ride into the rugged terrain. Several men walked back and forth in front of the isolated warehouses, while others ran scurrying around, preparing for their next assignments.

  When the large sliding door to the first warehouse opened, another cluster of men moved outside. Two jumped into the loaded trucks while the others waited just outside the warehouse doors, boisterously waiving them in.

  A tall Hispanic man in his late forties, dressed in military attire and sporting a lifetime of scars across his hardened face, walked out from the warehouse. He smoked a large cigar as he spoke intermittently into his two-way radio. Dane watched as the man took his own binoculars and searched the afternoon sky. He turned toward the other men, then started shouting orders unheard from Dane’s position.

  It soon became clear they were expecting company as the two loaded trucks disappeared into the warehouse, and at least a dozen heavily armed men hopped into various vehicles and headed toward the airfield.

  The man, Casimiro Rios, threw his cigar to the ground and took a long hard look toward the hills. Dane lowered the binoculars to hide any glare. Rios was no fool. He knew there was no place on earth truly safe from his enemies, especially when his enemies included nations of great power and wealth.

  The hum of a small engine turned into a near roar as it drew closer. Dane stayed low as the craft passed directly overhead. Yips and hollers exploded from the airfield as the men jumped from their vehicles and waited for the small private craft to land. He knew the plane as well as the reason for the men’s excitement. Payroll had arrived.

  Once again, Dane dared a glance toward the compound. Rios had evidently decided the coast was clear. He stood, with his binoculars dangling at his side, speaking to one of his guards.

  “
Prepare to move,” Dane whispered into the thin microphone dangling down from his earpiece. He watched the plane come to a rocky stop. Moments later, the craft doors opened and two distinguished-looking gentlemen stepped out.

  “Full house,” he reported as the new arrivals greeted their men. Slowly he slithered through the brush toward the compound. This was one raid he would not miss.

  A quiet static played across his radio before a familiar voice directed, “Abort.”

  Dane froze. Abort? He must have heard wrong.

  “Again,” he asked for clarification.

  “Abort.”

  “Damn it!” What possible reason could there be in aborting a mission which had been planned for months? This was the chance of a lifetime. What the hell were they waiting for? The sound of choppers flying overhead a few moments later made him realize the obvious. The mission wasn’t aborted, merely his portion. He was furious. What could be so all-fired important it couldn’t wait for him to participate in one of the largest and most successful raids of his career?

  Easing away from the compound, he headed back toward his rendezvous. The sound of artillery erupted with the cries of battle from the opposite direction. He was missing it all. Clenching his fists, he once more cursed the final order. “This better be worth it.”

  Chapter Three

  THE LONG, MOSTLY FLAT ROAD leading to the base produced the perfect boilerplate for the hot Southern Nevada sun. Still, Dane left the jeep uncovered. The constant breeze held back the sun’s most powerful punch, and the open view it provided the military escort he’d picked up two miles back assured no misconceptions would lead to any mishaps.

  This wasn’t exactly the place to take chances as any fool could see. If one was too daft to pay attention to the countless signs warning against trespassing, the low-flying chopper scouting their tail and well-armed, multipurpose vehicles following their path from the opposite side of the barbed-wire fence should certainly give clues.

  He slowed as he approached the checkpoint, a tin shack manned by half a dozen armed guards and a simple enough looking steel arm blocking the entrance.

  “Lieutenant Colonel,” greeted one of the guards as he approached the jeep.

  Dane handed him his papers. They wouldn’t tell the man any more than he already knew. Anyone making it this close to the checkpoint was already expected and thoroughly investigated.

  The man studied the forms nonetheless, then handed them back to Dane, giving the interior of the jeep an obvious once over. Assured no danger lay within, the guard stepped back away from the jeep, saluted Dane, and then motioned to a new set of escorts, who’d just arrived out of seemingly nowhere, that the visitor had been awarded admittance.

  In something similar to a funeral procession, Dane rode the center of his new entourage all the way to the base—a base which didn’t look much different from any other secured military facility, but it was. This secured fortress housed the answer to one of the most contemplated and debated scientific questions of all time.

  In the early eighties, after numerous reports by local civilians of odd sightings and weather patterns in the area, the military began running tests and found the area was high in unusual atmospheric and electrical activity. Various experiments were conducted using aerial devices, crafts which were later either explained away as aircraft or simply denied. When it became clear exactly what they had, the base was blocked off, securing it from public curiosity. Of course, this only intrigued the public, leading to stories of close encounters and alien invasions.

  The truth was no less spectacular. Within its secured borders lay one end of a miraculous funnel, a conduit within the time-space continuum linking two distinctively different worlds.

  The funnel was actually a small tear in the fabric of the universe—a universe where its embodiments were constantly in motion. The planets spun, the galaxies shrank and expanded. The tear between times had not moved, but the Earth had, linking one end of the funnel to a narrow time span around the year 1310, where the portal opened along the northern shores of France. On the other side, opening inside the Nevada desert, was a wider time span believed to cover approximately 1955 to sometime just after the turn of the twenty-first century.

  After years of trial and error and countless investment dollars, the world’s most respected scientists and scholars had found a way to somewhat manage and manipulate the most dangerous portal ever encountered by man. Thanks to modern-day science, they could pick and choose the exact date within the time span their travelers would land in 1310 France. And thanks to small date-stamping devices implanted within the travelers’ arms, the portal was able to detect their return and place them back safely in their appropriate time.

  It was an amazing opportunity and one they all had eagerly embraced.

  For years, they’d breached the barrier of time, exploring the past for the benefit of science. But the danger of such travel became more and more apparent. Finally, five years earlier, travel through the portal had been completely banned by military command, and it all had come to an end. That is, until nine forty-five two nights earlier, when one small bleep from a sleeping system brought a room full of leading scientists out of their chairs and on full alert.

  The small caravan made their way through yet another checkpoint, this time to emerge right outside the heart of the facility, a large concrete building surrounded by heavily armed guards, few windows, and odd antennas and wires sprouting from every which direction.

  The lab—the door to the portal and the past.

  Its doors opened, and General John Matthews, a tall, salt-and-pepper-haired man, stepped out.

  “You’re a sight for worried eyes,” said the general, meeting Dane as he stepped from his vehicle. “I hear we pulled you from the Pallet raid. That had to hurt.”

  “It did.”

  “Sorry, Dane, it was unavoidable.” He nodded for him to follow as he turned and headed back toward the building. “It was quite a success I hear.”

  “So I’m told.” Dane followed the older man through the doors and down the long narrow hall toward the elevators, their hurried steps echoing off the near empty walls.

  They stepped inside the open lift.

  The general selected the lower level, and the doors closed. He turned to Dane. “How much do you know?”

  “I know we have a breach. I know it came from the future. What I don’t know, is why we care. The future’s a large, unknown field. They could have countless reasons for going back.”

  Matthews nodded only slightly before taking a weary breath. “Actually, the field’s not so large. The lab is scheduled to be permanently decommissioned in twenty-one days. But it’s doubtful the portal will hold that long.”

  “It’s closing?” Dane’s stomach performed a nauseating flip as he recognized a whole new set of dangers.

  “Yes, it’s weakening by the day. We’re assuming nine forty-five p.m. Saturday was a time where its fabric had grown particularly weak. That’s why our sensors were allowed to pick up the surge as those from the future passed through our time, and it’s also why Federic was able to sense it so easily.”

  “Shit.”

  “I’d say that sums it up pretty accurately.” Leaning forward, the general pushed the button to stop the cart mid-flight.

  “Look, Dane, I’m not going to lie to you and tell you there isn’t risk. There’s risk and plenty. What I will tell you is we have no choice. Our travelers had to have come from a time very close to ours. I’m guessing within the next ten days. It’s safe to say we would not have sent them.”

  Dane ran his hand roughly through his hair. The more he learned, the worse it got. “It has to have been someone from the inside.”

  “Yes, someone who knows the portal’s closing and knows the risks. They’re acting out of desperation, and they’ll be every bit as desperate to get back. You know what that means.”

  “They’ll take risks. They’ll be careless.”

  “Chances are good.”


  “Damn fools.”

  “They’re worse,” said Matthews. “They’re greedy fools. They can be after only one thing, and they’re not likely to leave without it.”

  “The treasure?”

  The general nodded. “Fail or succeed, it doesn’t matter. We can’t afford to wait for them to make it back. We need everyone and everything not of the past back where they belong, and the sooner the better. Every second they remain in the past, the risk to our world grows. We have to send someone to bring them back. Our chances of success improve tremendously if that someone is you.”

  “Any idea who or how many?”

  “They wouldn’t risk an army. I’m guessing two or three. As far as whom, I truly have no idea. There isn’t one of those with access I wouldn’t have trusted with my life.” Saddened gray eyes looked away for a moment before returning to Dane. “If they believe in the treasure, then they also believe in the story surrounding it. That means they’ve taken two things with them—Edeline and the stone.”

  “I take it we now have both adequately covered?”

  “Of course, but that doesn’t solve the problem. It’s simply too late. That part of the future has already been moved out of our reach into the past. Yes, we can change the future, but so can they. And they now sit behind us.”

  “Making the advantage theirs.”

  “That’s right. Ignoring that fact could very well be a death sentence to us all. We have to even the playing field. We have no choice but to send someone back.”

  “You truly believe one man alone can bring them back?”

  “All you have to do is bring back the girl. Without her, the stone is useless. Bring her back, and the rest will soon follow. They’ll have no reason to stay.”

  Leaning forward past Dane’s shoulder, the general pushed the button to start the lift moving. Once the elevator stopped and the doors opened, he nodded further down the hall. “Go ahead and see your way to the lab. I’ll grab your things and be right there.”

  Lights flashed from behind the glass as the lab and its instruments were brought back to life. Men in military gear ran around the room checking monitors and testing voltage. It was all so familiar. Federic could still remember the terror of that night twenty-two years prior, when he’d landed behind the glass wall in front of him.