Domination (A C.H.A.O.S. Novel) - By Jon Lewis Page 0,40

was willing to go hand-to-hand with one of the Thule, but he was scared to talk to his own dad by himself?

“All right, here we go,” the camera operator said through a microphone.

The air shimmered, and suddenly Santiago Romero was there in the room, fully dimensional save for the fact that he was slightly transparent.

Lobo, as he was often called, was tall like Oz, but he had a bit of a paunch and he wasn’t as muscular. His shoulders were hunched and his dark skin looked almost sallow, but Colt could still see the arrogance in his eyes.

He was in a solitary confinement holding cell at Fort Leavenworth for an act of treason against all of humanity—all because he had been paranoid that the government was going to remove him from his role as director of CHAOS. He had conspired with a Thule assassin to kill the deputy director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, a federal judge, the director of the CHAOS Military Academy, and two United States senators.

“Technology is an amazing thing, isn’t it?” Lobo said. “I mean, here I am locked away, and you’re . . . Where are you?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Oz said, his eyes fixed on the floor instead of on his father.

“How have you been, son?”

“Don’t do that.” Oz shook his head. “Don’t act like everything is fine between us, because it isn’t.”

Lobo sighed. “I understand that you’re upset, but—”

“You don’t understand anything,” Oz said. “Forget what you put me through . . . that you humiliated me and that they kicked me out of the academy. What about Mom? What about all the people you had murdered? And their families? And for what? A stupid job.”

“I did it for you.”

“You what?” Oz stood there slack-jawed, his eyes brimming with tears. “You’re kidding, right? You did it for yourself.”

“Why are you here, son? To taunt me? Or did someone put you up to this?”

“No one put me up to anything! And I’m not your son. Not anymore.”

“You must be enjoying this,” Lobo said, turning to Colt.

“No, sir.”

“Leave him out of this.”

“I tried to,” Lobo said. “I told them that their plan was insane—that it was treasonous to send children against the Thule—but they wouldn’t listen to reason.” Lobo curled his lip, seemed to grow stronger as he spewed his anger. “And yet I’m the one who is locked up.”

A familiar rage whispered at the back of Colt’s skull, and for a moment he savored the thought of snapping Romero’s neck. But he pushed it away. “I forgive you,” Colt said, his voice barely a whisper.

Lobo stepped back as if struck. “What?”

Colt stood up and walked over to Oz. “Even though you tried to kill me, I forgive you.”

“How touching.”

“I hate what you did,” Oz said as he wiped his nose with the back of his sleeve. “I hate that you’re a murderer—that you destroyed so many families and that you actually think you did it for me. But that’s between you and God.” He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “And even though you don’t deserve it, I came here to tell you that I forgive you too.”

: :

CHAPTER 28 : :

I realize most of you wish you were at lunch, but can anyone tell me what this is?” Agent Rhane held up a metal object about the size of a Rubik’s Cube. He was standing in the middle of Hologram Room 3 with members of Phantom, Jackal, and Blizzard Squads, and he didn’t look happy.

“Come on now,” he said, his one good eye scanning the crowd. “McAlister? Romero?”

Agent O’Keefe shook his head as he watched them through the glass wall of the command center overhead. “Will one of you numbskulls answer the man?” he said through the loudspeaker. “You’re not only embarrassing yourselves, you’re embarrassing the entire academy.”

Jonas raised his hand sheepishly.

“Now how did I know you’d be the one to answer,” Rhane said. “All right, Cadet Hickman. Go ahead.”

“I believe it’s called a portal cube, sir.”

“You sure about that?” Rhane glared at Jonas, who turned his attention to a spot on the floor near his shoes.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good, because you’re right,” Rhane said, breaking into a rare smile. “This little doohickey is indeed called a portal cube, and it happens to be one of the most powerful bits of technology this world has ever seen. All you have to do is enter the coordinates of the place you’d like to end up and it’ll open a sixty-second portal.”

“Does that include the girls’