A Wilderness of Mirrors Read online

  A Wilderness of Mirrors

  - A Jim Meade: Martian PI Adventure -

  By

  R.J. Johnson

  A Wilderness of Mirrors

  A Jim Meade: Martian P.I Adventure

  By: R.J. Johnson

  Copyright 2019

  R.J. Johnson

  First Edition

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One – Trouble Man

  Chapter Two – Running Short

  Chapter Three - Breakout

  Chapter Four – Bag of Luck

  Chapter Five – Smoke and Mirrors

  Chapter Six – Lessons Learned

  Chapter Seven – First Light

  Chapter Eight –Standoff

  Chapter Nine – A Case

  Chapter Ten - Bait

  Chapter Eleven - Hook

  Chapter Twelve - Line

  Chapter Thirteen - Sinker

  Chapter Fourteen – Search Party

  Chapter Fifteen – Shangri-La

  Chapter Sixteen – High Life

  Chapter Seventeen – Brace Yourself

  Chapter Eighteen – Specimen One

  Chapter Nineteen – Take a Tour

  Chapter Twenty – Believe It or Not

  Chapter Twenty-One - Respect

  Chapter Twenty-Two - Camouflage

  Chapter Twenty-Three – Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

  Chapter Twenty-Four - Confession

  Chapter Twenty-Five - Redemption

  Chapter Twenty-Six – Phoenix

  Chapter Twenty-Seven - Denial

  Chapter Twenty-Eight – Anger

  Chapter Twenty-Nine – Bargaining

  Chapter Thirty - Depression

  Chapter Thirty-One - Acceptance

  Chapter Thirty-Two – Bon Voyage

  Chapter Thirty-Three - Favor

  Chapter Thirty-Four – Deal With the Devil

  Chapter Thirty-Five – Landing Party

  Chapter Thirty-Six – San Angeles

  Chapter Thirty-Seven – Hotel California

  Chapter Thirty-Eight – Shadows on the Cave

  Chapter Thirty-Nine – The First Casualty of War

  Chapter Forty – Focus

  Chapter Forty-One – Confession

  Chapter Forty-Two – The Fifth Column

  Chapter Forty-Three – Bigger is Better

  Chapter Forty-Four – Sleep Tight

  Chapter Forty-Five – Get To Work

  Chapter Forty-Six – Dress to Impress

  Chapter Forty-Seven – If You Build It

  Chapter Forty-Eight – Terminate the Contract

  Chapter Forty-Nine – Gathering Clouds

  Chapter Fifty – They Will Come

  Chapter Fifty-One – Never Meet Your Heroes

  Chapter Fifty-Two – Friend or Foe?

  Chapter Fifty-Three – Do the Right Thing

  Chapter Fifty-Four – Fighting Fire With Fire

  Chapter Fifty-Five – Smoke and Mirrors

  Chapter Fifty-Six – Deal? Or No Deal?

  Chapter Fifty-Seven – Double Trouble

  Chapter Fifty-Eight - Deal

  Chapter Fifty-Nine – Left Hand Turn

  Chapter Sixty – Double Vision

  Chapter Sixty-One – Rush Hour

  Chapter Sixty-Two – Taking Charge

  Chapter Sixty-Three - Firecracker

  Chapter Sixty-Four – Safe Passage

  Chapter Sixty-Five – Doubt

  Chapter Sixty-Six – Odds and Even

  Chapter Sixty-Seven - Sacrifice

  Chapter Sixty-Eight – Promises

  Chapter Sixty-Nine – Celestial Bodies

  Chapter Seventy – SAR

  Chapter Seventy-One – Building a New Beginning

  Chapter Seventy-Two – Second Chance

  Chapter Seventy-Three - Pyrrhic Victory

  Chapter Seventy-Four – A Promise Kept

  Epilogue

  For my mother and father.

  (By the way, if you enjoy this book and have a moment, I’d love if you took a moment to please leave a review on Amazon.com and Goodreads.com! Independent authors like me live and die by the amount of five star reviews we get, so if you can help a struggling artist eat and pay rent by leaving a review, that would be incredibly helpful!!)

  Thanks!

  Your friend,

  R.J.

  February 28th 2019

  OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR:

  Jim Meade: Martian P.I. Series

  Change in Management

  Rosetta

  A Wilderness of Mirrors

  The Twelve Stones Series:

  The Twelve Stones

  The Twelve Stones: SkyFire

  The Twelve Stones: Petrichor

  The Twelve Stones: Orenda

  The Twelve Stones: Eunoia

  Prologue

  He couldn’t avoid the truth any longer - they were out of time.

  Professor Alex Benson chewed at the chalk in his hand, gazing up at the massive blackboard looming over him. His students and colleagues often teased him for using the ancient technology – after all, he could have the most advanced smartboard in the system whenever he desired.

  But the chalk and blackboard created a special connection to his work that he never really felt while pushing equations around on a holographic screen.

  He ignored the bitter taste of the chalk in his mouth and refocused on the problem at hand. He and his wife had been working for far too long to allow some lowly Coalition bureaucrat like Ambassador Michael Palmetto to come along and ruin their carefully laid plans.

  After all, he and his wife were working on the noblest pursuit of all - save humanity from itself. Given the chance, Palmetto and his Coalition lackeys would ruin everything he had planned.

  The Last War had been a near-extinction level event for humanity. The exchange of nuclear weapons more than 85 years ago nearly sent their species back to the stone age and arrested any real technological progress for the next fifty years at least.

  Who was to say they wouldn’t do it again?

  That’s why he and his wife, Dr. Julie Hahn, used their work to improve the lives around them. It was the most reasonable thing to do in the face of mad political leaders. And for most of his life, he had been content with working alongside his wife on their passion projects.

  For the most part, he’d spent the first sixty-two years of his life as happy as anyone could ask for. He’d achieved his lifelong goal of founding a city on Mars, which had turned out even better than he or his wife ever expected. He was loved by a beautiful, caring woman. His peers respected him.

  How else could a man conquer life and leave a lasting legacy?

  Then, five years ago his entire perspective had been changed. The Consortium, a hyperpower made up of some of the greediest examples of humanity history had to offer, thought they could bend Mother Nature to their will by bringing one of the largest (and most valuable) asteroids closer to its base of operations near the Homeworld.

  But when a madman tried crashing that asteroid into the Homeworld to sterilize it of humanity, it was only through dumb luck that total disaster was averted.

  The professor and his wife
watched in horror with the rest of the system as the Rosetta asteroid plunged toward the Homeworld on its deadly mission to wipe out all life there.

  And like the rest, they cheered after an ingenious maneuver saved the Homeworld from an extinction-level event.

  But that moment held additional significance for him and his wife. In the days following the near-disaster, the professor and his wife talked at length about how it was time for them to get off the sidelines and use their repository of knowledge, experience and technology to preserve and protect human life.

  And so, they went to work. Over the next five years, the professor and his wife worked a plan that they believed would bring humanity to its fullest potential.

  Unfortunately, the Coalition (goody-two-shoes that they were), learned about the technologies the professor and his wife had been cultivating in their settlement located in the vast Martian outback.

  Now, with the Coalition army gathered outside the gates to their home, the professor knew they had finally run out of time. They were so close. So many pieces of the puzzle were in place. They needed a few more days and an extra pair of hands to make it all work.

  He continued to gnaw at the chalk, worrying the point with his front teeth when he felt a gentle touch on his arm. He looked up with a start, then smiled at the woman with a blonde bob standing next to him.

  It was his wife, Dr. Julie Hahn who had surprised him. He had been so deep in thought that he hadn’t even heard her enter the room. Her shining blue eyes looked up at him.

  “We’re deep in it now,” she commented. “Our friends outside are losing patience. They’re unloading the heavy artillery.”

  “I’m flattered,” he said, a grim expression on his face.

  “You should be,” she said. “It looks like they brought half the Coalition army to arrest us.”

  “We’re so close…” he trailed off, a defeated expression replacing the grim one on his face.

  “What we’ve begun here is too important to give up now,” she said, caressing his face. “We won’t… can’t let this be the end.”

  The professor grabbed his wife’s hand. She had heart. It was what he loved most about her.

  “I haven’t given up yet,” he said, smiling back at her. “We have the tools and most of our people are in place, it’s the timeline I’m concerned with. What we need is another pair of hands who we can trust.”

  Dr. Hahn pulled his body closer to her own and he enjoyed the gentle warmth of her body. She nuzzled his face, purring slightly. “The universe will provide an answer. It always has before.”

  The professor squeezed her hand, drawing strength from her presence. “How did I get to be so lucky to be married to someone like you?”

  His wife returned turned him until he was facing her.

  “We have to move forward,” she replied softly. “Doubt kills the reality we wish to create.”

  Her quiet calm infused him with a new energy, feeling more confident in his plan than ever.

  “Not even the gods know how much I love you,” he whispered back to her.

  She squeezed his hand in support. The computer began chiming and she turned to it. “The Negotiator is calling.”

  “Then we shan’t keep him waiting.” He leaned back, feeling a nervous rush of excitement surge through him. Everything he had worked for his entire life was about to be put into motion.

  It was a surreal moment.

  The screen to his left flickered to life as a man dressed in black appeared.

  “Professor Alex Benson,” the Negotiator began, his voice almost mechanical in its delivery. “The Coalition has found you guilty of violating the Treaty of ‘44 and its ban on weapons of mass destruction. You are hereby ordered to stand down, unlock the doors to the colony known as Shangri-La and give up control of any weapons currently in your possession to Coalition forces.”

  The Negotiator paused as if expecting the professor to immediately surrender.

  The professor ignored the Coalition MP. He was only a lackey after all. The only man who had any real power was likely back at his cushy headquarters in New Plymouth. Besides, he had more important things to worry about, like preparing the base’s defenses.

  The Negotiator sighed then continued to read from his script.

  “If you do not comply with our instructions within the next two minutes, we are authorized to use deadly force.”

  The Negotiator folded the piece of paper and replaced it in his pocket. He leaned forward with a hopeful look on his face.

  “The Ambassador is willing to discuss terms of your surrender if that will allow us to avoid bloodshed.”

  The professor glanced at his wife who nodded back at him. He turned to the monitor, hoping to project as much defiance as he felt.

  “You can tell the Ambassador to go to hell.”

  “That is disappointing Professor Benson,” the Negotiator said, leaning back in his chair. “But I shall convey your message.”

  The display winked off and the professor and his wife glanced at each other.

  An explosion rocked the complex, throwing the pair to the ground. Benson fell, feeling the wind go out of him.

  It had begun.

  He crawled over to a nearby control panel, coughing heavily through the gathering smoke in the lab.

  “I’m deploying the blast shields!” the professor called out over the noise of the attack.

  He typed quickly on his keyboard, initiating the sequence that would protect the facility from another onslaught from the Coalition. The blast shields wouldn’t last long – especially if they had deployed a heavy cruiser in the area. It was time to bring their active measures online to show Palmetto they were serious.

  The professor turned to see his wife already typing furiously on the keyboard in front of her.

  “I’m deploying the nanites,” she said.

  “How long until they fly?” he shouted, sitting back in his chair in front of the console.

  “Thirty seconds,” she called back.

  The facility was rocked by another explosion – although this one felt distant. The blast shields were doing their job for now. He grabbed the side of the computer console and shook his head. This was not going according to plan.

  The professor looked over at the display where the nanobot countdown was moving excruciatingly slow. The building shook as the Coalition fired on Shangri-La once again.

  They needed a few more minutes. The professor opened the communications screen and pinged the Negotiator. “I want to speak with Palmetto. Put him on.”

  The screen flickered, and a man with a thin beard outlining his jaw appeared on the screen in front of him.

  “Professor Benson, there’s no need to shout. The transmission is quite good.”

  “Is this what you really want Palmetto? War?” Professor Benson spat at him. He never hated anyone more than he did at this moment. “All we want to do out here is help people build a better life out here.”

  “And on a foundation of illegal weapons no less,” the Ambassador replied in a calm tone. “It’s those we have an issue with. We couldn’t care less about your little cultist ideas.”

  The professor felt the rage build inside him as he listened to Palmetto mock him for his beliefs. They stung a little more than they should, which he blamed on the fact he was so close to accomplishing their goals.

  He glanced back at his wife. They exchanged a meaningful glance, knowing there would be no turning back.

  “Palmetto,” he began coldly. “This is your one chance to take your people home alive.”

  “I’ve been patient long enough, Professor Benson,” Palmetto replied, his voice becoming angry. “You will release the blast shields and open your facility to my men, or they will turn your little paradise into a smoking crater.”

  The professor looked away from the screen and signed.

  “Professor Benson?” Palmetto inquired, his image growing larger on the viewscreen.

  “You win Ambass
ador,” he said, sounding resigned. “I’ll deactivate the blast shields.”

  “Good,” Palmetto said, settling back into his chair. “Coalition MPs will bring you in and once you arrive at the UN building, and you can show me what you’ve been up to out there.”

  “Palmetto,” he said glaring at the Ambassador, “I promise to show you exactly what my wife and I have been up to out here.”

  Outside the dome, a set of massive steel doors began retracting away from the glass-enclosed city they had built together. Sunlight, weak as it was on Mars, began pouring into the massive structure that housed more than 300,000 people.

  The professor took up position next to his wife, watching the Coalition MPs line up before they marched on their facility. He felt for his wife’s hand, and gave it a quick squeeze, feeling one in return.

  The gesture was significant. She was with him, the whole way. No matter the consequences.

  Coalition troops began marching toward Shangri-La’s main gate, drawing closer to a series of panels located near the entrance.

  As they approached, several panels unlocked, allowing a green mist to seep out of the vents.

  The mist moved quickly through the air as if possessing a mind of its own and began surrounding the Coalition troops, feelings its ways around the MPs’ power armor.

  Soldiers began to scream and claw at their armor, as the nanites began eating away at their flesh and dissolving the material that was keeping them alive in the thin Martian atmosphere.

  The MPs sent to destroy the professor and his city began falling to the ground as their armor and flesh dissolved into dust. Men and women screamed in agony as the green mist of nanites began working in earnest. After only a few moments, everything the mist touched was reduced to nothing more than tiny particles of dust.

  Even the vehicles the Coalition brought along had been destroyed. Approximately ninety seconds had passed since the nanites were released and the Martian landscape was completely empty. There was no evidence of the army that had been there only a few moments before. All that remained was a slight greenish tinge to the otherwise red Martian landscape.

  His wife breathed out a sigh of relief. “It is done.”