Endgame (Book 3)

Chapter 51

Time crawled by at a snail's pace as I sprang from winding roads, hills, and cities into endless saltwater. I was rocketing across the sky so fast a deep "V" was forming behind me in the water. My hair was blowing back across my head, giving me the perfect window to scan the sea for the place I knew I would find sometime in the next half hour.

Everything seemed so calm. The wind was all I could hear, and nothing seemed out of place. The sun cast a warm glow over the sea, and I wanted to soak it in, but I couldn't take in anything.

I had used up a lot of my energy reserves with the portal, and I had recovered a little from the fire at the house. The rest shouldn't have replenished so quickly on its own, but somehow, it had. It must have had something to do with the interdimensional energy Jay absorbed from the rock.

What had he done to this body?

My brow creased in worry. If side effects began to take effect before I could get rid of Di-Men, I might have had an issue. They had to hold off till then, at least. If there were any.

The great thing about being a new person was that I had nothing to live for. I wasn't leaving anyone behind. Although I could very well see the memories of my predecessors, I wasn't in them at all. I was a blank slate. Because of that, there was nothing holding me back from getting the job done. No moral values, no one I cared about that would miss me—nothing would get in my way. I wanted to preserve life if I could, only out of respect of my former namesake, but I wouldn't risk everything to do it.

And that was the main difference between me and the other two Jays. I was willing to break the rules as a means to an end. They wouldn't. I guess I got that from Zero.

Call it a premonition, but I had a feeling that whatever was going to happen next wouldn't end well for me. But you know what? I didn't care.

I was here to fulfill a mission. I was going to complete it at any cost.

*****

I wasn't sure how long it was before I saw the base at the edge of the water, but it wasn't there, and then it was.

I slowed my speed until I was hovering over the water a mile away. From this distance, I couldn't see much, but I knew what it would look like once I got in range.

The base was shaped like an hourglass, but you couldn't tell that just from looking above water. Only the top was visible from out here, so it looked flat and non-threatening. It just appeared to be a large platform sticking up out of the sea like a sore thumb.

Under the water, though, you could tell its shape easily. Formed like two inverted cones, the middle served only as a passage from the top to the bottom. It was an elevator. I was never told what the bottom held, but the top was just a monitoring station. I had no memories of what it was for, either.

My fingers drummed against my pants at my side. How could I do this? I was certain Di-Men wouldn't be dumb enough to carry out his plan in the top half, which was the easiest to get to. But that meant I was left with beginning at the top and fighting my way to the bottom or trying to find a way to get to the bottom and work my way inside from there. And without my force fields, there was nothing protecting my body from the water pressure or lack of oxygen. Neither option would be fun, but the first one seemed to be my best bet. 

Avoiding the fact that I was about to walk inside a giant metal casket, I carefully floated over to the top of the structure. It rested high enough above sea level to only have a little water covering its surface. Not that it would have hurt me much at this point without my speed.