Max stood outside the room belonging to one Clive O'Rourke, or as he was better known, The Major. He had been standing just outside the doorway now for a little over five minutes, ringing his hands in sheer nervousness opening and closing his mouth in attempts to find the right words to begin his sentences. He found none. Inside, hunched over piles of paperwork sat his father and The Major, deep in conversation about something Max hadn't been paying the least bit attention to-they hadn't even noticed him. Between their hushed conversation and the crackle of a radio playing somewhere from inside, he reckoned they wouldn't notice him until he made some sort of indication that he was there.
He had stripped out of his Arctic gear earlier , finding it a little more warm than usual for it and as he stood there now trying to find his gumpth, he wished he could just stand under an ice shower. The hot flashes were coming in waves. He attributed this to his current condition-the state of the news he bore. He had already spent his time in his room letting the realization sink in, and even now he was holding back tears. He couldn't even think of her anymore. He had to get this over with.
"Erm, Excuse me sir?" They continued talking over him. Max didn't know if they were ignoring him or not so he cleared his throat as loudly as possible without sounding rude. His dad was the first to look over his shoulder, his eyes lighting up. He opened his mouth in greeting and then he registered Max's demeanor. His look turned to one of concern. Seeing his colleague's face, The Major turned too. His face was less worried and more...analytic? His eyes narrowed, scanning the area. Max's heart dropped. He was screwed. This was all his fault.
"Son?" His father conveyed everything in the one word. He crossed the room as Max stood in the doorway like a child being punished. "Max, what is it?"
"Where's Molly?" The Major asked quietly. It was unlike him, and Max knew he suspected something. That was all it took though. The Major's loaded question prompted Max to unload like a loaded gun in a spew of words. He told them everything, from the satellite image to finding the location. He waited, and when he was greeted by unusual silence, he grew uncomfortable.
"There's nothing we can do."
The Major's words broke the ice and for a moment Max was stunned. Nothing they could do? There was everything they could do! He stared at the man who sat so stoically there with a look that couldn't be deciphered. Max didn't know how to read him. "Nothing we can do?" Max repeated incredulously. He felt disbelief and then rage build up in him all at once. Here he was worried that he was somehow going to be smote by the wrath of a man who was not to be reckoned with only to find out that he wasn't going to do anything? Max was pissed. "Are you kidding me?" he all but shouted. "There is so much we can do! She's still down there, alive or not! We can't just leave her there- I can't just leave her there!" His heart beat rapidly in his chest, adrenaline from his outburst pumping through him.
"We can't do anything." The Major repeated and as Max opened his mouth to combat him, his father held up his hands in placation.
"He's right." Max looked from The Major to his father.
" Am I in a fucking funny farm or something? Are you punking me?" he threw his hands up in desperation. To answer his question, The Major handed his father two images and nodded. His father then passed the images to Max. He snatched them out of his father's hands and glared from him to the pictures. At first he didn't understand what he was looking at. It was just another image of Antarctica, one he had seen so many times these past few weeks....and yet it wasn't. He brought the image closer. The features he had grown so accustomed to studying weren't as sharp anymore. The mountain peaks weren't registering as high as they were and the levels were off on the surrounding terrain and ocean...
"How?" the impact of his realization hit him like a brick to the chest. The air whooshed out of his lungs and he deflated like a balloon. "Is this real?" he looked up from the image to his father and then The Major. They said nothing, and both looked elsewhere and off into the distance as he flipped to the next image. This was a different image all together. It was showing the world as a whole, with concentric circles crowding the map in various locations like Mumbai, Tokyo, California, Honduras....they were everywhere. "Dad, "His voice was a plea "What's happening?"
"We don't know. Whatever is causing the poles to melt is causing plate activity around the world. It's unreal." His father responded. "We're being recalled back stateside to report our findings and evacuate. We can't stay..."
They really were telling the truth. Molly was going to be lost to him forever. He would never have the closure of knowing what really happened....never seeing her again.
"I'll get her myself." his words were hollow and even as he said them, he knew he wouldn't be able to accomplish it. This wasn't enough for him. He wasn't going to accept this fate. He left the room as his eyes started to well up and made his way to the lab where the imaging equipment was. He numbly pushed past people, with a new purpose until he broke out into a run. In his head he heard her voice from years ago, chastising him 'you can't run from your problems all the time, Max'. His heart wrenched and he clenched his teeth remembering his retort 'I won't have to run as long as you're there to back me up'. She was supposed to be here with him, dealing with this with him. With him. She wasn't supposed to ever leave or be gone. Now he would never get to tell her how he ever felt....
He pushed the depressing thought out of his mind as he reached the room filled with monitors and priceless equipment. Taking a deep breath he marched over to the computer, glad that he had the chance to be alone again. Concentrating, he tacked in the coordinates of the anomaly they had found-he had them memorized by now as he had studied them so much in planning. It didn't take long for the satellite to pull up the GPS image. "Holy shit" his voice was breathless at his find and he took a step back for a better view-to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him in his grief.
The anomaly wasn't an anomaly anymore. It was a fucking pyramid. 591Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbYC2vgBrco
"Holy. Shit." A smile broke out across his face and he almost called out her name. Almost. He rushed back to the keyboard and put in the commands for the satellite to zoom in at maximum. There was more...he just couldn't make out what exactly. But there was most definitely a pyramid and he quickly realized that the mountain face they had been under was in fact the pyramid. Jesus he wished they had known before. He leaned there against the table chewing on the inside of his mouth-a habit he had when in concentration. Something was gnawing away at the back of his mind and it wasn't the discovery of the pyramid.591Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYX6ahiDBdj
....
Clive O'Rourke watched as James left the room to look for Max, throwing an apologetic look over his shoulder before he closed the door behind him. As soon as that door closed, Clive closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, savoring the peace and quiet. It didn't last long though as the sat-phone that he had hidden away in his closet pierced the silence with a sharp shrill. Quickly, he moved from his chair, opened the closet door and pulled the phone from a hidden compartment in the wall behind his clothes.
"This better be some good damn news, Alaisdair. Where's Molly?" he all but growled. He wasn't pleased with what Max had told him, and even though he knew what the odds of her actually have dying were, it still wasn't something he wanted to hear from someone else. Especially Max. Poor Kid.
"Relax yer britches father time, she's fine. He reported in after he found her. All is well and Operation Edin is still on cue." Alaisdair cackled into the phone before shouting at someone in the distance ,"Watch it with that, will yew?!" followed by a crash and men shouting at each other in tongues. Clive groaned. Some things never change...like Alaisdair's awful accent. Then again he was never pleased with the way the Scots had sounded over the years... Or the Irish for that matter. "Ya know with as long as these guys have been alive, ya think they wuld've acquired some sense...ah well." Clive could practically see the man shrugging it off.
"Are you finished?" Clive mumbled with a glance to his watch. "Because I have more pressing matters to attend, like getting my team to safer grounds. Speaking of which, " he crossed the room to sit back at his desk where his latest data had been set. "How long before the Reemergence begins?"
Alaisdair was silent a moment before answering. "I assume she's in the Pyramid, what with all the ice melting and earthquakes and whatnot.. I still have to wait for further contact before knowing for real though."
Clive mulled that over before asking his next question. "and the locations of the Lost Halves?" he was hoping for a certain answer but when Alaisdair sighed heavily into the phone, he dreaded the answer.
"Someone has been digging around in South America. No real information on the bastard other than the fact that he looked like a poof and he's called..."papers shuffled as Alaisdair was looking for the answer.
"Alaisdair, you should know this information goddamnit." It was like dealing with a child sometimes!
"-The Operator...sounds stupid if you ask me." Alaisdair ignored Clive's retort alltogether. These young ones were so arrogant.
The name made Clive pause though...he had heard it before. It was mentioned briefly back stateside before he flew out to Base camp in the Arctic. Hmm. "If it's not too much of a trifling task for your short attention span, I want more information on him. I'll do some digging myself."
"Of course, your majesty." Alaisdair added sarcastically. Clive could sense the distance and grew irritable.
"I'm serious." he barked. "Don't fuck around on this. You've had centuries to do that, now is the time to be serious. Reemergence means a new beginning for us, and I want to know what this ' Operator' is doing mucking around looking for the Halves. You read me?"
"Loud and clear" Alaisdair replied.
With that, Clive ended the transmission. There was so much to accomplish and it felt like time was running out already. He stared off into the distance thinking about his daughter and hoping that through all of this, she would be strong. He smiled then, remembering when he had first found her. His little Molly.
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