Origin Read online

  Marginalized at the best of times, the American Indian population of the United States has faced major problems with poverty, education, health and welfare, and this condition is nowhere so obvious as at Pine Ridge.

  As Adams rode his bicycle unsteadily to work, he considered himself lucky to have a job at all. It wasn’t a good job – and certainly not in the same league as his previous employment, which had come to such a tragic end – but it was a job nevertheless. The wage was low but at least he didn’t have to worry about his rent.

  With less than four per cent of the reservation’s land suitable for farming, and very much ignored by the federal government, the result was that poverty was endemic and conditions were ripe for alcoholism, crime, and other associated problems. And so as Adams arrived at the small tourist hut at the edge of the Badlands National Park, he considered himself one of the lucky ones.

  The Oglala Sioux Tribe is a proud one, part of the seven tribes that had once made up the Great Sioux Nation.

  Matt ‘Free Bear’ Adams belonged to the tribe, which was known by its members more properly as the Oglala Lakota Oyate. Its fabled ancestors had fought the US military in Red Cloud’s War and the Great Sioux War, and had been amongst those massacred at Wounded Knee.

  Adams’ own ancestry was less clear, however. Found outside the tribal police headquarters in Pine Ridge at an estimated age of two days old, his parentage had never been determined. He was taken under the wing of the local police chief, brought in to live with the man’s own family. This had only lasted the first few years of Adams’ life, however. When the kindly old man was gunned down in the city one cold November night, Adams had soon found himself being passed from pillar to post. An orphanage here, a foster home there, he had lived in more than two dozen places before he entered his teens.

  But the young Adams was resilient, the spirit inculcated in him by the police chief in those early years never far from the surface. He never let the situation get him down, never gave in, and always kept fighting.

  It was Adams’ fighting spirit that finally brought him to the attention of Jim ‘Big Bear’ Maddison, the leader of the Strong Heart Akicita warrior society and a distant relative of the great Chief Crazy Horse, best known for leading a war party against US government forces at the Battles of the Rosebud and the Little Bighorn.

  Like the police chief before him, Maddison brought Adams under his wing. When he was introduced to the tribal elders, they recognized not only his fighting spirit, but also his deeper, spiritual nature, and so took their own interest in him.

  The tribe’s traditional war, hunting and tracking skills were treated as something of an anachronism by most Lakota, no longer considered relevant for contemporary needs. Such skills had not been passed down from generation to generation since the 1800s, and yet some of the Lakota holy men still retained knowledge of the old ways.

  These men observed nature and formed a relationship with all aspects of the world – animals, plants, and the land itself. And so when it came to seemingly physical processes such as tracking, they would not rely on visible sign alone, but also listened to what the world was telling them about itself.

  Not many people were capable of this connection to the earth, or attaining such spiritual alignment, but the young Adams had shown an incredible aptitude for the teaching of the Lakota elders. This had led in turn to trouble with other members of the tribe, who argued vocally that a child with no tribal lineage or ancestry should never be allowed to receive such instruction.

  And so despite Big Bear’s protection, Adams’ life was not an easy one, never able to avoid the stigma of his orphaned status, and constantly having to fight to get what was given free to most. But his spirit shone through, until he became the most highly regarded tracker on the reservation, and had the name ‘Free Bear’ gifted to him by Maddison and the Lakota holy men, to illustrate how he had freed himself from the trappings of ancestry and made a name for himself through sheer ability and force of will.

  What Maddison and the tribal elders would think of him now – ready to take out a group of tourists on the Badlands Native American Experience – was anyone’s guess. But as he led the party of twelve tourists on horseback into the wonders of the Badlands, he wasn’t thinking about disappointing Maddison.

  Instead, all he could think about was Lynn.

  The tour was four days long, and the group camped out overnight, gathering around the campfire to discuss the day’s experiences and listen to Adams tell tales about the land’s mythology.

  Despite the low night-time temperatures, Adams spent his nights out beneath the stars. There were millions of them, brilliantly bright in the absence of manmade lighting, and as Adams sipped a cup of nettle tea, he felt his mind – his spirit – start to roam the cosmos.

  But then thoughts intruded, bringing his astral journey back down to earth with a jolt. Lynn. They had been in love, married, then divorced – and now he would never see her again until he, too, ascended into the spirit world.

  It was in the Badlands National Park where they had first met, and Adams took another swig from the cup and smiled as he remembered.

  He was just twenty at the time, nearly two decades before, and had been hunting a male pronghorn across the grassy plain, a lone animal that must have become separated from its herd. He didn’t intend to kill it; his aim was to get as close as he could to it without it realizing. He wanted to be able to be so close that he could touch it. That was skill.

  And so he had lain in wait for hours, tracked the beast for miles, and stealthily moved closer, ever closer. He had been within just ten feet of the magnificent animal when he had sensed them.

  Two people. Travelling on foot. Just over one mile away, to the north-east.

  He listened harder, ear close to the ground, senses acutely tuned. He prayed the big pronghorn wouldn’t sense them too.

  He edged closer – eight feet, six feet, four, two. The sounds of the unknown pair were louder now, but Adams was sure he could reach out and touch the animal before it heard them.

  ‘Look at that!’ he heard a young female voice cry out.

  ‘Get your camera!’ he heard another, and that was enough – just as he was reaching, the animal startled, head turning to the high-pitched cries, and then it was in motion, accelerating away across the plain.

  Adams sighed and looked up. There was no use getting angry. What did tourists know? Maybe they should know better but they never did, and Adams had long ago learnt that fact of life.

  He knew the two girls were close now, he could hear them chattering to one another.

  ‘Aw, you were too slow!’

  ‘He got away!’

  ‘Maybe we’ll see him again . . .’

  He decided to have some fun and try and recoup something from the day.

  Perfectly invisible in the long grass, he waited until they were almost on top of him, and then sat bolt upright in front of them.

  He was going to give a comical ‘Boo!’ but his breath caught in his throat as he saw the girl on the left.

  She was the most beautiful girl Matt Adams had ever seen.

  It turned out that the two girls were on spring break from Harvard, and instead of catching a flight to Florida or Cancun and spending the week in drunken debauchery, they had decided to travel the Great Plains and gain some physical insight into their country’s history.

  The beautiful girl was called Evelyn Edwards, and was majoring in astronomy and physics, subjects Adams didn’t immediately see her being interested in. She looked more like a model than a physicist.

  The other girl was her roommate, and was certainly plainer than Lynn – Adams had quickly found out what she liked to be called – and was more the type Adams would associate with astrophysics.

  After apologizing for scaring them and explaining who he was and what he had been doing, Adams had then invited both ladies back to his hometown of Pine Ridge for dinner.

  Lynn’s friend had baulked at the idea b
ut Lynn, clearly interested, had agreed for both of them.

  What followed in the days after was a whirlwind romance, as Adams exposed Lynn to the wonders of the American Great Plains, providing a light-hearted release from the pressure of her studies. It was a sad fact that her friend was soon forgotten, and travelled back on her own after the first two days indicated that she was something of a third wheel.

  On the last day before Lynn was due to go back to Harvard, Adams had taken her out into the Badlands again, and they had sat under the very tree he was now lying under. They had talked long into the night, and then he had reached forward, touching her cheek gently with his fingers.

  And when they had finally kissed, Adams had instinctively known that they were destined to be together.

  The tour came to a merciful end and Adams returned to the cabin that served as base of operations for the tour. He took care of the horses, then showered and changed.

  After receiving his cash payment from the tour manager, he decided to get on his bike and head straight for the nearest bar.

  He wasn’t a drinker, but occasionally – if the nightmares persisted – he tried to see if the alcohol would help him sleep. Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn’t; and sometimes when it did, the dreams came back worse than ever. Fearful of having the nightmares in front of the tourists, he had not slept at all on the tour and was now at the stage where his body was demanding sleep of any kind, even the kind filled with nightmares.

  After just one hour, Adams had had enough. He was already on the verge of being drunk, and feared what would happen if he had any more. He could already tell that the drink wasn’t going to help him sleep this time, and so he paid his tab and left for home.

  Cycling down the streets in the cool night, Adams picked the wrong road twice, which caused him to laugh out loud. You used to be the best tracker there was! Ha! Look at you now, can’t even find your damned house!

  But he eventually did find it, a dilapidated one-storey squat-house – bedroom, bathroom, lounge-diner and kitchenette, small yard outside surrounded by a chain-link fence.

  It wasn’t much but it was home.

  Home sweet home. Adams giggled as he left the bike in the yard and staggered up towards the porch, pulling open the outside screen door.

  Leaning against the door frame, he fumbled for his keys, then fumbled again as he tried to get the key in the lock. He wasn’t quite drunk, but the alcohol was cetainly not aiding his co-ordination.

  Finally, after much cursing, he managed, and stepped through the door into his lounge.

  And then he sensed it for the first time, something he should have picked up long ago.

  There were other people in his house.

  He started to move but stopped in his tracks as he felt the cold steel of a large calibre handgun press hard into the back of his head.

  In an instant, Adams was stone cold sober.

  2

  THE LIGHTS CAME on, blinding in their intensity after the pitch dark, and a sharp pain shot through Adams’ eyes, directly into his brain.

  He got his bearings moments later, and saw there were four men in the room with him, including the one behind him with the gun. They were all dressed in identical dark blue suits, white shirts, dark blue ties. Adams was in no doubt that the other three men also carried guns.

  Two men were out to the flanks, whilst one stood straight in front of him, just two feet away. This man – short crew cut, sharp eyes hidden behind rimless spectacles, his movement fluid, relaxed – approached Adams, staring into his face with barely concealed disdain.

  ‘Where is she?’ he asked in a cold monotone.

  ‘Who?’ Adams asked, genuinely confused, and not just by the alcohol he had consumed that night.

  The man opposite didn’t reply but merely punched Adams straight in the face with a leather-gloved fist.

  Adams’ head rocked back, blood flying from his nose out across the thin carpet. He fell to one knee, momentarily dazed. The pain was sharp, causing his eyes to water reflexively, but he knew that this was the least of his worries.

  ‘Let’s not play games here, Mr Adams,’ the man said calmly, the violence not affecting him in the slightest. ‘You know who we mean. Where is she?’

  Adams shook his head, eyes down at the floor as he spat blood from his mouth. He looked back up. ‘Seriously,’ he said, ‘I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about.’

  The man sighed, rolled his eyes theatrically to the ceiling, and stomped viciously down with a booted foot into Adams’ face.

  His head rocked back again, and he saw stars. His ears popping, he looked back at the man in front of him, eyes questioning.

  ‘Your ex-wife,’ the man explained in exasperation. ‘Dr Evelyn Edwards. Where is she?’

  Adams’ head rang again, but not from being hit. It was confusion. My ex-wife? Lynn? ‘She’s dead,’ Adams said bluntly. Isn’t she?

  ‘If she’s dead,’ the man said ponderously, ‘then how do you explain the email?’

  ‘Email?’ Adams wondered aloud. ‘What email?’

  The suited man came forward to hit Adams again, but he held his hands up, placating. ‘Hey, hey, I don’t know what you’re talking about! I’ve been out on a tour for the past four days!’

  The man paused, considering the matter. ‘You mean you’ve not seen the email?’ he asked at last. He pulled a sheet of paper from a pocket, holding it up directly in front of Adams’ face.

  Adams closed his eyes, re-opened them, trying to focus. It was a print-off from an email. He recognized his own email address, but not the sender.

  He looked harder, clearing the pain from his head as he read the words.

  Matt. It’s Lynn. I need your help. Someone is trying to kill me, but I don’t know who. It might be the military, the government, even NASA. I don’t know who to trust, except you. Please, I know it’s been a long time but I need your help. Meet me at the park. And please come. As soon as you can. Lynn.

  Adams was dumbfounded. Was this message from Lynn? He looked at the date. Two days ago. That was four days after the helicopter crash that was supposed to have killed her.

  ‘So what do you make of it, Mr Adams?’ the man asked. ‘Which “park” is she referring to?’

  Adams’ head was spinning but clarity hit him suddenly. Lynn was alive, in danger, and she needed his help. Why else would the men be here, unless they believed the message was genuine? And if they were trying to find her, with force and with weapons, it could only be for one reason – to finish the job, and make sure she was dead.

  Adams knew he wasn’t up to much at the minute, but the anger that suddenly coursed through his veins seemed to revitalize him. They wanted to kill Lynn? Well, we’ll see about that, Adams thought silently to himself. We’ll damn well see about that!

  His mind and spirit unified as one for the first time in many years. Free Bear jerked backwards, head twisting out of the way of the gun barrel, his hand snaking round to grab the gunman’s arm.

  With the other three men still to draw their weapons, Adams knew he had a chance. His elbow jerked back violently, connecting with the gunman’s jaw and knocking him cold. At the same time, Adams grabbed the handgun, finger slotting through the trigger guard.

  The man in front had his own Sig Sauer semi-automatic halfway out of its quick-release belt holster when Adams fired. The shot hit him centre mass, propelling him backwards through the small room, a plume of blood bursting from his back as the round left the body in a gigantic exit wound.

  Adams angled swiftly to his left, firing again. The alcohol was having an effect, though, and he caught the third man in the shoulder, but it was enough to incapacitate. He ignored the man as he fell to the floor, eyes wide, going into immediate shock, and instead turned instantly to fire at the last intruder.

  This man, realizing that fumbling with his gun might prove fatal, was instead charging towards Adams, trying to close the distance and disarm him. It was a good strategy. By the time Ad
ams had turned, it was too late – the man was on top of him, shoulder driving hard into Adams’ gut.

  The wind knocked out of him, the gun went spiralling into the air, landing near the kitchenette. And then Adams felt the weight of the man on top of him, his big meaty fingers gripping his throat, squeezing the life out of him.

  The whisky, the lack of sleep, the blows to the head, the sheer confusion of everything that was going on was too much for him, and he felt himself giving in to the pressure of the fingers, his brain going light from lack of oxygen.

  No! There was no giving in; there simply couldn’t be.

  His arm pushed out from under the big man’s body, reaching for the cheap glass coffee table near the sofa. Just as his eyes were going dim, he used the last of his energy to smash through the glass.

  The sharp sound of breaking glass made the man pause, relax his hold slightly, and that was all Adams needed, as he grabbed a shard of broken glass from where it had fallen on the floor, driving it into the big man’s neck with a feral yowl of triumph. The carotid artery was severed and a great stream of bright crimson blood sprayed out and covered his own face.

  Adams lay on the floor for several minutes afterwards, blood pooling off his body on to his cheap carpet.

  Finally, he got to his knees, then to his feet, and surveyed the carnage. Three men dead, one unconscious from shock.

  But Adams was OK. And he knew exactly where to go.

  The park.

  Lynn was alive.

  3

  STEPHEN JACOBS SIPPED his herbal tea from a china cup as he stared at the screen on the large walnut desk in front of him.

  On the screen, the eleven other members of the organization’s elite leadership stared back at him. It was a secure electronic conference call, bringing together twelve of the world’s most influential power brokers for an emergency discussion.