The World Keys (The Syker Key Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

something.
    “That final Key isn’t in a location. It is a location. That Key belongs to every location it was used. Every place it was used contains it’s echo. So all we have to do is listen for the echo and...”
    Jessica concentrated for a moment, then held out her hand. The third Key suddenly appeared in her hand, quietly glowing. Within seconds the glow subsided. Arthur and John looked at her slack jawed, while Pan started to laugh.
    “Brilliant,” was all Pan said.
    “How did you know?” John asked her.
    “The world is criss crossed by Ley lines, locations on the Earth’s surface where the magnetic field is stronger.”
    The very concept of Ley lines was an artifice created by Watkins in the early twentieth century, and he didn’t really have a clue what he was talking about. Jessica, it would seem, was reading his mind.
    “I know, it sounds like bunk, but the Ley lines are real, just not what the mystics thought they were. And it would make sense that the Key of Location would situate itself directly in the path of a Ley line.”
    “Why here though? Why Baalbek?” John asked.
    “Baalbek was a good bet. It was placed here because this is at the focal point of several Ley lines.”
    He couldn’t argue he daughter’s logic, because it had apparently worked. “So now what?” Arthur asked.
    “Now we have to save the Earth,” John answered for Jessica.
    ***
    John quickly returned to Alaska. Even with what he had shown the rest of the family, it was still always easier to return to a place you had been.
    The man he had followed into the complex, Chuck, was busily writing down notes from dials in the control room whence he had left him.
    John paid close attention. It was time to shut the damned thing down, but in a way that would make the government think it was inherently unstable.

The Singsong Rhythm of Liars
    Rob Melnick had Atlantean blood in him.
    So he had been told anyway, and if true it meant he was a kind of ancient royalty, and certainly he was doing his best to fulfill that legacy in this lifetime.
    He tended to have the ears of those in power, which meant a lot of travel.
    This day he sat in the office of the Vice President of the United States, casually observing the self serving artwork adorning the walls. He had no interest in such things, felt they were a waste of time and energy. History didn’t matter a damned bit after all, since it was so variable.
    It was simply up to him to do what he was told. And what he was told was to keep the others in line. It had proven to be a very profitable enterprise.
    “Listen, Harry,” he told the Vice President, “I don’t really care what your problems are. This is not a matter of preference. We need to cut NASA’s budget by another twenty million, it’s that simple.”
    “That’s going to be hard to justify after the cuts we did last year.”
    “No it won’t. People will holler for about a day, then the cuts will go through and a week later nobody will remember.”
    “Nobody but NASA,” the Vice President offered.
    Rob smiled that contemptuous smile he was getting used to. “Well that will hardly matter, won’t it?”
    This was the problem with dealing with politicians. Every once in a while you would get one who thought they had ideals, who thought they were immune to the corruption and politicking that truly drove the decision making process.
    It was Rob’s role to gently remind them. And sometimes not so gently. There was hardly any politician who made it to power, anywhere, not just the States, without compromise. And that compromise always came with a price. NASA’s budget would be cut, and he knew where it would be cut from next.
    A number of asteroids that NASA had not seen were on a collision course with Earth, and only a hundred and thirty days away. The asteroids had been manipulated so that they would not discharge, and thus be nearly invisible until it was too late.
    At least that was the plan.
    He’d been told the rocks