“Technically, later tonight, three hours past midnight.”
Three in the morning. Not much time left to figure it out.
“What I don’t understand is why this wasn’t settled a century ago,” Jack said. “Why weren’t the device and the Mechanism ready to go a hundred years ago, or even fifty years ago? Why are we faced with this dilemma right now?”
Diesel said, “Oh, it was set to go about eighty years back. A very smart man named Bravo Elroy, who was an elite scientist, developed the device over the span of a couple of decades.
“Once he completed it and it was launched at the planet, the Solution would nullify any large-scale toxicity from the heatwave of the supernova, turning Tryxas into a big paperweight in the sky. But they would have to wait until Dravo went supernova and the blast wave heated up Tryxas before the device could be deployed to stop the toxic cloud from forming and drifting into populated areas.”
“I feel like there is a bigbutcoming,” Jack said.
“But seventeen years ago, Tando Elroy, the aging son of the elite scientist who had created the Solution, decided his family had not been compensated enough for the great work his father had done. So Tando did something illegal and rather dreadful.”
Madelaine asked, “What did he do?”
The Secret Keeper answered this time. “He was the one who stole the intact device, which was under guard, along with the Mechanism from Alpha-Prime, which, let me tell you, was a feat of skill and daring. The Mechanism is purported to be over eight feet tall, three feet wide and heavy as granite.
“Tando separated the device into pieces and hid them. He moved the Mechanism to one of five possible launch points across the galaxy. Initially, they’d set it on Alpha-Prime for convenience, since that was where Bravo Elroy was from.”
“Is that why I’ve been roaming around on a scavenger hunt for weeks, collecting pieces from wherever Tando hid them?”
“Not exactly,” the Secret Keeper said. “Tando Elroy was caught a few months after the theft by a clever bounty hunter. He was secured in facility where a special section of Alpha-Prime law enforcement was tasked with getting the information from him by any means necessary.
“Tando has been negotiating all these years in an effort to secure a better plea deal for himself by only telling them every couple of years where another piece of the device could be found.He knew once Dravo exploded, they would give him anything he wanted to get all the information.”
“The Paladin Cabal?” Madelaine asked.
Diesel said, “No. That is a separate entity, but they work closely with the Alpha-Prime authorities in this matter. The Paladin Cabal was tasked with keeping the parts of the Solution separated and hidden in new locations for the Paladin Courier to collect when the time came.”
The Secret Keeper said, “And now the time has come.”
Diesel added, “Tando Elroy had given up all of the pieces of the device but hadn’t divulged the location of the Mechanism needed to launch the assembled device. There are four choices, since it’s not on Alpha-Prime anymore.”
“He was about to tell the authorities everything in order to receive a sweet plea deal to set him free, but someone murdered him last night,” the Secret Keeper said. “As far as anyone knows, he never revealed the location.”
“That’s unfortunate,” Jack said. He sent a worried glance to Madelaine.
Madelaine’s mind was suddenly going a thousand revolutions a second. “We need to figure out where he hid the Mechanism.”
“Yes. That would be great,” Diesel said.
“Wherecouldit be?” she asked.
Diesel shook his head. “It could be literally anywhere.”
“I meant, what are the four other locations?” Madelaine asked.
Diesel said sheepishly, “Ichor Delta, Epsilon Paulson, an uninhabited planet on the far edge of the Tri-Spiral Galaxy that’s likely too far to reach in time and, well, Earth, of course.”
“Earth is a possible launch site?” Madelaine said excitedly.
“Yes. But don’t get your hopes up that you’ll find it here. Wehavebeen quietly searching for seventeen years with noresults. The Mechanism is large and not easily transported, especially not on this narrow part of Earth where Alphas are allowed.”
“But I was able to land here without you knowing,” Madelaine said.
“Yes. And trust me, you and I will have a serious discussion about that once we save the known galaxies,” Diesel said. “How did you do it?”
“Granite knolls that thwart your sensors.”
