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“We don’t have a choice.”
“Yes, we do, Alec,” Minji objected. “We totally do.”
“An
d what’s our other choice?” Alec asked, his blue eyes meeting her gaze steadily.
Minji predicted neither one of them would actually like her response, but said anyway. “Open the door and let it go home.”
Chapter 29
“No,” Alec said curtly. “Absolutely not.”
“Why not?” Minji maintained an even tone in an effort to not upset the other inside of Ava, but projected the full weight of her anger in her gaze.
“My orders are to...do what I was told,” Alec responded, visibly leery of speaking in front of Ava.
“If it wants to go home, let it go home. Then it will leave us alone!” Simone slanted her upper body toward Alec. “Isn’t that what we all want? If it goes home, we’re free. We get our families back!”
“What if we open the door and something else comes in? What if we make it worse?” It was understandable that the man was bewildered and frustrated by their argument. “Can’t you see how that’s a real possibility?”
“What does it matter, Alec?” Simone swung one hand toward the smoke rising from the city skyline in the distance. “How many of us are left? How many have died? If we open the door and something comes through that finishes us off...” Simone’s voice caught and she took a second to steady her emotions. When she did speak again, her voice was thick and rough. “...maybe it will be a mercy.”
Minji understood Simone’s sentiment, but didn’t agree with it. “The entity accidentally entered our world through an open doorway. I don’t know exactly how it works, but if it’s partially open, what’s stopping something else from coming through?”
Alec lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “Who knows? Maybe something else has. How can we even tell? All those involved in the project are dead.”
“What about all the mesmerized?” Simone asked. “The ones walking toward the facility? If you...eliminate the problem, won’t you be eliminating them, too?”
Alec averted his eyes, his posture slumping. “I don’t want to do that.”
“Then we don’t,” Simone said vehemently. “We open the door and let the child go home. Then we shut it and hope to God in Heaven everyone wakes up.”
Minji unequivocally agreed with this opinion. “If we can find a way to do this without anyone else dying, we have to do it.”
The retired soldier sorrowfully regarded the black smoke rising from the Las Vegas skyline as he rubbed his hands together, almost as if he were washing them. “I killed people in Afghanistan. And they weren’t just men who wanted to shed American blood. There were young boys armed and ready to kill. One of them shot me multiple times before I killed him.”
“Sweet Jesus,” Simone whispered.
“I’m so sorry, Alec.” Minji knew her words couldn’t bring real solace, but said them anyway.
“The reason why I was shot and two of my men killed is because the soldier who initially spotted the boy hesitated. Later, he pleaded for my forgiveness because when he spied the boy –who killed two people and wounded three others – he identified him as a child and not a threat.” Alec directed his gaze at Ava again. “I see the child, Minji. I see the threat.”
“Alec...” she started to protest, but the steadfastness she saw in his eyes caused her to falter.
“Let me finish, Minji. If I could go back in time and disarm that child and send him home to his mother and save his life and the lives of my men, I would do it. In a heartbeat.” Alec straightened his shoulders. “We’ll try to send it back. And if that fails...well, we’ll do what I was sent to do.”
Simone bobbed her head once. “Fine.”
“Thanks, Alec,” Minji said gratefully.
The possibility of a peaceful resolution was welcomed, but twinges of fear and doubt pinched at her nerves. Tilting her head to gaze into Ava’s eyes, she hoped the other within her would realize they were trying to help. Maybe then it would release the mesmerized and stop the slaughter.
***
The drive was long, boring and made her drowsy, but Minji resolutely drove on. Alec and Bailey dozed in the seat behind her, the man and the baby both snoring. In the rear, Simone was checking on Jake and Jesse. Ava stood next to the driver’s seat, the leash knotted around a pole to keep her securely at Minji’s side. The young mother hated that the entity in Ava refused to remain seated. Its stubbornness was reminiscent of Ava, which was just one more confirmation that the entity was a child.
The highway sliced through the Nevada desert under a cloudless blue sky. The mountains loomed in the distance beyond the flat land spotted with desert foliage and herds of the mesmerized. It was the first she’d seen of the victims since they’d left the city. A large gathering sprawled across the road ahead forcing her to bring the vehicle to a gradual stop. Clutching the steering wheel, Minji frowned at the commotion in the center of the road.
