The Countdown (The Taking #3)(64)

“So what exactly are we looking at?” I asked uncertainly.

“Yeah, I don’t get it. Why all the secrets?” Tyler shrugged, moving to stand right beside me. The back of his hand brushed across mine, and I knew it wasn’t an accident. My pulse thrummed in my throat, and even while we stood there in a room full of people, I felt my cheeks get hot, and I forgot all about being mad at him.

The plane down in the hangar was impressive enough. Military. Black and wedge-shaped, making it hard to tell where the body ended and the wings began. There was a small, narrow window tinted so dark it was impossible to see inside.

It vaguely reminded me of the drone I’d blown up outside of Blackwater, but as far as I could tell, nothing about it warranted keeping it deep underground like this, or even giving it the badass top-secret name: The Eden Project.

From what I could see, it was just another cool-looking jet.

“I’m with them,” Simon protested. “If you have something to show us, get to it already.”

“What you’re looking at is the first self-launching spacecraft of its kind.” She nodded toward the drone-like plane. “A replica of the EVE—that’s what we dubbed it, the M’alue’s ship. Or at least the parts we were able to recover.” She grinned. “This is where science fiction becomes reality.”

“As opposed to the thing where most of us are cloned, or at least partially cloned, from alien DNA?” Simon balked. “And really? Adam and Eve? You had to go there?”

But Molly just nodded. “Okay. Yes. The cloning is pretty impressive. But think about it. Now, at least in theory, the M’alues are no longer the only ones capable of traveling outside the solar system.”

I turned away from the glass, considering the implications. “If you have this, why not set Adam free? Why not let him go home?”

A heavy sigh escaped her lips. “Like I said, in theory. We’ve got all the parts right—we know that. We just haven’t been able to get it airborne.”

“And you’re showing us this because . . . ?” Jett asked.

Dr. Clarke answered, “Like I explained upstairs, Adam wasn’t the only thing to react to your arrival.” She shot a meaningful look at Tyler. “The moment you arrived here at the ISA, that ship reacted as well.” She looked to Molly then, who gave an almost imperceptible nod, acknowledging Dr. Clarke’s statement. “That ship down there sent out some sort of signal of its own.” When she looked back at me, she added, “Then, when you showed up, the exact same message went out again.”

Simon locked eyes with Dr. Clarke. “When you say message, what sort of message was it?”

Molly went back to the monitor. “A map,” Molly explained, taking over the explanation as she pulled up an image. “See for yourself.”

What I saw made me take a step back. It filled the screen.

But it was Jett who confessed what I already knew—that the map on the monitor was the exact one Tyler had drawn the night in the desert. Jett pulled out his cell phone and held it up so everyone could see. “Identical,” he said as if everyone hadn’t noticed.

“How can a ship send out a message?” Tyler asked. “And how did that same image end up in my head?”

Dr. Clarke raised her brows. “We don’t know what triggered the ship’s comm system. Kind of odd that it coincided with your arrival though, don’t you think?” Her voice was bone dry.

“You don’t think we’re involved, do you? At least not intentionally.” I couldn’t believe they thought we were somehow in league with the M’alue. That we’d do anything to draw them here on purpose.

I thought about how my dad had worried the aliens had sent those hikers after me, and how Chuck had tried to relay some sort of message to me right before blowing his brains out.

“No. We’re buried so far underground, the only signals that can get in or out have to be relayed through our satellites. When you two arrived, the EVE piggybacked onto one of those signals to get its message out,” Dr. Clarke agreed. “Whoever the signal was meant for was basically being told how to find us. How to find you.” She looked at Tyler, then me. “Any idea why that might be?”

I shook my head. Then something else occurred to me. “The other signal, the one you intercepted. You said you couldn’t decipher it. Can we hear it?”

Mutely, she stared at me. I could see her considering it. I wasn’t sure she’d agree, but then, as if it was never even an issue, almost like What difference would it make, she took Molly’s place at the computer. She entered a series of commands—more security codes, passwords, that kind of thing—and then she stood back.

After a moment, static filled the air.

Garbled white noise.

Except it wasn’t white noise at all. It was a message . . .

The message.

“Oh crap,” Tyler whispered.

“What?” Simon asked from the other side of me. “What is it?”

My stomach dropped. “You can’t hear it?” I asked, suddenly realizing Tyler and I were the only ones who understood it.

“I don’t get it. It’s just static, right?” Jett said, looking at me and then Tyler.

I looked at Tyler too. My throat felt dry when I explained, “They said, ‘The Returned must die.’”