Chapter 29
2033
"They just took her right from me, right from here," Krieg told Captain Bridger and Lucas, pointing to his reclaimed living room. Sometime the iceberg incident, with the return of seaQuest, he had returned to his old place in case Addy somehow showed up again. He was still sullen about losing her to the UEO when he was supposed to have been keeping her safe. It was only now, without the other things on his mind, he realized what he had kept from both of them. Krieg looked to Lucas when he said, "It wasn't like I forgot to tell you, I just…"
"Had other things on your mind," Lucas finished for him. "Ben, it's okay. There was a lot going at the time, and they both probably swore you to complete secrecy."
"All I know is that the UEO took her, and Kristin took the kid," Ben said.
Nathan nodded. "I know. He's safe."
"Then you know what I know," he shrugged. "I'm sorry sir, I wish I knew more."
"If the UEO took Addy, it's probably safe to assume that they needed her for another mobius hole project and that they had the rest of the crew as well," Lucas said.
"A what?" Ben asked.
"They never told you?"
Ben shook his head. "No. Addy said it was big, but never explained why. I think Kristin knew, but she never told me, either. I figured, 'Well enough that I don't know—can't get caught that way'."
"Except that you were harboring someone they were looking for."
"Well yeah," Krieg admitted. But he was doing it for the wife of an old buddy, presumably for Robert himself. Robert wouldn't want Addy in danger, which was why Robert and Kristin sent her to him in the first place. "I would have done the same for any family member of the seaQuest's crew."
Nathan nodded, thinking. "The Macronesians must have them now," he concluded. "And they must not have told them anything."
"How do you figure?" Lucas asked.
"The war wasn't ended with mobius holes."
Lucas' heart sank, remembering what he had been tasked with. Mobius holes would have been humane compared to what he was forced to inflict on them. "That doesn't make the leap from UEO to Macs, though."
"The same reasoning applies," Nathan said. "And if we had the technology, it wouldn't have been a leap to get Robert's crew to work for the UEO against Bourne."
Alright. So maybe the Captain was right. Lucas rolled his head back, accepting the fact that they were probably going to have to work out a plan to enter what was left of the Macronesian controlled territory—without UEO backup or blessing. It wasn't that he didn't want to do it; he just didn't see it going well at all.
For starters, his face was plastered on every war poster known to mankind. It wasn't hard to figure out who had made the weapon, since it had to be delivered straight from the tube. Therefore, only someone onboard seaQuest could have done it, lowering the selection pool to practically nothing.
There was also the problem of transportation. Then again, assuming Ben could still get his hands on anything under the sun, maybe that wouldn't be such a problem after all…
"Why wouldn't they have just worked with the UEO against Bourne?" Ben asked. "Did anyone ever consider that?"
"Do you know what a mobius hole does?" Lucas asked him. "If it grew unstable for even a second…" he trailed off, cringing at the thought. "Think black hole, but worse."
Krieg's eyebrows rose. "Good point—not even the Macs deserved that."
"Not their civilians, anyway," Lucas agreed, despite the irony.
Nathan saw it on the young man's face. "Orders, remember?"
Lucas shrugged it off. "We're going to need a sub."
"Unless we fly in," Ben said. Nathan and Lucas both looked to their former Supply and Morale Officer. "Like there was any doubt I'd be going, too." Ben stood. "I can get you a sub, but if they're not being held under the ocean somewhere, it may be easier to fly and drop."
Another set of alarms went off in the former Lieutenant's head: Lucas hated heights. Fly on a plane? Sure.
Jump out of one?
"They've got to be somewhere underwater," he told them. "You have to figure: if they have them working on the mobius holes for Bourne, it's better that an accident happen there than on land."
"And if they're just being held prisoner?" Nathan asked him.
"Water's a lot harder to walk through alive than desert or forest."
