Blue Hope: (Book 2) (Red Hope) Read online

  The nurse whispered, “This little boy is Mark, he has lung cancer that is not responding. He starts a new medicine today.”

  Adam looked astonished.

  “Lung cancer? But he can’t be older than five or six.”

  “I know, but he’s from the Houston area, so who knows what he’s been exposed to.”

  “Wow,” he said with a sigh. “Excuse me nurse, but I have to talk with Chris about something.”

  “Sure thing,” she said. “You can go down to the end of the hallway – there’s a conference room there.”

  The two men walked down the hallway.

  “Chris, this is awful.”

  “I know, Adam. You need to be on that rocket.”

  “No, you need to put somebody more experienced on that rocket.”

  “Adam, you went to Mars. Nobody has more experience.”

  “Yes, but everybody on my mission died!”

  “Well, we know that Keller and Molly died.”

  Adam stopped just outside the conference room.

  “What are you trying to say?” Adam asked in an angry tone.

  “We never found Yeva’s body, Adam.”

  Adam poked Chris in the chest with his pointer finger.

  “It happened just like I’ve told people.”

  Chris shook his head.

  “Look, Adam, howabout—”

  “Mister Adam!” yelled a little girl’s voice from across the hallway.

  Both men turned to look. Adam’s eyes opened wide.

  “Sophie!” he said, running over into her room. He looked back at Chris and said, “She’s my neighbor.”

  Chris smiled, ignoring the heated conversation they were just having.

  Just then, Sophie’s dad walked in.

  “Hi, Adam!” he said, shaking Adam’s hand.

  “Hello, Mr. Rodriguez,” he paused, “Why is she here today?”

  Mr. Rodriguez grabbed Adam’s hand and led him out into the hallway. He began whispering.

  “Her situation has gotten worse. It’s pancreatic cancer. They said she has three or four months left.”

  “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. We’ve known her since she was a baby.”

  Mr. Rodriguez started tearing up.

  “I know, I know, it’s ripping us to pieces.”

  Adam gave him a spontaneous hug. Then the two men walked back into the room.

  Sophie sat up in bed, tubes running into her arms.

  “Hey Mr. Adam, Dr. Tankovitch here says that you’re going to the Moon to find the cure for my cancer.”

  Adam looked like a deer in the headlights.

  “Oh he did, did he? Well, um, we’re certainly working on it,” Adam stuttered.

  “The doctors say there is a monster in my belly and the medicine isn’t working like it should.”

  “I know, Sophie, I’m hoping that the Moon mission finds something important for you,” Adam replied.

  “I know you’ll do your best,” she said.

  Adam smiled. He hugged her again and shook Mr. Rodriguez’s hand. Chris and Adam left the room and went into the conference room again. They shut the door.

  Adam immediately went into attack mode.

  “How dare you put me on the spot like that!” Adam demanded.

  “The world needs you.”

  “I’ll make you a deal. If I go on this mission, you’ll tell Connie everything about Wilhelmina. How it was a setup.”

  “Agreed,” Chris said.

  Adam looked dumbfounded at the quickness of Chris’s answer.

  “Wait, that was too easy. What if I don’t make it back?” Adak asked.

  “Then I tell her nothing and I adopt your children.”

  “What!” Adam yelled. “No, no, no. Regardless of what happens, you tell her the truth.”

  Chris laughed.

  “Look Adam, I don’t think you have any leverage here.”

  “How can you say that?” Adam demanded.

  “Because if you don’t go on this mission, then I’ll just tell the police about you trying to kill me while I slept in my own bed.”

  Adams jaw slacked open.

  “Yes, Adam, I saw your face that night. I told Connie that the security cameras didn’t work, but they did.”

  CHAPTER 72

  Indiana Science Center Ballroom

  Indianapolis, Indiana

  The past forty eight hours had been a roller coaster for Captain Adam Alston. He publicly announced that he would be the third crew member on the Lunar Mission. He did three television interviews and two telephone interviews. Finally, he’d driven to Indianapolis to give one last speech to a crowd of one thousand people. He was going to make one million dollars from this single speech. His old agent, Oliver, had arranged it as a parting gift for both of them.

  The speech was nearly identical to all of his previous speeches. In this one, though, he added a part about doing his part to help solve the cancer crisis that was clawing its way across the world.

  Adam had an ulterior motive for this speech and it had to do with proximity.

  The next morning he drove up to the small town of Elkhart, the hometown of Keller Murch. Adam maneuvered his pickup truck down an old brick-paved street looking for 354 Bricknell Street.

  “350…. 352…. Bingo,” Adam said. He pulled over to the curb next to a small ranch house. The grass was cut and the hedges were squared up. The owner definitely cared about the place.

  Adam stepped out of his truck. He reached into his pockets and pulled out a key fob that contained a single key. It looked like a house key. He took a deep breath and walked up the three stairs to the tiny front yard and then onto the porch. Adam pulled open the storm door and knocked a few times.

  He looked to the left to see if he could see in through the windows. As he glared through one of the windows, the door flung open.

  “May I help you?” said a man wearing a white bathrobe. He had shoulder-length gray hair.

  Adam stood back up. “Oh, hi… are you Elbert Murch?”

  “Well that depends on what you’re here for,” the man replied in a gravelly voice.

  “I’m an old coworker of your son.”

  The man pulled his glasses from a pocket and put them on, squinting at Adam.

  “You’re Adam Alston, aren’t you. Oh my, come on in, come on in…” Mr. Murch said and walked back inside the house. Adam followed him.

  “Please, have a seat. Can I get you a drink? Coke or some other pop?”

  “No, thanks.”

  “Okay. Beer?”

  Adam laughed as Mr. Murch disappeared into the kitchen.

  “No thanks, I ate breakfast just a little while ago.”

  “Well, then, suit yourself!

  Adam looked at the walls – filled with photos of Keller and only Keller. One picture showed him in a Cub Scout uniform holding his Pinewood Derby car proudly. Next to that was Keller holding a certificate that said, “Junior Achievement Champion.” It seemed like Keller spent his childhood earning impressive awards, with the final one showing Keller holding a check with his Dad – it was in the amount of $8million from when he sold the computer game company he’d started with a coworker at Wendy’s.

  Mr. Murch came back in and plunked down into a recliner. He popped open a beer and took a big swig.

  “Keller was quite the achiever,” Adam said.

  “Yes, he was. He really was. Got it from his Mom, definitely not me,” Mr. Murch laughed. “So what brings you here today? I thought you lived in Texas.”

  Adam looked away from all the photos.

  “Two things, really,” Adam said. “I wanted to come and tell you that…” he trailed off.

  “It’s okay,” Mr. Murch said. “I’m dealing with things okay now. It’s been hard, but I’m dealing with him being gone.”

  “Well, I was on Mars with your son when he died.”

  “I’ve heard the stories, Mr. Alston. I appreciate you coming here, but you really didn’t need to. His motor
company is taking care of me.”

  “That’s one of the things I wanted to tell you about. Some of the contracts that his business folks made have been clawed back by NASA.”

  The old man looked confused.

  “Clawed back?”

  “That means that the money the company was paid gets pulled back to NASA. It’s clawed back out of the Murch Motor bank accounts.”

  “No, Keller set it up so I’d be taken care of if anything bad happened. He told me that many times.”

  “Well, something did happen. The company has been liquidated. I just found out last week.”

  A tear slid down the old man’s cheek.

  “You know, Adam, I worked in the RV factory here for thirty eight years and I got nothing to show for it except for this house and the property tax bill that comes with it. Keller was a good boy. He built a company that made money and he said he would take care of me.”

  “I know he probably told you that, Mr. Murch,” Adam said remorsefully. “I have something that might help.”

  Adam reached into his pocket and pulled out the door key to Keller Murch’s beach house which he now owned. He dangled the key between them and Mr. Murch picked it up.

  “What’s it to?”

  “It’s to your son’s beach house in California. I bought it and now I’m giving it to you.”

  Mr. Murch furrowed his eyebrows. He looked very confused.

  “Why are you giving me this? I’m a simple man, Mr. Alston. I can’t afford a house in California. I can barely afford this house here in Indiana.”

  “No, Mr. Murch, I’m giving it to you. You can do whatever you want with it. You can sell it and the proceeds will be your retirement.”

  Mr. Murch squinted his eyes, piercing Adam to his soul. He kept his eyes on Adam as he took a long swig of beer. Neither man spoke for an eternity.

  “Mr. Alston, I’ve only known a man to give away a prize like this once in my life. And he done it because he felt crazy guilty about something. Is there something you want to tell me? Is there something you gotta get off your mind?”

  Adam tried to hide his emotions.

  “No, of course not. I just… Keller gave up his life for me and I want to give you this as a gift.”

  “Is that right,” Mr. Murch asked sarcastically. He stood up and walked to the front door. He opened it and summoned Adam to leave.

  “But…” Adam trailed off. He knew nothing could save this conversation.

  Adam stood up and walked out the door. Mr. Murch grabbed his hand and shoved the key back into it.

  “Mr. Alston, I won’t pretend to know what happened up there on Mars. I know it was bad. I have a suspicion that you aren’t telling me the whole truth. But to be honest, I don’t want to know the whole truth. He was my boy. I loved him like nothing else in the world. And now he’s gone. My boy was supposed to outlive me. He was supposed to bury me. You left his body up on Mars, so I don’t even get the chance to bury him. Take your gift and leave.”

  “But Mr. Murch—”

  “Listen to me, Mr. Alston. Fixing your guilt is your own problem. Not mine.”

  Keller Murch’s father raised his fist and wiped a tear from his own cheek. Adam put the key back into his pocket and walked over to his truck. He got in and drove away — destination Fort Worth.

  Mr. Murch limped back into his front room and shut the door. He walked over to the pictures. He picked up one that showed him and his wife standing behind a young Keller at Disneyworld.

  He smiled gently, then walked into the garage.

  CHAPTER 73

  Downtown Water Gardens Park

  Fort Worth, TX

  Two days had passed since the surprise phone call. Adam sat on a concrete bench, his foot tapping up and down nervously. His right hand clutched a red rose.

  He looked at the area around him, a downtown park so strange and foreign looking that it resembled a Minecraft level. Every square foot was covered by concrete, with angular block steps leading to raised garden beds. At one end there was a monstrously large funnel-shaped waterfall with families walking down the steps to visit the pool at the bottom. It was a place so unique that it had been used as a movie set in the past.

  Adam stared at the huge funnel-shaped waterfall and listened to the roar. In the past, he’d brought his family here many times.

  He felt a tap on his shoulder. Adam turned around and saw Connie with the two kids in tow.

  “Daddy! Daddy!” they screamed, jumping up and down.

  Adam leaned down and picked both of them up. He playfully staggered backwards.

  “Oh my, you two have gotten so big!”

  He smiled at Connie and flexed his hand out to give her the rose. She took it loosely and smelled it.

  Adam looked around.

  “Where’s Chris?”

  Connie tilted her head in confusion.

  “Why would he care where I was?”

  Adam shook his head side to side.

  “I don’t know, I just…”

  “Oh, I see what you’re doing,” Connie said. “Trying to shift what you did back on me.”

  Adam sat stone-faced.

  “It’s not that, Connie, I just figured you two had grown close….”

  “What?” she said incredulously. “He was just a family friend who helped us out when we had an emergency.”

  “I know, I know—”

  “Now what about you in the tabloids?” Connie asked accusingly.

  “Look, that woman was just one of the crowd that night who asked for an autograph. We got to talking and that’s it.”

  Connie pursed her lips in disbelief, but secretly she wanted to believe him. Before she could say anything, Adam continued.

  “I’m leaving for training tomorrow. Then it’s off to the Moon in a few months. I know you don’t believe me now, but what the tabloids said wasn’t true. I still love you more than there are fire-ants in our yard.”

  Connie laughed, but quickly hid it.

  “Why don’t you just say no to Chris and stay here with us?”

  “He said the country needs a hero right now and I might be that person.”

  Adam set the kids down. They took off to climb on the concrete block landscaping.

  Connie reached up and grabbed his hand.

  “You don’t need to go to the Moon. Stay here and be our hero.”

  Adam’s heart sank.

  “I have to go. Look, this mission is my last chance at redemption. I led a mission where all three of my crewmates died. People call me hero, but I’m no hero at all. The only thing I accomplished was not dying on the way back.”

  “That’s all that matters to us,” Connie said.

  “I can’t really explain it, but I don’t have a choice.”

  “Well, we won’t be at the launch.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Adam said.

  Connie sighed.

  “Come on, kids. We have to let your Daddy get back to his training.”

  The kids gathered around to give their Dad a goodbye hug. He hugged them tighter than ever.

  “Can’t you take us with you?” Cody asked, with a tear running down his cheek. “We just got you back from Mars.”

  “I wish I could, buddy. I’d like to hide you two in my backpack, but NASA said no.”

  “NASA is not nice,” Catie cried.

  “I’ll file a complaint,” Adam said, giving her an extra hug.

  “Be safe, Daddy!” Cody yelled.

  “I’ll try,” Adam said. He watched his family walk off to their minivan and drive away, melting into the rush-hour traffic.

  CHAPTER 74

  NASA West Coast Training Facility

  Watsonville, California

  Much had changed at the training facility since Adam, Keller, Molly, and Yeva trained for their mission to the Red Planet. Gone were the Mars spacecraft simulators — in their place were the crates housing the mothballed Apollo simulators.

  Dozens of engineers worked
around the clock to not only re-assemble the simulators, but to replace many of the electronics with LCD-panel cockpits and modern flight control computers. An identical process was being carried out on the legacy Apollo rocket taken from Houston, but it was happening on the opposite side of the country in Florida.

  The entire California facility had been built here at the Watsonville Airport because Keller Murch said so. He held the patents on the high-tech Murch rocket motors that were responsible for getting the Mars spacecraft to the Red Planet so quickly. He wielded his patents like weapons and NASA eventually caved to building this place not far from Keller’s beach house on the Monterey Bay. For Keller, it had been the perfect setup.

  Until he died on Mars and then Adam bought his house. Keller’s father didn’t want the house, so Adam kept it. As a kind gesture towards his new crew, Adam invited his two crewmates, Sally and Tucker, to live at the beach house. For those two, it was a new experience living so high on the hog. Sally brought her husband and Tucker brought his wife.

  Today, though, the crew sat up on stage in an elementary school. Since the simulators were not quite yet ready, the crew was doing some public relations work with the local community in Watsonville. With the nearby industry dedicated mostly to agriculture, many of the school children were those of migrant workers – eager to learn and avoid the backbreaking work of the fields that battered the bodies of their parents.

  Adam, Sally and Tucker sat on stools up on the stage. They each had a microphone. The principal was sitting in the front row. She looked behind her and then back toward the stage.

  “They should be arriving here soon.”

  The doors in the back of the auditorium opened and young school-aged children flooded in. They filled the front rows and worked their way back. The commotion and noise echoed throughout the room. When they were full, the principal turned on a wireless microphone.

  “All right, everybody,” the principal said. “Everybody quiet down. Put a bubble in it!”

  The commotion quieted down to silence. It was impressive control by the principal.

  “Thank you. We have three very special guests from NASA today. They are working at the training facility over at the airport, but have taken time out of their busy day to come talk with you. Let’s give them a round of applause.”