Nexus (Chapter 5)

FIVE - JANE SOUTAINE III

Dave grinned and pulled out a pistol. He made a kissing mouth to her and winked as he fired. Multiple bullets - and she could trace their needle shapes - raced to her car. The car shuddered several times as if it was choking.

Out of nowhere, a small hovercraft appeared above Dave's car. Turrets had been lowered from its belly and she knew she had no time. Her survival or her love. Damn the love, she thought. She fired. The energy charge hit the nose of the hovercraft and it lost control, flipping over and over again from head to toe, spreading debris in a wide area. Dave spun off his car to avoid any damage and he vanished in another street but she knew he would be back soon.

Her necklace beeped noisily. She kept the guns to her side, closed the seat cover and gingerly pressed her necklace blue gem. The blue gem projected a map zooming in from Earth, Asia, Southeast Asia and finally Indonesia, near Acheh.

"Instability level 5,' she muttered under her breath. "Tsunami warning alerted at all coasts..."

"We are going to the beach," the driver said.

"It is up to 10.1 Richter scale," even as she spoke, she could feel the tremors. Trees began to sway gently and trashbins fell and rolled. "You have no idea how immense that tsunami is going to be. Take us to Malaysia mainland, far away from the coastlines."

"No," the driver replied.

"I can alert the police if you don't. This is kidnapping!" she shouted.

"We are going to be forgotten soon. What makes the difference? Listen to me. I am to bring you to a person who nobody thinks he existed. I need to bring you there before the flash spread to Singapore. That would take approximately less than 20 minutes to happen. Now shut up and just wait for it," the driver said.

"Who are you?"

"Your driver to heaven."

"Tell me or I will shoot you with that gun," she warned.

"You shoot me and all of us are going to die. You listen to me, you will live. Choose wisely, Jane."

"At least tell me something I should know," Jane pleaded.

"You know one thing that nobody does..."

"Keep going," Jane said.

"The Sahara quake. Remember that? Nobody knew that thing happened before, except you. I don't even know that quake existed but it was him he told me. He told me it will be your turn," the driver said.

"Who? What? It is impossible. The earthquake was a 11.2 giant. It is hard for people to not notice it!" Jane said. "If not why so many scientists went to survey that area?"

"Who are the scientists, Jane?"

"Alma Ricksons, Deri Luise and Harry Blanco lead the team, no?"

"They don't know a thing. Call them up. They are your research team members right? Here, take my phone."

She took it and called Deri. She asked about the quake and quite surprisingly that Deri knew nothing about the quake. Deri was being told there was a thing to research there but nobody told her the details.

"The flash is erasing all information, Jane," the driver said, looking at her through the rear mirror. "There would be huge crack cutting across the face of Africa if that is true."

"It is true the quake happened!"

"Then you have found another anomaly, true?"

"Yes, how did you know?" she stammered a little. It was a highly classified information. The news was never uploaded to any electronic systems in fear of public outcry because of that piece of information.

"He told me."

"Who is he? Why is he so important?"

"You are important," the driver corrected.

"You are lying. You don't know anything. I didn't find anything strange."

"Does the number 42 mean anything to you?" the driver grinned as he looked at her hard through the rear mirror again. "Don't lie to me. You can be truthful now, but I'll tell you, after the flash hits here, I won't be remembering anything anymore.

42. She breathed.

42...